This poem refers to G. W. Hunt’s enormously popular Macdermott's War Song (1877. “Gilbert Hastings MacDermott (1845-1901), the son of Irish working-class parents, became one of the biggest stars of the music halls, and was billed as the "Great Macdermott." His enthusiastic singing of this song resulted in the word "jingoism" being added to the English language.” (Derek Scott) Using ABBYY software I transcribed the page image made available online by the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. — George P. Landow
(See Cartoon.)
You probably remember a once popular refrain
Connected with Lord B.’s Administration,
Which gave peace-loving Radicals considerable pain,
And thus in dogg’rel fostered agitation—
“We don't want to fight, but, by Jingo! if we do,
We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money to[o],”
Suggesting that we’d surely blaze away till all was blue
Not to let the Russians take Constantinople.
Perhaps you too remember how the Opposition then
Objected to such bellicose effusions,
And gave the name of Jingoes to the riotous young men
Who thus endorsed Lord Beaconsfield’s conclusions;
Who wish’d not to fight, but, by Jingo! if they could,
There scarcely was a doubt that they precipitately would,
For warlike expeditions they considered very good—
Especially about Constantinople.
But circumstances greatly alter cases, as you ’ll learn;
We’re Ministers just now, not Opposition;
And, strange though it may seem, we half suspect ourselves in turn
To suffer from a Jingoish condition.
We didn’t want to fight, but, by Jingo! when we did,
We had the ships, and had the men, who acted as was bid,
And batter’d Alexandria where Arabi was hid,
Against the orders from Constantinople.
After seeing the cartoon and poem, Professor Scott sent along the following:
In January 1878, Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Liberal M.P. for Carlisle, claimed that a speech made a few days earlier by the Chancellor of the Exchequer [Sir Stafford Northcote] about the Russo-Turkish conflict was of such a tone that he wondered he did not conclude it by saying- “We don’t want to fight, but by jingo if we do, We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, and we’ve got the money too.” [Commons Sitting of Thursday, 31st January, 1878. House of Commons Hansard, Third Series, Vol. 237, columns 729–813.]
At the Commons sittings of 16 Dec. 1878, during debates on military expenses in Afghanistan, there are references to “the great jingo party” and how “blustering jingoes” were working up a vast distrust of Russia. Conservative M.P. Patrick Smollett says that people attributed “what was now called jingoism” to the Conservative Party, but he thought the Liberal Party could also act in an aggressively imperialist manner. On 17 Dec., Sir Wilfrid Lawson refers in Parliament to people who sing “jingo” songs.
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Last modified 26 April 2016