me to those that were leal
To mak' the road straight O' he was the cheel,
Sae here's to the memory o' Andrew,
To Andrew the auld Scottish saint.

In days o' langsyne as auld chronicles tell,
When clans wi' their dirks gaid to it pell mell,
O he was sad' that a' fewds cou'd expel,
Sae here's to the memory o' Andrew,
To Andrew the auld Scottish saint.

For since at the Spey when M'Duff led the van,
He vow'd that the charrians[5] he'd slay every one,
But by Andrew's doctren he slew na a man,
Sae here's to the memory o' Andrew,
To Andrew the auld Scottish saint,

When he to the Culdees the truth did explain
They a' rubb'd their beard, an' looket right fain
An' vow'd that his council they'd ever retain,
Sae here's to the memory o' Andrew,
To Andrew the auld Scottish saint.

Altho' at fam'd Patres[6] he closed his e'e,
Yet Regulus, the monk, brought him far oure the sea,
In St. Andrew's he sleeps, an' there let him be.
Sae here's to the memory o' Andrew,
To Andrew the auld Scottish saint.

C.

[3] Fires.
[4] Field.
[5] See Buchanan's History of Scotland, book p. 186.
[6] See Cook's Geography, book ii. p. 302.

* * * * *

ORIGIN OF THE WORD BANKRUPT.

(_For the Mirror._)

This word is formed from the ancient Latin _bancus_ a _bench_, or
_table_, and _ruptus, broken_. Bank originally signified a bench, which
the first bankers had in the public places, in markets, fairs, &c. on
which they told their money, wrote their bills of exchange, &.c. Hence,
when a banker failed, they broke his bank, to advertise the public that
the person to whom the bank belonged was no longer in a condition to
continue his business. As this practice was very frequent in Italy, it
is said the term bankrupt is derived from the Italian _banco_ rotto,
broken bench. Cowel (in his 4th Institute 227) rather chooses to deduce
the word from the French _banque, table_, and _route, vestigium, trace_,
by metaphor from the sign left in the ground, of a table once fastened
to it and now gone. On this principle he traces the origin of bankrupts
from the ancient Roman _mensarii_ or _argentarii_, who had their
_tabernae_ or _mensae_ in certain public places; and who, when they
fled, or made off with the money that had been entrusted to them, left
only the sign or shadow of their former station behind them.

P.T.W.

* * * *