small, it must be remembered that the
cost of food was low. "Beef was 3d. to 5d. a lb.; mutton, 3d. to
4-1/2d.; chickens, 7d. to 8d. a pair; butter (the lb. of 24 oz.), 7d.
to 9d.; salmon, 6d. to 9-1/2d. a lb.; cod, 1d. and even 1/2d. a lb."
Though hardly in easy circumstances then, Burns's situation was such
that it was possible to avoid his greatest horror, debt.

Meantime, his interest in politics had greatly quickened. He had been
from youth a sentimental Jacobite; but this had little effect upon his
attitude toward the parties of the day. In Edinburgh he had worn the
colors of the party of Fox, presumably out of compliment to his Whig
friends, Glencairn and Erskine. During the Ellisland period, however,
he had written strongly against the Regency Bill supported by Fox; and
in the general election of 1790 he opposed the Duke of Queensberry and
the local Whig candidate. But in his early months in Dumfries we find
him showing sympathy with the doctrines of the French Revolution, a
sympathy which was natural enough in a man of his inborn democratic
tendencies. A curious outcome of these was an incident not yet fully
cleared up. In February, 1792, Burns, along with some fellow officers,
assisted by a body of dragoons, seized an armed smuggling brig which
had run aground in the Solway, and on her being sold, he bought for
three pounds four of the small guns she carried. These he is said to
have presented "to the French Convention," but they were seized by
the British Government at Dover. As a matter of fact, the Convention
was not constituted till September, and the Legislative Assembly which
preceded it was not hostile to Britain. Thus, Burns's action, though
eccentric and extravagant, was not treasonable in law or in spirit,
and does not seem to have entailed on him any unfortunate
consequences.

In the course of that year symptoms of the infection of part of the
British public with revolutionary principles began to be evident, and
the government was showing signs of alarm. The Whig opposition was
clamoring for internal reform, and Burns sided more and more
definitely with it, and was rash enough to subscribe for a Reform
paper called _The Gazetteer_, an action which would have put him under
suspicion from his superiors, had it become known. Some notice of his
Liberal tendencies did reach his official superiors, and an inquiry
was made into his political principles which caused him no small
alarm. In a letter to Mr.