this; and as a writer of popular lyrics, we class him as the very
first England has ever produced. In this department of literature, we
consider he holds the same place in England as Burns does in Scotland;
Béranger, in France; Freiligrath, in Germany; and Hans Christian
Andersen, in Denmark.

The reader will now ask: 'What songs _do_ sailors sing?' We answer,
that their favourite _sea_-songs[5] are the most dismal, droning
doggrel it is possible to conceive; and yet they relish them mightily,
because they are stern matter of fact, and in most instances are
descriptive of a battle, a chase, a storm, or a shipwreck--subjects
appealing powerfully to their sympathies. The following may be taken
as a tolerably fair specimen of the style of the genuine 'sailors'
songs:'--

'It was the seventeenth day of May, in the year 'ninety-six,
Our taut frigate the _Ajax_, she from Plymouth did set sail;
Eight days out, com'd a squall from north-east by north,
And then by four bells, morning-watch, it did freshen to a gale.'

Perhaps the most universally popular song among seamen is _Rule
Britannia_; but in general they do little more than sing the chorus,
and the way in which a crew of tars, when half-seas-over, will
monotonously drawl out 'Britons never, never, never shall be
slaves!'--repeating it over and over again, as if they never could
have too much of a good thing--is highly amusing. We believe that a
decided majority of the songs sang in the forecastle are not sea-songs
at all, but purely land-songs; and, strange to say, the most popular
of these are sentimental ditties, such as were, a score of years ago,
drawing-room favourites! It is very rich to hear 'ancient marineres,'