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 THOMAS DAVIS 
 
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 ^^^^.,^^tM^t<^ylVAlte■'■^^ 
 
THOMAS DAVIS 
 
 THE MEMOIRS OF AN lEISH PATRIOT 
 
 1840—1846 
 
 SIR CHARLES GAYAN DUFFY 
 
 K.C.M.G. 
 
 ' Those who live as models for tlie mass 
 Are singly of more value than they all. 
 Keep but the model safe, uew men will rise 
 To take its mouUl, ami other days to prove 
 How great a good was Luiia's liaviug lived" 
 
 Browning 
 
 eaSTDN COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 
 
 LONDON 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TKUBNER & CO., LtI! 
 
 1890 
 
p 
 
 05117 
 
 (7><e rigliit of tramlation arid of Teproiuction art rtterved.') 
 
DEDICATIOX. 
 
 I TEDiCATE this memoir to Englishmen and Irishmen who honestly 
 doubt the de>ire or the capacity of Ireland for self-government. 
 
 They will judge -whether the man depicted in the memoir and 
 Ids associates did not seek a worthy and practicable end by 
 honourable and commensurate means. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER TAGK 
 
 I. The Student. 1831-1838 ... ... ... 1 
 
 11. The Thinker. 1839-1840 ... ... ... 30 
 
 HI. The Politician. 1841-1842 ... ... ... 45 
 
 IV. The Journalist. 1842 ... ... ... 87 
 
 V. The Kecreations of a Patriot. 1843 ... ... 160 
 
 VI. The Statesman. 1844 ... ... ... 212 
 
 VII. Conflicts with O'Connell. 1845 ... ... 256 
 
 VIII. A New Departure. July, 1845 ... ... 318 
 
 IX. Death, Literary Kemains. September, 1845 ... 363 
 
 Appendix ... ... ... ... ... 389 
 
MEMOIE OF THOMAS DAVIS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE STUDENT. 1831-1838. 
 
 There are readers to whom the name of Thomas 
 Davis will sound strange, but to the wide circle to 
 whom it is familiar it represents a unique type of 
 patriotism and integrity. If the educated Irishmen 
 of to-day, of all classes and parties, were required to 
 name the man who came nearest their ideal of an 
 Irish patriot, no one born in the century now drawing 
 to a close would combine so many suffrages as Davis. 
 He has been dead nearly half a century, and no 
 memoir of him has hitherto been published. To 
 write his life was a task which more than one of his 
 early friends desired to undertake. But when he 
 died they were engaged for the most part in ex- 
 hausting public labours, and before he was half a 
 dozen years in his grave many of those who knew 
 him best were scattered to the ends of the earth by 
 political disaster. When they rallied, some years 
 later, the design was not forgotten, but his family 
 were of opinion that the time had not yet come 
 when his posthumous papers might properly be 
 
2 MEMOIE OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 publislied. Now, at length, wlien all the necessary 
 materials are available, only two or three of his 
 comrades survive ; and with their cordial encom*age- 
 ment and assistance I hasten to take up the long- 
 deferred work, lest death should deprive me, too, of 
 the happiness of depicting the best man I have ever 
 known. 
 
 Thomas Davis was born in Mallow, county Cork, 
 on the 14th of October, 1814. When he came into 
 the world Ireland was a garrison, in the same sense 
 that Calcutta or Gibraltar is a garrison to-day. The 
 native population, who were universally Catholics, 
 amounted to between six and seven millions, but 
 none of them under the existing law could occupy 
 any office of authority in their native country. The 
 town where he was born was a type of a system 
 which existed, slightly modified by local circum- 
 stances, in every town in the island. There was 
 some form of municipal government, but the adminis- 
 trators were exclusively Protestants. There was an 
 Established Church, maintained at the common cost 
 of the whole population, for a minority of less than 
 one in a dozen, and more profusely endowed than 
 any estabhshment in Christendom. The only schools 
 supported or recognized by the state were under 
 exclusively Protestant management. Justice was 
 administered in courts in which the entire official 
 staff were of the favoured creed. And the recognized 
 test of what was called " loyalty " was the determi- 
 nation to perpetuate this system, to support Protes- 
 tant ascendancy in the Church, the executive govern- 
 ment, the magistracy and the municipahties. Ireland 
 was represented by a hundred members in the parlia- 
 ment of London, but only Protestants could be 
 
1838.] TTIE STUDENT. 3 
 
 chosen, and, thoiigli votes bad been conferred npon 
 Catbolics twenty years earlier, tbe rural electors 
 were tenants at will, wbo voted under orders of 
 tbeir landlord or bis agent. Tbe Irisb nobility with 
 balf a dozen exceptions lived in England, and tbe 
 resident gentry and professional classes led gay 
 convivial lives, witb little tbougbt of politics beyond 
 tbe necessary precautions to keep tbe populace quiet. 
 A few prosperous Catbolics, in tbe mercantile or 
 professional classes in Dublin, demanded civil and 
 religious liberty from time to time ; but tbe Protes- 
 tants wbo sympatbized witb tbem were scarcely 
 more numerous tban tbe Indian officials to-day wbo 
 would manumit tbe Hindoo. 
 
 Davis belonged by birtb to tbe minority wbo 
 enjoyed tbe monopoly of property and power. His 
 fatber, James Tbomas Davis, was a surgeon in tbe 
 Eoyal Artillery, and served in tbe Peninsular War, 
 with the rank of Inspector of Hospitals. His mother, 
 Mary Atkins, descended from a good Anglo-Irish 
 family, which traced back its line to the great 
 Norman House of Howard, and — what Davis loved 
 better, to remember — to the great Celtic House of 
 0' Sullivan Beare. I found among bis papers this 
 fragment of a letter, in bis own handwriting, which 
 probably tells all tbe reader will care to know on tbe 
 subject : — 
 
 " My father was a gentleman of Welsh blood, but his family 
 had been so long settled in England that they were, and con- 
 sidered themselves, English. He held a commission in the English 
 army. I am descended on my mother's side from a Cromwellian 
 settler whose descendants, though they occasionally intermarried 
 with Irish families, continued Protestants, and in the English 
 interest, and suffered for it in 1688. I myself was brought up 
 High Tory and an EpiscoiDalian Protestant, and if I am no longer 
 
4 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 a Tory it is from conviction, for all those nearest and dearest to 
 me are so still. Forgive this bit of biography. It cannot arise 
 from egotism in an anonymous writer, but I want you [to under- 
 stand my position]." * 
 
 This mixture of Celtic and Norman blood is 
 an amalgam which has nourished noble fruit. Nearly 
 a hundred years earlier, a father of Anglo-Norman 
 descent and a mother of pure Celtic strain reared 
 a son who ranks with Bacon and Milton in the 
 intellectual hierarchy of these islands, and a majority 
 of the most noted Irishmen are of the same mixed 
 race as Edmund Burke. 
 
 Davis was born after his father's death, the 
 youngest of four children, of whom a brother and 
 sister survive. When he was four years of age the 
 family removed to Dublin, living at Warrington Place 
 till 1830, and afterwards at 61 (now 67), Lower 
 Bagot Street, where the survivors still reside. His 
 birthplace was a garden of traditional and historical 
 romance, but he left Mallow so early that it would 
 be fanciful to speak of boyish impressions at an age 
 when he was scarcely breeched. He was educated 
 at the noted school of Mr. Mongan, Lower Mount 
 Street, and in 1831 entered Trinity College. As a 
 
 * "He was, genealogists affirm, a man of old and honourable descent, 
 both on the maternal and paternal side. His mother's family was a branch 
 of the Atkins of Firville, in the county Cork, sharing also the blood of the 
 O'SuUivans. His great grandfather, Sir Jonathan Atkins, of Givensdale, in 
 Yorkshire, was Governor of Guernsey in the seventeenth century, and left, 
 by his first wife, Mary (daughter of Sir Richard Howard, of Neworth Castle, 
 Cumberland, the sister of the first Earl of Carlisle), three sons, the second of 
 whom settled at Fouutainville, county Cork, and was the materiial ancestor 
 of Davis. His father, James Thomas Davis, was the representative of a 
 Buckinghamshire family originally from Wales" ("Young Ireland," chap, 
 iii.). 
 
 From a family genealogy I learn that Eichard Atkins married Anne, only 
 daughter of the O'SuUivan Bcare (she was born in 1712 and died in 175G}, 
 and by her left John Atkins, who married Mary, second daughter of Robert 
 Atkins of Fouutainville, and had two sons and four daughters, the fourth of 
 whom was mother of Thomas Davis. 
 
1838] THE STUDENT. 5 
 
 child he was feeble and delicate, for which the 
 anxiety his mother suffered at his father's premature 
 death will probably account ; and in youth he was 
 subject to frequent fits of despondency — less an indi- 
 vidual trait, I fancy, than an ordinary result of the 
 j^oetic temperament. But when he became a student 
 of Trinity all symptoms of debility had disappeared ; 
 he was fond of long walking excursions, and entered 
 almost immediately on the systematic study which 
 needs a solid reserve of vigour to sustain. His boy- 
 hood passed as the boyhood of poets and thinkers 
 is apt to pass. He was silent, thoughtful, and self- 
 absorbed. We hear, without surprise, that the 
 boisterous spirits of schoolboys oppressed him, and 
 that he took slight pleasure in their sports ; for that 
 is the common lot of his class. So little is known 
 with certainty of that period, that I must borrow 
 from a former book the few particulars I was able 
 to gather from his contemporaries : — 
 
 " One of his kinswomen, then resident in Melbourne, who 
 judged him as the good people judged w^ho mistook the young 
 swan for an ugly duck, assured me that he was a dull child. He 
 could scarcely be taught his letters, and she often heard the school- 
 boy stuttering through ' My Name is Norval ' in a way that was 
 pitiable to see. When he had grown up, if you asked him the day 
 of the month, the odds were he could not tell you. He never was 
 any good at handball or hurling, and knew no more than a fool 
 how to take care of the little money his father left him. She saw 
 him more than once in tears listening to a common country fellow 
 playing old airs on a fiddle, or sitting in a drawing-room as if he 
 were in a dream when other young people were enjoj'ing them- 
 selves ; which facts I doubt not are authentic, though the narrator 
 somewhat mistook their significance. Milton, in painting his own 
 inspired youth, has left a picture which will be true for ever of 
 the class of which he was a chief: — 
 
 " ' When I was yet a child, no childish play 
 To me was pleasing ; all my mind was set 
 
6 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 Serious to learn and know ; and thence to do 
 What might be pnblic good : myself I thonght 
 Born to that end — boin to promote all truth, 
 All righteous things.' " * 
 
 " He was not a precocious boy," said another contemporary ; " he 
 did not speak often or willingly, but an observer who marked how 
 readily the beads of perspiration gathered on his brow would under- 
 stand that there were forces at work under the surface." 
 
 He lived a life of day-dreams, for the most 
 part, — the first and most subtle discipline of a boy 
 of genius. He has told us himself the subject of 
 his reveries. 
 
 "What thoughts were mine in early youth ! 
 Like some old Irish song, 
 Brimful of love, and life, and truth, 
 My spirit gushed along. 
 
 " I hoped to right my native isle, 
 I hoped a soldier's fame, 
 I hoped to rest in woman's smile, 
 And win a minstrel's name." 
 
 When he entered college, in his seventeenth year, 
 we do not pass at once from obscurity to light ; many 
 of his fellow-students and some of his teachers are 
 still living, but they have nothing to tell of that 
 era, except that he was habitually self-absorbed and 
 a prodigious reader. For four or five years he hiber- 
 nated among his books, slowly gathering knowledge 
 and silently framing opinions. From his casual talk 
 he was regarded as a Benthamite, a dumb questioner 
 of authority, discontented with many things estab- 
 lished, but not likely to prove a formidable opponent. 
 In 1836, when he was keeping his last term as a law 
 student in London, one of his early friends saw with 
 amazement silent tears fall down his cheeks at some 
 
 * " Young Ireland," chap. iii. 
 
1838.] THE STUD EXT, 7 
 
 generous allusion to the Irish, character on the stage 
 — a sensibility he was far from expecting in the 
 supposed Utilitarian. 
 
 Though Trinity College was a fortress of Protestant 
 ascendancy, the amj)hitheatre where young athletes 
 were trained to defend the Established Church, the 
 land code, and the exclusive magistracy and munici- 
 palities, it has always reared passionate Nationalists. 
 There is scarcely a man distinguished as an opponent 
 of British supremacy, from Jonathan Swift to Isaac 
 Butt, who was not educated in that institution. In 
 1793 two of its graduates, Thomas Emmet and 
 Wolfe Tone, first taught nakedly the doctrine, that 
 the essential basis of Irish liberty was peace and 
 brotherhood among Protestants and Catholics. Since 
 Catholic emancipation was conceded, Charles Boy- 
 ton, a fellow of the University, with a remarkable 
 gift of popular eloquence, made some discursive 
 attempts to revive the impossible nationality of Flood 
 and Charlemont — a nationality from which the bulk 
 of the nation was excluded. And when Davis matri- 
 culated, there was a little knot of generous Protestants 
 in college who talked to each other the old doctrine 
 of Tone and Emmet — Ireland, not for a sect or 
 a social caste, but for the whole Irish people. Thomas 
 Wallis, a college tutor, Torrens McCuUagh, a young 
 barrister of great colloquial powers, and Francis 
 Kearney, a student, who died before he was called to 
 the Bar, were the leading spirits in this connection. 
 For a time these young men barely knew Davis, and 
 I learned from the survivors that they misunderstood 
 him so completely that one of the set fixed upon him 
 a nickname implying contented mediocrity. They 
 always insisted that his nature had not then 
 
8 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 awakened ; that lie was still slow, laborious, and tame ; 
 and that there was no hint in his conversation of the 
 fountain of thought and passion soon to overflow, 
 or of the indomitable will masked under habitual 
 silence. 
 
 That his fellow-students misjudged Davis's natu- 
 ral endowments became plain enough to themselves 
 in the end ; but I think they misjudged as seriousl}- 
 the condition of his mind when they knew him first. 
 His writings, when he came to write, furnish evidence 
 difficult to resist that his voluminous studies were 
 guided by a purpose from an early period. While 
 the young men about him were dreaming, as the 
 goal of life, to win the great seal or episcopal lawn, 
 this silent student had a rarer and more daring 
 ambition. He resolved to be the servant of his 
 country, as the great men of old who touched his 
 heart had been. If he devoured history, and the 
 historical romance and drama which light up the 
 past, and pondered on the codes, annals, and memoirs, 
 the speculations of economists and moralists, who 
 disclose the laws which govern human conduct, it 
 was that he might not be an unprofitable servant. 
 The foundations of character are laid in boyhood and 
 youth ; and in his verses, where we may most con- 
 fidently seek the secrets of a poet's heart, he tells 
 us how early the hope of serving Ireland began : 
 "when boyhood's fire was in his blood" he read of 
 Leonidas and Thermopylae, and how Horatius and 
 his comrades held the Sublician Bridge, and prayed 
 that he too might be worthy to do some gallant deed 
 for his country. 
 
 " And from that time, throiigli wildest woe, 
 That hope has shone, a far light ; 
 
1838.] THE STUDENT. 9 
 
 Nor could love's brightest siimrf.er glow 
 Outshine that solemn starlight : 
 
 " It seemed to watch above my head 
 In forum, field, and fane ; 
 Its angel voice sang round my bed, 
 'A Nation once again.'" 
 
 He sat down before the chaos of Irish auuals 
 confused by honest ignorance and distorted by in- 
 dustrious malice, determined to understand the story 
 of his native country. So far as we know there was 
 no friendly hand to lead him through this pathless 
 thicket. Fortunate is the youth who has a guide fit 
 to make plain the difficult and to light the obscure 
 places of his study. But is he not stronger and 
 more sure-footed in the end who has made his way 
 over the impediments and through the darkness by 
 his native force ? This silent arduous labour was a 
 discipline for life, and laid the foundations of a con- 
 summate man. In his little den in college, apart 
 from the babble of local politics, he studied the Irish 
 problem in the abstract. He saw in the island all 
 the natural capacity and resources for self-govern- 
 ment. Nature had furnished the first conditions and 
 essential equipments for a great emporium of com- 
 mercial enterprise to this land of multitudinous rivers 
 and harbours, lying between two continents. The 
 native race had proved their capacity in early civili- 
 zation and early commerce, and by workmanship of 
 marvellous beauty, before the base jealousy of a 
 stronger neighbour had brought them to ruin. Their 
 exiles in later times had won distinction in war, 
 diplomacy, and the art of government, and there was 
 no reason to fear that the native sap had dried up. 
 The people were generous, pious and romantic, vigilant 
 
10 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 liusbandmen and skilled artisans, and would be fortified 
 by the mettle of harder races ; for the Ireland he 
 dreamed of restorino- was one in which native-born 
 men, of whatever origin, should unite as Irishmen, 
 as the Briton, the Angle, the Dane, the Norman, 
 and the Netherlander had united in England. It 
 was in this spirit he approached the Irish Tory : — 
 
 " We have no curse for jou or yours, 
 
 But Friendship's ready grasp, 
 And Faith to stand by you and yours 
 
 Unto our latest gasp — 
 To stand by you against all foes, 
 
 Howe'er, or whence they come, 
 With traitor arts, or bribes, or blows, 
 
 From England, France, or Eome. 
 
 " What matter that at different shrines 
 
 We pray unto one God — 
 What matter that at different times 
 
 Tour fathers won this sod — 
 In fortune and in name we're bound 
 
 By stronger links than steel ; 
 And neither can be safe nor sound 
 
 But in the other's weal." 
 
 A man of genius commonly attributes an inordi- 
 nate importance to the mind which gave his own the 
 first impulse towards action at a critical period of 
 development. Very often it is a mind inferior to his 
 own, but he is slow to perceive and loth to acknow- 
 ledge this fact. Coleridge had such a feeling towards 
 Bowles and Landor towards Southey, and Davis had 
 certainly such a feeling towards Wallis. WaUis's 
 position among his associates bore a not remote re- 
 semblance to that of Coleridge among the Lake Poets. 
 He projected on a prodigious scale, but he made no 
 attempt to perform what he projected. A thinker 
 who does not work is not necessarily a wasted force. 
 
1336.] TEE STUD EXT. 11 
 
 His talk was fuU of new, startUng, and often audacious 
 trutlis ; he had the gift of inspiring thought and 
 awakening feehng, and, Hke his great exemplar, he 
 considered his function exhausted when he had 
 exhorted a man to do some good work, without any in- 
 tention of setting him the example. One of his haH- 
 scoffing admirers used to say that if you could work 
 miracles or were willins: to trv, and readv to be bullied 
 for havinc' failed, Wallis had a fascinatinsr series of 
 prodigies at your service. But to the serious mind 
 of Davis these wild coruscations were like the elec- 
 tric cun-ent smitino^ the duskv coil of wire. Thev 
 kindled his faculties for action, and inflamed his 
 slumbering imagination. The apparently impossible 
 did not frighten him ; he felt within himself the will 
 and capacity to perform what were prodigies and 
 mii'acles to scoffing men of the world. In Cardinal 
 Newman's fascinating confessions there is nothing- 
 more touching than his admission of important 
 truths learned, or salutary impressions received, from 
 some friends in the work which he was born and 
 appointed to j^erform. And Davis rejoiced to ex- 
 aggerate his obligations to Wallis. Wallis frankly- 
 accepted the hj'pothesis that he was the firebearer. 
 Long after Davis's death, he wrote to me — 
 
 " You must consider all the experience I have had for the ten 
 years or so that I was " Professor of Things in general and 
 Patriotism in particular,' in a garret in T.C.D. If I, and snrely 
 it was I that did it (his exorbitantly extravagant praise of me 
 showed it), if I loosed the tenacious phlegm that clogged Davis's 
 nature and hid his powers from himself and the world — if I kept 
 Torrens McCullagh for several years from deflecting into the 
 "Whig parabola, which was his natural tendency — and if I changed 
 John Dillon from a "Whig and Utilitarian to a Xutionalist and 
 a popular leader — I must have expended rather a serious amount 
 of magnetic force in the task, to say nothing of the scores of others 
 
12 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 that I mesmerized with less success, or less remarkable results. 
 Don't think I am boasting, for I am rather ashamed than other- 
 wise, both of the plentiful nonsense I used to talk, and of the 
 foibles of human nature that make dreams and illusions more 
 potent over it than the daylight of mature reason." 
 
 Torrens McCuUagli was at this time the model 
 of a handsome accomplished young Irishman. He 
 had just hegun to practise at the Bar, but posed as 
 the jocund, good-humoured cynic who despised any 
 success which might be won in that prosaic pursuit ; 
 a man destined, one might surmise, to go trium- 
 phantly to the world's end, but whose career has 
 been considerably shorter. He had established a 
 Duhlin University Beview, which had a brief exis- 
 tence ; and, somewhat later, the Citizen, a monthly 
 magazine in which he and his friends taught an 
 enlightened national Whiggery such as they con- 
 sidered befitting the citizens of a free state. 
 
 In the society of these young men and their 
 friends the knowledge Davis had gathered got clas- 
 sified by friendly discussion, and opinions which were 
 in solution became crystallized. But he had as yet 
 done nothing by which he could be estimated. 
 
 " Truth to say," says Wallis, " much of the early misconcep- 
 tion of his character was his own fault. He learned much ; 
 suflFered much, I have no doubt; felt and sympathized much ; and 
 hoped and enjoj^ed abundantly; but he had not yet learned to 
 rely on himself. His powers were like the nucleus of an embryo 
 star, uncompressed, unpurified, flickering and indistinct. . . . 
 The result was, that during his college course, and for some years 
 after, while he was very generally liked, he had, unless perhaps, 
 with some who knew him intimately, but a moderate reputation 
 for high ability of any kind. In his twenty-fifth year, as I re- 
 member — that is, in the spring of 1839 — he first began to break 
 out of this. His opinions began to have weight, and his character 
 and influence to unfold themselves in a variety of ways." 
 
 A debating society is the natural training school 
 
1838.] THE STUDENT. 13 
 
 of ambitious students, but at this time there was no 
 such society in the University, and an extern His- 
 torical Society, composed chiefly of college students, 
 which had done good service in its day had recently 
 ceased to meet. The first College Historical Society 
 had been founded in 1770, when Edmund Burke was 
 a student, and had met within the walls for nearly 
 a generation. Lord Avonmore, Temple Emmet, 
 Thomas Addis Emmet, and Wolfe Tone were among 
 the members. It had troubles with the authorities, 
 which never looked with much favour on these 
 unlicensed seminaries, but in 1792, after an interval 
 of sluggishness, it was remodelled under a new name. 
 Plunket, Bushe, John Shears, Peter Burrows, and, 
 later, Eobert Emmet were among the members ; but 
 new troubles with the authorities on political ques- 
 tions arose, and the society had to quit the col- 
 lege, and meet in the city. With the disasters of 
 1798 it disappeared altogether. In the memoir of 
 Eichard Shell, he speaks of a College Historical 
 Society in which Magee and North were his com- 
 petitors, but there are no records of it. In 1829-1830, 
 v/hen the Catholic contest and the Eeform movement 
 kindled public spirit anew, there was a new society 
 meeting outside the college, in which Isaac Butt and 
 Torrens McCullagh were leaders, and Joseph Lefanu, 
 Wilham Keogh, Wilson Gray, James O'Hea, Thomas 
 Wallis, Thomas MacNevin and Joseph Pollock, son of 
 a notable anti-Union pamphleteer, and John Lalor, 
 afterwards known in London as a writer in the Morn- 
 ing Chroniele and author of " Money and Morals," 
 were distinguished members. In the beginning of 
 1839 a new society was projected, and it was under- 
 stood that the provost and fellows were disposed to 
 
14 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 sanction its establishment on the original basis. But 
 the most thoughtful of the students were of opinion 
 that it would be more useful and independent as an 
 extern society. The sanction of the authorities 
 would involve them in a certain responsibility which 
 might be exercised so jealously as to create ill w^ll 
 between the teachers and the pupils. Contemporary 
 politics could not be effectually excluded by any 
 statute, for to debate the past in Irish history was to 
 debate the cause of the present. And a debating 
 society without freedom of speech would be not only 
 useless but injurious. At a meeting at Francis 
 Kearney's chambers, 27 College, on the 29tli of 
 March, 1839, a new College Historical Society was 
 founded. The original members consisted of ten 
 Conservatives and ten Liberals ; there was as yet no 
 talk of Nationalists. The third name in the list was 
 that of Thomas Davis, the preceding ones being 
 John Thomas Ball, since Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 
 and Joseph Lefanu, afterwards distinguished as a 
 popular novelist.* 
 
 Addresses w^ere delivered at the opening of the 
 society's session in November, and at the close in 
 June. And Davis who became auditor, equivalent 
 to president, delivered the closing address in June, 
 1840. 
 
 It was in the Historical Society that he made the 
 acquaintance of a man to whom, in later years, he 
 was accustomed to open his whole mind and heart. 
 Daniel Owen Maddyn was then a law student pre- 
 
 * "You have been appointed, by mutual nomination of Conservatives 
 and Liberals, an original member of the new Historical Society. The pre- 
 liminary meeting will be held to-morrow (Thursday), at Mr. Kearney's 
 chambers, 27 College, at three o'clock p.m. precisely " (Wallis to Davis, 
 March 13, 1839). 
 
1838.] TEE STUDENT. 15 
 
 paring for a call to the Bar, but more disposed to 
 philosophical and literary studies, into which he got 
 finally drawn as the business of his life. He knew 
 Davis while he was still undervalued by his associates, 
 and understood him better than the majority. Forty 
 years ago, w^hen I first meditated writing this memoir, 
 Maddyn sent me as a contribution to it his recollec- 
 tions of Davis at this period, and his impression of 
 the young men among whom he lived. And since his 
 death, his kinsman, Denny Lane, has given me the 
 correspondence which, during the entire period of his 
 public career, Davis maintained with Maddyn.* 
 
 " I first knew Thomas Davis in the early part of the year 1838. 
 I had been just then made a member of the King's Inns, and 
 Davis had been a short time previously called to the Bar. 
 
 " Though not entitled to be admitted a member of the College 
 Historical Society, by the kindness of Messrs. Lawsonf (then 
 auditor) and Hodder I was enrolled amongst its members, a circum- 
 stance which led to my acquaintance with Davis. He had, a short 
 time previously, published a hasty, but in many respects an ably 
 written pamphlet on ' The Eeform of the House of Lords ' — a 
 subject which, in those palmy days of Whig-Eadicalism, attracted 
 much attention. I remember buying the pamphlet in Westmorland 
 Street, and feeling curious to know who the author was. I was 
 told by one of the collegians that it was by Davis. ' And who 
 was Davis ? ' ' Oh ! he was an odd sort of man, of immense 
 reading.' I heard him alluded to in the Historical Society, and 
 I found that he had a confirmed reputation for most extensive 
 and varied reading. One evening, seated by the side of Thomas 
 MacNevin, I saw a short thickset young man, wrapped in a fear- 
 nought coat, shamble into the room, and speak in a tone between 
 jest and earnest to several of the members. 'That,' said Mac- 
 
 * Author of the " Age of Pitt and Fox," " Leaders of Opinion," and some 
 other notable books. He spelt his name originally Madden, but in later 
 years adopted the other form in his books and correspondence. The paper is 
 dated Fermoy, March 3, 1847, and has for title " Recollections of Thomas 
 Davis, by his friend, Daniel Owen Madden," and for mottoes " Hsec mimi- 
 nisse juvabit," " Of him you know his merits such, I cannot say — you hear 
 — too much" (Elegy on Sidney). 
 
 t The late Judge Lawson. 
 
16 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 Nevin, 'is Davis.' 'What! was it lie wrote the pamphlet on 
 Peerage Eeform ? ' ' Ay, yonder you behold the cataract that is 
 to sweep away the House of Lords.' There was something about 
 Davis which I liked at first sight. There was a frank honesty 
 about his face, and I liked his large well-opened eyes. 
 
 " The Historical Society was at that time tolerably well sus- 
 tained. It had undergone so many changes since its foundation, 
 that it had been a different kind of institution at various periods. 
 In 1838 it used to assemble at Eadley's Hotel, in a large room 
 upstairs. A temporary bar was placed across the room, inside of 
 which were the members, who used to muster to the number of 
 thirty or thereabouts, and have an audience of visitors double that 
 number. The only members that had obtained decided reputation 
 as good ready speakers and effective debaters were Messrs. Butt 
 and James O'Hea, the former of whom had ceased to attend the 
 society at this period. Amongst other prominent speakers in those 
 days were Messrs. Torrens McCuUagh,* Joseph Pollock,! James 
 Anthony Lawson ; | John Thomas Ball, Thomas Wallis,|| William 
 Keogh, W. Conway Dobbs, the Messrs. Eoberts, F.T.C.U., Jellett, 
 now F.T.C.D., and various other members of the University. The 
 style of speaking was vicious in the extreme, showy, declamatory, 
 and vehement. The arts of elocution were little studied. Fluency 
 and vehemence were the objects aimed at. To astound, not to 
 persuade, the audience, was the aim of nine-tenths of the speakers. 
 It was necessarily, therefore, a bad school of eloquence, and was 
 suited to produce only platform speakers. § 
 
 * Author of " The Use and Study of IJistory," and other works. 
 
 t Now of the English Bar, the son of the eminent barrister of the same 
 name, who wrote the letters signed Owen Roe O'Neill, which at the close of 
 the last century were much read in Ireland (1847). 
 
 t Ex-Professor of Political Economy, T.C.U. (1847). 
 
 II Editor of Davis's " Poems," and author of several essays in the Citizen 
 and Nation (1847). 
 
 § " The vituperative propensities of the members were shocking. Mr. 
 Walsh, of the Conservative party, one night attacked the character of 
 O'Connell ; Mr. Keogh, of the Liberal side, replied and denounced Mr. Walsh, 
 commenting on his personal appearance in the following words : — 
 
 " 'The grim and grisly skeleton, howling in death-bed agony, and lifting 
 its plague-tainted countenance to heaven, — that, too, may be eloquent.' 
 
 " This sentence contained what Sheridan would have called ' a very for- 
 midable likeness^ to Mr. Walsh, who was a tall meagre man, who spoke with 
 upturned eyes, and whose face was blotched with nasty eruptions. When 
 Mr. Keogh uttered the sentence, Walsh burst into tears; all were indignant ; 
 there was a strong feeling roused against Keogh. Afterwards, when MacNevin 
 was appointed auditor, he named Keogh as his secretary, and a vote of cen- 
 sure was proposed on MacNevin — ' that the ofiBcers of the society had not 
 the confidence of the members.' This produced a row. It became the talk 
 
1838.] THE STUDENT. 17 
 
 " There were other, and perhaps more serious, defects in the 
 society ; there was a fondness for invective, and a propensity to 
 altercation and personality which got it the character of a 'scold- 
 ing club.' Many of the young declaimers revelled in composing 
 speeches against each other, in which epigrammatic impudence 
 and elaborate personality formed the chief ingredients. Many 
 of the more learned and able members took no part, save that of 
 spectators, in the society, which in those days was a declaiming 
 rather than a debating club. 
 
 " But there was miich about the society Avhich was attractive. 
 There was much in its proceedings to amuse and excite ; several 
 of its members were men of wit and pleasantry. Cloistered 
 students rubbed oif within its walls their rust and pedantry. 
 College rivals became friends within its social circle ; men of 
 opposite sentiments became acquainted ; and friendly intercourse 
 was promoted amongst those who were afterwards to meet in 
 scenes of real competition. After the violent speeches there were 
 excellent suppers, and members forgot over broiled bones the 
 belabouring they had inflicted upon each other. Thus there was 
 a great play of character amongst the members, and a j^oung man 
 learned in a pleasant way a good deal of life. The evils were in 
 some respects counterbalanced by its advantages. They who 
 derived most advantage from the institution were probably those 
 who never spoke at all, but quietly looked on while others were 
 making fools of themselves, and reserved their jaws for the 
 suppers. 
 
 " Sometimes there was genuine eloquence. I remember particu- 
 larly a debate on the Ballot, in which Messrs. Ball and MacNevin 
 made each a most brilliant and ably reasoned speech on that ques- 
 tion. In the subsequent year I heard the same subject discussed 
 in the House of Commons, on the night (June 16, 1839) when Mi*. 
 Macaulay made his reappearance in Parliament after his residence 
 in India, and I felt that if, upon either side, such speeches as those 
 of Messrs. Ball and MacNevin had been delivei'ed, they would have 
 been heard with attention and greeted with applause. 
 
 of Dublin. Keogh's friends rallied, and made every effort to save him from 
 the disgrace ot being turned out of the office. By getting up a party cry, 
 
 and by practising on the nerves of Mr. , the leader of the Conservatives 
 
 at that time, Mr. Keogh was saved from the vote of censure. 
 
 " Poor MacNevin ! ' Alas ! how full of burs this weary working-day 
 world is ! ' He was far the wittiest man in the society, he was a favourite of 
 all parties, and he was an admirable elocutionist. He was a pnpil of Van- 
 denhoff — Mr. Keogh once told me so ; he had great power of artistic assumption 
 of a role in spealiing. He was then in the tide of spirits, buoj'ant with hope. 
 His sarcasm was poignant, and clean cutting." 
 
 C 
 
18 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 " Davis made no figure in this society. For its mock contests 
 and unreal encounters the earnestness of his character unsuited 
 him. His solid massive talents were not adapted for the light 
 clever fencing of the wordy disputants. But he liked the society 
 on the principle that anything amongst young men was better than 
 total intellectual stagnation. The names of Grattan, Plunket, 
 Burke, and other great men who were associated with the institu- 
 tion in its earlier and better days, invested it with natural interest 
 in his eyes. Being of a very social turn, he liked to mingle with 
 his youthful contemporaries, and enjoyed their company very 
 much. He was elected Auditor of the society, whose office was to 
 manage its affairs and keep the members together. 
 
 " He had no ' name ' as a speaker, but he was respected as a 
 man of talents. His moral qualities, however, were not appre- 
 ciated, chiefly because, up to that time (his twenty-fourth year), 
 he had not openly developed all his character. It certainly did 
 not redound much to the discrimination of his associates that his 
 merits were not earlier recognized. The general opinion of him 
 was that he was ' a book in breeches.' His varied knowledge, 
 extending over a very wide surface, and deep upon many ques- 
 tions, was perceived by all who approached him. 
 
 " I remember his coming one morning to me while I lived in 
 William Street. My table was strewed with books, which he took 
 up one after another. Some of them he had read, and rapidly 
 characterized them in his vigorous manner. He made no preten- 
 sions, after the fashion of literary coxcombs, to omniscience. When 
 he did not know a thing, he said so very humbly. I was much 
 pleased with the evident simplicity, manliness, and unaffected 
 candour of his nature. They were qualities so strongly marked 
 in his character that a person in bis society would be apt to forget 
 the high intellectual powers which, with the force of true genius, 
 were blended and interwoven with his nature. Indeed I can say 
 that, in the early part of my acquaintance, I forgot his abilities, 
 and liked the man solely for himself. 
 
 " In college he read for honours, solely for the sake of exercis- 
 ing his mind and training it to intellectual discipline. ... * 
 The Eev. Samuel Butcher, F.T.C.D., was the examiner, and he 
 said that he never heard better answering. The candidates 
 were men of great talents, and were laboriously prepared 
 by 'grinders.' Davis, however, read by himself, and had no 
 recourse to professional assistants in preparing himself for the 
 
 * I have omitted a sentence in which Mr. Maddyn assumes that Davis 
 ohtained a gold medal in Etliics, but he never comiDeted for honours. 
 
1838.] THE STUDENT. 19 
 
 examination. It is right to add that he read more thoughtfully 
 than the other students. He -^veighed the opinions of the philoso- 
 phers whom he perused, and reflected deeply upon the tendency 
 of their peculiar principles. That earnest moralizing spirit which 
 pervaded his mind then took possession of him. Fe'"" things were 
 more effective in forming his high-toned character than his ethical 
 studies. They made him a strong thinker, and gave him large 
 and noble views of mankind. Of all the moral philosophers 
 Bishop Butler was his favourite. He placed him above all the 
 others for originality and grandeur of views. It is not too much 
 to say that the thoughts of Butler were a creed to him. If my 
 memory does not deceive me, he once called Butler ' the Newton 
 of Ethics.' 
 
 " I recollect his admiring Paley very much at that time; but 
 at a subsequent period he used rather to disparage that most 
 plausible and moderate of the Utilitarians. I remember him 
 dwelling, wirh hearty appreciation, on the strong common sense 
 and delightfully racy style of Paley. In his common sense and 
 rationality, Davis found an able ally against a certain class of the 
 religious world prone to a gloomy mysticism. Davis, like many 
 others, was often brought into contact with men of harsh and 
 fanatical prejudices upon sacred subjects. He met in the ministry 
 not a few men of dark gloomy views, and uncharitable sentiments 
 towards their fellow-Christians, — men whose influence in society 
 was likely to be formidable on account of their sincerity and 
 character. Against such a class and their mischief Davis would, 
 in those days, employ the calm views and quiet sense of Paley. 
 But the want of high spirituality, and a certain spirit of com- 
 promise in all his WTritings, prevented Paley from being a favourite 
 with one so endowed with ardent feelings. 
 
 " In those days he had a very strong sense of the evils of 
 religious fanaticism. I can speak with tolerable accurac}' as to 
 what was the complexion of his religious opinions. He was a Church 
 of England man of the older and more liberal school. He was 
 a frequent reader of the divines of the seventeenth century ; the 
 writings of Jeremy Taylor were heartily appreciated by him. He 
 had at times a bold manner of putting his thoughts, which might 
 mislead an ignorant person ; but no man was more averse than he 
 from licentious philosophy, or from profane discourse. I never 
 recollect him speaking with levity on serious subjects. His 
 frame of mind was naturally reverent, and the authors whom he 
 habitually read were not of the mocking school. But when little 
 men of little minds sought to strengthen their weak powers by 
 
20 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 allying themselves with fanaticism, he woiihl expose their follies 
 in a trenchant style, against which the refuted fanatic or convicted 
 Tartuffe would defend himself hy crying out with dissembled 
 fright, ' Irreligious ! ' The exposure of hypocrisy is always a 
 disagreeable, and often a dangerous proceeding. Political and 
 religions affectation is oftentimes a vice with so many votaries, 
 that from selfishness men are more tolerant of it than they ought. 
 Probably Davis, on more than one occasion, experienced the dangers 
 I have indicated. 
 
 " The value of moral philosophy he estimated very highly. 
 He rejoiced very much that the late excellent Dr. Lloyd had. given 
 it so prominent a place in the college course. As long as I re- 
 member him, it was a favourite opinion of his, that the education 
 of the higher classes of Irishmen was not of a kind that made them 
 thoughtful. He wished that Ireland, should produce more states- 
 men of action than mere orators, more philosophers and historians 
 than novelists and sparkling litterateurs. He thought that the 
 changes made by Dr. Llo^'d would have a serious effect in awaken- 
 ing many a mind, and emancipating it from the roiitine of mere 
 mechanical training. From his earlier days, that a high moral 
 spirit should be raised amongst the upper classes was his eager 
 aspiration. 
 
 " That he read for college honours was in some respects charac- 
 teristic. At that time many men of parts, and of pretensions 
 still greater than their parts, derided the system of college 
 honours. They showered their wit upon premium men, and 
 intimated that they would not condescend to such puerile objects 
 of ambition. Alas ! not a few of them paid a heavy penalty for 
 their folly. When embarked in professions the preparation for 
 which involves disagreeable drudger}', they regretted that at the 
 fitting season they had not inured themselves to the habit of 
 continuous exertion. The sole object of Davis was to discipline 
 his mind. 
 
 " He was at that time as delightful a young man as it was 
 possible to meet with in any country. All those virtues and 
 peculiar charms which are to be looked for in a young man of 
 energy and talent were assembled in his person. He was much 
 more joyous than at the time he became immersed in practical 
 politics. His good spirits did not seem, however, so much the 
 consequence of youth and health as of his moral nature. His 
 cheerfulness was not so much the result of temperament as of his 
 sanguine philosophy, and of his wholesome, happy views of life. 
 The sources of enjoyment were abundant to a man of his large 
 
1838.3 THE STUDENT. 21 
 
 faculties, highly cultured, possessing withal a body which supplied 
 him with vigour and energy. 
 
 " In his politics he was at that time what would be called 
 a hearty Liberal. It would be wrong, however, to call him a 
 Eadical, if that term is to be understood solely as indicating the 
 English Eadicals of the Hume and Warburton school. He had uo 
 superstitious veneration for ancient things, but neither had he 
 any of that sour antipathy to them which marked the narrow- 
 minded Radicals, who were utterly incapable of appreciating 
 immemorial usages and time-honoured customs. A public measure 
 was good or bad in his eyes, solely by its tendency to make men 
 nobler, greater, more virtuous, or otherwise. The standing topics 
 of party politics, even in these days, he despised. The rout and 
 agitation about ballot — extension of suffrage, and short Parlia- 
 ments, had little attraction for him. Not so, however, with 
 corporations, with all questions of education, with all measures of 
 social reform. From the first he saw how little genuine and per- 
 manent popular improvement could result from mere political 
 changes of the kind aimed at by the English Eadicals. 
 
 " At that time his mind was not particularly devoted to Irish 
 affairs. Tl:iere was then a close junction between the Irish and Eng- 
 lish politicians. The Irish Conservatives were perfectly satisfied 
 with the professions of Sir Eobert Peel ; between the Melbourne 
 Ministry and the Parliamentary Eepealers led by Mr. O'Connell 
 there was at least an affected sympathy, and a very decided pur- 
 pose on both sides to be as useful to each other as circumstances 
 would permit. They were the times when politics turned on the 
 so-called Lichfield House compact. Wearied with the scenes of 
 squabbling, and undignified altercations which had taken place 
 between the retainers of the Castle and the supporters of the Corn 
 Exchange, the Liberal party of Ireland (with some marked excep- 
 tions) appeared glad of a truce between the belligerents on anj^ 
 terms. Like most others of his contemporaries, Davis for the time 
 chimed in indifferently well with the Liberal party of the time. 
 It was not until about three years subsequently that he began to 
 take very different views. 
 
 " Thus for a season, in his earlier days, he might have been 
 said to be an Imperialist in his views — not, however, in preference 
 to Nationalism, because at the time of which I speak (1838) the 
 option was not fairly presented to him. 
 
 "On comparing him with his associates in the College His- 
 torical Society, and with the other collegians of his own standing 
 whom 1 remember, two things especially distinguished him. First, 
 
22 2IEM0IB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 tlie plainness of his character, and the perfect simplicity of his 
 manners. There was, indeed, a vast quantity of ill-trained and 
 ill-directed talent in the Historical. Men of bright parts and high 
 hopes abounded in. it. Some of these had been nine years in it. 
 I remember one gentleman saying, in 1838, one night during what 
 was called ' private business,' ' I was present myself, Mr. Chairman, 
 at the time. The circumstances occurred before the Revolution.^ I 
 found that the Eevolution alluded to was the French one of 1830, so 
 that the speaker admitted that he was for nine years a member and 
 frequenter of this talking club ! Nor did the gentleman I allude 
 to stand alone. An air of pretension, an assumption of precocious 
 political importance very much disfigured the character of the 
 young talkers. There was a theatrical manner about many of them, 
 which was painful, and no drawing-room in Dublin ever witnessed 
 so much absurd personal vauity as might have been met with 
 in the Historical Society. The tendency of all such institutions 
 in giving confidence and self-possession is to inflame self-esteem. 
 
