bin, Esq.; R. J. Currie, Esq.; A. J. Sym- Blessing being asked by Professor Barclay, a very capital and recherche dinner-served up by Mr. M'Lerie--was disposed of. Dr. M.Leod returned thanks. The CHAIRMAN then rose and said,-Before we begin the proper business of the evening, allow me to make two observations in reference to the conduct of the business. We have ascertained that no voice, however powerful, can be heard from the other end of the room, and therefore, when the croupiers are to give toasts, they will be requested to move up to the platform, in order that what they say may be heard by the whole company. (Applause.) Another observation I have to make before we begin is this, it is important that the toast of the evening, "The Immortal Memory of Robert Burns," should be given with all the honours. It is usual on occasions of the health of dead persons being drunk to give the toast in solemn silence; but, gentlemen, Burns never will be dead, his spirit is immortal, and we will give him with all the honours. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, in order that he may be thus given, after the speech in which I will have the honour to propose it, I hope you will rest for a minute or two till your glasses are all filled with champagne, in order that the toast may be befittingly honoured. (Cheers.) Allow me, also, in reference to the arrangements of the meeting, to make one other request. There are a number of stewards here present who have been appointed to the agreeable duty of ushering in the ladies who are in attendance to hear this meeting. I request that those gentlemen who have been selected for this duty will now retire to the other end of the room, that they may perform in a proper way their agreeable functions. (Applause.) The ladies' stewards accordingly retired, and in a minute or two ushered in a most brilliant assemblage of the fair sex, who, on taking their places in the galleries, were greeted with loud and long-continued cheers. The Chairman then rose to give the usual loyal and patriotic toasts. The CHAIRMAN (who was received with loud cheers) said,--The first toast, gentlemen, of this evening, and the first in all the numerous assemblies who are met together on this occasion, and at this hour, in honour of Burns, is our most gracious Sovereign, "The Queen." (Hear, hear.) Reigning, as she does, in the affections of all her subjects, and distinguished as her rule has been by every public and private virtue-(cheers)—there is no assembly of Britons in any part of the world among whom her name is not at all times received with enthusiasm. (Cheers.) But there are peculiar reasons why in this country, and on this occasion, it should be hailed with more than ordinary feelings of loyalty. Viewing, indeed, with equal eyes, as sovereign of all, her varied subjects from the Equator to the Arctic circle, her conduct has always been distinguished by that impartiality which was her first duty. Yet we are entitled to hope that she views with peculiar interest the country of her royal ancestors, through whom she has ascended the throne of Britain-(cheers)—that her heart is with the land of the mountain and the flood, and that she gladly escapes from the toils and the cares of Royalty to seek refuge in the seclusion of her Highland home, amidst the blue hills, and dark forests, and sounding cataracts of Caledonia. (Cheers.) But in addition to this, there is another and a still stronger reason why, on this day, we should drink our Sovereign's health with enthusiasm. We are assembled to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Burns, and you will soon show with what feelings it will be hailed. (Cheers.) But, coeval with his birth, there was another event arising in a distant hemisphere-the birth of a mighty Eastern empire-the growth of which during an entire century has been commensurate with that of the fame of the Poet, and which has, at its close, attained as colossal a height among the nations of our earth as his has done in the land of song. (Cheers.) And now both have been accomplished on the centenary of our national bard, I have the happiness to give, for the first time from this chair, the health of "Queen Victoria, Sovereign of Great Britain and the Indies." I cannot form a warmer wish for the countless inhabitants of those vast realms, than that the Government of the Queen and her successors may be regulated by this maxim, announced in her noble address on ascending the throne: "It is your prosperity which is our strength; it is your loyalty which is our security; it is your gratitude which is our happiness." (Loud cheering.) The toast was drunk with the usual honours. The CHAIRMAN then proposed in succession "The Prince Consort and the rest of the Royal | that they are of the same stamp as those who Family" and "Her Majesty's Ministers," which were duly responded to. bled with Wallace, and were led on by Robert Bruce, and whose spirit is still to be found among their descendants, ready with strong hands and with stout hearts to do their duty to their country. (Applause.) Song "There was a lad was born in Kyle"-Mr. John Muir. The CHAIRMAN then rose, amid loud cheering, and said-I have now to propose to you a toast which I know will be received with enthusiasm, the toast of the evening-"The Immortal Memory of Robert Burns." (Tremendous cheering, continued for several minutes.) In approaching this great subject I know not whether to feel more impressed with the lowliness of the origin from which our great national poet sprung, or the colossal magnitude of the fame which he has since attained. (Hear, hear.) On this day one hundred years The CHAIRMAN then said-The next toast on the list is one not indeed immediately connected with poetry, but