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NEW ieeland
POLITICAL SKETCHES
AND
PEESONAL EEMINISCENCES. BY
A. M. SULLIVAN.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
Vol. II.
FOURTH EDITION.

LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MAESTON, SEAELE, & EIVINGTON,
CBOWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STEEET.
1878.
{AH rights reserved.']

LONDON.
FEINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. '
I. The Phoenix Conspikacy
II. Papal Ireland
III. The Fate op Glbnveih
IV. The Fenian Movement
V. A Troubled Time
VI. The Eichmond Escape
VII. Insurrection !
VIII. The Scaffold and the Cell
IX. " Delenda est Carthago ! "
X. Disestablishment .
XI. Longford
XII. " Home Eule "
XIII. The Kerry Election
XIV. BallycohIey .
XV. The Disestablished Church
XVI. Ireland at Westminster
XVII. Loss and Gain

PAGE 1
21
49
77
108129
157
186
216 247
27630032S
350
372388
406

NEW ieeland.

CHAPTER I.
THE PHdJNIX CONSPIRACY.
If the absence of political life and action could be
called tranquillity, or torpor be deemed repose,
Ireland from 1852 to 1858 enjoyed that peaceful
rest, that cessation from agitation, which so many
authorities declared to be the one thing wanting
for her prosperity and happiness. With the over
throw and ruin of the Tenant-right movement
in 1852 there set in a state of things which
ought to have gladdened the hearts of all such
monitors. Never before, since the Emancipation
campaign of 1829, had Ireland been without
some popular organisation or public movement
that gave a voice to the nationsl] aspirations.
This political activity, which to many eyes
seemed so deplorable, at one time occupied it
self with Cathohc Emancipation, at another with
VOL. II. B

NEW IRELAND.

Corporate Reform, at another with the Tithe
question ; for a long period with Repeal, for a
short one with Land tenure. But now the
temple of Janus was closed. Political action
ceased. The last endeavour of the Irish masses
to accomplish ameliorations within the lines of
the constitution had been baffled and crushed.
By skilful exercise of "patronage" the Govern
ment had bought off the leaders and exploded
the hopes and plans of the Tenant Leaguers.
No direct political defeat could have accom
plished so complete a dispersion of the popular
organisation. It was not merely that the people
were driven beaten from the parliamentary
field, but that they were routed under circum
stances which forbade a rally. Their faith in
one another, their confidence in leaders, their
reliance on constitutional effort — all, all were
swept away. To the eye of the superficial
observer, Ireland was in 1856 more really and
completely "pacified" than at any period since
the time of Strongboiv. Repeal was buried.
Disaffection had disappeared. NationaHty was
unmentioned. Not a shout was raised. Not
even a village tenant-right club survived. The
people no longer interested themselves in politics.

THE PHCENIX CONSPIRACY.

Who went into or who went out of Parliament
concerned them not. The " agitator's " voice
was heard no more. All was silence. Rest and
peace, some called it. Sullen indifference and
moody despair others judged it to be.
I do not believe that in the darkest days of the
eighteenth century a lower level of public spirit,
a lower tone of political morality, prevailed in
Ireland than at this time. The chill of dis
appointment, the shock of recent events, drove
into retirement the best elements of public
society. The fierce violence and. unsparing
passion with which the controversies and
resentments arising out of those events were
pursued belonged less to regular political
combat than to a savage guerilla warfare. In
such a state of circumstances public life was
almost wholly abandoned to the self-seeking and
adventurous. Grood faith, honesty, consistency,
sincerity in political affairs, were cynically scoffed
at and derided. " Every one for himself and the
Castle for us all " was the motto of the hour.
The political arena was regarded simply as a mart
in which everything went to the highest bidder ;
and the speculator who netted the most gains was
B 2

NEW IRELAND.

the man most applauded. Such was political
Ireland in 1856.
The schism which split the ranks of the Young
Ireland or Confederate party in 1848 — referred to
in a previous chapter — never was really closed.
The principles developed on each hand in that
controversy were very distinct and strongly
marked. The bulk of the national party, though
swept into insurrection amidst the fever of '48,
held the views of O'Brien, Meagher, Dillon, Duffy,
O'Gorman, and Doheny, expressed in the Con
federation debate ofthe 4th of February in that year.
They never based their policy on revolution. It
was regarded as a contingency not to be shrunk
from if absolutely forced upon them, but one so
remote as to be beyond the range of practical
concern. The minority embraced revolution, not
merely as a possible contingency, but as the only
one to be contemplated and prepared for. They
laid the failure of the insurrection upon the " rose-
water" policy of Duffy and O'Brien. The wounded
pride, the bitter' mortification, with which the
result of that attempt was attended for them,
intensified their feelings. They would not accept
what had taken place as any test whatever of
their policy, principles, or plans. The loaded

THE PHCENIX CONSPIRACY.

gun had miserably missed fire ; that was all.
When they found Gavan Duffy, on his release
from prison, in the revived Nation, faUing back
on a constitutional and parliamentary policy, their
anger and scorn were very bitter. They assailed
him with taunt and invective ; but he carried the
country along with him, and O'Brien, Meagher,
O'Doherty, and other of the State prisoners
indorsed and approved his course. The Separatists,
few in numbers, were put to silence for the time ;
but they continued to regard with undisguised
hostility the line of policy which the Nation
pursued. Through all the course of Irish politics from 1848
downwards, the divergence and conflict of these two
sections of the National party may be traced, and
have to be kept in mind. Half the blunders of
EngHsh politicians, in dealing with the passing
incidents of domestic Irish affairs, arise from
ignorance of this state of things. A correct
appreciation of it supplies a key to many
apparently perplexing problems. The Constitu
tional NationaHsts, looking to Henry Grattan as
their founder, and" the Revolutionary Nationalists,
or Separatists, takings Wolfe Tone as theirs, have
operated, and stiU operate, sometimes together,

NE W IRELAND.

often in conflict, in Irish politics, down to the
present day.
Amidst the fervour with which the people
embraced the Tenant-right agitation of 1850, the
separatist and revolutionary principles, momen
tarily embraced a few years before, seemed almost
extinguished in Ireland ; but abroad^in America
and elsewhere- -the refugees of the '48 movement,
with one or two important exceptions, invincibly
retained the violent determinations of that time.
Two of these refugees, Mr. John 0 'Mahony and
Mr. James Stephens, had settled for some time in
Paris after their escape from Ireland in 1848.
They there fell into the society of men who,
during the " year of revolutions," in various parts
of Europe, from Vienna to Rome, had played a
part much Hke their own ; and soon, in what may
be called the central training-school of European
revolutionism, they learnt that the way to begin
was by a secret society. After a residence of
a few years in the French capital, 0' Mahony
proceeded to America. Stephens quietly returned
to Ireland, and engaged himself as private tutor
to a gentleman residing near Killarney. Before
parting, they had both arrived at the conclusion
that if ever their principles were to have another

THE PHCENIX CONSPIRACY.

opportunity of promulgation in Ireland, it should
be in accordance with the skilful tactics they had
learned in Paris. But they grievously feared that
what they execrated as the retrograde movement
of the popular party at home, under Dufiy's
guidance, had rendered any such contingency
hopelessly remote.
They little thought how near it was at hand.
The overthrow and virtual suppression of the
Tenant League, utterly breaking the hope of the
people in such political eflforts, cleared the field
and removed the obstacles which the dreaming
conspirators thus deplored. With joy they saw
the people abandon public politics, and well knew
how, brooding in despair, they would weigh the
miseries contested elections had brought on their
heads against the worst that could befall them on
a more violent course. The " calm " of Irish
politics from '52 to '58, that so delighted
superficial observers, was in truth the worst
symptom in the course of half a century. StiU,
the disheartenment was so great, the revulsion
of feeling so complete, that although the people
had given up constitutional efforts, it was by
no means clear they would care to try any
other. For a long while no opportunity pre-

NEW IRELAND.

sented itself of launching the revolutionary ex
periment. In the summer of 1857 Mr. Smith O'Brien —
who had previously been liberated from his
confinement at Hobart Town, on condition of not
returning to Ireland — was allowed to return
under an unconditional amnesty. His former
status was fully restored in every respect, except
a special exclusion from his otherwise rightful
rank and title as brother of a peer; his eldest
brother having quite recently, on the death of the
Marquis of Thomond, become Lord Inchiquin.
Almost the only sign of popular interest in
politics which could be noted in Ireland at the
time was the satisfaction which his return caUed
forth, and the tender to him forthwith of the
representation of an Irish constituency in
ParHament. He, however, refused to resume any
prominent position in active public Hfe, although
he by no means disclaimed a deep feeling of
interest in Irish questions. He devoted the
summer of 1858 to a quiet tour through the
country, evidently curious to see what changes
the ten eventful years just past had brought
about. In several places he was welcomed with
manifestations of respect and affection, though he

THE PHCENIX CONSPIRACY.

avoided and seemed to deprecate " public demon
strations " of any sort. At Clonmel, the town
in which he had been sentenced to execution as
a traitor, he was presented with an address, to
which he delivered a reply marked by that
quiet dignity and that inflexibility of public
principle which were with him old characteristics.
He referred sadly to the incidents of '48, but
proudly affirmed that the convictions and
principles for which he was then ready to lay
down his life — the right of Ireland to her native
constitutional form of government — were firm and
unshaken as ever. This avowal called forth a
remarkable article in the Times — remarkable read
by the light of events near at hand. The great
Englisli journal declared the roar of this toothless
lion need disturb no one. Irish disaflfection was
dead and buried ; would never trouble England
more. The tranquillity, the contentment, the
loyalty of the Irish people showed that the days
of agitators and rebels were past, never to return.
While the Times, exultant in these assumed
facts, was pelting them tauntingly at O'Brien,
the government in DubHn Castle were making
preparations to pounce upon a new conspiracy.
Within a month we were once more in the midst

IO NEW IRELAND.

of proclamations, police razzias, arrests, and State
trials. The outbreak of the Indian mutiny had greatly
excited the revolutionary party among Irishmen
at home and in America. It looked like the
beginning of a protracted and perilous struggle
for England ; perhaps of her overthrow. On this
occasion, as during th'e Crimean war, Ireland was
denuded of troops. Here, they reflected, were
two signal opportunities for revolt lost through
want of preparation. It was determined forthwith
to make a beginning with the long-meditated
project of a Secret society.
Some young men — mercantile assistants and
others — in the town of Skibbereen had, about this
time, established a political club or reading-room,
called the Phoenix National and Literary Society.
It might have gone the way of many a similar
institution, and never been heard of beyond the
local precincts, but for a visit which Mr. James
Stephens paid to that neighbourhood in May 1858.
He had been struck by the rather independent and
defiant spirit of some observations reported from
one of its meetings, and judged that among these
men he would find material for the work he had
in hand. Foremost in a sort of careless audacity

THE PHCENIX CONSPIRACY.

and resolute will was one, already quite popular,
or, as " the authorities " in Skibbereen would say,
a " ringleader/' with young men of his class: —
Jeremiah DonoVan. He was not only given to
GaeHc studies, but he exhibited a love for
historico-genealogical research which was quite
alarming to the local gentry. He very shortly
resumed the " 0 " to his name ; and, as his people
belonged to Ross, he adopted the distinguishing
Gaelic affix " Rossa,"* thenceforward signing
his name — one now well known in Ireland,
England, and Scotland — " Jeremiah O'Donovan,
Rossa." One evening in May 1858, O'Donovan ¦ — or
" Rossa," as it may be more convenient to call
him, although he was not generally known by
this affix for some time after — was waited upon by
a companion who had something important to
communicate under the seal of seer esy. A
mysterious " stranger " had come to town on a
startling mission. The Irishmen in America, he
declared, had resolved to aid the men at home in
achieving the independence of Ireland, and the
* Subdi-nsions of Irish families or clans were sometimes
distinguished, one from another, in this way ; as " O'Connor,
Kerry," " O'SuUivan, Bear (or Beara)," &c.

12 NEW IRELAND.

aid was to consist of arms and of men. Rossa goes
on to tell the rest : " If we had a certain number of
men sworn to fight, there would be an equal number
of arms in Ireland for these men when enrolled,
and an invading force of from five to ten thousand
men before the start. The arms were to be in the
country before the men would be asked to stir ;
they would not be given into their hands, but
were to be kept in hiding-places until the appointed
time, when every Centre could take his men to
the spot and get the weapons. As soon as we had
enrolled the men willing to fight, we were to get
military instructors to teach us how to do as
soldiers." Nothing could possibly have been more to the
heart of Rossa than this enterprise. He jumped
at it, he says, " and next day I inoculated a few'
others, whom I told to go and do likewise."
Before a month had elapsed, out of one hundred
young men on the books of the " Literary Society,"
ninety had been sworn in to this secret organisa
tion. Such was the start of Fenianism. The " mys
terious stranger " was Mr. James Stephens.
Mr. Stephens well enough knew that the
National party, so far as it was represented by the

THE PHCENIX CONSPIRACY. 13

Nation newspaper — by Smith O'Brien and Gavan
Duffy — would resent this effort ; that, in fact, the
feud between the two sections was sure to be
resuscitated over such a project. Ordinarily it
would be impossible to make much headway with
a national or popular movement, open or secret,
which the Nation opposed ; but there were reasons
for making light of any such difficulty now. The
breakdown of Mr, Duffy's parliamentary policy,
through the Sadleir-Keogh betrayal, was not
unnaturally presumed to have weakened the
influence of the Nation; and I, who had but a
short time previously succeeded to Mr. Duffy's
position in the Nation office, was young, little
known, and devoid of his great experience and
influence. In the south-western angle of the
island, formed by portions of Cork and Kerry, a
very brisk enrolment went on ; the " seer esy,"
however, being absurdly inefficient. In the course
of the summer I was made aware that some persons
had been freely using the name of Mr. Smith
O'Brien, of Mr. John Mitchel^ myself, and others in
mysterious whispers about the power of the move
ment, and the approval given to it. Whether such
idle stories were worth contradicting was doubtful ;
yet it seemed a serious moral responsibility to

14 NEW IRELAND.
remain silent. I could not tell what Mr. Mitchel's
views might be — he was in America — but I
thought it likely he would favour such a scheme.*
The views of the other gentlemen — of Smith
O'Brien especially — I well knew to be utterly
averse to anything of the kind. Meanwhile a new
urgency appeared. The Catholic Bishop of Kerry,
the Most Rev. Dr. Moriarty, called upon me one
day to say that within the past hour he had heard
from a Government official a minute account of the
" Phoenix Society " conspiracy in his diocese.
" It is no use pooh-poohing such work," said he ;
" the Government are preparing . to treat it
seriously, and are in possession of full informa
tion. A friendly warning in the Nation may
disperse the whole danger, and bring these young-
men back to reason. At all events, you will save
others from being involved in the catastrophe."
Other newspapers had already been making public
references to the subject ; still I disliked the role
of " alarmist." I consulted with Mr. John B.
Dillon, Mr. Kevin O'Doherty, and other such
friends near at hand ; and wrote to Mr. Smith
O'Brien, stating the case, and asking him what I
ought to do — whether more harm than good
* In this I was wrong, as I afterwards discovered.

THE PHOENIX CONSPIRACY. 15
might come of any public intervention. The
first-named gentleman deemed disclaiming un
necessary, and doubted the wisdom or efficacy of
public interference. The Catholic clergy, however,
throughout the whole district affected by the
secret organisation, had determined to intervene
at once and severely. Simultaneously from the
altars of the Catholic churches the whole business
was vehemently denounced, and the people warned
to withdraw from and shun it. Mr. O'Brien's
answer to my confidential communication was a
letter, which he wished to be instantly published,
it being his opinion that we were bound to repre
hend all attempts to identify the Irish National
cause with such an organisation. I hesitated no
longer ; I not only published Mr. O'Brien's letter,
as he desired, but in strong terms appealed to
patriotic Irishmen to avoid the hopeless perils and
the demoralising effects of secret societies. I was,
in the same sense as the National leaders had ever
been, as " seditious " as any of them in my
hostility to the imperial scheme of destroying our
national autonomy, but I had not studied in vain
the history of secret oath-bound associations. I
regarded them with horror. I knew all that could
be said as to their advantages in revolutionising a

1 6 NEW IRELAND.
country ; but even in the firmest and best of hands
they had a direct tendency to demoralisation, and
were often, on the whole, more perilous to society
than open tyranny. In joining issue on this
occasion with the hidden chiefs of the movement,
I knew I was setting a great deal on the cast ; yet
I did not know all. No action of all my life bore
consequences more full of suffering and sacrifice
for me than did this throughout subsequent years.
Conducting such a journal as the Nation, I had no
choice as to silence. An equivocal attitude would
have been despicably mean and cowardly. I was
called upon to speak and act, under not only the
public but the conscientious constraint of duty, and
I did so. The result proved that the influence of
the Nation had been underrated ; or perhaps I
should say, its influence in co-operation with the
appeals of the Catholic clergy. The enrolment
was stopped, and it seemed for a while as if the
movement had been relinquished. So great had
been the eflfect of the firm but friendly remon
strances addressed to the people, that I verily
believed we should hear no more of the Phoenix
Society. Not so, however. The Government,
having long previously got its hand upon the
business, was not willing to forego the sensational

THE PHCENIX CONSPIRACY. 17
performance of crushing a conspiracy against its
power. On the 3rd of December 1858 a vice
regal proclamation appeared, declaring that such
a public danger existed. In a few days after a
simultaneous raid was made upon the Phcenix men
in Skibbereen, Bantry, Kenmare, and Killarney.
The kingdom was alarmed anew by the spectacle
of terrorising arrests and State prosecutions.
This was very generally regarded as " forcing an
open gate," and the severities visited upon some
ofthe prisoners — young men of excellent character,
and many of them warmly regarded in their native
districts — excited considerable public sympathy.
The Government, however, seemed determined to
treat the affair in a very serious spirit. A special
commission was issued for the counties of Kerry
and Cork, in each of which some score of prisoners
awaited trial. .In March 1859 the whole array of
Crown counsel, led by the Attorney-General, Mr.
Whiteside, M.P., commenced proceedings at
Tralee. The first prisoner arraigned was a national
school teacher named Daniel O'SuUivan.* The
trial^ which was very protracted, was signalised
'by the remarkably able defence of the prisoner by
* It was a coincidence that tho informer whose evidence was
adduced to convict him bore the same name.
VOL. II. C

NEW IRELAND.

Mr. Thomas O'Hagan, Q.C., some ten or eleven
years subsequently Lord Chancellor of Ireland,
and now Baron O'Hagan.* The story disclosed
by the Crown was simply that in the districts
already mentioned numbers of young men were
sworn into a secret society such as Rossa describes,
and that small parties of them were in the habit
of going through military drill, chiefly at night
time, but sometimes in the day. Beyond this
stage the business had not progressed, and as far
as could be known the organisation had not
extended elsewhere in Ireland. The leader was a
mysterious personage, referred to generally as
" the Seavac "¦ — Gaelic for hawk, and pronounced
" Sheuk" — but pretty well known to be none other
than Mr. Stephens. The jury disagreed, and the
* By one act of his legislative career Lord O'Hagan may
truly be said to have writ his name large on the page of our
modern history. No man of this generation has done more to
surround the law and its administration with popular confidence
and respect than he by his great measure of Jury Eeform. The
Irish people were thereby assured for the first time that jury
manipulation was not to render a Crown prosecution a game
with loaded dice. When Lord O'Hagan's Act first went into
operation, some jars and hitches occurred ; and partisans of the
old system called out " failure." But it has long since be
come the object of universal praise, as a great and statesmanlike
piece of legislation.

THE PHCENIX CONSPIRACY. 19
further trials were postponed. At the next Kerry
assizes, the prisoner O'Sullivan, finding the Crown
empanelling an exclusively Protestant jury —
ordering every Catholic who came to the book to
" stand by " — declined to proceed with any
defence. He said this was not " trial by jury," as
supposed in law, and he would not recognise it as
such by defence. The proceedings^ consequently,
were tame and brief. He was at once found
guilty, and sentenced to ten years' penal servi
tude.* When, some months later on, the trial of the
Cork prisoners approached, their counsel and
other friends urged them strongly to plead guilty.
In the first place, the funds publicly collected to
insure fair legal advocacy for the accused had
been consumed by the protracted trial of O'Sullivan
at Tralee. In the next place, it was represented to
them that in consideration of such a course on
their part the Crown would certainly be content
to record the conviction and liberate them "to
appear when called on "; and, moreover, would
probably commute the sentence on their comrade
* Between 1848 and 1858 " transportation beyond the seas "
was abolished, and penal servitude took its place as a punish-
ment. c 2

NEW IRELAND.

O'Sullivan. On an undertaking or promise to this
latter eflfect — very tardily complied with by the
Government afterwards — the suggestion or com
promise was adopted. Rossa and his companions
pleaded guilty, and were released. The excitement
which the prosecutions occasioned passed away ;
no more was heard of the Phoenix enrolment;
The attempt, such as it was, very evidently was
abandoned. We all feHcitated ourselves that the
curtain fell on no worse results, no wider mischief,
no more- protracted punishments. Foolish was the
best of our wisdom in thinking this was the end.
We had seen only the first act in the astonishing
drama of Irish Fenianism.

PAPAL IRELAND.

CHAPTER II.
PAPAL IRELAND.
Of all Catholic nations or countries in the world
— the Tyrol alone excepted — Ireland is perhaps the
most Papal, the most " Ultramontane." In desig
nations bestowed by Roman Pontiffs others hold
high rank. The King of France was called " the
Eldest Son of the Church " ; the King of Spain is
" His Most Catholic Majesty " ; and the Sovereign
of England to this day retains a Papal title which
declares the bearer to be Defender of the Roman
doctrines against Protestantism. But these titles
represent little of reality now. In most cases what
are called " Catholic nations " are merely countries
in which Catholicity continues to be the State re
ligion, and is the form of faith professed by the
bulk of the population.
In Ireland, on the other hand, religious convic
tion — what may be called active Catholicism—

NEW IRELAND.

marks the population ; enters into their daily life
and thought and action. The churches are crowded
as well by men as by women ; and in every sacra
ment and ceremony of their religion participation
is extensive and earnest. Reverence for the sacer
dotal character is so deep and strong as to be
called " superstitious " by observers who belong to
a different faith ; and devotion to the Pope, attach
ment to the Roman See, is probably more intense
in Ireland than in any other part of the habitable
globe, " the Leonine City " itself not excluded.
In 1859 the Irish people found themselves in a
strange dilemma, between sympathy with France
on the one hand, and apprehensions for the Pope
on the other. At the New Year's receptions in
the Tuileries, the Emperor Napoleon, by a remark
to Baron Hubner, regretting that the relations
between France and Austria were not more satis
factory, set all Europe in a ferment. War — war
between France and Italy and Austria — • was
plainly at hand. England offered her accustomed
mediation, which was, of course, accepted by all
the parties, not one of whom^ however, slackened
its preparations, or dreamt for a moment of desist
ing. Three months were given to diplomatic
fooling, till the campaign season might be reached ;

PAPAL IRELAND. 23
each side trying how to manoeuvre the other into
an appearance of " aggression." At length, on the
9th of April, fifty thousand men set out from
Vienna for Lombardy, and next day sixty thousand
more followed. On the 21st an Austrian ulti
matum was despatched to Turin, caUing on Pied
mont to disarm the menacing forces it had been
assembling for some time. To this Victor-Emmanuel
replied on the 25 th by an address to his army,
declaring hostilities against Austria. Count Cavour
had meanwhile telegraphed to the French emperor,
" Help ! Help ! The Austrians are upon us ! "
In less than twenty-four hours the French army
marched from Paris for Italy. On the same day
the Austrians at one point, an the Sardinians at
another, crossed the Ticino. In a brief campaign
the Austrians were driven within the Quadri
lateral. Montebello was fought on the 20th May,
Palestro on the Slst, Magenta on the 4th of June,
and Solferino on the 24th. Suddenly, in the
midst of victories, Napoleon stopped and proffered
peace. The Treaty of Villafranca, on the llth
of July, subsequently ratified at Zurich, closed the
Italian war of 1859.
From May to July a curious struggle of sym
pathies prevailed in Ireland. The Catholic prelates

24 NEW IRELAND.
and clergy denounced the conduct of the Emperor
Napoleon as utterly perfidious. His majesty's
assurances of safety and protection for the Pope
were likened to the embraces of a Judas ; for that
when Francis-Joseph had been crushed, Pio Nono's
turn for attack and destruction would come, they
emphatically predicted. StUl popular feeling in
Ireland followed the French flag, especially when
it was found that a Franco-Irishman, General
Patrick MacMahon, was placed in command of a
division. The news of the battle of Magenta —
that MacMahon had turned the tide of victory,
had saved the French emperor, and had been
named Marshal of France and Duke of Magenta
for so memorable an achievement — evoked bound
less joy in Ireland. Bonfires blazed on the hiUs of
Clare, the ancient home of his ancestors. His name
became a popular watchword all over the island.
In the Nation we published, from searches in the
public archives at home and in France, an
authentic record of his family, from the capitula
tion of Limerick to the victory of Magenta.*
* " Patrick MacMahon, of Torrodile, in the county of
Limerick, was married to Margaret, daughter of John O'Sul
livan, of .Bantry, in the county of Cork, of the House of
O'Sullivan Beare. Honourably identified with the cause of

PAPAL IRELAND. 25
A proposition that our people should present the
Franco-Irish marshal with a sword of honour was

the last of the Stuarts, he sheathed his sword at the Treaty
of Limerick, and retired, with his wife — 'a lady,' say the
records, ' of the rarest beauty and virtue '• — to the friendly
shores of Prance. Here his son, John MacMahon, of Autun,
married an heiress, and was created Count d'Equilly. On
the 28th of September 1749, the Count applied to the Irish
Govemment of that day — accompanying his application with
the necessary fees, &c., for the officers of 'Ulster King-at-
Arms ' — to have his genealogy, together with the records, &c.,
of his family, dvJy authenticated, collected, and recorded with
all necessary verification, in order that his children and their
posterity in France might have all-sufficient proof of the proud
fact that they were Irish. All this was accordingly done, as
may be seen in the records in Birmingham Tower, Dublin
Castle, countersigned by the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,
and the various other requisite signatures. In those records
he is described as of ' the noble family, paternally of Mac
Mahon of Clonderala (in Clare), and maternally of the noble
family of O'Sullivan Beare.' He was the grandfather of the
Marshal Duke of Magenta. The Count's genealogy commences
in the middle of the fifteenth century, and traces him through
eight generations as follows : Terence MacMahon, proprietor
of Clonderala, married Helena, daughter of Maurice Fitzgerald,
Earl of Kildare, died 1472, and was interred in the Monastery
of Ashelin, in Munster. He was succeeded by his son Donatus
MacMahon, who married Honora O'Brien, of the noble family
of Thomond ; and his son, Terence MacMahon, Esq., married
Joanna, daughter of John MacNamara, Esq., of Dohaghtin,
commonly styled ' MacNamara Eeagh,' and had a son Bernard
MacMahon, Esq., whose wife was Margarita, daughter of

2 6 NEW IRELAND.
responded to with unexampled enthusiasm. Five
hundred pounds were called for ; nearly seven

Donatus O'Brien of Daugh. Mortogh MacMahon, son of
Bernard, married Eleonora, daughter of William O'Nelan of
Bmri, colonel of a regiment of horse in the army of Charles I.,
and was father of Maurice MacMahon, Esq., whose wife Helena
was daughter of Maurice Fitzgerald, Esq., of Ballinoe, Knight
of Glinn. Mortogh MacMahon, son of Maurice, married
Helena, daughter of Emanuel MacSheehy, Esq., of Ballylinan,
and was father of the above-named Patriok MacMahon, who
married Margarita, daughter of John O'Sullivan, Esq., mother
of John, first Count d'Equilly. The descent of the Count
MacMahon, maternally, through the O'SuUivans is as follows :
Mortogh O'Sullivan Beare, of Bantry, in the county of Cork,
married Maryann, daughter of James Lord Desmond, and
dying was interred, 1541, in the Convent of Friars Minors,
Cork. His son, John O'Sullivan, of Bantry, married Joanna,
daughter of Gerald de Courcey, Baron of Kinsale, and died
1578, leaving Daniel O'Sullivan, Esq., his son, who married
Anna, daughter of Christopher O'DriscoU, of Baltimore, in the
county Cork, Esq., and died at Madrid, leaving his son John
O'Sullivan, of Bantry, Esq., who married Margaret, daughter
of James O'Donovan, of Eoscarbery, Esq. Bartholomew
O'Sullivan, son of John, was colonel in the army of James II.
at the siege of Limerick, and married Helena, daughter of
Thomas Fitzmaurice, Baron of Kerry, by whom he had Major
John O'Sullivan of Bantry, who married Honoria, daughter of
Eobert MacCarty, of ' Castro Leonino (Castlelyons), in the
county of Cork, Esq., grandson of Daniel MacCarty, Lord of
Glancare, and Margaret, his wife, daughter of Donogh Lord
Desmond, and died 1731.' Their daughter was Margarita,
who married Patrick MacMahon, Esq., of Torrodile.''

PAPAL IRELAND. 27
hundred were subscribed ; and a really magnificent
sword and scabbard were manufactured, from de
signs speciaUy furnished by an Irish artist, Mr. E.
Fitzpatrick. The Marshal, on being made aware
of the proposed compliment, intimated that, subject
to the requisite permission of the Emperor, he
would be truly happy to receive this mark of re
gard from his anciens compatriotes, as he styled the
Irish people.* The Emperor, in a very marked
way, assented, and on the 2nd of September 1860,
my brother, Mr. T. D. Sullivan, and Dr. George
Sigerson, a deputation from the Irish committee,
proceeded to France to make the formal presenta
tion. The Marshal was at the time in command
at Chalons, and to honour the arrival of the Irish
deputation on such an errand the camp was en
fete. The formal presentation took place at head
quarters. An address, engrossed in Irish and
French, and signed on behalf of the Dublin com
mittee by The O'Donoghue, M.P., chairman, and by
Mr. P. J. Smyth and Mr. T. D. Sullivan, hon. secre
taries, was read by one of the deputation. The
* " Je dois commencer par vous dire que je suis excessive-
ment reconnaissant de ce temoignage d'interet de la part
d'anciens compatriotes avec lesquels je n'ai eu depuis long-
temps que des rapports indirects."

28 NEW IRELAND.

Marshal was visibly affected, and, with a voice
betraying considerable emotion, he repHed as
follows * : —
"Gentlemen,- — I am most deeply touched by
the sentiments which you have just expressed to
me ; and I pray that you will tell the Irish whom
you represent how grateful I feel for the testimony
of esteem and sympathy which you offer me in
their name. This testimony, by its spontaneous
character, proves to me that Green Erin has pre
served those chivalrous ideas, that vivacity, and
that warmth of heart which have ever distin
guished her.
" I will leave one day to my eldest son, Patrick,
this magnificent sword. It will be for him, as it is
for myself, a new pledge of those close ties which
* " Messieurs, — Je suis on ne pent plus touche des sentiments
que vous venez de m'exprimer, et je vous prie de dire aux
Irlandais que vous representez combien je suis reconnaissant
du temoignage d'estime et sympathie que vous m'offrez en leur
nom. Ce temoignage par sa spontaneite m'a prouve que La
Verte Erinn avait conservee ces idees chevaleresques, cette
vivacite, et cette chaleur de coeur qui I'ont de tout temps
distingue. " Je laisserai, un jour, a mon fils aine, Patrice, cette mag-
nifique epee. Elle sera pour Iui, comme elle est pour moi,
un gage nouveau des liens dtroits qui doivent I'unir a jamais
au noble pays de ses ancetres."

PAPAL IRELAND. 29
should unite him for ever to the noble country of
his ancestors."
The deputation, together with some friends who
had accompanied them from Paris, were enter
tained at a splendid banquet, to which he had
invited to meet them quite a number of French
officers and noblemen of Irish lineage — Command
ant Dillon, General O'FarreU, General Sutton de
Clonard — men whose names proclaimed at least their
Irish origin, although Ireland they had never seen.
The hero of Magenta proved to be quite conversant
with Irish history, poetry, and literature. " C'etait
un pays tout-a-fait poetique," said he, addressing
a French general ; " it was a land of poetry, which
character it has not even yet lost ; its ancient laws
were often written in verse, and the bards ranked
next to royalty."
That he could turn a joke with quick humour
was shown by his play upon the French word
" eau " and the Irish prenominal " 0." " He had
been making particular inquiries," says a member
of the deputation, " about the signification of the
' 0' and ' Mac ' ; and on their origin being ex
plained to him, he mentioned that some persons,
when they saw his name, said, ' That is a Scotch
name.' This, he said, was absurd, of course ; but

30 NEW IRELAND.
were there not other names in Ireland having Mac
prefixed ? He was answered there were many such
— Mac Carthy, Mac Guire, &c. ; but that it was,
indeed, remarkable enough that the Scots showed
such a predilection for the ' Mac' ' O's ' were
plenty in Ireland, whilst ' il n'y a pas d'O en
Ecosse.' " ' Comment,' exclaimed the Marshal, with a
sparkle of genuine fun in his eye — 'comment,
malgre ses lacs ?' "
There is good reason to believe that Napoleon
the Third halted at Villafranca because he found
himself in the toils of a man who was his master
in every art of diplomacy and politics — Count
Cavour. The Emperor had dreams and schemes of
compromise, and thought he could assign limits
to the bold designs of the Turin organiser, by
whom from first to last he was baffled, outwitted,
and beaten. Even while Napoleon was theorising
over his project of an Italian Confederation with
the Pope at its head, Cavour, determined to defeat
it, was secretly spreading his agencies and opera
tions throught the entire peninsula. On the 20th of
October Victor-Emmanuel openly rejected the Villa
franca plan, declaring he was engaged to the Italian
people. In the same month was announced the

PAPAL IRELAND. 31
division of the territory so far secured. Savoy and
Nice were to fall to the French emperor, as com
pensation ; Lombardy, the Romagna, Parma, and
Modena being appropriated b}^ the Sardinian king.
But was annexation to stop even at this point?
A feeling of uneasiness and apprehension spread
through Ireland. The new year, 1860, found the
island heaving with excitement. That on one
ground or another the Pope would be openly
attacked and further despoiled was now the uni
versal conviction, and monster meetings to tender
him sympathy and support were held in every pro
vince and county. Subscriptions in his aid poured
in from every parish and diocese in the kingdom.
They amounted in the aggregate to a vast sum ;
but the depth and force of popular feeHng which
these sixpences and shiUings of the poor repre
sented, even more than did the splendid contiibu-
tions of the rich and aristocratic classes, gave a
grave importance to this extraordinary upheaval of
religious emotion.
On this subject there was displayed one of the
most violent conflicts of English and Irish popular
opinion which I have ever noted. In England
the Italian movement evoked the warmest admi
ration. It was hailed as the onward march of

32 NEW IRELAND.
liberty, the overthrow of oppression. In Ireland
it was denounced as the rapacity of a dishonest
neighbouring state, sapping and undermining the
pontifical power, and now planning an open seizure
of the prey. Englishmen were disgusted that the
Irish should, out of fanatical worship of the Pope,
desire to prevent the Romans from being free.
Irishmen were angered to see how filibustering
raids were subsidised in England against an aged
and peaceful Pontiff, the head of Christendom,
while a few years previously Great Britain had
spent millions of money and shed rivers of blood
to uphold the head of Mahomedanism. The
artillery of journaHsm waged a furious duel across
the channel. " Every people has a right to choose
its own form of government," said the English
press. " Then let us choose ours," answered the
Irish. " The Romans have a right to rebel," said
the one. " But there is no question of the Romans
rebelling," responded the other ; " it is a question
ofthe Piedmontese invading the Pope's dominions."
In short, the dispute resolved itself briefly into this,
that in England the reality of oppression and dis
aflfection in the Pope's dominions was fully believed
in ; while in Ireland the discontent was declared
to be mainly a commodity produced by Sardinian

PAPAL IRELAND. 33
agencies for Sardinian ends — that is to say, for
annexation purposes.
Each party acted accordingly. From England
went public addresses, money, and men to help
Victor-Emmanuel and Garibaldi. From Ireland
went addresses and money, but not yet men, to
defend the Roman Pontiff against the threatened
attack. Not yet men ; but soon the cry was raised.
Why not men also ? One of the popular journals,
the Dundalk Democrat, declared that Ireland's best
oflfering to the Supreme Pontiff at this crisis would
be an Irish brigade. I had myself for some time
previously been vainly urging the same view on
Irish ecclesiastical dignitaries whom I knew to be
in intimate correspondence with Rorae. I found
I was dealing with a wofully conservative body of
men. They quite started, affrighted, from the use
of anything like force or violence even in self-
defence. I believe my views and propositions
were forwarded to or mentioned at Rome, but they
were rather discouragingly received. Monsignor
De Merode was then the pontifical minister of
military affairs. He early foresaw that to the
arbitrament of the battle-field this whole business
must some day come ; and he strained every nerve
to prepare for such a contingency. Only in a slow
VOL. II. D

34 NE W IRELAND.
and halting and reluctant way could he obtain
assent to his views at the Vatican, where Cardinal
Antonelli, persuaded that resistance single-handed
would be hopeless, was altogether for relying on
" the Christian Powers." Pio Nono himself was,
moreover, to the last more or less averse to military
preparation or demonstration. He was a man
of prayer; Cardinal Antonelli was a man of
diplomacy ; Monsignor de Merode believed that
Count Cavour cared little for either, and that,
taking to the sword, he could be stopped only by
the sword, if at aU.
At last we heard that General Lamoriciere had
been offered and had accepted the chief command
ofthe pontifical army — nominally twenty thousand,
in reality about ten thousand, men. To those in
any degree behind the scenes this meant that Mon
signor de Merode had at length carried the day,
and that an effort would be made to organise a
force for the defence of the Roman territory.
One day, early in March 1860, two gentlemen
entered my office in Lower Abbey Street, Dublin.
One was a friend whom I knew to be deeply inte
rested in the now critical affairs of the pontifical
Government ; the other was a stranger, apparently
a foreigner. " Here," said my friend, " is a gentle-

PAPAL IRELAND. 35

man who shares some of those views you have been
so hotly urging about defending Rome." I found
in my unknown visitor Count Charles Mac Donnell,
of Vienna, trusted attache of Field-Marshal Count
Nugent, and a chamberlain of the Holy Father.
If ever chivalrous devotion to a fallen cause was
personified, it was in this loyal and brave-hearted
gentleman. He reminded me of those Highland
chieftains whose attachment to the Stuarts, ro
mantic and tragical, evokes sympathy and admira
tion in every generous breast. Had he lived in
the thirteenth century, he would have been a
crusader knight; in 1641 he would have been a
Cavalier; in 1745 he would have been at the side
of Pi'ince Charles Edward on the fatal field of Cul
loden. He came to see what Ireland would do —
what aid she would contribute in the military
defence of the Roman patrimony. " We know in
Rome," said he, " that Garibaldi, with the con
nivance and secret assistance of the Turin Govern
ment, is organising an aggressive expedition,
but whether to strike at Naples or at us in the
first instance we cannot tell. In any case we shall
be attacked this summer. What will Ireland dt)
for us?"
"In the improbable event of tbe Government D 2

36 NE W IRELAND.
allowing volunteering, as in the case of Donna
Maria," I answered, " you can have thirty thousand
men ; if, as is most likely, they give no permission
but no active opposition, you will probably get
ten thousand ; if they actively prevent, nothing
can be done. In my opinion, unless the proceeding
is too glaring and open. Lord Palmerston will not
raise a conflict, in view of Lord Ellenborough's
letter and the 'million of muskets ' movement on
the other side in England. But the chief difficulty
will be our own bishops. They will be adverse or
neutral. Not one of them believes the little army
of Lamoriciere can cope with the overpowering
odds of Sardinia."
The Count pulled from his breast a scarlet
morocco letter -case, and in five minutes satisfied
me that abundant assurance had been secretly
given at Rome by some of the crowned heads
of Europe that if Monsignor de Merode could,
without French or Austrian intervention, defeat
invasion by Garibaldian irregulars, Sardinia would
be prevented from attacking.
This threw a new light on the situation. I
think I can assert that it was upon the faith of
those private assurances the whole of General
Lamoricifere's movements were planned in 1860.

PAPAL IRELAND. 37
My friend the Count was intensely Austrian,
and hated Napoleon with a deadly hatred. " He
is a liar," he said, " and the truth is not in him.
He wUl not keep his word ; but others will keep
theirs." I could see very early that the mortal
jealousy between France and Austria would prove
the real peril of Pio Nono.
We set off on a tour through the provinces, to
sound our way as to what niight be done, and how
best to do it. I was painfully anxious that the
Count should be out of the country as soon as
possible ; or, at all events, that he should send his
red despatch-case away, for it contained one or two
autograph letters which, if lost, or on any pretext
seized, would have raised an awkward diplomatic
storm on the Continent. But he would " complete
his mission " at all hazards ; and he did. Within
less than a month from his departure the first band
of pontifical volunteers left Ireland. Before the
end of July nearly two thousand men had pro
ceeded in small parties across the continent of
Europe, and reached the Roman States. Deep
mistrust of the Emperor Napoleon at first forbade
the hazard of sending men through France, and
accordingly the route selected was by way of
Belgium and Austria. The line from Bodenbach

38 NE W IRELAND.

to Trieste and Ancona was under the charge of
Count Mac Donnell ; the portion reaTching from Ire
land to Bodenbach was under the authority of a
committee or directorate in DubHn, consisting of
three or four gentlemen, in whose labours I bore
some part. Only one of them may I name-^he is
now no more — and of him I can sincerely affirm
that the pontifical Power had never fallen if all
who owed it allegiance served it with the deep-
hearted love and devotion of Laurence Canon
Forde. The expedition which Count Mac Donnell had
predicted or mentioned in March proved a reaHty.
On the 4th of April an outbreak took place at
Palermo, and on the 5th of May the famous
" Thousand " of Garibaldi sailed from Genoa. From
that date to the beginning of September Europe
witnessed the unchecked victorious progress of that
force. By the 28th of July they had conquered
Sicily, On the 8th of September General Gari
baldi, M. Dumas pere, and Mr. Edwin James, his
chief non-military colleagues in the campaign,
entered Naples without opposition; Francis II.
having retired to Gaeta. Next day Victor-
Emmanuel was proclaimed king in the Neapolitan
capital.

PAPAL IRELAND.

39

The endeavour of Generals Lamoriciere and
Kanzler to hurriedly organise a really efficient mili
tary system was a work of almost hopeless difficulty.
Papal Rome was not a beUigerent Power. Its so-
called army, or Swiss guard, were little more than
a police force. Nevertheless, by the month of
August Lamoriciere declared himself confident of
encountering and defeating the now imminent
attack of the victorious Garibaldians penetrating
from the Neapolitan side. Meanwhile a formid
able Sardinian force was being assembled on the
northern frontier, under Generals Cialdini and
Fanti. To the very last the French emperor sent
tranquillising assurances, on the faith of Turin
declarations, that no hostile movement against
the pontifical territory was intended ; * that this
* "At the beginning of the month of September your
excellency communicated to me the assurances given by the
French ambassador on behalf of Piedmont, that not only that
Power would not invade our territory, but that it would even
oppose the invasion by any bands of volunteers which were
forming over our frontiers. The measures adopted against
Colonel Nicotera, who had assembled 2000 men in the neigh
bourhood of Leghorn, and who wished to throw them on our
coasts, were additionally promised to us ; and it appeared that
it was in the direction of Naples that we had to fear an
invasion. Already at several intervals the embarkation of
troops in Sicily and in the Calabria was announced as intending

40 NE W IRELAND.
army was assembled to " repress disorder " should
the Garibaldian movement in the south extend.
Suddenly, on the 9th of September 1860, Cardinal
Antonelli received from Count Cavour a demand
for the disbandment of Laraoriciere's force. With
out awaiting reply, the corps of Generals Fanti
and Cialdini burst across the frontier, took Lamori
ciere in flank and rear, and cut in pieces the forma
tion he had effected for attack from a different
quarter. In a brief and disastrous campaign, in
which, hopelessly outnumbered and taken by sur
prise, it never had a chance, the pontifical army was
defeated at every point. This crash found the Irish,
mostly unarmed, in process of drill at Ancona,
Spoleto, Perugia, and Foligno. Their organisation
into a battalion, called the " Battalion of St.
Patrick," under the command of Major Myles W.
O'Reilly (the present member of Parliament for
Longford county), bad barely been effected; but
their equipment was not yet accomplished. La
moriciere seemed stunned by the news of the

to attack us in the direction of the Marches; and after the
occupation of Naples by General Garibaldi everything led us
to believe that our southern provinces would be shortly in
vaded." — Official Beport hy General Lamoriciere to the Pontifical
Ministry of War.

PAPAL IRELAND. 41
Piedmontese invasion. Marching out of Spoleto
at midnight of the 14th, he made a desperate effort
to gather his forces for a dash to Ancona ; the
Piedmontese commander being evidently deter
mined to cut him off. Strange as it may sound at
this day, even at that moment the Papal general
believed, and had received reason to beHeve, that
if he could hold the enemy at bay for a week or
two the French emperor would come to his aid !
At Macerata, on the 17th, he effected a junction
with General Pimodan. Pushing on next day, he
found General Cialdini lying across his course in
strong position at Castelfidardo. Here was fought
the reaUy decisive battle of the campaign. Lamori
ciere succeeded in cutting his way through to
Ancona, at the head of a troop of chasseurs ; but
his army was annihilated.
Meanwhile General Fanti's corps had attacked
and taken Perugia on the 15th, and summoned
Spoleto to surrender on the 17th. The town, or
rather the " Rocca," was held by Major O'ReiUy
and three hundred Irishmen, besides some few
Franco - Beiges, Austrians, Swiss, and native
Italians. Quite a formidable controversy was
raised by some of the English newspapers over
this capture of Spoleto from the Irish ; but the

42 NE W IRELAND.
signal gaUantry of the defence has been attested
by authorities on whose testimony Major O'Reilly
and his three hundred Irishmen may proudly rest
their reputation; namely. General Brignone, the
commander of the attacking force, and General
Lamoriciere, one of the first soldiers in Europe.
The former in the articles of capitulation says : —
The officers and soldiers shall be treated in all respects with
that urbanity and that respect which befit honourable and
brave troops, as they have proved themselves to be in to-day's
fight. On the 28th of September Ancona, besieged by
land and sea, its defences laid in ruins by a con
tinuous bombardment, surrendered to Admiral
Persano, whose recently published correspondence
throws a startling light on the secret history of
this campaign.
Whether the Irish companies in this ill-fated
struggle displayed at all events " the ancient
courage of their race " is a question that keenly
touches the national honour. Happily its decision
does not rest merely on the frank and modest
report of their commander, nor yet on the eulogies
of the Papal minister of war. No one will deny
that General Lamoriciere was a competent military
authority as to the bearing and conduct of soldiers.

PAPAL IRELAND. 43
In his official report he makes severe reflections on
some smaU portion of the troops who served under
his command ; but of the Irish he never speaks
save in praise. He bears special testimony to
their bravery at Perugia, at Spoleto, at Castel
fidardo, and at Ancona. " At Perugia," he says,
" one Irish company " (the total Irish force
present) " and the greater part of the battalion of
the 2nd Regiment of the Line alone showed them
selves determined to do their duty." At Spoleto,
he says, the Irish " defended themselves with
great gaUantry." At Castelfidardo, he says, " two
howitzers were moved forward, under a very
sharp fire, with the aid of the Irish. These
brave soldiers, after having accomplished the
mission with which they were charged, reunited
themselves with the tirailleurs, and during the
rest of the battle distinguished themselves in
their ranks."
Often have bitter and passionate words passed
between the English and Irish press ; but I doubt
if ever the language of taunt and contumely on
the one hand, of hatred and defiance on the other,
proceeded to greater lengths than on this occasion.
The presence of an Irish force on the Papal side
utterly outraged English opinion ; and the way in

44 NE W IRELAND.
which English anger found expression in the
public journals was in calling the Irish " cowards "
and " mercenaries." Whatever else may be said
of Irishmen, as England well knows, they make
good soldiers. They are not " cowards " ; and
whatever else might have been charged upon those
men, they were not " mercenaries." From the
English point of view they were fanatics, but
certainly not mercenaries. They left country,
home, and friends to fight for a cause in which,
rightly or wrongly, as Englishmen might judge,
they deemed it honourable and holy to die. Pay
— mercenary considerations — could have had no
place in their motives ; for the pay of a Papal
soldier was merely nominal, and his rations were
poor indeed. The taunts and invectives of the
English press evoked fierce rejoinder in Ireland.
By way of answer to the aspersions on the batta
lion lying prisoners at Leghorn and Genoa, it was
decided that they should be brought home " in
triumph " at the national expense. After a troubled
and protracted negotiation with the Piedmontese
authorities, the prisoners were turned over to a
duly commissioned representative of the Irish
Brigade Committee. He chartered a steamer and
embarked the men for Cork, where they safely

PAPAL IRELAND. 45
arrived on the 3rd of November 1860. In antici
pation of this event I was requested to proceed to
the southern port to arrange for their reception,
and the forwarding of them to their homes. But
the citizens of Cork took the work very heartily
into their own hands in great part. A local " re
ception committee " was instantly formed, under
the active presidency of Mr. J. F. Maguire, M.P.,
and preparations were set on foot for a general
festive display. Had those men been victors on a
hundred fields they could not have been welcomed
with more flattering demon stration s . Bands played
and banners waved ; the population turned out en
masse ; addresses were presented and speeches
delivered. In public procession, escorted by the
local committee, comprising some of the principal
citizens of Cork, the battalion marched to the
several railway stations, where, breaking up into
parties destined for different localities, they sepa
rated, embracing and kissing one another in
continental style, quite affectionately. Nor did
the demonstrations end here. At every town
where a detachment alighted crowds assembled,
waving green • boughs, if flags could not be
obtained, and escorted them on their homeward
road.

46 NE W IRELAND.
In this chapter of her history Ireland is to be
seen and studied under the influences of over
powering religious emotion ; or, as it might be less
sympathetically said, " carried away by such blind
and fanatical zeal for a religious chief as must mark
a nation imbued with bigotry and intolerance." It
is, however, a fact which ought to be intelligently
contemplated, that this people, so strongly Papal,
so intensely Catholic, so violently opposed to
" liberalism " or religious indifference, is, in civil
affairs, perhaps the most liberal and tolerant in the
world. When, in the early "part of the present
century, it was proposed to " emancipate " Irish
Catholics, that is, to admit them to seats in Parlia
ment and to certain municipal and other official posi
tions — the project was long resisted on the ground
that a people so dogmatic or "bigoted" in their re
ligion would instantly ostracise non-Catholics ; that,
being in a vast majority all over Ireland, they would
drive from public life all Protestant representa
tives of popular constituencies, making reHgion,
not poHtics, a test in civil affairs. Not a far-fetched
apprehension, assuredly. Long excluded from such
civil rights and privileges, it would not have been
very astonishing if the Irish Catholics, wherever
they could command a parliamentary seat or a

PAPAL IRELAND. 47
municipal honour, kept it for, or conferred it on,
a man of their own faith ; leaving non-Catholics,
for whom the field had always been free, to the
care of still powerful co-religionists. This was not
the course which they adopted. They no sooner
grasped these coveted honours and privileges than
they hastened to share them with their Protestant
friends. From the day the Catholic Emancipation
Act received the royal assent, in 1829, to this hour,
the most Catholic constituencies in Ireland have
again and again returned Protestants to Parlia
ment ; and have often so returned them in opposition
to Catholics of less acceptable political views. Mr.
Butt, Mr. Mitchell-Henry, Mr. Blennerhassett, Mr.
Whitworth, Mr. Gray, Lord Francis Conyngham,
Mr. Parnell, Captain King Harman, and other
Protestant gentlemen now sitting for Irish seats,
are elected, as were their equally Protestant
predecessors, by some of the most Ultramontane
and Papal communities in Christendom !
This praiseworthy conduct, unfortunately, has as
yet elicited no reciprocal action on the other side ;
and the foes of bigotry and intolerance at one time
trembled lest a fact so discouraging might ruin the
generous experiment. In no single instance has
an Irish Protestant constituency elected a Catholic

48 NEW IRELAND.
to Parliament. Happily, the Catholic majority,
refusing retaliation, hold on to the principle of
doing what is right and wise and kindly. It will
be a day of calamity for Ireland if ever the evil
spirit of fanaticism shake them from that noble
policy.

J HE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 49

CHAPTER III.
THE PATE OF GLENVEIH.
In the remote and wild north-west of Ireland,
lashed by billows that roll from the frozen
ocean, stands ancient Tyrconnell, better known
to modern ears as the Donegal Highlands.
There is probably no part of the island of equal
expanse more self-contained, or separate, as it were,
from the outer world. Nowhere else have the
native population more largely preserved their
pecuHar features of life and character, custom and
tradition, amidst the changes of the last two
hundred years.
The eastern portion of Donegal abounds in
rich and fertile valleys, and is peopled by a
different race. Two hundred and fifty years ago
all of the soil that was fair to see, that seemed
worth possessing, was handed over to " planters,"
or " undertakers." The native Celts were driven
VOL. II. E

so NEW IRELAND.

to the boggy wastes and trackless hills that were
too poor or too remote for settlers to accept.
Here, shut out from the busy world, their lowly
lot shielding them from many a danger, the
descendants of the faithful clansmen of " Dauntless
Red Hugh" lived on. Their life was toilsome,
but they murmured not. Along the western
shore, pierced by many a deep bay, or belted by
wastes pf sand, their little sheelings nestled along
side some friendly crag, while close at hand " the
deep- voiced neighbouring ocean " boomed eternaUy
in sullen roar.
The scenery, from Slieveleague to Malin Head,
is wildly romantic, and in some places surpassingly
beautiful. There are wide stretches of bleak and
utter desolation, but ever and anon the eye is
arrested 'and .,the fancy charmed by views which
Alpine regions rarely excel. Lough Swilly —
" the Lake of Shadows " — is one of the m^st pic
turesque ocean inlets on our coasts. It steals south
ward past Buncrana and historic Rathmullen, till it
reaches Letterkenny on the one side, and lovely
Fauhn on the other ; as if the sea had burst into a
series of Tyrolean valleys. But there is not a
scene amongst them all to match the weird
beauty and savage grandeur of lone Glenveih !

