Wi' double plenty o'er the loanin,1 Domestic peace and comforts crowning POSTSCRIPT. Ye've heard this while how I've been licket, And by fell death was nearly nicket; But by guid-luck I lap a wicket, But by that health, I've got a share o't, A tentier way; Then farewell folly, hide and hair o't, For ance and aye! cut off waistcoat more heedful 1 An opening between fields of corn, near or leading to the homestead, left uncultivated for the sake of driving the cattle homewards. Here the cows are frequently milked. THE DEAN OF FACULTY, A BALLAD. The present was a season of national distress, in consequence of a failure of the late harvest. Discontents, meetings, and mobbings alarmed the ministry, and towards the close of the year, it was conceived that some additional restrictions upon the expression of public sentiment were necessary: hence the celebrated sedition-bill of that period. The broken remains of the Whig party were greatly exasperated by the measure, and amongst the various expressions of adverse sentiment in Scotland, none attracted more attention than a public meeting which took place at the Circus - now Adelphi Theatre - in Edinburgh, where the Honorable Henry Erskine, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, presided. The Tory majority of the Scottish bar, seeing their chief thus engaged, as they said, in "agitating the giddy and ignorant multitude, and cherishing such humors and dispositions as directly tend to overturn the laws,” resolved, at the approaching annual election to the deanship, to oppose Mr. Erskine's reappointment. On the 12th of January, 1796, the election took place, when Mr. Dundas, the Lord Advocate, was preferred to honest Harry by a majority of 123 against 38 votes. It was not likely that Burns would hear of the degradation of his friend and ancient patron with tranquil feelings, or remain quite silent on the occasion. He privately circulated the following effusion referring to the con test. DIRE was the hate at old Harlaw, Than 'twixt Hal and Bob for the famous job – This Hal for genius, wit, and lore, And won his heart's desire ; Which shews that Heaven can boil the pot, Though the devil in the fire. Squire Hal besides had in this case Pretensions rather brassy, For talents to deserve a place Are qualifications saucy; So their worships of the Faculty, Quite sick of merit's rudeness, Chose one who should owe it all, d'ye see, To their gratis grace and goodness. As once on Pisgah purged was the sight So may be, on this Pisgah height, Nay, Bobby's mouth may be opened yet, In your heretic sins may you live and die, Ye heretic Eight-and-Thirty! But accept, ye sublime majority, My congratulations hearty! With your Honours and a certain King, The more incapacity they bring, TO COLONEL DE PEYSTER. Early in the month of January, when his health was in the course of improvement, Burns tarried to a late hour at a jovial party in the Globe Tavern. Before returning home, he unluckily remained for some time in the open air, and, overpowered by the effects of the liquor he had drunk, fell asleep. In these circumstances, and in the peculiar condition to which a severe medicine had reduced his constitution, a fatal chill penetrated to his bones: he reached home with the seeds of a rheumatic fever already in possession of his weakened frame. In this little accident, and not in the pressure of poverty or disrepute, or wounded feelings or a broken heart, truly lay the determining cause of the sadly shortened days of this great poet. The commander of the Dumfries Volunteer Corps having sent to make inquiries after his health, Burns replied in rhyme. My honoured colonel, deep I feel Ah! now sma' heart hae I to speel Surrounded thus by bolus pill, And potion glasses. O what a canty warld were it, Would pain and care and sickness spare it; And fortune favour worth and merit, As they deserve ! climb merry And aye a rowth roast-beef and claret plenty Then Syne, wha wad starve? Dame Life, though fiction out may trick her, And in paste gems and frippery deck her |