, Mr. Thomas Moore. To him Lord Byron has inscribed his last poem as a person "of unshaken
public principle
, and the most undoubted and various talents; as the firmest of Irish
patriots
, and the first of Irish bards."
Before we proceed to give Lord Byron's own judgment of this "firmest of patriots," and this "best of poets," we must be allowed to say, that though we consider Mr. Moore as a very good writer of songs, we should very much complain of the poetical supremacy assigned to him, if Lord Byron had not qualified it by calling him the first only of
Irish
poets, and, as we suppose his Lordship must mean, of
Irish
poets of the