DEATH OF_ IR WALIZR SCOTT.
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VETS event, which had been long foraTen, and -which, indeed, from the sufferings of the patient, had become almost .desirable, took place on Friday last week. It is thus announced in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, by one whose name has long been associated with the works of the great departed— " This great and good man is no more. e afflicting disease which has so ;long been pressing on the springs of life, has at last broken them. He expired at Abbotsford, gently in easily, at half-past one p. in., on Friday the 21st cur- rent, leaving a name n literature, and an example of private excellence, which, taken in combination, many a generation may flourish and fade without seeing squall it alter Scott had just entered into his 62d year, being born on the 15th of August 1771 ; surely a green old age, but which comprised, in his in- stance, the splendid and honourable labours of two lives. All laud and peace be his noble memory !"
Ballantyne adds—and we feel sincere regret for the cause that compels him to make the apology-
" Severe indisposition, and consequent absence from the scene of his duties, restrict the editor of this journal, for the present, from any other memorial of Isis illustrious patron and friend, than the preceding brief lines afford. But should Heaven be pleased to restore him to health and strength, he will feel that a recurrence to this subject becomes, perhaps, more a matter of propriety and duty in him, than in most others standing in many points in a similar situation. Not that it is his purpose to undertake either an account of the incidents of the life now terminated, or to attempt any disquisition regarding the magnificent, and perhaps unrivalled genius, now untimely cut short. Before he can resume the subject, it will have occupied many of the ablest pens in both countries, and thus deprived any thing he might say of all pretensions to novelty. Such efforts, therefore, he will entirely avoid ; but having been in habits of close and almost uninterrupted intercourse with the departed for the long period of up- wards of forty years, and in circumstances which exhibited him in the most interesting periods of his youth, manhood, and age, of his health and sickness, of his prosperity and adversity, and which closed in one of the most heroic struggles that ever marked the bright career of excellence, or signalized its set- ting, he thinks be may be both enabled and warranted to unfold, without the slightest breach of confidence, scenes and incidents known but to few, and cal- culated to throw still farther light and honour upon a character now for ever 'withdrawn from the eyes of men, though long to flourish in their love, admira- tion, and reverence!"
We hope Mr. Ballantyne will permit us earnestly to press for the fulfilment of this pledge, as soon as circumstances render it possible. No man has so ample means, or more ability to fulfil it satisfactorily. We might fill a Spectator with the panegyrics that have been already Leaped with lavish hand upon the memory of the Author of Waverley ; but we should only, in doing so, repeat in varied language the opinions that we had long before passed upon the living man. To one who knew lila for many years, and intimately, we are indebted for the brief tri- bute to his domestic virtues which appears in another column. itir Walter Scott was the son of Mr. Walter Scott, Writer to the
Signet ; his mother was a Miss Rutherford. He received the rudi- ments of his education at Musselburgh, and afterwards at the High School of Edinburgh. He was called to the bar in 1792; nominated Sheriff of Selkirk in 1796; and Clerk of Session in 1806, by Mr. Fox's Administration. He married, in 1798, Miss Charpentier, a Swiss lady ; by whom he bad a family of several children. Of his sons, the eldest is a Major in the Army, the second is an attache of the Embassy at Naples ; one daughter is married to Mr. Lockhart of the Quar- terly Review, and one is still unmarried.
Sir Walter's first original work was published in 1805, when he had attained his thirty-fourth year. His labours since that time, exclusive of numerous works which he edited, fill more than one hundred volumes ; a fertility altogether unexampled unless in the single instance of the celebrated Spanish writer De Vega.
In 18-26, Sir Walter became deeply involved in the failure of the late Mr. Constable ; the consequences of which, unless the publie shall step in to prevent them, must press heavily on his children. A letter from Abbotsford, which appeared in the Times of yesterday, says- " It will afflict every body to hear, what I fear they will now do, that Sir Walter Scott, after breaking down his gigantic constitution by his efforts to discharge the embarrassments in which he was involved through the ruin of his booksellers in December 1825, has laboured, though not in vain, without even approaching the object lie had in view. It is generally understood, that half the creditors will remain unpaid ; that a deeply-encumbered estate is all that will go with the title ; and that beyond this there will be nothing for the family."
The same journal, with much feeling and eloquence, had previously stated more generally the same fact, and had pointed out the propriety of a subscription among the infinite admirers of the deceased, to rescue from poverty the descendants of the greatest literary character that has appeared in our times, or perhaps in any other ; and more espe- cially to save from dispersion and dilapidation those collections of sci- ence and art in which his happy leisure was spent, and that mansion and those domains which he delighted to adorn and to cultivate. Al- ready a public meeting has been suggested, and we have no doubt will be speedily held. One public meeting is not, however, enough. There ought to be a meeting in every town in the empire, and a committee formed for the collection of this truly national tribute. The newspa- pers may do much with small cost, by giving, besides their own mite, gratuitous insertion to the advertised subscriptions. Although but cleavers of wood and drawers of water, we have still a common in- terest in and a common affection for the welfare of that glorious temple of which the departed was so long the high priest. It is supposed that Sir Walter's entire estate, his whole collections of what description soever, the copyrights of his works, his private letters even, all of which be has by will devoted to that sacred purpose, would not nearly suffice to satisfy his creditors.
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