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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II

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St. Giles Street] THE DAILY REVIBW: 289 the vehicle for the dissemination of the rich vein of humour which ran through his character, His qualities as a writer in a daily journal were amply displayed during the six years he edited the Ddy Review, and a melancholy interest attaches to his connection with that journal, as he literally ?died in harness.? His great reading gave him genuine mind and culture, was ever and anon made evident, sometimes with curious solicitude.? When death came upon Mr. Manson he was only in his forty-ninth year, and had not been confined by illness to the house for a single day. After breakfast, he had seated himself in his study to write a leader welcoming John Bright to Edinburgh j and the few * TRINITY COLLEGE CHURCH (RESTORED). extensive resources, while his long study of public matters and knowledge of past political transactions were remarkable, or equalled only in the parallel instance of Alexander Russel, of the Scotsman His tastes were various ; for in classic authors and in the Scottish vernacuIar he was equally at home. ?He could scourge pretenders, but he loved to welcome every genline accession to our literary treasures, and to give a fresh and advantageous setting to any gFms that might be found in the volume with which he had to deaL Indeed, amid the rough strokes of political war, his regard for any opponent whom he believed to be a man of 31 lines he wrote were penned, as usual, without a single elision, when Mrs. Manson entering the room about twelve o?clock, saw him lying back in his chair, as she supposed asleep-but it was the sleep of death. This was on the 2nd of November, 1868. Mr. Manson, who was long regretted by men of many professions pver the length and breadth of the kingdom, and by friends who mourned him as a genial acquaintance, was succeeded by the late Henry Kingsley, who occupied the editonal chair for eighteen months, and who was succeeded in turn by Dr. George Smith, formerly
Volume 2 Page 289
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