The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-15 00:00:00

LONDON MONDAY

LITERATURE.
LAYS OF THE SCOTTISH CAVALIERS.
Second Edition By W. E. Aytoun.
A second edition of Mr. Aytoun's spirit-stirring
ballads so scon after their first publication suffi-
ciently justifies the admiration expressed by our-
selves, and by many of our contemporaries. The
public, generally speaking, are not prone to overlook
eny thing at all approaching to real poetical merit, so
long at least as the bard appeals to their hearts' emo-
tions in the homely but electric language of simpli-
city. This Mr. Aytoun has certainly done in his
touching and effective " Lays of the Scottish Cava-
liers." In those lays there is nothing recondite,
nothing beyond the instant appreciation of the most
unscholarly, not a syllable removed from the appre-
hension of the least lettered yet still civilized portions
of the community. This and the attractive character
of his subject, beautified as it is by graceful imagery,
sonorous diction, a chiming and resonant rhyme, and
a truly exquisite felicity of rhythm, accounts for the
rapid popularity of the poet's recent composi-
tions. He has carved for himself a niche in the
temple of his country's literature. What
renders the present edition particularly interesting,
is a masterly argument appended to it—in examina-
tion of the statements in Mr. Macaulay's " History of
England," regarding John Grahame of Claverhouse,
Viscount Dundee. The decisive but measured tone
of this Appendix is in every respect truly admirable,
and attests no less the strength of Mr. Aytoun's
convictions than the suavity of his temper and the
imperturbable serenity of his judgment. Regarding
Claverhouse as a man of noble character, whose me-
mory has been most unjustly reviled, and whose ac-
tions have been distorted into all manner of atrocities
by a multitude of successive annalists, from Wodrow
to Macaulay, Mr. Aytoun demonstrates the fact that
this same Wodrow's evidence is altogether inadmis-
sible, and that Mr. Macoulay's servile attention to him
(Wodrow) as an authority, coupled with his (Mr.
Macftulay's)slovenly annotations and wilful omissions,
yield reasons enow to justify an examination of the
accuracy or inaccuracy of the statements made
in his recently published " History of Eng-
land" regarding Claverhouse. Our author, namely,
Mr. A 3 toun, lays particular stress upon the
circumstance of Mr. Macaulay speaking of James
Graham, of. Claverhouse ; James Graham being, in
fact, the famous Montrose, and John Graham being
Claverhouse. It is observed, and with considerable
show of reason, that this apparently trivial blunder is
in reality of much significance, Mr. Aytoun insisting
that it could never, by any chance, have been com-
mitted by any man really familiar with the history of
Scotland—he might just as well, he intimates, have
spoken of the good Sir Joshua, of Douglas, or of To-
bias Randolph, Earl of Moray. Besides this, Mr.
Macaulay designates Claverhouse "rapacious ;"
whereupon Mr. Aytoun challenges the historian to
give any authority whatever fur the imputation con-
veyed by the epithet. The tragical incident relating
to the execution of Brown is all but proved to be a
fabrication ; and Mr. Aytoun then turns from the
treatment of Claverhouse to the treatment of James

the Second by Macaulay. As to the account given by
the latter of the " cruelties " perpetrated
by ,that unfortunate monarch tefore his accession,
while in authority at Edinburgh, the present
commentator, familiar with documents so intimately
appertaining to the annals of his country, and so
accessible to him in his position at the University of
Edinburgh, asserts (p. 340) that the original records
of the Privy Council, still preserved in the archives of
that city ("and which," says he "I have examined
very minutely"), taken in connexion with Fountain-
hall's explanatory Diaries, furnish ample proof that
" the charges brought against King James are without
foundation." As to those alleged fiery persecutions of
James; " which," says Mr. Macaulay," waxed hotter
than ever from the day on which he became Sove-
reign," Mr. Aytoun thus continues :
" That day (namely the day of ascension) was the 6th
of Febtuary, and on the 26th of the same month he
issued atoll pardon and indemnity to all offenders below
the rank of heritors, (with the exception only of those
who were actually guilty of the murders of Archbishop
Sharpe, Mr. Pierson, and two others), and that clogged
with no other condition than the taking of the oath of
allegiance. The proclamation was published on the 2d
of March, and on the 14th the Privy Council ordered all
prisoners vrhatsoever to be set at liberty, upon their
abjuring the fanatical declaration of war, and likewire
solumnly giving their oaths never to the against his
Majesty or his authority.' Surely never yet was perse-
cution inaugurated by suck liberal measures as these!
It is right to observe, that the reader will fail to discover
the smallest mention of them in the pages of Mr.
Macaulay."

Such flagrant perversions of the truth as are fur-
nished by such an omission as this of the splendid and
generous amnesty granted by King James the Second
on his becoming Sovereign, and such another mon-
strous omission (referred to by ourselves scarcely a
week back as recorded in Ebony) of the great
naval victory, gained by the same heroic monarch,
when Duke of York, off the coast, near Harwich,
may go very far indeed to justify Mr. John
O'Connell's remark inihis new work (" Recollections,"
Sze.), that Mr. Macaulay is now publishing " a great
Whig pamphlet." For, assuredly, a work written in
this unfair and uncandid spirit is rather the work of a
partizan than of a dispassionate and impartial his-
torian. No matter how magnificent may be the
rhetoric of the books, or how various may be their
attractions as mere literary compositions, the facts of
their worthlessness, as authorities, must, if proven in
many more instances, at last glare upon the public
knowledge, and lead to their consignment to the
book-shelf, if not to the butter-shop and the trunk.
makers. That party spirit was recognizable in the
work we more than hinted in our criticism upon
the first volume, a criticism printed in these
columns shortly after its first publication.
Since then our opinion that Mr. Macaulay
had sunk the annalist in the partisan in
his estimate of the Prince of Orange and of
the last of the crowned Stuarts, has been confirmed
not only in reference to James 11. and William 111.,
but in regard to other matters treated of in the second
volume of his history. Considering the resplendent
talents of Mr. Macaulay, this is a subject most deeply to
be regretted. At the same time we cannot but feel
grateful to any one who, like Mr. Aytoun, shall eluci-
date with the calmness of a gentleman and the
lucidity of a logician the various and intricate inac-
curacies of his production. At all cost we would
know that the national mind is not fascinated into
error.