Robert Burns to Peter Hill.

Ellisland: February 2, 1790. No! I will not say one word about apologies or excuses for not writing-I am a poor, rascally gauger, condemned to gallop at least 200 miles every week to inspect dirty ponds and yeasty barrels, and where can I find time to write to, or importance to interest anybody? the upbraidings of my conscience, nay the upbraidings of my wife, have persecuted me on your account these two or three months past. I wish to God I was a great man, that my correspondence might throw light upon you, to let the world see what you really are, and then I would make your fortune, without putting my hand in my pocket for you, which, like all other great men, I suppose I would avoid as much as possible. What are you doing, and how are you doing? Have you lately seen any of my few friends? What has become of the Borough Reform, or how is the fate of my poor namesake Mademoiselle Burns decided? O man! but for thee and thy selfish appetites, and dishonest artifices, that beauteous form, and that once innocent and still ingenuous mind, which shone conspicuous and lovely in the faithful wife, and the affectionate mother; and shall the unfortunate sacrifice to thy pleasures have no claim on thy humanity!

I saw lately in a Review, some extracts from a new poem, called the 'Village Curate'; send it me. I want likewise a cheap copy of 'The World.' Mr. Armstrong, the young poet who does me the honour to mention me so kindly in his works, please give him my best thanks for the copy of his book-I shall write him, my first leisure hour. I like his poetry much, but I think his style in prose quite astonishing.

Your book came safe, and I am going to trouble you with further commissions. I call it troubling you-because I want only, Books; the cheapest way, the best; so you may have to hunt for them in the evening auctions. I want Smollett's Works, for the sake of his incomparable humour. I have already Roderick Random, and Humphrey Clinker-Peregrine Pickle, Launcelot Greaves, and Ferdinand, Count Fathom, I still want; but as I said, the veriest ordinary copies will serve me. I am nice only in the appearance of my poets. I forget the price of Cowper's Poems,

but, I believe, I must have them. I saw the other day, proposals for a publication, entitled, 'Banks's new and complete Christian's Family Bible,' printed for C. Cooke, Paternoster-row, London. He promises at least, to give in the work, I think it is three hundred and odd engravings, to which he has put the names of the first artists in London. You will know the character of the performance, as some numbers of it are published; and if it is really what it pretends to be, set me down as a subscriber, and send me the published numbers.

Let me hear from you, your first leisure minute, and trust me you shall in future have no reason to complain of my silence. The dazzling perplexity of novelty will dissipate and leave me to pursue my course in the quiet path of methodical routine.

R. B.

CCXXVI.

Burns found no advancement in the miserable service that he had chosen to enter. He never rose higher than the 'nicked stick,' the badge and implement of a common gauger. But the Government was not content with ignoring the claims of the poet to promotion. He was known to hold liberal opinions, and to be that dangerous being, a friend of the people.' The Commissioners of Excise wrote him a letter, couched in the formality of official insolence, informing that great man that 'such a petty officer as he had no business with politics.'

It is believed that but for the interposition of the friend to whom this letter is addressed, Burns would have been summarily dismissed, and his family turned adrift upon the world.

Robert Burns to Mr. Graham of Fintray.

December, 1792.

Sir,—I have been surprised, confounded, and distracted by Mr. Mitchel, the collector, telling me that he has received an order from your Board to enquire into my political conduct, and blaming me as a person disaffected to government.

Sir, you are a husband-and a father.-You know what you would feel, to see the much loved wife of your bosom, and your helpless, 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 miserable existence. Alas, Sir! must I think that

such, soon will be my lot! and from the d-mned, dark insinuations of hellish groundless envy too! I believe, Sir, I may aver it, and in the sight of Omniscience, that I would not tell a deliberate falsehood, no, not though even worse horrors, if worse can be, than those I have mentioned, hung over my head; and I say, that the allegation, whatever villain has made it, is a lie! To the British Constitution, on revolution principles, next after my God, I am most devoutly attached; you, Sir, have been much and generously my friend.—Heaven knows how warmly I have felt the obligation, and how gratefully I have thanked you.-Fortune, Sir, has made you powerful, and me impotent; has given you patronage, and me dependence.—I would not for my single self, call on your humanity; were such my insular, unconnected situation, I would despise the tear that now swells in my eye-I could brave misfortune, I could face ruin; for at the worst, 'Death's thousand doors stand open;' but, good God! the tender concerns that I have mentioned, the claims and ties that I see at this moment, and feel around me, how they unnerve Courage, and wither Resolution! 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; by these may I adjure you to save me from that misery which threatens to overwhelm me, and which, with my latest breath I will say it, I have not deserved.

