THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 
 ^y J(('/-mM/m. r/7jr dJl ^^w/i^^ 
 
 VICTORIA, Queen and Empress. 
 
 Reprodttccd from the particular Photograph selected by the Queen, gth April, jSgy.
 
 H+X xtx XtX X*^ .Hf« t »♦« »,♦« A** ".t^ 
 
 A VINDICATION. 
 
 JT^X X^V JT^X JT'JX ^■^x \ XJX WlV »!■* T^> 
 
 -//// (Jubilee) Iiditio)i. 
 
 K^v #!> r^* j^iv ^ ;rjx jT^X jrjx jrjx jT^* 
 
 BURNS 
 
 EXCISE OFFICER AND POET. 
 
 SE VENTER N IL L USTKA TIONS. THREE FA C-SIMILES. 
 
 ^cmo 
 
 / 
 
 Sv^C 
 
 /- 
 
 gtttpitnc 
 
 J^accssit 
 
 By JOHN SINTON, Supervisor oj Inland Revenue, Carlisle. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, AT CARLISLE. 
 
 GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH: /. MENZIES ^ CO. 
 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT er- CO., Ltd. 
 
 A L L RIGHTS RF.SER I l-.n.
 
 -X5~^.K7»X» 
 
 DE DICATE D 
 
 {By Permission) 
 TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 The earl of ROSEBERY, K.G.. K.T., 
 
 Honorary President 
 OF THE Burns Federation. 
 
 -N(^()<G> 
 
 ^ <^ ^. t\Atu.i;v K 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 v^
 
 ,\ 
 
 EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM THE ADDRESS DELIVERED AT GLASGOW ON TIIF. 
 CENTENARY OF THE POET'S DEATH, aisr JULY, 1896, 
 
 By lord ROSEBERY. 
 
 ■" The secret of Burns' extraordinary hold on mankind lies in 
 two words — inspiration and sympathy. Try and reconstruct 
 Burns as he was. A peasant, born in a cottage that no sanitary 
 inspector in these days would tolerate for a monienc ; struggling 
 with desperate effort against pauperism, almost in vain ; snatch- 
 ing at scraps of learning in the intervals of toil, as it were with 
 his teeth ; a heavy silent lad, proud of his ploughing. All of a 
 sudden, without preface or warning, he breaks out into exquisite 
 song like a nightingale from the brushwood, and continues 
 singing as sweetly — with nightingale pauses — till he dies. A 
 nightingale sings because he cannot help it ; he can only sing 
 exquisitely, because he knows no other. So it was with Burns. 
 What is this but inspiration ? One can no more measure or 
 reason about it than measure or reason about Niagara. If his 
 talents were universal, his sympathy was not less so. His 
 tenderness was not a mere selfish tenderness for his own family, 
 for he loved all mankind except the cruel and the base. Nay, 
 we may go further, and say that he placed all creation, especially 
 the suffering and despised part of it, under his protection. The 
 oppressor in every shape, even in the comparatively innocent 
 embodiment of the factor and the sportsman, he regarded with 
 direct and personal hostility. 
 
 We have something to be grateful for even in the weaknesses 
 of men like Burns. Mankind is helped in its progress almost 
 as much by the study of imperfection as by the contemplation 
 of perfection. Had we nothing before us in our futile and 
 halting lives but saints and the ideal we might well fail alto- 
 gether. We grope blindly along the catacombs of the world, 
 we climb the dark ladder of life, we feel our way to futurity, 
 but we can scarcely see an inch around or before us. We 
 stumble and falter and fall, our hands and knees are bruised 
 and sore, and we look up for light and guidance. Could we 
 
 48i 
 
 <_
 
 10 
 
 see nothing but distant, unapproachable impeccability, we might 
 well sink prostrate in the hopelessness of emulation and the 
 weariness of despair. Is it not then, when all seems blank and 
 lightless and lifeless, when strength and courage flag, and when 
 perfection seems as remote as a star, is it not then that imper- 
 fection helps us ? When we see that the greatest and choicest 
 images of God have had their weaknesses like ours, their 
 temptations, their hour of darkness, their bloody sweat, are we 
 not encouraged by their lapses and catastrophes to find energy 
 for one more effort, one more struggle ? Where they failed we 
 feel it a less dishonour to fail : their errors and sorrows make,, 
 as it were, an easier ascent from infinite imperfection to infinite 
 perfection. Man after all is not ripened by virtue alone. Were 
 it so this world were a paradise of angels. No ! Like the 
 growth of the earth, he is the fruit of all the seasons — the 
 accident of a thousand accidents, a living mystery — moving 
 through the seen to the unseen. He is sown in dishonour ; he 
 is matured under all the varieties of heat and cold : in mist and 
 wrath, in snow and vapours, in the melancholy of autumn, in 
 the torpor of winter, as well as in the rapture and fragrance of 
 summer, or the balmy affluence of the spring — its breath, its- 
 sunshine, its dew. And at the end he is reaped — the product,, 
 not of one climate, but of all ; not of good alone, but of evil ; 
 not of joy alone, but of sorrow — perhaps mellowed and ripened, 
 perhaps stricken and withered and sour. How, then, shall we- 
 judge anyone ? How, at any rate, shall we judge a giant — great 
 in gifts and great in temptation ; great in strength and great in 
 weakness ? Let us glory in his strength and be comforted in 
 his weakness. And, when we thank heaven for the inestimable 
 gift of Burns, we do not need to remember wherein he was 
 imperfect, we cannot bring ourselves to regret that he was made 
 of the same" clay as ourselves." 
 
 ^yi;^,^^'^-
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDII'ION. 
 
 The following Paper was communicated to the last Quarterly 
 Meeting of the Carlisle Purns Club by Mr. Sinton, one of the 
 vice-presidents. It was very highly api)reciated by the members 
 present ; and, in their opinion, it effectually refutes the wide- 
 spread but mistaken notion that Burns' career as an Excise 
 Officer was marred by irregular conduct. 
 
 W. Mather, President. 
 Carlisle, September, 1895. J^"^- Jardine, Secretary. 
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The human heart is ever the same, whether in hut or palace ; 
 throughout the world; and throughout the centuries. Burns 
 spoke straight to the human heart. He voiced, in his own 
 personality, the emotions of all mankind. Guided by the uner- 
 ring instincts of a brave and intelligent people, whose national 
 motto is '■'• Ne77io ?ne impune iacessit," the Scotch have held high 
 his banner, and defended the fame of his name against all 
 comers, for a century. They have greedily grasped at facts 
 which prove the falsehood of charges levelled against him, 
 sometimes by friends, and always by foes. So, now, go forth, 
 our second battalion of facts, for " Facts are chiels that winna 
 ding, and downa be disputed." 
 Carlisle, 20th December, 1895. 
 
 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. 
 
 The search-lights of a century have revealed many faxourable 
 
 facts, and exposed many plausible fictions relative to the Poet's 
 
 career. It is gratifying to know that this unassuming, but 
 
 authoritative, contribution to the truth, has heljjcd somewhat 
 
 to fulfil the Poet's prophecy: — "They will ken me better, and 
 
 think mair o' me, a hundred years after I am dead." 
 
 39 Cavendish Pla( e, 
 
 Carlisle, nth July, 1S96.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO 
 
 FOURTH (JUBILEE) EDITION. 
 
 T 
 
 HIS year we have been celebrating the Jubilee of Queen 
 Victoria, who has reigned for sixty years the monarch and 
 mother of her people — 
 
 '* Not swaying to this faction or to that, 
 
 Not making her high place the lawless perch 
 
 Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage ground 
 
 For pleasure ; but through all this tract of years 
 
 Wearing the white flower of a blameless life." 
 
 A noble and worthy Queen, who "ne'er forgets her people." 
 A Queen who, on the morning of her Commemoration Day, 
 sent flashing round the world her electric message : — " From 
 my heart I thank my beloved people ; may God bless them ! " 
 How different it is now to what it was a hundred years ago, 
 when he, a man of the people, the people's Poet, wrote : — 
 
 " Who w.ll not sing ' God save the King' 
 .Shall hang as high's the steeple," 
 
 yet considered it necessary to add the proviso : — 
 
 " But, while we sing ' God save the King,' 
 We'll ne'er forget the people." 
 
 La^t year we commemorated the death-day of Robert Burns, 
 lord Rosebeiy was chosen to be the voice and mouthpiece of 
 millions who, at home and beyond the seas, admire the National 
 Bard ; and nobly he fulfilled his mission. The patriot peasant 
 and the patriot peer clasped hands across the century ; and 
 those who had the privilege of being present felt that, hence- 
 forth, the character of Burns as a man would appear in a better, 
 because in a truer, light. 
 
 But, although it seems invidious to direct attention to a fly, 
 or a supposed fly, in the amber, it is the general opinion that 
 Lord Rosebery was " unsound " — in Scottish phrase — on one
 
 13 
 
 point. It was not well that Burns died when hu did. Dark 
 clouds had gathered around him towards the end of his life, but 
 they had begun to disperse before he died. The sun was still 
 shining behind the clouds, and patches of blue had begun to 
 appear in the sky. Burns was "done" physically, but not 
 mentally. Had he been restored to health he would have 
 sprung again to his feet in all the strength and brilliancy of his 
 matchless genius. His own inalienable holly wreath, undimmed 
 by debt and menial toil, would have glistened above his un- 
 daunted brow with added lustre ; his peerless Poet's mantle, 
 purified by infliction and strengthened by reflection, would have 
 clung to his shoulders in firmer folds, and the second volume of 
 his life's work would have outshone the first. 
 
 In view of the now universallyadmitted-fact that, during the 
 last seven years of his life. Burns continued to toil under the 
 rigorous discipline of the Excise Authorities to their entire 
 satisfaction, and with continuous promotion to himself, it seems 
 impossible to believe that any person possessed of ordinary 
 intelligence can continue to give credit to the exaggerated and, 
 in many instances, baseless charges which have been levelled 
 against his character as a man, after he was no longer alive to 
 defend himself. Were you, my prejudiced friend, capable of 
 sincerely praying — 
 
 "Oh, that Thou the gift would gi'e us 
 To see oorsel's as ithers see us " — 
 
 you would speak less about the human faults and failings of 
 Burns, and think more about your own. 
 
