wrestle in prayer for you, that you may see the vanity of vanities in trusting to, or even practising the carnal moral works of charity, humanity, generosity, and forgiveness; things which

you

and bigotted in the extreme:-Excellent marks for the poet! The following specimens of Father Auld will shew his desire to provoke and irritate Mr. Hamilton, and are a full display of the liberality of his sentiments in matters of religion.

He unwarrantably refused to christen Mr. Hamilton's child for the following reasons:-that Mr. Hamilton rode on Sunday's-that he had ordered a person to dig a few potatoes in his garden on the Sabbath-day, (for which he was cited before the Kirk!) He also charged him with dining in a public house on a King's fast day, with two gentlemen, and that they were even heard to whistle and sing after dinner.-Moreover, which was the heaviest and most awful charge of all-he, Mr. Auld, heard Gavin Hamil ton say, "D-mn it," in his own presence!

All this idle and vexatious folly tended, as might be expected, to alienate the mind of Mr. Hamilton both from the parson and his pulpit. Father Auld and his adherents charged him with neglect of religion and disrespect for its professors. The poet took his friend and patron's part, and repelled the attack by extolling Mr. Hamilton's elevation of sentiment, his readiness to forgive injuries, and, above all, his universal active benevolence. These excellent qualities Burus opposed to the fierceness, fanaticism,

and

you practised so flagrantly that it was evident you delighted in them; neglecting, or perhaps, prophanely despising the wholesome doctrine of "Faith without works, the only anchor of salvation."

A hymn of thanksgiving would, in my opinion, be highly becoming from you at present; and in my zeal for your well-being, I earnestly press it on you to be diligent in chanting over the two inclosed pieces of sacred poesy. My best compliments to Mrs. Hamilton and Miss Kennedy.

Yours in the L-d

R. B.

No.

and monkish gloom of this class of priests. His sentiments on the subject are given in this letter with infinite address, and in a strain of sly, covert humour that he has seldom surpassed. He is equally sly, but more explicit in his poetical dedication of his works to Gavin Hamilton. -In a copy, in the poet's writing, that I have seen, the circumstance of riding on the Sabbath-day is thus neatly introduced.

"He sometimes gallops on a Sunday,
"An' pricks the beast as it were Monday."

E.

No LXV.

To MR. SAMUEL CLARKE, JUN. DUMFRIES.

Sunday Morning.

DEAR SIR,

I

WAS, I know, drunk last night, but I am sober this morning. From the expressions Capt. made use of to me, had I had nobody's welfare to care for but my own, we should certainly have come, according to the manners of the world, to the necessity of murdering one another about the business. The words were such as, generally, I believe, end in a brace of pistols; but I am still pleased to think that I did not ruin the peace and welfare of a wife and a family of children in a drunken squabble. Farther you know that the report of certain political opinions being mine, has already once before brought me to the brink of destruction. I dread lest last night's business may be misrepresented in the same way.-You, I beg, will take care to prevent it. I tax your wish for Mr. Burns's welfare with the task of waiting as soon as possible, on every gentleman who was present, and state this to him, and, as you please, shew him this letter. What, after all, was the obnoxious toast? "May our success in the present war be

" equal

"equal to the justice of our cause."-A toast that the most outrageous frenzy of loyalty cannot object to. I request and beg that this morning you will wait on the parties present at the foolish dispute. I shall only add, that I am truly sorry that a man who stood so high in my estimation as Mr. -, should use me in the manner in which I conceive he has done.*

No.

At this period of our Poet's life, when political animosity was made the ground of private quarrel, the following foolish verses were sent as an attack on Burns and his friends for their political opinions. They were written by some member of a club styling themselves the Loyal Natives of Dumfries, or rather by the united genius of that club, which was more distinguished for drunken loyalty, than either for respectability or poetical

talent. The verses were handed over the table to Burns at a convivial meeting, and he instantly indorsed the subjoined reply.

The Loyal Natives' Verses.

Ye sons of sedition give ear to my song,

Let Syme, BURNS, and Maxwell, pervade every throng,
With, Craken the attorney, and Mundell the quack,
Send Willie the monger to hell with a smack.

Burns-extempore.

Ye true "Loyal Natives" attend to my song,
In uproar and riot rejoice the night long;

From envy and hatred your corps is exempt;

But where is your shield from the darts of contempt?

No.

No. LXVI.

To MR. ALEXANDER FINDLATER,

SIR,

SUPERVISOR OF EXCISE, DUMPRIES.

INCLOSED are the two schemes. I would not have troubled you with the collector's one, but for suspicion lest it be not right. Mr. Erskine promised me to make it right, if you will have the goodness to shew him how. As I have no copy of the scheme for myself, and the alterations being very considerable from what it was formerly, I hope that I shall have access to this scheme I send you, when I come to face up my new books. So much for schemes.- And that no scheme to betray a FRIEND, or mislead a STRANGER; to seduce a YOUNG GIRL, or rob a HENROOST; to subvert LIBERTY, or bribe an ExCISEMAN; to disturb the GENERAL ASSEMBLY, or annoy a GOSSIPPING; to overthrow the credit of ORTHODOXY, or the authority of OLD SONGS; to oppose your wishes, or frustrate my hopesMAY PROSPER-is the sincere wish and prayer of

ROBT. BURNS.

No.