Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-01-28
Tho Burnp4club a. Cincinnati.
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which ChSS Maehay. the distinguished Editor
Of the I.OaiOa Illustrated News, being called
upOa. delivered he allowing seaN'iOl httle
sPeeeA>
IAArpee<a aSSr>a =sAsty t;=sts SSase Jay arri,
val Ia AsssESers pSAeSAss eSS Esst consider 1t
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Alv rSssc eaS sl&syS Aeea tAe SSsse, lis
sreas seSaszSS as,4 Il Ill S0S 30 greater than
s,Y se2sser IA tx ea& HVzSs-gTeaE richer
5,-sssze E,Sp2ssAS-3s.S pssSS eeserTgfSing, But
uAesA / sASa& Il ssks &ssss eeEsatsy in which
Aa3 8AS AasSr - Ne aoEss-Saat SEIlSu Speck IN
sk> aeeaS "a ss,e yvSssse &orths that dearly be-
aSyvss SsEseE es Sae earth, called Scotland, and
sxzassas<rs tie Ieer. brad, enduring mark
Z aaSsS is eASs3seE have made in the history of
th< ueza3. eos,Sole myself for its geographical
GStsSasSS> hv the remembrance of its moral and
iFIellcctOai SyvaInSsS~ then doubt whether
this mighty America itSelE, which owes SO much
I 10 the energy Of Seotehmen, will SuTpaSS-al-
| though own il may rival the historical great
ness Of the noble and IliuStrOuS, though poor
! little Island of Caledonia. Scotland has pro-
duced many eminent and heroic men-men he
rOic in arms-men in every department of art
science and literature
Among soldiers and patriots, it reckonS Wal
lace aud Bruce i'll olden time. such men Us Mon
trose, Claverhouse, Gen. Hugh Mckay, in times
more recent; and such men as Sir John Moore,
Lord Lyncdock, Sir Ralph Abercrombie, Sir
Charles j. Napier, hero of Scinde, and Sir Colin
Campbell, the hero of the Alma III the present
time. Among saiors, it reckons Admiral Dun
can, Lord Cochran and Sir Charles Napier
Among statesmen and administrators, it reckons
Sir John MOlcolm, and hosts of less known, but
all men who have extended the British Empire
in India. Among its orators, it include Erskine
McIntosh and Mncaulay. Among its great phi
losophers, it ranks Reid, DIgald, Stewart and
Mill. Among its preachers and diyineS, 1t is
proud Of John Knox, Blair and Chalmers
toned that almost the only historians of Eng
land are Scotchmem are Buchanan, Hume, For
dun, Robertson, Smollett, and Macaulay; among
its novelist$, are that same Smollett, Henry Mac
Kenzic, ''the Man of Feeling" and Sir Walter
Scott, the greatest novelist the world ever saw.
While its poets-bards worthy ofthe high name
of poct-trom the days of Allen Ramsay to
those of Robert Burns, and from the days Of
Robert Burns to the present hour, are so nu-
merous as to defy calculation, and SO excellent
as to exhaust eulogy.
And how is it that Scotland has become SO
renowned among the nations. One reason is,
that whatever a Scotchman resolves to do, he
does il with his whole soul. In art or arms in
colonization or in trade, in science or in itera.
ture, he works with will. 1t is thus that he
towers above men of more sluggish nature, and
Ofpurpose less enduring than his own.
Among all of the Scotchmen who ever existed,
there is one who stands prominent above the
rest, as the representative of his country and
his race-the model man of model nation
that man is Robert Burns. There is no other
Scotchman whose name is so widely known.
There is no other Scotchman whose memory is
so atfectiOnatey cherished by his countrymen,
or so highly respected by those who arc not his
countrymen, as that of this noble plowman-
this inspired poet-this honest man-this gen
tleman of NATURES own making.
TO name his name in foreign land, is to sug-
gest all Scotland-itS rock-bound coast, dashed
L. Al a a. Ill
Ocean; its romantic hills; its mountain torrents;
its pastoral streams; its banks and braes; its
bonnie barefooted lasses-the models of mild
and atfectiOnate womanhood; its sturdy peasan-
try, and its thrifty, warn-heartcd people of all
ranks and degrees
Burns is not only beloved for his genius and
Independence, and for the mirrOr-lke reflection
in his writings, of all that is good, brave and
true in the character of his countrymen-but
for the very faults which the "unco guild and
the rigidly righteous, once strove to cast against
his memory. We all know, or should know,
that we are human at the best, and that the
faings of good man should not be renc,n-
bered by good men in an evil spirit. For this
reason, the world deals tenderly with the fail
ings of Robert Burns His countrymen deal
with them more tenderly still, for they remem-
Der in the language of the Bard himself, that
"The light thatled estray, was light from Heaven"
and that his weaknesses, like those of King Da-
vid, whose character SO clearly reSenbled his
own-and who, like him, was both Peasant
and POet-linked him to humanity, and by
the sufferings which they occasioned, touched
bis heart until it gushed into a finer poetry than
any common joy or common sorrow could have
| produced
Burns cxcelled in every department of poetry.
Had he not been cut off in the very prime and
flower of his understanding intellect Il isimpos-
sible to say to what grand height Of poetic
achievement he might not have attain, i He was
master of every string of the Tyre. l.it suited
his purpose to make new song, hc lnade bet
ter song than any Scotchman ever mt,lc before
lift suited him to take up the fragment of an
old song of Allen Ramsay, OF any inferior hand,
the wnif or stray of a pcrishing literature. lit
tic worthless fragment lying by the roadside,
the magic of his touch converted it into a jewel
Iofimmortal beauty and fixed it forever in the re-
mernbrancc of the world
For patriotic sentiment and fervor, what can
surpass that magnificent ode, Scots wha haze
wi Wallace blCd ?" or the "Vison, . on which
he so wildly, and so surely predicted his own
future fame? For true piety, combined with
faithful portraiture of Scottish life, what can be
more exquisite than the ''Cotter's Saturday
Night?" As tho expression of ardent, innocent
love, surviving in Heaven, the loss of the below
ed one on earth. what can equal the mournful
I,s,,