 " I speak the plain truth when I declare that, fi-om what I 
 could see of Davis at the time, he was altogether free from affec- 
 tation of every kind, and from all petty personal vanity. He had 
 nothing of the showy air and varnished pretensions of others. No 
 man could be less of a coxcomb. Tanities of appearance he utterly 
 despised. He really was what he seemed to be. There is a passage 
 in a sermon of Archbishop Tillotson, which every [schoolboy who 
 has been exercised in ' The Speaker ' knows hj heart— ' Truth and 
 sincerity have all the advantages of appearance, and many more. 
 If the show of anything be good for anything, I am sure the reality 
 is better. For why should any man dissemble, etc' Of this 
 passage Davis was a living example. 
 
 " The second point in which he difiiered from his contemporaries 
 was in the vastly extended course of his reading. 
 
 "He was a constant reader of history — of modern travels — of 
 the biography of authors — and of the text wi-iters in politics, such 
 as Boliugbroke and Burke. Add to this that he had not, like 
 others, neglected his college business. He had, besides, read some 
 of the chief works in legal science. He was then a perfect Tiehio 
 librorum, and he would really have become a mere ' book in breeches ' 
 but for the ethical discipline which he had given his mind. Much 
 of what he read he cast from his memory, but what he deemed 
 useful he rapidly assimilated with his previous acquirements. 
 
 " No one in the Historical Society at all came near him for 
 extent of reading. Wallis was too lazy to be a strenuous reader. 
 McCullagh probably read for effect, and despised many of the 
 
1838.] TEE STUDEyr. ' 23 
 
 works which Davis eagerly studied. In saying this I must not 
 be understood as disparaging Mr. McCullagh, with whom I was 
 at one period intimate, and who is decidedly superior to very many 
 of his rhetorical competitors. MacXevin and Keogh read only as 
 much as supplied fuel for their speeches. Ball read with ardour 
 at that time a good deal of English poetry, especially "Wordsworth, 
 of whom he used to produce some very pretty imitations, when 
 his muse was kind. He read also ethics, and affected raptures 
 with BishoiD Butler ; of his admiration of Butler I was sceptical, 
 because he was himself an extravagant Calvinist. Lefanu's read- 
 ing I could form no opinion of. I saw him only once in the society, 
 and all he did that night was to scowl most magnificently at John 
 Thomas Ball, and utter something short, vehement, and fierce — 
 so much so that, though 1 have forgotten the word, I shall never 
 forget the appearance of ' pluck ' and power Lefanu shuwed. 
 O'Hea was not a zealous reader, but I saw very little of him in 
 the society ; Butt was never there, during my time. Pollock was 
 no reader, but a most pleasing speaker, with a striking delivery, 
 and admirable manner. The men with whom Davis was to be 
 associated ia reading were those who were studying for fellowship 
 — Tillett and the two Eobertses. But Davis read from pure thirst 
 for knowledge, with a spirit of moral enthusiasm akin to the ardour 
 of a brave mariner, like Cook, voyaging to seek new countries. 
 He plunged into an ocean of reading, trusting to his mental elas- 
 ticity and thought for floating buoyantly under a deeply laden 
 memorj^. 
 
 " If I am not mistaken, he was a member of the Law Debating 
 Society. I saw him there one night, but it might have been as a 
 visitor. I do not think he ever studied his profession with any- 
 thing like attention. "What Lord Bacon had -^litten upon the 
 English law, he told me once, he had read through, and believed 
 that it was most useful reading for a lawyer. His idea upon study- 
 ins: the Enoiish law was that it should be read historicallv by the 
 student ; he read Eeeves"s ' Hi&tory of the Law,' and said it was 
 much more useful than Blackhtone to a man wanting to make xip 
 his knowledge as fast as possible. In 1S38 I recollect that his 
 legal acquirements were spoken of very slightingly by one who 
 was a very competent judge. Yet he must have read a good deal 
 of jurisprudence, for he had a faculty of promptly referring to all 
 those parts of such works as treated of the philosophy of laws. 
 
 " On the morning when he first came to see me, I well remem- 
 ber his taking up a Byron, and commenting on it. Of course he 
 was a great admirer of ' The Childe.' • But, after all,' said he. 
 
24 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 ' there are somethings that are better and grander in Wordsworth.' 
 He was evidently charmed with the moral spirit of Wordsworth. 
 It is not often one meets with a man who heartihj appreciates such 
 very opposite natures. 
 
 " He was fond of what was brilliant, rousing, and exciting. I 
 remember his giving me graphic sketches of what he saw in the 
 House of Commons during his visits to it while in London. He 
 relished Shell's pungent and exciting orations. I recollect his 
 telling me one da}^ in the College grounds, of the stroke given by 
 Sheil to Sir James Graham, in 1836. Discussing the Irish Church 
 question, Graham made one of his elaborate, plausible, highly 
 wrought speeches. His conclusion was the well-known passage 
 from Lord Bolingbroke, in which that author states his conviction 
 that, if the Church of England were destroyed, the Constitution 
 itself must be buried in its ruins. The beautiful sentences of 
 Bolingbroke were delivered hy Graham with an imposing solemnity 
 of manner; and the effect was \ery good, his own party cheering 
 him heartily. While the plaudits were d^dng away up sj^rang 
 Sheil, and while the fact of the quotation from Bolingbroke was 
 in the memory of the House, he shouted forth, ' The right honour- 
 able baronet concluded his speech by quoting a deist and a traitor 
 in defence of the Church and the Constitution ! ' This happy epi- 
 gram and pointed antithesis seemed to splinter the oration of 
 Graham into fragments. Davis dwelt with great unction on the 
 effect of this repartee. 
 
 " I do not remember any of his companions at that time. The 
 only one I can positively speak of was his faithful loving friend 
 Mr. P. E. Webb. I remember seeing Davis with him, and think- 
 ing that they were brothers. 
 
 " In his division at college were Mr. MacDowell (now F.T.C.D.), 
 and Mr. J. Shaw Willes, now of the English Bar, where he is reaping 
 at a very early period the fruits of vast talents and energy which 
 knows no rest. These were two crack men of the division, both 
 being mathematicians of the highest order.* 
 
 " At that time (1838) I did not discern much element of Irishry 
 in Davis. In fact he was more like a young Englishman than an 
 Irishman. He was always at work ; he was no idler, or lazy cox- 
 comb. There was a total absence of glare, of triviality, of theatrical 
 manner, of affectation. He was thoroughly real. Simple, strong, 
 unaflfected; with proper pride, without any vanity, and with self- 
 respect, he certainly showed more resemblance to the qualities of 
 English nature than those commonly met with amongst Irishmen. 
 * Both now dead. 
 
1838.] THE STUDENT. ^'-> 
 
 He had that broad, massive, and robust cbaracter which is, after 
 all, the true genius of the Englishman, who in the brighter and 
 more brilliant qualities of mind is surpassed by the Frenchman or 
 the Irishman, He was more like a pupil of Charles James Fox 
 than of Henry Grattan, judging him by his mental peculiarities. 
 
 "But he showed great ardour— I ought to say enthusiasm — of 
 so vehement and at the same time tender kind, that its fervour 
 would show him to have been an Irishman. ' Perfervidum inge- 
 nium Scotorum.' 
 
 " I was never ' introduced ' to Davis. The auditor of the His- 
 torical Society always named the secretary. He walked across the 
 room one night and asked me to become secretary. I did so at 
 once. Hence our acquaintance. He had heard me make a Whig- 
 speech. This circumstance I mention because it may give some 
 weight to the testimony I offer of Davis in 1838. It was only 
 natural that I should regard him with some particular attenliuu 
 at that time. 
 
 " I left Dublin in July, 1838, and, with the exception of a letter 
 relating to the College Historical Society which passed between us 
 in that year, we were not again acquainted until the spring of 18-tl. 
 
 "I may add that at that time he seemed to me desirous of 
 ' fame,' after the fashion of all high-spirited young souls. He told 
 me, however, in 1841, that he had lost all his personal ambition — 
 suggesting that he had once possessed it. 
 
 "In 1838 I had a book called 'Conversations at Cambridge.' 
 It contained some literary juvenilia — bits of Macaulay's speeches 
 at the Union Society, and some verses of Praed, the rival of 
 Macaulay. With the ' Invocation to Madeline,' by Praed, Davis 
 was excessively delighted. It is a sweetly tender poem, and 
 pleased Davis vastly. He keep the book, and did not give it back, 
 on account of this poem. Poor Praed's fine and subtle genius was 
 never paid a higher compliment." * 
 
 * This is a quotation from one of Maddyn's notes to Davis in London : 
 " I will be here for the winter, and am chumming with Willes [afterwards 
 Mr. Justice Willes], who is engaged in piling a Pelion of Equity on an Ossa 
 of Common Law, Keogli [afterwards Judge Keogh] is here also, and hard 
 at work conveyancing. I saw him to-day, and heard him on Saturday last 
 electrifv Cogers Hall with one of the most able and powerful speeches I ever 
 heard. " Dec. 1839." 
 
 Another of Duvis's friends, Denny Lane, had a high admiration for 
 William Keogh's abilities. He was persuaded that if Keogh had had Davis's 
 sincerity and integrity of nature, he would have become the most notable 
 man of his generation, and, perhaps, have left even Davis behind in the race 
 of public usefulness. Students may ponder with advantage on the career, 
 the fate, and the reputation of these two men as an incitement to pursue the 
 nobler path. 
 
26 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 Witli these reminiscences of his college career 
 the life of the student may close ; that of the man of 
 profound thought and decisive action was about to 
 begin. 
 
 We can see through Maddyn's eyes the young 
 auditor of the Historical Society among his associates, 
 but he has not lifted the curtain from a more touch- 
 ing and impressive figure, the young student in his 
 college cell. Secluded, unrecognized, and knowing 
 himself only by casual flashes of insight, he was 
 probably supremely happy because he was possessed 
 by the passion which, to the boy of genius, is more 
 engrossing than love of power or the love of women 
 to manhood — the love of knowledge. He had access 
 to a boundless library, the noble gateway to all the 
 treasures of time, and he knew how to employ and 
 enjoy that possession. The studies by which he 
 gradually digested his mass of reading into principles 
 and convictions exhibit astonishing industry and 
 versatility. They are of all classes, from a chance 
 thought scrawled on the fragment of a letter, to the 
 exhaustive estimate of a standard book or a debated 
 era. The patient analysis and protracted reflection 
 from which conviction is born are mirrored in manu- 
 scripts many times revised. Systems of government, 
 theories of philosophy, the habits and language of 
 the people, the ballads and sayings popular among 
 them, all pass in review in this process of self-educa- 
 tion. The future poet was unconsciously nourishing 
 his imagination, the future statesman collecting his 
 data and framing his policy. Speaking of another 
 youth of genius, he recalls his own debt to the college 
 library : — 
 
 " Yes, books were his best, his unflinching friends ; they stood 
 
1838.] THE STUDENT. 27 
 
 by him iu his greatest need ; they solaced him ; they comforted 
 him ; they could not bestow wealth, but they supplied him with 
 all else he required ; they were satisfactory, honest friends, who 
 told him the truth, a thing he was in search of, and much more 
 besides." 
 
 The stages by which Davis came to love all he had 
 been taught to deride or detest can only be a subject 
 of conjecture, but from the earliest record of his 
 opinions by his own hand, they are those of a con- 
 firmed Nationalist. He had silently grown into a 
 patriot. This result was not so unexampled as the 
 process by which it was attained. Some of the most 
 conspicuous figures in Irish history, between the fall 
 of Limerick and the emancipation of the Catholics, 
 are men who broke away from the party of Pro- 
 testant ascendancy, and almost the first English 
 writer who recognized the essentially sordid char- 
 acter of Irish Toryism was John Sterling, the grand- 
 son of an Irish parson, and the son of a captain 
 of yeomanry. But to most of them their new opinions 
 came from contact with stronger minds ; Davis 
 evolved them in the solitude of his college cell. 
 
 To complete Maddyn's survey of this early period 
 two or three facts must be mentioned. In 1836, 
 Davis took his degree of B.A., and in the following 
 year was called to the Bar.* Between these events, 
 after he had graduated but before his call, he was 
 president of a Dublin Historical Society, a group of 
 
 * Davis never sought college honours ; the Davis who is sometimes cited 
 as a moderator in ethics and logic in 1835, was John Davis, no relation of 
 Thomas. The entry in the college books specifies that he " entered -4 July, 
 1831, as a pensioner; by religion, Protestant; father's name, James ; pro- 
 fession, a doctor. The boy's age, 16 ; born in County Cork. Educated by 
 Mr. Moiigan, Entered under Mr. Luby as college tutor." Mr. Luby, who 
 afterwards was a Fellow, was uncle of Thomas Clarke Luby, a Nationalist 
 of the generation succeeding Davis's, reared on the writings of the Young 
 Ireland party. 
 
28 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1831- 
 
 law students, of which the only memorial that remains 
 is an address which he delivered on the study of Irish 
 history, still unpublished ; and at the same era he 
 made one of those premature and false starts in life 
 which ardent young spirits rarely escape, and which 
 have produced a crop of books the writers would 
 willingly let die, and of speeches which the mature 
 orator shudders to recall. This was the pamphlet 
 to which Maddyn alludes. He had close personal 
 friends among the Dublin Whigs, a party whose 
 policy was leavened at the moment by the generous 
 aims of Hudson, Deasy, O'Hagan, and others, who 
 were afterwards Federalists or Nationalists, and 
 rendered practical by the sympathy of officials of 
 a new type, like his remote kinsmen. Lord Morpeth 
 and Thomas Drummond, then Chief and Under 
 Secretary in Ireland. The House of Lords was at 
 that time making itself odious to reasonable men, by 
 resisting the reform of the Irish Church and Irish 
 Corporations — two of the most indefensible of human 
 institutions ; and he made his first plunge into politics 
 before he was quite three and twenty by a plan for 
 the reform of the intractable chamber. This bro- 
 chure furnishes a test of his intellectual discipline at 
 that stage. He had gathered political knowledge 
 abundantly and learned to think, but he did not yet 
 know how to use his materials. It is the only work 
 of his hands of which it may be said that the style 
 is tame, and the tone tepid and unpersuasive. It is 
 the argument of a young philosophical Eadical for 
 an elected Upper House in the interest of the empire, 
 and it did not differ essentially from the more gene- 
 rous Whig opinions of the time. But it is notable 
 that, even in the storm of political passion which 
 
1838.] THE STUDENT. 29 
 
 then prevailed, he did not desire to abridge the 
 authority of a second chamber. The absolute power 
 of rejecting bills, he insisted, " should on no account 
 be touched." It was an indispensable check on rash 
 proposals, but it ought to be transferred from irre- 
 sponsible to responsible hands.* 
 
 This pamphlet is the last incident in the era of 
 silent meditation ; after his call to the Bar he had a 
 higher call to the true work of his life. 
 
 * "The Eeform of the Lords," by a Graduate of the Dublin University, 
 Dublin : iwblished for the author by Messrs. Goodwin & Co., Printers, 29, 
 Denmark Street, 1837. (He still knew so little of the commerce of literature 
 as to adopt a method of publication which rendered a successful sale im- 
 possible.) 
 
 'J'he Dublin Historical Society, of which Davis was President, must not 
 be confounded with the College Historical Society. The former consisted of a 
 few law students, and met at the Dorset Institution, Upper Sackville Street. 
 The society is so completely forgotten, that I have never met one man who 
 was a member of it. It is worthy of note, that this address on the " Study 
 of Irish History " was delivered in the middle of 1838, a period when Maddyn, 
 like Wallis, erroneously supposes that he had not yet turned his attention to 
 Irish affairs. 
 
30 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1839- 
 
 CHAPTEE n. 
 
 THE THINKEE. 1839, 1840. 
 
 It was not to such a Society as Madd3'n describes — 
 gay and sceptical, somewliat sensual and woiidly, 
 devoured with ambition for immediate applause, 
 and scarcely more Irish in spirit than if it met by the 
 Isis or the Cam instead of the Liffej' — that Davis, 
 in the summer of 1840, delivered his first public 
 address. New men had joined in considerable 
 numbers since the reorganization of 1839, and the 
 Society had become more serious and sincere. 
 
 The address was a profound surprise to his few 
 intimate friends, almost as much as to the bulk of the 
 students. Where they expected familiar platitudes 
 on a subject exhausted by use, they heard the voice 
 of an original man, who echoed no one, but uttered 
 unconventional opinions with the fervour of com- 
 plete conviction. The dumb man spoke, and spoke 
 like a mature teacher. " Thoughts, prisoned long 
 for lack of speech, outpoured." It was like the fruit 
 of the fig-tree, rich and succulent, but of which no 
 prehminary blossoms give warning. Wallis, who was 
 present, and who was among those who expected 
 little, bears witness of its immediate effect. 
 
 "It excited the surprise and admiration even of those who 
 
1840.] THE THINKER. 31 
 
 knew him best, and won the respect of numbers who, from political 
 or personal prejudices, had been originally most unwilling to 
 admit his worth. So signal a victory over long-continued neglect 
 and obstinate prejudice, as he had at length obtained, has never 
 come under my observation, and I believe it to be unexampled. 
 There is no assurance of greatness so unmistakable as this. Xo 
 power is so overwhelming, no energy so untiring, no enthusiasm 
 so indomitable as that which slumbers for years, unconscious and 
 unsuspected, until the character is completely formed, and then 
 bursts at once into light and life, when the time for action is come." 
 
 The annual addi'ess had commonly consisted of 
 an eloge on the art of oratory, with indi^ddual criti- 
 cism on the great masters, and suggestions for the 
 training by which an orator, whom the familiar 
 axiom described as a manufactured article, might be 
 made. He rejected this formulary and spoke to the 
 sons of the gentry and professional classes, of the 
 duties which would presently await them when th.Qj 
 passed from the college to practical life, and bade 
 them consider not how to harangue successfully at 
 the Bar or in the pulpit, but how they might best 
 become serviceable citizens and good Irishmen. 
 
 A 2>recis or extracts will give an inadequate im- 
 pression of this address, but it marks a starting-point 
 in his life, and some fragments of it are essential to 
 this narrative. If the reader thinks he has heard 
 the same key-note struck in the English Universities 
 in latter times, let him remember that Davis spoke 
 more than fifty years ago. 
 
 In joining a society founded for the study of 
 history, he reminded the students that they prac- 
 tically acknowledged how defective was the system 
 of teaching in the University. There they passed 
 the precious time between boyhood and manhood in 
 studying two dead languages imperfectly^, and left 
 college loaded with cautions like Swift, or with 
 
32 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1839- 
 
 hononrs like many a blockhead whom they knew : 
 hut ignorant of the events which had happened, the 
 truths which had been discovered, and all that 
 imagination had produced for seventeen hundred 
 years ; ignorant of all historj^, including that of their 
 own country, and for modern literature left to the 
 chances of a circulating library or a taste beyond 
 that of their instructors. When one compared the 
 gifted nature of the Irish race with the contemporary 
 literature of the country, it was impossible to doubt 
 there was some gross error in the education of the 
 only class which hitherto had received any education 
 in Ireland. 
 
 "Men," lie said, "eauuot master (xll knowleilge. A knowletlge 
 of liis own nature and duties, of the circnmstauces, growth, and 
 prospects of that society in which he dwells, and of the pursuits 
 and tastes of those around him, is what every man should first 
 learn. If he does learn this he has learned enough for life and 
 goodness ; and if he finds this not enough, he is prepared in the 
 onh- feasible Avav to profit hy studying the works and thoughts of 
 ancient Italy, or Greece, or modern France, or Germany, The 
 masterpieces of classic literature ought to be read, not as school- 
 books or tasks, but as a noble recieation, — they were a mighty 
 mass of the picked thoughts of two renowned nations, the richest 
 mine of thought which time had deposited; — and history, as an 
 inspiration. If the student take more interest in the history, and 
 feel more admiration for the literature of these moderns than of 
 those ancients, let us not condemn his tast« or doubt his wisdom. 
 The varieties of feeling, interest, and opportunity make these 
 ditferences, and a preference for the study of the modern con- 
 tinental nations is fostered and vindicated hj the greater analogy 
 of the people of these islands to them than to the men of old 
 Greece or old Italy." 
 
 Many of the defects of the college system might, 
 he insisted, be remedied by a wise use of the His- 
 torical Society. It could teach the things which 
 a student ought to know — primarily the historj' of 
 
1840.] THE THINKER. 33 
 
 his own country, — and lay broad and deep the foun- 
 dations of political knowledge. Three out of four 
 of the orators of the last eighty years (the oratorical 
 period in these kingdoms) were trained, like all the 
 great orators of Greece and Kome, in such societies. 
 
 "'Tis a glorious world, historic memory. From the grave the 
 sage warns ; from the mound the hero, from the temple the orator- 
 patriot inspire; and the poet sings in his shroud. On the field of 
 fame, the forum of power, the death-bed or scaffold of the patriots, 
 ' who died in righteousness ' — you. look — you pause — you ' swear 
 like them to live, like them to die.' Men — I speak, having known 
 its working — learn history in this society with a rapidity and an 
 ease, a profundity in research, and sagacity in application, not 
 approached by any other mode of study. Suppose a man to pre- 
 pare a defence of what most histories condemn, or to censure some 
 favourite act, or man, or institution, or policy, in his eagerness to 
 persuade he becomes more sensitive of the times of which he speaks 
 than could the solitary student, and we half follow him to the 
 scene over which his spirit stalks. 
 
 "With rare exceptions, national history does dramatic justice 
 to the transactions with which it deals; alien historj^ is the inspi- 
 ration of a traitor. The histories of a count) y, by hostile strangers, 
 should be refuted and then forgotten. Such are most histories of 
 Ireland ; and yet Irishmen neglect the original documents, and 
 compilations like Carey's ' Vindicise ; ' and they sin not by omission 
 only — too many of them receive and propagate on Irish affairs 
 ' quicquid Anglia mendax in historia audet.' 
 
 " I shall not now reprove your neglect of Irish history. I 
 shall say nothing of it but this, that I never heard of any famous 
 nation which did not honour the names of its departed great, study 
 the fasti, and the misfortunes — the annals of the land, and cherish 
 the associations of its history and theirs. The national mind 
 should be filled to overflowing with such thoughts. They are 
 more enriching than mines of gold, or fields of corn, or the cattle 
 of a thousand hills; more ennobling than palaced cities stored 
 with the triumphs of war or art; more supporting in danger's 
 hour than colonies, or fleets, or armies. The history of a nation is 
 the birthright of her sons — who strips them of that, ' takes that 
 which not enriches him but makes them poor indeed.' " 
 
 Not national records alone, hut all history taught 
 
34 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1839- 
 
 great lessons. Who could discuss tlie revolutions 
 ■which reformed England, convulsed Frauce, and 
 liberated America, without becoming a wiser man ; 
 who could speculate on their career and not warm 
 with hope ? 
 
 It was the destiny of most of his audience to 
 enter public life, and he reminded them of its duties 
 and temptations to young Irishmen. 
 
 "In your public career you will be solicited by a thousand 
 temptations to sully your souls with the gold and place of a foreign 
 court, or the transient breath of a dishonest popularity ; dishonest, 
 when adverse to the good, though flattering to the prejudice, of 
 the people. You will be solicited to become the misleaders of a 
 faction, or the gazehounds of a minister. Be jealous of your 
 ■virtue ; yield not. Bid back the tempter. Do not grasp remorse. 
 Nay, if it be not a vain thought, in such hours of mortal doubt, 
 when the tempted spirit rocks to and fro, pause, and recall one of 
 your youthful evenings, and remember the warning voice of your 
 old companion, who felt as a friend, and used a friend's liberty. 
 Let the voice of his warning rise upon your ear; think he stands 
 before you as he does now, telling you in such moments, when 
 pride, or luxury, or wrath make you waver, to return to commun- 
 ings with nature's priests, the Burns, the Wordsworths, the Shake- 
 speares, but, above all, to Nature's self. She waits with a mother's 
 longings for the wanderer ; fling yourselves into her arms, and as 
 your heart beats upon her bosom, your native nobility will return, 
 and thoughts divine as the divinest you ever felt will bear you 
 unscathed through the furnace. Pardon the presumption, pardon 
 the hope ('tis one of my dearest now), ' forsan et hdec olim me- 
 minisse juvabit.' 
 
 " What, though many a glorious expectation has failed ? What, 
 though even you have learned that toil and danger guard the 
 avenue to success? What, though disappointment and suifering 
 have somewhat touched you, and made you less sanguine ; yet, has 
 not time rewarded your sorrows ? — has it not refined — has it not 
 purified — has it not strengthened, even when it humbled you? 
 
 " I do not fear that any of you will be found among Ireland's 
 foes. To her every energy should be consecrated. Were she 
 prosperous, she would have many to serve her, though their hearts 
 were cold in her cause. But it is because her people lie down in 
 
1840.] TEE THINKER. 35 
 
 misery and rise to suffer, it is therefore you should be more deeply 
 devoted. Your country will, I fear, need all your devotion. 8he 
 has no foreign friend. Beyond the limits of green Erin there is 
 none to aid her. She may gain by the feuds of the stranger; she 
 cannot hope for his peaceful help, be he distant, be he near ; her 
 trust is in her sons. You are Irishmen. She relies on your 
 devotion; she solicits it by her present distraction and misery. 
 No ! her past distraction — her present woe. We have no more 
 war-bills ; we have a mendicant bill for Ireland. The poor- and 
 the pest-house are full, yet the valleys of her country, and the 
 streets of her metropolis swarm with the starving. Her poet has 
 described her — 
 
 " ' More dear in her sorrow, her gloom and her showers, 
 Than the rest of the world in its sunniest hours.' 
 
 And if she be miserable, if ' homely age hath the alluring beauty 
 took from her poor cheek, then who hath wasted it?' The 
 stranger from without, by means of the traitor within. Perchance 
 'tis a fanciful thing, yet in the misfortunes of Ireland, in her 
 laurelled martyrs, in those who died ' persecuted men for a perse- 
 cuted country,' in the necessity she was under of bearing the 
 palms to deck her best to the scaffold-foot and the lost battle-field, 
 she has seemed to be chastened for some great future. I have 
 thought I saw her spirit from her dwelling, her sorrowing place 
 among the tombs, rising, not without melancholy, yet with a 
 purity and brightness beyond other nations, and I thought that 
 God had made her purpose firm and her heart just ; and I knew 
 that if he had, small though she were. His angels would have 
 charge over her, ' lest at any time she should dash her foot against 
 a stone.' And I have prayed that I might live to see the day 
 when, amid the reverence of those, once her foes, her sons would — 
 
 " ' Like the leaves of the shamrock unite, 
 
 A partition of sects from one foot-stalk of right : 
 Give each his full share of the earth and the sky, 
 Nor fatten the slave where the serpent would die.' 
 
 " But not only by her sufferings does Ireland call upon you : 
 her past history furnishes something to awake proud recollections. 
 I speak not of that remote and mysterious time when the men of 
 Tyre traded to her well-known shores, and every art of peace 
 found a home on her soil; and her armies, not unused to con- 
 quest, traversed Britain and Gaul. Nor yet of that time when 
 her colleges offered a hospitable asylum to the learned and the 
 
36 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1839- 
 
 learning of every land, and lier missions bore knowledge and piety- 
 through savage Europe; nor yet of her gallant and romantic 
 struggles against Dane, and. Saxon, and Norman ; still less of her 
 hardy wars, in which her interest was sacrificed to a too-devoted 
 loyality in many a successful, in many a disastrous battle. Not 
 of these. I speak of sixty years ago. The memory is fresh, the 
 example pure, the success inspiring. I speak of ' The Lifetime of 
 Ireland.' 
 
 " Look on our class in Ireland ; are they worthy of their 
 nature or their country ? Are they like the young men of Ger- 
 many : as students, laborious ; as thinkers, profound and acute ? 
 Like the young men of France : independent, fearless, patriotic ? 
 Like the young men of England, Scotland, America: energetic, 
 patient, successful ? (I speak of the virtues of these foreigners.) 
 And if not, if the young men of Ireland are careless, prejudiced, 
 unhonoured — if their pupilage never ends — if no manhood of 
 mind, no mastery in action comes from most of them — if prepara- 
 tion, thought, action, wisdom, the order of development in success- 
 ful men, is not for them ; if so, are their misleaders, the duped or 
 duping apostles of present systems, alone to blame ? No ; you, 
 young Irishmen, must blame yourselves. The power of self- 
 education, self-conduct is yours ; ' think wrongly if you will, but 
 think for yourselves.' 
 
 "The college in which you and your fathers were educated, 
 from whose offices seven-eighths of the Irish people are excluded 
 by religion, from whose porch many, not disqualified by religion, 
 are repelled by the comparative dearness, the reputed bigotry, 
 and pervading dulness of the consecrated spot — that institution 
 seems no longer to monopolize the education of Ireland. Trinity 
 College seems to have lost the office for which it was so long and 
 so well paid, of preventing the education of the Irish. The people 
 think it better not to devote all their spare cash to a university so 
 many of whose favourite alumni are distinguished by their adroit 
 and malignant calumnies on the character, and inveterate hostility 
 to the good, of that people with whose land and money they are 
 endowed." 
 
 To each age God gave a career of possible im- 
 provement. In their time his young audience could 
 foresee the speedy rise of democracy, and they had 
 it in their power to accelerate and regulate its 
 march. 
 
1840.] TEE THINKEB. 37 
 
 *' A great man has said, if yon would qualify the democracy for 
 power you must ' purify their morals, and warm their faith, if 
 that be possible.' * How awful a doubt ! But it is not the 
 morality of laws, nor the religion of sects, that will do this. It is 
 the habit of rejoicing in high aspirations and holy emotions ; it 
 is charity in thought, word, and act; it is generous faith, and 
 the practice of self-sacri6cing virtue. To educate the heart and 
 strengthen the intellect of man are the means of ennobling him. 
 To strain every nerve to this end, is the duty from which no one 
 aware of it can shrink. 
 
 " I speak not of private life — in it our people are tender, 
 generous, and true-hearted. But, gentlemen, you have a country. 
 The people among whom we were born, with whom we live, for 
 whom, if our minds are in health, we have most sympathy, are 
 those over whom we have power — power to make them wise, great, 
 good. Eeason points out our native land as the field for our 
 exertion, and tells us that without patriotism a profession of 
 benevolence is the cloak of the selfish man. And does not senti- 
 ment confirm the decree of reason. The country of our birth, 
 our education, of our recollections, ancestral, personal, national ; 
 the country of our loves, our friendships, our hopes ; our country 
 : the cosmopolite is unnatural, base — I. would fain say, im- 
 possible. To act on a world is for those above it, not of it. 
 Patriotism is human philanthropy." 
 
 Davis did not altogether omit the aids and sug- 
 gestions for self-education of which the annual 
 address had ordinarily consisted, and his counsel 
 was of the most precise and practical character, and 
 gives incidentally an insight into the studies by 
 which he made himself a master of English prose.f 
 
 * De Tocqueville, preface to " La Democratie en Amerique." 
 t For example : " There are so few English works on the philosophy of 
 words, that I may enumerate them. Tooke's 'Diversions of Parley' is the 
 most valuable for acquiring a critical habit in etymology and grammatical 
 analysis; for the common use of words, Webster's Dictionary is the best; 
 Todd's Johnson, as an authority and illustration for the modern variations; 
 but Eichardson is the handbook for him who would cultivate a pure English 
 style. Home Tooke, to be sure, was of opinion that each word had but one 
 and an unalterable meaning in a language. Eichardson has pressed this 
 error still further, and has thereby enfeebted the otherwise admirable essay 
 prefixed to his larger dictionary, but his errors (if so they be) only give a 
 sterner purity and force to the language he teaches. When you have 
 
38 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1839- 
 
 Biit lie passed speedily from the mere instru- 
 mental parts of knowledge to the higher methods by 
 which it is acquired and used. 
 
 " Every prudent man will study subjects, not authors. Thus 
 alone can you go through the wilderness of writers, and it is only 
 by requiring ourselves to master subjects that we render ihis 
 society what it is— a means of sound general education. Learning, 
 as such, is the baggage of the orator : without it, he may suffer 
 exhaustion or defeat from an inferior foe ; with it, his speed and 
 agility are diminished. Those are best off who have it in maga- 
 
 examined these books — and they are well worth reading — you must trust 
 to the efiect of your other literary studies, to the eager and full mind, to 
 supply you with words and varieties of style, and to your metaphysical 
 studies, to a patient taste, and habits of revision to correct them. 
 
 "I may mention that Spenser was the favourite leisure-book of that 
 word-wielder, Wiliiam Pitt, and of his great father, Chatham. Erskine and 
 Fox are said to have known Milton and Shakespeare almost by heart. 
 Curran's inspiration, next to the popular legends of Ireland, was the English 
 translation of the Bible. Coleridge, indeed, says that a m;m familiar with 
 it can never write in a vulgar style ; but this, like many of Coleridge's show- 
 sayings, is an exaggeration. For ordinary use, Bolingbroke, Swift, Hume, 
 and even Cobbett, with all his coarseness, and the common letters and 
 narratives of the last century, are safe though not splendid models. Amongst 
 the orators — whom you will, and, perhaps, ought to follow more than other 
 writers — you can study the speeches of Pitt for a splendid plausibility ; Fox, 
 for an easy diction and fluent logic; Sheridan, for wit; Curran, for pathos 
 and humour; Burke and Grattan, for grandeur and sublimity of thought, 
 language, and illustration. In wealth of imagination and in expressive 
 power, Grattan is nest to Shakespeare : his speeches are full of the most 
 valuable information on Irish politics, and are the fit handbook for an Irish- 
 man. But his style is not for imitation; let no subject assume the purple. 
 Erskine possesses most of these qualities, but with a chaster, and, methinks, 
 less racy manner ; but perhaps surpassing all, by combining the best qualities 
 of all, are the speeches, so valuable and so little known, of Lord Plunket. 
 His precise vigour marks him the Demosthenes of the English language. I 
 shall hazard but one piece of advice : keep to the plainer styles. However 
 you may dislike their oi'inious, or question their depth of judgment, the 
 style of Southey, Smith, and some few more of the older reviewers is excel- 
 lent. Coleridge, Carlyle, and the rest of the Germanic set are damaging 
 English nearly as much as the Latinists did ; their writings are eloquent, 
 lively, and vigorous, to those who understand them ; curry and mullaga- 
 tawny to the literary world, but ' caviare to the multitude.' Carlyle is a 
 more honest, but less learned thinker than Coleridge. Their opinions are 
 unsafe, but their works are of the greatest use, in tempting men by their 
 enthusiasm, or forcing them by their paradoxes, to think. Just as the dish 
 possesses a high-cooked and epicurean flavour, is it unfit for the people or 
 the men of the people. The literary style most in fashion is corrupt, and 
 corrupting; the patois of the coteries, it is fuU of meaning and sensibility to 
 them. But shun that jargon. The orator should avoid using it, fur the 
 people own not its power — it belongs not to the nations." 
 
1840.] THE THINKER. 3 'J 
 
 zines, to be drawn on occasion. Learning is necessary to orator, 
 and poet, and statesman. Book-learning, when well digested, and 
 vivified by meditation, may suffice, as in Burke and Coleridge ; 
 but otherwise it is apt to produce confusion and inconsistency of 
 mind, as it sometimes did in both these men. Far better is the 
 learning of previous observation, the learning of past emotions 
 and ideas, the learning caught by conversation, invented or dug 
 up by meditation in the closet or the field ; impressions of scenery 
 whether natural or artificial, in the human, animal, or material 
 world. Such learning is iised by every great poet, philosopher, 
 and orator ; perhaps it requires propitious training or nascent 
 genius to be able to acquire it, but ability to acquire insures 
 ability to use. 
 
 " When Grattan paced his garden, or Burns trod his hillside, 
 were they less students than the print-dizzy denizens of a library? 
 No : that pale form of the Irish regenerator is trembling with the 
 rush of ideas ; and the murmuring stream, and the gently rich 
 landscape, and the fresh wind converse with him through keen 
 interpreting senses, and tell mysteries to his expectant soul, and 
 he is as one inspired ; arguments in original profusion, illustra- 
 tions competing for his favour, memories of years long past, in 
 which he had read philosoj)hy, history, poetry, awake at his call. 
 That man entered the senate-house, no written words in his hand, 
 and poured out the seemingly spontaneous, but really learned and 
 prepared lullaby over Ireland's cradle, or keen over Ireland's 
 corse. 
 
 " Bead, too, Burns's own account of the birth and growth of 
 some of his greatest lyrics. Bead, and learn to labour, if you would 
 be great. There is no more common error than that great works 
 are usually the results of extemporaneous power. You have all 
 read an article on Sheridan by Lord Brougham, full of depreciating 
 criticism, founded on the evidences, the chisel-maiks of compo- 
 sition, which Sheridan left, and so many others (Brougham among 
 the number) concealed. Henry Brougham is a metajjJiysician ; he 
 made no mistake in this ; but Lord Brougham is an egotist, and he 
 misrepresented. 
 
 " I entreat of you to abandon the notion that you will speak 
 well merely from speaking often. Of a surety, all your faculties 
 grow with use, but this very quality of mind behoves you to be 
 judicious as well as earnest in the exercise of your powers. A bad 
 style grows worse by repetition, as much as a good style improves ; 
 or, more generally, bad habits grow as rapidly as good ones. Give 
 up the idea of being great oratois without preparation, till you are 
 
40 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1839- 
 
 so with it. When you are, with your utmost labour, aWe to make 
 one really great speech, you will be above me, my criticism, and 
 my advice, but will, perchance, agree with my opinion." 
 
 These fragments, more than anything which he 
 has left behind, enable us to divine the process by 
 which the young Conservative became a Nationalist. 
 It is plain that he had slowly thought out his 
 opinions, and was sailing by no conventional chart, 
 but by fixed stars. He resolutely determined to be 
 just and fear no consequences. He desired to give 
 these young men a country which it was a duty to 
 serve and a disgrace to neglect, a country which they 
 would love, as a tender son loves his mother, obedient 
 to her voice, and ready to die rather than that she 
 should endure any remediable wrong. 
 
 When the lecture was printed, the sympathetic 
 student naturally sent it to the two or three con- 
 temporary thinkers who were the most familiar com- 
 panions of his solitude. One was Savage Landor, in 
 whose " Imaginary Conversations " he found a store- 
 house of noble thoughts, though his unbridled temper 
 and rash spirit had left him shorn of the influence 
 his genius might have commanded. Lander's reply 
 was found among Davis's correspondence : — 
 
 "Bath, Sunday evening, December 15, 1840. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 "I return you many thanks for the honour you have 
 done me, in sending me the Address read before the Historical 
 Society of Dublin. 
 
 " I hope it may conduce to the cultivation of the national mind. 
 Ireland, I foresee, will improve more in the next fifty years 
 than any other country in Europe, between steam and Father 
 Mathew. 
 
 " That man has done greater good than all the founders of all 
 the religions in the world within an equal space of time. I would 
 
1840.] THE THINKER. 41 
 
 rather see your countrymen flock round such leaders than expose 
 their heads to the dangerous flourishes of declamatory demagogues. 
 " I am, sir, 
 " Yoiir very obliged and obedient servant, 
 
 " W. S. Landor." 
 
 In Jolin Forster's " Life of Lanclor " we find 
 Davis's rejoinder, and get a glimpse of the political 
 opinions which were consolidating into convictions. 
 He had no personal relations with O'Connell as yet, 
 but he recognized him as the legitimate successor 
 of the historical Irishmen whose lives were his 
 favourite study. 
 
 " I am glad to find you have hopes for Ireland. You have 
 always had a good word and, I am sure, good wishes for her. If 
 you knew Mr. Mathew you would relish his simple and down- 
 right manners. He is joyous, friendly, and quite unassuming. 
 To have taken away a degrading and impoverishing vice from the 
 hearts and habits of three millions of people in a couple of years 
 seems to justify any praise to Mr. Mathew, and also to justify 
 much hope for the people. And suffer me to say that if you knew 
 the difficulties under which the Irish struggle, and the danger 
 from England and from the Irish oligarchy, you would not regret 
 the power of the political leaders, or rather Leader, here; you 
 would forgive the exciting speeches, and perchance sympathize 
 with the exertions of men who think that a domestic Government 
 can alone unite and animate all our people. Surely the desire 
 of nationality is not ungenerous, nor is it strange in the Irish 
 (looking to their history) ; nor, considering the population of 
 Ireland, and the nature and situation of their home, is the expecta- 
 tion of it very wild." 
 
 He wrote also to Wordsworth, and received a 
 friendly answer; but this correspondence has been lost.* 
 
 The powers of the secluded student were now 
 confessed, and when he found wings it was as 
 
 * Davis told a friend that Wordsworth praised the address as a com- 
 position and as regards many of the sentiments, but said that it contained 
 "too much insular patriotism." The pamphlet was dedicated to the memory 
 of Francis Kearney, one of his early associates, who was now dead. 
 
42 MEMOIR OF THOMAS PAVIS. [1S30- 
 
 natural for Davis to use them as for a youds^ bird to 
 fly. The Citi^e?i Tvas under the management of his 
 closest friends, and the studies which had occupied 
 his long leisure in college were poured without stint 
 into that barren soil. A youth of constant study, a 
 manhood in which he pondered over principles and 
 systems, prepared him to speak with authority on 
 many questions. It is a strangely touching experi- 
 ment to turn over these j)apers to-day, and mark the 
 care he bestowed upon subjects of the profoundest 
 national importance, but to which scarcely any one 
 else gave a thought. *' Udalism and Feudahsm " is 
 a contrast of Norway and Ireland — the one sohdly 
 prosperous with a peasant proprietary, the other 
 starying and desp)erate with a tenantry at will. He 
 pmt the moral of the case afterwards in the Xation 
 in one significant sentence, of which time has not 
 dulled the edge. 
 
 " B^member that many nations are as well off as the men of 
 cold, rocky ^NoFTrar. Eeniember that no people on God's earth. 
 are so miserably poor as the peasantry of soft and fertile Ireland. 
 Eead and remember this ; and then ask yourselves — and ask yonr 
 neighbonrs — why it is so ? Ask tbem indoor and ont — ask them 
 ere yon do yonr business in the market, and after you have said 
 your prayers on the Sunday — ask till yon are answered, ' Why are 
 the Irisii so poor, when their country is so rich?' — '"WTiy are so 
 many foreigners well off on worse land and in a hard climate ? ' — 
 ' Is there no way of bettering us? ' " 
 
 In the same spii-it he investigated the constitu- 
 tional difficulties which arose in the time of Grattan ; 
 and in a paper on the natural relation of Irishmen to 
 the Afghans (then defending their liberties), opened 
 up views of a foreign policy suitable to a people 
 in the position of the Irish, which were afterwards 
 reiterated in the Xation. and which a thousand later 
 
1840.] THE THINKER. 43 
 
 echoes have rendered commonplace, and sometimes 
 outre and extravagant. But the most solid and 
 valuable of these studies was a later inquiry into 
 the work done by the maligned Irish Parliament 
 of James II. A patriot has rarely undertaken a 
 more necessary or generous labour than to justify 
 that legislature, which was national in an unprece- 
 dented degree and patriotic in the best sense. These 
 essays would have helped to train a generation in the 
 knowledge that makes good citizens ; but the public 
 mind was still cold and indifferent. In truth, the 
 Celtic temperament is averse to abstract studies, and 
 will only bend to them under strict discipline, or 
 when they have become the fuel of a great passion. 
 
 The friends with whom Davis was in the most 
 affectionate and confidential relation at this time, 
 outside the Citizen circle, were John Blake Dillon, 
 William Eliot Hudson, and Eobert Patrick Webb. 
 Dillon was a fellow-student of his own age and 
 character, whom he had encountered at the Historical 
 Society — 
 
 " A simple, loyal nature, pure as snow." 
 
