in my endeavours, by night and by day, to make my various professions, and different lines in the same profession, useful to myself, and productive to my family-in short, that I have left no stone unturned, that was within the bounds of possibility for me to overturn, and all aided by the kind helps raised up to me from time to time by a beneficent Providence-to produce a quite opposite and very different termination to my labours.

It is, indeed, as I think I have somewhere remarked before, on such occasions as these, that the consolations of religion come most forcibly, as well as seasonably, to our aid, and, on these occasions also, the conscious satisfaction of having done our duty, that "one solid pleasure in life," as Dr Young calls it,* speaks, with the best, and most powerful effect— that peace

"Sweet peace, that doth from conscience flow,
That choicest cordial 'midst a sea of woe !"

Still, matters did not appear to be much in the way of improving, when I had got a little time to recover and compose myself, from the agitated state into which these unlooked for and untoward events had for a while thrown me, and I plainly saw that the best thing I could do, was, to face the danger boldly, and endeavour to overcome, and get the better of, what I had too much rectitude of principle to fly from, and moral courage, to think of trying, by any mean shifts, to avoid or evade.

I therefore was determined to wait the result of my son's contemplated journey, in search of the needful, and, meantime, to make up for any deficiency from such a source, if it fell short, and so to make, as the saying is, surety doubly sure,

astonishment would be rather increased than diminished, when, in answer to a question I put to him, but which he left me to answer myself, viz. How many hours do you think I sleep nightly, on an average throughout the year? I informed him, three hours and a-half! Such, however, I believe, has been generally the case, since my labours were so much taken up with the Cheap Magazine ;-and it is owing, I presume, to such a habit, formed so many years ago, that I am able to devote so many of my Solemn-Silent-Sleepless-hours, to the business of composition, up to the present day.

"There is but one solid pleasure in life, and that is our duty. How miscrable then, how unwise, how unpardonable are they, who make that a pain."Dr Young.

I published a new wholesale catalogue, under the head of "A most advantageous offer to the Trade, in point of price, and terms of credit, for this month only," and, under the title of "SALE OF REMNANTS, &c.-FEBRUARY, 1816," sent it out among my friends in the trade, (which many of them, will no doubt recollect of, from its title,) all over the country.

The result of these, and some other matters of paramount consideration, at this critical period, we will see in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XIV.-1816.

A former matter referred to, with some allusion to the melancholy train of cir. cumstances that has since occurred.-A Correspondent reminds me of my hint about a Quarterly Publication.-What may be supposed to have contributed towards doing away all farther idea of such a thing from my mind.-And very substantial reasons for not again embarking in periodicals.Unsuccessful journey in search of the needful.-Little reason to congratulate myself on the success of my HOME Wholesale Sale to the Trade-Bad news from the west, met with bad news from the north.-A little speck, indicating a new species of troubles, in the horizon.-Bad consequences of so many disagreeables.-A friend in need. Not yet to be beaten off the field.-Allusion to boyish sports of rather a severe and dangerous description.-Battles of the books in the Latin School of Dunbar in ancient times described.-Early indications of a determined and unyielding spirit.-Allusion to the story of the Dragoon.Anecdote of the London Watermen.-A mind less firm might have been crushed under the evils 1 have been called to endure.-A new expedition contemplated. My two sons set out for London.-If they were not success. ful, it was not for want of the means to operate with, nor exertions on their part, in the use of those means.-The nature and extent of my London Ca. talogue described.-Many articles in some much value in other lots.Full time for exertion.-More bills come back.-A significant hint from an old friend.-Bad accounts from the north and the west.-Lamentable State of the country in the month of May.-More afflictive extracts from the Annual Register for that year.-Sad times for me,―The Blasting Summer of 1816— will be remembered as long as the black Spring of 1771-and by none more than the writer of these pages.

It will be recollected, that at the time I published the concluding number of my Monthly Monitor in December, which appears, as matters afterwards turned out, to have been just

on the eve of my being overtaken by that fearful storm, which has since continued to vend its pitiless pelting on my devoted head; for, at that time, its howlings were, as yet, heard only in the distance, and in such indistinct murmurs as to give me no great concern in regard to their future consequences, and, in the hopes that they would, in an equally harmless manner, be made to pass away-I say it will be recollected, that, at this time, I had said something in the preface, in allusion to, although nothing positive, as to my intentions respecting, a Quarterly publication, in the idea of which, I perhaps was disposed to pay some deference to the suggestion of that kind friend, whose reasons for my preferring something of the kind to the continuance of a Monthly, I formerly stated ;and of this circumstance I was reminded, by a letter dated the 6th of February, from one of my respectable agents in the south, in which he thought that, with the subscribers he had got, he could "dispose of twelve copies" of what he was pleased to call "your Quarterly Magazine," which shows that my intimation had not altogether been overlooked, although, from the perplexing situation in which I was then situated, I seem to have lost sight of all farther correspondence on that subject.