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 51
The western, or Atlantic, shore of Donegal is
indented by a narrow estuary, which penetrates
some five or six miles in a north-easterly direction,
until, at a place called Doochery, it ijieets the
Gweebarra river. The gorge through which
estuary and river flow is but the south-western
section of a singular chain of valleys, which reach
in a direct line from Gweebara Bay to Glen Lough,
a distance of more than twenty miles. The middle
section is Glenveih, so called ; or, as it ought to
be, Glenbah — the Glen of Silver Birches. It is
truly a most romantic spot. The mountains rise
boldly to a height of over a thousand feet on
either side, and are clothed in great part with
indigenous forest ; while sleeping calmly in the
vale below, following its gentle windings,
broadening and narrowing as the hills give room,
is the lake — Lough Veih.
The mountain district around is of the wildest
character. Thirty years ago it was inhabited by
a people such as one might meet amidst the crags
of the Interthal or Passeyr ; sometimes passionate,
always hospitable ; frugal, hardy, inured to toil.
They eked out a poor existence less by their little
farm-plots than by rearing on the mountains young
stock, which at the suitable seasons they sold

52 NEW IRELAND.

to the comfortable and prosperous Presbyterian
plantation men of Raphoe and Lifford districts.
Little more than twenty years ago there
chanced to pass through Derryveih,* as the
immediate district is called, on sporting purposes
bent, Mr. John George Adair, of Bellgrove, in
Queen's county. He was so struck, he says, with
the charms of the scenery, that he determined to
become proprietor of the place. Between August
1857 and May 1858 he succeeded in purchasing a
great part in fee-simple, and a fee-farm interest in
a further portion. It was an evil day for the
mountaineers when Mr. Adair first set eye on
their home. Notwithstanding the storm of
terrible accusations which that gentleman soon
after poured upon them, and the disturbance,
conflict, and crime which attended upon or
arose out of his proprietorial proceedings, the fact
is significant that at the period of his purchase, and
ever subsequently, the Glenveih peasantry were
on the best and kindliest relations with their land
lords ; and that the surrounding gentry, and the
clergy of all reHgious denominations, to the very
* " Derryveih," " Loughveih," and " Glenveih " mean respec
tively the wood or forest, the lake, and the glen 'of silver
birches.

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 53
last spoke and speak of them in terms of warmest
sympathy and compassion. No sooner, however,
does Mr. Adair enter on the scene than a sad and
startling change appears. The picture drawn by
the previous and surrounding landlords, of a
simple, kindly, and peaceable peasantry, gives
way to one sketched by Mr. Adair of a lawless,
violent, thieving, murderous gang, whose extir
pation is a mission which has devolved on him in
the interests of " society." The first act of the
new landlord was ominous of what was to follow.
The purchases were completed by the 30th of
April, when what was called the Gartan estates
passed to him from Mr. CornwaU. In May he
began operations by the erection of a police
barrack, and close to it, under the cover of its guns,
a " pound " — or prison for seized cattle. I knew a
Httle of Mr. Adair. He had been, if not a member
of the Tenant League, a tenant-right candidate for
Parliament in 1852. In these proceedings of his
I have never regarded him as a man who coldly
planned barbarity, or designed injustice, when he
entered upon the career of landlord in Donegal.
Nay, I incHne to believe he meant to use kindly,
according to his own ideas, the despotic power
^vhich he claimed. But a thwarted despot soon

54 NEW IRELAND.
forgets benevolent intentions, and thinks only of
asserting his power, and of crushing without
mercy those who war against it. The police
barrack and the pound were the first indications
of the spirit of Mr. Adair's rule. I am not aware
that the old landlord had need of these institutions.
The people at all events looked askance at them ;
and on the threshold of his proceedings Mr.
Adair was prejudiced in their eyes. The 21st of
August found that gentleman on the hills, gun in
hand, shooting over the lands upon which Mr.
Johnson, the late landlord, was alone understood
to possess the right of sporting. The tenants,
headed by one James Corrin, either by express
order from Mr. Johnson or under some idea of
duty towards him, resisted Mr. Adair's attempt to
shoot the lands, and a rather angry conflict or
scuffle ensued. Mr. Adair indicted Corrin and the
other tenants for this " assault " ; but the real
nature of the affray is sufficiently attested by the
fact that on the 23rd of October the grand jury
threw out the bills ; and next Michaelmas term
Corrin — significantly enough, through the attorney
of his landlord, Mr. Johnson — filed an action for
assault and battery and malicious prosecution
against Mr. Adair. On the 16th and 17th of

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 55
February next year, 1859, the action came to trial
before the Lord Chief Baron in Dublin. It resulted
in a verdict that Mr. Adair had committed an
assault, but that it had been in exercise of a
lawful right of sporting. Next ensuing term
Corrin served notice for a new trial in the superior
courts, and so the litigation went on.
Out of this dispute — this paltry quarrel of Mr.
Adair with poor mountaineers defending, as they
believed, the rights of an old landlord — sprang
events that will never be forgotten in Donegal.
From Easter to midsummer it was open war
between the great man and the poor peasants ;
the latter, however, being warmly befriended by
the neighbouring magistrates and landlords.
Colonel Humfrey especially. On the 2nd of July
Mr. Adair had several of the tenants arrested and
brought before him at Glenveih, the wretched
people being marched sixty miles to and from
prisons ; yet five d^js afterwards they were dis
charged by two resident and two local magistrates
at Church Hill petty sessions. At length he deter
mined to put himself, at any cost, in a position
which would give him absolute dominion over
these audacious peasants. In October 1859 he
bought up the fee-farm interest of the remainder

56 NEW IRELAND.

of Derryveih, 11,956 acres, through Mr. T. C.
Trench, at a rent above the total payable by the
tenants. By this time — between the purchase, on
the 22nd of August 1857, from Mr. Pitt Skipton,
the 29th of AprU 1858, from Colonel Humfrey and
Mr. Johnson, the 30th of April, the Gartan estate
from Mr. Cornwall, and the 10th of October 1859,
from Mr. Johnson — he had become absolute monarch
of nearly ninety square miles of country. This
eager anxiety to buy more and more as time went
on was assuredly inconsistent with the idea subse
quently put forward by Mr. Adair, that it was an
affliction to him to be the landlord of such a people.
Just about the time this gentleman appeared in
those parts, western Donegal was going through
hard times and bitter conflict over " Scotch
sheep." Some two or three of the proprietors had
conceived the idea -or, more probably, had been
weakly persuaded by Scotch farm stewards— that
fortunes might be made out of those wild moun
tains, now used solely by the cottiers for grazing
a few goats, heifers, and sheep. By taking up
the mountains wholly or in part from the people,
and extensively stocking them with imported
blackfaced sheep, these landlords were led to
beHeve that thousands a year might be cleared

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 57
in profit. The attempt to deprive the people of
the mountains led to deplorable conflict, suffering,
and loss. The benevolent pretext of "squaring
the farms " — sometimes, no doubt, a genuine and
well-meant motive, but occasionally an excuse for
dexterously cheating the people — did not avail.
While the cottiers and the landlords were fighting
over the question, lo ! the Scotch shepherds
announced that the blackfaced sheep were disap
pearing from the hills — stolen by the hostile inhabi
tants, it was of course assumed. Search of the
tenants' houses failed to verify this conclusion.
Some few traces of such thefts were found here
and there, but not in any extent to account for
the disappearance of so many hundred sheep.
Soon what had happened became more clear. The
dead bodies of the sheep were found in scores all
over the hills — kiUed by the lawless natives, it
was now concluded. Presentments for the value
of the sheep thus assumed to have been " mali
ciously destroyed" were levied on the districts.
Still the destruction, or rather the mysterious
disappearance, of the sheep went on. The more
it did, the more heavy the penalty was made ; and
the more sweeping the presentments, the more
extensive grew the destruction !

58 NEW IRELAND.

At last it occurred to. one of the Crown officials
that there was something suspicious in all this.
He noted that whereas the sheep imported from
Scotland cost from seven shillings and sixpence
to ten shillings a head, on the mountain they were
presented for at seventeen and sixpence to twenty-
five shillings. It occurred to him that while this
went on, sheep-losing would flourish. Suspicion
once aroused, strange facts came to Hght. The
houses of the shepherds themselves were searched,
and mutton in rather too generous abundance was
found. Then serious investigation was prosecuted,
when it was incontestably established that the
sheep had perished in large numbers from stress
of weather, still more extensively from falling
over crags and precipices, and to some compara
tively small extent by the surreptitious supply of
the shepherds' tables. Shortly came the remark
able fact of the going judges of assize indignantly
refusing to fiat these monstrous claims, and de
nouncing the whole proceeding.* Mirabile dictu,
* August 1, 1860. After the verdict of tho jury at Lifford
assizes had declared the sheep to have perished as I bave
described, the judge. Chief Justice Monahan, said, " I am as
satisfied as I am of my very existence that those sheep were not
maliciously killed."

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 59
when the presentments were stopped, the black-
faced sheep importation fell thro.ugh !
But in the interval what suffering had been
visited on the wretched people ! The " levies "
had reduced them, poor as they were at best, to
a plight which might have excited the compassion
of a Kurd marauder. I travelled all the way from
Dublin to investigate the facts for myself in the
spring of 1858. I was much excited by all that
I saw and heard, and I took an active, perhaps an
angry, part in the pubHc agitation which ensued.
No Bulgarian hut after a raid of Bashi-bazouks, or
Armenian hovel after a Cossack foray, could
present a more wretched spectacle of desolation
than did those Donegal sheelings after the levies
had swept the district. Yet what the poor people
seemed to feel as acutely as the seizure and canting
off of their little stock — their heifers and goats,
and pigs and poultry, nay, their bedsteads and
pots and pans — was that they were held up to the
world as thieves and sheep-stealers. I dare say
some sheep had been stolen, but certainly not in
any sense by a general system or with popular
sympathy. It seemed to me that some one or two
undoubted instances of theft or destruction at the
first suggested the evil system, which soon was

6o NE W IRELAND.
adopted, of attributing all the loss to the criminal
conduct of the population.
Mr. Adair, too, went in for blackfaced sheep ;
and of all the landlords who entered upon that
sort of speculation he was the angriest at the
lawless savagery (as he conceived) of the natives
in this " malicious destruction." In January 1860
he had given " notice to quit " to his tenantry, but
only, he told them, for the purpose of " squaring
the farms." The loss of the sheep, following so
closely on other causes of quarrel, brought things
to an unhappy pass between him and the people.
How the truth lay in the sheep question may be
inferred from the following official resolution of
the assembled magistrates at Church Hill ses
sions : —
The bench are unanimously of opinion that no sheep of
Mr. Adair's were maliciously injured or made away with ; and
we find that through the constabulary sixty-six sheep have
been found dead from the inclemency of the weather, as there
was no mark of injury on them.
But soon, unfortunately, he was to have stiU
weightier cause for resentment; a more terrible
impulsion to anger and passion. On the morning
of the 13th of November, his manager, James
Murray, left Glenveih Cottage. He was never

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 6i
seen alive afterwards. On the 15th his body was
found on the mountains, with marks of violence,
which the coroner's jury declared to have been
given by a murderer's hand. The only witness
examined (beside a surgeon) was a Scotch assistant
shepherd, Dugald Rankin ; and his bias against
the Glenveih people was supposed to be strong.*
Mr. Adair, as he gazed on the corpse of his
servant — murdered, as he verily believed, for stern
discharge of his duties — revolved in his mind a
terrible determination. He grouped together a
catalogue of, as it seemed to him, persistent and
widespread crimes. Two of his dogs had been
poisoned, though the presentment sessions refused
to admit the act was malicious. An outhouse at
Gartan Glebe was found to be on fire while he
was a guest with the Rev. Mr. Maturin. Two
hundred of his sheep had been killed on the
mountains, though the magistrates would insist it
was by accident or tempest. And now his manager
had been foully slain. He would show these
people that he would conquer. He would make
them feel how terrible his vengeance could be.
* On the 1st of March Eankin was carried to jail at
Strabane, for presenting a pistol at a man named Gallagher
and wounding Constable Patrick Morgan.

62 NEW IRELAND.
The resolution formed by Mr. Adair was to
sweep away the whole population of Derryveih ;
chiefly concentrated, I believe, in a little hamlet
on the Lough Gartan side of the hiU.* He applied
for and received a special force of poHce to protect
his herd and himself, in view of the desperate
undertaking upon which he was now entering. A
parliamentary return issued in May 1861 makes
some curious revelations as to Mr. Adair's quarrels
with the executive in Dublin Castle over the cost
and efficiency of this protective garrison. In
truth, despite the heavy case he was able to
adduce, the Government authorities, the local
magistrates, the clergy, Protestant and Catholic,
the police inspectors, aU manifested clearly their
sorrow, alarm, or resentment at the monstrous
proceeding he ¦ contemplated — nothing less than
the expulsion of hundreds of innocent people, men
and women, the aged and the young, in vengeance
for the crime of some undiscovered individual.
The neighbouring landlords seemed to regard him
as a deadly combustible planted in their midst ; a
* Derryveih mountain divides the two lakes of Lough
Glenveih, or Lough Veih, and Lough Derryveih, or Lough
Gartan. At Gartan, St. Columba, or Columbkille, was born
A.D. 621.

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 63
gentleman whose " sense of duty " had resulted in
plunging their county into a condition which
caused them vexation and uneasiness. The
magistrates of the district, assembled at Church
HiU, felt the situation so strongly that they
passed the foUowing resolution : —
Eesolved, That the outrages complained of have, in our
opinion, arisen from causes unconnected with any matter having
relation to the adjoining estates, hitherto and now in a state of
perfect tranquillity.
Mr. DiUon, the resident magistrate, writing to
the Under Secretary for Ireland, Sir Thomas
Larcom, asks, "Is it my duty and that of the
police to stand by and give protection while the
houses are being levelled?" The Protestant
rector, the Rev. Mr. Maturin, writing to the Dublin
Daily Express, after Mr. Adair's vengeance had
been wreaked, says : —
The presumption is as strong that the persons who com
mitted the murder were not connected with the district. ... I
could mention other reasons certainly suspicious and some
what mysterious. . . . What would be Mr. Adair's feelings
if it were found out hereafter that the murder was committed
by persons va. no way connected with the Derryveih tenantry
now exterminated on account of it, and whose wailings might
then, without avail, for ever ring in his ears ?
Indeed, although the hapless mountaineers were.

64 NE W IRELAND.

I believe, exclusively Catholic, this kindly hearted
and estimable Protestant clergyman flung himself
into the forefront of every effort to save them.
He and the Catholic priest of the district, the
Rev. Mr. Kair, drew up and forwarded to Mr.
Adair a joint letter, in which they felt confident
they would not appeal in vain to his mercy.
They bore the strongest testimony to the virtuous
character and the kindly and peaceable nature of
the threatened people, whom they had known all
their lives ; and emphatically denied that any
suspicion of compHcity in Murray's murder could
justly be laid against them. Mr. Adair's reply
was stern and inexorable. He recited all the
outrages, real and fancied. With the deepest
regret for what he considered a necessity, he was
determined to evict the inhabitants of that part of
the property. Some of known good character he
would not disturb. To such as had brought good
characters from the reverend appellants he had
offered mountain holdings, with leases, elsewhere.
I need follow his plea no further. The man who
conceives himself to be " a saviour of society " has
a pious justification for any extremity of conduct.
News of the storm about to burst upon them
reached the people early in February 1861.

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 65
Some realised its terrible import ; but the majority
did not. As . a matter of fact, up to the hour of
the evictions, few of them would believe that such
a menace would or could be carried out. In this
remote and lonely region nothing they had ever
heard suggested the possession of such a power by
any one. They owed no rent. They had done no
man wrong. Mr. Adair, on the 4th of February,
called into Dublin Castle, and there quietly swore
an information, that being about to serve ejectment
notices on his tenants, he believed the life of the
bailiff would be unsafe without an armed escort.
The resident magistrate, Mr. Considine, who gave
the escort, says the ejectments " were served
by Mr. Adair's gamekeeper without the least
hindrance being offered by the tenantry." In
fact, it is curious to notice the fatal calm which
hung over the valley itself, while, unknown to its
doomed people, the "outer world" — the magis
trates and police officials, nay, the executive in
Dublin — were in no little excitement and appre
hension as the evil day drew near. The
correspondence between the various officials and
public departments, as to the drafting and
concentration of police detachments and military
companies, fills several pages of a blue-book. The
VOL. II. . F

66 NE W IRELAND.

dispositions and arrangements were almost as
formidable as if Derryveih had to be stormed and
carried from an intrenched army. Mr. Cruikshank,
the sub-sheriff, writing to Sir Thomas Larcom,
Under Secretary, says that besides two hundred
constabulary being drafted from various parts, he
will require some military with tents and baggage
to be sent from Dublin : —
I have therefore to request that one officer and thirty rank
and file be ordered to meet me at Lough Barra, on Monday
the 8th instant, at twelve o'clock, in aid of the civil power. If
the party leave Dublin by rail on Friday morning, they will reach
Strabane at four o'clock, wait there that night ; march next day
to Letterkenny, a distance of fourteen Irish miles, rest there
Sunday, and meet me and the constabulary early on Monday.
As it is likely the force will be employed Monday and Tuesday
and part of Wednesday, I would suggest for your consideration
the prudence, if not necessity, of the soldiers being provided
with tents, as it will be impossible in a mountain country such
as Glenveih to get for them accommodation for the idght ;
and after remaining some time under arms they could not
march back to Letterkenny, nearly ten Irish miles, and return
the next day.
On the night of Sunday the 7th of April the
several detachments had closed in around the
place, occupying or commanding the only available
entrances or passes. Still the hapless people, in
fatal confidence, slumbered on. It was like the

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 67
sleep of the Macdonalds on the night before
Glencoe. In the early morning of Monday, the 8th of April
1861, the sight of the redcoats and the glitter
of bayonets at the southern entrance to the valley
gave signal of alarm ; and from house to house,
and hill to hill, along Lough Gartan side, a halloo
was sent afar. Soon there rose on the morning
air a wail that chilled even the sternest heart.
The poor people came out of their cabins in
groups, and looked at the approaching force, and
there burst from the women and children a cry of
agony that pierced the heavens. The special
correspondent of the Derry Standard, a leading
Presbyterian journal in the neighbouring county,
gives the following account of what he saw :
" The first eviction was one peculiarly distressing,
and the terrible reality of the law suddenly burst
with surprise on the spectators. Having arrived
at Loughbarra, the police were halted, and the
sheriff, with a small escort, proceeded to the house
of' a widow named M'A ward, aged 60 years,
living with whom were six daughters and a son.
Long before the house was reached loud cries were
heard piercing the air, and soon the figures of the
poor widow and her daughters were observed
P 2

68 NEW IRELAND.
outside the house, where they gave vent to their
grief in strains of touching agony. Forced to
discharge an unpleasant duty, the sheriff entered
the house and delivered up possession to Mr.
Adair's steward, whereupon six men, who had
been brought from a distance, immediately fell to
to level the house to the ground. The scene then
became indescribable. The bereaved widow and
her daughters were frantic with despair. Throwing
themselves on the ground they became almost
insensible, and, bursting out in the old Irisb wail
— then heard by many for the first time — their
terrifying cries resounded along the mountain side
for many miles. They had been deprived of the
little spot made dear to them by associations of
the past — and, with bleak poverty before them,
and only the blue sky to shelter them, they
naturally lost all hope, and those who witnessed
their agony will never forget the sight. No one
could stand by unmoved. Every heart was
touched, and tears of sympathy flowed from many.
In a short time we withdrew from the scene,
leaving the widow and her orphans surrounded by
a small group of neighbours, who could onlj^
express their sympathy for the homeless, without
possessing the power to relieve them. During

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 69
that and the next two days the entire holdings in
the lands mentioned above were visited, and it
was not until an advanced hour on Wednesday
the evictions were finished. In all the evictions
the distress of the poor people was equal to that
depicted in the first case. Dearly did they cling
to their homes till the last moment, and while the
male population bestirred themselves in clearing
the houses of what scanty furniture they contained,
the women and children remained within till the
sheriff's bailiff warned them out, and even then it
was with difficulty they could tear themselves away
from the scenes of happier days. In many cases
they bade an affectionate adieu to their former
peaceable but now desolate homes. One old man,
near the fourscore years and ten, on leaving his
house for the last time reverently kissed the doorposts,
with all the impassioned tenderness of an emigrant
leaving his native land. His wife and children
followed his example, and in agonised silence the
afflicted family stood by and watched the destruc
tion of their dwelling. In another case an old
man, aged ninety, who was lying ill in bed, was
brought out of the' house in order that formal
possession might be taken, but readmitted for a week
to permit of his removal. In nearly every house

70 NE W IRELAND.
there was some one far advanced in age — many
of them tottering to the grave — while the sobs of
helpless children took hold of every heart. When
dispossessed, the families grouped themselves on
the ground, beside the ruins of their late homes,
having no place of refuge near. The dumb
animals refused to leave the wallsteads, and in
some cases were with difficulty rescued from the
falling timbers. As night set in the scene became
fearfully sad. Passing along the base of the
mountain the spectator might have observed near
to each house its former inmates crouching round
a turf fire, close by a hedge ; and as a drizzHng
rain poured upon them they found no cover, and
were entirely exposed to it — but only sought to
warm their famished bodies. Many of them were
but miserably clad, and on all sides the greatest
desolation was apparent. I learned afterwards
that the great majority of them lay out all night,
either behind the hedges or in a little wood which
skirts the lake; they had no other alternative.
I believe many of them intend resorting to the
poorhouse. There these poor starving people
remain on the cold bleak mountains, no one carino-
for them, whether they live or die. 'Tis horrible
to think of, but more horrible to behold."

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 71
This news reached me in Dublin. I had been
striving hard for these poor people. I had, espe
cially since my visit to a neighbouring district
three years before, felt the deepest, the most
earnest interest in them. I am not ashamed to
say, even now, that I wept like a child. But idle
weeping could avail nothing for the victims.
What should we do ? They must not perish.
They must be saved. So vowed some friends who
felt as deeply as I did their unmerited fate.
Public opinion was stirred to its depths by this
terrible event. Our journals called at once for
public aid, and it was promptly forthcoming. A
local committee of relief was organised, and an
appeal to Christian hearts all over the world was
issued. This remarkable document bore the sig
natures of the Catholic bishop, the Most Rev. Dr.
McGettigan ; the Episcopalian Protestant rector.
Rev. Mr. Maturin ; the Presbyterian minister.
Rev. Mr. Jack ; and the Catholic parish priest.
Rev. Mr. Kair. It told the whole story, and
refuted in warm language the aspersions and
accusations that had been used as a pretext for
the desolation. The appeal was most Hberally
answered at home. Men of all ranks and classes,
creeds and parties, poured in their contributions.

72 NEW IRELAND.
But the crowning act of rescue was the work of
Irishmen far away under the Southern Cross. The
(Australian) Donegal Celtic Relief Committee,
established in Melbourne — mainly by the exertions
of the late Hon. Michael O'Grady, M.L.C., to
whom I had early written on the subject — decided
to bring out, to " happy homes and altars free,"
these victims of a heartless wrong. Ample funds
were at once supplied, and an official agent of the
Victorian Government was despatched to make
special arrangements in conjunction with the local
committee in Ireland for effecting this generous
purpose. The news created a great sensation in
Donegal. The poor people were sought out and
collected. Some by this time had sunk beneath
their sufferings. One man named Bradley had
lost his reason under the shock. Other cases were
nearly as heartrending. There were old men
who would keep wandering over the hills in view
of their ruined homes, full of the idea that some
day Mr. Adair might let them return, but who at
last had to be borne to the distant workhouse
hospital to die. With a strange mixture of joy
and sadness the survivors heard that friends in
Australia had paid their way to a new and better
land. On the day they were to set out for the

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH 73
railway station, en route for Liverpool, a strange
scene was witnessed. The cavalcade was accom
panied by a concourse of neighbours and sympa
thisers. They had to pass within a short distance
of the ancient burial-ground, where " the rude
forefathers " of the valley slept. They halted,
turned aside, and proceeded to the grass-grown
cemetery. Here in a body tbey knelt, flung
themselves on the graves of their relatives, which
they reverently kissed again and again, and raised
for the last time the Irish caoine or funeral wail.
Then — some of them pulling tufts of grass which
they placed in their bosoms — they resumed their
way on the road to exile. At Dublin I saw them
as they halted between the arrival of their train
and the departure of the cross-channel boat for
Liverpool. As they marched through the streets
to a restaurant, where dinner had been provided
for them, they excited the greatest curiosity and
interest. " The emigrants, male and female," said
one of the city papers, " presented an appearance
well calculated to excite admiration and sympathy.
A finer body of men and women never left any
country. In stature tall, with handsome and
well-shaped features full of kindly expression,
they filled the breast of every spectator with regret

74 NEW IRELAND.
that such a people should be lost to us for ever."
They were being accompanied as far as Liver
pool by the Rev. James McFadden, a fine-hearted
young priest who had laboured devotedly for
them from the first hour of their misfortunes. I
quote from the same journal the foUowing account
of his farewell address, a scene which it was
impossible to behold unmoved : —
When dinner had concluded, Eev. Mr. M'Fadden, amidst the
most solemn stillness, briefly addressed the assemblage ; and it
was a most touching sight. He spoke in the Gaelic tongue, the
language of their homes and firesides, ere Adair had levelled
the one and quenched the other for ever. As the young priest
spoke, his own voice full of emotion, the painful silence all
around soon became broken by the sobs of women, and tears
flowed freely down many a cheek. He reminded them that
that was their last meal partaken of on Irish soil ; that in a few
hours they would have left Ireland for ever. He spoke of their
old homes amidst the Donegal hills, of the happy days passed
in the now silent and desolate valley of Derryveih; of the
peace and happiness that they had known then, because they
were contented, and were free from temptations and dangers of
which the busy world was full. He reminded them of their
simple lives — the Sunday mass, so regularly attended; the
confession ; the consolations of faith. Many a cheek was wet
as he alluded to how they would be missed by the priest whose
flock they were. But, most of all, their lot was sorrowful in
the fact that, while other emigrants left behind them parents
and relatives over whom the old roof tree remained, they, alas !
left theirs under no shelter of a home — they left them
wanderers and outcasts, trusting to workhouse fare or wayside

THE FATE OF GLENVEIH. 75
charity. But (said he) you are going to a better land, a free
country, where there are no tyrants, because there are no
slaves. Friends have reached out their hands to you ; those
friends await you on the shore of that better land. And here,
too, in this city, hearts equally true and kindly have met you.
Let your last word on Irish ground be to thank the good
gentleman who now stands by my side, Mr. Alexander M.
Sullivan. He it is who has, amidst all his numerous cares of
business, found time to make these arrangements to meet your
wants and make you comfortable in passing through this city.
Busy as this day has been with him, there he was to meet us at
the train, and here he has been attending to you as if you were
members of his own family. But it is only part of a long
work of goodness done for the people of Donegal since first on
that memorable Christmas Eve he raised the first call for our
relief. He has never since taken his hand from the work he
began that day. Let us, with our last words, thank him and
his friends who have met us this evening, and cared for us so
well. And now, dear brothers, we shall be departing. Before
you take your foot off your native land, promise me here that
you will, above all things, be faithful to your God, and attend
to your religious duties, under whatever circumstances you
may be placed (sobs, and cries of " We will, we will ").
Never neglect your night and morning prayers, and never omit
to approach the Blessed Eucharist, at least at Christmas and
Easter. And, boys, don't forget poor old Ireland (intense
emotion, and cries of " Never — never, God knows !") — don't
forget the old people at home, boys. Sure they will be
counting the days till a letter comes from you. And they'll be
praying for you, and we will all pray God to be with you.
Standing on the quay at Dublin I bade these
poor people a last adieu, and prayed that God
might requite them under hapjoier skies for the

76 NEW IRELAND.

cruel calamities that had befallen them at home.
Six months later Mr. O'Grady wrote to me a
detailed account of their progress. Every one of
them was " doing well," he said; " a credit to the
old land."
In the autumn of last year I revisited Donegal.
I sat upon the shore of that lonely lake, and looked
down the shadowed valley. On a jutting point,
beneath the lofty slope of the wooded mountain,
Mr. Adair has built a castle. It may be that the
charms which Selkirk could not discover in solitude
delight him in " this desolate place." No doubt
" the enchanting beauty " which he said first drew
him to the spot is unimpaired to the view — Glen
veih is and ever will be beautiful. But for my
part, as I gazed upon the scene, my sense of
enjoyment was mingled with memories full of
pain. My thoughts wandered back to that terrible
April morning on Gartan side. In fancy I heard
rolling across those hills the widow's wail, the
women's parting cry. I thought of the farewell
at the graves ; of the crowd upon the fore-deck of
that steamer. Again I marked their tears, their
sobs. Once more, above the paddle's plash and
the seamen's bustling shout, I thought I heard the
wafted prayer of " God be with Glenveih !"

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 7 7

CHAPTER IV.
THE FENIAN MOVEMENT.
The easy suppression of the Phoenix conspiracy in
1858 led to many false conclusions. Every one
assumed that there was an end of the affair.
Many treated it with great derision. The prisoners
were now discharged. The attempt to prepare
the way for revolution by a secret society had
apparently failed and been abandoned. So fully
were I and many others under this impression that
we felt very wroth because that at the moment we
were pleading with the Crown authorities in behalf
of the prisoners, some Irishmen in New York were
indulging in vaunt and defiance calculated to
alarm and irritate the Government. Had there
been knowledge or suspicion that the movement
was not then relinquished, no such appeals would
have been made, and assuredly none would have
succeeded. Even some of the men erstwhiles

78 NEW IRELAND.
enrolled in the Phoenix Society fully believed the
project was irretrievably exploded. All, however,
were under a great delusion.
A condition of things had now and for the first
time arisen which was to exercise potential in
fluence ever afterwards in Irish affairs. Hitherto
the base of operations in rebellious or seditious
attempts had been within the country itself. The
Government were always able to strike the move
ment at its heart. Now, for the first time, a base
of ojoerations had been established out of Ireland.
Not soon did people realise what an enormous
difference this made in dealing with Irish disaffec
tion. While Dublin city was the headquarters of
the malcontents, their plans, their persons, their
fate and fortunes were any day within the grasp
of the Crown. Not so when America became the
base, and New York headquarters. The Queen's
writ did not run in Manhattan.
The faUure of the "Phcenix" attempt in Ireland
was, therefore, regarded by the American orga
nisers as merely the misfire of a first cartridge.
They would, lie still for a while, and go to work
again. A revolutionary secret society, skilfully handled,
is certainly a terrible power. It has enormous

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 7 9
advantages. It can mingle in and use all other
organisations. It can demoralise opposing ranks
by subtle devices. It can claim an extent of
dominion and resource which no one can test or
measure, and which no one therefore can venture
to dispute or contradict. The public man marked
out for its hostility can be struck without the
power of returning a blow. He can feel that he
is being assailed, yet may not see or grapple with
his adversaries.
I was for several years fated to realise this fact ;
to experience its truth and force in my own case.
Apart from the antagonism which any one con
ducting the Nation — as the organ of the O'Brien
and Gavan Duffy party, or Grattan Nationalists — •
was sure to incur from the Separatist leaders, I
early fell under their special displeasure. From
underrating the influence of the Nation Mr.
Stephens passed to, as I think, overrating it. He
considered, or pretended to consider, that it was
the remonstrances of the Nation that had alone
put down his Phoenix attempt. He was a man
who always blamed somebody else — never himself
— for anything that befell his plans. As Mr.
O'Connor, Dr. Mulcahy, Mr. Devoy, and many
other of his colleagues have since very bitterly

8o NEW IRELAND.
proclaimed, absolute and implicit belief in him, in
his unerring sagacity and all-conquering ability,
was the basis of the system he propounded. He
very cleverly averted reproach from himself as
to the fate of his first endeavour by steadily in
culcating the story that it was Sullivan and the
Nation that did it all. From his point of view the
resolution he thereupon came to was, at any rate,
inteUigible. It wks that in order to succeed the
next time, Sullivan and the Nation, and indeed the
whole nuisance of constitutional politics, must be
put down. The Duffy policy had had its fair trial
from 1850 to 1853; the Constitutional NationaHsts
ought now to stand aside and yield the field to
men who were ready with a bolder scheme. In
one way, and one way only, could Ireland be
saved — by force of arms. Every effort, word, or
suggestion that distracted the people from this
one object was held to be criminal, a thing to be
crushed with the strong hand. Newspapers,
meetings, speeches, public societies or organisa
tions, were declared to be pernicious in the highest
degree. In fine, every outlet of public opinion
was to be stopped, every utterance forbidden ;
every energy was to be concentrated upon the one
great purpose of conspiracy.

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 8 1
With these sentiments, principles, and purposes,
Mr. Stephens set himself to the task of recon
structing his shattered organisation.
Although most of the National leaders best
known to the Irish people — ^the chiefs of the
" Forty-eight " movement— held aloof from or
censured this scheme, its authors were fortunate in
obtaining for it the co-operation of a few men
whose rare abilities and invincible courage and
fidelity rendered them of priceless value in such a
movement. Foremost amongst these must be
named Charles J. Kickham, John O'Leary, and
Thomas Clarke Luby.
Charles Kickham was originally intended for
the medical profession, as indeed were Messrs.
O'Leary and Luby. He belonged to a family
occupying a respectable position in MuUinahone,
county Tipperary ; one greatly esteemed and
trusted by the people for miles around. From his
youth Charles was a popular favourite. In the
hottest of the conflicts which marked the public
course of the Fenian movement, he was the one
man of his party for whom even the fiercest anti-
Fenian had a kindly feeling and a friendly word.
A lamentable accident blighted his prospects of
success in a professional career. He was fond of
VOL. II. G

$2 NE W IRELAND.

sporting. One evening, after a day on the hills
with dog and gun, in the course of which he
received a serious drenching, he sat before the
fire drying the contents of his powder-flask, that
had got damp. As he was stirring or examining
the powder, a spark from the peat fire exploded it
in his face. He lay long in great suffering, and
it was thought he would totally lose his sight.
When he recovered, his hearing was to a great
extent destroyed, and his sight considerably im
paired.* This calamity only intensified the feel
ings of the people for young Charles. He
became studious, took to literary pursuits, and con
tributed to a little periodical called the Gelt some
really exquisite poetry of the simple ballad class, as
well as some stories of Irish peasant life exhibiting
considerable dramatic power. Those who knew
his gentle amiable nature, his modest and retiring
character, his undemonstrative ways, marvelled
greatly to find him in the forefront of such
an enterprise as the Fenian movement. It was,
* The white dust and glare of the sun in the Portland
convict quarries have, I regret to say, almost totally ruined his
sight ; and when last I met him his hearing was so far gone
that it was by the manual alphabet he was spoken to, although
he replied by voice as usual.

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 83
however, only when it took to journalism that
Kickham was called upon to assume a post of
prominence. John O'Leary was unquestionably one of the
ablest and most remarkable men in the conspiracy.
Intellectually and politically he was of the type of
Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, and John Mitchel.
An eye-witness describing him in the dock, when
on his trial in 1865, says, " he stepped to the
front with a flash of fire in his dark eyes, and a
scowl on his features, looking hatred and defiance
on judges, lawyers, jurymen, and all the rest of
them. AU eyes were fixed on him ; for he was
one of those persons whose exterior attracts atten
tion and indicates a character above the common.
He was tall, slightly built, and of gentlemanly
deportment. Every feature of his thin angular
face gave token of great intellectual energy and
determination ; its pallid hue was rendered almost
death-like by contrast with his long black hair
and flowing moustache and beard. Easy it was
to see that when the Government placed John
O'Leary in the dock they had caged a proud
spirit and an able and resolute enemy." He was
born in Tipperary town, of a family holding a
good position, and inherited on the death of his
a 2

84 NEW IRELAND.

parents, to his share, a small property of some
three or four hundred pounds a year. He was a
graduate of the Queen's University, having taken
out his medical degree in the Queen's CoUege,
Cork. He resided for some time in Paris, where
his mind, his tastes, his manners, opinions, and
principles received impress and shape discernible
in his subsequent career. He also visited America,
and there formed the acquaintance of the men
who were planning and devising the Fenian
movement. He was a man of culture, and of
considerable literary abilities. I met him on a
few occasions at the house of Dr. Kevin Izod
O'Doherty, whose wife, the poetess " Eva," was
his cousin. He was reserved, sententious, almost
cynical ; keenly observant, sharply critical, full of
restrained passion.
Thomas Clarke Luby was also a native of Tip
perary ; but, unlike his coUeagues, he was a Pro
testant ; his uncle, the Rev. Dr. Luby, being one
of the Senior FeUows of Trinity CoUege, DubHn.
Mr. Luby was no new hand at seditious effort.
Young as he was in 1848, he was then an active
member 'of what may be caUed the extreme re
volutionist, or Mitchelite, party. From 1849 to
1854 he occupied himself occasionally as a con-

THE FEXIAX MOVEMENT.

tiibutor to the press, and sometimes as a col
legiate tutor. In 1S55 he became associate editor
of the Irish. Tribune, a semi-revolutionary journal,
which the late Mason Jones and other advanced
Irish Nationalists pubhshed for some short time in
DubHn. His poHtics were a gTeat affliction to
relatives who were in a position to advance him,
and who would have done so if he would but give
up such dangerous docti-ines. He prefeiTed to
sti-r.gg-le on for himself, holding by his principles.
such as they were. This course he pui^ued un
falteringly to the last.
On the American side the movement was
projected under the direction of John O'Mahony,
Michael Doheny, and Colonel Corcoran, of the
Sixty-ninth (Irish) New York regiment : the first
named bieing supreme. The original plan,
described already in O'Donovan Rossas words,
was StUl pursued. The Irish in America were to
be enroUed in " circles." or groups, Hke the L-ish
at home. But the functions of the former were
chiefly to supply " the home organisation," as it
was caUed, with funds, anns, and miHtary com
manders. Later on the American section decided
fkrthennore.to co-ciperate with the home movement
bv an attack on the British dominions near at

86 ¦ NEW IRELAND.
hand, and by the despatch of privateers. Each
" circle " was presided over by an officer called a
Centre, Mr. O'Mahony was Head Centre. He it
was who designated his branch ofthe organisation
by the name of " Fenians." He was much given
to Gaelic studies, and lived or dreamed a great
deal in ancient Ireland.* The Irish national
militia seventeen centuries ago were called the
" Fiana Erion," or Fenians, from Fenius, Fin, or
Fion, their famous commander. After this force
O'Mahony called the Irish-American enrolment.
Mr. Stephens, however, preferred for the home
section the name of " Irish Revolutionary
Brotherhood " ; shortened into " the I. R. B.,"
by which brief designation it was generally referred
to by the members. In Ireland the enrolment
also was in circles or groups; the officers being
styled A's, B's, and Cs, according to their rank.
Mr. Stephens exercised supreme and absolute
authority in the home organisation. His official
title w§|,s the " C. 0. I. R.," or Central Organiser
of the Irish Republic. He willed and declared a
repubhc to be erected in Ireland ; and, accordingly,
the oath of initiation bound each member to yield
* He executed the admirable translation of Keatings' ' His
tory of Ireland,' published by Haverty of New York.

THE FENIAN MOVEMENT. 87
allegiance to " the Irish republic now virtually
established."* When a person authorised by him
had sworn in not more than fifty members in a
locality, they were constituted a " circle," of which
such person then became the B or Centre. In due
time it would be his duty, when the C. 0. I. R.
sent him a drill-master, to see that his men were
safely and secretly taught military exercises.
Meanwhile he and his circle were to act in a
general way for the furtherance of the movement ;
by organising new circles, by discouraging and
repressing public meetings of a "distracting"
character, and by putting down public men or
journals who in any way hindered or opposed the
organisation. There were in 1858, on the starting of this
enterprise, several Irish-American newspapers
ardently devoted to the cause of Irish nationality;
In New York city alone there were at least two :
one was the Irish News, established by Thomas
Francis Meagher ; the other, the Irish American,
* Very evidently many of the rank and file were not quite
clear as to what the word " virtuaUy " meant ; for much
merriment arose during some of the trials when the approvers
declared they were sworn to obey "the Irish republic now
virtuously established."

NE W IRELAND.

then, as now, the leading organ of Irish Nationalism
in the United States. Even with these journals
the Fenian leaders quarrelled as strongly as with
the Nation ; so they decided to establish a special
organ of the movement, which accordingly
appeared as the Phosnix newspaper, in New York.
In this journal they struck out vigorously, right,
left, and centre, at everything and everybody
supposed to be inimical to their undertaking.
They had no need to waste words in rousing the
ire of their readers against England. The Irish in
America — the maddened fugitives of the dreadful
famine and eviction times — hated the British
power with quenchless hate. The obstacles that
most concerned the secret leaders arose from the
opposition given to their scheme by the CathoHc
clergy and the open-policy, or anti-Fenian,
Nationalists. The Catholic Church condemns
oath-bound' secret societies — especiaUy if directed
to the subversion of the civil power, or the
overthrow of religion — for several reasons.
Firstly, regarding the sanctity of an oath, it
denies that any one who chooses can, for any
purpose he pleases, formally administer or
impose that solemn obligation. Secondly
having regard to the safety of society, of public

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 89
order, of morals and religion — it prohibits the
erection of any such barrier between the objects
and operations of a society, and authoritative
examination and judgment. Over this critical
and important issue the Fenian movement, on
its very threshold, was plunged into a bitter
war with the ecclesiastical authorities of the
Catholic Church. " The priest has no right to
interfere in or dictate our politics," said the
Fenian leaders ; " ours is a political movement ;
they must not question us or impede us." " You
cannot be admitted to the sacraments until you
give up and repent of illicit oaths," responded
the Catholic priests ; " and if you contumaciously
continue in membership of an oath-bound secret
society, you are liable to excommunication."
" Do you hear this ? — we are cursed by the
Church for loving our country ! " exclaimed the
Fenians ; and so for the first five years, from
1860 to 1865, the struggle between the CathoHc
clergy and the Fenian organisers was fierce,
violent, and unsparing. A really active " B,"
or Fenian centre, had need to be a man who
cared little for the priest's denunciations, and
who could persuade the people it was "the
Maynootii oath and the gold of England " that

90 NE W IRELAND.

made Father Tom so ready to " curse " the
cause. The priests, accordingly, complained that
the propagators of Fenianism were men who paid
little regard to clerical authority, and shunned
the practices of faith. One can see how out of
antagonistic views thus pressed the quarrel
eventuated in the Fenians denouncing the priests
as deadly foes of Irish nationalitj, and the priests
denouncing the Fenians as enemies of the Church ;
men who would overthrow the altar and destroy
society. Very similar was the conflict between the
secret organisation and the non-Fenian or anti-
Fenian Nationalists ; the great object of the
Fenian leaders being that the people should
have no alternative patriotic effort between em
bracing their enterprise and siding with imperial
subjugation. Indeed, a reference to the pages
of the Fenian newspapers, and to the public
chronicles of the period, will show that the
movement during the four years following 1860
was directed less against the English Government
than against those Irish Nationalists, priests and
laymen, whose influence was supposed to impede
the organisation.
The official organ, or gazette, thus established in

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 9 1
New York, waged war all round, and roused up
antagonisms innumerable. A weekly column, or
department, was devoted to a " Hue and Cry,"
giving descriptions of "informers" and other
obnoxious persons, to be looked after — a hint not
likely to be neglected on the other side of the
Atlantic. Here is a sample : —
KOCK'S HUE-AND-CET.
THE BLACK LIST.
Callaghan, Pat, Callan, county Kilkenny. — Five feet six in
height ; stout, and squarely buUt ; 27 years of age — supposed
to be in New Zealand.
Caeolan, Balltnahinoh, county Down.— Five feet seven in
height ; 60 years of age ; blue eyes, grey hair, and long, thin
features — supposed to be prowling round Belfast.
William Bvbeitt .... is about 45 years of age, five feet
ten inches in height, with a lank body, apparently possessing
the flexibility of a bamboo, and suggesting the idea that it was
with reluctance Nature threw him on the earth as an incum
brance. . . . Poor wretch ! Nature, at his birth, was
niggard of her bounties. He may depend on it, Eock has a
long memory, and that his police are watchful of the movements
of the spy.
Michael Burke. — The fellow needs no further notice from
Eock. He is mad, and lodged in a Dr. Osborne's asylum.
Number One — What a grim moral follows the history of his
"information." Had he not sold himself for gold, he would
have been to-day in no lunatic asylum.
There were every week official "Decrees" and

92 NE W IRELAND.
" General Orders " ; and a secret committee with
an ominous name, the " Committee of Public
Safety," was charged to mark all men who had
" striven to injure the organisation by word or
deed." Much more serious was the fact that for
the first time in Irish annals, assassination was
publicly lauded as a patriotic duty. With horror
we read such articles as the following : —
At home there is no bold voice raised from press or pulpit
against the extermination of the people. There are complaints
innumerable — there are remonstrances and arguments to show
it is wrong, ruinous, inexpedient to shovel the people from
their holdings into the poorhouse and ditches ; but it is folly
to argue the question, more especially when the press designates
as foul, atrocious murder the slaying of one of those arch
exterminators who is to the district he owns as a wild beast at
large. It is only by retaliation and reprisal that the Irish
landlord can be brought to a sense of justice. Everything else
is unavailing. This language of the official organ was followed
up by a newspaper in California published by a
Mr. Thomas Mooney. He weekly advertised a
reward of £100 for any one who would murder
a particular gentleman in the county Mayo, whom
he pointed out by name. About this time a man
named Beckham, an infamous wretch who murdered
for hire, was hanged for the assassination of a
Mr. Fitzgerald in the county Limerick under the

THE FENIAN MOVEMENT. 93
most brutal circumstances. Mooney, in an article
abusing the degenerate and feeble National leaders
in Ireland — Smith O'Brien and Sullivan of the
Nation in particular — declared that " one Beckham
was worth fifty Smith O'Briens." What Ireland
wanted was men who would not shrink from Beck
ham's work. I am convinced that the men in Ireland
on whom subsequently fell the penalty of member
ship in the Fenian organisation would be incapable
of approving these incentives ; but they made no
sign and spoke no word in public at the time to
save the ancient and honourable cause of Irish
nationality from identification with them. For
me, in view of public teachings like these, put
forward in the name of Irish patriotism, silence
was impossible. In the Nation I gave utterance,
no doubt very strongly, to the indignation which
I felt ; and declared for myself, and those whom
I might be held to represent, that we would rather
see Ireland reduced to a cinder than " liberated "
by men who advocated such principles. The
result, as might be expected, was a very hurricane
of menace and denunciation hurled at my devoted
head. Mr. Mooney addressed to me, through the
pages of his newspaper, a letter of three columns
or ten feet in length, reiterating very emphatically

94 NEW IRELAND.
the doctrines I had reprobated. I quote a few
sentences : —
I am thoroughly of opinion, sir, that words or grass are not
of the slightest avail against England, or against her pickets
and videttes in Ireland — that is to say, the crow-bar landlords.
Nothing but bullets, sir, will avail : and therefore I recommend
my countrymen to shoot the landlord house-levellers as we
shoot robbers, or rats, at night or in the day, on the roadside
or in the market-place !
That I offered a reward of five hundred dollars for the head
of Major Brabazon is most true. True, I declared that the
killing of said Brabazon was " patriotic, noble, and righteous."
Then he describes at full length a case of
barbarous eviction by Major Brabazon, and pro
ceeds : —
Shoot him ! Yes.
The life of a peasant is as valuable as the life of a peer. If
the peer oppress the peasant by force of arms, break into and
break down his house, let him be slain wheresoever he shall be
caught. You have dubbed me a prophet of landlord assassination : I
accept the distinction. Let them look out ! It is the intention
of many a valiant Irishman to return to Ireland to shoot down
the inhuman scoundrels, whose acts we have noted, and whose
names we have registered.
But though you do not approve my plan of putting down the
Saxon power, you are, you say, ready for a fair fight. " Blood,"
you say, " may yet perhaps be spilled in fair fight. The arms
employed for the winning of Irish freedom shall not be the
knife or the blunderbuss of the assassin, and no stain of that
blood which cries to heaven for vengeance shall be found upon

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 95
our flag when its full breadth of green and gold is flung open
to the wind."
A very pretty poetic paragraph, sir — but poetry only. A
" fair fight " with the Saxon, quotha ! Hast thou read the
history of the Saxons ? These' be . the men to whom you beg
of us to ofPer "fair fight "; — they armed to the teeth, supplied
with artillery, shot, and shell, and we elaborately disarmed by
the cowardly wretches ! Bah !
Bah ! I say. No longer, Sullivan, be officer of mine.
It was not, however, the Phcenix in New York,
nor Mooney s Express in San Francisco, that did
the most effective work for the Fenian movement
in Ireland. That movement was to a considerable
extent established and propagated by the uncon-
sciously rendered aid of the English newspapers,
chiefly the Times and the Daily News. In 1859
and 1860 the Italian question was the subject of
the hour. The English people, the English press,
plunged hotly into the work of encouraging the
subjects of Pio Nono and Francis-Joseph and
Ferdinand to conspire and rebel. So eager were
the London journals to press the Romans or
Venetians or Sicilians into revolt that they were
blind to the work which their words, doctrines,
pleadings, and incentives were, at that very
moment, doing in Ireland. Every weapon which
Mr. Stephens needed for the purposes of his secret
society was deftly fashioned for him and put into

96 NEW IRELAND.
his hand by the Daily News, the Sun, or the
Times, by Lord John Russell or Lord EUenborough.
Not merely were the Romagnols told that every
people had a right to choose their own rulers, to
depose the old and set up the new, but they were
told that the amount of provocation or justification
for such a course, how often or when they might
adopt it, was for themselves and no one else to
pronounce. Said the Times : —
That government should be for the good of the governed,
and that whenever rulers wilfully and persistently postpone the
good of their subjects, either to the interests of foreign states,
or to abstract theories of religion or politics, the people have a
right to throw off the yoke, are principles which have been too
often admitted and acted upon to be any longer questioned.
But who should judge all this ? Here is the
reply supplied by the great English journal : —
The destiny of a nation ought to be determined, not by the
opinions of other nations, but by the opinion of the nation
itself. To decide whether they are well governed or not, or
rather whether the degree of extortion, corruption, and cruelty
to which they are subject is sufficient to justify armed resist
ance, is for those who live under that government — not for
those who, being exempt from its oppression, feel a sentimental
or a theological interest in its continuance.
The Daily News was equally expHcit : —
Europe has over and over again affirmed that oue principle

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 97

on which the Italian question depends, and to which the
inhabitants of Central Italy appeal — the right of a people to
choose its own rulers.
On the same point the Times : —
England has not scrupled to avow her opinion, that the
people of the Eoman States, like every other people, have a
right to choose the form of their own government, and the
persons in whose hands that government shall be placed.
The Sun declared :-—
As free Englishmen we assert the rights of the Eomans, and
of all nations, to have governors of their own choice.
The English Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lord
John Russell, speaking at Aberdeen, enforced the
same doctrine. A passage in the Queen's speech
affirmed it. Lord Ellenborough hoped the Pope's
subjects would appeal to arms as the only way in
which they could assert their right : —
I will hope that, stimulated by the insults to Italy which are
conveyed in the demands Prance is about to make in the
Congress, they will rise to vindicate their right to choose their
own government, and clutch the arms by which alone it can be
secured. Out of these declarations arose in Ireland a
movement which the popular journals designated
" Taking England at her word." The Nation
VOL. II. H

98 NEW IRELAND.

proposed that a National Petition in the following
form should be presented to the Queen : —
That petitioners have seen with deep concern the recog
nition of the right of every people to change or choose their
rulers and form of government, which is contained in the
speech delivered by your Majesty at the opening of the present
session of Parliament ; and also contained in the speech
delivered on a recent occasion at Aberdeen by your Majesty's
Foreign Secretary, as well as in the speeches of many other
statesmen and persons of high position in England, and in the
writings of the most influential English newspapers.
That by the general approval with whioh those speeches and
writings have been received in England, and more especially
by the course of policy pursued by your Majesty's Government
in referencie to the late political events in Central Italy, the
Sovereign, the Ministry, the Press, and People of England
have, in the most distinct and public manner, declared their
approval of the principle, that every people who believe them
selves to be ill-governed have a right to change the system of
government which is displeasing to them, and to substitute for
it one of their own choice ; which choice may be declared by a
majority of the votes which shall be given on submitting the
question to a universal sufirage.
That, as is well known to your Majesty, from petitions
emanating from meetings at which millions of your Majesty's
subjects attended, as well as from other events at various times,
which petitioners deem it unnecessary to specify — a very
strong desire exists amongst the Irish people to obtain, in
place of the present system of government in Ireland, a resto
ration of their native parliament, and their legislative inde
pendence. That petitioners are confident the overwhelming
majority of the Irish people ardently desii-e this restoration of
their national constitution, of which they believe they were

THE FENIAN MOVEMENT. 99
imjustly deprived; yet, as your Majesty's advisers may have led
you to believe that this desire for a domestic legislature is
entertained by only a minority ef the population, petitioners
behold in the proceeding so highly approved of by your
Majesty's ministers — viz., a popular vote by ballot and
universal suffrage — a means by which the real wishes of the
majority of your Majesty's Irish subjects may be unmistakably
ascertained. Your petitioners, therefore, pray that your Majesty may be
graciously pleased to direct and authorise a public vote by
ballot and universal suffrage in Ireland, to make known the
wishes of the people, whether for a native government and
legislative independence, or for the existing system of govern
ment by the Imperial Parliament. Petitioners trust that their
request will be considered stronger, not weaker, in your
Majesty's estimation, for being made respectfully, peacefully,
and without violence, instead of being marked by such pro
ceedings as have occurred during the recent political changes in
Italy, which have been so largely approved by your Majesty's
ministers. And petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
This petition received the signatures of over
half a miUion of adult Irishmen. It was duly
presented. It was never answered. Still the
English people went on declaring that a " vote of
the population " was the way to test the legitimacy
or oppressiveness of a government. Still the
English newspapers went on adjuring subject
peoples to strike if they would be free. Every
Fenian organiser had these quotations on his
n 2

NEW IRELAND.

tongue. The fate of the National Petition was
pointed to ; the contemptuous silence of the
Sovereign was called disdain for a people who
would not clutch the arms whereby alone their
right to choose their own government could be
secured. One article there was in the London Times — a
magnificent outburst of scathing taunt and passion
ate invective — which played a remarkable part in
the Fenian operations. It was the gospel of
organisers. A glance at it will show that it was
just to their hand : —
It is quite time that all the struggling nationalities should
clearly understand that freemen have no sympathy with men
who do nothing but howl and shriek in their fetters.
Liberty is a serious game to be played out, as the Greek told
the Persian, with knives and hatchets, and not with drawled
epigrams and soft petitions.
We may prate among us of moral courage and moral force,
but we have also physical courage and physical force kept for
ready use. Is this so with the Italians of Central Italy ?
That they wish to be free is nothing. A horse or a sheep or a
canary bird has probably some vague instinct towards a state of
freedom ; but what, we ask, and what within the last few days
we have asked with some doubt, is — Are these Italians prepared to
fight for the freedom they have ? If so, well ; they will
certainly secure it ; if not, let Austria flog them with scorpions
instead of whips, and we in England shall only stop our ears
against their screams
The highest spectacle which the world can offer to a freeman

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT.

is to see his brother man contending bravely — nay, fighting
desperately for his liberty. The lowest sentiment of contempt
which a freeman can feel is that excited by a wretched serf,
who has been polished and educated to a full sense of the
degradation of his position, yet is without the manhood to do
more than utter piteous lamentations.
Despite these favouring circumstances the
Fenian enrolment made but slow progress up to
1861. Its conflict with the Catholic sentiment of
the Irish population was a drawback which
counterbalanced any advantage derived from the
teachings of the Englisli newspapers. In the
spring of that year the official organ, after a
necessitous existence, disappeared ; and in America,
as in Ireland, the fortunes of the movement were
at a low ebb. In April the American civil war
burst forth. The people. North and South, sprang
to arms. The Irish were foremost in " going with
their States." An Irish brigade fought on each
side. One led by General Pat Cleburne distin
guished itself under the Confederate flag. One
commanded by General T. F. Meagher won laurels
that will not fade beneath the starry banner of
the Union. In this rush to the field the Fenian
circles were broken up and abandoned on all
hands. For a moment, but only for a moment, it
appeared as if the American war would extinguish

NEW IRELAND.

the movement. A new and a stronger impulse
soon came to press it on. The readiness with
which England conceded belligerent rights to the
seceding States, and other circumstances, early
gave rise to the idea that a rupture between the
Washington Government and the Court of St.
James's was inevitable. This impression was
sedulously encouraged in the northern States and
in Ireland as an incentive to the Irish to join the
Federal regiments. It had a powerful effect in
each country. All the way from Ireland a
continuous stream of young, active, and able-
bodied men poured into the Federal ranks. The
story was almost universally believed that Mr.
Seward had as good as promised certain of the
Irish leaders that when the Union was restored
America would settle accounts with John BuU,
and that Ireland would be gratefully repaid for
her aid to the Stars and Stripes. This was the
crowning stroke of good fortune for the Fenian
leaders. Another circumstance, equally advantageous,
meantime came to their aid. Terence Bellew
MacManus, one of the " Forty-eight " leaders, had
in 1851 effected a bold and daring escape from his
captivity in Van Diemen's Land, and soon after

THE FENIAN MOVEMENT 103
settled in San Francisco. Early in 1861 he died
in that city, to the deep sorrow of all his country
men, by whom he was greatly loved. Some one
suggested that the body of the dead rebel should
be disinterred from its grave in foreign soil and
be borne with public ceremonial across continent
and ocean to the land of his birth. The proposi
tion was enthusiastically embraced. The incident
was so dramatic, and touched such deep emotions,
that the proceeding assumed a magnitude and a
solemnity which astonished and startled every one.
The Irish race in America seemed to make of the
funeral a demonstration of devotion to the old
land. The Irish at home were seized with like
feelings, and on all sides prepared to give a
suitable reception to the remains of him who,
proscribed in life, might return only in death to
the land he loved. It was a proceeding which
appealed powerfully to the sympathies of the
people ; and Nationalists of all hues and sections
mingled in the homage to patriotism which it was
understood to convey.
It was only when the " funeral " preparations
had been somewhat advanced, a whisper went
round that the affair was altogether in the hands
of the Fenian leaders, and was being used to

104 NEW IRELAND.

advance their projects. This put non-Fenian
Nationalists in a difficulty which their opponents
heartily enjoyed. To draw back and hold aloof
was a course which could be explained only by
making assertions of the most serious and perilous
nature, proof of which few men would care to
adduce. To go on was to swell the tide that
might perhaps sweep Ireland into a . civil war.
Indeed at one time the purpose was seriously
entertained of making the MacManus demon
stration the signal for insurrection. The idea was
vehemently and successfully combated by Mr.
Stephens, on the ground that his preparations had
been only begun ; and he would not strike till he
was ready. It required the utmost exertion of his
authority to enforce this veto ; and it was only
after hot controversy the contemplated rising on"
that occasion was given up. The funeral, along
the whole route from San Francisco to Dublin,
was one of the most impressive demonstrations of
the kind ever seen. Every considerable city in
the States sent a delegation to attend it. On the
30th of October 1861 the body arrived at
Queenstown, and in the interval between that
date and the interment in Glasnevin cemetery,
Dublin, on Sunday the 10th of November, the

THE FENIAN MO VEMENT. 105
island was in a state of anxiety and excite
ment. The Most Rev. Dr. Cullen, Catholic
Archbishop of Dublin, aware of what underlay
the proceedings, refused to permit any lying in
state or other public ceremonial in the churches
of his diocese — a decision which drew down upon
him the wildest denunciations. With great
cleverness the revolutionary leaders called any
opposition to their arrangements " enmity to
the dead," "hostility to love of country." Five
years afterwards, when the Fenian chiefs them
selves avowed that the funeral was the expedient
whereby they really established their movement
in Ireland, the conduct of the Archbishop was
better understood by many who were among
the loudest in censuring him at the time. Some
of the Fenian authorities have estimated that a
larger number of adherents were sworn in during
the three weeks of the MacManus obsequies than
during the previous two years. The funeral
procession through the streets of Dublin was a
great display. Fifty thousand men marched
after the hearse. At least as many more lined
the streets and sympathisingly looked on.
That day gave the Fenian chiefs a command of
Ireland which they had never been able to obtain

I o6 NEW IRELAND.
before. In the continuous struggle which went
on between them on the one hand, and the
Catholic clergy and non-Fenian Nationalists on the
other, they thenceforth assumed a boldness of
language and action never previously attempted.
The American delegates who had accompanied
the remains of MacManus to Ireland returned
with news that the home organisation was of real
extent and strength, and needed only the aid
which America could supply, namely, money and
arms and officers, to effect at almost any moment
the total overthrow of British power in Ireland.
Upon these reports the movement in America
very shortly assumed an entirely new character,
and eventually grew to enormous dimensions.
Men who had hitherto held aloof — men of position,
character, and ability — entered earnestly into the
work of preparation. Money was poured into the
coffers of the organisation. The conviction spread
that the hour was at hand when Ireland would
" burst long ages' thrall " ; and even the poorest of
her sons and daughters pressed eagerly forward
with their contributions. There was no longer
any doubt that an insurrection in Ireland which
could maintain itself in anything like respectable
force for even a month would command millions

THE FENIAN MOVEMENT. 107
of dollars and thousands of helping hands from the
Irish in America. This was abundantly exemplified
by the manner in which the news of the Irish Fenian
arrests later on (in 1865) was received by them.
The Fenian offices were besieged with sympathisers.
Fathers and mothers brought their sons to be
enrolled ; servant girls brought the savings of
their wages ; Cahfornian miners gave freely of
their hoards. Old men who had seen the rooftree
leveUed at home, young men who had heard the
story of the eviction from parents now no more,
clamorously asked to be put " first on the roll " for
call to action. The Famine Clearances had
sown " dragons' teeth " from the Hudson to the
Mississippi.

