Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/303

Alison made its way; increased numbers were printed of succeeding volumes and new editions published of the old; the later volumes were regularly produced at the rate of one in eighteen months; and being resolved to bring out the tenth and concluding volume on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, he began to dictate the last pages at 10 on 6 June 1842, and went on till 3   of the next day, when his amanuensis broke down, and he finished the last line by himself at 6   In emulation of Gibbon, he then opened his windows and looked out complacently at a summer morning. The book was afterwards frequently revised as he obtained new materials. A sixth edition, for which he received 2,000 guineas, was published in 1844. By 1848 100,000 copies had been sold in the United States. It was translated into French, German, and even Arabic, in which language 2,000 copies were published ‘under the auspices of the Pasha of Egypt.’ In 1847 was published a crown 8vo edition in 20 vols. of 12,000 copies, in 1849 a library edition of 2,000 copies, and in 1853 the book was stereotyped; 3.000 copies were sold at once, and of the later volumes 25,000 copies were printed and 20,000 sold at the first subscription. Alison modestly, truly, and, it is to be hoped, sincerely, attributed his success to his fortunate choice of an interesting subject and his priority in occupying the field. In truth, the book has been useful as a good business-like summary of an important period of history, whilst the reader can sufficiently discount for the strong prejudices of the author and skip his ambitious reflections upon the currency and political philosophy.

His other works were less successful. The essay on ‘Population,’ of which the first draft was written in his boyhood, was finished after various interruptions on 22 Dec. 1828, but not published till June 1840. Though the author was now well known, it made little impression, because it attacked received principles, or because it was long, heavy, pompous, and irrelevant. It states, however, some obvious limitations to the applicability of Malthus's theory.

In 1845 and 1846 he published some articles upon Marlborough in ‘Blackwood.’ A ‘Life of Marlborough,’ constructed from these articles, was published in November 1847, and, after a sale of two editions, was rewritten on a larger scale and published in the new form in 1852. Between 1 Jan. 1852 and 1 Jan. 1859 he wrote a continuation of the ‘History’ which had a considerable sale, though it was unfavourably received by critics in consequence of the malignity of liberals, the jealousy which ‘Quarterly’ reviewers had inherited from Croker, and the growing tyranny of democratic opinions.

In 1855 he had inspected the manuscripts in possession of Lady Londonderry, preserved at Wynyard Park, and in 1861 he published the lives of Lord Castlereagh and Sir Charles Stewart founded upon these materials, having begun the work on 27 March 1859 and written five pages a day regularly for two years. The family and other ‘persons of eminence’ were satisfied with the result. A volume called ‘England in 1815 and 1845; or a Sufficient and Contracted Currency,’ was published in the autumn of 1845, and another, called ‘Free Trade and a Fettered Currency,’ in 1847. A collection of his essays was published in America in 1845, and another collection from ‘Blackwood’ appeared in England in 1849. Lists of his articles in ‘Blackwood’ are given in his ‘Autobiography,’ i. 308, 326, 363, 516, 554, 598, ii. 9.

Alison's domestic life was prosperous. His sons, the present Sir Archibald, and Frederick, were distinguished in the Crimea and the Indian mutiny; his daughter, Eliza Frances Catherine, was married to Robert Cutlar Ferguson, who died in 1859, and in 1861 to the Hon. J. C. Dormer. Sir Archibald was elected lord rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1845, against Macaulay, and in 1851 lord rector of Glasgow against Lord Palmerston. In 1852 he was made a baronet by Lord Derby's government. The last volume of his autobiography contains full details of many interviews with distinguished persons in London and elsewhere, his reception at the houses of the nobility, and his speeches at public dinners and meetings, together with speculations upon politics, human nature, and criticism. He was a strong opponent of the North in the American civil war, believed in the necessity of slavery, and was a devoted adherent of protection. He disliked Dickens's novels because they dealt with the foibles of middle and low life, and preferred ‘elevating’ romances. He thought Cobden a monomaniac. But, on the whole, his accounts of distinguished men, though coloured by his prejudices, are sensible as far as they go. The book is amusingly characteristic of his even temper, calm conviction of his own merits, and confidence in his own predictions; but, like all autobiographies, is chiefly interesting in the earlier part. After publishing the ‘Life of Castlereagh,’ he resolved to lay down his pen, thinking it useless to provoke hostility by his resolute refusal to ‘worship the Dagon of Liberalism.’ He concluded his autobiography, part of which had been written in 1851–2, bringing it down Rh