SIR W. SCOTT AND SIR W. NAPIER.
Some short time ago there appeared in The Times certain letters relative to a song of Sir Walter Scott in disparagement of Fox, said to have been sung at the dinner given in Edinburgh on the acquittal of Viscount Melville. In one letter, signed "W. Napier," it is asserted, on the authority of a lady, that Scott sang the song, which gave great offence to the Whig party at the time.
Now, I must take the liberty of declaring this assertion to be incorrect. I had the honour of knowing pretty intimately Sir Walter from the year 1817 down to the period of his departure for the Continent. I have been present at many convivial meetings with him, and conversed with him times without number, and he has repeatedly declared that, although fond of music, he could not sing from his boyhood, and could not even hum a tune so as to be intelligible to a listener. The idea, therefore, of his making such a public exhibition of himself as to sing at a public meeting, is preposterous.
But in the next place the cotemporary evidence on the subject is conclusive. An account of the dinner was published in the Courant newspaper, and it is there stated "that one song was sung, the poetry of which was said to come from the muse of 'the last lay,' and was sung with admirable effect by the proprietor of the Ballantyne Press."
It is perhaps unnecessary to explain that the singer was the late John Ballantyne, and I have my doubts if the song referred to in the controversy was the one sung upon the occasion. This, however, is merely a speculation arising from the fact, that this was a song not included in Sir Walter Scott's works, which upon the very highest authority I have been informed was sung there, but of which Lord Ellenborough, and not Charles Fox, was the hero. It is entitled "Justice Law," and is highly laudatory of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It has been printed in the Supplement to the Court of Session Garland, p. 10., and the concluding verse is as follows:
"Then here's to the prelate of wisdom and fame,
Tho' true Presbyterians we'll drink to his name;
Long, long, may he live to teach prejudice awe,
And since Melville's got justice, the devil take law."
Again I repeat this conjecture may be erroneous; but that Sir Walter never sung any song at all at the meeting is, I think, beyond dispute.
J. M.