s of social discontent. One proof of
this is seen in the following fact. In the spring of 1795, a volunteer
corps was raised in Dumfries, to defend the country, while the (p. 170)
regular army was engaged abroad, in war with France. Many of the
Dumfries Whigs, and among them Burns's friends, Syme and Dr. Maxwell,
enrolled themselves in the corps, in order to prove their loyalty and
patriotism, on which some suspicions had previously been cast. Burns
too offered himself, and was received into the corps. Allan Cunningham
remembered the appearance of the regiment, "their odd but not
ungraceful dress; white kerseymere breeches and waistcoat; short blue
coat, faced with red; and round hat, surmounted by a bearskin, like
the helmets of the Horse Guards." He remembered the poet too, as he
showed among them, "his very swarthy face, his ploughman stoop, his
large dark eyes, and his awkwardness in handling his arms." But if he
could not handle his musket deftly, he could do what none else in that
or any other corps could, he could sing a patriotic stave which
thrilled the hearts not only of his comrades, but every Briton from
Land's-end to Johnny Groat's.

This is one of the verses:--

The kettle o' the kirk and state
Perhaps a clout may fail in't;
But deil a foreign tinkler loan
Shall ever ca' a nail in't.
Our fathers' blade the kettle bought,
And wha wad dare to spoil it;
By heavens! the sacrilegious dog
Shall fuel be to boil it!
By heavens; the sacrilegious dog
Shall fuel be to boil it!

This song flew throughout the land, hit the taste of the country-people
everywhere, and is said to have done much to change the feelings of
those who were disaffected. Much blame has been cast upon the Tory (p. 171)
Ministry, then in power, for not having offered a pension to Burns. It
was not, it is said, that they did not know of him, or that they
disregarded his existence. For Mr. Addington, afterwards Lord
Sidmouth, we have seen, deeply felt his genius, acknowledged it in
verse, and is said to have urged his claims upon the Government. Mr.
Pitt, soon after the poet's death, is reported to have said of Burns's
poetry, at the table of Lord Liverpool, "I can think of no verse since
Shakespeare's, that has so much the appearance of coming sweetly from
nature." It is on Mr. Dundas, however, at that time one