as by all newspaper historians and all biographers of Burns. He left The Morning Post to join with certain others, including John Mayne, author of The Siller Gun, in founding The Star and Evening Advertiser in the beginning of 1788; but in the February of 1789 he quarrelled, not, as has been vaguely supposed, with the proprietors of some other paper but, with the proprietors of The Star aforesaid, and on the 13th he brought out a Star of his own. The main ground of the quarrel was his support of the Prince of Wales, and he defended his secession in a lengthy address to the public. Thus for some six months two several Stars appeared in London: the old one-the Dog Star, Stuart called it—' published by John Mayne'; and the new one, 'published by Peter Stuart,' ex-publisher of the old. At first Stuart retained the old title, with the addition below, Printed by P. Stuart; but on February 24th he changed it to Stuart's Star and Evening Advertiser, and on April 27th to The Morning Star. Some two months after the journal died. In the November of 1788 Burns had sent to the old Star a letter on behalf of the exiled Stuarts. It is unlikely that he had corresponded with Stuart as to contributions before this. Daniel asserts that Peter offered Burns fifty-two guineas a year for a weekly poem. If he did so, it was probably on behalf of his own venture; but, apart from Daniel's statement, the evidence there is tends all the other way. Burns did, however, contribute several pieces (more than has been supposed), to this short-lived Star. On 2nd April he wrote to Peter Hill, asking for Stuart's address by first post, and explaining that by Stuart he meant the famous Stuart, who differed from the other proprietors and set up by himself.' His reason for communicating with Stuart was that he wanted to send him verses by way of thanks for his action in connexion with the foul aspersions regarding the Duchess of Gordon' (see post, p. 350, Prefatory Note to On the Duchess of Gordon's Reel-Dancing; and Vol. i.

p. 447, Prefatory Note to Anna). Stuart offered to put Burns on the free list of his journal, and Burns, while protesting that this was more than he could in decency accept of,' expressed a wish that it were more in' his 'power to contribute to it' (see Vol. i. p. 420, Prefatory Note to Ode Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Oswald). In a letter of 5th August 1789, only partially printed by Currie, Stuart-for he it was-informed Burns of the discontinuance of The Morning Star-for The Morning Star it was; and Burns replied that when he got this news, he was about to send in his own letter to the Magistrates of Edinburgh, etc., about Fergusson's tomb, but that now he would dispose of it elsewhere. The general tone of Burns's communications with Stuart in 1789 indicates that their intimacy--such as it was--was recent. Notwithstanding the conclusion of most Editors, it could scarce have been to Stuart that he sent the verse and prose about the tombstone as early as February 1787; for (1) it was unlikely that he would send such work twice to Stuart; (2) it is wholly improbable that, as early as this, he had received from Stuart 'many repeated acts of kindness'; and (3) the letter in which the writer asks him to secure a bedroom in Edinburgh could scarce have come from Stuart. It is also worth noting that Stuart's name does not appear in the list of subscribers to the '87 Edition, from which, of course, it may have been omitted by accident. Under Mayne's editorship The Star published The Whistle, 2nd November 1791, but the piece may have been communicated by Captain Riddell. Daniel Stuart states that after acquiring The Oracle, October 1795, his brother renewed his offers to Burns, but that they were again declined; and the file shows that the old relations were not revived.

In April or May [not later] of 1794 Captain Patrick Miller suggested to Burns to settle in London, and contribute to his paper, The Morning Chronicle, edited by Perry, at a fixed salary; but Burns replied that he dared

not sacrifice the certainties of his place in the Excise. He promised, however, if secrecy were observed, to send the editor a 'bagatelle now and then.' In the same letter he enclosed two epigrams and a song. The song appeared, the epigrams did not; and during his life The Morning Chronicle published but two numbers more of his. A few appeared in other London prints.

Among magazines and periodicals it will here suffice to name The Edinburgh Magazine and The Scots Magazine ; but many others are referred to in the Notes.

