While the auctions were going on, I contrived, in midst of all my afflictions and discouragements, to keep the publication business moving in the best manner possible. I had remittances monthly, such as they were, from the Inverness, and Orkney, and Caithness districts, and continued to pick up, by one assistant, the scanty gleanings which the home circuit could still afford.

But all would not do to avert the coming storm, which was preceded by the shipwreck of the Marchioness of Huntly, in which I had books to a considerable amount going to my new auctioneer at Aberdeen; and was perhaps rather hastened by a circumstance that I will not even here glance at, being more anxious to heal, than to rip up old sores; for I now plainly saw, that my returns of late, were, or were likely, to turn out to be quite inadequate to meet my demands on the 4th of April, as I had too much leisure to look into matters, when once more set free from the excruciating pain I had so long been accustomed to endure," within the walls of a house," for I must now mention, what I should perhaps have mentioned sooner, that the pain in my ToE, at last, became so exceedingly excruciating, that it could no longer be borne with; and being so long tormented and tantalized to so little purpose, by following the prescriptions of the doctor, (who indeed seems never to have understood the nature of the complaint) and seeing not the smallest prospect of relief, while the swelling continued to baffle every attempt, by the usual method of poulticing, &c. to subdue or reduce it, I was induced to try at last, what I believe I had stubbornly ob

he was able to resume travelling, otherwise, had a pretty extensive tour; beginning at Dirleton, in OUR OWN COUNTY, on the 15th February, and finishing at Allanton, in BERWICKSHIRE, on the 3d of April; and which may be de. lineated as follows,-Dirleton, 15th and 16th February ;-Atholstaneford, 17th and 18th ;-Linton, 19th, 20th ;—Whittingham, 24th, 25th;-Tynningham, 26th 27th ;-Garvald, 1st, 2d March;-Gifford, 3d, 4th ;-Pencaitland, 5th, 6th ;-Ormiston, 8th, 9th ;-West Salton, 10th ;-East Salton, 11th, 12th ;— Linton, 13th ;-Innerwick, 17th, 18th ;-Cockburnspath, 19th, 20th ;-East Barns, 22d;-Chirnside, 24th, 25th;-Hutton, 26th, 27th ;-Paxton, 29th, 30th ;-Whitsome, 31st and 1st April;-Allanton, April, 2d and 3d.

I see that, independently of my son's having been obliged to remain at home, in so busy a period, by the distressing cause formerly mentioned, he had been disabled from travelling, by a severe cold and hoarseness, for some time after his return from Aberdeen, which fully accounts for his being so long, in again, taking the field.

jected to, as "AN AULD WIFE'S CURE;"but such a change!-such a miracle of begun recovery, it soon manifested on my long tormented toe!-that I cannot advance one step further, without appending the recipe, by way of a note, for the use of those it may afterwards concern.*

The herb poultice, so made, was applied to the toe, and in a very short time, the swelling was so much reduced, as to let us see at once the root of the disease, which was neither more nor less, than the nail, not merely, as the saying is, growing into the flesh, but actually taking, a circling direction round the bone and through the toe.

As the poultice, besides laying the swelling, had also considerably deadened the pain, or this might have been perhaps owing to some recent application of the caustic; for the pain without it, was now past endurance. I set to work myself with a pair of scissars, and had actually by applying them in the manner of tweezers or nippers, twisted the nail so much out of its convolutions, as to lay the point bare,—but unfortunately, there were not another pair at hand to cut off the offending substance, and before such could be procured, the pain became so great, that I was obliged to quit my hold, and the snail like form, flew back to its too long established position, with the velocity of a watch spring.

I could proceed no farther at the time, but a fresh application of the herb poultice, soon brought the little member into a condition to be operated upon again, and in a few days afterwards, I succeeded in extracting the nail, by the same method of procedure while another stood by, to embrace the opportunity of cutting it off at the proper time, which effectually relieved me from a long, a far too long, so troublesome a tenant.+

* Take "a handful of Rue; a handful of Maws; and a handful of Chamomile ; washed very clean and well boiled, then mash them with a little Fresh Butter and Barley Meal, finely searched."-This is an exact transcript of the recipe, which, although it is my wish that it may be seldom needed, I certainly do consider of more value in the article of laying swellings, than the price of my whole Book.

To prevent the nail from again taking a wrong direction and getting into the flesh, I was taught by a book that I procured" on the management of the nails and the feet," to scrape the upper part or upmost bend of the nail with a piece of window glass-which, weakening, as it were, the key stone of the arch, made the nail less apt to turn in at the sides; and this alone, with the cutting the nails

The exact time when this took place, I do not perfectly recollect, but from the circumstance of my being able to walk so far as the church yard in course of the month of February, at the time when the operations of taking down the old kirk were going on; for it was then, I recollect, that I first saw a new friend, who to this day has never assumed the semblance of a new face,-the nail must have been extracted before that time.