 Carlisle, July, 1897.
 
 ^he ^^ivtkplacc of Robert ^ViritB. 
 
 By ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 
 
 Though Scotland boasts a thousand names 
 
 Of patriot, king, and peer, 
 The noblest, grandest of them all 
 
 ^^'as loved and cradled here. 
 Here lived the gentle peasant-prince, 
 
 The loving cottar-king, 
 Compared with whom the greatest lord 
 
 Is but a titled thing. 
 
 'Tis but a cot roofed in with straw — 
 
 A hovel made of clay ; 
 One door shuts out the snow and storm. 
 
 One window greets the day. 
 And yet I stand within this room 
 
 And hold all thrones in scorn. 
 For here, beneath this lowly thatch, 
 
 Love's sweetest bard was born. 
 
 Within this hallowed hut I feel 
 
 Like one who clasps a shrine 
 When the glad lips, at last, have touched 
 
 The something deemed divine. 
 And here the world, through all the years, 
 
 As long as day returns, 
 The tribute of its love and tears 
 
 Will pay to Robert Burns !
 
 BURNS, 
 
 EXCISE OFFICER AND POET. 
 
 A VINDICATION. 
 
 [Photo, by Austin, Stamcix. 
 BURNS COTTAGE. 
 
 OUR object is to prove, by indisputable facts and 
 authentic records, not only that the Poet's promo- 
 tion as an Excise Officer was never retarded by any 
 censure from the Board, either for the political opinions he 
 held, for personal misconduct, or for neglect of duty; but that 
 he was a zealous and efficient officer from the day he entered 
 the service in 1789 until the end of his career in 1796 ; all the 
 rumours, surmises, and ingenious fabrications of his detractors, 
 critics, and imperfectly-informed biographers, notwithstanding. 
 
 I rely upon the important private records of the Scotch 
 Board of E.xcise, the unpremeditated evidence incidentally
 
 16 
 
 supplied by Burns himself, the weighty corroboration of his. 
 official superiors, his continuous promotion, and the position he 
 occupied in the service when he died, to prove my case. 
 
 Dr. Currie expressed a hope that the errors into which he 
 had fallen as the first biographer of Burns would not be very 
 important, and he explained that they would be easily accounted 
 for by those who knew the circumstances under which the 
 undertaking had been performed. Unfortunately the errors 
 are both numerous and important, and, as succeeding comment- 
 ators have copied from Currie and from one another, the Poet's 
 Excise career has hitherto been greatly misunderstood and 
 seriously misrepresented. Dr. Currie failed to perceive the 
 import of many essential facts, owing to his ignorance of Excise 
 methods and practice, and, what is worse, many of his inferences 
 are erroneous. Cromek, Cunningham, Lockhart, Waddell, 
 Gilfillan, and many more, followed suit; and hence the admirers 
 of the Poet have hitherto been sorrowfully silent from a dread,, 
 rather than from a knowledge, of any facts supposed to reflect 
 discredit on his Excise career. They have been afraid to look 
 into the closet in which the Excise Skeleton was supposed to 
 hang, but now the door has been thrown wide open, and behold ! 
 there is no skeleton there. 
 
 Every entry relating to Burns was carefully extracted from the 
 original registers of the Scotch Board of Excise by my friend, 
 Mr. R. W. INIacfadzean, at present Chief Clerk of Inland 
 Revenue, Greenock ; under the personal supervision of his 
 father, Mr. James Macfadzean, then an Inspector at the Chief 
 Office, Somerset House, and now a retired Collector of Inland 
 Revenue, at Glasgow.* The Registers have disappeared, but 
 the extracts remain ; and the service thus rendered to the Poet's 
 memory can scarcely be over-estimated. 
 
 1781-88. Age 22-29. 
 
 Early in hfe, Burns entertained an idea of entering the Excise. 
 
 In his nineteenth year he was engaged in the study of gauging, 
 
 land-surveying, mensuration, dialling, and kindred subjects, at 
 
 Kirkoswald, where he came in contact with numerous smugglers 
 
 'Appendix A.
 
 [Photo, by W. H. Williams, Officer of Inland Rerenw, Dwnfriet. 
 HOUSE (with the LAMP) WHERE BONNIE JEAN LIVED. 
 
 and their natural enemies, the Excise and Customs officers. In 
 his twenty-third year — at midsummer, 1781 — he proceeded to. 
 Irvine, another smuggling seaport, where he failed in the flax- 
 dressing business, and returned to Lochlea in March, 17S2. 
 Here he toiled beside his father on the farm until " the saint,, 
 the father, and the husband" died on 12th February, 1784. 
 The family then removed to Mossgiel, and here also farming 
 proved a failure. Mossgiel is about a mile from Mauchline, 
 where bonnie Jean lived with her parents. 
 
 The Kilmarnock edition of his poems, published on 31st 
 July, 1786, produced about ^20, and Burns took a steerage 
 passage in a vessel bound for the West Indies; his chest was 
 on the road to Greenock, and he had written his pathetic 
 lines : — 
 
 •' Farewell old Coila's hills and dales, 
 Her heathy moors and winding vales ; 
 
 Farewell, my friends ; farewell, my foes ; 
 
 My peace with these ; my love with those : 
 
 The bursting tears my heart declare : 
 
 Farewell, the bonnie banks of Ayr." ^
 
 18 
 
 And those to the Brethren of St. James' Lodge, Tarbolton : — 
 
 *' Adieu ! a heart warm, fond adieu ! 
 Dear brotliers of the mystic tie ! 
 
 Oft have I met your social baud, j 
 
 And spent the cheerful, festive night ; 
 Oft, honoured with supreme conimand, 
 
 Presided o'er the Sons of Llijht : 
 And by that hieroi/lyphic bright 
 
 Whicli none but Crajt-wieuevtir saw ! 
 Strong memory on my heart shall write 
 
 Those happy scenes when far awa. 
 
 May Freedom, Harmony and Love, 
 
 Unite you in the (jrand dtsiijn, 
 Beneath the Onmisoient Eye above, 
 
 The glorious Architect Divine ! 
 That you may keep the unerrimj line 
 
 Still rising by the plummet's law. 
 Till Order bright completely shine. 
 
 Shall be my prayer when far awa'." 
 
 At this juncture, the Poet, having heard of Dr. Blacklock's 
 letter to the Rev. George Lawrie, Minister at Loudoun, extolling 
 liis poems, and suggesting a second edition, recalled his chest, 
 postponed sailing, and some of his Ayrshire friends, though 
 unsuccessfully, endeavoured to procure for him an ai)point- 
 ment in the Excise. 
 
 His Kilmarnock printer having declined to publish a second 
 edition of his poems without security (!) Burns proceeded to 
 Edinburgh in November, 1786. his second edition was published 
 in April, 1787, and he became the happy possessor of ^500. 
 With characteristic generosity he forwarded about half the 
 amount to his mother and the family at home. " I was 
 conscious," said he, " that the wrong scale of the balance was 
 pretty heavily charged, and I thought that throwing a little 
 filial piety, and fraternal affection, into the scale in my favour 
 might help to smooth matters at xho. grand reckoning." 
 
 Early in May, the Poet, mounted on his famous grey mare, 
 " Jenny Geddes," and accompanied by Ainslie, a young 
 Edinburgh solicitor, set out on his Border tour. They reached 
 Jedburgh about the middle of May, and Burns notes in his 
 journal : — " Charming romantic situation. Fine old ruins : a
 
 19 
 
 [Photo, by J. Valentine, Lxindee. 
 
 JEDBURGH ARBEV. 
 
 once magnificent cathedral, and strong castle. Town has the 
 appearance of old rude grandeur, but the people extremely idle. 
 Walk up Jed with Miss Lindsay and other ladies to be shown 
 Love-lane and Blackburn — two fairy scenes. Was presented 
 by the magistrates with the freedom of the burgh. My heart is 
 thawed into melting pleasure, after being so long frozen up in 
 the Greenland bay of indifference, amid the noise and nonsense 
 of Edinburgh. Jed, pure be thy crystal streams, and hallowed 
 thy sylvan banks. Presented Miss Lindsay with my portrait. 
 Took farewell of Jedburgh with some melancholy disagreeable 
 sensations. Sweet Isabella Lindsay ; may peace dwell in thy 
 bosom, uninterrupted e.xcept by the throbbing of rapturous 
 love ! " 
 
 Continuing his journey by Newcastle, Hexham, Wardrew and 
 Longtown, the Poet arrived at Carlisle on the evening of 31st 
 May, 1787, and took up his quarters for the night at the Malt 
 Shovel Inn, Rickergate. 
 
 Burns wrote a letter the same evening or next morning to 
 his friend W. Nicol of the High School, Edinburgh, the broad
 
 20 
 
 [Plidto. bifj. Rohson, Cuih'Ue. 
 
 MALT SHOVEL INN, CARLISLE. 
 
 vernacular of which few latter-day Scotchmen will be able to 
 interpret: — 'Carlisle, June i, 1787 (or, I believe, the 39th o' 
 May rather). Kind Honest-Hearted Willie, I'm sitten doon 
 here, after seven and forty miles ridin', e'en as forjeskit and 
 forniaw'd as a forfochten cock, to gie ye some notion o' ma 
 land-louper-like stravaigin sin the sorrowfu' hoor that I sheuk 
 hands and pairted wi auld Reekie. 
 