I o8 NEW IRELAND.

CHAPTER V.
A TROUBLED TIME.
The men who led, or most largely influenced,
Irish national politics from 1860 to 1865, were
WilHam Smith O'Brien, John Martin, and The
O'Donoghue. The first named did not, indeed,
take any very active part by personal presence
in public affairs ; but he was recognised and
referred to as the chief of the National party.
His counsel was always sought; and through
public letters issued from time to time in the
Nation, he exercised a considerable influence on
passing events. Mr. Martin had returned to
Ireland in 1858. For a year or two he lived in
great retirement at Kilbroney, near Rostrevor, one
of the most beautiful spots in his native Ulster ;
but he could not long resist the pressure brought
to bear on him to give his voice and influence once
more to the service of the National cause. It was

A TROUBLED TIME. 109
not, however, until early in 1864, when, in con
junction with The O'Donoghue, he established a
Repeal society, called the National League, that
he may be said to have resumed active public
Hfe. Two men of equal prominence, and in many
respects of greater ability, re-entered the arena
later on — John B. Dillon and George Henry
Moore. The latter, on the death of Lucas and the
departure of Gavan Duffy in 1855, took the
command of the shattered ranks of the Tenant
League party ; and assuredly si Pergama dextra
Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent
— if genius, courage, and devotion could have
repaired what perfidy had destroyed, that gifted
son of Mayo had retrieved all. He was unseated
on his re-election in 1857 — being held to account
for alleged spiritual " intimidation " — and, refusing
several offers of other constituencies, watched
silently and sadly the course of public affairs up
to 1868.
The leading figure on Irish platforms from 1858
to 1868 was The O'Donoghue, then member of
Parliament for Tipperary county. Throughout

NEW IRELAND.

the greater part of those ten years he was the
most popular man in Ireland. Many considera
tions combined to give him the position to which
he thus attained. His ancient family, his kinship
with O'Connell, his splendid physique, his easy
manners, his generous nature, his eloquence, his
patriotism — all marked him out as a popular
favourite. His title of Celtic chieftainship had
come down to him through a proud ancestry of at
least four hundred years. He was young, dashing,
courageous ; ready to do and dare for Ireland.
His first appearance in public life was as candidate
for Tipperary, under the auspices of George
Henry Moore, in 1857 — on the expulsion of Mr.
James Sadleir.* The young chieftain carried all
before him, and went at a bound into the forefront
of national politics. He and I were naturally
thrown much together. Throughout the whole of
that period we fought side by side. On almost
every public question our opinions were identical.
We took very nearly the same view of the Fenian

* Shortly after the suicide of John Sadleir (the banker and
Brigade leader), it was discovered that his brother James was
criminally implicated in frauds on the Tipperary bank. He
fled the country, and was expelled Parliament, by special vote
of the House of Commons.

A TROUBLED TIME.

project, and alike incurred the animosity of its
leaders ; he, however, much less than I did.
Once or twice in the course of the war between
the Fenian and non-Fenian Nationalists I trembled
for him. I knew the secret chiefs, with one excep
tion, were most anxious to get hold of him, and
that tempting offers had been made to him. I have
reason to think Mr. Stephens did not greatly care
to convert The O'Donoghue. He disliked so
dangerous a rival near his throne. Fortunately,
though the young chieftain hurled strong hate
against the English power, nothing could dispel
his objections to a scheme which he, on the whole,
agreed with me in believing might bathe Ireland
in blood — might display, indeed, the self-sacrifice
and heroism of her sons — but could only rivet her
chains and multiply her sufferings.
In the summer of 1863 Mr. Stephens decided
upon starting a weekly journal in Dublin which
should at once advocate the special views of the
Fenian organisation, and increase its financial
revenues. In November of that year he carried
out this purpose by starting the Irish People news
paper. It seems never to have occurred to him
that there were two serious dangers in this singular
proceeding. It was almost certain to concentrate

NE W IRELAND.

under the eye and the hand of the Government
all that was active and dangerous in his organisa
tion ; and as to finances, the chances of loss rather
than gain were considerable. As a matter of fact,
both those dangers befell the enterprise. Although
behind the Irish People were an army of active
and zealous organisers and agents, and though all
the resources of the organisation were exerted to
push it, that journal was a heavy drag on his
resources, not an aid to them. Its existence
enabled us in the Nation office — as, no doubt, it
enabled the Government also — to ascertain sub
stantially where Fenian and non-Fenian Na
tionalism prevailed. It swept all before it
amongst the Irish in England and Scotland,
almost annihilating the circulation of the Nation
in many places north and south of the Tweed.
On the other hand, in Ireland it was never able to
approach our journals in circulation ; and in many
places we drove it totally from the field. With
what seems utter fatuity, Mr. Stephens placed
upon the staff of his journal, published within a
stone's throw of DubHn Castle gate, the foremost
men of the Fenian organisation. John O'Leary,
Charles J. Kickham, and T. C. Luby were the
editors ; O'Donovan Rossa was appointed business

A TROUBLED TIME. 113
manager ; James O'Connor was cashier. The
office was, in fact, headquarters.
The establishment of the National League by
Mr. Martin and The O'Donoghue, as an open and
non-Fenian National organisation, appealing to
public opinion, gave great offence to the Fenian
leader. Fenians attended at its meetings and
sought to disturb or compromise the proceedings
by cries for " a war policy," " rifles are what we
want," and so on. It was naturally expected that,
steadily assailed in this way, the League must
give up. But John Martin intimated that he
knew these tactics and those who were practising
them. He told the Fenians to go their road, he
would go his, and would not be hindered by them.
With much struggle he held his ground through
all the troubles and terrors of 1865, and a good
part of the following year. In August 1866 the
then leaders of the Fenian operations, failing in
putting down the League meetings by interrup
tions, groans, and cries, gave the word for more
violent measures. A body of Fenians one evening
poured into the League HaU, and on being re
buked by Mr. Martin for their conduct, assailed
him with volleys of eggs and other missiles, dis
persing the assemblage in great disorder. A still
VOL. II. I

114 NEW IRELAND.

more violent, though not nearly so disgraceful,
exploit had two years previously marked the
culmination of their hostility towards myself.
In February 1864 the committee of the Dublin
Prince Albert Statue applied to the corporation
for an allocation of College Green as a site for
their memorial. It was well known that CoUege
Green had long, by a sort of national tradition,
been marked out and reserved as the spot whereon
a statue to Henry Grattan should stand — as stand
it does there now. A determined, but for the
time an ineffectual, opposition was offered in the
corporation to this " alienation of Grattan's site,"
as it was called. . i. In this resistance I took a lead
ing part, having been elected a member of the
municipal council two years previously. We
pleaded, argued, protested, threatened. We offered
any other spot in all the city but this for the
prince's statue. A majority of the council con
sidered it would be " disloyal " to refuse any site
asked for in the name of Prince Albert, and,
Grattan's claims notwithstanding, granted the
application. A cry of indignation arose all
over Ireland. A public meeting was convened in
the great hall of the Rotunda, Dublin, to give
voice to the general feeling, and to call for the

A TROUBLED TIME. 115
rescinding of the obnoxious vote. For two
reasons the " C. 0. I. R." decided to break up this
demonstration : Firstly, Henry Grattan was the
representative man and founder, so to speak. Of
the constitutional National party — a public cha
racter not to be held up to admiration by a people
arming to establish an Irish republic. Secondly,
at this meeting A. M. Sullivan and men of that
stamp would be applauded, which was not to be
aUowed. Secret orders were issued to all circles
and sub-circles in Dublin to have their men in full
force at the Rotunda on the evening of the
meeting. The O'Donoghue came up from Killarney to
preside ; the platform was thronged with civic
representatives and city men ; the galleries and
body of the hall were densely packed. The
O'Donoghue was proceeding with his opening
address, and came to some complimentary allusions
to me.
" We won't have SuUivan !" fiercely shouted a
voice in a particular corner of the hall.
" That voice does not express the sentiments of
the Irish pqople," replied the chairman.
Yells drowned his further observations. " Down
with Sullivan !" " Away with Sullivan !" rose
I 2

1 1 6 NEW IRELAND.
in frantic shouts from compact sections of the
audience immediately in front of the platform.
The bulk of the assemblage looked on utterly
bewildered. They could scarcely credit their
senses, and vainly guessed at explanations.
" Down with Sullivan ! We'U have his Hfe !"
Suddenly, at a preconcerted signal, a rush was
made for the platform ; sticks appeared as if
pulled from beneath men's waistcoats, and in a
few seconds a confused struggle was going on.
O'Donovan Rossa and other of the Fenian orga
nisers now showed themselves, and, heading a
charge of their followers, scrambled over the
barriers, striking at all who obstructed thera.
If the people could only have got a clue to the
incomprehensible scene, there would have been
serious work, for the attack would have been
resisted ; but as few clearly understood the pro
ceeding, no one felt called upon to make any
special exertion. As an indignant artisan
afterwards complained, " No one knew who was
who, or why was why."
In the wild uproar, the crash of chairs, and
rush of shrieking people, I found myself roughly
grasped by an unknown hand in the crowd, and a
voice shouted in my ear, " You come on out of this.

A TROUBLED TIME. 117
instantly, or your life will be taken here to-night."
I was forcibly dragged a long way towards the
entrance. Though kindly meant, I could not
bring myself to acquiesce in this. I tore myself
clear of my unknown protector, determined, what
ever might befall, that I would walk freely out of
the building. I found The O'Donoghue anxiously
looking for me ; and we emerged together into
the street. A friendly bodyguard, however, accom
panied us to the hotel, composed in great part, I
have reason to believe, of Fenians who knew
of the violence designed against us, and who
were determined to prevent it.
Meanwhile Rossa and his storming party had
full possession of the platform. They smashed
the chairs and the reporters' table ; tore the gas
brackets down, waved the green baize cover of the
table as a flag of victory, and shouted for half
an hour over their success. Then they marched
down Sackville Street and dispersed — some to Mr.
Stephens's lodgings to felicitate him — as proudly
as if they had captured Dublin Castle, pulled down
the Union Jack, and taken the Lord Lieutenant
prisoner. Next day the explanation of the scene became
known, and there was great anger at this attempt

1 1 8 NEW IRELAND.
of the Fenian authorities to suppress the right of
public meeting. It was the flinging down of a
daring challenge to the non-Fenian Nationalists.
If this stroke succeeded, there was no platform left
to them. A " Citizens' Committee " assembled, and
it was resolved to hold on the following Monday a
meeting in the same hall of the Rotunda, to pass
the resolutions originaUy contemplated; precau
tions being taken to encounter the Fenian tactics,
and, if necessary, meet force by force.
But how was this to be done ? How was it
feasible to assemble a thousand, or two thousand,
people and not know but they were secretly
members of the Fenian organisation ? How could
we tell but even on the Citizens' Committee
there were men whose part it was to pretend
sympathy with us, but in reality to undermine all
our plans and arrangements ? " It cannot possibly
be done," said some of our wisest friends. More
over, the city was filled with the most alarming
stories and rumours : the Fenian leaders had
ordered a thousand of their men to come to the
next meeting armed with revolvers ; Mr. Stephens
had sworn that, whatever it might cost, he would
render meeting, speech, or resolution absolutely
impossible that day : no ; not even a dozen men

A TROUBLED TIME. 119
should be able to assemble ! Affrighted friends
came to us and implored that the meeting might
be given up. " These" are desperate men ; it will
not do to cross them. There will be bloodshed
and loss of life. Better give up!" I, on the
other hand, called on all friends of public liberty
to be firm and to face every peril. " We complain
of EngHsh tyranny," I said, " and our fathers
bave given their lives resisting it. Here is a much
more odious tyranny. I am the one most loudly
threatened. I know it. I am determined to go on ;
and if any harm befall me, I shall at all events be
struck down in defence of public freedom." I was
rejoiced to find this spirit prevailing extensively.
The intolerance and violent despotism of the
Fenian mandate against public meetings rendered
the secret chiefs quite unpopular ; and at any
fairly assembled public gathering representative
of general opinion they would have been indig
nantly condemned.
It was resolved to hold the meeting in the early
afternoon (as night would give great advantage to
disorder or attack), and that admission should be
by tickets consecutively numbered. I felt it was
a trial of strength and skill between Mr. Stephens
and myself, and I determined he should find me

1 20 NEW IRELAND.

able to hold my own. " Foolish man !" exclaimed
an excited friend, a day or two before the meeting,
" you were warned how vain and hopeless it would
be contending with a secret society ! Here they
are secretly at work printing off for their men
tickets identical with your own ; and on the day
of meeting it is with foes, not friends, your haU
wiU be filled !"
I pretended to be dumbfoundered. But this
was just what I expected. I had laid a trap for
the Fenian chief, and he walked right into it.
A register was duly kept of every person to
whom packets of cards had been issued for distri
bution ; and each distributor was made responsible
for personal knowledge of the name and address
of every citizen to whom he gave a ticket. Each
member of the Citizens' Committee, about forty
gentlemen in all, received, on these conditions,
four or five packets of tickets. I guessed that on
our committee were agents of the enemy, and that
not only would our every move be reported, but
that our tickets would be forged. I knew a friend
a lithographer, whom I could implicitly trust, and
unknown to everybody I employed him to print,
by a tedious process, that could not be readily
imitated, two thousand tickets. When I had

A TROUBLED TIME.

everything ready, the day before our meeting
I assembled the Citizens' Committee. " Gentlemen,
our tickets are being forged," I exclaimed. " Yes,
yes ; 'tis a fact," shouted many voices. " What
a shame! What are we to do?" said some of
Mr. Stephens's secret agents, in well-feigned sur
prise ; " we can't hold the meeting ; we must give
it up. " No, gentlemen, we will not give it up," I said.
" Each one of us, if he has acted faithfully and
loyally, knows to whom he has given tickets."
" Quite right ; to be sure."
" Very weU. All such tickets are now cancelled,
and will be refused at the doors to-morrow. Here
are tickets which each of you will this evening
exchange with the parties rightly entitled to them."
A shout of delight broke from the meeting. Two
or three of our friends certainly looked chopfallen,
despite efforts to seem as cheerful as the rest.
Whether merely for the purpose of trying to
frighten me, or with serious meaning, 'tis hard to
tell ; but private messages were now sent to my
family warning them in the most solemn and
explicit manner that this daring conduct on my
part was going to have a sad result. They were
told I was to be shot, pour encourager aux autres.

NE W IRELAND.

I said,: " Even so ; I had rather be shot than be
a coward or a slave."
Next day the city was troubled, nervous, and
excited, as if an earthquake had been foretold in
the almanacs. The Rotunda presented a strange
sight. It was like a fortress, for possession of
which a fierce battle was to rage. That my life
would pay the forfeit was concluded on all hands ;
and even from distant parts of Ireland anxious
friends came, armed, to stand by my side. One of
these, the impersonation of devoted friendship,
Mr. Thomas P. O'Connor of Tipperary, was a man
to whom the Fenian leaders owed much. To his
influence, his exertions, his generosity, they subse
quently owed still more, when, in adversity, they
needed protection and aid. Though happily he
lives still, on the night preceding that meeting he
and many others approached the sacraments of
religion in preparation for death next day. It
seems almost absurd now to think they regarded
matters so seriously. My own family took leave
of me as if they might see me no more ; but they
could not shake my purpose.
A body of " National Volunteers " had offered
themselves to act as guards and stewards at the
raeeting, and after careful selection two hundred

A TROUBLED TIME. 123
were enrolled. At each door a " company " was
placed under a trusted " captain." When, at one
o'clock, the doors were opened, there poured into
the great hall, amidst much cheering, a body of
citizens who evidently greatly regretted any
conflict with their fellow-countrymen, but who
were determined to assert the right to assemble in
public meeting for lawful and patriotic purposes.
Soon a cry of " forged ticket " was heard at the
doors. The wrong men were beginning to come
up, and found they could not pass through. About
two o'clock quite a battalion arrived, headed by
O'Donovan Rossa. He handed a wrong ticket.
" No use," said young Joseph Hanly of Ardavon,
a model of athletic strength and vigour, who was
captain at that door. " I must pass," said Rossa,
who was also strongly built, powerful, active,
and determined. " You shall not," was defiantly
answered. Rossa made a dash at the door, and
was leveUed by a sledge-hammer blow from Hanly.
Quick as lightning he was on his feet, and repaid
the compliment. The two men were on the whole
pretty evenly matched ; but the advantage in
" science " was with the college-trained young
captain. Rossa, who was as bold as a lion,
fought well, but it was no use. His comrades

124 NEW IRELAND.
struck in, but the door guards responded ; and
after " as lovely a fight, sir, as ever you saw "
(according to one of the latter), the Fenian
party withdrew. Somewhat similar conflicts oc
curred at other entrances ; but everywhere the
assailants were defeated. The meeting was tri
umphantly held. The resolutions were passed.
The day was won. Excusable momentary vexation
apart, I doubt if the Fenians thought the worse of us
for our resolution and pluck. The men on both
sides exhibited a restraint as to the use of firearms
which astonished everybody. Sharp and heavy
blows were given and taken, and even some blood
was spilt ; yet though each man of some hundreds
carried a revolver in his pocket, not one was
drawn. Had even one been produced, a
hundred would have appeared, and a deplorable
scene might have ensued. We all rejoiced that
the day had passed off so weU. The citizens in
general, I am well aware, were delighted. All
public action in politics would have been stopped
by a violent terrorism had we not made this stand
for tolerance, fair play, and freedom.*
* The Fenian chief did not aU at once desist from the desire
to try conclusions with me, as the subjoined extract from the
letter of " Au old Dublin Centre " (in the Irishman of the 6th

A TROUBLED TIME. 125
On the 2nd of Aprjl 1865 the fall of Richmond
closed the American war. On the 7th General
Lee surrendered. By June the Federal armies
were in process of disbandment. The Irish
regiments were free. Hundreds of daring and
skilful officers, spoiled for peaceful pursuits, were
on the look-out for a sympathetic cause in which
they might continue their career. The Fenian
leaders felt that the hour for action had arrived.
Arms were being daily imported and distributed,
although not to anything like the extent pretended
by Mr. Stephens. Every steamer from America
brought a number of officers, amongst the earliest

of February 1875), inveighing against Mr. Stephens, reveals :
" Once I heard him declare that he had one town (Liverpool)
so organised and devoted to the local leader that he could at
any time cause a panic in European politics by sending down
orders to capture the garrison of 1000 men, and hold the
place until there was not one man living amongst its ruins ;
and said he would be obeyed to the letter. The truth of this
statement will be seen when some time afterwards Sullivan of
the Nation went to the place to lecture, and he (Stephens) sent
orders to hunt him out of the town. What then ? Only two
or three could be found to do the business, and they were
expelled the lecture-hall on the first indication of disturbance.'
I remember the incident referred to very well ; but the " Old
Centre" does Mr. Stephens injustice in assuming there were
not thousands of Fenians enrolled in Liverpool because " only
two or three " obeyed an order so odious and unpopular.

12 6 NEW IRELAND.
being Brigadier-General T. F. Millen, who took
up his quarters in Dublin as chief in command.
From the Continent came General Cluseret and
General Fariola, the former of whom was heard of
subsequently in the struggle of the Commune in
Paris. Every one knew what was at hand, for
there was a wondrous amount of publicity about
the secret movements of Fenianism. The American
circles, in order to stimulate subscriptions, pubHshed
addresses announcing all that was afoot. One
issued by the Springfield circle " to their American
fellow- citizens " was as follows : —
Ireland is about to have her revolution. The day of pro
visional govemment is established. An army of 200,000 men
is sworn to sustain it. Officers, American and Irish, who have
served with distinction in your service, are silently moving into
Ireland to assume control of the active operations to be
inaugurated in a few months — sooner, much sooner, than any of
you believe.
In August the Irish newspapers began to fiU
with alarmist letters from country gentlemen ; and
the contingency of a midnight rising was discussed
from a hundred points of view. In September
the magistrates of Cork county, to the number of
one hundred and fifty, assembled in special meeting
to consider the perilous state of affairs. They
memorialed the Government on the subject, but

A TROUBLED TIME. 127
the Government had already formed its decision.
It is not easy to determine the stage at which
a secret conspiracy can be most effectually struck.
A singular incident showed the authorities in
Dublin Castle that they had not many moments
to lose. On the machine-room staff of the IHsh
People was a man named Pierce Nagle, a great
favourite and confidential agent or courier of
Mr. Stephens. For more than a year Nagle had
been in the secret pay of the Government, and
was supplying deadly information against the
Fenian chiefs. One day an envoy arrived from
the South Tipperary B's, and received from Mr.
Stephens a despatch of the utmost secresy and
importance, with which he was to return instantly
to Clonmel. The missive he bore was to be read
for the centres there, and then destroyed. The
envoy got rather overpowered with " refreshment "
in the afternoon, and went to sleep on a bench in
the machine-room. Nagle coming in, saw him,
and rightly guessed he was likely to have received
some important letter from " the Captain." He
quietly turned the pockets of the sleeper inside
out, and took from him the precious document.
Some days elapsed before he was able to find an
opportunity for safely handing it over to the

128 NEW IRELAND.
police. Once in their possession, the importance
of that missive was fully recognised. Before many
hours it was in the council-chamber of Dublin
Castle. A glance at its contents showed Lord
Wodehouse that he must strike without further
hesitation. Which he did.

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 129

CHAPTER VI.
THE RICHMOND ESCAPE.
" HuRKT in to town. Quick — quick. There is
desperate work. The Irish People is suppressed ;
the office is seized ; Luby, O'Leary, and Rossa are
arrested ; telegraphic communication with the
south is stopped ; no one knows what may not
be going on ! "
It was my brother who spoke at my bedroom
door early in the morning of Saturday, 16th of
September 1865. He had driven from town to
'where I lived, some three miles distant in the
northern suburbs, to bear me news of truly
startling events that had just occurred.
" Luby, O'Leary, and Rossa arrested ! " I
exclaimed. " Have they got Stephens ? "
" No ; not up to the time I left."
" Then depend upon it he will fight. We shall
have barricades in the city to-night."
VOL. II. K

130 NEW IRELAND.

I breakfasted hastily, my brother going on
with his narrative of the proceedings. I concealed
my feelings as best I could ; but I took a very
serious view of the situation. From information
which had reached me during the previous month
or two, I knew that this coup did not anticipate by
more than a few weeks the date fixed by the
Fenian leaders for the outbreak of hostilities. I
judged that the difference in time being so small,
Mr. Stephens would rather accept battle now than
let his men be struck down in detail. Moreover,
this move of the Government was so obvious, so
inevitable, that he must have been prepared for it
from the first hour when he publicly established a
central bureau of Fenian affairs at the very
threshold of the Castle, and filled it with the best
and most prominent men of his organisation.
I drove into town, and found excitement and
alarm on all sides. It was only after a consider
able interval I was able to gather anything like a
correct and coherent account of what had occurred,
so wild and contradictory were the stories in
circulation. On the previous day, Friday, 15th of September
1865, a Privy Council was hastily held at Dublin
Castle. Before it were laid reports from the police

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 131
authorities on the critical state of the Fenian
business ; the steady flow of American officers
into the country ; the increased activity in the
provinces ; the arrival of large remittances of
money to the Fenian leaders ; the extensive
drilling going on all over the kingdom, particu
larly in Dublin. But most important of all,
the following letter, in the handwriting of the
supreme chief of the movement, was placed upon
the table : — Dublin, September 8, 1865.
Beotheks, I regret to find the letter 1 addressed to you has never
reached you. Had you received it I am confident all would
have been right before this; because I told you explicitly
what to do, and once you saw your way it is sure to me that
you would have done it well. As far as I can understand your
actual position and wishes now, the best course to take is to get
all the working B's together, and after due deliberation and
without favour to any one — acting purely and conscientiously
for the good of the cause — to select one man to represent and
direct you all. This selection made, the man of your choice
should come up here at once, when he shall get instructions and
authority to go on with the good work. There is no time to
be lost. This year — ^and let there be no mistake about it —
must be the year of action. I speak with a knowledge and
authority to which no other man could pretend ; and I repeat,
the flag of Ireland — of the Irish Eepublic — must this year be
raised. As I am much pressed for time, I shall merely add
that it shall be raised in a glow of hope such as never gleamed
K 2

132 NEW IRELAND.
round it before. Be, then, of firm faith and the best of cheer,
for all goes bravely on. Yours fraternally, J. Power.*
N.B. This letter must be read for the working B's only, and
when read must be burnt.
This was the letter which Pierce Nagle had
taken from the pocket of the intoxicated Fenian
courier as he lay asleep in the Irish People office.
The Privy Council decided that the conspiracy
must be struck instantly and simultaneously all
over the island. The Fenian organ was to be
seized and suppressed ; the leaders were every
where to be arrested. So suddenly was this
resolution arrived at that a difficulty arose as to
seizing the newspaper. Already the bulk of its
publication for that week was on its way to
England and the Irish provinces. At the very
moment the Privy Council was sitting, the Irish
People machinery was printing off the " country
edition," and vans were bearing the agents'
parcels to the trains and steamboats. There was
no help for this now. At three o'clock the council
broke up, and the police got their orders to prepare
for action. Before they ventured to stir in Dublin,
they telegraphed to all the " dangerous " cities and
* One of Stephens's innumerable aliases.

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 133
towns, notifying the authorities in those places that
at ten o'clock p.m. a simultaneous dash must be made
on the Fenians, and that all necessary precautions
must accordingly be taken. About nine o'clock the
manager of the Magnetic Telegraph Company was
surprised by a visit from a Government official
with an astonishing request. He said that, owing
to " something that was about to happen," the
Government wished all telegrams relating to
Fenianism, unless between the public authorities,
to be " withheld." The manager well knew what
was meant. There was no refusing such a polite
invitation. The requisite assent was given.
Indeed, to make assurance doubly sure, a police
man in plain clothes was stationed in the telegraph
office. All now being ready, at half-past nine
o'clock several bodies of police, well armed, were
quietly moved upon Parliament Street, each end
of which they occupied. While the by-passers
were wondering at the presence of this police
cordon, some of the detective force knocked at the
door of No. 12, which was the Irish People
office. No one opened, whereupon the door was
forced. With a rush the house was occupied, and
ransacked. No person was found within. The
office books, type forms, and bales of printed

134 NE W IRELAND.
papers (the " town edition " of the Irish People)
were brought out into the street, piled on a dray,
and carried off to the Castle ; a guard of police being
left on the premises. Barely half an hour
previously the Irish People staff had left the
office, their labours for the day being over.
Some of them had not quitted the immediate
vicinity. Soon the street rang with the news ;
hearing it they rushed out, and were seized.
At the same moment, other parties of police were
at work all over the city. The residences of the
prominent Fenians were well known, and before
many hours O'Donovan Rossa, John O'Clohissy,
Thomas Ashe, Michael O'Neill Fogarty, Mortimor
Moynihan, and W. F. Roantree were lodged in
prison. None of them made resistance. It was
late after midnight when Mr. Luby, who was
spending the evening with a friend, returned to
his residence at Dolphin's Barn. He did not
know that two detectives had lain concealed for
hours in a little shrubbery close by, waiting for
him. He had barely entered his house when they
knocked, gained admittance, and arrested him.
They searched for papers, and found several;
among the rest, some letters from an extraordinary
genius named O'Keeffe, well known in some of

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 135
the Dublin newspaper offices for his crazy eccen
tricities. He had written in his characteristic
style to Mr. Luby, urging the revolutionary leaders,
if they meant business, to go in for a battue of
big landlords like the Duke of Leinster. To any
one who knew the man the letter would be an
amusing literary curiosity. As such Mr. Luby
laughed over it himself, and showed it to others to
laugh at also. Unfortunately for him, however,
he did not destroy O'Keeffe's ferocious programme.
It was a dangerous document for a man engaged
in political conspiracy to preserve, as an apparent
reality and seriousness of meaning might be cast
upon its contents when found amongst the class of
papers seized in the course of these arrests. As a
matter of fact, these wretched O'Keeffe letters were
made the foundation for charges against the Fenian
prisoners which some of them felt more keenly, and
complained of more vehemently, than the severest
tortures of prison punishment.* The O'Keeffe
* Nothing wounded the Fenian leaders more than the
horrible suggestion that they contemplated " a general massacre
and universal pillage." Taking the O'Keeffe letters as their
authority, the Castle ofScials who prepared the brief or state
ment of evidence on which the Crown counsel was to act at the
preliminary iavestigations broadly set forth this revolting and
cruel assertion. The prisoners have never forgiven that

136 NEW IRELAND.
manuscript, however, mischievous as was the part
it played in subsequent events, was not the most
fatal discovery made on that occasion. In Mr.
Luby's desk was found a sealed packet addressed
"Miss Eraser." "What is this?" said the
officer, putting it on the table before Mr. Luby.
For a second his lip trembled and his colour
changed ; but suddenly recovering himself, he
replied in a careless manner, " Oh ! tbis is some
thing between the ladies" ; and he pushed it across
to his wife. Before she could stir, the officer
seized it. That sealed envelope contained the
most conclusive testimony which, from the first
hour to the last, the Government obtained upon
which to convict the leading conspirators. It was

imputation. They concentrated all, or nearly all, their anger
on the hapless gentleman who was Crown counsel on the
occasion referred to, Mr. C. E. (now Mr. Justice) Barry.
Epitomising the case as briefed to him he made this statement.
When subsequently its falsehood, as regards those prisoners,
was found out in the Castle, all that was done was to abandon
— to cease from mentioning — instead of openly retracting it.
This pitiful course wronged the prisoners and wronged Mr.
Barry. It left the former under the odium of an imputation
abhorrent to them'. It deprived the latter of the opportunity he
gladly would have seized of displaying his generosity and high
sense of justice in delivering his own mind, not the language of
a brief, on the whole proceeding.

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 137
the commission, under the hand of Mr. Stephens,
as supreme chief of the revolutionary movement,
appointing Messrs. Luby, O'Leary, and Kickham
a triumvirate or executive during his absence on
a visit to the American circles. It ran as follows : —
I hereby empower Thomas Clarke Luby, John O'Leary, and
Charles J. Kickham a Committee of Organisation or Executive,
with the same supreme control over the home organisation,
England, Ireland, and Scotland, that I have exercised myself.
I further empower them to appoint a Committee of Military
Inspection and a Committee of Appeal and Judgment, the
functions of which committee will be made known to every
member of them. Trusting to the patriotism and abilities of
the Executive I fully indorse their actions beforehand. I call
on every man in our ranks to support and be guided by them
in all that concerns the military brotherhood. J. Stephens.
Mr. Luby was borne off to prison. His papers
were carried under seal to the Castle. Mr. George
Hopper (whose sister was wife of Mr. Stephens),
Mr. John O'Leary, and many others, were arrested
in the early morning. It may be said that before
the afternoon of Saturday, with the exception of
Stephens himself and two or three others, the
Government had in their grasp every man of pro
minence connected with the Irish branch of the
conspiracy. Still the remark which almost involuntarily fell

138 NEW IRELAND.
from tne on hearing the news that morning was
on every lip, "If they have not got Stephens,
their swoop is vain. He will fill up all gaps,
and give the signal for action ere twenty-four
hours." Meantime, all over Ireland scenes somewhat
similar to those above described were proceeding.
Midnight arrests and seizures, hurried flights and
perilous escapes, wild rumours and panic alarms,
scared every considerable city and town. It was
a critical time in Dublin Castle. Sir Thomas
Larcom, Under Secretary, sat up all night, every
five minutes receiving reports and issuing direc
tions. So anxious was the Government as to the
successful seizure of the Irisli People office, that
Mr. O'Ferrall, the Commissioner of Police, and
Colonel Wood, Inspector-General of Constabulary,
personally superintended the proceedings at that
spot. Colonel Lake, C.B., took general charge of
the arrangements throughout the city for effecting
the arrests, and suppressing any resistance. In
Dublin and Cork an outbreak was fully anticipated.
Into the latter city an additional battery of
artillery was hastily despatched from BallincolHg.
All the soldiers of the garrison were aroused from
their beds and put under arms at three o'clock in

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 139
the morning ; and reinforcements from Fermoy
and other stations were rapidly hurried in.
With troubled minds and heavy hearts the
citizens of Dublin counted the hours of that
exciting day ; alarm intensifying as night ap
proached. Many sat up until near dawn, listening
for the first roar of artiUery or rattle of musketry
in the streets ; and it was with an indescribable
sense of relief that people found the night pass
tranquilly away.
Where was Stephens all this time ? Calm
and undisturbed, living openly enough in a pretty
suburban villa not two mUes from Dublin Castle.
Proclamations offering £200 for his arrest were
scattered all over the country, and a description of
his person was posted at every barrack door.
Thousands of policemen, hundreds of spies and
detectives, were exerting every effort of ingenuity
to discover his whereabouts ; all in vain. They
scrutinised every railway passenger ; they laid
hands on every commercial traveller who hap
pened in any way to resemble his description.
They had a keen eye for everything that might
seem like a disguise. They never thought of
looking for him in no disguise at all ! " Mr.
Herbert," of Fairfield House, Sandymount,

I40 NE W IRELAND.

affected no concealment. He lived, no doubt,
very much at home, but he might be seen nearly
every day in his flower garden or greenhouse
busily arranging his geraniums, or tending his
japonicas. He lived well, kept a good cellar,
and had his house furnished tastefully. It never
occurred to the detective mind that a placid-look
ing gentleman so deeply immersed in horticulture
could be concerned in politics. "Mr. Herbert,"
no doubt, went into town occasionally in the
evenings. On the night of the seizure he was at
the lodgings of one of the Fenian organisers
(Flood) in Denzille Street, giving interviews, one
by one, to the agents and subordinates who waited
in an ante-room. Suddenly James O'Connor, of
the Irish People, entered and asked for " the
Captain." His manner was a little disturbed, but
on being told he should wait, he sat down quite
composedly till his turn came. On being shown
into Stephens's room, he told the news : The office
• was in the hands of the police ; Rossa and several
of their comrades had been arrested ; search and
seizure were being fiercely prosecuted all around.
Stephens excitedly rushed into the ante-room with
the intelligence. The assembled confederates
exhibited their surprise and emotion in various

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 141
ways. There was one amongst them particularly
who displayed what looked like intense astonish
ment and concern. This was Pierce Nagle, the
paid spy of the Government — who knew all !
They separated for their homes. Mr. Stephens
reached Fairfield House in safety, and soundly
slept ; but several of the others found themselves
in the police ceUs before morning — with the rest.
Pierce Nagle. It was only when next day they
were brought up before the magistrates for formal
committal that each was able to know how many
of his friends shared his fate. Much they won
dered who amongst them had played false — who
would appear at the critical moment in the
witness-box against them! They did not know
he was that moment standing in their midst,
apparently a prisoner like themselves. At length,
after Pierce had played the rble of " martyr " for a
few days, it was deemed time for him to step forth
in his true character ; his evidence in court being
required. When the day arrived, and their
former comrade, the trusted servant and agent of
their chief, stepped on the table as Crown witness,
to swear them to the scaffold, the doomed men ex
changed glances of despair ; the despair that flings
hope away, not that which quads before disaster.

142 NEW IRELAND.
Two months passed by, and stiU all search for
Stephens was vain. A special commission was
issued for the trial of Luby, O'Leary, Rossa, and
others, on the approaching 27th of November.
The story now circulated and universally believed
was that Stephens had solemnly annoimced these
men were in no danger ; nay, that they and their
prosecutors would exchange positions ere many
days ! Early in November the Dublin police
remarked that Mrs. Stephens was seen in Dublin
very much as usual. They tracked her on several
evenings towards Sandymount, and always lost her
in the neighbourhood of " Mr. Herbert's" house.
An extra police force was immediately stationed
in the district, and a minute search, house by
house and road by road, was prosecuted. On
Thursday, the 9th of November, Mrs. Stephens was
observed to leave Fairfield House and proceed
towards Dublin. She was dogged through the
city and back to her home by female spies.
The police now decided that the man they wanted
was within their power. On Friday evening the
house was stealthily surrounded and watched by a
number of detectives. Many circumstances con
vinced them the conspirator was within. That
the struggle to capture him would be desperate

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 143
and bloody was the conviction in every mind.
About an hour before dawn on Saturday morning,
the whole of the " G " division of police, under
the personal command of Colonel Lake, C.B.,
surrounded the house. Six divisional inspectors
scaled the garden wall and knocked at the back
door of the house. A voice, which two of them
recognised as that of Stephens, asked from within:
" Who is there ? Is that Corrigan ?" meaning,
it would seem, the gardener, who usually came to
his work at an early hour in the morning.
The answer was, " Police."
" I cannot let you in. I am undressed," said
the C. 0. I. R.
" If you do not open this instant, we will burst
the door," rejoined Inspector Hughes.
Stephens, who was in his night-dress, ran
through the hall to the front door, looked out,
and saw that the house was surrounded. He re
turned to the back door, undid the bolts, and
rushed upstairs to his bedroom. He was quickly
and closely followed by the police, who suspected
some deep design in this easy admittance. In
the bedroom were Mrs. Stephens and her sister.
Detective officers Dawson and Hughes reached
the room at a few bounds. The former, who

J 44 NEW IRELAND.
knew the Fenian chief, called out, " How are you,
Stephens ?"
Stephens looked angrily at the speaker, and
cried, " Who the devil are you ?"
" I am Dawson," said the detective, with pro
fessional pride in the conviction that every one
— at all events every one concerned in illegal
practices — must have heard of " Dawson."
" Dawson ! Oh, indeed ! I have read about
you," replied the Head Centre, who leisurely pro
ceeded to dress himself. While this scene was
proceeding in Stephens's bedroom, the other apart
ments of the house had been rapidly filled with
police, and other captures barely less important
were effected. In a bedroom close by were found
Charles J. Kickham, Hugh Brophy, and Edward
Duffy, the latter of whom might have been not
incori'ectly called the life and soul of the Fenian
movement west of the Shannon. Under their
pillows were found four Colt's revolvers, loaded
and capped. A large sum of money — nearly
£2000 in notes, gold, and drafts — was also found
in the room. The house evidently had been pro
visioned as the intended refuge of several persons
for some weeks. Large quantities of bacon, flour,
groceries, wines, spirits, &c., were stored on the

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 145
premises. The strong force of police in and
around, the house showed to all the captives the
fruitlessness of resistance. They quietly dressed
themselves, and long ere the neighbouring dwellers
were astir, or knew of the astonishing drama that
had been enacted amidst the parterres of Fairfield
House, the whole party were carried off and
secured under bolts and bars in Dublin Castle.
It was approaching noon before the news got
abroad. Then indeed the city broke forth into
excitement that was not half terror.* The dreaded
C. 0. 1. R. was actually in custody. Now might
every one sleep with easy mind. No ' ' rising "
need be apprehended. No lurid flame of civil
war would redden the midnight sky. Exultation
beamed on every detective's face. " We have done
it," might be read in the toss of every policeman's
head as he proudly paced his beat.
On the following Tuesday the four prisoners
were brought before the magistrate in the lower
Castle yard. The van which conveyed them was
accompanied by a mounted escort with drawn
sabres, and preceded and followed by a number of
cars conveying policemen armed with cutlass and
revolver. Along the route the patrols had been
well strengthened, and every precaution taken
VOL. II. L

146 NEW IRELAND.
against a rescue. There was great anxiety to catch
a glimpse of the celebrated Fenian chief, who
since the arrests of the 15th of September had
become for the first time a popular hero. The
police escorts and guards, however, prevented any
one from approaching. Not a glance could be
exchanged with the object of all this curiosity. A
distinguished party of viceregal visitors or friends,
and some of the higher executive functionaries
— including Lord Chelmsford, Sir Robert Peel,
Colonel Lake,, Mr. Wodehouse, private secretary
to the Lord Lieutenant, and others — were accom
modated with seats in the magistrate's room, having
shared the general desire for a look at " the Cap
tain." Indeed it is said the lady of one of them
successfully pleaded for a glimpse of Stephens and
his colleagues while in the prison. When Nagle
was brought in, he perceptibly trembled, and
avoided meeting the gaze of the prisoners. Stephens
bore himself quite coolly, nay, cavalierly. His
letter to the Clonmel "B's" was read as evidence.
When the clerk carne to the passage declaring this
should be " the year of action," Stephens startled
them all by loudly interjecting, " So it may
be." Although he must have read in the public news-

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 147
papers of the extensive seizure of letters and other
documents in the course of the previous arrests, he
seems to have kept quite a store of like evidence
at Fairfield House. There were Hsts or rolls of the
American officers ; name, ranks, travelling charges
paid them, and the dates of sailing for Ireland.
There was a minute, or memorandum, apparently
of the MUitary CouncU, settling the pay in doUars
which those officers were to receive : major-
general, monthly, 750 dols. ; brigadier-general,
400 dols. ; colonel (special arm), 248 dols. ; ditto
infantry line, 238 dols. ; lieutenant-colonel (special
arm), 225 dols. ; ditto infantry line, 215 dols. ;
major (special), 200 dols. ; captains, of aU arms,
165 dols.; lieutenants, 125 dols.; 2nd ditto, 115
dols. There was a list of places organised, and of
the centres in charge ; a sheet of cipher-terms,
and letters in great abundance. In truth the docu
ments seized on this occasion enabled the organi
sation to be gripped far more extensively and
effectuaUy than was possible before.
The preliminary examination extended over a
couple of days. At its close, on Wednesday, 15th
of November, the magistrate, previous to committing
the prisoners, asked each if he had any observation?
to make. Stephens said he had. T, 2

1 48 NEW IRELAND.

The magistrate : " I shaU be bound to take it
down." Stephens: "Yes; take it down."
Then rising to his feet and folding his arms, he
said : " I have employed no lawyer in this case,
because in making a defence of any kind I should
be recognising British law in Ireland. Now I
deliberately and conscientiously repudiate the
existence of that law in Ireland ; its right, or even
its existence in Ireland; and I defy any punish
ment, and despise any punishment, it can inflict
upon me. I have spoken it."
What did this mean ? Ten days subsequently
these words were recalled, with a fuU perception of
their import !
" Stephens has escaped ! Stephens has escaped !"
This was the cry which rang from end to end of
Dublin on the morning of Saturday the 25th of
November 1865.
" Stephens ? Escaped ?"
"Yes!" "From Richmond BrideweU? When? How?
Impossible !"
Such were the exclamations or interrogations to
be heard on every side. Stephens escaped ! Con
sternation — utter, hopeless consternation reigned

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 149
throughout the city; that is to say, amongst the
business classes. The populace were very differently
affected. This daring achievement was aU that
was necessary to immortalise the Fenian leader.
The police and detectives went about the streets
crestfaUen and humiliated ; while members of the
Fenian fraternity could be pretty well identified
by the flashing eye, the exultant countenance, the
wild strong grip with which they greeted one
another. The Fenian leaders had been confined in Rich
mond prison, awaiting their trial on the 27th of
November. When built, fifty or sixty years ago,
Richmond was one of the strongest jails in Ire
land ; but it was entirely wanting in those facilities
for supervision which the modern prisons, with
radiating corridors, possess. At the head of one of
the several stone stairs which connect the ground-
floor cell system with the upper tier ran a short
cross corridor of six cells. The door between the
corridor and stairhead was of heavy hammered
iron, nearly an inch thick, and secured by a lock
opening from either side. The ceU-doors were
likewise of wrought iron, fastened with ponderous
swinging bars and padlocks. The other end of the
corridor was closed by a similar door. In these

ISO NEW IRELAND.

six ceUs, thus cut off from the rest of the prison,
Stephens, Luby, O'Leary, Kickham, and Rossa
were confined. In the sixth cell, that between
Stephens and Kickham, the governor, Mr. Mar
quess, placed a young lad named McLeod, an
ordinary prisoner, with instructions to listen at
night, and ring his cell gong if he heard anything
close by. Lest there might be any tampering or
undue communication, no warder or other person
was aUowed in the corridor at night, but a warder
and policeman were placed outside the locked door
at the end opposite the stairhead door. At the
latter no watch was deemed necessary. Military
guards and sentries, and a detachment of police,
had been plentifully placed in the prison when
first Stephens was committed ; but the Castle
raised a petty squabble with the prison board
as to the expense of these men, and they were
almost all withdrawn. A dispute over ten or
twelve pounds cost the Government the prize for
which they afterwards offered a thousand, and
would have given five times as much right
readily !
Vain were all bolts and bars, iron doors, and
grated windows to hold Stephens in that prison.
In anticipation of such a possibility as that which

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 151
had occurred, some of the prison officers had long
previously been secretly secured as sworn members
of the " I. R. B." One, J. J. Breslin, was hospital
superintendent ; another, Byrne, was night-watch
man, whose duty it was to patrol, the whole build
ing, yards, and passages, from " lock-up " at night
to " unlock " each morning. Breslin had a passkey
for all interior doors ; Byrne had one for interior
and exterior. The moment "the Captain" was
brought in, wax impressions or moulds of these
keys were taken, and duplicates were at once manu
factured by an expert hand amongst the brother
hood in the city.
As long, however, as the sentries and patrols
were around, free access through the doors was of
little advantage. Fortunately for the Fenian leader,
the dispute about expense (already referred to)
drew off the danger. By Thursday the 23rd
of November the coast was clear ; and it was
decided that on the following night his liberation
must be effected.
Night came. Lock-up and final inspection were
duly completed. The warders paraded, and gave
up their passkeys to be locked in the governor's
safe. The watches were posted, and sang out
" All's well." Stephens did not go to bed at all.

152 NEW IRELAND.

He sat up through the night, aware that some time
between midnight and morning his deliverer would
be at hand. The elements were propitious. For
years Dublin had not been visited by such a storm
of wind and rain as howled through the pitchy
darkness of that night. The prison clock had
chimed one when Stephens heard a stealthy foot
fall approach. The stairhead door was unlocked.
A friendly tap at his own door, and soon it swings
open. Daniel Byrne and James Breslin are out
side. Softly they descend the stair, each man now
grasping a revolver, for a desperate work has been
begun. They gain the yard, and reach the boundary
wall at a spot outside which confederates were to
be in waiting. They fling over the wall a few
pebbles — the pre-arranged signal. In answer a
small sod of grass is thrown to them from the other
side. Then they bring from the lunatic prisoners'
day-room, which is close by, two long tables, which
they lay against the wall. A rope is thrown over,
which Byrne and Breslin are to hold while Stephens
descends by it on the outer side. He mounts the
tables ; he gains the top, and swings into the arms
of his friends below. Though rain is falling in
torrents, and each one is drenched to the skin, they
bound with joy and embrace effusively. Stephens

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 153
is hurried off with a single attendant to the asylum
already selected for him in the city. Breslin retires
to his room in the prison, and Byrne resumes his
duty patrol !
At. five o'clock iit the morning Mr. Philpots,
deputy governor, was excitedly called by Byrne,
who, faithful and vigilant officer that he was,
reported that he had found two tables in the yard
close by the boundary wall, and much he feared
that something had gone wrong.* They ran to
the governor and aroused him. All hurried to
the corridor where the Fenians ought to be. Lo !
one of the cell doors ajar, and the " C. 0. I. R."
flown. All the others — Luby, Kickham, O'Leary,
Rossa — were safe and sound, but the man of men
for them was gone !
Mr. Marquess asked McLeod if he had heard any
noise. Yes, he had, about one o'clock in the
morning ; he heard some one open the end door,
come to Stephens's cell, and unlock it.
* A few days later on Byrne was arrested. A copy of the
Fenian oath a.nd other seditious documents were foimd in
his desk within the prison; but the Crown would not bring
home to him the charge of aiding Stephens's escape. Breslin
remained unsuspected in the prison service for several months
subsequently, when he took leave of absence, fled to America,
and there proudly avowed all.

154

NEW IRELAND.

