FENIAN LITERATURE* (From the Athenæum.)

West Coast Times, Issue 278, 14 August 1866, Page 1 (Supplement)

FENIAN LITERATURE* (From the Athenæum.)

Fenian literature has not attracted its fuir share of attention. Whilst the prisoners who profess to despise and defy British law are occupying the Four Courts on all technicalities of certiorari, mandamus, and criminal information, it would be a mistake to imagine that the copious legal arguments with which the Irish journals abound are the only contributions for which the reading public are indebted to the Fenians. The abortive rebellion of '48 was more of a literary imposture than anything else. The Young Ireland party ■wrote so well that they managed to excite the interest of all classes except the people of Ireland. In this country we became familiar with the anti-English ballads of Davis and Duffy. The song beginning'

Who fears to speak of Ninety-eight ? and the stirring verses of Ferguson, M'Carthy, and Barry were very generally read here, and they were criticized as literary k efforts, in no unfriendly spirit, by English writers. But we all fell into the delusion, as the authors themselves are now ready to acknowledge, that these political poems were known to the masses in Ireland. The people knew very little about the authors, and less about their works. They had heard of Gavan Duffy as an opponent of O'Connell; but they never heard of 4 The Muster of the North,' or ' The Voice of Labor.' It was only when some of these gentlemen got down to Ballingarry that their eyes were opened to the political blindness of the peasantry. The people looked with astonishment and doubt upon such totally unknown leaders as o' Gorman, O'Brien, and Dillon. It is said that some grey-haired farmers, when the rumour spread that fighting was intended, asked 'if Boney was come across ? ' and others inquired 'if Lord Edward was really come back ? ' or 'if the Counsellor (meaning O'Connell) was a friend of theirs ? ' Then the briefless barristers and clever young gentlemen who had never grown tired of repeating, with a little verbal alteration, the dictum of Fletcher of Saltoun, ' Let me make the ballads and I care not who makes the laws,' began to discover the difference between making ballads ' and securing readers. The movement suddenly collapsed in the disgust of the would-be leaders and the laughter of officials and friends of the Government who for months previously had been in a state of ignorant terror. The mistake that the British public made in giving undue importance to the rebellious literature of the Young Ireland party, and thus overrating the strength of the agitation, was not, however, greater than the mistake now uni-* versally made in the opposite direction. The vast mast of our readers will learn with surprise that not only is there in Ireland a collection of Fenian writings published in 1865 quite equal in point of literary ability to anything in the same strain published from 1843 to 1848, but (which is far more important than any question of literary merit) a collection of writings which has found its way into the cabins and whiskyshops of the lower classes. In '48 a good many editors of newspapers were arrested, but not one ballad singer. In '65 only one disloyal editor, Mr Clark luby, had been arrested ; but the arrests of ballad -singers in Cork, Dublin, Tralee, Limerick, and the country towns of the south have given constant employment to the police. Not a fair is held in Ireland now at which the authorities do not take precautions for seizing upon the balladgingers and confiscating their seditious wares. Amongst the most peremptory orders sent from the Castle to the stipendiary magistrates are those touching the suppression of popular ballads. This gives to the Fenian conspiracy a character far graver than the affair of '48, and recalls some of the features of the times of Wolfe Tone. The Wexford insurgents of 1798 never saw a treasonable newspaper ; but they were familiar with' the rebellion-teaching verses of M'Birney, and such ballads as ' The Wearing of the Green.' Indeed, the latter may be found even now amongst the street literature reprinted by the Fenians and purchased extensively by the people. The Young Irelanders never would have re-published such lines as these, — Then forward stepped young Boney And took me by the hand, Saying, ' How is old Ireland, And how does she stand ? ' * It's as pool 1 , distressed a nation As ever you have seen, They are hanging men and women For the wearing of the Green ! For the wearing of the Green ! For the wearing o£ the Green ! They are hanging men and women too, For wearing of the Green ! ' But that the Fenians should have circulated these verses with their own halfpenny productions, bliows that they have had a more correct appreciation of the popular taste. Of their own street ballads, the following is one which has attained extensive popularity. As a ballad slip.it appears anonymously ; but Mr M'Glashan's publication gives its authorship to a Fenian with an extraordinary name, Mr Charles J. Kickham, of Mullinahone, — the same Mr Charles J. Kickham, we presume, who was

* Street Ballads, Popular Poetry, and Soushold Songs of Ireland. Collected and arranged by Duncathail, Publin M'GHaßhan and Gill), ■

