The Truth about Burns. By D. McNaught. (Glasgow : Maclehose
Jackson. 7s. 6d. net.)--Dr. McNaught, the editor of the Burns Chronicle, is well known as a most devoted student of the life and work of the Ayrshire poet. In his new biography he has sougbt to emphasize the results of modern research into questions which passionately interest many Scotsmen, and to controvert the heretical arguments of the late Mr. W. E. Henley and others. Dr. McNaught might well have adopted a more dispassionate tone. Sensible readers do not need to be informed that Burns, in an age of hard drinking and dissipation, was no more intemperate nor more immoral than most other men. The wonder is that the poor farmer's son, conscious of his genius, was not utterly ruhsed by the attentions which polite society showered upon him after the appearance of his first
collected poems. Dr. McNaught adduces some interesting facts about Burns's career as an excise officer at Dumfries, showing that his income, from a half-share in seizures as well as from salary, was nearly £200 a year, which was a considerable sum for those days. Burns left about £180, apart from the value of his library, when he died prematurely in 1796. If he had not made generous gifts to his mother and brother, he would have been relatively well off. As setting forth such plain facts, Dr. McNaught's book is to be commended.
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