Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

344 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
them that politics was tlie jDeculiar bent of N'eilson's mind, and that thei
shrewd, combative Scotchman was exactly the person suited to become
(subject to their supervision) editor of a newspaper in which their opinions
and principles were to be promulgated.
We must suppose that ISTeilson could have possessed few of those
qualities which in a later age made his countryman, Gordon Bennet, the
beau ideal of an American journalist; more scrupulous, perhaps, and not
sufficiently partisan to suit the violence of Republican feeling ; but certain
it is the speculation failed utterly, and after expending in fruitless litiga-
tion with his employers the small capital he brought with him, he was
compelled to eke out a misera,ble existence by Avriting party squibs, which
died the death such literature generally does — on the day of their birth.
We will not attempt to describe Mrs Neilson's sufferings during her
husband's declension and fall, nor dare to foUow the workings of her
breaking heart, as hope after hope was extinguished, and we cannot doubt
but there was a bright future in store for one who had borne the trials of life
in so patient and uncomplaining a spirit, for " as the shadows lengthened
across the little landscape of her life," she saw more clearly that it was
through much tribulation she was to attain eternal happiness. Forlorn,
but not desponding, she did all that lay in her power to cheer the
remaining days of her irritable, broken-spirited husband, whose continual
regret of what he might and ovgld to have done it was difficult to bear,
considering how hardly she had laboured to impress such opinions on him.
Meantime slie had seen her children, one by one, depart from her
side with little hope of their ever again meeting ; some with characteristic
energy to penetrate the gloomy, and then scarcely known defiles of the
Eocky Mountains, to perish, perchance, midst tlie boundless unexplored
wastes of Praii'ie — the pioneers of a civilisation which was to extend to
the distant shores of the Pacific. But those scattered units were not to
be lost amidst the immensity of the American Continent. The name of
Neilson, Avhich went down in clouds and darlmess, was again, after many
years, to rise on the world's horizon in the persons of his descendants.
To them it was reserved to develop some of the groat natural resources of
the country — to extend its commerce, enrich its literature, and assist in
making the " Atlantic cities " of the Union the emporiums of wealth and
intelligence they now present to the most superficial observer.
The wildest and most sanguine dreams of the Scotch Eadical as to the
future of the country were to be more than realised ; and although, like
the great Jewish lawgiver, he was not permitted to enjoy the land of
promise, to his children's children it was decreed to see such fabulous
prosperity attained physically and materially as should place the "Ameri-
can Union" in the foremost rank of the civilized world. And if the
political progress of the country has not kept pace with the material, if
bribery and coercion have in their representative system been the rule and
not the exception, if speculative "things" by which the public are de-
frauded that a '' clique " may be enriched, have lowered the tone of their
legislative body, and cast a blot on the reputation for fair and upright
dealing of its people, it can only be hoped that as the country becomes
awake to its responsibilities, and casts aside the passion for money, which
at present blinds it to better and higher things, it will inaugurate an im-
proved system of morality and administration. M. H. W.