ART. VII.-WHO WROTE THE WAVERLEY NOVELS?

1. Who Wrote the Earlier Waverley Novels? an essay showing on Evidence Amounting to Moral Demonstration that Sir Walter Scott's Relation to Waverley, Guy Mannering, Rob Roy, The Antiquary, and the Tales of my Landlord, was that of an Editor. By William John Fitzpatrick, (Second Edition). Strengthened by a mass of new, and well authenticated facts. S. Effingham Wilson, London: Dublin, W. B. Kelly, 8, Grafton-street. 1857.

2. An Enquiry into the Origin of the Earlier Waverley Novels, by Gilbert J. French, Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Printed for Presentation.3. Captious Criticism, an Essay by R. Grattan, M.D. Printed for Private Circulation.

We admit at once that we sat down to the perusal of Mr. Fitzpatrick's work in a singularly critical spirit, and altogether indisposed to have any of our long cherished associations of the name of Sir Walter Scott interfered with or broken up. We had read years ago all, or almost all, that he was supposed to have written, and, with equal pleasure, we had read all that was written about him. Now and then, to be sure, the "grumblings" which have now ended in a positive peal of thunder, reached, and for a moment discomposed us. In our younger days, we, in common, of course, with thousands of others, had listened to the tale of Thomas Scott, the Paymaster, and his wife, being, in some way or other, mysteriously linked with the composition of the earlier Waverley Novels, but these on dits possessed little interest for us at the time, and such passing speculations as they did give rise to were finally set at rest, as we thought, for ever, by the reported declaration of Sir Walter Scott himself at the Theatrical Fund Dinner in Edinburgh, on which occasion, when "the Health of the Author of Waverley" was proposed by his friend Lord Meadowbank, he is said to have replied: "I plead guilty, nor shall I detain the court by a long explanation of why my confession has been so long deferred. Perhaps caprice might have had a considerable share in the matter. I have now to say, however, that the merits of these works, if they had any, and their faults are all entirely attributable to myself." The

strain continues still stronger as he proceeds: "I mean then, seriously, to state," he goes on, "that when I say I am the author, I mean the total and undivided author, with the exception of quotations, there is not a single word that was not derived from myself, or suggested in the course of my reading." This is strong language certainly: but it is very probable that Sir Walter's speech may have been too strongly reported, for in a letter addressed by him to the Editor of the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, printed by Mr. Fitzpatrick, we find the following. "Sir :-I am extremely sorry I have not leisure to correct what I am stated to have said at the dinner to the Theatrical Fund. I hope your reporter has been more fortunate in other instances than in mine. I have corrected one passage. Other errors I have left as I found them, it being of little consequence whether I spoke sense or nonsense, in what was merely intended for the purpose of the hour."

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In 1836 appeared the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., from the pen of the executor, Mr. Lockhart, who from his connexion with the great man, ought to have known as much about him as any human being could, and who, if the spirit of truth was in him, was bound to tell it, in its entirety or not at all. We confess, however, that we never could make up our minds to accept Mr. Lockhart's dazzling account without an accompanying mental protest. It wore always to us a great deal too much the air of a biographical romance, in which the hero performed gigantic feats out of all proportion to the human strength. It had the fault common to all cager panegyristsit proved too much, and still more, it had the vulgar fault of endeavoring to elevate the character of it's favorite by sinking the claims of others, and depreciating them when it dare. We were struck, in particular, with the always loose and fragmentary way in which the name of Thomas Scott was mentioned, when we remembered that Sir Walter himself must have had the very highest opinion of the literary talents of his brother. In 1809, as the following letter shows, he sought Thomas Scott's co-operation when establishing The Quarterly Review. The opening passage refers to a new edition of Shadwell's plays which Thomos Scott had projected :

"DEAR TOM, Owing to certain pressing business, I have not yet had time to complete my collection of Shadwell for you, though it is now nearly ready. I wish you to have all the originals to collate with the edition in 8vo. But I have a

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more pressing employment for your pen, and to which I think it particularly suited. You are to be informed, but under the seal of the strictest secrecy, that a plot has been long hatching to countermine the Edinburgh Review, by establishing one which should display similar talent and independence, with a better strain of politics. Now, as I know no one who possesses more power of humour, or perception of the ridiculous, than yourself, I think your leisure hours might be inost pleasantly passed in this way. Novels, light poetry, and quizzical books of all kinds, might be sent to you by the packet; you glide back your Reviews in the same way, and touch upon the publication of the number (quarterly), ten guineas per printed sheet of sixteen pages. If you are shy of communicating directly with Gifford, you may, for some time at least, send your communications through me, and I will revise them. We want the matter to be a profound secret." In 1814, shortly after Thomas Scott had gone to Canada, we find Sir Walter offering him the substantial of £500 for a novel intermixing humourous detail with descriptions of scenery, and which he himself would undertake to revise and prepare for publication. It was hardly to be supposed, we thought, that a man so intellectually gifted, and who was considered capable of such efforts, should, at the same time, have been incapable of giving some mark of it in his epistolary correspondence, extracts from which, were assuredly due to his memory, and must for many reasons have greatly added to the interest of the book.

