The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-27 00:00:00

Burns, and accidentally connected with the fortunes
of his family, I gladly accepted.the proposal to act
as one of the arbiters, of the merits of the poems
composed in his honour, and for myself the distinc-
tion of being your guest to-day. Many. of you will
have seen the poem to which the prize has been ad-
judged, and have, I hope, not considered it unworthy
of the occasion; but it becomes me here to say a
word respecting the unsuccessful candidates for the
crown, many of whoni have produced works-of deep
feeling and noble expression, and all of them ap-
peared impressed with the real greatness of the
character it was proposed to them to celebrate.
(Cheers.) In the phrase of one, they all recognised
" The glorious and poetic peasant
Driving his laurelled plough."

In the words of another, they appreciated the
character of the people, who read by turns

" The Psalms of David and the Songs of Burns."

Cheers.) Two impressions, indeed, which seem to
me altogether erroneous, prevailed in many of the
poems—the neglect of the poet by his contempora-
ries, and the connection between his poetic gifts
and the sorrows and discomforts of his life. Now, I
believe that the worth of a great poet never received
a more rapid acknowledgment from a nation than
Scotland has given to Burns, from the first letter of
Dr. Blacklock to the celebration of this hundredth
anniversary. lam equally convinced that the poetry
of Burns was the joy and sustenance of an exist-
tence not otherwise favoured by fortune. True, the
lights of the poetic temperament casttheir shadows,
as they will always do ; true, there was in him that
earnest melancholy, which is ever the reverse of the
true metal of genuine humour.. But without his
poetryßurns must have been as much an exile from
his native land as Dante, whereas, with it, the inci-
dents of his common and private life have become
the events of a century ; the songs composed for
the merriment of an obscure tavern club have set
millions of tables ringing with delight ; the natu-
ral outpourings of his affections have become the
stimulus and the interpreter of youthful passion in
ten thousand breasts ; and the religious bickerings
of a remote province have been made vocal with the
most stirring trumpet tones of civil and religious
liberty. I remember being in Prussia some 14 years
ago, when the Censor of the Press condemned a
spirited translation of " A man's a man for a' that"
as hostile to the order of society, and calculated to
set class against class. I should be very glad to
have that censor here to-night, and to ask him whe-
ther this, and the thousand other festivities now
taking place, exhibited hostility and ill-will to man-
kind ? (Cheers.) You have done me the honour
of connecting my health with the poets of England.
When Burns was writing the poetry of England
was mainly represented by the languid grace of
Cowper, and the wit of Teter Pindar, and I do not
know how much of the great revival which folThwed
may be attributed to the influence of your 'bard. I
wish I could anticipate any such phenomena in our
days. We have, indeed., a laureate whom we can
boldly match with any, of his predecessors, yet I am
conscious that the tendency of the time is rather to
enjoy and rest upon the poetry that has gone before
it than to add to the imaginative store of the world.
Perchance it must be so. Our thoughts have not
already been expressed in as good music as words
can supply,' and our business is rather to ap-
preciate and apply them—just as Burns took up the
screed of some old ballad that touch his fancy, and
transformed it into a poem for his own and for all
time. Those, indeed, who desire to combine the plea-
sures of the composition of verse with the duties of
active life will rejoice to remember that Burns made
an excellent and diligent exciseman, as Wordsworth
an accurate stamp distribUtor ; and instead of
lamenting that such men were so employed, they
will delight in every combination of rare talents
and honest toil. Who shall say whether, if the
outward circumstances of the life of Burns had been
those of comfort and repose, his wonderful powers
might not have been obscured and contracted ? But
be this as it may, I am sure that the passionate
admiration which brings together the multitudes of
this evening would not have beet excited. The
sorrows of the great have ever been the aliment of
the veneration of mankind : and the victims of mis-
fortune in high places have even attained super-
natural powers, without any very close scrutiny
into their character and conduct. But the time
comes when even the " sad stories of the deaths of
kings" fail to move the popular imagination ; and
yet, even then, the heart of a nation is stirred to
its depths by the recollection of suffering genius,
and something of a sacred halo surrounds the poet
who has endured and striven like a man. (Great
applause.)
Song by Mr. Robson, " John Anderson, my To."
Mr. A. DENNISTON, writer, Greenock, then gave
the next toast—" The Peasantry of Scotland."
The toast was drunk with great applause.
Mr. BLANCHARD JERROLD gave " The Poets of
Scotland, and my friend Mr. Peter Cunningham."
le. PETER CUNNINGHAM replied.
. R. MONTEATII, of Carstairs, proposed "The
fBGAIriE c
nwoancduiLs
Lon—Ladies
and gentlemen—As you have so cordially re-
sponded to the poets of England, and also
to the poets of our own country, it is most
suitable that on such an occasion wo should
also toss off a bumper to the poets of Ireland ; and
although assuredly I am not the person capable of
doing justice to that toast, dill, if Irish traditions
be correct, this toast should at all times be pro-
posed by a Scotchman, for I find that in various
works Ireland asserts that she not only bestowed
sovereigns to the name of Scotia on our native land,
but also that we are indebted to her for all our
Highland airs. We are told that when the inhabi-
tants of Munster and Leinster expelledthe Brehons,
or, as they were called, the legislative bards, from
Ireland, they took shelter in the wilds and pastures
of Scotland. A legislative bard is not a position
well ascertained in our constitution. We possess
poets, we possess legislators, and we possess gentle-
men who are both poets and legislators, like my
gifted friend Mr. M. Milnes ; but although I have
heard him make many excellent speeches, I never
heard them set to music, nor can I believe he will
move his important amendment on the Reform Bill
in the Spenserian metre. But it does not require
any assurance to convince us of the extreme beauty
of the Irish melodies. The lyrical power has not
expired with Cormac and O'Carolan. The name of
Sheridan and of Moore, and Sheridan's illustrious
granddaughters, of Goldsmith, of Lever, of Morgan
of the author of the" Angel's Whisper" and " Rory
O'More," our honoured guest of this evening,
Samuel Lover—all these testify that the cunning
has not deserted the land, and that the fire of. Irish
talent still burns like the inextinguishable lamps of
Kildare's shrine. But there is one bond of union
between the minstrels of the two countries, that is,
the feeling of independence and the love of country
that each awakens. Moore and Lover are as 'dear to
Ireland as Burns is to Scotland, and who shall say
what an effect these great men may have had on the
destinies of their respective countries. Forinstance,
there was a time a century ago when our nationality
was endangered—when Scotland had been converted
into that battlefield " where those who conquer
do not win, and they must lose who gain." The
nation felt that a stranger was in the land, and
his cold hand was laid on its:heart. Aye, at that time
there was danger, not for our national, but
our mental independence--fora feeling was growing
up in the south hostile to our progress but, in spite
of all feelings of jealousy, Scotland, Ller a pause,
marched on England, not in military array, but in
the less dazzling march of mind and intelligence ;
and this march, the echo of which is still heard
throughout the land—this march was preceded by
Robert Burns. (Cheers.) Ay, and there is another
point of sympathy between the lyrical poets of the
two countries. In most.cases we find that the bard
is neglected during his lifetime. Mr. Lover has
done a great and a good work for Ireland in collect-
ing those immortal lyrics, which, but for him might,
in time, have been lost. What a long list of names
is there of those who, like Carolan, died neglected;
and what shall we say of the last days of Richard
Brinsley Sheridan ; but all countries can testify—

