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claims, thought it an act of justice to both parties, to 
subject those claims to a strict scrutiny. 
It is admitted by the friends of Reynolds, that Campbell’s 
account of the poem has been unvarying ; that he wrote it in 
Altona in 1801 ; that it soon became universally known as his; 
that it was published in various editions of his poems, and his 
right to it never questioned till nearly thirty years after its 
first appearance. He was then accused of having ‘‘ abstracted” 
it from the library of the Marquis of Buckingham, though 
there was no Marquis of that title. In a letter addressed to 
the Editor of The Times, he indignantly repelled the charge 
as a calumny; and affirmed, that never in his life had he access 
to any papers of either Marquis or Duke of Buckingham ; 
that he wrote the song in Altona, and sent it off immediately 
from thence to London, where it was published by his friend 
Mr. Perry in the Morning Chronicle. This statement of Camp- 
bell’s was in perfect accordance with the account of the origin 
of the poem communicated to Dr. Drummond in Edinburgh, 
in the winter of 1811, by Dr. Robert Anderson, who had 
been Campbell’s particular friend, viz., that it was written in 
Altona, in consequence of Campbell’s having met with some 
éxpatriated Irishmen in that city, for whose misfortunes he 
felt a deep sympathy. This has been still farther corroborated 
by George Petrie, Esq., who affirms that he heard the same 
statement from certain of those very exiles whom he named, 
and who were well known in Dublin prior to their banish- 
ment. Campbell had spent the evening in their company, 
and their conversation having naturally turned on their ruined 
hopes and unfortunate country, he was greatly moved, and on 
retiring gave vent to his feelings in the song of the Exile of 
Erin. The following morning he gave them a copy of it, and 
by them it was speedily transmitted to Ireland. It is possible 
that one of those copies, or a transcript of one of them, may have 
fallen into the hands of Reynolds, that he spoke of it to his 
friends, and, as he was known to have had some propensity to 
