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feel to be suitable in the like circumstances. It is alike in humour and in the serious or sentimental. Never does Burns fail to be true, simple, and direct, and rarely, accordingly, do his verses fail to paint themselves upon the imagination of the reader. I must, after all, hesitate about the place which ought to be assigned to him among the British poets. Since his own day, he has advanced immensely in consideration; and perhaps he is only now as Shakspeare was in the time of Dryden and Rowe. What the British opinion may ultimately decide about one who drew so faithfully ard sang so sweetly, it might be rash to vaticinate.

POSTHUMOUS HISTORY OF BURNS.

BURNS died, not exactly in pressing indigence or privation, but without possessing any such amount of property as could place his widow and children above more than immediate want. It is not, everything considered, so wonderful that he left his family in these circumstances, as that he died free of debt except to a comparatively trifling amount. This is indeed a fact highly remarkable, and one which reflects a peculiar lustre upon the name of Burns. The money realised by his poems appears to have been expended by the time he left Ellisland; he obtained no more that we are aware of from that source, excepting the small sum thrust upon him by Mr Thomson. He had lived four and a half years in Dumfries, with an ascertained income which was for some time as low as L.50, and never rose above L.70 a year,'2 with a

1 It has been repeatedly stated in so many words, that Burns died free of debt. This, even by his own confession (letter to his brother, July 10, 1796), is not strictly true. Besides the amount of the unfortunate account which had been presented at so unsuiting a time, he had small accounts due to other tradesmen. The poet would also appear to have never quite succeeded in squaring accounts with his landlord, Captain Hamilton. The interest of his countrymen about every authentic particular respecting Burns, seems to give these small matters a title to be noticed. I deem it probable, after all, that the total amount of our poet's debts did not much exceed thirty pounds. The following letter from Gilbert Burns to Mr Wallace, writer in Dumfries, throws some light on the subject, while still further confirming the fact, that Mr James Clarke, the schoolmaster, was a debtor of Burns:

MOSSGIEL, 1st Jan. 1797.

MR WALLACE-Sir, I intended to have been in Dumfries about this time, to have paid off my brother's debts; but I find much difficulty in sparing as much money. I think of offering Captain Hamilton and Mr Williamson the half of their accts, and begging a little time to pay the other half. If Mr Clark pay up his bill, I hope to be able to pay off the smaller accts. I beg you will write me your opinion immediately on this subject. Will you have the goodness to mention this to them, which will save me some uneasiness when I come to Dumfries, which I think will be in two or three weeks, unless I have occasion to delay it till Dumfries fair? I beg that you will smooth the way to me in this business as much as you I do feel much hurt at it; but, as I suppose the delay can be no great inconvenience to the gentlemen, I hope they will be indulgent to me. I am, sir, your GILBERT BURNS.

can.

most obedt humble sert,

2 Currie.

family of seven or eight individuals to support, and this at a time when the necessaries of life were considerably dearer than they usually are now; and yet he had exercised so much prudence and self-denial, that only a few pounds stood at his debit when he died. On the other side of the account, we find the L.180 which he had advanced from the profits of his poems to his brother, books to the value of about L.90, and his household furniture. The draft for L.10 sent by Mr Burnes, and that for L.5 sent by Mr Thomson, lay unrealised in the widow's possession, and formed the subject of a legal writ issued by the Commissary of Dumfries on the ensuing 6th of October, confirming to her, 'executrix qua relict to the umquhile Robert Burns,' the use of the sums which they represented.

While Burns lay dead in his house, his friend Mr Lewars addressed a letter to Mr Burnes of Montrose, informing him of the melancholy event, and apologising for the delay of an answer to his late kind communication, on the ground that, at the time it was received, 'Mr Burns was totally unable either to write or dictate a letter.' It is pleasing to mention, as a trait honourable to the family to which the poet belonged, that Mr Burnes immediately sent a letter of the kindest condolence to the widow, offering to do anything in his power to alleviate her affliction. This, be it remembered, was not a rich man, and he had a family of his own to provide for; yet, apparently as a simple matter of course, he offered to relieve the widow of the charge of her eldest son, and to educate him with his own children: he also enclosed an additional sum of L.5, to relieve her immediate necessities. Adverting, moreover, to what the poet had told him of his brother Gilbert's debt, he counselled, as the payment would be hard upon that respectable man, that she should, as far as circumstances permitted, 'use lenity in settling with him.' Mrs Burns replied in suitable terms of gratitude to Mr Burnes, but declined, in the meantime, to part with any of her children: she heartily concurred in the feeling which dictated his allusion to Gilbert. It may here be added, that this excellent man, who had long struggled under great difficulties at Mossgiel, made up his mind at his brother's death to sell off all he possessed, in order to obtain the means of discharging the debt he owed to the destitute Dumfries family. It is most pleasing to record, that Mrs Robert Burns, setting aside all regard to her own necessities, resolutely forbade the proposed step being taken. The debt was not paid till twenty-four years after, and it seems to have then been paid without interest; but during the whole time of its currency, Gilbert had maintained his mother, a burden with which the poet in life would have been partly chargeable, and he had also taken charge of the poet's eldest son

DR CURRIE CALLED TO ACT AS EDITOR.