I, How nations, slowly wise, and meanly just,
To buried merit raise the tardy bust."
Who erected a monument to Robert Ferguson, many
years after his death P Why, a brother poet, Robert
Burns. The band of genius possesses its noble army
of martyrs. See Camoens dying in a garret—Tasso
lying on straw in a madhouse--Milton in poverty
—Otway choked with the food doled out in charity
—Chatterton always the melancholy Chatterton,
and most so in his death. Yes, and afterwards
justice is done to departed genius—Tasso is crowned
on his deathbed; Petrarch in the Capitol of Rome;
and now the memory of Burns is crowned by the
one unanimous cry of love and admiration, which
echoes beyond the Indus and the Atlantic waves.
When Mr. Lover returns to Ireland; if he is asked,
as Macduff asks Ross, " Stands Scotland where she
did 2" he will answer in his own nervous language
—he will tell of the enthusiasm he has witnessed—
he will testify that there is no danger of our nation-
ality being lost where its master-spirit is so honoured.

" The friends we have tried
Are by our side"
:his day, in the persons of the holoured sons of the
mmortal poet ; and when we behold citizens of all

countries combining in this tribute to departed
greatness, we may anticipate, as the poet antici-
pated, the day whea

"Man to man the wide world o'er, shall brithers be."
Mr. SAMUEL LOVER replied.
The Hon. Judge HALIBURTON, on rising
i to pro-
pose the next toast, was received with immense
cheering. He said, I accepted the invitation to
appear here to-night with pecUliar pleasure. 150
years have elapsed since my family left the borders