are extolled as the preliminary to the time-honoured presentation from admiring friends. Not that Professor Denney descants exclusively on the worse side of Burns ; on the contrary, his condensed estimate of Burns is both just and appreciative so far as it goes. But the method he adopts of exalting the Poet in order at convenience to bring him down by the run deprives his complimentary tribute of most of its value. He goes on to tell us that Shakespeare is the creed of the English people, and consequently is entitled to the credit of creating the beer-swilling propensities of our friends over the Border. And we are left to infer that for a similar reason Burns is responsible, in whole or in part, for the whisky-drinking which we hear so much of in connection with the city of Glasgow. Putting Shakespeare aside, is this true of Scotland, or of Burns? It is only with Burns we here mean to concern ourselves. In Burns's day drunkenness and sensuality were the besetting sins of the classes, and their evil influences were exerted in a downward direction. No man then living did more than Burns in warning the masses against this " contagion weak and vile"; indeed, not a few are inclined to think that the warning is overstrained in the "Twa Dogs" and the " Epistle to Davie." True, he wrote Willie Brewed" and "Auld Lang Syne," both of which are qualified by 'the element of extravagance conceded by Professor Denney. "Scotch Drink is more political than topical in treatment, being in effect a plea for home products versus importations from abroad. Burns invariably represents his own class as thrifty, sober, and industrious; idleness, licentiousness, and wastrie were with the gentry and the beggars at the top and bottom of the social fabric. There is no mention of drink in the Cottar's Saturday Night"; in "Hallowe'en "the social indulgence is limited to a parting glass of 'strunt," or weak toddy; and it must ever stand to his credit that he ridiculed the " Holy Fair" out of existence. His personal attitude towards over-indulgence he occasionally puts into words like these

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There is death in the cup-sae beware!

Nay, more there is danger in touching;

But who can avoid the fell snare ?

The man and his wine's sae bewitching."

In other compositions, but more especially in his prose, his condemnation of drink is even more emphatic, the superlative of self-abasement being reached in his less-known rhyming confession to William Stewart. A man who so penitentially humiliates himself surely cannot be justly accused of “flaunting his sins in everybody's face." In his most rollicking strains-" bravado," Professor Denney calls them—there is a dying fall patent to all who sympathetically look for it.

Right-thinking Burnsians do not object to anyone drawing Burns's frailties from their dread abode to point a moral, if he be so minded. What they do object to is the singling out of Burns as if he were the chief and only sinner of the drunken era in which he lived; to the blind and unreasoning faith in the hearsay evidence of his early biographers which still obtains; and to the reiteration of malevolent gossip long ago exploded on the most convincing evidence. As for Burns's personal habits, we have Gilbert's testimony that up to his 28th year, when his fame began, he had led a most temperate life. Of Shakespeare's habits we fortunately know little; it is Burns's misfortune that he has been under the microscope for 120 years, and he is always the principal witness for his own prosecution. When he went to Dumfries at the age of 32, the same authority informs us, he struggled hard to overcome his natural aversion to alcohol to prepare himself to do as the Romans did there. He died before he was 38. All charges of inebriety brought against him are crowded into the last five years of his life, and yet not a single black mark stands against him as a Government official with exacting duties to perform every day of the week. Pity it is that he too often succumbed to the temptation of aristocratic dinner parties which were neither more nor less than drunken orgies, for he was too highly strung to keep pace with the seasoned topers who in the end contemned his lack of staying power, and passed by on the other side. What Professor Denney styles his " great spread of moral shirt-front" is, as often as not, the humorous expression of his contempt for the Holy Willie juries who so smugly sat in judgment on him.

Dr Currie, the most notable of his early biographers, was a teetotaler-the solitary one within the bounds of the Burns horizon of that day—and his prejudices are apparent in his writings. He failed as a Burns biographer for two reasons-ignorance of his subject, and as Professor Denney puts it, because "the strongest sense may at times be deflected or tainted."-I am, &c.,

D. M'NAUGHT,

President of Burns Federation.

DEATH OF MR WILLIAM WHITE.

BY

(1821-1916.)

OY the death of Mr Wm. White, the Vale of Leven district has lost a notable personality, widely known,

and universally respected in musical and political circles. He was precentor in Alexandria Free Church, also in Dumbarton Parish Church, and also in Ayr, from which

town he returned to the "Vale," latterly residing at Jamestown. When in Ayr he often saw Burns's sister, and in after years he regretted he did not take the opportunity of speaking to her about her celebrated brother. He had a wonderful memory, and could sing scores of the old Scots songs. He was proud of having heard "the great Templeton "sing. In his youth he served his "time" to the trade of block-cutting in the Wee Fiel', Bonhill, working alongside Joseph Wilson, of Kilmarnock musical fame. When a boy in the calico printing factory, he was often placed up on his "maister's table to sing to the workmen. In later years he was in great demand at benefit concerts, giving his services ungrudgingly. He had a profound veneration for Burns, and was never more at home than when worshipping at the shrine of the Immortal Bard. He held the office of Hon. President of the Vale Glencairn Burns Club from its formation, nearly twenty years ago, and was one of the most regular attenders at the monthly meetings. He never missed an anniversary until he was ninety-two years of age. Though no great speaker, he was splendid at "a grace"-not a conventional utterance, but an old-fashioned reverential thanksgiving which would have done credit to any member of the cloth. The Burns cult in the Vale" will seldom look upon his like again.

PROPOSED REMOVAL OF THE HIGHLAND

MARY MEMORIAL IN GREENOCK.

Ο

N 10th May, 1917, appeared an article in the Glasgow Herald containing details of an extension of the shipbuilding yard of Messrs Caird & Co., which necessitated the removal of the old West Parish Church and the adjoining graveyard in which rest the remains of Highland Mary. Quoting from that article we learn that the proposed area of extension runs both east and west of the present yard. One view is that it reaches eastward to Brymner Street, taking in the West Harbour, and southward to a line drawn from this street through Shaw, Dalrymple, and Crawfurd Streets to Laird Street on the west. This, leaving out the area of the harbour (72 acres in extent), would give an extension of roughly 770 yards by 70. The district is thickly built upon, the bulk of it old property consisting of bonded warehouses, grain and other stores, dwellings that are approaching their day of condemnation, and various shops and offices with a more or less maritime connection. A sugar refinery in the vicinity seems unlikely to stand against the encroachment of the more aggressive industry, an inconsiderable portion of the electrical station in Hunter Place may have to make way for the line of progress, and tenants of neighbouring workshops of joiners, sail-makers, anchor-makers, &c., to find places of business elsewhere. The introduction of a fitting-out basin and an adequate graving dock would seem to be essential to designs on the lines suggested.

To whatever form or extent the scheme may eventually come, the authorities and chief business men will not fail to give encouragement and co-operation. The superior, we understand, heartily supports the scheme. Negotiations are in progress with the Corporation, the Harbour Trust, and other bodies and persons affected, and we should