and friendship to those whom he has left behind. (Tremendous applause). Here on the very spot where he first drew breath, on the very ground which his genius has hallowed, beside the Old Kirk of Alloway, which his verse has immortalized, beneath the Monument which an admiring and repentant people have raised to him-(Great applause)—we meet, after the lapse of years, to pay our homage to the Man of Genius. (Cheers). The master-mind who has sung the Isle of Palms—who has revelled in the immortal Noctes-who has already done that justice to the memory of the Bard, which a brother poet can alone do,—Christopher himself is here--(Great applause)— anxious to pay his tribute of admiration to a kindred spirit. The historian who has depicted the most eventful period of the French Empire, the glorious triumphs of Wellington, is here— (Cheers)-Clio, as it were, offering up a garland to Erato. (Cheers). The distinguished head of the Scottish Bar is here -(Cheers)-in short, every town and every district; every class, and every sex, and every age, has come forward to pay homage to their Poet. The honest lads whom he so praised, and whose greatest boast is to belong to the Land of Burns, are here. (Cheers). The bonny lasses whom he so praised, those whom he loved and sung, are here; they have followed hither to justify by their lovlieness, the Poet's worth; while the descendant of those who dwelt in the "Castle of Montgomerie," feels himself only too highly honoured in being permitted to propose the memory of him who then wandered there unknown on the banks of Fail. (Loud cheering). How little could the pious old man who dwelt in yonder cottage with his "lyart haffets" o'erspreading his venerable brow-when he read the "big ha' bible" could have guessed that the infant prattling on his knee was to be the pride of his nation—the chief among the poetic band-was to be one of the brightest planets that glows around the mighty sun of the Bard of Avon—(Cheers)—in knowledge and originality second to none-in the fervent expression of deep feeling, in the genuine perception of the beauties of nature; equal to any who revel in the fairy land of poesy. Well may we rejoice that Burns is our own!— that no other spot can claim the birth-place of our Homer, except the spot on which we stand. (Cheers). Well does he deserve our homage, who has portrayed The Cottar's Saturday Night-not in strains of inconsiderate mirth, but

D

in solemnity and truth,-who breathed the patriotic words that tell of the glories of our Wallace, immortalizing alike the Poet and the Hero; he who could draw inspiration from the humble daisy; breathed forth the heroic words of The Song of Death-strains, the incarnation of poetry and love, and yet of the bitterest shafts of satire and ridicule !—obeying but the hand of nature, despising all the rules of art, yet trampling over the very rules he set at naught. (Loud cheers). At his name every Scottish heart beats high. He has become a household word alike in the palace and the cottage. Of whom should we be proud to whom should we pay homage, if not to our Immortal Burns. (Cheers). But I feel I am detaining you too long in the presence of a Wilson and an Alison. (Cries of "No, No." and applause). In such a presence as these, I feel that I am not a fit person to descant upon the genius of Burns. I am but an admirer like yourselves. There are others present, who are brother poets, kindred geniuses,-men, who, like Burns, have created a glorious immortality to themselves,-to them will I commit the agreeable task of more fully displaying before you, decked out with their eloquence, the excellence of the Poet, and the genius of the man, and to extend a welcome to his sons to the land of their father-(Cheers)—and I will now ask you, in their presence, on the ground his genius has rendered sacred

-on the "banks and braes o' bonnie Doon "—to join with me in drinking one overflowing bumper, and in joining to it every expression of enthusiasm which you can, to “The Memory of Burns." The toast was received with the most rapturous and enthusiastic bursts of applause.

Mr. Templeton sang with admirable effect, Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon, which elicited the warmest plaudits of the meeting.

Mr. Robert Burns, on rising to return thanks, was, with his brothers, received with enthusiastic cheering. He said-My Lord, Ladies and Gentlemen, of course it cannot be expected, at a meeting such as the present, that the sons of Burns should expatiate on the merits and genius of their deceased father. Around them were an immense number of admirers, who, by their presence there that day, bore a sufficient testimony of the opinion which they held of his memory, and the high esteem in which they held his genius. In the language of the

late Sir Christopher Wren, though very differently applied, the sons of Burns could say, that to obtain a living testimony to their father's genius, they had only to look around them. (Cheers). He begged, in name of his brothers and himself, to return their heartfelt and grateful thanks for the honour that had that day been paid to their father's memory. (Cheers).

Professor Wilson then delivered an oration which, followed by other toasts and sentiments, brought the Demonstration to a close.

His Lordship having responded to the toast, 'The Earl of Eglinton,' proposed by Lord Justice-General Boyle, the brilliant assemblage left the Hall.

The weather during the greater part of the day was very unfavourable, the afternoon particularly so, but with all this drawback, the whole proceedings were conducted with great taste, and have left an impression that will not soon be forgotten. So intense indeed was feeling at particular periods in the course of the day, and especially during the delightful and high-toned proceedings in the splendid banquet hall, that many tears of pure delight were shed at the greatness and genuineness of the tribute paid to the Poet.

