Stanzas From The Banks Of The Shannon.[1]

1828.

"Take back the virgin page." MOORE'S Irish Melodies.

No longer dear Vesey, feel hurt and uneasy At hearing it said by the Treasury brother, That thou art a sheet of blank paper, my Vesey, And he, the dear, innocent placeman, another.

For lo! what a service we Irish have done thee;-- Thou now art a sheet of blank paper no more; By St. Patrick, we've scrawled such a lesson upon thee As never was scrawled upon foolscap before.

Come--on with your spectacles, noble Lord Duke, (Or O'Connell has green ones he haply would lend you,) Read Vesey all o'er (as you can't read a book) And improve by the lesson we bog-trotters send you;

A lesson, in large Roman characters traced, Whose awful impressions from you and your kin Of blank-sheeted statesmen will ne'er be effaced-- Unless, 'stead of paper, you're mere asses' skin.

Shall I help you to construe it? ay, by the Gods, Could I risk a translation, you should have a rare one; But pen against sabre is desperate odds, And you, my Lord Duke (as you hinted once), wear one.

Again and again I say, read Vesey o'er;-- You will find him worth all the old scrolls of papyrus That Egypt e'er filled with nonsensical lore, Or the learned Champollion e'er wrote of, to tire us.

All blank as he was, we've returned him on hand, Scribbled o'er with a warning to Princes and Dukes, Whose plain, simple drift if they won't understand, Tho' carest at St. James's, they're fit for St. Luke's.

Talk of leaves of the Sibyls!--more meaning conveyed is In one single leaf such as now we have spelled on, Than e'er hath been uttered by all the old ladies That ever yet spoke, from the Sibyls to Eldon.

These verses were suggested by the result of the Clare election, in the year 1828, when the Right Honorable W. Vesey Fitzgerald was rejected, and Mr. O'Connell returned.

Some expressions to this purport, in a published letter of one of these gentlemen, had then produced a good deal of amusement.

THE ANNUAL PILL.

Supposed to be sung by OLD PROSY, the Jew, in the character of Major CARTWRIGHT.

Vill nobodies try my nice Annual Pill, Dat's to purify every ting nashty avay? Pless ma heart, pless ma heart, let ma say vat I vill, Not a Chrishtian or Shentleman minds vat I say. 'Tis so pretty a bolus!--just down let it go, And, at vonce, such a radical shange you vill see, Dat I'd not be surprished, like de horse in de show, If your heads all vere found, vere your tailsh ought to be! Vill nobodies try my nice Annual Pill, etc.

'Twill cure all Electors and purge away clear Dat mighty bad itching dey've got in deir hands-- 'Twill cure too all Statesmen of dulness, ma tear, Tho' the case vas as desperate as poor Mister VAN'S. Dere is noting at all vat dis Pill vill not reach-- Give the Sinecure Ghentleman van little grain, Pless ma heart, it vill act, like de salt on de leech, And he'll throw de pounds, shillings, and pence, up again! Vill nobodies try my nice Annual Pill, etc.

'Twould be tedious, ma tear, all its peauties to paint-- "But, among oder tings fundamentally wrong, It vill cure de Proad Pottom--a common complaint Among M.P.'s and weavers--from sitting too long. Should symptoms of speeching preak out on a dunce (Vat is often de case), it vill stop de disease, And pring avay all de long speeches at vonce, Dat else vould, like tape-worms, come by degrees!

Vill nobodies try my nice Annual Pill, Dat's to purify every ting nashty avay? Pless ma heart, pless ma heart, let me say vat I vill, Not a Chrishtian or Shentleman minds vat I say!

Meaning, I presume, Coalition Administrations.