The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-24
HISTORICAL.

Conducted By Mrs. Harvey Jones.
 The Historian of Alabama Division. U. D. C., is the glad possessor of a Confederate Scrap Book" compiled of valuable articles immediately after the war, as we'll as some of later date; 1t win be her privilege to give them each week to readers of U. D. c. colmuns in The Montgomery Advertiser.
 For this week the selections will be of General Robert E. Lee, the grand chieftain, we never tire of praising and glorifying.
 Speech of General R. E. Lee.
 When he was introduced to the se- cession convention and informed of his appointment to the command of the of Virginia. This ceremony took place on the 23rd of April, 1861:
 MT. President and gentlemen of the conventions: Profoundly impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, for which I must say I was not prepared &C., cept the position assigned me by your partiality. I would have much pre- ferred had your choice fallen on an abler man. Trusting in Almighty God, an approving conscience, and the aid of my fellow citizens, devote myself to the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword"
 Nornley'a Lines to General Lee.
 The following inscription and poem accompanied the presentation of a per- feet copy of the Translation of the Iliad of Homer into Spencerian Stan za." by Philip stanhope Norsley, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, a scholar and poet whose untimely death. noticed with deepest regret throughout the literary world, in England, has cut short a career of the brightest promise: ITO General R. E. Lee-the most stainless of living commanders, and, ex- cept in fortune. the greatest--this vol- ume is presented with the writer's earnest sympathy and respectful ad- miration."'
 The Grand old bard that never dies.
 Receive him in our English tongue! I send thee, but with weeping eyes.
 The story that he sung. Thy Troy has fallen. thy dear land
 Is marred beneath the spoilers heel I cannot trust my trembling hand
 To write the things I feel. An. realm of tombsi But let her bear This blazon to the last of times: No nation rose so white and fair
 Or fell so pure of crimes. The widows moan, the orphans vail,
 Come round thee; yet in truth be
 strong!
 Eternal right. though all else fail,
 Can never be made wrong. An angels heart, an angels mouth.
 Not Homer's, could alone for me Hymn well the great Confederate South
 Virginia first--and Lee. General Lees letter in reply to this graceful compliment from the English scholar.
 Lexington, Va. Feb 10. 1886; Mir. P. S. Norsley:
 My Dear Sir:-I have received the copy of your translation of the "Iliad," which you so kindly presented to me. Its perusal has been ray evenings re- creation, and have never enjoyed the beauty and grandeur of the poem more than as recited by you. The transla- tion is as truthful as powerful, and faithfully reproduces the imagery and rythm of the bold original.
 The undeserved compliment to myself in prose and verse. on the first leaves of the volume. I receive as your tri- bute to the merit of my countrymen who struggled for constitutional gov ernment
 With great respect Your Obedient servant,
 R. E. Lee. An account of an interview with Gen. ' nIa