Burns is the poet-laureate of Scotland, the song-laureate of the world.-Professor LEWIS STUART. His like again we ne'er will find, Such kings have no successors; The fame of Scotland's Poet. -WILLIAM MURRAY. NOVA SCOTIA. The name of Burns is not stained, but lives, and will live in immortal honour; and his grave, for centuries to come, will be a place of pilgrimage, and watered by the tears of every lover of genius. Hon. WILLIAM YOUNG. How was it, then, that all the world, by a simultaneous impulse, moved as one man to do honour, on the same day, to the memory of this poor Scotch ploughman? It was because, long after he was dead, and his faults and follies were forgotten, it was discovered. . that in this man's soul there had been genuine inspiration—that he was a patriot, an artist-that by his genius and independent spirit he had given dignity to the pursuits by which the mass of mankind live, and quickened our love of nature by exquisite delineation.-Hon. JOSEPH HOWE, Where the sons of Scotia rove, o'er desert, field, and flood, Where breathes the old chivalric soul and flows the patriot blood; Be it upon the tented field or sunburnt plains of toil, Or where new Scotland's Mayflower blooms upon this western soil— One touch can thrill their kindred hearts, borne o'er the deep along, The charmed melody that lies in Burns's wealth of song. -MARY J. KATZMANN. The freedom-ringing songs of Burns have, without doubt, helped to build the great British Empire.-Governor FRASER. He prophesied a guid time comin' When worth and sense owre a' the earth He lo'ed oor birthland unco weel; For a' mankind his heart did feel. -WILLIAM BEATTIE. A. C. WHITE. THE CHAIR OF SCOTTISH HISTORY AND LITERATURE. TH HIS Chair is now an accomplished fact, and an excellent Professor has been secured in the person of Mr Robert S. Rait. During the past few years a good deal of matter has appeared in the Chronicle in connection with the subject. Now that the preliminary trouble is over, there is a disposition in certain quarters to take credit for originating the idea of the Chair, and also to take an undue amount of credit for carrying the scheme to a successful issue. This is not a matter, however, which admits of any doubt. The inception of the idea belongs to the late Mr William Freeland, who proposed a good many years ago, at the Bridgeton Burns Club, Glasgow, that funds should be raised for the establishment of a lectureship in Scottish Literature, and the question was afterwards taken up by the Burns Federation and was kept before them from year to year. Though after the death of Mr Freeland it looked for a time as if the project had suffered eclipse, the Federation had a standing committee on the subject, a committee whose enthusiasm was fired anew when Mr D. McNaught succeeded to the President's chair. The next stage in the movement was reached on 1st January, 1907, when Professor William Smart wrote a letter to the Glasgow Herald, pleading for the establishment of a Scottish Chair of History. The Herald, under the enthusiastic editorship of Dr Wm. Wallace, afterwards took up the matter with most gratifying results. The scheme was also supported by Principal M'Allister and the leading citizens of Glasgow. The Glasgow Association of Burns Clubs next convened a meeting in the National Burns Club, Glasgow, which was presided over by Mr J. Jeffrey Hunter, and was attended by Professor Smart, Dr George Neilson, and many representatives of Burns Clubs and patriotic societies, and a committee was appointed. Burns Clubs, School Boards, Scholastic authorities, and other public bodies all lent their aid in stimulating interest in the matter, though there was considerable diversity of opinion as to whether the Chair should be for History alone, or Literature alone, or both combined. As a compromise, the Chair-although generally called the "Chair of Scottish History"-it was agreed, should provide for the study of both subjects. The Burns Federation and the Burns Clubs generally throughout the country, and others interested in the subject, next began to issue appeals for funds, and these appeals were generously supported. As a matter of fact, about £5000-a quarter of the total sum required for the foundation of the Chair-was collected in this way, thus furnishing another striking reply to those misinformed humourists who insist that there is no serious or literary side to the Burns movement. The scheme, however, was a large one, and would undoubtedly have taken many years to complete unless some wealthy and generous donor had been found to donate the remaining £15,000. Happily, the need for this disappeared when the Scottish National Exhibition of 1911 was set agoing. At first the scheme of the Exhibition met with some opposition, but when the promoters announced their intention to devote the surplus profits to the equipment of the Scottish Chair, the Exhibition arrangements were pushed forward. As everybody knows, the Exhibition was a great success, and the treasurer was able to make up the funds of the Scottish Chair to the £20,000 required. A new committee, under the presidency of Dr Wm. Wallace, was put in charge of the final arrangements. Since the inauguration of the Chair there has been some discussion, both at the University Court and Glasgow School Board, and elsewhere, as to the status of the Chair. It is felt that all has not yet been done to satisfy the aspirations of those most interested in the Chair, but it is believed that in a very short space of time their suggestions will be favourably considered. THE NEW PROFESSOR'S CAREER. Professor Robert S. Rait was born in 1874, and was educated at the University of Aberdeen, and at New College, Oxford, which he entered as an Open Exhibitioner in 1896. In 1899 he was placed in the First Class in the Honour School of Modern History, and in the same year was awarded the Stanhope Prize for an Historical Essay at Oxford, the subject of the essay being "The Scottish Parliament." He was elected, after an open examination, to a Fellowship at New College in October, 1899, and became a Lecturer of the College in 1900, and a Tutor in 1903. He held these offices until his appointment to the Glasgow Chair last year, and from 1905-1908 was Dean of the College, and from 1908 to 1913 Librarian. 66 Outside his College work his chief activities at Oxford were concerned with the Union Society, of which he was Senior Librarian from 1907 to 1913, and with the delegacy for Local Examinations, of which he was an active member from 1905. He was one of the founders of the University Caledonian Club in 1898, and, after he became a don,” he was its Senior Treasurer for a number of years, and in that capacity used to give the Burns toast, until he thought it best to make way for his juniors (the Club being conposed of undergraduates). Another of the group of his contemporaries who founded the Club (of which the Prince of Wales is now a member) was Mr John Buchan, the wellknown author. He was also a member of the Oxford City Caledonian Club, which entertained him to dinner on Hogmanay Night last. 4 *』་ $ Professor Rait's published works include The Universities of Aberdeen: History (1895); Mary Queen of Scots, from Contemporary Writers (1899); The Scottish |