 My auld gad gleyde o' a meere has huchall'd up hill and 
 doon brae in Scotland and England, as teugh an' birnie as a 
 verra deil wi' me. It's true she's as poor's a sangmaker, and as 
 hard's a kirk, and tipper taipers when she taks the gate like a 
 lady's gentlewoman in a minuwae, or a hen on a het girdle, but 
 
 she's a yauld poutherie girran for a' that 
 
 I'll be in Dumfries the morn, gif the beast be to the fore an' 
 the branks bide hale. Guid be wi ye Willie ! Amen ! — R. B. " 
 
 Next day his friend, Mr. Mitchell, showed him round the old 
 Border city, and through his print works, in which about 600 
 hands were employed. After dining with Mr. Mitchell, the 
 Poet returned to the inn, and was informed by Peter Reid the
 
 21 
 
 \Photn. Ill/ J. Valentine, Dundee. 
 TOWN HALL, CARLISLE (iN WHICH THE POK'J- WAS FINED). 
 
 landlord that " Jenny Geddes " had been found trespassing on 
 " the Bitts," — a piece of unenclosed corporation grass — and was 
 shut up in the corporation pin-fold. After considerable trouble 
 and delay and the payment of a small fine inflicted by the Mayor, 
 the indignant Poet prepared to resume his journey. As he 
 was about to mount into the saddle he pointed towards the 
 Town Hall and exclaimed : — " Come on my lass, ye'll he 
 a mare when he's nae mair." With that he cantered off 
 towards Annan ; and thence, by Dumfries and Ellisland, to 
 Mossgiel. 
 
 Burns returned to Edinburgh in the Autumn, and became a 
 frequent visitor at the house of Mr. Nimmo, Excise Officer, 
 Alison Square ; and here he first met "Clarinda." 
 
 The Poet's experiences in Edinburgh were, essentially, 
 unsatisfactory upon the whole. He disliked the refined 
 insincerities and insipid conventionalities of fashionable society, 
 heralded, as they too frequently were, by " the cold, ol)sequious, 
 dancing-school bow of politeness." He appreciated the genuine 
 guinea, but he preferred the unminted gold to a guinea-stamped
 
 22 
 
 counterfeit coin. When taken to task in Leith Walk by a 
 modish city acquaintance for speaking to an honest Ayrshire 
 friend dressed in hodden gray : " What ! " exclaimed Burns, "do 
 you think I was speaking to the man's clothes ? No I I was 
 speaking to the man : and that man, let me tell you, has more 
 sense and worth than nine out of ten of my fine Edinburgli 
 friends." 
 
 Burns soon became weary of wandering aimlessly about 
 Edinburgh, and he wrote to the Earl of Glencairn in January : 
 — " I wish to get into the Excise. I have weighed — long and 
 seriously weighed — my situation, my hopes, and turn of mind,, 
 and am fully fixed to my scheme if I can possibly effectuate it. 
 I have resolved from maturest deliberation, and now I am fixed, 
 I shall leave no stone unturned to carry my resolve into execu- 
 tion. I have not yet applied to anybody else. Indeed, my 
 heart sinks within me at the idea of applying to any other of 
 the Great who have honoured me with their countenance. I 
 am ill qualified to dog the heels of greatness with the impertin- 
 ence of solicitation, and tremble nearly as much at the thought 
 of the coid promise, as the cold denial." This application had 
 no immediate result and he made one — and only one — personal 
 endeavour to secure a little of that possible patronage of which 
 we have all heard so much ; and with the following result : — " I 
 have almost given up the Excise idea. I have been just now 
 
 to wait on a great person. Miss 's friend, . Why will 
 
 great people not only deafen us with the din of their equipage, 
 and dazzle us with their fastidious pomp, but they must also be 
 so very dictatorially wise? I have been questioned like a 
 child about my matters, and blamed and schooled for my 
 political inscription on the Stirling window. Come, curse me 
 Jacob ; come, defy me Israel ! " 
 
 But Burns could not brook delay, so " kind auld Sandy Wood, 
 the doctor," procured an Excise appointment for him from Mr. 
 Graham of Fintry, one of the Commissioners of Excise. 
 
 With the exception of good old Dr. Blacklock and one or two 
 others, the clear-headed but cold-hearted Edinburgh gentry of 
 the period lionized, and then left him. Your society people 
 treat all their lions alike. Deserted by his influential Edinburgh
 
 •23 
 
 Burns and his Cointemporaries in the House of Lord 
 MONBODDO, John Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 J-'roiii the /'aliiiiH:; ly James Kdj-ai 
 
 
 •* c 
 
 • •-■ i - 
 
 ■'' 1 5 °^ 
 
 c £2 - 
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 \i, Ji -ji 
 
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 11 
 
 C5 
 
 
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 i 
 
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 [Photo. b;i W. 11. Williams. 
 THE NITH AT ELLISLAND. 
 
 acquaintances, Burns was left to solve the problem of his future 
 life, alone. He was now halting at a point where four roads 
 meet. His life hitherto had been, chiefly, "a galling load, 
 along a rough, a weary road." He had found in it only :^ 
 
 " Some drops of joy — with draughts of ill I)et\veen : 
 Some gleams of sunshine — mid renewed storms." 
 
 And here he halts, " unfitted with an aim," gazing wistfully 
 along the roads in front and on either side. Shall he select 
 gauging, or farming, or a combination of both ? He deliberates 
 long and seriously. He is a man of sound sense and clear 
 judgment, and he wisely decides to secure his Excise com- 
 mission, to retain it in his possession, to take a farm, and, if 
 farming fails, to fall back upon active employment in the Excise. 
 What else, or better, could he have got or done ? 
 
 1788-91. Age, 21) .^2. 
 The Poet finally left Edinburgh on 24111 .March, T7SS; 
 attended at Tarbolton for a six weeks course of Excise 
 " instructions," under James Findlay, officer there ; secured
 
 26 
 
 [Photo, by W. H. Williams. 
 ELLISLAND FARM HOUSE. 
 
 his Excise commission, entered on his farm at Ellisland, and 
 married his bonnie Jean.* 
 
 Leaving his young wife at ^Mauchhne, Burns proceeded to 
 his new farm at Ellisland, on 14th June, 1788. He set about 
 building a new farmhouse, and " had no acquaintance older 
 than yesterday, except "Jenny Geddes," the old mare I ride 
 on." Leading a lonely life, he gazed wistfully westward towards 
 Mauchline, where his young bride was temporarily left alone, 
 and poured forth his soul in the evergreen lyric : — 
 
 0' a' the airts the wind can blaw 
 
 I dearly loe the west ; 
 For there the bonie lassie lives, 
 
 The lassie I loe best ; 
 Though wild woods grow, and rivers row, 
 
 And monie a hill between ; 
 Eaith day an" night my fancj^'s flight 
 
 Is ever wi" my Jean. 
 
 *Note:— The order for Instnu-tiiins:— "EDlNBlltGH, 31st March. 1788. To 
 Mr. James Findlay. The Cciniinissioners order that you instruct Mr. Bobert 
 Burns in the art of gauging .... when he is well instructed and qualified 
 for an officer (then and not before, at your perils), you and yc\n supervisor are 
 to certify the same to the Board . . . that the above Mr. Robert Burns hath . 
 cleared his quarters both for lotlging and diet, that he has actually paid each of 
 you for his instructions and examination, and that he has sufficient at the time 
 to purchase a horse for his business. (Si<jned) A. PeausO.n."
 
 27 
 » ■ 
 
 There's not a bonie flower that springs 
 
 By fountain, shaw, or green ; 
 There's not a bonie bird that sings 
 
 But minds me o' my Jean, 
 
 The Poet wrote to Miss Chalmers in September: — "I hind 
 every day after my reapers. I have my Excise Commission in my 
 pocket for any emergency. If I could set all be/ore your view, 
 'ivhatever disrespect you, in couimon unth the world, hare for this 
 business, I fawiv you would approve of the idea.- The question 
 is not at what door of Fortune's palace we shall enter in, but 
 what door does she open to us. I got my Excise appointment 
 without hanging on or mortifying solicitation." Four months 
 afterwards he wrote to Bishop Geddes : — " In the affair of a 
 livelihood I think I am tolerably secure. . . . There is a 
 certain stigma affixed to the character of an Excise officer, but 
 I do not intend to borrow honour from any profession." 
 
 The Poet's keen sense of independence as a man prevented 
 his angling for a " post or pension " as a poet. " I got this," 
 said he, " without hanging on or mortifying solicitation." He 
 faced the odium at that time attaching to the office, from a sense 
 of duty to his wife and family, as indicated in the following lines 
 written to Dr. Blacklock : — 
 
 " But what d'ye think, my trusty fier, 
 I'm turned a gauger — Peace be here ! 
 Parnassian queans, I fear, I fear, 
 
 Ye'U now disdain me, 
 And then my fifty pounds a year 
 
 Will little gain me. 
 
 Ye ken, j'e ken, 
 That Strang necessity supreme is 
 
 'Mang sons o" men. 
 
 I liae a wife and twa wee laddies, 
 
 They inuu i hae brose and brats o' duddies ; 
 
 Ye ken yoursel's my heart right proud is : 
 
 1 need na vaunt. 
 But ril sned besoms— thraw 8aui,'h woodies. 
 
 Before they want." 
 
 In the face of these and similar statements deliberately made 
 by Burns himself after full consideration, is it not treatini; him
 
 28- 
 
 like a child as the "great man" did in Edinburgh to expatiate 
 about the supposed mistake he made in entering the Excise ? 
 
 [Photo, h/i W. U. WiUiamx. 
 STACKYARD AT ELLISLAND, IN WHICH BURNS COMPOSED 
 "TO MARY IN HEAVEN." 
 
 Ceres and Venus now walked hand in hand with the inspired 
 Bard. After working hard in the harvest field all day on 20th 
 October, 1789, the anniversary of Highland Mary's death, the- 
 Poet lay stretched on his back in the keen night air on the 
 level ledge of a partially used stack of hay. He was gazing 
 into " the brave o'erhanging firmament, fretted with golden fire."^ 
 His eyes were fixed on a bright particular star, which " shone 
 like another moon." If you have any poetry in your soul : if 
 you have ever " loved and lost " a gentle sweetheart ; a de- 
 voted wife ; a darling child ; pause, and read line by line : — 
 
 TO MARY IN HEATKN. 
 