to which no assembly in this country will ever fail to respond with enthusiasm—that of "The Navy and Army of Great Britain." (Cheers.) I trust that the cloud which has lately overspread the political horizon in Europe may be dispelled, and that the peace of the world may be long undisturbed. (Hear, hear.) But if it should prove otherwise, and our warriors by sea and land are again to be called into action, I feel assured that they will uphold and extend the ancient martial fame of their country. (Cheers.) Those who have within four years brought to a glorious conclusion two mighty wars in far distant hemispheres, need not fear any adversary; and the conquerors of the Alma, of Inkermann, of 25th January, 1759-a child was born in a Delhi and Lucknow, may safely be intrusted with the honour of their country. (Applause.) Nor let it be said that those sentiments are foreign to this night's festivities-for who was so intrepid and ardent a patriot as Burns?(cheers)—and who shall say what influence the immortal lines "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," have had in rousing the heroic spirit of his countrymen? (Cheers.) His gallant son —my friend, Colonel Burns, adorned with the Burmese medal, is beside me, a living example of their inspiring influence. (Cheers.) The spirit elicited on the mountains of Scotland has led his countrymen to victory amidst the snows of the Himalaya. I trust that your reception of this toast will animate our warriors by sea and land to continued efforts in behalf of their country-for glory is the soldier's idol-national gratitude is his best reward. (Cheers.) And I know that words which have been spoken, and cheers which have been heard in this place, have resounded over the world-smoothed the pillow of suffering in the hospitals of Scutari and lightened the bed of death in the charnel house of Lucknow. (Loud and long-continued cheering.) The toast was drunk amid loud cheers. Colonel MELLISH, in reply, said-On this occasion, the fighting part of the community is principally represented by the militia, and therefore I have the honour of rising to return thanks for the toast which you have just so warmly received. With reference to the Poet, in whose honour we are this day assembled, I may remark that the countrymen of Robert Burns have lately and most brilliantly participated in the many gallant achievements of the British navy and army, and have thus shown cottage near the now classic Kirk of Alloway, in Ayrshire, intended apparently for a humble lot, and to be gathered at length to his fathers unknown, unsung, in this simple churchyard, where "his rude forefathers of the hamlet slept." (Cheers.) But this child was destined to immortality-(continued cheering)-nature had given him the patent of true nobility, the passport to eternal fame; and while all, or nearly all, cotemporary reputation have already passed away, his alone is hourly on the increase, and now shines like the fixed stars with imperishable lustre. (Loud cheers.) It has come to embrace not only his own countrymen but all who can admire genius and venerate lofty feelings in every country of the civilised globe. In every city and village of Scotland, in not a few in England and Ireland, multitudes are now assembled to celebrate his genius, and wherever the English language is spoken, in Europe, Asia, or America, one universal chorus of admiration is resounding in honour of our peasant-son. (Cheers.) His fame has been like the swelling eddie, which rises round a pebble thrown by a child-the child of nature-into a stream; but that stream has descended to the ocean and become a mighty wave, which has rolled across the Atlantic, and broke, and will for ever break, on the American and Australian shores. (Hear, hear.) Vast as is this assembly which I now address, it is but the representative of millions in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South, who are now found together in the expression of common feeling; and the pulse which now throbs so violently at the very name of Burns under this roof, is beating also at the same moment in the extremities of the earth, afar off in Australian and Transatlantic wilds. Whence is this moral prodigy in which we all dazzled by excess of light, She "Auld Langsyne" has become the national air of Scotland-the expression of the love of home and of the scenes of infancy to the entire civilised world. (Loud cheers.) "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled" is already the war-song of the bold and the patriotic in every country of the earth-(hear, hear)-and the passion of love in its purest form was never so finely expressed as in his immortal lines to Highland " Mary in Heaven.” "That sacred hour can I forget? Can I forget the hallowed grove, Ayr gurgling kissed her pebbly shore The birds sang love on every spray, Proclaimed the speed of winged day. Still o'er these scenes my mem'ry wakes, As streams their channels deeper wear." But where was she to find a worthy recipient for such a gift among the aged civilisation and national jealousies and political passions of Europe in the close of the eighteenth century? She looked for him in the halls of princes, but she found him not there. She looked for him in the senates of nobles, but she found him not there. She looked for him in the forums of commerce, but she found him not there. She looked for him in the solitude of nature, and she found him beside the plough, with his eye fixed on the mountain daisy, which spread its humble beauties beneath his feet. (Loud cheers.) It was in this very circumstance—the lowliness of his origin that the secret of his ultimate greatness is to be found. (Hear, hear.) The child of nature, he told us, like Homer, or the Hebrew poet in the book