Don't we feel 'tis our dear native island! May Orange and Green* Bestain'd with the blood of our island. The fair ones we prize Declare they despise Those who'd make it a slavish and vile land; And we'll gallantly guard All the rights and delights of our island— Vipers quitted our land But he's wanted again in our island! For her interest and pride, We oft fought by the side Of England, that haughty and high land; Nay, we'd do so again, If she'd let us remain A free and a flourishing island * Orange and green are the distinctive and antagonistic colours of the two great parties long dividing Ireland; but, as orange and green are harmonious in the artistic arrange ment of colour, let us hope that a similar result may take place in political chromatics, and that neither of the parties will continue to grind their colours with such intensity as formerly-the occasional mixture of a little more oil would make them work more smoothly. And, apropos, the olive, that emblem of peace, has good oleaginous qualities. But she, like a crafty and sly land, And, our feuds to adjust, She would lay in the dust All the freedom and strength of our island. A few years ago— Though now she says no We agreed with that surly and sly land, Should the other defend, And the Crown be the link of each island! As to credit her word, When she's breaking her oath with our island? Let us steadily stand By our king and our land, And it shan't be a slavish or vile land; Unpunished commit An attempt on the rights of our island. Each voice should resound through our island— Nature's favourite spot And I'd sooner be shot Than surrender the rights of our island! *This alludes to the celebrated Declaration of Irish Independence in 1782. In an address to the Crown, moved as an amendment by Henry Grattan, and carried nem. con. (too long to quote in extenso), occurs the following passage :-"That there is no body of men competent to make laws to bind this nation, except the King, Lords, and Commons, of Ireland; or any other Parliament which hath any authority or power of any sort whatever, in this country, save only the Parliament of Ireland." The address further declares the people of Ireland "never expressed a desire to share the freedom of England, without declaring a determination to share her fate likewise-STANDING OR FALLING WITH THE BRITISH NATION."-Address to the Crown, moved by Mr. Grattan in the Irish Parliament, 16th April, 1782. The Ministry that lost America to England had just gone out. The Rockingham Administration came in, and in a milder spirit of rule the English Parliament not only repealed the obnoxious statute complained of (6th of George I.), but subsequently renounced all claim to bind Ireland. + This neighbourly call reminds us of a funny dialogue in the old farce of "The Citizen," where the spendthrift son, George, wishing to make his avaricious father believe he is very thrifty, says, friendship is all very well, but must not interfere with self-interest. "Love your neighbour, sir; but don't pull down your own hedge." The father replies, "Very good, indeed, George! Love your neighbour, and pull down his hedge." GREEN WERE THE FIELDS. GEORGE NUGENT REYNOLDS. Air-"Savourneen Deelish." GREEN were the fields where my forefathers dwelt, O; Tho' our farm it was small, yet comforts we felt, O. At length came the day when our lease did expire, Erin, &c. Tho' the laws I obey'd, no protection I found, O,+ Erin, &c. With what grief I beheld my cot burn'd to the ground, O ! Forc'd from my home, yea, from where I was born, To range the wide world-poor, helpless, forlorn! With principles pure, patriotic, and firm, Erin, &c. To my country attached, and a friend to reform, I supported old Ireland-was ready to die for it; If her foes e'er prevail'd I was well known to sigh for it ; But hark! I hear sounds, and my heart is strong beating, Loud cries for redress, and avaunt on retreating, Erin, &c. We have numbers, and numbers do constitute power, Erin, &c. This song, supposed to have been written some time about 1792, was given in one of the volumes emanating from the Young Ireland party, under the title of "The Exile of Erin "-that title being usurped for the purpose of giving colour to a most unworthy * Ireland, my darling! for ever adieu ! The saying "there is one law for the rich and another for the poor," which we hear so often, 'even in England," in these days, was more lamentably pregnant with truth in Ireland in those days. This verse, I apprehend, is an interpolation. attempt, which is treated of hereafter. I say usurped-for the original and true title of the song is that given