The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

SINGULAR RECOVERY OF AN UNPUBLISItED
ROMANCE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

An English gentleman residing in Paris had occa-
sion, a few days past, to visit a printing-offle on the
quai St. Augustin, when the name of Sir Walter Scott,
on a brochure then at press, caught his eye, and he
could read enough of it to observe that it contained a
narrative of what was entitled " Decouverte Inattendue
of the manuscript of an historical romancg by that great
man. The history of the affair therein given was, that
about thirty years ago a rich old German, who resided
in Paris, was afflicted by the monomania of desiring to
be possessor of an Unpublished work of Sir Walter
Scott ; that about this he tormented a Mr. Spencer,
also then living in Paris ; that, on Sir Walter Scott's
visit to Paris, in 1826, Spencer had spoken to Miss
Anne Scott about it, and that the result was her giving'
him a MS. of an unpublished historical work by her
father, which be never intended should see the light ;
and that, although the old German often boasted of this
acquisition, all his friends regarded it as the dream of
one afflicted with an incurable monomania. It so
happened, however, that, amongst the visitors to
the old German, there was a young Frenchman,
who assisted him in some statistic works in which
he was engaged, and the old gentleman always
said that a writing case, to which he pointed,
should become his at his death. It was looked upon as
a pleasantry, or a whim, of which the German had many.
The troubles of 1830 came on, the old gentleman was
ruined, died, and his family left Paris, no one knew
whither. A short time ago the young friend of the
German, now living en one of the boulevards, and ex-
tensively engaged in matters connected with the French
Archives, was surprised to receive a box containing the
writing ease. It was seat to him by the daughter of
the old German, now living in Bavaria, with a letter of
apologies, and describing how it had been overlooked.
In this box of papers was found a bulky manuscript,
bearing the title of Soreaun, a Tale of the Twelve Hun-
dred and Ten, accompanied by a letter, of which a trans-
lation was given in the brochure then at press. The
visitor to the printing-effice, who read the above account,
knowing something of the gentleman who was said to
have received the box, immediately called en him, saw the
writing case, some of the manuscript, and the following
letter, of which be was permitted to take a literal
copy :--

" Paris, 4th NoTeMber, 1826.
"My dear W— S.—,—l ant constrained to make
of this note a letter of initials, for I am not quite satis-
fied with myself in agreeing to write it, and there is no
saying into whose hands it may fall.
" The story which Anne has told me about your daft
friend, the foreign monomaniac, is as clearly the case of
a man who requires to be cognosced as I ever met with ;
but as it appears to me that she has taken it most ridi-
culously to heart, we have brought our discussion of it
to a conclusion, by my consenting to her doing what
you could not be told of until she had. received the per-
mission of papa.
" She has possessed herself, fir a long time past, of a
tale which I had at one time the intention of makieg the
first of a series of such things, drawn from the history
of Scotland—a notion which I afterwards gave up. For
Anne, however, that story has . ever possessed a great
charm • and I allowed her to keep it, because I was
under the inspressioa that a mere story, which offers no
particular merits but those of events and a plot, would
not appear advantageously amongst works which had
the higher object of painting character. That would be
to take a step backwards, which would never do. Be-
sides, as far as I can recollect, there are a great many
anachronisms and freedoms used with persons and places
which are not in keeping with the character of historian,
to which I now aspire.
"I consider, then, that in authorising my daughter to
give you that work as a panacea for the imaginary ills
of a foreign monomaniac, I only permit a change of pro-
prietorship. At the same time, in allowing Anne to
make a present to you of what is but a trifle after all,
I must make a most serious stipulation regarding it ;
for I tell you candidly that I believe W— S— himself
to be the real malade imaginaire. That stipulation is,
that if at any tine you take the fancy of publishing that
tale you will do so with the initials only, and that you
will do all that you can in fairness do to countenance
the idea that it is a bairn of your aim.
" I wish I could do something for you personally of
some less doubtful character than of humoring the
caprice of a daf,; man ; bet you know how I am placed
at present. Believe, however, that you have no more
sincere friend than • W