But, if any hankering remained with me for making an experiment of something of that kind, it must have been speedily put an end to, by the bad success and up-hill work my son had met with on his journey, which soon after took place, with a view of getting the accounts of former periodicals wound up; and which, with the great trouble and expence necessarily incurred, in collecting so many scattered accounts, even in cases where they were well paid, may perhaps be the best answer that can be given to my good friends, the Messrs Chambers, when, in their Gazetteer of Scotland, they surmise that such a work as the Cheap Magazine “might surely be tried again, with better hopes of success than the first," unless some method can be devised to ensure payments with less expence and less risk, if not in advance, the practicability of which I wish them much success in being able to ascertain, in their widely extended experiment with the Journal. It may be sufficient for my purpose at present, to say,

S

that I see by my correspondence at that time, that my son had a good deal of trouble with one individual, who was indebted, and in arrears, for these two small articles, the Magazine and the Monitor, to the amount of upwards of £38, the greater part of which I lie out of to this day, and now, in consequence of the death of the party, I suppose, ever shall.

But, if I had reason to deplore my want of success on this journey, in other matters, besides the difficulties my traveller met with in getting these outstanding periodical accounts settled up, I had little reason to congratulate myself on the result of my attempted sale to the trade at home; for, although I see the sale was to continue, on the terms mentioned in the catalogue, for all that month, (i. e. the month of February,) it does not appear to have been very productive, even in that lengthened out time-while my correspondence with my son, would not be in any respects enlivened or lightened, by my having occasion to communicate to him, during his absence, and apparently in answer to some very disagreeable intelligence I had received from himself, in regard to affairs in the west, where, it seems, I had come to a pretty severe loss, by the failure of the house of that I had met with,

or had reason to expect, a still more severe disaster in the north, from the circumstance of one of 's bills having come back, which was but too sure a prelude that it would be followed by others. And to render my disappointments the more unbearable, I see that, by the middle of the month of February, I had a very disagreeable task to go through in settling up matters with one of my agents in my new line, which I see I have denominated, in my reminiscences," a little black speck above the horizon," which "now began to indicate a new species of troubles arising against me," and it will be seen, by the event, that I was not mistaken.

The bad consequences of these disagreeables and disappointments, soon began to be apparent ;-it was evident that I had counted much upon the result of my son's journey, with the aid of its auxiliary, my sale to the trade, for paying up the balance still due to my friend, or rather to his creditors; for the matter was now, alas! unfortunately for me, quite out of his hands. But, when the result of both came to be known, together with the circumstance of other people's bills

coming back upon me, to say nothing of the little indication I had got, that even all might not turn out gold that glittered in the new concern, upon which my hopes now were principally founded, it was the less surprising that the creditors of friend would become the more clamorous for their money; my and had not my other old friend come forward, and effected an arrangement with them, to give me a little more time, I do not know what would have been the consequence.

But, discomfited and thwarted in my intentions, as I had been, I was not yet to be beaten off the field, and now, as in many cases afterwards, I had an opportunity of shewing, that the little sturdy unflinching school-boy, that could not easily be made to cry out for quarter, in the Battles of the Books, in what was then called the Latin school of Dunbar, was capable of enduring without complaint, and of bearing up under the pressure of a good many of the evils of life without sinking under them, as he came to grow up, and afterwards act his part, on the stage of life, as a man.* Ah! little did I then think, that, in after years, I should be called upon a more open and extensive arena, to exhibit what I could

bear of the strokes and buffets of fortune.

Yet, were not these but the early indications of the same determined and unyielding spirit, that led me to grapple with a dragoon, in presence of his comrade, when they attempted to intrude themselves by force upon our family, at an unseasonable hour, after we had secured lodgings for them elsewhere, and hold him fast, until I was relieved by his being taken to the guard-house, at a more advanced period of my youthful days

These battles of the books, to which I have just alluded, were much practised in the days of MR DICK, although I do not recollect if they were continued down to those of MR WHITE. It was, also, I believe, called playing at horsemen, and was accomplished as follows: Some little fellows of sufficient hardihood to stand, and firmness of nerve, to deal many a blow, were picked out from the general run of the Scholars, and pitted against each other, armed with a book or volume of a book, as massy as he could wield with effect against his opponent, armed like himself, and each mounted, on the back of a companion of larger growth, who became dignified on that occasion with the appellation of the horse, hence the name of the game, playing at horsemen ; and a most dangerous sport or pastime it assuredly was, as the soreness of many ahead, and the havoc of many a book, bore witness. Many a severe conflict of this kind I had in my younger days, and on account of the great obstinacy, or unshrinking firmness I displayed on many occasions, I became quite a favourite in the School in these respects, and was viewed as a horseman of the first water.