the time of Charles Bourdigne and Villon down to
that of Vidocq and Victor Hugo, the last of whom has enlivened the
horrors of his "_Dernier Jour d'un Condamne_" by a festive song of this
class. The Spaniards possess a large collection of _Romances de
Germania_, by various authors, amongst whom Quevedo holds a
distinguished place. We, on the contrary, have scarcely any slang songs
of merit. With a race of depredators so melodious and convivial as our
highwaymen, this is the more to be wondered at. Had they no bards
amongst their bands? Was there no minstrel at hand to record their
exploits? I can only call to mind one robber who was a poet,--Delany,
and _he_ was an Irishman. This barrenness, I have shown, is not
attributable to the poverty of the soil, but to the want of due
cultivation. Materials are at hand in abundance, but there have been few
operators. Dekker, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Ben Jonson have all dealt
largely in this jargon, but not lyrically; and one of the earliest and
best specimens of a canting-song occurs in Brome's "_Jovial Crew_;" and
in the "_Adventures of Bamfylde Moore Carew_" there is a solitary ode,
addressed by the mendicant fraternity to their newly-elected monarch;
but it has little humor, and can scarcely be called a genuine
canting-song. This ode brings us down to our own time; to the effusions
of the illustrious Pierce Egan; to Tom Moore's Flights of "_Fancy_;" to
John Jackson's famous chant, "_On the High Toby Spice Flash the
Muzzle_," cited by Lord Byron in a note to "_Don Juan_;" and to the
glorious Irish ballad, worth them all put together, entitled "_The Night
Before Larry Was Stretched_." This facetious performance is attributed
to the late Dean Burrowes, of Cork. It is worthy of note that almost all
modern aspirants to the graces of the _Musa Pedestris_ are Irishmen. Of
all rhymesters of the "_Road_," however, Dean Burrowes is, as yet, most
fully entitled to the laurel. Larry is quite "the potato!"

And here, as the candidates are so few, and their pretensions so humble,

I can't help putting in my claim for praise.

I venture to affirm that I have done something more than has been
accomplished by my predecessors, or contemporaries, with the significant
language under consideration. I have written a purely flash song, of
which the great and peculiar merit consists in its being utterly
incomprehensible to the uninformed understanding, while its meaning must
be perfectly clea