 Thou ling'ring star, with lesa'ning ray, 
 
 That lov'st to greet the early inorn, 
 Agaia thou usher'st in the day 
 
 My Mary from my aoul was torn. 
 
 Still o'er these scenes my inem'ry wakes, 
 And fondly broods with miser care ! 
 
 Time but the impression deeper makes. 
 As streams their channels deeper wear.
 
 29 
 
 My Mary ! — dear departed shade! 
 
 Where is thy place of blissful rest ? 
 See 'at thou thy lover lowly laid? 
 
 Hear'st thou the groiiii8 lh;it rend his brcAsi ' 
 
 The Poet returned into his house, penned the lines as ilicy nosr 
 stand, in all their immortal beauty, and handed them to his 
 noble wife, who used to tell the story, with sympathetic tears in 
 her eyes, long after he was dead and in his grave. 
 
 As the farm was not "turning out well," IJurns applied io Mr. 
 Graham in the Autumn for active employment in the Excise, 
 and he was immediately appointed to Dumfries ist Itinerancy, 
 in which EUisland was situated. His name appears in the 
 Alphabetical Register, 17S9, and his character is:— "Never 
 tryed, a Poet*" with a subsequent interlineation, by a diiTerent 
 hand, "Turns out well." * On 23rd December, 1789, he wrote 
 to The Countess of Glencairn : — " Considering my unlucky 
 bargain of a farm, I find ^50, which is now our salary, an 
 exceeding good thing. People may talk as they like of the 
 ignominy of the Excise ; but what will support my family and 
 keep me independent of the world is, to me, a very important 
 matter ; and I had much rather that my profession borrowed 
 credit from me than that I borrowed credit from my profession. 
 Another advantage I have in this business is the knowledge it 
 gives me of the various shades of human character, and con- 
 sequently, assisting me in my poetic pursuits." 
 
 Burns now led a busy life as Farmer, Excise Officer, and 
 Poet. His excise station comprised fourteen circuits, technically 
 termed Rides,t and he had to travel about thirty miles a day in 
 the performance of his duties. He had to provide and keep a 
 good horse— supervisors having to certify every eight weeks that 
 their ofificers were "well mounted"— and pay his travelling 
 expenses out of a salary of ^-{^50 a year. Not much room here 
 for " indulgence !" 
 
 At this period the people groaned under an intolerable burden 
 of hateful imposts. Excise duties were levied on all the lux- 
 uries and on most of the necessaries of life, comprising such 
 articles as salt, tea, coffee, soap, starch, candles, paper, hides, 
 
 •Appenilix K. fAppt-ndixB
 
 iO 
 
 skins, printed goods, glass, Dricks, and of course, on beer, spirits, 
 wine, and tobacco. Smuggling was rampant. Beer was illegally 
 brewed and spirits illicitly distilled all over Scotland. Almost 
 the entire population sympathised with, or connived at, the 
 evasion of the Revenue Laws, which were necessarily severe 
 and constantly exercised. Ruinous penalties were imposed, 
 lengthy periods of imprisonment were inflicted, and unlucky 
 smugglers were occasionally hanged for having killed an Excise 
 or Customs officer in some desperate encounter. As a natural 
 consequence of this state of things, the Revenue officers of the 
 period were unpopular, for they were the visible embodiment of 
 obnoxious and oppressive fiscal laws and regulations. 
 
 Burns was of opinion that it was not the Officers, whose duty 
 it was to execute the laws, who were to blame, but those who 
 made them, and squandered the money at home and abroad, 
 and he recorded his opinion in these lines : — 
 
 " Ye men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering 
 'Gainst poor excisemen ? give the cause a hearing ; 
 What are your landlords' rent rolls ? taxing ledgers : 
 What premiers, what ? even monarchs' mighty gangers ; 
 Nay, what are priests these seeming godly wisemen ; 
 What are they, pray, but spiritual excisemen?" 
 
 He was an active zealous officer, but several anecdotes are 
 related which show that he sometimes tempered the wind to the 
 shorn lamlx For instance, Professor Gillespie of St. Andrews, 
 when at Thornhill on a fair day in 1 793, saw Burns call hurriedly 
 at the door of a poor woman, named Kate Watson, who, it was 
 understood, was doing a little business on her own account for 
 the day. With a nod and a movement of the forefinger Burns 
 brought her to the door. " Kate," said he, "are ye mad ? The 
 supervisor and I will be in on ye in half an hour ; gude bye ti 
 ye at present," and with that he disappeared in the crowd. On 
 another occasion, a woman — Jean Dunn of Kirkpartick, who 
 had been brewing some beer duty free for the fair — observed 
 Burns and another officer named Robinson coming towards her 
 house. Jean slipped out at the back door, and left her servant 
 and her young daughter to face the gaugers. " Has there been 
 any brewing for the fair here to-day ? " " Oh no, sirs, we hae 
 nae licence for that " replied the servant lass. " That's no 
 true " exclaimed the wee lassie " the muckle kist is fu' o' the
 
 31 
 
 bottles o' yill that ma. inither sat up a' nicht brewin' for the fair." 
 "We are in a hurry just now," said Burns, "but when we 
 return from the fair we will examine the muckle black kist : 
 come along Robinson." 
 
 The severity of the revenue laws of the period, and the 
 poverty of the widows to whom he had shown mercy are 
 pleaded in extenuation. " Let me look at the books of Burns," 
 said Maxwell of Terraughtree at a ^[eeting of the District 
 Justices, " for they show that an upright officer may also be a 
 merciful one." 
 
 But he showed no mercy to the regular smuggler. One of 
 the fraternity, not knowing^urns personally, offered, one night, 
 to sell him some smuggled whiskey. " You've lichted on a 
 bad merchant,"' said the Bard, " I'm Robert Burns the gauger." 
 The fellow stared, then impudently replied " Aye, but ye're 
 likewise Robert Burns the poet ; I mak sangs too, sae ye'll 
 surely ne'er ruin a brither poet," " Why, friend," said Burns, 
 " the poet in me has been sacrificed to the exciseman, and I 
 should like to know what superior right you have to exemption,'' 
 and, sangs or no sangs, the seizure was made then and there. 
 
 His system of doing business is described in a letter he wrote 
 to Mr. Graham on 4th Sept., 1790 :— " Your letter reached me 
 just as I was setting in to the whirlpool of an excise fraud-court, 
 from the vortex of which I am just emerged. As my division 
 consists of ten large parishes, and, I am sorry to say, hitherto 
 very carelessly surveyed, I had a good deal of business with the 
 Justices ; and I believe my decreet will amount to between fifty 
 and sixty pounds. I took, I fancy, a rather new way with my 
 frauds. I recorded every defaulter ; but at the court I myself 
 begged off every poor body that was made to pay, which seeming 
 candour gave me so much implicit credit with the honourable 
 bench, that, with high compliments, they gave me such ample 
 vengeance on the rest, that my decreet is double the amount of 
 any division in the district." What did the public think of the 
 Poet as an officer? Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, writing to Dr. 
 Currie in 1789, says: "When passing through Dumfriesshire 
 with Dr. Stewart of Luss, I saw the Poet pass (juickly, near 
 Clcseburn, and said to my companion, 'That is Burns.' On 
 coming to the inn, the ostler told us that Burns would be back
 
 32 
 
 in a few hours to grant permits ; that when he met with anything 
 seizable he was no better than any other gauger; in everything 
 else he was a perfect gentleman(!) " "Leniency to the smuggler," 
 said Burns, "is an injustice to the honest trader." 
 
 Before he had been twelve months in the service he was pro- 
 moted to Dumfries 3rd Division, on 28th July, 1790,* and had 
 his salary increased from ^,S° '^o ^7° ^ year. About this time 
 Ainslie writes to a mutual acquaintance : " Our friend is now 
 always in a hurry. He seems happy in his situation ; a great 
 mixture of the poet and the Exciseman : one day he sits down 
 and writes a beautiful poem, and the next seizes a cargo of 
 tobacco from an unfortunate smuggler." 
 
 Within six months after his first promotion — on 27th January, 
 1 791 — his name was entered in the Register of persons recom- 
 mended for the supervisorship.f And, mark you, that entry 
 was never cancelled. On the 28th of the following month he 
 writes to Dr. Moore :— " I am going on, a mighty tax gatherer 
 before the Lord, and have lately got myself entered on the list 
 as an Examiner. I am not yet ranked as such, but in a few 
 years I shall pass into the line of supervisorship by seniority." 
 Exactly. He is now exceedingly busy — " Hurry of business " 
 says he, "grinding the faces of the publican and the sinner on the 
 merciless wheels of the Excise, making ballads, and correcting 
 the press of two different editions." 
 
 In the meantime the affairs of the farm were going from bad 
 to worse. Burns had few of the qualifications necessary for 
 successful farming. He hated what he termed " chicaning 
 bargain making ; " he let the thistles grow, to "save the symbol 
 dear ; " he stopped the horses and wrote beautiful poems about 
 mice and mountain daisies when a farmer — only a farmer — 
 would have continued ploughing. " The heart of the man and 
 the imagination of the poet," said hej "are the two grand con- 
 siderations for which I live. If miry ridges and dunghills are 
 to engross the best part of my soul immortal, I had better been 
 a rook or a magpie at once, and then I should not have been 
 plagued with any ideas superior to breaking of clods and picking 
 up of grubs." As a farmer Burns was necessarily a failure. 
 
 * Appendix B. t Appendix C.
 
 George— the third in order— would have made a much hettcr 
 one. But George was born in a palace and became a King ; 
 Burns was born in a cottage, and became a gauger. Much in 
 this world, depends on where you were born : Vet, JJurns was, 
 and shall continue to be throughout the ages, the King of Hearts! 
 P'or, what though : — 
 
 "Forsalien on the lioltl ; 
 His regal vestments soiled ; 
 His orown of lialf its jewels spoilM ; 
 He was a King for all." 
 
