ROBERT BURNS AS A VOLUNTEER : SOME FRESH FACTS FROM THE MINUTE BOOK OF THE CORPS. FEV EW men of genius have had to run the gauntlet of criticism more searching, more diverse, and more prolonged than Robert Burns. In his own time it was directed chiefly from a rigid ecclesiastical system, and from the general atmosphere of self-righteousness which that creed encouraged. The criticism has been continued in our own day from totally different angles, the insanityof-genius school regarding Burns less as a conscious sinner, than as the victim of his own genius; and what may be called the curiosities-of-literature view-point, which finds a fascination in the conflict between his narrow material environment and his spacious spiritual vision. Between all the shafts of criticism Burns has become a sorely battered target, and it would need a vast volume to refute the charges that have been brought against him. The harsh criticism to which Burns has been subjected is due largely to his biographers-never was man more unfortunate in his biographers-who too readily accepted the sordid stories which probably originated in the minds of the Poet's political opponents, provincial scandalmongers, and vindictive victims of that wit which "had always the start of his judgment." These stories, handed from inaccurate biographer to unsuspecting biographer, have become part of the voluminous literature that has gathered about the name of the Inspired Ploughman, and that has been drawn upon by those who have directed their shafts at his character. More than sixty years ago the dull-looking "Excise Register of Censures," discovered at Somerset House, rescued one side of the Poet's character, and now, a hundred and twenty-two years after Burns's death, an obscure manuscript volume of the Minutes of the Dumfries Volunteers has come to light to confound the critics still further. The great value of the new discovery lies in this, that the Volunteers set up a standard of discipline in some ways even more rigid than that of the Church, and yet Burns stands the test and comes off with flying colours. His attitude to his military duties shows that his membership was not, as has been suggested, a mere piece of hypocrisy meant to deceive or placate his superiors in the Excise, who told him, when he sought to defend his attitude to the French Revolution, that his duty was " to act-not to think." Burns's work as a Volunteer has hitherto either been minimised or misinterpreted. It is true that Allan Cunningham said that he remembered well "the appearance of that respectable Corps;.. and I remember the Poet also-his very swarthy face, his ploughman's stoop, his large dark eyes, and his indifferent dexterity in the handling of his arms."* We know that Colonel de Peyster, "the honoured Colonel to whom Burns addressed his "Ode on Life," declared that Burns faithfully discharged his soldierly duties, and was the pride of his Corps. We have been told further that Burns, when on his deathbed, is reported to have jocularly pleaded with a friend not to allow his fellow-Volunteers-" the awkward squad," he called them-to fire a volley over his grave, and we have also been told that that volley was fired in the straggling manner feared by the Poet. In Ainslie's Pilgrimage in the Land of Burns, printed at Deptford in 1822, is the following" Once when the Corps were exercising in firing, after a few bad discharges, the Captain asked: 'Is this your erratic genius, Mr Burns, that is spoiling our fire?' No! it can't be me, Captain,' said Burns, for look, I have forgot my flint.' It was Cunningham who said: "It is very true that his accession [to the ranks] was * 66 'Honest Allan must always be taken with a pinch of salt. objected to by some of his neighbours, but these were overruled by the gentlemen who took the lead in the business, and the Poet soon became, as might have been expected, the greatest possible favourite with his brothersin-arms." This statement will be dealt with later. This is the gist of practically all that has, up till now, been published regarding Burns's life as a Volunteer. Several of his biographers attach so little importance to his enlistment in the Royal Dumfries Volunteers that they do not even mention it. Other writers refer to the Poet's enlistment only as an explanation of the existence of the song, "The Dumfries Volunteers," or as a proof that the Poet was a patriotic Briton, despite his sympathy with the French people. In point of fact, as we shall see, he was not only an enthusiast but a leader of the movement, and that, too, at a period which has frequently been regarded as the least admirable of his short life. To say, as has been said by more than one essayist, that Burns became a Volunteer "to prove his loyalty to the Government," is an insult to the memory of the Poet. A military life always had an attraction for Burns. Not only