SIR WALTER SCOTT'S TALES OF A GRANDFATHER, THIRD SERIES.*

WE cannot help thinking that Sir WALTER, though addressing a very youn,, reader, and naturally writing down in some measure to his ce pacify, has produced in the Tales of a Grandfather a work which both old and young will peruse with more satisfaction, and more edifi- cation also, than his History of Scotland. In the latter, he was under the necessity of noticing a multitude of facts, which, without amplifi- cation, no genius could render attractive, and his spirit was evidently rammelled : in the former, his selection of incidents is uncontrolled by strict historical or chronological sequence ; and when lie has chosen a topic fitted to his powers, and worthy of them, he can dilate on it as he sees meet. Indeed, the Tales of a Grandfather, which are in pro- mise and in reality but the heads of the History of Scotland, extend to nine volumes, and occupy nearly twice as much space as by the ar- rangement of the Cyclopcedia could be given to the entire history. Of the spirit in which this last series is written, we can speak with un- qualified praise.

The preface opens with the following striking remark:-

" The generation of which I ain an individual, and which, having now seen second race of their successors, must soon prepare to leave the scene, have been (are) the first Scotsmen who appear likely to quit the stage of life, with- out witnessing- either foreign or domestic war within their country. Our fathers beheld the civil convulsion of 1745-6; the race who (which) preceded them saw the cornmotions of 1715, 1718, and the war of the Revolution in * Talcs of a Grandfather; being Stories taken from Scottish History. Humbly in- seribetho Hugh Littlejohn, Eq.. Third Series. 3 vols. 180, Edinburgh. Cadell andCo. ineffective, unless they possess it : if they be not real, they must seem 1688-9 ; a third and earlier generation witnessed the two insurrections of so to the mind. Miss L. E. L.'s poems are like her notion of Italy— Pentland Hills and Bothwell Bridge, and a fourth lived in the bloody times of not stamped with reality—they are totally destitute of it, and thus " make the great Civil War ; a fifth had in memory the civil contests of James the Sixth's minority ; ands sixth race carries us back to the long period when the our being's sadness:" by this very want, they become the Berme- blessings of peace were totally unknown, and the state of constant hostility tide's dinner, a meal of flatulent emptiness—fruit to the eye, wood or between England and Scotland, was only interrupted by insecure and ill-kept ashes to the taste ; and instead of giving pleasure to the reader, they truces of a very few years' endurance." produce nothing but weariness and disappointment. Apropos to this Those who, from ignorance of history, would represent the still par- disagreeable reality, (which for a poet to dislike, is as if a portrait- belly perturbed condition of Ireland (in whose penal laws, continued painter could not bear to look upon the human face,) Miss L. E. L. down to so very recent a period, may be found a much better excuse goes on to abuse the world and worldliness.

for the excesses of its inhabitants than the people of Scotland could

" But now, whenever I am mix'd too much plead for the last hundred and fifty years) as necessarily flowing from With worldly natures till I feel as such ;— the religion of a portion of the population, would do well to study the (For these are as the waves that turn to stone, above extract. Few countries have exhibited more correctness and When wearied by the vain, chill'd by the cold, quiet ill their general deportment than Scotland during the last seventy Impatient of society's set mould— years, and no country in Europe exhibited more irregularities and tur- The many meannesses, the petty cares, bulence during its previous history. What wise man would despair The lip that must be chain'd, the eye so taught Sir WALTER SCOTT we have heard, and indeed we have seen (Deceit is this world's passport : who would dare, specimens of it in his manuscripts, writes after a fashion that ren- However pure the breast, to lay it bare ?)— ders the revision of a careful friend by no means undesirable. He When worn, my nature struggling with my fate, frequently omits words that are essential to the clear understanding Checking my love, but, oh, still inure my hate ;— of his sentences, and in the tenses of his verbs he is rather careless. (Why should I love ? flinging down pearl and gem An instance of the latter occurs in the extract above given. The fol-

lowing sentence, also from the preface, affords an example of the

I have no power to make my hatred felt; former. Such trifles—for we notice them only as such—are curiosi- tar, I should say, my sorrow :-1 have borne ties in their way, in the works of so great a writer. " My friendly So much unkindness, felt so lone, so Torn, Aristarchus, (the writer of a criticism in the Westminster Review) for I could but weep, and tears may not redress, such I must call him, has paid me the great compliment, (which I may boast of having to my utmost ability deserved) that my little My spirit turns to thee, and bird-like flings work contains no fault of commission." The last member evidently Its best, its breath, its spring, and song o'er thee, forgets the first ; and unless we supply some such expression as " of iwy lute's enchanted world, Lair Italie." stating," or " to state," the passage will be ungrammatical, if not un-

