Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott Volume IV Part 9

TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.

EDINBURGH, 10th December, 1813.

Many thanks, my dear friend, for your kind token of remembrance, which I yesterday received. I ought to blush, if I had grace enough left, at my long and ungenerous silence: but what shall I say? The habit of procrastination, which had always more or less a dominion over me, does not relax its sway as I grow older and less willing to take up the pen. I have not written to dear Ellis this age,--yet there is not a day that I do not think of you and him, and one or two other friends in your southern land. I am very glad the whiskey came safe: do not stint so laudable an admiration for the liquor of Caledonia, for I have plenty of right good and sound Highland Ferintosh, and I can always find an opportunity of sending you up a bottle.

We are here almost mad with the redemption of Holland, which has an instant and gratifying effect on the trade of Leith, and indeed all along the east coast of Scotland. About 100,000 worth of various commodities, which had been dormant in cellars and warehouses, was sold the first day the news arrived, and Orange ribbons and _Orange Boven_ was the order of the day among all ranks. It is a most miraculous revivification which it has been our fate to witness.

Though of a tolerably sanguine temper, I had fairly adjourned all hopes and expectations of the kind till another generation: the same power, however, that opened the windows of heaven and the fountains of the great deep has been pleased to close them, and to cause his wind to blow upon the face of the waters, so that we may look out from the ark of our preservation, and behold the reappearance of the mountain crests, and old, beloved, and well-known land-marks, which we had deemed swallowed up forever in the abyss: the dove with the olive branch would complete the simile, but of that I see little hope.

Buonaparte is that desperate gambler, who will not rise while he has a stake left; and, indeed, to be King of France would be a poor pettifogging enterprise, after having been almost Emperor of the World. I think he will drive things on, till the fickle and impatient people over whom he rules get tired of him and shake him out of the saddle. Some circ.u.mstances seem to intimate his having become jealous of the Senate; and indeed anything like a representative body, however imperfectly constructed, becomes dangerous to a tottering tyranny. The sword displayed on both frontiers may, like that brandished across the road of Balaam, terrify even dumb and irrational subjection into utterance;--but enough of politics, though now a more cheerful subject than they have been for many years past.

I have had a strong temptation to go to the Continent this Christmas; and should certainly have done so, had I been sure of getting from Amsterdam to Frankfort, where, as I know Lord Aberdeen and Lord Cathcart, I might expect a welcome. But notwithstanding my earnest desire to see the allied armies cross the Rhine, which I suppose must be one of the grandest military spectacles in the world, I should like to know that the roads were tolerably secure, and the means of getting forward attainable. In spring, however, if no unfortunate change takes place, I trust to visit the camp of the allies, and see all the pomp and power and circ.u.mstance of war, which I have so often imagined, and sometimes attempted to embody in verse.--Johnnie Richardson is a good, honorable, kind-hearted little fellow as lives in the world, with a pretty taste for poetry, which he has wisely kept under subjection to the occupation of drawing briefs and revising conveyances. It is a great good fortune to him to be in your neighborhood, as he is an idolater of genius, and where could he offer up his wors.h.i.+p so justly? And I am sure you will like him, for he is really "officious, innocent, sincere."[40] Terry, I hope, will get on well; he is industrious, and zealous for the honor of his art.

Ventidius must have been an excellent part for him, hovering between tragedy and comedy, which is precisely what will suit him. We have a woeful want of him here, both in public and private, for he was one of the most easy and quiet chimney-corner companions that I have had for these two or three years past.

I am very glad if anything I have written to you could give pleasure to Miss Edgeworth, though I am sure it will fall very short of the respect which I have for her brilliant talents. I always write to you _a la volee_, and trust implicitly to your kindness and judgment upon all occasions where you may choose to communicate any part of my letters.[41] As to the taxing men, I must battle them as I can: they are worse than the great Emathian conqueror, who

"bade spare The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the ground."[42]

Your pinasters are coming up gallantly in the nursery-bed at Abbotsford. I trust to pay the whole establishment a Christmas visit, which will be, as Robinson Crusoe says of his gla.s.s of rum, "to mine exceeding refreshment." All Edinburgh have been on tiptoe to see Madame de Stael, but she is now not likely to honor us with a visit, at which I cannot prevail on myself to be very sorry; for as I tired of some of her works, I am afraid I should disgrace my taste by tiring of the auth.o.r.ess too. All my little people are very well, learning, with great pain and diligence, much which they will have forgotten altogether, or nearly so, in the course of twelve years hence: but the habit of learning is something in itself, even when the lessons are forgotten.

