At other times Bute appeared rather to resent the charge of "heaviness" not infrequently applied to his _Review_. "They call us _ponderous_--it is their favourite adjective," he wrote in this mood a little later. "It is easy to bandy epithets, but I should say that we are positively _light_ in comparison with {138} some other quarterlies I could name. I was drowsing for two hours last night over one of them, which I can designate by no other word than _stodgy_." Nevertheless it must be frankly admitted that Bute did not possess the power of treating with any kind of light touch (or perhaps of inspiring others to do the same) the various interesting and important subjects which were the staple of the _Review_. The gift of humour he certainly possessed, and in a high degree: he could see as well as any man the incongruous and ridiculous side of the most serious subject: he liked a good story, and could tell one himself, with a sort of solemn jocosity which, combined with his singular felicity in the choice of language, added vastly to the effect of the anecdote. Moreover, he could write as well as talk wittily, as is evident from the caustic and sometimes mordant humour which characterises many of his letters. But this feature is almost or wholly absent from his published writings; and in these he seems to have adopted the principle which Dr. Johnson certainly practised as well as preached: "The dignity of literature is little enhanced by what passes for humour and wit; and the true man of letters will do well to reserve his jests for the ears of his private friends, and to treat serious subjects, on the printed page, in a serious manner." Bute hardly seemed to realise that the following of the sage counsel just quoted could be any bar to the popularity of the _Review_ with the general reader; and he was at times almost querulous with what he called the "unaccountable apathy" of the Scottish public in particular. "I think," he wrote to a literary friend, "you ought to pitch strongly into the Scottish people for their distaste for anything like serious reading. I am told that of the books borrowed from {139} the Edinburgh Public Library for home perusal, more than 75 per cent. are works of fiction. One thing which I have particularly noticed about them is crass ignorance of their own history, to a point which is really quite astonishing." In order to increase the circulation of the _Review_, and make it if possible self-supporting ("a state of things which, for the sake of the principle involved," wrote Bute, "I am extremely desirous to bring about,") the desperate expedient was proposed of transferring the _Review_ to London, following the precedents of the _Edinburgh_ and the _North British_. But this was too much for Bute's _amor patriæ_. He wrote to the Oxford friend from whom the suggestion had emanated: _October_ 1, 1887.