" Why did you not pull your gong, as I told
you to do ? " asked the distracted governor.
" Because I knew whoever was doing this was
likely to be armed, and could open my cell also,
and take my life," was the ifitelligent and indeed
conclusive answer.
At no time probably since Emmet's insurrection
were the Irish executive authorities thrown into
such dismay and confusion as on this occasion.
They now realised what it was to deal with a
secret society. Whom could they trust? How
could they measure their danger ? Very evidently
the ground beneath them was mined in all direc
tions. Uncertainty magnified every danger.
Meantime the most desperate efforts were made to
recapture Stephens. Cavalry scoured -the country
round. Police, scattered all over the city, parti
cularly in suspected neighbourhoods, ransacked
houses, tore down wainscoting, ripped up flooring,
searched garrets, cellars, coalholes. Telegrams
went flying all over the kingdom ; steamers were
stopped and the passengers examined. Gunboats
put to sea and overhauled and searched fishing-
smacks and coasters. Flaming placards appeared
with " One thousand pounds reward " in large
letters announcing the escape, and offering a high

THE RICHMOND ESCAPE. 155
price for the lost one. The " C. 0. I. R." was all
this time, and for a long period subsequently,
secreted in the house of a Mrs. Butler of Summer
Hill, a woman of humble means.* She knew
her peril in sheltering him. She knew what would
be her reward in surrendering him. She was poor,
and could any moment earn £1000 by giving
merely a hint to the authorities. Stephens confided
himself implicitly into her hands, and he did not
trust her in vain.
One Sunday evening about three months after
wards a handsome open carriage-and-four drove
through the streets of the Irish metropolis, two
stalwart footmen seated in the dickey behind.
Two gentlemen reclined lazily on the cushioned
seat within. They proceeded northwards through
Malahide and towards Balbriggan. Near the
latter place, close by the sea, the carriage stopped.
One of the occupants got out, walked down
to the shore, where a boat was in waiting. He
entered, and was pulled off to a lugger in the
offing. The carriage returned to Dublin. The
" coachman," " postilion," " footmen," and com
panion were all picked men of the " I. R. B.,"
* She died a few years ago in a public hospital of the
city.

1 5 6 NEW IRELAND.

and were armed to the teeth. The gentleman
placed on board the lugger, now speeding down
Channel with flowing sheet for France, was James
Stephens, the " Central Organiser of the Irish
Republic."

insurrection: 157

CHAPTER VII.
INSURRECTION !
For three weary years Ireland endured the perils
and pains of a smouldering insurrection. Stephens's
decree as to the " year of action " came to naught ;
1865 went out gloomily enough, but without the
expected convulsion. Still every one could discern
that the danger had by no means blown over.
The Fenians, it was well known, were making
strenuous efforts to repair the gaps made in their
ranks, and to recover themselves for a stroke in
force. The two years which followed the first
arrests were little else than a protracted struggle
between the Government and the secret organisa
tion. The former was striking out vehemently,
smashing through circles, pouncing on councils,
seizing centres, destroying communications, raiding
right and left through the shattered lines of the
" I. R. B." The latter, on the other hand, unde-

1 5 8 NEW IRELAND.

terred by disaster, went on, clinging desperately
and doggedly to the work of reconstruction. As
fast as seizures swept off leaders, others stepped
into the vacant posts. Court-house, dock, and
prison van were filled and emptied again and
again. Assize and commission, commission and
assize, took their dismal turn. The deadl}^ duel
went on. It seemed interminable.
T. C. Luby was the first of the prisoners brought
to the bar. His trial lasted for four days — from
the 28th of November to the 1st of December
1865, inclusive. He had for his leading counsel
Mr. Isaac Butt, whose masterly abilities in previous
State trials, the theme of national praise, were
displayed even more conspicuously now. But
there was no struggling against the overwhelming
evidence of documents preserved by the conspi
rators themselves. The " Clonmel letter " and the
" executive commission " sealed the doom of the
three men who were incontestably the ablest and
most prominent of the Fenian leaders. Luby was
found guilty and condemned to penal servitude
for twenty years. While the jury in his case were
absent from court, deliberating on their verdict,
O'Leary was put to the bar. On the 6th of
December his trial closed with a conviction and

INSURRECTION I 159
a sentence of twenty years' penal servitude. Next
came Rossa. He dismissed the lawyers, and
announced that he meant to conduct his own
defence. Never was such a scene witnessed in
that court-house! "He cross-examined the in
formers in fierce fashion," says an eye-witness ;
" he badgered the detectives, he questioned the
police, he debated with the Crown lawyers, he
argued with the judges, he fought with the Crown
side all round. But it was when the last of the
witnesses had gone off the table that he set to the
work in good earnest. He took up the various
publications that had been put in evidence against
him, and claimed his legal right to read them all
through. One of them was the file of the Irish
People for the whole term of its existence ! Horror
sat upon the faces of judges, jurymen, sheriffs,
lawyers, turnkeys, and all, when the prisoner
gravely informed them that as a compromise he
would not insist upon reading the advertisements !
The fight went on throughout the live-long
day, till the usual hour of adjournment had come
and gone, and the prisoner himself was feeling
parched and weary and exhausted. Observing
that the lights were being now renewed, and that
their lordships appeared satisfied to sit out the

NEW IRELAND.

night, he anxiously inquired if the proceedings
were not to be adjourned till morning. " Proceed,
sir," was the stern reply of the judge, who knew
that the physical powers of the prisoner could
not hold out much longer. " A regular Norbury !"
gasped O'Donovan. " It's like a '98 trial." " You
had better proceed, sir, with propriety," exclaimed
the judge. " When do you propose stopping, my
lord?" again inquired the prisoner. "Proceed,
sir," was the reiterated reply. O'Donovan could
stand it no longer. He had been reading and
speaking for eight hours and a half With one
final protest, he sat down, exclaiming that
" English law might now take its course."
On the day following this remarkable scene
Rossa was sentenced to penal servitude for life ;
an excess of punishment over that assigned to his
colleagues, arising out of the fact that he had been
adjudged guilty on a like charge in 1858, and had
then been released on bond of " good behaviour,"
and an undertaking to appear for sentence when
called on.
Many of the prisoners were railitary men, and to
these trial by the civil tribunals was rigidly denied.
The courts-martial had a grim sensation of their
own ; for flogging was often portion of the sen-

INSURRECTION ! i6i

tence inflicted ; and that revolting spectacle which
no one who has ever looked on it would willingly
behold again, shocked the Dublin public from
time to time.
It was not the power and arms of the British
Government alone that operated to disorganise
and destroy the Fenian movement. Dissension
and revolt amongst its leaders broke its power.
Before two years Stephens was the object of fierce
denunciation from his own followers, and John
O'Mahony was deposed and degraded by the
Senate of the American Branch, over which he
had so long presided. In each case the dethroned
or impeached leaders had numerous partisans, so
that the unity of the organisation on each side of
the Atlantic was at an end.
Stephens, having remained a short time in
France, after his escape from Ireland, proceeded
to America, and sought to bring the sundered
sections of the brotherhood there under his own
sole authority. But although in Ireland he was
stiU believed in and obeyed implicitly as ever,
already amongst the circles on the other side his
pretensions and his abilities were being severely
canvassed. He found but few wiUing to constitute
him a dictator, and this he would be or nothing.
VOL. II. M

1 62 NEW IRELAND.

The more resolute and influential Fenian party in
the States discarded him altogether ; and, on the
policy of "striking England where they could,"
attempted the daring design of an invasion of
Canada. This was of course utterly frustrated by
the interference of the American Government;
and a loud outcry was raised by the Irish that they
had been cheated by the Washington authorities.
The promises or intimations held out when recruits
were needed during the Civil War were now
found to be merely skilful lures to catch an ardent
and soldierly race more full of courage than of
wisdom. This Canadian failure was used by
Stephens to the reproach of those who had declined
bis direction, and now he said he would show them
the right road. He would return to Ireland and
unfurl the flag of revolution. Once more he em
phatically declared for " this year." At a public
meeting in Jones' Wood, New York, he reiterated
the pledge, sealing his declaration with a solemn
oath. This announcement, made in the autumn of
1866, plunged Ireland anew into the whirl of
startling rumours and wild alarms.
The insurrection, or attempted insurrection, of
1867 was one of those desperate and insensate
proceedings into which men involved in a ruined

INSURRECTION I 163

cause sometimes madly plunge, rather than bow
to the disgrace and dishonour of defeat without a
blow. Stephens spent all the latter half of 1866
in endeavours to raise money in America for
the newly promised rising. Again and again he
announced that 1866 would not pass away without
the tocsin call to arms, and that he, James
Stephens, would be on Irish soil to perish or
conquer. Sinister insinuations began to creep
about that he would do nothing of what he
vowed ; but these were silenced by announcements
in November that he had left America and sailed
for Ireland. Then indeed the Irish Government
stood to arms. Then did alarm once more paralyse
all minds. It seemed as if the worst reality would
be less painful than this prolonged uncertainty and
recurring panic. War steamers cruised around
the island. Every harbour and landing-place
was watched. Every fishing-boat was searched.
Every passenger was scrutinised. Each morning
people scanned the papers eagerly to learn if the
Rebel Chief had yet been discovered. As the last
week of 1866 approached, the public apprehension
became almost unbearable. Until the great clock
of the General Post Office had chimed midnight
on the 31st of December, and Christ Church bells
M 2

1 64 NEW IRELAND.
rang in the new year, the belief that an explosion
was at hand could not be shaken.
Stephens had not stirred from America. All
this time he was secreted in the house of a friend
in Brooklyn. He did not venture on Irish soil
either to conquer or to perish. He realised the
hopelessness of the attempt he had sworn to
undertake, and preferred to face the rage and
scorn of his followers rather than the perils that
awaited him in Ireland. He had no ambition to
occupy a cell beside Luby and Kickham in
Millbank or Woking. In truth, the Irish Fenian
Chief may be said at this point to have disap
peared from the scene. Scorning to defend
himself, he has ever since remained sUent aHke
under blame and praise. Intolerant, unscrupulous,
and relentless himself in his day of power, he has
been the victim of many a wrong and been
pupsued by many a hate in his fall. The absurd
exaggeration of his abilities which once prevailed
has been followed by a monstrously unjust depre
ciation of them. He was a born conspirator ; and
though comrades and subordinates have changed
idolatry for execration, Stephens must be ranked
as one of the ablest, most skilful, and most dan
gerous revolutionists of our time.

INSURRECTION I 165

The shouts of derision which arose over this
Stephens fiasco cut like daggers to the hearts of
the men in Ireland and America who clung with
invincible tenacity to the fatal purpose of an
armed struggle. At every check and reverse
which befell the Fenian enterprise the English
newspapers wrote confidently of its " collapse" and
" termination." " The end of it" was announced and
gravely written upon a score of times between
1865 and 1868, and morals and lessons were
preached from what was regarded as a past trans
action. While a general chorus of felicitation was
being raised in the press over this the " really final
disappearance" ofthe Fenian spectre, the Govern
ment became aware, early in 1867, that '''the men
at home," discarding reliance on American aid
(beyond the assistance of the numerous military
staff still concealed in the country), meant to strike
at last.
At a secret council of delegates held in Dublin,
the 12th of February was fixed on for a simul
taneous rising ; and word to this intent was sent
throughout the island. A day or two previous to
this date it was decided to postpone proceedings
to the 5th of March. The countermand failed to
reach in time the Fenian captain in command at

1 66 NEW IRELAND.
Cahirciveen; and on Wednesday, 13th of February,
the news rang out that West Kerry was aflame.
From Killarney came word that the wires west
ward were all cut; that a mounted policeman
carrying despatches had been captured and shot ;
that coast-guard stations and police barracks had
been disarmed, and that the Iverah hills "swarmed"
with men. Much of this was exaggeration ; but
the worst was believed for the time. The gentry
of the neighbourhood flocked into KiUarney,
bringing their wives and children, and many of
them their plate, jewels, and other valuables.
They took possession of the railway hotel, and,
assisted by some military and police, set about
fortifying it. A stock of provisions was laid in.
The ladies made bags which the gentlemen filled
with sand and piled in the windows. Arms were
distributed, sentries posted, scouts sent out, and
urgent appeals for aid were telegraphed to Dublin
Castle. Meantime from Dublin, Cork, and Lime
rick military hastened to the place, as many as
three express trains being despatched with troops
from the Curragh camp within twenty-four hours
of the alarm. What had really happened was that
the Cahirciveen insurrectionary contingent, un
aware of the countermand that had reached all

INSURRECTION I 167
other places, marched out on the night of the 12th,
to meet, as they believed, the forces from neigh
bouring districts. It was only after they had
approached KiUarney that they discovered how
the facts lay, and they forthwith dispersed as best
they could. The district being so wild and moun
tainous, and communication so difficult, it was a
week before the Government authorities could
realise that all was over — that Iverah, as that
portion of the county is called, was not in the
possession of a powerful rebel force. Headed by
the local gentry, parties of military and police
commenced the "surrounding " of mountains, and
the " beating" of woods supposed to conceal forces
as numerous and desperate as those roused by the
whistle of Roderick Vich Alpine Dhu. Ever and
anon as a wild deer broke from his cover in the
fern a shout would arise. "Here they are!"
Bugles sounded ; the troops closed in for a dash at
the enemy ; but found he was only the antlered
lord of the glen !
Elsewhere, work much more serious had very
nearly followed upon a like failure in the Fenian
countermand. It was resolved that the circles of Lancashire
should co-operate with the Dublin movement by a

1 68 NEW IRELAND.

proceeding which for daring and audacity could
hardly be excelled. They had information that
Chester Castle contained some 20,000 stand of
arms, besides accoutrements and ammunition to a
large extent, and that the place had only a nominal
garrison. A Fenian military council in Liverpool
decided to attack Chester Castle, seize the arms,
cut the telegraph wires, " impress" the railway
rolling-stock, load trains with men and arms, and
make for Holyhead. Here they were to seize all
the steamers in port, and speed for Dublin, in the
expectation of landing in that city before intelli
gence of their astounding feat could possibly have
reached Ireland !
It is now admitted that they would have suc
ceeded, at all events so far as capturing Chester
Castle, were it not that at the secret council which
sat to complete the arrangements there was present
John Joseph Corydon, one of Stephens's most
trusted agents, high in the confidence of the con
spirators — and deep in the pay of the Government.
Corydon carried the news of the projected attack
on Chester to Major Gregg, Chief Constable of
Liverpool. It was subsequently alleged, but dis
puted, that nearly a whole day was lost by the
authorities through their utter incredulity as to

INSURRECTION I 169

this sensational story. Certainly it was only
within a few hours of the time fixed for the
attack that its imminence was realised. By all the
morning trains from Manchester, Bolton, War
rington, &c., numbers of able-bodied Irishmen
were observed to arrive at Chester. They lounged
carelessly about in small parties, and seemed to be
awaiting others. Suddenly the chief constable
of Chester and the colonel of the military received
telegrams which must have taken their breath
away. The guards on the Castle were instantly
doubled ; the police marched out ; mounted ex
presses dashed off in all directions. Soon troops
began to arrive from Birkenhead as fast as special
trains could bring them. Very quickly the
loitering groups were observed to disperse, on
some whispered message reaching them. They
poured into every train returning to the towns
they had left in the morning. They had got word
that the plot was " blown upon " by some traitor,
and must be abandoned. Some of them were
observed to fling revolvers into the Dee. A large
party took the train to Holyhead, and the
North-wall boat to Dublin. The moment they
touched Irish ground they were arrested and
raarched off to Kilmainham prison.

1 70 NEW IRELAND.

u

Before our minds had recovered from the
perplexity and confusion which these events
created, we found ourselves in the midst of
the long-threatened and gloomily apprehended
rising." On the night of Monday the 4th or
morning of Tuesday the 5th of March 1867,
the Fenian circles took the field. Cork, Tipperary,
Dublin, Louth, Limerick, Clare, and Waterford alone
responded in any appreciable degree to the revolu
tionary summons. For two days previously it was
little secret that the event was at hand. Young
men took leave of friends ; clerks closed up their
accounts, so that no imputation on their honesty
might arise ; and on the evening of Monday
crowds of men between the ages of seventeen
and fifty were noticed thronging the churches.
The outbreak was crushed in its birth. The
Government, through Corydon, knew of the most
secret and important arrangements beforehand.
The dismay and demoralisation produced in the
insurgent ranks by the clear signs and proofs that
some one high in position amongst them must be
betraying everything did more than bullet or
sword to disperse and quell the movement. The
Limerick Junction station, on the Great Southern
and Western Railway, was recognised as a point of

INS URRE CTION ! 171
considerable strategic importance ; and as it was
in the heart of the most disaffected district
in Ireland — Tipperary, Cork, and Limerick — it
offered great advantages as the centre of opera
tions in the south. Brigadier-General Massey
was appointed to take command of the insurrec
tion at this point. He had been awaiting in Cork
the signal for action. On the evening of the 4th
of March he took his place in the up mail train
and reached the junction about twelve o'clock.
As he stepped out of the railway carriage he
found himself in the grasp of four detectives — as
many loaded revolvers being pointed at his head.
He gave one hurried glance around, and saw that
the platform was occupied by military under arms.
Then tbis man who had faced death a hundred
times amidst the carnage of the American civil
war, fell senseless in a swoon ! In a few moments
he was hurried off to Dublin under a strong guard,
the authorities being fully aware of the value of
their capture.* This stroke practically disposed of
* Great was the astonishment of every one when a few
weeks subsequently it was told that General Massey had tumed
Queen's evidence. In a sense he had ; but he was no spy
who remained in ranks he meant to betray. His story is that,
finding some one of five men who held the whole conspiracy

172 NEW IRELAND.
the south of Ireland. Ere morning the news had
spread that the position on which the numerous
local bodies were to converge was occupied by
Government troops, horse, foot, and artillery ;
worse still, that General Massey was a prisoner,
and by this time filled a dungeon in Dublin Castle.
The effect was what might be expected. Mustering
groups broke up; bodies on their way to the
rendezvous turned back and sought home again.
In Kilmallock, county Limerick, a serious conflict
took place. An armed band, numbering about
two hundred men, took possession of the town,
the police retreating to their barracks— a strong
building, well able to stand a siege. While one
party of the insurgents kept up a brisk fire on the
barracks, another proceeded through the town,
and searching every house seized- all the arms
that could be found. A circumstance ever since
remembered to their credit in the locality deserves
notice : There were two banks in the place, each
containing a large sum of money in gold, silver,
and notes ; yet although any guns or pistols on

in their hands (he did not then know it was Corydon) was
evidently betraying it, he, pondering the case in his cell, came
to the conclusion that the sooner the whole business was burst
up and stopped the less victims would there be.

INSURRECTION I 173
the bank premises were brought away, not a
penny of the money was touched. In fact,
private property was most scrupulously respected,
although the town was for a time completely in
their hands.* About ten o'clock in the forenoon
a party of armed constabulary from Kilfinane
arrived unexpectedly on the rear of the assailants
at the barrack, and quickly compeUed them to fly.
In this affray several lives were lost. The police,
being under cover, escaped with scarcely any
casualty. The manager of one of the banks, who
it was said drew a revolver on the rebel captain,
was fired at and wounded by the latter. One
of the insurgents who was killed was utterly
unknown in the neighbourhood; and the people
subsequently raised over his grave " a stone
without a name." This lamentable encounter at
Kilmallock was persisted in notwithstanding the
fact that news of the disaster at the junction had
caused numbers of the insurgents to disperse. The
truth is the arrest on the previous evening of Mr.
W. H. O'Sullivan (now senior member of Parlia-
* A sum of ten pounds foimd in a letter seized on a cap
tured police orderly was " confiscated " ; the distinction being
evidently drawn between what they considered Government
money and private funds.

174 NEW IRELAND.

ment for Limerick), one of the most popular men
in that district, had caused strong indignation and
excitement amongst the people. He was believed
to be unconnected with the Fenian society, and his
arrest was regarded as an act of wanton and arbi
trary severity. But for the exasperation arising
out of this incident, it was thought by many
Kilmallock might have been spared the painfully
prominent part it played in the " rising " of '67.
In the metropolis the attempt at insurrection
was an utter failure. From eight o'clock in the
evening until an hour before midnight bodies of
men, young and old, streamed out of the city by
all its southern outlets. The residents along the
several routes in many cases stood at the doors
watching the throng go by, and vainly asking
what it was all about. Of course the police and
the Govemment knew ; and such non-Fenian
civilians as also happened to divine what was afoot
marvelled greatly to note that the police in no
way interfered with the intending insurgents. It
afterwards transpired that Sir Hugh Rose,
commander-in-chief, gave the word to let all who
would go out, and he would take care how they
got in. That is to say, he preferred to deal with
the difficulty in the open, and not in the streets of

INSURRECTION ! 175
a crowded city. A place called Tallaght, about
four or five miles due south of Dublin, and lying
at the base of a chain of mountains stretching into
Wicklow, Kildare, and Carlow, was named as the
rebel rendezvous. General Halpin being in com
mand. The very simple expedient of preventing
any assemblage at all — of receiving the first
comers with a deadly volley, and causing all others
approaching to know that the gathering was
already disastrously dispersed^very effectually
disposed of the insurgent plan. It was a most
complete collapse. Not one-fourth of the number
who set out for the place ever reached Tallaght at
all. Had they once got together, no doubt a
severe struggle and a deplorable loss of Hfe might
have resulted. Happily only two men were
killed, and a dozen or more wounded. A party
marching fi-om Kingstown captured the police
barracks at Stepaside and GlencuUen, disarming
the policemen, but offering them no further harm.
This band, like all the others, on arriving near
Tallaght, met fugitive groups announcing that all
was over. By a Httle after midnight further
attempt was universally abandoned. Of the two
or three thousand men who had quitted Dublin in
the evening, hundreds were arrested on the canal

176 NEW IRELAND.
bridges, whereby alone they could re-enter the
city, while others, scattering through the hills,
endeavouring to escape by way of Kildare or
Wicklow, were pursued in all directions by the
royal lancers and dragoons.
In the neighbourhood of Cork city the rising
attained to its most formidable dimensions, if,
indeed, it could have been said to be formidable
even for a moment anywhere. At Midleton,
Castlemartyr, Ballyknockane, and other places,
the police barracks were attacked. In most cases
the police, defending themselves with great
courage against what for aught they knew might
have been overwhelming forces, put their assailants
to flight. In some instances, however, the
insurgents were successful, and again it is to be
noted that they used their brief hour of triumph
humanely and honourably. At Ballyknockane,
where the celebrated Captain Mackay was in
command, they surrounded the barrack and
demanded its surrender in the name of the Irish
Republic. " The police fired," says a trustworthy
account, " and the fire was returned. Then the
insurgents broke in the door and set fire to the
lower part of the barrack. Still the police held
out. ' Surrender ! ' cried the insurgents ; ' you

INSURRECTION I 177
want to commit suicide, hut we don't want to commit
murder. ' One of the policemen then cried out
that a little girl, his daughter, was inside, and
asked if the attacking party would allow her to be
passed out. Of course they would, gladly ; and
the little girl was taken out of the window with all
tenderness, and given up to her mother, who had
chanced to be outside the barrack when the attack
commenced. At this time a Catholic clergyman,
the Rev. Mr. Neville, came on the spot. He
asked the insurgent leader whether, if the police
surrendered, any harm would be done to them.
'Here is my revolver,' said Captain Mackay;
' let the contents of it be put through me if
one of them should be injured.' "
Tipperary was bound to be in the front if
fighting was going on. General T. F. Burke was
commander here. But in Tipperary the story was
the same as in Dublin, in Limerick, in Cork, and
in Drogheda. The insurgents were utterly
destitute of armament or equipment that could
enable them for a moment to withstand disciplined
forces. Courage, fortitude, endurance, the hapless
people indubitably displayed ; but as to preparation
or resource, a more lunatic attempt at revolution
the world never saw.
VOL. II. ¦ N

178 NEW IRELAND.
I have so far attributed the easy quelling of this
insurrection to the fact that the Government,
through their spies, were virtually behind the
scenes, and were able to anticipate and check
every move of their foes. But it is a public fact,
very singular in its nature, that the elements, in a
large degree, contributed to this result — a circum
stance universaUy remarked upon at the time. On
the evening of the 5th of March there set in aU
over Ireland a snowstorm for which there has
been no parallel since, and was none for half a
century before. For five days, with scarcely a
moment's intermission, from leaden skies the flakes
came down, until in some places the snow lay
three and four feet deep. Roads were impassable,
and on the mountains a Siberian spectacle met the
view. The troops on service suffered severely ;
cavalry horses perished in numbers. But, after
all, the troops had safe and comfortable barracks
or billets to rest in at night ; whereas a guerilla
warfare, involving life on the unsheltered hill-side,
was the main reliance of the insurgents. There
was no attempting to cope with this fearful
downpour, accompanied as it was by a piercing
hurricane. Jubilant after-dinner citizens in Dublin,
reclining before a blazing fire, rubbed their hands

INSURRECTION I

179

and recalled how in the days of Philip's Armada
and Heche's expedition the heavens themselves
fortunately seemed to fight on the side of England.
News of the rising was flashed by Atlantic
cable to America, and as that wonderful wire
never minimises a sensation, the American papers
teemed with accounts unbridled in their exaggera
tion and extravagance. Ireland was in arms !
Nearly the whole of the southern province was in
the hands of the insurgents ! The smoke of
battle clouded every Irish hill ! The red cross of
St. George still flew over Dublin Castle, but else
where, east and west, it was sorely pressed !
Notwithstanding the sickening disheartenment
which previous Fenian attempts and failures had
produced, the Irish millions in the States were
filled with excitement and sympathy. Wise
friends cried out to "Wait a week." A fort
night's later news toned down the telegraphic
story a good deal ; still there were hearts bound
ing for the fray, beyond all possibility of restraint.
On the 12th of AprU 1867 there lay off
Sandyhook a brigantine of about two hundred
tons burden, loaded and ready to put to sea.
The freight she had received consisted of
" pianos," " sewing-machines," and " wine in
N 2

1 8o NEW IRELAND.
casks "; at least, piano-cases, sewing-machine-
cases, and wine-barrels filled her hold. The
goods were all directed and consigned to a
merchant firm in Cuba. This was the good ship
Jacknell, well known in the West India trade, and
flying the Stars and Stripes at her main. On the
date above mentioned a party of forty or fifty
men, almost all of whom had been officers or
privates in the American army, got on board a
small steamer at one of the New York wharves,
and started as if for a trip down the bay. They
carried no luggage whatever, and there was
nothing about their movements to excite par
ticular attention. They reached Sandyhook, and
rounded to under the stern of the Jacknell. The
" excursionists " boarded her, and the steamer
returned without them to New York. That night
the Jacknell set sail, steering towards the West
Indies. Her real destination was Ireland ; her
errand to assist the insurrection. The piano-cases
held no pianos ; the barrels contained no wine ;
but deftly packed in them were five thousand
stand of arms, three pieces of field artillery, and
two hundred thousand cartridges. The party
consisted of General J. E. Kerrigan, Colonel
S. R. Tresilian, Colonel John Warren, Colonel

INSURRECTION 1

Nagle, Lieutenant Augustine E. Costello, Captain
Kavanagh, and a number of others. Having
steered for twenty-four hours to the southward,
they changed their course and headed for Ireland.
On the 29th of April, being Easter Sunday, sealed
orders were opened, commissions were distributed,
the Irish Sunburst * w:as hoisted and hailed with
a salute from their three field-pieces, the vessel's
name was changed to the Erin's Hope, and all on
board kept high festival. An astonishing enter
prise it was, truly, to set out across the Atlantic in
this little brigantine for a hostile landing on the
Irish coast, watched as it was at every point by
cruisers on the sea, and coast-guard sentinels on
shore I Their destination was SHgo Bay, which
they reached on the 20th of May. They stood on and
off for a day or two, until they were boarded by
an agent from their friends on shore. His account
of the true state of affairs widely contrasted with
the flaming telegrams of the New York Herald
that had hurried them on this mission. A landing
in Sligo he told them was impossible, but they
were, he said, to make an effort to get the
arms and ammunition on shore somewhere on the
* The ancient Irish war-banner — a golden sunblaze on a
green standard.

i82 NEW IRELAND.
southern coast. Meantime intelligence had reached
the Government that a suspicious-looking craft
was hovering off the western harbours. Quickly
the Queenstown and Valentia gunboats were on
the alert, and for a fortnight the Erins Hope had
a perilous time of it running the gauntlet night
and day. By this time she had been sixty-two
days at sea, and the stock of water and provisions
on board was nearly exhausted. There was nothing
for it but to land the bulk of the party forthwith,
and return to America with as many as the
rations would support on the voyage. Off Helvick
Head, near Dungarvan, they hailed a fishing-boat,
and when she came alongside some thirty of the
party, to the fishermen's great surprise, jumped
in. The Jacknell turned to sea, and the boatmen
rowed the strangers on shore. Their landing was
observed by a coast-guard look-out ; messages were
despatched to the police-stations around ; and ere
many hours every man of the Jacknell detachment
was lodged in a prison. All that the Government
really knew, however, was that the proceeding
was mysterious and suspicious. The men were
unarmed. The Helvick landing was as yet un
connected with the appearance of the vessel in
Sligo Bay ; and for weeks (during which time the

INSURRECTION ! 183
prisoners were carefully guarded in Kilmainham
prison) the whole subject occasioned the greatest
perplexity in DubHn Castle. At length, under
skilful treatment, the reticence of one of the
captives gave way. He disclosed aU to the
Government, and at the ensuing commission the
whole of his companions stood indicted for treason-
felony. Two important legal points were raised on the
trials which ensued. Firstly, whether any hostile
act had been committed within British jurisdic
tion ; secondly, whether American citizens of Irish
birth would have their American status recog
nised, and be allowed a mixed jury. Colonel
Warren, a native of Clonakilty, in Cork county,
but a duly naturaUsed citizen of the United
States, was the first put on his trial. When the
jury came to be empanelled, Mr. Heron, Q.C., pro
duced the prisoner's naturalisation papers, and
claimed for him a jury mediatate linguoe. The
presiding judge fully realised the gravity of the
point which he was about to decide : but the law
as it then stood was clear ; no subject of the
British Crown could divest himself of allegiance ;
and so he ruled. An ordinary jury was sworn,
whereupon : —

1 84 NEW IRELAND.

Prisoner. — " As a citizen of the United States I
protest against being arraigned at this bar."
The Chief Baron. — " We cannot hear any state
ment from you now ; your counsel will speak for
you if necessary."
Prisoner. — " My citizenship is ignored, and I
have instructed my counsel to withdraw. The
Government of the United States has now become
the principal."
The prisoner's counsel withdrew, Colonel
Warren refusing to make any defence. He was
convicted, and on Saturday, 16th of November
1867, was sentenced to fifteen years' penal ser
vitude. His youthful comrade. Lieutenant Au
gustine Costello, was next arraigned. He likewise
was found guilty, and consigned to twelve years
of a similar punishment.
These proceedings led to one of the most im
portant alterations of British law effected in our
time. The ancient and fundamental maxim of
perpetual allegiance had been resolutely held to
and maintained by England through centuries.
The American Government, on the other hand,
though it had meanly abandoned Colonel Warren,
found it indispensable to vindicate the position he
had asserted on his trial. The whole fabric of

INSURRECTION ! 185
American power stood upon that doctrine ; and
once more England and America were in utter
conflict upon its application. Happily, instead of
resorting to the arbitrament of battle, as in 1812,
the two Governments entered into active negotia
tions with a view to adjusting so serious a diffi
culty. The United States had nothing to change.
It was for England to alter her law of aUegiance ;
and so she did. In 1870, the Act 33 and 34 Vict.
cap. 14, known (in Ireland, at least) as the
" Warren and Costello Act, " was passed through
Parliament ; and now a British-born subject may,
by certain formalities, divest himself of his birth-
allegiance, and adopt another citizenship.
With the close of the Jacknell trials we all
fondly hoped there was an end of this sad and
weary work of seizures and arrests, of outbreaks
and alarms. A mournful disappointment awaited
us.

i86 NE W IRELAND.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL.
No incidents, probably, in the struggles of Irish
disaffection within this century more deeply in
censed the English people than two which occurred
towards the close of 1867. These were the Man
chester Rescue and the Clerkenwell Explosion. It
is not astonishing that the latter outrage should
leave behind a bitter memory.* The slaughter of
innocent citizens ; little ones maimed and disfigured
for life ; families decimated and homes ruined —
these are things no mind can calmly dwell upon.
* On the 18th lof December 1867 a barrel containing gun
powder was exploded against the outer wall of CierkenweU
Prison, London, by Fenian sympathisers, with a view of driving
a hole through the wall, inside which at that time a Fenian
prisoner, named Burke, was expected to be exercising. The
whole of the wall for sixty yards was blown in with a fearful
crash. Some tenement houses on the opposite side of the street,
inhabited by very poor people, were demolished ; twelve persons
being killed and one hundred and twenty maimed or wounded.

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 187
Yet there is no good end to be served by making
the crime, at best atrocious, more hideous than
truth warrants. Gross stupidity on the part of a
few miserable Irish labourers — men blindly igno
rant of the full power and reach of a gunpowder
explosion — not design or thought of hurting Hfe
or limb, was accountable for that bloody scene.
Had the man whose rescue was to be accomplished
by " driving a hole through the boundary wall "
been inside at the spot where his would-be
liberators were told he was to be, he would have
been blown into eternity. The consequences that
resulted from their act — the effect of that explosion
on the neighbouring dwellings — never once crossed
the imaginations of the wretched perpetrators. Yet
even when so much is said for truth and justice,
the affair is one from which a sensitive mind
recoils, and anything like excuse of which were
almost criminal.
The Manchester Rescue, however, though classed
in the same category — " the murder of Sergeant
Brett," as it is called by most Englishmen — was of
a wholly different complexion. That the life of
Sergeant Brett was lost on that occasion is most
true and most lamentable. That it was lost by
misadventure, not sacrificed by design, those best

NEW IRELAND.

qualified to know assert, and the Irish people
fervently believe. That three lives were offered
up on the scaffold to avenge that one, is a fact
on public record.
On the fall or deposition of James Stephens from
the leadership of the Fenian party, his place was
taken by Colonel Thomas J. Kelly. He it was
who, after the arrests at Fairfield House, assumed
the command of Fenian affairs in Ireland. He,
moreover, planned, directed, and personally super
intended the rescue of Stephens from Richmond,
and his subsequent escape to France. After the
rising of March 1867, Kelly remained some six
months or more in Dublin, and towards the close
of October crossed to Manchester, to attend a
council of the English " centres." Shortly before
daybreak on the morning of the llth of September,
policemen on duty in Oak Street, Manchester,
noticed four men loitering suspiciously in the
neighbourhood of a ready-made clothing shop.
From expressions which they overheard, the police
concluded that these men were bent on some
illegal purpose, and attempted to arrest them. In
the struggle which ensued two of the suspects
escaped. The remaining two were brought next
day before the magistrates, but nothing could be

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 189

proved against them. They gave the names of
Williams and White respectively ; said they were
American citizens, and claimed their discharge.
The magistrate was about to sentence them, under
the Vagrancy Act, to two or three days' imprison
ment, when one of the detective force applied for
a week's remand, as he suspected the prisoners
might have some connection with Fenianism. The
application was granted ; and ere nightfall it was
known by the police that in " Williams" and
" White " they held in their grasp Colonel Kelly,
the Fenian leader, and Captain Deasy, his assistant.
The arrests caused great commotion amongst the
Fenian circles of Manchester and surrounding
towns. Secret councils were held, and, after much
deliberation, the desperate resolve was taken to
intercept the van conveying the prisoners from the
court, to overpower the guard, and liberate the
Fenian chiefs. On Wednesday, the 18th of Septem
ber, the prisoners were again brought up, duly iden
tified as Kelly and Deasy, and once more remanded.
Before they had left the court, telegrams reached
from Dublin Castle and the Home Office, London,
warning the Manchester authorities that a plot
was on foot for the rescue of the prisoners. The
warning, if not derided, was doubted. The magis-

190 NEW IRELAND.
trates, however, knowing that these men had
numerous adherents in Manchester, thought it
might be wise to take some precautions. Kelly
and Deasy were handcuffed and locked in separates
compartments in the van ; and twelve policemen,
instead of three, the usual guard, were ordered to
accompany it. Five sat on the broad box-seat,
two on the step behind, and four followed in a
cab ; one. Sergeant Brett, sat within the van. The
prisoners in the vehicle beside the two Fenian
leaders were three women and a boy aged twelve.
At half-past three the van drove off for the county
jail at Salford, distant about two miles. Under the
railway arch which spans Hyde Road at Bellevue
a man darted into the middle of the road, raised a
pistol, and shouted to the drivers to pull up.
At the same moment a . party of about thirty
men, powerfully built, and armed with revolvers,
sprang over the wall beside the road, surrounded
the van, and seized the horses, one of which they
shot. The police, being unarmed, made little
resistance, and speedily took to flight. The
rescuers produced hatchets, hammers, and crow
bars, with which they sought to hew or burl!; open
the van. It was slower work than they imagined,
and soon the police returned accompanied by a

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 191
considerable crowd. Some twenty of the rescuing
party formed a ring around the van, and with
pistols pointed kept back the policemen and the
crowd, over whose heads shots were fired from
time to time, while the others continued their
endeavours to force the van. They shouted to
Brett, through a ventilator over the door, if he
had the keys to give them up. He could not see
what was taking place outside, but at the very
first he divined the nature of the attack. With
devoted fidelity and courage he refused to surrender
the keys. Anxious to obtain a glimpse of the
assailing party, he stooped and looked out through
the keyhole. The voice of some one in command
outride almost at the same moment cried out,
" Blow it open ; put your pistol to the keyhole
and blow it open ! " The muzzle of a revolver was
put to the keyhole, and the trigger pulled. Brett,
inside, fell mortally wounded. The female pri
soners, screaming loudly, cried, " He's killed !" and
lifted him up. Again a voice at the ventilator was
heard demanding the keys, which one of the
women took from Brett's pocket and handed out.
Then "a pale-faced young man" entered the van,
unlocked the compartments in which Kelly and
Deasy were secured, and brought them out. The

192 NEW IRELAND.
rescued prisoners were hurried away across the
fields by one or two attendants, the rescuers
preventing pursuit. Not until their leaders were
completely out of sight did they take thought of
their own safety. Then they dispersed in all
directions. They were pursued by the policemen
and the crowd, which had now swelled consi
derably. Many of them were captured, and were
severely beaten by their infuriate captors. One
of them, recognised as the young man who had
entered the van to liberate Kelly, and who was
afterwards identified as William Philip Allen, was
knocked down by a blow of a brick, then kicked
and stoned while he lay on the ground. Several
of the prisoners when brought into town were
streaming with blood, from violence done them in
this way during or after capture. That evening
Manchester was filled with consternation. The
story of the rescue, with many exaggerations, spread
like wildfire. The people thronged the streets,
discussing the alarming topic. The police, inflamed
with passion and wounded in pride, burst in strong
bodies upon the Irish quarters of the town, making
wholesale arrests in a spirit of fury. The anger
and panic of Manchester spread next morning
through all broad Britain. The national pride

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 193
was wounded, the national safety invaded ; the
national authority had been bearded, defied, and
for the moment defeated, by a handful of rebel
Irish in the very heart of an English city. A roar
went up from all the land for swift, condign, and
ample punishment.
One cannot greatly wonder now at what then
took place in England. Panic and passion reigned
supreme. Rumours of new plots and attacks still
more daring and dangerous filled every city.
Garrisons were strengthened ; prison guards were
doubled ; special constables were sworn in. Man
chester and the surrounding towns, well known to
contain a large Irish population, were especially
excited, and the Irish in those places had a hard
time of it. In the midst of such a storm of anger,
alarm, and passion a Special Commission was issued
for the trial of the Rescue prisoners. We in Ireland
saw at once that this was doom for those men,
innocent or guilty ; that a fair, calm, and dispas
sionate trial at such a moment was out of the
question. Heartrending appeals reached us from
the famiUes of men absolutely innocent of any
knowledge of the outrage, but who had been
arrested by the police in the swoop on Irish
homes which set in for days subsequently. Hope
VOL. II. O

194 NEW IRELAND.

of justice there was little or none ; for in the
prevailing temper of the English mind " blood for
blood " was the cry on all hands. Many circum
stances corroborated these fears. When the pri
soners were brought before the magistrates for
committal, on the 25th of October, they were put
to the bar in irons. Such a sight had not been
seen in an English court of justice for many a
year. Mr. Jones, as an Englishman, and as
counsel for the prisoners, indignantly protested
against it. The bench decided that the handcuffs
should be retained, and the audience burst into
applause. Mr. Jones flung down his brief and
quitted the court; the junior counsel for the
accused, however, remained.
On Monday the 28th of October, WilHam PhiHp
Allen, Michael Larkin, Thomas Maguire, Michael
O'Brien (alias Gould), and Edward Condon (alias
Shore), were arraigned for the wilful mnrder of Ser
geant Brett. That the men who really belonged to
that rescuing party were legally guilty of con
structive murder, no matter which one of them fired
the shot by which Brett fell, is plain and clear to any
one acquainted with the simplest principles of law.
But the moral guilt, heavy enough in any case,
would be very different if, instead of mischance,

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 195
cold-blooded design had led to Brett's murder. The
Crown alleged that he was deliberately aimed at
and shot through the open ventilator over the van
door. The principal if not the only evidence sup
porting this theory was that of a disreputable
female thief who was in the van on the way to
her third term of imprisonment for robbery. The
solemn assertion of men who were present is that
Brett was shot by the bullet which entered through
the keyhole, as he was turning away after glancing
at the scene outside. The evidence on the trial,
especially as to identification, was of a wild and
reckless character, as the Government afterwards
discovered. The five men were nevertheless found
guilty. They were arraigned and tried together
on the one indictment, and were convicted on the
one trial, in the one verdict ; a point upon which
much subsequently turned. They were, all five,
sentenced to be hanged on the 23rd of November.
Before sentence they each addressed the court. In
calmer mood Englishmen themselves would own
the force of the protests they raised against what
they called "the rotten evidence " and "the panic
passion " of their trial. They aU deplored earnestly
the death of Brett. Some of them vehemently
denied that they were even present at the affray.
o 2

196 NEW IRELAND.
" No man in this court," said Allen, " regrets the
death of Sergeant Brett more than I do, and I
positively say, in the presence of the Almighty
and ever-living God, that I am innocent — ay, as
innocent as any man in this court. I don't say
this for the sake of mercy : I want no mercy — I'll
have no mercy. I'll die, as many thousands have
died, for the sake of their beloved land, and in
defence of it." Maguire denounced the reckless
swearing of the witnesses ; said he had served the
Queen faithfully as a marine, was loyal to her still,
and bore a high character from his commanding
officer. Condon was the last to speak. He solemnly
asseverated, as a dying man, that he was not even
present at the rescue. " I do not accuse the jury,"
he said, " but I believe they were prejudiced. I
don't accuse them of wilfully wishing to convict,
but prejudice has induced them to convict when
they otherwise would not have done. We have
been found guilty, and, as a matter of course, we
accept our death. We are not afraid to die — at
least i am not." "Nor I," "Nor I," broke from
the others all. He went on —
I only trust that those who are to be tried after us will have
•a fair trial, and that our blood will satisfy the craving which I
understand exists. You will soon send us before God, and

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 197
I am perfectly prepared to go. I have nothing to regret,
or to retract, or take back. I can only say, " God save
Ikeland." As he spoke these words, his companions, with
one step, simultaneously advanced to the front of
the dock, and lifting their faces and extending
their hands upwards, cried out earnestly, " God
save Ireland !" That exclamation has since been
made a national watchword in Ireland.
Before many days had followed the trial, a
feeling began to be entertained in England that
it was of dubious character, and that the correct
ness of the verdict was open to grave question.
The newspaper reporters who had attended on
behalf of the London and provincial press felt
this so strongly as to Maguire, that they adopted
the unusual course of sending to the Home Office
a document declaring their deep conviction that
the evidence and verdict were utterly wrong as
regards him. After some days spent in inquiry,
the Government admitted the truth of this startling
impeachment, and pardoned Maguire. Friends of
humanity and justice among the EngHsh people
now took courage and spoke out. They said that
on evidence and a verdict thus confessed to be
tainted and untenable, it would be monstrous to

1 98 NEW IRELAND.
take human life. Let the prisoners, they said, be
punished as heavily as may be, short of taking
life, impossible to be restored if hereafter error be
discovered. Soon news was published that Condon
was reprieved pending further consideration. The
general conviction now spread that a like announce
ment was at hand as to the others'; a result attri
buted to the exertions of courageous and philan
thropic Englishmen in Manchester and London.
In Ireland, where the whole proceedings were fol
lowed with absorbing interest, a like conclusion
was very \videly entertained. Still it was evident
that a powerful section of English public opinion
demanded a sacrifice. The pardon of Maguire, the
reprieve of Condon, were called lamentable exhi
bitions of weakness and vacillation. If disaffection
and assassination were not to have a triumph ; if
life and property were to be protected, law and
order asserted and avenged, these men must hang
upon the gallows-tree.
These views prevailed.
In anticipation of the event at hand, the Govern
ment ordered large bodies of troops to the cities
and towns throughout England where a dangerous
Irish element was supposed to exist. Manchester,
as was observed at the time, resembled a place

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 199
besieged. Special constables were enrolled in large
numbers, and military occupied all the positions
deemed strategically important in and around the
jail. Early on the evening of the 22nd, a crowd
commenced to assemble outside the prison wall.
Their conduct throughout the night was very bad ;
several times the jail authorities caused them to
be removed, as their shouts, yells, and songs of
triumph disturbed the doomed men inside preparing
for eternity. " Breakdown dances " were performed,
and comic songs were varied with verses of ' God
Save the Queen ' or ' Rule Britannia,' for the
" Fenian murderers " inside to hear. The last evening
of their lives happily was solaced by the receipt of
a letter, couched in kindly and touching words, and
inclosing £1 00 " for the families they would leave
behind," from the Dowager Marchioness of Queens
berry. " From the first," says a published account,
" the prisoners exhibited a deep, fervid, religious
spirit which could scarcely have been surpassed."
In the cold grey mormng ofthe 23rd of November
1867, Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien were led out to
die. Such a concourse had never before attended
a Manchester execution as thronged around the
jail. Long files of bayonets reached on all sides.
A temporary platform ran some length at each end

200 NE W IRELAND.

of the scaffold, but inside the prison wall, and was
occupied by detachments of the 72nd Highlanders,
who stooped behind the masonry, with the muzzles
of the loaded rifles resting on the top. Even the
savage crowd hushed for a moment at the death-
bell's toll, and soon the condemned appeared. Allen
came first. He was deadly pale, but walked with
firm and steady tread. Next came Larkin, greatly
overcome, and trembling with emotion. Last
stepped forth O'Brien, whose firm and dignified
bearing was the admiration of all who beheld him.
Before he was placed upon the trap he moved to
where his two comrades stood capped and pinioned,
with fatal cord around each neck, and kissed them
lovingly. They were greatly affected, and all three
embraced one another tenderly. The bolt was
drawn; the three bodies fell, struggled convulsively
for a few minutes, and all was over.
When on that Saturday morning the news was
flashed to Ireland, "Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien
were hanged at eight o'clock in front of Salford
jaU," surprise, dismay, grief, and rage filled every
breast. Men gasped, astounded, and asked could this
dreadful tale be true. Others, more violently moved,
went about with flushed cheek and darkened brow,
clenching their teeth in silent passion. Men who

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 201
even up to this period had been more or less in
conflict with Fenianism were overpowered by this
blow. For what, they asked, was this deed in
Manchester but an act of political vengeance,
another cruel tragedy in the long struggle between
Irish revolt and English power ? In the afternoon
came fuller accounts of the execution, containing
one sentence which stung the Irish people most
keenly — " The bodies of the three murderers were
buried in quicklime in unconsecrated ground within
the jail." Murderers, indeed ! Buried in quick
lime !* Here was a stroke which went home ; a
barbed and poisoned arrow that pierced the heart
of Ireland. This branding of their inanimate
bodies with infamy, this denial of Christian burial
in consecrated earth, wounded the most sensitive
feelings of Irishmen. Next day, Sunday, the
news reached the provinces, and in hundreds of
churches, at the morning mass, the priest, his voice
broken with emotion, asked the congregation to
pray God's mercy on the souls of the three victims.
The answer was a wail of grief, and many wept
* Of course if the rescue was not a political incident, and if
these men were mere robbers and murderers, this was the
ordinary course. But to deny the exclusively political cha
racter of the crime were absurd.

NEW IRELAND.

outright when the story of their execution was told.
I never knew Ireland to be more deeply moved by
mingled feelings of grief and anger. It was
not the death of the prisoners ; although from what
has been stated their execution was an utter sur
prise, and deemed a frightful severity. When men,
arms in hand, attempt such a deed as Kelly's
rescue, they must be prepared and content to
abide the penalty, though it be death itself. It
was the conviction that these men, innocent or
guilty, had not had a fair trial ; that the cause
of Irish nationality was meant to be struck at and
humiliated in their persons; and above all, the
attempt to class them as vulgar murderers, not
political culprits, and to offer indignity to their
remains, that led to the wondrous upheaval of Irish
feeling which now startled the empire.
All over Ireland announcements appeared that
funeral processions commemorative of the " Man
chester Martyrs " would be held. The selection of
funeral displays rather than public meetings marked
exactly the peculiar feature of the Manchester
proceedings which it was intended to resent. Cork
led the way by announcing a monster demonstra
tion for the 1st of December ; and on that day
most of the cities and towns in the south of Ireland

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 203

witnessed the singular spectacle of "funerals"- — ¦
hearses, mourners, craped banners, and muffled
drums — where there were no dead. The 8th of
December was fixed for the metropolitan display, as
well as for some twenty or thirty others throughout
the island. John Martin hurried up to Dublin to
lead the procession there. The O'Donoghue was
announced to head the demonstration in Killarney.
For the first time during years the distinction
between Fenian and non-Fenian Nationalists seemed
to disappear, and the national or popular element
came unitedly and in full force to the front. The
Dublin procession was a marveUous display. The
day was cold, wet, and gloomy ; yet it was com
puted that a hundred and fifty thousand persons
participated in the demonstration, sixty thousand
of them marching in line over a route some three or
four miles in length. As the three hearses, bearing
the names of the executed men, passed through the
streets, the multitudes that lined the way fell on
their knees, every head was bared, and not a sound
was' heard save the solemn notes of the ' Dead
March in Saul ' from the bands, or the sobs that
burst occasionally from the crowd. At the cemetery
gate the processionists formed into a vast assem
blage, which was addressed by Mr. Martin in feeling

204 NEW IRELAND.

and forcible language, expressive of the national
sentiment on the Manchester execution. At the
close, once more all heads were bared, a prayer
was offered, and the mourning thousands peacefully
sought their homes.
The section of the press that had goaded the
Government to extremities at Manchester, by
demands for what they designated a policy of
" vigour," now called loudly for the suppression of
these funerals as " seditious demonstrations," nay,
"rampant exhibitions of sympathy with murder."
On the 12th of December, four days after the
Dublin procession, a viceregal proclamation was
issued declaring the funerals to be illegal, and
calling on all magistrates and peace officers to
suppress the same. Within two days summonses
were issued against Mr. John Martin and other
members of the Dublin funeral committee. The
accused were committed for trial at the Commission
to open on the 10th of February 1868, bail being
taken for their appearance. Twelve days subse
quently a second stroke was dealt at the leaders of
the demonstration ; and I, having marched at its
head, arm-and-arm with Mr. Martin, found myself
now called upon to take my place by his side in
the dock.

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 205
The Manchester scene called forth the stormiest
passion and fiercest invective in the Irish national
press. The execution was denounced as "judicial
murder." " The jailor and the hangman " were
declared to be " now the twin guardians of British
rule in Ireland." My own journals were amongst
the most violent in expression of the prevalent
emotion. In poem, prose, and picture we held up
the tragic deed as a crime, and called upon the
Irish people to encounter the attempt to brand the
victims as " murderers " with demonstrations of
sorrow for their fate and admiration for their
heroism. Towards the close of December rumours
went round that the work of the approaching
commission was to be swelled, not alone by State
trials for seditious funeral processions, but by
press prosecutions also. In the interval between
my committal and the opening of the commission
business called me to Paris. One night while
there I was roused out of bed by a telegram from
Dublin, calling on rae to start for home instantly,
or a warrant would be issued for my arrest, on a
prosecution against the Weekly News. Of this
journal I was the proprietor, but not the editor.
Strange to say, up to that moment I had not read
what had been written in it on the subject of the

2o6 NEW IRELAND.
executions, so engrossed was I, in the midst of the
prevailing excitement, with the conduct of the
Nation, the direction of which journal lay in my
own hands. I hastened home, and arrived barely
in time to present myself in court. I heard the
articles read against me ; owned in my heart that
they were " pretty strong "; but so deeply did I
feel upon that sad business that I would have gone
to the scaffold itself, if need were, rather than
flinch, as the issue was now^ raised. Once again
I was committed for trial ; and on the 15th of
February, surrendering to my bail, I stood at
the bar in Green Street to answer to the Queen
for ray conduct as a journalist. The best
exertions of the able and gifted gentlemen who
acted as my counsel were of no avail. After a
protracted trial, I was found guilty ; sentence
being deferred pending the result of the second
prosecution. On Thursday morning, the 20th of February
1868, "John Martin, Alexander M. Sullivan,
James J. Lalor, and Thomas Bracken " stood at
the bar arraigned for that they, " being malicious,
seditious, and ill-disposed persons, and intending
to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the realm,"
and so forth, did assemble seditiously. We joined

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 207
in our challenges, and took trial together. Mr. Lalor
and Mr. Bracken were defended by counsel ; the
speech of Mr. Michael Crean for the former
being an exceedingly able and conclusive argu
ment against an attempt in one of the counts of
the indictment to constitute the national emblera
and colour of Ireland a " party " badge, and make
the wearing of the green a crime. Mr. Martin and
I, dispensing, on many grounds, with professional
advocacy, had decided to speak for ourselves, and
it was privately arranged between us that he
should take precedence. When, however, the
evidence had closed, and the moment came for him
to rise, his strength seemed to faU him ; he
entreated me to take his place, and to give him until
morning for rest and preparation. Of course I obeyed.
His simplest wish was law to rae. For years
we had worked side by side in public Hfe ; side by
side in peril are now. With heavy heart I reflected
that his feeble frame would never stand a second
term of prison punishraent. Yes, I would speak,
and on that instant ! To save his life, mayhap ;
the precious life of the friend I loved ; to defend
my own character and vindicate my principles, I
would fling all my soul into one supreme effort to
move that jury with the justice of our cause. I

2o8 NEW IRELAND.
rose, and for a raoment or two stood silent,
scarcely able to find utterance. I could not only
feel but hear the throbbing of my heart. I pain
fully realised all the danger and responsibility of
my position. The court was densely crowded.
In the gaUery beyond sat my wife, ray father, my
brothers, and devoted friends not a few who would
gladly have taken my place to set me free. The
judges, Mr. Justice Fitzgerald and Mr. Baron
Deasy, who had conducted my previous trial and
this one with singular impartiality and judicial
dignity, seemed to feel for my embarrassment, and
extended to rae all indulgence and consideration.
At length I was well under weigh ; and once fairly
started I was perfectly at ease. After a while,
inspired rather than deterred by the cii'cumstances
surrounding me, I struck boldly into an argument
upon the whole ground covered by the issues raised
in the prosecution. As I went on, night fell ; the
lamps were lighted. Outside the building a
crowd, unable to obtain admittance, filled the
street. Despite the efforts of the police — neither
angry nor severe, poor fellows, to tell the truth —
the throng inside frequently burst into cheers,
which the people outside repeated, knowing only
that it was one of the traversers who was being

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 209
applauded. I spoke without notes or assistance of
any kind, my mind being full of the case. As I
concluded, feeling very much like a man " shooting
Niagara," I became aware that a great roar of
cheering had broken forth ; that scores of hands
were grasping at and clutching me ; and that John
Martin had his arms around me. I was borne
outside, to receive a thousand felicitations, and to
hear from many a voice the prophecy, " No
verdict." A true prophecy it proved to be. Next evening
the trial closed. The jury were charged, and
retired. An hour went by, and another. Still
they came not. At length they return to ask a
question, the tenor of which is adverse to the
Crown. The crowd wait till they retire, then
break into cheers. By-and-by the jury are sent
for. They "cannot agree," and are discharged.
" Victory ! " cry the enthusiastic multitude in the
streets, and the news is telegraphed all over
Ireland. Yes, it was victory ; but not rescue for
me. Next morning I came to the bar to hear
my sentence under the conviction for the press
offence. Mr. Justice Fitzgerald spoke it in
words as full of considerate kindliness as on
VOL. II. P

210 NEW IRELAND.

such an occasion well could be. At the close of a
brief address, he said : —
I assure you that it is with great, with deep regret, that it
becomes my duty to announce to you the sentence of the law.
My learned colleague and myself have considered this case
most anxiously. We have considered it with a view that if we
erred at all it should be on the side of leniency ; but notwith
standing, the sentence must be such as will for a considerable
time withdraw you from public life. I regret this the more
when I recollect that you have proved yourself in this court a
man possessed of eminent ability ; an ability that I would
much wish was exerted in the same way in another cause ; and
not only that, but I am aware from the public prints that you
have devoted your time, or at least a considerable portion of it,
and the talents with which you are gifted, to the public service,
to advance the cause of education, and promote the claims of
charity. But notwithstanding, we have a duty to perform to
the public for the repression of similar offences. It is not my
wish or desire to prolong this scene, which to me is extremely
painful, nor to say one word that would give unnecessary
offence ; but in the simplest language to announce to you the
sentence of the law. That sentence is that you be imprisoned
for a period of six calendar months from the present time ; and
further that you at the end of that time give security, yourself
in £500 and two sureties in £250 each, to be of good behaviour
for a period of two years ; and in default of such security being
given, that you be further imprisoned for a second period of
six calendar months.
I was borne to the cell beneath the court, where
I bade adieu to my family; and a few hours
subsequently I entered the portals of Richmond
as a prisoner.