 The three-and-a-half years he spent at Ellisland in his triune 
 capacity of farmer, gauger, and poet, were the happiest, because 
 the busiest, of his busy life. They were the brightest and best 
 in his brief career. In the prime of early manhood, idohzed 
 at home, beloved abroad, full of energy and love and life, he 
 galloped along the country lanes and mountain paths, humming 
 sweet melodies, and dashing off immortal songs and poems that 
 shall continue to delight and instruct mankind in the ages 
 yet to come, when " man to man, the world o'er, shall brothers 
 be, an' a' that." 
 
 Having sold off his stock and farming implements by public 
 roup, he removed with his wife, family, and furniture to Dum- 
 fries in December, 1791. 
 
 Dumfries, i 791-2. Age 32-3. 
 
 "And now," says Carlyle, "the noblest and ablest man in all 
 the British lands might be seen, not swaying the royal sceptre, 
 or the pontiffs censer, on the pinnacle of the world, but gauging 
 ale tubs in the little burgh of Dumfries." 
 
 What a change ! From the farmhouse at Ellisland, beside the 
 broomy banks of the Nith, to the " Wee Vennel " in Dumfries. 
 This " courser of the sun," who, with his whole soul, loved the 
 Creator's works, animate and inanimate; who immortalized the 
 mountain daisy and the mouse ; who strode along the mountain 
 side glorying in the lightning, as it flashed " from pole to pole ; " 
 who revelled in the rolling thunder as it reverberated amongst 
 the hills ; who delighted to walk abroad in the quiet calm of a 
 summer Sunday morning, and look through nature up to nature's 
 God, is now " cribb'd, cabin'd, and confined " like a caged eagle.
 
 34 
 
 [Photo, by W. H. Williami. 
 
 HOUSE IN WEE VENNEL NOW BANK STREET DUMFRIES, 
 
 IN WHICH BURNS LIVED.* 
 
 Your cold-hearted, methodical, mathematical, manuscript makers 
 have invariably failed in their attempts to explain the erratic 
 conduct of this gifted being, whose complex nature was altogether 
 beyond their ken. Your dull, unlettered, unimaginative human 
 being is content to traverse his daily millhorse round of mon- 
 otonous work that he may eat and sleep and appear respectable. 
 This was an utterly impossible life for Burns, with his keen 
 intellect and social instincts. Was it any wonder, in these 
 altered conditions, and under the threatening political thunder- 
 cloud that hung suspended over his head for two long weary 
 years, that he spent too many of his evenings at the King's 
 Arms or the Globe ? Ye shallow moral mongers ; ye scribes 
 and Pharisees ; ye, who know nothing of the labyrinths of the 
 human heart; vacate that usurped judgment seat which you 
 profane, and condemn not, that ye be not condemned. For : — 
 
 ' Burns occupied the first floor; a flat of three small apartments, with one 
 window in each. Georfje Haugh, blacksmith, lived in the flat orerhead, and 
 John ^Syme had his office, as stamp distributor, on the ground floor.
 
 35 
 
 •' Who made the heart, 'tis Ht alone 
 
 l^ecidedly can try us ; 
 Hi knows each cliord ; its various tone ( 
 
 Each spring, its various bias. 
 Then, at the balance let's be mute ; 
 
 ^^'e never can adjust it, 
 What's done we partly inaj' compute, 
 
 T5ut know not what's lesisted." 
 
 At the time Burns removed to Dumfries our American colonies 
 had achieved their independence ; the French Revolution was 
 in full swing ; the cry of " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," found 
 an echo in the heart of every enthusiastic lover of liberty in 
 every corner of Europe. Wordsworth, Southey, and all the 
 younger poets of the period participated in the feeling. And 
 Burns? The electric condition of the political atmosphere 
 carried him off his feet, and he loudly proclaimed the sentiments 
 afterwards crystallized in that marvellous production "A man's 
 a man for a' that." But Burns was never a Socialist. On the 
 contrary, his heart was full of human brotherhood, which, as 
 Lockhart remarks, is both conservative and democratic. Un- 
 doubtedly, Burns, being a paid servant of the crown, acted with 
 imprudence in so loudly proclaiming his sympathies with the 
 American patriots, and the French Republicans. But he never 
 allowed his political sentiments to interfere with his public duties. 
 
 The Solwav Incident. 
 
 He was brave and fearless, and light-hearted withal, in his 
 ■dealings with the smugglers. When the smuggling French 
 brig Rosamond, ran aground in the Solway Firth, in February, 
 1792, Lewars, who had been despatched to Dumfries for a guard 
 of dragoons, was long in returning, and one of the officers, 
 becoming impatient, said : — " I wish the deil had him for his 
 pains ; write a song about him, Burns." The Poet moved off a 
 little distance, strode about for a short time, and returning, 
 chanted to his delighted companions : — 
 
 " The deil cam fiddlin through the toon 
 An' danced awa wi' the exciseman. 
 
 He's danced awa ; he's danced awa ; 
 He's danced awa wi" the exciseman.''
 
 36 
 
 Lewars returned shortly afterwards with his dragoons : Burns 
 at once placed himself at the head of his small party, waded 
 sword in hand to the brig, and was the first man to board. The 
 vessel was condemned, and sold next day, with all her arms 
 and stores, at Dumfries. Burns purchased four of her rusty 
 carronades for ^^3, and, moved by some quixotic impulse, or 
 humorous fancy, it is said he sent them to the French Legisla- 
 tive Assembly, with a letter requesting them " to accept them 
 as a present, and a mark of admiration and sympathy." It is 
 said they were seized by the Customs at Dover. Lockhart was 
 the first to give an account of the transaction, and then he pro- 
 ceeded to draw the usual biographical inferences. He mixed 
 up the Solway incident with the subsequent political one, and 
 went hopelessly astray. There is not a single iota of evidence 
 to show that either the Government or the Board ever heard 
 the story about the guns. Yet Lockhart writes : — " There 
 appears to be little room to doubt that this was the principal 
 circumstance that drew on Burns the notice of his jealous 
 superiors. The exact result of the Excise Board's investigation 
 is hidden in obscurity ; nor is it at all likely that the cloud will 
 be withdrawn hereafter. A general impression, however, appears 
 to have gone forth, that the affair terminated in something which 
 Burns himself considered as tantamount io the destruction of all 
 hope of future promotion in his profession." (!) The italics are 
 mine. When an officer applies for a better station, or for promo- 
 tion, his character is "extracted,"* and, if found unfavourable, his 
 application is refused. Within two months after the incident 
 of the guns, Burns was appointed, at his own request, to Dumfries 
 ist Division.l a better station, with his salary and emoluments 
 increased to about jQ^o a year. His application to the Board 
 for this Division had been favourably entertained, which proves 
 that his official character was faultless. 
 
 The Political Inquiry. 
 
 All through the year 1792, Burns fearlessly championed the 
 cause of civil and religious liberty, and on one occasion, at a 
 private party, when a toast was proposed to "William Pitt,"^ 
 
 * Appendix G. t Appendix B.
 
 37 
 
 Burns called for " a bumper to George Washington, the greater 
 man of the two." His keen sense of the injustices which crushed 
 the people in those tyrannous times impelled him to denounce 
 "the system of corruption that existed between the executive 
 power and the representative part of the legislature." He was 
 encompassed by political and ecclesiastical enemies, as well as 
 by smugglers and their sympathisers, and, in December, 1792, 
 some " scoundrel," moved by political animosity, secretly de- 
 nounced him to the Board of Excise, as being "a person 
 disaffected to the Government.' 
 
 >' 
 
 The Commissioners at this time were George Brown, Thomas 
 Wharton, James Stodart, John Grieve, and Robert Graham of 
 Fintry. Some of the commissioners were for dismissal " without 
 so much as a hearing, or the slightest intimation " But Robert 
 Graham said : " No, Burns shall not be condemned unheard." 
 Consequently, the Board directed Collector .Mitchell to investigate 
 and report. Having been informed by his collector that a Board's 
 letter had been received ordering an inquiry into his "political 
 conduct, and blaming him as a person disaffected to the 
 Government," Burns at once wrote to Mr. Graham, and told 
 him that " the allegation, whatever villain made it, is a lie. . . 
 . . . To your patronage, as a man of some genius, you 
 have allowed me a claim ; and your esteem, as an honest man, 
 I know is my due : to these, sir, permit me to appeal, . . . 
 the misery which threatens to overwhelm me : with my latest 
 breath, I will say it, I have — not deserved." To settle the 
 matter, Mr. Corbet, a Surveying General E.xaminer, one of the 
 Board's highest officials, was sent down from Edinburgh to 
 Dumfries, to make an impartial investigation on the spot, and 
 to report. And he was instructed — in advance, mark you — to 
 inform Burns that " his business was to acf not to //li/tk ; and 
 that whatever might be his opinion of men or measures, it was 
 for him to be st'/enf and o^ey." 
 
 When time had somewhat dulled the pain inflicted by this 
 unjustifiable threat, he embodied the substance of the whole 
 affair in four lines: — 
 
 " In politics if thou would'st mix, 
 And mean thy fortunes be, 
 Bear this in minJ : be deaf and blind ; 
 Let great folks hear and see."
 
 38 
 
 Mr. Mitchell, the Collector, and Mr. Findlater, the Supervisor, 
 were precognosced by Mr. Corbet, and testified that the accused 
 was exact, vigilant, and sober ; that, in fact, he was one of the 
 best officers in the district. His survey books and business 
 papers were next examined, and found correct. This man, 
 then, was proved to be an efficient officer : but, indeed, his 
 efficiency had never been in question. Aye, but was he disloyal? 
 That is the question. Within twenty-four hours after Mr. 
 Corbet's arrival, all Dumfries knew that the conduct of Burns 
 was being inquired into. Here, then, was a golden opportunity 
 for his political, ecclesiastical, and personal enemies. Did they 
 avail themselves of it ? If not, why not ? Where is the in- 
 former? Where are the proofs of disloyalty? In the meantime 
 inquisitive eyes are curiously watching the suspected officer as 
 he moves about, externally calm and collected, attending to 
 his daily duties. The proud, independent soul suffers in silence 
 and gives no sign. But think of him, as he sits " at his ain 
 fireside," torn by conflicting emotions. The low breathing of 
 his sleeping children, and the loud ticking of the clock alone 
 disturb the silence of the night. His anxious faithful wife has 
 retired to rest, but not to sleep. As he gazes into the fire he 
 sees the "cloud-capp'd towers" of his castles in the air crumbling 
 to ruin. His prospects of promotion appear to him to be blasted, 
 and his character is at stake. The local gentry, who suspect 
 him of disloyalty ; the cowardly calumniator who has traduced 
 him to the Board ; the political partisans who have writhed 
 under his stinging satires ; all are on the alert, ready, like a 
 pack of savage hounds, to rush in and devour their victim. 
 
