By ALEXANDER PETERKIN.

A Review of the Life of Robert Burns and of various Criticisms on his Character and Writings, 1813.

WE do not intend in the following remarks either to repeat merely what has been already said by others or to anticipate the contents of the volumes now presented to the public. Our object is to supply defects where these seem to exist to correct errors, and to expose misrepresentations. To this task we wish to carry feelings uninfluenced by any unworthy purposes. We engage in it, we trust, with a temper suited to the object; and if we venture to applaud or condemn aught which presents itself for consideration, this shall not be done without exhibiting the evidence on which our opinions rest.

It is a remark too trite, perhaps, to require repetition, that the writings of Robert Burns are, in Scotland, the most popular of any works of fancy, ancient or modernthat there is scarcely a house in the kingdom which does not contain a copy of his poems-and that there are few individuals elevated above the clods of the valley who are not familiar with the productions of his muse. The tendency of works so widely circulated and so highly esteemed is evidently a matter of no trivial moment. But the personal character of the poet has, since his death, been in some measure inseparably blended with that of his writings; and in attempting to form an accurate estimate of the latter it is necessary to consider the former, and the influence on public feeling which belongs to their united power.

Various individuals, who talk and write with authority, have affected to represent the joint tendency of Burns's personal character and writings as morally pernicious. Much unwarrantable assumption, calumny, and drivelling fanaticism have been wasted to stain unworthily the memory of Burns; while the sweetest flowers in his writings have yielded to the enemies of his fame the venom which issues from their stings. We do not mean to insinuate that all the shallow moralisings which we have heard and read are on a level, or spring from malignity; 'but it is impossible to dissemble our conviction that a great portion of that debasing passion has been indulged by many at the expense of truth and of Burns. But whether those personages have been animated by correct motives, or the reverse, in the statements which they have rather too rashly hazarded, we think we shall be able, in some very important instances, to show that those statements are untrue to strip them of the pure robe which is thrown around them as a disguise, and to expose in light the naked deformity of their aspect. We do not dream of asserting that Robert Burns was immaculate and perfect; he was a man like his censors, and had his failings; but with all his faults he was not a bad man, nor can we silently allow him to be gibbeted to our countrymen as "a blackguard," tarnished with blemishes which his heart and his conduct never knew. We cannot suffer his foibles to be displayed as the vital part of a character distinguished for many excellences; and we aspire to the interesting task of examining, without scruple, the genuine character of Burns and of his writings, and trying, by the test of proof, the moral and literary critiques which have been put forth with a specious and somewhat ostentatious seeming of reverence for religion and virtue.

Some of the strictures on Burns's life and writings, to which we shall advert, have been ascribed to gentlemen of high note among the periodical authors of the day. This matters little. It, indeed, only serves to rouse a keener purpose of correcting their errors, for which we have not

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the slightest degree of veneration. We know not even by whom they were written, except in the instances where the names of the authors are given. We are confident that some of them have been misled by erroneous information, and are equally confident they will be happy to see evidence of the truth. But those who have shown by their own unceremonious conduct that they consider the press free to injure must learn that it is also free to vindicate, if not to avenge. While we regard the attainments and the talents of some of those whose remarks (according to common report) we are about to subject to a public scrutiny, with all reasonable respect; while, indeed, we cherish for some of them a sincere personal regard, we frankly avow our belief that their unfortunate attempts to stain will brighten the character of Burns, and that the effects of their hurried and ill-judged lucubrations will perish with the day that gave them birth, and ultimately be lost "in the blaze of his fame!"

