ROBERT BURNS AND LONDON.

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ORD Rosebery once suggested, as a subject for study, what would have been the result if Burns had gone into exile in Jamaica. Even more interesting would it be to consider what might have happened had he accepted the invitation to become a journalist in London. Two distinct offers were made and refused, as the change had no attraction for our out-and-out Scot. To him the English were at best an affected people, not particularly to be trusted, and the metropolis, beyond a passing thought of "wealth like Lunnon Bank," occupied small space in his mind.

The first call was in 1789, when Peter Stuart, one of the three Edinburgh brothers who had migrated from the Scottish capital to the English one, in the pursuit of their calling as printers, invited the Poet to join the staff of his new Star, the first London evening paper, or to become a regular contributor. "Write me first post and send me the address of Stuart, publisher of The Star newspaper. By Stuart, I mean the famous Stuart who differed with the rest of the proprietors and set up by himself." Peter ended his partnership with his brothers in the Morning Post to start his own paper. Correspondence between the two had arisen over the monument in Canongate Kirkyard to Robert Fergusson, and actual acquaintance followed during Burns's stay in Auld Reekie. Next week," writes Stuart, "I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you in Edinburgh. There is great rumour here concerning your great intimacy with the Duchess (of Gordon) and other ladies of distinction." Burns refused

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both offers, but became a very casual contributor, not with any particular good will—“ for I would scorn to put my name to a newspaper poem "--but in return for the

supply of the newspaper, and later, as a bribe, in my earnestness to be cleared from the foul aspersions regarding the Duchess of Gordon !" Chambers says the offer for contributions was "a small salary quite as large as his Excise office emoluments !" But it was made and

declined before he entered that service, at a time when he was enamoured of his prospects as a farmer, and interested in getting up a library for his neighbours.

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The second, and more important, offer was in 1794. Cromek is the authority. "In a conversation with his friend, Mr Perry-the proprietor of the Morning Chronicle— Mr Miller (younger of Dalswinton) represented to that gentleman the insufficiency of Burns's salary to answer the imperious demands of a numerous family. In their sympathy for his misfortune, and in their regret that his talents were nearly lost to the world of letters, these gentlemen agreed on the plan of settling him in London. Mr Perry very spiritedly made the Poet a handsome offer of an annual stipend for the exercise of his talents in his newspaper." Burns declined, and in a letter of May, 1794, gave as his reasons his political opinions-which had just before brought him into trouble with his official superiors and his Excise prospects. At that time he seems to have been looking with confidence for a supervisorship. The gift of the four carronades to the French Revolutionary Committee had been condoned, "Scots Wha Hae was published, the Loyal Volunteers were being raised, and "Does Haughty Gaul?" was soon to be written. Sir Walter Scott says Mr Miller seemed to think his refusal was rather to be imputed to his reluctance to part with his associates in Dumfries. I think it must have been a natural dislike of regular labour of a literary kind." But Sir Walter had not seen the letter, and Burns's own reasons, in response to so kind an offer, must be accepted.

The Poet's chief appearances in the London Press are in The Star, and arise in a manner most annoying to him. In the issue of that paper of March 27th, 1789, there appeared the following:

What mighty matters rise from trivial things.'

The chalky hue of the drawing-room is ascribed to the Duchess of Gordon's influence!

We mean not to insinuate that her dress was a makeup; but true it is, she figured at a ball in one very similar t'other year at Edinburgh.

Mr Burns, the ploughing poet, who owes much of his good fortune to her Grace's critical discernment and generous patronage, made this elegant stanza on that occasion:

'She was the mucklest of them aw;

Like Saul she stood the Tribes aboon;
Her gown was whiter than the snaw,
Her face was redder than the moon.

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On the following day the Gazetteer copied the lines, stating they were made by Mr Burns on the occasion of the Duchess's appearance at a ball in white satin.” On March 31st The Star returns to the matter on the authority of a correspondent, who " calls himself the friend of Mr Burns, and assures us we have been misinformed. He affirms that the Bard says not a word of King Saul nor her Grace's auld gown, but celebrates her well-known faculty of reel-dancing. Then follow three verses, beginning :

"She kiltit up her kirtle weel,

To show her bonny cutes so sma';

And walloped about the reel,

The lightest louper o' them a'."

