20 OCTOBER 1917, Page 21

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

[Notice is this estunas dm. Int necessarily peseta" embusses's! rseics.1

The &Wash Ilia:orient Review for October (Glasgow : J. MacLehoso

and Sons, 2s. Od. net) contains is most interesting article by Professor W. P. Ker on " The Politics of Burns." We usually think of )turns

as an advanced Whig, if not a Jacobin, but Ito was " a groat Pi tti te,"

Professor Ker says, down to " the end of his free unimpeded work as a poet." Thus in " The Dream " of 1786 he wrote :- " I'm no mistrusting Willie Pitt, When taxes he enlarges (An' Will's a true guid fallow's got, A name not envy spairges), That he intends to pay your debt, An' lessen a' your charges ; But, God sake t let mm saving fit Abridge your bonnie barges An' boats this day."

It is well to know that Burns was an advocate of a strong British Navy.