Note 177 — Chapter IV

Mr. George Burns, whose family had for many years held a highly respectable position in the city of Glasgow (his father having been for the very long period of seventy-two years the minister of the Barony parish of that city), entered into partnership with his elder brother, James, in 1818, and in that year founded the great business firm still carried on in Glasgow. In 1824 they became owners, along with the late Hugh Matthie of Liverpool, of six sailing-vessels trading between that port and Glasgow, and in the same year they engaged in steam navigation between Glasgow and Belfast. They next substituted steam for sailing-vessels in the Glasgow and Liverpool trade and, in 1830, amalgamated this business with that of the Messrs. MacIver of Liverpool, with whom they afterwards made arrangements to establish the line of steamers with the United States of America from Liverpool, suggested by Mr. Cunard. The business thus created was, in its various branches, carried on by Messrs. G. and J. Burns in Glasgow, by Messrs. D. and C. MacIver in Liverpool, and by Messrs. S. Cunard and Co., in Halifax, N.S., under the superintendence of Mr. Cunard at Boston, and, subsequently, when New York was embraced in the line, under the management of his son Mr., afterwards Sir Edward, Cunard, Bart. Mr. David MacIver died a few years after the formation of the Cunard line. Mr., afterwards Sir Samuel, Cunard, Bart., and his son, Sir Edward, who died more recently, have been succeeded by Mr. William Cunard, now managing the affairs of the company in London and Mr. George Burns, alone, survives of the Glasgow firm, the business of which is now carried on by his two sons, Mr. John Burns (whose abilities and philanthropy are alike conspicuous), and his brother, Mr. James Cleland Burns, and that in Liverpool by Mr. Charles MacIver (a gentleman of remarkable energy and ability) and his sons.