THE The Grey Riber Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 952, 15 August 1871, Page 2

THE The Grey Riber Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1871.

Scotland has produced many illustrious men in art and literature— more perhaps than any nation of modern times— but she never gave birth to one more illustrious than he who on the 15th August, 1771, first drew breath in Edinburgh. It is just 100 years this day since Sir Walter Scott, that great genius destined to gladden and bless mankind, was bore in the house of his father, an attomey-at-law, in the city of Edinburgh. He was a fine robust chUd, full of vivacity ; but at eighteen months old he suffered a sudden loss of power in the right leg which rendered him lame for life. Sir Walter, in the sketch he wrote of his own life, thus describes this singular calamity. He says that he had been told that he showed great reluctance to be put to bed, that he was with difficulty got there, but on the morning he: was discovered to be affected by a fear which often ends in death. It held him three days. On the fourth " when they went to Dathe me as usual, they discovered that I had lost the power of my right leg. " Everything that skill and attention could j do failed to restore the limb to its proper power, but the constant change of scene which these attempts involved exercised a remarkable effect on his youthful mind. All his biographers concur in attributing the bout which his genius took to the impressions received as a very young chUd. He was compelled to live much in the open air and in the country instead of in the city of Edinburgh, and this contributed to imbue him with that profound love of nature in general, and more especially of nature as developed in the i scenery cf his own country, and that ! healthful vigorous style of thought and writing which form so distinguished a feature of his works. Subject to few of the restraints of domestic discipline, fond of legendary lore, he would visit old ruins, lonely glens, and wild mountain passes, and listen to the weird traditions and .witcheries which save them to him such a charm. He soon acquired, as a child, that wonderful store of legendary knowledge, particularly connected with the history of his own country, which gave him a literary character in subsequent life with some features which probably have never been seen in any former case.. At six years old he had attracted great notice amongst those who knew him. Mrs Cockburn, the authoress of the "Flowers of the Forest," writing to one of her friends in the winter of 1777, says : — "I last night supped at Mr Walter Scott's. He has the most extraordinary genius of a boy I have ever seen. He was reading a poem to his mother when I went in. I made him read on ;it was the description of a shipwreck. His passion rose with the storm. He lifted his eyes and hands. ' There's the mast gone,' says he ; ' crash it goes. They will all perish !' After his agitation he turns to me — ' That is too melancholy, says he ; ' I had better ••ead you something more amusing.' I preferred a little chit-chat, and asked him his opinion of Milton and other books he was roarling, which he gave me wonderfully. Ono nf his. observations was— *' How strange it is that Adam, just new come into the world, should kuow everything— 'that must be the poets fancy,' says he. But when he was told he was created perfect by God, he instantly yielded. When taken to bed last night, he told hia aunt

he liked that lady. f What lady V says she. 'Why, Mrs Cockburn, for 1 think she is a virtuoso like myself.' 'Dear Walter,' says Aunt Jenny, 'what is a virtuoso V ' Don't you know V says he ; ' why it's one who wishes and will know everything.'" When such utterances coula come from the lips of a child of only six years of age, what might not be expected from such a mind as time and. cultivation developed it 1 As he grew he became a favorite with young and old, high and low. Although aristocratic in all his sentiments, there was yet a grace and kindness that drew towards him all hearts, and this gentle spirit Scott always cherished. After leaving school he was apprenticed to his father, during which apprenticeship he acquired habits of regularity and method which never left him, and became accustomed to what what would otherwise probably have been the insufferable drudgery of writing. The manuscript pages of "Waverley," exhibited in the Edinburgh Advocates' Library, show how valuable this exercise musthave been to him. He fell in love, but soon fell out again ; became a member of literary societies, studied languages, travelled ou every holiday opportunity into the Highlands, and over most part of the Sooth parts of Scotland and the North of England, visiting everything of antiquarian interest, or that had a story attached to it. In this manner he stored up memoirs of ancient days that enabled him to rove at will and with ease (through the forgotten details of past trials. He was called to the bar at 1792. He began to dabble in verse writing, although up to that time he had not shown any tendency to this accomplishment. First it was a German poet which fired his fancy, and he produced a version" of his own. Scott reads one day his poem to a friend— it was a weird romance. At its