The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-03 00:00:00

ODE ON THE BURIAL OF SIR J.

MOORE.

(From the Edinburgh Advertistr.)
The celebrated ode on the burial of Sir John Meorz,.,
which found so many claimants a number of years ago, and
had been ascribed successively to rneuit of our emirtsut
'gonna its trtt anth'ar. This
living poets, has at length
beautiful piece
,of `:,egiae conpositidn, unrivalled for
pathos nod sim'etteity by any sieuilar produeti-n in an-
cient or r.iodera times, a'ter enjoyiag an anonymous
fame for twientp.iive years—after being appropriated
to Byron t.nd Campbell—after being claimed by a
best of minor rhymsters, from the Apollos of Grub,
street, to the nameless verse-makers in newspaper
cornerF, was at length attributed, upon what seemed
good evidence, to the Reverend Mr. C. Wolf., an
Irish curate, and a 111 :11l of talent far beyond his humble
situation. From the time when Mr. Wolfe's memoirs
were published till rdw, he has enjoyed the undisturbed
honour cf having written that inimitable ode. It appears,
however, thatt Mr. Wolfe's claim was not well founded, and
that the writer of his memoirs had platted on the grave of
his hero a lauri.l which ought in justirre to have adorned the
brow of another, who still lives, and whom we are proud t
call a Scotsman, For the vouchers cf this discovery, we
appeal to the following documents, furnished by a corres-
pondent, the Rev. W. Muir, assistant-minister at Temple,
of which parish the att'o'nor of the Ode on the Butial of
Sir Jahn Moore, Mr. A. Mreintosh, still holds, and has
held for the last twenty-two years. the obscure and ill-
requited office of schoolmaster. Though the time that
has elapsed :ince it vv.is written 1413 necess,rly inerrocei
the difficulties of tiroducing evidence of the auther,hp,
yet, alter I,efusieg Mr. Macinteh's 'very modest letter,
and tvei2hing the reasons t...h!;. he did not sooner a;rect his
ch,ims to a production which had made its unassisted way
to universal admitatitati, we think no candid mind can en-
tertain a (long that he wrote the ve,-ses wich now, at the
end of a c.t.....rter of a ceotury, ,circumstances have induced
him to :Now. For tho honour of a countryman, we trust
that our Contemporarie,, if they cannot make room for the
whole documents, will, at ltiEt, give publicity to the inte-
resting fact which they disclose.
(Then follows the correspondeneP. We can only make
room for Mr. Macintosh's lettnr.)
a.nd Dear Sir,—The eircuiostances aqending the
wriAng of the hoes or, the buried of Sir John Moore, so
f.,r as I can recall them at this distance of time, are simple
and easily told. I had been long familiar with the details
of the disastrous rArerit t 1 Corunna, and' felt deeply inte-
rested in the fate of the gallant but 111-supported Sir John
Moore.

" In the year 1816, while a student at the College of
Edinburgh, I happened to lodge with a Mrs, Honry, whose
husband had heeo a seafaring person, and, if I remember
well, lost his life at Corenna alti!e employed in the trans-
port service, at the embarkation of the British t.oops,
Mrs. Henry Ind a number of letters, wh;eh she sometimes
took a melancholy pleamre in hering me read to her,
written by friends who had served under Sir J. Moore
during the whole of the campaign, One of these, written
by an eye-witness, depicter+ in trorcihle though homely
colours the hurried itatrrnent of the devoted chief. It
was on perusing this last that I formed the idea of attempt-
ing a pneltA. description of that event. I had been ac-
customed from my childhood to feel singularly affected
when witnessing the ceremony of a soldier's huriAl ; and
I have no doubt that as occasional sight of this kind from
the window of my bee-room, which looked out upon the
Grey friars' churchyard, conti4:buted, in the present Instance,
to draw my thoughts in that direction.

" About this tinien young man of the name of Menzies,
who bad formerly been my sehoolftllow, came to Edin-
burgh t..) attend the classes at the University, and, owing
to our previous intimacy, was frequently in my company.
Mr. M. was an enthusiast in cv2ry thing relating to the
military profession, and would have esteemed it the snmmit
of !lomat' ambition to be appointed to a commission in the
British array, On seeing the cue in the unfinished state
in which it then lay among some other fugitive piece, he
profeltoed himself highly pleased with it, but at the sauce
time suggested some amendments which might be made on
one or two of which I subFeq.ently adopted, As lie.
M. took a c.)py of it oftener than once, I have always
been of the opinion that it was through his means it after-
wards found its way into the public prints; although it
would have la: en an easy matter for any person who had
access to my lodgings to transcribe it without my know-
Whether this was the case or not, unfortunately I
cannot positively say. I was soon afterwards separated
from Mr. Menzies, who died about 1820.
In the year 1817, I was a member of a small debating
society, which met its Catherine street, when, on one oc-
casion, I read the ode along with two or three other short
pieces, in place of the essay which it was customary for
each f the members to read in rotation, before opening
the debate; but, although I received some general praise,
I do not remember that the ode drew any particular notice.
" During my residence in Edinburgh, I had, in common
with many other young men attending the University, ex-
perienced much kindness from the late Professor Christison.
One evening, about this time, when going to call on him,
I had put the ode in my pocke', with the intention of.sub-
mitting it to his remarks, but during our interview I had
not the courage to present it. I have frequently regretted
my diffidence on that occasion, as I have no doubt that Mr.
Christison's exquisite taste would have at once appreciated
those merits which the public were afterwards pleased to
ascribe to it, and thus brought it into notice at a time when
the author could not be disputed.
"In 1818 I left Edinburgh for my present situation. It
was a year or two afterwards when I first observed the ode
in print. It was in one of the Edinburgh periodicals, with
a commendatory note subjoined, stating that it had recently
appeared in one of the newspapers.
" About this time the late Captain Clipperton, the
African traveller, told me that a friend of his was getting
up for publication a selection from the fleeting literature
of the day, in which he wished to insert ' The Burial of
Sir John Moore,' and as be had been told that I was the
author of that piece, wished to have my name adhibit-
ed to it, to which I consented. Captain C. shortly after
left this place, and I never learned whether the work was
published or not.
" I never sew Wolfe's Remains' till you put the volume
into my hands about two months ago.
" It was, I think, in 1826, that I learned that the author
of the memoir of the Rev. C. Wolfe bad claimed the ode
for that gentleman. I felt somewhat indignant at this;
and, with a view to the matter in its proper light,
wrote to the father of Mr. Menzies, who lived in a distant
part of the country, requesting him to search amongst his
son's papers for the manuscript of the lines, but to this
letter no answer was returned.

