The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 10, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2619, 10 July 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 10, 1871.

We are glad that a movement has been made to commemorate the centenary of Sir Walter Scott, and we trust the arrangements will take such a form as to render it worthy of his name. We should not like that name to be forgotten. There is no occasion to draw' comparisons between him and other authors in order to point out his greatness. He opened up a new vein of thought, and invested the history of the past with a charm it never before possessed. The more x’igidly critical system of education of this day may have dissipated much of the romance amid which he hid the real deformity of times gone past. The more accurate knowledge that we possess of the ical state of society in past ages, leads us to be thankful that we live in better times, and under Aviser institutions, but he Avas mainly instrumental in creating a literature that has smoothed the difficulties of tens of thousands of lives, by inducing a love of reading and supplying models of pure and highminded men and women, Avhom Ave feel proud to claim as our ancestors. The efforts of men like Sir Walter Scott create that community of sentiment which is included in the idea of nationality. Burks, in thought and sentiment, is purely Scotch. His pictures of life, his poetry, and ideals Avere all Scotch. Englishmen admire him as a poet Avhen they fairly understand him, and have their feelings Avrought upon by his appeals to our common humanity; but they claim a partnership in Scott. He Avas a connecting link in the literature of the tAvo countries, and breathed the spirit of both ; and wherever Britons are to be found, his memory is cherished as one of those Avhose Avorks have tended to the homogeneity of the races. There was political unity before his time, but the popular mind was not one. There were under-currents of disaffection ; Avounds not fairly healed, festering sores fed by traditional national enmity Avhich had not worn out. Scott in the eyes of each country threw a charm over the past, and did much to bridge over the social chasm that tended to separate the two races. Much as he clung to the legends and traditions of his native country, he. could cross the border, and sec sturdy manhood, brave and daring spirits, noble and generous chivalry, in the South. Thrown together in this New Zealand, so many thousand miles from the scenes he describes, in marking the Centenary of his birth and talent by some social demonstration, Ave shall bring back strongly the remembrance of the laud Ave have left, and feel ourselves united to it the more firmly, that they, at Home, are honoring tire same great name. It is somewhat curious that any doubt should exist as to the date on which the fete should be held. We have referred to the Penny Cyclopedia, a Avork Avhich Avas compiled with the greatest care under the supervision of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful KuoAvledge, and which has always been considered most reliable in its biographical articles, and the first tAvo lines run thus :—“ Scott, “ Walter, avas born in Edinburgh on “ the loth August, 1771. He died at “ Abbotsford on the 21st of Scptcm- “ her, 1832.” It lias been suggested that there may be special reasons for holding this Centenary on the 9th of August at Home. If so, they do not exist here ; but if there is no mistake about the matter, and it really is intended to celebrate bis birth on that date in Great Britain, it will be for the Committee to decide Avhether avc shall abide strictly by the birthday in Avhat Ave do, or whether Ave shall adopt the idea that some time during the tAventy-four hours our friends at Home are indulging in thoughts and feelings identical with our OAvn, as naturally suggested by a like cause. Then lioav is this great name to be honoured I Many ladies have expressed a Avish that such arrangements may be made as to include them. They do not Avant to speak —they do not want to eat nor to drink, but they do want to express by their presence the admiration that they feel for the Avorks of Sir Walter Scott. We cannot say that avg think avc are adepts at making comfortable arrangements for ladies. Particular congregations avlio have been trained to it, manage these matters very avoll, but people are apt to be cynical and impatient when they have to stand for hours, listening to music or speeches, Avhich lose their effect when they fall upon ears supported by Aveary limbs. It would bo Avise to take a lesson from those who have Jiad some prac-

tice in sucli affairs, and not to delegate the whole of the arrangements to one person, who, however anxious to please, has a direct interest in cramming seven or eight hundred people into a room where four or five hundred only would be comfortable. We shall be glad to see this wish, so felt by the ladies, adopted in some shape or other. Sir Walter Scott’s writings did much to create in them a love of reading, and since his day many able writers from their ranks have graced the literature of our country. Their claim to fair intellectual and literary competition cannot now be ignored, and it should be the pride of our united races, that not only the sons, but daughters of Britain aspire to the noble and beautiful in art, science, and literature. This pride should receive its highest gratification in offering united homage to the same brilliant genius, and we therefore trust that here, if in no other part of the world, a plan may be arranged for that purpose.