Alice Macdonell

“ Bruce subsequently undertook in succession the editorship of the 'Madras Athenæum,' the 'Newcastle Chronicle,' and, during the latter years of his life, the Belfast 'Northern Whig.' He was an occasional contributor to the 'Athenæum,' and at the time of his death he was engaged on a series of papers for the 'Cornhill Magazine.' His restless mind was ever finding interests too much out of the beaten track to allow him to be sufficiently absorbed in the events of the day ”

“ On the whole, though he blames the neglect and selfishness of the proprietors, and quotes the verdict of one of the witnesses he examined, that 'the ruin of the poor people in Skye is that there are whole miles of the country with nothing but sheep and gentlemen upon them,' yet he finds the real cause of the distress in the indolence and lack of energy of the highlanders themselves. ”

“ In 1803 he came to London to devote himself to literature, and was soon a prolific contributor to the 'British Critic' and the 'Anti-Jacobin Magazine and Review,' the latter a weekly journal started almost contemporaneously with, and conducted on the same principles as, its more famous namesake the 'Anti-Jacobin' of Canning celebrity. A large proportion of the articles published in this review from 1803 to 1806 are from Bruce's pen. These articles, written with considerable ability, are chiefly on theological and literary subjects. ”