also wrote Memoirs of his eldest brother, G. C. Hughes (1873), Lives of Daniel Macmillan (1882) and Bishop Fraser (1887), and Vacation Rambles (1895). He is buried at Brighton, and a statue of him was erected at Rugby in 1899. Sir William Howard Russell, a professional and past master in that art of which Crabb Robinson was pioneer in a comparatively casual and amateurish manner, is perhaps the most conspicuous of English war-correspondents. Born at Lilyvale, County Dublin, in 1821, he joined the staff of the Times in 1843, and was called to the Bar in 1850. From the Crimea he wrote those famous letters (published in bookform in 1856) which opened the eyes of Englishmen to the sufferings of the soldiers during the winter of 1854-55, and greatly contributed to break down, in the interests of army efficiency and the well-being of the soldiers, an antiquated system of official routine. He witnessed and described the events of the Indian Mutiny. In 1860 he established the Army and Navy Gazette, of which he was still editor and chief proprietor in 1903; and in 1861 the Civil War drew him to America, where he provoked much resentment by an eminently outspoken account of the Federal defeat at Bull Run. He accompanied the Austrians during the war with Prussia (1866), and the Prussians during the war with France (1870-71); visited Egypt and the East (1874) and India (1877) as private secretary to King Edward, then Prince of Wales; and was with Wolseley in South Africa in 1879 and in Egypt in 1883. And he has travelled in Canada, the United States, and South America. Among his books are a novel, The Adventures of Dr Brady (1868); Hesperothen (1882); A Visit to Chile (1890); and The Great War with Russia (1895), an autobiographical record of Crimean experiences. Made LL.D., a Knight of the Iron Cross, and a Commander of the Legion of Honour, he received an English knighthood in 1895. The fearless and energetic correspondent did not escape the temptations of his less distinguished colleagues-to send home sensational and unverified impressions as facts; in aiming at picturesque style and flowing narrative, to luxuriate in too frequent and too strong purple patches; and in distributing praise and blame to generals and soldiers, to arrogate to himself all but infallible skill in strategy, tactics, and political combination. William Hepworth Dixon (1821-79) was born at Great Ancoats, Manchester, and became a merchant's clerk, but soon determined to devote himself to a literary life. He had already written a good deal, and for a month or two had even edited a Cheltenham paper, when in 1846 he settled in London; and though in 1854 he was called to the Bar, he did not practise. A series of papers in the Daily News on 'The Literature of the Lower Orders,' and another on 'London Prisons,' attracted attention, the latter being republished in a volume issued in 1850. He had ere this written John Howard, and the Prison World of Europe; but it was with difficulty he could induce a publisher to accept it, yet when published (1850) it went through three editions in one year. Dixon now devoted himself principally to historical biography. His William Penn (1851) was called into existence by the onslaught made by Macaulay on the eminent Quaker, in which Dixon undertook, not without success, to disprove the great historian's charges. Robert Blake, Admiral (1852), and his Personal History of Lord Bacon (1860) were indeed popular, but failed to satisfy competent critics. For his various historical works, he from time to time undertook rather extensive researches in archives and amongst documents, and made some not inconsiderable finds; but he was liable to misapprehensions, and his most elaborate historical works were disfigured by frequent inaccuracies. From 1853 to 1869 Dixon was editor of the Athenæum. His books of travel. all bright and interesting, include The Holy Land (1865), New America (1867), Free Russia (1870), The Switzers (1872), The White Conquest (1875), and British Cyprus (1879). Spiritual Wives, dealing with Mormonism in a less polemical spirit than usual, he issued in 1868. Later historical works include Her Majesty's Tower, The History of Two Queens (Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn), and Royal Windsor. His novels, Diana Lady Lyle and Ruby Gray, issued in 1877 and 1878, are unimportant. James Grant (1822-87) was born in Edinburgh, the son of an officer in the Gordons who was proud of his old Highland and Jacobite descent, and in 1832 sailed with his father for Newfoundland. Home again in 1839, he next year became an ensign in the 62nd Foot, but in 1843 resigned, and, after a spell of draftsmanship in an architect's office, turned to literature. Having contributed copiously to the United Service Magazine and the Dublin University Magazine, he in 1846 published his Romance of War, the first of a long series of romances and histories, illustrative mainly of the achievements of Scottish arms abroad. The novels abound in