sia; the Right
Hon. Lord Justice-General; the Countess of Eglinton; Sir D. H. Blair,
Bart., of Blairquhan. The Croupier, Professor Wilson, was supported on
the right by Archibald Alison, Esq., Sheriff of Lanarkshire, and author
of the History of Europe; Colonel Mure of Caldwell, author of Travels in
Greece; William E. Aytoun, Esq., Advocate; A. Hastie, Esq., M.P. for
Paisley; Jas. Oswald, Esq., M.P. for Glasgow;--on the left by Sir James
Campbell, Glasgow; Provost Miller, Ayr; James Ballantine, Esq. of
Castlehill; Charles Mackay, Esq., London; James Campbell, Esq. of
Craigie.

The Rev. Mr CUTHILL of Ayr asked the blessing.

The Earl of EGLINTON, after the usual loyal toasts, rose and spoke as
follows:--Ladies and gentlemen, The subject of the toast which I have
now the honour to bring before your notice, is one of such paramount
importance on this occasion, and is so deeply interesting, not only to
those whom I am addressing, but to all to whom genius is dear, that I
could have wished that it had been committed to more worthy hands; more
especially when I see the great assemblage collected here--the
distinguished persons who grace our board to-day. It is only because I
conceive that my official position renders me the most formal and
fitting, though most inefficient, mouthpiece of the inhabitants of this
county, that I have ventured to present myself before you on this
occasion, and to undertake the onerous, though most gratifying, duty of
proposing, in such an assemblage, the thrilling toast--"The Memory of
Burns." This is not a meeting for the purpose of recreation and
amusement--it is not a banquet at which a certain number of toasts are
placed on paper, which must be received with due marks of
approbation--it is the enthusiastic desire of a whole people to pay
honour to their greatest countryman. It is the spontaneous outpouring of
a nation's feeling towards the illustrious dead, and the wish to extend
the hand of welcome and of friendship to those whom he has left behind.
Here on the very spot where the Poet first drew breath, on the very
ground which his genius has hallowed, beside the Old Kirk which his
verse has immortalized, beneath the monument which an admiring and
repentant people have raised to his memory, we meet after the lapse of
years, to pay our homage at the shrine of genius. The master mind who
has sung the "Isle of Palms"--who has revelled in the immortal
"Noctes"--and who has already done that ju