THE MURISON COLLECTION.

SIR A. GIBB HONOURED.

SIR

IR ALEXANDER GIBB, the donor of the Murison Collection of Burns's Works to the Carnegie Library, Dunfermline, was honoured at dinner in the Burns House, Glasgow, on 9th December last, by the Burns Federation, and from the hands of the president, Duncan M⭑Naught, LL.D., who presided over a large and enthusiastic meeting, received an illuminated address enclosed in a case of Levant morocco, bearing in gilt the arms designed by the Poet himself. The address is executed in black, red, and gold. Among those present were Dr M'Naught, Sir Alexander Gibb, Mr Thomas Amos, secretary of the Federation; Major G. A. Innes, treasurer; Mr J. Jeffrey Hunter, senior vicepresident; Mr Thomas Killin, Glasgow Mauchline Society; Sir Robert Wilson, Mr Hugh M'Coll, president, Old Glasgow Club; Provost Norval, Dunfermline; Mr Andrew Shearer, Town Clerk, Dunfermline; Mr P. Paterson, Mr J. C. Ewing, and Mr T. C. F. Brotchie.

After the usual royal and patriotic toasts the Chairman, in presenting Sir Alexander Gibb with the address, said they would remember that 18 months ago he had the honour to present an illuminated address and commemorative album to Colonel John Gribbel, of Philadelphia. Two valuable manuscripts of Robert Burns were carried off to America, and they considered they were lost to the Scottish nation, but they were agreeably surprised when they were returned by Mr Gribbel, into whose possession they had come. Acting on that good example they had Sir Alexander Gibb coming forward in the same way. It might be said his gift was a local gift, but just as Mr Gribbel's was a national gift united with a locality, so Sir Alexander Gibb's was a local gift which was associated with the whole

nation, for the manuscripts were placed in the Carnegie Library, open to all students of Burns. They would all have noticed in Mondays Glasgow Herald the sad news of the death of Mr Murison, and they regretted deeply the passing of a very old friend.

Continuing, Dr M'Naught con

gratulated Sir Alexander Gibb on his enterprise and generosity. Whenever he received the report of this collection and its value, he at once purchased it. If the collection had not been purchased at that time it would assuredly have gone to the salerooms and been dispersed, never again to be brought together. Speaking of the personal qualities

of Sir Alexander, he said the highest compliment he could pay him was to tell him he was a thorough Burns man, imbued with the Burns spirit, the man of independent mind, and the manly heart with love o'erflowing." The deus ex machina all through had been Mr Peter Paterson, who had many good qualities, but he (the president) admired most his perseverance and tenacity of purpose.

Mr Amos then read the terms of the Address, which were as follow:

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To Sir Alexander Gibb, G.B.E., C.B., Hon. President Burns Federation.

"Sir,-The Burns Federation, representing 300 Burns clubs throughout the world, hereby desire to convey to you their high appreciation of your generosity in presenting to Dunfermline the valuable collections of Burns books and relics known as the Murison Collection.

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They also desire to acknowledge the wisdom you have displayed in the housing of your valuable gift in the Burns Room of the Carnegie Public Library, where every facility will be provided for the convenience of all admirers and students of the works of our National Bard, thereby rendering your gift a national one, entitling you to the gratitude of all your fellow-countrymen.

"We ask you to accept this address as an inadequate expression of the feelings which inspired it, accompanied by the fervent hope that your honoured and useful life may long be spared to your country.-D. M'Naught, hon. president; Thomas Amos, hon. secretary; Geo. A. Innes, hon. treasurer."

The president handed the address to Sir Alexander Gibb and invited the company to pledge the long life, continued health, and prosperity of their guest.

Sir Alexander Gibb, in reply, said he felt overwhelmed that such an honour should have been done him by the Federation on account of so light an act on his part, but he could assure them he appreciated it from the bottom of

his heart, and there was nothing he had in his possession which he prized more than that beautiful address. It would go down as an heirloom. He had only one other heirloom-a silver tray presented to his great-grandfather, John Gibb, who built the old Glasgow Bridge. (Applause.) Continuing, Sir Alexander said that anything to do with Burns lay very close to his heart. The Burns spirit was one of the finest spirits in the whole world. He was exceedingly proud to be there, and to add another to the many links he had with Glasgow. He worked in Glasgow 28 years ago, and he had carried away with him a great love of the city and its people. There was a feeling of homeliness and kindness that one did not meet with elsewhere.

Provost Norval, proposing The Burns Federation," to which Mr J. Jeffrey Hunter replied, said that they had now completed the equipment of the Burns Room in the Carnegie Library, and he thought Sir Alexander would agree that a most adequate setting had been given to the magnificent jewel he had presented to them. It had already proved a great attraction to Burns lovers, not only throughout our own country, but all over the world, and Dunfermline was exceedingly proud of it.

REVIEWS.

"THE TRUTH ABOUT BURNS."

By Duncan M‘Naught, LL.D. [Review by James A. Morris, A.R.S.A., F.R.B.A., Alloway Burns Club.]

Dr M'Naught's book, The Truth About Burns, has been worth waiting for, and in its opening sentence he states its purpose: "This volume is the outcome of many urgent representations from all quarters that the time had arrived for a new Life of Burns in the light of the countervailing evidence which has accumulated during the last quarter of a century." That is the intention and spirit of the book to discount error and establish truth, and in doing so to " nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.”

He shows how Currie, Burns's first biographer, was perhaps among the least fitted of all men to write about Burns, much less to attempt to portray Burns. Depending upon second-hand information lamentably inaccurate and imperfectly understood, Dr Currie yet set himself to the task. Pathetically incompetent and inept, seeking largely his own glorification, he essayed that which was beyond him, as beyond most men: the delineation of the incomprehensible, the portraiture of the soul from the skeleton of death. Yet this travesty of the truth, this web of fiction and pedantry spun by Currie with no doubt excellent intent, has, until recent years, been accepted almost universally as authoritative, and it has been largely built upon by successive biographers as an established record of fact. It was high time, therefore, that a more modest book should be written, recording the actual data as disclosed by recent research, and so clear away the unkind myths and cobwebs initially sĮ un by Currie. Lockhart and Chambers did good work patiently and with care, and Scott Douglas recorded and tabulated diligently; but even these, while noting errors and discrepancies, laboured under the difficulty of a middle period, in which the truth was only partially known. Dr Wallace's Life was the first of real authority, but even it is in part judicially inconclusive and temperamentally over-cautious regarding certain of the more pronounced episodes. All interested in Burns must needs be grateful to him for his scholarly volumes, while the publication of his Robert Burns and Mrs Dunlop " letters did much to increase the general knowledge of the man. Henley's Life may be largely discounted, for while full of brilliant and incisive invective, not so much against Burns as against the cult of Burns, and salted with bitterness against all cant and