man. woody Zacynthus or the rocky Ithaca in Homer. | of those young ladies, to whom the "horrible There is everywhere in Scott's poetry to me a murder" and the "shocking accident" is the breath as of the bracing mountain air, and a dis- most delightful paragraph in the newspapers. tinct smell of heather-qualities which are As little will he please those to whom neither not only essentially Scotch, but pre-eminently poetry nor sermons, nor even novels, in the healthy. And this brings me to the second present age, are palatable without a certain point which I should wish to bring forward in amount of misty metaphysics and super-subtle connexion with the bard of "Marmion" and theology. This metaphysico-theological tend"The Lady of the Lake." Scott is character-ency also is one of the sublime diseases of the istically, both in his prose and in his verse, a present time; to which, as a necessary transition healthy poet; and this is a quality which, both stage, in its proper place, a reasonable man can in prose and verse, but especially in verse, have no objection; but poetry is not that place ought to be ranked a great deal higher than at all, certainly not the most fitting place. It now-a-days seems in certain quarters to be is the misfortune, perhaps, of metaphysicians fashionable. I could name poets of consider- and theologians to be ever tormenting themable note within the present century whose selves and others with fruitless attempts to solve works can be accurately defined no otherwise the insoluble. But be this as it may; it never than as the musical utterance of a sublime dis- can be the business of any sane poet to be conease; with which one may be pleased after a fash-stantly striving to jump out of his skin, and ion, as with the piteous cries of the Sophoclean vainly struggling to give a body to that which Philoctetes left on the desert isle; but after all is essentially bodiless. (Applause.) It is the it was an ugly sore; and one has permanent business of the true poet directly in a rich life, delight in the warblings of a happy bird, not in various with concrete reality, and indirectly in the screamings of a wounded Titan, into what- musical expression, to enjoy all that is enjoyable, ever curious harmonies they may be worked up. and to help other men to do the like. Had It is not at all an indifferent matter whether a Walter Scott been infected with the modern great poet be a healthy and therefore a happy rage for mixing up metaphysics with poetry, he The business of poetry-the special pre-never could have set forth with such graceful rogative of genius-is not merely to stimulate luxuriance those vivid and sunny pictures of and to excite, but to harmonise and to recon- Scottish nature which only the morbidly fretful cile; and no one who does not know the bless- and the inanely ambitious will despise. I have ing of a reconciling and harmonising temper in only another word to say in conclusion, and it his own mind can communicate that greatest of is this. A great deal of critical fencing has all blessings to the souls of his fellow-men. My taken place among notable men abroad, and in notion unquestionably is, that if a man can give this country also, about the two great schools nothing to the public but musical wails, and of art, the classical and the romantic. I have lamentations, and denunciations, he had better no wish to tax your patience at present with hold his tongue. (Laughter.) We have enough any curious definitions on this subject; but this of misery in the world without applauding per- I will say, that in the best and deepest sense of sons as great poets for whisking up into the word, Walter Scott is the most classical of sparkling foam the bitter waters of their own modern poets, and that precisely by virtue of diseased emotions. And yet it is precisely be- the thorough nationality and broad healthycause he does not do this that certain persons minded popularity which was so eminently are constantly repeating that Walter Scott is characteristic of his genius. If there is one disgreat only as a novelist, but very poor as a poet. tinction between ancient Greek poetry as a Certainly a volcanic poet, in the style which whole, and modern British poetry, and spethe French Revolution was quick to raise up, cially the poetry of the last fifty years, it is this, he was not; and those people who prefer the that while the ancient poet was essentially the turbid sublime of a volcano to the clear benefi- spokesman of the people, the modern poet is cent glory of the sun, or the cheerful blaze of too apt to use his verse as a vehicle to vent his the domestic hearth, may laud Byron and write personal feelings, and spin his own peculiar down Scott with perfect consistency. But for speculations. Hence the perfect freedom of my part I prefer the steady splendour of the classical poetry generally from all those favourfamiliar luminaries of the sky, and the fireside, ite characteristics of much of our modern to Titanic convolutions of eruptive smoke, and poetry, which are only various phases of emothe fitful glare of distempered lightnings. tional self-indulgence, and pampered individu(Cheers.) Walter Scott was not a poet of this alism. Pindar, Eschylus, and Sophocles spoke troubled class, and may be compared fitly not to the people; performed, in fact, in their to a seething ocean of passion, but to a cup of works part of the regular public life of the mellow wine. He will not be the chosen poet nation to which they belonged; and therefore they are never overstrained or transcendental in their style. Therefore, they are always clear and true, sober and sensible, moderate and judicious. For an appeal to the normal standard of healthy human feeling, as it