 Webb was a school-fellow at Mr. Mongan's seminary, 
 and a constant associate from early days ; a young 
 man of leisure, culture, and liberal tastes, and, though 
 of Conservative training and associations, disposed 
 to follow his friend into new fields. Hudson was 
 by several years the senior of Davis ; a man of sweet, 
 serene disposition, and singularly unselfish patriotism. 
 He held the ofiice of Taxing Master in the Four 
 Courts, and had been associated with O'Loghlen 
 Perrin and the leading Whig lawyers in reforming 
 the administration of justice in Ireland. But his 
 leisure and income were devoted to projects of public 
 
44 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1810. 
 
 usefulness, in which, ambition had no share, for his 
 name was never heard outside of his own circle. 
 National airs were collected and published at his 
 cost, and various studies in Celtic literature promoted, 
 and he hore the burthen of the Citizen, which was 
 published at a constant loss, and contributed from 
 time to time valuable papers in the region of political 
 science. The maxim which declares that "a man 
 may be known by his friends " was very applicable 
 to Davis's case ; it is only round such a man that 
 such friends cluster. 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE POLITICIAN. 1841-1842. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1841, eariy in his twenty-fifth 
 year, that Davis passed from speculation to action, 
 and for the first time took a personal part in pro- 
 moting the broad national policy which he had 
 advocated in the Citizen. In the previous autumn 
 the Whigs had committed a wanton outrage on the 
 feelings of Irish gentlemen. To provide a conspicuous 
 office for a few weeks for a political gladiator of their 
 following, who had grown discontented, they com- 
 pelled the greatest orator whom Ireland had sent to 
 their aid since Edmund Burke to retire from the 
 Irish Chancellorship, and placed a Scotch lawyer of 
 hard and vulgar nature at the head of the Irish bar. 
 Davis attended a bar-meeting of remonstrance, chiefly 
 Whigs of national opinions who resented the appoint- 
 ment, not as a question of professional etiquette, but 
 because it tended to humiliate Ireland. But the 
 remonstrance caused scarcely a ripple of opinion. 
 The middle class had tasted patronage and fallen 
 asleep at the feet of the Whigs, and as O'Connell, 
 who detested Plunket, was silent, the mass of the 
 people did not know that there was anything amiss. ^^" 
 
 * O'Connell is said to have approved of the transaction. It is manifest 
 from his private correspondence that he did not share the professional or 
 
46 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 It was in company with Conservatives resisting 
 another Whig offence that Davis entered on the stage 
 to do something which attracted universal attention, 
 because it was something no other Liberal in Ireland 
 of that day would have attempted. 
 
 The Eoyal DubHn Society was an institution 
 created by the Irish Parliament for promoting the 
 useful arts and sciences, and developing the natural 
 resources of the country. After the Union, Leinster 
 House, the palace of the Geraldines, was purchased 
 for its use, and it received an annual grant of ^5500 
 to defray the cost of its museum, schools of design, 
 botanic garden, annual exhibition of cattle and 
 agricultural produce, and occasional exhibitions of 
 native manufactures. The lethargy which fell upon 
 Irish enterprise after the provincialization of Dubhn, 
 was pecuHarly felt in literary and scientiiic institu- 
 tions, and the Dublin Society became, it was alleged, 
 less and less a school of practical science and more 
 and more a party club. It maintained a news-room 
 and lending library for its members, with a subscri}^- 
 tion so high as to be nearly prohibitory to all but the 
 landed gentry. When the era of reform came with 
 the Whigs, its shortcomings fell under the review of 
 ParHament, and in 1836 a select committee reported 
 that, to answer the purpose for which it was endowed, 
 it must be effectuall}^ reorganized. 
 
 Something was done to carry out the orders of 
 Parliament, but not much. The high subscription 
 was maintained, and it continued so exclusively a 
 party club that the council was taken in a large 
 
 political heat on the subject. " Blessed be God, the danger is over ! [defeat 
 of the Government]. I believe Lord Plunket is about to resign. Campbell 
 will be his successor" (O'Connell to P. V. Fitzpatrick, London, April 29, 
 1839, "Private Correspondence of O'Connell," edited by W. J. Fitzpatrick). 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN 47 
 
 degree from the party of Protestant ascendancy. 
 Two or three years after Catholic Emancipation a 
 minority, who thought it not too soon to recognize 
 the fact that religious equality among all classes of 
 Irishmen was established by law, proposed Dr. Murray, 
 the Archbishop of Dublin^ a member of its council. 
 He was a man who, from the sweetness of his dis- 
 position and the moderation of his opinions, had 
 made no personal enemies ; but he was a Catholic 
 and a priest, and the society rejected him by a large 
 majority. There was wide and profound indignation, 
 which the Irish Government, of whom Dr. Murray 
 was an ally, shared, and the transaction naturally 
 brought the general shortcomings of the society into 
 view. At the close of 1840, when the estimates for 
 the coming year were in preparation, Lord Morpeth, 
 then Irish Secretary, reminded the society that the 
 House of Commons had recommended certain 
 essential reforms which were not yet effected, and 
 he desired to be informed of the intentions of the 
 Council respecting them before the estimates of the 
 new year were drafted. He intimated that they 
 must abandon the political news-room, reduce the 
 annual fee, and abolish the lending library on which 
 funds granted for the promotion of science were 
 expended, and carry out more effectually the instruc- 
 tions of Parliament, or the endowment could not be 
 continued. The council, in reply, contended that 
 they had carried out the instructions of Parliament as 
 far as was reasonably practicable ; that the news-room 
 was supported, not out of the endowment, but out of 
 the personal subscriptions of the members ; and they 
 insisted that the arbitrary command issued to them 
 was not justified by any solid grounds, and was 
 
48 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 derogatory to the character of the society as an 
 independent body, A general meeting of the society 
 approved of this answer by a majority of 129 to 57. 
 The Government organ, the Dublin Evening Post, 
 immediately announced that the parliamentary grant 
 Tvould be withdrawn.* 
 
 In the state of public opinion in Ireland at that 
 time, nine-tenths of those who called themselves 
 Reformers, whether Protestants or Catholics, ap- 
 plauded this couj) of the Government. It was an 
 effectual method of punishing a bigoted coterie, who 
 neglected the duties for which they were responsible 
 and insulted a man of the blameless character of 
 Dr. Murray. But to Davis the question was not one 
 between Catholic and Protestant, or Liberal and 
 Conservative, but between Ireland and the Imperial 
 Government. He was offended by the arbitrary 
 treatment of Irish gentlemen, and probably hoped 
 that they would understand that they were insulted 
 because they were only Irishmen. He wrote an 
 article, marked by lofty national sentiment and an 
 open contempt for party feeling on such a subject ; 
 and Dillon, who had some acquaintance with the 
 editor of the Morning JRegisfer, took it to that journal. 
 The readers of the Whig Catholic paper, famous for 
 statistics and habitually respectful to the Castle, 
 must have read next morning with lively surprise 
 an appeal to sentiments of Protestant nationahty 
 
 * An official letter from the Under Secretary confirmed the news. The 
 society was iDformed that His Excellency could not recommend to Parliament 
 any further continuance of the annual grant. He was, hovvever, ready to 
 receive from the council an account of any liabilities incurred previous to the 
 receipt of Lord Morpeth's letter of the 17th of December, which were " essen- 
 tial to the promotion of the objects of the institution," that he might con- 
 sider what sum sliould be introduced into the estimate of the present year 
 for their liquidation. 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 49 
 
 long forgotten in Irish controversy.* He treated 
 lightly the charge that the Dubhn Society had 
 refused to reform itself. All the recommendations of 
 Parliament except two had been adopted. One of 
 the two was promised further consideration, and only 
 one refused ; and this one was rightly refused because 
 it was accompanied by an offensive threat. 
 
 "Was this the tone to adopt to a great national body? — ' Yoii 
 are our pensioners, do just as we bid yon, without regard to your 
 own opinions or your own convenience, or we dismiss you.' . . . 
 Was this the treatment due to an institution which had grown 
 old in serving the interests of Ireland? Grant that the society 
 was wrong, yet surely it deserved respect and patience. It deserved 
 more : its opinions should not have been disregarded ; its wishes 
 should in some degree have been yielded to. The society delibe- 
 rates ; it sees that it has conceded much ; it might have conceded 
 to civility what was refused to threats and rudeness. . . . We aslc, 
 Would the French Government treat a public institution thus ? 
 Would the English treat an English society of old standing, great 
 numbers, and respectability, thus? No, they dare not. Verilj^ 
 we are provincials. This society has existed over one hundred 
 years; it contains eight hundred members ; it maintains a body of 
 professors of arts and sciences ; it has schools, theoretical and 
 practical, for teaching ; tlie agriculture, the manufactures, the 
 science, the literature of Ireland have been served by it; and now 
 it is to be flung aside at the caprice of an English Government. 
 It is not the child of that Government. It was founded by Irish- 
 men ; it was fostered by an Irish Government ; an Irish Parliament, 
 while one existed, gave it, out of its scanty resources, £10,000 a 
 year — gave it generously and wisely. That Parliament perished, 
 and the grant was reduced to £7000 by the English Government ; 
 it was afterwards reduced to £5000 by the English Government ; 
 it is now taken away entirely by the English Government. Verily, 
 we repeat, we are provincials. But we ask the public, will they 
 allow the gardens to be sold, the model-room to be shut, the pro- 
 fessors diminished, the shows of cattle and manufactures to be 
 given up, because the English Government quarrels with an Irish 
 institution? We laugh at the charge of faction in the late vote. 
 Many of the most determined Liberals, we know, voted in the 
 
 * Dublin Morning RegUter, Feb. 2, 1841. 
 
50 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1811- 
 
 inajority. We rememter well that the society did, on one remark- 
 able occasion, richly deserve the charge of having acted factioiisly. 
 A venerated prelate, who united all that endears the man with all 
 that ennobles the public character, was rejected from political, or 
 Avorse, from sectarian feeling. We were not behind in censuring 
 them : but we deny that there is any connection between that step 
 and this ; neither the ?ame men nor the same motives have in- 
 fluenced the society now. We will not visit the sins of the factious 
 voters of past years on the heads of the independent party, com- 
 posed alike of Liberals and Conservatives, of the present. Nor 
 even, if we thought the society ever so blaraable in that one 
 respect, would we look on quietly and see such a body insulted, 
 threatened, and trampled on? 
 
 " In fine, we ask the public not to look on quietly and see this 
 old, useful, L-ish institution sacrificed to the rashness or caprice of 
 an English minister; and we ask the members of the society to 
 prove themselves mindful that it was the work of native legis- 
 lature, that its assailant has been an Imperial Government; and 
 that its only safe reliance can be on the national sympathy of the 
 Irish people." 
 
 The Castle press was bewildered by seutiraents so 
 unprecedented. A Liberal journal, complaisant to 
 the Castle, and perhaps under obligations to official 
 persons, resisting the will of the Government ! It 
 was unheard of; a base motive was the only one 
 intelligible to the official journalist, and he affirmed 
 that the proprietor of the Fiegister must have been 
 betrayed in his absence by some untrustworthy 
 representative. His criticism is a characteristic 
 specimen of the journalism of that day. 
 
 " While writing, the Morning Register of this day was put into 
 our hands. On casting our eyes over a column of wordy and 
 furious stuff, our impression for the moment was that we were 
 reading an Orange journal. Certainly, we have not seen anything 
 so nauseous and so scandalous in the Mail of late ; nothing so per- 
 sonally offensive to ourselves since the ruffianing days. Our next 
 impression is more correct — of that we are certain, — that Mr. 
 Staunton has been most infamously used in his absence, by making 
 his journal the vehicle of a treacherous attempt to wound the 
 principles he has supported, and the party he has espoused, as well 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 51 
 
 as to assail the Government of the country because of its honest 
 efforts to reform the abuses of a great public institution." 
 
 In a second article, Mr. Conway — this was the 
 name of the Castle journalist — continued to lament 
 that some "puny whipster" should place Mr. 
 Staunton in a position dangerous, " not only to his 
 character as a politician, but to the interests of his 
 paper. Such conduct," he considered, " thoroughly 
 infamous."* The Whig journalist naturally scoffed 
 at the idea of Tory nationality ; hut Davis knew that 
 Irish patriotism had been constantly recruited from 
 the ranks of its hereditary enemies. Its greatest 
 spokesmen in the century were sons of Government 
 officials, while in every generation the sons of 
 historical and tribunitial houses had passed over to 
 the enemy, or silently relinquished the opinions 
 which made their ancestors illustrious. He was per- 
 suaded that it only needed a Swift or a Grattan to 
 revive the Protestant nationality of old. 
 
 * 111 a note to Webb, who was a member of the Ro3'al Dubbn Society, 
 Davis asks for facts which would enable hiiu to contrast the bberaUty dis- 
 played towards the British Museum with the parsimony witli which the 
 corresponding institution in Ireland was threatened; and he malves plain that 
 his motive in taking up the question was to bring Irishmen of both extremes 
 into friendly relations. 
 
 " I have received your letter and the Post. I had seen Conway's display 
 on Friday (in the Post which came here to Mr. Hancock), and I immediately 
 scribbled a reply, very much too civil, to Conway (for, at the time, I did not 
 feel sure of Staunton), but repeating my former statements, and asking for 
 a refutation, if it were to be had. I have since heard from Dillon; I find 
 that he has replied to Conway — right well, I have no doubt. I have got 
 the Packet^ and have heard of the Mail. I am inclined to think something 
 may be done, by following this up, to produce a better understanding between 
 all Tories and Radicals who have any claim to be called Irishmen. Staunton, 
 too, is to be entirely relied on ; in fact, Dillon describes him as zealous ; so 
 pray have the facts about the British Museum, etc., written out, cyphers and 
 all, to give them to me on Wednesday evening, when I shall be in Dublin. 
 I am very glad you think well of the article. You did right to beat Pigot; 
 it will make him more modest, and, as he really has the stuff in him, more 
 devoted to the royal game. Remember me to Bessie and the son. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 " Thomas Davis." * 
 
 1 Oldcastle, Sunday, Feb. 28, 1S41. 
 
52 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 Davis had gone to the country on private husiness, 
 but Dillon next day restated the grounds on which 
 the society was defended, denied that any wrong had 
 been done to the proprietor of the Begister, and 
 challenged the official journal to point out any part 
 of the original article which could possibly be de- 
 scribed as personally offensive to any one. And he 
 stated in two or three emphatic sentences the key- 
 note of the new opinions. 
 
 " There is a section of Irish Conservatives," said Dillon, " who, 
 with all their enmity towards the religion of the people of Ireland, 
 combine a sincere regard for the honour of their country ; who, 
 through the struggles of party, have still clung to their nationality ; 
 and who, if we can judge from their sentiments and their conduct 
 on some occasions, do still entertain the hope that, sooner or later, 
 the day will come when all our differences will cease, and our 
 humiliation shall be no more. . . . We engaged in this dispute, 
 not from any desire to quarrel with the Government, but from our 
 firm resolve that whatever party be in office —Whig, Tory, or 
 Eadical — if we see it acting arbitrarily or using unjustly its 
 Imperial strength against an Irish institution, we shall oppose it 
 independently and decisively. Will any man be so base as to say 
 that we ought to do less ? . . . 
 
 " The writer [in the Post] affects not to understand what we 
 mean by an Irish Government. We will be plain with him. We 
 mean a Government under the control of an Irish Parliament. 
 We think, and have always thought, that no honesty on the part 
 of an Imperial Government can compensate for the want of this 
 control, and have some hope that the time is not far distant when 
 every honest man in Ireland will think the same." 
 
 The persistence of the Begister was a marvel to 
 the public. But Dillon was able to report to his 
 friend that Mr. Staunton, who was a timid but 
 dogged man, stood firm in the controversy, and had 
 even admitted other articles from his new con- 
 tributors, suggesting that Ireland had a foreign 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 53 
 
 policy not necessarily an echo of the opinions 
 prevalent at Westminster.* 
 
 The society was saved, and the sympathetic 
 reader may mark that this transaction presents a 
 key-note to Davis's entire career. 
 
 The friends felt that they had got an opening 
 to the mind of the country which ought not to 
 be lightly relinquished, and they resolved to propose 
 a more permanent arrangement to Mr. Staunton. 
 Dillon opened the subject, and in a few days was 
 able to report the successful progress of the negotia- 
 tions. Dr. Gray, who was brother-in-law to Torrens 
 McCuUagh, had recently bought the Freeman's 
 Journal, in company with a few friends, and, since 
 the articles on the Dublin Society had attracted 
 attention, he proposed to Dillon that he and his 
 friend should occasionally write for it. But they 
 aimed to direct a journal, so that its teaching might 
 be uniform and coherent, and that they might not 
 be liable to be repudiated. 
 
 " I have just been talking to Staunton about our project," 
 Dillon wrote on the 27th of Febriiary. " He seems to like it much 
 
 * Dillon's letter was addressed to Oldcastle, co. Meath, and is dated Feb. 
 17, 1811. 
 
 " Dear Davis, 
 
 " You may perceive from the paper which I send you that the 
 article on the Dublin Society has kicked up a row. Conway has come out 
 with dreadful ferocity. I suppose Synan has sent you the Post, as I gave 
 it to him on his promising he would do so. The Mail copied your article 
 in full, together with my reply to the Post I will send you the paper if 
 I can get it. I understand that Conway meditates a general attack on the 
 Begister for its conduct of late. The foreign articles, particularly those 
 relating to McLeod, have created a sensation at the Castle. I imagine I see 
 you here putting your hand to your neck. Staunton is staunch. He wishes 
 me to fight it out about the Dublin Society. He is, he says, for Irish insti- 
 tutions, whether they be Orange or Green. This is capital. You may sup- 
 pose that I am impatient for your return. Let me hear what you think 
 about all this, I will send you a coj^y of the Pout to-night. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 " John Dillon." 
 
54 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 better than I expected. In fact, from the tenonr of his observa- 
 tions, I am inclined to think that we shall be able to accomplish 
 an arrangement on the terms which we desired, as soon as you 
 return. The offer of the Freeman made an impression on him, and 
 he seemed rather obliged to me for making the disclosure to him." 
 
 The result was that the two young men were placed 
 in control of the Begister, for a limited period, and 
 strictly as an experiment. Since a national press 
 existed in Ireland it was never so low in character and 
 ability as at that time. The popular journals echoed 
 the speeches of O'Connell, but rarely supplemented 
 them by any individual thought or investigation. One 
 nowhere encountered the convictions and purpose 
 of an independent man. There had been genuine fire 
 in the Catholic struggle and the first Repeal move- 
 ment, but it had expired, and the journalists at this 
 time worked for the most part with the lethargy 
 of men who believed little and hoped nothing. 
 Thomas Moore summed up the case: "Look," he 
 said, " at the Irish papers. The country in con- 
 vulsion — people's lives, fortunes, and religion at 
 stake, and not a gleam of talent from one year's end 
 to the other." But though the press was feeble it 
 was often malicious. Like a torpid viper, it awoke 
 at times to inflict a sting. 
 
 National literature in a higher sense than 
 journalism, like all oar native institutions, had 
 emigrated to England. The poet who, in the eyes 
 of Europe, typified the Irish race vegetated in Devon- 
 shire. The novelist who aimed to win for the 
 annals of Scotia Major the interest with which Scott 
 had invested the annals of Scotia Minor was fagging 
 for London booksellers. The young man of genius 
 who had produced the most original drama of the 
 
18i2.] THE POLITICIAN. 55 
 
 generation, and a novel wliicli more tlian one of his 
 rivals has pronounced to be the best Irish story ever 
 written, was starving in a London garret because 
 he could not get even the employment of a hack. 
 Lady Morgan, after attempting for a time to sustain 
 a national salon in Dublin, followed the tide and 
 established herself in Mayfair. Maxwell was still 
 labouring, nearly as unsuccessfully as Maturin had 
 laboured before him, to attract an audience to pure 
 literature flavoured with a dash of Irish eccentricity ; 
 and Maginn and Mahony, both intensely Irish in 
 nature and gifts, exhibited their nationality chiefly 
 in bitter gibes at O'Connell and the Eepealers. The 
 Irish Pejiny Magazine, in which Petrie andO'Donovau 
 had revived for a time the study of Irish antiquities, 
 was dead. A Dublin Penny Journal, owned by a 
 Scotch firm, followed, but scarcely succeeded it. The 
 Citizen was little read, and, except for occasional 
 historical papers, was not worth reading. The Dublin 
 University Magazine alone maintained the reputation 
 of Irish genius, but it was more habitually libellous 
 of the Irish people than the Times. The stories of 
 Carleton and Lefanu, the poetry and criticism of 
 Mangan and Anster, the graphic sketches of Caesar 
 Otway, and the sj^mpathetic essays of Samuel Fergu- 
 son were smothered in masses of furious bigotry, manu- 
 factured chiefly by Samuel 0' Sullivan, a parson who 
 had once been a papist, and brought to his new 
 connexion the zeal of a convertite. His brother, 
 Mortimer 0' Sullivan, a man of notable ability, was 
 also a contributor, but rarely fell into the monotony 
 of hysterics which distinguished his junior. The 
 voice of Irish Ireland was heard nowhere but in the 
 speeches of O'Connell, and his position and ante- 
 
56 MI>MOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 cedents made him less the national than the Catholic 
 champion. 
 
 The young men wrote constantly in the Register 
 on foreign politics, and national organization ; and, 
 for the iirst time since the corpse of Robert Emmet 
 was flung into the mud of Bullysacre, a perfectly 
 genuine appeal was made to Protestant nationality. 
 The fervent exhortations on concihation and bro- 
 therly love — which meant what they said, — the large 
 doctrines of national policy at home and abroad, the 
 wise speculations on the destinies of the country 
 (ripened and informed with familiar knowledge and 
 science), were new and strange. Was it deep philo- 
 sophy or nascent madness? The first fate of new 
 truths is to be ridiculed, and the country was then 
 in no humour to be schooled in the sterner virtues. 
 Corrupted by the Whigs, who had kindled the lust 
 of place in a million of hearts — from the popular 
 member who wanted a sinecure, to the young peasant 
 who wanted to be a policeman, — the new principles 
 made slow way. The ordinary clientele did not 
 understand them ; and to gather new readers around 
 a long-established paper, with a fixed reputation 
 for respectable mediocrity, was a disheartening and 
 nearly impossible task. The prejudice to be assailed 
 was very intractable. Irish Protestants might well 
 be ashamed of the wrongs they permitted and 
 battened upon, but most of them only saw their 
 country through a haze of traditional prejudice. A 
 pane of coloured glass alters the eternal facts of 
 nature, her grass is no longer green or her skies 
 blue, and their prejudice was a coloured glass through 
 which all nature seemed orange and purple. The 
 experiment was to last for three months certain, and 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 57 
 
 then be reconsidered. Mr. Stauuton, who was hard 
 and parsimonious, but strictly honest in business 
 transactions, reported, when the time came, that it 
 had not succeeded. Measured by the financial 
 thermometer it had failed indeed, for the circulation 
 of the journal had not increased but diminished. In 
 July he wrote to Davis. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Our agreement was made on the 5tli of March, and, 
 according to my reckoning, you were engaged sixteen weeks 
 suhseqnently to that date. You are therefore entitled to £32, for 
 which I enclose a draft. There is, I am sorry to say, no dividend 
 to be computed, our condition having been the opposite of one in 
 advance. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 "Mich. Staunton.* 
 " Thomas Davis, Esq." 
 
 The two friends immediately retired from the 
 Begister, and employed themselves in other public 
 work. They had found work by this time, destined 
 to engross the remainder of their lives. While 
 writing in the Register^ it became plain that their 
 position as national journalists, standing outside of 
 the national organization which O'Connell had 
 recently re-established at the Corn Exchange, was 
 weak and anomalous. The philosophical nationality 
 of the University was a feeble fire at best, kindled 
 among rocks and mounds of solid earth, where there 
 were few materials for combustion, and it was certain 
 that it would only spread slowly and probably not 
 very far. On the other hand, the popular agitation 
 naturally repelled a young man like Davis, bred among 
 a class to whom it was hateful and contemptible. 
 For its methods were of necessity coarse, its instru- 
 
 * 80, MarlLorough Street, July 24th. 
 
58 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [184.1- 
 
 ments rude, and the one conspicuous man of genius 
 who gave it its sole authority was the living embodi- 
 ment of political and religious passions inherited from 
 former contests. But however imperfectly it fulfilled 
 its office, it was the only guardian of the national 
 cause, and that cause was the cause of justice. The 
 result of reflection was that, to accomplish his purpose, 
 he must do what Tone had done before him — he 
 must associate himself with the people and their 
 trusted leaders whatever natural repugnance had to 
 be overcome. The most courageous incident in 
 Davis's career, which would not have been surpassed 
 in daring if he had mounted a breach in promotion 
 of his opinions, was to enter the Corn Exchange and 
 announce himself a follower of O'Connell. 
 
 It is difficult at the close of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, after fifty years of agitation for national ends 
 in which Protestants haA-e been leaders or con- 
 spicuous spokesmen, to understand what such a 
 decision meant in 1842. The son of a Eoman cen- 
 turion who left the retinue of Caesar to associate 
 with the obscure Hebrews gathered round Saul of 
 Tarsus scarcely made a more surprising or significant 
 choice. A dozen years had barely elapsed since the 
 Celtic population were released from a code ex- 
 pressly framed for their extinction, so that "one 
 Papist should not remain in Ireland." The bulk of 
 the nation were simple, generous, and pious, but 
 ignorant and little accustomed to think for them- 
 selves. The middle-class Catholics scarcely dreamed 
 of any higher aim than to obtain some social recog- 
 nition from the dominant race, or some crumb of 
 patronage from a friendly administration. 
 
 We have glanced at the Ireland into which Davis 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 59 
 
 was born in 1814. The generation which had since 
 elapsed saw political changes accomplished of great 
 scope and promise — Catholics were emancipated and 
 Parliament was reformed, — but the system on which 
 Ireland was governed by England had undergone no 
 effectual change. Every institution and agency per- 
 taining to authority was still strictly Protestant. The 
 towns were only a few months liberated from exclusive 
 corporations who had vindicated their right to govern 
 by plundering in every instance the endowments 
 provided by the State for their support. The counties 
 were still controlled by Protestant grand juries, in 
 whose selection the ratepayers whose money they 
 disposed of had no part. The judiciary, executive, 
 and local magistracy were Protestant in the propor- 
 tion of more than a hundred to one, and they com- 
 monly regarded the people with distrust and aversion ; 
 for though time had mitigated, it had not extinguished 
 the sentiment which in official circles classified the 
 bulk of the nation as the " Irish enemy." Half the 
 rural population were steeped in habitual misery. 
 The peasantry in the genial climate of southern 
 Europe were better clad and fenced against the 
 elements than the tenant farmers who toiled under 
 the moist and chilly sky of winter in Ireland ; and in 
 the least productive countries in Europe, in the 
 barrenest canton in Switzerland, or the most sterile 
 commune in the Alps, they were better fed than 
 amongst the plentiful harvests of Munster. The 
 great estates were held by English absentees, who 
 ruled the country from Westminster, mainly for their 
 own profit and security. The resident gentry were 
 for the most part their dependents or adherents, and 
 had never wholly lost the secret apprehension that 
 
60 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 estates obtained by confiscation might in tbe end 
 be forfeited by the same process. But they were 
 entrenched behind a standing army whose function 
 in DubHn was no more in doubt than that of the 
 Croat in Milan or the Cossack in Warsaw. The 
 country sent a few national and a few Catholic repre- 
 sentatives to the Imperial Parliament, but the fran- 
 chise was so skilfully adjusted to exclude the majority 
 that in some cases a freeholder with the required 
 qualification had to pay as many as ten separate 
 rates and taxes before he became entitled to vote. 
 One powerful tribune, indeed, constantly demanded 
 in Parliament and on the popular platform the rights 
 withheld from the people ; but his enemies scorn- 
 fully declared that he did not represent the nation, 
 but only its frieze coats and soutanes. He had 
 against him, for the most part, the Irishmen whose 
 books were read or whose lives were notable, the 
 journalists capable of controlling public opinion, and, 
 universally, the great social power called good 
 society. His agitation was pronounced to be ple- 
 beian ; and, in truth, it was not free from faults of 
 exaggeration, offensive to veracity and good taste. 
 Por nearly two years O'Connell, at this time, had 
 been making weekly appeals to public opinion in 
 favour of a native parliament, but he had not drawn 
 to him one man of station, weight of character, or 
 conspicuous ability. The sincerity of his policy was 
 doubted even among the patriot party, because he 
 impaired the simple force of the national claim by 
 coupling with it a radical reform of the House of 
 Commons, revision of the land code, and the aboli- 
 tion of tithe, — questions to be dealt with by the 
 Imperial Parliament, and each " good for a Trojan 
 war of agitation." 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. Gl 
 
 Between the agitator and the Government there 
 was a section of the Protestant middle class, of humane 
 culture and liberal opinions, who sympathized with 
 neither, unless when the administration was in the 
 hands of Whigs. They had been Emancipators, and 
 wished to see gross wrongs redressed, but they were 
 content that reforms should come as soon, and extend 
 as far, as English opinion might approve — unhappily 
 never very soon or very far. They were, in fact, 
 merely the provincial allies of a political party in 
 London. 
 
 The Tories, who were in a great majority among 
 the gentry and the professions, looked on the popular 
 movement with disdain. But the indolence and 
 satiety which come of long possession leavened their 
 scorn largely with contempt. Between these parties 
 Davis, if he took any part in public affairs, felt he 
 had no choice. He recognized in O'Connell the 
 natural successor of Hugh O'Neil, Art MacMurragh, 
 Owen Eoe, and the other Celtic chiefs who had 
 stood in the front of the nation in peril and calamit}^ 
 No one saw more clearly that the leader was not free 
 from faults — it is only in poetry and romance that 
 one encounters blameless heroes ; but his cause was 
 the same as theirs, the deliverance of the Irish race 
 from greedy and truculent oppression. Among the 
 class Davis burned to enlist in the national move- 
 ment, O'Connell had never stood so low as at this 
 time. He had laid himself open to a suspicion 
 hostile to his influence among men of public spirit. 
 Little more than half a dozen years earlier he had 
 pulled down the banner of nationalitj^, in order to 
 grasp the patronage of the Irish Government, and 
 they feared that if the Whigs came back to power 
 
62 MEMO IB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 lie would be liable to yield again to tlie same tempta- 
 tion. He could doubtless plead in defence that lie 
 had brought into power the Irish administration of 
 Mulgrave and Drummond, and raised O'Loghlen and 
 Woulfe to the bench. The true story of his relation 
 with the Whigs was rarely recounted in his own day, 
 and is still imperfectly understood. Immediately 
 after the splendid success of the Catholic agitation, 
 the first Eeform Act was carried by the English 
 party who had been Emancipators, with the effectual 
 assistance of O'Connell. Political power was their 
 immediate reward. In England Brougham, repre- 
 senting opinions which were then considered extreme, 
 became Lord Chancellor; in Scotland, Jeffrey, long 
 the standard-bearer of reform in that country, 
 became Lord Advocate ; but, instead of raising their 
 great Irish ally to a similar authority, they disdain- 
 fully refused office to the foremost Irishman of his 
 century, and maintained in power an executive 
 and judiciary nurtured at the dugs of Protestant 
 Ascendancy. There has rarely been a more shame- 
 less concession to English prejudice than this 
 transaction. It was a blunder as well as an insult. 
 O'Connell wished to become Attorney-General, that 
 great wrongs in the administration of justice might 
 be redressed by his hand, and that the Catholic 
 nation might recognize by such a conspicuous fact 
 that they were emancipated. The most capable 
 statesmen in the Cabinet approved of the project, but 
 Earl Grey, a man of cold and haughty disposition, 
 met it with a contemptuous negative. O'Connell 
 felt a just resentment, and, on his own part and the 
 part of his race, he went into opposition to the Grey 
 Government. He proposed to the people wdio had 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 63 
 
 wou emancipation to organize anew for the Repeal 
 of the Union with England. It was a design which 
 he had meditated from early manhood, a just and 
 necessary design, hut the period selected was un- 
 doubtedly influenced by his personal resentment. 
 The nation gave him prompt support, and, at a 
 general election which ensued, forty Rejoealers were 
 elected. The national demand was formally launciied, 
 and could never be withdrawn without grave loss 
 and discredit. But when Lord Grey retired from 
 office his successor made peace with O'Connell, and 
 the Irish leader consented to make another experi- 
 ment to obtain the redress of Irish wrongs from the 
 Imperial Parliament. He stopped the Repeal agita- 
 tion in mid career, and became a parliamentary 
 supporter of the Whigs. The change was made more 
 offensive to Irish feeling by his permitting members 
 of his own family and many of his political friends, 
 who had been elected to Parliament at great popular 
 sacrifice, to become placemen and give u]3 for ever 
 the cause to which they were pledged in the face of 
 the nation. When the Whigs fell from power in 
 1840, he took up the national question anew, but he 
 was impeded at every step by inevitable suspicions ; 
 the majority of the nation answered languidly to his 
 appeal, and the minority did not answer at all. This 
 was a country in which a public career offered no 
 prizes to ambitioUj but nowhere on the earth was a 
 noble, unselfish patriotism more imperiously solicited 
 to struggle and die rather than endure wrongs so 
 shameless. 
 
 The patriotism of the two young men was not 
 solicited in vain ; on the 19th of April, 1811, Davis 
 and Dillon became members of the Repeal Associa- 
 
64 MEMOIB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 tion. They were cordially welcomed by O'Connell, 
 and immediately placed on the general committee, 
 which was the popular privy council, and on sub- 
 committees charged with special duties. How they 
 demeaned themselves there I shall describe more 
 conveniently a little later, when I became their 
 associate. But I may note how early Davis began 
 to organize his work. Before he was a month a 
 member of the association, O'Connell wrote to his 
 son John : — 
 
 " Tell him [Davis] the want of funds is a decisive reason for 
 not urging the Repeal as we otherwise would. This is really the 
 secret of our weakness. I will press the appointment of Repeal 
 wardens until every parish is provided with the machinery." * 
 
 They were assiduous in their attendance on com- 
 mittees, but they did not limit their labours for the 
 national cause to one field. Davis continued his 
 contributions to the Citizen — now become the Dublin 
 Montlily Magazine; and Dillon, who had succeeded to 
 the auditorship of the Historical Society, prepared 
 the closing address for the year 1841. 
 
 Dillon's address followed the general line of his 
 friend's in teaching public duties, rather than rules 
 of art ; but it was calmer and statelier in tone. 
 Nearly devoid of ornament, it was eloquent with 
 strong convictions and lucid principles. It was an 
 appeal to the judgment and conscience rather than 
 to the generous emotions. But it was persuasive in 
 a singular degree. One of the most eminent judges 
 in Ireland told me a fact which enables us to estimate 
 its value better than much criticism. " The night 
 before I read Dillon's address," he said, ''I was a 
 
 * O'Connell to his son, London, May 29, 1841, " Private Correspondence 
 of O'Connell." 
 
1812.] THE POLITICIAN. 65 
 
 Whig ; next morning and eA^er after I was a Nation- 
 alist." Dillon was so closely associated with Davis, 
 so intimate a confederate and counsellor throughout 
 his career, that I must pause for a moment on the 
 Catholic Nationalist's first confession of faith as an 
 essential part of the new opinions which they brought 
 into Irish affairs. 
 
 If the Historical Society were solely a school of 
 eloquence (he told them) the greatest lesson it could 
 teach was that the way to be eloquent was, not to 
 study the tricks of rhetoric, but to cultivate the 
 passions of which eloquence is the natural language. 
 It was usual on occasions like that to praise the care 
 and perseverance of Demosthenes in mastering the 
 art, but it would be more to the purpose to recall 
 ''the great passions by w^hich he was inspired; the 
 ardent love he bore his country ; his fear for her 
 safety ; his undying hatred of her foe ; and his fierce 
 indignation against the traitors to her cause." His 
 speeches were not loaded with ornament, there 
 was slight care bestowed upon the structure of 
 sentences or the selection of words ; but '' one spirit 
 pervades them ; throughout they breathe one great 
 desire — to awaken his fellow-citizens to a sense of 
 their dignity and their danger. This was the secret 
 of his eloquence. His heart was in the cause in 
 which he spoke." 
 
 And history everyw^here repeated the same lesson. 
 
 " Look," lie said, " to the records of any nation, and inquire 
 ■what is that period of its history when eloquence shone forth in 
 the greatest splendour ? You will find it to be, when great events 
 were being enacted, and great interests in conflict, and great and 
 stormy passions roused in the breasts of men. Compare France 
 in the Eevolution with France ten years before, and ask the cause 
 of the change which that short period brought about in the 
 
 F 
 
66 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 genius of its people? You will find that it was not because they 
 were more accomplished rhetoricians, that the men of the Revolu- 
 tion were greater orators than those who went before them, but 
 because of the bursting forth of new passions, and the diffusion 
 from breast to breast of high and fierce desires. It was this that 
 roused the sensual nature of Mirabeau, and touched his tongue 
 with fire. It was this that redeemed from that oblivuon, into 
 wliich it otherwise had sunk, many a name that is now immortal. 
 And when Henry, the Demosthenes of America, issued from the 
 recesses of the forest, and summoned his countrymen to arms, 
 with an eloquence as deep, and as strong, and as rapid, as the 
 rivers of his native wild, whence did he draw his inspiration ? 
 Was it from the pages of Longinus, or Quinctilian, or Blair? or 
 was it not lather from the tumultuous emotions that heaved with- 
 in him? He loved his country; he saw it in danger; and passion 
 touched his heart, and its fountains opened, and the sacred stream 
 gushed forth unsolicited and free." 
 
 He spoke of the example which their own history 
 furnished : — 
 
 "We are apt, when we contemplate such a rare collection of 
 great men as the Irish Parliament at that lime exhibited, to 
 attribute to them the greatness of those events which occurred in 
 their time; and to suppose that the splendour in which that 
 period appears clothed, was borrowed from the brilliancy of the 
 genius in which it abounded. I would be inclined to reverse this 
 arrangement, and to place the greatness of the time the first, and 
 the greatness of the men the second, in the order of causation. . . , 
 The age, I think, was not so much indebted to fortune fur having 
 blessed it with so many great men, as the men were indebted to 
 it for having thrown them on so great an age. And I am con- 
 firmed in this opinion by a conviction which I have always enter- 
 tained, that the intellectual powers of those men are generally 
 overrated. Great orators they were, no doubt — amongst the 
 greatest the world ever saw ; but I do not think they deserve to 
 be classed amongst the greatest men. As men, their greatness 
 should be judged, not from what they sa^tZ, but what they did; 
 and, judged by this test, they are found wanting. Their language 
 abounds in great conceptions and brilliant thoughts ; but in their 
 actions we seek in vain for that lofty determination which marks 
 the conduct of the truly great — the Hampdens, the Washingtons, 
 and many a countryman of our own, whose name is now forgotten, 
 
1812.] THE POLITICIAN. 67 
 
 or preserved by lying history as au object of rilicnle and scorn. 
 At a time when they liad the enemy completely at their mercy, 
 and might have dictitel whatever terms they pleased, they should 
 have insisted on something more than permission to meet and 
 amuse one another with elaborate orations, and to make laws 
 which they had no power to enforce. They should have known 
 that, no matter what forms of liberty'' it may possess, a nation is 
 not free which has not the means of defending itself from aggres- 
 sion ; that a constitution is but a mockery which lias no security 
 for its existence but the faith and the forbearance of strangers ; 
 that a Parliament is nothing more than a debating clnb, if it be 
 not sustained by the sympathy, and, if need be, by the arms of 
 the people." 
 
 He warned them against the modern cosmo- 
 politanism which taught that nationality was a pre- 
 judice ; that one spot of earth, because we chanced 
 to be born there, was not on that account to be pre- 
 ferred to another, and that we had no duties to per- 
 form to our mother country. The man who knew 
 how much more the happiness of a people depended 
 on the spirit and disposition prevailing among them, 
 than on the quality of the food which they ate or the 
 clothes which they wore, viewed with more alarm 
 the progress of such opinions than a pestilence or a 
 famine, or the presence of a hostile army on our 
 shores. For the effects of these things were speedily 
 effaced ; the ravages of pestilence and famine were 
 soon repau'ed, and fields laid waste soon grew green 
 again : but when cold and grovelling selfishness took 
 possession of the minds of a people and drew them 
 away from virtue and honour, there was then a 
 wound inflicted which festered at the heart, and 
 which centuries might not heal. 
 
 What was to prevent the objection taken against 
 patriotism being brought to bear on family distinc- 
 tions and the affections growing out of them ? 
 
68 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1811- 
 
 " Shall we not presently hear (or rather, do we not hear even 
 now, from those pestiferous missionaries of vice that swarm 
 throughout England) attempts to reason or to ridicule men out of 
 their affections for their brothers and their parents? Might not a 
 very virtuous lamentation be composed on the calamities that 
 spring from those affections? upon the ruinous lawsuits that arise 
 from the father's anxiety to preserve the property of his children, 
 and the sanguinary duels that are occasioned by the sensitiveness 
 of the brother to a stain upon a sister's honour? . . . National 
 patriotism is as much a part of our nature as filial or fraternal 
 love; I ground the assertion on the universality of its existence. 
 And if we would pity or abhor the man who should advise us to 
 transfer our filial affection from its proper object to such other 
 object as interest might point out, why do we listen with patience 
 to the men who tell us that we should transfer our patriotism 
 from our own to other countries, when self-interest prompts us to 
 do so? The latter of these affections is just as independent of our 
 will and of self-love as the former; and it is so for the same 
 reasons. It is a passion which springs out of the past, and the 
 past we cannot alter. It is formed at a period when we are 
 altogether incapable of reflecting on its uses; it grows, like 
 summer flowers, in calm and cloudless times — those sunny days 
 of childhood, when the heart is fresh and prone to love. Chilled 
 it may be by selfishness or crushed Ly sophistry, but it cannot be 
 transplanted. Uproot it from its native soil and it blooms no 
 moie, but the place in which it grew will remain empty and 
 desolate for ever." 
 
 He spoke of the blessings patriotism conferred 
 and the sacrifices it entailed, and it lends a noble 
 charm to the sentiment of the young man to re- 
 member that in later times when called upon to put 
 the sentiment into action he did not fail. 
 
 " The patriot revels in a thousand pure delights, which the 
 cold cosmopolite can never taste. It is sweet to look back upon 
 those times when our country was great and free. It is sweet to 
 muse amidst moss-grown ruins, the memorials of her pride. It is 
 sweet to read of the valour of her sons in their unequal struggles 
 with the invader; to contrast their high-souled gallantly with the 
 little arts and the ruffian fraud by which their ruin was effected 
 It is sweet to gaze upon the flag that waved above their heads in 
 
i84l>.] the politician. 69 
 
 battle ; it is sweet to hope that it shall wave again. The very 
 sorrows of the patriot are, like our own soft-breathing music, 
 sweetly sad. The tears of the exile are not all tears of grief, when 
 he sits down pensive in a distant land and thinks of home — the 
 remembered scenes, and the loved companions of early pleasuies, 
 and the green churchyaid where he would wish tu sleep. Even 
 death itself lays down its grisly terrors, and smiles on him who 
 meets it in his country's cause. Deep generous raptures thrill 
 through the hero's breast, and his heart bounds lightly, and his 
 pulse beats high, when duty summons him to the p )st of danger. 
 And though fortune frown upon his arms, and his banner sink, 
 and he be doomed to press the plain ; although, as he lies upon 
 his 'gory bed,' sad images of weeping friends and blighted love 
 afflict his spii'it, and the cheei's of successful tyranny send to his 
 grieved and death-sick heart the sad forebodings of wrongs and of 
 dishonour that await his native land; yet when his pangs have 
 passed away, and he is laid where the insults of the stranger or 
 the groans of his country cannot reach hiin, oh ! who would give 
 his glory and that chainless grave for a few short years of slavery 
 and shame ? 
 