" I then saw that I had allowed the proper time for as-
serting my claim to pass away ; and being apprehensive
lest the public might be unwilling to believe that a piece
which had by this time made some little noise in the world.
was the production of an obscure individual like myself, I
judged it more prudent to forego try claim than to expose
myself to any obloquy on its account.
" I am, reverend and dear Sir, yours very truly.

" Tcrnple, January 1841.

A. MACINTO-SH.

" To the Rev. W. Muir."

Mr. Macintosh is a native of Athol. After attending
the schools in Perth, he comi,leted the usual course of
education for the Dl4ablished Church at the U niversity
of Edinburgh. In 1818 he accepted of the parish school
of Temple, v‘h2.re, fur twenty-two years, like many of
his laborious and ill-requited brotherhood, with attain-
ments .mmeasura'lly superior to their duties and emolu-
ments, h.?. has patiently and content2dly dischargei ti:e
irksome duties of his useful office.

ADELPHI THEATRE.—This popular place of
amusement closed last night, when Mr. Yates delivered
the customary farewell address, and announced that it
would open again on Monday, the 20th of September.

We regret to have to announce the death of
the Dowager Duchess of Nlorlborough, which event took
place at sigh' o'clock on Friday morning, at her Grace's
residence in Perk-lane.

BUSINESS OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE
COURTS.—The folloning is a comparative return of the
amount of business transacted in the metropolitan Police
Courts for February, 1841 :—The number of cases heard
at Bow-street were 531 ; Union-hall, 507 ; Worship_
street, 477 ; Marylebone, 345 ; Thames Police, 291 ;
Greenwich and Woolwich, 283 ; Hatton-garden, 235 ;
Queen-square, 183 ; Lambeth-street, 152.
THE CONVICT MlSTER.—Mister has con-
fessed nothing ; but he has made an admission, acciden-
tally, which almost amounts to a confession ; for he has
stated that a part of Mr. Mackreth's evidence is utterly
false, leaving it to be inferred that the remainder is true •
for no one could judge of the truth or falsehood but himself.
This slip is of a piece with his unhappy admission at Lud-
low, when introduced for the first time to his victim, Mr.
Mackretb, when he thoughtlessly addressed him thus—
" When you found my hand on your throat "—then
suddenly checking himself, he thus varied his question—
" When you found a man's hand on your throat, could
you tell whether he was dressed or not ?" This slip we
noted down carefully at the time it was made, on the exa-
mination before the Magistrates in Ludlow ; but, unwilling
to increase the odium attaching to the unhappy prisoner,
we did not detail it in our report of that examination, till
now the verdict of the Jury has rendered it unnecessary
to make any concealment.—Shrewsbury Chronicle.
CANADIAN COMMERCE.—The number of
vessels cleared from the ports of Montreal and Quebec to
Great Britain, during the year 1840, was I,o79—tonnage
399,449, giving employment to 15,227 men. The prin-
cipal articles of export were pot and pearl ash, 24,107
brls. ; flour, 298,761 brls. ; wheat, 141,931 minots, and
lumber in great quantities.

NEGLECT IN A STATION-HOUSE.—A length-
ened inquiry took place on Thursday evening at St. Bar-
tholomew's Hospital,. before Mr. Payne, concerning the
death of James Inskip, aged fifty, a cab-driver, of No. 4,
Baker's.court, Holborn, some particulars of which ap-
peared in The Sun on Wednesday. It appeared by the
evidence that on Wednesday morning last, about half-past
one, the deceased, whilst driving his cab from Newgate-
street towards the Post-office, fell from his seat into the
road. He arose ni•hout assistance, but as the police con-
stable, William Bowyer, 291, thought him to be intoxi-
cated, he was taken to the station-house, where he
was placed in the cell allotted to drunken persons.
He was found shortly after lying on his back,
retching violently, and as he had not spoken since
his admission, but appeared perfectly insensible, when the
inspector arrived he was taken to the above hospital. He
was dead upon his arrival. Several of the policemen
were examined at much length, their statement agreeing
that the deceased appeared to be drunk, or he would have
instantly received medical assistance. The house-stargeon
said that the deceased had died from apoplexy, but whe-
ther it occurred immediately before or af.er the fall he
could not say. He did not think that he had been in-
toxicates!, as he did not detect any small of liquor. The
deceased's friends said that he seas of emark,bly tempe-
rate habit=, and was observed to be quite sober up to a late
hour tin previous night. The Jury, after some delibera-
!itUt that the dt.t...?,2d "
Lfid an cpin caJtion had Clot
in (Sits instai.e.: boob ui)4erveti. They alt4;Lhte(li that
some alteration should be made in the cells for the scoop.-
gen of drunk©n characters. .