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Leader (1850-1860), 30th December 1854, Edition 1 of 1, Page 1239, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      . poor wretch was a German— " a race liable , " says M . Chasles , « to such aesthetic nostalgias ; " he would neither eat nor drink , and was fast fading into a skeleton . No time was to be lost . » Women , " says M . Chasles , " are always affected by passions which bring their subjects to death ' s door . " It so chanced that Miss Anne Scott was in possession of a manuscri pt of her father ' s , upon which she had laid her hands some time before , and which slie kept among her private treasures . It was a . novel entitled Moredun To save the « daft" German ' s life , she resolved to give him the manuscript if she could her father

      get ' s consent . This was rather difficult , Sir Walter being then , says M . Chasles , "bound b y agreements which prohibited him from disposing of any manuscri pt to any person whatever . " Moreover shrewd and cautious Scotchman as he was , he half suspected the story of the " daft" German , and saw the possibility of getting into a law-suit by his benevolence , if he gave away the manuscri pt . So he managed" the thin * by simply allowing his daughter , as a father whom she consulted in the matter , to dispose of what was her own property—he being nowise concerned as the proprietor of the MS . ; and also by writing to Mr . William

      Spexcer the followino- ] pttcv Mntinncln „ : „«„ , ! „—i .. : j-i . i _;_ - , - bPEXCER the following letter , cautiously signed only with his initials , and addressed to Mr . Spencer also by his initials : — , Paris , November 4 , 1826 . JHy dear W—b- —~ , I am constrained to make of this note a letter of initials for I XThS U Wir ^ ™ ****** Write ' ' therG 1 S n ° » & ™ - *> The story which Anne has told mo ahout your daft friend , the foreigner monomaniac is as clearly the case of a man who requires to he cognosced as I ever met with ; but as it appears to me that she has taken it up most ridiculously to heart we have brought our discussion of it to a conclusion by my consenting to her doins what you could not be told of until she had received the permission of .

      papa m _ Sho has possessed herself for a long time past of a tale which I had at one time the intention of making the first of a series of such things , drawn from the historv of fecotland , a notion which I afterwards gave up . For Anne , however , that story has ever possessed a great charm ; and I allowed her to keep it , because I was under the impression that a mere story , which offers no particular merits but those of events and a plot , would not appear advantageously amongst works which had the higher object of paniting character . That would be to take a step backwards , which would never do . -besides , as far as I can recollect , there are a great many anachonisms and freedoms used with persons and places which are not in keeping with the character of historian , to which 1 now aspire .

      I consider , then , that in authorising my daughter to give you that work as a panacea for the imagina . iy ills of a foreign monomaniac , I only permit a change of proprietorship . At the same time , in allowing Anne to make a present to you of what is but a trifle after all , I must make a most serious stipulation regarding it ; for I tell you candidly that I believe W—S— himself to be the real malade : ¦ imaginaire . ¦ That stipulation is , that if at any time you take the fancy of publishing that tale , you will do so with the initials only , and that you will do all that you Can in fairness do to countenance the idea that it is a bairn of your ain . I wish I could do something for you personally of some less doubtful character than of humouring the caprice of a daft man ; but you know how I am placed at present . Ecliove , however , that you have no more sincere friend than "W . S .

      This letter , with the manuscript romance of Moredim , we are to understand , remained in possession of the " daft" German , or his substitute , till his death , when it was acquired , at a sale of his effects , by the father of its present proprietor . This gentleman did not know its value ; and it was reserved for his son , who found it in a mahogany box , to identify it as a novel by the author of Waverley . ( We must here state that we have not before us M . Caban y ' s original pamphlet , giving an account of the history of the MS . from the time when it was in the possession of the " daft" German till it came into his own hands , and that we supply the gap from more vague information which has reached us . ) M- Cabany is now translating the novel , which is to appear in three volumes , divided , in all , in to twenty-five chapters . It is not , lie begs to inform the public and M . Chasi ^ s , such a mere trifle

      as might be inferred from the author s facility in parting with it , and from his manner of speaking of it in his letter . On the contrary , the first chapters of JStoradun have been read in the original by several competent Englishmen , all of whom have pronounced it juithentic , and interesting in the highest degree , and infinitely more dramatic than any of the romances published by Scott while alive . So says M . Cah . vny in his letter to M . Chasles , dated from 91 , Roulcvard Beanmarcliais : and M . Chasmjs hastens to say that he docs not discredit the authenticity of the work , and is quite ready to read it , and to find it as excellent as M . Cawanv declares it to bo .

      Such is the strange story—which , certainly , in its present shape , nnd sit this distance from the " Boulevard Boauniarchnis , ' looks npocryphal enough . The " W . S . " lcttor , so fur ns it can be judged of in print , and by those who know nothing of M . Cabany , might very well bo a concoction ; and much more evidence than that will be required before scepticism will bo convinced . The novel itself , published in English , will supply the intermit evidence ; and the external evidence will be found in the handwriting of the letter and the MS ., and in the consistency of the story with the farts of Sir Waj . tum ' s life about the year 182 (> , us told by Lockhakt . Two things occur to us : the one , that aa in 1820 Sir Wai . tkk had not yet acknowledged tlio paternity of the Wavorlcy Novel * , there is a kind of inconsistency between this fact and the language of tlio alleged letter to W . S . in Paris ; tho other , that seeing thait in 1820 , Sir Wai . thu was working like a Hercules to inalto money to rotriovo his ruined fortunes , it ia not the moat credible tiling in the world Unit he would give avvny a manuscript which , however dissatisfied 1 » Q might luivo boon with it , would have been worth to him two or throe thousand pounds , for the purpose of Having a "daft" Gornmn ' a life . J 3 ut wo

      complete ^ * ° ^ ^ ° ' ' " * pr 0 U 011 nce Ott the evidence when it ii Our contemporary the Athenian , has called attention to the fact that the colony of the Cape of Good Hope has just passed throug h both of its legislative houses a bill , which , if sanctioned b y the Home Government , would deprive British authors of all copyright in that colony , and render piracy in literary works the rule there as it is in Am erica . Our contemporary anticipates that the bill will be innocuous , inasmuch as it cannot possibly receive the royal assent ,- but justly regrets that the first session of the colony's legislature under tie new constitution should have been disgraced by the introduction of sucl a bill .