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 211
As a prisoner ! The judge, when sentencing me,
had alluded in kindly spirit to some labours of
mine in " the public service," as he expressed it. I
had for some years taken an active interest and
somewhat of a prominent part in civic affairs ; and
any position of honour or trust which my fellow-
citizens could weU confer upon me they had not
hesitated to bestow. Amongst the rest, I had
been for some time past elected from year to year on
the Board of Superintendence of the City Prisons ;
so that I found myself about to fill a cell in a jail
over which 1 had for some years been a ruling
authority.* Not even while I was being weighed
and measured, and having the colour of my eyes
and hair duly entered in the register, did I greatly
feel the difference between this and one of my
ordinary visits to the place. It was only when,
later on, a moment came which the governor with
great delicacy put off as long as possible — when,
after " sauntering," as it were, to a cell upstairs,
and having talked with me a good deal about
prison affairs, as of old, he at last said, " Well, I
* On the eve of the election for 1868, as my trials were
pending, I considered it proper to decline ofBce for that year ;
but when the period of my imprisonment was over I was elected
to my former place, as before.
p 2

NEW IRELAND.

must now say good-bye," and turned into the
corridor, leaving me behind — when I heard the bang
of the heavy iron door that shut me in, and
listened to the bolt of the lock shot through —
the reality of the situation seemed suddenly to
burst upon me ! I gave one glance around the
narrow space, with its floor of stone, and window
heavily barred. What ! Was this only a dream
— a scene in an acted play — or could it be, oh
heaven ! that to-night at Belfield Park my little
child would call for me in vain ? My wife ! my
parents ! — I sank upon the rude prison pallet,
and felt for an instant as if ray heart would break.
Suddenly I sprang to my feet. " Hold ! " I
exclaimed, almost aloud, " is this my fortitude ?
How light is my lot, how trivial raust my sufferings,
mental or physical, be, compared with those borne
by better men, whenever or wherever, in any age
or clime, a struggle for national liberty is pressed ! "
I felt almost ashamed of my momentary weakness,
and resolved to accept with composure the penalty
I had incurred. After all, as I avowed in my
speech on the trial,* the man who enters into
* " It is the first and most original condition of society, that
a man shall subordinate his public acts to the welfare of the
community, or at least acknowledge the right of those amongst

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 213
conflict with the civil power is bound to weigh the
consequences. At that moment Mr. William
Johnson of Ballykilbeg (now member of
Parliament for Belfast), the intrepid leader of
Ulster Orangeism, was being carried to the
county jail of Down to undergo a like punish
raent for defying an act of Parliaraent which
he believed to be an infringement of constitutional
liberty. Why should I complain ? He who
strikes must not wail if he is struck in the
combat. A recently passed act of Parliament had abol
ished all distinction between misdemeanant pri
soners ; so that a public journalist convicted for
political writings was classified for treatraent with
the vulgar herd of crime. This was a great out
rage. In my case, however, everything short of
violent illegality was done by the public authori
ties to mitigate such a cruel state of things.
Every officer in the prison, from Ca-ptain Boyd,
the governor, down to the youngest warder, strove
by demonstrations of respect and kindliness to rob
my imprisonment of all humiliation. I became

whom his lot is cast to judge him on such an issue as this.
Freely I acknowledge that right."

214 NEW IRELAND.
aware that Lord Mayo, the Irish Secretary, evinced
the liveliest personal interest in the efforts to avert
from me the indignities and severities to which
the classification otherwise would have subjected
me. Nevertheless, it was a weary time ; a pro
longed suffering. Cellular imprisonment, espe
cially under " the solitary system," as in my case,
is torture to raen of active habits and nervous
teraperaraeut. For such men the cell of the
" silent system " is the antechamber of the lunatic
ward.* * The rides forbade prisoners to " whistle or sing." Music
was one of the great charms of home for me, and I longed to
hear some. I induced a friend to smuggle in for me a little
" musical box "; at least I begged it niight be so small as not
to be overheard outside my cell. Unfortunately, meaning to be
very kind, he brought me a rather large one, and with a novel
mode of stop. I set it to play. Horror of horrors ! It seemed
as loud as Dan Godfrey's band ! I tried to stop it. In vain.
In a few minutes I heard the warder approaching. What was
to be done ? I seized the mischievous thing, and thought to
break it up. I rushed to my camp-bed, rolled the instrument
in the bedclothes, as it went banging away at the ' Overture to
William Tell.' The warder stopped outside my cell door —
" Do you hear some music, sir ?"
" Ahem { yes — that is, something like music."
" It seems just outside the walls, sir. What on earth can it
be?" " Oh, some confounded Italian organ-grinder is always in
the neighbourhood."

THE SCAFFOLD AND THE CELL. 215
On the morning of Sunday, the 31st of May
1868, Captain Boyd entered the day-room ; he
held an open letter in his hand.
" ' How beautiful are the feet of them that
bringeth glad tidings of good things !' " he ex
claimed — his face radiant with pleasure.
" What is it, captain ?"
" The order for your release" he replied.
Oh, blessed liberty ! Oh, luxury ineffable of
walking freely through green fields, and listening
to the song of birds !
Next day I re-entered the world. In those few
months great changes had taken place. The
" troubled rest and ceaseless fear'" of the Fenian
fever were all over. Great events had come upon
the scene. A night of anguish and suffering was
ended for Ireland. Daylight gleamed in the
eastern skies.

"Bedad, sir, I thiiik, maybe, it's one of the city bands
marching out to serenade you !"
I never tried that musical box again.

2 1 6 NEW IRELAND.

CHAPTER IX.
" DELENDA EST CARTHAGO !"
Over the disestablishment of the Irish Protestant
Church was fought the last great battle between
the " Liberal " and " Conservative" parties in Ire
land ; their last, as the two combatants who alone
had hitherto contended for or divided between
them the Irish parliamentary representation.
Soon afterwards, as we shall see, a new issue
was to be raised ; a new party nomenclature was
to appear ; a new classification to be adopted.
But down to this period, witja exceptions that
scarcely qualify the statement, Irish members of
Parliaraent were either Liberals or Conservatives,
and a general election in Ireland was a stand-up
fight between " the Reform " and " the Carlton."
The great struggle of 1868, however, was destined
to be the last of its class.
Although in the abstract entitled to be ranked

'' DELENDA EST CARTHAGO r 217
among questions of the first magnitude, the
Church grievance, as it existed in 1865, had called
forth comparatively little thought or attention
from the Irish people. The subject would have
been placed third or fourth on any list of parlia
mentary reforms demanded by the popular voice ;
the Land invariably being first. When in 1838
the direct payment of tithe from the Catholic
farmer to the Protestant rector was changed into
an indirect payment through or in the landlord's
rent, the giievance was adroitly put out of sight.
By a reform which may be called a clever piece
of legislative legerdemain. Catholic Paddy was
supposed to be relieved, because in place of paying
£10 of rent to the landlord and £1 of tithe to the
rector, he had to pay £11 as rent to the landlord,
the latter handing over to his reverence the tithe
portion, minus the modest deduction of twenty-five
per cent, for collection. Henceforth a farmer
objecting to pay this part of his " rent " would be
held up to the public simply as a defaulting
tenant. And soon the tenants came to see that
any abolition or remission of the " tithe-rent-
charge" henceforth would mean no rehef whatever
to them. The landlord would demand as much as
ever for the land, would keep the rent at what it

2 1 8 NEW IRELAND.

had been inclusive of the tithe ; and it was a mere
question whether so much went directly into the
pocket of the landlord, or indirectly into that of
the rector.
" Disendowing " the Church, therefore, did not
relieve the Catholic millions of Ireland of one
penny paid in this way ; and I should be per
plexed to say whether in my opinion the tenant
farmers of Ireland would, on the whole, have pre
ferred, as to this fiscal aspect of the question, that
disendowment had been carried or not. As it is,
the change matters Httle to them or to the Church ;
they pay as much as ever, and the Church comes
financially out of the ordeal not a penny the
worse. DisestabHshment, however, was quite another
matter. Even the humblest peasant felt the
Church Establishment to be a standing badge of
conquest. It was not that the Irish CathoHcs,
like the English Nonconformists, believed a State
Church to be abstractedly, or under every conceiv
able state of circumstances, wrong in itself.* It
* Nonconformist speakers and writers, unaware of or losing
sight of this fact, fall into freciuent error and misconception
when they find Irish Catholics refusing to join or help in
disendowing and disestablishing the Church in England. There
are very many Irishmen no doubt who are opposed to State-

" DELENDA EST C ARTHA GO I' 219
was because they saw that not alone the property
of their Church, bestowed by their Catholic fore
fathers explicitly for CathoHc purposes, had been
taken totally from them and handed over to a
minority of about one- tenth of the whole popula
tion, but that this minority were furthermore con
stituted a dominant or ruling caste to assail and
humiliate them. One may speculate whether the
Irish Catholics would have greatly concerned
themselves about either disestablishment or disen
dowment had the Establishment been less aggres
sive. I am personally aware that in parishes
where the Protestant rector had a bona-fide con
gregation of his own, and confined his ministra
tions to them — that is to say, where he neither
carried on nor encouraged proselytising raids on
the other communion — he was frequently popular
in the most cordial sense, and never in such a case
awakened a feeling of jealousy, dislike, or un
friendliness in the breasts of the Catholic masses
around hira. To these he was, at all events, a

churchism everywhere and anywhere, as a matter of policy or
wisdom ; but it was not on the abstract ground of anti-State-
churchism that the Irish Catholics as a body complained
against and assailed the Protestant State Church in Ireland.
The real grounds will be found stated in the text.

NEW IRELAND.

local gentleman who spent raoney in the parish.
His famUy were amiable and kindly to aU, and
" good to the poor," without invidious object in
their charity. He attended zealously, as he had
a right to do, to his own co-religionists ; but he
respected the conscientious convictions of others.
I could narae several Protestant clergymen of this
description, whose place in the respect and con
fidence, I might say affections, of the Catholic
parishioners was as high very nearly as in the
esteem and reverence of their own congregations.*
Had the type been more prevalent, the Established
Church, though wrong as ever otherwise, might
have evoked very little hostihty frora the Irish
people. But it was quite a different thing to see
clergy of the Establishment crowding into asso
ciations and societies founded for the purpose of
proselytising CathoHc adults or chUdren, and con
stituting themselves individual agents of such
organisations in their several localities. In brief,
had the endowed and established minority not
pursued a course of provocative warfare against
* At the present moment I would invite any one who may
be inclined to doubt this statement to test the feelings of the
Catholics of Kenmare as to the Eev. Mr. McCutcheon, or of
the Catholics of Bantry as to the Eev. Mr. Faulkiner, rectors
respectively of those two parishes in my native district.

" DELENDA EST C ARTHA GO I" 221
the Church of the millions, and turned against
these millions the funds which, as they sullenly
reflected, once had been theirs, the Irish Establish
ment might have gone on far into the future
without molestation or change as far as tbey were
concerned. Even in the estimation of the Catholic bishops
this Church question did not, previous to 1865,
occupy as important a place, was certainly not
deemed as exigent by them, as the Education
question. On this latter subject, from 1859 to
1864 they had organised a series of important
diocesan meetings ; throughout the same period
they had raised the issue at every election, and
publicly pledged themselves to concentrate all
their energies on school and university reform, as
the first and most pressing want of the time.
Yet when, on the 30th of December 1864, "the
Nationa] Association of Ireland" was founded,
under the auspices of his Eminence Cardinal
Cullen and other leading prelates, the Education
question, to the general surprise, was pushed to
the rear, and Disestablishment placed in the fore
front of the new agitation.
What did this mean ?
For sorae time previously private negotiations.

NEW IRELAND.

or " interchange of views," had been going on
between leading raembers of the Liberation Society
and certain prominent English Liberals on the one
hand, and some Irish ecclesiastical and lay poli
ticians on the other, with a view to restoring
cordial relations, or effecting a new alliance, be
tween Irish and English Liberalism. In Ireland
the disruption of 1852 had never been healed.
The " Brass Band " of Keogh and Sadleir had
made the name of Whig-Liberal odious in popular
estimation ; though most of the bishops long clung
to the old ways, and seemed to think " Catholic
appointments" the be-all and end-all of Irish
policy. But by 1864 even the bishops had
broken with the Liberal ministry. The strongly
anti-Papal poHcy of Lord Palmerston had greatly
incensed Irish Catholics ; and the bitter resistance
offered by his administration to the agitation for
denominational education which sprang up in
1860, completed the estrangement between the
Liberal party and the Irish prelates. What with
this antagonism and its paralysing results, and
what with the ominous disappearance of all hope
or faith or interest in constitutional agitation on
the part of the Irish masses, a state of deadlock
prevailed in Irish politics. In the autumn of

" DELENDA EST CARTHAGO .'" 223
1864, however, an endeavour was made to bring
about a rapprochement between the bishops and
that section of the English Liberals of whom Mr.
Bright was the representative and leader. To
what end, it was asked, should a waste of energy
be continued ? Why strive at cross-purposes over
denominational education, on which English Libe
rals and Irish Catholics could not agree ? Why
not postpone such an issue until questions upon
which admittedly they could pull together had
first been disposed of? From various quarters,
Irish and English, the bishops were urged to
establish a great popular organisation for effecting
such reforms as the allied forces of English and
Irish Liberalisra raight combine to win.
Vainly would these appeals have reached the
Irish shore — vainly as to any effect on the popular
mind — had it not been for an agency of concilia
tion which had at this time made itself felt by
most thoughtful Irishmen. In the press of England
the Irish people had long been accustomed to
encounter an unforgiving foe. With much surprise
they saw a new daily journal started in the imperial
metropolis, a leading feature in which seeraed to be
a fair, a just, a kindly and sympathetic treatment
of Ireland and the Irish people. Even where it

2 24 NEW IRELAND.
dissented from Irish projects or censured Irish
faults, it did so in a spirit of honest friendliness
that went home to every impartial mind. This
was to us almost incomprehensible. The thing
was so new, so unlike all we had been accustomed
to, that we could hardly realise it. For the first
time in my life I began to adequately estimate
how long a way a little genuine and honest
sympathy goes with the Irish people. One
newspaper — the Morning Star — had in a few
years created an impression which I once would
have deemed impossible to be effected. That
newspaper is gone ; but this I can affirm, that
the men who laboured in its pages accomplished
a service the magnitude of which was fully known
only to those who were behind the scenes in Irish
politics. They did not indeed wholly bridge over
the chasm of hatred which gaped dark and wide
between Ireland and England ; but they laid the
foundations for a work which happier times may
perhaps see honourably completed. From the period
of their efforts may be dated the beginning of those
friendly relations between the Irish and English
working classes in some of the cities and towns
of Great Britain which is noticeable in these later
days, and which is so marked in contrast to the

'' DELENDA EST CARTHAGO r 225
hostUity of previous times. Facts within my
own knowledge and experience justify rae in
classing the influence of that short-lived English
newspaper as one of the foreraost agencies in a
notable change of Irish feeling and opinion.
There seemed many reasons why the Irish
bishops and clergy should make some such move
ment as that to which they were urged. By this
time even those amongst them who were raost
responsible for the destruction of the tenant-right
organisation in 1852 had come to mourn that
achievement as a lamentable and most disastrous
error. Gladly would they now restore what they
had then pulled down. But where now were
they to find a man whom they could trust, and
whom the people would follow, as a national
leader ? Gavan Duffy was in exile, and George
Henry Moore, refusing every comproraise, had
quitted politics for the time, angered, embittered,
and implacable. One man of equal repute with
these, though wanting their experience of par
liamentary politics, there still reraained : Mr. John
B. Dillon. In the moveraents of 1843 and 1848,
as mentioned in a previous chapter, Mr. Dillon
had played a conspicuous part.* By friend and foe
* In July 1848, at one of the secret councils of the Young
VOL. II. Q

2 26 NE W IRELAND.
he was esteemed for his many noble qualities.
In 1856, with the tacit assent of the Govern
ment, he returned from exile, and, utterly eschew
ing politics, resumed his professional avocations.
It was only in 1863 he was induced by con
siderable persuasion to re-enter public Hfe, so far
as to allow himself t?) be elected to the Dublin
Municipal Council. In the autumn of 1864 he
was strongly pressed, and he eventually consented,
to accept the leadership of such an Irish movement
as has been above referred to ; one which would
enjoy the patronage of the Catholic bishops and
receive the co-operation of the English Radicals.
The two Irishmen, however, who most largely
contributed to the great purpose of Disestablishraent
were Mr. W. J. O'NeiU Daunt of Kilcascan Castle,
county Cork, and Sir John Gray, M.P., editor and

Ireland chiefs — almost the last they held before their ill-fated
"rising" — Dillon, grave, dignified, and thoughtful as usual,
listened calmly to the debate. When it came to his turn to
speak he most strongly opposed a resort to arms under the
circumstances of the time. At this a feather-headed enthusiast
of the party flared up wildly, and spoke of Dillon's sober
warning as " timorous shrinking." He was answered only by
a sorrowful smile from the brave man who a week after was on
the hill-side at Killenaule sword in hand (and for eight years
subsequently was an exile), while the braggart subsided at the
first whisper of danger, and lay still till the storm blew over.

'^ DELENDA EST CARTHAGO r 227
proprietor of the Freeman! s Journal, the leading
daily organ of popular opinion in Ireland. Mr.
Daunt indeed might be called the father of the
movement in Ireland. For nearly half a century
he had been associated in the great political efforts
of the time, and was one of the most widely es
teemed and respected of Irish popular leaders. At
an early age he entered Irish politics, and while yet
a young man becarae quite a prominent figure in
the Repeal Association. He devoted himself to
literature, and was the author of several novels,
chiefly illustrative of Irish social and political life.
From 1845 to 1860 he took little or no part in
political affairs; but in 1861 he commenced, almost
single-handed, to arouse public opinion against the
Irish State Church. He became an active cor
respondent of Mr. Carvell Williaras, Secretary of the
Liberation Society ; and in conjunction with that
gentleman, in a large degree, directed the course
of the agitation from the beginning to the close.
Sir John Gray, M.P., whose ' Irish Church
Commission ' * may be said to have rendered
* An exhaustive and exceedingly able series of reports on
the history, position, revenues, organisation, and congregational
strength of the Established Church in Ireland, which he issued
from time to time in the Freeman's Journal.
Q 2

2 28 NEW IRELAND.

Disestablishment inevitable, had filled a leading
position and played an active part in Irish politics
for more than thirty years previously. He was a
Protestant in religion ; a Repealer and Liberal in
politics. He was one of the State prisoners (along
with O'Connell) in 1844, and fought in the fore
front of the Tenant League campaign from 1850
to 1856. To the Irish metropolis, over the civic
affairs of which he virtually ruled for twenty
years, he was a public benefactor. When he
espoused a cause, he served it with all his heart.
Immediately on his election for Kilkenny city in
1865 he flung himself into the agitation for Dis
establishraent ; and assuredly never did public
raan devote himself with more indefatigable energy
to a public question than he did at this important
crisis to the cause of religious equality.*
It was a hazardous experiment to atterapt the
renewal of parliaraentary agitation in Ireland at
the tirae. The Fenian leaders had, as we have
seen, proclaimed it a cardinal point of doctrine
and practice that legal or constitutional efforts
were " demoralising," and must not be allowed.
They had stormed platforms and dispersed meet-
* Sir John Gray died in 1876. His loss was heartily
regretted by men of every class and party in Irish public life.

" DELENDA EST C ARTHA GO T 229
ings in assertion of this view. The Orangemen,
too, had to be taken into account on this occasion.
When it was announced that the new association
was to be inaugurated at a public meeting con
vened by the Lord Mayor, threats carae from the
opposite poles of political passion ; and it seemed
quite uncertain whether a Fenian riot or an
Orange riot, or an Orange-Fenian riot, was to
break up the demonstration. On the 28th of
December 1864 the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
held a special sitting to express their condemna
tion of the proposed meeting, and to denounce the
conduct of the Lord Mayor in convening it. They
flung in his face his oath of office as a Catholic,
in which the following passage occurred : —
I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any
intention to subvert the present Church Establishment as
settled by law within this realm ; and I do solemnly swear
that I never will exercise any privilege to which I am or may
become entitled to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion or
Protestant Government in the United Kingdom.
Frora the other quarter, the Fenian camp, came
the subjoined handbill, distributed in thousands
through the city : — No SUEEBNDEE.
Nationalists, — An attempt at a revival of the slavish or
ganisation that leaves you bondsmen and whining slaves to-day

230 NE W IRELAND.
is about being tried on in Ireland once more by a clique of
un-God-fearing (sic), place-hunting, cowardly political agitators
composed of rack-renting landlords, briefless barristers, anti-
Irish bishops, parish priests, curates, and hireling, renegade,
perjured press-men. Will you, 18,000 Dublin Nationalists,
tolerate this West-British faction to demoralise your manhood
again ? Never ! " Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep
your powder dry.''
Whether it was that the Orangemen trusted to
the Fenians to do the work, while the Fenians
relied on the Orangemen for the duty, was never
clearly explained, but, strange to say, the meeting
was held without let or hindrance, disorder or
disturbance. The Most Rev. Dr. Cullen proposed
the first resolution, declaring war against the
Establishment. The most important incident of
the day, however, was the reading of the sub
joined letter, which laid down the terms of the
alliance that eventually led to the overthrow of
the State Church in Ireland : — Rochdale, Dec. 23, 1864.
My dear Loed Mayoe,
I have to thank your committee for their friendly
invitation to their approaching meeting, although I shall not be
able to avail myself of it. I am glad to see that an effort is to
be made to force on some political advance in your country.
The objects you aim at are good, and I hope you may succeed.
On the question of landlord and tenant I think you should go
farther and seek to do more. What you want in Ireland is to
break down the laws of primogeniture and entail, so that in

'' DELENDA EST CARTHAGO r 231
course of time by a gradual and just process the Irish people
may become the possessors of the soil of Ireland. A legal
security for tenants' improvements will be of great value, but
the true remedy for your great grievance is to base the laws
which affect the land upon sound principles of political
economy. With regard to the State Church, that is an insti
tution so evil and so odious under the circumstances of your
country that it makes one almost hopeless of Irish freedom
from it that Irishmen have borne it so long. The whole
Liberal party in Great Britain will doubtless join with you
in demanding the removal of a wrong which has no equal in
the character of a national insult in any other civilised and
Christian country in the world. If the popular party in
Ireland would adopt as its policy " Free Land and Free
Church," and would unite with the popular party in England
and Scotland for the advance of liberal measures, and especially
for the promotion of an honest amendment of the representation,
I am confident that great and beneficial changes might be
made within a few years. We have on our side numbers and
opinion ; but we want a more distinct policy and a better
organisation ; and these, I hope, to some extent, your meeting
may supply. — Tours very truly, John Bbight.
The terms which this letter so formally pro
posed were fully accepted by those to whom the
offer was made. The National Association of Ire
land adopted " Free Land and Free Church " as its
policy. But only under the chastening influences
of adversity were the parliamentary chiefs of
English Liberalisra brought to embrace it as theirs.
It was only after they had been stripped of power
and thrust from office, and had borne the bitter-

232 NEW IRELAND.

ness of many a defeat, that misfortune eventually
led them to discover in Disestablishment a way to
victory, honour, and fame.
The House of Comraons had long been famiUar
with the Irish Church motion, which, in one shape
or another, made its appearance from time to time.
The English Nonconformists, under Mr. MiaU or
Mr. Dillwyn, aided by the Irish Catholic Liberals,
had their occasional field-day on the subject. Up
to 1865 only a very languid interest was excited
by these efforts ; and the utraost that could be
extracted from even the most friendly administra
tion was an occasional civil word, or an oracular
reference to what might perchance be possible in
the paulo-post-future of British politics. On the
28th of March 1865, on a resolution offered by
Mr. Dillwyn, there ensued a debate in the House
of Commons, in the course of which appeared the
first faint gleam of what was dawning on Mr.
Gladstone's raind. The Government, speaking
through Sir George Grey, repelled the motion
decisively enough, but Mr. Gladstone, then Chan
cellor of the Exchequer, changed the " never ot
previous years into a significant " not yet." The
Irish Church motion of 1866, moved on the 10th
of April by Sir John Gray, brought out the fact

'' DELENDA EST CARTHAGO r 233
that the administration had taken a few paces
forward on the subject. On this occasion the
Government did not exactly oppose the motion,
though they did not accede to it. Mr. Chichester
Fortescue, the Irish Chief Secretary, improved
soraewhat upon Mr. Gladstone's " not yet " by
wishing the cause of Disestablishment " God
speed." Two months later on — in June 1866 —
the Liberal party was not raerely defeated but
wrecked ; the Russell-Gladstone rainistry, deserted
and assailed by the reactionary Whig section of
their followers (known throughout the incident as
the " AduUamite Cave "), fell from power, and a
Conservative adrainistration, under Lord Derby as
Preraier, and Mr. Disraeli as ChanceUor of the
Exchequer, assumed the seals of office.
Meanwhile the Irish "National Association"
was not a success. Although supported by a
great array of episcopal power, it never in any
marked degree attracted popular sympathy or
support. Public feeling in Ireland was strongly
in favour of the objects it had proposed ; but the
objection to fusing with the EngHsh Whig-Liberal
party for any object seemed all but insuperable.
Mr. Gladstone was no doubt favourably regarded ;
but Mr. Lowe was more than mistrusted, while

234 NE W IRELAND.
Earl Russell, as the author of the Ecclesiastical
Titles Act, was the object of downright hostility.
There was, however, one man confessedly among
English Liberals whora no one could call a Whig,
and whom all admired for his sterling independ-
ence ; a man who stood almost alone among the
leading English orators and statesmen of his time
in this, that when his voice was raised to denounce
oppression and wrong, wherever prevailing, he
did not shrink from including Ireland in the
scope of his sympathies. That man was John
Bright. In the summer of 1866 there occurred
to Mr. J. B. Dillon the happy thought of enter
taining Mr. Bright at a national banquet in
Dublin. On the 21st of August a formal and
public invitation signed by twenty-three of the Irish
members was forwarded to Mr. Bright, to which
on the 1st of September he returned an answer
accepting the proposed corapliraent. No other
project could have been devised which at the time
would have rallied or reassembled to the same
extent the hitherto divided and hostile elements
of Irish popular politics ; yet at first it seemed a
hazardous experiment. Not without sorae doubts
and misgivings were the circulars issued which
convened a private conference to consider the

'' DELENDA EST CARTHAGO r 235
matter at the Imperial Hotel in DubHn. The
response, however, was more than encouraging.
All sections of the Irish popular party cordially
concurred in the proposal.
In the course of thirty years' experience of Irish
poHtics, I never knew anything to exceed the per
sonal bitterness of language which the proposal to
fete John Bright called forth in the Irish Conserva
tive journals. Not only was he the object of the
fiercest invective, but a very palpable endeavour
was made to excite against him personal violence.
In the Government organs — Lord Derby had come
into office in June — there was a continuous effort
to set the Fenians at the Bright banquet, and
induce them to break it up. To many of the
committee this seemed no insignificant peril ; and
their fears were increased a hundredfold by a
lamentable event which for a time threatened to
overwhelm the project. This was the death, after
barely a few days' illness, of Mr. DiUon, the moving
spirit of the whole proceeding. He was known to
have considerable influence with the Fenian party,
or rather it was well known that most of the
leaders and nearly all the " rank and file" of that
party shared the feelings of respect and affection
in which he was held by the bulk of his country-

236 NE W IRELAND.
men. He himself had not been free from uneasi
ness as to attempts at disturbance ; and now that
he was gone the probabilities of such a misfortune
were greatly increased. I did not share these
apprehensions as regards any serious interference
by Fenians ; but I did fully expect that, incited by
the extreme ascendancy newspapers, persons of a
different stamp would purchase tickets with a view
so to conduct themselves at the banquet as to mar
its effect and give the much-desired pretext for
declaring it a failure. That some open insult or
affront would be offered to Mr. Bright by such
emissaries, I as well as ray colleagues on the
committee felt quite convinced. Up to the decease
of Mr. DiUon I had not taken any very special or
prominent part in the preparations, but for many
reasons I now undertook the chief responsibility
for the arrangements within the banquet-room, on
the sole condition that I should be joined by two
friends whom I selected, and that we should be
free to take such steps as we might deem requisite
to maintain order. This being settled, I took good
care to diffuse in the proper quarters a notification
that we intended to " raake it hot" for disturbers,
and that the man who entered the banquet-hall with
purpose to insult our guest (as was but too plainly

" DELENDA EST CARTHAGO /" 237
threatened in some of the Tory papers) must be pre
pared for all consequences. I drew a plan or diagram
by which the room was to be seated, each chair
numbered, and each table indicated by a coloured
banner. We, moreover, had an alphabetical
register kept of the narae and address of every
ticket-holder, with the number of his assigned seat.
By this means we could tell in what exact spot a
suspicious visitor would be placed, and could
arrange accordingly. Never was check-mate more
complete. About a dozen intending ticket-pur
chasers turned away " disgusted" with this new
fangled idea of having their names, addresses, and
occupations registered on a numbered seat. We
knew these gentlemen well, and knew what they
meant to do ; but pretending to regard them as
admirers of John Bright, we "confidentially"
whispered to them the motive of our arrangement.
They " changed their minds," and bought no
tickets. The banquet was held on the 30th of October,
and was a success beyond all anticipation. It was
the great event of the year. No more splendid
assemblage, none more influential or numerous,
had gathered at a political dinner in Ireland

238 NEW IRELAND.
within our generation. The chair, which would
have been filled by our lamented friend Mr. Dillon,
was occupied by The O'Donoghue, M.P., then at
the zenith of his popularity. Mr. Bright received
an ovation rarely equalled in warmth and enthu
siasm. While he was speaking, amidst breathless silence,
a voice suddenly interrupted with some rude
observation. On any other occasion the incident
might have passed unnoticed, but now the rumour
of a '^ black bottle " scene * was in every one's
mind, and the merest trifle was enough to creat§
alarm. I knew by reference to the marked plan
in my pocket that the interrupter was very un
likely to be present with evil intent, yet I feared
what raight occur if a panic set in. Two stewards
remonstrated with him ; but he seemed beyond his
own control. A second and a third time he
shouted some incoherent observation, when, on a
pre-arranged signal, four athletic stewards whipped
* On the 14th of December 1822, on the occasion of the
Marquis Wellesley, Lord Lieutenant, visiting the Theatre Eoyal,
Dublin, an organised disturbance on the part of the Orangemen
took place, in resentment of his Excellency's sympathy with
Catholic Emancipation. The affray is always referred to as
the " black bottle " riot ; a black bottle having been flung at
the Viceroy by an Orangeman in the top gallery.

'' DELENDA EST CARTHAGO!'" 239

him bodily out of his seat, and bore him gently
out of the room. The thing was done so swiftly,
quietly, and smoothly that it was all over in a few
seconds. Then there burst forth a cheer so loud
and long that one might have thought something
of great importance had been accomplished. It
raeant that the assemblage realised how completely
the threat of an anti-Bright disturbance had
collapsed in the face of a little energy and
determination. With the fall of the Russell-Gladstone rainistry
in June 1866 there set in a two years' spell of
such parliaraentary confusion and vacillation as had
not been known since Lord Melbourne's time. The
Tory rainistry were too weak to rule ; the Liberal
opposition too feeble and too hopelessly disinte
grated to displace thera. In the House of Lords
Lord Derby led a flowing majority, but in the
Commons Mr. Disraeli had to deal with chaos
come again. It was impossible to tell frora day
to day with anything like certainty in what lobby,
with ministers or against them, a majority would
be found voting. Now it was one way, anon
another. Amidst a state of circumstances so
adverse the great question of Reform worked its
way to a remarkable conclusion. Mr Disraeli

2 40 NEW IRELAND.
would contend that he was the real friend of a
popular franchise ; but it was with gloomy fears
the Reformers saw him undertake to fondle what
they declared he meant to strangle. He was,
however, a facile foe. He adapted his policy to
the peculiarities of the situation. He took defeats
in a most Christian spirit, and becarae all things
to all majorities. Eventually, to his own great
surprise (veiled under well-feigned satisfaction), he
found himself the author of the most radical
suffrage bill ever passed under the auspices of a
British Cabinet.
Throughout this period, from the sumraer of
1866 to the end of 1867, the English Liberal party
in Parliaraent, rent by discord and weakened by
defection, presented a pitiable spectacle. Mr.
Gladstone at one time seemed about to retire in
disgust from the leadership of the broken and
dispirited array. In vain was an issue sought on
which they might be rallied as of old in a compact
body. On no domestic (English) question that
could be devised or discerned was it found prac
ticable to reunite them ; and what caused most
dismay on the Opposition benches was the con
viction that were any such question to be dis
covered, Mr. Disraeli would not improbably " cut

''DELENDA EST CARTHAGO 1" 241
them out" by espousing it himself. The Tory
leader who, in order to hold on by the Treasury
Bench, had passed a Household Suffrage Bill was
not a man to stick at trifles.
When the outlook seemed darkest, however, a
light arose over the path of the Liberals, and it
came from Ireland.
An incident, apparently trivial, in the council-
chamber of the Dublin Corporation a year or two
before had brought about results which led right
up to Disestablishment.
On the threshold of the new moveraent in
Ireland the extreme section of the Irish Conserva
tive party resorted to a course of action which
many of them subsequently bewailed as most
unwise and impolitic — as the real beginning of
their overthrow. Taking their cue from the
manifesto of the Grand Orange Lodge on the
28th of December 1864, they sought to stop the
Catholics by means of the odious " Catholic Oath."
It was known that several prominent Catholic
politicians, peers and commoners, had felt them
selves precluded from joining in any Disestablish
ment agitation or debate by this clause in "the
Catholic oaths." In the case of Catholics becoming
members of a civic corporation there was this
VOL. II. R

242 NEW IRELAND.

painful aggravation of the grievance, that Pro
testants were required to take no oath at all, while
Catholics, and Catholics alone, were, so to speak,
put on their knees at the bar, and corapeUed to
swear fealty to the Church Establishment. Many
good and honourable men explained it away satis
factorily to their consciences ; but for my own part
I felt that I could not subscribe to such an oath ;
and when I was elected to a seat in the Municipal
Council of Dublin in 1862, I decided to refuse it.
The penalty which I incurred by such a course was a
fine of £500 and disqualification. I judged that one
of two results would ensue from my refusal : either
I should pass unsworn without challenge or inter
ference, and all other Catholics subsequently
elected would do the same, and the obnoxious law
would become a dead letter ; or else I should be
prosecuted, and the imposition of fine and punish
ment upon me would so arouse public opinion
as to the insulting character of such tests that
Parliament would assuredly sweep them away.
On perfecting before Mr. Henry, town clerk, the
statutory declaration as to my property qualification
that gentleman intimated to me that there now
remained for me only to " go before a magistrate,
take the oath, and sign the roll."

" DELENDA EST C ARTHA GOI" 243
" There is Alderman Bonsall just gone upstairs,"
sa,idl; "has he taken the oath ?" [I knew well
he had not ; for the alderman was a leading Tory
of very Orange hue.]
" Oh, he need not take it ; he is not a Catholic,"
replied Mr. Henry.
" Well, Mr. Town Clerk," I rejoined," call upon me
to take the oath when Alderman Bonsall is sworn,
but not till then. If he is free, so must I be."
I took my seat unsworn, and for some period
was not molested. At length I was denounced to
justice in the Daily Express for a violation of the
statute in this case made and provided ; and one
morning as the council was about to assemble I
was informed that the Lord Mayor had been
officially called upon to give me into custody, or to
take other requisite steps, if I spoke or voted as a
councillor that day. The Lord Mayor was the
Hon. John P. Vereker, son of Lord Gort, a staunch
Conservative, a man of broad and generous spirit.
He called me aside and told me of the demand that
had been made upon him. " Well, my lord, do
your duty," I said, " and let not our personal
friendship put you in any official difficulty on my
account. I have measured the consequences of my
course, and must face them." R 2

244 NE W IRELAND.
" Oh," he repHed, " I have given the parties my
answer." " And what is that ? "
" That I have no official knowledge of your
religious creed, having never examined you in
the decrees of the Council of Trent, the Thirty-
nine Articles, or the Westminster Confession of
Faith." I heard no more just then of the threatened
penalty or the unsworn oaths.
On the 1st of January 1866 the civic council
were in the act of passing to Alderman MacSwiney,
the outgoing Lord Mayor, who had presided at the
inaugural meeting of the National Association, the
customary vote of thanks on the close of his year
of office, when a Conservative councillor, Mr.
Pilkington, jumped suddenly to his feet, and
objected to the vote, on the distinct ground that
the outgoing dignitary had been false to his oath
in respect of the Church by law established.
This charge of public perjury against the man
who had barely laid down the wand of office as
chief magistrate of the city — and perjury on such
grounds ! — flung the council into the wildest
indignation. Of course the imputation was
fiercely resented, scornfully repelled; but the

''DELENDA EST CARTHAGO!" 245
Conservatives followed it up by reading the
ipsissima verba of the oath relied upon to sustain
their accusation. The vote was passed, but the
Catholic and Liberal members vowed that, the
matter should not rest there. Out of doors the
effect was equaUy strong. A cry arose for the
sweeping away of these offensive barriers between
citizens of different creeds. The municipal council
itself formally commenced an agitation against
"Obnoxious Oaths." A special meeting was
convened with great display to debate the question.
By unanimous resolution it was ordered that a
petition praying for the abolition of these invidious
test declarations should be presented at the bar of
the House of Coraraons by the Lord Mayor in
state. The other raunicipalities of Ireland caught
the excitement. Deputations, addresses, petitions,
resolutions, on the "Obnoxious Oaths," kept the
public raind in a ferraent. The ascendancy yoke
that, as John Bright complained, seemed to have
lain so Hghtly on Irish necks now grew intolerable.
The opportunity that so long had been sought for
and waited for had come at last. It was decided
to break ground against the Church by an attack
on the Test Oaths. The Grand Orange Lodge on
that 28th of December 1864, and Mr. Pilkington

246 NEW IRELAND.
on the 1st of January 1866, had applied a torch
to the pile they thought to defend !
Over the Catholic Oaths Bill from the session of
1866 to that of 1867, the great battle that was
soon to come in earnest was fought in miniature,
and fought on ground the raost favourable that
could have been found for the attacking party
The oaths were manifestly indefensible. ' Mr.
Disraeli saw it, felt it, virtually confessed it ; but
every one knew that" they were now assailed as
the outposts of the Church, and so the abolition was
doggedly resisted. In two sessions consecutively
the Commons passed the measure ; as often did it
fail in the House of Lords. Eighteen hundred
and sixty-seven found the Establishment out
posts intact, but the movement against them
had served the purpose of the assaUants as
effectually as capture would have done. Events
of considerable importance had, as we shaU see,
occurred meantime. AU over the land " Delenda
est Carthago " was the cry. The moment had
arrived for the storming of the stronghold !

DISESTABLISHMENT. 247

CHAPTER X.
DISESTABLISHMENT.
When the first inevitable burst of indignation and
anger called forth in England by the Fenian
conspiracy had a little subsided, there began to
dawn on the minds of the English people an idea
that there must after all be "something rotten"
in the state of Ireland. This was perplexing;
because it was in utter contradiction to all that the
authorities upon whom they most relied had told
them about that country. They had been assured
that whatever might have been the case in the
past, Ireland " now " had no cause of complaint ;
she was loyal and contented, happy, wealthy, and
prosperous, with pigs abounding and bullocks
thriving. At no time were these assurances so
frequently and so strongly indulged in as during
the years immediately preceding the Fenian
outbreak. " The land laws ? They are excellent ;

248 NE W IRELAND.
' tenant right ' means ' landlord wrong.' The
Church ? No grievance at all ; this is a Protestant
realm, and Roman Catholic ascendancy is what
the Irish priests are really after. Home legisla
tion ? A cry for the moon ; we cannot break
up the empire. Education ? The Irish have
the schools we know to be the best for thera ;
whereas they had none previously." Thus the
story ran. If an honest Irishman had the
temerity to hint a doubt of it — dared to say
there was any discontent in Ireland, or any
reason why there should be — he was savagely set
upon, called an incendiary, and denounced as a
calumniator.* * So late as the 23rd of May 1867 an Irish member (Mr. J. F.
Maguire), having ventured to blame the existing state of things,
was thus answered in the House of Commons by Mr. Eoebuck,
M.P. : " The honourable gentleman rushes into the whole
subject of Irish grievances. Now, in the first place, I will
make an admission : that up to 1829 nothing could have been
worse than the govemment of Ireland. I will allow that. But
from that time to this the House has been doing all it could
to alleviate the physical, the constitutional, and the moral
injuries of Ireland. There have, however, been obstacles, and
among the chief of those is the language used by the hon.
gentleman (cheers). Can hon. members think that their poor
uneducated, miserable countrymen in Ireland will see the truth
when they themselves, hero in this House, and before the
people of England, dare to say that wc are unjust to Ireland ?

DISESTABLISHMENT. 249
In the midst of such declarations carae the
Fenian conspiracy, with its sad and horrible
incidents in Manchester and London. At first, of
course, EngHshmen thought only of vindicating
the outraged majesty of the law ; but when it had
been vindicated — when the executioner had done
his work, and the chain gangs at Portland and
Chatham had been reinforced by political convicts,
there began to creep through England a doubt
that the newspapers and the viceroys and the
chief secretaries could have been all right as to
Ireland " now " having no cause of complaint. A
serious doubt truly. The consoling array of pig
statistics and green crop extension and fat stock
multiplication had been to English expectation as
equivocal in prophecy as the witches' promise to
the Thane of Fife.
The better nature of Englishmen was touched
and aroused by the spectacle opened to their
contemplation in this lamentable Fenian business.
They were much impressed by the exhibition of
such reckless fanaticism, mingled with patriotic

Why, I say that a more foul calumny, a more gigantic falsehood,
was never uttered."
And this was within less than a year of Mr. Gladstone's
Disestablishment Eesolutions !

2SO NEW IRELAND.
self-immolation. But more, rauch more, were they
moved by the serious circumstance that the Irish
multitude who had rejected, condemned, or refused
to join the Fenian scheme were clearly none the
less in moral revolt against the state of things
around them. All over Britain a murmur, soon
to be a cry, arose that there must be a cause for
political symptoms so plain and terrible as these.
When once the English nation, awaking to the
existence of an evil, exclaims that " Something
must be done," old wrongs and venerable anomalies,
one and all, have need to tremble ; for the
" something " that is done is often that only which
happens to be nearest to hand, or is selected almost
at haphazard.
"What can we do for Ireland?" was the
question uttered in good faith and with just intent
by thousands of EngHshmen. "What are the
grievances which we can remedy for our Irish
fellow-subjects? We cannot listen to their
demands for national autonomy, but whatever else
we can do for them that will be for their good (or
rather that we shall consider to be for their good)
shall be done."
The growth of these ideas and feelings through
out England, long before it had reached this

DISESTABLISHMENT. 251

decisive stage, was noted by the leading members
of the English Liberation Society. They saw a
grand opportunity, and promptly turned it to
account. They poured through the land invectives
against the Irish Law Church. They said to
Englishmen : " You desire to know what ails
Ireland. Here it is. You desire to befriend
Ireland, to end misgovernment and make reparation
for the past ; you want to know what to do. Do
this. Sweep away this cruel oppression, this
fruitful source of heartburning and strife.
Abolish this hateful caste, this sectarian garrison,
which has only made Irishmen hate you when
they might have learned to love you. Tell the
Catholic millions of Ireland that henceforth all
creeds are equal in the eye of the law, and,
possessing religious equality, they will become
happy and contented citizens of the empire."
To Englishmen in the mood of the time it was a
thrice-welcome voice that spoke so opportunely
and so well. Some no doubt there were who did
not like the Liberation Society or its designs in
England; but this Disestablishment was to be
over there in Ireland, not at their own doors.
They cried aloud, " Let it be done."
Less sagacious men than the Liberal leaders in

252 NEW IRELAND.

England could see what all these signs proclairaed.
The tirae was ripe for a bold and great policy.
On the Irish Church question the Conservative
leader durst not venture to compete with them.
Here was the ground on which to engage and over
throw him. Here was a policy on which the
Liberal party could be reconstructed and endowed
with new life and power. No " caves " would be
forraed, no mutinies atterapted, on this line of
march. The united Liberalism of England,
Ireland, and Scotland would go forward with
one heart and one mind on this issue.
On the 7th of AprU 1867, Sir John Gray,
following up his motion of the previous year,
moved the House of Comraons to declare that on
the 27th inst. it would resolve itself into a cora
raittee on the Irish Church. Even at this date
Mr. Gladstone was hesitant, and supported the
" previous question," with which the raotion was
encountered ; but, strange to say, he did not cast
his vote on either side. Two raonths later the
coming storm was sufficiently discerned, and the
House of Lords determined upon the feeble expe
dient of a " royal coraraission." It was raoved for
on the 24th of June 1867, and appointed on the
30tli of October following, Earl Stanhope being

DISESTABLISHMENT. 253
chairman. Between the summer of 1867 and the
spring of 1868 the country passed through the
sharpest crisis of the Fenian alarms ; the Man
chester Rescue and executions, the attempt to seize
Chester Castle, and the Irish risings, had one after
another aroused excitement and panic. The state
of Ireland — between conspiracy and insurrection
on the one hand, and suspension of all constitutional
government on the other — was a European scandal.
On Tuesday the 10th of March 1868, a great debate
which extended over four days was commenced in
the House of Commons, on a motion by Mr. J. F.
Maguire for a committee to consider the condition
of that country. It was upon this occasion that
*Mr. Gladstone at length plunged across the Rubicon.
On the fourth day ofthe debate, the 16th of March
1868, he declared that the time had come when
the Irish Church Establishment must fall. On his
announcement that he would forthwith himself
present the issue definitely to the House, both the
resolution and amendment were withdrawn ; and
on the 23rd of March he introduced his memorable
" Resolutions." The debate formally opened on
the 30th of March, when ministers were over
thrown, the motion to go into committee on the
resolutions being carried by a vote of 331 to 270.

254 NEW IRELAND.
The debate in the committee was prosecuted with
equal vigour. It lasted over eleven nights, closing
at 3 a.m. on the morning of the 1st of May 1868,
when the first resolution was carried by a vote of
330 to 265. Four days afterwards Mr. Disraeli
announced that ministers had tendered their resig
nation, but that the Queen wished them to retain
office " until the state of public business would
admit of a dissolution," which would accordingly
take place in the autumn. It was a clever stroke to
hold on to office throughout the dissolution ; all the
advantages of official power, usually considered to
be worth thirty votes in a general election, thus
being secured. On the 7th of May the second and
third of Mr. Gladstone's resolutions were carried
in committee. On the 16th, just as they were
being finally affirmed by the House, Lord Stan
hope's commission of the previous year, which
everybody seemed to have forgotten, appeared with
their report on the Irish Church, recomraending
the abolition of half a dozen bishoprics, and sundry
minor " reforras." It evoked a shout of derision.
The time had passed for half-measures. Like the
abdication of Louis Philippe in the revolution of
February '48, the proposal was hailed with a cry of
" Too late ! too late !"

DISESTABLISHMENT. 255
On the 13th of May Mr. Gladstone introduced
the " Suspensory Bill," to prevent new interests
being created pending Disestablishment. On the
22nd it was read by a vote of 312 to 258. It went
triumphantly through the Commons, and was
brought into the House of Lords on the 18th of
June, where, after a debate of three days' duration,
it was, on the 25th, rejected by a vote of 192 to 97.
This was the last stroke of an expiring power ; an
ebullition of puerile and impotent hostUity.
On the 31st of July 1868 Parliament was pro
rogued ; on the llth of November it was dissolved
by proclamation, and ministers " appealed to the
country." The interval between the passage of
Mr. Gladstone's resolutions in May and the disso
lution in November had been devoted to the most
strenuous preparations for the struggle. Already
the Liberal party had begun to reap the fruits of
their new policy. Already they had exchanged
disunion for unanimity, weakness for strength.
Though office had been withheld from them, power
was once more theirs. Once more they had, by
sweeping majorities, defeated their opponents in
the parliamentary lists. With a fierce energy they
now prepared to overwhelm them at the hustings.
The Irish Protestants stripped to the fight

256 NEW IRELAND.
with great spirit, although they must have felt
that they were on the side of a lost cause. In
Ulster, no doubt, their proceedings were disfigured
by characteristic bombast and threat. The Hne
taken by the Orangemen in that province was
that the coronation oath forbade the Queen to
allow Disestablishment, and that she would be
perjured if she signed the bill ; that it would be an
overthrow of our Protestant constitution in Church
and State ; that " the raen of Ulster," who had
driven James II. from the throne for like atterapts,
were ready and determined as ever now in the
same good cause. The Rev. Mr. Flanagan, chap
lain in the Orange Society, addressing a vast con
course of his fellow-members, publicly warned all
whom it might concern that " the men of Ulster"
had ere now kicked a crown into the Boyne.
No one, however, attached any importance to
all this. For a long time it has been accepted as
the harmless traditional prerogative of " Ulster,"
as the Orange societies call themselves, to intimate
to the British nation that it is on the qui vive, and
that when Ulster is on the watch England may be
easy in her mind ; that Ulster is and ever has been
the raainstay and protector of the realra ; that it
was Ulster and not England that made the glorious

DISESTABLISHMENT. 257
Revolution ; and that several hundreds of thousands
of Ulstermen are always ready to march some
where against somebody, to uphold England as
long as she behaves herself well and is true to the
principles of 1690.*
This, however, was only araongst a section of
the Irish Church Protestants ; by no raeans the
most influential section, though it certainly may
be the noisiest. As a general rule, a grave and
earnest spirit was displayed. No more serious, no
more able defence could have been made for any
political institution than that which the Irish Con
servatives put forth on behalf of their Church in
1868. Although as against the bulk of their own
countrymen they had no case, against the British
Parliament they certainly established one that was
unanswerable.. Most Englishmen regarded and
discussed their plea solely as it affected the one
issue just then before them, and never gave a
thought further to it once that issue was decided
by the passing of the Disestablishment BiU. But
the arguments upon that case — the pamphlets, the
* During the Crimean War of 1854 and the Indian Mutiny
of 1857 they were appealed to in some Irish newspapers to send
out a body of even two or three thousand men — a couple of
regiments — out of all these " hundreds of thousands," but not a
corporal's guard volunteered from the lodges.
VOL. II. S

258 NE W IRELAND.

speeches, the essays, the letters — were destined to
have singular and important results not generally
foreseen in England at the time. They led to
subsequent events which, to the view of the ordi
nary English observer, appeared to be totally new ;
quite independent ofthe question thus disposed of;
but beneath the surface they were connected with
it, and arose from it like the dip and crop of
geological strata.
That defence of the Irish Church was based
raainly on the Act of Union. There were of course
other grounds — plenty of thera ; but one by one
they were evacuated as untenable under the fire of
arguraent, logic, and fact poured against them from
the other side. Here alone the Church party were
confessedly in a strong position. The fifth article
of the Act of Union between England and Ireland
solemnly declared the maintenance for ever of the
Irish Church Establishment, or rather the incor
poration of that Establishment with the English as
" the United Church of England and Ireland," to
be a " fundamental and essential " stipulation and
condition. The English language could not more
explicitly set forth a solemn and perpetual covenant
between two parties than this article set foith
the contract between the Episcopal Protestants of

DISESTABLISHMENT.