exists in the great mass of what is called the public, is always the great God-ordained corrective of the private crotchets of the individual thinker, poet, philosopher, or theologian. This appeal the Greeks always had without seeking it. This Walter Scott, with the wise instinct of a thoroughly healthy nature, always sought, and never failed to find. Therefore, while ignorant of the Greek language, he everywhere manifested a soul in healthy freshness, in breadth of popular sympathy, and in frank hilarity, containing the best elements of what we most admire in the great classic writers of antiquity. He is in fact more like Homer both in style and manner than any writer that I know, ancient or modern. In Homer there is no dim-groping theology, no self-torturing metaphysics, no unreal supersensualism; but only and everywhere Greek nature and Greek life, Greek men and Greek women, Greek grace, Greek cheerfulness, and Greek eloquence. So in Walter Scott, while we are everywhere kept far from the dim region of intangible speculations and laboured subtleties, we are nowhere divorced from the invigorating influences of Scottish nature and Scottish life, Scotch sobriety and Scotch humour, Scottish hills, Scottish heather, and Scottish mountain air. (Loud cheers.) Part song" Scots wha hae." Professor CAMPBELL SWINTON then briefly proposed "Scottish Art and the Royal Scottish Academy," which was acknowledged by Mr. D. O. Hill. Song "My Nannie's Awa"-Mr. Smith. The CHAIRMAN then proposed the Secretary, Treasurer, and Committee, alluding particularly to the exertions of Mr. A. T. Boyle and Mr. Ballantine in connexion with the arrangements for the banquet. The whole company, standing, and hand in hand, then sung "Auld Langsyne." After Miss Cole, Mr. Howard, Mr. Hunter, and others who led the singing, had concluded, Lord Neaves sang an additional stanza, in capital style and amidst warm applause, the company renewing the chorus with increased enthusiasm. LETTER FROM LORD BROUGHAM TO LORD ARDMILLAN. MY LORD, It is altogether unnecessary to say how very deeply I lament the disappointment of my hopes that I should have been able to attend this interesting festival. Such celebrations are the discharge of a duty, the payment, as it were, of a debt to departed genius; they afford occasion for ing honest national pride. But also they should indulging in mutual congratulations, and displayby all means be turned to good account, in the opportunity which they give of drawing practical inferences from the subject-matter of our contemplations. To two of these inferences I take the great liberty of directing your attention, in order that this celebration may be productive of some useful result. After his great poetical genius, there is nothing so remarkable in Burns' history as the extraordinary refinement of his sentiments, and even of his taste, from his earliest years, the effect certainly of his education having been greater than falls to the lot of the peasantry, even in Scotland. But it is impossible to read the accounts of his family, and his description of, and correspondence with, station, and not be struck with the manner in his friends of the same age, and the same humble which they were all raised above their condition by the ordinary education of the parish schools, and the taste for reading and for contemplation to which it gives rise, beside its effects in forming industrious and temperate habits. It led in him further to the greater cultivation of his faculties, and the nursing and unfolding of his genius; and we have an unquestionable right to affirm that but for this education he in all likelihood would have passed through the life of an humble and unknown peasant, and that his genius would never have been known either to himself or the world. The existence of genius must ever be an accident; but as nity, the chances of its appearing, that is, of its exit cannot be confined to any class of the commu istence being known, must needs be in proportion to the numbers placed in circumstances that shall nurse and unfold it. Thus beside the ordinary and everyday effects of this education, we have its necessary tendency to mature and to disclose rare capacity of the highest order-all that is called genius; a Watt to alter the whole face of the and matchless skill produced, each change an imworld by the changes which his profound science provement, and adding to the happiness of mankind; a Burns whose immortal verse makes the solace and the delight of his countrymen in every age and every country where their lot may be cast. These are of course very rare examples; but it is of the system in raising the character of our peofit to dwell upon the common and universal effects ple, distinguishing them wherever they go for intelligence and usefulness; for thoughtful and therefore prudent habits. The testimony is general and it is striking, which is borne to them in these respects, not only by calm observers free from all national prejudice, like M. Biot, father of the National Institute (whose work on our Scotch system I am publishing with notes), but by the employers of labour in all parts of the world, both old and It is truly gratifying to reflect that wher new. ever a native of Scotland goes he bears this char- | acter along with him, and finds his claims to respect acknowledged as soon as he declares his country, not like the old Roman appealing to the fears awakened by the sound of the barbarous tyrant's name, and silencing the voice of justice or preventing its course, but representing the humane and enlightened nation which has faithfully discharged its highest duty of diffusing knowledge and promoting virtue. The inference to be drawn is, that what cannot in any way be