The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-12-10

four days after the material was received? ANY
one might read the irst sheet or two of Gay
Mannering, and say With reason, that it treated
of manners more~ocient" than l745. There
is no reason for saSsog that Scott did not tsse
up "Guy Manners <" before he had finished
| the Lord of the < as" He wrote the Bri.
dal of Triermain" lie engaged upon another
of his novels; aud : was always a favorite
custom of his to kee several "irons in the fire
at once. We must ways remember, that this
| passage In Lockha partakes of the character
of Especial pleadir :" He was instanciBe the
rapidity with which scott wrote; and is there
any wonder, If, in is desire to make out as
strong case as poe Ible he overshot bis mark
| But even granite &, for the sake of the argu-
ment, that the two srst volumes of Guy Man
neriDg" must hav.s' been written between De-
cember 25th and january l8th if we are 70
believe it the com iosition of Walter Scott, we
csnno. see that it % go remarkable circam-
stance as Mr.. FitZ airick wishes rs TO regard
it. 1t is well knes that Scott sent his man
uscript to press as yst as it left his hands, and
was copied, day b lay; and there is nothing
absurd in supposi s that house like that of
Ballantyne & Co. uld print as fast as one
man could write. a. far as the coping part
is concerned, hear chat Basil Hall says: +" Any
clerk in an Office ssud traRscribe one Of the
Waverley novels iIs week or ten days-say a
fortnight" Hencs he question reduces down
to this one: How IAst could and did Scott
write? Mr.. Fizp[ -rick states, giving Lock.
hart as authoritys!sat Scott, in the height Of
his powers, could s tie fifteen printed pages q
day. Now, this il alse, and, we fear wfully
SO; and to prove ;t, we refer the reader to
SCOTS Diary, pas I'm. For instance ode
cember 26, 1925 s-I wrote six of my close
| pages yesterday, ;shich is about tlcenty: four
inf Ind x1bo or so / IL .
comes off twangingly." January %, 1926
Wrote till II NJ, finishing half of what call a
good days aoork-ten pages of print, or rather
twelve" This is the passage Mr.. Fitzpatrick
refers to above, aud we see that he has divided
the fact by two which makes material differ
ence in the result. january 30.h.-I la5ored
fairly yesterday. The stream rose fast-if
clearly, is another question; but there is bulk
for it, at least-Gbout thirty printed pages"
February 3d.-* From the 18th of
January to the I'd of February, inclusive, is ex.
actly fifteen days, during which time, ,cih the
intermisSiOn Of some days idienees, to let imag
ination brood on the task little, I hare Writtea
a rOtume- think, for bet, / could have done
it in ten days" He appears to have made
this bet, for, under date of February 18th, we
find the following entry Having ended the
second volume of Woodstock last night l had
to begin the third this morning" Again !:
February 10th. Yesterday, though late in
beginning, | neafy finished my task, which is
six of my close ages, about thirty pages of
print" "MsrchA 9th. Resumed Woodstock,
and wrote my task Of sic pages" &c.
Now, we find Sir Walter, at this time task
ing himself to write these twenty-four to thirty
pages dsy-nos fifteen, Mr. Fitzpatrick
and actually completing two volumes in less
than twenty five Jays, "with the interim ssion
| of Hav ~ o,,I L
time, he was in his fifty fifth year, broken in
health suffering rom the actual presence OF
acute disease, an9 in state of the most terri
BILE mental afll icfion and dependency, on &C
count of the calamity which, only month pre-
vious, had involved his fortune, and as he
feared, his good name. Will Mr.. Fitzpatrick
assert that he was not capable Of doing so
much in 1915, when he was in the prime of
life, in the enjoyment of the most perfect health
and spirits, and in perfect fever of literary
activity? Besides, while writing Woodstock
he had to give, en- an average, four hours OF
his time daily to {he Court, which was then in
session in Edinburgh, and on which his at
tendance was rei51ired by his dulles as sheriff ;
when he wrotse" Guy Mannering," he was
away from his family, and without company at
Abbotsford, "refreshinR the machine" rs he
| styled it. Thay. be did write as fast as be
could while com posing Gay Maunerinr." we
learn from his le ter to j. B. S. Merritt, dated
l9h January, sSl5, in which ne writes, 81
want 10 shake myself free from WsverIey, Fl. e.,
to free himself tfom the suspicion of being its
author, and aceijrdingly hare made consider
able erertiOn TO Finish an odd little tale toittin
such time as ,eA mystify the public, I trust,
unless they suppose me to be Briareus." Ger
tainly, Sir Waltet did succeed in mystifying"
Mr.. Fitzpatrick.
De I.c IL. " II, D..
blunders are frpsn ignorance, it is the publc's
fault, if they fg.low him into the ditch. If
his mistakes ars wilful, We can but oity the
man who for ihe sake of seeipg hiI1self in
print attempts 20 sully the fair fame Of such
a man as Was3r Scott We blame Mr. Gill
| fllan for the msnner in which ne ha, replied
to this nonsens'cal pamphlet. No ont. who is
a. all acqusint$ with the character Of Walter
Scott, one wEo has read his letters, lis diary,
his books, will Fare to credit such defamation
of his charactei Nowhere in literatute do we
find more getisl, houest, true -hearted gentle
man. Call ovtz the bederoll of literarc history,
Shakespeare, Sydney, Spenser, Jean Paul, Rous-
seau, johnson, can yoa name any one of them
who would have pied ced himself, muscle, brains,
life, Walter Scott did, to his creditors, to pay
off a debt withlwhich he was hanpered by the
c-imirality of ,thers, and which, legally con-
sidered, there gas no obligation upon him to
pay? Call th On over again, and can any man
be named, os. al the famous ones, who more
scrupulously a., entirely aud explicitly stated,
and gave chapter and verse for every word,
thought, idea, which he borrowed from others
And yet this modest, honest, true hearted man
of honor, this noble, interchangeable worker, is
vilely and wfrlout reason accused Of having
stolen his best work from bis own brother
Is there nofemedy for this a? In the "gocd
| xrS1a off Cd
the custom wt.s to crop his ears, fix him in the
pillory, and 5-st him with foul eggs, until he
came to his n hit senses. Where is the pillory
for Fitzpstries-? Public sentiment will not do,
for he is 80 t.r beneath it, that its indignant
waves would aot disturb him.
But, seriously, there ought to be some RENE
dy against thtA mania for accusations of plagi-
arism. 1t is sil well enough to say Mat authors
are "public ,Ien," and must look for and sub
NIT to such things. So are the Capitol and the
Corgressionsz Library public property; but is
man therek re exempt from punishment, If he
be detected i defacing the books or destroying
the statuary 4. To accuse an author of having
plsgiarized, as much defamation of charac-
ter as to accsf be ones neighbor of having pick
/ ed your pocket and the same protection should
be extended IN the one case that is awaited of
| in the other.v
For our c IN part, we wish Mr. Ftzp patrick
no greater p nishment, no more profound hu-
initiation, thtae that of being comp sled to give
public reaing, in which he shall first state
the substance of his charges against Sir Walter
Scott and then be compelled to read aloud the
private diary and tear-bringing heart record of
that same maligned Sir Walter. F" Bar6aruS
has segetesfg was the poor bankrupt's cry,
when he leai9ed that his estate was in danger.
90 Barbarrs las segetes :" is his spirits cry
Z AZ ia