 " In naked feeling, and in aching pride, 
 He bears the unbroken blast from every side." 
 
 He thinks of sending in his commission " to save the Board 
 the trouble of a dismissal." His vivid imagination pictures his 
 " much loved wife and prattling little ones turned adrift into 
 the world, degraded and disgraced, from a situation in which 
 they had been respectable and respected, and left almost without 
 the necessary support of a visible existence." He recalls to mind 
 his favourite quotation from Young : — 
 
 "On reason build resolve, 
 That column of true majesty in man."
 
 [Photo, by G. W. WiUon, Aberdeen. 
 
 THE HOUSE IN WHICH BURNS LIVED AT THE TIME, 
 AND IN WHICH HE DIED. 
 
 He remembers that he entered the Excise for the sake of his 
 wife and family, and he determines that for their sake he will 
 remain in it : — 
 
 " In spite o' crowds, in spite o' mobs. 
 In spite of undermining jobs, 
 In spite of dark banditti stabs 
 At worth and merit." 
 
 This proud, resolute, independent man tiosv stands at hay, and 
 woe betide any political creature who may have the hardihood to 
 attend at the excise office within the next few days, and be 
 subjected to cross-examination under the dark thunder-laden 
 lightning-flashing eyes of his intended victim. Mr. Corbet, the 
 responsible representative of the Board, continued to prosecute 
 his inquiries, and Burns was at hand prepared to repel any 
 charges of disloyalty that might be formulated against him. 
 Of eager, earnest utterances in favour of reform, and fierce 
 denunciations of political abuses, there were enough and to 
 spare, but of disloyalty or treason not a trace. The surveying- 
 general reported favourably, the calumniator was disappointed 
 and the malignant gossip of the hour began gradually to subside.
 
 40 
 
 The nature of this inquiry, its results, and their effect upon 
 the Poet's excise prospects have been ignorantly misrepresented 
 by the biographers ; it was purely a departmental investigation 
 at the instance of the Board of Excise into the alleged political 
 misconduct of one of their otlficers. It is an open question 
 whether, in this instance, the commissioners did not exceed 
 their powers. Theirs were political appointments made by 
 Government for Revenue purposes only. They had full powers 
 of dismissal without reason assigned. But had they power to 
 discharge a subordinate for political " sentiments ? " Anyhow 
 the message sent was as absurd as cruel ; as futile as absurd. 
 "To act, not to think; to be silent and obey." And Burns? 
 What did he think of it ? Three months afterwards, writing to 
 Erskine of Mar, who, through Riddel of Glenriddel, had " come 
 forward to befriend him, because poverty had made him friend- 
 less, and his British hardihood of mind had provoked the 
 arbitrary wantonness of power," he continues: — "Accept, Sir 
 of the silent throb of gratitude, for words would but mock the 
 emotions of my soul. You have been misinformed as to my 
 final dismission from the Excise : I am still in the service, 
 . . . . In my defence to their accusations I said . . 
 that it would be insanity to sacrifice our constitution to an 
 untried visionary theory. ... In the Poet I have avowed 
 manly and independent sentiments, which, I trust, will be found 
 in the Man .'" Burns was a poor man from birth, and an excise- 
 man by necessity ; but — I wi// say it — the sterling of his honest 
 worth no poverty could debase, and his independent British 
 mind oppression might bend, but could not subdue. " Does 
 any man tell me that it does not belong to my humble 
 station to meddle with the concern of a nation ? I can tell him 
 that it is on such individuals as I that a nation has to rest, 
 both for the hand 0/ su/yport a.nd the eve 0/ intet/igence. 
 Those who reason and reflect . . . These are a nation's 
 strength. . . . Burns I have drawn as he is. But should 
 the Commissioners, is whose hands is the very bread he eats, 
 get the least knowledge of the picture., it would ruin the poor 
 Bard for ever. Commit this letter to the fiames." 
 
 It was for expressing " sentiments " such as these that Burns 
 was slandered and nearly ruined. He lived a hundred years
 
 41 
 
 before his time, that was all. It has taken a century, and a 
 succession of eminent British statesmen, backed by the British 
 people, and supported by the press, to effect the reforms which 
 Burns advocated, and for doing which he narrowly escaped 
 dismissal and disgrace in these old and evil days, " without," as 
 he says, "so much as a hearing, or the slightest previous 
 intimation." 
 
 Wagon loads of learned discussions and ingenious specula- 
 tions have been printed and circulated about this so-called 
 "C.overnment inquiry." Why, the whole affair consists of a 
 few simple facts. Some political understrapper denounced 
 Burns to the Board ; an impartial inspector of the highest class 
 was sent down to investigate and report ; no evidence of treach- 
 ery to the State or disloyalty to the Crown was to be found ; 
 the inspector reported favourably, and " the allegation, whatever 
 villain made it," was found to be, in the words of Burns himself, 
 "a lie." 
 
 Currie says : — " Circumstances occurred which retarded the 
 Poet's promotion." His promotion was not retarded : the dates 
 of the original recommendation and registration remained 
 intact.* And Currie continues : — " After the enquiry the 
 imprudent gauger was suffered to retain his situation." This is 
 equivalent to saying that after a person had been tried for 
 murder and acquitted, he was not hanged. He was " given to 
 understand," continues Currie, " that his promotion was deferred 
 and must depend upon his future behaviour." " Given to 
 understand ? " By whom ? and when ? " Future behaviour ? " 
 To act and not to think? This famous ipse dixit was not an 
 official order, but merely a message sent by the Board before 
 the enquiry ; not after it. When Mr. Corbet's report came 
 before the Commissioners for their consideration, they — in the 
 ■words of a recent critic — " estimated the slanderer of the Poet at 
 his proper worth. The Board might, perhaps, be narrow, but 
 it was not vindictive ; and it understood, the difference between 
 an informer and a faithful servant." Mr. Findlater the supervisor, 
 always held that the Poet's promotion was not affected, and 
 that he would have gone on in the usual routine. The private 
 
 ♦ Appenrlixes C ajid D.
 
 42 
 
 records of the Board, since discovered by Mr. Macfadzean,^ 
 confirm the correctness of the supervisor's opinion. We are of 
 opinion that either Mr. Graham or Mr. Corbet gave the Poet a 
 friendly warning with a view to moderate the ardour of his 
 political utterances in the future. Burns at first took a 
 desponding view of his position and thought that all his hopes 
 of future promotion were blasted. Mr. Findlater says Burns 
 exaggerated the danger. No doubt he did. But he knew that 
 those who had ordered him to act and not to think had power 
 to dismiss him without even assigning a reason. It was an 
 order impossible of fulfilment ; he could not help thinking ! 
 The message sent struck at his most cherished sentiments, and 
 he felt humiliated under its blighting influence for two long, 
 weary years, the darkest of his dark days in Dumfries But 
 Currie's description of the Poet during this period is exaggerated 
 and singularly inaccurate. Mr. Findlater avers that he continued 
 to perform his duties with care and regularity, and this Permit 
 is an example of the fact. 
 
 
 5^ ~^} fr-tr'ffr-jiaC!^ 
 
 r jkiA, .-.-U.^lkyu. n\-:\i^ 
 
 
 iL 
 
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 [Photo Ini W. H. WiWam*. 
 F.\C-SIMILE OF A BURNS PERMIT IN THE POSSESSION OF 
 MR. ROBERT BEATTIE, DUMFRIES. 
 
 We gather from his letters that he never altogether lost 
 hope ; nor was he ever without the sympathy and support of 
 warm-hearted and influential friends. Thus, on 2nd January, 
 1793, he wrote to Mrs. Dunlop : — "I cannot be settled as a
 
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 47 
 
 supervisor for several years. I must wait tlic rotation of the 
 list, and there are twenty names before mine." * Exactly. On 
 13th April, 1793, he wrote to Erskine of Mar :— " I have been 
 partly forgiven ; only I understand that all my hopes of getting 
 otificially forward are blasted." But he gradually discovered 
 that his hopes of promotion had not been blasted, and on ^gtii 
 December, 1 794, he wrote to Mrs. Dunlop :— " I have been 
 appointed to act temporarily as supervisor in place of Mr. 
 Findlater, who is absent on sick leave. I look forward to an 
 early appointment as full supervisor.f My political sins seem 
 to be forgiven me." 
 
 Burns now realised the fact, and three days afterwards — 
 on New Year's morning, 1795 — he sprang to his feet and sent 
 ringing round the world the poor man's proud acclaim :— 
 
 " A man's a man, for a' that : 
 
 The rank is but the guinea stamp — 
 The man's the gowd for a' that.' 
 
 An inspection of the specimen leaves taken from his official 
 diary, and reproduced here in fac-simile direct from the originals, 
 shows how diligently Burns performed his work. — On 24th 
 Dec, 1794, he was engaged from 8 in the morning until 11 in 
 the evening: — "m 8 & e 11." On 23rd Feb., from "m 5 to 
 e 7." — From twelve to fourteen hours a day, usually. As 
 supervisor, he also necessarily entered " complaints " of the 
 class we have all heard so much about. Smith, an officer, is 
 reported for a trifling omission on the 14th, and, on the other 
 
 page, another officer is reported for •• and 
 
 several other instances of like nature." 
 