of Job, what he saw and what he felt, uninfluenced by the greatness, unbought by the wealth, undeterred by the criticism of the world. Mr. Pitt said at Lord Liverpool's table, shortly after Burns' death, that "since the time of Shakspeare poetry had never come so sweetly from the hand of Nature as in his rhyme;" and that was literally true, and true just because Nature had been his only teacher. Self-taught, untutored, he poured forth in unpremeditated lays "the short (Loud cheers.) But the universal admiration and simple annals of the poor," but in their with which the poems of Burns have been short and simple annals he found means to hailed, not merely in his own country, but over descend to the inmost depths of the human the whole civilized world, prove that, great as heart, to ascend to the loftiest heights of human his graphic powers were, they were the least of feeling. "The Cottar's Saturday Night" is the his varied gifts. (Hear, hear.) It was the most perfect picture that ever was drawn, not depth of his feeling, his warm expansive love merely of individual life, but of the race of for all mankind, the touching pathos which man, inferior to none in the world in virtue shone forth in his pieces, which everywhere and firmness-the peasantry of the land. (Cheers.) | went to the heart. His tenderness extended : "I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft In life's morning march, when my bosom was young; I heard my own mountain goats bleating aloft, reapers sung." common excuse that his frailties were those to which men of ardent and poetic mind have in all ages been most subject. I disdain any such apology. I recognize no exemption from moral even to inanimate objects. The hares, the field mouse, the mountain daisy have been celebrated in his songs. Above all, he possessed in the highest degree that great quality without which, in the trial of Time, all others are but as tink-responsibility in the sons of genius. I know ling brass-a due appreciation of the dignity of human nature, and a firm determination to assert it. (Loud cheers.) To him we owe those noble lines now become as household words in every land of freedom:: "The rank is but the guinea stamp; The man's the gowd for a' that." (Cheers.) To this quality also he owed many of the misfortunes with which his life was embittered. Had he condescended to flatter the great to conciliate the affluent-to fawn upon the multitude he might have earned ease and comfort in life; but he disdained to do any of the three. Therefore he was neglected by his cotemporaries-therefore we are now raising statues to his memory. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, it is said that Burns was a Radical. I know he was; but I do not respect him the less on that account. (Cheers.) I wish we had more Radicals like Burns. (Continued cheering.) Most men of his ardent and poetic temperament are inclined to those opinions, especially early in life, and were so most of all in his day. They see in others the generous feelings of which they are conscious in themselves. It is well they are so; they would miss their mission if they were not. Genius is the moving power of the moral world. Experience is the fly-wheel which regulates the movements of the mighty machine: without the first it would stand still; without the second it would be torn in pieces. It is by the counteracting influence of the two, as by the antagonist action of fire and water in the material world, that the equilibrium of nature is preserved; and thus is secured at once the life, the progress, and the stability of nations. (Hear.) But if Burns was a Radical, he was not less a patriot. He was no advocate for domestic broils or foreign interference, he respected every man in his own position, but did not seek to change it; for what said he to the Dumfries Volunteers, of whom he was a member? "Be Britain still to Britain true, Maun British wrangs be righted." (Loud cheers.) A more serious charge brought against Burns is that his life was sometimes irregular, some of his poems effusions which, however admired at the moment, his warmest friends must now lament. Gentlemen, in reference to this charge I will not repeat the rather that from him to whom much is given much also will be expected. But I say he was a son of Adam, and let him that is without sin among you throw the first stone. (Cheers.) I would answer in the words of Bolingbroke, when reminded of the faults of his great political antagonist, Marlborough-"Yes, I know he had faults; but he was so great a man that I have forgot what they were." (Loud cheers.) And I would recommend his detractors to imitate his example, to expiate passing faults by lasting benefits to the species, and like him to cause the spots on the sun to be forgotten in the lustre of his rays. (Cheers.) But one great moral truth I extract from the fate of Burns, and that is that no lasting fame is to be acquired, even by the brightest genius, save that which is devoted to the purposes of Virtue; for the few poems of Burns which we now lament have long since passed into oblivion, and those on which his immortal fame is rested are as pure as the driven snow. And, as such, they will form an unseen bond which will for ever unite Britons and their children in every part of the world-a bond which will survive the maturity of colonies, the severance of empires; and “Auld Langsyne" will hold together the wide-spread descendants of the British empire, when grown into independent states— "Tho' seas atween them since hae row'd." Gentlemen, I have detained you too long; and I conclude in the words of the Poet "A last request permit me here When yearly ye assemble a', One round, I ask it with a tear, To him the Bard that's far awa." The learned