 Students familiar with the ante-revolution litera- 
 ture of France and America will note that Davis's 
 address belonged to the first, Dillon's to the second 
 school. The one suggests the passion of Yergniaud, 
 the other the stately strength of Patrick Henry or 
 Alexander Hamilton. Davis's address was like a 
 vivid stream rippling musically over impediments, 
 and leaping into cascades, sometimes sparkling in 
 the sun, sometimes diving into subterranean places, 
 and reappearing coloured with the veined soil through 
 which it forced its way. Dillon's was like a calm, 
 strong level river, whose force may be measured by 
 the unbroken rapidity of its course. 
 
 He illustrated by examples the decisive and salu- 
 tary results patriotism had produced in the world, 
 and by principles drawn from moral science the 
 depths of our nature from which it is derived. In 
 
70 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 Ireland even what were called " the prejudices of 
 patriotism " were symptoms of a nature undebased. 
 
 "The national character of Ireland, with its passions and its 
 prejudices, its religious affections (called ' superstitions ' by the 
 cold of heart), ay, and its aversions and just resentments — this 
 character has not been produced in a day, or in a year, or in a 
 hundred years. Long centuries of trial and affliction have made 
 it what it is. Its roots strike deep into antiquity, and its branches 
 have been watered, from time to time, by the blood of the unfor- 
 gotten brave. And is it not vexatious to hear little assimilating 
 politicians talk about Lending and fashioning this ancient tree, as 
 if it were a twig? " 
 
 The end for which he aimed was brought back to 
 
 view at the close of the address : — 
 
 "If the observations I have made have the effect of raising 
 a doubt concerning the wisdom of those politicians who make 
 light of nationality', who think that they serve their country by 
 depreciating her power and resources in the e.^timation of her own 
 people and of the world, and by representing her as unfit to enjoy, 
 and unable to defend, her freedom ; if anything I have said should 
 cause 3'ou to think that national patriotism and common sense are by 
 no means inconsistent with one another, as they are very commonly 
 supposed to be, then my object is accomplished, my trouble more 
 than rewarded, and your time, I think, not altogether thrown away." 
 
 These generous thoughts fell upon fit soil. In 
 the short interval since the delivery of Davis's 
 address, the Historical Society had undergone a 
 notable change. It would seem, indeed, as if he 
 had inspired it with his own soul. The old nota- 
 bilities had all disappeared, and their successors were 
 for the most part serious students fit to profit by 
 lessons of public duty. Among the new members 
 who afterwards won honourable reputation in the 
 professions or the university were included John 
 K. Ingram,* John O'Hagan, John and David Pigot, 
 and Nelson Hancock. 
 
 * Now Senior Fellow of Trinity College, and a man of high distinction 
 as a scholar and writer. 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 71 
 
 The adhesion of Davis aud Dillon to the popular 
 movement is a memorable event to Irishmen. There 
 are men who make epochs in our history. Lawrence 
 O'Toole, who combined the Celtic tribes against the 
 invader; Art McMiirrough, who effaced the crimes 
 of his ancestor by heroic services; Hugh O'Neill, 
 who baffled the enemy by culture and policy he 
 learned from themselves ; Eoger O'Moore, who 
 evoked hope among a moribund people ; Sarsfield, who 
 restored to their imagination the figure of a national 
 soldier ; Grattan, who used the institutions of the 
 conquerors to conquer them in turn ; Wolfe Tone, 
 who combined the Presbyterian Eepublicans of the 
 north wdth the Catholic serfs of Munster ; O'Connell, 
 who taught the trampled multitude their strength ; 
 and Davis, who once again aimed to unite the whole 
 force of the nation in honourable union, are such men. 
 He was the first Protestant since Tone, of recent 
 times, who not only sympathized with the wrongs of 
 the Celts, but accepted and embraced the whole 
 volume of their hopes and sympathies. He was not a 
 patron of the old race, but its spokesman and brother. 
 
 It was at this time, in the autumn of 1841, that 
 I made Davis's acquaintance at the Eepeal Associa- 
 tion, and Dillon's at the Begister office, where I had 
 preceded him in an apprenticeship to journalism. I 
 was in town only for a few days, to keep terms at the 
 King's Inns, and had no opportunity of cultivating 
 their acquaintance before returning to Belfast, where 
 I then edited a bi-weekly newspaper. But they were 
 so unlike all I had previously seen of Irish journalists 
 that I was eager to know more of them. On return- 
 ing to Dublin in the spring of 1842, I met them in 
 the hall of the Four Courts, and they put off their 
 
I 2 MEMO IB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1811- 
 
 gowns and walked out with me to the Phoenix Park, 
 to have a frank talk about Irish affairs. We soon 
 found that our purpose was the same — to raise up 
 Ireland morally, socially, and politically, and put the 
 sceptre of self-government into her hands. I knew 
 their connection with the Begister had ceased, and 
 that the Dublin Monthly had no audience in the 
 country, and I proposed that we should establish and 
 conduct a weekly paper as organ of the opinions we 
 held in common. Sitting under a noble elm in the 
 park, facing Kilmainham, we debated the project, 
 and agreed on the general plan. I was to find the 
 funds and undertake the editorship, and we were to 
 recruit contributors among our friends. Davis could 
 count upon John Cornelius O'Callaghan, whose 
 ''Green Book"* was attracting attention at that 
 time ; Dillon named two young men in college, who 
 afterwards did valuable work — John O'Hagan and 
 John Pigot ; and I could promise for Clarence 
 Mangan and T. M. Hughes, f who contributed to the 
 journal I was then editing, and O'Neill Daunt (for- 
 merly O'Connell's private secretary), whom I had 
 sounded on the subject. We separated on an agree- 
 ment to meet again in summer, and launch the 
 journal in autumn. 
 
 Davis's correspondence during his early connec- 
 tion with the Eepeal Association exhibits him con- 
 stantly engrossed in work. One of his school-fellows % 
 
 * In 1841 appeared "The Green Book; or, Gleanings from the Writing 
 Desk of a Literary Agitator:" a misceUany of poetry; the notes, valuable 
 historical studies ; tiie verses, rather slipshod, being more than ten yeais 
 older than the establishment of the Nation, and belonging to quite a different 
 school. 
 
 t Afterwards author of " Eevelations of Spain," the " Ocean Flower," etc., 
 and editor of the London Charivari, a periodical which preceded Punch, and 
 was illustrated by Leech. 
 
 X C»dwallader Waddy, county Wexford. 
 
1812.] THE POLITICIAN. 73 
 
 asked his advice ou an effective style in journalism, 
 
 and got prompt counsel. 
 
 " I received this morning your letter, and the Wexford Inde- 
 pendent. With something of jest or flattery, I fear, you ask my 
 poor opinion on the ' matter and style ' of your article? To punish 
 you I shall give it. I can assure you sincerely that anything 
 vs^ritten by an old friend and school-fellow would be welcome to 
 me. I think you have written a sensible and, I may add, elo- 
 quent article on the most important of national manufactures, 
 mind-making; appropriate too, for the public must learn much, 
 and that quickly, on the subject, if they would pi'osper. There 
 is no subject which interests me so much as education. I shall 
 give you next month a pamphlet of mine on it, and shall pray 
 your candid opinion. [The allusion is to his Address, which was 
 printed in October, 18-il — ten days after the date of this note.] ' I 
 know you will pardon my pointing out a defect or two in your 
 forcible style ; the sentences are rather long and complicated, the 
 parts of each sentence might be more accuratdy distributed, and, 
 lastly, let me beg of you not to employ newspaper phrases so much. 
 These are faults which you need only bear in mind to amend. You 
 have 'metaphysical consciousness' enough to watch and correct 
 yonrself. Do so, and yuu will soon acquire a more consistent and 
 precise style. Ywu pos-ess sufficient force and invention, as I can 
 see, and I have no doubt your information is extensive. You see 
 I am no flatterer; you asked my opinion, and I fancied it might 
 be of service to you. I should never have intruded it unasked. 
 You will, I know, pardon its freedom. You mention Lord Ebring- 
 ton's Declaration [Lord Ebrington, then Lord Lieutenant, declared 
 that no Repealer would receive any share of the patronage of the 
 State] : I think O'Connell has made a right use of that part whi di 
 recognizes the constitutional right to agitate for repeal, as it will 
 impede the next Whig Coercion Bill, which nothing but a French 
 war will prevent the introduction of. The passage which threatens 
 to withhold all favour and patronage from Eepealers I think 
 worthy of Lord Castlereagh, and one of the most insolent speeches 
 I have ever read. But Thiers will soon make the AVhigs sing 
 another tune. You promised to give me a call on your return — do 
 not forget it. We shall then talk more of these things. 
 "I remain, your sincere fiiend, 
 
 " Thomas Davis." 
 
 His friend Webb complains that he is neglecting 
 him for politics, and receives an adequate excuse. 
 
74 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 " My dear Egbert, 
 
 " I am a brute for not having written to you before. 
 After that admission you must forgive me. I envy you your 
 leisure, and the country, and your thoughts. I am up to the tips 
 of my hair in business. I am secretary to the Franchise Com- 
 mittee, ditto to the Municipal Election Committee, and, on account 
 of Clement's illness, I am obliged to give some of my time to the 
 Dublin Eegistry, which is now going on. There is no hope of 
 my getting out of this ' decayed metropolis ' for the summer, or 
 autumn either. 
 
 " Do you w^alk four Irish miles an hour for two hoars consecu- 
 tively? [As Davis had doubtless instructed him to do.] If so 
 you are in speed at least quite my match ; but I get dogged, and 
 would endure any amount of fatigue or disgust with the object 
 of my toil and not give up — in walking at least. 
 
 " When you are at Capel Cui ig go and see a lake between it 
 and Trefriew ; there is no road, you must cross the hill. 
 
 "Are you getting more passionately patriotic? You are away 
 from poor Ireland. Poor, poor Ireland ! Well, who knows? 'Old 
 Erin shall be free ' says the ' Shan Van Vocht.' I wrote ' will ; ' 
 I have changed it to 'shall.' How is Bessie? and how go on the 
 babes? My love to you all, with a heart and a half. Next summer 
 maybe we shall be together in Connaught. I shall be all alone 
 here by this day week. Have you made as much way in De Beau- 
 mont as in walking? [Davis gave him De Beaumont's ' Irelande 
 Sociale, Politique, et Eeligieuse ' to study.] Talking of histories, 
 ' as you do in your note,' there's a ' History of Conway.' Get it, 
 and Price's (I think that's the name) 'History of Wales,' and be 
 happy. Pray write to me soon, and I may be in a more scribbling 
 mood. Good-bye, my boy. 
 
 " Always yours, 
 
 "T. D.* 
 
 " To P. E. Webb, vagabond in Wales." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " Write, for I like to hear from you, for thus onij' am I reminded 
 by anything outside myself that w^e are to spend, as we have spent, 
 many an hour pleasantly, and not without purpose, together. And 
 tell me how Bessie is, or tell her to write to me. Talk to me all 
 you have been thinking among the ' chiefless castles.' I am already 
 
 * 61, Bagot Street, August 4, 1841. 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAX. 75 
 
 getting sick of ' citizens and burgesses.' I never will be a Lucas ; 
 
 you, little impudence, will add I could not, but [Lucas was 
 
 the popular Protestant leader in Dublin between Swift and Grattan.] 
 . . . Lest I should forget to tell you when we meet, remember to 
 read a book called ' The Eationale of Religious Enquiry,' by James 
 Martineau. It has two or three important thoughts on religion 
 that were new to me ; perhaps they will be so to you, at any rate 
 you will like the bojk." * 
 
 As the season approaches its close he is still busy 
 at public work : — 
 
 " I learn from your mother that you have been very ill. Attri- 
 bute this to your lazy, sedentary, pedantic, fire-loving, chimney- 
 worshipping, mopish habits. Amend your ways, use your limbs, 
 breathe God's air, and see His world, or, by the holy St. Patrick 
 (I swear by your patron in compliment to you), you'll evaporate 
 and cease to be. O'Connell refers me to son John (as himself has 
 not the authority for the story of Sarsfield at Landen), and the 
 said son John is at Darrynane ; but I'll remember your quest and 
 get it answered. [The authority, probably, for the story of his 
 dying words, 'Would that this were for Ireland.'] Will you 
 oblige me by sending me at once a note to the librarian R.D.S. 
 Library, to admit the Rev. John McHugh, Catholic Curate of Kin- 
 sealy. This, my client for your favour, is somewhat read in Irish 
 history, and occasionally comes to town. O'Callaghan is in London, 
 staggering with Parisian lore. His book is beginning to sell, and 
 will be noticed in the Duhlin Bevieio next month. Do you know 
 Mackintosh's letters to R. Hall about his madness? Do you know 
 Mackintosh's life? or anything? I only just read it my. -elf, but 
 I can swagger judiciously." f 
 
 And to the same friend, still touring in Wales, he 
 sends practical suggestions for turning his excursion 
 to the best account :— 
 
 " Why don't you write to me? To be sure I owe you a letter 
 but then I have nothing to tell ; you have much to say to me, as 
 you are the traveller, the seer of new sights, the feeler of new 
 thoughts, while I am jogging on in the old way, intending much 
 
 * Saturday, August 28, 1841. 
 
 t <3l, Bagot Street, September 28, 1841. 
 
76 MEMOIB OF THOMAS DAVrS. [1811- 
 
 and doing nothing, or worse. I am alone, and grow lonely; the 
 weather is miserable, O'Connell in low spirits ; so write to me and 
 rehuraanize me. If affairs here do not come to a crisis in a year 
 I shall turn Unitarian preacher. You will be glad to hear that 
 O'Connell will (he says) have a book on Ii-ish History from 1172 
 to 1612 (when the Irish were made not-outlaws) published in 
 October. It will consist of some thirty pages of text, and seven 
 or eight hundred of notes and illustrations, including most of 
 Carey's book to that date. [Carey's ' Vindicae Hibernicae,' a 
 defence of the Irish rising in 1641.] O'Connell's name will get 
 all these collections read, and the memory of Ireland will be 
 enlarged. We may all take advantage of this beginning, and put 
 thoughts into the mind of the country. By heavens, 'tis madden- 
 ing to see the land without arts or arms, literature or wealth ! I 
 am for the sharp remedies. Oh for another Clontarf ! the crowded 
 hour, and the worthy grave. But you have other thoughts, calm, 
 unfevered, lor though nestling in the battlements of Caernarvon 
 or striding through the pass of Llanberiis, j'ou hear the clash of 
 arms, see waving banners and charging knights and struggling 
 mountaineers. Yet 'tis all a pleasant vision ; not personal, nothing 
 of duty, or faith, or anxiety, in it; fanciful, passionless, and oh, 
 the dark tarn rippling where it rippled, or lay still, in the time of 
 Glendower or Caiactacus, in the times of minstrel and bard, when 
 no damned slate quarries and earth-stabbing mines, and cold, 
 fitful, imbecile races were there. I hate England and Anglicism, 
 isolated, yet not original. I wish the Chartists would seize the 
 lands, and burn all the machines in England. Is the human race 
 progressive, or oscillating ? The progress of the last six hundred 
 years — printing, gunpowder ! Christianity says the race has a 
 destiny as well as the individuals; yet surely (may God forbid 
 it!) we are not to settle down into utilitarianism — making the 
 most use of the world, and cramming it with as many wealthy, 
 gymnasticated, schooled people as it will hold, in social parallelo- 
 giams or cottages and gardens, and it does not matter much 
 which. ... Is it not possible to have moral and intellectual pro- 
 gress in religion, and happiness, without a simultaneous growth 
 of mechanics and material pursuits and condensed population, 
 which leaves no mountain untilled, no sea un fathomed, no valley 
 lonely ? Do you feel any necessity for a creed to satisfy your 
 feelings? Unless one has something of the sort he is apt to grow 
 inactive and uncomfortable. A strong mind must preach or 
 govern or love, a mission or occupation or a paradise. I must 
 choose between the two first, but I waver and grow sensual and 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 11 
 
 misty (for mine is not a strong mind), so shall probably end in 
 doing neither." * 
 
 After our general design for the new journal was 
 settled, Davis proposed modifications to which his 
 colleagues could not cordially assent. He feared 
 that a weekly paper spoke too seldom to be an 
 effective teacher. The Evening Freema7i, an un- 
 prosperous offshoot of the morning paper which 
 appeared twice a week, was understood to be in the 
 market, and he suggested that we should farm it 
 for a fixed period, and be heard twice a week instead 
 of once. I was unwilling to make this experiment. 
 A weekly journal was my ideal. One of my first 
 purchases with money of my own earning had been 
 a set of the Examine?^ in the time of Hazlitt and the 
 Hunts. When a schoolboy, I had fallen in with the 
 early volumes of BlacJiivood^s Magazine, and its base 
 vituperation of Hazlitt and the Cockney school 
 excited a longing to read Hazlitt, and, after him, 
 Charles Lamb, De Quincy, and Leigh Hunt. A paper 
 like the Examiner in its best days, — different in form 
 as well as in spirit from the existing weeklies, 
 
 * 61, Bagot Street, Sunday, August 15, 18-41. 
 
 There are so few of Davis's letters playful, that this one is worth pre- 
 serving as an example. His mother instructed him to issue certain invita- 
 tions, to Webb and some of his relatives, but, being busy or lazy, he 
 transferred the duty to his friend in the jargon of the profession to which 
 they both belonged : — ■ 
 
 " Therefore it behoves you to intimate the contents of these presents unto 
 them, the aforesaid. Provided always that if the said Robert Webb, Bessie 
 Webb, or Isabella Woodrofl'e, shall fail in any of the things deeds or acts 
 herein and hereby intimated and expressed or intended so to be, it shall and 
 may be lawful to and for the hereinalter named Thomas Davis, or his assigns, 
 to break the heads of them the said Robert, Bessie, and Isabella, in such 
 manner as to him or them shall seem pleasing, to wit on the day and year 
 last mentioned, at Dublin, aforesaid. 
 
 "The writing on the appended quarter sheet of paper, and on both sides 
 thereof, was written by me on this 20th day of December, 2nd Vict., a.d. 
 1838. 
 
 " Thomas Datis. 
 
78 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 origiual instead of a reprint, and literary as well 
 as political — seerued to me the fit medium for criti- 
 cism and speculation. After much debate it was 
 suggested, probably by Dillon, that we might try 
 both projects simultaneously. Happily the division 
 of forces which the double task would have imposed 
 was avoided by the refusal of the Freeman proprietary 
 to accept the arrangement. They shortly afterwards 
 purchased the Morning Register , in which Davis and 
 Dillon had recently written, amalgamated it with 
 their daily paper, and the unprofitable Eveiiing Free- 
 man slipped quietly out of existence. 
 
 But Davis had not yet reconciled himself to the 
 limitations of a weekly paper. He had studies in 
 hand too extensive for the columns of any newspaper. 
 He was about to reprint the statutes of the Irish 
 Parliament of James 11. , with suitable comments, 
 and nothing short of a monthly periodical could find 
 space for them. And his college friends, Wallis 
 especially, were angrily opposed to any political 
 journal, which, they insisted, must fall under the 
 dictatorship of O'Connell, and lose all initiative and 
 independence. The Dithliyi Montldy Magazine, if it 
 were only strengthened by the men and money about 
 to be wasted on a weekly paper, would, they con- 
 tended, do the work designed more effectually — the 
 work being, to create a sounder and more generous 
 opinion on all branches of the Irish question, and 
 cultivate the sympathy of Protestants. On the other 
 hand, if its best men were diverted to other projects, 
 the only organ of high nationality in the country 
 must perish. A weekly paper was a mistake ; there 
 were several weekly papers already in existence, but 
 they were never seen in the hands of the educated 
 
1842;] THE POLITICIAN. 79 
 
 classes. Objections to a periodical, because it only 
 appeared once a month, were futile. Was there not 
 a periodical in Edinburgh, which appeared only once 
 a quarter, which had saved the fortunes of the Whig 
 party, and won the mind of England to Reform ? 
 And the political and literary services of the rival 
 quarterly in London to the Tory party had been 
 scarcely less signal. London, no doubt, had excep- 
 tional opportunities ; but if such things could be 
 done in Edinburgh, why not in Dublin ? These were 
 the arguments pressed upon Davis, especially by 
 Wallis, whom he was accustomed to hear with 
 deference. Though the magazine had been a com- 
 plete failure, only kept in existence at the cost of 
 Hudson, Davis had still a strange hankering for 
 putting his new wine into this damaged vehicle. 
 Wallis, who was as inventive, as persuasive, and as 
 unpractical as Coleridge, was ready with a plan to 
 supersede the new journal, the very name of which 
 was an offence to him. Nation, forsooth, when it 
 could not escape its fate of becoming the washhand- 
 basin of O'Connell ! This was the plan. Let the 
 magazine become the property of its contributors ; 
 let a fund be raised to carry it on for three years 
 certain ; let the new proprietors form a social club 
 meeting weekly, to consider the public questions 
 which they were about to treat ; and there would be 
 a focus of opinion and practical work such as had 
 wrought wonders in America, France, and Germany. 
 Davis promised to sound his friends on the subject. 
 He did not propose to abandon the Nation, but to 
 leave me to consider whether the limited assistance 
 he could give under the circumstances would be 
 worth retaining. When the new project was com- 
 
80 MEMOIJR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [184 1- 
 
 municated to Dillon, then in the country, his 
 Tigorous good sense rejected it peremptorily. 
 
 " Dear Davis (he wrote\ 
 
 '• AlthoTigli I received your letter two days since, it was 
 qnite impossible for me to answer it sooner. I have been unable 
 to do anything, or even to think of anything since I came to the 
 country, from the state of perpetual motion in which I have been 
 kept. In compliance "with yonr reqn-st for a categoricHl answer 
 to yonr proposal, I say 'Xo.' I need hardly tell you that nothing 
 ■would give me greater pleasure than to make one of those of whom 
 your club will consist, if you succeed in establishing it ; but with 
 mv present opinions regarding its principal object, it would argue 
 a great want of common prudence in me to join it. 
 
 " Tou must not understand me to mean that it is not desirable 
 that the Citizen should flourish. I have not, as you are aware, so 
 high an opinion of the utility of a monthly periodical for this 
 country as you and others have : but, at the same time, I think 
 it would be by no means without nse if it could succeed. But 
 is your project likely to insure its success? I see no reason to 
 think so. It is now two or three years in existence, and it is still 
 a losing speculation; and what chance is there that it will not 
 be the same at the end of the next three years ? TVTiat advantage 
 will it have that it has not had? I cannot see any. and I think 
 it a pity that the energies of the best men in the country should 
 be wasted in an occupation neither profitable to themselves nor 
 to any one else ; fur yuu know a magazine which does not pay 
 is not read. Under these circumstances, if you engage in the 
 undertaking, I must be content with wishing you success. 
 
 " As to the prospectus 'of the Xation~_, it was my intention (and 
 unfortunately, like most of my intentions, it still remains unful- 
 filled i to write one. and to send it together with yours to Dufiy. 
 This is the reason why I have kept yours so long. I do not 
 altogether approve of the one you wrote. It contains many good 
 passages; but, as a whole, I think it would not answer the purpose 
 for which it was intended. I have taken a copy for Dufiy, which 
 I will send him immediately. The original I send back to your- 
 self, as you might wish, to improve it. It would be highly desirable 
 to have a good prospectus, and you have done fir^t-rate things 
 in that way. 
 
 "Have you seen Dufiy's letter in the Vindicator? It struck me 
 as a first-rate production. A weekly paper conducted by that 
 fellow would be an invaluable acquisition. I should like to hear 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 81 
 
 when you iutend to leave town, and how you are succeeding in 
 the club affair. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 "John Dillon." * 
 
 After Dillon's letter, Davis began to speak to his 
 friends of the new journal. He still helped the 
 Duhlin Montlily with important papers, and urged 
 old contributors to help it, but the project of re- 
 organizing it was silently abandoned. On the 6th of 
 July, he wrote to Waddy — 
 
 " I am going to resume my connection \vith the Irish press 
 in the autumn, but in a way which will enable me to effect more 
 with less demand on my time than last year. And, as I am talk- 
 ing of myself, you will see some very treasonable papers of mine 
 in the Dublin Monthly for the two last and the ensuing months, on 
 the Afghan war. What say you to Blackburn ? He has produced 
 an angry feeling amongst moderate Liberals and even Tories here ; 
 and as to Pennefather, he has damned himself past recovery.j 
 Norbury never uttered so atrocious a charge as he did. To keep 
 the ball up they are this day prosecuting a Drogheda printer for 
 publishing the Shan Van Vocht ! Only think of such madness ! 
 Is it possible Peel sanctions this? But thank God, for with a 
 persecuting Government we need only be true to ourselves, and 
 Ireland will be ready whenever an opportunity offers to emancipate 
 herself. I leave for the north on Tuesday, so if you write to me 
 to Belfast, care of C. G. Duffy, Esq., Vindicator Office, next week 
 or the week after, I shall get your letter. Burn this. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 " Thomas Davls." 
 
 Next day he wrote more fully to Maddyn : — 
 
 " You won't write to me, so I write to you, perhaps it's the 
 
 * Dillon's letter has no date ; but the letter in the Vindicator, to which 
 he alludes as recent, is dated June 23, 1842. 
 
 t The allusion is to the prosecution of Mr. Gavan Duffy, editor and pro- 
 prietor of the Belfast Vindicator, for an alleged libel charging Attorney- 
 General Blackburn with a partial administration of justice by trying a Catholic 
 prisoner, in what was called "a party case," by an exclusively Protestant 
 jury, while a directly opposite practice was employed in the case of Protestant 
 prisoners. The case was tried before Chief Justice Pennefather, and some 
 account of the circumstances out of which it arose, and the speech for the 
 defence, will be found in Lord O'Hagan's "Selected Speeches," p. 75. 
 
82 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 same in the end. Well, I'll philosophize by-and-by, but must 
 scold now. When you withdrew your animal self from us Irishers, 
 did you mean to subtract the spirit? If I'd known your design 
 I'd have nobbled your soul as the Kilkenny boys did the Carlow 
 electors. In good sooth, won't you write to me and tell me what 
 you are doing, or dreaming, or hoping ? Do you take any interest 
 in the twig you so richly nourished — the Citizen"? We have had 
 all manner of doubts and discussions, and have at last resolved 
 to continue it, blow high, blow low, for some time longer. For 
 charity and for memory's sake, send us something — we die, we 
 faint, we fail ! Well, well, I meant to write you a grave letter, 
 and here I am scribbling nonsense. Now don't say ' of course,' 
 for I'm in savage health, and won't bear a gibe. Webb and I 
 leave for the north on Tuesday next. After seeing the County 
 Down, Belfast, and Benburb, we mean to loiter round Antrim cliffs 
 to Derry, and maybe to Donegal ; and from either I shall return 
 by the Fermanagh Lakes to Dublin, leaving him to close the 
 autumn in the north with his wife and his little ones — God bless 
 them! Webb is always asking for you, and what can I say? I 
 am going to take another dash at the press here, but under better 
 auspices than last time. If 3'ou write to me any time before the 
 25th, care of C. G. Duffy, Esq., Vindicator Omce, I'll get the letter." 
 
 Maddyn, in reply to his appeal for a contribution 
 
 to the Duhlin MontJdi/, promised a sketch of Stephen 
 
 Woulfc' — a lawyer who had distinguished himself in 
 
 the Catholic agitation, and, after emancipation and 
 
 reform, became Chief Baron in Ireland. On his 
 
 northern journey Davis answered him, and opened 
 
 his heart to his friend on his policy and hopes. 
 
 " I picked up your letter yesterday, on my way here. Webb 
 and I have been over the battle-ground of the Boyne, through 
 Dundalk, Eostrevor, the Mourne Mountains, and mean, after seeing 
 Benburb and Belfast (the home of heroes and conventicle of swine), 
 to go round the Antrim coast to Derry. Your sketch of Wonlfe 
 will be invaluable. Are you aware that he wrote a pamphlet on 
 the Catholic question ? I have it in Dublin. Would you wish for 
 it? I agree with most, and diifer from some, of what you say; 
 but I am so sun-stricken and plethoric that I hardly am able to 
 tell you which is which." 
 
 He concluded in language which enables us to 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 83 
 
 understand how mature and well-considered were 
 the opinions which the young recrnit brought to 
 national counsels : — 
 
 "The machinery at present working for repeal could never, 
 under circumstances like the present, achieve it; but circumstances 
 must change. Within ten or fifteen years England must be in 
 peril. Assuming this much, I argue thus. Modern Anglicism — 
 i.e. Utilitarianism, the creed of Eussell and Peel, as well as of the 
 Radicals — this thing, call it Yankeeism or Englishism, which 
 measures prosperity by exchangeable value, measures duty by 
 gain, and limits desire to clothes, food, and respectability, — this 
 damned thing has come into Ireland under the Whigs, and is 
 equally the favourite of the ' Peel ' Tories. It is believed in the 
 political assemblies in uur cities, preached from our pulpits (always 
 Utilitarian or persecuting) ; it is the very Apostles' Creed of the 
 professions, and threatens to corrupt the lower classes, who are 
 still faithful and romantic. To use every literary and political 
 engine against this seems to me the first duty of an Irish patriot 
 who can foresee consequences. Believe me, this is a greater 
 though not so obvious a danger as Papal supremacy. So much 
 Morse do I think it, that, sooner than suffer the iron gates of that 
 filthy dungeon to close on us, I would submit to the certainty of 
 a Papal supremacy, knowing that the latter should end in some 
 twenty years— leaving the people mad, it might be, but not sensual 
 and mean. Much more willingly would I take the chance of a 
 Papal supremacy, which even a few of us laymen could check, 
 shake, and prepai'e (if not effect) the ruin of. Still more willingly 
 would I (if Anglicanism, i.e. Sensualism, were the alternative) 
 take the hazard of open war, siire that if we succeeded the military 
 leaders would compel the bigots down, establish a thoroughly 
 national Government, and one whose policy, somewhat arbitrary, 
 would be anti-Anglican and anti-sensual ; and if we failed it would 
 be in our own power before dying to throw up huge barriers 
 against English vices, and, dying, to leave example and a religion 
 to the next age. I have for some time had two sets of articles in 
 contemplation for the Citizen — one ' Illustrations of Nationality,' 
 being some account of the peculiarly national things of Hungary 
 and Norway at present, and of Switzerland in the past, and 
 perhaps the free cities of the Middle Ages. The second series to 
 be passages of Irish History, such as the lives of the O'Neills, the 
 settlement of Munster and Ulster, etc. What do you think of 
 
84 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841- 
 
 these projects ? Did I tell you that I am going to resume writing 
 for the press in a couple of months? Don't mention it to any one. 
 It is necessary for me to get involved in projects, otherwise ray 
 mind would fall into the old melancholy or the older love which 
 wasted most of my life. Write to me soon again, and believe me 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 "Thomas Davis."* 
 
 In July, Davis visited me at Belfast, and all the 
 preliminaries were settled for the issue of our pro- 
 spectus. Davis's draft was adopted with a single 
 amendment, and an addition which I considered of 
 importance ; the names of the intending contributors 
 were published as a guarantee of good faith and 
 personal responsibility. Davis suggested the sig- 
 nificant title of the Nation for the new paper, and 
 a sentence from the prospectus will indicate our 
 specific aim : — 
 
 " Nationality is their first great object — a Nationality which 
 will not only raise our people from their poverty, by securing to 
 them tlie blessings of a Domestic Legislature, but inflame and 
 purify them with a lofty and heroic love of country — a Nation- 
 ality of the spirit as well as the letter — a Nationality which may 
 come to be stamped upon our manners, and literature, and our 
 deeds — a nationality which may embrace Piotestant, Catholic, and 
 Dissenter — Milesian and Cromwellian, — the Irishman of a hundred 
 generations and the stranger who is within our gates ; — not a 
 Nationality which would prelude civil war, but which would 
 establish internal union and external independence; — a Nation- 
 ality which would be recognized by the world, and sanctified by 
 wisdom, virtue, and prudence." 
 
 The Belfast of the United Irishmen and the 
 Volunteers, which still claimed to be the chief seat 
 of liberality and letters in the island, had a strong 
 fascination for Davis, but I warned him that he 
 would find the "Athens of Ireland" as ugly and 
 sordid as Manchester; its temples hideous little 
 
 * July 24, 1842, 
 
1842.] THE POLITICIAN. 85 
 
 Bethels, wliere Pentilic marble was replaced by 
 unwholesome bricks from the mud of the Lagan, 
 its orators noisy fanatics, and the old historic spirit 
 soured into a bigotry worthy of Eochelle, the Bel- 
 fast of France, where Protestants, newly escaped from 
 chains, maintained what they called religious liberty 
 by refusing a Catholic permission to worship God or 
 exercise the smallest authority within their dominion. 
 To my northern friends Davis was a new and 
 puzzling phenomenon. The Belfast Whigs were 
 Protestant Liberals, in general sympathy with the 
 English Whigs, but a genuine Nationalist was 
 nearly unknown among them. The Catholic Bishop 
 and clergy to whom I presented him saw for the first 
 time an Irish Protestant who recognized the old race 
 as the natural spokesmen of public opinion, who 
 sympathized passionately with the historic memories 
 of which they were proud, but never forgot or per- 
 mitted others to forget that the Protestant minority 
 were equally Irishmen, however party politics might 
 have separated them from their brethren. 
 
 Though his apprenticeship ended and his public 
 life began when he entered the Repeal Association, 
 it was only in the new journal he was free to utter 
 his whole mind and able to make himself heard 
 by the nation. His public life lasted barely five 
 years, and seldom in the history of a people have 
 five years been more fruitful of beneficent changes 
 in opinion and action. The story I have to tell is 
 not so much the career of a gifted man as the develop- 
 ment of a new era. It is nearly half a century since 
 he entered the Corn Exchange ; it is over five and 
 forty years since he was buried at Mount Jerome ; 
 and during all this interval the opinions which he 
 
83 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1S1L>. 
 
 taught have been wideniug their scope, and his name 
 growing dearer to his countrymen. He influenced 
 profoundly the mind of his own generation, and it is 
 not too soon to affirm that he has made a permanent 
 change in the opinions of the nation which he served. 
 It needed patience and forbearance of a kind not 
 too plentiful among Irishmen to harmonize his aims 
 with the juggles and devices of traditional agitation. 
 But there was still " one great aim, like a guiding 
 star above." The rights of a nation were again 
 demanded for his country without stint or limitation, 
 by its accredited leader. The cause was as good as 
 any recorded in history, and he was persuaded and 
 resolved that the contest should become as noble 
 and spiritual as the great enterprises which had 
 moved his sympathy in the annals of straggling 
 nations. The sentiments already in his heart after- 
 wards blossomed into song : — 
 
 " May Ireland's voice be ever lieard 
 
 Amid tile v^^oiid's applause ! 
 And never be her flag-staff stirred, 
 
 But in an honest cause ! 
 May freedom be her very breath, 
 
 Be Justice ever dear : 
 And never an ennobled death 
 
 May son of Ireland fear ! 
 So the Lord God vp^ill ever smile, 
 "With guardian grace, upon our it>le." 
 
 From this date all the incidents of his career are 
 familiar to a hundred witnesses, and pass before us 
 like a panorama. 
 
( 87 ) 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE JOURNALIST. 1842. 
 
 The new journal was announced to appear on the 
 8th of October, 1842. Davis had only undertaken to 
 contribute one article a week, and he arrived in town 
 from his northern excursion on the eve of publica- 
 tion.* But he speedily came to see that he had 
 found the true business of his life, and he entered on 
 it with all the decision and energy of his nature. 
 The public were on the alert for the appearance of 
 the Nation. The prospectus and the disclosure of 
 the writer's names had awakened a certain curiosity, 
 and there was already at the publishing office a con- 
 siderable list of subscribers, and large orders for the 
 first number from country agents. The two earliest 
 subscribers were symbolical — men who took slight 
 interest in current journalism, but much in native 
 literature — the eminent antiquaries, Eugene Curry 
 and John O'Donovan. But the existing journalists, 
 as I encountered them from time to time, warned 
 me, in spite of these omens, to expect a collapse. 
 We are apt to think of an eminent man as having 
 
 * I found this note among his yjapers : " I have been expecting you in 
 town for some days. Our first number must make its appearance to-morrow 
 fortnight, and there are many questions to be considered, which will require 
 time and you. Pray come home" (Duffy to Davis, Sept. 23, ib42). 
 
88 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 been to his coutemporaries all lie lias become to 
 posterity, but this rarely happens ; and it will be an 
 encouragement to modest men to know that it was 
 far from happening to Davis. It is not strange that 
 he was for a time imperfectly recognized at college ; 
 but when he began to act in public, he was the 
 subject of contemptuous banter to the veteran 
 agitators around O'Connell. He spoke a language 
 which they did not understand, and pursued aims 
 which they believed to be quixotic. The jolly un- 
 principled editor of the Pilot, understood to be much 
 in the confidence of O'Connell, assured me that 
 Davis was a simpleton who nearly ruined Alderman 
 Staunton by eccentric proposals in the Register, and 
 might be counted on to frighten men of sense from 
 any enterprise in which he was concerned. And the 
 proprietor of the Monitor, who had no malus animus, 
 told me that he had seen Davis representing the 
 Repeal iVssociation in the Dublin Revision Court, 
 and that he was unskilful and unready, ignorant of 
 practice which had become traditional, and in- 
 capable of holding his own with the Conservative 
 agent. 
 
 When expectation and the conflict of opinion 
 were at their height, a mischance in the printing- 
 office rendered it necessary to postpone the appear- 
 ance of the journal for a week, and I was consoled 
 on various sides with the assurance that such a delay 
 was fatal; the public expectation was disappointed, 
 and could never be revived. 
 
 On the 15th of October the long-expected first 
 number was issued. Maddyn had suggested a happy 
 motto from a speech of Stephen Woulfe, " To create 
 and foster public opinion, and make it racy of the 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 89 
 
 soil." The form and appearance of the journal were 
 new in Ireland ; political verses were printed among 
 the leading articles as claiming equal attention, and 
 there was a distinct department for literature. The 
 first leader declared, as the chief article of our creed, 
 that, political nicknames — Whig, Tor}^, and so forth 
 — notwithstanding, we would recognize only two 
 parties in Ireland — those who suffered by her degrada- 
 tion, and those who profited by it. Clarence Mangan 
 proclaimed our second purpose to be the emancipation 
 of the trampled tenantry. 
 
 " We announce a New Era — be this our first news — 
 When the serf-grinding landlords shall shake in their shoes, 
 W hile the ark of a bloodless yet mighty Eeform 
 Shall emerge from the flood of the popular storm ! 
 Well we know how the lickspittle pandeis to pow'r 
 Feel and fear the appioach of that death-dealing hour ; 
 But we toss thet^e aside — such vile, vagabond lumber 
 Are but just worth a groan from 'The Nation's' First NuiiBER.*' 
 
 By a curious coincidence the arrang ments were 
 completed on Davis's twenty-eighth birt.'^day, and 
 next morning the journal was flying through the 
 city. In his correspondence with Maddyn we have 
 the story of its success. 
 
 " The Nation sold its whole impression of No. 1 before twelve 
 o'clock this morning, and could have sold twice as many more if 
 they had been printed, as they ought to have been ; but the fault 
 is on the right side. The office window was actually broken by 
 the newsmen in their impatience to get more. The article called 
 'The Nation ' is by Duffy; 'Aristocratic Institutions,' by Dillon ; 
 ' Our First Number,' liy Mangan ; ' Ancient Irish Literature,' ' The 
 Epigram on Stanley,' and the capital ' Exterminators' Song,' are 
 by O'Callaghfin. Tlie article on ' The English Army in Afghan- 
 istan, etc.,' the mock proclamation to the Irish soldiers, and the 
 reviews of the two Dublin magazines, are by myself. . . . The 
 articles you propose will do admirably in your hands. Duffy is 
 the very greatest admirer of the sketches of Brougham and Peel 
 
90 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 that I ever met. [Sketches by Maddyn in the Dublin Monthly 
 Magazine.'] Perhaps in a newspaper the points should be more 
 salient and the writing more rough and uncompromising than in 
 a magazine. Duffy seems to think that if number three, your 
 lightest, dare-devilish poteen article, were to come first, it would 
 most readily fall in with the rest of the arrangements." 
 
 Wallis, who was nothing if not critical, adminis- 
 tered a bitter to correct any excess of sweets. 
 
 " My dear Davis, 
 
 " Where's the article — ' The Beauties of the Boyne Water,' 
 or whatever it was to be — that you promised positively for next 
 month's magazine? Did you not, or will you not, strike the iron 
 while it is hot? Or have you been so much occupied with your 
 accouchement, with your parturient and obstetrical responsibilities, 
 that other things have been naught to you ? Certainly the ante- 
 natal baptism having been {me saltern judice) so lamentably botched, 
 it was the more important to provide that cradle, caudle, cake, and 
 all other ceremonials should be unexceptionable. I have not yet 
 been the ' new birth to unrighteousness,' the unclean thing, with 
 the holy name embroidered on its frontlets and phylacteries. [He 
 objected vehemently to the title of the journal.] Not a copy pro- 
 curable by me, and sundry other speculative individuals, even at 
 a premium. Ojxe thing you may be sure of: the newsmen are 
 open-mouthefl against you. I have listened with pastoral patience 
 tu several ,i their diatiibes. They say you might have sold in 
 Dublin ten times whsit you printed for the city circulation ; and that 
 they warned you early in the week, and off'ered to lift you and 
 your compeers to the Seventh Heaven on a p} ramid of two hundred 
 qtiires, and yuu had not the spunk to venture." * 
 
 Maddyn, who had made difficulties at the outset 
 in helping a journal with whose main aim he was 
 not in sympathy, soon became a regular contributor 
 of critical and biographical papers ; and Davis treated 
 him with a frank confidence and affectionate defer- 
 ence which soothed the sensitive literary spirit. He 
 sent him suggestions for articles from time to time, 
 and kept him acquainted with the secret history of 
 the enterprise. 
 
 * October 17th. 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 91 
 
 " The paper is selliug finely. The authorships this week run 
 thus — ' War with Everybody,' by J. F. IMurray ; ' Keduction of 
 Rents,' and the 'Faugh a Ballagh,' by Duffy; 'Time no Title,' 
 ' The Sketch of Moore,' and ' The Grave,' by myself. . . . The 
 Mail says we are at work to establish a French party ! They'll say 
 by-and-by we have Hoche's ghost or the National Guard in the 
 back office ; but devil may care — 
 
 ' Foes of Freedom Faugh a Ballagh.' " 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " DuSy and I are delighted at your undertaking the notice of 
 Father Mathew. In your hands, and with your feeling, the article 
 will be worthy of the man. The portrait of him will not be out of 
 Landell's hands for a little time. The Shiel or the Avonmore and 
 O'Loghlen would probably come best next. Four thousand copies 
 to-day, equal to the Freeman, and double any other weekly paper. 
 The country people are delighted with us if their letters speak 
 true. We have several ballads, ay, and not bad ones, ready ; 
 'Noctes' squibs, etc., in preparation. In the present number, 
 ' The Reduction of Rents,' and the 'Continental Literature,' with 
 the translation from La Mennais (who has, I see, turned mis- 
 sionaiy), are by Dillon. 'The O'Connell Tribute' is by Daunt 
 (aided by Duff'y's revision and my quotation from Burke). ' The 
 Revolution in Canada ' and ' An Irish Vampire ' are mine." 
 
