Wellwood, a Scottish Baronet of Whig principles, whose daughter he afterwards married, whether from _innate love of legitimacy_, or what, is unknown. Before he wrote the _Tour_, he procured the degree of LL.D. (as the Laureate has done since), and the philosopher, who had refused subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles to the Church of England, and had been in turn a Republican, a Jacobin, a Leveller, and a Spencean, became a Doctor of Laws, and sunk into the wig and gown of an advocate in the Ecclesiastical Court! Resuming an intimacy with some young men of his own stamp, who knew him at college, they obtained a place for him--he was made king's advocate at Malta. So fell Slop. Here ended his career of what he called Patriotism. He mistook passionate heat for the enthusiasm of genius, a habit of loud talking for talent, a ranting way of writing for reasoning, and pertinacity of manner for firmness of character. His vain disputations occasioned him to be noticed, and this he thought equal to being admired. Conceit of ability rendered him covetous of distinction; he acquired it-- 'The Court's a golden, but a. fatal circle, Upon whose magic skirts a thousand devils, In crystal forms sit tempting innocence, And beckon early virtue from its centre.'-- Stoddart's Tour, vol. i. p. 12. The {199}smirks and smiles of courtiers, the tinsel and glitter of embroidered coats and waistcoats, the hum and sops- of office, hurried him into the train of ministerial menials, as easily as a beggar's hungry brat is seduced by the finery of gilt paper, and the sound of the shovel and brush, to follow the chimney-sweepers on May-day, through the dirty alleys of St. Giles's. His artificial wants were too many to be gratified by an even walk in the path of rectitude. When he saw that 'public principle' was an obstacle to the gratification of his vulgar vanity, he suppressed it-- 'He was no Patriot then, nor gave his breath Bravely to speak his mind, and venture death:-- For'twas his judgment then--though not in youth-- One grain of ease was worth a world of Truth' Watts. Notwithstanding this, he remained, secretly, a correspondent to the _Monthly Magazine_, and wrote for Sir Richard Phillips.