Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/336

472 Burns's inspirations, even to the last, Wilson, even in the heyday of ardent youth, seldom alludes to such a feeling; and when he does, it is in the cool tone with which an unconcerned individual would speak of any other curious natural phenomenon.

In the following year (1792) appeared Wilson's admirable narrative poem, "Watty and Meg." Being published anonymously, it was universally attributed to Burns ; a mistake, which, of course, the author felt as the highest acknowledgment of its merits. But this was the last gleam of sunshine he enjoyed in his native land. A violent dispute broke out between the journeymen and master weavers of Paisley, and Wilson joined the ranks of the former with all the determined energy which so peculiarly characterized him. Fierce and bitter anonymous satires appeared, the paternity of which was rightly assigned to Wilson; and one individual, especially, a most respectable and benevolent man, but who was represented to the poet as a monster of avarice and oppression, was libelled by him in a manner too gross to be patiently borne. Wilson was prosecuted, convicted, imprisoned, and compelled to burn the libel with his own hands at the public cross of Paisley. In a badly regulated mind, such an infliction would only have excited thoughts of retaliation, and the desire of revenge; but, although Wilson must have smarted severely under the disgrace, he was a man of too correct and candid judgment, to persist wilfully in an evil course. He deeply repented afterwards these wrathful effusions of his pen. Before setting out to America, he called upon all those whom he had been instigated to satirize, and asked their forgiveness for any uneasiness his writings had occasioned; and many years afterwards, when his brother David, who went out to join him in the west, carried out a collection of these youthful satires, thinking they would be an acceptable present to him, after the lapse of so long a period, Wilson, without once looking at them, threw the packet into the fire, exclaiming, "These were the sins of my youth; and had I taken my good old father's advice, they never would have seen the light." Such an anecdote is equally creditable to the father's good sense, and the son's moral feeling. But other public events accelerated the most important crisis in Wilson's life. The French Revolution, with all its delusive promises of a harvest of liberty, broke out; its influence spread over the surrounding nations, and Wilson was one of those ardent men, who, in our own country, conceived a favourable opportunity to have occurred for reforming the national institutions. His well known zeal and determination of mind made him, of course, be looked upon as a man of most dangerous character; and, his previous attacks upon the authorities of Paisley being yet fresh in their recollection, he was watched with a suspicion proportioned to the dislike with which he was regarded. From these causes, Wilson's situation soon became intolerably unpleasant to him; and he then, for the first time, resolved upon emigrating to America. By what means he purposed to support himself there, it is not very easy to conjecture; but having once resolved, he proceeded immediately to put his plan into execution. His chief, if not his only, obstacle, was the want of funds; and, to raise them, he applied himself so indefatigably to the loom, that in four months he realized the amount of his passage money. He has himself recorded that, during this period, his expenses for living did not exceed one shilling per week; so little does man actually require for the bare sustenance of life.

Having bidden adieu to his friends and relatives, he walked on foot to Portpatrick, whence he passed over to Belfast, and there embarked on board a vessel bound for Newcastle in the Delaware State, being necessitated to sleep on deck during the voyage. He landed in America on the 14th July, 1794,