Omaha daily bee., 1896-08-30

So six sail dhe whole fieeD was our for
tune to takO,
Here's, Grn q health tsd / to to brave Perry, who gov
This is the only song of the period,
which, in it's entirety, relates to the battle
of Like Erie, although Perry and his
brilliant action is referred to, incidentally
in others.
The most popular song of the war of 1872
was "Ye Parliament of England" and
it is of considerable consequence, as it is
a summary of the events Of the war, and
of the circumstances that led to it. The
victories of the Constitution and OF Perry
both figure in it.
YE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND.
Ye Parliament of England,
You lords and too,
Consider well what you are about
And what you are going to do.
You're now to fight with Yankees,
I'm sure you'll rue the day
You reused the Sons OF Liberty
In North America.
You first confined our commerce,
And said our ships shan't trade;
You next impressed our seamen,
And used them as your slaves;
You then insulted Rogers
While %ploughing Ger the main,
And had not we declared war
You'd have done ii Ger again.
You thought our frlgates were but few.
And Yankees could not fight,
Until brave Hull your Guerrero took.
And DanlShed her from your sight.
The Wasp then took your Frolic,
Wen nothing say to that;
The Poictiers being of the line
OF course she took her back.
The next, your Macedonian,
Nc finer ship could swim;
Decatur took her gilt work off,
And then he sent her in.
The Java by a Yankee ship
Was sunk you all must 2 ~ knGw;
BY Lawrence down did go.
Then, next you sent your Boxer
To box us all about.
But we had an Enterprising brig,
That beat your Boxer out;
We boxed her up to Portland
And moored her off the town,
To show the sons of liberty
The boxer OF renoWn.
The next upon Lake Erie.
Where Perry had some fun.
You WI he beat your naval force,
This was to you a sore defeat,
The like ne'er known, before
Your British squadron beat complete
Some took, some run ashore.
There's Rogers. in the President,
The Congress-, on the Brazil coast,
Your will annoy;
The Essex, in the south seas
VIII put out all your lights,
The flag she waves at her masthead
Free Trade and Sailors Rights"
Lament, we sons OF Britain,
Far distant Is the day,
When you'll regain by British force
Go tell your king and Parliament,
BY all the world Ills known,
That British force. by sea and land,
By Yankees Is o'erthrown.
Use every endeayor,
And strive to make peace,
For Yankee ships are building fast,
Their navy to increase;
They Will enforce their commerce, ~.
The laws by heaven were made,
That Yankee ships in times of peace,
To any port may trade.
These songs are the more interesting be-
cause efforts have been made of late in the
navy to revive the old songs. with a view
to their use in the new navy and so per-
petuate the traditions OF the glorious vic
tories of the early period; but 1t has been
an uphill work. The original music OF the
old revolutionary songs has been lost, but
some of the melodies copied from the Eng
lish service are preserved for US, but there
Is every reason to suppose that the Ameri-
can words were once sung TO other tunes,
which belonged to the times, but these are
lost, and all We have now are the old words
with English music. Even the words of
these old songs are in many cases lost, and
in some Instances hopelessly. The original
songs were never published, but were
handed down from ship TO ship, by word OF
mouth, through various generations OF sail
ors, until about the time of the late war,
when with thousands OF new men and act