Avoiding all

be published His primary

styled "Some Account of my Life and Writings," edited with much intelligent discretion by the present Lady Alison, proceeds on the principle now widely recognised, that an author who has met with any degree of success owes a brief account of his career, on private as well as public grounds-to the family, that his memory may not be injured after death, as happened on a recent memorable occasion, by the indiscreet zeal of surviving friends or the injudicious disclosures of partial biographers; to his country, that readers may know by what means success was obtained, and how often it falls to those who apply themselves with industry to such task as they undertake. Sir Archibald Alison would appear never to have kept a "Journal," in the ordinary sense of the term, but when he died in May, 1867, he left in manuscript an Autobiography written at various times of leisure from 1851, and which was complete from his earliest years to the close of his literary career in 1862. appearance of vanity, no part of the "Autobiography" was to or even to be shown to any one during Sir Archibald's life. object, as explained by himself, was to convey to future times, if the work should live so long, a faithful portrait of the eventful period in which he lived and of the many eminent persons he had met during a long and varied life. By his will the Sheriff constituted his eldest son, now famous as General Sir Archibald Alison, his literary executor, and expressed a wish that the work should be printed at as early a period as might be deemed advisable. A few years ago it was thought the time had arrived when this might be done, but the nature of the younger Sir Archibald's military profession would appear never to have left him the quiet and leisure necessary to revise the manuscript. The task was therefore undertaken by his wife, Lady Alison, and executed with much fidelity, as a labour of love. Son of the Rev. Archibald, a clergyman of the Church of England, author of two volumes of Sermons, but still more widely known for his finished "Essay on Taste," and connected through his mother with the memorable Edinburgh family of Gregory, the Sheriff's very early days, or from his birth in 1792 till 1800, were passed in the parsonage

of Kenley, Shropshire. Chiefly for the purpose of securing a sound education for the family, his father, during the last-mentioned year, accepted the post of senior minister in the Episcopal Chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh, and at the University there some years later study for the law was carried on till he passed as advocate in December, 1814. In the spring of that year the future historian made his first Continental trip, in company with P. F. Tytler and David Anderson of Moredun, and, although many years was to elapse before publication, it was the military displays in Paris during its occupation by the Allies which suggested the voluminous "History of Europe during the French Revolution." Earlier works were an anti-Malthusian Treatise on the Law of Population, and a useful book on the Criminal Law of Scotland, published in 1832. With a fair professional connection from the commencement of his career, official promotion naturally followed, his friend Sir William Rae, the Tory Lord-Advocate, bestowing on Alison in 1822 a Deputeship, which he held till 1830, when the Wellington Ministry was defeated on a division regarding the Civil List. The connection with "Blackwood" began with the first of a series of papers on the French Revolution, January, 1831. The appointment to the Sheriffship of Lanarkshire was made in 1834, during the period of Sir Robert Peel's first but short-lived Ministry.

A domestic interest surpassing anything connected with either the Sheriffship or the Baronetcy centered in two sons while on their first active service in the Crimea with the 72nd Highlanders, under Sir Colin Campbell as General of Division. The first interview of Captain, now General Sir Archibald, with Sir Colin is told graphically enough. Uncertain one night where to place his men in the trenches, he politely solicited instructions from his General, who was met by accident. "Don't ask me," replied Sir Colin; "I don't even know where I am." "Oh," resumed Captain Alison, "I think I can show you where you are," and with these words he drew from his breast a drawing of the trenches which he had copied in the inside of an envelope. Having pointed out the locality and placed his men, Sir Colin, after a little further

conversation, said "Well, Sir, you seem to be a sensible fellow; come to my chateau at two in the morning, when all is quiet, and we will have some talk." Captain Alison naturally complied, and found the General's chateau to be a little hollow in the earth, just capable of holding two or three persons, in the middle of the trenches occupied by the Highlanders. They remained there for a short time in the dark, talking of the siege, and then separated to return to their respective duties. Captain, soon after to be Major Alison, accompanied Lord Clyde as military secretary during the Indian Mutiny, and was present at the relief of Lucknow, where he lost his left arm.