incident, glorify dauntless daring, and have a brisk and vigorous style without much literary charm. The histories are at times too picturesque and not historical enough. Of upwards of fifty novels the best known are The Adventures of an Aide-de-Camp; Frank Hilton, or the Queen's Own; Bothwell; The Yellow Frigate; and Harry Ogilvie; but his latest stories were meant to illustrate the British occupation of Burma and the reconquest of the Soudan. Of his other works, Old and New Edinburgh had the largest sale. But he wrote Memoirs of Kirkaldy of Grange, of Montrose and other Scottish heroes, and books of battles on land and sea. Cardinal Manning received Grant into the Roman communion twelve years before his death. The Songs and Ballads of Ireland. In Ireland they who make the people's ballads do not exactly make the people's laws. But the ballad-writers have always been accurate and sympathetic exponents of popular sentiment. And in the nineteenth century the patriotic ballad has constituted a very considerable part of the total poetic production of Irish writers. What may be termed the political poetry of Ireland is purely English in form. It does not date much farther back than the era of the Volunteers; and the great period which followed that movement, the period of the Grattan Parliament, added singularly little to the ballad literature of Ireland. It was, indeed, only at the close of that era, in the convulsions of the rebellion, that the emotions of the masses began to be expressed in verses, often simple, sometimes rude, but always charged with patriotic feeling. The stirring events of those times gave opportunities for the production of that poetry of action and passion for which, as Sir Charles Gavan Duffy has noted in the preface to his Ballad Poetry of Ireland, the Celtic race have always had an intense relish. Of the earliest of these songs of the people many of the most successful have been the work of writers otherwise unknown, and some have been anonymous. Among the latter must be included the most characteristic example of the class to which it belongs 'The Wearin' o' the Green,' a ballad which has been called the National Anthem of Ireland, though it comes nearer perhaps to a dirge or a requiem than to an anthem. From the Union to the days of Catholic Emancipation the lyrical voice of Ireland was practically inarticulate, save for the exception-an immense exception of course-of Moore's Melodies. But the Melodies belong to a poetical category more formal and more self-conscious than the ballad. With the Repeal movement, however, the ballad impulse again made itself felt. In the hands of Thomas Davis, Gavan Duffy, and their colleagues of the Nation newspaper, a school of patriotic poetry, popular in form and feeling, was founded, which expressed with much power and concentration the national aspirations of the mass of Irishmen. The poetry of this period was at its best during the Young Ireland movement, and its most striking examples will be found in the collections compiled in the forties. Of these The Ballad Poetry of Ireland, edited by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy; The Book of Irish Ballads, edited by Denis Florence MacCarthy; The Songs of Ireland, edited by M. J. Barry; and The Spirit of the Nation are the best known, and the best. In all of these the dominant note is the note of patriotism, sometimes triumphant, sometimes chastened, now a pæan, more often a dirge. But the verses are invariably occupied with the same theme in its almost countless variations. Under the influence of Davis, and later of Ferguson, this national poetry became largely infused with an historical spirit, the writers seeking sometimes in the legend, more often in the actual chronicles of the country, fresh sources of inspiration, and the political ballad thus began to assume a more artificial tone, or at any rate a more elaborated style. Many examples of this kind of writing have already been given in this volume in the specimens of the poetry of Davis, Ferguson, Mangan, the Banims, and others (see pages 353365). But the earlier poetry is for the most part simpler in form, and it is chiefly this which is illustrated here. After the middle of the nineteenth century the intense lyrical impulse which the Young Ireland movement had stimulated was greatly weakened. Certainly the movements of Irish latter-day politics have been less abundantly illustrated by Tyrtæan music, and the Fenian movement produced no poet and scarcely a song. But bards have not been wholly wanting. In such writers as Timothy D. Sullivan the traditions of 'Young Ireland' have been carried on, if not exactly maintained; and 'The Spirit of the Nation' may still be felt in them. C. LITTON FALKINER. The Wearin' o' the Green. Oh Paddy, dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round? The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground. No more St Patrick's Day we 'll keep, his colour can't be seen, For there's a cruel law agin the