conclusion they sit for a few minutes in silence. " I wish to heaven," said the poet, "I could get a skull and two cross-bones." His friend, takes him immediately to a surgeon, and Scott carries home in a handkerchief the sensible images of the dismal feelings of the hour. Mounted on the top of his book case, they afterwards found a place amongst the relics of Abbotsford. At this time Europe Was disturbed by the movements of the French Republic. Young men in Britain were training themselves to arms, and Scott agitated the formation of a body of cavalry volunteers. A regiment was formed, of which he was appointed Paymaster, Quartermaster, and Secretary. In 1797 he married, at Carlisle, the daughter of a French Royalist, whose widow had taken refuge in JEngland. In 1800 he produced a translation of one of Goethe's tragedies and several other pieces, which did not, however, attract much attention. In December, 1799 he i received the appointment of Sheriff of Selkirkshire, at a salary of £300 a year, with duties cf the lightest, and he devoted himself still more to literature. It was 1802 that he first became well known through his "Minstrelsy of the Border." Not long after, in January, 1805, the "Lay" made its appearance, and Scott at once took his place as one of the great poets. It was at this time that he became first involved in business transactions. His friend Ballantyne, of Kelso, who had printed the I " Minstrelsy," removed to Edinburgh, where the "Lay" was printed. Scott helped him to increase his operations. He started, the brother as a publisher, and he became joint partner. Id 1806, he withdrew from the bar, and every spare moment was devoted to literature and literary friendship. He was a keen. sportsman, and amidst all his labors found time for coursing. In 1808, he produced " Marmion ;" he was editing editions 'of Dryden and Swift ; and in 1810 the "Lady of the Lake ." came out. All these works were received with delight by the people ; criticism appeared to be disarmed, so great was the charm. In 1812, he obtained another office, which increased his income ; but this only stimulated his literary labors. " Rokeby " was written in the same year. But Byron's rising fame induced Scott seriously to meditate prose. The discovery of an old fragment h.e had commenced some years before attracted his notice by the impression it created upon his own mind. From this fragment the whole of the first volume of " Waverley " was constructed, and he finished the work in three weeks. He published it anonymously, and although his incognito was scarcely veiled to those who knew him, to the world at large " the author of Waverley " became a myth of magnitude. The difficulties of his trade partnership had already begun ; the Ballantyne's were short of money, and Scott had to resort to shifts. to raise it. In 1815, he published the "Lord of the Isles ;" and the following month "Guy Mannering " was issued ; and year after year the Waverley Novels teemed from the press. His literary income increased ; he enlarged and improved his house and estate at Abbotsford, until it. became almost palatial ; and for years he led a life of ■ active ; literary and social occupation, receiving visitors, corresponding with men of letters and renown, — to him a life of indescribable charm. But the commer«ial crisis of 1825 arrived. The Bannatynes' had some years before withdrawn from the field, and Archibald Constable, surnanied the. "crafty," was at the head of the Bibliopolic League, but hie too had been- carried off his feet. His credit exploded, and with the shock the printing house of Bannatyne fell. Scott writes in his diary on the day of Banuatyne's visit announcing the intended stoppage, " I felt rather sneaking as I came home from the Parliament House ; felt as if I were liable monstrari digite in no pleasing way. ,But this must be borne cum eeteris ; and, thank God, how-' ever uncomfortable, I do not feel despondent." The first disclosure of his luckless partnership brought forth universal^ympathy, and his creditors unanimously agreed to his proposal to place his effects intrust for their benefit. The estate of Abbotsford was beyond the reach of the creditors, being settled on his eldest son, but he had still a vast source of profit remaining — his literary talents. ' ' G cutler men," said he addressing his creditors, "Time and I against any two. Let me take this good ally into company and I believe I shall be able to pay you every farthing." He ; further proposed to insure his life for L 22,000, which was accepted, and he then sat down at the age of 55 to the task of redeeming by the exertion of his talents as a public writer a debt exceeding LIOO,OOO. Henceforth it was work, work, work ! with few intervals of relaxation. In two years he distributed L 40 ,000 amongst his creditors. But as his age and labors increased his health

