5 DECEMBER 1914, Page 26

THE POET BURNS AND THE GERMANS.

[To ms EDITOR OP THR "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—The letter of your correspondent " X." (Spectator, November 28th), in which he quotes a letter said to have been written by Burns to the Rev. Dr. M'Gill, Ayr, assailing the Germans, has been widely quoted in the newspapers, but it is really an amusing error. The letter in question was written, not to Dr. M'Gill, but to Robert Aiken about Dr. M'Gill, and although very vituperative—foolishly so—was not directed against the Germans, but the " germius " (Burns's word), meaning, evidently, those from whom sprouted the evils he specified, ignorance, superstition, bigotry, &c. The letter will be found in the Chambers Life and Works, edited by William