treated as the ground of empty boast, should not be made the ground of exultation, foolish and unprofitable. Our duty is to maintain and to amend the system by all well-considered measures, so that it may not only be perpetuated but improved. There, as everywhere else, time has produced some defects and disclosed others. By our experience in both these respects we are bound to profit-securing the independence of teachers; placing them under the inspection which the law originally intended to be effectual; providing for their removal when incompetent, and for their support when disabled by age or infirmity; apportioning their advancement to their merits; and raising to their just place in society such as are distinguished by their useful labours; nor ever forgetting that to this body of men there once belonged one of the most powerful preachers and eminent leaders of the National Church. That a firm resolution to work for the attainment of these objects may arise out of this celebration, to which it is so peculiarly appropriate, would not seem to be entertaining too sanguine a view. But it is also fit that we should, on this occasion, consider in what language Burns' poems, at least by far the most celebrated, and the most justly celebrated, are written. It is the language, the pure and classical language of Scotland, which must on no account be regarded as a provincial dialect, any more than the French was so regarded in the reign of Henry V., or Italian in that of the first Napoleon, or Greek under the Roman Empire. Nor is it to be in any manner of way considered as a corruption of the Saxon; on the contrary, it contains much of the old and genuine Saxon, with an intermixture from the northern nations, as Danes, and Norse, and some, though a small adoption, from the Celtic. But in whatever way composed, or from whatever source arising, it is a national language, used by the whole people in their early years, by many learned and gifted persons throughout life, and in which are written the laws of the Scotch, their judicial proceedings, their ancient history, above all their poetry. Its Saxon origin may be at once proved by the admitted fact, that Barbour, Chaucer's contemporary, is more easily understood by an English reader at this day than the Saxon of the father of English poetry. The merits of the Scotch language are attested, as regards conciseness, by the brevity of the Scotch statutes compared with the English, and as regards clearness, by the fact that there has been much more frequent occasion for judicial interpretation of the latter than of the former. But the peculiar value of the language arises from the great body of national poetry entirely composed in it, both in very remote times, and in those nearer our own day; and there can be no doubt that the English language, especially its poetical diction, would greatly gain by being enriched with a number, both of words and of phrases, or turns of expression, now peculiar to the Scotch. It was by such a process that the Greek became the first of tongues, as well written as spoken. Nor can it be for a moment admitted that the Scotch has less claim to this partial adoption, than the Doric had to mingle with the Ionian; or the Eolic with the Attic. Indeed of Æolic works there are none, while there is a whole body of Scottish classics. Had Theocritus lived before any poet like Pindar made frequent use of the new Doric, his exquisite poems, so much tinged with Sicilian, must have given that dialect admission into the pure Greek. Indeed Pindar, himself Boeotian, and naturally disposed to use the old Doric, has recourse to the new, for its force of expression, probably as much as he would have done, had he like Theocritus been a Sicilian; as Moschus did, who belonged to those colonies of Asia Minor, the origin of the language and literature of Greece. It must be allowed that when we refer to the free admission of various dialects into the classical language of Greece, we should bear in mind the peculiar fastidiousness of the Attic taste, and its scrupulous rejection of all barbarisms, and all solecisms -all words in languages not purely Greek, and all terms of expression arising from a corruption of that pure tongue. It is a great mistake to suppose, as some have done, that the interest excited in all minds by the associations of early years, forms the only ground of desiring to retain in certain compositions the language familiar to us in childhood. The charm imported by such associations is unquestioned; but it is not the only merit of the language, which may have other claims to being preserved independent of that. Thus Scotchmen will beyond all doubt feel a greater interest in Burns' poetry, because it is in the language used by those who cherished them in childhood, and which themselves first spoke. But so they will feel a greater interest than foreigners in the songs which they knew at the same period of life, in whatever language composed, an interest wholly independent of the language; and yet there may be in the merits of the language itself, strong claims to being preserved and adopted. A Sicilian might feel the charm of Theocritus' verse, because it reminded him of the pastorals, the national songs of the peasantry, from whence, indeed, it was in a great part taken; and he might delight in that verse all the more for the language in which it was composed. But others, as Pindar and Moschus, who could have no feeling of local associations, could adopt that language in their lyrics and pastorals, if not preferring it, yet uniting it to their own, because of its peculiar adaptation to the subjects of their composition. The events which brought about the general disuse of the Scotch language, first, the