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But Mr. Lockhart it seems thought otherwise. This intellectual and gifted man, throughout the whole memoir, is brought on the scene as seldom as possible, and when all is done, we venture to say, that the general impression left by what is said will tell rather against him, than in his favor; and that so far from being looked upon in the light which he deserved, and in which his brother officers (as Mr. Fitzpatrick shows) regarded him, he will be considered as an extravagant, careless, loose living, good-forlittle fellow, who was a drag upon the recources of his prosperous, hard-working brother, and had no notion of the value either of time or money, save to squander both in improfitable pursuits. Mr. Lockhart is not always so chary of his space; we have copious extracts enough from other correspondents of Sir Walter, many of which have little merit, and less interest to the general eye and mind, and a great deal of which ought to have been left unpublished; but of the many letters which must have passed between these two clever men-" Arcades Ambo"-Brothers both, in every sense-we have none from Thomas, and only very "few and far between" from Walter. With Mrs. Thomas Scott, (the Paymaster's wife,) and who fully equalled her husband in literary taste, and talent, Sir Walter maintained a frequent correspondence; but not a vestige of it can be discovered in the ten volumes of voluminous, and biographical detail, known as The Life and Correspondence of Sir Walter Scott. Mr. Fitzpatrick having noticed this circumstance to Mr. Edgar MacCulloch, J.P., the lady's cousin, he replied by letter as follows:

"As for Lockhart's reticences, any one who has read his Life of Sir Walter cannot fail being aware of them. He is said to have been vindictive; and I have heard that personal dislike led him to suppress any allusion to individuals, whose names one would otherwise have expected to find in that work. Such I believe to have been the case with my uncle, Dr. John Mac Culloch, whose valuable and erudite work on 'The Highlands and Islands of Scotland' was written in the form of letters, addressed to Sir Walter Scott."

This unaccountable hiatus has been noticed by others besides Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mr. Mac Culloch. It struck us years ago, as a strange, and remarkable omission for any honest biographer to make. But both our regret, and our disappointment deepen as we read the ample testimoney afforded by Mr. Fitzpatrick's pages, culled from the most reliable, and authentic sources, as to the amiable character, and extraordinary talents of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Scott. On this head there can be no mistake, and if for nothing else we humbly concieve that the author before us, is well deserving of the praise of all honest and fair thinking men, for rescuing the brother of the man whose memoir Mr. Lockhart undertook to write, from that calumnious shadow which it is well calculated to throw, and for doing his best-and in our opinion that is a great dealto relieve both the name and character of a man of genius from the unpleasant odour, which has been floating about them, ever since the publication of this one-sided book.

We must take leave, also, to say that Mr. Lockhart is by no means a man whose assertions are to be taken on trust; his own literary career gives ample proof that he never hesitated to assert whatever would serve the immediate purpose he had in view,

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and, so thinking, we are not surprised to find him sporting with, and indeed rather glorying in than otherwise, the lax notion of literary veracity which was one of the besetting sins of Sir Walter's life. He takes great delight in recording the efforts which his illustrious relative made, at one time, "to puzzle and confound the mob of dulness," at another mystify the public," again "to try another experiment on the public sagacity," once more, "to set the mob of readers on the stare," by any and every sort of mystification "to entrap reviewers," and to surround himself with a halo of mystery, which after all, as every body knows, he was determined should be so conducted as to lead both to his profit and his fame. Lockhart's treatment of Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, of Sir William Gell, of Doctor John Mac Culloch, of Mr. French, and others, must go far to unsettle our reliance on any statement he may make, and his treatment of the Ballantynes was altogether so illiberal, ungenerous, and withal so untrue, that we can only account for his utter want of taste and candour, by supposing thatin some of Sir Walter's moments of "mystification," his Boswell formed a particle of "the mob of dullness." "Bibliographers," says Mr. Fitzpatrick at the close of his work "are acquainted with a remarkable, but now exceedingly scarce pamphlet, published in Edinburgh in 1838, entitled A Refutation of Mr. Lockhart's Misrepresentations in the Life of Sir Walter Scott, by the Son and Executors of James Ballantyne. Its arguments ought not to be forgotten, and for this reason, coupled with the fact, that we have seen it stated in biographical sketches, that Scott was ruined by his connexion with the Ballantynes, we revive a few of the more respectable opinions of the Press on the case.

Chambers' Edinburgh Journal said :-" Mr. Ballantyne's friends triumphantly vindicate his fair fame, and show that, so far from his being in any degree the cause of the ruin of Scott, the latter was the cause of his ruin." The Literary Gazette said: "Warmly and powerfully vindicated." The Naval and Military Gazette said: "The letters written by Lockhart to Ballantyne on his death bed, full of professions of the warmest gratitude, and most cordial attachment, afford a lamentable specimen of the hollowness of the world." The Spectator said: "It disproves the statements of Lockhart, by the production of counter evidence, leaving the biographer in no very enviable light." The Times said: 'Goes far to