e table where, long ago, he had waited as a
servant, and where had sat the stranger gentleman in regimentals, who
clapped him on the shoulder, and spoke to him words of encouragement
which perhaps had sunk deeper into his mind than he was conscious of
himself. His native politeness had always been remarkable, and now his
general information and agreeable manners made his society a true
acquisition. After a few months' visit, he left Scotland never to
return. Again he went abroad, and finally settled at Tripoli, the
African port on the Mediterranean, under the Turkish dominion. Here
the sultan's viceroy, the pacha, soon appointed Dr Dickson to be his
chief physician--a post which he held for thirty years under various
successive pachas, although the rival claimants for vice-regal
authority sometimes fought so fiercely, that the English residents
were glad to seek shelter in Malta, until it was decided who should
reign. Still, Dr Dickson never lost his office, which has now
descended to his son; an extraordinary instance of permanent favour
under so arbitrary a government. Dr Dickson had married a Scottish
lady, and being now settled in every way, his life, so far as we know,
affords no farther incidents necessary to record. It was a career,
however, of continued usefulness and benevolence, and, surrounded by a
promising family, who revered their father, we believe he enjoyed as
much happiness as usually falls to the lot of humanity.

One only drawback there was to the favour in which he stood with the
pacha: the doctor was obliged, when attending the high ladies of the
court, to drink in their presence one-half of every drug he
prescribed--a custom it might not be amiss to introduce into England,
although not with the view, as in Tripoli, of guarding against poison!
Dr Dickson also acted as consul for Portugal, although for many years
he received no salary: at last, on paying a flying visit to London,
two years before his death, he was recommended to go home by Lisbon to
seek redress. He found, however, that amid the clash of political
factions, justice was difficult to be found, and so he gave up both
the search and the post.

The estimation in which Dr Dickson was held at Tripoli, both by the
English residents and native population, cannot be better described
than by quoting entire a paragraph from a London newspaper, which
inserted a notice of his death in the year 1847: 'Letters from
Tripoli, just received, announc