259

Ireland and the Imperial Parliament.* By the
Act of Union there were to be not two Establish
ments but one Establishment — " the Established
Church of England and Ireland " ; the then pre
viously existing Irish Establishment being merged
and absorbed into this one, the maintenance of
which for ever was thus stipulated. It was not open
to an English minister to treat them now as two.
Together as one they were to stand or fall — or
rather for ever to stand ; for as to falling, the Union
was to fall too if the Establishment so guaranteed
should ever fail to be maintained. Of course there
were many splendid efforts of argument and elo
quence, as well as many learned disquisitions and
rauch legal casuistry, forthcoming on the Liberal
or Disestablishment side, to show how Parliament
could break the pact thus relied upon ; but nothing
could get over the explicit declaration that this
* " Article 5th. That the Churches of England and Ireland
as now by law established be united into one Protestant
Episcopal Church, to be called ' the United Church of England
and Ireland,' and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and govern
ment of the said United Church shall be and shall remain in
full force for ever as the same are now by law established for
the Church of England, and the continuance and preservation
of the said United Church as the Established Church of
England and Ireland shall be deemed and taken to be an
essential and fundamental part of the Union."
s 2

26o NE W IRELAND.
stipulation was to be '•''fundamental and essential"
to the Union. Once it was gone the Union was
no more. The Church defenders admittedly had
the best case ; but Mr. Gladstone had the logic of
big battalions on his side.
It cannot be wondered at that all this flung the
Irish Protestant mind back upon the period at
which the Union corapact was forraed, and tended
to raise the question whether Irish Protestants
would not have fared better if they had not entered
into that treaty, but had made terms with the
Irish people. These thoughts and reflections
found frequent utterance in the speeches of the
Irish Church party, especially in protests addressed
by them to England. " There are many of us,"
they said, " who, keeping faith with you as long as
you kept it with us, have, on this account, accepted
and acted on the theory that Ireland was merged
by the Union. You teach us otherwise now. Do
not complain hereafter if we act accordingly."
Neither in Ireland nor in England was this
latter intimation much believed in dr attended to
at the time. " They do not mean it," said the
Irish Catholics. " It is but an idle menace," said
the English Liberals.
It was indeed an exciting time when, avowedly.

DISESTABLISHMENT. 261
on this one question the three kingdoms were
summoned to the polls in the autumn of 1868.
In Ireland the days of 1829 seemed to have corae
again. All the feelings, passions, antagonisms of
that era burst forth anew. There were but two
parties iu the island — those who fought for Dis
establishraent and those who fought against it.
All were for the raoment either Liberals or Con
servatives. Even the Fenians — who had spilled
the blood of their own countrymen and fellow-
Nationalists in putting down public meetings and
forbidding any popular manifestations of a non-
Separatist character — fell into the ranks on the
Liberal side, or else maintained a " benevolent
neutrality." The Nation, on behalf of the Repeal
or Constitutional-Nationalist party, though ever
since 1852 maintaining ah invincible opposition
to Whig-Liberalism, now formally proclairaed that
in this great crisis every friend of civil and
religious liberty raust march shoulder to shoulder.
The Liberals had not had such an auspicious time
in Ireland for thirty years.
One day, in the thick of the battle, the door of
ray room was rather violently pushed open, and a
friend whom I knew to be actively engaged iii
the elections stepped hurriedly in.

262 NEW IRELAND.

" I have something of the utmost urgency and
importance to put before you," he said. " You
have it in your power now not alone to pay off
the ascendancy raen for their last base attempt
against you, but you can furthermore strike a
stunning blow for Disestablishment. Are you
ready and willing?"
As he eagerly put his question he gave me a
slap on the shoulder, as much as to say, " Of
course you are."
The " base attempt " against rae to which he
aUuded was a proceeding which gave rise to very
heated feelings in Dublin, and which I must say
incensed and erabittered myself at the time.
While in the previous month of May I lay fast
bound under bolts and bars as a political prisoner in
Richmond, notice was publicly given ofthe intention
of my fellow-members of the raunicipal council to
nominate me as Lord Mayor for the ensuing year.
Instantly on learning this fact, I declined, in the
most positive manner, the honour thus proposed
to be conferred upon rae ; which indeed could only
have been meant as a demonstration of personal
and public feeling in view of my imprisonment.
I received, however, from the leading members of
the Conservative party the kindliest assurances

DISESTABLISHMENT. 263
that if I wished to allow the nomination it would
be unopposed by them ; would be, in fact, unani
mous. That these declarations were given in
good faith, that any compliment which I would
accept and was in their power consistently to
offer would be readily extended to me, was
attested by their frank and generous conduct
towards me at all times previously. Neverthe
less, so fierce and high did party feeling run under
the influence of the DisestabHshment excitement,
that in Noveraber an attempt was made, by order
of the Conservative party managers, to invalidate
my seat in the council, and to strike ray name off
the burgess roll, on the ground that I was for
registration purposes " dead in law," or " resident "
nowhere, during my incarceration. A lengthy
legal argument decided the case in my favour ;
but the resort to such a proceeding, though it
could hardly be called "a blow below the belt"
in party warfare, had unquestionably a most bitter
and exasperating influence on local feeling.
" Now you can pay those fellows off," said my
friend. " In what way ?"
" Will you stand for a seat ? "
" Pooh ! I have answered that sort of question

264 NEW IRELAND.
often enough within the past five years, and in
two instances recently to your own knowledge.
No, I will not."
" But in this case you can do a lasting service
to the cause ; you will either carry the seat for
yourself, or else save four others we may other
wise lose. Don't you be writing in the Nation
about the duty of exertion and sacrifice at this
crisis, if you yourself will not do this."
'* But, even apart from personal disinclination,
the Nation has never said that a hard-working
journalist is bound to spend a thousand pounds
for the honour and glory of rendering laborious
service at Westminster. Men of ambition, men of
fortune, or men with personal advantages in view,
may do so. I will not."
" I ara instructed to place £1500 at your dis
posal for your election expenses."
" And what seat do you want me to contest ?"
" Dublin county."
" Dublin fiddlesticks ! You are not serious ! "
But he was. The state of the case as he put it
was this : The Government (House of Commons)
" whip," Colonel Taylor, was member for Dublin
county. He was the official chief of the Tory
election campaigners. Deeming his own seat

DISESTABLISHMENT. 265
perfectly secure — ^up to this time it was not me
naced — his hands were free, and he was making
busy use of them in pushing attack or directing
defence throughout the country. There were at
least three or four of the boroughs in the provinces
which the Liberals could carry if the Tory elec
tioneering head centre could be called off to serious
self-defence in Dublin, but " if not, not." No
trivial attack, no palpable feint, would suffice.
The " villa-voters," as they are called, around the
Irish metropolis are largely composed of middle-
class Tory gentlemen, or petty gentry who own
little properties or rent-charges, entitling them to
vote in distant boroughs or counties. They like
to reside near " the Coort," where, as Thackeray
puts it, they may sometimes figure at " the Castle "
and see " their sovereign," leastways, " his Ex
cellency." It was discovered that -if these friends
of Church and State were obliged to remain at
home to vote for Colonel Taylor out of their resi
dential qualification, three, and possibly five, con
stituencies, in which otherwise they would be free
to vote, might be won by the Liberals. If, on the
other hand, they left Dublin to its fate, and went
to the country to vote. Colonel Taylor would
inevitably be ousted. The thing was very closely

266 NE W IRELAND.

examined, and nicely calculated. The conclusion
was obvious. Dublin county must be attacked in
force. If carried, the victory would be of import
ance. If lost, four or five other seats would thereby
be gained.
" But who suppHes the £1500 ?" I inquired.
" Ask no questions. I think you ought to have
confidence in me that your principle^ or your
honour will not be compromised."
" Not consciously, I am sure ; but if the funds
are supplied by raen of my own principles, what
need of reticence ? If not, I have need to pause."
" They are not men of your national politics ;
but they are as ardent as you in this Disestablish
ment fight. They feel that you, and you alone,
can carry Dublin county at this moment."
" On my own principles ? "
" Certainly."
I assented, subject to consultation with some
friends. I afterwards found that £500 was to be
supplied by a gentleman of very high position and
character who had been a member of the late
Russell -Gladstone Government; and £1000 by a
gentleman of whom I had never previously heard,
but who was at that raoment a Gladstone candi
date in Louth county — Mr. M. O'Reilly Dease. I

DISESTABLISHMENT. 267
decHned the proposition. " To-day," I said, " these
gentlemen and I are no doubt fighting side by side,
but to-morrow or next day I may find it to be my
duty to differ with them or to censure or oppose
them or some one of them. Nay, if I carried the
seat I might have to vote against them in the
House of Commons. I can't 'touch the affair. But
I'll teU you what I'U do ; let some one else be found
to stand. I'U fling myself heartily into the fight
on his behalf, and give to him aU the influence
which you, seem to think I could command, or the
enthusiasm I might excite for myself in Dublin
county." About three o'clock in the morning on the l7th
of November I was roused out of bed by a violent
ringing of the hall-door bell. I was the first to
rush to the door, where I found Mr. Meade,
solicitor and conducting agent of Mr. Dease,
who had, he said, posted by car all the way from
the county Louth on important and urgent busi
ness with me. I hurriedly dressed myself, and
there, through hours that reached towards the
dawn, we fought out the whole subject once more.
My humility, never I suppose too great, was barely
able to resist the " flattering tale " he urged. The
gentleman associated with Mr. Dease in this matter.

2 68 NEW IRELAND.
he said, was, as I knew, qualified to speak for the
whole of the Liberal party ; and never Would this
important service be forgotten for me. He, Mr.
Meade, was now authorised to say, in reference to
my suggestion of selecting some one else, that for
me alone would the money be forthcoming. If
the advantages of this grand stroke were lost to
the cause of religious equality, I alone would be
reproached hereafter.
There were but two days between us and the
nomination. I had hardly ever felt so squeezed.
Eventually I agreed that if some one of two
gentlemen whom I undertook to name — the Hon.
Judge Little or Mr. P. P. MacSwiney — did not
consent to fight Colonel Taylor, I would do so
myself. On the other hand, if either of them
undertook to stand, the money was to be at their
service as freely as it would have been at mine.
We lost a day vainly trying to persuade Judge
Little, and Mr. MacSwiney could give us no answer
till he had consulted his Grace the Archbishop of
Dublin. As by this time it seemed I was "in for
it," I sat down and wrote out my election address
to the free and independent electors, so as to have
it ready for pubUcation. Mr. MacSwiney's final
reply was to reach us at the Central Liberal Com-

DISESTABLISHMENT. 269
mittee offices, St. Andrew's Street, before 10 p.m.
I found the room crowded with the elite of the
Irish Liberal party; men usually amongst the
gravest in sober commercial or professional circles
were now as full of excitement as the youngest
enthusiast. The coup in the county was the great
topic. Mr. MacSwiney came in. He was rather
disposed to stand, but — he hesitated. There was,
he pleaded, no tirae for the requisite arrangeraents
or preparations.
" What do you want ? "
" I have not thought about a proposer or
seconder." " Here are half a dozen in the room," said Mr.
Heron. " There is no tirae to have friends at Kilraain-
ham in the morning ; and ' the show of hands ' is
a great deal."
" Don't be uneasy about that," said Mr. Devitt.
" Then I have not my election address written,
and it ought to be in the morning papers."
" Here is one for you,'' said I, pulling my
own out of my pocket, and thrusting it into his
hand. " I'd like to read it over, and submit it to a
few  "

2 70 NEW IRELAND.
" Oh, nonsense, raan ; sign your narae there, and
let us instantly have the printers at work."
He was good enough to say it was "just the
thing." Anyhow there was no time to compose
another ; and on the election address so curiously
supplied Dublin county election of 1868 was
contested. Some of us did not get to bed at all that night,
there was so much to be done in the few hours at
our command. One gentleman, with a mysterious
air, pulled on his top-coat and said he must go off to
secure a sufficient attendance of " the nobility and
gentry of our noble county " for the much-desired
" show of hands." But I noted that it was to the
unaristocratic locality of Ringsend that he drove
for that purpose. I understood it all next morning
when I found myself addressing as " Gentlemen,
electors of this great county," a court-house full of
rather piratical looking gentlemen in sou' -westers
and guernsey jackets. Colonel Taylor drove up
to the hustings at ten in the morning, looking
decidedly fluttered. He had heard the news ; he had
just read Mr. MacSwiney's address in the Freeman ;
yet he would fain think it all a practical joke,
raerely an attempt to " take a rise out of him."
About a score of his friends, ladies and gentlemen.

DISESTABLISHMENT. 2 7 1

in gala attire, came on the scene, to witness as
they thought the pleasing sight of a " walk-over."
At first they were utterly unable to comprehend
what they saw and heard on entering the court.
When they gathered the astounding fact that a
" Radical " candidate was about to be proposed
there and then, their indignation was ungovern
able. The Tory magnates waxed positively furious
with rage. The assemblage of Mr. Devitt's " no
bility and gentry " in the body of the court — (the
whole lot costing us three pounds ten and six
pence) — -was the raost cruel stroke of all. They
secured us not only the show of hands — such
hands ! — but the shout of voices — oh, what voices !
The fellows seeraed to think we ought to give
them the word to seize Colonel Taylor and his
friends bodily and cast them into the mill-race
close by. We made great display of " moderat
ing" them, well knowing that the most maddening
wound we could inflict on our haughty opponents
was the idea of being beholden to us for a hearing
on that hustings where for generations their class
had ruled omnipotent. If anything was required
to satisfy me of the absurdity of open nominations
and hustings and " show of hands," it was supplied
by that scene.

2 72 NEW IRELAND.
Into the few days within which the county had
to be polled the Liberals put the concentrated work
and energy of their metropolitan forces. It was
only on the day after the nomination that the
genuine earnestness of the attempt was realised by
the Church party. Then almost a panic prevailed,
and " not a man can be spared " was the watch
word. This meant for us that our victory would
be elsewhere ; and so it was. When on the polHng
day Colonel Taylor and Mr. Hamilton were going
in triumphantly, they seemed to wonder why we
were not crestfallen, or rather why we seemed so
jubilant. They did not know that we had in our
pockets telegrams proclaiming that our diversion
in Dublin county had saved or won some half a
dozen seats elsewhere for the cause of reHgious
equality. In three weeks the battle was virtually over,
and Mr. Disraeli hauled down his flag. On the
2nd of Deceraber he gave up the seals, and Mr.
Gladstone was called to office. On the 9th the
new Cabinet was installed ; on the next day Parlia
ment opened. By the 29th the ministerial re-
elections were over, and an adjournment took
place to the 16th of February following.
On the 1st of March 1869 Mr. Gladstone intro-

DISESTABLISHMENT. 273
duced the bill to disestablish the Irish Church.
On the 18th the debate on the second reading
commenced. It closed on the 23rd, when ministers
were found to have the overwhelraing majority
of 118 votes, or 368 to 250. On the 31st of May
the bill passed the third reading by a vote of 361
to 247.
For a time there was intense anxiety and appre
hension as to the probable action of the House of
Lords, in which it was well known there was a
majority hostile to the measure, if only they dared
to vote against it. Rumours of conflict between
the two chambers, of a probable prorogation and
" creation of peers,'" and other disquieting stories
abounded. In Ireland we felt confident the Lords
would throw cut the bill ; and we looked for
serious results. A consciousness of the danger
involved in such a course, however, brought
wisdom to the peers. " July the Twelfth," as the
Orangemen's ballad has it, they read the bill a
third and last time ; and all was over. Disesta
blishment was an accomplished fact. Fuit Ilium,
On the 26th of July 1869 the Irish Church
Bill received the royal assent. Protests, solemn,
earnest, passionate — denunciations loud and long
and bitter — burst from the vanquished defenders ;
VOL. II. T

274 NE W IRELAND.
but their exclamations were drowned in the general
rejoicing. The dissenting churches gave praise that
the day of subjection was at an end. A Triduum
was celebrated in the Catholic Pro-Cathedral of
Dublin. The raunicipal council of the Irish metro
polis, with unusual formality and impressiveness,
voted an address of thanks and congratulation to
Mr. Gladstone.* Everywhere men realised that a
great event — alraost a revolution — had occurred.
But few indeed saw at the moment that the in
direct, or rather reflex, action and influence of
that event was to effect the important changes
which ensued. The overthrow of religious ascend
ancy in Ireland was a great work ; but another
achievement came with it. For the first time in
history the English People were set a-thinking —
inquiring, reading, investigating, and reasoning —
upon the general Irish question. Previously they
had turned away from the worry and heart-break
of such a perplexing and vexatious study, and
gave a proxy to their Government to think for
them and act for them in dealing with Ireland.
* If I say that it faithfully expressed the enthusiastic
feeling of the Irish people at the time, I may perhaps be
guilty of undue partiality, inasmuch as the framing of its
terms was entirely committed to me, and my draft was adopted
by acclamation.

DISESTABLISHMENT 275
What the Government told them, they accepted
without inquiry ; what the Government asked of
them, they gave with alacrity. They thought it
hard that they should always have to be doing
something for Ireland, and always needing to
punish or repress her ; but " the Governraent
knew what was best." The Disestablishment cam
paign, however, filled England with genuine
interest in Irish history ; and Englishmen — -that
is, the bulk of the people — awoke to the idea that
the Irish were not, perhaps, after all a whoUy
intractable and perverse race, nor wholly account
able for the failings and shortcomings they dis
played. In short, the Newspaper and the School
had been doing their work east as well as west of
St. George's Sea ; and side by side with the New
Ireland a New England also had arisen !

T 2

276 NEW IRELAND.

CHAPTER XI.
LONGFORD.
The Church was disestablished. England had
" broken with Irish Protestantism." In the course
of the great campaign we had heard what Irish
Protestants in this event would do ; and now aU
eyes were turned upon them. They had made a
brave but unavailing fight, and if they now gave
way to the language of mortification and resent
ment, they had, from their own point of view,
many reasons for such feelings. Sorae of the
Church Conservative journals were very bitter.
The pacification of Ireland, the banishment of dis
affection, had been largely relied upon as an object
and prophesied as a result of Disestablishment ;
and now the fondest hope of the exasperated
Church party seemed to be that the ministerial
arguraents and expectations in this respect raight
be utterly falsified. Every symptom of disorder

LONGFORD. 277

or disturbance was hailed with delight. Anything
like a revival of Fenianism would have been a
god-send. As it was, every ebuUition of disaffec
tion or Nationalism that appeared was magnified
and made the most of. The Fenians, to their
amazement, found themselves referred to as " fine
raanly fellows," " more honest any day than that
caitiff Gladstone." The movement in favour of
amnesty to the political prisoners, which sprung
up about this time, was the chief consolation forth
coming. " Behold ! " cried the Express and Mail,
" you thought to tranquillise Ireland by sacrificing
our Church ; see how you have failed ! " Every
denunciation hurled by amnesty speakers at the
Governraent was gleefully reproduced. Every
threatening letter posted on a bailiff's door was
paraded. In fact, it seemed as if there was not
a blackthorn flourished nor a hen-roost robbed in
aU the land that some Tory paper did not quote
the awful fact as one of the " fruits of Disestablish
ment." Amidst all this unreason and absurdity of irri
tation, however, a serious growth of thought was
silentiy working its way iu the minds of many
Irish Protestants. The recent debates and argu
ments on the status and rights of the Irish Church

2 78 NEW IRELAND.
had cast raen back a good deal on the Union
period wherein those rights were laid down under
covenant. Necessarily the debates in the Irish
Parliament were read up. The speeches of Grattan
and Plunket, and Saurin aud Curran were con
stantly referred to. Irish Protestants felt a glow
of pride as the refiection came that these men
were their co-religionists. While the Church
newspapers were noisily railing at Gladstone, and
threatening England with an Ireland less satisfied
than ever, a serious purpose was forming in the
minds of men who contemplated the situation from
a higher level than that of a raere party platform.
It may be doubted that there ever was a time since
1800 when Irish Protestants as a body believed
that Irish affairs could be better understood and
cared for in a London legislature than in an Irish
parliament. Concern for their rights, privileges,
and possessions as a minority in the raidst of a
dangerous Catholic majority, was the real reason
why they supported the Union system. In that
system, absorbed into the triple kingdom as a whole,
they were a majority ; endowed with the strength,
the status, the rights of a majority. The worst
blunders or shortcomings of London legislation
were better for them, and more acceptable, than

LONGFORD. 279

the hazards to their religion and property involved
in an Irish parliament returned and dominated by
" the priests." Were they but reasonably assured
against separation from the empire, against confis
cation of their properties, and against " the yoke
of Rome," they would be found almost to a man
demanding the restoration of the national legis
lature in College Green. Ah, if these Irish
millions were not so blindly led by their priests
in politics, what a movement might now be pos
sible ! But no man durst trust himself to a
parliament elected by fanatics who would vote
black white at the bidding of their clergy !
Such were the thoughts surging through the
minds of many Irish Protestants in the autumn
of 1869. Suddenly a remarkable event challenged
their wonder, and enabled them to realise the fact
that they lived no longer in the Ireland of old
times. In December 1869, Mr. Gladstone raised to the
peerage Colonel Fulke Greville-Nugent, of Clonyn,
county Westmeath, member of Parliament for
Longford county. Colonel Greville-Nugent was
much respected as a landlord, and as a Liberal in
politics had discharged his public duties fairly
and honourably. For thirty years Longford was

2 8o NEW IRELAND.
a seat which, to put it plainly, was in the gift of
the Catholic clergy. They had in fierce struggle
wrested it frora the Conservative landlords in
O'Connell's tirae, and firmly held it ever since.
They almost invariably fought along with and for
the Liberal landlords ; but that they couM beat
these as well as the Tory raagnates they proved in
1862, when they rejected Colonel White (now
Lord Annaly), a long-time friend and leading
Liberal, because he accepted office under Lord
Palraerston. They entertained the warmest regard
for Colonel Greville-Nugent — a Protestant, it may
be noted ; and it is said that before he accepted
the coronet he was privately assured in their name
that, as a token of their feelings towards him, his
seat for the county would be passed to any member
of his faraily he raight narae. He selected one of
his younger sons. Captain Reginald Greville-
Nugent, to succeed him. It never once occurred
to the new peer nor to the Catholic clergy that
this mode of giving away parliamentary seats,
though at one tirae not only possible but cus
tomary in Ireland, belonged to an order of things
that had silently passed away.
Shortly before one of the raost reraarkable
elections on record had taken place in Tipperary.

LONGFORD. 281

In the summer of 1869 the agitation for an
amnesty to the Fenian prisoners had, from a very
modest beginning, attained to formidable power.
Monster meetings, very nearly as vast as those
which O'Connell addressed a quarter of a century
before, now assembled to hear Mr. Butt plead in
earnest tones for the men who had loved Ireland
" not wisely but too well." When in the auturan
news carae that Governraent had forraally refused
the appeal for clemency, there was considerable
exasperation. A touch of their former violence
and intolerance seeraed to return to the Fenians ;
for, making ungrateful requital of the popular
sympathy they had received, they invaded and
broke up several tenant-right meetings, refusing
to allow any such demonstrations, seeing that
those for the prisoners had been fruitless ! At
this juncture a vacancy was created in the repre
sentation of Tipperary by the death of Mr. Charles
Moore of Mooresfort. There was some perplexity
and delay in selecting a popular or Liberal can
didate; and at length Mr. Denis Caulfield Heron,
Q.C., was invited, and consented to stand. Almost
at the last moraent some one suggested that it
would be a very effective rejoinder to the refusal
of amnesty if one of the prisoners were elected to

NEW IRELAND.

the vacant seat ! This was just the sort of pro
ceeding calculated to strike the fancy of Tipperary.
Although at first the proposition was treated more
as a joke than a reality, it was taken up seriously
bythe "advanced Nationalists" in the county; and
O'Donovan Rossa, as the most defiant of " the men
in jail," was chosen to be the candidate. The
Catholic clergy tried to dissuade the people from
what they considered a fruitless and absurd pro
ceeding ; but to vote against Rossa seemed like a
stroke at amnesty, and the bulk of the electors
decided to abstain or else cast a voice for " the
prisoner- candidate." Out of twelve thousand on
the register only about two thousand carae to the
poll; but of these a decided majority — 1054 to
898 — voted for Rossa. Within a few days of the
Tipperary Rossa election came the Longford
vacancy. There were ruraours that in Longford
the exaraple of Tipperary would be followed ; and
as a matter of fact it was for a moment contem
plated by the friends of the prisoners to put
forward Thomas Clarke Luby as candidate. Men
supposed to be especially acquainted with popu
lar feeling in Longford were consulted, and
they emphatically declared that while sympathy
for amnesty was strong, anything like a Fenian

LONGFORD. 283

demonstration would be entirely opposed to the
general sentiment. It would be violently resisted
by the Catholic clergy, and be regretted or con
demned by non-Fenian Nationalists. To a young
gentleman of Longford town, Mr. James Behan
Murtagh, a member of an extensive and wealthy
manufacturing firm in the west of Ireland, this
decision, and all the important results that followed
upon it, were raost largely due. He was widely
popular in the county. Whether as a member of
the county cricket club, bat in hand, or at a
hurling match with the peasantry, or twirling a
blackthorn in a " little misunderstanding" at fair
or market, he was equally at home. He took
strong ground against any course that would in
evitably challenge a conflict with the clergy ; but
was decidedly for unfurling the National flag.
Why not, he asked, give up this idea of running
a Fenian prisoner, and put forward a National
candidate around whom all might rally in the
name of Ireland ? Why not start John Martin ?
The esteem in which he was generally held, his
pure and unsullied character, his sufferings and
sacrifices, marked him out as a man by whose side
patriotic Irishmen, priests and laymen, would
readily stand. The fact of Mr. Martin's absence in

284 NEW IRELAND.
America at the moment, Mr. Murtagh pointed out,
would but make the compliment to him more
striking and the political event more significant.
The suggestion was accepted. The idea of
proposing a Fenian prisoner was relinquished.
The men of Longford undertook to propose
Mr. Martin ; the extreme party not only ac
quiescing but proraising to work for hira as
heartily as for a man of their own. The pro
ceedings had reached this stage before I was raade
aware of them. One morning in the first week of
December 1869, 1 received a hurried despatch from
J. B. Murtagh — " John Martin is to be our man.
We announce you, as his most trusted friend, to
appear on his behalf. Help us all you can. Come
down at once." Next post came a letter to say
they were about to wait upon the Catholic clergy,
whose best wishes they were sanguine of securing.
Their astonishment was great on learning that
these reverend gentlemen had some idea of putting
forward young Mr. Greville-Nugent. The fact that
they were virtually pledged to him — had promised
him the seat — did not come out for a few days
subsequently. Here arose a singular complication,
a conflict that was eventually carried to the bit
terest extremes. It is very likely that had the

LONGFORD. 285

clergy thought any considerable section of the laity
desired the return of John Martin, they would
have hesitated — some of them would — before they
involved themselves in the complimentary bestowal
of the seat on Mr. Nugent. It is more than
probable that had the National party known at
first how far the clergy were really committed to
Mr. Nugent, they would have " thought three
tiraes" before they raised a contest, incensed as
they might feel at such a proceeding. Which side
was now to give way ? " Oh," said the National
ists, " on the public announcement of John Martin's
candidature the opinion of the country will so
unmistakably manifest itself, that the monstrous
idea of pitting an unknown youth against him
will be abandoned." " Oh," said the priests, " we
are the depositories of power. The seat is in our
hands. The moment we put forward our man, the
hopelessness of opposing him will be so patent
that the others will retire."
I saw what was likely to arise out of this
difficulty, and I made great exertions to compose
it. Not that I could be for a moment indifferent
between the two candidates ; but I hoped that
by temperately putting before the clergy the
serious issues involved, they would either withdraw

286 NEW IRELAND.
Mr. Nugent, or, in a friendly spirit, let the people
poll for John Martin if so minded.* Unfor
tunately they took ' a high and haughty tone.
For sufficient reasons they had selected Mr.
Nugent, and they would put down any attempt to
thwart their action. This Martin candidature,
they said, was " Fenianism," and they would crush
it under foot. The priests of Longford would show
their power.
" But even suppose you vote for your man, and
support him fairly, you surely do not mean that
we wbo love and revere John Martin, and wish to
see this honour conferred on him, are not free to
push bis candidature ? "
" We will let you see that," said the clergy. .
Here in the face of the empire was an issue
raised the importance of wbich to Ireland was
serious. Here was the critical raoment to verify
or refute the story that Irish Catholics would
blindly vote at the priests' dictation. No one
raised any question as to the public and personal
raerits of the two candidates. The idea of weighing
young Mr. Greville-Nugent against John Martin
* This latter course was adopted with the best results by
the Catholic clergy of Meath in an almost identical difBculty
some time afterwards.

LONGFORD. 287

was too absurd, and it was not attempted on either
side. The whole case was narrowed to the one
point — accepting Mr. Greville-Nugent because the
priests had so determined it ; rejecting John
Martin at the bidding of tbe Longford clergy.
" Fight, fight ! " I cried, when the answer of
haughty defiance was reported to me. " It will
be a war as cruel as one between father and son,
brother and brother ; but we must fight to the last
gasp. No retreat, no compromise now. These
men do not see that surrender on our part would
corroborate one of the most fatal imputations
against them and against us, namely, that we
would ' vote black white ' at their bidding.
If we yield on this point, what Protestant
Irishman can trust us as fellow-citizens ? If we
poll but a dozen men, we must meet this
issue foot to foot. It is not now so much a
question of returning John Martin, as of asserting
an important public principle."
It was with a good deal of incredulity that
Protestants watched the early stages of this
Longford business. That it would end in the
submission of the National party to the clergy
they quite concluded. That the people would
persevere ; that the Catholic laity would, for an

NEW IRELAND.

Ulster Presbyterian candidate, dare to encounter
their own clergy on the hustings and in the
polling-booth, was something too improbable to be
seriously dwelt upon. Had not the Catholic
priests for thirty years been virtually the return
ing officers of Irish Liberal constituencies ?
The Catholic gentry had no doubt occasionally
disputed supremacy with them ; but when had
the rank and file of the electors themselves
ever claimed the right to independent action ?
Was it not an accepted custom in Irish politics
that the priests selected the candidate, and the
people voted at their bidding ?
One section of the community, beyond all others,
fastened on Longford an eager gaze ; watched
every move of this singular event with breathless
anxiety. It was to be for them the solution of a
critical problem ; the decision of a momentous
question. Irish Protestants, whom recent events
had so powerfuUy affected, had been brought as it
were to the very threshold of National opinions,
looked on amazed and expectant. Could it be that
their terror of " priestly dictation " was about to be
dispelled ? Could it be that on a purely political
issue Catholics would claim and assert, even against
their own clergy, an independence of action which

LONGFORD. 289

Protestants themselves could not exceed ? If this
were so, an important political combination was
near at hand.
It was so. Neither the Irish Protestants nor
the Longford Catholic clergy were fully conscious
of the change from the Ireland of 1840 to the
Ireland of 1870.
The quarrels of long-time friends are often the
most bitter of all. This contest between priest
and people was fought with a fierceness which
surpassed the struggles between Tory landlordism
and popular power. The clergy put forth their
utmost exertions ; and they carried with thera the
bulk of the rural electors. The Catholic Liberals
amongst the gentry of course were with Lord
Greville to a man. The local Conservatives,
perplexed and half incredulous, were neutral, or
else supported the Martin side. Some of them
took this latter course to spite the priests and Mr.
Gladstone ; many did so from sincere and honour
able sympathy with the principles of tolerance
and civil liberty which in their judgment underlay
the conflict.
I had been all my life on the side of the Catholic
clergy. On nearly every public issue in Irish
politics till now I had fought where they led. I
VOL. II. u

2 90 NEW IRELAND.

was " Ultramontane " in the most extreme applica
tion of that terra. I honoured and admired the
spirit in which on the whole the Catholic priests
had exercised the political leadership or influence
which historical circumstances had placed in their
hands. I had resisted, and would ever resist,
attempts to exclude them from poHtical action, or
to deny their right to be largely deferred to in
public affairs. All I hoped from the Longford
clergy now was that they would, on the question
of John Martin or Reginald GreviUe-Nugent,
grant us the right to differ. My hope was
rudely dispelled. I had the pleasure of hearing
myself denounced by them as a " Garibaldian," an
" Orangeman." Of course to none but the most
ignorant of the population could such stories be
told ; and these, poor feUows, their feelings
intensely aroused by the idea of " Dublin
Orangemen " coming to " attack " their clergy,
burst upon the Martin meetings in savage fury.
" Away with the Garibaldian crew who want to
murder our clergy ! Greville for ever ! "
The mobs were not all on one side ; nor was aU
the violence of language and action. The county
frora end to end was the scene of disorder and
conflict. The people, however, seemed to take to

LONGFORD. 291

it rather familiarly. Work was suspended. Black
thorns and shiUelaghs were in request. Sticking-
plaster was extensively worn. It was hazardous
to walk street or highway at night, as some
patrolling party was sure to be encountered, who
sang out " GreviUe ? " or " Martin ? " If the
wayfarer responded sympatheticaUy, all was well.
If not, a scientific touch on the cranium laid him
recumbent to study the pending political issues.
My brother informed me that he found " committee
rooms " were places where piles of " weapons "
were kept for defensive and offensive operations.
One night he arrived at the village of Ballymahon,
to meet the " committee" and go over the registry.
The " committee " had all, evidently, been through
the surgery. They discussed whisky punch, and
told of some " beautiful practice " they had seen on
the part of a few " Rathcline boys " a day or two
previously. Suddenly there was a quick and
heavy tramping on the stairs. The door of the
room was burst open, and young John Murtagh
rushed in. Deigning no glance or greeting, he
tore off his top-coat, exclaiming " Sticks ! Sticks !"
In an instant every committee man had sprung
to a corner ofthe room where some " neat timber"
stood, seized a blackthorn, and dashed downstairs
u 2

^92 NE W IRELAND.

and into the street. For half an hour or so it
was evident that stiff work was going on. Then,
as usual, most vexatiously, the police interfered,
and interrupted an exceedingly satisfactory en
counter.* In every Irish election the street -ballad-singer
is as important a power as the platform orator or
the village band, and I never knew an Irish
* At the town of Granard a sort of challenge battle between
the Grevillites and Martinites was to come off. The parties
assembled, to the number of two or three thousand on each
side ; but to their great discomfiture a large force of foot and
mounted police occupied the town, and so marched and counter
marched as to prevent the combatants from getting within
reach of each other. After the day had been nearly " wasted "
in this way, the leaders on each side contrived to throw signals
of parley to one another. They quietly slipped away for a
moment, and met in a " boreen " close by.
" This is too bad."
"Oh, shameful!"
" No chance -v^ith these peeler fellows."
" None. 'Tis disgusting ! "
" I'll teU you what. There's a lovely spot, the big meadow
on the Edgeworthstown road, half a mile from us. Let us
pretend to separate and go home, but agree to meet there in
half an hour ! "
" Beautiful ! Just the thing ! "
They parted, and tried the manoeuvre agreed upon ; but it
was no use ; the police were up to it, and the belligerents had
to disperse homewards in good earnest, declaring " these
peelers " a great nuisance !

LONGFORD. 293

election poet that did not invoke the " Shan Van
Vocht." Literally this phrase means the " Poor
Old Woman," the words poor and old being
applied in a tenderly sympathetic sense ; but for
centuries the " Shan Van Vocht " has been a
figurative aUusion to Ireland, and used as a
refrain in popular ballads innumerable. Of course
the streets and roads, the fairs and markets, of
Longford resounded with ballads, chiefly " Mar-
tinite," the bard occasionally coming in for a
touch of martyrdom. One of these lays, the
production of a local genius, has survived in my
possession, and I quote a few sample verses : —
Still on nomination day.
Says the Shan Van Vocht,
Faith 'twas better than a play.
Says the Shan Van Vocht ;
On Longford Bridge the fight
When Drumlish in its might
Was by Martin's put to flight,
Says the Shan Van Vocht.
It was mighty edifying.
Says the Shan Van Vocht,
To see sticks and stones a-flying.
Says the Shan Van Vocht ;
And religion went astray.
With Father FeKx in the fray.
Till he had to run away.
Says the Shan Van Vocht.

2 94 NEW IRELAND.
Oh ! the bould men of Eathcline,
Says the Shan Van Vocht,
On that morning they did shine.
Says the Shan Van Vocht ;
And the boys from Curraghroe,
With Clondra men in a row,
Oh ! 'tis they the stones can throw.
Says the Shan Van Vocht.
The funds required for the Martin candidature
were contributed by public subscriptions, which
poured in from all parts of Ireland. It was
notable that a great portion came from the Catholic
clergy. They deplored the error of their reverend
brethren in Longford ; they grieved intensely
over the conflict we had raised, but quite saw
that of two evils acquiescence in that error would
be much the greater. As a body they had ever
exercised the popular proxy wisely and unselfishly.
They would fearlessly brave popular caprice or
unreason ; but they ambitioned no dominance,
they shrank frora the idea of wielding the clerical
power in opposition to the legitimate freedom of
their flocks. And even as regards the priests of
Longford, it must be remembered for them that
they fought very much on a point of honour
towards Lord GreviUe. They were no bigots.
The man for whom the} risked and lost so much

LONGFORD. 295

in this conflict was " Protestant of the Protest
ants." Thursday, the 30th of December 1869, was
nomination day, and on the previous evening,
accompanied by Mr. Ryan, a Dublin merchant
who warmly sympathised in the Longford con
test, I set out from Dublin in order to represent
Mr. Martin at the proceedings. Telegrams repre
sented Longford town as "safe for Martin," and
the secretary of the Amnesty Association in
Dublin would insist on sending down along with
us a brass band, with gorgeous baton and big
drum coniplete. It was ten o'clock at night when
we reached the town, and above the noise of wheel
and engine we could hear loud shouting as the
train pulled up. On the platform, with faces full
of anxiety and alarm, were ray brother, Mr.
Hanly, conducting solicitor for Mr. Martin, and
a few other friends. With them, evidently looking
out for me, were some of the railway officials.
" What's up ?" I cried.
" Up ! The station is surrounded by a Grevil-
lite mob. The town is in their possession. Word
was wired to the enemy from Dublin that you and
Mr. Ryan were coraing. Keep quiet ; we must
see what course to adopt."

2 96 NEW IRELAND.
Yells outside the station, and a thundering of
sticks on the gate, lent force to the story.
A moment's reflection showed the best course
to be a start at once along with the other pas
senger arrivals for the various hotels. To remain
behind was to increase the danger. Mr. Ryan
and I jumped into a cab and drove off. A
howling mob, sticks in hand, surged around,
peered into our faces, but happily, not recognising
us, let us pass on. We reached our hotel in safety.
Only then did the thought strike me — what of
my brother and Mr. Hanly ? " They will be
murdered if they attempt to leave the station," I
cried. " And then there are the unfortunate
bandsmen whom Nolan, confound him, would
insist on sending down." " Oh, be sure they will
be kept there till morning," rejoined Mr. Ryan.
" Don't be alarmed."
Soon we heard shouts approaching, and the
noise of a drum. After a while the street outside
the window presented a strange sight. The mob
had discovered the band trying to escape by a
back way frora the station, had set upon and beaten
the rausicians, and captured and smashed the in
struments. The disjecta membra were now being
triumphally borne through the town as trophies.

LONGFORD. 297

While I was gazing in amazement at the scene,
my brother and friends entered the room, stream
ing with blood from wounds on the head. They
had, they said, fortunately escaped very well on
the whole. The chase after the poor bandsmen
had diverted attention from them, and they had
got very nearly to the door before they were
recognised. Next morning the mobs that had bivouacked
through the night around large fires in the streets
prepared for the great encounter — the fight for
the court-house, so as to secure the " show of
hands." At one time it seemed as if a pitched
battle would be fought outside that building.
Stones flew through the air ; the crash of windows
and the shouts of combatants were heard on
all sides. The resident magistrates and county
inspector of police behaved with great coolness
and temper. Mr. Murtagh, Mr. Hanly, my
brother, and myself succeeded in reaching where
they stood. I proposed to Mr. Talbot, R.M. (now
Commissioner of Metropolitan Police), that if he
would see fair play exercised as to the admission
of Mr. Martin's friends into the court-house, we
would call on the Martin party to cease all con
flict and retire from the town. He cheerfully

298 NEW IRELAND.

assented, and we flung ourselves between the
combatants. I doubt if I ever had such close
escapes of fatal injury in all my life as during
those five minutes. We succeeded. A line of
military, with fixed bayonets, was drawn around
the court-house, and detachments of Grevillites
and Martinites admitted in turn. The former,
however, succeeded in having the best of it.
When I came forward to speak for Mr. Martin,
drawing short sticks from under their vests, the
Grevillites in the body of the court dashed at the
hustings with savage cries. It certainly was
oratory under difficulties. Every period in my
speech was marked by a crash upon the wooden
panelling in front of where I stood, and by the
sweep of half a dozen bludgeons reaching much
nearer to my head than was at all calculated to
increase my composure.
The clergy conquered at the polls. John
Martin's candidature was defeated by an over
whelming majority. Mr. Greville-Nugent was
returned by 1478 votes to 411. The day was
lost, yet won. The object we had striven for was
virtually attained. Every one realised the import
ance of the struggle. The event was unique in
Irish politics. Many of us Catholic Nationalists

LONGFORD. 299

who fought the fight sorrowed to think that the
adversaries with whom this conflict had been
waged were our own priests, whom we truly
loved. But we felt that one of the first conditions
of our national existence was at stake. Common
action for our common country would be impos
sible between us and our Protestant fellow-citizens
if we had surrendered on the issue raised in this
struggle. A calumny on the great body of the
Catholic clergy would receive a certain measure
of corroboration — a distorted view of their action
in politics would be strengthened — if we allowed
the error of the Longford priests to prevail un
questioned in the face of Ireland. We looked
into the future, and we felt that tirae would
vindicate our motives and prove the wisdom of
our policy. Nor had we long to wait for striking
results. Irish Protestants, hesitating no further
in distrust or doubt, called aloud to the Catholic
milHons that the time had come for reconciliation
and union. With a quickness that was marveUous
the acerbities of sectarian antagonisms seemed to
vanish. Already from Protestant Hps came the
shout of " Home Rule !"

300 NE W IRELAND.

CHAPTER XII.
" HOME RULE."
On the evening of Thursday, the 19th of May
1870, a strange assemblage was gathered in the
great room of the Bilton Hotel, Dublin. It was
a private meeting of some of the leading merchants
and professional men of the metropolis, of various
political and religious opinions, to exchange views
upon the condition oflreland. Glancing around the
room, one might ask if the raillennium had arrived.
Here were men of the raost opposite parties, men
who never before met in politics save as irreconcil
able foes. The Orangeman and the Ultramontane,
the staunch Conservative and the sturdy Liberal,
the Nationalist Repealer and the Imperial Unionist,
the Fenian sympathiser and the devoted loyalist,
sat in free and friendly counsel, discussing a
question which any time for fifty years previously
would have instantly sundered such men into a

'HOME RULE." 301

dozen factions arrayed in stormy conflict. It was
one of those meetings axiomatically held to be
" impossible " in Ireland, as may be understood
by a glance over the subjoined list of those who
composed it. I indicate in most instances the
religious and political opinions of the gentlemen
named, and include a few who were added to
constitute a " Committee on Resolutions."

The Et. Hon. Edward Purdon, Lord Mayor, Mansion House,
Protestant Conservative.
Sir John Barrington, ex-Lord Mayor, D.L., Great Britain
Street, Prot. Cons.
E. H. Kinahan, J.P., ex-High Sheriff, Merrion Square, Tory.
James V. Mackey, J.P., Beresford Place, Orangeman.
James W. Mackey, ex-Lord Mayor, J.P., 40 Westmoreland
Street, Catholio Liberal.
Sir William Wilde, Merrion Square, F.E.C.S.I., Prot. Cons.
James Martin, J.P., ex-High Sheriff, North Wall, Cath. Lib.
Cornelius Denehy, T.C., J.P., Mountjoy Square, Cath. Lib.
W. L. Erson, J.P., Great Charles Street, Or.
Eev. Joseph E. Galbraith, F.T.C.D., Trinity College, Prot.
Cons. Isaac Butt, Q.C., Eccles Street, Prot. Nationalist.
E. B. Butt, Eccles Street, Prot. Nat.
E. W. Boyle, Banker, College Green, Tory.
William CampbeU, 26 Gardiner's Place, Cath. Lib.
William Daniel, Mary Street, Cath. Lib.
William Deaker, P.L.G., Eden Quay, Prot. Cons.
Alderman Gregg, Sackville Street, Prot. Cons.
Alderman Hamilton, Frederick Street, Cath. Eepealer.

302 NEW IRELAND.
W. W. Harris, LL.D., ex-High Sheriff of the county Armagh,
Eccles Street, Prot. Cons.
Edward M. Hodson, Capel Street, Prot. Cons.
W. H. Kerr, Capel Street, Prot. Cons.
Major Knox, D.L., Fitzwilliam Square (proprietor of Irish
Times), Prot. Cons.
Graham Lemon, Town Commissioner of Clontarf, Tew Park,
Prot. Cons.
J. F. Lombard, J.P., South Hill, Cath. Eepealer.
W. P. J. McDermott, Great Britain Street, Cath. Eep.
Alexander McNeale, 104 Gardiner Street, Prot. Cons.
W. Maher, T.C., P.L.G., Clontarf, Cath. Eep.
Alderman Manning, J.P., Grafton Street, Prot. Cons.
John Martin, Kilbroney, " Forty-eight " Nationalist, Presby
terian. Dr. Maunsell, Parliament Street (editor of Evening Mail),
Tory. George Meyers, Eichmond Street, Or.
J. Nolan, Sackville Street (Secretary Fenian Amnesty
Association), Cath. Nat.
James O'Connor, Abbey Street (late of Irish People), Cath.
Fenian. Anthony O'Neill, T.C., North Strand, Cath. Eep.
Thomas Eyan, Great Brunswick Street, Cath. Nat.
J. H. Sawyer, M.D., Stephen's Green, Prot. Nat.
James Eeilly, P.L.G., Pill Lane, Cath. Nat.
Alderman Plunket, James's Street, Cath. Nat. Eep.
The Venerable Archdeacon Goold, D.D., M.B., Prot. Tory.
A. M. Sullivan, Abbey Street, Cath. Nat. Eep.
Peter Talty, Henry Street, Cath. Eep.
William Shaw, M.P., Beaumont, Cork (President of Munster
Bank), Prot. Lib.
Captain Edward E. King-Harman, J.P., Creevaghmore,
county of Longford, Prot. Cons.

"HOME RULE." 303
Hon. Lawrence Harman King-Harman, D.L., Newcastle,
county of Longford, Prot. Cons.
George Austin, Town Commissioner of Clontarf, Winston-
viUe, Prot. Cons.
Dr. Barry, Eathmines, Cath. Lib.
George Beatty, Henrietta Street, Prot. Cons.
Joseph Begg, Capel Street, Cath. Nat. (Treasurer of Fenian
Amnesty Association).
Eobert Callow, Alderman, Westland Eow.
Edward Carrigan, Bachelor's Walk, Cath. Lib.
Charles Connolly, Eogerson's Quay, Cath. Lib.
D. B. Cronin, Nassau Street, Cath. Fenian.
John Wallis, T.C., Bachelor's Walk, Prot. Cons.
P. Walsh, Merrion Eow, Cath. Nat.
John Webster, Monkstown, Prot. Cons.
George F. Shaw, P.T.C.D., Trinity College, Prot. Cons.
P. J. Smyth, Dalkey, Cath. Nat. Eepealer.
George E. Stephens, Blackball Place, Prot. Cons.
Henry H. Stewart, M.D., Eccles Street, Prot. Cons.
L. J. O'Shea, J.P., Margaret Place, Cath. Eep.
Alfred Webb, Abbey Street, Nat., " Friend."
" What can we do for Ireland ? " they asked.
The Protestant Conservatives spoke up. Some of
them were men of large property as country
gentlemen; others were amongst the wealthiest
and most influential merchants of the metropolis.
" It is impossible for us," they said, " to view the
events of the past five years without feeling it
incumbent on us, as we value the welfare of our
country and regard the safety and security of all

304 NEW IRELAND.

we possess, to make some step towards a recon
ciliation or agreement with the National sentiment.
In that sentiment, as we understand it, there is
much we can never assent to. Some of the
designs associated with it shall ever encounter
our resistance. But we have never concealed
from ourselves, and indeed have never denied,
that in the main the aspiration for national
autonomy is one which has sound reason and
justice, as well as historical right, behind it. We
wish to be frank and clear — we will have no part
in disloyal plans ; we will have no separation
from England. But we feel that the scheme of
one parliament for all purposes, imperial and
local, has been a failure; that the attempt to
force consolidation on the Irish people, to destroy
their national individuality, has been simply
disastrous. However attractive in theory for
imperial statesmen, that project has utterly broken
down in fact and reality. It has cost us perpetual
insecurity, recurrent insurrection. It may suit
English politicians to cling to the experiment still,
and pursue it through another fifty years, always
' just going to succeed this time ' ; but for us Irish
Protestants, whose lot is cast in this country, and
whose all in the world is within these seas, it is

¦HOME RULE." 305

time to think whether we cannot take into our
own hands the solution of this problem. We
want peace, we want security, we want loyalty
to the throne, we want connection with England ;
but we will no longer have our domestic affairs
committed to a London parliament. The question
is whether we can agree upon an arrangement
that would harmonise those national aspirations
in which we largely participate, with that imperial
connection which we desire to retain."
Such was the tenor and substance of a discus
sion or conversation which extended upwards of
an hour. The probability of certain taunts being
levelled at them was discoursed upon. " It will
be said we are uttering these sentiments now out
of spite against England for disestablishing our
Church " (which was quite true of some of them).
" As to that, we freely say two considerations
have hitherto ruled us : Firstly, to the covenant
with England in reference to our Church we
certainly were faithful. Some of us regretted that
bargain, and boldly avow, now that England has
violated it, that we feel more free as Irishraen, and
shall be none the worse as Protestants. Secondl}^
we did entertain, no doubt, an apprehension as
to how Roman Catholics, who are numerically the
VOL. II. X

3o6 NE W IRELAND.

bulk of this nation, might exercise their political
power under the pressure of ecclesiastical
authority. As to the first consideration, the Act
of Union is now dissolved ; the covenant has been
torn up. As to the second, reading the signs of
the times, we believe we may fearlessly dismiss
the suspicions and apprehensions that have
hitherto caused us to mistrust our Roman Catholic
countrymen." Sitting silently observant of this remarkable
scene was a man who perhaps more than any
other living Irishman held in his hands the
political destinies of the country at that moment.
Isaac Butt was born at Glenfin, county Donegal,
in 1815, being the son ofthe Protestant rector of
that place. He was educated at Trinity College,
Dublin, where he rapidly rose to distinction. He
had barely passed his majority when he was elected
to the professorship of political economy in the
university of Dublin. He was called to the bar
in November 1838, and raade a Queen's Counsel
in 1844, one of the few Irish advocates who wore
" silk " at the age of twenty-nine. From his
earliest college days he was a politician, and thirty
years ago was the rising hope of the Irish Pro
testant Conservative party. He was their youthful

'HOME RULE." 307

champion, selected in 1844 to do battle against
O'Connell himself in a great four-day debate on
Repeal in the Dublin Corporation. All Tory as
young Butt was, he had a thoroughly Irish heart,
and an intense love of the principles of liberty.
In the debate with O'Connell, it is remarkable to
note that he confined himself almost entirely to an
argument that the Union experiment had not
been fully tried. At the close of the encounter
his great antagonist, after paying a high tribute
to his genius, prophesied that Isaac Butt would
one day be found " in the ranks of the Irish
people." Early in 1852 he was invited by the
English Conservatives to stand for Harwich, which
borough he represented up to the dissolution in
the sumraer of that year, when he was, as we
have noted elsewhere, returned for Youghal. At
the bar he attained to a high position. He took
a leading part in all the great trials, civil and
political, from 1844 to the State prosecutions
just concluded. He for a tirae gave himself up
almost exclusively to a parliamentary career. In
1864, however, he was called from London to
Ireland to conduct one of the most iraportant
mercantile causes of the period. At its close,
instead of returning to parliamentary pursuits,
X 2

3o8 NE W IRELAND.
he ceased to attend the House of Commons, and
devoted himself more closely than ever to pro
fessional labours. In 1865 he stood facile princeps
in the front rank of Irish advocates. The Fenian
prisoners, beset by many and serious difficulties as
to their defence, turned to him as one whose name
alone was a tower of strength. Not in vain did
they appeal to his chivalrous generosity, his love
of constitutional liberty, his sympathy with those
struggling against the severities of power. He
flung himself with ardour to their side ; and once
his feelings were aroused and his sympathies
enlisted in their fate, he never gave them up.
For the greater part of four years, sacrificing to a
considerable extent a splendid practice in more
lucrative engagements, he buried himself, so to
speak, in the prolonged and desperate effort of
their defence. No wonder ' that in 1868 he had
earned their gratitude and won their confidence.
Four years of such sad work meanwhile wrought
powerfully with his sympathetic nature. In 1869
he accepted the position of President of the
Amnesty Association, and soon became the one
great figure in Irish popular politics.
Immediately on the fall of the Irish Church he
saw what was coming in Ireland. He knew the

"HOME RULE." 309
feelings — the fears, the hopes, the questionings —
that surged in the breasts of his fellow-Protestants.
He determined to use the great power which
now rested with him in an endeavour to close for
ever the era of revolt and bloodshed ; to unite in
a common work of patriotism Irishmen long
divided by class and creed distinctions ; and to
establish between Ireland and England a union of
friendship and justice which might defy the shocks
of time.
At this Bilton Hotel conference he listened long •
to the utterances of his fellow- Protestants ; many
of them the familiar associates of his college days.
He marked their fears about disloyalty ; their
apprehensions that the Fenians and the Roraanists
would be content with nothing less than separa
tion. He rose to his feet and spoke with great
earnestness. " It is we — it is our inaction, our de
sertion of the people and the country, the abdica
tion of our position and duties, that have cast these
raen into the eddies and whirlpools of rebellion,"
he said. " If you are but ready to lead them by
constitutional courses to their legitimate national
rights, they are ready to follow you. Trust me,
we have all grievously wronged the Irish Catho
lics, priests and laymen. As for the men whom

3 1 o NEW IRELAND.

misgovernment has driven into revolt, I say for
them that if they cannot aid you they will not
thwart your experiment. Arise ! Be bold ! Have
faith ; have confidence, and you will save Ireland ;
not Ireland alone, but England also ! "¦
He concluded by proposing —
That it is the opinion of this meeting that the true remedy
for the evils of Ireland is the establishment of an Irish
parliament with full control over our domestic affairs.
The chairman put the resolution to the meeting.
" As many as are of opinion that this resolution
do pass say ' Ay.' " A shout of ' Ay ' rang
through the room. " The contrary will say ' No.' "
Not a dissentient voice was heard. Then every
one, greatly astonished, burst into a cheer ; the
first heard that evening, so grave and earnest and
almost solemn had been the tone of the delibera
tions. This was the birth of the Irish Home Rule
movement. A " Committee on Resolutions," comprising all
the participators in the private conference, was
charged with the difficult and delicate task of
formulating the national demand which they pro
posed to recommend to the country. They care-

