The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-16 00:00:00

MB SON. LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 16, 1863.

unquestionably given a stimulous to enterprise in
quarters where it was needed. The Wester❑
States have been among those who have profited
most largely by it, and it is some satisfaction that
works of an enduring character, and of permanent
benefit to the people, have owed their existence to
the blood-stained struggle of the last two years.

The Bishop of St. DAVID'S made a very interest-
ing speech at Swansea, on nationalities. The dis-
course of the right roe. prelate is well worthy of
perusal, and will afford gratification from its elo-
quence, as well as instruction from its details. He
said, to commence with, that much diversity of
a opinionssoro bl he
sa.d
”iie prevailed w
cited
ti
ht hregard
e aathor
authority
these
e"aBo ao
ancient
Greeks, who held their national Eisted-dfodan, the
most celebrated of which were Olympic Games.
These games were most valuable, as they were a
"centre of national unity" for the Greek people,
and they also stimulated the progress of literature,
since the victories there obtained inspired the muse
of PINDAR. But, said the Bishop, you have the
advantage in your Eisted-dfodan, as compared with
the Olympic Games, for they were all feats of bodily
activity. It belonged to a totally different order
of entertainments to that which they were assem-
bled to enjoy. Dr. THIRLWALL then entered at
some length into the disputes that arose regarding
the question of the maintenance of the old fozm of
speech. He said that these disputants were exag-
gerating the Effect of language, good or bad. If
they crossed the Channel and went to France, they
would find a portion of that great country, called
Brittany, whose inhabitants spoke very much the
same language as themselves. In regard to this
place, the greatest unity subsisted between it and
other parts of the empire. There was no part of
France where the spirit of nationality prevailed to
a greater degree than in Brittany, and hence it was
apparent that all did not depend upon language to
such an extent as some erroneously supposed. In
Ireland, the greater part, indeed, nearly all the
people spoke the English tongue. Hence it could
not be said that the small remnant preserved of old
language cause any of the disturbances that arose
occasionally. There were sad proofs how little
a unity of language was instrumental in pre-
serving a unity of nationality. Need ho take
them across the Atlantic and ask what had been
the effect of a common language there ; it had not
prevented " two sections of the same great people
from breaking out into the most dreadful civil war
which has been known in the history of mankind."
At all events, said the speaker, let us not exagge-
rate the effects of language, but reduce them to
their true value. This little sketch of the most
striking instances of different tongues not prevent-
ing unity from existing, and also that the same
tongue does not deter from the most violent alter-
cations arising from among those who speak it in
wide domains, was most appropriate. It reduced
the question to its true bearings, and confined it to
its just limits. Dr. THIRLWALL rendered essential
service to the cause he then represented by his able
arguments and foyeible expositions of the compli-
cated subject before him. It is surprising what
people will find to dispute about at times, and how
angrily they will pursue their details, and with
what zeal carry on their opposition, when all the
time they have most likely no case to make out,
and had much better have remained quiescent, and
not made any hostile move at all. Dr. THIRLWALL
said that those who were so much against the
Welsh language might believe him that it was not
so great an obstacle as they supposed. As to
those on the other side, he would say that they
had no reason to be over-anxious and so easily
alarmed. " Depend upon it, so long as the great
body of the Welsh people continue to value and to
love their ancient language it is impossible that
it can die out." This is essentially true, and the
experience of all time attests its veracity and
bears out its authenticity. What is engraven on
of
cherished in the a nationheart of a p
cannot peoeprilsoh,mowsht
star
ti-s
vivo. The advice given by tie Bishop of St.
DAVID'S was very wise, and it is to be
hoped that many who heard may take heed to
it. He said he wished that every Welshman should
have something added to what he possessed, and
not taken from him. He wished him not to lose
the chance of exercising his talents and cultivating
his faculties, so that he might pursue a career of
useful activity and honourable ambition in all parts
of the world, which advantages he could not expect
to realise if he only carried about his ancient
tongue. He wished that in this generation it would
cease to be necessary to employ an interpreter in a
court of justice. He thought the people of Wales
were threatened with a new Saxon invasion. It
had begun, it was spreading, and it would reach
the remotest corners of the land. There was a dif-
ference, however, in this second approach of the
Saxon. He " came not now with mailed troops for
the purpose of devastation and plunder, but to pour
his riches over the whole country." Whoever,there-
fore, stopped the progress of this invasion, and
Bought to limit the people of Wales to their own
tongue, to the single use of their own language, was
an enemy to the interest of Wales. Dr. THIRL-
WALL concluded his able address by stating that he
hoped he represented the opinions of many in his
views such as he had just expressed them. lie
thought the subject he had referred to was one
which required grave consideration. This is un-
doubtedly the case, and he is deserving of thanks
for the pains which he has been at to explain
rightly the important subject before him. It is one
which is intimately connected with the interests of
the nation, and it is to be trusted that no mistaken
notions of independence will prevent the people
from benefiting themselves by it, and acquiring all
the additional knowledge in their power. It was a
true saying of CHARLES THE FIFTH that the man
who knew two languages had two hearts and two
souls. Let those belligerents as to nationality,
then, profit by this precept, and sec vexed questions
at defiance by being doubly armed; let them retain
the old and receive the new, thus setting a good
example to other people, and putting a stop in their
own domains to the strife which is engendered by
the hindrance
advancementd
i suni ons o f
at this ids do ef t
pr i
umbel ni
ot
iomf
psroocvi ao
meats of all kinds.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

