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such as ours—a Free Church-if she be but true to herself, is gifted with a position which an Established Church may well envy. Dependent upon herself, under the Providence of God, she has only herself to blame if she does not regain the affections and the confidence of the people of Scotland.

SIR WALTER SCOTT AND SCOTTISH HISTORY.

Ir can hardly be matter of surprise that the progress of research in archæology, and in the details of history, should detect a considerable number of errors in the writings of Sir Walter Scott. When we consider the immense rapidity with which his works, or at least the "Waverley Novels," were poured forth; when we remember that they were professedly fictions in which striking situations were aimed at rather than exactness of narrative; when we reflect upon the increase of historical reading since the time of Scott-an increase greatly fostered by the interest in the past which his works aroused-we have no cause to be astonished at this result.

ure.

It must, however, be remembered that errors in detail are compatible with great truthfulness in the general; just as, on the contrary, the utmost precision in particulars may fail to produce a life-like portraitTwo authors of our day, each a fit judge of the case, have claimed for Walter Scott this character of truthfulness in so far as regards the main impression left behind by his pcn. We conceive their judgment to be just; and propose to give a brief resumé both of the objections that have been urged against such a decision, and of some of the reasons that occur to us in support of it.

1. On faults of detail we shall not attempt to dwell. Scott has given a considerable list of them in his preface to "Peveril of the Peak," and a writer in a recent No. of the Englishman's Magazine, has pointed out many more. But in several cases the alteration would produce but a slight effect upon the general description. Take the instance pointed out by Mr. Herman Merivale, one of those defenders of Scott to whom we have referred. The battle of Marston Moor is described in the first canto of Rokeby. Scott makes Lord Leven's Scottish cavalry break through to the northward instead of towards the south. This is a real inaccuracy; and inaccuracy is to be regretted even in a poet and a novelist. Nevertheless it is not such a mistake as to interfere with the vividness of the perceptions, which we obtain from the minstrel's verse. And of such a nature, it may safely be averred, are one-half of the errors detected in Sir Walter's narratives.

2. A more serious instance, however, is urged by the writer in the Englishman's Magazine. Scott is charged with having misled the public mind in reference to the relation between the English and the Scottish crowns. Now it is certainly quite possible that Scott may have been the chief agent in causing men to underrate the evidence in favour of the claims of Edward I. and other English sovereigns. But did he stand alone in his belief? Most assuredly, not. Nay, is it not the case that all Scottish antiquaries before his date were far more intensely vehement in their assertions on this matter? Is it possible to name any English historian, prior to Lingard, who stated the opposite. side with anything like power and learning? We greatly doubt it. A succeeding generation in Scotland may be fitly represented by Lord Lindsay, who has made (if regretfully, yet most candidly) the fullest acknowledgements respecting the strength of the English claim to a feudal superiority. Of course any view supported by Scott was likely to gain an amount of acceptance that scarcely any other man could obtain for it: for the simple reason that few others could present it in so captivating a form. But it can hardly be charged as a fault upon any author, that he has pleaded in a winning manner for a view which he believed to be correct. While adopting, then, in this matter the senti ments of Lord Lindsay rather than those of Sir Walter, we may yet be permitted to believe that the main charge against Scott in this respect amounts to an assertion that he was not herein before his age. And of what numbers may thus much be said! Of how few can we assert the contrary!

3. A more formidable accusation, however, comes from a very distinguished living writer, Mr. Mark Napier. In the matter just referred to, many might think that Scott was prejudiced, but few would question his honesty. But as regard's Scott's sentiments respecting the Covenanters, Mr. Napier maintains that he thought much worse of them than he has intimated; and that he was only restrained from the repression of his feelings by a wish to stand well with the public; or, as Mr. Napier expresses it, "popularity was his bank, and he feared to break it." In support of this opinion, Mr. Napier cites some private letters of the novelist, and appeals to the history of his controversy with Dr. M'Crie.

Now, we are by no means prepared to assert that Sir Walter was not unduly fond of popularity. But in this matter of the Covenanters very large excuses may be made for him. For here, at any rate, he was thoroughly in advance of his age and of his country. And, even, if at moments he expressed himself in private in harsher terms against the Puritanical leaders, it does not follow necessarily that these were his most matured opinions. Moreover, there is a reasonable as well as

a cowardly species of prudence, and Scott may have thought that he had a fairer chance of being listened to and of making some impression his readers.

upon

And this brings us to a matter of private judgment on which the Scottish Guardian cannot commit itself to an opinion, though it may allow a contributor to express one. The present writer, then, speaking for himself, must avow that Sir Walter's account of Claverhouse and of his adversaries is not only in itself more likely to win converts, but is taken as a whole nearer the truth than Mr. Napier's biography of the gallant Dundee. Far be it from us to estimate lightly the marks of courage, the industry, the vigour which are stamped on Mr. Napier's every page. But is he not too much of the partizan? Does he not repel many who would listen to a calmer advocate ? Does he not, while keenly perceiving the excuses for the faults and violences of the side which he espouses too much, overlook the palliations which may be urged for the desperate deeds of the adversary?