 Davis asked his friend for specific information on 
 the Paris press, where he hoped to find light on 
 foreign politics, to correct the British or parochial 
 opinions which prevailed in Ireland. In judging the 
 application and the answer, it must be remembered 
 that they were written nearly fifty years ago, when 
 Paris journals were as unknown in Ireland as Berlin 
 journals are at present, and the Revue des Deux 
 Mondes was still in its adventurous youth. 
 
 " Will you allow me," he wrote, " to put you to some trouble ? 
 We want to subscribe to some French papers. Would you, either 
 from your own knowledge, or from accurate inquiry, let me know 
 as soon as possible the relative ability and position of five or six 
 of the leading political newspapers in Paris ; also for what papers 
 Victor Hugo, Janin, Georges Sand, etc., write fiction ; also what, 
 and how dear, is the Mevue des Deux Mondes; or is there an}' other 
 
92 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 thing of the kind that would be more useful? Do you know 
 enough of Griffin to put down such a page on him as sparkles 
 before each of the portraits in Fiazer ? [A portrait of Griffin was 
 in preparation for the Nation.'] Poor Maginn — but that's the end 
 of it in this rotten artificial world we're living in." 
 
 Maddyu replied immediately. 
 
 " I write at once to say that if you will look to Chambers' Journal 
 for the year 1840, you will find two very full articles on the French 
 press. Perhaps it is in 1839, or later. In 1840, in the Quarterhj 
 Review, is a very minute article from original sources on everything 
 about the French press — I think hj Thackeray. This also deserves 
 your perusal. 
 
 " Your choice lies between the Journal des Bebats and the Con- 
 stitutionnel . My brother-in-law for a long time took the Courier 
 Fran^ais, which had a great deal of literature in it. 
 
 "Bohain's Courier de V Europe, published in London every 
 Saturday, giving the cream of the articles fur the week, would be 
 worth your getting. All the French in London take it. 
 
 " The Revue des Deux Mondes is not worth getting. Occasionally 
 there is a good article, but it would be enough to purchase odd 
 numbers. 
 
 " I would spend a part of your spare money on American 
 periodicals : for example, the Democratic Bevieio — monthly, New 
 York — a ' Jacksonite ' in its faction, and a ' whole hog ' in its 
 theories — would be worth taking. 
 
 " I know nothing of Griffin, except what everybody knows. 
 Sergeant Talfourd some time since, before several literary men, 
 spoke of Griffin's genius with enthusiasm : he admired its ' stern 
 reality ; ' such were his words. On the ' Collegians ' his fame 
 depends. I think it is, as a mere work of genius, the most dramatic 
 fiction I ever read. In Catholic power of sympathetic appreciation 
 he is unrivalled. 
 
 " After what Wallis wrote on Griffin, nobody could touch the 
 subject. The notice in the Citizen announcing his death could not 
 be surpassed. 
 
 " Give my address to no one. I will jDut your letter before 
 a proper quarter for exact and late information about the Paris 
 Press, and send you an answer as soon as I get one. Meantime 
 read what I told you. Vive et vale, O'Sullivan Davis." * 
 
 * Maddyn addresses him in bantering allusion to liis Celtic descent, 
 " Thomas O'Sullivan Davis." In j-outh he wrote his name Thomas Osborne 
 Davis, but abandoned the practice in manhood. 
 
1842.] TEE JOURNALIST. 93 
 
 Ballads and songs, founded on incidents of Irish 
 history, had been a speciality in the Belfast journal 
 which I edited, and I consulted Davis and Dillon on 
 continuing them in the Nation. Neither of them 
 had ever published a line of verse, but they were 
 willing to make the experiment. In the third 
 number some verses of Davis's were published, but 
 Dillon was discontented with his own production, 
 and never could be got to renew the attempt. It 
 was in the sixth number that Davis suddenly put 
 forth his strength. The night before publication he 
 brought me the "Lament of Owen Roe O'Neill," a 
 ballad of singular originality and power. The dra- 
 matic opening arrested attention like a sudden strain 
 of martial music : — 
 
 " ' Did tbey dare, did they dare, to slay Owen Eoe O'Neill ? ' 
 ' Yes, they slew with poison him they feared to meet with steel.' 
 ' May God wither up their hearts ! May their blood cease to flow ! 
 May they walk in living death who poisoned Owen Eoe ! ' " 
 
 The enthusiastic reception of this ballad by 
 friends whose judgment he trusted was like a revela- 
 tion to him. He came to understand that he pos- 
 sessed a faculty till then unsuspected. He could 
 express his passionate convictions on the past, and 
 his rapturous reveries on the future, in the only 
 sbape in which they would not appear extravagant 
 or fantastic. He assumed the signature of " the 
 Celt " to signify his descent from the "Welsh and 
 Irish Gael, and it was soon widely recognized that 
 the soul of an old bardic race throbbed again in his 
 song. He recalled with pride that the greatest 
 modern lyrists — Beranger, Moore, and perhaps Burns 
 — were Celts, and, as he insisted, brethren of the 
 same family : 
 
94 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 " One in name and in fame 
 Are the world-divided Gaels." * 
 
 But Burns was an utter Lowlander. 
 
 Strength comes to the strong and wealth to the 
 rich. After a little time, verses often as good as 
 Davis's or Mangan's flowed in from new contributors. 
 It was suggested in a provincial paper in the north 
 that the poetry of the Nation must be written by 
 Moore and the prose by Shell and Carleton. And 
 the fourth number contained a paper which, when 
 its author made himself known (as he did in a 
 little time), rendered these wild stories probable. 
 O'Connell, who had not written anonymously in a 
 newspaper for nearly a generation, was so impressed 
 by the astonishing success of the journal, that he 
 sent us a long and vigorous paper entitled " AEepeal 
 Catechism;" and John O'Connell returned to the 
 fold which he had recently deserted, with a leading 
 article and a number of verses. f Davis announced 
 O'Conuell's contribution to Maddyn, and seemed to 
 regard it as an attempt to take possession of the 
 paper in a sense that could not be permitted. 
 
 " Your sketch of Eoebuck is admirable, and yon have contrived 
 safely to give some useful hints against what you most condemn 
 here. The ' Eepeal Catechism ' is by Daniel O'Connell. I like 
 it greatly, though I came to it prejudiced against it. The time 
 he sent it was ten o'clock on Friday night, which sent some of 
 our leaders spinning out. But we will manage things better in 
 future, and the name of his being a contributor will give the 
 paper new circulation. I am resolved to be practical, and there- 
 
 * T. D. McGee. 
 
 t " Mr. Daunt brought in John O'Connell, ^vho, as the favourite son of 
 the national leader, was counted an important accession — for the prospectus 
 at any rate ; but on the remonstrance of some of the existing journalists, who 
 considered themselves injured by the publication of his name in that character, 
 he separated from us before the issue of the first number, and only returned 
 when to be a writer in the Nation had become a distinction worth coveting " 
 (" Young Ireland/' chap. iii.). 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 95 
 
 fore sacrifice some of my projects, otherwise his alliance with its 
 natural results would have driven me from the journal. Mean- 
 time we are getting power, in circulation already exceeding anj^ 
 weekly papers here, and in character. Moreover the soldiers are 
 beginning to read and write to us." * 
 
 The success was vigorously pushed. The prin- 
 cipal contributors met once a week at a frugal supper 
 to exchange opinions and project the work of the 
 coming week. These informal conferences proved a 
 valuable training-school, less, perhaps, for what the 
 young men taught each other than for what each 
 taught himself. It is the silent process of rumina- 
 tion, doubtless, which determines the main lines of 
 thought, but some men never know thoroughly their 
 own opinions on a subject till the train of slumbering 
 reflection has been awakened by controvers}^, and 
 the obscure points lighted by the sparks struck out 
 in conflict. An illustrated gallery of distinguished 
 Irishmen was commenced, to set up anew on their 
 pedestals our forgotten or neglected patriots ; feuille- 
 tons, original and translated from the French, ap- 
 peared in every number for a time ; and a system of 
 "Answers to Correspondents," real and imaginary, was 
 opened, in which new projects were broached, books 
 and men briefly criticized, and seeds of fresh thought 
 sown widely in the popular mind. The ballads and 
 songs were our most unequivocal success, and Davis, 
 who doubted at the outset the feasibility of the 
 experiment, not only made the most brilliant con- 
 tributions to it, but interpreted its purpose most 
 sympathetically. 
 
 " National poetry," he afterwards wrote, " presents the most 
 dramatic events, the largest characters, the most impressive scenes, 
 and the deepest passions in the language most familiar to us. It 
 
 * November 6, 1842. 
 
96 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1S42. 
 
 magnifies and ennobles our hearts, our intellects, our country, and 
 our countrymen ; binds us to the land by its condensed and gem- 
 like history — to the future by example and by aspiration. It 
 solaces us in travel, fires us in action, prompts our invention, sheds 
 a grace beyond the power of luxury round our homes, is the recog- 
 nized envoy of our minds among all mankind and to all time." 
 
 We had soon to repress a rage for versifying, 
 often merely mimetic, sometimes as meclianical as 
 the music of a barrel organ, which the success of the 
 Nation's poets begot. Correspondents were told that 
 the student who could rescue an Irish air or an Irish 
 manuscript, or preserve an Irish ruin from destruc- 
 tion ; who could make a practical suggestion for 
 bettering the social condition of the people, gather 
 a fading tradition, throw light on an obscure era of 
 our history, or help to instruct the people among 
 whom he lived, would do a substantial and honour- 
 able service to his country, which need leave him no 
 regret for wanting the gift of song. There was no 
 mercy for nonsense, and the judgment on new verses 
 or projects which the people applauded was often 
 considered harsh and peremptor}^, the reader little 
 suspecting that the merciless critic was often the 
 author himself in masquerade. One of the earliest 
 biographical sketches was one of Thomas Moore, by 
 Davis, which he had the satisfaction of learning 
 proved very agreeable to the poet.* 
 
 The reception of the paper in the provinces was 
 a perplexity to veteran journalists. From the first 
 number it was received with an enthusiasm com- 
 pounded of passionate sympathy and personal affec- 
 tion. It went on increasing in circulation till its 
 
 * Id January, 184^3, one of his friends (the editor of the Globe) wrote to 
 me : " The sketch of Tom Moore I was successful in obtaining through a 
 friend in Dublin, and sent to Moore, whose note in reply, if not a private 
 one, would raise a blush on your editorial face. — E. A. Morax." 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 97 
 
 purchasers in every provincial town exceeded those 
 of the local paper, and its readers were multiplied 
 indefinitely by the practice of regarding it not as a 
 vehicle of news but of opinion. It never grew 
 obsolete, but passed from hand to hand till it was 
 worn to fragments. The delight which young souls 
 thirsting for nutriment found in it has been com- 
 pared to the refreshment afforded by the sudden 
 sight of a Munster valley in May after a long winter ; 
 but the unexpected is a large source of enjoyment, 
 and it resembled rather the sight of a garden cooled 
 by breezes and rivulets from the Nile, in the midst 
 of a long stretch of sandbanks without a shrub or a 
 blade of grass. 
 
 The doctrines which the new men taught have 
 a permanent interest, for they were the seed of many 
 harvests to come. Though they were daring to 
 rashness, and to timorous ears sounded like the 
 tocsin of revolution, they were restrained by habitual 
 submission to the eternal laws of morality and justice. 
 Nothing was taught which was not, in their belief, 
 intrinsically just and right, or which did not appeal 
 to the noblest motives a generous but untaught 
 people could be made to comprehend. Much of this 
 teaching was the direct work of Davis, and much his 
 indirect work — sparks kindled at the fount of fire 
 which burned in his bosom; but all his colleagues were 
 busy completing the cosmos of Irish nationality, and 
 a skilful critic will discern a variance of style, corre- 
 sponding with variations of character of which natural 
 style is a sure reflex. 
 
 Davis was well equipped for his task. He had 
 framed his code of opinions, as we have seen, by long 
 meditation and systematic industry, and they were 
 
98 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 ready for use. The methods by which success in 
 the national struggle might be won, seemed to him 
 neither few nor doubtful. He knew the history of 
 the country as familiarly as he knew the succession 
 of the seasons. He knew that of the scanty con- 
 cessions which had been won at long intervals, there 
 was not one that was not yielded to fear of conse- 
 quences. A little loosening of the Catholic bonds 
 when Irish soldiers were fighting in the army of 
 Greorge Washington, a little more when the French 
 Republic beat back the confederated kings of Europe, 
 a great national deliverance when the ofiicers of an 
 army of Irish citizens deliberated at Dungannon, and 
 Cathohc emancipation when it was the alternative 
 of civil war. The expected deliverance might come 
 like the others by diplomacy, or by arms, but it was 
 certain to him that, for either end, the essential preli- 
 minary was to inflame the people with that passionate 
 determination to be free at any cost, which tyranny 
 in all ages has found its most formidable difficulty. 
 Our resources were not trivial. There were seven 
 millions of one mind on the question, and fewer 
 Batavian burghers and peasants held their own 
 against the most powerful sovereign in Europe 
 between Charlemagne and Napoleon. The annals 
 of little states, less populous than Irish provinces, 
 which in successive centuries had served the world 
 so weU in arts, arms, civil government, and the dis- 
 covery of new fields for human enterprise, gave the 
 measure of what a resolute nation might accomphsh; 
 and why not our nation, if only the distracted people 
 could be gathered into one company. 
 
 The policy of Wolfe Tone, half a century earlier, 
 had been to induce the oppressed CathoHcs to forget 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 99 
 
 their prejudices and join hands with the enlightened 
 reformers among the Protestant minority. The 
 present problem was a harder one — to induce the 
 wealthy well-placed haughty minority, in possession 
 of whatever the State or the law could bestow, to 
 forego their monopoly, and unite with the trampled 
 multitude in demanding a change which most of 
 them considered revolutionary, and many feared 
 would endanger their Church and their possessions. 
 
 The shepherd boy who went forth with sling and 
 scrip against the Pagan giant scarcely fought at 
 greater odds. But the fear of failure is the palsy 
 of faith and action. The same sentiment has since 
 been sung in language which vibrates with courage 
 and devotion — 
 
 " Had fear of failing swayed against redress 
 Of public wrong, man never had been free ; 
 The thrones of tyrants had been fixed as fate, 
 And slavery sealed the Universal doom." 
 
 The opinions of the new men might well con- 
 stitute a primer of generous nationality. 
 
 " The restoration of Irish Independence," it was said, " has 
 been advocated too exclusively by nariow appeals to economy, 
 and sought by means which neither conciliated nor frightened its 
 opponents. We shall try, and God willing we shall succeed in 
 arraying the memories of our land, the deep, strong, passions of 
 men's hearts, in favour of our caixse. And while we shall shrink 
 from repeating any factions or offensive cry, we shall counsel and 
 explain those means of liberation which heroic freemen from 
 Pelopidas to Washington have sanctioned. 
 
 " The restoration of land to the people had for a century no 
 reason to support it save the musket of the ejected heir, desperate 
 from Buffering, and no witness save the peasant when the scaffold 
 saw him martyred. We shall strive not merely to explain the 
 workings of landlord misrule in Ireland, but to show how similar 
 •Wrongs have been remedied in other countries ; seek to satisfy 
 quiet intelligent men that the people cannot and ought not to be 
 
100 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 patient under the lash, and to urge such men to prevent the 
 unguided vengeance of that people by leading them to redress. 
 We shall confront those who yell out murder and asbassination 
 when any one attacks the landlords, but have neither eyes to see, 
 ears to hear, tongues to speak, nor hearts to understand the 
 miseries and plights of the peasants, 
 
 " The people of Ireland are few enough for the size and capa- 
 bilities of their country, but they are too many for their present 
 state. They have no manufactures, there are no home-spent rents 
 to give agricultural wages, there remains only the land; from 
 that they are being ejected by the wicked and stupid scheme of 
 consolidation, or, if left, it is under rack-rents, in wet wigwams, 
 with rags not enough on their backs, and potatoes not enough for 
 their food. The landed gentry mistake their position, and are 
 ignorant of their times. In every country in the world democracy 
 is moving on. Its march may be slow and discriminating; if 
 violently opposed, it will be overbearing and rude. Let the Irish 
 aristocracy aid the people in getting manufactures, in improving 
 their means of home and foreign trade ; let them spend their 
 incomes at home, and be mild and just in their dealings; and 
 they will make the transition slow and gentle. But if tbey per- 
 severe in exacting rack-rents, in clearing and consolidating; if 
 absenteeism, want of employment and want of manufactures leave 
 the people nothing between starvation in freedom or half starva- 
 tion in bondage in a workhouse, — if this come to pass, other 
 things, not dreamed of just now, will follow. 
 
 "The popular organization is too exclusively political It 
 ought to be used for the creation and diffusion of national litera- 
 ture, vivid with the memories and hopes of a thoughtful and 
 impassioned people. It may guide and encourage our country- 
 men, not only in all which concerns their libraries and lectures, 
 but what is of greater importance, their music, their paintings, 
 their public sports, those old schools of faith and valour. It 
 may and ought to apply to some practical and creative end, the 
 present intellectual and moral activity, before it passes away, like 
 so many things in which we trusted, leaving despair behind. 
 Ireland, a large and fertile island, owned by eight millions of 
 a virtuous, brave, and intelligent race, has the natural capabilities 
 of a rich and strong nation. But however great her resources, it 
 will require the application of all her wealth, all her industry, all 
 her intellect, to her own exclusive service, to make her prosperous 
 and great; and this, an Irish Parliament, devoted to Irish inte- 
 rests, and wielding the whole strength of Ireland, without let, 
 
1842.] TEE JOURNALIST. 101 
 
 stay, or hindrance from any other legisU\tive power, can alone 
 accomplish. 
 
 " Men still spoke of compromises, and material compensation 
 for our lost nationality. But though Englishmen were to give us 
 the best tenures on earth, though they were to equalize Presby- 
 terian, Catholic, and Episcopalian, though they were to give us 
 the completest representation in their Parliament, restore our 
 absentees, disencumber us of their debt, and redress every one of 
 our fiscal wrongs in the names of liberty and country, we would 
 still tell them, in the name of enthusiastic hearts, thoughtful 
 souls, and fearless spirits, that we spurned the gifts if the condition 
 were that Ireland should remain a province. The island, instead 
 of being a prosperous nation, was an impoverished dependency, 
 because its people spent ages in religious and political quarrels, 
 instead of using their powers to educate, enrich, and ennoble 
 themselves. It was inhabited by men of many different races and 
 creeds. The lot of all was cast together, their interests were the 
 same, and their only chance of prosperity was in union. For 
 many ages they fought because some were of Danish, some of 
 Milesian, and some of Saxon descent. There was, perhaps, no 
 country on earth where there are not many races mixed into one 
 nation. Why should the races in Ireland hate and ruin each other 
 because their fathers came here at different times from different 
 countries, and hated and ruined each other in ages long past? 
 Nor was religious difference any better ground for disunion among 
 Irishmen. Eeligion rests between each man and his God. No 
 man has a right to dictate his own creed to others, or punish them 
 for rejecting it. 
 
 " Work was the necessary price of success in the undertaking 
 to raise up Ireland anew. The people ought to perfect their 
 organization, perform faithfully the tasks assigned to them by 
 their leaders, and win over opponents by courtesy and fairness. 
 The Kepeal Association sought to array the Irish people in a 
 peaceful league to demand and obtain their rights. It determined 
 to have Kepeal fully represented in the corporation, in the poor- 
 law boards, and in Parliament. It tried to educate Eepealers, and 
 to persuade those who w^ere not so, by its publications and meet- 
 ings. Publications, meetings, the registiies, and the Eepeal 
 organization, involve great expenses ; and to meet these expenses 
 the Eepeal rent should be large, certain, and laniform, so that it 
 might serve the purposes for which it was subscribed." 
 
 Let it be remembered that O'Connell's doctrine 
 
102 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 was that the Irish race were endowed with all good 
 gifts, physical and moral without stint, and were 
 poor and ohscure only through the sins of their 
 oppressors. The Nation taught that to the evils 
 inflicted on them hy misgovernment were added 
 other evils created or fostered hy faults of their own. 
 They wanted, not only education and discipline, hut 
 the priceless hahit of perseverance. They had com- 
 mitted painful follies and crimes, hut they still pos- 
 sessed native virtue which would infallibly redeem 
 them at the cost of the necessary labour and sacrifice. 
 
 "To make our liberty an inheritance for our children and a 
 charter of prosperity, the people must study as well as strive, and 
 learn as well as feel. Of all the agencies of freedom, education 
 was the most important. It was in the mind of a people the seeds 
 of future greatness and prosperity were stored. The destruction 
 of her industry only made Ireland poor — the waste of her mind 
 left her a slave. Education, from being a crime punishable with 
 heavy penalties, became, under the gradual change of weapons 
 which tyranny was compelled to adopt, a wicked and deliberate 
 scheme of proselytism. There was still no system of national 
 education adequate to the wants, and adapted to the genius of our 
 people. A little time ago there was none that was not an insult 
 and a curse. But with all its drawbacks, Avhen the system at work 
 for the last nine or ten years had lasted as many more, the whole 
 of the Irish young men would have got more education than any 
 similar class in the world out of Germany and America. The 
 books they used were Anglican and utilitarian, but it was the 
 duty of the political teachers of the people to spiritualize and 
 nationalize them with higher and nobler aims. In schools the 
 3^outh should learn the best knowledge of science, art, and literary 
 elements. And at home they should see and hear as much of 
 national pictures, music, poetry, and military science as j^ossible. 
 
 " A people not familiar with the past would never understand 
 the present or realize the future. One of the tasks the Nation 
 humbly desired to perform was to make the dead past familiar to 
 the memor}' and imagination of the Irish people as the greatest 
 and surest incentive to reclaim the control of their country ; and 
 not merely the past of their own country, but of the old and new 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 103 
 
 v.'orlds. The people did not recognize this imperative want. 
 They were accustomed to consider themselves abreast or ahead, of 
 the rest of the world. The melancholy fact was that in all educa- 
 tion — scholastic, social, and professional — our adults were behind 
 most civilized nations. Energy, endurance, tenderness, piety, and 
 faith. — the natural elements of the highest moral and intellectual 
 character— they still possessed as fresh as they existed in France 
 or England centuries ago, in the ages of Faith and Action. But 
 their best powers were unorganized and undeveloped, from w^ant 
 of that severe discipline so essential to bind in its harness the 
 impetuous irregular vigour of our Celtic nature. Of all races the 
 Celts most demand discipline, and profit most by it. This educa- 
 tion must reach to the peasant in his cot and the artisan in his 
 workshop. They paid the penalty of ignorance in unprosperous 
 lives at home and abroad. A people with natural gifts whicb, 
 under favourable circumstances, would produce not only artisans 
 of the finest toxich, but painters, musicians, and inventors, sweated 
 under the heaviest toil in the world — felled the forests of Australia 
 and drained the swamps of Canada. 
 
 "Discipline was necessary, not only to develop good qualities, 
 but to correct bad ones. The most fatal want of the Celt was w^ant 
 of will, instability; the tendency, not to bend and turn, but to 
 waver and gyrate, had been the curse and reproach of our race. 
 There was a real tenacity in the national character, but it was so 
 intermittent in its action that it lost half its use. What were the 
 means by which leaders of the people had jiroduced revolution? 
 They laboured at the outset to create the educated opinion from 
 which alone springs a national pur^jose. They gave a direction 
 and aim to the vague aspirations of patriotism. For on educated 
 opinion, as the political philosophers taught, even the most despotic 
 authority ultimately rests. 
 
 " We Irish were incuriosi suorum. For ten who read ]\Iac- 
 Geoghegan a hundred read Leland, and for one who looked into 
 the Rerum Eihernicariim Scrijilores a thousand studied Hume. Thus 
 we judge our fathers by the calumnies of their foes. If Ireland 
 Avere in national health, her history w^ould be familiar by books, 
 pictures, statuary, and music, to every cabin and workshop in the 
 land ; her resources, as an agricultural, manufacturing, and trading- 
 people, would be equally known ; and every young man would be 
 trained, and every grown man able to defend her coast, her plains, 
 her towns, and her hills — not with his right arm merely, but by 
 his disciplined habits and military- accomplishments. These were 
 the pillars of independence. 
 
104 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 " Some of us were base enough to do cheerfully the work 
 of the enemy. It was a mistake to imagine that the only Irish 
 hodmen in London were those poor fellows who were always 
 ascending and descending ladders with bricks and mortar. There 
 were hodmen in Parliament, who fetched and carried all sorts of 
 rubbish for their masters — newsjDaper hodmen, ready to knock 
 their country down with a brickbat — pamphleteering hodmen, who 
 get a despicable living by mixing dirty facts and false figures 
 together, and flinging them at Ireland, wherever they see a chance 
 of getting their mortar to stick. Thus we abandoned fcelf-respect, 
 and we were treated with contempt ; and nothing could be more 
 natural, nothing more just. It is self-respect which makes a people 
 respected by others, as order makes them, strong, virtue formidable, 
 patience victorious. 
 
 " Irishmen must learn what other nations were doing and. 
 thinking. The exaggeration of England's strength and glory, in 
 which English rulers and writers indulged, the deprecation of the 
 force and morals of England's foes (Ireland being in the front), 
 was never very hurtful to an Englishman; but when Irishmen 
 accepted these falsehoods, a secret distrust of themselves unfitted 
 them to resist oppression or maintain their rights. But they 
 would speedily come to know better. An accurate, uuexaggerated 
 knowledge of their own strength and weakness multiplied many 
 times the power of a people. God had given the Irish people all 
 the gifts of nature in abundance ; if they wanted the blessing of 
 liberty it was their own fault. 
 
 " To preserve, fortify, and increase the good qualities for which 
 the people were noted was the highest work of patriotism. 
 
 " The man who was drunken, quarrelsome, idle, or selfish 
 might shout for Eepeal, but he brought disgrace on the cause, and. 
 was not worthy to be a free citizen of an Irish nation. The 
 murderer, the intimidator, and the ribbonman were foes to Ireland. 
 It should be the boast of every Eepealer that, having his mind 
 fixed on the holy and glorious object of his country's regeneration, 
 he had conformed himself to a virtuous and manly life, as a proof 
 that he was fit for freedom : a vicious province could never become 
 a nation. 
 
 " Let Eepealers, then, lift up their own souls, and try by 
 teaching and example to lift up the souls of their family and 
 neighbours to that pitch of industry, courage, information, and 
 wisdom necessary to enable an enslaved, darkened, and starving 
 people to become free, enlightened, and prosperous. And let them 
 never forget what gifts and what zeal were needed to perform 
 
18i'2.] THE JOURNALIST. 105 
 
 that work effectually — what milduess to win, what knowledge to 
 inform, what reasoning to convince, what vigour to rouse, what 
 skill to combine and wield. They had been sometimes driven 
 to employ the ' coward's arms, trick, and chicane ; ' but they must 
 renounce these vices. Extreme courses might be necessary in the 
 struggle on which the country had entered, but dishonourable 
 means never." 
 
 These were the teachings by which the new men 
 announced themselves. They might be dangerous 
 to misgovernment, but they were surely in harmony 
 with integrity and good sense. These were seeds 
 and saplings from which many harvests have grown. 
 
 The journal broke frankly with the past, declining 
 to be responsible for its errors or its quarrels, and 
 was original from cover to cover ; but nothing 
 amazed and charmed the country like Davis's articles. 
 His political writings were commonly exhortations 
 or remonstrances to the people on faults to be 
 amended or virtues to be cultivated, couched in 
 language which, to borrow his own words, was 
 "fresh, vehement, and true." His literary papers 
 corrected some popular error, vindicated a slandered 
 leader, or lighted uj) an obscure era. "His style," 
 says a competent critic, " was as original and indi- 
 vidual as Grattan's or Goldsmith's, and far more 
 Irish than either." * Some one said of his articles 
 that they were like unspoken speeches of Grattan. 
 But though they were sometimes as rhetorical in 
 form, and generally as intensely real in purpose, 
 they were more natural and unstudied in expression. 
 They suggested a man who was not proffering in- 
 genious criticism, but uttering his long- weighed con- 
 victions on questions of immediate interest. The 
 political papers were often quite colloquial, and when 
 
 * Martin ]\IcDermott. 
 
106 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 they rose into passion and poetry they had still a 
 practical aim, and rarely parted company with solid 
 good sense. This intensely individual style was 
 often imitated by correspondents, whose feeble 
 mimicry suggested the original as the faint murmur 
 in a sea-shell recalls the music of the ocean. His 
 plans and projects, stamped with force and reality by 
 a powerful imagination, in the same way became 
 fantastic and incredible in other hands. There was 
 as wide an interval, MacNevin used to say, between 
 his theories and theirs as between the visions of 
 Dante and the visions of Joe Smith. His master- 
 gift was the power of persuasion. He moved and 
 charmed his readers, but, still more, he sowed in their 
 minds seed of opinion which ripened into action. 
 
 But the work of the journal was necessarily sub- 
 ordinate to that of the national organization, and to 
 this it is now necessary to turn. O'Connell had rashly 
 promised that 1843 should be " the Eepeal Year " — 
 the year when his great object would be accom- 
 plished, and he brought all the prodigious force of 
 his will and intellect to redeem this promise. Nature 
 gave him a physical vigour which labour could 
 scarcely exhaust, an imperturbable good temper, a 
 courtesy before adversaries, and a diplomacy which 
 was dexterous and versatile. Under these lay a 
 subterranean rage against injustice or opposition, 
 which burst out at times like a volcano. His pas- 
 sionate oratory in the Catholic struggle raised the 
 heart of the people as military music refreshes and 
 stimulates the weary soldier, and this fire was not 
 exhausted. Though he was tormented by the public 
 and domestic troubles which a man so placed rarely 
 escapes — for cares gather round the high-placed as 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 107 
 
 clouds round the mountain summits — lie worked with 
 unwavering perseverance. In February he published 
 a little volume in which the wrongs inflicted on 
 Ireland since the invasion were collected from annals 
 and records, and presented in one huge indictment. 
 In March he raised the national question by a motion 
 before the Dublin Corporation, in a speech of remark- 
 able power and provident moderation. He was 
 answered by Isaac Butt on behalf of the Conserva- 
 tive party; and the controversy was conducted with 
 so much capacity and mutual forbearance, that it 
 kindled desire and hope in many minds which long 
 were apathetic. 
 
 Davis reported his impression of these events to 
 Maddyn : — 
 
 " I ' know ' that miich good has already followed from the 
 explanations, the good temper, arguments, and concessions Avhich 
 came ont during the discussion. O'Connell's two speeches were 
 greatly superior in style and argument to those in St. Steplien's 
 in 1834. I sat out the whole affair. Staunton's was the next in 
 real worth. His statistics were mature and unanswerable. Butt 
 was very clever, very fluent, and verj' ignorant, I feared the 
 debate would do mischief from the strength and contagion of the 
 ojiposirion. I fear it not now, O'Connell's book (' Memoirs of 
 Ireland, Native and Saxon ') is miserable in style, but popular in 
 plan and highly useful. Irish history ' must ' be read hence- 
 forth." * 
 
 Davis and the principal writers of the Nation 
 were active members of the general committee of 
 the Association, The ordinary business of a com- 
 mittee-man was to second, or, if he could not second, 
 at least to echo the proposals of O'Connell. But the 
 new men, as wo have seen, had a policy and ideas 
 of their own — a policy not designed to thwart, but to 
 complete and consummate the purpose O'Connell 
 
 * March ?., 1848. 
 
108 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 aimed to accomplish. Davis hoped to enlist the 
 middle class in the movement, and to inflame young 
 men of both races with a national spirit. Dillon 
 desired that the condition of the peasantry should 
 receive immediate attention, and the question of 
 land tenure and poor-laws to be promptly taken 
 into consideration. Others had plans of systematic 
 popular education and a legion of projects more or 
 less practical for advancing the cause. They com- 
 menced to develop opinion, and to act on principles 
 which have since become the common property of 
 all enlightened Irishmen. There was naturally sur- 
 prise and jealousy at the outset, but the new recruits 
 were not men to whom it was possible to attribute 
 sinister motives, Dillon w^as always sweet, placid, 
 and open ; and the transparent sincerity which 
 looked out of Davis's large candid eyes, and from 
 his open earnest face, dissipated suspicion ; while an 
 energy that prompted him to engage in all the labour 
 of the largest designs and all the drudgery of the 
 minutest details disarmed jealousy. The result was 
 a transformation scene which only those who have 
 witnessed it with their ej^es will fully understand. 
 In the midst of the old traditional agitation, grown 
 decrepit and somewhat debauched, a new power 
 claimed recognition. The servile and illiterate 
 agitators who acknowledged no law but the will of 
 their leader, saw among them men of original ideas 
 and commanding intellect, who pressed their opinions 
 on their audience with becoming modesty indeed, 
 but without the smallest fear or hesitation. 
 
 Davis avoided wounding dangerous susceptibilities 
 less from policy than from the generosity and modesty 
 of his nature ; and, at this time, O'Connell certainly 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 109 
 
 felt that lie had got colleagues whose ability and 
 zeal would do effective service, though they did not 
 always run in the traditional grooves. Looking back 
 through the rarified atmosphere of experience, I 
 cannot insist that all our designs were discreet or 
 practical. We were defeated by a narrow majority 
 on the proposal to maintain an agent in Paris, as the 
 centre of political activity in Europe, which, had it 
 been accepted, would certainly haA^e been savagely 
 misrepresented by the enemies of the national cause. 
 O'Connell's sons were at times defeated in the com- 
 mittee on questions arising between them and the 
 new men, and once or twice O'Connell himself had 
 to accept proposals which he did not entirely relish. 
 The practical man of the world bore a slight reverse 
 with a good humour which disarmed opposition ; for 
 he knew the proposals were always designed to feed 
 the flame of nationality. 
 
 Much was done to enlarge and vitalize the old 
 traditional system. An historical and political 
 library of reference was collected, peculiarly rich in 
 the rare Anti-Union and Emancipation pamphlets. 
 The cards of membership were made an agency for 
 teaching the people national history and statistics, 
 and familiarizing them with the efiigies of their great 
 men. A band was trained to play national airs in 
 public for the first time since the Union, for Davis 
 knew that the Celts were peculiarly subject to the 
 spell of music. 
 
 "Music," he wrote, "is the first faculty of the Irish; and 
 scarcely anything has such power for good over them. The use 
 of this faculty and this power, publicly and constantly to keep up 
 their spirits, refine their tastes, warm their courage, increase their 
 union, and renew their zeal — is the duty of every patriot." 
 
110 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 The Eepeal wardens were exhorted to watch over 
 historic ruins in their district, and to encourage the 
 people to found news-rooms and local societies. Some 
 one proposed, in pursuance of the same policy, to 
 clothe the messengers and attendants of the Associa- 
 tion in green livery, but Davis opposed this scheme. 
 " I will not," he said, " be a party to putting on hired 
 servants the uniform last worn by Kobert Emmet." 
 
 We are apt to regard as somewhat trite and 
 commonplace the transactions of our own day^ 
 Drape these young men like Kienzi in the forum or 
 the Swiss foresters who led the Alpine spears at 
 Morgartan, and they become picturesque and heroic. 
 Eightly understood, the work they had undertaken 
 was of the same scope and magnitude, though it was 
 not projected in the gloom of forests or the shade of 
 august ruins, but under the glare of sunshine in 
 committee rooms and newspaper offices, by men 
 clothed in paletots and chimney-pot hats. 
 
 After the serious business of life began, Davis 
 had no longer leisure for elaborate correspondence. 
 He wrote constantly to a chosen few, but only notes 
 as brief as bulletins. His mind produced abundantly 
 the fresh fancies, the just reflections, and the graceful 
 badinage which make the charm of perfect letters, 
 but all went to swell the stream of public work, on 
 which his heart was set. His correspondence is 
 valuable chiefly because it tells us what he was 
 doing, and thinking of, and makes plain the un- 
 broken purpose of his life. 
 
 He still found time to help the magazine, and 
 Wallis received his contributions somewhat with the 
 air of a pedagogue acknowledging the theme of a 
 favourite schoolboy. 
 
1842.] TEE JOURNALIST. Ill 
 
 "'Colonel Napier,'" lie wrote, "is very mucli to the purpose; 
 but I fear sucli very lengthened quotations swamp and weaken 
 the force of the arguments in the text. The more a man quotes, 
 the less hath he an air of speaking with authority — the great 
 essential to all effective persuasion." 
 
 To Maddyn lie wrote most habitually. He desired 
 to engage him in a project for a high-class periodical 
 on Federalistic principles — Federalism being then 
 much spoken of among National Whigs as a possible 
 compromise. 
 
 " Enclosed are some suggestions for Nation paj)ers, by Duft'y, 
 which of course you'll 'ACCQ-^t, change, or reject, as you like. Mun- 
 ster Society would give you fine subjects — sketches of classes of 
 characters. Now to your letter. I never asked you to join the 
 party I am immediately connected with, for I supposed you alien 
 from its opinions. What strength and pleasure I should receive 
 from working by your side I need not tell you. 
 
 " The party who would sustain the Betieio are Federalists — 
 men thoroughly national in feeling, Catholic in taste, and moderate 
 in politics. Things have come to that pass that we must be dis- 
 graced and defeated, or w^e must separate by force, or we must 
 have a Federal Government. Mere repeal is raw and popular. 
 The Federalists include all who ^vere Whigs in Belfast, the best 
 of your Cork men, Wyse, Caulfield, and several excellent men 
 through the country. Hudson and Torrens McCullagh, Deas}^, 
 Wallis, and all that set, are Federalists. I will not ask you to 
 come until matters are fixed and safe and clear; all I Avished now 
 was to know might you come? You would make a great, a perfect 
 editor. I'm glad you've given up the Bar, you're too good for 
 a woolsack. Don't think of writing on religion for three or four 
 years. We must parochialize the people by property and institu- 
 tions, and idealize and soften them by music, history, ballads, art, 
 and games. That is if we succeed, and are not hanged instead; 
 but I Jaiow my principles will succeed." 
 
 After the Corporation debate the Eepeal Associa- 
 tion received important recruits and a great accession 
 of friends, and it was determined to summon a muster 
 of the whole population in each of the counties in 
 succession. These assemblies were so gigantic that 
 
112 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 tlie Times described them as "monster meetings " — 
 a title which they retained. During the summer the 
 monster meetings increased in number and enthu- 
 siasm, and the Irish Tories called upon the Govern- 
 ment to check. them by some sharp stroke of authority. 
 Sir Edward Sugden, an English lawyer, at that 
 time Lord Chancellor of Ireland, answered their 
 appeal by removing Lord Ffrench and four and twenty 
 other magistrates from the Commission of the Peace, 
 for the new offence of attending public meetings 
 in favour of the Eepeal of the Union. Mr. Smith 
 O'Brien, till then known as an Irish Whig of popular 
 sympathies, inquired in Parliament if the same disci- 
 pline was to be extended to English magistrates ; 
 and not getting a satisfactory reply, he resigned his 
 commission, which could no longer, he conceived, be 
 held by an Irish gentleman without humiliation. 
 Lord Cloncurry, Henry Grattan, and a number of 
 other country gentlemen followed his example. The 
 Bar struck a more effectual stroke. Twenty barristers 
 joined the Association in one day as a protest against 
 the unconstitutional character of an executive who 
 degraded magistrates for taking one side of a debat- 
 able public question, while they applauded other 
 magistrates for taking the opposite side. Among 
 these recruits were Thomas O'Hagan, afterwards 
 Lord Chancellor ; Sir Colman O'Loghlen, after- 
 wards Judge Advocate- General ; and Thomas Mac- 
 Nevin, and M. J. Barr}^ — the two latter of whom from 
 that time became constant associates of the young- 
 men of the Katioii* 
 
 Twenty barristers were a great gain ; but, instead 
 
 * Barrj' soon began lo write squibs and political verses in the Nation. 
 His contributions were sometimes signed Brutus, for the whimsical reason 
 that Marcus Junius Brutus had the same initials as Michael Joseph Barry. 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 1 L3 
 
 of twenty, there ought to have been two hundred. 
 Their excuse for selfish neutrality was turned effec- 
 tually inside out by Maddyn. 
 
 " The Dublin lawyers, forsooth, have no time to attend to any- 
 thing but their profession. Lord Kames was a philosopher and 
 author, as well as a learned lawyer; Jeffrey edited the Edinburgh 
 Bevieio while engaged in heavy legal business. The English 
 barristers find time to attend the House of Commons, and take 
 an active part in its proceedings. Sir Samuel Eomillyhad a larger 
 practice than any one amongst them, and he found time to rouse 
 the public mind and reform the criminal laws. Brougham was 
 in heavy practice while leader of the opposition. Sergeant Copley 
 was famous in parliamentary debates while he pursued his pro- 
 fession. Sir William Jones and Sir James Mackintosh obtained 
 legal eminence without relinquishing philosophic pursuits. The 
 Dublin barristers, forsooth, have no leisure ! Yet Daniel O'Con- 
 nell, in the height of his professional practice, when he was making 
 at least five thousand a year, found time to organize a grea' asso- 
 ciation, carry on its political aflFairs, address the people of Ireland 
 in speeches and letters, and make his name heard of through the 
 world." 
 
 In answer to some remonstrance on the rashness 
 of his policy : — 
 
 "You seem to me," he wrote to Maddyn, " to underrate our 
 resources. The Catholic population are more united, bold, and 
 orderly than ever they were. Here are materials for defence or 
 attack, civil or military. The hearty junction of the Catholic 
 bishops is of the greatest value. The Protestants of the lower 
 order are neutral ; the land question and repeated disappointments 
 from England have alienated them from their old views. Most 
 of the educated Protestants now profess an ardent nationality, and 
 say that, if some pledge against a Catholic ascendancy could be 
 given them, they too would be Eepealers. You will see by the 
 accompanying paper that fourteen barristers, most of them men 
 of good business, joined yesterday. Before a month we are likely 
 to have as many lawyers as ever joined any decided agitation here. 
 The Americans are constantly offering us men, money, and arms- 
 . . . Crowds of soldiers and police are enrolled Eepealers. These 
 are some of our resources. The present agitation will not fail for 
 want of statesmanship, though it may for want of energy. Even 
 O'Connell has looked very far ahead this time, and knows he cannot 
 
114 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 retreat, I think we can beat Peel. If we can quietly get a Federal 
 Government I shall for one agree to it and support it. If not, 
 then anything but what we are. 
 
 " I fear it is impossible to get the Shell's ' Life of Mathew ' 
 [Life, by Dr. Sheil of Ballyshannon], but I shall make another 
 trial before I send this. I am told that it is wretched trash, 
 without facts or taste." 
 
 And again: — 
 
 " Your ' Sheil ' was perfectly successful. Every one praised it. 
 Even O'Connell called it admirable, and only objected to ' one or 
 two mistakes ' in fact. That is, he was crotchety about justice 
 having been done to Sheil quoad the Catholic Association. Upon 
 the whole, however, he liked it greatly. There is, however, I 
 believe, one error in it — attributing the articles on Ireland in 
 L'Etoile to Sheil exclusively. I have heard from the second best 
 authority that they were principally written by the editor of it, 
 who refused a large sum for doing the work, which he did gratis." 
 
