of his life, to accept the honest estimate which he made of himself, as
"free from jealousy, spite, envy, and uncharitableness." When the fever
of his youth had been somewhat cooled by time, his feelings and opinions
naturally became more moderate, and his expression of them less violent.
In his early days, when his mother heard of his having written an
article for the "Edinburgh Review," she said, "John, if you turn Whig,
this house is no longer big enough for us both." But his Toryism
then was quite as good as hers. By-and-by, as party became less, and
friendship more, he entertained at his house the leading Whigs, and
admitted them to terms of intimacy. Even his daughter was allowed to
marry a Whig. And in 1852 the old man hobbled out to give his vote for
Macaulay the Whig, as representative in Parliament of the good town
of Edinburgh. Conceive of such a thing in 1820! All this was but the
gradual toning-down of a strong character by time and experience.
"Blackwood" naturally exhibited some of the results of the change.

Much allowance must be made for the altered spirit of the times. A
generation or two ago, there was everywhere far more of rancor and less
of decorum in the treatment of politics and criticism than would now be
tolerated. All the world permitted and expected strong partisanship,
bitter personality, and downright abuse. They would have called our
more sober reticence by the name of feebleness: their truculence we
stigmatize as slander and Billingsgate. Wilson was an extremist in
everything; yet he strained but a point or two beyond his fellows. When
the tide of party began gradually to subside, he fell with it. Mrs.
Gordon has given a very correct picture of the state of things in those
days:--

"It is impossible for us, at this time, to realize fully the state of
feeling that prevailed in the literature and politics of the years