I must not omit to tell you that a friend of mine, with whom that metal is more plenty than with me, has given me some gold mohurs to be converted into a ring for enchasing King Charles's hair; but this is not to be done until I get to London, and get a very handsome pattern.

Ever, most truly and sincerely, yours,

W. SCOTT.

The last sentence of this letter refers to a lock of the hair of Charles I., which, at Dr. Baillie's request, Sir Henry Halford had transmitted to Scott when the royal martyr's remains were discovered at Windsor, in April, 1813.[43] Sir John Malcolm had given him some Indian coins to supply virgin gold for the setting of this relic; and for some years he constantly wore the ring, which is a ma.s.sive and beautiful one, with the word REMEMBER surrounding it in highly relieved black-letter.

The poet's allusion to "taxing men" may require another word of explanation. To add to his troubles during this autumn of 1813, a demand was made on him by the commissioners of the income-tax, to return in one of their schedules an account of the profits of his literary exertions during the last three years. He demurred to this, and took the opinion of high authorities in Scotland, who confirmed him in his impression that the claim was beyond the statute. The grounds of his resistance are thus briefly stated in one of his letters to his legal friend in London:--

TO JOHN RICHARDSON, ESQ., FLUDYER STREET, WESTMINSTER.

MY DEAR RICHARDSON,--I have owed you a letter this long time, but perhaps my debt might not yet be discharged, had I not a little matter of business to trouble you with. I wish you to lay before either the King's counsel, or Sir Samuel Romilly and any other you may approve, the point whether a copyright being sold for the term during which Queen Anne's act warranted the property to the author, the price is liable in payment of the property-tax. I contend it is not so liable, for the following reasons: 1st, It is a patent right, expected to produce an annual, or at least an incidental profit, during the currency of many years; and surely it was never contended that if a man sold a theatrical patent, or a patent for machinery, property-tax should be levied in the first place on the full price as paid to the seller, and then on the profits as purchased by the buyer. I am not very expert at figures, but I think it clear that a double taxation takes place. 2d, It should be considered that a book may be the work not of one year, but of a man's whole life; and as it has been found, in a late case of the Duke of Gordon, that a fall of timber was not subject to property-tax because it comprehended the produce of thirty years, it seems at least equally fair that mental exertions should not be subjected to a harder principle of measurement. 3d, The demand is, so far as I can learn, totally new and unheard of. 4th, Supposing that I died and left my ma.n.u.scripts to be sold publicly along with the rest of my library, is there any ground for taxing what might be received for the written book, any more than any rare printed book, which a speculative bookseller might purchase with a view to republication?

You will know whether any of these things ought to be suggested in the brief. David Hume, and every lawyer here whom I have spoken to, consider the demand as illegal. Believe me truly yours,

WALTER SCOTT.

Mr. Richardson having prepared a case, obtained upon it the opinions of Mr. Alexander (afterwards Sir William Alexander and Chief Baron of the Exchequer) and of the late Sir Samuel Romilly. These eminent lawyers agreed in the view of their Scotch brethren; and after a tedious correspondence, the Lords of the Treasury at last decided that the Income-Tax Commissioners should abandon their claim upon the produce of literary labor. I have thought it worth while to preserve some record of this decision, and of the authorities on which it rested, in case such a demand should ever be renewed hereafter.

In the beginning of December, the Town Council of Edinburgh resolved to send a deputation to congratulate the Prince Regent on the prosperous course of public events, and they invited Scott to draw up their address, which, on its being transmitted for previous inspection to Mr. William Dundas, then Member for the City, and through him shown privately to the Regent, was acknowledged to the penman, by his Royal Highness's command, as "the most elegant congratulation a sovereign ever received, or a subject offered."[44]

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh presented it accordingly at the levee of the 10th, and it was received most graciously. On returning to the north, the Magistrates expressed their sense of Scott's services on this occasion by presenting him with the freedom of his native city, and also with a piece of plate,--which the reader will find alluded to, among other matters of more consequence, in a letter to be quoted presently.

At this time Scott further expressed his patriotic exultation in the rescue of Europe, by two songs for the anniversary of the death of Pitt; one of which has ever since, I believe, been chanted at that celebration:--

"O dread was the time and more dreadful the omen, When the brave on Marengo lay slaughter'd in vain," etc.[45]

Footnotes of the Chapter XXVI.

[23: Mr. Hunter died in March, 1812.]