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The printer remarks, We entreat our former correspondent to substantiate the story;" and on 4th April, "solicits, which we earnestly do, the authority, by letter, of Mr Burns himself, to remove the anxiety of the Public by a certain and final decision." The dates of Burns's corrections are wrongly given in Chambers. That to The Star appears on 16th April, and not four days after the letter to The Gazetteer, which is in its issue of 17th April.

Both letters are correctly quoted and can be easily referred to, as also the editor of The Gazetteer's sneering comment as to Burns's petulance, with the announcement that the offending verses were the work of Harry Erskine, lawyer, politician, and wit. It is a fair assumption that their publication and the remarks came from him, either as a dig at the Duchess or Burns, or both. But the following interesting foreword and footnote to the Poet's long letter to The Star have not as yet found their way into print :

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The printer feels himself exceedingly proud of the receipt of the following letter; and as it comes from the pencil of a very ingenious Poet, whose productions are now the delight and admiration of every Reader of Taste, the Printer believes that the best mode of answering the author's intentions is by publication of his sentiments on a subject which appears interesting to his literary reputation.

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The printer has the happiness of flattering himself with an assurance of the future correspondence of Mr Burns, the subsequent flights and inspirations of whose Muse must raise the reputation of the first print."

This was followed by the letter to Mr Peter Stuart, beginning" Mr Printer, your goodness oppresses me," and its request to be addressed as Mr Robert Burns-"“I am not R.B., Esq. No poet, by statute of Parnassus, has a right, as an author, to assume Esquire, except he has had the honour to dedicate, by permission,' to a Prince, if not to a King." Enclosed in it were the dreadful verses to the memory of Mrs Oswald of Auchencruive, beginning "Dweller in yon dungeon dark.” These were not printed, and in this connection it may be noted that some contributions of 1788, mentioned by Chambers, cannot be traced in the files of The Star-notably the long and heavy letter of 8th November on Revolution, and the Address of the Scottish Distillers to the Right Honourable William Pitt. It is not generally known that that statesman referred to him as our great National Poet," and spoke in eulogistic terms of "Does Haughty Gaul

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invasion threat?" But he did send, as a bribe," the stanzas "Anna, thy charms my bosom fire," which appeared in The Star on 20th April, 1789, and were copied in The Gazetteer on the 21st. He sent also the Satire, dated from Kilmarnock, 30th April, signed Duncan M'Leerie, inserted in The Star on 14th May. As neither the Ode to the Departed Regency Bill," sent on 17th March, nor "Delia, an Ode," on 18th May, appear in The Star in either months, the two may be said to be the only direct. contributions of Burns to the London press.

The most careful search of the files of the then new Times fails to reveal any reference to Burns's life, works, or death. That now great paper was then devoted to politics, scandal, and highly spiced reports of libel and The first notice of the death is in The Star of 27th July, 1796

crim. con.

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On Thursday last died at Dumfries, after a long illness, Robert Burns, the illustrious Scottish Poet. His poetical compositions, distinguished equally by force of natural humour, by the warmth and tenderness of passion, and by the glowing touches of a descriptive pencil, will. remain a lasting monument of the vigour and versatility of a mind, gifted only by the light of nature and inspiration of genius. The public, to whose amusement he has so largely contributed, will learn with regret, that the last hours of his short life were spent in indigence and illness; and his widow, with five infant children, and in the hourly expectation of a sixth, is now left without any resource but what she may hope from the regard due to the memory of her husband."

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Next day the True Britain slightly varied this notice: Burns certainly possessed a great portion of the poetical character. His imagination was vivid, and his heart was under the guidance of strong sensibility. His works. exhibit a philosophic spirit as well as poetic beauty. We are sorry to learn that this rustic votary of the Muse was partly the victim of intemperance. Surely the pride of