pected man in the eye of the Government.
Lockhart, who tells this incident, connects with it the song, _The
Deil's awa' wi' the Exciseman_, which Burns, he said, composed while
waiting on the shore to watch the brig. But Mr. Scott Douglas doubts
whether the song is referable to this occasion. However this may be,
the folly of Burns's act can hardly be disputed. He was in the employ
of Government, and had no right to express in this way his sympathy
with a movement, which, he must have known, the Government, under whom
he served, regarded, if not yet with open hostility, at least with
jealous suspicion. Men who think it part of their personal right and
public duty unreservedly to express, by word and deed, their views on
politics, had better not seek employment in the public service. (p. 146)
Burns having once drawn upon himself the suspicions of his superiors,
all his words and actions were no doubt closely watched. It was found
that he 'gat the Gazetteer,' a revolutionary print published in
Edinburgh, which only the most extreme men patronized, and which after
a few months' existence was suppressed by Government. As the year 1792
drew to a close, the political heaven, both at home and abroad, became
ominously dark. In Paris the king was in prison, the Reign of Terror
had begun, and innocent blood of loyalists flowed freely in the
streets; the republic which had been established was threatening to
propagate its principles in other countries by force of arms. In this
country, what at the beginning of the year had been but suspicion of
France, was now turned to avowed hostility, and war against the
republic was on the eve of being declared. There were uneasy symptoms,
too, at home. Tom Paine's _Rights of Man_ and _Age of Reason_ were
spreading questionable doctrines and fomenting disaffection. Societies
named Friends of the People were formed in Edinburgh and the chief
towns of Scotland, to demand reform of the representation and other
changes, which, made at such a time were believed by those in power to
cover seditious aims. At such a crisis any government might be
expected to see that all its officers, from the highest to the lowest,
were well affected. But though the Reign of Terror had alarmed many
others who had at first looked favourably on the Revolution in France,
Burns's ardour in its cause was no whit abated. He even denounced the
war on which the ministry had determined; he openly reviled the men in
power; a