which so generally forms the poetical temperament, and that buoyant and ambitious spirit which indicates a mind conscious of its strength. At Irvine, Burns at this time possessed a single room for his lodging, rented perhaps at the rate of a shilling a week. He passed his days in constant labour as a flax-dresser, and his food consisted chiefly of oatmeal sent to him from his father's family. The store of this humble, though wholesome nutriment, it appears, was nearly exhausted, and he was about to borrow till he should obtain a supply. Yet even in this situation his active imagination had formed to itself pictures of eminence and distinction. His despair of making a figure in the world shews how ardently he wished for honourable fame; and his contempt of life, founded on this despair, is the genuine expression of a youthful and generous mind. In such a state of reflec tion and of suffering, the imagination of Burns naturally passed the dark boundaries of our earthly horizon, and rested on those beautiful representations of a better world, where there is neither thirst, nor hunger, nor sorrow, and where happiness shall be in proportion to the capacity of happiness.

Such a disposition is far from being at variance with social enjoyments. Those who have studied the affinities of mind know that a melancholy of this description, after a while, seeks relief in the endearments of society, and that it has no distant connexion with the flow of cheerfulness, or even the extravagance of mirth. It was a few days after the writing of this letter that our poet, 'in giving a welcoming carousal to the new year, with his gay companions,' suffered his flax to catch fire, and his shop to be consumed to ashes.

The energy of Burns's mind was not exhausted by his daily labours, the effusions of his muse, his social pleasures, or his solitary meditations. Some time previous to his engagement as a flax-dresser, having heard that a debating club had been established in Ayr, he resolved to try how such a meeting would succeed in the village of Tarbolton. About the end of the year 1780, our poet, his brother, and five other young peasants of the neighbourhood, formed themselves into a society of this sort, the declared objects of which were to relax themselves after toil, to promote sociality and friendship, and to improve the mind. The laws and regulations were fur

Written for Neal's Saturday Gazette.

WILT THOU LOVE HER STILL?

Wilt thou love her still, as thou lovest now,
When her beauty has faded away?

Wilt thou cherish her then, as a priceless gem,
And love as thou lovest to-day?

How few are the friends that through life endure !
How few are forever the same!

Wilt thy warm heart thrill at each low word still,
When the vow shall be echoed again?

Too often affections engendered in youth
Are chilled with the coming of years!

Wilt thy love then decay? Fate answers, "it may,”
And leave a crushed victim in tears,

But thou sayest thy love shall know no change;
Thou'lt be faithful as now at life's even-
Dost thou see a gem shrined in a heavenly mind,
That so sacred a promise is given?

Remember, bright flowers are the first to fade,
They wither ere autumn comes on;
Bat the violet's head, from a frosty bed,

Peeps out when the summer is gone.

Would'st thou cherish the rose when in beauty it blooms,
And its fragrance is breathing around,

Then, in with'ring decay, cast it rudely away,
And trample the bud on the ground?

When the bright hue shall fade from the soft rosy

cheek,

Wilt thy heart be the fountain of love?

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Oh, then, to all time be the rich treasure thine,
For the vow is recorded above.

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Thy prayer has been heard, then be true to thy
Be faithful-be ever the same;

Let the ripples that move on the ocean of love

Ne'es steal to its b som again.

Malone, N. Y., Nov. 20, 1846.

trust- ad

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- the law adapted to commercial transactions.

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2. That the defendant is not entitled to the good-will, subscription list, or specific property, by whatever name it may be called, in the paper published by him, but that it is part of the effects of r the partnership, and should be sold with the entire premises.

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The court will always order a sale where the surviving partner neglects or refuses to make one. The good-will is part of the assets. Suppose in this case the debts owing by the estate were $20,000, the stock was of the value of $10,000, | ar and the defendant were to sell the good-will for $30,000, would he be allowed to pay $10,000 upon his share of the debts owing, call upon the estate of Mr. Holden to contribute $10,000 towards those liabilities and appropriate the $20,000 balance of d the amount he received for the good-will, to his own use? Such a state of things would be inequitable and could not be tolerated for one moment. Or, if there were no debts owing, and the stock was worth $10,000, and the good-will was sold for $30,000, would the defendant be allowed to pay Mr. Holden's estate $5000, and appropriate by, the balance to himself as an incident accruing to him by the right of survivorship? No law can be found to sustain such a thing, and in the absence of some statute or decision of a superior court to that effect, a Court of Equity can never sanction such a principle. I shall, therefore, feel his it my duty to award an injunction to restrain the jadefendant from exercising any further control over the property of the "Saturday Courier;" to appoint a receiver, with direction to make sale of the whole of the property; and also to appoint a master to take an account, so that the receiver may be held hresponsible for the assets in his hands."