Projected, as has been mentioned, so early as 1814, it was not till fifteen years later that the composition of the "History," the great literary labour of Sir Archibald's life, was seriously begun. The first volumes appeared in 1839, the last of the Revolution set in 1842, the planning and writing thus extending over twenty-eight years, or five years longer than Gibbon devoted to his "Roman Empire." When Sir Archibald had completed his last page, far into a summer morning at Possil, the words of Gibbon on a similar occasion, in the summerhouse at Lausanne, naturally enough recurred to his mind-not that the books were to be compared with each other, but he felt that his labour had been pursued with as much perseverance, and had been the source of at least equal pleasure. Sir Archibald's work was generally accepted as upon the whole a valuable addition to European literature, such defects as were manifested being rather matters of taste and political opinion than literal inaccuracies, although there was no lack of these in the early editions. So far as the expression of political opinion was concerned, some readers approved, others overlooked them, and even the most fastidious admitted that it did not materially interfere with the great plan of the work. Its merits were admitted for minuteness and honesty-qualities which were accepted as a reasonable excuse for even a faulty style, strong political prejudices, and exaggerated declamation. His narrative of war operations especially were admitted to be not only minute and spirited, but to display considerable scientific knowledge. The different battlefields,

it was remarked, had been surveyed with the feeling of an artist and the precision of a tactician. A strong and manly sympathy with military devotion never blinded Sir Archibald to the sufferings inflicted by war, but permitted him always to give warm and impartial praise to every brave action on whatever side.

Wordy the "History" was no doubt found to be, and wordy, too, many wondered, with less variety in expression than might have been expected from Sir Archibald's long literary experience. The same defect frequently crops up in the "Autobiography." In the "Continuation " almost every statesman referred to is somewhat unnecessarily described as a "remarkable man." Thus, "Lord Grey was beyond all doubt a most remarkable man." Daniel O'Connell is "a very remarkable man." Lord Eldon is "one of the most remarkable men who ever sat on the woolsack." Thiers is "undoubtedly a very remarkable man." Louis XVIII. is "undoubtedly a very remarkable man." Then Canning's talents for business and debate "were of the very first order." Palmerston's talents for diplomacy and administration "are unquestionably of a very high order." And so fond had the historian become of the phrase, or so expressive did he deem it, that it is used with reference to the same statesman a second time on the same page. Lord Melbourne alone hardly comes up to Sir Archibald's standard, or at least only in a hypothetical sense, as "if his talents were not of a very high order." In like manner the "Autobiography" sets down what is no doubt quite true, but not needing expression, that the Marchioness of Londonderry was "a very remarkable woman." Dr. Whewell was "a man of very great abilities." Sir Henry Rawlinson is "a very remarkable man." Monckton Milnes, only a page or two onward, is also "a remarkable man." Lord Palmerston turns up again as "one of the most remarkable men of the age." Mr. Secretary Walpole is also "a superior man." A conversation with the Princess Mary of Cambridge was "very remarkable." Lord Provost Clouston is another man of "remarkable intelligence." The Hon. Mr. Vernon and the late Colin Campbell, Colgrain, are each simply "superior" men.

But John Hope was a "remarkable man," as was also Professor Wilson and Duncan M'Neill; and so on through both volumes, till we come to poor Lord Elgin, "although not a man of very remarkable talents."

Apart from Interlocutors, and some were so elaborate and interesting as almost to reach the dignity of literature, the chief book-work engaged in by Sir Archibald in his later years is represented by the volumes making up the "Continuation" of the "History" from the battle of Waterloo to the accession of the Emperor Napoleon III., the early volumes of which were issued in 1852; and the lives of the half-brothers, Castlereagh and Londonderry, completed in 1861. The first added little or nothing to his fame as historian of the "Wars of the Revolution," being, indeed, frequently spoken of as a "Book of Fallacies" and exploded political crotchets. Nor did the second fare much better, Castlereagh himself being an unpopular subject since the power of the people has become a fact. The Marquis, in his prime one of the most dashing cavalry officers who ever served under Wellington, was latterly known as an unsuccessful diplomatist, a vain, fussy statesman, and might have been forgotten altogether had it not been for Seaham harbour, docks, and railway, in which the Murat of the British army exhibited all the enterprise and shrewdness of a Sunderland skipper. The preparation of the Londonderry volumes led Sir Archibald on more than one occasion to Wynard and Seaham, the first, in addition to its famous Ghost Story, having suffered more from fire in recent days than. any mansion of its kind; the second, purchased from Mr. Milbanke, father of Lady Byron, the marriage of the poet having taken place within the modest mansion on the estate. Although the Marchioness of Londonderry was, as Sir Archibald records, a "remarkable" woman, even when she was an "infant" but wealthy ward in Chancery, he admits that he never was able to divest himself of a certain degree of awe, or feel altogether at ease in her company. While there is much-rather too much-in the "Autobiography" regarding visits to great people and great houses, all readers will peruse with pleasure the graphic details given by one who not only saw but took part in suppressing the Cotton