[429] A Party Newspaper started by the Tories in Edinburgh at the beginning of 1821. It was suppressed in the month of August, but during the interval contrived to give great offence to the Whig leaders by its personality. Lockhart says of it that "a more pitiable mass of blunders and imbecility was never heaped together than the whole of this affair exhibited;" and Scott, who was one of its founders, along with the Lord Advocate and other official persons, wrote to Erskine, "I am terribly malcontent about the _Beacon_. I was dragged into the bond against all reasons I could make, and now they have allowed me no vote regarding standing or flying. _Entre nous_, our friends went into the thing like fools, and came out very like cowards." The wretched libels it contained cost Sir A. Boswell his life, and for a moment endangered that of Scott.--See _Life_, vol. vi. pp. 426-429, and Cockburn's _Memorials_, p. 312. [430] _2 Henry IV_. Act III. Sc. 2. [431] Douglas Cheape, whose Introductory Lecture was published in 1827. Mr. Cheape died in 1861. [432] James Moncreiff, son of the Rev. Sir Henry Wellwood. The new Dean succeeded Lord Alloway on the Scotch Bench in 1829, and died in 1851. Cockburn writes of him thus:--"During the twenty-one years he was on the civil and criminal benches, he performed all his duties admirably. Law-learning and law-reasoning, industry, honesty, and high-minded purity could do no more for any judge. After forty years of unbroken friendship, it is a pleasure to record my love of the man, and my admiration of his character."--_Journals_, vol. ii, p. 264. [433] _Troilus and Cressida_, Act v. Sc. 2. [434] Dr. Stokoe, who had settled at Durham, died suddenly at York in 1852. He had been surgeon in the fleet at Trafalgar, and was afterwards appointed to St. Helena. [435] The University Commission.--See _ante_, pp. 256, 257. [436] The long life of Walter, fifth Duke of Buccleuch, more than fulfilled the hopes and prognostics of his friend. A "true Scots lord," he carried with him to the grave in 1884 the love and respect of his countrymen. [437] _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 2.--J.G.L. 1827 JANUARY. _January_ 1.--God make this a happy year to the King and country, and to all honest men!