Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

176 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
should bark. The cause of all this indignation was
simple enough. It was a rhymed example of those
Notices to Correspondents which we read now, occasionally
with amusement, in so many papers, and
which had been, from the ' Spectator's ' day, a handy
medium for a little poke of fun or satire. It is not
much more than doggerel, though clever doggerel,
and did not even form part of the Magazine, being
prefixed something in the fashion of an advertisement.
To take it seriously seems the most amusing circum-
stance of all. But we cannot think it was amusing
to Blackwood, whatever the young lions might think.
Still more hard upon him was the following, the first
of these great cannonadings, and from his own par-
ticular creation as a successful author, Dr M'Crie. It
is dated January 5, 1818 :
—
Dr Thomas M'Crie to W. Blackwood.
I find it necessary to explain myself to you on a subject to
which you have repeatedly adverted of late in conversation, my
continuing to contribute to your Magazine. This I would have
done sooner, but I wished to deliberate before deciding; and
even after coming to a resolution I felt unpleasant in communicating
it. You will readily anticipate from this what I
am about to say, that I do not feel myself at liberty to be
considered as a contributor to the work. My determination
does not turn upon the Chaldee Manuscript, which has made
so much noise. You know that I disapproved it, and are in
possession of my reasons. But I looked, and still look, upon
it as a single fault, which there was no reason to fear should
be repeated. . . . My objections rest on the papers relating to
religion which have made their appearance of late. It is
evident to me from these that it is the design of the con-
ductors to make religion a subject of discussion; and the
sentiments brought forward and the feeUngs recommended are
so utterly repugnant to mine, that I choose neither to implicate