The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-22 00:00:00

UST.

LITERATURE'

Political Ballads of the 'Seventeenth, and ..n:qhtaenth
Centuries, Annotated. By W. Walker Wilkins.
2 vols. LcY ginan.
The motto on the title page aptly illustrates this
work. " More solid things do not show the com-
plexion of the times so well as ballads and libels."
The publication of these volumes is matter of con-
gratulation to those desirous of acquainting them-
selves with these verses of a past age, which are
of great significance in regard to their utterance of
prevalent sentiments, and if they have now lost the
pest which actual events gave, and the piquancy
with which personality endued them, as the
satirists and satirized have alike passed away; they
are still replete with interest. They speak through
the medium of absurd jokes in some instances, and
coarse allusions in many cases, but they are nerved
with a power that more important writers could
not always put into more solid compositions, that
were to stand the test of critics high in authority,
and yet fearful of being arraigned before the bar of
public opinion. The immense influence that these
songs exercise over social opinion is forcibly expressed
in the well-known adage "If I were permitted to
make the ballads of a nation I should not care who
made its laws." In the preface there is an enter-
taining account of the various collections of ballads,
and the scheme that the editor has generally
adopted in the difficult task he has undertaken. It '
is said that " while every other department of
literature has been thoroughly explored, amplified,
and variously illustrated, our modern political
songs and ballads, the best popular illustrations of
history constitute the solitary exception to the
general rule," and it is argued further on in the
remarks, " There are, however, few compositions
more interesting in themselves, or that offer
more valuable material to the historical in-
quirer than these ephemeral produtcions,
in the absence of these artless expressions
our social history would be incomplete. They
exhibit as well the manners and the feelings of
past generations. The student, by looking nar-
rowly into them, may oftentimes be enabled to
deduce most important conclusions respecting the
origin and issue of former insurrections and fac-
tions, just in the same manner as the geologist
who, detecting on the surface of the sedimentary
rock the latest impression of some primeval storm,
or the footpaths of races long extinct determines
the course of the one and the character ofthe other."
After quoting some pertinent observations of a
writer on political literature, concerning the pri-
vileges and immunities of song writers, and hence
the vast importance of their compositions during a
period when tyranny represses the free expression
of public opinion, the editor proceeds to remark on
the attention paid to this sort of composition by
a bright and shining star of literature. "The real
value and importance of such ephemeral produc-
tions may be best discerned in the volumes of the
late Lord Macaulay, the only native historian who
has thought them worthy of his particular study
and use. It is no disparagement to the literary
fame of that distinguished writer to affirm that
they have imparted to his pages a vitality which
the profoundest knowledge of the principles of
human action, combined with the greatest erudia
tion and the highest descriptive powers could never
have effected without them. It was from these
long neglected picture-writings of great historical
scenes, and of the celebrated individuals who are
crowded in them, "in their habit as they lived,"
that he derived so much of all that related to the
stirring times of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. To these despised and inexhaustible
sources of information ho was principally indebted
for his life-like delineations of character, for his
descriptions of popular commotions, and not unfre-
quently for his knowledge of the motives by which
public men were actuated, at particular conjunc-
tures, in their conduct." In conclusion, it is stated
that it was the intention to include the political
ballads of note in the reigns of the last two Georges,
had not space prevented; but that should the
present
series meet with public approval, the re•
mainder will be forthcoming at a future period. It
is to be hoped that this will be the case, and con-
sidering the interest and importance of the contents
of these volumes, and the skill with which their
arrangements have beet executed, there is every
reason to entertain the confident epectation that
such will be the result. After au elaborate inves-
tigation into the musty folios of an earlier genera-
tion, it is but fair and just that the explorer should
be rewarded by the weed of approving testimony
from those for whom he has opened " the treasures of
antiquity laid up in old historic scrolls." Some
of the most striking or noticeable verses in the col-
lection are here quoted, and, at all events, they
may serve to illustrate the. mode then in vogue of
expressing approval or declaiming censure by the
punsters and rhymesters of the day :
THE ANARCHIE, OR THE BLESSED REFORMATION
SINCE 1640.
Now that, thanks to the Powers below,
We have e'en done our do,
The mitre is down,
And so is the crown,
And with them the coronet too ;
Come clowns, and come boys,
Come hober-de-hoys,
Come females of each degree;
Stretch your throats, bring in your votes,
And make good theAnarchie.
And thus it shall go, says Alice,
Nay, thus it shall go, says Amy ;
Nay, thus it shall go, says Taffy, I trow,
Nay, thus it shall go, says Jamy.
Ah I but the truth, good people all,
The truth is such a thing,
For it would undo, both Church and State too,
And cut the throat of our king ;
Yet not the Spirit, nor the new light,
Can make this point so clear;
But thou must bring out, thou deified rout,
What thing the truth is, and where.
Speak Abraham, speak Kester, speak Judith, speak
Hester,
Speak tag and rag, short coat and long;
Truth's the spell made us rebel,
And murder and plunder, ding-dong.
Sure I have the truth, says Numph ;
Nay, I ha' the truth, says Clemme ;
Nay, I ha' the truth, says Reverend Ruth ;
Nay, I ha' the truth, says Nem.
THE NEW LITANT.
From an extempore prayer and a godly ditty,
From the churlish government of a city,
From the power of a country committee,
Libera nos, Domine.
From the Turk, the Pope, and the Scottish nation,
From being governed by proclamation,
And from an old Protestant, quite out of fashion,
&c.
Fro

....Jm meddling with those that are out of our reaches,
From a fighting priest, and a soldier that preaches,
From an igioramus that writes, and a woman that teaches,
Libera, &c.

From the doctrine of deposing of a king,
From the Directory, or any such thing,
From a fine new marriage, without a ring,
Libera, &c.

From a city that yields at the first summons,
Front plundering goods, either man or woman's,
Or having to do with the House of Commons,
Libera,

From one that cares not what ho saith,
From trusting one that never payeth,
From a private preacher and a public faith,
Libera, &c.