PREFACE. 66 THE sure and certain victory " which we never for a moment doubted during the trying period of heroic effort to thrust back the savage hordes which threatened the liberties of the world is now an accomplished fact, conveying firmest assurance that Peace, just and lasting, is a certainty of the near future. Meanwhile the Allies stand to arms, for never again can we trust "Wretches of human kind, Studied in arts of Hell, in wickedness refined." We have again done our best for the present issue of the Chronicle, in confident expectation of better things. when the Clubs resume their wonted activity. When the Boys come home again, joy will lighten sorrow, and Time heal all wounds. Our thanks are again due to all who have assisted us in keeping the flag flying during the dark years of the war. BENRIG, KILMAURS, January 1st, 1919. D. M'NAUGHT. DR CURRIE AND HIS BIOGRAPHY OF BURNS. MR In R WM. WALLACE CURRIE, in the Memoir of his father, published in 1831, complains that various Burns admirers and biographers of Burns, including Gilbert, the brother of the Poet, had appeared before the public with the declared object of vindicating the memory of Burns from "the exaggerations and misrepresentations affecting his character" which his father is charged with having admitted into the Life, published in 1800. No objections of the kind, he adds, were made till many years after the death of his father, for which reason he declined to enter upon the ungrateful field of controversy. the work referred to, he gives the text of the letters which passed between his father and John Syme shortly after the death of Burns, as well as commendatory communications from Lord Woodhouselee, Dugald Stewart, John Syme, and Gilbert Burns, after the biography was given to the world. The whole of Dr Currie's biographical information was ostensibly derived from John Syme and Gilbert Burns, both of whom went to Liverpool in the autumn of 1797, and remained there for a fortnight, arranging the documents forwarded to Currie and explaining and supplementing them to facilitate his labours as editor and biographer. The correspondence submitted by His Mr Wallace Currie unfortunately lacks one essential. father's letters to Syme are all given in continuous order, but Syme's letters, to which they were replies or interrogations, are conspicuous by their absence. From the pointed questions put by Dr Currie, it is quite obvious that Syme's replies must have had a pointed bearing on the exaggerations and misrepresentations" attributed to Dr Currie, in which view it is both surprising and disappointing that his son did not adopt a more direct way 66 of exonerating his father. Replying to Mr We are left in ignorance of the contents of Syme's communications, and little or no light is thrown upon them by Dr Currie's replies. This omission of Mr Wallace Currie is extremely regrettable, because it leaves us in doubt whether the " exaggerations and misrepresentations are traceable to Syme and Gilbert Burns, or to other sources regarding which we know nothing. From "The Earnock MSS.," published in the Burns Chronicle (Nos. VII. and VIII.), we learn something of Gilbert's attitude towards the Currie narrative. Roscoe, the friend of Dr Currie, who had accused him of inconsistency in his estimate of Dr Currie's work, he says: "You seem to think, from my being at Liverpool for the purpose of giving assistance, and from Dr Currie having consulted me on other subjects, I ought to be considered as advising, or at least consenting to, the statements in question. In regard to the insincerity and inconsistency you seem to think me chargeable with, I can only say that, living upwards of fifty miles distant, I had seen very little of my brother during the last three years of his life. was certain the view given by Dr Currie was agreeable to the information he had received from people he could not suspect of misrepresentation, but had I then been possessed of Mr Findlater's letter, I should certainly have communicated it to Dr Currie." Gilbert had removed from Mossgiel to the farm of Dinning, near Dumfries, in 1797, and had got a different account of his brother from intimate friends in the locality. In view of Gilbert's protest, the question arises Was Syme Currie's only informant ? We find the following in the minute-book of the Dumfries Burns Club, under date January 25th, 1819, at which anniversary meeting Syme was vice-president : "Burns has too long suffered," he said, "from the combined attacks of prejudice and malignity, attacks to which some high and cruel names in the literary world have most ungenerously lent their sanction. This is not fair," and so on. And he forthwith launches into a high eulogium of the Poet. In face of this, we may well again ask-Was Syme Currie's sole I informant? Gilbert Burns was a level-headed, fair-minded man, and we know that he resented and challenged certain parts of Syme's recorded evidence. What he says of Dr Currie, unprejudiced opinion Dr CURRIE. But will be inclined to endorse. tation amongst his contemporaries, it appears incredible. that he stooped to deliberate misrepresentation, or went beyond information which he deemed reliable. He was the only son of a parish minister, born at the Manse of Kirkpatrick-Fleming, in Annandale; and he spent his youth in the Parish of Middlebie, to which his father was translated shortly after his son's birth. He emigrated to Virginia in 1771, at the age of fifteen, with the intention of embarking on a commercial career. When the American War of Independence broke out he experienced great difficulty in returning to his native land, which he eventually accomplished; and, at the age of twenty-one, he became a medical student at Edinburgh University. On the conclusion of his studies in 1780, his intention was to emigrate to Jamaica, but he was prevailed upon by his friends to give up the idea and settle as a practitioner in Liverpool. In this city he soon became known in literary circles as a versatile and accomplished writer, chiefly on professional subjects. His Medical Reports are devoted more particularly to febrile diseases, his treatment of which by the application of hot and cold water, though a marked innovation in the medical practice of his day, appears singularly inept in the light of modern medical discovery. One cannot read his son's account of his career without receiving the impression that he was naturally receptive of the cacoethes scribendi bacillus. He wrote to Wilberforce on the Slave Question, and, in 1793, he addressed an open letter to Pitt, signed "Jasper Wilson," in which he advocated a neutral policy towards the French Revolutionists. This last production es cited considerable interest and brought him into notice, though the sequel proved that he was as far wrong in the short-sighted policy he advocated as the Pacifists at the present juncture of the world's history. But for the Liverpool edition of Burns and its many reprints, Dr Currie would only have been remembered as a writer on exploded medical theories. He was never robust in health, which incapacitated him for sustained literary work. He removed to Bath in 1805, where he died on August 31st, aged forty-nine years. He was stiff and formal in manner save to his intimates, kindly and obliging in disposition, and widely-known as a man of considerable literary ability. He was very ambitious of literary distinction, or, as his son puts it, "of the homage which is paid to character and intellectual superiority." Despite his protestations, the reader cannot fail to note that he was very desirous of being appointed editor of the projected posthumous edition of Burns. The whole profits of that edition, amounting to £1200, were handed over for behoof of the Poet's widow and family, this highsouled generosity having the effect of disarming criticism by the Poet's relatives and friends during Dr Currie's life, and for some years after his death. When dissatisfaction at length found voice in the contradictory evidence of Gray, Findlater, and Thomson, the friends of Dr Currie naturally resented it. A long letter of remonstrance addressed to Gilbert Burns by W. Roscoe (author of Lorenzo de Medici) will be found in the "Earnock MSS." already referred to, which, however, throws no more light on the |