own words, familiar to them all, but which could never stale by repetition :

"Then gently scan your brother man,

Still gentler sister woman;

Though they may gang a kennin' wrang,

To step aside is human.

Then at the balance let's be mute,

We never can adjust it;

What's done we partly may compute,

But know not what's resisted."

Then their friend of whom he had been speaking-the lady who lived so long in this old house-had passed away; the house was left empty for a little, and it seemed that there was a serious risk that it would be allowed to fall into such a state that it would become uninhabitable. That would have been a very serious loss both to the public of Mauchline and to all admirers of the Poet, and when it became known that the Glasgow and District Association of Burns Clubs and Kindred Societies had acquired the building, and had undertaken to provide for its upkeep, the very greatest satisfaction was felt. There were now few of the old places left as they used to be. The Armours' house had gone, Mossgiel had been rebuilt, and it was a new Parish Church that stood upon the site of the old twelfth century edifice. Even their old friend the Back Causeway had become transformed into Castle Street, and he was very much afraid that the old inhabitants would have very great difficulty in recognising the Mauchline which they knew. And so he thought they were all agreed that it was a very good thing indeed that the house over the way should be preserved as far as possible in the condition in which it was in Burns's time, and that it had been possible to combine with that the making of provision for the accommodation of two or three aged and infirm people to whom fortune had not been overkind. He thought it was a deep debt of gratitude that they owed to those who had taken this method of showing their admiration for the marvellous gifts and their reverence for the immortal memory of our great National Poet. Long might that house stand to be a place of pilgrimage for all those who could feel the charm of music and of song, and to be for a few aged pilgrims a place of rest and of quiet waiting for the passing of the shadows and the breaking of the day.

The Chairman said he was sure they were all delighted to have with them the Right Hon. Eugene Wason, Member of Parliament for the Counties of Clackmannan and Kinross and the respected doyen of the Scottish Parliamentary

party.

He had great pleasure in asking Mr Wason to address a few words to them. (Applause.)

Mr Wason, who had a very cordial reception, said :—

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He had first of all to thank the Glasgow Burns Association for their kind invitation to himself, his wife, and his son and daughter to be with them that afternoon. No kind of weather would have kept him from coming there on such an occasion. His mind went back to fifty-six years ago, to the time when the whole of Scotland was celebrating the centenary of Burns's birth. It was his first appearance in public. His father was Chairman at the meeting held at Ballantrae, which in some old books was described as a rising town near the fishing village of Girvan.” (Laughter.) He was asked to take a small part in the proceedings, and he broke down hopelessly, and he swore that he would never have anything more to do with Burns. Some thirty-seven years later all Scotland was mourning the centenary of Burns's death. There were meetings. at Dumfries and Glasgow, where Lord Rosebery made those spirited addresses which those who heard them would never forget, and there was a great meeting here at Mauchline when the foundation stone of their monument to the National Poet was laid with full Masonic honours by the Provincial Grand Master of Ayrshire. The oration on that occasion was made by a very dear and intimate friend of his own-the late Sir David Brand, the Sheriff for Ayrshire ; and his old friends, Mr Marcus Bain, Mr Leiper Gemmill, Lady Alexander, and many others--some of whom, he was sorry to say, were not with them now-were present on that occasion. But there was one face now before him that he saw there on the previous occasion-old Joe Davidson. Although it was nineteen years ago, he was the oldest veteran then in Mauchline, and doubtless he had been able to retain that distinguished position. It would have been worth while for him (Mr Wason) to have come to Mauchline that day to see Mr Davidson's kindly old face beaming before him. There had been many monuments erected to Burns since he was a young man. He remembered being present at the unveiling of the statue at Irvine by the then Poet-Laureate; he had also been present at the unveiling of the statue to Highland Mary at Dunoon; and wherever there had been anything connected with Burns, if it had been possible at all for him to be there, he had gone with a heart and a half. This was not the time or the occasion on which to make a Burns oration. But he did not think that perhaps it would be altogether wrong just to cast their minds back to the times in which Burns lived and compare them with the times in which we lived. In Burns's time, when he was about thirty, we were threatened

with an invasion.

Then, as now, we had a Coalition Government, and Burns did not think much of the Coalition, for he talked about

the mixty-maxty, queer hotch-potch." (Laughter.) He (Mr Wason) hoped we would all stand by the present Coalition Government, whatever political creed we might profess. Burns himself, as they knew, was a keen Volunteer. He was one of the Dumfriesshire Volunteers, and in order to stimulate their patriotism he wrote a song which was known to them all :

"Does haughty Gaul invasion threat?

Then let the loons beware, sir:

There are wooden walls upon our seas,

And Volunteers on shore, sir."

We did not require to alter that very much at the present time, only two or three little words :

Does Germany invasion threat?

Then let the loons beware, sir;

There are ironclads upon our seas,
And Terriers on shore, sir."