All this, every body knows, is pure pretence ; if it had been felt, it intelligible. The printer may be in fault in the above, but what shall we would have been expressed with more truth. We should then have had make of such a sentence as this ?—" In more mature years, the ju- to combat with the absurdity of such feelings : as it is, we only object venile reader will have an opportunity of forming his own judgment

to the farce of a lively young lady—who thinks, doubtless, as much of upon the points of controversy which have disturbed our history ; and silk and satin as tier betters, and loves to go out to evening par- I think he will probably find that the spirit of party .faction,jar from tics, and has no objection to a crowded room and a quadrille—pretead- making demigods of the one side and fi iends. or fools of the other, is hie- impatience of the forms of society and disgust of its pleasures. itself the blot and stain of our annals.''. Is it a matter of doubt But the complaint is as absurd as the remedy. An amiable young whether future study shall convince the juvenile reader that party woman may certainly sometimes be wearied by the vain, or chilled by faction does not make men demigods or fiends ? We must suppose the cold : in either case, however, she had better laugh at both the that Sir WALTER wrote, or meant to write, " which would make."

vain and the frigid : but what are the petty meannesses, or the thou- With regard to the impropriety of mixing up the views of party sand snares, which so annoy or endanger ? Why should her lip be faction in a history, to whomsoever addressed, there cannot be two chained, unless she wishes to say any thing improper, or her eye be opinions ; but there is an error into which men may be led, out of hypocritical ? • "Deceit is not the world's passport:' on the contrary, anxiety to avoid the appearanceof party feeling—they may avoid the fate of being in company) that her nature should struggle with it ? complained of the conduct of Queen ANNE in endeavouring to foist Why should she check her love—unless, to be sure, it is a forbidden on the nation a family which it had solemnly rejected, and without

, she was willing to betray her country from remorse when she

this kind : suffice it that we think the whole of L. E. L's. philosophy "Anglia:, tithes." This cannot be Sir iWALTERS mistfike. Stipend

equally shallow. And her poetry is not of that brilliant kind which is no more tithes than it is taxes. There never was such a thing as will do more than throw a little temporary glare over it. This glare, tithes in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. After the Reformation, however, temporary and fueacions as it may he, suffices to dazzle a • the land was valued, and a tenth part of the valued rent was declared

considerable quantity of readers,at least of hook-buyers. We per- available to the support of the ecclesiastical establishment. It was ceive that her works are actually about to be collected into a uniform not appropriated then, nor is it in a very great number of instances edition, and that some of her poems have gone through several im- appropriated yet. And this tenth, or teind, as it is called, was not the plosions. tenth of the produce of the soil, as the tithe is, but of the rent. The English Church is the only one, reformed or unreformed, that enjoys for its sole use the tenth of the produce : no such claim has ever been made by the Roman Catholic Church, even where most dominant.

We have dwelt longer than we intended on this little work ; but when we meet with the Author of Waverley, it is not easy to part with

the attractions of his company. The following account of the end of the family of STUART is curious, and the particulars are not quite so generally known as the rest of the history of that imbecile race. The kingly reply of CHARLES EDWARD to MACNAMARA, it will he recol- lected, had already been recorded by the author in his Redgauntlet.

" When the French Government, in the winter of 1748, were disposed to accede to a peace with England, it was an indispensable stipulation, that the young Pretender, as he was styled, should not be permitted to reside within the French territories. The King and ministers of France felt the necessity of acceding to this condition if they would obtain peace ; but they were de-

sirous to do so with all the attention possible to the interest and feelings of Charles Edward. With this purpose they suggested to him that he should retreat to Frihurg, in Switzerland, where they proposed to assure him an asy. lum, with a company of guards, a large pension, and the nominal rank and title of Prince of Wales.

