19 DECEMBER 1885, Page 25

Messrs. Marcus Ward and Co. publish, with singularly beautiful illustrations,

a poem, read recently by Mr. Duncan McGregor Crerar before the Burns Society of New York. In this case we prefer the sauce to the solids. Mr. Crerar is an enthusiast, and he evidently understands the services of Burns to humanity ; but he is not much of a poet. " Grand and glorious Scots wha hae ' " has a ring of after- dinner cordiality, but it is wooden rather than graphic ; and " poesie" scarcely rhymes with " more may see." By the way, Mr. Crerar's illustrators make Burns's John Anderson bear an extraordinary re- semblance to Mr. Gladstone. Is this by way of acknowledgment of Mr. Gladstone's celebrated and incorrect reference to " The Land o' the Leal" ?