Grampian Club > Leaves from my autography

324 LEAVES FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
other votaries of learning. Those assembled were
addressed by a newspaper editor — the same who had
composed the rodomontade, which in the columns of
the Caledonian Mercury had preceded the formation
of the Vindication Society.* This demonstration
was probably the last ; I never heard of any other,
but as I was uninvited to the meetings, there may
have been more. When, after the lapse of seven-
teen years, proceedings under the directorate of
Mr Burns and others were adopted to found a
Scottish Literary Institute in London, I was led to
publish a history of the first " institute " of the name.
A portion of that history I inserted in the Stirling
Observer newspaper, concluding by a query addressed
to Mr Burns, as to the disposal of the books and
funds. A copy of the newspaper I sent to Mr Burns,
along with the following letter :
" Grampian Lodge, Forest Hill, S.E.,
"August 13, 1875.
" Sir, — Along with this letter I post to your address a coj^y of
the Stirlinrf Observer of yesterday, in which you will, at the top
of the sixth column of page 5, notice a query of mine. That
query I beg leave now to repeat. Of the Scottish Literary
Institute you were, I believe, a member of council when it
ceased to hold meetings in 1859. And I remark from the report
of that year, now before me, that you then took a prominent
part in its concerns. As the originator of the Institute, and one
of its members, I am anxious to know how it was wound up ;
what became of the funds, and how the books presented by Lords
Brougham and Campbell, and two volumes presented to myself
by the present Archbisliop of Canterbury, were disposed of. Tnti-
* Bee SH^mi, pp. 119-121.