BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART, the biographer and sonin-law of Sir Walter Scott, was born in the manse or parsonage of Cambusnethan, County of Lanark, Scotland, in the year 1794. He died at Abbotsford on the 25th of November, 1854, and now lies in the same grave with Sir Walter at Dryburgh.

He was the first son by the second marriage of the Rev. John Lockhart, minister of Cambusnethan, with Elizabeth Gibson, daughter of the Rev. W. Gibson, minister of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. His father was afterwards appointed to the College Church, Glasgow, and in that city John received his first education. His appetite for reading, even as a boy, was insatiable, and though somewhat idle as regards school study, he greatly distinguished himself at College, obtaining one of the valuable bursaries, (worth about £150 per annum,) in virtue of which he proceeded to Baliol College, Oxford, in 1809, entering at the early age of fifteen. Dr. Jenkyns, the late dean of Wells, was his tutor. Before leaving the University he took honours as a first

class man, and retired with the degree of LL. B. After a tour on the Continent he was called to the Edinburgh Bar in 1816, but he failed to make an impression as an advocate, wanting the gift of eloquence to enable him to shine in that capacity. His wit, his learning, and extensive reading soon found a ready outlet through his pen. Being more attached to literature than to law, on the establishment of "Blackwood's Magazine," in 1817, he became a contributor to its columns. For a period of seven or eight years there were few numbers of that periodical which did not contain some pungent or graceful article from his pen. He tried all styles and subjects; he translated from the German and Spanish, reviewed books, indited stinging political articles, and no one excelled him either in sarcasm or invective. In 1818 he was introduced to Sir Walter Scott, who evinced his esteem and affection for him, by giving him in marriage, in April 1820, his eldest daughter, Sophia Charlotte. Previous to this, Mr. Lockhart had, in conjunction with his friend Professor Wilson, written Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk," a lively picture of Scottish society, character, and manners. Soon after his marriage, he removed, with his wife, from Edinburgh to Chiefswood, a pleasant retreat within two miles of Abbotsford. He remained an industrious contributor to "Blackwood," engaging with no mean skill in all the party questions of the day. Unfortunately the strife was not confined to squibs, and at least one fatal catastrophe was the result. In 1821 appeared

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his novel of "Valerius," an exquisite Roman story, said to have been written in three weeks; in 1822 “Adam Blair,” a Scottish tale of domestic life, containing some powerful painting of the passions. In the same year he edited an edition of "Don Quixote,” with numerous notes; in 1823 he published a tale of English University life, called “ Reginald Dalton;" also a translation of "Ancient Spanish Ballads," remarkable for elegance of style and versification. Those ballads caught at, at once, and live in, the general ear. They have every characteristic beauty of ballads,-life, rapidity, picturesqueness, and grace. In 1824 he published a novel somewhat in the style of Godwin, entitled "Matthew Wald." In 1825 he became the editor of the "Quarterly Review," which continued in his hands for twenty-eight years. He conducted it until failing health compelled him to resign the labor in 1853. He was only thirty-four years of age when he accepted the editorship of the renowned periodical, but under his charge he maintained and increased its reputation. His connection with "Blackwood's Magazine" he never entirely relinquished. Many of the cleverest things in the "Noctes Ambrosiana" were from his pen. In 1828 he wrote for Constable's "Miscellany" a life of Burns, also a life of Napoleon for Murray's "Family Library.' In 1836 appeared his "Magnum Opus," his life of Sir Walter Scott. For the biographer of the great novelist he was immediately named. His strength lay in that department of lit

erature, and as the husband of Scott's daughter, enjoying the friendliest relations with the father, no one else had a juster claim to the honour; but it was a work of great difficulty and delicacy. He had to fill a broad canvas with living or recent characters, and with contemporary events. He had to enter a critical arena, preoccupied by the greatest names of the age, and to deal with affairs of active life and business, as well as with matters of intellect and imagination. He aimed at strict impartiality; and in a private letter he declared, that he wrote as if the spirit of Scott, intent only upon truth, looked down upon him at the moment of composition. His work must redound to his praise as a wise, faithful, and masterly biographer. We recognize in it his manly and independent tone of criticism, his true and penetrating estimate of life and conduct, and the eloquent powers of description and analysis which he brought to his task. As a mere literary work, in style and treatment, it must rank in the first class; and as a biography, for fulness and interest, it is only surpassed by Boswell's "Life of Johnson."

In 1843 Mr. Lockhart received, through Sir Robert Peel, the sinecure appointment of auditor of the Duchy of Cornwall, worth £400 per annum. This sum, with the large endowments received from his literary labours, placed him, pecuniarily, in easy circumstances, but the latter years of his life were far from being happy. He had survived his wife, his two sons, and all the family of Sir Walter