THE Union oF 1707 1n DUMFRIESSHIRE. Ile: 
My auld grey head had lain in clay, 
Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace! 
But pith and power, till my last hour, 
Tll mak’ this declaration, 
We’re bought and sold for English gold, 
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! 
I have not been able to fix the exact date of this poem, but 
the local allusions to the “Sark ’’ and “Solway Sands’’ seem 
to indicate that it was written after Burns came to Dumfriesshire, 
and this view is rather confirmed by a letter written by Burns to 
Mrs Dunlop from Ellisland on 10th April, 1790, in which he 
remarks :—“ Alas! have I often said to myself, what are all the 
boasted advantages which my country reaps from the Union that 
can counterbalance the annihilation of her independence, and 
even her very name,’’ and the letter closes with the statement 
that he had “been manufacturing some verses lately,’’ among 
which may very well have been the poem just quoted. It was 
three years later that Burns, on a Galloway moor, amid the 
warring of the elements, composed “Scots Wha Hae;’’ which 
sings in grander tones of that beginning—or, perhaps, I should 
rather say that revival of Scottish Independence with which the 
names of Wallace and Bruce are so closely connected. Was the 
fact of this Birthday Ode being written after the Requiem, to 
which I have just alluded, prophetic of Scottish independence 
surviving the eclipse which it was thought to have suffered from 
the Union? We may almost say that it was so, because in course 
of time the doubts and fears of the opponents of the Union have 
come to be groundless, and in the end we must admit that the 
final result has been for the good of both nations. 
SCOTLAND AND SCOTSMEN To-Davy. 
The Scottish name and Scottish fame and ancient martial 
glory are as undimmed as they were two hundred years ago, while 
the opening of trade with the English colonies, from which 
Scotland had previously been debarred, has been the foundation 
of her commercial prosperity. It seems to me, therefore, that 
the “ Auld Sang ”’ has arisen from its ashes in a revised version 
set to modern time and still goes ringing down the ages. 
Scotland has no longer a Parliament sitting in Edinburgh, but 
go to Westminster and you will find Scotsmen in the forefront 