union of the Crowns, but infinitely more, that of the kingdoms, have not extinguished the great works in which it is preserved. It stands in very different circumstances from the Italian in this important respect. The accident of the great writers, especially the poets, being Tuscans, in all probability prevented the dialect of Venice from being the classical language of Italy, and its great beauties make men B lament that it is not partially adopted into the place two years ago. Numerous flags and banmore expressive but harsher Tuscan, the preva-ners waved from every available spot on the lence of which has kept all poets of eminence from walls and ceiling, while from arch to arch of using any other. Scotland stands very differently in this important particular; for the greatest of the roof were suspended enormous garlands of modern lyric poets has used the Scotch alone. evergreens, intermingled with artificial flowers. Assuredly, had either Dante or Petrarch been Along both sides of the hall temporary galleries Venetians, the Tuscan would have divided its so- were erected capable of accommodating four vereignty with the dialect of Venice. The acci- hundred individuals. At the south end an dent of all the great writers of the fourteenth cenenormous platform, for the speakers and special tury being Tuscans had the same effect in preventing guests, and fitted up with tables for two hunthe other languages from keeping its ground, which dred, was raised high above the floor of the political changes had in discouraging the Scotch; hall; and at the north end, opposite the prinyet it can hardly be doubted that, if Ariosto or Tasso, at a much later period, had used the Vene- cipal platform, was a smaller erection, on which tian, it would have gained an ample share of esti- was stationed the band of the 16th Lancers, mation; and if to this had been added the impor- who performed the overture "Fair Maid of tant circumstances, that all the Italian national Perth" during the assembling of the audience. poetry was confined to the shores of the Adriatic, The fronts of the platforms and galleries, as as all the British has ever been to the country well as the pillars which support the roof, were beyond the Tweed, the inevitable consequence would have been a great softening of the Tuscan all tastefully draped with red and white cloth, by the sweeter Venetian, at once to improve the and festooned with evergreens. On the wall, language, and to prevent two several tongues being at the back of the speakers' platform, were the used by the same people. letters "R. B." illuminated with variegated Would it not afford means of enriching and im- lamps, and surrounded by a laurel wreath, on proving the English language if full and accurate either side of which were placed banners bearglossaries of approved Scotch words and phrases, those successfully used by the best writers, both ing the Edinburgh and Scottish arms. Twelve in prose and verse, were given with distinct ex- parallel tables stretched the whole length of planation and reference to authorities? This has the area of the Exchange, at which those holdbeen done in France and other countries, where ing tickets for that part of the building were some dictionaries accompany the English, in some served with tea, presided over by about an cases with Scotch synonyms, in others with varie-hundred and fifty ladies. A spacious gasalier ties of expression. It may be hoped that the very learned person who is preparing an important philological work of the same description, may incorporate with it the flowers at least of our northern Doric. Two of our most venerated names, those of Playfair and Stewart, may be cited; they were wont to express their desire to borrow some Scotch words as of great scientific use. In the judicial proceedings of Parliament we have, at least of late years, discountenanced all attempts at translating Scotch technical expressions into English. Let it be added, that the greatest poet after Burns whom Scotland has produced (there wants no mention of T. Campbell), was wont to lament the inability of using his mother tongue with the mastery which he had so happily gained over a foreign language. I have to apologise for this intrusion upon the meeting; but only for the length of the letter, and its inferiority to the subject.-Yours faithfully, CANNES, January 17, 1859. BROUGHAM. THE CORN EXCHANGE. was suspended in the centre of the hall, and, along with numerous smaller brackets, all tastefully decorated, threw a flood of light upon the vast assemblage beneath, and completed the brilliant effect of the scene. Every corner was filled long before the hour announced for the proceedings to commence, and even the passages were choke full. There could be no fewer than fifteen hundred persons present. The arrangements, however, were on the whole very satisfactory. Mr. Duncan M'Laren occupied the chair; and among those on the platform were the Lord Provost, Bailie Grieve, Councillor Fyfe, J. B. Gough, Esq., John Dunlop, Esq. (Brockloch), Rev. A. Wallace, Dr. Brodie, J. W. Jackson, Esq., Dr. Menzies, Andrew Scott, Esq., David Low, Esq., Thomas Knox, Esq., William Logan, Esq. (Glasgow), John Knox, of Greenlaw, Berwickshire, &c. After tea had been partaken of, The CHAIRMAN said-Ladies and gentlemen, -The hall is so large, the difficulty of speak The "grand citizen banquet" in the Corn Ex-ing is so great, that no speaker can hope to be change, under the auspices of the Total Abstinence Society, came off with great éclat. The decorations of the Exchange were tasteful and brilliant, and the tout ensemble of the preparations was scarcely less striking than what was presented on the occasion of the celebrated Crimean banquet which was held in the same heard unless very great silence be observed. (Applause.) I have to explain first of all, that although this meeting is not the one that was first advertised and brought before the public of Edinburgh, it was not started in any rival spirit to the meeting in the Music Hall. (Hear, hear.) But its promoters thought that at no meeting in honour of a man who was pre- of Burns, some great meeting had been called cininently the man of the people should the to celebrate the heroes whom he idolized and door be barred against the people by a large almost worshipped-I mean Wallace and Bruce price being charged for admission. (Applause.)