THE POET BURNS AND THE GERMANS.
[To TIM EDITOR OF TR, " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—I have read your correspondence, and from careful obser-
vation I think the Scottish returns when complete will surprise us all. The war is not merely well supported by that hardy community in the North, but it is very popular, if one may dare to apply such a word to such a tragedy. May not the reason for this be partly due to the extreme anti-Germanism of Robert Burns P Burns in his writings and conversations quite exceeded all the proprieties in his denunciations of German folk. There is the letter he wrote to the Rev. Dr. MGM, of Ayr. Take these passages in which he rails against the Germans of that time:—
" Ignorance, Superstition, Bigotry, Stupidity, Malevolence, Self- conceit, Envy—all strongly bound in a massive frame of brazen impudence. Good God, Sir, to such a shield humour is the peck of a sparrow, and satire the popgun of a schoolboy. . . . Creation- disgracing scelerats such as they, God only can mend and the devil only can punish. In the uncomprehending way of Caligula I wish that they had all but one neck. I feel impotent as a child to the ardour of my wishes. Oh ! for a withering curse to blast the Germans of their wicked machinations. Oh! for a poisonous tornado winged from the torrid zone of Tartarus to sweep the spreading crop of their villainous contrivances to the lowest Hell!"
I am neither approving nor excusing these excesses of vitu- peration, but no doubt such views held by such a Scot have left a deep impression even a century later I can still recall how strongly Scottish opinion in the Franco-German War veered round at times to the side of France.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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