66

Glory without end

Scattered the clouds away and on that name attend,
The tears and praises of all time.'

Like many other great events, the Universal Burns Centenary Celebrations of 1859, had but a very humble and unpretentious origin.

It arose in this way. Early in the summer of 1858, the proprietors of the Glasgow Daily Bulletin (the first Daily Penny Paper issued in Great Britain after the passing of the Act repealing Stamp Duty on Newspapers), gave their employés a dinner at the Brig o' Doon Hotel, which abuts on the grounds of the classic pile raised to the memory of the King of Song.

Mr. John Belch, of Glasgow, the Senior Shareholder of the Company presided on the occasion, while Mr. Colin Rae-Brown, the founder and Managing Proprietor of the journal, undertook the duties of Croupier. To the latter was allotted the toast of "The Memory of Burns." In subsequently communicating with the sons of Burns, with a view to securing their presence at the National Centenary Festival to be held at Glasgow, Mr.

Rae-Brown sent on the following resumé of the proceedings at the Brig o' Doon dinner, and as no more satisfactory description of the initiation of the Centenary movement can possibly be furnished, we reproduce it here. It ran as follows:

"It seemed to me that afternoon, as I strutted over the 'Brig' before dinner, that some one else would have done more justice to the even then well-worn theme. I must go over much of the same ground as formerly. Suddenly, it occurred to me that the next "glorious twenty-fifth" (of January, 1859) would be the Centenary of the immortal Bard's Birth. "Eureka!" I exclaimed to my inner self. I had at length fallen upon fresh material for the toast. Scotsman like, I resolved to keep my own counsel till later on in the day.

"When the excellent viands supplied by our worthy landlord had had full justice done them, and the usual loyal toasts excellently well disposed of by our genial chairman, I approached the "Memory" with greater ease and alacrity than I had done for many years past. My proposal, as then originally put forward, was to celebrate the approaching Centenary by meetings in every town throughout the kingdom, and by one on a national scale to be held on the same spot, and under similar arrangements as the Welcome to the sons of Burns, in 1844.

"Loud cheers greeted the plan so sketched out; Mr. James M'Kie of Kilmarnock, the Rev. Mr. Thomson, and other Ayrshire guests following up my suggestions with the heartiest of good will and encouragement.

"On the following day I called on my valued Wallace Monument Colleague, the late Mr. William Burns of Glasgow (author of "The War of Scottish Independence") and told him what had taken place at the Brig o' Doon the previous evening. As might have been expected of such a worthy Scot and fervent worshipper of the Bard, Mr Burns was overjoyed. He at once consented to become a member of the Provisional Committee which I had determined to at once organize. So as to begin operations immediately, we called on Sir Archibald Alison, Bart. (the "Historian of Europe") then Sheriff of Lanarkshire, and Mr. Henry Glassford Bell, his deputy. Both gentlemen agreed to become members of the first committee, while Sir Archibald

consented to allow himself to be nominated as President of the General Committee."

Mr. Rae-Brown undertook the duties of Honorary Secretary, and arranged to convene a meeting within a week, and to lay before his colleagues the draft of a circular to be issued from Glasgow, as the headquarters of the movement. When issued, and sown broadcast over Great Britain, India, our Colonies and the United States, the Circular advising a Memorial Celebration of the Bard's Centenary read as follows:

SIR,-In connection with the approaching National Celebration of BURNS' CENTENARY in Glasgow, the Committee suggest that a simultaneous celebration should take place, wherever Scotsmen are congregated, throughout the world.

Without starting invidious distinction between the merits or reputations of the two great Representative Authors of Scotland—each having been great in his own sphere, and both having acquired more than European fame-it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that the songs and the sayings of Burns are sung and cherished by countless thousands at home and abroad who know little of Scott save the name. In the People's great Heart of hearts-whether beating among the unlettered masses or the more favoured children of light— the words of the ploughman Bard find a congenial and a permanent abode; where they not only "breathe and burn" but stimulate to honest independence, love of liberty, and brotherly affection; in short, creating a worship of that beauty whose only standard is TRUTH.

There was a time when the name and fame of ROBERT BURNS were

traduced by sectarian bigots and blinded zealots. For years they hurled their vituperations on the-to them-"lewd and blasphemous works of Burns!" But those base detractors, sprung from a soil of rank hypocrisy, met with a signal and lasting defeat on the occasion of the ever-memorable Burns' festival of 1844, when Lord Eglinton, aided by that brave old man, Christopher North, and other friends of truth, utterly and for ever demolished the hollow fabric of fallacies which those self-blinded fanatics had erected. Since then all intelligent and well-informed minds must have felt that every civilised countryScotland in particular-lies under a deep debt of gratitude to Burns for the unrivalled courage he displayed in fearlessly levelling his shafts of irony against the then dominant sway of Bigotry, Hypocrisy, and Intolerance.

To Scotsmen and Scotswomen everywhere—and to their posterity in the generations to come---this Centenary Celebration will, if