Chairman then resumed his seat amidst tremendous cheering. The toast was drunk with all the honours, the whole company rising to their feet; and ladies, as well as gentlemen, waving their handkerchiefs, and making every demonstration of enthusiasm. Song "Highland Mary "-Mr. Stembridge Ray. Colonel JAMES GLENCAIRN BURNS, who was received with enthusiastic applause, said-I humbly thank my God that He has spared me to live and see this glorious day, a day on which so many thousands in almost every part of the globe are paying homage to the genius of the Bard of Scotia. (Cheers.) My mother told the late Mr. M'Diarmid of Dumfries that my father once said to her "Jean, one hundred years hence they'll think mair o' me than they do now." How truly his prophecy has been fulfilled the proceedings here and elsewhere amply testify. I feel most grateful to you for the opportunity you have afforded me of being present at this, one of the most influential of these gatherings, presided over, as it is, by the celebrated and talented author of the History of Europe (applause)—supported by such well-known and distinguished men as Judge Haliburton, Principal Barclay, Sir David Brewster, Mr. Monckton Milnes, and Mr. Glassford Bell. In no place will the day be hailed and celebrated with more enthusiasm than in the far East, where I spent so many and such happy years. In proof of this I may quote a few lines written by my old friend Colonel George Anderson Vetch, the author of many a Burns' birth-day ode. In a poem of his, entitled “The Exile in India," he says:— "The music of Scotia is sweet 'midst the scene, (Cheers.) As a leal and true Scot, and a warm admirer of the genius of the Bard, I have joined in doing honour to his memory. As his son, permit me to return you my most sincere thanks for the same. (Renewed cheering.) Band-"The Campbells are coming." ours. Mr. DALGLISH, M.P., proposed “Lord Clyde and his Companions in Arms." He said-It is fortunate for me that this toast requires not the eloquence of the learned chairman to make it come home to every heart. Sir Archibald Alison has told us to-night that, in addition to her title of Queen of England, her Majesty has also to add that of Empress of India. It is to our gallant army in the East that the Queen owes that proud addition to her title. (Cheers.) I think, gentlemen, it would be wrong in me to detain you with any detailed statement why you should receive this toast with all the honIt is enough to say that owing to the undaunted bravery of our soldiers, and the skill of their commanders, the most treacherous mutiny has been suppressed, and India has been retained for Britain. But, gentlemen, on this occasion, I think there is a claim upon you to drink this toast with redoubled enthusiasm, for the gallant army which now fights our battles on the plains of Hindostan is commanded by a man born in Glasgow-by a citizen of Glasgow. You are all aware how, soon after his arrival in India, he organized with great care an army that has since done incomparable deeds. I need not speak of his defence and successful relief of Lucknow, of his return to Cawnpore, where he retrieved the disasters of the day before, of his final success and capture of Lucknow, and the success which has attended his combinations ever since. But we have also other men connected with Glasgow who have taken a share in the glories of our Indian campaign. I need hardly allude to a gallant colonel, son of our excellent chairman-(cheers)— having lost an arm in the cause of his country, and who has since been more successful in another field of fight, and gained the hand of one of our loveliest citizens. (Applause.) I need hardly allude to the gallant Kerr, who, almost the only European, and in command of a body of native troops, alone with a regiment of native troops achieved such deeds of heroism and valour, that he has been decorated with the Victoria Cross. (Cheers.) Our talented townsman, Mr. Macnee, has also a son who carried the colours of his regiment at the capture of Gwalior. These, gentlemen, Glasgow has a right to be proud of, and I trust you will drink this toast with all the honours. The toast was drunk amid loud cheers. The Very Rev. Principal BARCLAY was received with loud cheers. He, in a few words, gave both Houses of Parliament. WALTER BUCHANAN, Esq., M.P., replied. Mr. HENRY GLASSFORD BELL, in proposing "The Poets of England," said-Every one has felt that it is not always on those occasions when he is most anxious to say something worthy of being listened to, that he is best able to satisfy his own wishes. I confess that to-night I feel my mind almost overpowered when I reflect on the grandeur of the devotion-not national only, but world-widethat is being paid to the memory of one man. I question whether such an amount of grateful and affectionate remembrance was ever before so concentrated and so extended. The question naturally occurs-Whence all this gratitude?— honourable alike to him who occasions and him who cherishes it; surely no unworthy sentiment, since it ascends to the Creator through the person of one of his created. Whence this gratitude? Simply because that Scottish peasant added more than most men to the stock of human happiness, by throwing wider open the gate of human knowledge. (Cheers.) The most valuable of all knowledge is knowledge of ourselves, and it is that the poet teaches. Great as the benefactor of his species is who extends the confines of science, not less great is he whose finer eye looks with a clearer perception into all the subtle mechanism of the human heart. (Cheers.) Robert Burns invented no steam engine, but he knew the secret source of tears and smiles; he discovered no new planet, but he called up thoughts that twinkled in the |