compelled to have recourse to authorship, until something more stable should occur. He therefore wrote in the "Monthly Magazine," and other periodicals of the day. He also projected, with Mr. Colburn the publisher, a periodical which, under the title of the "New British Theatre," should publish the best of those dramatic productions which the managers of the great play-houses had rejected. It was hoped that in this way deserving talent would be rescued from oblivion; and "many a gem of purest ray serene" be made to glitter in the eye of a delighted world, instead of being trampled among the dust of the green-room. It was a most benevolent and hopeful speculation, of which Galt, the proposer, was appointed editor. But little did he anticipate the flood-gates of mud which such a proposal opened. There was an instant jail-delivery of manuscript plays, enough to have converted the country into a literary Botany Bay or Alsatia; and Galt, amidst the heap of dramatic matter, under which he was well-nigh smothered, was obliged to confess at last that the managers of theatres were not such reckless or unjust rejectors as they had been called. The work at its commencement was successful, but soon afterwards fell off, although the plan was improved by the admission of plays that had been written but not presented. Before it expired, Galt possessed and availed himself of the opportunity of inserting some of his own dramatic productions, among which was the tragedy of "The Witness," afterwards performed in several towns with altered titles. After this, his career for some years was one of active business, combined with authorship. During his travels he had conceived the idea of importing British goods through Turkey, in spite of the continental blockade by which Napoleon endeavoured to exclude our commerce; and upon this plan he employed himself diligently for some time both in England and Scotland. But the conception appeared too bold and hazardous to those traders who were invited to the risk; and his efforts ended in disappointment. Another occupation with which he was commissioned, was to superintend a bill through the House of Commons, intrusted to him by the Union Canal Company. As enough of leisure was afforded him in London during the suspense of this bill, he wrote the "Life and Studies of Benjamin West." He also wrote a romance, of which the hero was the Wandering Jew. Of this work two considerable editions were sold, although it had never been reviewed. This neglect the author, who affectionately clung to the remembrance of his Wandering Jew to the last, regarded with some surprise. "How the work," he says, "should have been so long unnoticed, while others which treat of the same subject have attracted considerable attention, I cannot say; but this I know, that many of my own far inferior productions, in originality and beauty, have been much applauded, and yet I doubt if they have sold so well." We suspect that few of our readers have been among the purchasers of this wonderful myth, or have even heard its name till now.
Amidst all the toil and struggle of these literary attempts, John Galt had not yet discovered where his strength lay. History, biography, travels, epic and dramatic poetry, romance he had tried them all, but attained success in none. His over-boiling imagination and erratic fancy were too much even for fiction, whether in prose or verse; and when he attempted sober narrative, his love of originality was ever leading him into some startling paradox, which the facts of history were unable to make good. The eccentricity of his political opinions had also given not a little offence to the still predominant party; for although a Tory in theory, he seemed a very Radical in practice, and had more
