G'day Joybell,

Thanks for the cross-reference on Benjamin Griffin's authorship of this Australian version. Studied together, the different Billy Barlows provide an interesting comparison of the various mores of (mainly) England, America and Australia. Of course, there is also much to be learnt from comparing the body of songs such as the Australian Billy Barlow with all the other roughly contemporary "Australian Immigrant/Settler" songs such as the one we now call The Pommy's Lament (although it is set - and was composed - before the appearance of the term "Pommy" for British immigrants to Australia.

These songs usually describe multiple disasters attendant upon unwise investment in a new and uncharted country. It is interesting that they seem to inform later songs about the perils of working for the tough, miserly, old farmers who did survive the perils of the early settlement days!

Incidentally, I did suggest that both the terms Fi. Fa. and Ca. Sa. where pretty old legal slang. As it was, I was able to find Fi. Fa. in a late 19th century source, but Ca. Sa. took more specialised work (Colin Fong is author of some texts on legal citations). I suspect that Ca. Sa. had gone out of use by the latere 19th century, along with the highly unproductive "Debtors' Prisons" that such writs peopled.

Regards,

Bob Bolton