Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/70

 for the office of editor to a Kilmarnock journal; and it will be seen from it that Motherwell, though decidedly opposed to him in politics, exerted himself strenuously in his favour.

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',—Understanding that a newspaper is about to be established in Kilmarnock, and that my friend Mr J. D. Carrick (present editor of the Perth Advertiser) has offered himself as a candidate for its editorship, I wish you would interest yourself on his behalf among those who may have the appointment in their hands. 'Unfortunately, I neither know the proprietors of the projected journal, nor any person of influence in Kilmarnock, having a likelihood of being connected with it, otherwise I should have preferred addressing them personally on this subject, in place of through you. Be this as it may, I would fain trust that my disinterested and unsolicited opinion of the talents and literary attainments of Mr Carrick, in whatever shape laid before the proprietors, may be of some use to a most deserving individual in his canvass.

'With Mr Carrick and with his writings, both as a literary character, and as the conductor of a very intelligent weekly paper, I have been long familiar; and to the taste, tact, judgment, knowledge, and research displayed in these writings, I can bear the most unqualified