The relief, however, come when it might, came too late to be of much use to me, in the arduous task in which I was yet engaged. The season for activity was now too far gone, and by the time of my perfect recovery, it must have been altogether so, while circumstances, imperious circumstances, did not permit me to wait for another, in which I might attempt to retrieve my fortunes, and make up for lost opportunities-and I may add, for lost time-now alas! never

to return.

The loss of the Marchioness of Huntly, with the very goods on board, which I was hurrying to their destination, in order to help my deficiencies, and the poor account of which, I had only ascertained within these few days,-must have been very discouraging, and joined to so many other distressing considerations, could not fail, to shake any resolution I might have formed, or been trying to form, as to farther perseverance in a contest, in which, I had so long fought and bled so profuse ly, and to so little purpose.

In short, by the beginning of April, the die may be said to have been cast, for on the 5th of that month, I see that I issued my circular, calling, once more, a meeting of my creditors, in the Royal Exchange Coffee House, Edinburgh, on Wednes day the 14th at 12 o'clock:-at which, contrary to my expectations at the time, in consequence of being afflicted with another ailment, I was able to attend personally, and to submit to the gentlemen assembled, the painful document, of which the following abstract, will serve to throw sufficient light on the

in a square form, or rather a little indented in the middle, something in the form of a heart-is the sum and substance of what may be said, in regard to a matter, so interesting to all, to know.

subject;-although, I have not room for inserting the several statements to which it refers, and by which it was accompanied at the time.

CHAPTER XXVII.-1819 (CONTINUED.)

Affecting representation.-Being an abstract of my address, to the meeting at Edinburgh, on the 14th April, 1819, and, including references to the several particular, comprehensive, and minute statements, by which it was accompanied. -General statement of my affairs at that time, as per Inventory, Abstracts, and other documents.

ABSTRACT OF ADDRESS, &c.

"WHEN I was obliged by a series of unlooked for reverses, to lay a state of my affairs before my creditors, in the month of September, 1816, my circumstances otherwise, were such, and my future prospects so flattering, that TIME, to me, seemed all that was wanting to enable me to get the better of misfortune.

"And, on looking back to my situation and prospects at that time;-in the possession of a flourishing retail business,— an almost unlimited credit,-and the promising aspect of my publication concern,-I do not hesitate here to repeat, what perhaps some of the gentlemen present, may have heard me already express, that it had been better for me, if I had bound myself down, to pay 24s. per pound, with TIME of my own selecting, (and I would not have been unreasonable,) than to make up 16s. within a period, that has since turned out, so replete with disaster,—and has consequently, obliged me to make such sacrifices of my stock.

"I have, therefore, no reflections to make gentlemen, on the magnitude of the composition then offered. It was what I considered my stock at the time well able to bear, and therefore did, what I should have conceived it the duty of every honest man to have done in my situation. But, it must be confessed, that I THEN wished, and indeed from a conversation that passed with some of the gentlemen concerned in

the book business, previous to the hour of assembling, fully expected, that MORE TIME would have been allowed me, to make good my engagements; yet, from the general feeling manifested at the meeting, and apparent satisfaction expressed at the result, even if I was only able to realize from the funds, three of the instalments, or 12s. per pound,—and my feelings being too much agitated at the time, to enable me to think much of the conversation that had passed,-I readily assented to the terms proposed, and the same day (the 1st of October, 1816,) from which my instalment bills were dated, witnessed the commencement of a series of operations, to put my intentions into execution, that have been continued, I may say, without interruption up to the present day, under disadvantages that, I could not possibly have anticipated,

BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN WITHOUT PRECEDENT IN THE ANNALS OF THE COUNTRY.

"For the first three months, gentlemen, as will appear by one of the documents (A) that I shall lay before you, the result was pretty favourable, and in which, I was indeed, almost borne out in my calculations, which, being founded upon the best possible data to go upon, the DATA OF EXPERIENCE, and that being taken from the state of sales in the disastrous winter of 1815, I had no reason to think it would deceive me.

"According to the statement of these sales, attached to my other papers, F, you will at once see, that I had reason to count upon my sales, in bringing my stock into the market, by auction, (the only alternative left me to make a quick return practicable) producing AT LEAST, ONE HALF RETAIL VALUE, (which would have been fully sufficient for every purpose,) and had things gone on as in the first three months, they would have led to a very different result.

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By the spring of 1817, however, such an alteration had taken place in the state of the country, that, to use an expression I had then occasion to mention, in submitting my reasons for having a small extension of time from some of my principal creditors, it was "a time when, charity was upon the stretch in every direction, in order to devise the means of