'HOME rule:' 311

fully disclaimed for themselves any representative
character, or any right to speak or act in the name
of Ireland. They proposed merely to ascertain
what support such a scheme as they meditated
might command, with the view of eventually sub
mitting it to some formal assembly competent to
speak with the national authority. In due time
the committee reported the foUowing as the funda
mental resolutions of an organisation to be called
" The Horae Governraent Association of Ireland."
I. — This association is formed for the purpose of obtaining
for Ireland the right of self-government by means of a national
parliament. II. — It is hereby declared, as the essential principle of this
association, that the objects, and the only objects, contem
plated by its organisation are : —
To obtain for our country the right and privilege of managing
our own affairs, by a parliament assembled in Ireland,
composed of her Majesty the sovereign, and her successors,
and the Lords and Commons of Ireland ;
To secure for that parliament, under a federal arrangement,
the right of legislating for and regulating all matters
relating to the internal affairs of Ireland, and control over
Irish resources and revenues, subject to the obligation of
contributing our just proportion of the imperial expen
diture ;
To leave to an imperial parliament the power of dealing with
all questions affecting the imperial crown and government,
legislation regarding the colonies and other dependencies
of the crown, thd relations of the United Empire with

312 NEW IRELAND.
foreign states, and all matters appertaining to the defence
and the stability of the empire at large.
To attain such an adjustment of the relations between the
two countries, without any interference with the prero
gatives of the crown, or any disturbance of the principles
of the constitution.
III. — The association invites the co-operation of all Irishmen
who are willing to join in seeking for Ireland a federal arrange
ment based upon these general principles.
IV. — The association will endeavour to forward the object it
has in view, by using all legitimate means of influencing public
sentiment, both in Ireland and Great Britain, by taking all
opportunities of instructing and informing public opinion, and
by seeking to unite Irishmen of all creeds and classes in one
national movement, in support of the great national object
hereby contemplated.
V. — It is declared to be an essential principle of the asso
ciation that, while every member is understood by joining it to
concur in its gfeneral object and plan of action, no person so
joining is committed to any political opinion, except the advis
ability of seeking for Ireland the amount of self-government
contemplated in the objects of the association.
This was not " Repeal," as O'Connell's scheme
was loosely and imperfectly called. O'Connell
entirely avoided any plan of international ar
rangement as to common (or imperial) affairs.
By " Repeal " he caused the people to understand
the one simple fact that the illegal overthrow of
the Irish constitution in 1800 was to be undone.
But in 1844 he knew right well that reverting to
the state of things previous to 1800 would in

¦HOME RULE." 313

many respects be impossible, and in others mis
chievous. He sketched out an elaborate scheme
for the reconstruction of the Irish legislative body,
appropriating all the improvements and gains of
the interval ; but as to the critical points of an
Irish ministry, and unity of imperial adminis
tration, he never attempted to outline or define
any plan. Such vagueness, while on the one
hand it saved him from attack on details as well
as principles, on the other gave room for Pro
testant alarm and apprehension.
This new plan of the Home Government Asso
ciation took the other course. It attempted to
suggest or indicate the nature of the arrangements
under which the unity of the empire might be
secured equally with Irish management of Irish
affairs. In this sense it was at once less and more
than " Repeal." The pre-Union system had two
serious faults ; one hazardous to the English con
nection, the other perilous to Irish liberties. The
voting of Irish supplies, not merely for domestic
but general and imperial purposes ; the voting of
men, money, or material for the navy and the
army, lay altogether with the Irish parliament.
This was a state of things too uncertain and dan
gerous for British ministers to be really content

314 NEW IRELAND.

with. It was a perpetual inducement, in the inte
rests of imperial unity and safety, to a consolidation
of the parliaments. On the other hand, the Irish
parliament had no responsible ministry. Its vote
was as powerless to remove a cabinet as to stir the
Hill of Howth. The result was a standing menace
to the freedom of the assembly. The ministry
might openly engage (as it often did) in the most
violent and corrupt atterapts to purchase a majority
in the charaber, and yet the chamber itself could
by no vote of " want of confidence " remove that
ministry from power.
The great feature in the Home Government
Association scheme was, on the one hand, it
offered to surrender the Irish control over im
perial supplies ; and on the other, claimed a
responsible Irish administration. All that related
to imperial concerns was left to the iraperial legis
lature ; all that related to domestic Irish affairs was
claimed for an Irish parliament.
But what are " local " and what are " imperial "
affairs ? asked hostile critics, anxious to draw Mr.
Butt into a battle on details. That may or may
not be a difficult point of arrangement between
the countries when they come to adjust such
matters, was his reply ; such points have been

'' HOME RULE." 315
easily settled elsewhere, and they will not defy the
ability of English and Irish statesmen when the
time arrives for considering them here.
Conscious of the difficulties surrounding them,
the leaders of the new society pushed their way
very diffidently and tentatively at first. They
were assailed from the opposite poles of politics —
by the Imperialist Conservatives and the Catholic
Liberals. The Catholic bishops and clergy, full of
gratitude to Mr. Gladstone for the great work he
had just accomplished, could hardly be expected
to regard with patience a proceeding which looked
so like a mere Tory trick. It was all an Orange
plot, they thought, to spite the Liberal Govern
ment that had settled the Church question, and
was about to settle the Education question. The
Tory imperialists, on the other hand, were filled with
alarm. This new association was, they declared, a
device of the Jesuits to lay hold of Protestants at
such a moment and apprentice them to sedition
and disloyalty. " You are in the toils of Orange
ism," cried the Whig Evening Post to the Catholics.
" You are the dupes of Cardinal Cullen," cried the
Conservative Daily Express to the Protestants.
The new movement made steady progress. The
mistrust aud hostility of the Catholic Liberals,

3 1 6 NEW IRELAND.
especially of the Catholic clergy, proved to be its
most serious hindrance. The popular sentiment,
however, went at once and strongly with the
association ; and four " bye-elections," which
occurred in 1871, gave striking proof ofthe depth
and force of the national feeling. These were the
return of Mr. John Martin for Meath, Mr. Mitchell-
Henry for Galway, Mr. P. J. Smyth for West
meath, and, crowning all, Mr. Butt for Limerick.
Mr. Martin's opponent was the Hon. Mr. Plunkett,
brother of Lord Fingall, a Catholic nobleman warmly
esteemed by the whole Catholic coraraunity. The
Catholic clergy had espoused Mr. Plunkett's can
didature before Mr. Martin's had been suggested.
On the appearance of the latter they at once an
nounced that they would do their best fairly for
the raan to whora they were pledged, but would
have no quarrel with their people if the latter
honestly and freely preferred John Martin. Few
persons believed Mr. Martin had any chance of
success ; least of all did Mr. Plunkett. On the
hustings the forraer gentleraan declared he had no
ambition to enter Parliament, and would rather
Mr. Plunkett went in unopposed, " if only he would
declare for Home Rule " ; in which case he, Mr.
Martin, would retire on the instant. Mr. Plunkett

"HOME RULE." 317

laughed in a good-natured and kindly way at this
offer of a seat which he regarded as already. his
own. Great, however, was his dismay to find at
the close of the booths that the derided Home Ruler
polled two votes to his one ; and that John Martin
was Knight of the Shire for " Royal Meath."
Scarcely less encouraging to the Home Rulers
was the election in Galway, considering the man
whose adhesion it signalised. Mr. Mitchell-Henry
was son of Mr. Alexander Henry, one of the
merchant-princes of Manchester, for many years
member of Parliament for South Lancashire. Mr.
Henry, senior, was an Irishman ; the family have
occupied an honourable position in Cister for two
centuries. Some of them settled in America;
Patrick Henry of the Revolution, and Alexander
Henry, the well-known philanthropist of Phila
delphia, were relatives of the late member for
South Lancashire. Mr. Mitchell-Henry, who was
born in 1826, early devoted himself to medical
science, and for fifteen years was consulting
surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital. On the death
of his father in 1862 he inherited a considerable
fortune, and retired from professional practice.
He was greatly struck with the beauty of the
scenery at Kylemore, in Galway. He purchased

3 1 8 NEW IRELAND.

the entire district, and built there Kylemore Castle;
one of the wonders of the west — a fairy palace in
the Connemara Highlands. He became not only
attached to the place but to the people. Protest
ant as he was, in the midst of a strongly Celtic
and Catholic peasantry, he found that his religious
opinions raised no barrier between him and the
confidence and affections of this siraple and kindly
race. Ere long his sympathy with the people,
his uprightness, his liberality, were the theme of
praise in even the humblest homes from Clifden
to Lough Corrib. He was known to be a man
of considerable intellectual ability, great independ
ence, and firmness of character. When he issued
his address for Galway county in February 1871,
as an advocate for domestic legislation, and was
returned without a contest, the incident created
quite a stir in the world of Irish politics.
In the following June a vacancy occurred in
the representation of Westmeath county, and Mr.
P. J. Smyth, a leading member of the Home
Government Association, offered himself as a can
didate. Mr. Smyth was one of the Confederate
fugitives in 1848. He escaped to America, as
mentioned in a previous chapter, and in that
country devoted himself for some time to journa-

"HOME RULE." 319

lism. In 1854 some ardent friends of the Irish
State prisoners — (Smith O'Brien, Meagher, Mit
chel, &c., then undergoing their sentences in
Australia) — struck by the successful escape of Mac
Manus, formed a plan and found the requisite
funds for effecting the rescue of the others, one
by one. Mr. Smyth was selected as the agent to
carry out this daring purpose ; and the result
amply justified the confidence thus placed in his
courage and devotion. He proceeded to Australia,
where he arranged and personally conducted the
escapes of Meagher and Mitchel. He was on his
way thither a third time, I believe, to bring off
O'Brien, when a pardon reached the latter gentle
man. In 1856 Mr. Smyth returned to Ireland
and soon after joined the Irish press, later on
entering the legal profession as barrister. He was
a man of marked ability, a polished orator, and an
able writer ; and his uncontested return on this
occasion for Westmeath, following as it did upon
the Meath and Galway elections, gave the new
association a notable triumph.
In September came the crowning victory of the
year, in the unopposed return for Limerick of Mr.
Butt, already the recognised leader of the move
ment.

320 NEW IRELAND.

As if irritated by these events, Irish Liberalism
towards the end of 1871 seemed to pull itself to
gether for a serious resistance to the Home Rule
"craze," as it was called. In the opening part of
1872 we found ourselves hard pressed in many
places. We could note by many signs that the
expectation of a Catholic University scheme at
the hands of Mr. Gladstone was having a powerful
effect with some of the Catholic bishops and clergy.
Important organs of public opinion known to be
influenced by leading members of the episcopacy
began to draw off from the movement, and to say
that the demand for Horae Rule was no doubt
very right and just, but it was " inopportune."
One thing at a tirae. Until the Catholic Education
question had been settled nothing else should be
taken in hand. Home Rule ought to be " post
poned." At this the Protestants in the new association
started like men on whom suddenly flashes the
recollection of gloomy warnings. Was not this
what had been prophesied to them ? Were the
Catholics going to betray the cause ?
The answer came from Kerry and Galway
counties. In Deceraber 1871, on the death of the Earl

"HOME rule:' 321
of Kenmare, his son, Viscount Castlerosse, then
member of Parliament for Kerry, succeeded to the
peerage and estates. The Kenmare family are
CathoHcs. They are resident landlords — a class
happily numerous in Kerry— and have long been
esteemed as amongst the best of the good by the
people around them. For nearly thirty years there
had been no contest for the representation of that
county. The territorial magnates of the two great
political parties, Liberal and Conservative, by a
tacit or express compact peaceably divided the
representation between them. One of the two
county seats went to the Liberal- Conservative,
Mr. Herbert of Muckross, and was transmitted
from sire to son. The other was the family seat
of the Catholic Liberal Earl of Kenmare, long
held by the next heir to the coronet. It seeraed
to be quite clearly understood that a sort of offen
sive and defensive alliance existed between both
parties, to the end that the combined forces of
Liberal and Conservative landlordism would resist
any attempt of third parties to disturb this
arrangement. When towards the close of 1871 Lord Castlerosse
became Earl of Kenmare, his eldest son was quite
too young to take the seat he vacated as county
VOL. II. T

322 NEW IRELAND.

member ; and accordingly he selected, as the family
representative, his cousin, Mr. James Arthur Dease,
a highly respected and influential Catholic gentle
man resident in Westmeath. Usually this transfer
would be a matter of course ; but now it was the
turn of Kerry to show that a New Ireland had
come into existence. From various parts of the
county arose reclamations against this mode of
disposing of the representation. It was submitted
that the people were not to be ignored in this
fashion. The Ireland of to-day was not the Ireland
of thirty years ago. Lord Kenmare they greatly
respected ; but a political trust was not to be
treated as a family appanage. They would select
a candidate for themselves ; and he should be one
who in the name of Kerry, the county of O'Con
nell, would proclaim the unalterable determination
of the Irish people to recover their constitutional
liberties. Sooth to say these manifestations in Kerry
occasioned at first uneasiness rather than satis
faction among the Home Rule leaders in Dublin ;
so adverse did they think the chances of any
successful movement under existing circumstances
in that county ; and so damaging would a heavy
blow at that critical juncture in all likelihood have

"HOME rule:' 323
been. The men of Kerry, however, are a sen
sitive and high-spirited people. Their pride was
touched ; their patriotism was roused. They se
lected as their standard-bearer a young Protestant
gentleman barely returned from Oxford, and not
more than a month or two past his majority —
Roland Ponsonby Blennerhassett, of Kells, near
Cahirciveen. A shout of contemptuous derision burst from the
Whig-Liberal Catholics all over Ireland. What !
Dream of opposing the nominee of Lord Kenmare
in Kerry ! True to the spirit of the alliance com
pact, the Tory and Whig landlords of the county
asserabled, and in a corabined body constituted
themselves an election committee for Mr. Dease.
At their head stood the Catholic Bishop, the Most
Rev. Dr. Moriarty.
Undeterred, nay incited, by all this, the great
body of the Catholic clergy, and the people- almost
to a man, espoused^ the cause of " Blennerhassett
and Home Rule.'' The Liberal press and poli
ticians all over the kingdom, confident that vic
tory was in their hands, loudly proclaimed that
this was to be the great test election between
Liberalisra and Home Rule, centralisation and
nationality ; and they invited the empire to watch
Y 2

324 NEW IRELAND.

the result. By the middle of January 1872 the
struggle had assumed national significance and
importance. The London Daily Telegraph de
clared we were " on the eve of a very critical
test." The Daily News said, " The contest is
already exciting an amount of interest in Ireland
hardly equalled there since O'Connell contested
the county of Clare." . . . " On the whole there
are in Kerry all the materials of a struggle the
result of which every English statesman must
regard as important, if not indeed momentous."
On the 20th of January 1872, the Home Rule
Council in Dublin was specially convened to con
sider urgent appeals from Kerry for the personal
presence and assistance of some of its members.
The council decided that the fate of the whole
movement seemed so largely involved in the issue
that the entire energies and resources of the orga
nisation must be put forth. A deputation con
sisting of the Rev. Joseph A. Galbraith, Fellow of
Trinity College, A. M. Sullivan, and John Over-
ington Blunden was named to proceed forthwith
to Kerry. It was " death or glory." They were
charged to return " bearing their shields, or borne
upon them."

THE KERRY ELECTION. 325

CHAPTER XIII.
THE KERRY ELECTION.
" Well, SuUivan, this is a serious puU that is
before us," said the Fellow of Trinity gravely as
we seated ourselves in the Killarney train, on
Friday evening, the 26th of January 1872.
Trinity College has played a great part in the
history of Ireland. It was founded as an exclu
sively and, if I may so express it, aggressively
Protestant institution, some three hundred years
ago. It was the inteUectual citadel of Protestant
ascendancy; and many a time and oft have the
Irish Catholics heard the hard dicta of intolerance
shouted from its portal. Yet to this day there is
scarcely a man of generous mind or breadth of
view amongst them who is not proud of " Old
Trinity " ; proud to raark the high place it holds
amidst the schools of Europe ; but above all, to
note the illustrious men it has sent forth, in Arts,

326 NEW IRELAND.

Letters, Science, Politics, to lift the name and fame
of Ireland. For at least forty or fifty years it has
been not only strongly Conservative but im
perialist ; yet the spirits of Grattan and Flood and
Plunket haunt the old scenes. Ever and anon
Trinity contributes to the struggles of Irish nation
ality some of its ablest and raost gifted champions;
men who are the links that bind creeds and classes
in community of public feeling and action, and
prevent Irish politics from becoming a mere war
of race and religion. Two such men were my
companions on this journey. One of them was
especially notable.
The Rev. Joseph A. Galbraith, Fellow of Trinity
College, Dublin, filled from the first hour a fore
raost place in the new movement of constitutional
nationality. His scientific attainments made his
name familiar beyond the limits of our reahn ; and
araongst the Protestant Conservatives whom the
events of recent years had brought into association
with popular politics, there was scarcely one whose
adhesion had a greater effect on social and public
opinion in Ireland. How much he was esteemed
and trusted by his co-religionists was shown by the
fact of his being elected year by year to one of tiie
highest honorary positions in connection with the

THE KERRY ELECTION. 327
Church Synod and the " Governing Body " of the
Protestant Church in Ireland. He was one of the
gentlemen present at the Bilton Hotel Conference
on the 19th of May 1870, and although by nature
intensely averse to the bustle and turmoU of public
Hfe, he faced boldly the labours incidental to a
prominent position in the new political organisa
tion. Being requested to proceed along with Mr.
Blunden and myself, as representatives of the asso
ciation in the Kerry campaign, he cheerfully com
plied, and we now were en route for the scene of
action. We slept at Killarney that night, and proceeded
next raorning to Tralee, where a great open-air
demonstration was to be held in favour of the
national candidate. We found the county town
in a state of passion, denouncing the conduct of the
borough member, who had "gone over to the
enemy." Alas! it was The O'Donoghue, the
popular idol of yesterday, the eloquent advocate
of Irish independence ! It was as if Hofer had
suddenly appeared in Botzen, dressed in Bavarian
livery, leading the Munich riflemen. This was
a heavy blow ; a sore trial ; but save in the pain
of feeling, the anguish almost, which it occasioned
the people, who had so devotedly loved the now

328 NEW IRELAND.

converted leader, it was without effect. Twenty-
five years ago such a man would have carried his
county or borough with him, as a Highland Chief
would carry his clan frora the one carap to the other.
Now the secession of The O'Donoghue was worth
scarcely a dozen votes to the Earl of Kenmare.
Mr. Blennerhassett, accorapanied by an iraraense
concourse, with bands and banners, awaited our
arrival at the station. It was with rauch difficulty
we could save Mr. Galbraith from being carried off
bodily and " chaired " on their shoulders by the
enthusiastic Popish Kerry men. It surely was a
strange sight, this Kerry election fight of 1872.
Here was one of the most Catholic counties in
Ireland rallying, priests and people, on the side of
this young Protestant, Roland Blennerhassett ;
opposing a Catholic candidate, the relative of a
Catholic nobleman whom they one and aU personally
esteeraed ! With nearly everything to deter them,
they pressed on. Leagued against them was the
entire landlord power of the county. Whig and Tory,
Catholic and Protestant, with barely a few excep
tions. Their bishop, Dr. Moriarty, and several of
their parish priests were violently opposing them.
The O'Connell faraily went also with Lord Kenmare.
On the other side there was, however, the great fact

THE KERR Y ELECTION. 329
that the majority of the Kerry priests were enthu
siastically with the people. The national senti
ment all over the kingdom was at their back. Most
importfint of all, the leading organ of popular
opinion in the south of Ireland, the Cork Examiner
of Mr. John Francis Maguire, M.P., and the Cork
Daily Herald, scarcely less influential in its circu
lation, were thoroughly on the popular side. Had
it been otherwise as to the local press, had Mr.
Maguire helped us less heartily, the Kerry election
might not have been won. He was at this time the
leading journalist and politician of Munster, and
had for years been a prominent figure among the
Irish members in the House of Commons. John
Francis Maguire was born in Cork city in 1815.
He was called to the bar in 1843. Long pre
viously, however, his natural inclinations and tastes
led him to literature and journalism. In 1841
he founded the Cork Examiner, which in a few
years became one of the most important and influ
ential journals in Ireland. He was an especial
favourite and intimate friend of Father Mathew,
and in the Temperance and Repeal moveraents
from 1841 to 1846 he was an active participator.
In 1852 he was returned to Parliament for the
borough of Dungarvan, which he had twice pre-

330 NEW IRELAND.
viously unsuccessfully contested ; once in 1847
against Richard Lalor Sheil, and once in 1851
against the Hon. Ashley Ponsonby. He remained
member for Dungarvan from 1852 to 1866, when
he was returned for his native city, the representa
tion of which he held thenceforth until his death
in November 1872. His eloquence, his energy, his
marked ability brought him early into the front
rank of the Irish representation. He took an active
part in the Tenant League movement ; and on the
disruption caused by the Keogh -Sadleir episode, he
was found with Lucas and Moore and Duffy vainly
endeavouring to repair the <ruin that had fallen on
the tenants' cause. In 1852 he was elected Mayor
of Cork, and was the author and chief promoter of
the Industrial Exhibition held that year in the
city. In the midst of a busy and toilsome career,
Mr. Maguire found time for some contributions to
literature. His best-known work, which earned
him the marked personal friendship of Pio Nono,
was 'Rome and its Rulers,' first published in
1857; 'The Irish in America' and a 'Life of
Father Mathew ' came next ; the latter one of the
most interesting pieces of biography written in
our day. Although an ardent Liberal, and slow to
lend himself to new political ventures — he had

THE KERR Y ELECTION. 2,2, i
seen the rise and fall of not a few — Mr. Maguire
at an early stage of the Home Rule movement
gave it a firm and argumentative support. No
sooner had the Kerry contest assumed the propor
tions of a national struggle than he threw himself
with all the energy of his nature into a fight which
he presciently foretold would be, as the Daily News
said, " important, if not indeed momentous."
Mr. Galbraith had to return to Dublin in a few
days ; but even before he left we could form an
opinion of the prospects of the fray. " Tell them
all in Dublin," I said, " that here I mean to stay to
the end. These are a noble people. There is
victory ahead."
I did not praise them too highly, nor estimate
too hopefully the result before us. I had often
seen popular feeling displayed in election contests,
but nothing to equal this. What struck me as the
strangest part of it all was the popularity of Mr.
Blennerhassett, or " Mr. Hassett" as he was called.
He must have been personally almost unknown to
the bulk of his fellow-countymen. His father — a
landed proprietor in the west of Kerry, where the
family settled in the reign of Elizabeth — had died
while he was a child, and he was but a youth when
sent away to Oxford University. Yet the peasantry

332 NEW IRELAND.

spoke of him and to him in the language of homely
affection. The " canvass" was a triumphal pro
gress. As we drove along the road the people
would quit fields and houses, stand by the wayside
waving green boughs and shouting salutations, or
else run by the carriage just to press his hand.
" Ten votes in this townland for you, Mr. Hassett.
Home Rule for ever !" " You needn't trouble about
our parish, sir. Father Michael — God bless him !
— and all of us are with you." As we passed
through a little village beyond Killorglin, the few
people of the hamlet who had votes rushed around
to " give their names" — a proceeding they seemed
to think necessary. One peasant woman came
forward with tears in her eyes. " I have no vote
that I can give you, Mr. Hassett ; but I give you
ray prayers every day that God and the blessed
Virgin may be on your side ! " The raost primitive
attempts at festal display met our view in the wild
parts of the county. Whenever the news reached
that at no raatter what hour of the night or day we
were to pass the way, signal-raen were posted on
hill and crag ; and often in the dead of night we
could hear the shout passing frora house to house
along mountain and valley — " Home Rule ! Home
Rule !" At a place between Dingle and Tralee,

THE KERRY ELECTION. 333
miles from a second human habitation, a peasant
boy of fourteen, lame and using a crutch, stood by
the roadside close by his father's cabin. From
early morning — having heard we were to pass
either going or returning— he had watched and
waited. He had erected what he meant , as a
" banner." Two tall osier rods were fastened in
the ground, and from one on the top, placed
laterally, hung a piece of some white linen gar
ment. On this during the previous week he had
laboriously drawn with ink or blacking sundry
national emblems, and in large letters " Hurra
for Blennerhassett and Home Rule." That
" Mr. Hassett" would see this, was his sole
ambition ; but when we pulled up and, gazing at
the " banner," praised his artistic skill, he looked
as if unable to contain himself with happiness and
pride. For a full fortnight it rained as only in Kerry it
can rain. But the people seemed amphibious, and
we of the "deputation"* soon acquired the local
habit of disregarding tempest and flood. Every
night, at Oakville — the residence of Mr. Sandes, a
young cousin of " Mr. Hassett " — a huge turf fire
* Mr. Florence MacCarthy, J.P., of Glencurra, Cork county,
joined us soon after Mr. Galbraith's return to Dublin.

334 NEW IRELAND.
was lighted, before which our ulsters, dread
noughts, rugs, and wrappers were hung to dry.
Next morning they were in requisition once more,
and saturated anew in a few hours.
All seemed going fairly through the county
when one evening on reaching Oakville a piece of
news to me raost disquieting awaited us. Our
young host was a lover of the chase, and proud
of his hunters. At the County Club the disputes
as to horseflesh were mingled with the question of
Home Rule or Liberalism, Blennerhassett or Dease.
That day a contention had arisen between Mr.
Sandes and a leading "Deasite"as to the rival
merits of a bay mare belonging to one and a
chesnut horse owned by the other. " I'll tell you
what it is," said Mr. Sandes ; " I'll run you a two-
mile steeplechase for a hundred guineas, if you like,
and I'll call ray horse Home Rule — do you call yours
Deasite ; each to ride his own horse." No true
Kerry man could refuse such a challenge. I don't
know at what figure the stakes were eventually
fixed, but I do know that all over Kerry men took
sides and betted as earnestly on this race as if the
fate of the election hung on it — which, indeed, we
greatly feared was in some degree the case.
" What have you done !" we exclaimed in ve?a-

THE KERRY ELECTION. 335
tion. " Staked on the hazard of a horse-race the
result of all our toil ! You know what a people the
Irish peasantry are — you know how victory or
defeat in a matter of this sort will impress them —
you know  "
" I know, all so much the better ; for I'm going
to win this race as sure as my name is Tom
Sandes." And he did win it in right gallant style ; took
fence and dyke without fall or fault, and rode in
triumphantly, leaving " Deasite'' nowhere !
This seemed conclusive with the people. Now it
was clear we were to head the poll. Had not the
" Home Rule " horse won the day ?
Still, some of us, accustomed of old to elections,
knew that popular feeling did not always mean
votes in the booth when landlord pressure was
severely exercised ; and as the nomination day
drew near we found that the most relentless
coercion was being used on some of the largest
properties in the county. Nightly councils were
held in our central committee-room ; reports from
the various districts were weighed and discussed ;
baronial lists eagerly scanned and compared. That
at the last moment the people would have to
succumb to the bailiffs message was a gloomy

336 NEW IRELAND.
thought which hourly pressed more heavily on
many a mind. To make matters worse, Mr.
Blennerhassett's health broke down under the
fatigues of the past four weeks, and we more than
feared he would be unable to appear at the
hustings. He did so appear only by an effort.
The noraination was a great scene. The territorial
lords of the county asserabled in proud array.
Much were they angered and astounded to think
they beheld a day when they should be thus
opposed and defied on their own ground. Our
man made an admirable speech, temperate, firm,
eloquent, full of lofty patriotism. One of his
supporters, however, struck out severely at some of
the landlord party present, and we could see that
the attack infuriated the whole body. They left
the court-house and quitted the town, each for his
own locality, swearing that now indeed should we
feel their power. I knew what was at hand ; that
during the next forty-eight hours it would be " the
rush within the ropes" with both parties. The
nomination was on Tuesday the 6th of February.
Next day, for raany reasons, and raore particularly
on account of Mr. Blennerhassett's absence through
illness, I decided to remain at headquarters in
Tralee, and take supreme control into my own

THE KERRY ELECTION. 337
hands. Soon carae pouring in telegrams addressed
to Mr. Blennerhassett in the language of excitement
and alarm : " All our forces are overthrown here.
The landlord and the bailiffs are out like raging
lions." " Desperate work here. Landlords neutral
up to this, now personally canvassing against us."
I not only opened the first of these messages, but
opened every one of them throughout the day. I
stuffed them deliberately into my pocket, and
breathed not a word about them to Mr. Blenner
hassett or anybody else, beyond replying to each
of thera, " Quite prepared for and expected it. We
are doing the same on our side. Take to the field
every man of you, and work for your lives day
and night till Friday." I well knew how fatal the
effect of panic or disheartenment might be at such
a moment, and I did not spare the telegraph wires
that day in arousing the feelings and exciting the
confidence and courage of our friends.
From Galway most opportunely came news that
could hardly fail to have a critical effect on our
side. In that county a contest little less important,
and much more severe in many respects, was being
fought by Captain John Philip Nolan, Home
Ruler, against Major Le Poer Trench, son of Lord
Clancarty, Liberal-Conservative. Very much out
VOL. II. %

338 NEW IRELAND.

of personal regard for Lord Clancarty — and for
Major Trench hiraself, for whom a kindly feeling
was very general in the county — -(but still more "to
put down Home Rule "), the principal Whig and
Tory landlords united in that gallant gentleman's
behalf, and a struggle painful and violent beyond
precedent resulted. The day following our Kerry
nomination the startling and truly welcome news
arrived that Captain Nolan had won by the
enormous raajority of 2578 to 658, or nearly four
to one ! The effect in Kerry was, as might be
supposed, all-important. " Galway is ours I Now,
Kerry, show what you can do ! " resounded on
all sides.
Meantime troops, horse and foot, were being
poured into the county. The landlords hired
vacant buildings, courts, or yards in which to
secure their tenants the night before the poll. In
virtue of their power as magistrates they requi
sitioned detachments of foot and lancers for the
purpose of " escorting " those voters to the booths.
The streets of Tralee rang with the bugles or
echoed to the druras of railitary arriving by train
or departing for Dingle, Listowel, Cahirciveen,
Castleisland, &c. AU this intensified the prevailing
exciteraent, and on Wednesday night a horseman

THE KERRY ELECTION. 339
arrived from one of the remoter districts bringing
news that filled me with concern. The moun
taineers had seen " the army " pass, and knew
their errand. All over a great part of Iverah
and Magonihy preparations were going on that
night to destroy the bridges, cut up the roads, and
render the return of the escorts to the polling-
booths impossible. "Oh! for the love of God,"
I said, " tell him to ride back with all his speed !
Tell every friend we are sure of the poll, and that
our only danger now would be a petition. I
implore of you all not to let a finger be raised that
could thus put the victory into our enemies'^
hands!" Only with the utmost difficulty could
I impress this view upon the volunteer couriers ;
and it was with a mind full of uneasiness and
apprehension that the night before the poll I set
out for Killarney (our opponents' stronghold), of
which district I determined to take charge.
It was tough work all that morning of Friday
the 9th of February in the Killarney booths ; and
as the tallies swelled against us here (but here
only, as we fully calculated), the crowds which
about noon filled the streets became excited,
uneasy, and anxious. I was rushed at whenever
seen, and eagerly questioned. z 2

340 NEW IRELAND.
" We're bate here, sir ; but how is it beyond ?"
" All right, boys. We are doing here what I
came to see done. We'll hear from Listowel at
one o'clock."
Then, drawing on hope, the crowd would raise
a cheer, which made the circuit of the town.
Some of the scenes in the booths were truly
" racy of the soil." In many cases the voter,
assuming an air of dense stupidity, pretended to
forget the name of Mr. Dease, or else gave the
name of the landlord or agent. In this event, of
course, the vote was lost, which was exactly what
the sharpwitted rustic wanted.
" What is your name ? "
" My name, is it, sur ? "
" Yes, sir, your name."
" Och, then, begor, av' its me name, I'll never
deny it."
A pause.
" Come, sir, go down if you will not proceed."
Here the agent's eye is caught menacingly fixed
on him.
" Arrah, shure, every one knows me name.
What need you ax me ? "
" What is it, sir ? last time."
" What is it ? Dan Mahony, thanks be to God."

THE KERR Y ELECTION. 341
" Daniel Mahony, for whom do you vote ?"
" For who do I wote, is it ?"
A long, a very long pause.
" Come, sir, I'll take the next man."
Dan looks at the agent as if to say, " Blame me
not. I'm doing my best." Then with an effort : —
" I wote for what's-his-name, you know, that me
landlord wants me to wote for."
" That won't do, sir, and I can't waste any more
time with you. Clerk, take the next man."
Here Mr. Dease's attorney makes an effort to
whisper " Dease," but is collared by young Mr.
Wright, who is in charge on our side. "No
prompting, sir. I protest." Dan Mahony scratches
his head in well-feigned perplexity, and as if for
life or death, shouts —
" I wote for Daly /"
A shriek from the attorneys. A groan from
the agent. Dan is hustled out of the booth,
exclaiming as he goes, " I woted for me landlord's
raan!" He turns round the street corner and
meets some neighbours on the look-out for him.
" AU right, boys. Hassett and Home Rule for
ever ! Hurroo ! "
I heard several such electors vote for " Lord
Kenmare," one or two for "Mr. GaUwey, and

342 NEW IRELAND.

there he is there this blessed minnit, thanks be to
God ! '' Mr. GaUwey being agent to the Kenmare
estates, and a good and kindly one too. Indeed,
throughout the whole election I never met a tenant
on the Kenmare or Herbert properties who did
not speak in the highest terms of landlord and
agent in each case.
I was standing at a polling-place under a shed
in the butter-market when old Sir James O'Connell
of Lake View (brother of the Liberator), a most
extraordinary and eccentric octogenarian, entered,
leading or bringing on each side of him a country
man, whom he held by the coat-flap. Marching
up to a police officer he said : —
" I want a few of your men to go over there for
some of my tenants."
" Do you mean. Sir James, that they are in
danger of assault ?"
" I mean that the crowd would assist them to
run away."
" Oh, Sir James, we can't do anything like
that; but if there is danger of assault or inter
ference  "
" Well, then, will you mind these for me while
I go myself?"
The officer shook his head. " We'll not let any

THE KERRY ELECTION. 343
one harm them, Sir James; that's all we can
do." The old gentleman paused, looked at the two
" free and independent " voters, whom he still
affectionately held fast, and eventually said, " I'll
poll them first, to make sure." He put up one.
" For whom do you vote ? "
"For Sir James O'ConneU!"
" Oh you bla'guard ! Oh you stupid ass ! Oh
you infernal  but, halloa ! — policeman ! Hey !
— I say — where is that other raan I had by my
side this minute ? Police ! Police ! "
The assembled throng shrieked with laughter.
The other voter had flitted, and as a matter of
fact they told me he came up half an hour
later and polled for Blennerhassett !
About half-past one o'clock I left the bootha
and proceeded to the telegraph office. The people
in the streets easily guessed my errand, and made
way, crushing closely after me, however, and
surrounding the post office in a great mass. Three
telegrams soon reached me : one from Cahirciveen
— " A hundred majority here " ; one from Tralee
— " Two hundred majority here, and Kenmare all
right " ; one from Listowel — " Seven hundred
majority here." I felt as if I could spring over

344 NEW IRELAND.

Mangerton. I rushed to the door with the open
telegrams in my hands, but before I could speak a
word, quick as lightning-flash the people read it
all in ray face. They burst forth into the most
frantic demonstrations of joy. They shouted, they
cheered, they flung their hats in the air ; they
rushed in a body to the court-house, where polling
by this time was virtually over. As the noise
was heard swelling up the street every one within
knew what it meant, and gave up for the day all
further exertion. Soon the word went round — the
Horae Ruler was in by over seven hundred.
I left Killarney in the full tide of rejoicing, and
took the train to Tralee. The scene at the latter
town was still more exciting. The majorities
everywhere were even greater at the close than
had been telegraphed to rae. On the hills around
we could see the signal-fires that spread the news
from the Shannon to Dunkerron. Next day and
night as our friends in charge at the outlying
stations came in, they brought the most astonishing
stories of adventure and episode. The scale was
turned in our favour at Tralee by two incidents :
first, the defection to us of " the Spa voters " ;
secondly, the dispersion of " the Dingle contingent,"
chiefly a body of Lord Ventry's men. The Spa

THE KERR Y ELECTION. 345
was a parish or district some miles outside Tralee,
the tenantry of which had all been " secured " by
the land agent, and were quite despaired of by us.
The night before the poll the bailiffs had warned
every man of them to be at the cross-roads in the
morning at ten o'clock sharp to meet " the master,"
and march to Tralee for the poll. At ten o'clock
" the master " rode down to the appointed spot,
like Marshal Ney going to head his battalions.
He found no tenantry awaiting him. " I am a
little too soon," he reflected, and he rode his horse
up and down the road for ten or fifteen minutes.
Half an hour passed, and he became uneasy. A
few peasants had been lounging about in the
neighbourhood, watching " his honour " with
comical expression on their faces. One of them
now came up.
" May be it's for the tinants your honour is
waiting ? "
" Yes, my good man ; yes, the lazy rascals.
Do you see any of them coming yet ? "
" Coming, your honour ? Faith, 'tis at eight
o'clock this morning they all left this with Father
Eugene O'Sullivan at their head, and they're in
Tralee an hour ago."
Dashing spurs into his horse he went at full

346 NE W IRELAND.

gallop into town, and arrived just in time to see
the last of the Spa men, over a hundred in
number, polling for Blennerhassett.
From Dingle, distant sorae twenty miles, a great
avalanche was to have overwhelmed us. The
story of "the Dingle contingent" was told me in
great delight. Mr. De Moleyns, it seems, had
gathered as many conveyances as would transport
a small army corps, and quite a formidable body
of cavalry had proceeded to Dingle to escort the
cavalcade. When it started for Tralee it was fully
quarter of a mile in length ; Mr. De Moleyns
riding proudly at its head. After it had gone
some miles he turned back to make some inquiry
at the rear of the procession. Great was his
dismay to behold the last five or six cars empty.
" Where are the voters who were on these cars?"
he storraily shouted at the drivers.
" The wothers. Captain ? Some of them slipped
down there to walk a bit of the road, and faix
we're thinking that they're not coming at all."
" Halt ! halt 1" he cried ; and, full of rage, gal
loped to the head of the cavalcade. He called on
the officer in command of the cavalry to halt for
a while, and detail a portion of his men for duty in
the rear ; when, lo ! he now noticed that half a

THE KERRY ELECTION. 347
dozen cars at the front had, in his brief absence,
totally lost their occupants. According to my
informants, Mr. De Moleyns, losing all temper,
more forcibly than politely accused the officer of
want of vigilance and neglect of duty ; whereupon
the latter sharply replied : —
" What, sir ! do you think I and my men have
come here to be your bailiffs ? I am here to
protect these men, if they want protection ; not
to treat them as prisoners. And now, sir, I give
you notice I will halt my men no more. Ready,
men! Forward! March!"
By this time fully a third of the voters had
escaped. There was nothing for it but to push on.
At the village of Castlegregory, however, the
severest ordeal awaited them. Here they found
the entire population of the place, men, women,
and children, occupying the road ; the old parish
priest standing in the middle of the highway, his
grey hair floating in the wind. The villagers,
chiefly the women, well knowing how the voters
felt, poured out to them adjurations and appeals.
The priest, in a few brief sentences, reached every
heart. " Ah, sons of Kerry," said he, " where is
your pride and manhood, to be dragged like pri
soners or carted like cattle in ,this way ? And for

348 NEW IRELAND.

what ? That you may give the lie to your own
conscience, and give a stab to your country, poor
Ireland !" With one wild shout the voters sprang
from the cars and disappeared in the body of the
crowd. The grand " Dingle cavalcade" was a
wreck, and Mr. De Moleyns, sad at heart, rode
into Tralee at the head of an immense array of
empty cars.
For genuine fun and ingenuity perhaps the
palm must be awarded to Cahirciveen. From
Valencia Island, close by, a considerable body of
electors were to be brought across the sound by
their landlord, the Knight of Kerry, to poll at
that town. A small ferry steamer supplied com
munication from shore to shore. Oddly enough,
by some strange " accident," on her last trip to
the island the evening previous to the poll she
managed to run upon a rock, and was utterly
disabled. The knight and his trusty men (the
latter, however, knowing something that he did
not) came down to the shore in the raorning, and
wasted sorae precious time shouting " Steamer
ahoy !" It was all as fruitless as the wailing of
Lord Ullin to the boat in the ballad, that would
not come back " across the stormy water."
This was the last " open vote " county election

THE KERR Y ELECTION. 349
in Ireland. Such scenes as I have described will
be witnessed no more. Five months subsequently
— 13th of July 1872— the Ballot Act received the
royal assent. That act gave a death-blow to
electoral intimidation, from whatever quarter
directed, and delivered the reality of political
power at the polls, for the first time, into the
hands of the people themselves.
The Kerry election decided the fortunes of the
new movement. It was the end of controversy.
To this day it is called in Ireland " The Clare
Election of Home Rule."

350 NEW IRELAND.

CHAPTER XIV.
BALLYCOHEY.
" Mr. William Scully, accompanied by a force
of police and other armed attendants, again
attempted to serve the ejectment notices on his
Ballycohey tenantry to-day. A lamentable tragedy
ensued. The tenants barricaded and loopholed
one of the houses, from which they poured a
deadly fire on the attacking party. The police
returned the fire, and fought their way into the
house, which they found evacuated. Three of
the police party are killed ; Mr. Scully is wounded
in seven places — it is thought mortally. Four
policemen are more or less seriously wounded.
None of the tenantry were seen. None of them
seem to have suffered. No arrests. Indescribable
excitement throughout the whole district."
Such was the alarming message telegraphed all
over the kingdom from Tipperary on the evening

BALLYCOHEY. 351

of Friday the 14th of August 1868. When the
full particulars of the astonishing story came to
hand the excitement of the district spread through
Ireland. Even in England it was the sensation
of the day.
BaUycohey is a townland in Tipperary county,
about two miles west of the Limerick Junction
station, on the Great Southern and Western Rail
way, and distant less than three miles from the
town of Tipperary. In the sumraer ol 1868 it
was held by a considerable number of tenants,
whose forefathers had occupied the place for a
hundred years. They were an industrious, peace
able, and kindly people ; punctuaUy paid their
rent, which was not a low one ; and seem to have
got on quite smoothly with their successive land
lords until Mr. WiUiam ScuUy, a few years before
this event, became the purchaser of BaUycohey.
It had^ nearly a century ago, been a leasehold
possession of the Scullys — one of the oldest
CathoHc families of social position in Tipperary^ —
but had passed from them in 1847. Its history
during this period is supplied in the following
letter from Mr. Carbery ScuUy, of Derry Park (a
relative of Mr. William Scully), whose testimony,
incidentally given, as to the character of the

352 NEW IRELAND.

people, was fully corroborated by the other
landlords of the neighbourhood : —
About the year 1782, when first Catholio gentlemen could
get leases of property, my grandfather, James ScuUy of
Kilfeacle, took the lands of Shronehill and Ballycohey from
Lady Caroline Damer at a lease of three lives, viz., his eldest
son then living, Eoger, his third son, James, and my father,
whose name was Edmund, being the names in the lease. Those
lands were settled on my father on his marriage in 1806. He
kept them in his own possession until about the year 1821,
when he commenced letting them to tenants, and I see by the
leases now in my possession that amongst the number a lease
was made 3rd February 1823 to William Dwyer and his
brother-in-law, John Tooley, at a rent of £3 5s. an acre for
their lives, or twenty-one years. The other tenants' names at
Ballycohey were Eyans, Greens, Quinns, Heffernans, Foleys,
Hanlys, Tooleys, and some few others. They were the most
honest, quiet, and industrious people I ever met ; all paid high
rents, and most punctually, and if I was to select the two most
honest, not only amongst them, but the two worthiest men I
ever met, they were Dwyer and Tooley (John), his brother-in-
law. In the year 1839, at my father's decease, the property
(Ballycohey) came to me, and I continued the same tenants
and renewed some leases of those which expired. When James
ScuUy of Tipperary (the last life in the lease) died in January
1847, the property went out of my possession into that of the
landlord's. Lord Portarlington, whose agent was the late John
Sadleir, and he continued the same tenants at the reduced rent
I gave it at, when the potatoes failed in the winter of 1845.
Some time after, when Lord Portarlington sold the property,
Mr. Errington purchased ShronehUl, and Mr. Grey, agent to
that best of landlords (Lord Derby), purchased Ballycohey, and
I believe continued the same tenants at the reduced rent.

BALLYCOHEY. 353

Thus stood the matter until the property was purchased a few
years ago by Mr. WUliam Scully. As it was my father first
brought those tenants or their fathers on those lands, and I
continued them there, I feel boimd to bear testimony to their
honesty and industry when I knew them.
It was with something like dismay the Bally
cohey tenantry heard Mr. Grey had sold the land
to Wilham Scully. This latter gentleman was
already unpleasantly known to fame as a landlord
He was a man of large wealth, and had extensive
estates, not only in Ireland, but in America.*
* Mr. W. Scully (brother of Mr. Vincent Scully, formerly
M.P. for Cork county, and cousin of Mr. Frank Scully, formerly
M.P. for Tipperary) owns 25,000 acres of the choicest land
in Illinois, the " Garden State " of America. This estate is
situated in TasweU county, and comprises the greater portion
of the celebrated Delavan Prairie, the richest loam in the
United States. A friend who visited the place recently, and
from whom I derive these facts, says : " About the termination
of the Mexican war Mr. Scully was prospecting for land in
America. lUinois had but just been formed into a State and
taken into the Union. Each soldier was entitled to a land
claim of 160 acres. Soldiers, as a rule, care little for land.
Mr. Scully went amongst them as the army was about being
disbanded, and purchased for a mere trifle 160 claims of
160 acres each. Singular to say, many Tipperary people are
resident upon this tract as tenants ; the rent averaging about
6 dollars, or £1, per acre. A Tipperary man named Cooney,
one of the tenants, offered a few years ago 100 dollars per acre
to Mr. ScuUy for the fee-simple of the farm which he held
under him. It was refused. The average price of good cleared
VOL. II. 2 A

354 NEW IRELAND.

Yet his career and character up to this more
than justified the apprehensions of the Ballycohey
farmers. In 1849 he was tried at Clonmel assizes
for the shooting of two fine young men, named
Bergin, sons of a tenant whom he was evicting at
Ballinclough ; but he was acquitted on this charge.
A like good fortune did not await him at the
Kilkenny summer assizes of 1865, when he was
sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for beat
ing and wounding the wife of one of his tenants,
named Tehan, while attempting to break into
Tehan's house in the dead of night, to serve some
notice or make a seizure. His ideas of a landlord's
rights were strict, and his mode of enforcing them
strong ; too strong the judge thought, and so sent
him to Kilkenny county jail for a year's hard
labour. In truth he became the terror of the
unfortunate tenantry who owned his sway. He
was a Catholic, and the parish priest remonstrated
forcibly, from time to time, against his course of

land in the same State is from 20 to 30 dollars per acre. In
the session of the State Legislature of 1876 a biU was intro
duced by the Hon. P. W. Dunne, one of the members for Peoria
county, to impose an extraordinary tax upon the estate of
Mr. Scully, on the ground of his being an alien and an absentee.
The measure was not carried through, but is not abandoned."

BALLYCOHEY. 355

conduct. Mr. ScuUy retaliated by putting his
children into the waggonette one Sunday morning,
and driving with them to the Protestant church.
When this news reached the congregation at the
Catholic chapel after mass, they took off their hats
and gave " three cheers" ; delighted that " Billy,"
as he was called, was no longer one of themselves.
The Ballycohey men noted early that he was
trying to " get a holt on them," as they expressed
it ; but as they fairly paid their rent, and as it was
a pretty high one, it was not clear what he would
do. They soon found out. He valued money
much — he was avaricious ; but he valued despotic
power even more. He framed a form of lease
for the Ballycohey tenantry, refusal of which was
to be the signal for their eviction. This was a
most astonishing document. The tenants were
always to have a half-year's rent paid in advance ;
to pay the rent quarterly ; to surrender on twenty-
one days' notice at the end of any quarter ; to
forego all claims to their own crops that might be
in the soil ; and they were to pay all rates and
taxes whatsoever. Whoever refused to accept
these terms must quit.
Any one who knew the people of Tipperary
could tell what this was sure to bring about. The
2 A 2

356 NE W IRELAND.

magistrates and the police officers warned Mr.
Scully. He cared not. He applied for and re
ceived a guard of police on his house and person,
and went about heavily armed himself, besides
being so attended. Early in June 1868 he noticed
the tenants to bring him the May rent to Dobbyn's
Hotel in Tipperary on a particular day. He sat at
the table with a loaded revolver on each hand, and
a policeman with rifle and sabre close by. Only
four tenants came in person. The rest sent the
rent by messengers, which greatly angered him,
for he wanted the opportunity of obtaining their
signatures to the famous " lease," or else handing
them there and then a " notice to quit." This was
exactly what the absentees suspected, and so they
sent the money by their wives or sons. The four
who came were asked to sign. They refused, and
ran away. He swore at them ; and they defiantly
replied, consigning him in loudly expressed wishes
to another and not a better world. It was now
open war. Mr. Scully took out ejectment pro
cesses. These require to be either personally
served or else left at the tenant's house, some
member of the family or servant being at the
moment within. The constabulary inspector had
information that any attempt of Mr. Scully to

BALLYCOHEY. 357

appear on the lands delivering these missives of
vengeance would be resisted to bloodshed. But
nothing could move him from his purpose. On
Tuesday the llth of August, he set forth at the
head of a police escort and his own bailiffs to serve
the ejectments. The party was seen approaching,
and a signal halloo was passed along the fields. Im
mediately the houses were abandoned, and at the
same time the police could see men running from
far and near to swell the angry crowd that was
gathering. Owing to the abandonment of the
houses only a few notices could be served ; and by
this time the surrounding crowd, groaning, yelling,
cursing, and threatening, had become so excited
that the officer in command of the police called on
Mr. Scully to desist forthwith, and let them safely
retreat to the town ere it was too late. Reluc
tantly he consented. The crowd followed, and
by the time they reached Tipperary they had to
fight their way to the hotel. Under all these
circumstances most other men would have paused.
Mr. Scully determined to push on. Early on the
following Friday he was once more at the head of
his force, and making a dash to surprise Bally
cohey. His approach was quickly signalled as
before, and a scene sirailar to that of Tuesday

358 NE W IRELAND.

ensued, the people being rather more violent.
The police had much difficulty in guarding Mr.
Scully and young Gorman, his land-bailiff, who
were the especial objects of hostility. At length
things became so critical that the officer once again
pointed out the madness of persevering, and said
he would not be accountable for the consequences.
Mr. Scully said it was hard to be baffled by the
villains a second time, but eventually assented.
They decided to make for the railway station,
as the nearest shelter. Some of the police with
fixed sword-bayonets went in front, others marched
at the rear to keep back the crowd. While thus
with some difficulty pushing their way to safety,
they passed within a short distance of a house
owned by one of the defiant tenants named John
Dwyer.* The " temptation " was too great for Mr.
Scully. " We will try this one," he said, and
turned into the little boreen or walled avenue
leading to the house. The guards followed, some
halting at the entrance to the avenue to repress
the throng at bayonet point. The hall door of the
house was entered from a farmyard quadrangle,
formed by out-offices. Mr. Scully, Gorman, a
* The man of whom Mr. Carbery Scully speaks so favourably
in his letter quoted at p. 352.

BALLYCOHEY. 359
bailiff named Maher, and Sub-Constable Morrow,
dashed to the hall door, opened it, and entered.
At that instant from within the house and with
out the crash of pistol and musket-shot was heard
in a^ regular volley. Morrow fell outside the door,
shot from a loophole in one of the flanking build
ings. Gorman fell just inside the threshold, riddled
with bullets fired from a loft within, which com
manded the entrance. Mr. Scully and Maher, both
wounded, the former with two bullets lodged in
his neck and badly hurt from several others,
rushed from the house and sheltered behind the
pier of the yard gateway. Here halting, Mr.
Scully, with his double-barrelled breech-loader and
a revolver, commenced a brisk fire at the windows
and loopholes, the police also pouring in a sharp
rifle fire. At length Mr. Scully called out, " Who
will enter the house with me ? " " / wUl," said
Head-Constable Cleary, and the whole force rushed
in. " They are in that loft," said Mr. ScuUy, and
at the words a shot from the spot indicated struck
Sub-Constable Colleton. The step-ladder to the loft
had been taken up, and it was only with difficulty
Cleary could mount to the place. When he suc
ceeded — lo! it was empty. He found a breast
work made with feather beds, and behind it

36o NE W IRELAND.

a revolver and some cartridges. Further search
revealed a hole at the edge of the roof recently
made, through which the firing party had retreated
to the garden at the rear. The police next pro
ceeded to the outhouses, from which by this time
the firing had ceased. Here also they found fire
arms and ammunition ; one blunderbuss having
burst quite close to the stock. But as each house
or barn had a rear exit, through which retreat had
been secured, no one was captured. Not even a
trace by which suspicion might be assisted, or
identification secured, could they find throughout
the premises !
They now turned their attention to the wounded.
Morrow was quite dead. Gorman was alive but
senseless. He never spoke again, poor fellow.
All the rest could walk, though bleeding severely.
Mr. Scully, I have reason to believe, wore a suit
of chain mail under his clothes — a precaution which
saved his life.* He was raade a target. When
they found he did not fall though hit by a dozen
* Two countrymen were heard discoursing on this circum
stance at the Cahir railway station a day or two subsequently.
" Arrah ! how could the villain be killed when he wore a
helmet on his stomach !" was the exclamation which closed the
discussion.

