158 



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 ol 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 

 expatriated 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 