 Another leaf from his official diary, kept then and now by all 
 supervisors, shows that on the loth of March, 1 795, he was still 
 officiating in place of Mr. Findlater. § When the latter resumed 
 business. Burns of course returned temporarily to his own station 
 
 The Poet at this period wrote and circulated a number of 
 electioneering ballads in favour of Mr. Heron, the Whig 
 candidatefor the representation of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. 
 Heron was successful, and, having heard from a friend that 
 
 ♦ Appendix D. \ Appendix D. { Appendix H.
 
 48 
 
 Mr. Heron had expressed a strong desire to further his 
 promotion in the Excise, Burns wrote : — "March, 1795. I am 
 on the supervisor's list, and, as we come on there by- 
 precedency, I shall soon be at the head of that list,* and be 
 appointed, of course. Then a friend might be of service to met 
 
 The moment I am appointed supervisor, in the 
 
 common routine I may be appointed on the collectors' list : 
 and this is purely always a business of political patronage. A 
 collector's salary varies from ^300 to ^800 a year. They 
 also come forward by precedency on the list, and have, besides 
 a handsome income, a life of complete leisure. A life of literary 
 leisure, with a decent competency, is the summit of my wishes." 
 
 The great Napoleon was at this period gazing with covetous 
 eyes across the Channel ; Volunteer corps were being constituted 
 throughout the country, and Burns was among the first to enrol. 
 At a public dinner of the corp he gave a toast : — " Gentlemen," 
 said he, " may we never see the French — -and may the French 
 never see us." This wise and witty toast sounded in some ears 
 like sedition, and it was actually received with murmurs of 
 disapprobation. So Burns on his return home sent his bugle 
 call — " The Dumfries Volunteers," sounding through the land: — 
 
 " Does haughty Gaul invasion threat ? 
 Then let the loons beware, sir, 
 There's wooden walls upon our seas, 
 And volunteers on shore, sir. 
 
 * * -fr ■;;- * * 
 
 Be Britain still to Britain true, 
 
 Amang oursel's united ; 
 For never but by British hands 
 
 Maun British wrangs be righted. 
 
 * -i;- * * * * 
 
 Who will not sing ' God save the King' 
 
 Shall hang as high's the steeple ; 
 But while we sing God save the King, 
 
 We'll ne'er forget the people." 
 
 This stirring song filled the ranks of the Volunteers from John 
 o' Groats to the Solway. 
 
 Burns was again exultant and full of hope, but it was only "a 
 gleam of sunshine 'mid renewed storms," for at midsummer the 
 Poet was himself sensible that his constitution was sinking. 
 
 •Appendix D.
 
 A. FINDLATER, Esq., 
 
 The Poet's Supervisor. 
 
 Photograplted from the Original Oil Fainting in the posscssiou of his 
 Grand-Nephew, Win. Findlater, Esq., Duhliu, by R. Forbes, Grafton St.
 
 51 
 
 iMudlater says :~" li was not till near the latter end of his days 
 that there was any falling off in respect of his attention to 
 business, and this was amply accounted for in the presence of 
 disease and accumulating infirmities." We have now an instance 
 of this. The circumstances, although of no importance on their 
 merits, demand elucidation in order to prevent probable future 
 misrepresentations and ignorant comments. 
 
 The business of an Excise officer of the period comprised an 
 infinite number of minute details, any omission or deviation 
 being necessarily entered by the supervisor in his diary as a 
 *' complaint." An abstract of these, and of his daily work, was 
 handed by him to his collector every collecting round, which 
 occurred eight times a year. Findlater's eighth round abstract, 
 extending from 8th June to i8th July, 1795, bristled with the 
 usual "complaints." Burns had four: all he had during the 
 six weeks : and all of trifling import. They were : — " Hides, 
 page 36. Notice to draw leather. May 25 m 7. But no 
 account taken thereof, till my survey on the 26 e 6. Old 
 Brewery book, page 75, June 18 e 7. Second wort taken off 
 by the assistant, but no second gauge thereof by the officer. 
 Page 83, June 24. That brewing short charged one firkin, and 
 7.59 of a gallon. In the old permit book for wine, permits 
 not registered in scheme." 
 
 Complaints of any importance were dealt with afterwards by 
 the collector and the Board. Trivial complaints were wiped off 
 by the collector, on the spot, on collecting day, and these were 
 so written off by the collector, thus : — " Exd., J. M." (John 
 Mitchell.) This and other diary abstracts were despatched to 
 the chief office, in ordinary course, eight weeks afterwards. 
 
 On the margin is: 'Admonish Mr. Burns, A. D. Done, J. C. 
 A. D. was the official at the central Board by whom the abstract 
 was registered, and J. C. was another. 
 
 The following complaint appears in the same abstract against 
 another officer.- — "June 30. 80 lbs. tea credit; no permit. 
 Officer says lost by accident." On the margin opposite this 
 complaint, there is a similar entry : — "Admonish Mr. So-and-so, 
 A. D. Done, J.C." 15ut these marginal notes were not censures, 
 nor were they made by the Board ; nor were they considered to 
 
 T)
 
 52 
 
 be worth recording in the Board's books. It is impossible to- 
 convey to the general reader a true idea of their unimportance. 
 The biographers mixed up the Solway incident and the political 
 enquiry with the marginal remark in the diary abstract, and 
 thus got lost in a fog of their own creating. 
 
 The Board certainly never sent Burns a censure, and 
 nothing short of such could delay an onticer's promotion. 
 Mr. Findlater, writing \o Johnston's Edinburgh Magazine, from 
 North Wellington Place, Glasgow, in February, 1834, says : — - 
 " Had Burns been subjected to a Board's censure, I 
 must ex-officio have known of it, as it could not have been con- 
 cealed from me ; and I, therefore, consider the authority for 
 what I have stated on this subject to beof the most unquestion- 
 able and decisive description, such, indeed, as nothing but the 
 most obstinate prejudice will resist. All such censures are 
 transmitted to the respective supervisors to be registered, and 
 delivered to the officers, who must give written receipts for 
 them. / say, ivitliout hesitation, that Burns would, had he livedy 
 have been promoted in due course, and that at a shorter period of 
 service than any of his predecessors. — (Signed), A. Findlater." 
 
 Mr. R. W. Macfadzean writes exhaustively on the subject 
 in the Burns Chronicle for 1S96. One of our highest officials 
 in the chief office, writing to me, says : — " I agree with Mr. 
 Macfadzean. The admonition could not be regarded as an 
 official censure, as it was inoperative in respect of any prejudicial 
 effect on the Poet's official character." And so, we dismiss 
 the subject. 
 
 October, 1795. — 21st July, 1796. Age 35-6. 
 
 The health of the Poet now rapidly declined ; he was confined 
 to his house in October, and, in accordance with the Excise 
 regulations of the period, his salary was reduced to 15s. a week. 
 Oh, the pity of it all! On 15th December, 1795, ^^ wrote 
 to Mrs. Dunlop : — " If I am cut off, even in all the vigour 
 of manhood as I am, gracious God, what will become of my little 
 tiock ? . . . But I must not think longer on this subject^ 
 so I shall sing with the auld Scotch ballad : —
 
 53 
 
 " Oh, that I had ne'er been married, 
 
 I would never had nae care ; 
 
 Now I've gotten wife and bairns. 
 
 They cry crowdie evermair. 
 
 Crowdie aince, crowdie twice, 
 
 Crowdie three times in a day 
 An' ye crowdie ony mair, 
 
 Ye'll crowdie a' my meal away." 
 
 The Poet's salary was small ; his household expenses were 
 increasing ; he was suffering from what he termed " the supreme 
 curse of trying to make three guineas do the work of five," and, 
 being in want of a little ready money towards the end of 
 December, he sent his servant girl round to the Collector with 
 his well known rhyming epistle : — 
 
 " Friend of the Poet, tried and and leal, 
 WTia, wanting thee, might beg or steal, 
 Alake, alake, the meikle deil 
 
 Wi' a' his witches 
 Are at it, skelpin, jig and reel, 
 
 In my poor pouches ! 
 I modestly fu' fain would hint it. 
 That one pound one, I sairly want it ; . 
 If wi' the hizzie down ye sent it, 
 
 It would be kind; 
 And while my heart in life-blood dunted 
 
 I'd bear't in mind. 
 
 So may the auld year gang out moaning 
 To see the new come laden, groaning, 
 Wi' double plenty o'er the loaning 
 
 To thee and thine : 
 Domestic peace and comforts crowning 
 
 The hale design." 
 
 This was a request for an advance of a guinea out of his six 
 weeks' half salary, amounting to about ;^5, and due in full on New 
 Year's Day — a too common request in those days, but not " a 
 loan," as stated by the biographers. The lines above quoted show 
 incidentally that the collector esteemed the Poet, and also, that 
 the Poet was poor. Still, " chance and fortune were sae guided," 
 he was "aye in less or mair provided" — oftener less than 
 mair — and when he died he owed no man anything. 
 
 Early in the following Spring he was suffering from a severe 
 attack of rheumatic fever : about the middle of April he was
 
 54 
 
 seldom able to leave his room ; and on the 4th of July he was 
 conveyed to Brow-on-Solway to try the effect of sea-bathing. As 
 he was about to leave home, his faithful wife, his bonie Jean, 
 unable longer to control her feelings, burst into tears, and in the 
 bitterness of her soul sobbed out: "What have a' yere fine 
 friends done for ye now, Robert ? " He kissed away her tears, 
 soothed her feelings, and, after a pause, and speaking partly 
 to himself, he said : — " You will be cared for, and as for me, 
 aye, they will think more of me a hundred years after I am 
 dead." How true the prophecy ! 
 
 
 lA 
 
 Photo, by B. Scott A: Son, Carlisle 
 MRS. DUNLOP OF DUNLOP. 
 
 At Brow he was tortured by excruciating rheumatic pains. 
 He was dying, and he knew it. His thoughts reverted to the 
 old home — to the days of auld lang syne ; and in a letter to his 
 brother Gilbert, he wrote : — "Remember me to my mother;" 
 and on 12th July, to Mrs. Dunlop, (the best and truest friend
 
 55 
 
 he ever had): "Your friendship, wiiii which for many years 
 
 you honoured me, was a friendship dearest to my soul. 
 