" It is not easy to say with what possible views Charles rejected these offers, or from what motive, saving the impulse of momentary spleen, he positivel3 refused to leave France. He was in a kingdom, however, where little cere- mony was then used upon such occasions. One evening as he went to the Opera, he was seized by a party of the French guards, hound hand and foot,. and conveyed first to the state prison of Vincennes, and from thence to the town of Avignon, which belonged to the Pope, where he was set at liberty. " To this unnecessary disgrace Charles appears to have subjected himself from feelings of obstinacy alone ; and of course a line of conduct so irrational; was little qualified to recommend him as a pleasant guest to other states.

" He went first to Venice with a single attendant; but upon a warning from the Senate, he returned to Flanders. " Here, about the year 1751, he admitted into his family a female, called Miss Walkinshaw. The person whom he thus received into his intimacy had connexions, of which his friends and adherents in Britain were extremely jealous. It was said that her sister was a housekeeper at Leicester House, then inhabited by the Prince of Wales ; and such was the general suspicion of her betraying her lover, that the persons of distinction in England who Continued to adhere to the Jacobite interest, sent a special deputy, called Macnamara, to request, in the name of the whole party, that this lady might be removed from the Chevalier's residence, and sent into a convent, at least for a season. The Prince decidedly put a negative upon this proposal,— ' Not,' he said, that he entertained any particular affection or even regard for Miss Walkinihaw, but because he would not be dictated to by his subjects in matters respecting his own habits or family.' When Macnamara was finally repulsed, he took his leave with concern and indignation, saying, as he retired,' By what crime, sir, can your family have drawn down the ven- geance of Heaven, since it has visited every branch of them through so many ages ? ' "This haughty reply, to a request reasonable and respectful in itself, was the signal for almost all the Jacobite party in England to break up and dis- solve itself; they were probably by this time only watching for an opportu- nity of deserting with honour a cause which was become hopeless,

" Before this general defection, some intrigues had been set on foot in behalf of Charles, but always withoutmuclh consideration, and by persons of incompetent judgment. Thus the Duchess of Buckingham, a woman of an ambitious but flighty disposition, took it upon her at one time to figure as a patroness of the House of Stewart, and made several journeys from England to Paris and also to Rome, with the affectation of making herself the heroine of a Jacobite revolution. This intrigue, it is needless to say, could have no serious object or termination.

" In 1750, the Jacobite intrigues continued to go on, and the Prince him- self visited London in that year. Dr. King, then at the head of the Church of England Jacobites, received him in his house. He assures us, that the scheme which Charles had formed warimpracticable, and that he was soon prevailed upon to return to the Continent. Dr. King at this time draws a harsh picture of the unfortunate Prince ; he represents him as cold, inter- ested, and avaricious, which is one frequent indication of a selfish character, This author's evidence, however, must be taken with some modification. since the Doctor wrote his anecdotes at a time when, after having long pro- fessed to be at the head of the nonjuring party, he had finally withdrawn from it, joined the Government, and paid his duty at court. He is therefore not likely to have formed an impartial judgment, or to have drawn a faithful picture of the Prince whose cause he had deserted. In 1752, the embers of Jacohitism threw out one or two sparks. Patrick, Lord Elibank, conducted at this time what remained of a Jacobite interest in Scotland : he was a man of great wit, shrewdness, and sagacity ; but like others who arc conscious of great talent, often both in his conduct and conversation chose the most dis- advantageous side of the question, in order to make a more marked display of his abilities.

"The Honourable Alexander Murray, one of Lord Elibank's brothers, a very daring man, had devised a desperate scheme for seizing upon the Palace of St. James's and the person of the King, by means of sixty determined men. There was a second branch of the conspiracy which should have ex- ploded in Scotland, where there were no longer either men or means to accomplish an insurrection. MpeDonell of Lochgarry, and Dr. Archibald Cameron, brother to Lochiel, were the agents employed in this northern part of the plot. The latter fell into the hands of th Government, being taken upon the banks of Loch Katrine, and sent prisoner to London. Dr. Cameron was brought to trial upon the bill of attainder, passed against him on account of his concern in the Rebellion 17-15 ; and upon that charge he was arraigned, condemned, and put to death at Tyburn. his execution for this old offence, after the date of hostilities had been so long past, threw much reproach upon the Government, and even upon the personal character of George the Second, as sullen, relentless, and unforgiving. These aspersions were the Inure credited, that 1/r. Cameron was a man of a mild and gentle disposition, had taken no military share in the Rebellion, and had uniformly exercised his skill as a medical man in behalf of the wounded of both armies. Yet since, as is now weil known, he returned to Scotland with the purpose of again awakening the flames of rebellion, it [oust he owned, that whatever his private character might he, he only encountered the fate which his enter- prise merited and justified. " The Honourable Alexander Murray ventured to London about the same period, where a proclamation was speedily issned for his arrest. Having disco- vered that the persons on e,diose assistance he had relied for the execution of his scheme had lust courage, lie renounced the enterprise. Other wild or inefficient intrigues were carried on in behalf of Charles down to about 1760; but they have all the character of being funned by mere projectors, desirous of obtaining money from the exiled Prince, without any reasonable prospect, perhaps without any serious purpose, of rendering him effectual service.

