with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

220
THE JOLLY BEGGARS.
This spirited and humorous effusion fell into the
hands of the Editor while engaged in collecting the
^Heliques of Burns. Notwithstanding its various and
striking merits, he was compelled to withhold it from
publication by the same motives which induced Dr.
Currie to suppress it ; but in so doing he has, to his
surprise, incurred censure instead of approbation.
Mr. Walter Scott, in an elaborate essay on the Ge-
nius of Burns, has thought proper to introduce the
following remarks :
—
" Yet applaudin^i aS We do most highly applaud^
the leading principles of Dr. Curriers selection, we are
aware that they sometimes led him into fastidious and
over-delicate rejection of the bard's most spirited and
happy effusions. A thin octavo, published at Glasgow
in 1801, under the title of ' Poems ascribed to Robert
Burns, the Ayrshire bard/ furnishes valuable proofs of
this assertion. It contains, among a good deal of rub-
bish, some of his most brilliant poetry. A cantata in
particular, called The Jolly Beggars, for humorous de-