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BALFOUR, ALEXANDER, an esteemed miscellaneous
writer, was born March 1st, 1767, in the parish of Monikie,
Forfarshire. His parents belonged to the humbler rural class. His
education was very limited, and he was apprenticed at an early age to a
weaver. His first attempts at composition were made when he was twelve
years of age. At a somewhat maturer age he contributed verses to a
newspaper named the "British Chronicle," to Dr Anderson’s
"Bee," and to several provincial miscellanies. At twenty-six he
became clerk to a manufacturing house in Arbroath, and married in the
following year. From the Arbroath establishment, in which he had for
several years been a partner, he removed, in 1814, to Trottick near
Dundee, where he formed a connection with a branch of an extensive London
house. In the ensuing year, so memorable for calamity in the commercial
world, the house in which he had embarked his fortune was suddenly
involved in bankruptcy. Till some better employment should occur to him,
Balfour resorted to the pen, which had never been altogether laid aside in
his busiest and most prosperous days, and, in 1819, he produced a novel
entitled, "Campbell, or the Scottish Probationer," which was
received by the public in a favourable manner. While the work was in
progress, he accepted of a dependent situation at Balgonie in Fife, the
emoluments of which were barely sufficient to maintain a family consisting
of a wife, two sons, and three daughters. He was at length induced to
remove to Edinburgh, where, in 1818, he obtained employment as a clerk
from Mr Blackwood the publisher. His health suffered from constant
confinement to the desk, and in June, 1819, he was obliged to relinquish
his employment by a threatened attack of paralysis. For ten years after
the month of October, he was unable to set his foot upon the ground, and
spent his days in a wheel-chair. He was, nevertheless, enabled to devote
himself, with unimpaired energy, to literary labour. He edited, in 1819,
the poetical works of his deceased friend, Richard Gall, adding a
biographical preface; and contributed various articles of merit,
consisting of tales, sketches, and poems, descriptive of Scottish rural
life, to Constable’s Edinburgh Magazine, of which he continued
one of the chief literary supporters till its close, in 1826. In this
magazine appeared the poetical series, entitled, "Characters omitted
in Crabbe’s Parish Register," which was afterwards published in a
separate volume. In 1820, he published a volume, under the title of
"Contemplation, and other Poems." In 1823 he began to contribute
novels to the so-called Minerva Press, his first work being, "The
Foundling of Glenthorn, or the Smuggler’s Cave," a tale in three
volumes. Amidst the pangs of his disorder, Mr. Balfour continued to enjoy
such good general health, that he is said to have not been absent from his
family breakfast-table more than twelve times during the long period of
ten years. He slept regularly, and generally was able to spend twelve or
fourteen hours each day in study and composition. His eyesight was as
good, and his intellectual powers continued as vigorous as at any period
of his life; but his feelings were morbidly sensitive, and he had little
command over their expression. In the year 1827, through the intervention,
it is believed, of Mr Joseph Hume, M.P., who presented a number of Mr
Balfour’s works to the premier, Mr Canning, a treasury donation of one
hundred pounds was obtained for the unfortunate son of genius.
The latest considerable work of Mr Balfour
was a novel, entitled, "Highland Mary," in four volumes. It is
written with great simplicity and taste, and, as a story, is replete with
a mournful pathos. He continued to the last to contribute to the
periodical works of the day.
He enjoyed his usual health, till the 1st
of September, 1829, when an illness commenced that hurried him to the
grave. For some days previous to his death, he was deprived of speech, and
communicated with is friends by means of an alphabet which he had
occasionally used before. He died September 12th, 1829, in the
sixty-third year of his age. A memoir of Balfour was written by the late
Mr Moir, of Musselburgh ("Delta"), and prefixed to a posthumous
volume of his remains, published under the title of Weeds and
Wildflowers.
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