The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-27 00:00:00

' notice of the discovery appeared in The Sun news-
paper in London, and singularly enough (adds M.
Cabany) the same day Mr. Lockhart died sud-
denly at Abbotsford, in Scotland." In this manner
we find ourselves unexpectedly called into court
as a witness in the case, capable of proving,
b. y the evidence derivable from a file of our
Journal, that at least so far one argument of
a suspicious character among those brought for-
ward against the proprietor and editor of " More-
dun, is altogether and most positively inadmissible.
As we have already remarked, M. Cabany himself
appears to us to be firmly impressed with a belief is
the authenticity of the work in question as a verit-
able production of Sir Walter Scott. The author.
ship, of course, remains to this moment entirely a.
matter of opinion. It is the opinion of M. Cabany
that " Moredun "is a work of Scott's. It is ours
—most decidedly—that it is not. We believe it to
be, in our conscience we believe it to be, another
ingenious contrefacon—nothing mere than a con-
trefacon. But not, as the majority of our con-
temporaries appear to haveinsisted, we cannot but
think somewhat unfairly, a forgery to the last de-
gree contemptible and ridiculous. On the contrary,
it appears to us, here and there, to be so ingenious
of its kind as to be entitled in some measure to a
sort of spurious admiration. " Vortigem " was,
if you please, contemptible enough, but ‘‘ More.
dun " is at least so far as any such imitation cam
be, in one sense of the word, respectable. Could
we by possibility suppose it for one instant to be a
veritable offspring of the great Scotch novelist's
imagination, we must perforce regard it as one of
singularly inferior pretensions. If " Moredun "
can be said to resemble in any respect a his-
torical-romance by Sir Walter Scott, it can
only be after the somewhat indefinite manner
in which a rough drawing in distemper, touched
here and there with indian-ink, can be sup-
posed to bear any likeness whatever to some
gorgeously-coloured
.masterpiece from the hand
of a Rubens or a Tintoretto. Nevertheless, we
are well acquainted, through the examples pre-
sented to view by every literature that the loftiest
genius is occasionally liable to periods of hallucina-
tion. Have we forgotten that Sir Walter himself
wrote "St. Ronan's Well ?" Do we not remember
that Lord Byron penned " The Deformed Trans-
formed 1" Cannot we call to mind how Bulwer
once upon a time presented to the world " The
Siamese Twins," and Dickens " Bleak House,"and
Thackeray book after book like " Rebecca and
Rowena," and the abominable " Kickleburys $"
Wherefore, the insignificance of the work under
notice as compared with the succession of inimit-
able masterpieces making up the aggregate of the
Waverley Novels, could not reasonably be regarded
as affording us, of itself, conclusive testimony
of the spuriousness of " Moredun." That testimony
we conceive to be so manifold as to require in no
way to be here deliberately particularised. It
• abounds in every page of the production, and of
such pages there are not less than 755 altogether.
Mystically enough the motto chosen for his narra-
tive by W. S. has been selected by him from " Lea
Plaideurs," running to this effect somewhat in-
coherently, "Je finis ! Ah ! Avant la naissance du
monde ! . . . Passons au deluge !" Quaintly
chosen, too, is the sentence from Bayes prefixed to
the second volume—" If I am to write familiar
things as sonnets to Armida, and the like, I make
use of stewed prunes only ; but when I have a
grand design in hand, I even take physic and let
blood." Wherefore we aro left to presume, of
course, that W. S., before sitting down to the com-
position of this wonderful historico-romantic galli-
maufry of " Moredun," consented to be phleboto-
mised to an extent gratifying to the heart of a
Sangrado. Quoting Cumberland on the title-page
of volume three, our novelist is heard explaining;
apologetically, " Well, Mr. Belcour, it is a rough,
sample you have had of my countrymen's spirit ;
but I trust you will not think the worse of
them for it." A rough sample, beginning
with the sudden breaking up of the frost
at Scone, and ending with the melodramatic spec-
tacle presented to view in the moot-hall in the an-
cient city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Sometimes
the incidents recounted aro those of contrabandist
adventure—sometimes of knightly tournay—some-
times of necromantic mysteriousness : occasionally
of storm and conflagration—once of shipwreck—
and repeatedly of bloodshed, now by open contest,
and now again by dastardly assassination. Both
the English King John, and the Northern monarch,
William the Lion of Scotland, appear upon the•
scene rather frequently. Moredun, the son of the.
CruFading Richard, is, of course, the hero of the
romance—the heroine being the fair Lady of Scone,
the Lady Isabella of Huntingdon. Besides the
two sovereigns already mentioned, another crowned
potentate brinp the attraction of his strange history
to the plot in the person of a supposed Smuggler
Captain, known throughout only by the name of
Maelstrom, but who proves in the closing scene o:
the story to be noless august a personage than Isaac,
King of Cyprus. Wonderfully conspicuous, however,
among the grander forms depicted, are those three
Caledonian youths, as like as peas, esquires in po-
sition though knight-errants in conduct, Malcolm
Beg, Tam Macduff, and Adam Peebles. These three
callants are to the story of " Moredun " all-essen-
tial and übiquitous, everywhere and everything.
We follow their footsteps, wondering and curious
as to what may happen now in the cavernous ruins
a Marsden Rucks, now in the garrets of the an-
cient hostelry of the Crown and Anchor, now in
the green depths of the sylvan Sherwood, and so
on, through adventure after adventure. It is the
one merit of the tale that it abounds in stirring in-
cidents, in hair-breadth 'scapes, in breathless catas-
trophes, in situations of a kind as unexpected as
they are extraordinary. But from first to last the
whole fiction is a clever make-believe—a specious
affectation in style and manner such as can deceive
few besides the gifted critic, who has for once al-
lowed himself to become the dupe of someinvisible
and ingenious literary ventriloquist.