did he as a child "strut in raptures up and down after the recruiting drum and bagpipe, and wish myself tall enough to be a soldier," but in 1782, when his flaxdressing venture literally ended in smoke, he consoled himself thus : "O why the deuce should I repine, An' be an ill foreboder? I'm twenty-three, and five-feet-nine, Writing to Mrs Dunlop in 1787, and referring to a suggestion made by her, he said: "Would the profits of that [second and third editions of his poems] afford, I would take the hint of a military life as the most congenial to my feelings and situation." Again, a year later, he wrote to Miss Margaret Chalmers: "Your friendship I can count on, though I should date my letter from a marching regiment. Early in life, and all my life, I reckoned on a recruiting drum as my forlorn hope." It will thus be seen that Burns needed no great incitement to take up arms when the call came; and there can be no doubt that he became a Volunteer, as so many of his fellow-townsmen and fellow-countrymen did, because he was opposed to the turbulent crowd who would have set the mob aboon the throne," and wished to do his part in preventing social disorder, and because he believed that his country was in danger of invasion. It was such a 66 crisis as this that would revive the flame kindled in his breast by the story of the Liberator of Scotland, which, as he explained to Dr Moore, the father of General Sir John Moore," poured a Scottish prejudice into my veins which will boil along there till the floodgates of life shut in eternal rest." Not only did Burns join the Dumfries Volunteers, but, like Sir Walter Scott in Edinburgh, he assisted in creating the force; he attended a meeting summoned by the Deputy Lord-Lieutenant of that part of the county, Mr David Staig, the Provost of Dumfries (and the father of Jessie Staig, to whom Burns paid several poetical compliments), to discuss how best they could serve their native land in the time of crisis, and when the meeting resolved to form a Volunteer Company, Robert Burns's name was among the signatories to the petition for the necessary permission. The first entry in the Corps Minute Book referred to, sets out that this meeting, at which the Dumfries Volunteer movement was inaugurated, was held in the Court House, on 31st January, 1795. With the Deputy-Lieutenant were his two bailies and the leading professional and business men of the town, the list and subsequent signatories* including John Syme of Ryedale and James Gray, staunchest of Burns's friends; Dr Maxwell, the friend of the French Revolution; Dr John Harley, John Armstrong, writer, who became secretary to the Corps; Rev. Dr Wm. Burn * See Note A, page 20. 66 side,* chaplain to the Corps, minister of St. Michael's, where Burns occasionally worshipped; Rev. Dr Wm. Babington, Episcopal minister in Dumfries; Thomas White (probably of Dumfries Academy); David Newall, solicitor; Captain John Hamilton, the Poet's landlord; Lieut.-Col. A. S. de Peyster, the "respected Colonel" of the “Ode on Life"; Captain John Finnan, in whose company Burns was later enrolled; James Gracie, banker, the Gracie, thou art a man of worth "; "Old Q.'s chamberlain, John M'Murdo, writer, whose praises and those of his daughters, a "bonnie Jean" and "Phyllis the Fair," Burns sang; Francis Shortt, town clerk, a lieutanant in the Corps, and secretary of the Loyal Native Club, which was pilloried by the Poet in the well-known quatrain; Alexander Findlater, his co-worker and superior in the Excise; John Lewars, another Excise Officer, and brother of Jessie, who attended Burns on his deathbed, and who is enshrined in "The Toast and in several other complimentary verses; and David Williamson, the rendering of whose account for the dying Poet's volunteer uniform drove him into a paroxysm of anger and the humiliating position of having to beg James Thomson and his cousin James Burness for a few pounds. The meeting on 31st January declared its "sincere attachment to the happy Constitution of Great Britain, and our firm resolution on every occasion to protect the lives and properties of ourselves and fellow-subjects from *At the meeting Mr Staig produced a letter from Dr Burnside in which the reverend gentleman said that although he did not think it perfectly accorded with his professional character and engagements to enrol among the Volunteers, and, if he did, from his rheumatic ailments he could be of very little use in any active service, yet, to show his good wishes towards so useful and laudable a design, he was ready and willing to subscribe for the use of the Corps, to be applied as they might think best, a sum equal to what it would cost him to be completely accoutred and fitted out as one of the line. The Rev. Dr Babington made a similar proposal. Both were accepted, and the thanks of the meeting were voted them for "such a genteel offer," |