gave way. In February, 1830, he had fi an attack of paralysis, and subsequently t< others, which alarmed his friends and a himself. On the 27th April, 1831, he 1] writes, "My bodily strength is terribly n gone, perhaps my mental too." He spent E the winter at Naples. • While there he d heard of the death of Goethe in 1832. * " Alas^or Goethe !" he exclaimed, " but \ he has died at home. Let us go to i, Abbotsford." He reached London on the j 16th June, almost in a state of insensi- s bility, and all hope of his recovery had f now fled. But he was conveyed to New- I haven by steamer, and reached Abbots- ' ford on the 11th July. For two months * he lingered. The endearments of home x awoke Mm to something like continued a sensibility, but he could neither write nor t read. He retired tq his couch, and on the 21st September died, after having a . month before completed his 61st year. , His remains were laid in the tomb of his ancestors, amid the ruins of Drybnrgh Abbey. j Of his writings, who shall venture to criticise the hundred volumes that were ] produced by his wonderful pen. He began a new era in British literature. With the masculine force of Fielding and ' Smollett, his romances had a purity and refinement never before exhibited in works j of the kind, and- which have never been \ equalled by succeeding writers. The naturalness of his character, the vivid description of his scenes, the special i charms of the antiquated legends, and the ; vigor of his style, combine to niake the Waverley Novels the most attractive works of fiction of the age. One never tires of , them. We can take up " Waverley," or the "Bride of Laramermoor," at any time, and derive the same pleasure which their first perusal afforded. Mr Gladstone thus speaks of Scott : — 1 don't know whether I am right, but my belief is that in this extraordinary power of calling from the sepulchre the dry bones of former ages— clothing them with sinew and flesh — causing them to live and move before us, and us to live and move among them, as if we belonged them and they belonged to us — I believe in that peculiar power, that very rare power, Scott has exceeded most of the literary men that the world has produced. We all know, more or less —some of us more extensively— the wonderful force that he exercised in this particular. 1 may mention here that Scott was in his early youth a great Jacobite. He has been, upon the whole, a true representer of history. He was a great Jacobite, and he tells us himself that the reason of it was this : that at the time he was a ooy, Scotland •was full of horror at the cruelties, of 1745. This was the truth, and it was an exapiple which tends to show us how cruelty, like other bad things, does not produce a reaction in favor of the parties it is intended to serve. There is another power— his power to draw characters. It is generally admitted that the very greatest exercise of poetical power is in delineation of human character ; and there are few writers indeed, even amongst the great writers of the world, who have been able to achieve marked success in this department. There are two great immortal names that are allowed to stand at the head of humankind — one is Homer, who lived-pro-bably three thousand years ago ; the other is Shakespeare, whom we are proud to call our own. 1 believe the literary world is nearly unanimous that those two are by far the Greatest painters of huxan character that aye ever lived. But lam not sure that we should be too audacious if we claimed for Scott the third place among all the poets, all the writers, of all the nations of the world. I should be very presumptuous if I were to presume to give any judgment ; but, so far as my knowledge goes, I would not hesitate to say that* in breadth and depth of -knowledge of human nature, there is no name that can bear successful comparison with Sir Walter Scott. It is a question which used to be constantly discussed, and will be dis* cussed, I think, to the end of the world, which is the finest romance of Sir Walter Scott? 1 venture to submit— as everybody is entitled to have his opinion, however little that opinion may be worth— l submit my own impression that the finest and greatest of his works are "The Bride of Lammermoor" and " Kennilworth ." "The Bride of Lam* mermoor" is a most extraordinary romance— a romance full of national character and historical features, ana a romance which this wonderful man, produced in the very same year, 1819, in which he also produced another romance almost equally extraordinary — " Ivanhoe," the scene of which was laid in a different country, in a different age, among totally different associations. In " The Bride of Lammermoor " we have much that deserves particular attention. Its greatest feature, and that which, J think, gives its precedent place, is a tragic grandeur and pathos, such as it not exceeded in any work of any period of literary prose of any period of literature, and certainly such as is not exceeded even by the noblest tragedies of the Greek poets. " Kenilworth "is distinguished on the other hand, by characters that one may call august. That also is a deeply tragic work, such as Shakespeare might have exceeded, but such as no other person ever born within these islands could have equalled. After these two works I have named come " Old Mortality," "Ivanhoe," " Waverley," "Guy Mannering," any one of which would have been sufficient to have made the fortune, if not secured the immortality, of any ordinary man. While this remarkable man poured forth these great works from year to year, it was enough to have made him the most popular man of his day, even if he had not had a high social position.