BALLYCOHEY. 361

bullets in the body, they poured their fire at his
head, six shots taking effect. A friend of mine,
who visited the spot immediately after, marked
seven bullet-holes in the door within a diameter
of six inches, just where Mr. Scully stood.
"Let us hold a council of war," said Mr. Scully.
" What shall we do ? Let us at once make our
way to the station."
" What ! " said the head constable, " abandon
these wounded men ? No. I shall stay here till
help comes. You have your own guard. Go, if
you will."
According to the constable's evidence at the
inquest Mr. Scully thought this most absurd, and
said, " What good can you do to a dead or dying
man? Come and protect me'.' But the officer,
grieved, disgusted, and angered, as well he might
have been, by the whole dreadful business, would
have no more to do with Mr. Scully ; would not
abandon his dead comrade and the dying Gorman.
The fate of the latter was singularly sad. A
friend, resident close by the place, writing to me,
says, " Gorman, poor fellow, knew that morning
that he was facing death, but he would not desert
' the master ' for reasons that did him all credit."
The facts were these : Gorman was the son of a

362 NEW IRELAND.

widow holding a sraall farm on one of Mr. Scully's
properties. Mr. Scully, finding him an unusually
smart and intelligent lad, sent him to a veterinary
college in Scotland, had him there professionally
educated, and then made him steward and estate-
bailiff. It was a perilous and an odious post, and
the young man did not like it. " What can I do ? '"
said he. " I hate it. I hate this dreadful work the
master is doing ; but for me to leave him and get
another situation on the strength of the education
he gave me at his sole expense, would surely be
raean ; and, besides, 'tis raerciless he would be to
my poor raother if I acted so." The week before
this Ballycohey affair he received several friendly
warnings, telling hira not to rush on certain de
struction. What follows I give in the words of
my friend :-^—
" The evening preceding the battle of Bally
cohey Darby Gorman visited the village of Golden,
which is little raore than a mile from Scully's resi
dence at BaUenaclogh. The country round Golden
is one of the most picturesque and fertile in Tip
perary. Here, it is said, the poet Moore wrote one
or two of the most beautiful of his inamortal melo
dies, while on a visit to his sister, who was married
to one of the Scully family. Gorman, on the even-

BALLYCOHEY. 363

ing alluded to, met a young companion named
O'Donnell. They talked over Scully's first visit to
Ballycohey, and the letters of warning which
Gorman had received in the interval. His com
panion advised him not to go to Ballycohey again,
as he certainly would be shot. Gorman replied,
* I know I shall, but what can I do ? ' ' Go to
Cahir,' said his friend, ' and enlist in the cavalry.
You are well educated, and being a veterinary
surgeon you are sure to advance.' ' If I turn my
back upon Scully,' replied Gorman, ' what will
become of my poor mother and my little brothers
and sisters ? I know he is a tyrant and won't spare
them ; yet he educated rae, and I don't like to
desert him.' 'Believe rae,' said O'Donnell, 'I
know Scully well ; and if you lose your life in his
service, he will forget it to your faraily.' They
parted, each to his horae. Gorraan, on his return,
was told by his mother that the master called, in
quiring for him ; that she told him he had gone
to the village. She said Mr. Scully desired her to
teU him to be up early the next morning, as they
had to go from home a distance. ' Mother,' said
the son, ' I know where he is going to, and I don't
like to go.' ' Well, Darby,' replied the mother,
' go to bed, in the name of God, and I'll call you

364 NE W IRELAND,

up early in the morning.' The young man retired
to his room. He had a presentiment it would be
his last night on earth, and he had already pre
pared himself for death by having received the
sacraments of his Church. He spent a restless
night, and was up and dressed at an early hour.
His mother had his breakfast in readiness. He,
poor fellow, had small desire for it. He bade his
mother good-bye, but concealed from her the
dreadful apprehension that oppressed him. After
leaving the house he suddenly returned to it, and
entering his room hastily wrote on a slip of paper,
which was subsequently found on his dressing-
table, ' I shall never return to this house alive.'
A few hours afterwards the tragic prophecy was
realised, and one of the finest, most intelligent, and
impulsively generous young men in Tipperary was
borne back to his widowed mother a stark and
bloody corpse, the victim of a despot's ruthless
will." The Ballycohey tragedy passed the Irish Land
Act of 1870 ; that is to say, argument and senti
mental conclusion having gone before, this was the
incident which supplied that decisive impulse to
public opinion which leads to action. Mr. Scully's
despotism came at a critical moment to illustrate

BALLYCOHEY. 365

and exemplify the state of things under which
the agricultural population of Ireland long had
groaned. Every voice was raised against him.
His brother landlords and magistrates, in meeting
assembled, passed a resolution reprobating his con
duct. The coroner's jury, inquiring into the deaths
of the murdered men, added to their verdict the
following : —
The jury are further of opinion that the conduct of
Mr. WUUam ScuUy as regards his proceedings towards his
tenantry at Ballycohey is much to be deprecated; and the
sooner legislative enactments be passed to put a stop to any
such proceedings, the better for the peace and welfare of the
country. But Mr. Scully had a triumphant answer for
them all. He was within the law. He M^as but
enforcing legally what the law decreed ! There
was no gainsaying this ; so even from London
journals there came the important rejoinder :
"Such laws must be changed." Said the Saturday
Review : " Landlords are not a divine institution
any more than the Irish Church. They exist for
Ireland, not Ireland for them ; and where the
genius and circumstances of a country are so
widely different from ours, its laws and institutions
without any want of reason might well differ too."

366 NE W IRELAND.

The Irish Land question was stated in these two
sentences of the Saturday Review. They covered
the whole case. Such utterances conveyed not
even "a choleric word" now, coming from a lead
ing London politician, whereas they were " flat
blasphemy " — " communism," as Dr. Cooke would
say — fifteen years before, when spoken by members
of the Irish Tenant League.
But a new and better England had arisen since
then ; and now, from the Tyne to the Thames, men
cried out, " These things must no longer be." It
was announced that, as the Irish Church Bill was
the work of 1869, the Irish Land Bill would be
the task for 1870.
That the promised measure raight be a real and
efficacious settlement of this long-standing griev
ance — might sweep away once and for ever the
cause and source of so much bloodshed and crime,
so much suffering and wrong, was the dominant
anxiety of every thoughtful mind in Ireland
throughout the winter of 1869. When the boon
appeared it sadly disappointed the national hopes
and expectations. It was a half-measure, and, like
all half-measures dealing with gigantic issues, did
not receive even half-justice in popular estimation,
but was wholly condemned and sweepingly de-

BALLYCOHE Y. 367

nounced. Yet was it a great and wondrous stride
in British legislation for Ireland ; not so much in
the letter of its clauses as in the spirit of the whole
enactment, and in the principles which it admitted.
The two great evils which constituted the Land
grievance in Ireland (where the " Ulster right "
did not prevail) were confiscation of tenant pro
perty, and capricious eviction. A tenant, by ex
penditure of his capital or his labour, quadrupled
the value of his land — made it worth two pounds
an acre instead of ten shillings. The landlord
confiscated or appropriated that tenant's property
either by raising the rent (slowly or suddenly) to
two pounds an acre, or by forthwith evicting the
tenant and letting the land to some one ready to
pay forty shillings for it. Usually the tenant,
rather than be evicted, agreed to each rise of the
rent on his own outlay. That was, in brief, the
" confiscation " grievance. The eviction or tenure
grievance was this : that even where the tenant
punctually paid his rent, even where the highest
rent demanded was given, even where the tenant
was industrious and improving, even where the
farm had for hundreds of years been the possession
and home of the tenant's family, the landlord
could, of mere caprice, giving no reason at all.

368 NEW IRELAND.

evict that tenant and do what he liked with the
land. This was the case at Ballycohey. Per
sistently and irrepressibly, therefore, the Irish
tenantry have ever demanded that the law shall
put an end alike to " confiscation " and to " capri
cious eviction " ; shall prevent the landlord from
levying a rent on value created by the tenantry,
and shall forbid him from evicting, unless for
statutable cause. That is the Irish Land question
from the tenant's point of view.
The landlords say — It is quite true some of our
class raise their rents unjustly and extortionately,
so as to reap a gain from the tenants' outlay ; and ¦
it is true some of them evict for raere caprice or
for political vengeance ; but if you prevent us
from raising or lowering our rents as to us may
seem fit, you interfere with the freedom of con
tract ; and if you forbid eviction, unless for statut
able cause, you interfere with the rights of pro
perty, and make us mere " rent-chargers."
There is much in all this ; but no one ever heard
that the landlords of Ulster found their status
lowered, their rights destroyed, or their property
deteriorated by that " Ulster custom " which sub
stantially did all that was now demanded. On the
contrary, landlord property in Ulster is most secure

BALLYCOHEY. 369

and valuable ; and the province blooms like a
garden. The Gladstone Act of 1870 secures undoubted
compensation to agricultural tenants for improve
ments effected in and on the soil, and admits to a
certain extent a property right of occupancy on
the part of the tenant. The first-mentioned por
tion of the act substantially raet the Irish
deraands. On the second — the question of tenure —
it made a bold, and doubtless what its author wished
to be a successful, attempt to stop, or rather to
deter from, unjust and capricious evictions. This it
aimed to accoraplish by a limited scale of fines upon
the evicting landlord, to be paid as compensation
to the evicted tenant. The latter part of the act
has been a woful failure. The limited fines have
been mere cobweb bonds to restrain landlords from
carrying out capricious evictions where so disposed.
The act, however, has opened a new era in Ire
land. Evictions of the old character and extent
will henceforth hardly be attempted. Isolated
instances of agrarian outrage may occasionally
appear, but the dreadful storms of tenant ven
geance and crime that used to prevail of old will
no more appal the land.
Not every tragedy in the history of the Irish
VOL. II. 2 1?

3 70 NEW IRELAND.

Land code has had sequel so romantically pleasing
and happy as that of Ballycohey. Mr. Scully
recovered from his wounds, and, merciless as
ever, rendered desperate by what had occurred,
prepared to exterminate man, woman, and child of
" the murderers." The kingdom looked on heart-
wrung and appalled ; for there was no law to hold
his hand. The doomed people sullenly and hope
lessly, yet defiantly, awaited the blow. Heaven
sent them succour, rescue, safety. Mr. Charles
Moore, of Mooresfort, then member for Tipperary,
appealed to Mr. Scully not to convulse the county
anew — besought him to spare the people. " Say
what price you put on this Ballycohey property.
/ will pay it to you, and let there be an end to this
dreadful episode !"
Even so was it done. Mr. Scully told how many
thousands he would take ; Mr. Moore paid the
money down ; and Ballycohey to-day is the happiest
spot in all the land ; the home of peace, security,
contentment, prosperity. That deed of rescue
deserves to be recorded in letters of gold. The
people of Tipperary will never forget it. Mr. Moore
died soon after ; but when, in the general election
of 1874, the burghers of Clonmel decided to replace
the much-respected gentleman who had hitherto

BALLYCOHEY. 371
represented them as a Liberal — Mr. Bagwell — by
a man more thoroughly reflecting the national
sentiment, they selected young Arthur Moore of
Mooresfort ; much because he was a Home Ruler,
more because he was his father's son. He is named
on the Roll of Parliament as representative of
Clonmel ; but he sits as the member for Bally
cohey.

2 B 2

372 NEW IRELAND.

CHAPTER XV.
THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH.
Ijst 1870 the Episcopalian Protestants of Ireland
were called upon to face a state of things well
calculated to test their devotion, their courage,
their ability. Their Church as a State institution
had been swept away ; and they had to address
themselves to tiie serious work of building up a
new system. All eyes were strained to watch their
movements. How would Disestablishment affect
the Irish Episcopal Protestant Church? What
would be the result of that measure financially ?
How would it affect the structure or ecclesiastical
organisation of the Church ? Would it lead to
doctrinal change or modification ? Would it prove
injurious or serviceable to Irish Protestantism ?
These were questions on every lip ; eager and
anxious speculations on all sides.
The interval since 1870 has shown the Irish
Protestants engaged in this great labour, involved

THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 373
betimes in menacing difficulties ; yet it is fair to
say that they have exhibited dignity, resolution,
self-reliance, and a reconstructive ability beyond
praise. Many persons imagined the Catholics
would wish them evil, and would break forth into
ebullitions of exultation, or expressions of derision,
when in the Church Synod stormy scenes now and
again marked the debates on " Revision." Nothing
of the kind occurred. The Catholics of Ireland, on
the whole, rather rejoiced to see how well a body
of Irish gentlemen could legislate on Irish affairs ;
and I believe it to be the fact that, as a sort of
Irish Protestant-Church Parliament, the Synod
was popular with most Catholic Irishmen.
A great English moral philosopher — Bishop
Butler — has observed that " it is one of the peculiar
weaknesses of human nature, when upon a com
parison of two things one is found to be of greater
importance than the other, to consider this other
as of scarce any iraportance at all." It seems to be
only another view of this weakness to say that
near and present objects have a tendency to obscure
objects that are distant and remote. Ireland, in the
course of the last three centuries, has experienced
several disestablishments and disendowments ; but
the legislation of 1869 so engrosses the eyes of

374 NEW IRELAND.

our mind that we fail to realise the previous pro
cesses, although some of them were every whit as
sudden, as thorough, and as revolutionary as the
one carried out in our own day. Henry VIIL,
Edward VI. , Mary, Elizabeth, Cromwell, and
Charles IL, all in some sense, as well as Mr. Glad
stone, disestablished and disendowed the State
creeds which they found existing; and they all,
except Mr. Gladstone, set up or restored their own
creed in place of that which they destroyed. Mr.
Gladstone differs from all the preceding in this,
that he disestablished the Church to which he
belonged ; and a comparison of his legislation with
that of Henry VIII. suggests the further curious
anomaly that when England was Catholic she dis
established the Catholic Church in Ireland, and
when she was Protestant she disestablished the
Protestant Church in Ireland.
Henry's confiscation of Catholic Church property,
which was in fact continued and carried out by
Edward and Elizabeth (having been for a little
resisted by Mary), was sweeping and unsparing.
It is impossible to calculate the money value of the
spoliation, the number of livings seized, or the
number of clergy dispossessed by the Tudors or by
Cromwell ; but we do know enough of the condition

THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 375
in which the clergy were placed by both of them to
compare these proceedings with Mr. Gladstone's
measure. We know from Sir James Ware that
Henry VIII. dissolved over five hundred and
twenty abbeys and monasteries, and that Edward
and Elizabeth handed over, or intended to hand
over, aU the Catholic benefices to Protestant pastors
— i.e., all the benefices that escaped lay pillage and
appropriation — but how many those benefices were,
we know not. We know, too, that CromweU, while
he gave up the churches to be ransacked for their
roofs and furniture, reserved the Church lands and
tithes for the Parliament, and that he disposed of
them to " non-adventurers," on short leases, while
he turned the clergy adrift. Under his rule in
Ireland, Protestant religious ministrations through
the country, so far as they were supplied at all,
were probably in the main supplied by the existing
Church incumbents who consented to use the
Directory instead of the Prayer Book, and who,
on the Protector's death, flocked in a body to the
standard of the Restoration.
We have abundant information from the highest
sources as to the condition of ecclesiastical affairs
from Henry VIII.'s act to Cromwell's time. We
have in Protestant historians, such as Collier, Cox,

376 NEW IRELAND.

and Leland; in the letters of lords lieutenant,
governors, archbishops, and judges; in the State
papers published by the English and Irish Public
Record offices — an unbroken stream of testimony
complaining and showing that the condition of
religion was scandalous, and the condition of the
clergy deplorable. Spenser the poet, who wrote
his 'View of the State of Ireland' about 1594,
relates these things. The volumes of State papers
of James I., edited with a preface in 1874 by the
Rev. Dr. Russell and Mr. John P. Prendergast, give
harrowing stateraents by Archbishop Loftus and
Bishop Jones, by Judge Saxey and Sir John
Davys, Attorney-General. They tell us "the
Churchmen were for the most part ciphers, and
could not read"; that they were "serving-men
and horseboys, and had two or three benefices
apiece " ; that " gentlemen, women, and Jesuits had
the benefits ofthe benefices"; that "the churches
were in ruins, and that there was no divine service,
no christenings, no sacrament, no congregations,
and no more demonstration of religion than
amongst Tartars";^ that there were "not three
sufficient bishops in all the kingdom"; and that
"the country was swarming with Catholic priests
who were maintained by noblemen."

THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 377
The Irish Convocation itself certified to Charles I.
(1629) that "In the whole Christian world the
rural clergy have not been reduced to such extrerae
contempt and beggary as in this your Highness'
kingdom by means of the frequent appropriations ;
whereby the subject has been left wholly destitute
of all possible means to learn piety to God or
loyalty to their prince." Such was the condition
in which the first disestablishment left the Pro
testant religion and its clergy.
This state of affairs continued in all its features
down to 1647. In that year Lord Lieutenant
Ormond surrendered Dublin to Colonel Michael
Jones and the parliaraentary forces, and was pub
licly thanked by the Protestants for not surren
dering them to their " natural enemies tbe Irish
people." The metropolis was then crowded with
ministers who had flocked in from all parts of the
country to. escape the ravages of the four or five
armies that were marauding the land. The unfor
tunate men with their families, deprived of all
means of subsistence, were literally fed by the
weekly allowance of bread granted them by
Ormond ; and they soon had occasion to perceive
how much reason there was for gratitude to
Colouel Jones and the Puritans. They petitioned

378 NEW IRELAND.

for leave to continue to use the Prayer Book
instead of the Directory, and were refused as
"ill and unworthy preaching ministers"; they
petitioned for bread, and were told that " if they
wanted State pay they should do the State some
service and enlist."* The degradation of the
Episcopalians was now complete. The churches
were given up to the soldiery for wreck and ruin ;
and it is impossible to conceive that there can
have been any ministrations of religion anywhere
outside the cities and garrison towns. This state
of religious havoc came to an end with the fall of
the Commonwealth; and the Restoration in 1660
replaced Church matters as they in effect continued
down to the Whig Church Temporalities Act in
1833. CromweU's reservation of the tithes and
Church lands, and his short leases, facilitated the
restitution of the endowment, which was abun
dantly supplemented by the Act of Settiement out
of the forfeited lands' of the Catholics ; and the
State Church was once again made wealthy and
lordly. Passing over the intermediate period from the
* Eev. Dr. EusseU and Mr. Prendergast's 'Eeport on the
Carte Manuscripts,' pp. 104, 105, in 32nd Eeport of Irish
Public Eecord Oface, 1871.

2HE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 379
Restoration to Lord Grey's Whig ministry, we
come to the statistics of the first Irish Church
Temporalities Act in 1833. Lord Althorp, the
Home Secretary, then inforraed Parliament that
the Irish benefices were at that tirae 1401, 4
archbishops and 18 bishops, 22 dioceses; the net
incorae of the prelates £130,000 a year, the total
Church revenue £732,000 a year; and that there
were 57 churches in which no service had been
performed for three years. The act, besides
abolishing the parish cess, suppressed 2 arch^
bishoprics, 8 bishoprics, the unused churches, and
handed over the araount of income, about £113,000
a year, to the then appointed Ecclesiastical Com"
mission for the supply of Church requisites
throughout the country. In 1867 the late Lord
Derby, who, as Irish Secretary, helped to carry
the act of 1833, issued a commission to report on
the temporalities of the Irish Church, and that
commission reported 2 archbishops, 10 bishops, 32
deans, 33 archdeacons, 1509 incumbents and 500
curates, 1518 benefices; the net income ofthe
prelates £58,031, and the total income of the
Church £613,984 a year.
So matters stood with the Episcopal Protestant
Church of Ireland in 1868. When in the following

38o NE W IRELAND.
year Mr. Gladstone's great act became law, the
Church was found to contain 2059 annuitants,
mainly clergy, together with a few laymen con
nected with the cathedrals as vicars-choral. To
these annuities to the amount of £590,892 were
payable. The Church had also possession of
various sums, the araount not easy to determine,
arising out of private endowments, together with
the glebes, episcopal palaces, and churches. By
the act of Disestablishraent she was deprived of
all except the churches. In lieu of the private
endowraents a sum of £500,000 was granted ;
while glebes and bishops' houses were made pur
chasable on certain easy terms prescribed by the
act. In dealing with the annuitants, the simple
principle was adopted of paying every man his
due as long as he lived. In order to avoid the
long and tedious process which should otherwise
have to be undertaken by the Treasury, certain
terras of commutation were offered ; viz., the
payment of a capital sum for each annuitant's
case — depending on his age, the Government
offices' rate of mortality and value of money 3g
per cent., to which was finally added 12 per cent.
on the capital sums thus estimated in consideration
of supposed better average life of clergy, and of

THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 381
the expenses of management. On receipt of these
sums, the clergy consenting to the extent of three-
fourths of their number in each diocese, the Repre
sentative Body, chartered by the Crown, was to
undertake the payment of the annuities,. After
consideration, the bishops and clergy — with the
exception of about a hundred of their number —
accepted these terms ; in consequence of which the
Representative Body has received in the shape of
advances from the Treasury through the Irish
Church Temporalities Commission, sums for com
mutation of annuities amounting to £7,563,144.
The number of annuitants was 2059 ; annui
ties payable, £590,892 ; commutation capital,
£7,563,144 ; interest of money, 3^ per cent. ;
year's purchase, 12*8; average age, 56.
It will be seen that a return of 8 per cent, on
the commutation capital would pay the annuities.
It was anticipated that by judicious investment 4
per cent, could be earned. The principle enforced
by those who led the movement which ended in
inducing the clergy to commute for their incomes,
and take the Representative Body as their pay
master instead of the Treasury, may be thus stated:
" If you consent to commute, and if we can induce
the laity to subscribe an annual sum equal to the

382 NE W IRELAND.

other 4 per cent., we shall be able to save the
capital, to pay your annuities, and prevent the
entire burden of supporting religion from falling
on our descendants." To the laity they addressed
the sarae language, saying in addition : " Under the
Act you are entitled to the life services of your
clergy without paying them a penny. If you adopt
a selfish policy, and say " (as some did), " ' We will
enjoy this benefit ; and let those that come after take
care of themselves,' a burden will be thrown on
Irish Protestants which will be difficult to bear ;
for the day must come when the last penny will
have to be sold out to pay the last man of the
annuitants." These arguments prevailed, and, as
will be seen, the Irish Protestant laity have done
their duty manfully by their Church.*
When the act was framed it was foreseen that
there would be a considerable reduction in the
number of the clergy, and accordingly all the
annuitants were enabled to enter into terms with
the Representative Body by which their services
might be dispensed with, and in consideration a
certain portion of the capital sum corresponding to
their annuities would go to the Representative
* The great defaulters were the absentee Protestant land
proprietors.

THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 383
Body for Church purposes. Under this authority
a Table of Compositions was framed, on the prin
ciple that an annuitant of 35 years of age should
get one-third, one of 65 and upwards two-thirds,
of his commutation capital ; the sum increasing
by one-ninetieth for each year of age between
these limits ; and going down by a ninetieth for
ages below 35. Under this table a considerable
number of the annuitants compounded ; as may be
judged from the fact that between compounders and
deaths duringthe seven years from 1870 to 1877 the
number of annuitants has been reduced to 1052.
By the operation of composition there was of course
a large reduction in the commutation capital, a
corresponding reduction in annuities payable, and
a large Composition Balance acquired for Church
purposes, amounting at present to about £1,300,000.
At first it was intended to administer the whole
finance of the Church from one centre in Dublin ;
but on better reflection a kind of " Home Rule "
or " Federal plan " has been adopted. Each diocese
manages its own affairs, subject to certain general
principles, under the control of the Representative
Body, which meets once a month in Dublin. This
body consists of 48 elected and 12 coopted
members. Election and cooption take place every

384 NE W IRELAND.
year ; but members once elected or coopted hold
their places for three years. All mone}' collected
under these schemes is sent up to headquarters,
and paid out again as stipends (under warrants
drawn on the Bank of Ireland) to the proper
parties, as directed by the several diocesan
councils. During the last seven years the laity
have contributed in this way £1,610,703, of which
£37,500 was received from England. In addition
to this must be counted all the sums expended in
each locality by the select vestries of each parish
for care of churches. Estimating this at the
moderate sum of £80 each for 1243 parishes, the
present nuraber, this would represent a further
contribution of £596,640 ; so that in all the laity
have contributed within the last seven years
£2,207,343 — a fact which deserves to be widely
known to the credit of the Protestants of Ireland.
The operation of these "Diocesan Schemes"
consists mainly in forming a " Stipend Fund "
for future purposes. Several "unions" of parishes
have been effected for economy, but very few if
any have been suppressed.
Many and wide were the speculations as to how
DisestabHshment would affect the doctrine and
rubrics of the Irish Protestant Church. Although

THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 385
legislatively united in 1800, and declared to be
" one and indivisible," the English and Irish
Churches were never, since 1640, identical in the
nature and spirit of their Protestantism. The
former was on the whole Lutheran or High
Church ; the latter was on the whole Calvinist or
Low Church. In England the Restoration almost
effaced the characteristics of Puritan Protestantism.
In Ireland that event made little change, and Irish
Protestantism visibly retains to this day the
imprint it received at the Cromwellian period.
Legislative regulation created a uniformity between
the two bodies sure to be modified on such an
opportunity as that presented by Disestablishment.
For the last four or five years the Church Synod
in Dublin has been engaged in the critical and
serious purpose of revision. To any one who
could regard with levity the labours of earnest
and conscientious raen engaged in such a work,
the debates, often angry and stormy, sometiraes
truly comical in their episodes, would afford great
scope for sarcasm. An extreme party seemed
plainly bent on " revising " the Book of Comraon
Prayer into a blank, and reforming the Reformation
in the most sweeping manner. The episcopal
office and clerical character seemed to them
VOL. II. 2 c

386 NE W IRELAND.

remaining relics of antique Romanism. The
supernatural in sacramental subjects they appeared
to regard as merely superstitious. Several tiraes
did a secession seem inevitable. More than once
did Dr. Trench in mournful tone point out the
logical tendency of some of the changes proposed.
Nevertheless it may be said that the middle party
has carried its way, and moderated everything.
The three principal questions discussed have been
(1) the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian
Creed ; (2) the baptismal service — (" seeing that
this child is now regenerate ") ; and (3) the
Ordinal — the words "Receive the Holy Ghost for
the office and work of a priest in the Church of
God." The last two were left untouched after
much discussion. As to the first, it was in one
year's Synod carried that the damnatory clauses
should be altogether omitted, as forming no part
of the articles of belief. Ultimately the Creed was
left untouched in its place, but the raandatory
rubric requiring it to be read thirteen times in the
year in the public service was removed.
The Episcopal Protestant Church of Ireland has
lost nothing, and has gained much, especially in its
freedom of action, by Disestablishment. Yet what
a revolution, what a change from the Old Ireland

THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH. 387
to the New does this one event alone bring to our
view ! There is no conviction deeper or stronger
in the English mind to-day than was the conviction
forty years ago — nay, twenty years ago — ^that
England woiUd spend her last shilling and fire her
last gun in maintaining the State connection and
ascendancy of the Protestant Church in Ireland.
What overthrow of the empire was not such a
frightful event as Disestablishment supposed to
involve! It has come to pass, and, lo ! — the
empire stands !

2 c 2

388 NEW IRELAND.

CHAPTER XVI.
IRELAND AT WBSTMmSTBR.
The Kerry election fulfilled in its effects the anti
cipations of English and Irish public opinion.
It was accepted on all hands as a decisive event.
Every one realised that it • marked an important
turning-point in Irish politics, that an entirely
new era was at hand.
The time had now come for the Home Govern
ment Association — which had always declared
itself to be merely the precursor of a really autho
ritative national body — to summon the country as
it were into council, and let Ireland discuss and
formulate the national programme. Hitherto the
members of that organisation were only a party,
pushing their propaganda so far no doubt with
overwhelming success. But there were other
parties in the country. There were the old Repeal
party, the Liberal party, the Land party, the

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 389
Catholic Education party — the latter supposed to
include most of the bishops ; and above all there
was the Fenian party, broken, disrupted, and
weakened, but not destroyed. None of them had
the mandate of the country authorising it to lead
the way.
In the autumn of 1873 the Council of the Home
Government Association decided to co-operate in
calling a great National Conference to consider
the question of Home Rule. There was hesitation
and debate for some time as to whether it should
be convened by an " open " requisition — that is,
one expressing no opinion on the subject or scheme
to be considered — or by one which would in itself
be a National Declaration. I was amongst those
who favoured the former view ; but Mr. Butt, who
was on the other side, prevailed. He argued with
much force that no matter what pains might be
taken to render the Conference an influential and
representative assembly, the English press might
still say its utterance was only the decision of
some three or four hundred individuals ; whereas
a National Requisition, signed by ten thousand
persons of position and influence, affirming the
Home Rule scheme, would in itself be a great
authority. In October 1873, accordingly, a requi-

390 NEW IRELAND.

sition was circulated through the post to members
of corporations, town commissioners, and other
popularly elected representatives, magistrates,
clergyraen, members of Parliament, &c., in the
following terms : —
We, the undersigned, feel bound to declare our conviction
that it is necessary to the peace and prosperity of Ireland, and
would be conducive to the strength and stability of the United
Kingdom, that the right of domestic legislation on all Irish
affairs should be restored to our country; and that it is
desirable that Irishmen should unite to obtain that restoration
upon the following principles.
The principles of the Home Government Asso
ciation, as given in a previous chapter, were then
set forth, and the Requisition concluded in these
words :¦ — ¦
We hereby invite a Conference to be held at such time and
place as may be found generally most convenient, of aU those
favourable to the above principles, to consider the best and
most expedient means of carrying them into practical effect.
The desire being to obtain not so much a long
list of unknown names as the signatures of
representative persons, or men in whatsoever
position known to command either social or popular
influence, the document was not left at public
places, or indiscriminately circulated. Nevertheless,
in a few weeks it received the signatures not of

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 391
merely ten thousand such persons, as was hoped
for, but twenty-five thousand. Every class and
creed, every profession, every representative body,
was represented in that vast array. As Mr. Butt
anticipated, it was very generally felt that such
a Declaration was in itself a national authorisation.
On Tuesday the 18th of November 1873, and
on the three next succeeding days, the Conference
assembled in the great circular hall of the Rotunda
— a place of meeting selected not merely because of
its size, but for its historic associations. There it
was that the celebrated Convention of the Irish
Volunteers, under the Earl of Charlemont, held
their deliberations in 1783. For nearly a century
that hall had been the scene of the most striking
and important political displays. There was not
an orator or patriot whose name survives in the
history of the past century whose voice had not
echoed vsdthin those waUs. Nearly nine hundred
delegates or members, gathered from every county
in the kingdoin, attended on this occasion ; and
the galleries thrown open to the public, capable of
accommodating six hundred persons, were crowded
throughout the four days' session with ladies and
gentlemen, many of whom had come long distances
in order to be present.

392 NE W IRELAND.
With one voice the presidency of this iraportant
asserably was conferred on Mr. William Shaw,
M.P., a Protestant gentleman of high character, a
banker and leading merchant in Cork city. There
was rauch curiosity as to what the tone and temper
of the proceedings would be. Some of the leading
Liberal organs in London told their readers all
about it two days before the chair was taken.
There would be " a Donnybrook row in the first
hour of the sitting." The Conference certainly
was not what is called " a Quaker's meeting " ;
there was free and active discussion ; every point
under consideration was canvassed closely. But
the British Parliament in its best days was never
more orderly, with a really important national
subject under debate, from first to last. Through
out the four days no division was challenged on
any resolution but one, and against that a solitary
voice was raised. With scarcely an alteration,
the principles and programme of the Home
Government Association were affirrhed by national
authority, and that organisation thereupon being
dissolved, a new one, '•' The Irish Home Rule
League," was established to take charge of the
national movement. By the early part of
December this body was organised. The Christ-

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 393
mas holidays were now close at hand ; it was
necessary to postpone for a few weeks the com
mencement of active operations, but it was
decided to open the new year with a vigorous
registry campaign all over the kingdom. By the
middle of January 1874, a series of reports on
the condition of the several constituencies were
forthcoming. From these it was clear that by
attention to the registries in the ensuing summer
and autumn, seventy-two Home Rule members out
of one hundred and three Irish representatives
raight certainly be returned at the next general
election. That the session about to open in
February would be the last of the existing Parlia
ment, that there would be a dissolution in the
autumn, was accepted as a certainty. The only
fear which now troubled the League was that the
elections might be taken in the early summer,
before the next revision of the parliamentary
voters' lists. In this case the opportunity would
be half lost; not more than thirty seats, it was
thought, could be carried. A stunning surprise
was about to burst upon us all !
On Saturday morning, the 24th of January
1874, the announcement was flashed throughout
the kingdom that Mr. Gladstone had "dissolved"!

394 NEW IRELAND.
Not a whisper of such a determination on his part
had been heard even the previous day. It was
only after midnight that a favoured few learned
the astonishing fact by telegraph. The coup was
so sudden that it staggered every one, friend and
foe. To us of the Home Rule League it brought
something like dismay. Here we were, caught at
utter disadvantage ; no registries completed, no
constituencies organised, no candidates selected.
Yet never did men encounter so sudden and serious
an emergency more resolutely than the council of
the League faced this trial. They " stripped to
the work," and may be said to have sat en per
manence from two o'clock on Sunday the 25th of
January till Saturday the 14th of February.
They issued an " Address to the People of Ire
land," telling them that under the circumstances
of this surprise every constituency must only fight
its own battle, and let a grand enthusiasm com
pensate for want of preparation. It was a furious
combat. One formidable difficulty soon embar
rassed the Home Rulers — a want of suitable
candidates. The League Council had set out with
refusing to supply or " recommend " any, prefer
ring to let each locality select for itself. This
idea, however, had to be abandoned. From north.

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 395
south, east, and west came the importunate appeal,
" Send us a candidate." " Candidates ! candi
dates ! " was the cry. " Here is our county going
adrift for want of a candidate !" "Is our borough
to be lost in this way for want of a candidate ?
Send us any one who is a Home Ruler !" Any
thing like choice as to ability had to be given up
as hopeless ; the only qualification required being
honesty of adherence to Horae Rule. Nothing
could better exeraplify the temper of the Irish
constituencies — the inexorable determination to
grasp a candidate of some sort, or any sort, who
would declare for Horae Rule — than what occurred
in Waterford county. That constituency was
overwhelmingly Home Rule, yet in the utter want
of candidates there was nothing for it but to
allow the late merabers. Lord Charles Beresford,
Conservative, and Sir John Esmonde, Liberal, to
be re-elected unopposed. The people were indig
nant. An unknown London " carpet-bagger," whose
name has escaped my meraory, lan across one day
from Paddington and issued bright green placards
announcing himself effusively as a candidate in
favour of Home Rule. He was hailed with rapture.
The League denounced his candidature, and issued
an address beseeching the electors not to be fooled

396 NEW IRELAND.

by so offensive and barefaced a trick. Neither Lord
Charles Beresford nor Sir John Esmonde was a
Home Ruler, but they both were honourable men
in public life. There was a friendly regard for
Lord Charles as brother of the Marquis of Water
ford. Sir John Esmonde was by marriage the
representative of Henry Grattan's family, which
counted for much with Irishmen. To reject either
of these gentlemen for a Man in the Moon " Home
Ruler " from London Bridge would have been
monstrous. Every exertion was accordingly used
by the League leaders to expose the transaction..
However, the clever Cockney poUed several hun
dred votes as a " Home Ruler ."
It was a serious reflection how far men retumed
in such haste and at such haphazard as this would
be found to supply the elements requisite for the
formation of a really influential and effective
parliamentary party. How many of them would
be half-hearted men. Liberals who hoisted Home
Rule to secure re-election ? How many of them
would be extreme raen, who would tire of a
Fabian policy and soon cry out that moderation
and constitutionalism had failed ? How many of
them would exhibit a fatal complaisance lest they
might be thought " extreme " ? How many would

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 397
lack the intelligence or the raanly courage to
adopt a moderate course, lest it might be thought
"unpopular"? Would a patty so returned exhibit
unity, cohesion, strength ; or would they prove
to be " a heap of uncemented sand " ? These were
pressing anxieties in many a breast throughout
that time.
At length the desperate struggle was over ; the
last return was made, and men, drawing breath,
looked around to see how the day had gone. A
great shout went up from Ireland. " Victory !
Victory !" was the cry from end to end of the
land. For the first time, under the shield of the
ballot, a national representation freely elected by
the people had been returned; and for the first
time since the overthrow of the Irish ParHament
in 1800 a clear and strong majority of the national
representation were arrayed in solemn league and
covenant to restore it. None were more astonished
than the Horae Rule leaders at the extent of their
success. Under the disadvantages of " the Glad
stone surprise," they had hoped to returii between
thirty and forty men. They had carried about
sixty seats.* In the previous ParHament there
* They suffered but two defeats. In Monaghan county
Mr. John Madden of HUton Park, , Conservative Home Euler,

398 NE W IRELAND.
sat for Irish constituencies fifty-five Liberals, thirty-
eight Conservatives, and ten Home Rulers. The
new elections returned twelve Liberals, thirty-one
Conservatives, and sixty Horae Rulers. Ulster
sent two Home Rulers and five Liberals for seats
previously held by Conservatives. The two Ulster
Home Rulers were returned by Cavan county.
The prosperous capital of northern Protestantisra,
Belfast, furnished one of these gentlemen, Mr.
Joseph Gillis Biggar, late chairman of the Belfast
Water Commissioners. The other, Mr. Charles
Joseph Fay, belonged to an old and influential
Catholic faraily in the county. The successful
Liberals in the sarae province were Mr. Sharman
Crawford, returned for the county Down — son of
that Mr. William Sharman Crawford, M.P., referred
to in a previous chapter as the veteran leader of the
Protestant Tenant Right party ; Mr. Taylor for
Coleraine ; Mr. Dickson, who came in for historic
Dungannon — both of these gentleraen being large

faUed to obtain election ; and in Tralee borough The
O'Donoghue, as an anti-Home Eule Liberal, defeated Mr. Daly,
Mayor of Cork, the Home Eule candidate, by three votes. I
believe the majority of votes actually given was against The
O'Donoghue ; but through informality in marking some of the
ballot papers he was " counted in " by three votes.

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 399
manufacturers in the north ; Mr. Hugh Law, Q.C.,
and Mr. Richard Smyth for Derry county. Mr.
Law held an eminent position at the bar, and was
Solicitor-General for Ireland. Mr. Smyth was a
Presbyterian clergyman, had been Moderator of
the General Assembly a few years previously, and
was just then Professor of Oriental Languages in
the Presbyterian College of Derry. Of the Irish
Home Rulers, eleven were Protestants, and forty-
eight Catholics ; of the Liberals, nine were Pro
testants, three Catholics ; all the Conservatives
were Protestants. It may be doubted that any
constituency in Ireland made greater sacrifice in
demonstration of its Home Rule convictions than
the town of Drogheda. Its representation was
sought by Mr. Benjamin Whitworth, a Protestant
Liberal gentleman. He was a leading merchant
in Manchester, but was connected with Drogheda
by faraily, by birth, and by the ties of numerous
benefits conferred on the town as an employer and
a citizen. Mr. Whitworth would be strongly in
favour of Home Rule if he were sure it did not in
volve separation. He feared it did, and so he would
not declare for the one question now supreme in
the popular estimation. The disappointment, the
regret, of the Drogheda people was something

400 NE W IRELAND.
astonishing. There was not a man in the universe
they would rather elect " if he would but say the
one word." Had Mr. Whitworth been like too
many poHticians, he might easily have managed
the difficulty by a slippery or ambiguous phrase ;
but he was too honest for that. The constituency
on their part were too regardful of duty and prin
ciple to give way. A deputation went up to the
League for "a candidate," and roundly swore they
would not leave Dublin without one. With some
difficulty they found a gentleman who consented
to stand, and they placed him at the head of the
poU. I think I may say the next most striking exem
plification of the intensity of the popular feeling
was displayed in my own election by the county of
Louth, for which I was returned by a majority of
two to one over the Right Hon. Chichester For
tescue, now Lord Carlingford. Mr. Fortescue was
one of the leaders and chiefs of the Liberal party.
He was a man of recognised ability, and filled
a prominent place not only in Irish but imperial
politics. He was a Cabinet minister in the Glad
stone adrainistration at the time of this contest;
and as Chief Secretary for Ireland, virtually
governed the country. For no less than twenty-

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 401
seven years consecutively he had represented
Louth. He was brother of Lord Clermont, one of
the most extensive landowners, one of the best and
tbe kindliest, in the county. Personally no man
had a higher position or stronger claims. But he
had passed the severest Coercion BUl ever imposed
upon Ireland, and was of course opposed to Home
Rule. The Louth contest was naturally considered
one of the most important in the whole campaign.
Its result, the defeat of such a man as Mr. For
tescue, created a profound sensation.
While Home Rule was placed first and beyond
all public measures or subjects, there were three
others which went to raake up what may be
called the national platform at this election :
Amendment of the Gladstone Land Act ; Denomi
national Education ; and an Amnesty for the
Political Prisoners. These three questions com
manded the individual support of the Home Rule
members in nearly every case.
It was singular to note how largely Irish Pro
testantism had, on this occasion, as so often before,
furnished leaders to the national movement. The
Home Rule chief, par excellence, was Isaac Butt,
and beside him there were John Martin, Mitchell-
Henry, WUHam Shaw, and Sir John Gray; all
VOL. II. 2 D

402 NEW IRELAND.
Protestants. Equally remarkable was the fact that
the most Catholic, or, as it would be said, " Ultra
montane," constituencies elected Protestant Home
Rulers. Those who believe that Irish Catholics
import religious exclusiveness into politics, or doubt
that Protestant lord and CathoHc peasant might
mingle in community of feeling as Irishmen, should
see Lord Francis Conyngham in the midst of the
" frieze coats " of Clare, the object of loyal confi
dence, hearty affection, and personal devotion.
The dissolution of 1874 was a disastrous coup for
the great leader of English Liberalism. It resulted
in the overthrow of his party. The new ParHa
ment opened with a Conservative ministry not
only in office but in power. Mr. Disraeli found
hiraself at the head of three hundred and sixty
devoted followers ; while not more than about two
hundred and forty stood beneath the banner of the
late Premier. As to the remaining sixty, a state
of things previously unknown was about to present
itself. Iramediately on the conclusion of the elec
tions, the Irish Home Rule raembers asserabled in
the council-chamber of the City Hall, Dublin, and
after deliberation earnest and prolonged adopted
resolutions constituting themselves " a separate
and distinct party in the House of Commons." In

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 403
truth it was upon this understanding, expressed or
implied, they were one and all returned. They
forthwith proceeded to raake the requisite arrange
ments to such an end. Nine of their body were
elected to act as an executive council. Secretaries
and " whips" were duly appointed. Motions and
measures were agreed upon lor introduction. Thus
constituted, marshalled, and organised, the Irish
Home Rulera took their seats in the imperial
Parliament. Serious and difficult was the work those men
had entered on. It had been no light and easy
task to bring the Irish millions anew to give their
confidence to constitutional endeavours. The resorts
of physical force they did not indeed believe in,
else the Fenian enterprise had been more for
midable ; but not a great deal more brightly had
they at first regarded the prospects of parlia
mentary action. Behind that Home Rule party
at Westminster stood those millions, hoping, doubt
ing, fearing ; eagerly and narrowly watching every
move ; ready to reciprocate conciliation, but dan
gerously quick to resent hostihty. The bulk of
the nation was fairly wilHng to try out a reasonably
patient, persevering policy, but there was a section
who hoped nothing from Parliament, and who
2 D 2

404 NE W IRELAND.

would rejoice to find the English members voting
down everything with an undiscriminating " No !"
The Home Rule leaders knew the nature of the
elements they had to deal with, and were fully
aware that events might throw the game into the
hands of the more extreme and impatient section of
their people. They decided to offer a bridge to the
opposing forces of Irish demand and English
refusal. Apart from the question of Home Rule,
which they knew would require much time, they
resolved to lay before the House of Comraons
several scheraes of practical legislation, the raerits
of which could hardly be contested, and the success
of which raight fairly be expected. The concession
of these would, on the one hand, lead the English
people gradually to look into the nature of Irish
clairas, and, on the other hand, lead the Irish
people to place more confidence in constitutional
effort. It was probably the best and wisest policy
such a party could devise. " You will gain nothing
by it," said some araongst thera ; " you will accom
plish nothing by this moderation. You will be
blindly voted down all the same. It is a policy of
combat you should set yourselves to pursue." " We
shall try that, if we must ; but not if we can avoid
it," answered the Home Rule chiefs.

IRELAND AT WESTMINSTER. 405
Amidst such circumstances, beset by such diffi
culties, inspired by such hopes, facing so grave a
problem, the Irish Home Rule party pushed for
ward from 1874 to 1877, the exponents of a new
policy, the representatives of a New Ireland at
Westminster.

4o6 NEW IRELAND.

CHAPTER XVII.
LOSS AND GAIN.
In that well-known and once seditious ballad
'The Wearing of the Green,' an anxious query
is pressed as to how it fares with Ireland —
And how does she stand ?
So may we, ere we close the record and quit our
theme, ask how stands Ireland in 1877. In what
is she most changed? What is the loss or gain
between the old tirae and the new ?
Although, contrasted with the development of
nations in the long enjoyment of healthy life, the
progress of Ireland — material and inteUectual,
social, industrial, educational and political — may
be found sadly slow, and in some respects cruelly
retarded, yet, compared with her own dismal
historic standards, she has made great strides within
the present generation. The really important fact
is, that with the little she has gained she has done

LOSS AND GAIN. 407
more, and bids fair to accomplish relatively greater
things, than any nation of them all.
Serious and heavy are the material losses to be
weighed in taking a balance and estimating gains
upon this period. The country that has lost in
thirty years one-third of its population — a million
by famine, and two millions by despairing flight —
must have received a well-nigh mortal wound. No
glozing faUacies, no heartless theories, have availed
to stamp upon the Irish Famine and Exodus any
character less dark than that of utter calamity.
Yet Ireland has survived the blow. Economically
and industrially its weakening effects will long
be visible ; but the vitality of the nation has
triumphantly asserted itself. Despite all disaster
and difficulty, Ireland is marching on.
It is not easy to arrive at accurate conclusions
as to the extent of Ireland's material progress
between 1845 and 1875. The necessary records
were not in existence, or were very defective, thirty
years ago ; and some of the tests and comparisons
frequently applied are most fallacious. That pro
gress depends almost entirely on agriculture ; manu
facturing industry being still but little known.
For some years past many signs attest that the
agricultural classes in Ireland have made con-

4o8 NEW IRELAND.
siderable advance, and a decided increase in the
national wealth has been thus acquired. But hardly
any one seeras to notice the important fact that
this has arisen less from extension of earning
power, or of productive area, than from a rise in
the price of certain agricultural products. A con
siderable increase in the price of coal a few years
ago brought extravagantly " good tiraes " to the
colliers and raine-owners while it lasted, though
the out-put was no greater than before. If nothing
occur to send back the prices of beef and mutton,
milk and butter, eggs and poultry, Ireland will
have established a substantial gain in material
prosperity. But this present glow of " good prices "
is too commonly confounded with the solid increase
of wealth that results frora increased productive
ness. It is in great part perilously adventitious.
There are, however, numerous indications that the
respite from hardship, the comparative comfort,
which the farraing classes have thus experienced
has been turned by them to great account. These
few years of better circurastances, together with
the influence of certain other changes, educational
and political, in the country, have had a startling
effect on the agricultural population. Never again,
, without such struggle as may astonish the king-

LOSS AND GAIN. 409
dom, wiU they submit to the serfdom and destitu
tion of old times.
The educational progress and attainments of
Ireland within the past thirty years will bear no
comparison with what has been accomplished in
Belgium, America, Germany, France, Scotland,
England, or Switzerland. But the effect and influ
ence on Ireland of the measure of educational gain
achieved within that period has been incalculable.
It has, as I have already said, revolutionised the
country. The educational facilities and oppor
tunities within the reach of the Irish people are
still — especially as regards intermediate and uni
versity education — " miserably bad, scandalously
bad." The Government holds to its determination
to force on the Irish millions a scheme admittedly
out of accord with their conscientious convictions ;
and thus the precious aid which popular sympathy
and national enthusiasm would bring is utterly lost
to our primary-school system. As to university
and intermediate education in Ireland, the condi
tion of affairs is a reproach to the nineteenth
century. It is truly lamentable that in such a
matter as education the policy of force majeure
should stiU be pursued towards a people to whom
such a huge arrear of educational restitution is

4 1 o NEW IRELAND.

due. This is hardly the way to make requital to
Ireland for a century of laws that hunted down
the schoolmaster and put a price upon his head.
One of the best and brightest changes visible in
Ireland is the almost total disappearance of sec
tarian animosities, and the kindly mingling of
creeds and classes in the duties of everyday life.
Even still, no doubt, in one particular corner of
the island, there linger traces of the old and evil
spirit beneath whose accursed influence man spilled
the blood of his fellow-man in the outraged name
of Religion. But even in Ulster these insensate
feuds are steadily giving way. Such passions do
not suddenly subside. Long after better and
nobler feelings have gained the mastery, the fitful
spasms of expiring fanaticism will occasionally
present their ghastly spectacle ; but the end is
none the less inevitably at hand. In Derry city
the annual displays that formerly involved periodi
cal wreck and bloodshed have for the past five or
six years, with scarcely an exception, been cele
brated amidst declarations and demonstrations of
mutual tolerance and good feeling. In Belfast and
one or two of the neighbouring towns no such
happy result has as yet been safely assured ; but
in these places the local leaders on each side have

LOSS AND GAIN. 411

many difficulties to contend with. Every party
and faction has its camp-followers and irregulars,
who, amenable to no discipline, often stain by
their excesses, and compromise by their assaults,
the cause which they pretend to serve. Every
season it becomes more and more plain that Ulster
Orangeman and Ulster Catholic are equally de
sirous of terminating a state of things which was
the scandal of Ireland and the reproach of
Christianity. Elsewhere, throughout the remaining provinces
of the kingdom, concord, tolerance, and kindly
feeling largely prevail. The coincidence whereby
the lines of religious demarcation correspond, as a
general rule, with the political in Ireland — Pro
testant being generally synonymous with Con
servative, and Catholic with Liberal — is very
unfortunate ; for often a conflict seems to be sec
tarian when, in fact, it is only political. On the
whole, the painfully sharp distinctions and classifi
cations of old times have softened down ; and the
different social classes and religious denominations
no longer resemble so many warring tribes en
camped upon the land.
It is, however, in the domain of politics that the
most serious changes are to be noted in Ireland.

412 NEW IRELAND.
The gravity and importance of those changes will
be recognised only when they are studied in the
twofold aspect of their effect on Ireland herself,
and their effect on England.
There never was a period until now, since the
passing of the Union, in which the Irish repre
sentation was not amenable to the influences, and
more or less subject to the authority, of the
governing parties. Liberal or Conservative — the
ministerial or ex-ministerial chiefs — in London.
Had it been otherwise, many a time it might have
been a serious peril for England to have had a
hundred and five Irishraen with their hands on
the lever of iraperial affairs at Westminster. As
it was, they were merely so many imperial Whigs
and Tories, whose action in the main was directed
and controlled by the Melbournes or Lyndhursts,
Russells or Peels, Stanleys or Aberdeens, of the
hour. If the continuance or discontinuance of
such a system now lay whoUy or mainly in the
choice of the representatives themselves, its aban
donraent during a year or two might be a matter
of little moment, as a merely temporary variation.
But a change, a radical change, has been brought
about under very critical circumstances.
It is only within the past thirty or forty years

LOSS AND GAIN. 413
that in Ireland the bulk of the people, long kept
outside the pale of the constitution, may be said
to have actively entered public life. That is to say,
the political influence of Ireland, such as it was,
even so recently as thirty years ago, was exercised
in their name and on their behalf, not by the
people themselves. Ten years ago the franchise
was placed partially within their reach, yet its
use was then, to them, too full of deadly peril to
make the possession a boon. Five years ago, how
ever, came a measure which, as if by the flash of a
magician's wand, has changed the whole aspect of
Irish politics. The ballot has brought, for the
first time, the influence and the will of the Irish
people directly to bear on the assembly at West
minster. With a marvellous rapidity they have
realised the great agencies now vrithin their con
trol. With rather sudden energy they have cast
aside the tutelage of former days. The political
power of Ireland has passed for aye frora the
custody of leaders, managers, and proxy-holders,
in the sense in which they held it and used it of
old. The statesmen who have to deal with the
Ireland of to-day will find that they are face to
face with new elements, new forms and forces,
social, economic, and political.

414 NEW IRELAND.
It becomes of the first importance to appreciate
the temper and tendency, the bent and purpose, of
those milHons whom the School, the Newspaper,
the Franchise, and the Ballot have made masters
of the situation in Ireland. Equally necessary is
it to take into view the one hundred and seventy
thousand Irish voters in the cities and towns of
Britain, daily preparing themselves for more com
plete and resolute co-operation with the efforts of
their countrymen at home. As long as the work
ing classes of England were unenfranchised, these
vast bodies of Celtic material accumulated between
the Tay and the Thames were of Httle account.
But as every day the influence of those classes
increases — as the franchise is extended, and school
board, poor-law, municipal, and parliamentary
elections admit the masses of the people to the
exercise of public power — the men whom Irish
landlordism swept in thousands from their nati^'e
valleys in the western island will as a consequence
be heard from. They are placed in all the great
centres of public opinion and political activity;
and some of the most momentous issues of the near
future will be largely determined, one way or
another, by their aid. Not in a year, nor in two
years, will they be able to constitute or organise

LOSS AND GAIN. 415
themselves, and exhibit perfect discipline and trained
intelligence ; but all this is plainly ahead — is
merely a matter of time. No graver anxiety
can fill the mind of a patriotic Irishman contem
plating these things than that which surrounds
the question as to how, and in what temper, the
Irish people at home and in England may use
the powers within their reach. Here and there,
we may be sure, some errors of impulse, unreason,
or passion will occasionaUy be seen ; and that
impatience of result so characteristic of our race
— greatly but not wholly reformed of late — will
betimes break forth. Above all, it raust be borne
in raind that, like the party of Kossuth suUenly
watching the endeavours of Francis Deak ten
years ago in Hungary, there are men in Ireland,
in America, and in England — few, but not less
determined, some of them more desperate than
ever — who hope in the breakdown of public effort
to have another chance for the resorts of violence.
But there are abundant proofs that the great body
of the Irish people, in sober but resolute purpose,
are deterrained to work out their national policy
by the agencies of public opinion and the weapons
of political power. And assuredly no happier
circumstance has cheered the outlook of Irish

4 1 6 NEW IRELAND.

politics in our century than the daily increasing
exchange of sympathies, and the more loudly
avowed sentiments of reconciliation and friend
ship, between the peoples of Ireland and of Great
Britain. What the veil of the future may hide is not
given to man to know. Enough for us that in
skies long darkened and torn by cloud and storm
sorae welcorae signs of peace and hope appear.
The future is with God.

THE END,

LOj-^DON ; rillisli.U Ulf Ivn.LrAJI CUtWKS AND SONS, ST.VMFORD STKEET
A.'.D CHAltlKG CROSS.

YALE UNIVERSITY L

3 9002 08954 1008