[24: "These and after purchases of books from the stock of J. Ballantyne and Co. were resold to the trade by Constable's firm, at less than one half and one third of the prices at which they were thus obtained."--_Note from Mr. R. Cadell._]

[25: Dr. Brewster's edition of Ferguson's _Astronomy_, 2 vols. 8vo, with plates, 4to, Edin. 1811. 36_s_.]

[26: Dr. Singers's _General View of the County of Dumfries_, 8vo, Edin. 1812. 18_s_.]

[27: A trade sale of Messrs. Cadell and Davies in the Strand.]

[28: Since this work was first published, I have been compelled to examine very minutely the details of Scott's connection with the Ballantynes, and one result is, that both James and John had trespa.s.sed so largely, for their private purposes, on the funds of the Companies, that, Scott being, as their letters distinctly state, the only "monied partner," and his over-advances of capital having been very extensive, any inquiry on their part as to his uncommercial expenditure must have been entirely out of the question. To avoid misrepresentation, however, I leave my text as it was.--(1839.)]

[29: _Merchant of Venice_, Act II. Scene 2.]

[30: The court of offices, built on the haugh at Abbotsford in 1812, included a house for the faithful coachman, Peter Mathieson. One of Scott's Cantabrigian friends, Mr. W. S. Rose, gave the whole pile soon afterwards the name, which it retained to the end, of _Peter-House_. The loft at Peter-House continued to be occupied by occasional bachelor guests until the existing mansion was completed.]

[31: Mrs. Thomas Scott had met Burns frequently in early life at Dumfries. Her brother, the late Mr. David MacCulloch, was a great favorite with the poet, and the best singer of his songs that I ever heard.]

[32: John Ballantyne had embarked no capital--not a s.h.i.+lling--in the business; and was bound by the contract to limit himself to an allowance of 300 a year, in consideration of his _management_, until there should be an overplus of profits!--(1839.)]

[33: He probably alludes to the final settlement of accounts with the Marquis of Abercorn.]

[34: The Royal Librarian had forwarded to Scott presentation copies of his successive publications--_The Progress of Maritime Discovery_--Falconer's _s.h.i.+pwreck, with a Life of the Author_--_Naufragia_--_A Life of Nelson_, in two quarto volumes, etc., etc., etc.]

[35: Poor Gay--"In wit a man, simplicity a child"--was insulted, on the accession of George II., by the offer of a gentleman-ushers.h.i.+p to one of the royal infants. His prose and verse largely celebrate his obligations to Charles, third Duke of Queensberry, and the charming Lady Catharine Hyde, his d.u.c.h.ess--under whose roof the poet spent the latter years of his life.]

[36: See the Preface to the third volume of the late Collective Edition of Mr. Southey's _Poems_, p. xii., where he corrects a trivial error I had fallen into in the first edition of these Memoirs, and adds, "Sir Walter's conduct was, as it always was, characteristically generous, and in the highest degree friendly."--(1839.)]

[37: Garrick's _Bon Ton, or High Life Above Stairs_.]

[38: _Twelfth Night_, Act V. Scene 1.]

[39: The letter in question has not been preserved in Scott's collection of correspondence. This leaves some allusions in the answer obscure.]

[40: Scott's old friend, Mr. John Richardson, had shortly before this time taken a house in Miss Baillie's neighborhood, on Hampstead Heath.]

[41: Miss Baillie had apologized to him for having sent an extract of one of his letters to her friend at Edgeworthstown.]

[42: Milton, _Sonnet No. VIII._ [_When the a.s.sault was intended to the City._]]

[43: [On May 3, Scott had written to his daughter, that this hair was light brown, and later, writing to Joanna Baillie, he says, "I did not think Charles's hair had been quite so light; that of his father, and I believe of all the Stuarts till Charles II., was reddish." Of the king, he goes on to say: "Tory, as I am, my heart only goes with King Charles in his struggles and distresses, for the fore part of his reign was a series of misconduct; however, if he sow'd the wind, G.o.d knows he reap'd the whirlwind.... Sound therefore be the sleep, and henceforward undisturbed the ashes, of this unhappy prince.... His attachment to a particular form of wors.h.i.+p was in him conscience, for he adhered to the Church of England ... when by giving up that favorite point he might have secured his reestablishment; and in that sense he may be justly considered as a martyr, though his early political errors blemish his character as King of England."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p.

288.]]

[44: Letter from the Right Hon. W. Dundas, dated 6th December, 1813.]

[45: See Scott's _Poetical Works_, vol. xi. p. 309, Edition 1834 [Cambridge Edition, p. 409].]