 Davis's character is exhibited, not only in what he 
 did and wrote, but in the echoes of it which came 
 back to him from friends, even when they took the 
 character of objections or remonstrances. Denny 
 Lane wrote at this time : — 
 
 " Short, narrative, and 7iot descriptive, ballads are greatly 
 wanted in Irish literature. By all means stick to poetry, but 
 pray do not abandon professional success — you are fully equal to 
 two strong pursuits. If you should meet political disappointment, 
 your literary talents and poetical longings will always keep exist- 
 ence fresh." 
 
 Maddyn applauded an attempt by one of Davis's 
 colleagues to expose the ignorance and dishonesty of 
 the school of pseudo-Irish romances then becoming 
 popular in England. 
 
 " I have read with delight an article in the Nation on Lever's 
 works. It is most admirably done ; whoever the writer is, he has 
 certainly displayed no ordinary literary abilities ; and never did 
 any Irish writer deserve more richly the treatment he has met 
 with at the hands of honest Irish criticism. I cannot conceive the 
 spurious liberality which affects to patronize the anti-national ten- 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 115 
 
 dencies of all this man's writings, on account of the rollicking 
 devil-may-care sort of factious fun and ferocious drollery of his 
 slipshod, flimsy, fashionable, novelish style of writing." * 
 
 Shortly after the Corporation debate, an incident 
 occurred which promised for a moment to become 
 memorable. Coach-biiilding was a prosperous in- 
 dustry in Ireland, and the mail-coaches for the 
 service of the post-office w^ere built and run by Mr. 
 Peter Purcell, a Catholic country gentleman, who 
 had quarrelled wuth O'Connell and become 2^ protege 
 of his opponents. The Postmaster General, who 
 never advertised English or Scotch contracts in 
 Ireland, advertised in Scotland the contract for the 
 Irish mails, and Mr. Croal, of Edinburgh, became the 
 successful tenderer. An active sympathy with Mr. 
 Purcell sprang up, in which the Duke of Leinster, 
 the Provost of Trinity College, the Lord Mayor, and 
 other eminent Unionists took part; and O'Connell, 
 forgetting old feuds, aided and encouraged them. 
 Even Thackeray, who had recently visited Ireland, 
 wrote a squib or tw^o against the Scotch intruders, 
 illustrated with his own pencil. Here is a specimen 
 from the Nation : — 
 
 " For daddy and children, for daddy and mammy, 
 No work and no hope, 0, the prospect is fine ! 
 
 * June 10, 1843. 
 
 To me he wrote, at this time, of a poem which I had lent him with an 
 exhortation to read it as a storehouse of original thought : — 
 
 " I read some forty pages of this 'Festus/ and return it to avoid reading 
 more. It is a marvellous anatomy of soul with a sunbeam for a lancet, but 
 I don't want theories ; I have had too much of them, and of grief — the latter 
 chiefly at my own shortcomings. But there are dishonoured truths (such 
 as that scorn of repentance) in the book, and when I have a longer leisure 
 I'll ask you for it again. 
 
 " Would you have the Nation of the 1st of July found out and committed 
 to safe keeping for me ? It has eloped from my file. Was this a good omen, 
 to lose the Nation July the 1st ? " [the dale on which the Irish cause was 
 lost at the Boyne]. 
 
116 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 But I fancy I'm hearing vonr lordship cry — ' Damme, 
 Suppose they do starve, it's no business of mine.' 
 
 " Well, it's 'justice,' no doubt, that your lordship's obsarving, 
 And that must our feelings of hunger console ; 
 "We're five hundred families, wretched and starving, 
 But what matters that so there's ' Justice for Croal ! ' " 
 
 The GoTernmeut journals scoffed at a national 
 tumult about such a contemptible trifle, but Davis 
 reminded them that a greater trifle, Wood's haK- 
 pence, united the whole nation against foreign 
 government. 
 
 The Nation, while it urged on the monster meet- 
 ings and the entire O'Connell programme, never 
 neglected its individual policy. It was a puzzle to 
 the people to find Irishmen of genius honoured 
 and applauded without any regard to their poHtical 
 opinions. Up to that time the popular test was 
 simply their relation to the great tribune. If a man 
 hurrahed for O'Connell with sufficient vehemence, 
 much was forgiven him in conduct and opinion ; if 
 he criticized the darling of the nation, scarcely any 
 ser^T-ce was an adequate set-off. Even ]\Ioore fell 
 into disfavour for singing, in one of his later melodies, 
 the decay of public spirit in Ireland. 
 
 This independent criticism, which began to attract 
 the attention of Conservative and Liberal National- 
 ists to the journal, was not well received at head 
 quarters. The Pilot, whose role was to do for 
 O'Connell what he would scorn to do for himself, 
 began to growl. The editor published a letter from 
 his xA^merican correspondent, who was well known in 
 Dublin, suggesting that the writers of the Xation, 
 who were not sufficiently deferential to O'Connell's 
 opinions, were probably identical with certain writers 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. Ill 
 
 in the Dublin Bevieia who assailed him openly, and 
 Ireland was warned to be aware of these conspirators.* 
 Unfortunately for the Filot, the device of using the 
 American correspondence to assail the Nation had 
 been employed before, and the correspondent had 
 written to me from New York repudiating the 
 language attributed to him, and authorizing me, in 
 case the practice was continued, to publish the repu- 
 diation. The forgery w^as quietly exposed in the 
 Nation, which was equivalent to binding over the 
 offending journal to good behaviour for a time. But 
 O'Conuell himself, from the tribune of the Corn 
 Exchange, took us to task for praising bitter Tories 
 like Maxwell and Maginn, and neglecting an excel- 
 lent Liberal like Samuel Lover. It was my duty to 
 reply, that our loyalty to the national leader did not 
 include any renunciation of our individual opinions 
 on questions of taste or feeling, and that for our part 
 we regarded Lover's caricatures of the Irish peasantry 
 as more offensive than the banter of open opponents 
 like Maxwell and Maginn. Davis afterwards placed 
 the question on a nobler footing. He insisted that 
 gifted men were a treasure and a strength to their 
 country, irrespective of their opinions. 
 
 " It behoves every people to ' love, cherish, and honour ' its 
 men of ability, its men of service — the men who can adorn it with 
 their pencil, make it wise by their teaching, famous by their pens, 
 rich by their ingenuity, strong by their statesmanship, triumphant 
 by their valour. Doing thus, Athens became the pole-star round 
 which the lights of the earth turn ; doing thus, Italy gave laws, 
 literature, and arts to half Europe. This might be lesson enough 
 for Ireland ; yet she has another motive. If, in addition to the 
 
 * The New York correspondent of the Pilot was Thomas Mooney, a man 
 of surprising energy, very notable afterwards in Melbourne and San Francisco, 
 and known in later times as a dynamitard in the New York Irish World, 
 under the signature of " Transatlantic." He is now dead. 
 
118 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 rewards, the society, the station, which England offers to emigrant 
 ability, there be added neglect, poverty, and want of recognition 
 at home, the motives for the serviceable men of Ireland to enlist 
 with England become, what they actually are, too great to be 
 withstood by most men. . . . The first and greatest duty of an 
 Irish patriot, then, was to aid in retaining its superior spirits. 
 Men make a state. Great men make a great nation. Without 
 them opportunities for liberation will come and go unnoticed or 
 unused. Without them liberation will come without honour, and 
 resources exist without strength — corruption and slavery, if they 
 do not keep watch, will resume their sway without alleviation or 
 resistance." * 
 
 This uniform courtesy and firmness towards 
 opponents, though it was new in Irish controversy, 
 did not offend popular feeling, because it was accom- 
 panied by an unsparing exposure of the 'system they 
 maintained. Though it was a main aim of the young 
 men to reconcile the gentry and the Protestant 
 minority with the whole nation, it was an aim never 
 pursued by ignoring the intolerable injustice of the 
 Established Church and the existing land system. 
 "Be just, and you shall be the acknowledged leaders of 
 a devoted people ; but justice must be done, for they 
 are withering under your exactions." This was the 
 language held. The gentry were told that they had 
 never done their duty, and that their neglect of it 
 lay at the root of Irish misery. The land system 
 which they had framed in the Irish Parliament 
 seemed an instrument of torture needlessly stringent 
 for a people so broken and dependent, but, like a 
 
 * It is proper to note that on one occasion Davis wrote in direct reference 
 to O'Connell's habit of jeering at the Duke of Wellington as the "stunted 
 corporal " — 
 
 "We dislike the whole system of fnlse disparagement. The Irish people 
 will never be led to act the manly part which liberty requires of them, by 
 being told 'the Duke,' that gallant soldier and most able general, is a scream- 
 ing coward and doting corporal." 
 
 On another occasion Southey was defended from tlie hackneyed Whig 
 libel of being a mercenary turncoat. 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 119 
 
 great bridge over a small streara, it gave the measure 
 of the slumbering force which it was intended to 
 restrain. The awakening of this force was the object 
 of their constant apprehension, and it was now 
 appealed to weekly with ideas that struck it like 
 electric shocks. The Nation taught as axioms that 
 the land was not the landlord's own to do as he 
 would with, but could only be held in proprietorship 
 subject to the prior claim of the inhabitants to get 
 food and clothing out of it. No length of time and 
 no solemnity of sanction could annul the claim of the 
 husbandman to eat the fruit of his toil, or transfer it 
 to a select circle of landed proprietors. The minute 
 one human being died from the denial of this funda- 
 mental right, an injustice would be committed as 
 positive in its nature as if the landlord class con- 
 spired to throw the soil of the country out of cultiva- 
 tion, and left the whole population to starve. Why 
 should landlords be the only class of traders above the 
 law ? There was no more inherent sanctity in selling 
 land, or hiring it out, than in selling shoes ; and the 
 trader in acres ought to be as amenable to the law, 
 and as easily punished for extortion, as his humbler 
 brother. The existing system had lasted long in- 
 deed, but fraud and folly were not consecrated by 
 time, they only grew grosser fraud and more intoler- 
 able folly. The landlord was entitled to a fair rent 
 for the usufruct of his land ; all claims be3'ond this, 
 over the tenant's time, conscience, or opinions, were 
 extortion or usurpation. 
 
 It would be unjust and unskilful criticism to 
 judge the verses Davis wrote in intervals of this 
 busy and stormy life by the canons we apply to a 
 poet in his solitude. They altogether mistake his 
 
120 MEMOIB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 character, indeed, who regard him as distinctively 
 a poet or a writer. His aims were far away from 
 literary success. All his labours tended only to dis- 
 cipline and stimulate the x^eople. He looked to share 
 in guiding the counsels of a nation he had prompted 
 into action and marshalled to victory. The place 
 he would have loved to fill was not beside Moore and 
 Goldsmith, but beside O'Xeill, Tone, and Grattan. 
 
 A so2ig or ballad was struck off at a heat, when 
 a flash of inspiration came, — scrawled with a pencil, 
 in a large hand, on a sheet of post-paper, with un- 
 finished lines, perhaps, and blanks for epithets which 
 did not come at once of the right measure or colour ; 
 but the chain of sentiment or incident was generally 
 complete. If there was time it was revised later and 
 copied once more in pen and ink, and last touches 
 added before it was despatched to the printer ; but 
 if occasion demanded, it went at once. For his 
 verses were written to make Irishmen understand 
 and love Ireland better, as the j)oet understood and 
 loved her, and sometimes a quite transient circum- 
 stance furnished an ojiportunity. It does not detract 
 from the merits of Freiligrath and Beranger that their 
 songs had commonly some public ends in view, for 
 they sprang from a passion which was burning in the 
 poet's breast ; and Davis's verses were always either 
 the expression of feelings uppermost in his mind at 
 the moment, or which belonged to it habitually, — 
 never mere flights of fancy or literary experiments. 
 What Eobert Bui-ns wrote of his own pm-pose and 
 inspii'ation as a poet, Davis might have written of 
 himself, changing only the nationality. 
 
 " Scottish scenes and Scottish story are the themes I -wish to 
 sing. I have no dearer aim than to make leisurely pilgrimages 
 
18i2.] THE JOUBNALIST. 121 
 
 through. Caledouia, to sit on the fields of her battles, to wander on 
 the romantic banks of her rivers, and to muse by the stately 
 towers or venerable ruins once the honoured abodes of her 
 heroes." * 
 
 And iu one sense he was more of a national 
 poet than any of the inustrious writers whom I 
 have named. He embraced the whole nation in his 
 sympathy. Beranger scorned and detested a party 
 which formed a substantial minority of his country- 
 men ; Moore scarcely recognized the existence of 
 a peasantry in his national melodies; even Burns, 
 a Lowland poet, had imperfect sympathy with the 
 natives of the mountains among whom Walter Scott 
 was to find his heroes. But Davis loved and sang 
 the whole Irish people. 
 
 " Here came the brown Phoenician, the man of trade and toil — 
 Hei'e came the proud Milesian, a-hungering for spoil ; 
 And the Firbolg and the Cymry, and the hard, enduring Dane, 
 And the iron Lords of Normandy, with the Saxons in their train. 
 
 " And oh ! it were a gallant deed to show before mankind, 
 How every race and every creed might be by love combined — 
 Might be combined, yet not forget the fountains whence they rose, 
 As, filled by many a rivulet, the stately Shannon flows." 
 
 But the native rulers who held their own for 
 centuries against the invader touched him most. 
 Here are a few verses from a vigorous and pictur- 
 esque balled entitled, " A True Irish King " — 
 
 " The Ca?sar of Eome has a wider domain, 
 And the Ard Bigh of France has more clans in his train ; 
 The sceptre of Spain is more heavy with gems. 
 And our crowns cannot vie with the Greek diadems ; 
 But kingiier far, before heaven and man. 
 Are the Emerald fields, and the fieiy-eyed clan, 
 The sceptre, and state, and the poets who sing. 
 And the swords that encircle A True Irish King ! 
 
 * Robert Burns's letter to Mrs. Dunlop. 
 
122 MEMOIB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 " For he must have come from a conquering race — 
 The heir of their valour, their glory, their grace : 
 His frame must be stately, his step must be fleet, 
 His hand must be trained to each warrior feat, 
 
 ,His face, as the harvest moon, steadfast and clear, 
 A head to enlighten, a spirit to cheer ; 
 While the foreiuost to rush where the battle-brands ring, 
 And the last to retreat, is A True Irish King ! 
 
 " God aid him ! — God save him ! — and smile on his reign — 
 The terror of England — the ally of Spain. 
 May his sword be triumphant o'er Sacsanach arts ! 
 Be his throne ever girt by strong hands and true hearts ! 
 May the course of his conquest run on till he see 
 The flag of Plantagenet sink in the sea ! 
 May minstrels for ever his victories sing. 
 And saints make the bed of The True Irish King ! " 
 
 He loved the Norman, too, when the Norman 
 became an Irishman, 
 
 " The Geraldines ! the Geraldiaes; — 'tis true, in Strongbow's van. 
 By lawless force, as conquerors, their Ii ish reign began ! 
 And, oh ! through many a dark campaign they proved their 
 
 prowess stern. 
 In Leinster's plains, and Munster's vales, on king, and chief, and 
 
 kerne ; 
 But noble was the cheer within the halls so rudely won, 
 And generous was the steel-gloved hand that had such slaughter 
 
 done ; 
 How gay their laugh, how proud their mien, you'd ask no herald's 
 
 sign — 
 Among a thousand you had known the princely Geraldine." 
 
 It is curious how soon and how thoroughly this 
 town-bred bookish man caught the characteristics of 
 social life in an Irish village. Griffin or Carleton 
 could scarcely surround a modest Irish girl about to 
 become a bride with more characteristic incidents 
 than these : — 
 
 " We meet in the market and fair — 
 
 We meet in the morning and night — 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 123 
 
 He sits on the half of my chair, 
 
 And my people are wild with delight. 
 Yet I long through the winter to skim, 
 
 Though Eoghan longs more, I can see, 
 "When I will be married to him, 
 And he will be married to me. 
 
 Then, oh ! the marriage, the marriage, 
 
 With love and mo huacliaill for me ! 
 The ladies that ride in a carriage. 
 Might envy my marriage to me. 
 
 " His kinsmen are honest and kind. 
 
 The neighbours think much of his skill, 
 And Eoghan's the lad to my mind, 
 
 Though he owns neither castle nor mill. 
 But he has a tilloch of land, 
 
 A horse, and a stocking of coin, 
 A foot for a dance, and a hand 
 
 In the cause of his country to join. 
 Then, oh ! the marriage, etc." 
 
 This stanza, from auotlier song, is in the same 
 vein : — 
 
 " Come in the evening, or come in the morning, 
 Come when you're looked for, or come without warning. 
 Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you, 
 And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you. 
 Light is my heart since the day we were plighted, 
 Eed is my cheek that they told me was blighted : 
 The green of the trees looks far greener than ever, 
 And the linnets are singing, ' True lovers ! don't sever.' " 
 
 There is not, I think, in the lyrics of Bums a 
 more spontaneous gush of natural feeling in unstudied 
 words than this other song of a peasant girl : — 
 
 " His kiss is sweet, his word is kind, 
 
 His love is rich to me ; 
 I could not in a palace find 
 
 A truer heart than he. 
 The eagle shelters not his nest 
 
 From hurricane and hail 
 More bravely than he guards my breast — 
 
 The Boatman of Kinsale. 
 
124 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 " The wind that round the Fastnet sweeps 
 
 Is not a whit more pure — 
 The goat that down Cnoc Sheehy leaps 
 
 Has not a foot more sure. 
 No firmer hand nor freer eye 
 
 E'er faced an autumn gale — 
 De Courcy's heart is not so high — 
 
 The Boatman of Kinsale. 
 
 " The brawling squires may heed him not, 
 
 The dainty stranger sneer — 
 But who will dare to hurt our cot, 
 
 When Myles O'Hea is here ? 
 The scarlet soldiers pass along ; 
 
 They'd like, but fear to rail ; 
 His blood is hot, his blow is strong — 
 
 The Boatman of Kinsale. 
 
 " His hooker's in the Scilly van, 
 
 When seines are in the foam ; 
 But money never made the man, 
 
 Nor wealth a happy home. 
 So, blest with love and liberty, 
 
 While he can trim a sail, 
 He'll trust in God, and cling to me — 
 
 The Boatman of Kinsale." 
 
 In tliese ballads lie is never guilty of the bad 
 taste of undervaluing the enemy with whom his 
 people struggle. How fine is this picture of the 
 English column at Fontenoy ! — 
 
 " Six thousand English veterans in stately column tread, 
 Their cannon blaze in front and flank, Lord Hay is at their head 
 Steady they step a-down the slope — steady they climb the hill ; 
 Steady they load — steady they fire, moving right onward still. 
 Betwixt the wood and Fontenoy, as through a furnace blast. 
 Through rampart, trench, and palisade, and bullets showering fast ; 
 And on the open plain above they rose, and kept their course, 
 With ready fire and grim resolve, that mocked at hostile force : 
 Past Fontenoy, past Fontenoy, while thinner g-row their ranks — 
 They break, as broke the Zuyder Zee through Holland's ocean 
 banks. 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 125 
 
 " More idly than the summer flies, French tirailleurs rush round ; 
 As stubble to the lava tide, French squadrons strew the gi'ound ; 
 Bomb-shell, and grape, and round-shot tore, still on they inarched 
 
 and fired — 
 Fast, from each volley, grenadier and voltigeur retired. 
 ' Push on, my household cavalry ! ' King Louis madly cried : 
 To death they rush, but rude their shock — not unavenged they 
 
 died. 
 On through the camp the column trod — King Louis turns his 
 
 rein: 
 'Not yet, my liege,' Saxe interposed, ' the Irish troops remain ; ' 
 And Fontenoy, famed Fontenoy, had been a Waterloo, 
 Were not these exiles ready then, fresh, vehement, and true." 
 
 He was at times a raoralist, and he touches the 
 deepest chords of a generous heart when he sings, as 
 he often does, our duty to our native land. In one 
 of his finest historical melodies, after picturing the 
 men w^ho fought and ruled of old, he exclaims — 
 
 " W^e are heirs of their fame, if we're not of their race — 
 And deadly and deep our disgrace. 
 If we live o'er their sepulchres, abject and base : — 
 
 As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a bJi-farradh ! * 
 Oh ! shame — for unchanged is the face of our isle ; 
 
 As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh ! 
 That taught them to battle, to sing, aad to smile ; 
 
 As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh ! 
 We are heirs of their rivers, their sea, and their land. 
 Our sky and our mountains as grand — 
 We are heirs — oh, we're not — of their heart and their hand, 
 
 As truagh gan oidhir 'n-a hh-farradh ! " 
 
 The number of poems produced in three years 
 supply evidence of his promptness and fertility. 
 Moore, w^e know from his diary, spent day after day 
 over one of his "Irish Melodies." Beranger with the 
 same frankness describes the prolonged labour a song 
 cost him. Half a dozen a j^ear were as many as he 
 could finish to his satisfaction. Davis in the midst 
 
 * " What a pity there are none of their company ! " 
 
126 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 of engrossing political labours, produced three times 
 as many — nearly fifty in three years ; and his friefnds 
 might place the " Battle of Fontenoy," or the " Sack 
 of Baltimore," beside " Eemember the glories of 
 Brian the Brave," or ''Le Chant du Cosaque," as 
 confidently as Turner hung one of his landscapes 
 side by side with a Claude. 
 
 Davis's associates, who had yet no political 
 designation or nickname to distinguish them, and no 
 common platform except the journal, were drawn more 
 and more together by personal sympathy. The con- 
 nection grew as political connections are apt to grow; 
 they had a common stock of opinions, a journal to 
 formulate them, much social intercourse, leaders 
 whom they trusted, and opposition enough to disci- 
 pline and consolidate their union. 
 
 The weekly supper became an institution, and 
 was held at each other's houses in succession, to 
 preserve the sentiment of equality and fraternity. 
 It was a council table in effect, where every one 
 brought his intellectual offering of frank criticism, 
 practical suggestion, story or song, and might be 
 sure of unstinted recognition ; for this friendly 
 gathering of men running the same race was as free 
 from envy or rivalry as any assembly of men ever 
 was on the earth. Every one was busy in a common 
 cause, and a brotherhood of design is the essence 
 and poetry of what in ordinary circumstances is mere 
 esprit cle corps. Davis was a peer among his peers, 
 never aiming at any lead that was not spontaneously 
 accorded him, and scarcely accepting that much 
 without demur. He loved to be loved, but he was 
 totally indifferent to popularity, and is distinguished 
 from all Irish tribunes who preceded him or have 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 127 
 
 followed liim by a perfectly genuiue desire to remain 
 unknown, and reap neither recognition nor reward 
 from his work. As I re-read this last sentence, I 
 recognize how imperfectly it conveys to the reader 
 the nearly unexampled phenomenon of a man whose 
 whole force was spent on public affairs, who served 
 the country with the zeal with which a good son 
 serves his mother, wdio helped the men most in tlie 
 public eye with authorities, illustrations, and trains 
 of thought, but never exhibited himself, and never 
 desired to be mentioned in connection with his w^ork. 
 In a long lifetime I have encountered no other man 
 of whom this could be said without qualification or 
 drawback. 
 
 Thinkers who habitually debate the serious 
 interests of life are a^^t to oppress their audience by 
 the gravity of their speech. But Davis's conversa- 
 tion was cheerful and natural, and his demeanour 
 familiar and wanning. At this time he was under 
 thirty years of age, a strongly built, middle-sized man, 
 with beaming face, a healthy glow, and deep blue 
 eyes, set in a brow of solid strength. There w^as a 
 manly carelessness in his bearing, as of one who, 
 though well-dressed, never thought of dress or appear- 
 ance. When he accidentally met a friend, he had the 
 habit of throwing back his head to express a pleased 
 surprise,* which was very winning ; a voice not so 
 much sonorous as sympathetic, a cordial laugh and 
 cheerful eyes completed the charm. And this strong 
 self-controlled man, if the generous emotions w^ere 
 suddenly aw^akened, would blush like a girl. 
 
 * " I see that start of glad surprise, 
 
 The lip comprest, the moistened eyes; 
 
 I hear his deep impressive tone, 
 
 And feel his clasp, a brother's own " (O'Hagan). 
 
128 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [J 842. 
 
 Considering the matter and purpose of his talk, 
 its most surprising characteristic was its simplicity. 
 He was never a colloquial athlete, making happy 
 hits and adroit fences ; he spoke chiefly of the 
 interests of the hour with plainness and sincerity, but 
 his opinions were apt to come out in sentences which 
 would be remembered for their justice or solidity. 
 He was best in committees and conferences, where 
 his rapid allusions and pregnant suggestions were 
 better understood than in a popular assembly. 
 "When moved, which was rarely, he spoke with a proud, 
 earnest sententiousness, which was very impressive. 
 There were men among his associates, and men of 
 notable ability, who announced a new opinion like 
 a challenge to controversy, but Davis ordinarily 
 dropped it out like a platitude, on which it was 
 needless to pause. He loved to condense a new 
 truth into a familiar winning phrase, as much as 
 some men love to fabricate a novelty out of a maxim 
 of Epictetus, or an epigram of Eochefoucauld. To 
 circulate truth was his object, never to appropriate 
 it and stamp his own name on it. He naturally 
 spoke much, as he wrote much, for he had a fulness 
 of life which broke out at all the intellectual pores; 
 and his talk had a flavour of wide reading and exact 
 thought, like the olives and subtle salt which give 
 its piquancy to a French i^lat. But he never spoke 
 as a leader or pedagogue, but always as a comrade. 
 As a natural result he was loved as much as he was 
 trusted. To be original, to be deeply in earnest, and 
 at the same time to be loved, supposes rare qualities, 
 not only in him but in his consociates, for few men 
 can endure to be taught. They sought his counsel 
 in difficulties, and always found more than they 
 
lSi2.] THE JOURNALIST. 129 
 
 sought. lu political conferences it was impossible 
 not to remark a certain abrupt, but not uncourteous 
 dogmatism, but in a tete-a-tete not a trace of it 
 remained : — 
 
 " He spoke and words more soft than rain, 
 Brought back the age of gold again." * 
 
 If ever there was a gleam of anger in his eyes you 
 might be sure it was just wrath against some intoler- 
 able wrong, like the pious rage of Dante. One of his 
 friends insisted that his talk possessed the stimulat- 
 ing properties which Southey attributes to Humphry 
 Davy's wonderful gas, it excited all manner of mental 
 and muscular energ}^ and a pervading courage and 
 confidence. 
 
 His temper was perfect. I have seen him tried 
 by unreasonable pretensions, by petulant complaints, 
 by contemptuous dissent from what he held most 
 certain and sacred, but he maintained a sweet com- 
 posure and was master of himself. In these trials 
 nature had need to be repressed by a disciplined will, 
 for beads of perspiration on his broad brow often dis- 
 closed the contest within. But angry word or 
 gesture none of his comrades ever saw. Among 
 them he was always serene. Starting from the per- 
 fectly just assumption that they loved and trusted 
 him, he made light of dissent. Controversy he knew 
 was one of the processes by which opinion is created 
 or regulated, and a man often modifies his opinions 
 in the very act of defending them. Even his enthu- 
 siasm, which was singularly contagious, was regulated 
 and restrained, never clamorous or aggressive. Celtic 
 Irishmen have a tendency to take offence easily and 
 
 * Emerson. 
 
130 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 to stand upon their dignity quite gratuitously ; his 
 example tended to correct this weakness, and if it 
 exhibited itself he encountered it with a grave 
 sweet courtesy which made the offender ashamed of 
 himself. 
 
 Like Charles James Fox he was a '' very pains- 
 taking man," and this quality never exhibited itself 
 so assiduously as in the service of his companions. 
 When he promised anything, however trivial, or made 
 a casual rendezvous, one could count on a definite 
 fulfilment — not a common characteristic of gifted 
 young Celts. He loved to make his knowledge their 
 common property. When he met in his readings a 
 new book which enlarged his horizon of political 
 knowledge, or suggested some new device for serving 
 the cause, he exhibited such generous rapture that he 
 roused congenial feelings among his associates, and 
 inspired even the sceptical with somewhat of his own 
 ardour of study and hopeful views of life. 
 
 He did nearly as much work as all his friends 
 united, and had leisure not only to " carol his native 
 wood-notes wild," but to he the soul of their social 
 gatherings. One of them who had been a traveller 
 saw a porpoise in the Indian Ocean run a race with 
 a steamer of four-thousand-horse power, and not only 
 beat the gigantic machine, but express its enjoyment 
 of the contest by exulting somersaults in the air, 
 and he declared that the spectacle reminded him of 
 nothing so much as Thomas Davis among his asso- 
 ciates. The force of his faculties was multiplied by 
 a purpose which never slackened. Even his rare 
 gifts and a character in perfect equilibrium might 
 have been wasted in an enterprise so tremendous as 
 the one he had undertaken, but a powerful will 
 
1842] THE JOURNALIST. 131 
 
 devoted to a noble purpose is a force before which 
 impediments disappear. 
 
 " Such earnest natures are the fiery pith, 
 
 The compact nucleus, round which systems grow : 
 Mass after mass becomes inspii-ed therewith. 
 
 And whirls impregnate with the central glow." * 
 
 Mangan never came to the weekly suppers, and I 
 had to invent opportunities of making him known to 
 a few of our colleagues one by one. He had the 
 shyness of a man who lives habitually apart, and the 
 soreness of one whose sensitive nerves have suffered 
 in contact with the rude world. Like Balzac, Scribe, 
 and Disraeli, he commenced life in an attorney's 
 office, and was tortured by the practical jokes and 
 exuberant spirits of his companions. 
 
 William Carleton,t whom I had known for many 
 years, called at the Nation office from time to time 
 to criticize or applaud what we were doing, and in 
 the end to help us. He was cordially received by 
 the young men, invited to excursions we made 
 occasionally to historical places, feted and encouraged 
 to become frankly a Nationalist ; but it is a significant 
 fact that to the weekly suppers, which were our 
 Cabinet council, he never found his way. He liked 
 the men cordially, found their talk agreeable and 
 their historical excursions pleasant picnics, at any 
 rate, but their purpose was something which, with 
 all his splendid equipment of brains, he was incapable 
 of comprehending. 
 
 MacCarthy was our Sydney Smith. His humour 
 was as spontaneous as sunshine, and often flashed out 
 as unexpectedly in grave debate as a gleam of sun- 
 
 * Lowell. 
 
 t Author of " Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasants," etc. 
 
132 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1812. 
 
 shine from behind a mask of clouds. Some practical 
 man proposed that there should be a close season for 
 jokes, but they did not impede business, but rather 
 seasoned it and made it palatable. MacNevin and 
 Barry were wits, and sayers of good things ; Mac- 
 Carthy was a genuine humourist. MacNevin' s mer- 
 riment was explosive, and sometimes went off without 
 notice, like steam from a safety-valve. Barry uttered 
 his good things with a gravity which set off their dry 
 humour, and was accused of preparing the mise en scene. 
 Denny Lane, on some such occasion, told a story of 
 one of his fellow-citizens who used to produce a pun 
 once a year, and gave a dinner party to let it off, 
 sometimes getting up appropriate scenery, machinery, 
 and decorations for the new birth which turned his 
 annual into a httle melodrama. 
 
 Davis was never Sifaiseur cle phrases, but sayings 
 of force or significance sometimes fell from him as 
 spontaneously as pearls from the lips of the princess 
 in the fairy tale. Some one quoted Plunket's saying 
 that to certain men history was no better than an 
 old almanac. " Yes," he replied, ''and under certain 
 other conditions an old almanac becomes an historical 
 romance." I brought to breakfast with him one 
 morning a young Irish-American recruit, burning to 
 know personally the men who had probably di-awn 
 him across the Atlantic, and possessing himself many 
 of the gifts he loved in them. I asked Davis next 
 day how he liked Darcy McGee. " With time I 
 might like him," he said, " but he seemed too much 
 bent on transacting an acquaintance with me." A 
 certain new recruit brought a pocketful of projects, 
 good, bad, and indifferent, some of them indeed 
 excellent, but he exhibited them as if they were 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 133 
 
 the Sibyl's books. Speaking of him next day, some 
 one said to Davis that his talk was like champagne. 
 ''No," said Davis, "not like champagne, like a 
 seidlitz-powder ; it is effervescent and wholesome, but 
 one never gets rid of the idea that it is physic." 
 But though he had a keen enjoyment of pleasantry 
 and loved banter and badinage, he did not possess 
 the faculty of humour. When he occasionally made 
 experiments in this region he became sathical or 
 savage. Like Schiller, he looked habitually at the 
 graver aspect of human affairs, and was too much in 
 earnest for the disengaged mind and easy play of 
 faculties necessary to be sportive. But if we judged 
 Burns by his epigrams, how low he would be rated ! 
 
 The youngest of the associates were John 
 O'Hagan * and John Pigot. O'Hagan was a law 
 student, labouring to acquire the mastery of principles 
 which alone makes the law a liberal and philosophical 
 profession. He was modest and reticent, speaking 
 rarely and never of himself or his works. MacCarthy, 
 in his poem of the "Lay Missionary," has painted 
 his social life. In literature he made himself gradually 
 known to his colleagues by sound criticism in the 
 sweetest of wholesome English, and by poems which 
 constantly extended the range of his powers into new 
 regions. John Pigot was a bright handsome boy, 
 son of an eminent Whig lawyer afterwards Chief 
 Baron of the Exchequer, and Davis held him in great 
 affection. He was a diligent and zealous student, 
 and a perpetual missionary of national opinions in 
 good society. He contributed sometimes, but very 
 rarely, to the Nation, for he was not as yet a writer of 
 the requisite vigour or skill for that office. 
 
 * Mr. Justice O'Hagan, lately head of the Land Commission in Ireland. 
 
134 MEMOIR OF TEOMAS DAVIS. [1S42. 
 
 O'Callaghan was older tliau his colleagues, and of 
 another school. He had gone through the first 
 Eepeal agitation, and had never quite recovered from 
 its disillusions. He was a tall, dark, strong man, 
 who spoke a dialect compounded apparently in equal 
 parts from Johnson and Cobbett, in a voice too loud 
 for social intercourse. " I love,'' he would cry, " not 
 the entremets of literature, but the strong meat and 
 drink of sedition," or, " I make a daily meal on the 
 smoked carcase of Irish history." Some one affirmed 
 that he heard him instructing his partner in a dance 
 on the exact limits of the Irish pentarchy and the 
 malisfn slanders of Gii'aldus Cambrensis. O'Calla^han 
 was a thoroughly honest man, but he brought into 
 Irish politics in his train a younger brother, whose 
 sly furtive character none of the young men could 
 tolerate. He was never admitted to the weekly 
 suppers, never permitted to write a line in the Xation. 
 He betook himself to other associates and other jour- 
 nals, and, in the end, ripened into a Government 
 
 spy. 
 
 Davis was my senior in age, and greatly more 
 my senior in knowledge and experience. Educated 
 in a city, disciplined in a university, living habitually 
 in society where he had fiiends and competitors of 
 his own age and condition, he got the training which 
 developed the natural forces in the healthiest manner. 
 I had lived in a small country town, where I had not 
 the good fortune to encounter one associate of similar 
 tastes and studies, except Henry McManus, the 
 artist, and T. B. ^^IcManus, who has left an honour- 
 able name in Irish annals ; and I had paid the penalty 
 of being a Catholic in Ireland by being withheld from 
 a university which still maintained the agencies of 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 135 
 
 proselytisin and the insolence of ascendancy. I took 
 my new friend into my heart of hearts, where he 
 has maintained the first place from that day forth. 
 
 Davis's abnegation contrasted strangely with the 
 practice of some of his contemporaries. One occa- 
 sional contributor, who wrote about a dozen articles 
 in three years, contrived to introduce his own name 
 into half of them, and O'Callaghan frankly declared 
 that he could not afi'ord to waste a grain of his repu- 
 tation by hyper-modest5^ Whatever he wrote was 
 published under his name, or a recognized nom de 
 plume, and was generally some extension of the 
 field of historic research opened in the " Green Book." 
 A note of this period will illustrate his ingenuous 
 individuality. 
 
 " Tuesday, July 1st (Anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, both as to 
 day of the week and day of the month). 
 
 " Dear Duffy or Da^is, or Davis and Duffy, 
 
 " I'm much obliged for your insertion of my little note to 
 the 'Editor of Limericli Chronicle; and as it strikes me that you'll 
 have a good opportunity for an article this week, I may as well 
 mention it. 
 
 " There's the festival the Orangemen are to hold, I believe, 
 this evening, anent the so-called glorious victory of the Boyne ; 
 and really you ought not to let slip such an occasion as will pre- 
 sent itself for putting an end to that humbug in Saturday's Nation. 
 You may have seen what a capital hand the Mail lately made of 
 O'Connell's tumble in the mud with regard to Galileo's business, 
 which never cost us here anything equal to the bad consequences 
 resulting from the false notions, so long, and even still, sought to 
 be kept up, on the subject of the Boyne affair. The exact number 
 of British, Northern Irish, Huguenot, Dutch, and Danish infantry 
 and cavalry regiments are stated in full from official data in my 
 second edition; from which all the real merit of the English and 
 their Ulster allies on that day can be deduced for the public, in 
 the way you'll be so well able to do in the Nation. And as what 
 you'll say will be believed, even by men of anti-Catholic notions 
 in politics, when other papers would not be minded, it's in your 
 
136 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 power to do mucli good by at least contributing to put a stop to 
 such ' revivals ' as those Orange ones connected with the affair of 
 the 1st of July and 12th. They have been the foundation of a 
 great deal of evil to Ireland, so do what you can to coffin them. 
 Until the Koran is destroyed there will be Mahometans. 
 " As ever, sincerely yours, 
 
 " In the singular and dual number, 
 
 " J. C. C." 
 
 The young men had as yet no visible following, 
 and might he described in the contemptuous language 
 which Jefferson flung at the friends of Alexander 
 Hamilton, " as a party all head and no body." But 
 the future Young Irelanders were estimated as un- 
 skilfully as the future Federalists ; for, like them, they 
 grew into a decisive power. Even now there was 
 a surrounding of youngsters who neither wrote nor 
 harangued, but constituted a sympathetic chorus 
 almost as essential to the success of the drama as 
 the actors themselves. They sang their songs, 
 repeated their wo^5, carried their opinions into society, 
 and sometimes quite honestly mistook them for their 
 own. 
 
 Whenever men are combined for a large purpose, 
 good or evil, posterity is apt to select one of them to 
 inherit all the honour. In the Reformation we think 
 only of Luther, but without Calvin and Knox the 
 Reformation might have remained a German schism. 
 Of the Jesuits the world remembers chiefly St. 
 Ignatius, but he was far from being the first in genius, 
 or even in governing power, of that astonishing 
 company. Among the forerunners of the French 
 Revolution opinion settles upon Rousseau and Vol- 
 taire, but Denis Diderot sapped the buttresses of 
 authority and stubbed the roots of faith wdth a more 
 steadfast and malign industry. Wilberforce is hailed 
 
1842.] TEE JOURNALIST. 137 
 
 emancipator of the negroes, but without Clarkson and 
 Zachary Macaulay he would have gone to his grave 
 without seeing them emancipated. The hour and the 
 man is always rather the hour and the men. Original 
 men come in groups, and so it was now. Davis was 
 the truest type of his generation, not because he was 
 most gifted, but because his whole faculties were 
 devoted to his work ; and because he was not one- 
 sided, but a complete and consummate man. But 
 the era produced a crowd of notable persons. Mangan 
 was a truer poet, but altogether wanted the stringent 
 will which made Davis's work so fruitful. MacNevin, 
 and still more in later times Meagher, uttered appeals 
 as eloquent and touching, but each of them kindled 
 his torch at the living fire of Davis. Dillon had, 
 perhaps, a safer judgment, and certainly a surer ap- 
 preciation of difficulties ; but his labours were inter- 
 mittent. Most of their separate qualities united in 
 Davis, and' every faculty was applied with unwaver- 
 ing purpose to a single end, which ruled his life " like 
 a guiding star above." 
 
 Irish history had been shamefully neglected in 
 school and college, and the young men took up the 
 teaching of it in the Nation; not as a cold scientific 
 analysis, but as a passionate search for light which 
 might help them to understand their own race and 
 country. When this attempt began, Irish history 
 was rather less known than Chinese. A mandarin 
 implied a definite idea ; but what was a Tanist ? 
 Confucius was a wise man among the Celestials ; but 
 who was Moran ? One man out of ten thousand 
 could not tell whether Owen Eoe followed or preceded 
 Brien Boroihime ; in which hemisphere the victory of 
 Benburb was achieved ; or whether the O'Neill who 
 
138 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 held Ireland for eight years in the Puritan wars, was 
 a naked savage armed with a stake, or an accom- 
 plished soldier bred in the most adventurous and 
 punctilious service in Europe. They soon lighted up 
 this obscure past with a sympathy which gilded it 
 like sunshine, till the study of our annals became a 
 passion with young Irishmen. On this teaching 
 Davis constantly strove to impress a precise aim and 
 purpose. He ransacked the past, not to find weapons 
 of assault against England, still less to feed the 
 lazy reveries of seannachies and poets upon legends 
 of a golden age hid in the mists of antiquity, but to 
 rear a generation whose lives would be strengthened 
 and ennobled by the knowledge that there had been 
 great men of their race, and great actions done on 
 the soil they trod ; whose resolution and fidelity would 
 be fortified by knowing that their ancestors had left 
 their mark for ever on some of the most memorable 
 eras of European history; that they were heirs in 
 name and fame to a litany of soldiers, scholars, and 
 ecclesiastics, no more fabulous or questionable than 
 the marshals of Napoleon or the poets of Weimar ; 
 and to warn them by the light of the past of the 
 perilous vices and weaknesses which had so often 
 betrayed our people. 
 
 " This country of ours," Davis wrote, " is no sand-bank, thrown 
 up by some recent caprice of earth. It is an ancient land, 
 honoured in the archives of civilization, traceable into antiquity 
 by its piety, its valour, and its sufferings. Every great European 
 race has sent its stream to the river of Irish mind. Long wars, 
 vast organizations, subtle codes, beacon crimes, leading virtues, 
 and self-mighty men were here. If we live influenced by wind, 
 and sun, and tree, and not by the passions and deeds of the past, 
 we are a thriftless and hopeless people." 
 
 When students were exhorted to make them- 
 
1842.] TEE JOURNALIST. 139 
 
 selves familiar with native history, we were met on 
 the threshold with the difficulty that there were no 
 books available. An Irish library was as costly as 
 an Irish freehold ; and, when you got it, there was 
 no skeleton map forthcoming of the territory to be 
 traversed. It was a "mighty maze, and all without 
 a plan." Nobody but a few antiquaries studied our 
 annals. To the masses it was a story of disaster and 
 defeat, from which they shrank. The cloud of 1798, 
 and the Union, lay heavy npon it. 
 
 The intellectual stagnation of the time will be 
 best understood by examples. In early numbers of 
 the Nation, a long list of James Duffy's publications 
 is advertised — James Duffy, who was afterwards the 
 national publisher, — but, without a single exception, 
 they are works of Catholic piety. Denis O'Brien, a 
 popular retail bookseller, occupies two columns of 
 the journal with his wares ; * and among fifty-three 
 periodicals and serials, forty-eight are English or 
 Scotch ; and among fourteen works of fiction or 
 travel, only two are Irish ; out of eleven miscella- 
 neous books, only one is Irish ; out of thirteen volumes 
 of poetry, there was not one native in subject or 
 authorship ; and of a hundred and seven works of 
 popular instruction, the entire were English or 
 Scotch. To teach the people that they had a history 
 as harmonious as an epic poem, illustrated with great 
 names and great transactions, was like awakening 
 a new sense, and created a tumult of enthusiasm. 
 They loved and pitied their country ; but that they 
 might honour and worship it, was a revelation. 
 
