PASTHEEN FION.1

(FROM THE IRISH.)

Oh, my fair Pastheen is my heart's delight;
Her gay heart laughs in her blue eye bright;
Like the apple blossom her bosom white,

And her neck like the swan's on a March morn bright!

Than the glass I drank to the health of my queen!
Then, Oro, come with me! come with me! &c.
Were I in the town, where's mirth and glee,
Or 'twixt two barrels of barley bree,
With my fair Pastheen upon my knee,
"Tis I would drink to her pleasantly!

Then, Oro, come with me! come with me! &c.

Nine nights I lay in longing and pain,
Betwixt two bushes, beneath the rain,

with me!

Oro, come with me! brown girl, sweet!

And, oh! I would go through snow and sleet
If you would come with me, my brown girl, sweet!

Love of my heart, my fair Pastheen!
Her cheeks are as red as the rose's sheen,
But my lips have tasted no more, I ween,

But whistle and call were all in vain!

Then, Oro, come with me! come with me! &c.

I'll leave my people, both friend and foe;
From all the girls in the world I'll go;
But from you, sweetheart, oh, never! oh, no!
Till I lie in the coffin stretched, cold and low!
Then, Oro, come with me! come with me! &c.

[Chief-justice Whiteside has shared the fate of the majority of great orators. His contemporaries speak of him with enthusiasm: there are proofs that he exercised marvellous influence on his audiences: yet when you come to examine the specimens of his oratory left behind, you find their quality far out of proportion to the effect they produced. It is a trite observation that the physical qualities of the man contribute almost as much as the intellectual to the success of the orator; and so, when the man has passed away, the oration he leaves behind loses half its force. Let the speeches, however, of Whiteside read now as they will, there is convincing proof, not only in the recollections of those who heard him, but in the records of scenes in which he moved, that he was one of the greatest orators Ireland ever produced, or the English parliament ever heard.

James Whiteside was born on the 12th August, 1806, in Delgany, county Wicklow, and was the son of the Rev. Wm. Whiteside, the rector of the parish. His undergraduate career in Trinity College was distinguished: and he took his degree with honours. Perhaps, however, the success he attained in the Debating Society was dearer and ultimately more valuable to him. During his residence in London, while taking out his law terms, he

1 "Fair youth" or "fair maiden."

was also fond of appearing in some of those arenas--not always, perhaps, too reputable— which the metropolis affords to those who desire to enter the oratorical lists. In 1830 he was called to the Irish bar; and before long had a large practice and a high reputation. In 1842 he was made a Q.C.; and from that time onwards there was scarcely a case of great importance at Nisi Prius in which he was not employed. He, however, received a higher honour than that of arguing in civil trials, however important; he was sought as counsel in the most momentous state prosecutions of our century; and particularly in that which, whether from the position of the defendant, or the magnitude of the issues, is perhaps the most remarkable in the history of our country. When O'Connell, Charles Gavan Duffy, and their colleagues, were put on trial in 1844, Whiteside was one of the counsel for their defence. This was an honour which might well weigh down even a great orator and lawyer; for not only had Whiteside to rise to the height of a sublime occasion, but to stand in rivalry with such orators of genius as Sheil and Isaac Butt. The accounts which we receive of the speech prove that he was equal to his trust. At the end of the first day of the speech there rose enthusiastic cheers from all parts of the court-from lawyers accustomed to control their feelings— from men and from women, from Catholic and Protestant; and his peroration is said to have