I arrested with the famous Head Centre | and prison-breaker, Stephens : — PATRICK SHEEHAN. My name is Patrick Shcehan, My years are thirty-four ; Tipperary is my native place, Nor far from G-altymore ; I came of honest parents, But now they're lying low ; And many a pleasant day I spent In the Grlen of Aherlow. My father died; I closed his eyes Outside our cabin door ; ! The landlord and the sheriff too < Were there the day before ! i And then my loving mother, ■ And sisters there also, j Were forced to go with broken hearts ' From the G-len of Aherlow. For thre* long months, in search of work, I wandered far and near ; T went then to the poor-house, For to see my mother dear ; ■The news I heard nigh broke my heart ; But still, in all my woe, I blessed the friends who made their graves In the GUen of Aherlow. Bereft of home and kith and kin, With plenty all around, I starved within -my cabin, i And slept upon the ground ; But cruel as my lot was, I ne'er did harship know Till I joined the English army, Far away from Aherlow. ' "Bouse up there," says tho Corporal, " You lazy Hirish hound ; Why don't you hear, you sleepy dog, The call ' to arms ' sound ? " Alas, I had been dreaming Of days long, long ago ; I woke before Sebastopol, And not in Aherlow. I groped to find my musket — How dark I thought the. night ! 0 blessed God, it was not dark, .It was the broad daylight ! And when I found that I was blind, My tears began to flow j 1 longed for even a pauper's grave In the G-len of Aherlow. O blessed virgin Mary, Mine is a mourful tale ;' A poor blind prisoner here I am, In Dublin's dreary gaol; - Struck blind within the trenches, Where I never feared the foe ; And now I'll never see again My own sweet Aherlow ! — There is a touch of genius in the* shadowy way in which the author announces the death of the three sisters in the lines beginning, The news I heard nigh broke my teart. As to the political effect of such a ballad, we have no hesitation in declaring our conviction that there is more danger in the disaffection that this artfully-told story of Patrick Sheehan may produce, then iv all the writings of the Young Ireland party, and all the contemptible blusterings of the now so-called national organs — the Nation and the Irishman. In this ballad Mr Kickham undoubtedly constructs his verses so as to touch the hearts of the class to which, we believe, he himself belongs. ' Of an apparently ruder stamp, but composed with equal cunning, is a street ballad called 'By .Memory Inspired.' It is copied from a broadsheet which was found hawking about the country, headed with a rude woodcut of two men leaning pensively on a table, and a standing cavalier, with a glass in one hand and bottle in the other, supposed to be engaged singing to them. Its anonymous author has boldly mixed up the moral-force tribune with Mitchell and the men of '98,— By Memory inspired, And love of country fired, The deeds of Men I love to dwell upon ; And the patriotic glow Of my spirit must bestow A tribute to O'Connell that is gone, boys, gone . Here's a memory to the Mends that are gone' In October, 'Ninety-seven.— May his soul find rest in Heaven — William Orr to execution was led on : The jury, drunk, agreed That Ibi/h was his creed ; For perjury and threats drove them on, boys, on : 1 Here's the memory of John Mitchell that is gone ! In 'Ninety-eight — the month July — The informer's pay was high ; Whenißeynolds gave the gallows brave MacCann ; But MacCann was Reynolds' first — One could not allay his thirst ; So he bought up Bond and Byrne that are gore, boys, gone : Here's the memory ef the friends that are gone! We saw a nation's tears Shed for John and Henry Shears ; Betrayed by Judas, Captain Armstrong j We may forgive, but yet We never can forget The poisoning of Maguire that is gone, boys, gone — Our high Star and true Apostle that is gone ! How did Lord Edward die ? Like a man, without a sigh ; But he left his handiwork on Major Swan : But Sirr, with steel-clad breast, And coward heart at best, I Left us cause to mourn Lord Edward that is gone, boys, gone : Here's the memory of our friends that are gone! September, Eighteen throe, Closed this cruel history, When Emmett's blood the scaffold flowed upon : Oh, had their spirits been wise, They might then realise Their freedom — but we drink to Mitchell that is gone, boys, gone : Here's the memory of- the friends that are gone ! , - This ballad is a key to the historical knowledge or historical ignorance of the multitude by whom it is eagerly read. The leaders of the Young Ireland party — Smith O'Brien, Meagher, Gavan Duffy — are a}l (with the suggestive ex-

ception of Mitchell) totally ignored. No reference isjmade to Grattan, Charlemont, or Flood. The only real popular heroes appear to be O'Connell and a set of uncompromising rebels. There are some lines in it which show that the author has thoroughly grasped the genius of his countrymen : for example, that episode in the death of Lord Edward — " But he left his handiwork on Major Swan! 1 . That line conveys no JsmalL amount of consolation to the Irish mind.

