Not only isn't it ethical, but such ill-advised tampering has nothing to do with folk process - which, if analagous of Natural Selection (though I have my doubts), makes such tampering akin to Genetic Modification. In their natural context such changes were part and parcel of the life of a song, but now there're collected, stuffed, stamped, filed and indexed we really ought to treat them with all due respect and humility. It's the original error that's part of the folk process, the correction of that error is contrary to the tradition that gave us such songs.

That wouldn't be the same Mexico that was lost off Lancashire on the 9th December 1886 would it? Be nice to see the song anyway.

S O'P for Purist