Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

512 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
world to find fault with anything you might choose to say for
or against * Maga.' I would also hope that in our last number
you would find such good stuff that while you castigate you will
likewise give the devil his due.
—
—
Before we leave the subject of the newspaper, I am
tempted to quote a letter which, though unconnected
with the Magazine and its history, gives a pleasant
account of a fact which will, I am sure, be interesting
to many readers of the present day. There is no
existing newspaper of a more distinct individuality
nay, we may say of so distinct an individuality—as the
' Spectator ' ; a journal which, amid all the chops and
changes of modern journalism, stands with the per-
sonality of a man (or might we say two single gentlemen
rolled into one ?), amid the organs and mouth-
pieces of popular opinion : changing, too, by times,
though not by the methods of changed proprietorship
or editors ousted or supplanted, but by natural action
of reason or preference—always recognisable, always
prone to impression, capable of riding a hobby a little
too far, and of being taken in as we all are ; some-
times a little arriere, sometimes a little too advanced,
philosophical, and credulous, with a marked character
in every variation, which it is always refreshing to
meet with. The letter which follows is from Mr Rin-
toul, a Scotch journalist, who had maintained a thread
of connection and friendship with Blackwood for many
years, and who thus announces the founding of the
new journal. He had been, as the reader will see,
previously the editor of another paper. At the pres-
ent time, when an entire literary staff is sometimes
turned out at a day's notice, so to speak, it is a pleasure
to see the reverse action occurring once in a way :