the excise. This just privilege has of late given great umbrage to some interested, powerful individuals, of the more potent part of the empire, and they have spared no wicked pains, under insidious pretexts, to subvert what they dared not openly to attack, from the dread which they yet entertained of the spirit of their ancient enemies. A In this conspiracy we fell; nor did we alone suffer, our country was deeply wounded. number of (we will say) respectable individuals, largely engaged in trade, where we were not only useful, but absolutely necessary to our country, in her dearest interests; we, with all that was near and dear to us, were sacrificed without remorse, to the infernal deity of political expediency! We fell to gratify the wishes of dark envy, and the views of unprincipled ambition! Your foes, Sir, were avowed; were too brave to take an ungenerous advantage: you fell in the face of day.On the contrary, our enemies, to complete our overthrow, contrived to make their guilt appear the villainy of a nation.-Your downfal only drags with you your private friends and partisans: In our misery are more or less involved the most numerous, and most valuable part of the community -all those who immediately depend on the cultivation of the soil, from the landlord of a province, down to his lowest hind. Allow us, Sir, yet farther, just to hint at another rich vein of comfort in the dreary regions of adversity; the gratulations of an approving conscience. In a certain great assembly, of which you are a distinguished member, panegyrics on your private virtues have so often wounded your delicacy, that we shall not distress you with any thing on the subject. There is, however, one part of your public conduct which our feelings will not permit us to pass in silence; our gratitude must trespass on your modesty; we mean, worthy Sir, your whole behaviour to the Scots distillers. In evil hours, when obtrusive recollection presses bitterly on the sense, let that, Sir, come like a healing angel, and speak the peace to your soul which the world can neither give nor take away. We have the honour to be, Sir, Your sympathizing fellow sufferers, No. 317. TO THE HON. THE PROVOST, BAILIES, AND TOWN COUNCIL, OF DUMFRIES. GENTLEMEN, THE literary taste and liberal spirit of your good town has so ably filled the various departments of your schools, as to make it a very great object for a parent to have his children educated in them. Still, to me, a stranger, with my large family, and very stinted income, to give my young ones that education I wish, at the highschool fees which a stranger pays, will bear hard upon me. Some years ago your good town did me the honour of making me an honorary burgess.-Will you allow me to request that this mark of distinction may extend so far, as to put me on the footing of a real freeman of the town, in the schools? If you are so very kind as to grant my request,* it will certainly be a constant incentive to me to strain every nerve where I can officially serve you; and will if possible, increase that grateful respect with which I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your devoted humble Servant. No. 318. TO MR. JAMES JOHNSON EDINBURGH. Dumfries, July 4th, 1796. How are you, my dear friend, and how comes on your fifth volume? You may probably think that for some time past I have neglected you and your work; but, alas! the hand of pain, and sorrow, and care, has these many months lain heavy on me! Personal and domestic affliction have almost entirely banished that alacrity and life with which I used to woo the rural muse of Scotia. This request was immediately complied with. You are a good, worthy, honest fellow, and have a good right to live in this world--because you deserve it. Many a merry meeting this publication has given us, and possibly it may give us more, though, alas! I fear it. This protracting, slow, consuming illness which hangs over me, will, I doubt much, my ever dear friend, arrest my sun before he has well reached his middle career, and will turn over the poet to far other and more important concerns than studying the brilliancy of wit, or the pathos of sentiment! However, hope is the cordial of the human heart, and I endeavour to cherish it as well as I can. Let me hear from you as soon as convenient.— Your work is a great one; and now that it is near finished, I see, if we were to begin again, two or three things that might be mended; yet I will venture to prophecy, that to future ages your publication will be the text book and standard of Scottish song and music. I am ashamed to ask another favour of you because you have been so very good already; but my wife has a very particular friend of hers, a young lady who sings well, to whom she wishes to present the Scots Musical Museum. If you have a spare copy, will you be so obliging as to send it by the very first Fly, as I am anxious to have it soon. Yours ever, TO THE PUBLIC. THE following letters, with the exception of one only, were written by Robert Burns before his marriage. They are printed verbatim from the originals, and where any of them are torn, which unfortunately is the case with two or three, the deficiencies are marked by asterisks. The lady to whom they are addressed seems to have encouraged a friendly correspondence with the poet, whose fascinating powers of mind must necessarily have produced, on her part, esteem and admiration. Yet, although he was forbidden to indulge in the more tender affections of the heart, it was natural to expect, from the strong sensibility and delicate feelings of the bard, that, in his correspondence with a young and amiable woman, love must be a principal theme. We are happy, that, from the condescension of the proprietor, we are enabled to favour the public with an additional portion of the writings of our favourite poet: nor is this condescension the effect of vanity, as from the letters themselves this lady can never be discovered; although, like Swift's Vanessa, she is, under a fictious name, ushered into immortality, by an author equally celebrated. As these letters, on perusal, will be found to possess every mark of the strong and vigorous mind of Burns, they will, in no degree, diminish that celebrity he has so justly merited by his epistolary compositions. To remove the doubts of any per son who might suspect that they were not the genuine productions of the bard to whom they are ascribed, the originals were permitted to remain with the publisher for one month after their first publication. Their authenticity, however, is now so well established, that no further reference to the originals is necessary. |