Punch: Punch (70.1876)

April 29, 1876.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

169

THE NEW BATTLE OF LIMERICK.

Coke: bates the world for butter,

Unless Waterford out-cut her,
And^Dublin, Belfast, Gralway has their backers less or more;

But for fish-hooks, gloves, and laces,

And the colleens' pretty faces,
'Tis limerick bangs all places, that flower of Shannon Shore.

'Twas there that Smith O'Brien,

Of the ould Milesian Line,
Was mobbed at a tay-party, when the windy-blinds they tore;

And now Limerick to her story

Adds a ruction still more gory,
Resistin' Home-Eule's glory, upon Shannon Shore !

Ye Heroes of the Nation,

Keep your patbriot indignation
Tor thraytors tbat would sell the pass, as they have done before.

But bad cess to the shillelagh

Of that Fenian, John Daly,
Friends and Home-Bule assailin' upon Shannon Shore !

Oh, iligant the views is

Out of " The George " and " Cruise's,"
Convanient to the Crescent, and the Club first-floor.

And the stone nigh Thomond Bridge is,

Wbere the Saxon sacrilegious
Signed the treaty he broke outrageous, to the shame of Shannon Shore.

The Home-Rulers they invited

Isaac Btjtt, Q.C., delighted,
As sure he a right 'ud have to be, upon that score—

Spite of Fenians bent on baulkin'.

That illustrious O.C.'s talkin'.
And the Thrades wid banners walkin' along Shannon Shore.

Wid Butt there came O'Shaughnessy,

Almost as great a man as he,
To prove Home-Rule the panacy for poor Ould Ireland's sore.

And O'Sullivan faced the throng wid him,

That for Limerick sits along wid him,
Who'd have thought things coidd go wrong wid him upon Shannon
Shore!

And the Bishop, wid his Clargy,

Whin he looked and talked so large he
Thought little of the charge he would see e'er all was o'er;

And the Priests they walked in honour

Of Home-Rule, a blessin' on her,
And the Thrades wid bands and banners delighted Shannon Shore.

To the Crescent they marched gaily,

But 'twas there they found John Daly,
Wid his back agin the railins, and some fifty Fenians more,

Each an alpeen in his fist,

To which he gev' a twist.
Then let'fly and never missed the head he meant to score !

'Twas the Fenians that begun
On Home-Rulers ten to one,
Knocked the wind out of their drums, and their thrumpets battered
sore ;

Sure 'twas luck that Misthee, Slatteky
Closed his shutters ere the batthery,
Or his plate-glass front had suffered, that day, on Shannon Shore.

Both sides " Ould Ireland! " cryin',

Their nate black-thorns was plyin',
Blood was spilt, and boys was kilt, and drums, coats, banners
sthrewed the dure :

Says O'Sullivan to O'Shaughnessy,

" Where's Butt ? To talk the man is he;
To put'out a flame or fan, as he, who so good on Shannon Shore P "

But eloquence Parliamint'ry

Finds to Irish ears no intry,
While there's shillelaghs going among foes, or friends, still more :

So as long as Daly's boys,

Had hands alpeens to poise,
Sure they'd make Butt hould his noise on Shannon Shore.

But in spite of phillaloo,

While sticks clashed and brickbats flew,
Burr's iligant discoorse flowed on serene amidst the roar,

And he said that his reception

Was a triumph that boulcl Neptune
Had never seen the likes of since his tide kissed Shannon Shore.

Sure the sweetness of his gammon
Would have wiled a Shannon salmon,

While, like Kilkenny cats, the boys they scrimmaged, scratched,
and swore;
And he spoke on widout shyin',
Though the brickbats they was thryin',

And both sixes sinseless lyin', along the Shannon Shore.

Oh 'twas sure a lovely sight,

That free and festive fight—
Who dars say Limerick's heart is not Irish to the core P—

Tara's harp, brass band, and fiddle,

Playin' the chune of " Tara-diddle,"
Ruction round, and in the middle, Butt cometherin' Shannon Shore!

When Young Ireland's House is seen

In full blast on Palace Green,
Will they take votes by alpeen betwixt Butt's and Daly's corps?

Will hard heads and hard hits sway P

Or will humbug win the day ?
For a forecast of that future, go and look on Shannon Shore ?

DISAPPOINTED OP DANA.

'Twixt the cup and the lip we encounter a slip. We anticipated
the arrival of a well-known gentleman of high character, culture,
and attainments, as Ambassador from the United States—Mr. Dana,
the author of Two Years Before the Mast. But the Senate—as
represented by its Foreign Committee—has refused to confirm
President Grant's nomination. Mr. Dana is rejected on a charge
of " literary piracy," preferred by that model of moral and political
purity, General Butler. The alleged piracy, if proved, would
consist of an insignificant infringement, in editing an edition of
W/teuton's International Law, of a disputed copyright in certain
notes to a previous edition. As Mr. Dana denies the piracy,
General Butler further charges him with falsehood; and, having
denied it on oath, further still with perjury. The piracy would be
merely technical if true. And to be sure Mr. Dana once stood
against General Butler in the Essex district for Congress, and the
Democratic section of the Senate had political reasons for voting
his rejection. But never let us suppose they were swayed by these.
Trust we rather that an extreme and oversensitively nervous horror
of " literary piracy " carried them away; that their judgment was
perverted by excessive scrupulosity lest the faintest shadow of a
shade of a suspicion of literary piracy should sully the fair name of
an American Foreign Minister.

This too fastidious moral sense of respect for the rights of author-
ship has expressed itself in gross injustice and indignity to Mr.
Dana. We are very sorry for that. But our sorrow cannot but
derive some assuagement from a selfish hope. How gratifying to
behold the Senate of the United States now at length suddenly
awakened to the enormity of "literary piracy," and that piracy,
however trifling, represented, however falsely, to have been com-
mitted in compiling notes to a treatise on International Law! [ The
new abhorrence of the United States' Senate for that species of
theft is doubtless shared by the House of Representatives, and
British authors and publishers may now of course expect with per-
fect confidence that the American Congress and Government will at
their very earliest possible convenience unite in enacting a conven-
tion with this country for a scheme of International Copyright.