In that same poem Burns gave the best advice that could be given under the circumstances to anyone, and he (Mr Wason) commended that advice to us in our present circumstances :—

On an anniversary of the great victory which Lord Rodney had over the French on 12th April, 1782, when Burns had left Mossgiel and had become a searcher of "auld wives' barrels away down in Dumfries, there was a meeting to celebrate the victory and Burns was called on for a song. He said he would not give them a song, but he got up and recited an extempore poem :"Instead of a song, boys, I'll give you a toast

Here's the memory of those on the twelfth that we lost!
That we lost, did I say? nay, by Heav'n, that we found;
For their fame it shall last while the world goes round."

That was the case with the heroes who fell under Lord Rodney in the great battle on 12th April, 1782, and so he would say to those of them who had friends that had fallen in the gigantic struggle in which we were at present engaged, that their name and fame would never be lost, that we were proud of them-proud that they had died on the field of battle in defence of their country rather than that they should have stayed at home and lived an inglorious

life. He knew how many had suffered.

He had suffered, they had suffered, there was hardly a household throughout the length and breadth of the land that had not suffered, but he was confident that the same spirit would prevail now as prevailed in Burns's time, and that there was not a single man, woman, or child who was not determined to see this thing through to the bitter end if it cost them everything that was dear to them in this world.

The Chairman said they had now arrived at the most interesting part of their programme, and he had to ask Mr Jeffrey Hunter to make the presentation of a silver key to Mrs Cowie.

Mr Jeffrey Hunter said :

He took it that the ceremony of that day was more in honour of Jean Armour, the Mauchline lass, than of Robert Burns, the Alloway led. Jean Armour had not yet come into her own. She had been grossly neglected by many of the admirers and most of the biographers of the Poet. They had spent, or rather wasted, a great deal of time in trying to probe the history of the shadowy Highland Mary and in dealing with the frivolous Mrs M'Lehose and one or two other ladies, who might have had some merits, but who, at this stage, would not have been invited by any of their clerical friends to undertake the charge of a class in the Sunday School. (Laughter.) Jean Armour, along with Mrs Dunlop, exercised a beneficent influence on Burns after the dangerous days when he became famous. As Scotsmen, we were proud of Robert Louis Stevenson, but we could not accept every word he uttered as a word of wisdom, and his description of Jean Armour could only be characterised as an outrage. He called Jean Armour a "facile, empty-headed girl." The phrase was unfounded, unchivalrous, and absolutely fatuous, and although Stevenson was now dead, surely an amende honorable might well be made by the publishers and editors of his famous essay, Some Aspects of Burns," by blotting out this obnoxious phrase from future editions. The famous English politician, William Cobbett, made a tour through Scotland in the nineteenth century, and he had recorded in glowing language the high honour and esteem in which Jean Armour was held in Dumfries during her widowhood. Let them remember the circumstances of Jean Armour. When Burns died she was only twenty-eight years of age. She had on her side a great many of the qualities which were considered excellent in women. She had youth, good looks, high courage, quick intelligence, a cheerful temper, and an affectionate disposition, but in addition to these

she had a tund provided by the admirers of Burns which in the little county town of Dumfries a hundred years ago might be reckoned a small fortune. There could be no doubt that many a longing masculine eye was turned in the direction of Jean Armour, but we knew that she went on her way unheeding these things, and devoted her life entirely to worshipping her husband's memory and educating her children, and that when she was gathered to her fathers at a ripe old age she was still Mrs Robert Burns. He trusted that when these distressful times were over, and when they could think of something else besides war, they would consider the raising of a memorial to Jean Armour, who was more worthy of that honour than Highland Mary or some of the heroines to whom memorials had been erected. It was fitting that the memory of Jean Armour should be honoured there that day, and that this memorial should be opened by a lady, in the person of Mrs Cowie. On behalf of the Glasgow Burns Clubs Association he welcomed her to Mauchline, and thanked her sincerely for breaking in upon her holiday and coming there to undertake this task. They were all delighted to know that she shared the tastes and opinions of her husband in regard to matters Burnsian, and they knew that Mr Cowie had not only done himself honour by presenting the purchase price of this house, but that he was well known all over Scotland as a cultured collector of Burns relics and a warm admirer of the Poet. The key which he had to present to Mrs Cowie was a replica in silver of the very key which they believed Jean Armour used in opening the door of this historic house, and the inscription upon it was :Presented to Mrs Charles Rennie Cowie on opening the Burns House at Mauchline, 28th August, 1915," while it was embellished with the Burns coat-of-arms and the words " Woodnotes wild " and Better a wee bush than nae bield," and it was enclosed in a box made of wood from the flooring of the house, with an inscription inside the lid to that effect. He had great pleasure in presenting Mrs Cowie with this silver key, and he sincerely trusted that she would think it not unworthy of a little place among her household treasures.

The Chairman, in calling upon Mr Cowie to reply, remarked that that gentleman had not only provided the purchase price of the building, but had also defrayed the cost of the restoration and necessary repairs. Mr Cowie was a gentleman of no half measures. They were proud

of him, and claimed him as one of themselves, because as President of Partick Burns Club he was the representative of that Club to the Glasgow Burns Association.