write ballads and songs for the Dublin periodicals, many of them appearing in the ‘Sentimental and Masonic Magazine,’ 1792–5, W. P. Carey's ‘Evening Star,’ and in Watty Cox's ‘Irish Magazine,’ generally signed with his initials or ‘G—e R—s’ and ‘G—e R—n—lds.’ In Carey's paper appeared Reynolds's well-known poem, ‘The Catholic's Lamentation,’ otherwise called ‘Green were the Fields where my Forefathers dwelt O.’ The most popular of his short lyrics, ‘Kathleen O'More,’ ran through thirteen editions on its publication in 1800. In 1794 Reynolds published, in Dublin, ‘The Panthead,’ an heroic poem in four cantos. In 1797 a musical piece, entitled ‘Bantry Bay,’ referring to the attempted French invasion, was performed with success at Covent Garden, the music being by William Reeve [q. v.] The piece, which was loyalist in tone, was published in London in the same year.
Reynolds was at this time a yeomanry officer—popular, distinguished as a wit, and in the commission of the peace for Leitrim and Roscommon. But in or about 1799 Lord Clare deprived him of the latter office, on the ground that his loyalty was doubted. Reynolds retorted in an insulting letter, which afterwards appeared in Watty Cox's ‘Magazine.’ In 1801 he came to England to study law, intending to practise, but died early in 1802 at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, while on a visit to the Duke of Buckingham. He was buried at Stowe. Several pieces have been attributed to Reynolds which he did not write, including ‘Mary Le More,’ a series of three ballads which were composed by Edward Rushton of Liverpool, and ‘King James's Welcome to Ireland,’ a seventeenth-century lyric, given in Charles Mackay's ‘1,001 Gems of Song’ as the production of Reynolds. In 1830, long after his death, his relatives asserted that he was the real author of Campbell's ‘Exile of Erin,’ and that he wrote it about 1799. It was first printed in the ‘Morning Chronicle’ in 1801, and Campbell's claim to it, although warmly disputed by Reynolds's family and friends, has not been satisfactorily refuted (cf. Times, June 1830).
[Burke's Connaught Circuit, pp. 152–8; O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland, p. 213; Brit. Mus. Cat. (of Music); Sentimental and Masonic Magazine, Dublin, 1792–5; Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, i. 46–7. For evidence respecting authorship of The Exile of Erin see Hercules Ellis's Memoranda of Irish Matters, Dublin, 1844; Barry's Songs of Ireland, Dublin, 1845; and Crinnelly's Irish Family History, Dublin, 1865.]
REYNOLDS, GEORGE WILLIAM MacARTHUR (1814–1879), author and politician, eldest son of George Reynolds, post-captain in the navy, was born at Sandwich on 23 July 1814. After attending a school at Ashford, he entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, 12 Feb. 1828, but, a military career being little to his taste, he was withdrawn on 13 Sept. 1830. Subsequently he travelled on the continent and acquired a knowledge of continental—particularly French—life and literature, which afterwards had great influence upon him both as a politician and novelist. His natural bent was towards literature, and his first novel, ‘The Youthful Impostor,’ an effort in sensational fiction, was published in 1835. He paid his respects to his French masters by translations from Victor Hugo and others. His knowledge of French contemporary literature was wide, and his criticism of living French writers in his ‘Modern Literature of France’ (1839, 2 vols.) is a discriminating study.
About 1846 he became editor of the ‘London Journal,’ in which was published his ‘Mysteries of London,’ suggested by Eugene Sue's ‘Mysteries of Paris,’. On Saturday, 7 Nov. of the same year, the first number of a similar periodical, ‘Reynolds's Miscellany,’ appeared with a portrait of Reynolds as frontispiece. During the twenty-three years of its issue he wrote a succession of tales for it, and its popularity was maintained until pressure of other work compelled him to cease publishing it. From 1847 he issued a long succession of sensational novels in illustrated weekly numbers, which sold extensively (Bookseller, 2 July 1879).
Since 1840 he had interested himself in politics, and for some years had charge of the foreign intelligence department of the London ‘Dispatch.’ His work, which became one of the chief features of the paper, was conducted in full and outspoken sympathy with continental revolutionary movements. His attacks upon Louis-Philippe were particularly violent, and, as sentiments less pronounced were appearing in other columns, he severed his connection with the paper in 1847 or early in 1848. In the latter year he made his first appearance in public as a political leader. A meeting in Trafalgar Square was called for 6 March 1848 to demand the repeal of the income tax. The chartists decided to elicit from the gathering a vote in favour of the revolution in Paris; the government declared the meeting illegal, and the promoters advised the people to stay away. Nevertheless, the meeting was held,