      Messrs . Longman announce as all but ready A Month in the Camp before Sevastopol , by a Non-combatant . Rumour assi gns the book to Mr . Layard or Mr . Kinglakb , the author of Rotten ; but we have reason to believe that neither is the author , and that the "non-combatant" is a gentleman not so well known to fame—Mr . Bitshby , of the English bar . Mr . Kinglakk is at present ill ia the west of England , suffering from the effects of fever in the Crimea . A volume of Sonnets on the War , by Alexander Smith and Mr . Sydney Yendys , whom a common residence in Edinburgh has made partners on this occasion , is to be published in a day or two by Mr . Bogue , and will probably contain real poetry on the events of the Crimea- The first number of the Artist , a new weekly journal , price sixpence , to be devoted to the Pine Arts , is to appear next Saturday ; and last Saturday saw the appearance of the first number of a new

      threepenny newspaper , the Scottish Tribune , published in Edinburgh , and showing , both in its external getting up and in the ability and vigour with which it is written and edited , what a threepenny paper might be .

      Untitled Article

      The only magazines for the new year which we have yet received are our old friends Frxispv , and the Dublin University , and the first number of the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal , to be published quarterly . The latter professes the intention of exhibiting a view of the progressive discoveries and improvements in science and art—scarcely novel features — but the names of Anderson , Jardine , and Balfour on the cover as editors will arrest attention . The Dublin University Magazine seems to have lost one good feature—the poetic . There is certainly some poetry , but part is anonymous- —wliicli is the greatest fault that poetry can present—and the remainder has only an , unknown name to recommend it . " Snow-Flakes " are elegant , graceful and poetic sketches in prose , and the article on " Educational Experiments in Ireland" is valuable .

      Fraser commences with a good article on the state and prospects of Spaim There is a second " ¦ Batch of Danish Ballads , " and a very pleasant paper on a not very original subject—Paris!—by the very pleasant author of The Upper Ten Thousand . Nearly all the remainder of the number is about the war—* in the shape of direct disquisition , or stirring- stories .

      Untitled Article

      We see with regret that M . Ivossuth , who does not seem yet to have acquired the complete " tact" of our customs , has engaged to write weekly political articles for one of our sporting newspapers . Kossuth was a great journalist in bis own country , and there is no reason why , in tho honest independence of his exile , ho should not employ his genius here in advocating his views through tho press regularly and professionally . But there is always a choice of methods / and it would have been better had he resolved to publish a weekly pamphlet in his own name . We aro a prejudiced poople ; and if Louis Navolkon himself were to be an exile ngain , and to edit BelV $ Life , he would lose caste with many who now admire him .

      Untitled Article

      CHARLES RANDOM . Charles Random ; or , Lunatics at Large . By Thomas "White . Longninn nnd Co . This is essentially an odd book . Mr . White makes his liero start autobio-? nip hieally with the notion that all lovers aro " lunatics at large" —Mr . Iharles Hamlom is a lover—consequently Mr . Cluirlofl Itandoiu acts ([ and , we must add , writes occasionally too ) like a " lunmtio at largo . " Ho is tho younger son of a baronet , tries tho army , sells out from want of interest , and outers the Church as a curate with a stipend of fifty pounds a year . In the course of his clerical labours among tlio nooror parishioners ho meets with a charming mud charitable young ludy , a local toucher of music , much calumniated in tho neig hbourhood—fulls in love with lier , and oflors her niarringo on tho spot , without , waiting to two her a second tune . I ho oiler in not positively accepted , because tho young lady is honourable and disinterested , ns well as charming . « ut Mr . Random has other matrimonial chances to conaolo liiin . Ho makes tho acquaintance of si great lord in the neighbourhood , and inspires tlio nobleman's Bister , and tho nobleman s duughtcr , respectively , with secret longings to bo married to him . Soon

      Untitled Article

      We are requested to call the attention of our readers to the first of Mr Owen ' s meetings , to be held on New Year's evening , in St . Martin ' s Hall . The advertisement promises nothing less than the commencement of the Millessium this year ( 1855 . ) This meeting is a necessary preliminary step to the full disclosure of the means for its attainment , which disclosure is to be made at a second meeting to be held on the 14 th May next . Large paintings , explanatory of Mr . Owen ' s views , will be exhibited and explained by himself ; Mr . Peimtberton , author of the " Happy Colony , " &c . ; and by Mr . Atkins , Civil Engineer from Oxford .

      Untitled Article

      obtaining possession of some manuscri pt or manuscripts of ScottThis December 30 , 1854 ,. ] THE LBA ]) Ba 1 1239 obtaining possession of some raanuscrint or mannam-mfe nF S ^«^ nru ; _ n , ¦ _ , , . .. ' . _ "" ' ¦'" " ¦ =====

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 30, 1854, page 1239, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2071/page/15/