-(applause) had a meeting been called for On that ground, and with these feelings alone, such a purpose when Burns lived and was in this meeting was projected; and the committee the zenith of his fame, I ask you, would it have soon found that they had struck the right been possible to have called 2,500 persons tochord; and when the tickets were all disposed gether in a hall like this, where they had noof, and thousands could not obtain admission, thing stronger to drink than tea and water? then other meetings were organised, until this (Renewed applause.) Those who read the evening there are four large meetings in the contemporary history of that time know that, four largest halls in Edinburgh to celebrate the much as he is blamed for some parts of his concentenary of Robert Burns. (Applause.) It is duct-for the bacchanalian sentiments to be not for me to depict the character of that dis- found in many of his songs, and for the effect tinguished individual in all its parts. His which these in some instances have produced, merits as a poet speak to the heart, I am sure, he must be measured by the men amongst of every one present; and anything that is to whom he lived; and if you look at contempobe said upon that subject will far more aptly rary history and inquire into the customs which come from the learned Lord Neaves, who is to then prevailed, by reading the lives of men who address you this evening-(applause)—than lived in those times-take, for example, the from the humble individual who now addresses glimpses which are given of life in Edinburgh you. I will only say that the poetry of Burns at the beginning of the present century in that has sunk into the character and hearts of the interesting work of Lord Cockburn's-you will people of Scotland. Every one knows more or find that men far more elevated, in a worldly less of it. Every one knows so much of it, that point of view, than Burns-men most disI have no doubt whatever that if, by some ex- tinguished on the bench and at the bar-intraordinary event, the writings of Burns were dulged as much, I fear some of them even to be all burnt, they could be reproduced more, in those bacchanalian orgies for which from the memories of the people of Scotland. Burns became, unfortunately, so distinguished. ("Hear, hear," and applause.) The power of (Cheers.). Other three meetings are held in his writings is something extraordinary. They this city to-day of the same character as this. have, as it were, been woven into the thoughts In all of them the utmost propriety of conduct and feelings of the people. His whole char-will be observed; and from all of them the acter seems to have been imbued with the most parties will go home, I have no doubt, without intense love of country-with the most ardent anything occurring that will require the cenpatriotism. I know many people blame us for sure of the public of Edinburgh to-morrow. coming here to celebrate the Centenary of (Cheers.) This state of things could not have Burns, because, as they justly say, he was not existed in any town in Scotland during the last an immaculate character. Few men, unfortu- century, and such considerations should oblige nately, are so; and I don't suppose that those us to make very great allowances in judging of who originated this meeting did so with any the character of Burns. (Cheers.) There is view of justifying much that he wrote or did. one part of his character which I should like to All have their own opinions on these questions, notice-the deep and heart-felt sympathy which and it is not necessary for me minutely to he had for everything calculated to elevate man analyse his character. We are here to do hon--(cheers)—his ardent love of liberty; his our to him as the great poet of Scotland-the man of all others by whom Scottish poetry is best known,-whose name and fame are better known throughout all the countries in the world to which Scotchmen and Englishmen emigrate than any man of modern times, with the exception of Shakspere. (Applause.) No doubt, ladies and gentlemen, many things could be pointed out which are deserving of severe criticism; but, when we consider the character of the man, we must consider it in reference to the times in which he lived. (Applause.) We must not measure a man like Burns by the gauge of the customs and sentiments of the present day alone. For example, if, in the days sympathy with every just and good cause; his utter abhorrence of everything like obsequiousness, or falling down and worshipping the rich and the great, in whatever society he was placed. (Cheers.) When he came, for example, to this great city to have the second edition of his poems published, he was taken into the highest circles. He was almost idolized; no man could have been more noticed and petted (if I may say so) than was Burns. (Hear.) And yet, from all that we know of that period of his life, we have every reason to believe that he took his place amongst the highest of the land, standing erect and calling no man master. (Cheers.) He tells us himself in a short sketch of the early |