223 for several years. Poverty, it must be admitted, has its immediate evils; but when it gives occasion, as in the instances now under our attention, to generous self-sacrifice amongst those connected by the ties of blood, it appears, in contrast with the sordid emotions too often excited by world's wealth, a blessing, and this not merely to those who well sustain its pressure, but to all who have hearts to be touched and spirits to be chastened by the noble examples it sets before them.

Immediately after the death of Burns, his friend Syme began to exert himself with the greatest zeal and assiduity in rousing public feeling in behalf of the widow and children. With him was associated in his task Dr William Maxwell, the medical attendant of the poet-a man of somewhat singular character and attainments. The popular report regarding him was, that, having been at the medical schools of Paris in the heat of the Revolution, he had contracted democratic sentiments; had acted as one of the national guard round the scaffold of Louis XVI., and dipped his handkerchief in the royal blood. Recently returned to his own country, he had commenced practice in Dumfries, but was as yet only laying the foundations of that high professional character which he subsequently perfected. He had attended Burns in his last illness, and participated strongly in the interest occasioned by his premature death. He accordingly entered at once, and with the greatest cordiality, into the project for the benefit of the poet's family. To Syme and him was immediately added Mr Alexander Cunningham, the bard's principal Edinburgh friend, and one not less eager to do whatever was in his power in a cause so dear to charity. From some one of these three men had, in all probability, proceeded the newspaper announcement which has been quoted. It contains a passage which could never have been allowed to be published, if Burns had left a grown-up instead of an infant family; but it also presents a gratifying proof of the activity of the men in the benevolent object which they sought to advance.

Syme had an old college friend in practice as a physician at Liverpool, a man of excellent literary talents, whom an affinity of tastes had brought into intimacy with Mr William Roscoe, of that town. The person meant was Dr James Currie, who has since been so well known as the biographer and editor of Burns, but who at this time enjoyed only a dubious fame, as the supposed author of Jasper Wilson's Letter to Mr Pitt, a pamphlet in which the war had been deprecated with a power of reasoning far from pleasing to the administration. Currie, who was the son of a Scotch clergyman, and a native of Dumfriesshire, had read Burns's poems on their first appearance with the keenest relish

of their beauties; and he had received, from a casual interview with the poet at Dumfries in 1792, the impression that he was a man of marvellous general talents as well as a charming Doric poet. On now hearing of the death of Burns, he expressed to Syme a strong interest in the intended subscription, and also in the preparation of the life and posthumous works of the poet. Before a month had elapsed from the poet's death, we find that he had collected forty or fifty guineas for the family. He was at the same time writing about the proposed publication, in such terms as amounted to an offer of his own literary assistance to any extent that might be desired. For some time, there seems to have been an uncertainty as to the selection of an editor and biographer for Burns. Professor Stewart was the first person thought of. Another was Mrs Walter Riddel. Dr Currie thought so well of Syme's talents, as to press the undertaking upon him. But it was finally settled, in September, and very fortunately so, that this duty should devolve upon Dr Currie.

Meanwhile, the subscription went on, but not flourishingly. In Dumfriesshire, somewhat more than L.100 had been contributed within the first three months. In Liverpool, Dr Currie gathered seventy guineas. Let it not be too surprising that the contribution from Edinburgh had not, by the end of the year, gone much beyond the latter sum, though Burns had there had many admirers and not a few friends. Every one who has had aught to do with the collection of subscriptions for charitable objects, must know how little will come spontaneously from even those circles where the purpose of the collection is presumed to be most cordially contemplated, and how many who might be expected to give liberally give nothing. Accidental importunities here and there determine the result. It does not appear that any efforts were made in Scotland beyond the publication of advertisements in the newspapers. In London, there was greater success, and the entire sum realised was L.700.1 For the support of the widow and her five boys, this was evidently inadequate; but it was hoped that the posthumous publication would realise such an addition, as might make a tolerable provision in a style not inferior to that in which the family had previously lived.

In the collection of Burns's letters and fugitive poems, Mr Syme was laudably diligent during the latter part of 1796, and considerable success attended his efforts. The letters to Mrs Dunlop were recovered, on the condition of hers to Burns being returned to herself. Those to Clarinda remained with herself, as unsuitable for the public, excepting a few passages, which she promised to

1 See Appendix, No. 14.

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