with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

205
manners, the modesty of his disposition, and the in-
tegrity of his character, such as they were before he
suffered his social propensities to violate the rules of
sobriety. Forgetting his old friends, he associated
with discontented persons, and entered into a deliberate
exposition of the abuses of government, in " A
pamphlet on the Excise" and more systematically
in a periodical publication, entitled '^ The Historical
Register" which gratified malignity by personal in-
vective and intemperance of language. He was
concerned in the wild irrational plans of the British
Convention, and published " A hand-bill addressed
to the people" written in so inflammatory a style, as
rendered him obnoxious to government. A warrant
was issued to apprehend him, and he left his native
country and crossed the Atlantic for America, where
he fixed his residence in the town of Salem, in the
state of Massachusetts, where he established a news-
paper in connection with a printer, which he conti-
nued till his death, which happened in the year 1805,
in the 58th year of his age.
The editor cannot dismiss this note without ac-
knowledging himself greatly obliged by the commu-
nications of Dr. Robert Anderson, of Edinburgh.