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A decree, however, was delayed, in order to give the parties time to make an amicable agree-arbut failing this, an injunction will be laid,

nished by Burns. The members were to meet after the labours of the day were over, once a week, in a small public-house in the village; where each should offer his opinion on a given question or subject, supporting it by such arguments as he thought proper. The debate was

to be conducted with order and decorum; and after it was finished, the members were to choose a subject for discussion at the ensuing meeting. The sum expended by each was not to exceed three-pence; and, with the humble potation that this could procure, they were to toast their mistresses, and to cultivate friendship with each other.

After the family of our bard removed from Tarbolton to the neighbourhood of Mauchline, he and his brother were requested to assist in forming a similar institution there. The regulations of the club at Mauchline were nearly the same as those of the club at Tarbolton; but one laudable alteration was made. The fines for non-attendance had at Tarbolton been spent in enlarging their scanty potations: at Mauchline it was fixed, that the money so arising should be set apart for the parchase of books; and the first work procured in this manner was the Mirror, the separate numbers of which were at that time recently collected and published in volumes." After it followed a number of other works, chiefly of the same nature, and among these the Lounger. The society of Mauchline still subsists, and was in the list of subscribers to the first edition of the works of its celebrated associate.

Whether, in the humble societies of which he was a member, Burns acquired much direct information, may perhaps be questioned. It cannot however he doubted, that by collision the faculties of his mind would be excited, that by practice his habits of enunciation would be established, and thus we have some explanation of that early command of words and of expression which enabled him to pour forth his thoughts in language not unworthy of his genius, and which, of all his endowments, seemed, on his appearance in Edinburgh, the most extraordinary. For associations of a literary nature, our poet acquired a considerable relish; and happy had it been for him, after he emerged from the condition of a peasant, if fortune had permitted him to enjoy them in the degree of which he was capable, so as

to have fortified his principles of virtue by the purification of his taste, and given to the energies of his mind habits of exertion that might have excluded other associations, in which it must be acknowledged they were too often wasted, as well as debased.

The whole course of the Ayr is fine; but the banks of that river, as it bends to the eastward above Mauchline, are singularly beautiful, and they were frequented, as may be imagined, by our poet in his solitary walks. Here the muse often visited him. In one of these wanderings, he met among the woods a celebrated Beauty of the west of Scotland;* a lady, of whom it is said, that the charms of her person corresponded with the character of her mind. This incident gave rise, as might be expected, to a poem, of which an account will be found in the following letter, in which he enclosed it to the object of his inspiration:

TO MISS

'MADAM,

Mossgiel, Nov. 18, 1778.

'Poets are such outré beings, so much the children of wayward fancy and capricious whim, that I believe the world generally allows them a larger latitude in the laws of propriety, than the sober sons of judgment and prudence. I mention this as an apology for the liberties that a nameless stranger has taken with you in the enclosed poem, which he begs leave to present you with. Whether it has poetical merit any way worthy of the theme, I am not the proper judge; but it is the best my abilities can produce; and, what to a good heart will perhaps be a superior grace, it is equally sincere as fervent.

'The scenery was nearly taken from real life, though I dare say, Madam, you do not recollect it, as I believe you scarcely noticed the poetic reveur as he wandered by you. I had roved out as chance directed, in the favourite haunts of my muse, on the banks of Ayr, to view nature in all the gaiety of the vernal year. The evening sun was flaming over the distant western hills; not a breath stirred the crimson opening blossom, or the verdant spreading leaf. It was a golden moment for a poetic heart. I listened to the feathered warblers, pour Miss Alexander, of Ballochmyle.