al; they were attached without servility,
independent without rudeness, and intelligent to a degree that excited
the admiration and the wonder of the stranger. No wonder that the mere
thought of estrangement, in such a society as this, should have stricken
the bravest bosom with terror, and woe, and dismay! Yet so troublous was
the aspect of Europe then, that such fear was not utterly unfelt; and it
was the apprehension of that calamity, more than any other worldly
cause, that dimmed the soul and darkened the spirit of that great and
good man, Sir Walter Scott, in his declining years; for all his large
affections were bound up and entwined with the interests of Scotland,
and, had the sacrifice been required of him, he would gladly have laid
down his life to avert from her the perils which he then foresaw.

These few remarks we cannot consider as inappropriate to our present
subject. We have once more been joyful spectators of a truly national
gathering. Once more we have seen Scotsmen, of every grade and degree,
assemble together without a tinge of party purpose, to do honour to the
memory of a poet who sprang from the ranks of the people, and who was
heart and soul a Scotsman in his feelings, his inspiration, and, it may
be, in his errors and his prejudices also. It was a stirring and
exciting spectacle, such as no other country could have exhibited--to
behold peer and senator, poet and historian and peasant--the great and
the small, the lettered and the simple of the land--unite, after fifty
years of silence, in deep and sincere homage to the genius of one humble
man. Nor did they assemble there because his genius was greater than
God, in his bounty, had bestowed upon others, but because he had used it
for the glory and exaltation of his country; because he loved her with
an ardour the most vivid and extreme; because he had shed the light
entrusted to his charge both on the lofty dwelling and on the lowly
hearth, but most brightly and cheeringly upon the latter, for that was
his peculiar charge. We feel assured that the events of that day, and
the sentiments which were then inspired and uttered, will produce a
marked effect upon the disposition of the country at large. It seemed as
if all classes had spontaneously assembled to join hands above the grave
of Robert Burns, and then and there to renew the vow of enduring
reconciliation and love.

We shall now proceed to give a short account of the proceedings of the
day.