wearin' o' the green! She's the most disthressful country that iver yet was seen, For they're hangin' men and women there for wearin' o' the green. An' if the colour we must wear is England's cruel red, And never fear, 'twill take root there tho' under foot 'tis trod. When law can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow, And when the leaves in summer-time their colour dare not show, Then I will change the colour too I wear in my caubeen; But till that day, plaze God, I'll stick to wearin' o' the green. ANON. The Shan Van Vocht ['The Little Old Woman'-a name for Ireland]. Oh! the French are on the sea, Says the Shan Van Vocht; The French are on the sea, Says the Shan Van Vocht; Oh! the French are in the Bay, They'll be here without delay, And the Orange will decay, Says the Shan Van Vocht. And where will they have their camp? Says the Shan Van Vocht; Where will they have their camp? Says the Shan Van Vocht; Then what will the yeomen do? Says the Shan Van Vocht; To the Shan Van Vocht? And what colour will they wear? Where our fathers' homes have been Says the Shan Van Vocht. And will Ireland then be free? Says the Shan Van Vocht; Says the Shan Van Vocht. The Memory of the Dead. We drink the memory of the brave, Remember them with pride. Some on the shores of distant lands Their weary hearts have laid, In true men, like you, men, The dust of some in Irish earth, Among their own they rest; ANON. And the same land that gave them birth Has caught them to her breast: And we will pray that from their clay They rose in dark and evil days They fell, and passed away; But true men, like you, men, Are plenty here to-day. Then here's their memory-may it be For us a guiding light, To cheer our strife for liberty, And teach us to unite! Through good and ill, be Ireland's still Though sad as theirs your fate; And true men, be you, men, Like those of Ninety-Eight. JOHN K. INGRAM. The Sea-divided Gael. Hail to our Celtic brethren, wherever they may be, Or spread beneath the sightless north experimental sails. Though fallen the state of Erin, and changed the Scottish land, Though small the power of Mona, though unwaked Llewellyn's band; Though Ambrose Merlin's prophecies are held as idle tales, Though Iona's ruined cloisters are swept by northern gales, One in name and in fame Are the sea-divided Gaels. In northern Spain and Italy our brethren also dwell, And brave are the traditions of their fathers that they tell : The Eagle or the Crescent in the dawn of history pales Before the advancing banner of the great Rome-conquering Gaels. One in name and in fame Are the sea-divided Gaels. A greeting and a promise unto them all we send ; T. DARCY M'GEE. Fair is my Native Isle. Loving and true. Exiled ones sigh for her, Brave men would die for her, Such love have I for her, So would I do. Dark has her story been Down through long years; Oft her sweet face was seen Wet with sad tears; Far in the olden time Blest her dear name. Peace comes once more to her, Fame as of yore to her, Each breeze wafts o'er to her Praise and acclaim. TIMOTHY D. SULLIVAN. Aubrey de Vere (1814-1902) belonged to a family remarkable for the development of the poetic faculty in many of its members. He was the third son of Sir Aubrey de Vere, the wellknown author of Julian the Apostate, Mary Tudor, and other dramatic and poetic works, and was born in County Limerick. De Vere was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he came much under the influence of the eminent mathematician and thinker, Sir William Rowan Hamilton. Brought up in a charming part of rural Ireland, and of a contemplative turn, De Vere was early attracted by the poetry of Wordsworth. subsequently made the acquaintance of the poet, whom he visited at Rydal in 1841. Later he was much interested in theological questions, became the friend of Newman and Manning, and in 1851 joined the Church of Rome. In 1842 appeared De Vere's first work, The Waldenses, or the Fall of Rora, a lyrical drama, which was followed in 1843 by The Search after Proserpine, and other poems. His father's death in 1846, He the great famine of 1847, and the religious preoccupations of the succeeding years apparently diverted De Vere's thoughts for a time from poetry; but Poems Miscellaneous and Sacred (1853) bear obvious marks of his religious experiences. This volume was followed in 1857 by May Carols. It was not until 1861 that De Vere entered on that series of poems inspired by Irish subjects by which, despite the essentially Wordsworthian character of his temper and intellect, he is best known and for which he will be longest remembered. These poems present a curious combination of bardic and ecclesiastical mediævalism. This vein the poet worked in Inisfail, a Lyrical Chronicle of Ireland (1861), a poem intended to illustrate Irish history from the Norman Conquest to the era of the Penal Laws, and to 'embody the essence of a nation's history.' It was followed by The Infant Bridal (1864). In Irish Odes (1869) and The Legends of