We have not, however, ventured on our present undertaking from any love of controversy, or from any Quixotic passion for literary adventures. We hold the adversaries of Burns to be aggressors misguided, we are inclined to think, and ready, we trust, in charity to renounce their errors on satisfactory proof that they have been misinformed, or have misconstrued the conduct and writings of Burns. But by their public and voluntary assertions and reflections, however, of however, of an injurious tendency, they have thrown down the gauntlet to every Scotchman who takes an interest in the honour of his country, of its literature, and of human nature. We accept the challenge, and will hazard the proof. Nor do we reckon this a very heroical or high achievement; the most "plebeian " mind in the land is competent to a plain matter-of-fact inquiry, which should assuredly not have been so long delayed had not the obnoxious critiques appeared too insignificant, separately considered, to merit notice. But from the system of reiterated critical preaching, which has become fashionable in all the recent

publications about Burns-from all the slang which has been employed by the busybodies of the day remaining uncontradicted and unexposed, we are afraid that future biographers might be misled by longer silence, and adopt declamatory ravings as genuine admitted facts. The most celebrated literary journal of which Britain can boast, and of which, as Scotchmen, we are proud, began the cry; all the would-be moralists in newspapers, magazines, and reviews have taken it up, and have repeated unauthenticated stories as grave truths; at length these have found a resting-place in large and lasting volumes. It is time, however, that the torrent of prejudice should be stemmed; and that while it is yet in the power of living men who knew Robert Burns, and can give testimony as to the real qualities of his character and conduct, they should come forth to settle the value of anonymous statements, to tell the truth, and to vindicate his memory from unqualified dishonour.

In order to render the following investigation so far entire as to exhibit, in itself, a view of the character of Burns, it will be necessary to give a very general outline of the events of his life, unclogged with any collateral episodes, which are detailed with greater fulness and variety of illustration in Dr. Currie's work, and in the biographical sketches which it comprises by the poet himself, by his brother Gilbert, by Mr. Murdoch, and by Professor Stewart. These, indeed, are documents of a character so peculiarly precious and interesting that it is probable they will go down to future times, even in the diffuse and disjointed form which they have assumed under Dr. Currie's hand, as the favoured memoirs of Robert Burns. A short connected narrative, however, drawn from these fragments, seems to be the requisite precursor of the additional facts and illustrations which are now offered to the public, and which will, perhaps, be blended hereafter with the story of the Scottish bard.

Robert Burns, the eldest son of William Burns or Burness and Agnes Brown, was born on the 25th of

January, 1759,* in the vicinity of Ayr, and in a claywalled cottage inhabited by his father. This cottage was constructed with his father's hands on a small patch of land, of which he had taken a perpetual lease for a public garden while he was in the service of a neighbouring gentleman. In this condition of life did the father of Burns remain during the first six or seven years of the poet's life; he was, indeed, "born a very poor man's son." William Burns continued in the service of Mr. Ferguson of Doonholm as gardener and overseer until the year 1766, but lived in his own humble dwelling, of which, and of his small piece of ground, he also retained possession.

In his sixth year Robert was sent for a few months to a school at Alloway Miln, which was kept by a Mr. Campbell. For a period of about two years and a half after May, 1765, he was taught by Mr. Murdoch in his father's neighbourhood to read English and to write. English grammar, too, formed part of his school exercises, and he afterwards, in 1773, was boarded with the same teacher three weeks, "one of which was spent entirely in the study of English, and the other two chiefly in that of French." When about thirteen or fourteen he was sent to improve his hand-writing, "week about," with his brother Gilbert, "during a during a summer quarter, to the parish school of Dalrymple," and one "summer quarter" he attended the parish school of Kirkoswald to learn surveying. This was all his school education. The whole time he spent at school cannot be computed at much more than three years. Of the manner, however, in which his education was conducted, and of the value of the instructions which he received under his father's roof, an estimate can be formed only by the result; the particulars need not be here anticipated.

Dr. Currie (1st_edition) says Burns was born on the 29th January; but Dr. Irvine, in his Lives of the Scots Poets (1810), gives the 25th, on the authority, as he states, of the parish register of Ayr. In An Account of the Life, Character, and Writings of Robert Burns, ascribed to Josiah Walker, Esq., Perth, and published with an edition of the Poems by Mr. Morrison, the 25th is given as the date of his birth.