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WIL himself was bred a hat manufacturer, but did not prosper in that business, which he followed both in London and at Newcastle. Having published more than one pamphlet against the corn-laws, he established in 1843, chiefly as an organ of free-trade principles, amply supported by facts and figures, the well-known journal the Economist. It succeeded, and in 1847 its editor, as liberal member for Westbury, entered the house of commons, where his statistical fluency made him a useful advocate of free trade. In 1848 he became secretary to the board of control, an office which he exchanged in 1852 for that of financial secretary to the treasury. Returned for Devonport in 1857, he proceeded to India in the autumn of 1859 as member of council and chancellor of the Indian exchequer, the object of his mission being to reform and reorganize the finances of India. He introduced his budget in an elaborate speech, delivered in the legislative council on the 18th February, 1860, one of the chief features of his scheme being the imposition of an income tax. Before he could develop his fiscal projects, however, he was cut off by cholera at Calcutta in August, 1860.—F. E.  WILSON,, a Scottish poet, author of "The Clyde," was the son of a small farmer in the parish of Lesmahago in Lanarkshire, and was born in 1720. He was educated at the grammar-school of Lanark; but, in consequence of the death of his father, he was withdrawn from school when he was fourteen. He had made considerable progress in learning, however, and supported himself by private teaching. In 1746 he was appointed parochial schoolmaster of his native parish, a situation which he retained till 1764, when he removed to Rutherglen. In the course of the same year he published his poem "The Clyde," along with "Earl Douglas," a tragedy. In 1767 he was offered by the magistrates of Greenock the situation of master of the grammar-school of that town, on condition that he should abandon "the profane and unprofitable art of poem-making." Poor Wilson's straitened circumstances compelled him to comply with this barbarous proposition of official ignorance and stupidity, and he accordingly burnt the greater part of his MSS. He died in 1789 in the sixty-ninth year of his age. An improved edition of "The Clyde," which he had prepared for the press before his election to the mastership of the Greenock grammar-school, was published by Leyden, together with a biographical sketch of the author, in the first volume of Scottish Descriptive Poems. Wilson left two sons, of whom the eldest, James, a young man of excellent abilities, and a fine taste for poetry and drawing, was killed in a naval action on Lake Champlain, October 11, 1776. George, the second son, who died at the age of twenty-one, was also distinguished for his poetical talents.—J. T.  WILSON,, professor of moral philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, "Christopher North" of Blackwood's Magazine, and for many years the principal contributor to that periodical, was born at Paisley on the 18th of May, 1785. The house in which he was born, called Prior's Croft, was taken down soon after his birth, when the family removed to a newer tenement on the same property, which was six or eight acres in extent, and laid out in a garden and pleasure grounds. He was the eldest son of John Wilson, a prosperous manufacturer. His mother, Margaret Sym, was closely related to the Dunlops of Garnkirk, an ancient family, said to be descended by the female side from the great marquis of Montrose. Young John showed a very precocious predilection for three things which in later life occupied much of his attention—oratory, angling, and ethics. There is a family tradition that when he was about four years of age he used to harangue the assembled nursery, ex cathedra, on the duties which fishes owed to their offspring, having in his eye one fish in particular by which, to his certain knowledge, the parental relation was shamefully neglected. When he was six or seven years old, he was transferred from Paisley to the manse of the Rev. Dr. George M'Latchie, minister of the neighbouring parish of the Mearns. A presbyterian manse of the olden time, in a rural district, was usually as pleasant and improving a home as a young boy could be placed in. How happily the days at the Mearns went by—what sports and adventures Wilson and his companions engaged in—are glowingly recorded by himself in "Christopher in his Sporting-Jacket," "Our Parish," and "May Day."