and he must needs take a step which, while it ultimately led to material prosperity, exerted likewise a powerful influence in casting the products of his muse in the mould of a wistful remembrance and pathetic love of country. At one point in his Memoir, Mr. Latto recounts an incident, which, to lovers of everything relating to Burns, is perhaps the most interesting event in the life of Ainslie. Before bidding farewell to Scotland, just as he was on a last visit to his native district, a desire seized him to turn aside to Dumfries and see Jean Armour who had now been living there in widowhood for twenty-six years. After having spent some hours with the worthy lady, who treated the ardent young worshipper of her late husband with dignified motherly regard, the time came for parting. Ainslie, with a chivalric and impulsive frankness, which well illustrates his character, said, as he grasped her hand in farewell, “I wad like weel ere I gae, if ye wad permit me, to kiss the cheek o' Burns's faithfu' Jean, to be a reminder to me o' this meetin' when I am far awa'." With matronly indulgence she held up her face to him and said “Aye lad, an' welcome." Such consent was as gracious on her part as the request was bold and gallant on his, and had he been a mere rhymer, hungry for notoriety, vanity would have bade him fill pages with such an exploit done into verse. But we know of no evidence that he ever made it known beyond the circle of his own intimate friends, or sought to commemorate it even in the briefest way; so that it is only now, long after his death, that the interview he held sacred has been made public in this country.

In a short time after his visit to Dumfries, Ainslie sought in the New World those better fortunes which had evaded him at home. After much vicissitude and many struggles he at length succeeded in establishing himself in comparative comfort, and in 1855 he found leisure to publish a volume which made him known in his adopted home as a Scottish poet of rare ability. The book became so scarce, however, as to be practically beyond the reach of readers of the present generation on this side the Atlantic.

While yet a hale and hearty old man of threescore and ten, the poet made a prolonged stay in Scotland and greatly enjoyed a renewal of the acquaintance of his youth. After three years so spent he once more returned to America, there to pass the

remaining years of his life, with his family grown up around him and become even more prosperous than himself, and at length ended his days in peace at the ripe age of 86.

All these salient facts of the poet's career, and many others naturally clustering around them, are set forth with a loving hand by Mr Latto, who enjoyed his friendship to the last.

The "Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns," which occupies the middle section of this volume, was, as already indicated, the first published production of its author. It purports to describe in a lively style the progress of three hilarious young fellows, who set out from Edinburgh in a one-horse chaise to journey through the localities, and halt at the spots, then become so memorable through their connection with Robert Burns. After various preliminary adventures in Lanarkshire, the pilgrims, named respectively Edie Ochiltree, Jinglin' Jock, and the Lang Linker, find their way into the shire of Ayr, through which their course follows the meandering of three well-known streams-the Irvine, the Ayr, and the Girvan. Soon they reach Burns Cottage, where they encounter Miller Goudie, who, in his muddled way did the honours of the house, and amply fulfilled what expectation they had formed as regards his bibulous and blethering propensities. Ainslie dubs him "an old drunken multure," and herein he agrees with the poet Keats, who had visited the same spot two years previously, and wrote afterwards of Goudie in the most contemptuous terms as "a mahogany-faced old jackass," who boasted of his familiarity with Burns, but who ought to have been kicked for having ever spoken to the bard. At Alloway Kirk the three enthusiasts are represented as holding high carnival on one of the gravestones, expressing themselves copiously in speech and song, as became worshippers who had arrived at "the very core of their pilgrimage." Thence they travelled southward from point to point towards “Girvan's fairy haunted stream," each incident or association on the way suggesting a subject for the exercise of the talents of the company, the road being beguiled by the liberation, from time to time, of the superabundance of animal spirits with which the young men were endowed. Going and returning, they encountered various characters, whose different humours and foibles are recorded or rhymed as the impulse might dictate ; and they ended their wanderings at Mauchline, where they

thoroughly pried into every known nook and cranny where Burns had set his foot, lingering there with all the reverent curiosity of genuine devotees. In his Memoir of our author, Mr. Latto tells us that when the "Pilgrimage" was published it was noticed by the poet Campbell in the "New Monthly Magazine," of which he was editor, and there characterised as "a lively and entertaining volume with a mixture of the jocular, the serious, and the sentimental, which gives it considerable piquancy and renders it an agreeable companion for an idle hour." The reviewer also quotes in full two poems contained in the work, "On wi' the Tartan," and "The Ingleside," as "simple and beautiful" examples of its poetry. As regards its prose, the "Pilgrimage" may be chargeable with some of the faults and extravagances of a youthful production, but if there be such they virtuously lean to the side of generosity and enthusiasm.

