Excerpt from; Letter of ROBERT TANNAHILL to WILLIAM KIBBLE.

—Ramsay's Memoir, page xxxix.

PAISLEY, 11th April, 1807.

I hate dependence on printers, paper-folks, or anybody. On inquiry, they found I was poor. Nothing could be done without I found security. That was easily procured: then, they were most happy to serve me in anything I wanted. ’Tis the way of the world ! Self-interest is the ruling passion. Merit might pine in obscurity for ever, if Pride, or Interest, for their own gratification, were not to hand the lone sufferer into public notice.