" A few years later than the period last mentioned, a person seems to have been desirous to obtain Charles's commission to form sonic interest for him among the North American colonists, who hail then commenced their quar- rels with the mother country. It was proposed by the adventurer alluded to, to make a party for the Prince among the insurgents in a country which contained many I highlanders. But that scheme also was entirely without solid foundation, for the Scottish colonists in general joined the party of King George. "Amidst these vain intrigues, excited by new hopes, which were always succeeded by fresh disappointment, Charles, who had supported so much real distress and fatigue with fortitude and firmness, gave way both in mind and body. His domeitic uneasiness was increased by an unhappy union with Louisa of Stohlherg, a German princess, which produced happiness to nei- ther party, and some discredit to both. Latterly, after long retaining the title of Prince of \Nines, he laid it aside, because, after his father's death in MO, the courts of Europe would not recognize him as King of Great Bri- tons. 1-le afterwards lived incognito, under the title of the Count D'Albany. Finally, he died at Itnine, upon the 31st of February 1755, and was royally interred in the cathedral church of Frescati, of which his brother was bishop.

"The merits of this unhappy prince appear to have consisted in a degree of dauntless'resolution and enterprise, bordering upon temerity ; the power of supporting fatigues amid ins-fortunes, and extremity of every kind, with firm- ness and magnanimity ; and a natural courtesy of manner, highly gratifying to his followers, which lie could exchange for reserve at his pleasure. Ncr when his campaign in Scotland is considered, can lie be denied respectable talents in military affairs. Some of his partisans of higher rank conceived he evinced less gratitude for their services than he ought to have rendered them ; but by far the greater part of those who approached his person were unable to mention hint without tears of sorrow, to which your grandfather has been frequently a witness.

His faults or errors arose from a course of tuition totally unfit for the situation to which he conceived himself born, Ws education, intrusted to narrow-minded priests and soldiers of fortune, had been singularly limited and imperfect; so that, instead of being taught to disown or greatly modify, the tenets which had made his father's exiles from their throne and country,' he was instructed to cling to those errors as sacred maxims, to which he was bound in honour and conscience to adhere, He left a natural daughter, called Countess of Albany, who died only a few years since.

" The last direct male heir of the line of Stewart, on the death of Charles, was Isis younger brother, Henry Benedict; whom the Pope had created a Cardinal. This Prince took no other step for asserting his claim to the British kingdoms, than by striking a beautiful medal, in which he is repre- sented in his Cardinal's robes, with the crown, sceptre, and regalia, in the back-ground, bearing the motto VolantateDei non desiderio populi, implying a tacit relinquishment of the claims to which, by birth, he might have pre. tended. He was a prince of a mild and beneficent character, and generally beloved. After the innovations of the French Revolution had destroyed or greatly diminished the revenues he derived from the Church, he subsisted, singular to tell, on an annuity of 30001. a-year, assigned to him by the gene- rosity of the late King George the Third, and continued by that of his royal successor. In requital of their bounty, and as if acknowledging the House of Hanover to be the legitimate successors of his claims to the Crown of Britain, this, the last of the Stewarts, bequeathed to his present Majesty all the crown jewels, some of them of great value, which King James the Second had car- ried along with him on his retreat to the Continent in 1688, together with a mass of papers, tending to throw much light on British history."

Some of these documents are said to have been consigned by the King to the care of Sir WALTER SCOTT. We can conceive few tasks better calculated to amuse his leisure, than that of selecting and ar- ranging the most interesting of their contents. We hope, however, it will not interfere with his lighter studies, as they are called. It is as a novelist that we are still disposed, notwithstanding his other high claims, to greet his appearance most heartily.