hon. James Brown
tHE poem entitled "The Deil's Reply to Robert Burns" has of late attracted much attention, not on its own merits alone, nor in connec tion with memorial celebrations of Burns; but chiefly on account of its authorship, many suggesting that Burns must have been the author himself. Therefore in the public interest it is as well to set the matter at rest.
The real author of the poem was, beyond peradventure, the late Hon. James Brown, a former Surveyor General of the Province of New Brunswick prior to Confederation.
Mr. Brown was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, in the year 1790, and when a mere lad, about the year 1808, emigrated to New Brunswick, landing at St. Andrews, Charlotte County, then one of the most important towns in the Province, making his way a little later on from there to Tower Hill, a few miles distant, where he settled down on the "rocky farm," as he was wont to term it on political occasions, and where he spent the remainder of his long and useful life, dying in the year 1870 at the advanced age of eighty years, and lies buried not far from his old home amid scenes he dearly loved and a people whose confidence and esteem he held throughout his whole life. Mr. Brown was a member of the New Brunswick Legislature, as a representative of the County of Charlotte, for a period of thirty-four years, about ten years of which time he was a minister of the crown in the capacity of Surveyor General. He was also for a time