The idea of such an excursion as is here recorded was somewhat unique when we remember that it was conceived at a time when, although Boswell and Hamilton Paul had by themselves projected and so far realised a commemorative shrine, there was as yet no completed Monument of the Ayrshire Bard extant, and that it was not until twenty-four years later that the nation was fully awakened to the imperishable genius of Robert Burns. Doubtless Ainslie's main object in the publication of the "Pilgrimage" was to use it as a setting to the poems he had already written, and as an acceptable vehicle by which, as the most important and valuable part of the work, they might reach the public eye. At all events the author's claim to be the first to give the title "Land of Burns" to the districts now so familiar to us under that designation, is acknowledged on all hands, and whatever the merits of its prose, the "Pilgrimage" contains many of the poetic gems which have established Ainslie's reputation, and which in his later years he never surpassed. To make this evident we have but to name the charming "Bourocks o' Bargeny," the pathetic "It's dowie at the hint o' hairst," the quaint "Ballad to the Bat," the bold "Rover o' Lochryan" and the pawkie and powerful "Tam o' the Balloch." These lyrics have a flavour and potency all their own, for although written by an intense admirer of Robert Burns -who, in the matter of form, is so readily seized for imitation by

mediocrity-their author betrays less of the dominating influence of his great predecessor than perhaps any subsequent Scottish singer; while in spirit, he approaches him nearer than any. We cannot now dwell on the remaining section of the volume, which consists of poems published in America, and many others which, in a collected form, have not hitherto seen the light. All who cling to the vernacular and believe in its power of expression should procure the book and read and study for themselves, and thus become acquainted with the life and works of a gifted, genial and enthusiastic master of the "braid Scots " tongue. Two admirable portraits of Hew Ainslie, one in youth and one in age, set his likeness before the reader, and make the book more interesting; while it is still further embellished by profiles of the three Pilgrims, and skilful reproductions of three engravings which appeared in the original edition of the "Pilgrimage," representing respectively Alloway Kirk, the Auld Brig, and Mauchline Kirk in the time of Burns. Mr. Gardner has fully sustained the reputation of the Paisley press, by the enterprising issue of a volume, which, by its outward elegance, clear typography, and valuable contents, lays Scotsmen under obligations which they will best discharge by placing it next to Burns in their collection of the Scottish poets.

JOHN NEWLANDS.

BURNS: THE NATIONAL BARD AND THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER OF HIS AGE. BY JOHN PATON, BARRHEAD.

ΤΗ

`HIS pamphlet is the production of a thoroughly original mind. Mr Paton, himself a life-long abstainer and temperance lecturer, is conscientiously convinced that the writings of Burns are not only all upon the side of temperance, but that they were the first substantial contribution to the literature of the question in Scotland. To their influence upon the popular mind he attributes much of the progress that teetotal principles have made amongst the masses during the course of the present century, and though Burns is often quoted as upholding the other side of the question, such quotations do him injustice, inasmuch as they ignore the whole tenor of his teaching, and are entirely misleading when divorced from the context, or their leading motive misinterpreted. "Burns,” says the author, “contrasts the people's heroic toil, temperance, and economy, with the drunken, wasteful, debauched, miserable existence of the nobility-and their sober, affectionate, peaceful, devout Saturday nights, with the drunken, careless, sensual revelry at beggars' lodging-houses. In these contrasts he presents the certainty of progress and national stability, with the certainty of retrogression and national decay. The sober, toiling, thrifty poor are the life of the nation : its health, growth, and vigour depend on them: this is the gospel Burns preached for 'Scotland's sake.' The time has surely now come when the attitude of Burns to his country and to the obstacle that retards its progress can be asserted and vindicated." The mission of the Bard was to display and magnify the spirit of industrialism in the moral grandeur which sustains the toiler for independence. If he himself fell short of his own ideal, the environment of his life and times accounts for all his imperfections. Drinking was a universal custom in his day; so much so that it had contaminated even the ceremonies of public devotion; and in that and many other of its manifestations the national vice received from him its death-blow. It was the savage hospitality" of "private parties in the family way"