 " This teaching," said one of the next generation 
 of patriots, no longer living, " made impressionable 
 
 * Nation, Dec. 24, 1842. 
 
140 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 people, like myself, feel as if our dear Ireland was a 
 living thing, whom we must love, honour, and serve." 
 Its aim cannot be hetter described than in language 
 of Davis's : — 
 
 " To create a race of men full of a more intensely Irish 
 character and knowledge, and to that race to give Ireland. It 
 would give them the seas of Ireland to sweep with their nets and 
 launch on with their navy; the harbours of Ireland, to receive a 
 greater commerce than any island in the world ; the soil of Ireland 
 to live on, by more millions than starve here now ; the fame of 
 Ireland, to enhance by their genius and valour ; the independence 
 of Ireland, to guard by laws and arms." 
 
 We were warned by the Times, and a chorus of 
 smaller critics, that these historical reminiscences 
 fostered natioaal animosities. Perhaps they did; 
 but is there any method of exposing great- wrongs 
 which does not beget indignation against the 
 wronger ? We were of opinion that writers who 
 habitually employed the epithet Swiss to signify a 
 mercenary, Greek a cheat, Jew a miser, Turk a 
 brute, and Yankey a pedlar, who symbolize a French- 
 man as a fop, and a Frenchwoman as a hag (beldam 
 = belle dame), and who called whatsoever was stupid 
 or foolish Irish — an Irish argument being an argu- 
 ment that proved nothing, and an Irish method a 
 method which was bound to fail — were scarcely 
 entitled to take us to task for truths which, how- 
 ever disagreeable, were at least authentic. 
 
 The journal alone was not a sufficient agent for 
 this purpose, and books to fill some of the greater 
 voids in our history began to appear. The work 
 which Davis and his friends did in this way was of 
 wider scope and greater permanence than anything 
 they could accomplish in the Association. They 
 were slowly, half unconsciously, laying the founda- 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 141 
 
 tions of a national literature. Their first experiment 
 was a little sixpenny brochure, printed at the Nation 
 office, and sold by the Nation agents — a collection of 
 the songs and ballads, published during three months, 
 entitled '^ The Spirit of the Nation." Its success 
 was a marvel. The Conservatives set the example 
 of applauding its abihty, while they condemned its 
 aim and spirit. Frederick Shaw, then leader of the 
 Irish Tories, read specimens to the House of Com- 
 mons as a warning of a new danger. Isaac Butt, 
 his rival in Ireland, made the little book the main 
 subject of his speech at a Conservative meeting in 
 Dublin, and declared the writer — supposing the book 
 to be the production of one man instead of a dozen — 
 " deserved the name, and had the inspiration of a 
 poet." And Mr. Lefanu, the most gifted journalist 
 of the party, taking the prose and poetry together, 
 pronounced the Nation to be the most ominous 
 and formidable phenomenon of strange and terrible 
 times. 
 
 "The Nation" he added, " is written with a masculine vigour, 
 and with an impetuous singleness of jDurpose which makes every 
 number tell home. It represents the opinions and feelings of 
 (some millions of men, reflected with vivid precision in its succes- 
 sive pages, and, taken for all in all, it is a genuine and gigantic 
 representative of its vast party." 
 
 This interest, curiously compounded of anger and 
 sympathy, spread to England. John Wilson Croker, 
 in the Quarterly Review, praised without stint ''the 
 beauty of language and imagery," but declared, in 
 his habitual slashing style, that " they exhibited the 
 deadliest rancour, the most audacious falsehoods, 
 and the most incendiary provocations to war." The 
 Times affirmed that O'Connell's mischievous exhor- 
 
142 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 tations were as nothing compared with the fervour 
 of rebellion which breathed in every page of these 
 verses. The echo of those strong opinions ran 
 through the chief critical and political journals, and 
 the Naval and Military Gazette added a dash of 
 vitriol to the flame when it announced that the 
 songs made their way into the barracks, and were 
 sung at the public houses frequented by Irish soldiers. 
 It had now reached the point when the literary Paul 
 Prys became interested, and, as a matter of course, 
 Monckton Milnes got an Irish member to procure him 
 secretty half a dozen copies, which he was afraid to 
 send for in his own name ; and his secret was kept, 
 as is usual in such cases, by his confidant trans- 
 mitting his letter to the Nation office. A little later 
 Macaulay set his cachet on their merits, by frankly 
 recognizing the energy and beauty which many 
 of the poems displayed, and deploring that such 
 genius should be emploj^ed in inflaming national 
 animosity. A second part was speedily published, 
 and the little volume, swollen into a large one, was 
 reprinted in endless editions in Ireland and America, 
 and has been the companion of two generations of 
 Irishmen, wherever an emigrant, missionary, or 
 soldier has carried the Irish name. The newspaper 
 office could not produce the book fast enough for the 
 demand, and at an early period it was transferred to 
 Mr. James Duffy, a publisher then in a small way of 
 business in a by-street, to whom it was the begin- 
 ning of great prosperity. Eemembering the pre- 
 cedent of Kobert Burns, who refused to make money 
 by the songs of his country, the copyright was be- 
 stowed on the publisher. 
 
 The second experiment was a collection of the 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 143 
 
 orators of Ireland. It was designed to bring into 
 one series the greatest speeches of the men who 
 fought the battle of parliamentary independence in 
 the eighteenth century; next, the great Irishmen 
 who had served the Empire with conspicuous ability — 
 Burke, Canning, and Wellesley ; and, finally, of the 
 two tribunes of the Catholic agitation, O'Connell and 
 Shiel. To say that the renowned orators who graced 
 the era of independence were not read in Ireland, 
 is to give an imperfect conception of the case. The 
 speeches of Grattan, Flood, Curran, or Plunket were 
 nearly as little read as the "Annals of the Four 
 Masters," and almost as inaccessible. Some of them 
 were never collected, and the costly editions of 
 others, which had been published, had long gone out 
 of print, and it was only in a public library, of which 
 there were not half a dozen in the island, or in Whig 
 manor-houses, or occasionally in the book-case of an 
 aged priest, that a stray volume might be found. To 
 create an appetite for these treasures of passion and 
 knowledge, and to gratify it abundantly, was a fruit- 
 ful work. Davis gathered the materials for the 
 volume on Curran, with which it was proposed to 
 begin ; and when the most laborious part of the work 
 was completed, he invited Wallis to write a memoir, 
 and edit the collection. Wallis failing, he pressed it 
 on Maddyn : — 
 
 " I asked Wallis to write the ' Curran,' and lie refused. He is 
 getting nervous and distrustful. I don't mean in heart, for he is, 
 with all his oddities, affectionate ; but in his judgment and temper. 
 He'll do nothing till others have done everything important, and 
 then maybe he'll chronicle, and insult or glorify us, or lament us 
 if we fail. As the notice of Curran has been delayed so long, 
 perhaps you might now be able to write it. If you can, it will be 
 a great gratification to me to see you do it." 
 
144 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " I am most anxious that you should write the memoir. You 
 will really do justice to Curran, the honest valorous patriot, the 
 ■wit never excelled, the most poetical of all secular orators, the 
 unrivalled advocate, the thorough Irishman." 
 
 Maddyn made dilSiculties, though the proposal 
 was very grateful to him, 
 
 " To Irishmen," he wrote, " Curran is what Burns is to Scotch- 
 men, the genuine poetic product of the soil. It provokes me that 
 I cannot avail myself of ' coming out ' upon such a subject, and 
 conciliating some sympathy from my countrymen. I think I 
 know how it ought to be done, which vexes me more. . . . Byron 
 said he heard more poetry from Curran than he had read in all his 
 life." 
 
 Let a reader, to whom Davis is new or unknown, 
 consider how few men he has encountered in life 
 who, having himself done the hard preliminary work 
 of a literary project, would labour in secret to transfer 
 the credit and honour to another, and he will begin 
 to understand the man I am endeavouring to de- 
 scribe. When the speeches were in type he renewed 
 his appeal to Maddyn : — 
 
 " Enclosed is one page of a proof copy of Curran's speeches, of 
 which Mr. James Duify is about to issue a thousand copies, with 
 Reynolds's portrait also enclosed. His proof reached me here much 
 pressed for time, and therefore I wrote to him, if he were so 
 inclined, I would ask a friend to write the sketch, but of course 
 he should be paid. I enclose you his answer. "Will you write 
 this? ... It is settled that James Duffy is to pay fifty pounds to 
 the writer of the Memoir and selector and editor of each volume 
 of speeches. Xo one can do the three volumes of the series, 
 ' Bushe,' ' Burke,' and ' Grattan,' so well as yourself. ... It was 
 O'Hea, an old College Historical Society friend, who joined the 
 
 association, not the goose O'H . O'Hea, as you know, is a 
 
 man of vast powers, and is succeeding at his profession. O'Loo-hlia 
 is an abler and firmer man than his letters would show ; I thought 
 it a very poor letter. Lane is all you describe him, a fine fellow. 
 O'Hagan has the best business of any Outer Bar man on his 
 
1842.J THE JOURNALIST. 145 
 
 circuit. He is a good man and of great energy, and a trained 
 speaker. McCnllagh is Federalist, and has done nothing till the 
 last three days. He is now sobered, and working for Federalism." 
 
 Maddyn finally pleaded that lie had too many 
 engagements already, but promised a little hel^^ to 
 whomsoever undertook the task. 
 
 " Curran," he wrote, " was a glorious enthusiast, without 
 deluding day-dreams or romantic misbelief. I will jot down some 
 odd remarks upon him on a sheet of paper and send them to you 
 next week ; they may be of use to whoever will do it, and they 
 shall be at your service." * 
 
 In the end Davis did the work himself. The 
 volume was published without his name, and not 
 as one of a series, but practically to determine the 
 prudence of the general design. He accompanied 
 the collection of speeches with a fresh, vigorous, and 
 sparkling memoir. The book has since run through 
 twenty editions, and is in the hands of every student 
 of Irish history. It had to encounter the conceited 
 dogmatism which a work of original genius seldom 
 escapes, but we can read this rash disparagement 
 with something of the sensation which. Brougham's 
 estimate of Byron, or Jeffrey's of Wordsworth, or 
 John Wilson's of Tennyson is apt to create in a 
 reader of to-day. It used to be said with some 
 justice that if you put an Irishman to roast, another 
 Irishman would turn the spit. The turnspit on this 
 occasion was Mr. Marmion Savage, a gentleman who 
 commenced his career at the Corn Exchange de- 
 claiming against tithe, and ended as clerk of the 
 Privy Council. He pronounced judgment on Davis's 
 volume in the Athenceum, and the opening paragraph 
 is worth preserving as one of the cariosities of 
 criticism. 
 
 * Maddjn to Davis, September 8th. 
 
146 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 " A greener book than this has not yet issued from the Green 
 Isle. The cover is greener than the shamrock; the contents 
 greener again; and the style and execution are green in the 
 superlative degree. In short, it is ' one entire and perfect emerald,' 
 saving the value of that precious stone. It must needs be an 
 emanation from some very green and unripe genius, who sees every 
 object through a pair of green spectacles ; nay, we have a suspicion 
 that the author is no other than the actual Green Man. It ought 
 to be called ' The Green Book ; ' but we fear, from the extravagant 
 verdure of the language and crudity of the composition, that the 
 Barrister will hardly succeed in 'making the green one — read.' 
 Vert like this is not easily convertible into Venison. We never 
 thought the epithet 'green' very complimentary to Ireland, any 
 more than the appellation ' old.' There is indeed such a thing as a 
 ' green old age.' But Ireland must be either in her infancy or her 
 dotage, if she is not more displeased than charmed with the work 
 before us." 
 
 After describing the style as one which " com- 
 bined all the absurdities of Carlyle with all the 
 vulgarity of Ainsworth," the writer was good enough 
 from his sublime altitude to drop a crumb of en- 
 couragement to his victim. If he would abandon 
 everything that was characteristic in his style and 
 essential to his purpose, he might in time become 
 not altogether intolerable. 
 
 "He produces upon us, when he is lively, somewliat the effect 
 of an hour in Donnybrook Fair ; and when the mood changes to 
 pathos, we fancy we have been assisting at the funeral of an 
 O'Eourke, and listening to the mercenary howlers of a provincial 
 wake. We have not been slow to commend the productions of 
 Young Ireland, where they seemed worthy of praise ; we saw 
 evidences of poetry in the ' Spirit of the Nation,' and it gave us 
 pleasure to record our opinion to that effect, although we were 
 not, of course, amongst those who approved of the animus of those 
 effusions. But the present is a work to be rebuked ; and if our 
 rebuke be more sharp than usual, it is because we believe that, 
 with all its sins, it proceeds from one who has faculties for some- 
 thing better, would he but mix a little grey discretion with his 
 green politics, and correct his green composition by a few years of 
 brown study." 
 
1842,] THE JOURNALIST. 147 
 
 MacNeviu followed Davis with a collection of the 
 State Trials in Ireland from 1794 to 1803 — the era 
 of Castlereagh and Carhampton. It was carefully 
 edited, and the period lighted up with a vivid intro- 
 duction. 
 
 A popular edition of MacGeoghegan's " History 
 of Ireland " followed — a valuable book published in 
 Paris by an emigrant priest, — and Barrington's " Else 
 and Fall of the Irish Nation," and Foreman's famous 
 " Defence of the Courage, Honour, and Loyalty of 
 the Irish," — the last edited by Davis. 
 
 Every week the journal contained counsel to 
 young Irishmen on education, discipline, the use 
 they might make of their lives, and the services they 
 could perform for their country, and the same spirit 
 animated their work in the Association. 
 
 A disease fatal to local organization is want of 
 work. O'Connell thought that to collect and remit 
 the Eepeal rent was employment enough, but the 
 new men were constantly suggesting tasks w^hich 
 touched the imagination and warmed the hearts of 
 their disciples. 
 
 "Watch over our historical places," they said; "they are in 
 the care of the people, and they are ill-cared. All classes, creeds, 
 and politics are to blame in this. The peasant lugs down a pillar 
 for his sty, the farmer for his gate, the priest for his chapel, the 
 minister for his glebe. A mill-stream ran through Lord Moore's 
 Castle, and the commissioners of Galway have shaken, and 
 threatened to remove, the Warden's House, that fine stone 
 chronicle of Galway heroism. [A warden of Galway was the 
 Brutus of Ireland, and sacrificed his son to his countrj'.] But 
 these ruins were rich possessions. The state of civilization among 
 our Scotic, or Milesian, or Norman, or Danish sires, was better 
 seen from a few raths, keeps, and old coast towns, with the help 
 of the Museum of the Irish Academy, than from all the prints and 
 historical novels we have. An old castle in Kilkenny, a house in 
 Galway give us a peep at the arts, the intercourse, the creed, the 
 
148 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 indoor, and some of the outdoor ways of the gentry of the one, 
 and of the merchants of the other, clearer than Scott could, were 
 he to write, or Cattermole, were he to paint for forty years. Yet 
 year after year more and more of our crosses are broken, of our 
 tombs effaced, of our abbeys shattered, of our castles torn down, 
 of our cairns sacrilegiously pierced, of our urns broken up, and of 
 our coins melted down." 
 
 All this work had to be done with a constant 
 watchfulness against giving offence to the national 
 leader, who had small sympathy with the philosophy 
 or poetry of politics, and a general disrelish of un- 
 authorized experiments. Maddyn proposed to re- 
 publish Woulfe's famous pamphlet on the Catholic 
 claims, entitling it, " An Essay on Irish Government 
 by the late Chief Baron;" but the proposal was not 
 adopted, probably because the brochure would revive 
 forgotten controversies with O'Connell. He also 
 suggested that Dr. Doyle's essays, omitting what was 
 temporary, would furnish a useful handbook of Irish 
 thought; but the same objection existed in this case. 
 Even the managers of the Dublin Moiitlilij, whose 
 obscurity protected it from any active censorship, 
 were alarmed at Maddyn's O'Connellphobia. He 
 wrote a paper for the magazine on Eichard Eonayne, 
 popularly known as " Eadical Eonayne," a Munster 
 Catholic who, in controversies between O'Connell 
 and Cobbett, on poor-laws and national policy, com- 
 monly sided with the English Eadical; but it was 
 necessary to dock it considerably, and smuggle it 
 into the Monthly under the form of a contribution 
 from an American sympathizer. 
 
 " Hudson and I agree," Davis wrote to his friend, " in asking 
 you to change the name of the article to ' Eichard Eonayne ' — 
 Eadical E. is a nickname ; also to change the introduction. There 
 is no good in imitating Moore's lament [over the decay of public 
 
1842] THE JOURNALIST. 149 
 
 spirit in Ireland] ; and lastly, because I have written the opposite 
 at length, in an article on O'Connell in the same number." 
 
 The monster meetings went on with imfiagging 
 spirit and still increasing numbers. ]\iany millions 
 of Irishmen had now been paraded and battalioned 
 as Nationalists determined at all costs to raise up 
 their country anew. The influence of a resolute 
 organized people was tremendous. It made itself 
 felt in every fibre of the nation, among the most 
 hostile section as well as the most sympathetic. 
 Here are two or three significant illustrations. In 
 the absence of the National members from Parlia- 
 ment, the Government proposed an Arms Bill of 
 unexampled stringency ; but the public spirit was 
 alert, and it was resisted by Irish Whigs, led on this 
 occasion by Lord Clements, Sharman Crawford, and 
 Smith O'Brien with stubborn persistence. Half of 
 the session was wasted before it was forced through 
 the Commons, A reply from ]\Ir. R. R, JMoore, one 
 of the organizers of the Anti-Corn Law League, to a 
 note on the question, will sufiiciently indicate that 
 Davis was busy promoting the resistance. 
 
 " I have shown your note with all due discretion to some good 
 friends of freedom — Yilliers, Gibson, Bowring, Cobden, and Eicardo 
 have promised to oppose that Devil's instigation, the Arms Bill; 
 I intend to speak to all the members I know on the subject. . . . 
 The truth is, they will not be persuaded that O'Connell is not 
 playing the game of Eepeal agitation merely to get the Whigs in 
 again, and they never will forgive him his indiscriminate support 
 of that miserable faction when they were last in power." * 
 
 The Bill proposed to issue arms only to a limited 
 class who had received a licence from a bench of 
 magistrates, and even these weapons were to be 
 stamped with an ofiicial brand. The branding was 
 
 * National Anti-Corn Law League, 448, Strand, London, June 7, 1843. 
 
150 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 very offensive to Irish gentlemen ; it would degrade 
 the historical weapons of the Volunteers which they 
 still possessed, and disfigure their armes de luxe. 
 The authorities were reminded that, if the people 
 became exasperated, these precautions would prove 
 worthless — 
 
 ** For rage finds weapons everywhere 
 For nature's two unbranded arms." 
 
 When these Irish Liberals had failed inParliament 
 they addressed themselves directly to the English 
 people, inviting them to consider the condition to 
 which the fatal policy which they supported had 
 reduced Ireland. The people were poor, estranged, 
 and exasperated by a long course of vicious legisla- 
 tion. The labouring population lived habitually on 
 the verge of destitution. Irish commerce, manu- 
 factures, fisheries, mines, and agriculture attested 
 by their languishing and neglected condition the 
 baneful effects of misgovernment. Was there any 
 remedy ? It was in vain that the representatives of 
 the nation claimed redress, their complaints and 
 remonstrances were unheeded. But they appealed 
 now to the higher tribunal of public opinion, and 
 demanded perfect equality with England as the only 
 secure and legitimate foundation upon which the 
 Union could permanently rest.* 
 
 Half a year later a number of Irish Peers, led as 
 of old by the Duke of Leinster and Lord Charlemont, 
 followed the example of the Commoners, and peti- 
 
 * The names appended to this address, which appeared on August, 1843, 
 were Thomas Wyse, Waterford City; D. E. Ross, Belfast ; Thomas Esoionde, 
 Wexford Town; William Villiers Stuart, Waterford County; R. S. Carew, 
 Waterford County; D. Jephson Norreys, Mallow; M. E. Corbally, Meath 
 County ; John O'Brien, Limerick City ; M. J. O'Connell, Kerry County ; 
 Robert Archbold, Kildare County; Robert Gore, New Ross; Hugh M. Tuite, 
 Westmeath County ; James Power, Wexford County ; Wm. S. O'Brien, 
 Limerick County. 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. .151 
 
 tioned Parliament to take tlie condition of Ireland 
 into immediate consideration. They enumerated the 
 wrongs which the people endured, and denounced 
 the policy of the Government as erroneous and futile. 
 The army was increased, barracks were fortified, 
 armed vessels were stationed off the coast, and upon 
 the navigable rivers of the country. But the use of 
 force, though it might be effective for the suppression 
 of disorder, could not remove discontent. 
 
 Even the English Whigs did not escape the pre- 
 vailing influence. A party manifesto was published 
 in the Edinhurgli Bevieia, revised by Lord John 
 Eussell,* offering among other concessions an annual 
 visit of the Queen, and a residence in Ireland long 
 enough to make the presence of the Sovereign no 
 unusual element in national life, the holding of 
 parliamentary sessions in Dublin, a provision for 
 middle-class education by erecting Maynooth into 
 a university, reform of land tenure, the disestablish- 
 ment of the Protestant Church, and a permanent 
 provision for the Catholic clergy, and for the main- 
 tenance of their churches. A sum yielding an annual 
 income of three hundred thousand pounds must be 
 granted for the purpose of carrying out these reforms. 
 
 A more curious and significant evidence of pro- 
 gress was an Irish Club started in London. A dozen 
 peers, more than twenty members of Parliament, as 
 many baronets, knights, or privy councillors, and a 
 considerable muster of artists and literary men united 
 in the Irish Society. It was to be independent of 
 religious and political distinctions, and the names of 
 men so widely divided as Frederick Shaw, Emerson 
 
 * See "Select Correspondence of Macvey Napier," then editor of the 
 Edvihurgh Review. 
 
152 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1842. 
 
 Tenuent, and Colouel Tajior on one side, and 
 Anthony Blake, D. E. Pigot, and Thomas Eedington • 
 on the other ; with an intermediate section, of whom 
 Colonel Caulfield, D. E. Eoss, and Morgan John 
 O'Connell were representatives, promised that it 
 would be national in a high sense. Irish artists like 
 Maclise, MacDowell, John Dojde, and men of letters 
 like Father Prout and Dr. Croly, gave it an attrac- 
 tion more piquant than rank can furnish, and it 
 opened with satisfactory prospects.* 
 
 The land question was more and more debated in 
 the Nation as the most urgent of Irish grievances, 
 and one for which redress might perhaps be obtained 
 
 * The progress of national opinions may perhaps be best gauged by their 
 influence on the Conservative press. Here is an extract from the Evening 
 Mail, the most authoritative organ of the Tory party in Ireland, which 
 exhibits it in the " Precursor stage," one day's march from Repeal : — • 
 
 "Ireland is deprived of her fair piroportion of influence and power in the 
 
 administration of public aflairs. Irishmen are treated with neglect and scorn, 
 
 " The Queen's cabinet contains not a single Irishman. 
 
 " The subordinate offices of the Government, with the exception of the 
 
 petty place assigned to Mr. Emerson Tennent, and two or three more of 
 
 'such small deer,' are exclusively held by English and Scotch. 
 
 " From all the public departments in Great Britain, Irishmen are 
 excluded, whilst English and Scotch officials shoulder them out of the 
 direction of aflairs in their own country. 
 
 " Towards the liberal professions the same partial course is pursued ; and 
 never was it pursued with a more unvarying monop^oly than within the last 
 four years. 
 
 " Next comes the Church, towards which the rule is rigidly enforced — 
 namely, that Englit^hmen are worthy to be set in the highest offices in 
 Ireland, but no Irish clergyman entitled to aspire to the meanest preferment 
 being in the gift of Government. Did any one ever hear of an Irish clergy- 
 man being made an English bishop, or an English dean ? 
 
 " The difficulty experienced by Irish gentlemen in procuring the pro- 
 motion of tht ir sons in the BoyaJ Xavy is almost as great as if the gun-room 
 were a cathedral, and every midshipman a holden prebendary. 
 
 " Even the Army, which is indebted in a great degree for its high renown 
 and pre-eminence to the valour and conduct of Irish gentlemen, is now 
 assuming the character of an exclusively British institution. Xumerous 
 compilaints have reached us from quarters of the highest rank and respecta- 
 bility, of the influence of national partiality at the Horse Guards. Irish 
 gentlemen in vain solicit permission to purchase commissions for their sons. 
 The answer they receive is invariably the same — full of smooth hope and 
 delusive promise, ending in nothing. 
 
 " Tliese things tend to make the Rejieal movement the formidable engine 
 of anarchy it is" (^Evening Mail). 
 
1812.] THE JOURNALIST. 153 
 
 from the Imperial Parliament. Macldyn asked Davis 
 for tlie plau of settlement contemplated in Ireland, 
 and, being then engaged on a book which he after- 
 wards published, " Ireland and its Kulers," inquired 
 for authorities on the period which it covered. 
 
 " Carlyle and his numerous crew of imitators," he wrote, " turn 
 up their noses at the word 'plan,'' and think them all formalists 
 who demand one. They preach about the folly of Sieyes, forget- 
 ting that Sieyes really had no plan at all. A man with twenty 
 schemes has no scheme. With all that is said and written on the 
 subject in Ireland, it is strange if no measures have been indicated 
 that might bear even iheiv in-opositlon to Parliament. Could you 
 also from your multifarious resources indicate to me any books 
 wherein I might read up in a summary manner the chief political 
 events of the years 1829, 1830, 1831, and 1832 in Ireland? In 
 short, I want the history of the first Eepeal agitation, its accidental 
 impulses, and its aggravating caiises. Is there any work published 
 where there is an Irish retrospect of these years? . . . Don't tell 
 me any secrets, or to any one else who is not in your political con- 
 fidence. Eecollect that most honourable men might injure you 
 by thoughtlessness or imprudence." * 
 
 When the monster meetings had arrayed the 
 bulk of the nation on his side, and the time for mere 
 demonstration was over, O'Connell promised that he 
 would summon a Council of Three Hundred to con- 
 sider the question of international securities, and 
 form the nucleus of an Irish Parliament. The Con- 
 vention Act forbade the election of delegates in 
 Ireland, but he proposed to escape its penalties by 
 accepting as members of the Council such gentlemen 
 as their neighbours designated by entrusting them 
 with ^100 each for the Eepeal Fund. The project 
 was daring and even revolutionary, for such an 
 assembly would be entitled to present an ultimatum 
 to England, and^support it by the force of the whole 
 nation. The young men took it up warmly, but not 
 
 * July, 1843. 
 
151 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1S42. 
 
 ^\-ithoiTt a secret apprehension tliat O'Connell meant 
 it to create alarm in England rather than to perform 
 the noble work for which it seemed fit. 
 
 The meetings still swelled in numbers, passion, 
 and purpose. O'Connell's oratory kept measure with 
 the quick march of the nation. At Davis's birth- 
 place he used la^nguage afterwards known as the 
 " Mallow Defiance." Speaking of a rumour which 
 attributed to the Government the intention of sup- 
 pressing the movement by force, he said — 
 
 " Do yon kuow, I never felt such a loatliing for speechifying 
 as I do at present. The time is coming when we must be doing. 
 Gentlemen, you may learn the alternative to live as slaves or die 
 as freemen. Xo ! you will not be freemen if you be not perfectly 
 in tbe right and your enemies in the wrong. I think I perceive 
 a fixed disposition on the part of our Saxon traducers to put us to 
 the test. The efforts already made by them have been most 
 abortive and ridiculous. In the midst of peace and tranquillity 
 they are covering our land with troops. Yes, I speak with the 
 awful determination with which I commenced my address, in con- 
 sequence of news received this day. There was no House of 
 Commons on Thursday, for the Cabinet was considering what they 
 should do, not for Ireland, but against her. But, gentlemen, as 
 long as they leave us a rag of the Constitution we will stand on 
 it. We will violate no law, we will assail no enemj^ ; but you are 
 much mistaken if you think others will not assail you. (A voice— 
 We are ready to meet them.) To be sure you are. Do you think 
 I suppose you to be cowards or fools ? " 
 
 He put the case that the Union was destructive 
 to England instead of Ireland, and demanded whether 
 Englishmen under such circumstances would not 
 insist on its repeal. 
 
 " What are Irishmen," he asked, " that they should be denied 
 an equal privilege? Have we not the ordinary courage of Eng- 
 lishmen? Are we to be called slaves? Are we to be trampled 
 under foot ? Oh ! they shall never trample me, at least (no, no). 
 I say they may trample me, but it will be my dead body they will 
 trample on, not the living man." 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 155 
 
 The Eepeal ^Association, to stamp this sentiment 
 on marble, voted a statue of O'Connell as he spoke 
 at Mallow, with the final sentence of his declaration 
 carved on the pedestal, in eternal memory of a great 
 wrong adequately encountered. 
 
 These transactions excited profound interest 
 throughout the civilized world. The United States 
 sent back an answer to them in immense meetings 
 held in the great cities, at which eminent senators, 
 judges, and statesmen took part. England was 
 warned that if she coerced Ireland, she would do so 
 at the risk of losing Canada by American arms. 
 Seward, afterwards Secretary of State, and John 
 Tyler, then President of the United States, declared 
 that the Union ought to be repealed.* One of the 
 great meetings sent an address to France, inviting 
 her to help a nation which had helped her on a 
 hundred battlefields. France answered by a memor- 
 able meeting in Paris, at which deputies and journal- 
 ists took part w^ho before four years had themselves 
 become the Provisional Government of anew republic. 
 They offered arms and trained officers to a country 
 resisting manifest injustice. In these transactions 
 it became plain that France and America recognized 
 as a spokesman of the Irish race, not only O'Connell, 
 but the Nation. The writings of the paper were 
 spoken of in their correspondence, and quoted in a 
 hundred newspapers from New York to New Orleans, 
 and were universally translated by the press of Paris. 
 The attendance at the monster meetings continued 
 to grow, till it was alleged that at Tara little short 
 
 * " The proceedings of the Convention at Philadelphia are most, or rather 
 would be most glorious, if we were in a position to avail ourselves of such 
 
 help. But — but — but No matter, the time is coming in spite of the 
 
 Devil" (T. McC, to Davis). 
 
156 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1S4-2. 
 
 of a milliou of men met to claim self-government 
 for their country. 
 
 To his friend Maddyn, Davis wrote the most 
 secret hopes of his heart at this time. It is cha- 
 racteristic that he desired to see the Federalists 
 become a strong party ; if his own aims were baffled 
 he was ready to promote theirs. 
 
 " You in England quite overrate the likelihood of war here. 
 We have the people as docile and exact in their obedience to us 
 as possible. They see that discipline is the greatest element of 
 success. Unless the Government begin the contest, either with 
 their own troops or with an Orange mob, there will be no fight 
 fur the present. We are making more way with the upper classes 
 than you fancy. They will not yet, at least, join the association, 
 but many of them will join a Federalist party which is about 
 being founded. If that Federalist party be managed by bold 
 clear-headed men it will impose its own terms on England in two 
 years. We Eepealers hold i^eace and war in our hands. O'Connell 
 could in three months have possession of Ireland, but he is adverse, 
 wisely, humanely adverse, to fighting, save in the last extremity. 
 He prevailed in '29 by the power of fighting, not the practice of 
 it ; may he not do so again ? You will say, ' No, for England is 
 dead against us.' What's the j^roof of her being so? I see little; 
 on the contrary, I believe a portion of the intelligence and half 
 the populace of England will aid us, if things go on peaceably, as 
 they are guing. Do j^ou see the provincial press of England and 
 Scotland? It is generally favourable; the Whigs, undesignedly 
 perhaps, ai'e serving us, and the Ministry and their Press are acting 
 and writing so irresolutely and rashly that we can hardly fail to 
 overcome them if we do not copy their blunders. Should sterner 
 counsels prevail, they will come to the contest greatly weakened 
 by what has passed, and we, some of us at least, know our duty 
 and see our course. It may be ver}- sad, but 'tis not very unpro- 
 mising, as, were you here, I could satisfy you." 
 
 Maddyn pressed his objections on Davis with 
 affectionate persistency, for he wrote less as a par- 
 tisan of authority than a man eager that his friend 
 might not make a mistake. 
 
1842.] THE JOUBNALIST. 157 
 
 " Differences of speculation never vex me, but I feel half 
 annoyed wlien any one whose powers of mind are entitled to high 
 respect obviously miscalculates. Talking of O'Connell and his 
 power of getting Ireland in three months, you say 'He prevailed 
 in 1829 by the threat of fighting and not the practice of it; may 
 he not do so again ? ' Answer : Never, because the questions then 
 and now are vastly different in their intrinsic value, and, besides, 
 are very differently regarded by the British public. Because, 
 firstl}', the Catholic question was one that had been earnestly 
 advocated by the whole of the Whig-Eadical and Dissenting parties 
 of England; because the British public was in its favour; because, 
 in the eye of a statesman of any calibre, from Chatham to Castle- 
 reagh, its concession could not pos.^ibly injure the Empire, but 
 rather strengthen the authority of England; because, three or 
 four times in 1802, 1808, 1812, 1822, and 1825, it had been almost 
 conceded by Parliament. A civil war under such circumstances 
 would have been criminal on the part of an English Minister. 
 England never would have supported Wellington in 1829, when 
 she herself was divided upon the question ; but what is the case 
 now? The British Empire is struck at ; the authority of England 
 is endangered. Eepeal of the Union, if carried, will destroy the 
 glory of England and her power along with it, and will ruin her 
 character throughout the globe for sagacity, abilitj^, and capacity 
 for ruling. Give Ireland a Parliament, and England will at once 
 cease to be a substantive power. 
 
 " You attribute much value to the j^ress. You ajDpeal to it as 
 if it were in your favour. Tell me any influential paper that has 
 written a line in your favour. The Metropolitan press, of all 
 parties, is against you, and so is all the Conservative and Whig- 
 press in the rural districts. At either side of the argument the 
 press is nothing to appeal to. It has been sinking in this country 
 year after year in social influence ; one or two of the London 
 morning papers are barely able to carry on. 
 
 " Were the Government unprepared for a struggle ? Were 
 they not ready to repel force by force? Were they caught 
 napping ? 
 
 "Both parties know all that the Ee23ealers have been trying 
 to do in Ireland ; and in America Lord Palmerston knew every 
 movement of the Irish sympathizers. I rather think he had 
 scouts there, from what I have been told. Besides, the American 
 Democracy is nothing to count upon — a beggarly, bankrupt set of 
 boasting vapourers that cannot pay their common trade debts, let 
 alone the expenses of a war. W^hy didn't the braggarts seize 
 
158 IIEMOm OF THOMAS DAVIS. [LSJ2. 
 
 Canada if tliey liad any ability for fighting? That was their time 
 to show fight, but they didn't. 
 
 " The Opposition has been thrashed in France, and it never can 
 gain power unless it abandon its unprincipled and rascally politics. 
 Thiers is the vilest politician alive. He is a man who has no 
 moral power whatever : and Lamavtine is a mere declaiming 
 waverer. It is not the interest of the French throne in this age, 
 whether it be occupied by the elder or the younger branch of the 
 Bourbons, to incur a war with England. 
 
 " As a Minister for Ireland, Peel has been a miserable failure j 
 and the fact is confessed by all parties. Laissez faire, in his 
 position, was disgraceful ; he might have done wonders, but he 
 lacks all the qualities oi high statesmanship. 
 
 " T. B. C. Smith has been a total and, I'm afraid, hopeless 
 failure [in Parliament]. I was anxious that he might have main- 
 tained the credit of the Irish Bar, but it is confessed that Jackson 
 was an orator compared to him. He was coughed down on one 
 occasion. He is miserably nervous, and is actually pitied by his 
 opponents. On one occasion F. French was cheering and en- 
 couraging him ! P was Lord Chatham in comparison, 
 
 " I implore you not to entangle yourself in what is now a hope- 
 less and vain endeavour. This country will fight to the last 
 against you, and the present and late Governments have wary 
 sentinels that watch your movements. Lord John would go on 
 to the last in a war for the integrity of the Empire. Therefore 
 keep out of mischief." 
 
 But to all liis persuasions, Davis replied : " I sliall 
 go into the Three Hundred, Would that you were 
 with us there ! It will he a post of danger, and of 
 power for good or ill." 
 
 The grounds of hope, which he omitted to state 
 to Maddyn, may he found in puhlic correspondence 
 which I shall presently quote. 
 
 Taifs JIai/acine had been for years an authentic 
 organ of British Eadicalism, and Davis sought to 
 enlist it more actively in the Irish cause. But the 
 Radicals were alarmed at the tone of menace which 
 O'ConnelFs speeches at the monster meetings and 
 the writings in the Xation had given to the Irish 
 
1842.] THE JOURNALIST. 159 
 
 movement ; and Mr. Tait answered, I fancy, the 
 apprehension in his own mind rather than any sug- 
 gestion made by his correspondent. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " My answer must be short. I write in bed, recovering 
 from a severe illness. War would be perfect madness. Ireland 
 would be crushed in an instant, and the justice or injustice of her 
 cause be utterly disregarded, until the bloody doings were over. 
 While nothing but ruin be looked for from armed resistance to 
 Britain, everything is to be hoped for from peaceful agitation. 
 
 "Why not imitate the Anti-Corn Law League, and send mis- 
 sionaries to explain the grievances of L'eland and plead her cause 
 through every part of England and Scotland ? Scotland is likely 
 to be the first to understand and feel for Irish wrongs. But any 
 attempt at violence would be looked upon in the same light in 
 Scotland as in England. Except as to religion, music, and to some 
 degree, literature, Scotland has no separate nationality. The union 
 with England is complete. 
 
 " I am, sir, your very obedient servant, 
 
 " W. Tait.* 
 
 " Thomas Davis, Esq." 
 
 * Edinburgh, May 30, 1843. 
 
ICO 2IEM01E OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1813. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE EECEEATIOXS OF A PATEIOT. 1843. 
 
 A man's character is often best read in his amuse- 
 ments. He may pose on the platform, or in the 
 salon, but in holiday undress he needs must follow 
 the bent of his nature. 
 
 Davis's laboiu'3 at the Nation office were fi'ee 
 from the slavery which journalism sometimes im- 
 poses. The obHgation to be at a particular place at 
 a fixed hour daily is an excellent discipline, but it is 
 not compatible with such a task as he had imposed 
 upon himseK. He worked for the newspaper with 
 prodigious energy, but at times and places which 
 suited him, reserving leisure always for other claims 
 of duty. He employed himself largely in friendly 
 conferences with men of his own generation. It 
 might seem that he was aheady busy preparing for 
 the task that awaited him in the near future, for he 
 was forming alliances, making friends, choosing 
 colleagues and selecting agents. At the very climax 
 of popular agitation in the autumn of 1843, a meeting 
 of the British Association was fixed to be held at 
 Cork, and Davis, as a native of the county, promised 
 to attend. He proposed at the same time to take 
 a holiday from work, and employ it in an extensive 
 
I«=i43.] THE RECBEATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 161 
 
 tour in Munster and Connaiighfc, which would enable 
 him to communicate with important political allies, 
 and probably to make new friends for the cause. 
 He needed not merely leisure, but solitude. To 
 be wholly alone at times, disengaged from the closest 
 friendships and the tenderest domestic ties, is a 
 necessity to the strong and fruitful thinker. 
 
 His correspondence during this excursion, with 
 some help from memoranda which he made at the 
 moment, enables us to follow him closely. During 
 the greatest stress of work or travel he was an in- 
 cessant student, and in his leisure the practice clung 
 to him. The "Paradise Lost" and the "Trans- 
 figuration of Eaphael," says Emerson, are results of 
 a note-book ; and Davis has left behind him a bundle 
 of note-books during his excursions or studies. Un- 
 happily they are often quite undecipherable ; or, if 
 legible, phrases which to him were doubtless symbols 
 of viA^d impressions yield small results to any one 
 else. They were sometimes written in pencil, and, 
 after nearly half a century, have faded into shadows. 
 Where pen and ink were employed, he trusted so 
 largely to his memory that the notes constitute a 
 sort of mevioria technica. He 23robably felt the truth 
 of the poet Grray's memorable saying — that half a 
 word set down at the moment is worth a cart-load of 
 recollections. But, such as they are, they enable 
 us to watch the student hiving with loving care the 
 materials which gave local colour and dramatic 
 character to national ballads, or furnished the states- 
 man with data on which opinion was founded. He 
 gathered traditions of historic events where they 
 happened, studied the aspect and topography of 
 memorable places — there are such studies of Lime- 
 
16-2 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 rick, Galway, Deny, and Drogheda, for example, 
 with rude maps and drawings of the battle-fields. 
 Scraps of local songs and vocabularies of Ii'ish phrases 
 are interrupted to set down the names of men who 
 misfht be useful to the national cause or who were 
 famihar with the local antiquities, notes on the 
 administration of justice in the provinces, drawings 
 of old coins, or memoranda of articles to be written 
 by himself or others. 
 
 Speaking of another young enthusiast, Samuel 
 Forde, the artist, Davis used language very applicable 
 to his own case : — 
 
 " His acquisitions are mimerous, and rapidly, though uncon- 
 sciously, made ; unknown even to the man of genius himself, they 
 are obscurely recorded, nor are they seen until knowledge and 
 power so signally display themselves in his works. Then the 
 hints and almost forgotten suggestions and impelling impulse in 
 which they may have originated, rise remembered, and the mag- 
 nificent design may be traced to the most frivolous circumstances 
 that have undergone some beautiful expanding process in his 
 mind." 
 
 He travelled by Kilkenny, Waterford, and Cashel, 
 and reported in a letter to his fiiend Webb the official 
 business transacted at Cork : — 
 
 " The association meeting was successful for its science both to 
 natives and to strangers ; but because the Eepealers and the 
 educated shopkeepers of Cork sustained it, the county Conserva- 
 tives declined to join it. so the number -was only six hundred 
 instead of fifteen hundred, as had been usual. However, we had 
 a thousand at the ball. 
 
 " Old Bishop Murphy is a glorious hearty Johnsonian book- 
 worm. He'd hardly let me out of his house. But he's a courtier ; 
 and with all his 100,000 volumes, his book-lined mansion, and his 
 help to Hogan, I am not yet quite sure of him. 
 
 " I have to see some things and men at Cork, and shall not 
 leave it for four or five days. Write to me there." 
 
 In his diary we find more at large his impressions 
 
18i3.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 163 
 
 of Dr. Murphy, the Catholic Bishop, who had col- 
 lected a great library which he proposed to bequeath 
 to some public purpose. His method of purchase 
 was duly noted, and some of his recollections of 
 Rome chronicled : — 
 
 " Dr. Murphy : met me, drove [with him to his] house ; some 
 middling pictures and prints. 100,000 vols, (catalogue in Feast- 
 book). 6000 this year, great in classics and illustrated books. 
 Buys second-hand ; gives 5 per cent, to dealers ; does not go to 
 auctions nor order them ; buys much in Belgium ; says that the 
 convents supplied the great libraries of France and Belgium. The 
 Bishop said — 
 
 " ' I was dining with Cardinal Gonsalvi when Canova arrived 
 with the rescued pictures and statues from Paris. All rose. Gon- 
 salvi embraced him and saluted him Marquis, with a pension of 
 5000 crowns a year. He refused. "Oh, his Holiness must not 
 be refused." " Well, I accept it on condition of its being given 
 to poor artists in Eome." ' " 
 
 He heard from the Bishop and others stories of 
 an eminent sculptor, at that time in Dublin, having 
 recently returned from Rome. John Hogan was 
 originally a carpenter, and by force of native genius 
 raised himself to be one of the greatest artists of his 
 generation in Europe. 
 
