Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/280

 politics. Mr Blackwood from the first took a strong part with the existing Tory government, which in Edinburgh had been powerfully supported heretofore in every manner except by the pen, while the opposition had long possessed a literary organ of the highest authority. In treating, therefore, of some of the juvenile indiscretions of this extraordinary work, and those connected with it, we must, if willing to preserve impartiality, recollect the keenness with which politics and political men were then discussed.

In the management of the magazine, Mr Blackwood at all times bore in his own person the principal share. The selection of articles, the correspondence with contributors, and other duties connected with editorship, were performed by him during a period of seventeen years, with a degree of skill, on which it is not too much to say that no small portion of the success of the work depended. In its earlier years he contributed two or three articles himself; but to this, as a practice, he had a decided objection, as he could easily perceive that an editor, especially one like himself not trained to letters, is apt to be biassed [sic] respecting his own compositions. It may easily be conceived, however, that, in the management of the literary and mercantile concerns of such a work, there was sufficient employment for even a man of his extraordinary energies. And no small praise must it ever be to the subject of this brief memoir, that, during so long a period, he maintained in his work so much of the vivid spirit with which it set out; kept up so unfailing a succession of brilliant articles in general literature, altogether exclusive of the regular papers of Mr Wilson,—as if he were exhausting mind after mind among the literary men of his country, and still at no loss to discover new; and never, throughout his whole career, varied in a single page from the political key-note which he had struck at the commencement. To have done these things, and with so much apparent ease to himself, and so little ostentation,—for these were features in his masterly career—argues in our opinion a character of unwonted vigour, as well as no small share of intellectual power.

The magazine eventually reached a circulation not much short of ten thousand copies, and, while reprinted in North America, found its way from the publisher's warehouse into every other part of the world where the English language was spoken. Notwithstanding the great claims it made upon his time, Mr Blackwood continued till his death to transact a large share of business as a general publisher. Not long before that event, he completed the Edinburgh Encyclopedia in eighteen volumes quarto, and, among his other more important publications, may be reckoned Kerr's Collection of Voyages and Travels, in eighteen volumes octavo. The chief distinct works of Messrs Wilson, Lockhart, Hogg, Moir, Gait, and other eminent persons connected with his magazine, and some of the writings of Sir Walter Scott, were published by Mr Blackwood. He also continued till the close of his career to carry on an extensive trade in retail bookselling.

Mr Blackwood died, September 16, 1834, after a painful illness of four months. His disease, a tumour in the groin, had in that time exhausted his physical energies, but left his temper calm and unruffled, and his intellect entire and vigorous even to the last.

In the words of his obituarist, "No man ever conducted business in a more direct and manly manner than Mr Blackwood. His opinion was on all occasions distinctly expressed; his questions were ever explicit; his answers conclusive. His sincerity might sometimes be considered as rough, but no human being ever accused him either of flattering or of shuffling; and those men of letters who were in frequent communication with him, soon conceived a respect and confidence for him, which, save in a very few instances, ripened