LLOYD'S SHIPPING--(THIS DAY.)

LONDON, Aug. 27. —Wind this day At noon,
dull, cloudy weather.

(PER ELECTRIC TELEGRAPR.J
SOLITFIAMPTON, Monday Morning.
Arrived.—Richard and Francis, from Rotterd= ; Era,
Swansea ; George, Plymouth ; Argyll (s.), Carenivn ; Al-
liance (s.), Havre ; George, Cherbourg ; Anne and Wil-
liam John, Newport; Hermion, Sunderland; Bessie.
Lyrae ; Sylph (a ), London.
Sailed—Enigheden and Neptunus, for Norway ; Holga,
Shields; Atalanta (s.), Havre; Sylph (s.), London;
Breeze, Swansea.
LIVERPOOL, Monday Morning.

Wind, S.StW.
Arrived—Lady Franklin, from St. Stephen's ; Kutch;
Richibucto ; Ro',ett and Sarah, Alexandria; Lima, Se-
ville ; James Annaud, Requijads ; Benedictue, Nadokou..
Off—Peruvian, Rebecca, and Ocean Breeze.
Sailed—Labuan, for Singapore; Volga, Pays'.
QUEENSTOWN, Aug. 24 and 25.

Wind, S.W.
Arrived—Corinthia, front Callao ; Annie Hall, .Ardroe•
san ; Glencapale, Salonica ; Emma, Cadiz ; Cape Brace*
Rio de la Bache.
Sailed—lncomparable, for Lisbon.

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Monday, 10.18 a.m.
Wind, S.V. ; tide, one hours' flood ; fine.
Arrived, Aug. 26—Albert Edward, from Bremen;
Susan, St. Vincent; Geznsters, Danzig; Caroline, quer"
soy; Idas, St. Lucia; York Town, New York; Fortitude,
Liberia
Arrived, Aug. 27—India, from Alexandria.
Sailel—Chamois, for Ceylon.
DEAL, Mooday, 0.55 2.111'

Wind S.S.W., moderato.
Leone ; Acatns, London, for Plymouth ;
Anchored—British Empire. from London, for Sierra
for Glasgow; Trois Seenrs, London, for Marseilles ; Ems
peror, London, for Sydney.
Reyna, London.

on a visit to Robert
Lord and Lady Monteag
'Peel, third son of the late Sir Robert
Captain William
compollineeeadair.teLo haretruirenk. to his native,
O'Brien Esq , at his villa,
Leander, in the Black Sea, has arrived in from,
Peel, late in the commad of the D.iam.
.on Londonf the
September.
d that on
Notice has beeissue
bFriday next, the Met
inst., the British
Museum
would The M e closed for the aa.
nual autumnal vacation. Museum will be re-opened
cMoualntta;;:farvoimngilbl ebeena.ith•
,team.ship Atlantic, Capt. Briggs,
Tut; AMERICAN MAILS.—The •la 't
to the public on Monday, the 10th of
sailed from the Mer
usual mails for the United States,for Nw
vy at 9 a.m., on Saturday,ni ed Staten Mail
MuRATIST PROCLAMATION IN SICILTY.
re and a full
pa,senge ,California,ork
jowiit,h2t2b. is
cargo of merchandise on board.
pr,,clamation iii
Murat Sicily.
is,
sI, t
"Theisadded —A Mnratist
said to be extensively circulating In
that one phrase used in it by Prince
will not impose hour is come for the people to rise. I
myself upon them, but I declare myself
ready to answer their call."
ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE. The continned
success of Mazeppa is beyond belief. This magnificent
spectacle, the ne plus ultra of the equestrian drama, is
drawing crowded houses nightly, while the equestrian
displays in the circle, produced by Mr. William Cooke,
, are the theme of general admiration. To render the
entertainment unusually attractive Mr. Nelsoa Lee's
laughable farce of a Raffle for en Elephant has bee:
added to the amusement, in which the wonderful per.
formance of Mr. W. Cooke's highly trained Elephant*
will take place. The theatre is crowded nightly.
THE ORLEANS FAMILY.—On Friday last the Conatess
de Neuilly and the Dnke and Duchess de Nemours and
family, left Beaumaris for Claremont. The Dake and
Duchess d'Aumale, the Princess Salerne, and suite, left
at the same time for Orleans-house, Twickenham.
Among the fashionable departures rom Carnarvon
during the week we may notice that of the Dowager
Countess of Caruarvon.
The annual six weeks' vacation at the National Gal-
lery, Trafalgar-square, and the Vernon Collection of
Paintings, Marlborough-house, Pall Mall, is ApPouite la
to commence Sept. 13. They will be re-opened to
the
' public on the 29th of October,