The Arkansas advocate., 1832-12-19
, WEDNESDAY,, DECEMBER I9. Is32.

And here hang my harp upon the willow
 And will no longer ilnportune the Muse; Nor woo her nightly visits to my pillow;
 Nor more lmplore her favor or ahuse Brave sons of Erin, o'er the Atlantic bil-
 The harp is yours y i'll you to hear re-
 fuse
 Take, take it back-yourselves the strain
 pfoioBg
 And give yonr Dermot's name to dcathless
 song.
 For Oh ]! if ever on the roll of Time oince man has on this blessed planet dwelt, soul existed saturate with crime,
 Or the deep curse of after ages felt ours was his country, Erin was his cline;
 Nor yet, has justice with his name been
 dealt,
 My voice, alas. is " eak, and cannot slug Touch, touch yourselves the neyer-dying string.
 The attempt is at a history in verse. l it oi course blends fiction with iact.- |i'he fiction is confined to persons and things naturally incidental, and in these invention is indulged to advantage.- The verse is lined with the dignity of yhiide liarolde, and the freedom but ~ot the lIeentiousness, of pencil, that lavlgorates Don Juan. IL combines gravity and wit learning, picty aud taste. But the history is perhaps guilty oi anuanecessary fidelity. That Dover g'ida twas a willing captive,n Hume Fon'lts to mention. Had his American successor, with Burke for companion, followed in this respect the forbearing gallantry ofthe bachelorhistorian,wou t'e not have done more < to please the 1 isdiesY' Iingard and others are au. ihoflty for the fact; but for what pur- pose oi history or poetry was the state l i"eht Of It necessary? Indignation is better excited withoutit. Itisa fitting recreation for hands that 0 have sway ed the rod of empre.' 10 rouse 10 in- disnatlon "the living lyre.' The con quest of Ireland may be hefitting theme. But to be shocked,s at an unqualified panegyric upon Henry II.o Is to De shocked at what Hume, Dr. Lin gard, and Edmund Burke, in their re- speetIsc histories, Olot to name other historians of Epgland,) substantially eonearin pronouncing. Whom Wood deson calls "one of our best princes,r Hume describes as " almost without n blemish," and designates as .sthe great est prince of his time for wisdom, vir- tue, and abilities" whom Burke de. nominates .sthe greatest of kings. -
 ct lias Hume's $ panygyric no quali6ca- toni Does he paint without shade ?- He refers certainly to the character of ifenry ]. for resemblance, and records, in the last paragraph of the reign, what !" IS said by ancient historians'' of Hen- ry II. To be shocked at the care tess indifference with which Mir. Hume = tells this tale of wickedness and woe.'' IS perhaps 10 forget the time and the people he wrote about. "The genius tot the age was barbarous and violent.n Too frequent then were such incidents to revolt from their ss wickedness. and too general to excite sympathy for their < woe" Irish tribes,'' the people were called, and perhaps our own h. dian tribes are much better. Europe had not emerged out of barbarism.- ]" The barbarism of the Irish.'' says Burke must have been very great. since it exceeded that of the rest of Flu rope. Men, says St. Anslcm, chan ged their wives, likehorses, freely and publicly. s' Libere ct ppbIce suas uxores uxeribas aliorum corpmutant. steut equum eqno." Canthe historian Of such time and people be expected to indulge in elaborate and extended expressions pf indignation at barbari- tlesY Hume states that Dermot's ex- l ploit "was usual among the Irish,'' and | rather seemed a proof of gallantry and spirit" Is not this bare statement enough 10 excite to the qttermost the indignation of every civilized commu- nifty? To say more, were unphiIoso- Phically todistrust civilization. Hume too calls Dermot Ga rufiian." .This rpifian was a founder of monasteries. , Is "ruffian , an epithet of { searches indiilerence9' With the poets par don; his own shock at the indifference or at the panegyric either may have been confined to the time when he | :. lisped in numbers,' or < first read Hume's history.
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