GERMANY AND DENMARK.
FRANKFORT, SEPT. 15 (Evening).
The Europe announces the departure of the
Danish Minister on leave of absence, and regrets
its coincidence with the decision of the Diet to
carry out Federal execution in Holstein.,

POLAND.

THORN., SErr. 15.

The Russian Government in Warsaw yesterday
began to apply compulsory measures towards
tradespeople who had not paid their taxes. The
places of business of all such persons were closed by
the police. The taxes io question were then paid.

FRANCE.
PARIS, SEPT. 16.

The Montteur of this morning says;--
" The steamer Florida is not a privateer, as was
believed. She forms part of the military marine of
the Cinfederate States, and her officers are furnished
with regular commissions. The Florida has all the
character of an ordinary vessel of war."
BOURSE, Sept. 15.—The market has been rather
quiet, but with yesterday's quotations well main.
tained. Threes, for the Account, are now at 69f. 10e.
Railway Shares also firm. The market closed as
follows

It per Cents 96
Do. ead month —
3 per Cents
Do. end month..., 69 15
Credit Mobilier 1210
Do, end month 1202 50
Bank Shares 3400
Credit koneior 1415

Italian Loan . 74 20
Do. end month.... 74 15
New ditto
Do, end month....
Russian
Austrian .. B4 50

•
*ankh Threes..,
Rome Debt

RAIL WAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans lO4O ---
Northern
NOW ditto . —.— • • --
Lyons and M --editerranean 1050 .. 1050
Geneva .. 1042 50
497 50 .. 7
Southern 747 50 • • 747 50
Western
Eastern .... - ... ----
Sardinian ........ 427 50 .. 432 50
Austrian
Lon.bard
North of Spain ......
Saragossa 670 • • 670
Ditto to Barcelona

THE MARSEILLAISE HYMN.

Proved to have been both written and corn-
posed by Rouget de I'lsle.

Daring the last few weeks there has been a very
stormy controversy in most of the Paris journals as
to the authorship of the Marseillaise—Rouget de
'lsle's right to be regarded as the composer of the
music, at any rate, of that glorious Hymn or War
Song having been distinctly called in question. The
matter has at length, however, as it appears to us,
been definitively set at rest by the following sum-
ming up of the whole matter in dispute by one of
the ablest critics in one of the very first among
the Paris daily newspapers. Having given at con-
siderable length the argument of those calling in
question Rouget de ''lsle's claim to be regarded as
both the writer and composer of the Marseillaise, as
in regard to it both poet and musician, the critic thus
makes good that double claim of his to the glory of
the authorship, thus clearly verifies, as the simple
record of a fact, the beautiful and eloquent descrip-
tion of the origin of that Hymn as related in his
Histoire des Girondins, by Alphonse de Lamartine.