:

R. B.

CCXXVII:

Watson has, in his 'Life of Porson,' very graphically described the difficulties which beset that Prince of Grecians' at the time the following letter was written.

His refusal to take Örders and subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles necessitated the resignation of a fellowship at Cambridge which was his chief means of support, and left him, as he said, 'a gentleman in London with sixpence in his pocket.' Soon after the professorship of Greek became vacant, and Dr. Postlethwaite, the Master of Trinity, wrote to inquire of Porson whether he would offer himself as a candidate. The reply of the needy scholar who apprehended that subscription to the Test would be enforced as rigorously for the tenure of the professorship, does him infinite honour.

Richard Porson to Dr. Postlethwaite.

October 6, 1792.

Sir,-When I first received the favour of your letter, I must own that I felt rather vexation and chagrin than hope and satisfaction. I had looked upon myself so completely in the light of an outcast from Alma Mater, that I had made up my mind to have no further connection with the place. The prospect you held out to me gave me more uneasiness than pleasure. When I was younger than I now am, and my disposition more sanguine than it is at present, I was in daily expectation of Mr. Cook's resignation, and I flattered myself with the hope of succeeding to the honour he was going to quit. As hope and ambition are great castlebuilders, I had laid a scheme partly, as I was willing to think, for the joint credit, partly for the mutual advantage, of myself and the University. I had projected a plan of reading lectures, and I persuaded myself that I should easily obtain a grace permitting me to exact a certain sum from every person who attended. But seven years' waiting will tire out the most patient temper; and all my ambition of this sort was long ago laid asleep. The sudden news of the vacant professorship put me in mind of poor Jacob, who, having served seven years in hopes of being rewarded with Rachel, awoke, and behold it was Leah. Such, Sir, I confess, were the first ideas that took possession of my mind. But after a little reflection, I resolved to refer a matter of this importance to my friends. This circumstance has caused the delay, for which I ought before now to have apologised. My friends unanimously exhorted me to embrace the good fortune which they conceived to be within my grasp. Their advice, therefore, joined to the expectation I had entertained of doing some small good by my exertions in the employment, together with the pardonable vanity which the honour annexed to the office inspired, determined me; and I was on the point of troubling you, Sir, and the other electors, with notice of my intentions to profess myself a candidate, when an objection, which had escaped me in the hurry of my thoughts, now occurred to my recollection. The same reason which hindered me from keeping my fellowship by the method you obligingly pointed out to me, would, I am greatly afraid, prevent me from being Greek Professor. Whatever concern this may give

me for myself, it gives me none for the public. I trust there are at least twenty or thirty in the University equally able and willing to undertake the office; possessed, many, of talents superior to mine, and all of a more complying conscience. This I speak upon the supposition that the next Greek professor will be compelled to read lectures; but if the place remains a sinecure, the number of qualified persons will be greatly increased. And though it were even granted that my industry and attention might possibly produce some benefit to the interests of learning and the credit of the University, that trifling gain would be as much exceeded by keeping the professorship a sinecure, and bestowing it on a sound believer, as temporal considerations are outweighed by spiritual. Having only a strong persuasion, not an absolute certainty, that such a subscription is required of the professor elect, if I am mistaken I hereby offer myself as a candidate; but if I am right in my opinion, I shall beg of you to order my name to be erased from the boards, and I shall esteem it a favour conferred on,

Sir,

Your obliged humble servant,

R. PORSON.

CCXXVIII.

Country gentlemen are the nerves and ligatures of your political body. Have we not here traces of the influence of William Pitt on his firm friend and constant companion?

William Wilberforce to the Earl of Galloway.

House of Commons: December 3, 1800.

My dear Lord,-I assure you from my heart that no man respects more than myself the character of a nobleman or gentleman who lives on his own property in the country, improving his land, executing the duties of magistracy, exercising hospitality and diffusing comfort, and order and decorum and moral improvement, and though last not least (where it has any place) religion, too, throughout the circle greater or smaller, which he fills. Greatly I regret that due attention, as I think, has not been paid to this class of persons. Every inducement and facility should have been held out to them for fixing in the country, rather than

in towns.