Parliament was supposed to meet yesterday at 12 o'clock, but whether it did so we are not in a position to inform our readers. Arrangements had been- made by which we expected to place our readers in possession of the Governor's speech, but up to the time of our going to press we have received no in* ! timation of its having been delivered. ; Mr F. de Cateret Malet, late Clerk of the '■ Resident Magistrateis Court, Hokitika, has > been appointed Deputy Registrar under the ■ Registration Act for the Christchurch Dis i trict. ] At the District Court yesterday, his Honor ! Judge Ward objected to the practice of • " calling" for witnesses outside the Court. ! He wished it to be distinctly understood j that for the future all bankrupts and wit- ' nesses in bankruptcy cases should be in the ' Court, so that they might be ready when called upon by the Clerk of the Court to give their evidence. Mr Henry Douglas Jackson, Provincial Auditor of Nelson, has been appointed by r his Excellency, the Governor as Official !■ Auditor vforjtife JKils'on South-West Gold Fields. Mr Jackson's duties will be to audit, the accounts of the official agents belonging to the different raining companies, under "the Mining Companies Limited Liability Act Amendment Act, 1869." [] Referring to Mr Guinness' notice of motion 1 in the County Council to impose a toll of LI 8 a head on cattle travelling over the Christchurch roadj the Westland Independent has E found out that it is all a dodge to attempt to divert the traffic to the Ahaurv, where Mr Guinness intends shortly to commence business as a cattle salesman. Our con- s temporary concludes thus:—" So far, then, 1

rom the revenue being increased sufficiently o maintain the road, we may, without fear, .ssert that the cattle would be so diminished n numbers as to leave the receipts as low as low, while the consumers of meat would be >aying thousands of pounds for a pui-pose yhich would not be advanced in the slightest legree by the sacrifice. The south-west wrtion of the Province of Nelson (and Mr jiiinneas) would reap the benefit of our folly, n exactly an inverse degree to the penalty laid ourselves. We presume that enough is iaid to defeat the ' little plan,' begotten or 'athered by the member for Greymouth, for benefiting himself at the expense of the . whole population. One thing only remains ;o be remarked, that these attempts are valuable as showing 'what manner of men ire these' who are entrusted with the administration of fifty thousand per annum by ihe confiding population of Westland. A man named Heury Draper, who was lately warder of the Picton Hospital, was iound lying dead outside the building a few lays ago. We learn that Dr. Boor, of Wellington, has been appointed surgeon to the Nelson Hospital, vacant by the resignation of Dr. Farrelle. A gigantic pump for the Caledonian claim, Auckland, is being constructed at Ballarat, Victoria. A petition in favor of the Permissive Bill is being extensively signed in Auckland and the country districts. The Rev. Mr Fison, aWesleyan missionary to Fiji, stated at Newcastle the other day that out of a total population in the group of about 200,000 about 105,000 are cannibals. Some daring thieves lately made their way early one morning to the sluice-boxes of one of the mining parties working on the Pleasant Creek, Upper Shotover, Otago, and washed out about 40oz of gold. In the morning service at St. Francis's Church, Christchurch, on the 16th instant, the Dead March in Saul was played, in consequence of the news of the murder of the Archbishop of Paris, arriving on that day. Mr Purvis Russell has issued a writ for libel against the Hawked Bay Herald, in consequence of an article published in its issue of May 18th, entitled " Native Land Frauds Prevention." Damages are laid at LIOUO. A. late telegram from New Plymouth states:— "Mr John Knight, M.P.C., was drowned in a small stream on Sunday night, and his body was found next morning. Mr Knight held the honorary office of Provincial Treasurer 'for