" Arrived at this point [the critic is here quoting
the last triumphant sentence of but opponent], the
whole question appears to me to be proved to de-
monstration."

BUT-it is not by any means proved at all.
Quite the contrary. Que diable ! one does not
destroy thus easily an old time-honoured conviction.
I have always hitherto believed that Rouget de
was the author of the Marseillaise —before me
others had believed it—and I cling firmly to the
conviction that others will believe it after me. I
have consulted all the biographies, all the modern
encyclopaedias, all the books of recollections, and,
above all, while sojourning in Castile Blon, I have
seen, read, discovered that Rouget de l'lsle was in
truth the only, the veritable inventor of the Mar-
seillaise. That proves nothing, however, you will
tell me. It is enough you will say for one error, in
the first instance, to deceive thenceforth all the
biographies of the future, because it is easier to trust
the propagator of one fragment of false intelligence
rather than to do what he has not done, viz., to
consult the sources of it—often difficult to discover.
And it is thus, in point of fact, that errors of all
kinds come to be propagated.
So be it, then, since you will force me to it—l
will at once hasten to carry out y our own counsels
by reverting to the origin of this statement about
Rouget de l'lsle, availing myself, in doing so, of
the very documents you enumerate.
And, while doing this, it will not be my fault if
your own arguments come to be turned directly
against yourself.,

I take up, therefore, your cherished thesis at the
very point where it appears to be the most specious.
You remark, in the first place, " He (i e., Rouget
de l'Isle) published in the year V. an octavo volume,
under the title of ' Essays in Verse and Prose :' and
anyone will there find the words of the tTiarseillaise
simply entitled, War kong, but not a word relative
to the music."

I ant sorry to say to M. Fe tis that this assertion
seems to bet ray on his part a certain ferment of
flippancy,

And I will prove what I say :
At the bottom of page 7 of these very " Essays
in Prose and Verse," I perceive a little note (a foot-
note), in which Rouge!: de l'lsle apprises
the reader beforehand that the lyrical pieces
which he himself set to music are each of
them distinguished from the others (which he
did not set to music) by being marked
with an asterisk. And the Hymn of the Marseil-
laise, which may be found situated in the 'volume at
page 57, is precisely marked at the side with the
very distinet've sign indicated thus at the outset of
his book by the author—to wit, an asterisk
By a free translation, therefore, that asterisk at
page 57 might be said to read literally—"l, ROUGET
DE LISLE, the author of the book, wrote the words
and composed the music of the MARSEILLAISE !"
That is certain,y clear enough.
As early as 1797, therefore, the author himself
asserted his own right to the authorship; to the
authorship, that is, both of the words and of the
music of the Marseillaise.

All the arguments of M. Fe:is crumble away
like a scaffolding badly constructed. For, at all
events, before hazarding such an assertion, he ought
at least to have taken into consideration those
asterisks which have proved hidden snares to him.
There remains another objection. Further on M.
Fecis says :—" When he (Rouget de l'Isle) had
placed this piece with other melodies of his compo-
sition, which were published in 1827, he did not
accompany it with any explanations." I call you
to account here again. The collection to which you
allude is entitled—" Fifty French songs, the words
by different authors, set to music, with piano-forte
accompaniment, by Rouget de l'lsle. Paris: Carli.
(no date) Folio." In this work, pages 80 to 87, I
find the Marseillaise Hymn, with a historical note to
the following effect :—" I composed the words and
the air of this song at Strasbourg during the night
which followed the proclamation of war at the end
of April, 1792. Entitled at first Song of the Army
of the Rhine,' it became known at Marseilles by
means of a constitutional journal conducted by the
illustrious and unfortunate Dietrich. When it
became the rage some months after, I was wander.
ing in Alsace in extreme destitution, in con-
sequence of having refused to adhere to the
catastrophe of the 10th August, and pursued by the
proscription, which, in the following year, at the
very commencement of the Reign of Terror, threw
me iwo the prisons of Robespierre, from which I
was not liberated until after the 9:11. Thermidor.'
After this, what remains of this profound series of
arguments ? I see absolutely nothing left to
answer.