Scotland/Scots > Life of Robert Burns

ROBERT BURNS. 225
abandon the cause which they had espoused ; and
although their chiefs were wise enough to draw back
when they at length perceived that serious plans for
overturning the political institutions of our own
country had been hatched and fostered, under the
pretext of admiring and comforting the destroyers
of a foreign tyranny—many of their provincial
retainers, having uttered their sentiments all along
with provincial vehemence and openness, found it
no easy matter to retreat gracefully along with
them. Scenes more painful at the time, and more
so even now in the retrospect, than had for ge¬
nerations afflicted Scotland, were the consequences
of the rancour into which party feelings on both
sides now rose and fermented. Old and dear ties
of friendship were torn in sunder ; society was for
a time shaken to its centre. In the most extrava¬
gant dreams of the Jacobites there had always been
much to command respect, high chivalrous devo¬
tion, reverence for old affections, ancestral loyalty,
and the generosity of romance. In the new spe¬
cies of hostility, every thing seemed mean as well
as perilous; it was scorned even more than hated.
The very name stained whatever it came near;
and men that had known and loved each other
from boyhood, stood aloof, if this influence inter¬
fered, as if it had been some loathsome pestilence.
There was a great deal of stately Toryism at
this time in the town of Dumfries, which was the
favourite winter retreat of many of the best gen¬
tlemen’s families of the south of Scotland. Feel¬
ings that worked more violently in Edinburgh than
in London, acquired additional energy still, in this
provincial capital. All men’s eyes were upon
Burns. He was the standing marvel of the place;
his toasts, his jokes, his epigrams, his songs, were
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