St Patrick (1872) De Vere again sought his materials in the same quarry; but Alexander the Great (1874) and St Thomas of Canterbury (1876) are semi-philo sophical dramas. In Legends of the Saxon Saints De Vere sought with less success to apply to English themes the methods he had used in his Irish poems. De Vere's voluminous works were collected in six volumes in 1884, but he subsequently published Legends and Records of the Church and Empire (1887) and Medieval Records and Sonnets (1893). A volume of Selections was published in 1890. De Vere was all his life keenly interested in Irish affairs, and published several prose volumes on public questions, among which may be mentioned English Misrule and Irish Misdeeds (1848) and Ireland's Church Property and the Right Use of It (1867). His more strictly literary prose writings were collected in Essays, chiefly on Poetry (1887), and Essays, chiefly Literary and Ethical (1889). The long list of his publications closed with a volume of Recollections (1897), which contains many interesting memories of Wordsworth, Hartley Coleridge, Newman, Manning, and others of the poet's most eminent contemporaries. De Vere's poetry moves on a high plane of ethical contemplation, and is brightened by a rich imagination; but he lacked the lyrical gift, and his best work is to be praised chiefly as possessing a grave austerity of thought and a stately dignity in its diction. The True King, a Bard Song. Ere a year they had chased us to dens and caves; Who were they, those princes that gave away · The kingdoms for ever live! The king rules all; yet the king hath nought: They were traitors, not kings, who sold their trust; They were traitors, not kings, who bought! Brave Art-MacMurrough !—Arise, 'tis morn! This true king who rights our wrong! From the heart of the nation her king is grown ; The March to Kinsale. O'er many a river bridged with ice, The Princes of the North are come ! Lo! these are they that year by year And thus they sang, 'To-morrow morn And blow, thou breeze of sunrise, blow!' Blithe as a boy on marched the host, With droning pipe and clear-voiced harp; At last above that southern coast Rang out their war-steeds' whinny sharp : And up the sea-salt slopes they wound, And airs once more of ocean quaffed; As though May touched them, waved and laughed. And blow, thou breeze of sunrise, blow!' Beside their watch-fires couched all night Of moonlit crag, the priesthood prayed : And thus they sang, 'To-morrow morn Near them, within a church of narrower girth, The Empire and the Synagogue accurst, Clashed two ensanguined hands-like Cain-in one. Sleep where the Apostle slept, Tirconnel and Tyrone! The Little Black Rose. The Little Black Rose shall be red at last ; What made it black but the March wind dry, And the tears of the widow that fell on it fast? It shall redden the hills when June is nigh. The Silk of the Kine shall reel at last ; What drove her forth but the dragon-fly? In the golden vale she shall feed full fast, With her mild gold horn and her slow dark eye. The wounded wood-dove is dead at last! The pine long-bleeding, it shall not die! This song is secret. Mine ear it found In a wind o'er the plains at Athenry. C. LITTON FALKINER. John Mitchel (1815-75) is best known as a politician. But he has been admirably characterised by Mr Lecky as 'a man of great, but exclusively literary, ability;' and it is as a writer rather than as a politician that he will be longest remembered. Mitchel was the son of a Presbyterian minister, and was born in Dungiven, County Londonderry. His early life was spent in Newry, where his father had a congregation for many years, and where he imbibed the strongly Nationalist views which, in the Ulster of his boyhood, were still the inheritance of the descendants of the men of '98. In 1830 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, but he did not take a degree. He became a solicitor, and practised first at Newry and later at Banbridge. He married, after a romantic elopement, a young lady of great beauty and good social position, Miss Jane Verner. In 1842 the current of Mitchel's life of professional routine was entirely changed by his becoming acquainted with the young patriot Thomas Davis (page 364). He became closely associated with the Young Ireland movement, and as a contributor to the Nation at once began to attract attention by the vigour of his writings. On the death of Davis (1845), Mitchel accepted a position on the staff of the Nation, and removed to Dublin. This is not the place in which to trace the stirring events of Mitchel's political career, which culminated in his conviction on a charge of treasonfelony and a sentence of fourteen years' transportation. It is to his experiences as a political prisoner in Bermuda and at the Cape that we owe one of Mitchel's principal literary achievements, . his Jail Journal—a work remarkable for the intense individuality it reveals, as well as for the great vigour of its style. This was followed by the most |