e are 895 vessels belonging to the port, their total tonnage being
433,016 tons! These figures speak for themselves. They do not indicate a
merely natural evolution. Hard work, skilful and energetic application
of available resources, and well concerted plans, were necessary to
bring about such an era of prosperity; and these conditions of success
were supplied by such men as Mr. George Burns, who has been identified
most closely for more than half-a-century with this branch of commerce.

Belonging to a family which has long occupied an honourable position in
the West of Scotland, Mr. George Burns has reason to be proud of his
ancestors. His grandfather, whose name was originally Burn, inherited a
small property near Stirling, which he sold and came to reside in
Glasgow. Here he distinguished himself as a scholar, and published an
English dictionary and grammar which was long used in all the schools
and academies throughout the country. He died at the age of eighty-four,
and his time carries us back to the beginning of last century. He used
to tell of seeing combatants in the battle of "Shirra Muir" pass his
father's place in 1715. His son, Dr. Burns, who was an only child,
remembered being carried in his nurse's arms to the King's Park at
Stirling, where he saw encamped the Hessians who had been employed in
the unsuccessful rising in favour of Prince Charles in 1745, and who
remained in this country for some time subsequently. Dr. Burns, born in
1714, was minister of the Barony parish, in Glasgow, for the long period
of seventy-two years, dying in 1839, in his ninety-sixth year. He
preached in the crypt of the Cathedral, which Sir Walter Scott has made
famous in the pages of "Rob Roy," and at a time when such qualities were
rare in the Church of Scotland, he was distinguished for the evangelical
faithfulness of his preaching, and for his conscientious and laborious
performance of pastoral work. In the prosecution of his duties he
established and conducted Sabbath schools in Calton, which was included
in his parish. These, as far as is known, were the first Sunday schools
instituted in Scotland, and it is believed were before the time of Mr.
Raikes, who began the system in England. At the time above mentioned the
population of the Barony parish did not exceed 8000, but long before the
death of Dr. Burns it had increased more than tenfold. One of the most
unselfish and simple-hearted of men, he brought up a large family up