—(See Recreations of Christopher North.) His father died in 1797; and standing as chief mourner beside his grave, he was so overcome by his emotion that he swooned away as the rattling clods descended on the coffin-lid. In the same year he went to Glasgow college, where he was boarded in the house of Dr. Jardine, the kindly and efficient professor of logic. He came to college well grounded in Greek and Latin, and was soon fired with the ambition of intellectual distinction. He studied hard, his leanings being towards poetry; but that the graver pursuits of science were not neglected is proved by the fact that he carried off the first prize in the logic class, an honour then considered the highest in the whole curriculum, as confirming the promise of a student. Through Dr. Young, the genial and enthusiastic professor of Greek, he improved his acquaintance of Homer, and through Homer he obtained a sympathetic insight into the characters of Achilles and the other heroes of the Iliad and Odyssey, and thus laid the foundation of those eloquent articles on "Homer and his Translators," which are among the most brilliant of his writings. Softer realities mingled with his heroic dreams; for while still a boy at Glasgow college he conceived a passionate attachment to a lady, in every way, it is believed, worthy of his love, but unfortunately a good many years older than himself. His mother, looking to this disparity, was naturally averse to their union. His own good sense, too, may have helped him to overcome his passion; but his letters show that the struggle was severe, and that for a time the event threw over him a blight, amounting almost to despair. Another interesting incident which marked his career at Glasgow was his correspondence with Wordsworth. The Lyrical Ballads were published in 1798-1800. While the public stood coldly aloof, while his own companions scoffed, and while the potentates of criticism sneered, Wilson, young as he was, had the sagacity to recognize in Wordsworth a great poetical regenerator who, by abandoning all the traditional sentiments and conventionalities of poetry, and by again getting close to nature and reality, was reclothing the earth with a fairer beauty than she had ever worn, and opening up in the human heart fresh springs of tenderness, of grandeur, and of power. Wilson's reverence for the genius of Wordsworth clung to him throughout life, and cannot be better expressed than it was in his own graphic words when, conversing in his latter days about the great lake poet, he said—"I fell down on my knees to him, sir, when I was a boy, and I have never risen since." His admiration, however, was far from being indiscriminate. In fact in the letter referred to (of date 1802), in which he modestly introduces himself to Wordsworth's notice, he denounces the Idiot Boy (one of Wordsworth's favourite compositions), as a subject unfit for poetry and as indeed altogether repulsive. Strong from the study of Adam Smith's Moral Sentiments, he declares that "the excessive fondness of the mother disgusts us, and prevents us from sympathizing with her. We are unable to enter into her feelings; we cannot conceive ourselves actuated by the same feelings, and consequently take little or no interest in her situation." The whole letter, indeed, was written in no kneeling, but in a very erect, although respectful attitude. Wordsworth's reply, if not satisfactory as a defence of the Idiot Boy, was kind, and must have been highly gratifying to his youthful correspondent.— (Memoirs of W. Wordsworth, by C. Wordsworth, D.D., vol. i. p. 192.)

In 1803 Wilson proceeded to Oxford. He entered Magdalen college as a gentleman commoner. Here his intellectual renown was equalled by his fame as an athlete. Few could stand up to him as a boxer, or keep pace with him as a runner, and none could come near him as a leaper. Although habitually temperate, he could imbibe, like Socrates, any quantity of wine which the convivial exigencies of the time required, without being affected by it. He read deeply in Plato and Aristotle—Shakspeare and Milton were his continual study. He carried off the Newdigate prize for English poetry. His examination for his degree (1807) was said by those who heard it to have been "the most illustrious within the memory of man." Sotheby, who was present, declared that it was worth coming from London to hear him translate a Greek chorus. And the Rev. R. Dixon, one of the examiners, wrote—"I can never forget the very splendid examination which you passed in this university, an examination which afforded the strongest proofs of very great application and genius and scholarship, and which produced such an impression on the minds of the examiners as to call forth (a distinction very rarely conferred) the public expression of our approbation and thanks." Soon after leaving Oxford Wilson purchased the small estate of Elleray on the banks of the Windermere, attracted thither partly by the beauty of the scenery—for probably no other house in England commands a view of such surpassing loveliness and majesty—and partly by the desire to enjoy the society of Wordsworth, who resided in the neighbourhood. Here 