Between these Fenian writers and the other Irish Nationalists there is another point of difference. The writers of the old " Nation" newspaper aspired to be orators as well as authors. They were constantly leaving the editor's desk to move resolutions and deliver fervid addresses at public meetings. Their paltry successors in the combined line of business are to be found brawling and boasting at national associations and town councils. But not so the Fenian contributors to this little volume or to the columns of the suppressed journal, the "Irish People." Luby, O'Leary, Stephens, and their associates never condescended to attend public meetings or take any part in the claptrap of the ordinary Irish agitations. They confined their public action to the pages of their weekly organ, the " Irish People," presented a contrast to other anti-Saxon newspapers. As a literary production, the Fenian paper was well written. Its principles of rebellion were decided and clear; but its style, though earnest, was apparently moderate and calm. When Dr. Oullen wrote an inflammatory pastoral, denouncing England and the English, and telling the people that they were grossly misgoverned, but winding up by only asking for a collection towards the Catholic bishop's pet university, the " Irish People" coldly dissected the Archbishop's pastoral, and, in much better English, drew the logical conclusion from his Grace's violent premises. Hence the sweeping charge which a a certain section of the Rsman Catholic party in Ireland have been making against the rebels. As far as this volume, edited by •' Duncathail," and the numbers of the " Irish People " - are concerned, we have failed to discover those incitements to assassinating priests and landlords of which so much has been s^id ; and indeed it seems that the only evidence produced goes the other way, 'for it turns out to be merely a private letter written to Luby, expostulating with him for not hinting at the advantage of of thus disposing ot the clergy and proprietors. The most vigorous onslaught on the landlords which this Fenian volume- contains is the following :—: — THE NEW BACE. O ye who have vanquished the land and retain it, How little ye know what ye niiss of delight ! There are worlds in her heart — could ye seek it or gain it — That would clothe a true noble with glory and might. What is she, this isle, which ye trample and ravage, Which ye plough, with oppression and reap with the sword, But a harp never strung ifi the hall of a savage, Or a fair wife embraced by a husband abhorred ! The chiefs of the Gael were the people embodied ! The chiefs were the blossoms, the people the root j Their conquerors, the Normans, high-souled and high-blooded, Grew Irish at last from the scalp to the foot. And ye ! — ye are hirelings, and satraps — not nobles ! Your slaves, they detest you ; your masters r they scorn ! The river lives on — but the sun-painted bubbles Pass quick, to the rapids incessantly borne. — And who is the author of this fiery admonition to the Irish landlords ? No one can suspect him of being a Head Centre. He is a professor in the Catholic University; he is even one of the territorial class ; he is — it is only fair to add — a highly- cultivated gentleman, Mr Aubrey de Vere. Duncathail, the Fenian editor, avows in his Preface, that he publishes the compilation to " cheer the reposing soldier amid the camp-fires of the bivouac ; to sing to the listening ears of Age the songs of memory and of hope, to Youth the song of love, to Manhood and of Womanhood that of patriotism and duty, to the Child the strain which he may not forget, and which may win him to his home, should he stray, and bind him to Ireland in weal or woe ; " to pour the precious balm of love upon the weary feet of Ireland; and to "cheer the hearts of those who may be capable of serving her with more than toords or songs." In doing this he has acted judiciously in mingling with such popular strains as "Mackenna's Dream," " The Green Little Shamrock," " The Boys of Wexford," "The Galloping O'Hogan," "The Western Winds," and " Arthur M'Coy," some of the less directly rebellious poems of writers like Mr De Vere, Very few, however, of his verses have penetrated the ears of the peasantry. The only one, indeed, that seems to have caught the fancy of the common people is a mysterious little effusion, in which he speaks of Ireland under her mystical names. — - THE HTTIiE BLACK EOSE. The Little Black Eose shall be red at last ; , What made it black but the March wind dry, And the tear of the widow that fell on it fast? It Bhall redden the hills when June is nigh j The silk of the Krae shall rest at last ; What drove her forth but the dragon-fly ? In the golden vale she shall feed full fast, With her mild gold horn nod her Blow, dark eve. '

The wounded wood-dove lies dead at last ! The pine long-bleeding, it Bhall not die ! This sqpg is secret. Mine ear it passed In a wind o'er tho plains at Athenry. These lines, so unintelligible, no doubt, to most of our readers, indicate Mr De Vere's/thorough appreciation of the Celtic mind ; but the following pas-" sage in a more ambitious poem, ' The Bard Ethell,' is, if possible,' still more characteristic. J forgive old Cathbar, who sank my boat ; Must I pardon Feargal, who slew my son — Or the pirate, Strongbow, who burned Granote, They tell me, and in it nine priests, a nun, And (worst) St. Finian's old crosier staff? At forgiveness like that I spit and laugh ! One of the ablest of the Irish Judges, Mr Justice Keogh, in charging the jury at the Special Commission in Dublin, remarked that, though rebellious ideas may exist in the mass of the people, such ideas have received no encouragement whatever from any intelligent or educated* quarter. We are compelled to differ from this eminent authority — for reasons now given.