We do not by any means wish to insinuate that the answers to these questions are simple and easy. But they are not asked passionately or hastily. In the ordinary estimate of Claverhouse-to confine ourselves to a single case by way of example-ve utterly disbelieve. The hasty adoption of that view by Lord Macaulay is only one of the many proofs of that historian's deep prejudice and incapacity for weighing the value of evidence. Let the student of history ponder well over Professor Aytoun's reply. Let him glance, too, at the graceful romance entitled "The Last of the Cavaliers." It is most successful in bringing out one phase of Dundee's character that is often overlooked

we mean the remarkable purity of life which he preserved in an age of great license. But let these, in fairness, be consulted; also the replies to Mr. Napier contained in a Presbyterian work, the "Ecclesiastical History" by Mr. Cunningham of Crieff. We cannot say that these last are, in our judgment, always unsuccessful. And after thus striking the balance, let him come back again to "Old Mortality;" and we venture to think that he will be prepared to assent to the position laid down above-namely, that Sir Walter's portraiture is the best harmonised, the most really consistent, the most probable of all: as of Claverhouse on the one side, so of the Covenanters on the other.

We have named a single instance by way of illustration. But how easy were it to multiply examples. Lord Lindsay of the Byres is sketched by the editor of Calderwood, and by his noble descendant now living; but most wisely has the last-named writer cited that "graphic description" in the "Abbot," which brings Queen Mary's enemy before us more vividly than any professed history. We might speak of King John, of James I., of Mary and Elizabeth, of the Regent Murray, of

Charles Edward and of many more, but our space would fail us. To one other feature only of Scott's insight into the past will we refer on the present occasion.

Is there any book of the seventeenth century which gives credit to both the Reformers and to their opponents for sincerity? Dr. Johnson and Edmund Burke may have done so; but they both belong to the eighteenth century. It is one of the glories of Scott that he has exhibited this charity with an out-spoke css scarcely known before his time. The portrait of the Reformer in the "Fair Maid of Perth," the language of the preface to the "Monastery," and the contrast between Father Eustace and Henry Warden in the same tale are most remarkable for the display of imaginative power in throwing himself back into the past, and of judicial calmness in allowing for the difficulties and trials attendant upon either side.

We have no wish to exaggerate the merits of this famous writer. The inaccuracies of detail we have already allowed; nor would we deny the existence of a too great love of the past, and an absence of that pointed and sententious wisdom which marks every page in the works of the only British author who surpasses Scott in his gallery of Fortraits-the limner who gave to the world Hamlet and Queen Catherine, Portia and Macbeth. But we humbly submit to impartial critics, if such can anywhere be found, that the estimate of his general fairness which has here been given is not an extreme or unreasonable one.

A FEW MONTHS IN GREEK WATERS.

BY THE REV. J. MILNER, CHAPLAIN, R.N.

Ir was long after the sun had actually set before we could tear ourselves away from the Acropolis. We had to devote several days to the exploration of the modern town, the palace, the churches, &c. We called upon the officers in charge of the bank, which was riddled with bullet marks. In one room we were shewn the place where a man was shot through the window, and his blood still stained the floor. We tried both the Turkish baths on different occasions, and found them equally dirty and odoriferous. But our favourite lounge was the photographic studio of Mr. Costatine, whose views taken in Athens and various parts of Greece are most admirably done, and very reasonable in price. He must have commenced the business since Murray's "Hand-Book" was published, and deserves to be honourably mentioned there amongst the other celebrities, should a new edition ever be called for. His wife is an Englishwoman, and Mr. C. himself speaks English remarkably well. The population of Athens, "in outward ap

pearance, at least, is more heterogeneous in its composition than that of any other town of its size. Greeks, in their splendid national costume, are jostled in the streets by Islanders and Levantines of motley garb, by French and English naval officers from the vessels of war in the Piræus, by French, Italian, and German artists, merchants, and travellers. The mixture of its population bears a striking analogy to the curious contrasts presented by the city itself. The same half-acre of ground often contains two or three remaining columns of an ancient portico, a small Byzantine chapel of the middle ages, a dilapidated Venetian watch-tower, a ruinous Turkish mosque, with its accompanying cypress and palm trees, and a modern fashionable resi dence: thus distinctly exhibiting the different phases of the varied existence of this celebrated city.”*

It may, perhaps, not be out of place here to remark that the visitor to Athens, landing at the Piræus, would do well not to proceed along the main-road, but to follow another which skirts along the vineyards to the westward of them, crosses the dry bed of the Cephissus, and strikes into the Via Sacra half-way between the pass of Daphne and Athens. The drive then runs through amongst olive trees, which look old and venerable enough to have been in existence in the time of Socrates, with the Acropolis right before you in its best point of view. Nor must the zealous tourist neglect to visit the Acropolis by moonlight. It is to be hoped, however, that he will be more fortunate in this respect than we were. A party of us walked up in the cool of the evening for that express purpose, and after taking some little refreshment, sallied out with a young Greek gentleman, whom we had brought with us from the College at Malta to obtain an order for admission from M. Pittákys, the Conservator of Antiquities. After a long parley with that gentleman, (who, by the way, married the sister of "the Maid of Athens"), and a perfectly unintelligible explanation of the reasons which prevented his giving us a written order, he gave us his old penknife, telling us that if we presented that talisman to the sergeant at the gate of the Acropolis, he would know the knife and let us in. Accordingly we set off on our errand, with some little misgivings as to our success, and on our arrival at the gate knocked and called for a quarter of an hour before we could obtain a hearing. We told our simple story, and shewed our authority; but no one knew the knife, and neither entreaties, nor explanations as to who we were, nor hints at an ample honorarium were of any avail we had to return without being able to accomplish our purpose. It seems that some English tourists, of the Cockney type, had done considerable damage to some of the valuable fragments piled up by the

* Murray's "Hand-Book," p. 134.

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