to it here; but it was called the Exile of Erin in the publication named above, with a view to make it appear as the first part of a subject carried out in a higher form in the second part by the same author-thus attempting to create a belief in two equally improbable (or rather impossible) things-namely, that the author of "Green were the Fields" could ever have written the noble lyric of Campbell, or that Campbell could have been guilty of the meanness of literary piracy. The internal evidence borne by the two compositions is sufficient to establish the impossibility of the first, and the pre-eminent literary reputation of Campbell (my honoured and lamented friend) is sufficient for the second part of the question. It is worthy of remark, too, that the word "exile" never once occurs in this song-while "Exile of Erin" is in the first line of Campbell's, and, most naturally, suggested its title. THOMAS CAMPBELL. Born, 1777. Died, 1844. This celebrated lyric is remarkable in two ways-first, for its intrinsic merits, and, next, that its touching expression of sentiment, as that of an exiled Irishman, sprang from the sympathy of a man who was not a native of Ireland. But that man had a T deep love of liberty in his soul; he could feel for Ireland as he felt for Poland, and the author of that often-quoted line- "And freedom shriek'd-as Kosciusko fell," sympathised with the humble exile of Erin. I cannot help expressing my regret, and almost a sense of shame, that any in Ireland could be so forgetful of what was due to Campbell for such a song, as to make the attempt (alluded to in the note to the preceding song) to brand with the charge of literary piracy the man who had so sympathised with the Irish exile. The charge that Campbell did not write this song, which he published under his name, was first made in 1830, twenty-nine years after the song was written. Why was not the charge made and substantiated (if it could be) before? In law, if a man holds an estate for twenty years, unchallenged, it is reckoned a good title. Is there to be no protection on Parnassus? Campbell publicly denied this charge, under his own hand, while he lived; the charge was revived when he was in the grave. What can be said of this? But the charge was too ridiculous to be entertained for a moment by any person of critical acumen. Campbell's lyric has his own mint-mark upon it, and all the scrubbing of presumptuous meddlers cannot efface it. "There is nothing new under the sun," saith the preacher. This desire to damage reputation has ever been "A falcon towering in her pride of place There is a passage of Moore's so singularly applicable to the present subject that I quote it. "In a late work, professing to be the memoirs of Mr. Sheridan, there are some wise doubts expressed as to his being really the author of 'The School for Scandal,' to which, except for the purpose of exposing absurdity, I should not have thought it worth while to allude. It is an old trick of detraction, and one of which it never tires, to father the works of eminent writers upon others; or, at least, while it kindly leaves the author the credit of his worst performances, to find some one in the background to ease him of the fame of his best. When this sort of charge is brought against a contemporary, the motive is intelligible; but such an abstract pleasure have some persons in merely unsettling the crowns of Fame, that a worthy German has written an elaborate book to prove that the Iliad was written, not by that particular Homer the world supposes, but by some other Homer! In truth, if mankind were to be influenced by those qui tam critics, who have, from time to time, in the course of the history of literature, exhibited informations of plagiarism against great authors, the property of fame would pass from its present holders into the hands of persons with whom the world is but little acquainted. Aristotle must refund to one Ocellus Lucanus-Virgil must make a cessio bonorum in favour of Pisander. The metamorphoses of Ovid must be credited to the account of Parthenius of Nicæ, and (to come to a modern instance) Mr. Sheridan must, according to his biographer, Dr. Watkins, surrender the glory of having written the 'School for Scandal' to a certain anonymous young lady, who died of consumption in Thames Street !"-Moore's Life of Sheridan. 8vo. Vol. I. p. 254. The Americans seem determined not to be surpassed by the rest of the world in this, as in many other achievements. When a planet, before it was ever seen in the unexplored depths of space, was declared to exist, by Le Verrier, and when, to the delight |