It is not unlikely that several pieces-The Twa Herds among them-first saw the light singly as ballads or broadsides; but the only one in this shape known to survive is the unique copy of a set of The Kirk's Alarm, in the possession of Mr. W. Craibe Angus, Glasgow (see post, p. 327, Prefatory Note to The Kirk's Alarm). A large number of pieces, chiefly songs, appeared in the tracts, or chaps, 'sold for one penny,' of Brash and Reid, Glasgow, entitled Poetry Original and Select; but most of the Burns in these had been published elsewhere. Reid, too, seems to have taken occasional liberties with his text. When the issue of these tracts began is uncertain; but as John Anderson my Joe Improved, with stanzas credited to Reid, appeared in a chap, entitled Captain Death, etc., printed in 1794, it was probably at least as early as that year. The single numbers were collected and published in four bound volumes. Complete sets are rare: for the use of one we are indebted to Mr. George Gray, Glasgow. The arrangement in the single numbers does not always correspond with that in the complete set: the changes in the new numbers issued after the set was completed being no doubt due to the special demand for certain pieces. The first volume of the complete set was probably published in 1796; the second is advertised in The Glasgow Courier of 4th March 1797, and the fourth in the issue of 15th December 1798.

Much more important in themselves, and more directly

related to the present Volume, are the several series of tracts by Stewart and Meikle, Glasgow, originally published at a penny or twopence each. The issue of the first of these series began in 1796, and seven numbers had appeared by July 1799, but one only-No. 2, dated 1796-contains any Burns (An Unco' Mournfu' Tale). Of this rare tract there is a copy in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, and one or two others are known to exist. Stewart came into possession of several Burns MSS., some of them from Richmond; and, learning that Currie had decided not to include certain numbers in his Edition, at once (in 1799) began to issue them in a new series, with pieces by other hands. They were undated, but the exact date of the commencement of the series - hitherto incorrectly given-is proved by the following advertisement in The Glasgow Courier of Thursday, 11th July 1799:-On Saturday first will be published, price 2d., by Stewart and Meikle, The Jolly Beggars, a Cantata by Robert Burns, carefully printed from the author's own manuscript; and on Saturday next will be published The Kirk's Alarm, a Letter to a Taylor, and some other little pieces by the same author." This No. 2 included also a set of An Unco' Mournfu' Tale. On the Saturday after appeared Holy Willie's Prayer, the Epistle to John Goudie, etc.; and this was followed-the exact date is uncertain-by the tract containing On Dining with Lord Daer and the first half of William Forbes's Dominie Deposed. All four were 'printed for and sold by Stewart and Meikle,' the last three numbers in the series, beginning with the Second Part of The Dominie Deposed, being 'printed by Chapman and Lang for Stewart and Meikle.' The likelihood is that all seven appeared before the close of 1799; for their reissue is advertised in The Glasgow Courier of 25th January 1800 as The Poetical Miscellany: 'in seven numbers at 2d. each, or 1s. neatly stitched, embellished with a fine Engraved Head of Burns.' Complete sets of

The Poetical Miscellany as thus published are very rare. The numbers continued to be reprinted and issued singly, and the later do not always correspond either in text or arrangement with the earlier issues. Including the tract 'printed for and sold by Stewart and Meikle, Trongate,' 1796, there are at least five varieties of these tracts, the others being :-(2) tracts 'printed for and sold by Stewart and Meikle'; (3) tracts 'printed by Chapman and Lang for Stewart and Meikle'; (4) tracts 'printed by Chapman and Lang, Trongate, for Stewart and Meikle'; and (5) tracts 'printed by Chapman and Lang for Thomas Stewart.' Bibliopolists and dealers have failed properly to grasp these differences. Only of the first variety [which includes one Burns tract only] and the second [which includes four different tracts only] can we be absolutely certain as to date of publication. The third [which may include all the seven tracts] may have been part published in 1799. The same statement applies to the fourth, as we have been unable to discover which is the earlier. But that all tracts of both issues were published as early as 1800 is proved by the fact that Meikle's name does not appear in Poems Ascribed to Robert Burns, published in January 1801, although the book was advertised in August 1800 as in preparation by 'Stewart and Meikle.' Meikle either died or left the firm about the close of 1800. It thus follows as well that the fifth variety is the latest, and that all the tracts with this last imprint are probably not earlier than 1801. On the boards of one of these 'Thomas Stewart' tracts we have seen an advertisement of the Poems Ascribed, etc. It is impossible here to go into further details, which concern rather the bibliopolist than the general reader.

Stewart and Meikle's tracts must be carefully differentiated from the series issued by Chapman and Lang, the first number of which, containing The Cotter's Saturday Night, appeared on 25th July 1801. For purposes of collation this series has no independent value. another series, the Gray Tracts, Printed by David

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