Wo have received a communication from the Kanieri, Bignod " Sympathiser," in which ho complains of the existence of several dangerous and deserted paddocks between the landing-place and the township, and informs us that lust week a Mrs Douthwaite nearly lo3t her life through falling into one of them, which contained several feet of water. She was saved by somo diggers, who happily observed her tumble. We quite agree with "Sympathiser" in his remarks, that these holes should be filled up, and much wonder that so enterprising a community as that of the Kanieri should allow tho approaches to their " town to remain in so dangerous a state. A few pounds judiciously spent would remedy the nuisance. This is certainly not a matter demanding Government interference.

The "Grey Eiver Argus" of Saturday says : — " If the various "specimens of gold-bearing quartz that are continually being discovered in the Grey district] may be regarded as indications of the richness of the original reef, we may venture to say that there remains as yet undiscovered a source of golden wealth passing the wildest imaginations of gold hunters. "We yesterday were jfchown a specimen of quartz from the Inangahua which far surpasses anything of the knd we have ever witnessed. The piece is about four inches long by three inches broad at its widest part, and weighs 9oz 18dwts, of which about 7oz are estimated to be pure gold. Tho precious metal lies like an envelope on one extremity ' n of the stone, and just as if the molten metal had been poured over the pointed end and allowed to cool on the surface. The quartz is laminated, the gold being plainly visible in the various interstices. It dogs not appear to be much water-worn, and certainly leaves the impression that it has been found not far from its oiiginal site. There have been too many examples of this kind to doubt the existence, in some as yet undiscovered region, - of. the vast quartz reefs which have already, by their disintegration, supplied such a rich harvest 01 gold in the gullies and watercourses. And their discovery can only a^'question of time, for the researches of the miners, which are continually being pushed further back iuto the interior, are sure ultimately to-lead to the result already achieved in Otago — the discovery of rich quartz reefs. The specimen we have referred to is in the possession of Messrs Broadbent and East, who will doubtless be glad to submit it to the inspection of those interested in suoh matters."

" The heavy rain of the last few days (says the " Grey River Argus") has made the New Eiver diggings a, most comfortless place, the ground, particularly in the bush, being almost impassable. Several claims have been flooded, .and others have caved in j but still, the spirits of the' miners have not suffered, as all are sanguine of, success. The rain has prevented much work being done during the past few days, and we are not aware of any new facts worth mentioning regarding the prospects of the diggings. A police station is a necessity that the authorities ought to look after promptly, as there are a good many suspicious characters on the rush looking out for what they call a " slant." Order, however, has been well preserved, considering the crowded population, and the excitement tnat always attends the opening of a new rush. There hare been rumors afloat for th^e last day or two of the discovery of-payable ground further back in the upper terraces, but we have not been able to ascertain anything definite concerning it. A small rush has set, in on a terrace a mile or two from the Teremakau, but we cannot leant that it is of any particular importance. The rush reported last week, behind the cemetery, progresses slowly, although we are informed that several claims have proved payable. From Maori Grully we hear that the rain haa been very welcome, and tha.t the yarioui sluicing parties are again busily and profitably engaged."

The deaths are announced at Avignano, near Macerta, of the youngest sister of Pic Nino, and of the Countess Valentin Esterhazy, wife of the well known Austrian diploniatisi and statesman, at Meran in the Tyrol, at s very advanced age. A new Chinese mission has arrived in Paris •It has been sent to Europe by Prince Kong the Eegent, and is to visit France, England 3elg'"um, Prussia, Denmark, and Russia The principal person, named Pinn-ta-jen, wai -formerly director of the European Custom House in China ; ha has with him severa Chinese savants and interpretor3. On a recent trip of one of the Illinois rive packets— a light draft one, as there -were onlj two feet of water in the channel — the pas sengers were startled by the cry of " A mai overboard ! " The steamer was stopped, an< preparations wore made to save the man when he cried. "Go ahead with your darnel steam-boat, I'll walk behind." An American .paper, the " Telegrapher,' states 'that it is intended to apply electricity t Alden's type-setting rnaohine, io as to enabl a person in Washington to set type by tel« graph in the offices of lerge daily newßpapei in New Yojk ,