 The remembrance yet adds one pulse more to my poor 
 palpitating heart. Farewell ! ! ! " 
 
 Two days afterwards he wrote to his wife : " My dearest Love, 
 Sea-bathing has eased my pains, and I think it has benefited me, 
 but ... . I will see you on Sunday." On the i8th he 
 returned in a small spring cart to Dumfries to die. The fatal 
 illness, from which he had suffered so long, terminated his 
 earthly career on 21st July, 1796. 
 
 Had he lived, he would have been appointed, in ordinary 
 course, an Examiner at the Chief Office on 12th January, 1797.* 
 .'\nd on the loth of August, the same year, he would have been 
 appointed supervisor at Dunblane, his successor on the list 
 — James Lindsay — having stepped into his vacant place, f 
 
 When illness supervened, his excise prospects were bright 
 and promising. Mr. Heron had pressed the acceptance of his 
 political influence. Mrs. Dunlop had proffered hers at the 
 Chief Office. Lady Glencairn, Mrs. Cunningham, and many 
 more were his firm friends. Mr. Mitchell, his collector, was 
 his friend. Mr. Findlater, his supervisor, writing from Glasgow 
 on loth October, 1818 — twenty-two years after the Poet's 
 death — expressly asserts :^'" Had Burns lived I have every 
 reason to believe he would have gone on in the usual routine. 
 He was exemplary in his duties as an officer, and was jealous 
 of the least imputation on his vigilance." The private records 
 of the Board, of which Mr. Findlater had no knowledge, 
 confirm the correctness of the supervisor's opinion. Mr. 
 Graham sent a letter to the dying Poet proffering his help and 
 assistance. The dying Pojt knew that he was within 
 measurable distance of being promoted to the rank of a fixed 
 supervisor ; and he also knew, as we have seen, that personal 
 and political influence would soon have accomplished 
 the rest. Snugly seated in the collector's easy chair, 
 he would have enjoyed that "life of literary leisure with 
 a handsome competency," to which he had looked forward 
 so eagerly. Had healtti and life permitted, his choice of 
 
 •Appendix C. t Appendix I).
 
 56 
 
 the Excise as a profession would have been amply vindicated. 
 A collector at the age of forty, what could he not have achieved 
 as a Poet had he been spared for other twenty or five-and- 
 twenty years ? 
 
 Even the enemies of Burns must admit that the Excise 
 ought to be the most competent judges of his conduct as an 
 officer. What is their opinion ? Findlater, his supervisor, has 
 left it on record that " no officer under him was more regular in 
 his duties than Burns." Mitchell, his collector, treated him as 
 his " friend." James Macfadzean says : " no means of screening 
 from the official eye, even trivial faults, existed," and he pro- 
 nounces it to be impossible — impossible — that " Burns's habits 
 could be, or could approach, what has been represented by some." 
 Yes, the Excise, at anyrate, emphatically affirm and assert that 
 if Burns did not " borrow credit from his profession, his profes- 
 sion borrowed credit from him." 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, writing on 27th November, 1895, says : — "The 
 loyalty of the Excise force to the Poet is very remarkable and 
 does honour to both." 
 
 In conclusion, allow me to refer to a few more instances of the 
 services rendered to the Poet and the Poet's memory by the 
 excise and their friends. Mr. Findlater, his supervisor, "sat 
 up " with him throughout the night before he died, and he 
 continued to vindicate the Poet's character until his death 
 in 1839 — 43 years after Burns. During his last fatal illness, 
 Burns was entitled to only ^35 a year, but Adam Stobie, the 
 young officer who officiated for him, and who was entitled to 
 the remainder of his salary, periodically refused to accept of a 
 single penny, and Burns thus retained his full salary until the 
 day of his death. What profound emotions of gratitude and 
 admiration must have surged through the soul of the dying Poet 
 on experiencing conduct so like his own. All honour to Stobie. 
 Jessie Lewars, the young daughter of his friend and fellow- 
 officer John Lewars, ministered, as only woman can, to the 
 suffering Poet (his wife being laid aside). She did much to 
 smooth his dying pillow, and earned his profound gratitude. 
 Gold or silver he had none to give, but he gave her something 
 better far. He — of set purpose — linked her name with his, and
 
 57 
 
 made it immortal. And so he dictated his last complete song, 
 " To Jessie Lewars," commencing : — 
 
 " Oh I wert thou in the cauld blast 
 On yonder lea, on yonder lea, 
 My plaidie to the angry airt, 
 
 I'd shelter thee, Ti shelter thee." 
 And thus .• — 
 
 - I "The pitying breast that felt for human woe, 
 
 The dauntless heart that feared no human pride," 
 
 ceased to beat. And the brightest and kindliest soul that was 
 ever tortured and tormented by " the whips and scorns of time, 
 the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, and the 
 insolence of office," passed away to "the undiscovered country, 
 from whose bourn no traveller returns." 
 
 [Photo, by II. William 
 BURNS MAUSOIEUM, DUMFRIES.
 
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 APPENDIX E. 
 
 £. — J^ro/fi the Board's Alphaheiiciil Register of all the Divisions, Officers^ 
 
 Expectants, or-v., />/ Scotland, as they stand at loth Oct., 
 with their Official Characters. 
 
 Sg, 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 Suspended 
 
 Official Characters. 
 
 Officers' Names. 
 
 
 
 
 or 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 c 
 
 Discharged. 
 
 
 
 •< 
 58 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 
 A good officer. 
 
 (I omit the names 
 
 
 Indifferent. 
 
 at Mr. Macfad- 
 
 40 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 
 A good officer. 
 
 zean's request.) 
 
 32 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 
 Indifferent. Drinks. 
 
 
 52 
 34 
 
 29 
 
 I 
 
 
 A blundering officer. 
 
 (Number of family 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 
 "Was a good officer. 
 
 includes officer and 
 
 36 
 
 •7 
 
 3 
 
 
 A good officer and seizes. 
 
 wife, if married.) 
 
 29 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 A sober, weak man. 
 
 
 30 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 
 Pretty good. 
 
 
 29 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 Dis. 28 Nov. 9 1 
 
 Can do, but drinks. 
 
 
 31 
 
 ID 
 
 I 
 
 
 Could once do. Drinks. 
 
 
 51 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 Dis. I Jan., 94. 
 
 A careful officer. 
 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 
 A drucken creature. 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 — 
 
 Suspended. 
 
 A sober, weak officer. 
 
 
 39 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 Suspended. 
 
 Makes a good officer. 
 
 
 28j 3 
 
 5 
 
 Dead. 
 
 A slaving, good officer. 
 
 
 44123 
 3918 
 
 5 
 
 
 Can do. but drinks. 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 A careful, good officer. 
 
 
 38 9 
 
 2 
 
 
 A weak man, but sober. 
 
 
 33 
 
 7 
 
 I 
 
 
 Turns out well. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Never tryed — a Poet. 
 
 Robt. Burns. 
 
 29 
 
 i 
 
 6 
 
 
 A careful, good officer. 
 
 
 38 9 
 
 2 
 
 Dead. 
 
 A pointed, good officer. 
 
 
 5635 
 
 12 
 
 
 But indifferent. 
 
 
 50 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 
 Pretty attentive. 
 
 
 42 
 
 20 
 
 I 
 
 
 The Poet does pretty well. 
 
 Robt. Burns. 
 
 32 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 
 Note.— This second entry was made in 1792, the year of tin.' political inquiry. 
 Tlie number of "family" includes himself and wife.
 
 62 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 F. — Register of Censures. 
 
 A Register was kept of all censures issued by the Board 
 of Excise, and this was carefully examined by Mr. James 
 Macfadzean, and Burns' name was conspicuous by its absence. 
 He was never censured by the commissioners, not even in the 
 mildest form in which they were in the habit of recording their 
 displeasure. 
 
 (Signed) J. MACFADZEAN. 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 G. — Selected specimens of Officers^ Characters Extracted. 
 (That is, by the Board — mostly for censures.) 
 
 " He was a good officer but now tipples." 
 
 " A trifling ofticer — Drinks." 
 
 " A lazy supervisor much given to the bottle." 
 
 " A muddhng officer who likes a glass." 
 
 " A bee in his bonnet." 
 
 " A conceited trifling officer." 
 
 " Slow — needs spurring." 
 
 " A good officer but insolent." 
 
 "A gentleman and a scholar." 
 
 " Self opinionative." 
 
 " Has a farm and attends to it more than to the Revenue.*' 
 
 "Active, and much for his own interests."
 
 63 
 
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 a Gauge. Examined Books, 
 and found nothing to blame. 
 K. B. 
 
 
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 64 
 
 EPITOME. 
 
 Born 25th January, 1759. 
 Entered on active service, Autumn, 1789. 
 Promoted to Dumfries 3rd Division, 28th July, 1790. 
 Recommended for Examiner, 27th January, 1791. 
 Promoted to Dumfries ist Division, 26th April, 1792. 
 
 (Political Inquiry, January, 1793.) 
 Appointed temporary Supervisor, December, 1794. 
 (Died 2ist July, 1796.) 
 
 Would have been Examiner, 12th January, 1797. 
 
 Would have been appointed Supervisor, loth August, 1797. 
 
 Might have been appointed Collector, 1798. 
 
 Mr. GLADSTONE on- BURN.S :— Dear Sir, I thank you for your 
 interesting tract on Burns, and for again calling my attention to him- 
 That extraordinary man deserves every amount of attention from those 
 who can give it ; but I am sorry to say, it never has been, and is not 
 now, in my power to make an adequate study of his singularly mixed 
 character. — Your very faithful, W. E. Gladstone. July '20th, 1896.
 
 {rhoto. l-y B. Scott &' Son, CarlitU. 
 
 John Sinton. 
 
 •~OC>S.^"
 
 >';^^
 
 2 9 2 9 II
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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