The gentleman who was allowed to take this copy of
tke letter wah permitted also to glance over the manu-
script of the first volume of the tale, the others being
in course of translation, and his conviction is, that net
only have the manuscripts every appearance of being of
that date, and of being genuine, but that the tale itself
exceeds in interest and incident anything which after-
wards came from Sir Walter's pen, and that it must be
perfectly obvious to•every reader that none but himself
could have written it. The gentleman into whose posses.
sion the manuscript has thus most unexpectedly come is
having it tr mslated into French, and appears in perfect
raptures, not merely with being the proprietor of such a
treasure, but with the tale itself. It will be a curious
enough thing if one of the earliest romances of the
Author of " Waverley" appear first in French 1

REPRESENTATION OF MARYLEBONE.

The following is the correspondence which has taken
place between the Reformers of St. Pancras and Sir G.
H. Seymour, who, it will be seen from private corres-
pondence, declines to be named as a candidate :
"London, 21st November, 1854.
Sir,—We have the honour to inform you that a
vacancy having occurred in the representation of Mary-
lebene, by the death ef our old and tried friend Lord D.
Stuart, and a meeting of the direetors of St. Pancras
(one of the three, and the most populous of the three
parishes of the borough) having taken place to-day, we
were requested to put eurselves into communication
with yon, to ascertain whether it would be agreeable
to you to become a candidate, should you be invited,
whether in the event ef your being appointed to a diplo-
matic situation whilst M.P. for the borough you would
resign the seat ; and whether you would as member
support the ballot ?
" The belief is that your eminent services 'would be
fully appreciated by the constituency who returned Lord
Dudley Stuart ; and that in the present crisis your re-
turn for such a constituency would not only be an
honourable acknowledgment of those services, but of real
advantage to the country.

" We are further requested, if, on an interview, these
preliminary matters should be arranged, to hare a joint
meeting with the leading Reformers of all the Maryleboxie
parishes, and secure, if possible, entire union.
" We called at your house, but unluckily found that
you had left for Ireland, and we feel it oar duty to com-
municate these facts for yourinformation ; and, though
cemay be in some measure a difficulty in
making selection of a candidate, we shall feel greatly
obliged by
thee
eabsdbyn your favouring us with a few lines, which
we may reportato the gentlemen who did us the honour
to depute us.
We are, sir, your obedient and faithful servants,

J. R. STOCKTON.
WM. DURRANT COOPER.

"Castle Martyr, Ireland, 23d Nov., 1854.
"Gentlemen,—l have the honour of acknowledging
the receipt of your very flattering letter of the 21st inst.,
which reached nie this morning.

" When I state to you that there are private considera-
tions which compel we) with whatever reluctance, to
decline coining forward as a representative for the
borough of Marylebone, I might evade entering into
further explanation. I hold it, however, wholesome
practice, that an Englishman should be ready at all
times te profess his political opinions, stud this very
couviption impels me to state to you that I an
strongly opposed to the ballet.

" having said so much, I will add, that, if I had
the honour of a seat in Parliament, the points upon
which my attention would be most steadily fixed would
be those of co-operating strenuously in such measures
as would insure the war being brought to a successful
conclusion, and (with regard to kerne affairs) of assist-
ing the endeavours to be made for the relief of a por-
tion of eur countrymen from the disabilities under
which their religion still places them.
"It only remains, for me, gentlemen, to express to
you and the other electors of St. Pancras the deep
sense which I entertain of the honour which you and
they have been disposed to confer upon me. This mark
of confidence on the part of a body of my countrymen
is a distinction of which 1 shall ever retain the most
lively recollection ; and the more so, as I can well under-
stand the electors pausing before they attempt to fill the
vacancy made by the lamentable death of their late dis-
tinguished and universally regarded representative and
friend, Lord Dudley Stuart.

"I have the honour to remain,
"Gentlemen,
"Your obliged and obedient humble servant,

"G. 13. SEYMOUR.
"J. R. Stockton, Esq.,
"William Durrant Cooper, Esq."

The Magdalena, now on her homeward way with the
West India mail, has been taken up by the Govern-
ment. She is one of the largest of the mail packets—
same size as the Orinoco, which has proved, considering
her speed, and the large number of troops *he can carry,
the finest tpop sbip in the we'll&