“I shall have great pleasure in concurring in any mark of national respect for the memory of Burns, which cannot he too strongly marked, not so much on account of his eminent genius, as the ill-usage he met with from his contemporaries. You may therefore use my name, if you suppose it can be of the least service, in the list of stewards you are going to publish. I ought however to mention that I have an engagement on the 25th inst., which will prevent me from attending the company at dinner that day; but it will still leave me at liberty to attend the meeting at the beginning of it.