Tarauaki. Mr Jordan, the Secretary of the Wanganui Agricultural Society, has received a letter from England, intimating that forty-four silver medals have been shipped and will reach Wellington by the first vessel They are described as being of excellent workmansnip. On one side is a handsome embossed group of cattle, which can be used as a stamp. Ropata returned to Napier on Saturday. He reported that several of his men have been frozen to death. He has left again for Poverty Bay, to bring his men to Wairoa, and from thence he will strike inland to Waikaremnana. He is sanguine of catching Te Kooti. A man named Samuel Ford was received into the Nelson Hospital a day or two since with his feet frost-bitten. Ford arrived at the Top-house, on Monday, the 24th ultimo, on his way to the Wairau ; and, strange to say, instead of proceeding down the valley, he went in the opposite direction towaids Tamdale. The weather being very severe, drove Ford back to the Top-house, after an absence of two days, with iris feet severely frost-bitten. Mr Wiesenhavern gave the poor fellow such assistance as lie could, and sent him into town. At the Thames Police Court on August 1, John W. Jones and Thomas Quinn were brought up, charged with stealing specimentailings from the Caledonian Company. After a long hearing the accused, upon the advice of counsel, pleaded guilty, and were sum* manly dealt with. Jones received sentence of six months' imprisonment ; whilst Quinn, upon the application of the police, was remanded for one week. A correspondent of the Southern Cross, writing from Waiuku, says • — " There have been several outrages committed in this neighborhood during the last few days. My neighbor, Mr John Dromgool, a most energetic settler, has had one of his working bullocks shot dead; and another, at Kohekohe, has had his horse shot; ; and I have had a two-year-old steer worried to death and eaten by a neighbor's dogs, at Maioro." With a view to bring to a focus the various Colonial questions of "the day, and to afford the colonists some kind of opportunity for making their various complaints duly heard at home, it has been proposed to hold a series of conferences in London, the first of which was to be held in July. At these no attempt will be made on the part of anyone to speak expressly on behalf of any particular Colony, or to represent general Colonial opinion, but the object will be to form a sort of centre of. Colonial feeling and interest in England, from which assistance may be given to all movements concerning the Colonies as they rise. Nothing is more striking in tbe eyes of a colonist visiting England than the gross ignorance, and the equally intense indifference, which prevail at home on all subjects appertaining to the Colonies. Another of those powder accidents which, unfortunately, are becoming so frequent on the Thames Gold Field, occurred in the Caledonian mine the other morning. ; - Three men were hurt, one of them seriously. The facts of the case are simply as. follow: — J. Norton, J. Tanner, and W. Turner, three men belonging to a party of contractors, who were following the lode at the bottom level of the mine towards the Otago, were engaged in the dangerous and stupid operation of boring out a shot that had missed fire. Norton held the drill, and Tanner wielded the hammer, whilst Turner stood a short distance back in the drive and looked on. Suddenly the charge exploded, and blew away the rock about the mouth of the hole, and the fragments sorely wounded Tanner, cutting him all over the body from head to foot. He looked as if he had been riddled by small shot. Norton, who held the drill, only had his hands burnt, whilst Tanner was struck in the forehead by either the drill or a flying' piece of rock, and received an ugly but not dangerous wound. He. was attended to by Dr Trousseau, and then taken to the hospital, where Tanner had preceded him. The latter is very much burnt about the head and face, but it is hoi thought that his eyesight will, be materially injured.