The deeply touched as they stood around the grave. monument was re-erected over the grave in the cemetery. PRESERVING THE CONTINUITY. What with pedantry, formalism, and the lack of publicity, the old Club had tended to become rather a close corporation. The members guarded the doors with a jealousy worthy of the rigorous tyling of a secret society. The admission of a new member became a matter of consequence" The meeting then proceeded in the usual manner to nominate the following gentlemen to the distinguished grade of membership," and, if the applicants were successful in the strict balloting which took place at a future meeting, they were "admitted with the usual ceremony." After 1859 there was a quickened interest in the doings of the Club. But by the late But by the late "seventies" and the early "eighties" the membership had dwindled seriously, and the Club's influence was lost. The last ode, composed for the occasion, was read in 1883, when the toast of "The Local Bards " was again honoured. A member proposed that, "as the old members were dying out, new blood should be introduced into the constitution of the Club." Such a revolutionary proposal was rejected with scorn. 66 They kept the feast" till 1886, and this is part of the minute of the old Club's last official celebration"It was agreed that a special meeting be held at an early date to consider the propriety of amalgamating with the Junior Club, and thus preserving the continuity of a Club which was the first in the world to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the Poet Burns." AMALGAMATION. There were restless spirits in the town, devoted admirers of Burns, who determined that their admiration should have fuller expression than was possible through the existing Burns Club. At a meeting held on 22nd September, 1885, it was agreed that the gentlemen present should form themselves into an association with a view to amalgamating with the existing Club. The amalgamation was negotiated, and the formalities were strictly observed. The special meeting of the old Burns Club was held on 28th January, 1886. Amalgamation was agreed to, and it was unanimously resolved to hand over the books and documents to the new Club. The old members signed the rules, and with the property they brought themselves. The first meeting after the amalgamation was extremely interesting, but with the rejoicing there was a strange mingling of emotional reminiscence. That the continuity of the Greenock Burns Club was preserved was the one great fact that gave solace to the veterans. THE MODERN CLUB. 66 The advent of the new organisation, a gloriously revivified Burns Club, gave great delight in the town and district, the proofs of which were almost immediately manifest. There was a rush of applicants for admission. In a very short time there were over two hundred members, and in three years a limit of three hundred members had to be adopted. Almost every influential public man in the town joined and was in active interest. With the varied and vigorous activities of the modernised club it is not possible here to deal at length. It developed on generous lines its Bursary and Children's Competition schemes. The Competitions were begun in the Old Club as far back as 1806, and carried on intermittently for many years. This work has been in abeyance since the War, but is being revived. The Club's interest in "the Vernacular " is not a new interest. The Club supports an ambitious Lecture scheme; its list of honorary presidents and honorary members in I cludes many of the eminent men of its time; and its celebration of the Poet's birthday is an occasion of distinction. Since 1890 the Club has been housed in a suite of handsome rooms adorned with pictures, signed portraits, literary curios and Burns relics, and it has a valuable Library mainly of Scottish literature. No sketch of Greenock Burns Club would be proper without a renewed tribute to the genius, devotion, and self-sacrifice of Jas. B. Morison, its Secretary for seventeen years. The Club has had a full rich life, and is naturally proud of its lineage. It has never ceased even in its darkest days (and these indeed were comparatively few) to promote the objects for which it was founded. Some of the men who founded it in those far-back days had known Burns on terms of warm and intimate friendship. It was no freak of fashion, but a "love's urge," that determined those men in Greenock to celebrate his birthday. The spirit that animated them is the same as now, but their personal knowledge of him is the Club's heritage. That is why Mother Club has always felt as if she and Robert Burns shook hands only the other day. CHAS. L. BRODIE. N a That, Man is the only creature cap-". ble of enjoying an eminent degree of felicity, is Iruth so evident and so generaly admitted, that, it were foolish to labour its proof. An indulgent. Nature, ever attentive to the happiness of her 248- spring, has enriched the world with man of sux -perior intellect, who, by the splendour of their Genius, and the fascinating Charms of their writings, have, like the sun, which dissipates the vapours of the night, dispersed the bark clouds of Ignorance; have taught the cacant hours of life to steal on with uninterruptic plicity; and thus, in an eminent degres, contributed to the happiness of Mankind. then Shall w Virtues are your Memories; your. already graven on our hearts, and the tears of honest gratitude shalt bedew your tombs: Posterity wie imitate and applaud the deed, and your prond names shali roll thro an eteority of years. Animated by their reflections, a number the ado -miners in the Star. Inn Paisley, to celebrate his memory, where of a beautiful, transparent bust the Baro, painted by the Company, amounting to mar seventy, sat down to Supper, after which, the Bresident (William M'daven) addreford the company as FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF PORTION OF FIRST MINUTE OF PAISLEY BURNS CLUB OF (In handwritin obert |