 " Hogan ; 2 [of his] chalk drawings at Macroom's ; they are in 
 a carpenter's [named Hogan] ; H. worked in Mrs. Deane's [as 
 
 a carpenter], Sir T. D 's [Sir Thomas Deane, a local architect] 
 
 mother. After nine month's vain entreaty, Sir. T. got him for 
 Dr. Murphy, for Mrs. D. Murphy was then about to fit np the 
 chapel, had the plaster done, and the bracket and canojDies and the 
 niches ready ; he got pictures of the apostles, etc., cut the likeness 
 and drapery, all boldly but loosely. He has 27 wood figures in 
 that sanctuary, a half-relief altar — Leonardo's ' Last Supper,' free, 
 clear, and noble. Carey saw the altar-piece, etc., and asked 
 for the carver. ' He is a carpenter.' ' Bring him hither.' 
 Carey took a hand and a Socrates' head to Dublin Society. They 
 could not, as he was not a pupil, but they gave him 25 guineas 
 for the head and hand, and ofi"ered £100 [to start him in an artistic 
 career] if Cork gave another (see their books). Hogan got £30U, 
 
164: MEMO IB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1S43. 
 
 gave £150 to his family, and started for Eome, \rith many letters 
 from Dr. M. ; delivered none of them, but bought a block, hired 
 lodgings, shnt himself up for six months. [A shepherd bor, 
 playing on his pipe, "was his first success ;] and then an Italian 
 bag-piper was there to play for Eome for ever. He was commis- 
 sioned to make Dead Christ for Dr. M. He did so, and -was 
 allowed by Dr. JL to exhibit and then sell it in Dublin. Clarendon 
 Street Chapel has it, but he did another in Italy. "When 'twas 
 opened, after it came from Leghorn, the head was found unfinished. 
 ' W hy ? ' 'I wished to prevent jealous people saying I got Italian 
 help. T shall do this here under their eyes.' (This fine work is 
 now under the high altar in the Carmelite Church, Clarendon 
 Street. Dublin.) Mr. J. Murphy has bust of Dr. M. and himself 
 by H. Dead Christ, large noble man in full health; drapery 
 round, fine, and true, but at side too heavy stone-lying : head on 
 right shoulder, right foot over left, elbows on ground, hands on 
 sides, wedged-up head, neck, flesh. A cemetery angel by him, 
 deep, gentle, reflective, wing exquisite." * 
 
 When he left the city for the county Cork he 
 picked up traditions which, when they were carefully 
 sifted, might furnish materials for history. Xearlj'^ 
 erery great estate in Munster is the result of some 
 great crime, and he found a notable instance : — 
 
 * One of his friends a little later sent to Davis estimates of some of the 
 leading politicians he had met in Cork, for his prirate guidance, and time has 
 made them as harmless as the " Annals of the Four Masters." 
 
 "Joseph Hayes, Alderman — singularly clever, equally intemperate, 
 thoroughly impracticable, hating everybody in general, and the Xlm-phy 
 family in particular ; cannot, I presume, do the entire work of this city 
 himself, and will not, I am convinced, work with anybody else. . . . Richard 
 Dowden — clever, business-like, practical, much in favour with the democratic 
 section, with whicli he has always steadily worked. Of his honesty I know 
 nothing, bat I have no reason to doubt it. . . . Greorge Mason — I believe 
 (and it is the general belief) this man to be an honest enthusiast. He is an 
 uitra-demt-'crat, a universal-peace and cold-water man, considers honesty and 
 poverty synonymous terras, and so forth. He has a kind of ability, but 
 can, I think, be easily made a tool of more designing men. . . . There are 
 the Murphy and Lyons parties, having their origin in trading rivalry. The 
 iDflnence of each is extensive ; but from their great number, wealth, perfect 
 union amongst themselves, and the various branches of trade, in which they 
 have nearly a monopoly, the Murphy family has a much more extended 
 influence than the Lyonses. The former, too, are backed by the great bo'ly 
 of the clergy, from their connection with the Bishop, and have all the 
 doubtful and dishonest professors of Hberal politics on their side, while the 
 only wealthy man who has steadily connected himself with Repeal is Tom 
 Lyons " (M! J. Barry, Blackrock, Cork, August 2nd). 
 
1843] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. ] G5 
 
 " Beecher's great graudfather came here possessing nothing. 
 Young O'Driscoll got him to take care of his house while he was 
 abroad with his sister. When he came back Beecher prosecuted 
 him under the Penal Laws (as a Papist) and got his property." 
 
 " O'Leary shot for outlawry for refusing horse for £5 at Mallow, 
 and Matthew of Th". on being asked for his 2 fiery chariot horses 
 drove to the Archbishop's and read his recantation." 
 
 He looked at the landscape with the eye of a 
 soldier and a poet : — 
 
 " All these Southern heads have castles and as many are penin- 
 sulas ; these castles are on the necks — thus securing some 20, or 
 30, or 50 acres for tillage, cattle, plunder, and stores. There the 
 galleys were beached, doubtless, in winter, [when they were not] 
 plundering in more gentle seas. All these O'Heas, O'Donovans, 
 O'Sullivans, Buikes, O'Malleys, O'Loghlens, 0"Driscolls, O'Maho- 
 ney's, etc., were doubtless pirates or sea-kings (see in Waterford 
 Hist.). O'D'^'^ alliances and invasions, Burke the marine, Grace 
 O'Malley's galleys in 1172, privateers in 1645. Thorpe's pamphlets 
 and coast traditions." [Thorpe's pamphlets are a valuable collec- 
 tion in the Eoyal Irish Academy.] 
 
 " In Tipperary and Kilkenny, grey eyes, black lashes, rich 
 brown hair, middle or small size, oval-faced arch girls; now dark 
 hair, flashing black eyes, brunette, sunny cheeks, bearing graceful. 
 Tela girl lovely horsewoman." 
 
 To Pigot he sent further details of his excursion, 
 and a glance at Mount Melleray, the famous Trappist 
 convent in the Waterford mountains. 
 
 " Fermoy, Aug. 26, 1843. 
 
 " I was at Cape Clear yesterday in a hooker. I have seen much 
 to admire, and some places worthy to live in in Cork, but the Cape 
 is neither sublime nor beautiful beyond the common necessities of 
 an Atlantic island. It is crawling with people, and is not savage 
 nor sweet enough for me. In fact I have met nothing of the 
 merely stern kind in Cork equal to Donegal. 
 
 " Introduce me descriptively to Hogan. I heard much of him 
 from Dr. Murphy, the Bi>hop of Cork, and I've taken a strong 
 liking to him. 
 
 " I wish you were here to take down word and music from 
 every second person I meet. I'm going to dine with a very fine 
 fellow. Father Tom Barry, and have no more time to write. 
 
1G6 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843, 
 
 Eemember me to Wallis. Is his heart so hard, or are his joints so 
 rusty, as to look idly on now ? 
 
 " I doubt if I should ever have had the energy to overcome my 
 dislike to letter-writing but that I am waiting in a dismal book- 
 less inn for a truant acquaintance. Since I left you I have tracked 
 the Nore and Suir, roused the echoes of Comushenam, drunk 
 potheen through Tipperary, and stomached science in Cork. I 
 came here from the last place in company with a retreating- 
 squadron of the British Association under the special care of the 
 oddest, brazenest-faced dog on earth, Cooke Taylor (^Whateley's 
 friend). We were humbugged into a meeting at Youghal, 
 dinnered by Sir Eichard Musgrave, and taken by him this morning 
 in his steamer to Cappoquin. From thence Signer Mayer, a 
 Florentine ; Dr. Olave, tlie Vicar-General of Bengal ; the Roman 
 Catholic Bishop elect, of Clogher ; and 1 drove to Mount Melleray, 
 three of us to visit it — the Bishop ' to make his retreat.' By the 
 way, I find that O'Connell made a retreat here some three or four 
 years ago, and the prior assured me that so severe a retreat was 
 unknown even in the abbey, and was considered a hard and noble 
 example by the monks. The institution consists of a mitred abbot, 
 the only one in Ireland, one prior, nine other priests, besides 
 religious and lay brothers — in all about seventy. The priests, 
 besides their religious duties, are as teachers in the schools, 
 superintendents of wurk, etc., and they alone speak — the rest are 
 eternally i<ilent day and night, in and out. They are engaged in 
 tilling their land, and in the trades necessary to tbeir indepen- 
 dence. They have five hundred and sixty acres on the mountain, 
 of which over two hundred are under cultivation. They have a 
 fine garden highly tilled, and a hot-house with vines, flowers, etc. 
 I send you a geranium blossom of theirs. Until lately they were 
 dependent for many things ; now they raise their food (vegetables 
 and milk and butter), grind their corn (wheat and rje), make and 
 mend their own clothes, tools, harness, build their houses, paint 
 and carve pictures and statues for their chapel, and are grooms, 
 carpenters, smiths, foresters, masons, schoolmasters, and wheel- 
 wrights. Their school is new but not bad. Fancy this abbey 
 with its tall white spire and thriving ascetic unnatural community 
 staring in heaven's face from the side of the great free lordly wild 
 mountain, and you have Mount Melleray. They all wear brown 
 gowns and hoods and brogues, save the priests, who wear white. 
 St. Bernard was their founder, and they have a fine manuscript of 
 the Psalms with music in his writing. I have got a most pressing- 
 invitation to go there for some time, and whenever I like. I have 
 Avritten you all this, knowing you would prefer it to geology." 
 
1843] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 1G7 
 
 In Tipperary, on his downward journey, he found 
 traditions of scornful and wicked oppression which 
 have borne bitter fruit in latter times. 
 
 " Father F says, ' I remember Sir John Fitz-Gerald bidding- 
 all the people in Cash el fair kneel, and they knelt, and he waved 
 his sword over them, walking through them.' 
 
 " Pierce Meagher's ancestor was at the wake of Lloyd of 
 Meldrun, who was his kindest friend. Jacob of Mewbarn came to 
 young Lloyd, afterwards, with list of Catholic conspirators. One 
 of them was Meagher, and the great meeting-night was the night 
 of Lloyd's wake. ' He was at my father's wake that night, and 
 your informer lies,' says Lloyd. ' Well, we'll leave him out and 
 hang the rest.' ' If you offer to touch one of them I'll denounce 
 you all.' " 
 
 He found among the peasantry a new version of 
 the old Gaelic ballad " Shule Aroon," which he sent to 
 Pigot and afterwards gave me for the " Ballad Poetry 
 of Ireland; " and another song, which seems to have 
 been new to him though it was still habitually sung 
 in the northern counties. Like the French chansons 
 under the First Empire, it is the whine of contented 
 slavery. 
 
 " From morning dawn I'd never grieve. 
 To toil a hedger, ditcher, 
 If that when I came home at eve, 
 I might enjoy my friend and pitcher. 
 Though Fortune ever shuns my door 
 (I know not what 'tis can bewitch her) 
 With all my heart can I be poor, 
 With my sweet girl, my friend, and pitcher." 
 
 The grandeur of the scenes he saw fed the loftiest 
 convictions of his life : — 
 
 " That chainless wave and lovely land 
 Freedom and Nationhood demand — 
 Be sure, the great God never planned, 
 For slumbering slaves, a home so grand, 
 
1C8 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1S43. 
 
 And, long, a brave aud liauglitv race 
 Honoured and sentinelled the place — 
 Sing oh ! not even their sons' disgrace 
 Can quite destroy their glory's trace." 
 
 Amons: the letters which followed him to the 
 couutry was one from John Pigot, offering very 
 sound advice, that the Eepeal Association should 
 be prorogued during O'Connell's annual holiday at 
 Darrynane, instead of being subjected to the mis- 
 guidance of Mr, John 0"Connell. But it was, 
 unfortunately, advice which would inevitably be 
 rejected at head-quarters, 
 
 " I need not say I -svas not at Tara : but John O'Hagan tells 
 me it was a transcendent sight. I hear that if ever a million of 
 people assembled it was there ; at least, if measurement of the 
 ground could support a good guess. Oh that they knew how to 
 meet also in earnest ! O'Connell's reception was royal. John 
 O'Hagan says they literally made a road for his carriage to pass 
 through the crowd, dividing on each side, he, sitting on the box, 
 seemingly as much astonished as elated at the sight of the peopile. 
 Surely it is impossible for a man to fill such a position, even for an 
 hour, without an ambition beyond the petty trammels of ' constitu- 
 tional ' hypocrisy. It appears he goes to Darrynane before the 
 close of the fine season. It is very well, but why do not some of 
 you propose an adjournment — prorogation — of the association also ? 
 The rent must fluctuate and must decrease : there is nothing new 
 to be said ; nothing new to be done in Dublin. The Congress of 
 Three Hundred does not meet till November, and the association is 
 next to iiseless, at least meeting every week, and a committee 
 could do the business as well. . . . Another thing — I wish you 
 were in town to interfere about the statue of O'Connell. Tou are 
 aware Hogan is to have it, and that he is in town. I greatly fear 
 the Eepeal Committee will embarrass him. There must be no 
 tampering dictation, as the Drummond Committee attempted. 
 Hogan must be left to himself, and, as it is to be undertaken, it 
 must be done at his own price. Surely this, of all, must be our 
 national statue of O'Connell. Let it be worthy of the country for 
 ever. Let it be fit as the statue of the President, some years 
 hence, as well as the leader of now. I spent most of Saturday 
 with Hogan. He is delighted at the idea. He seems quite to rise 
 
1848.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 169 
 
 with it. He wishes a figure at least ten feet high, and thiuks it 
 should express all the power and grandeur of concentrated Ireland. 
 He desires a figure for Ireland, no more of weeping and weakness, 
 but of pride and command. It will be a glorious one in his hands. 
 No terms have yet been proposed, nor was he speaking of them ; 
 but a friend of his told me that he was so disgusted with the 
 English Committee he had last to deal with (Drummond's), that 
 he will not now undertake anything unless all be left to himself. 
 Could you not wiite to the men of the Eepeal Committee about it ? 
 Eeilly, yoa know, was proposer : but just imagine Tom Steele 
 asking to be allowed to design a pedestal ! If you or some one 
 of sense and taste does not interfere, I predict there will be some 
 infernal blunder." * 
 
 Smith O'Brien's recent proceedings in Parliament 
 made him a man worth cultivating for public ends ; 
 and Davis asked Webb to send him an introduction, 
 Webb being a near kinsman of Mrs. O'Brien. 
 
 To Webb, Davis wrote : — 
 
 " Bantry, Sept. 8, 1843. 
 
 " My dear Egbert, 
 
 " Will you have the goodness to give, or get me, an 
 introduction to Smith O'Brien ? I shall be in Limerick in a week, 
 or less. I want, not his hospitality, but to know his character. 
 
 " I have just arrived here after a trip by Kinsale, Bandon, 
 Cloughnakilty, Baltimore, Cape Clear, Skull, etc. Kinsale, I 
 know, is dear to your genealogical soul. Every second house in it 
 is in ruins. I could make nothing of its antiquities in the short 
 time I was there. The Cistercian abbey, built, as its own inscrip- 
 tion tells, 1594, has no beauty left. The gaol, once a Desmond 
 castle, has a handsome door with well-cut vines and grapes in 
 stone between the upright pillars and the spring of the arch. 
 Ringrone Castle (De Courcy's) is on the opposite side from the 
 town ; it is a poor ruin, and was a poor tower. Charles Fort, below 
 the town, is on the site of Eincooran Castle (see the Hiherna 
 Pacata). There was a pamphlet about Kinsale printed there in 
 1795. I had not time to look at it, but the Eev. ]\Ir. MacNamara, 
 the parish priest, a most accomplished gentleman, has a copy of it. 
 
 " The Old Head is the best bit of coast in this country. I felt 
 a pirate as I stood on its green top, cut off by a castled ravine from 
 
 * Pijrot to Davis, August 23rd. 
 
170 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 Ihe rest of the promontory, so ' handy ' for supporting a garrison and 
 guarding plunder. The Old Head is far better than Cape Clear. 
 I was much pleased with Baltimore and its neighbourhood [his last 
 and, in some respects, his best ballad was ' The Sack of Balti- 
 more '], but the glory of the coast I have hitherto passed is Lough 
 Hjne; it is a lagoon surrounded by the craggiest hills. On its 
 longest bank is a pretty, small cottage and demesne ; on the west 
 corner, close to the shore, is a smaller cottage guarded and caressed 
 by trees. In the centre is a straggling rocky isle with a ruined 
 tower; on the north is a ravine overhung by one of the steepest 
 mountains I know. The mountain is a heap of chequered terraces 
 of rocks and trees, with a white cabin strung on it, like a baby at 
 the breast. The lagoon joins the sea through a narrow, twisted, 
 rocky gap, through which the stream actually leaps. Place your- 
 self on the east side of this gap, with the demesne on your right, 
 the small cottage at the opposite side of the lake, the mountain 
 and ravine mouth north of it, the crag stretching south, and the 
 isle before you. Write to me. Give my love to Bessie and the 
 rest of my friends about you." 
 
 A little later lie wrote to the same friend : — • 
 
 " I went through the whole course of the Blackwater before 
 finally leaving Cork city, and since then I have been through 
 Kinsale, Bandon, Cloughnakilty, Baltimore. I went yesterday in 
 a hooker from Baltimore to Cape Clear, and thence to Skull, and 
 so to this town. I shall be in Tralee in four or five days. Write 
 to me there. I am now listening to Line taking down an English 
 and an Irish version of a glorious song on the fight of Ceim agan 
 Feigh, a Whiteboy battle in 1822." 
 
 He went to Kerry chiefly to confer with Maurice 
 O'Connell, whom he believed more disposed to reso- 
 lute policy than the other members of his family ; and, 
 doubtless, he was, before domestic troubles drained 
 his life of all purpose. He loved and honoured Davis 
 and longed to share his noble aims, but his will was 
 a bow unbent for ever. From Tralee he wrote to 
 Pigot :— 
 
 " Arrived here to-night. I got your notes. I am content if 
 the things be done. I am vain enough to suppose that they will 
 tire executing sooner than I shall in defcigning — thus we can 
 
1843.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 171 
 
 all work in our own ways. T spent the niglit before last at 
 Darrynane." * 
 
 Here are memoraDda, probably of the same date, 
 containing bints for work and study : — 
 
 "I feel more and more that a good novel is the greatest of 
 works, the natural combination of all objects and natures, whereas 
 other things are selections from feelings or subjects, and admit of 
 a magnifying with consistency, as in Shakespeare ; but it, perhaps, 
 would be impossible to write consistent a superhuman novel from 
 the multitude of objects , . . 
 
 "Colonel Shaw's 'Portugal' contains valuable hints on working 
 drill, military economy, outpost duty, and the rationale of disci- 
 pline, etc. The Soldier's Friend — once a month, price sixpence, 
 eighteen quarto pages, of three columns each ; eight columns to 
 the state of the army, English and foreign, the advocacy of soldiers' 
 promotion, anti-flogging; and the remainder to a military treatise. 
 
 " The late owner of Castle E , to preserve it, contracted 
 
 with a mason to build a wall round it. He did so with the stones 
 of the castle itself ! 
 
 " Mr. Hunter states that, in the schools on his own and Mr. 
 Maxwell's property, the Irish blood is first in the class, as all his 
 female connections inform him." 
 
 At Limerick he met the gifted brother of Gerald 
 Griffin, author of "The Collegians," a novel which 
 has since rivalled the circulation of "■ Guy Mannering " 
 and " Tom Jones," and he gathered some facts about 
 that unhappy man of genius : — 
 
 " Griffin was sensitive, not strong. Tall and fair, and kindly 
 as a girl. He entered London plump and fresh, in six weeks was 
 starved and sallow. Avoided help. J. B. [John Banim] loved 
 and tried to help him [but he would not be helped]. J. B. sent 
 Mrs. Banim to see him. Griffin, in coming downstairs, had to 
 hold his coat or dressing-gown behind, for 'twas in rags. No lovo 
 disa2:)pointment. His passions deadened from grief." 
 
 Davis sketched the Treaty Stone — on which the 
 surrender of Limerick was signed, on conditions 
 which were infamously violated. 
 
 * Davis to Pigot, Sept. 17th. 
 
172 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 Tlie Treaty-stoue was a pillion-stoue that stood 
 out at a public-house on the Dublin 
 road, near Ginkle's quarters. [A 
 pillion-stone is a stone which 
 enables women to mount on the 
 pillion behind a horseman.] 
 
 It was in memory of this visit, doubtless, that 
 his friend Denny Lane, at a later period, bantered him 
 on the impression he had left on the beautiful city: — 
 
 " How I laughed this week at the opinion the people of Cork 
 formed of you ! ' Oh, this Mr. Davis, what a modest young man 
 he must be! He writes prose and poetry so well, and he draws up 
 reports admirably, and yet he is too retiring to speak even about 
 his own report at the association.' Oh, Thomas ! Thomas ! I felt 
 the cordial influence of a glorious laugh cheering and warming me 
 inwai'dly, for I was obliged to wait until I got to secret places to 
 guffaw, at the credulity of the people of Cork who thought Thomas 
 Davis a modest man, — the man who sets to at every art and science 
 with a perfect certainty of beating any one — who makes bold 
 attempts to surpass Grattau, Courier, and Carlyle in their respective 
 styles, — who's as ready to deliver his opinion on a theory of refrac- 
 tion or the metaphysics of Fichte, as on a sonata, a painting, or 
 a lobster salad, — and; who utters all his judgment with an ex 
 cathedra air that tempts his best friends to throw him out of the 
 window ! Talk of Tom MacNevin, why he is no more able to hold 
 a candle to Tom Davis, than Davis himself is to — draw a declaration 
 on a bill of exchange ! " * 
 
 * Before he started on the southern journey, Maddyn, who knew that he 
 had a student's carelessness of appearance, wrote to him : — 
 
 " As you may be meditating what clothes to carry with you, recollect 
 that Cork is a very dressy place, and that Sartor Ilesartus ought to be much 
 meditated by them. Therefore carry your, etc. . . . Never take off your 
 gloves while in Cork, and affect for the time a pretty strut, and you will 
 be sure to fascinate." 
 
 Davis replied: "Lane will, I know, do all he can to show me what's 
 to be seen. He and I get very intimate. He is a fine fellow, but hardly 
 selfish enough for great success, unless as an ajiostle. 
 
 " As to Cork being ' dressy,' hceret in cortice, but let it do as it likes. I'll 
 do as I like and dress as I like, and let it like me or not as it likes, and be 
 damned to it. I fear no one, and I hope I shall court no one for vanity, 
 applause, or anything but a great end. You need not fear a rebellion. The 
 rents will be refused, and the consumption of excisable articles stopped if 
 necessary. So the people think, and, I fear, intend. My projects begin 
 where they end." 
 
lS4n.J THE BECBEATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 173 
 
 His correspondence with me during this journey 
 was naturally on the political business transacted in 
 Dublin. 
 
 The young men saw great possibilities in the 
 project of a Council of Three Hundred, and 
 immediately looked out for constituencies. Davis 
 asked me to find him one, preferably in the North. 
 
 " I am slow to write directly on tlie Three Hundred," he said. 
 " If the people were more educated I would rather postpone it for 
 a year; hut they would grow lawless and sceptical, so I fear this 
 cannot be done. If O'Connell would pre-arrange, or allow others 
 to pre-arrange, a ' decided ' policy, I would look confidently to the 
 Three Hundred as bringing matters to an issue in the best way. 
 As it is, we must try and hit on some medium. We must not 
 postpone it till Parliament meets, for the Three Hundred will not 
 be a sufficiently free and brilliant thing to shine down St. Stephen's 
 and defy its coercion. Yet we must not push it too quickly, as 
 the country, so far as I can see, is not braced up to any emergency. 
 Ours is a tremendous responsibility, politically and personally, 
 and we must see where we are going." 
 
 On the 29th of August, he wrote a characteristic 
 note from Cork : — 
 
 " Enclosed is an article against hanging. I was present at 
 a capital trial in Kilkennj^ and was horrified by the witness 
 system. The government of this country is damnable. Pray do 
 not at any inconvenience omit the article from the nest Nation. 
 I am seriously anxious on the subject. If you see Haughfon 
 [James Haughton, a notable philanthropist] tell him not to neglect 
 the memorial I sent him. ... I came here this evening, and shall 
 not go to Killarney for a few da}' s. Perhaps I may send you some- 
 thing else, as I feel scribbleways. Here the people are British 
 Associationized and cold, but Lane and many others have begun 
 to work. A meeting was held hei'e last night. Lane and Barry's 
 speeches were, I am told, good. I send you two verses of Barry's. 
 
 Perhaps if he goes on you ought to do with him as with . 
 
 I do not know where he lives, but any letter enclosed to Denny 
 Lane, 4, Sydney Place, will reach him. Query, Should you get 
 him to write something humorous? I am not neglecting the Three 
 Hundred [the proposed Council of Three Hundred]. ' Grattan's 
 
174 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 Memoirs ' by his son, Hardy's ' Life of Charlemont,' Walkers 
 Magazine (of which there is a copy in the Association Library) 
 contain materials on Duugannon. Notice the Catholic Committee 
 of 1792, Wyse, Tone, Grattan, etc. Tone says 'twas one of the 
 noblest assemblies he ever saw. Copy the passage. You ought 
 to print the Census sheet I left you, at once, correcting it by the 
 large volume of the Census which you should buy and notice, or 
 send to me to notice, and by Captain Larccm's paper read here. 
 By the way, the Eepealers had the whole association here. Who 
 wrote the 'Ways and Means?' * 'Twas excellent. Write to me 
 soon. . . . You seem to have a turn for genealogy. I wish you 
 knew my eldest brother, who has the most extraordinary gifts in 
 that way I ever met. There is no family in Munster but he 
 knows the pedigree of; but, alas, he is an English-minded man." 
 
 He wrote again from Tralee on the 17th 
 September : — 
 
 " On my arrival here to-night I found a note from [John] 
 Keilly, saying that I would have no difficulty in getting chosen 
 either for the city or county of Dublin, and that O'Connell would 
 do anything for me. Will you speak to John O'Connell on the 
 subject, and write to me immediately after? 
 
 " You can fancy reasons why it would be desirable to have 
 me, and, perhaps, two or three more, including Maurice O'Connell 
 (whom I saw ere yesterday), out of the Assembly and out of the 
 power of our foes, under certain circumstances. Still, I think 
 it possible to secure both advantages (if my efforts in either way 
 can be of use). The Nation of yesterday is very good and vai'ied. 
 I did not see that of the 9th." 
 
 I repHed : — 
 
 "I have secured your return (and your £100) for county Down. 
 Mr. Doran [Rev. John Doran, P.P., Loughbrickland] undertakes 
 to manage it all without further flapping. I did not consult John 
 O'Connell, for reasons that I will tell you when you return ; but 
 if you prefer Dublin, and can secure it, you are not bound to 
 Down — it only waits your convenience. I am glad you intend 
 to do an anniversary article. Do not forget the influence of our 
 songs, and popular projects, or the foreign notice the national 
 question obtained through the Nation, or the universal adoption 
 of its tone by the provincial press. I meditate a song upon the 
 same happy occasion. 
 
 * See " Voice of the Nation," p. 35. 
 
1843.] THE RECEEATI0N8 OF A PATRIOT. 175 
 
 " Youv report was confirmed — the way the crow killed the 
 hare— by chance. John O'Connell read it to the Committee, or 
 rather in the Committee, for not a soul seemed to he listening, as 
 the great man was telling a story about Watty Cox. When the 
 story and the report were finished, I said that I wonld be happy 
 to move the adoption of the latter, if I could hope that anybody 
 knew what it was about ; whereupon O'Connell, who has the most 
 extraordinary faculty of knowing what is going on without 
 apparently attending to it, said he quite agreed with me in 
 approving of it, and would second the motion. The work was 
 then, of course, done, and I announced the general fact, assuming 
 that you would go into detail thereafter." * 
 
 This was Davis's rejoinder : — 
 
 " I have thought much of the place for which I should go into 
 the Convention, and think, after all, that Down would be a proper 
 place for me to represent. I cannot reconcile the two things — a 
 Protestant constituency and a large available population. Tell 
 them that as I am one not likely to shrink should the duty im- 
 posed on me be dangerous, so I should look for real confidence and 
 manly backing whatever turn affairs take. I shall not work for 
 praise or popularity. I want our cause to succeed, and shall in 
 pursuit of success shrink from nothing but dishonour. I am not, 
 nor shall I try to be, an orator. I would, if possible to my limited 
 powers, be a politician. If your friends think such a man fit for 
 their purposes, I shall do their work as cautiously, firmly, and 
 honestly as I can. I want them to undei stand me. In such a 
 struggle as ours mistakes in character are terrible things. We 
 can succeed if we earn success." 
 
 He had now reached the west, and wrote from 
 Galway on September 30th : — 
 
 " Many thanks for your kindness about Down ; but I am 
 unwilling to be tied to any place till I see how things run, which 
 I cannot satisfactorily do till I get to Dublin, which I fear will 
 not be till the 14th, as I have been stopped here by wet weather. 
 
 " I send you an anniversary article, written very calmly, I 
 was desirous really to say what we had done, and wanted to do 
 so without bragging. From this and its length (which I thought 
 unavoidable in a useful article on such a subject) you will probably 
 
 * September 27, 1843. 
 
176 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 dislike it. If so, to the fii'e with it, without ceremony. If I 
 think of anything else I shall scribble it. Good night." * 
 
 About the same time, he wrote : — 
 
 " MacN 's article [in the Nation] on the Whigs has given 
 
 great offence in many quarters. I think, to say truth, it said too 
 much, and looked like a cruel attack, when the Irish Whigs at 
 least were doing nobly in the House. Take some opportunity to 
 distinguish that you did not mean them (S. O'Brien and the like) 
 in attacking the Whigs, and do not notice anything in the London 
 Press on it. I speak advisedly. We have need of tolerants as 
 well as allies for a while." 
 
 Before turning to the west, he wrote to Maddyn : — 
 
 " What do the Britishers mean to do with our Three Hundred ? 
 What do the longheads think of it? What do i/om think of it? 
 I am offered various places in it. Ought I to go in? I think 'yes,' 
 from policy aiid conscience. Pray write to me at length, and very 
 soon." 
 
 Maddyn strongly dissuaded him from entering 
 the Council. 
 
 " The Government," he wrote, " will never permit it to 
 assemble. They will put it down, and challenge the country to 
 resist, and all reasonable men of the Whigs, Conservatives, and 
 Moderates will approve of the Government resolution. By the 
 1st of March, 1844, it will be seen that no man will have lost more 
 reputation than O'Cunnell, and no man gained more than Peel. 
 I would strongly advise you not to fetter yourself more than you 
 are at present. Do not shackle yourself by assuming resjDonsi- 
 bilities, while you will not be allowed to retain your own right 
 of decision. ... As to policy, what influence or permanent power 
 would you acquire by becoming a leading member in a council 
 which will never dare to do anything great ? What more could 
 you do for your ideal Ireland than you can now achieve ? It is 
 pretty plain that you must have either a pen or a pike in your 
 hand, and is the council the place for you to work with such 
 
 * He wrote to John O'Connell to make sure that he was not outrunning 
 the wishes of the leader, and had a satisfactory reply. " As to your sitting 
 in the Three Hundred, my father said he would not wish to have it without 
 you. I should think we would easily get you a seat for a northern district, 
 where men will be wanting, but not money. To have a non-Catholic would 
 also be a good thing there." 
 
1843.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. Ill 
 
 implements?* . . . All parties here are ready unsparingly to 
 employ force, if you will persist in your resolution to plunge into 
 a bloody civil wai'. The Irish think Peel is cowed because he 
 holds back and does not obey the counsels of the ultra Tories. 
 'Twas so with Pitt in 1790, and subsequently. He did not go 
 to war until he saw that it was absolutely necessary ; and the 
 moment he gave the word he regained his popularity with the 
 governing public of England. Depend upon it that O'Connell will 
 be defeated in this business. The moment that blood begins to 
 be shed O'Connell's prestige vanishes. ' Ethereal Revolution ' 
 and moral agitation will vanish. Like the Revolution of 1688, 
 O'Connell's reputation is lauded as ' glorious ' because it is largely 
 historical and completely bloodless, but his renown will be destroyed 
 when he forgets his caution, and confounds the enthusiasm of 
 applauding multitudes with the steadiness of an army, or a 
 swaggering orator with a Napoleon or Cromwell." 
 
 During this autumn Sir Charles Trevelyan, a 
 Treasury official, who had seen service in India, and, 
 as brother-in-law of Macaulay, had the ear of the 
 Government, visited Ireland to report on the state 
 of public feeling. He disbelieved in O'Connell's sin- 
 cerity, but he found the bulk of the people determined 
 Nationalists, eager to fight when called upon by their 
 leader, and the Catholic clergy he believed were in 
 complete sympathy with them. But he added : — 
 
 " There is another estate in the Repeal organization^ of the 
 existence of which the people of England are imperfectly in- 
 structed — the young men of the capital. As far as the difference 
 in the circumstances of the two countries admitted, the}' answered 
 to the ' jeunes gens de Paris.' They were pitblic-spirited enthu- 
 siastic men, possessed, as it seemed to him, of that crude informa- 
 tion on political subjects which induced several of the Whig and 
 Conservative leaders to be Radicals in their youth. They supjDlied 
 all the good writing, the history, the poetry, and the political 
 philosophy, such as it was, of the party." 
 
 His judgment of O'Connell seemed at the time 
 shamefully unjust. But the private correspondence 
 of O'Connell has since been published, and we find 
 
 * London, Sept'^mber 27ih. 
 
178 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 that, after the muster of the nation at Tara, ^"hen 
 the soul of the people was on fire for self-gOYernment, 
 he addressed a letter to Lord Campbell, the party 
 gladiator vrho held for a few weeks the office from 
 which Lord Plunket had been driven, recommending 
 measures for conciliating Ireland b}' concessions, and 
 restoring the Whigs to office. 
 
 " Why does not Lord John [Eussell] treat us to a magniloquent 
 [? magnificent] epistle declaratory of his determination to abate 
 the Church nuisance in Ireland, to augment our popular franchise, 
 to vivify our nevr Corporations, to mitigate the statute law as 
 between landlord and tenant, to strike off a few more rotten 
 boroughs in England, and to give the representatives to our great 
 counties ? In short, why does he not prove himself a high-minded, 
 high-gifted statesman, capable of leading his friends into all the 
 advantages to be derived from conciliating the Irish nation, and 
 strengthening the British Empire ? " * 
 
 A better insight into the purpose and hopes of the 
 young men than Sir Charles Trevelyan had attained, 
 will be found in a letter which Da-^ds addressed to 
 the Duke of Wellington, under the signature of a 
 Federalist, debating the pros and cons of coercion 
 and concession : — 
 
 " This is not the place to examine whether a country with two 
 thousand miles of coast can be blockaded — whether a territory of 
 thirty-two thousand square miles can be occupied by a man a mile 
 — whether the science of cities would not furnish important sup- 
 plies to the strong hands of the peasants — whether a country so 
 uneven in surface, so cut up by clay ditches, and cabins, and 
 villages, and little ravines, and inhabited by so many field- 
 workers, could be traversed by squadron or field battery, — for 
 these questions I must refer others to Keatinge, Cockburne, Eoche 
 Fermoy, the maps, and to the fore- mentioned lists of books. I beg 
 your Grace's pardon — I refer them to a higher authority on the 
 military resources of Ireland and on the doctrines of war than 
 any one living or dead — to the Duke of Wellington," 
 
 ♦ Letter to Lord Campbell, Sept. 9, 1843. 
 
1813.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 179 
 
 He goes on to tell the Duke the state of opinion 
 among the educated classes, the great factor in all 
 political changes ; but paints, it must be confessed, 
 rather his hopes than his experience. 
 
 " I heard bints of a diplomacy embracing rich and angry spirits, 
 and extending to more than one state. I beard of a system of 
 retaliation, severe, just, and systematic enougb to insure fnr Irish 
 insurgents what it won for Washington and the American rebels 
 — all the rights of war. The sober organization and tlie manage- 
 able fury of the people were dwelt upon. I heard of field works, 
 and plans for subdividing a mob in a few hours. I heard of an 
 ingenious and formidable commissariat, of American steamers, of 
 Colonial and Chartist insurrections, of friendly foes and leading 
 genius. Most of the Conservatives, and many of the "Whigs said 
 that an insurrection would occur, and would be suppressed, unless 
 France interfered, either by going to war at once, or by winking 
 at private expeditions, such as went to Greece and Spain, But the 
 rich men among them seem to dread a defeated as much as a suc- 
 cessful insurrection. The break-up of trade, the terrible shock to 
 English reputation, and the enormous expenditure which, an insur- 
 rection would occasion, were not the only grounds of their fear. 
 
 " Your lordship will readily understand the connection between 
 the land tenures here, and insurgent hopes. The landlords believe 
 that the first act of an insurgent general would be to proclaim the 
 abolition of rents, and to bid the people ' take the land, and fight 
 hard to keep it.' Such an appeal they speak of with terror. 
 They believe that the thoughtful and adventurous yeomen of 
 Leinster would adhere to a cause so advocated. They think that 
 the Presbyterians, discontented at the tenancies-at-will, to which, 
 in spite of the rules of the Ulster settlement, and of common creed 
 and common right, their tenures are limited, would rise to a man. 
 They fear that the trampled serfs of Cunnaught would learn hope 
 by vengeance, and courage by example ; and they know that the 
 chivalrous peasantry of the South would sweep all before them till 
 some great army was brought on their front, if even that would 
 check their course. 
 
 " Nor did the Leinster and Munster gentlemen seem sure that 
 the Irish soldiers or police could be got to shoot or sabre their 
 countrymen. 'Times are changed,' said a Whig friend to me, 
 with a sigh—' Times are changed — the people will never provoke 
 the soldiery when under the influence of drink ; they are a sober 
 
180 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 and a dangerous race, sir.' And then he added a story about 
 Sir Parker Carroll. You knew him, and so did I, my lord. He 
 was a fearless man, and one familiar with Ireland. Happening to 
 be in a club-room in London when some young lord declared that, 
 for his part, if he had the management of Tipperary, he'd march 
 an army in at one end of it, and hang every man till he came out 
 at the other, ' My lord,' said Carroll, ' that plan was tried in 
 a Spanish province by the I'rench, and before they were half 
 through the province the people were hanging them. The same 
 thing would happen in Tipperary to your lordship's executioners. 
 The rising of an entire people,' he added, ' rarely takes place, and 
 rarely fails.' This last was the opinion of another of your coun- 
 trymen, who seems much respected here. In 1803 Eobert Emmet 
 asked John Keogh, ' Ought I to go on if ten counties rise ? ' ' Ay,' 
 said Keogh, ' if five counties rose, and you would succeed.' . . . 
 
 " One thing I am sure your Grace will admit, that the power 
 of coercion depends as much on the sort of men who suffer as on 
 those who inflict it. If the sword of the despot strike a coward, he 
 falls or flies. But beware, my lord — beware of striking some hard 
 and devoted man with your battle-axe over such a combustible as 
 Ireland. You remember your brother's saying, ' Ireland is quiet 
 — quiet as gunpowder.' " 
 
 In anotlier letter, signed " A Protestant," lie speci- 
 fied the resources of the country for a contest more 
 deliberately :-— 
 
 " Ireland is strong enough for absolute independence. It has a 
 wider and deeper fortification (the sea) round it than any other 
 European State, and a larger population and revenue than any of 
 the twenty-one independent States on the Continent. These are 
 the raw materials of independence. 
 
 " Prussia, with about one-third more population and revenue 
 than we have, surrounded by the hungry eagles of Austria and 
 Eussia, and scattered like a fallen angel hither and thither in 
 Europe, holds her ground. She finds it possible to maintain 
 122,000 troops of the line and 408,000 militia men. 
 
 " Starting under Frederic with 2,500,000 people she has grown 
 to be the fifth power in Europe. She became so by avoiding no 
 contest — she, and her chief, never grew pale at the din of war nor 
 shrunk from the responsibility of independence. She used her 
 opportunities, nursed her strength, never sacrificed her allies to 
 passion or pedantry, struck in the :ight time, and struck home. 
 
1843.] TEE RECBEATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 181 
 
 " She is independent and powerf^^l ; Austria dreads, and Eussia 
 courts her. 
 
 "Would we want 122,000 men if Prussia needs but that num- 
 ber? Vfould not 60,000 be more effective in this entrenched and 
 hill-ramparted isle than 150,000 on the unditched flats of Prussia? 
 Cavalry is a joke in Ireland, and artillery could not act here for a 
 month in winter time. And why could we not maintain a militia 
 of 300,000 trained men when Prussia has 408,000 ? If England so 
 blunders her army that it would exhaust us to imitate her, why 
 could we not imitate Prussia, which, as M'Culloch says, had to 
 organize an army ' so that it might embrace the maximum of force 
 with the minimum of expense,' and ' solved the problem.' We 
 require less force in proportion to our resources. Why could not 
 we 'solve the problem' too? Are we dolts and dastards, and are 
 these Prussians demigods ? 
 
 " What I say of the army applies to all the other departments. 
 Prussia is able to maintain a most eflScient civil government, to 
 attend to her complicated affairs from the Ehine to the Vistula, to 
 keep ambassadors at every court, and to educate every child of her 
 fourteen millions of people, and all with her eight and a half 
 millions a year. 
 
 " Nor is the analogy limited to Prussia. 
 
 " Twenty-one states, inferior to Ireland in population, revenue, 
 and military position, pay their military and civil expenses, and 
 the interest upon their debts. 
 
 " Why could not Ireland do as well in proportion as Prussia 
 does, with her army and her church, and schools, and poor ? Why 
 could not Ireland do better than any of these twenty-one inferior 
 states? Why could it not maintain as large an army as Naples? 
 Why not support double the expenses and possess double the 
 power, as it has more than double the revenue and men of Bavaria 
 or Poitugal ? Why not have more ships than Holland, the swampy 
 den of three millions? Where has God written down our 
 inferiority ? 
 
 " 'Tis an idle and imbecile thing to allege the cost of independ- 
 ence, or the difficulty of it, as reasons against separation, or Eepeal, 
 or Federalism, or any other phase of nationality." 
 
 During Davis's tour in Munster the political work 
 of the Association, and the educational work of his 
 colleagues went on vigorously. At Mullaghmast 
 the Nationalists of Leinster assembled in immense 
 
182 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 numbers. The trades and citizens of Dublin met at 
 Donnybrook, fed on memories of what great cities 
 — Athens and Eome, Bruges and Ghent, had done 
 for Hberty ; and the population of the Metropolitan 
 County was summoned to assemble at Clontarf, a 
 memorable battle-field. But a trivial incident arrested 
 the tide of success. The vast troops of horsemen 
 who attended the monster meetings were named Ke- 
 peal Cavalry in some provincial newspapers ; and an 
 indiscreet secretary of the Clontarf meeting, in issuing 
 the programme of proceedings, assigned a place to 
 the "Repeal Cavalry." This political blunder was 
 promptly corrected by order of O'Connell; but the 
 Government, who understood perfectly well that it 
 was the folly of a subordinate,* seized on the incident 
 as a pretence for suppressing the meeting. A pro- 
 clamation was issued forbidding it to assemble, and 
 warning all loyal and peaceful persons from attending. 
 It is useless to debate in this place wdiat O'Con- 
 nell ought to have done to maintain the right of 
 public meeting, or what he might have been expected 
 to do after the specific language of the Mallow 
 defiance. What he did was to protest against the 
 illegality of the proclamation, and submit actively and 
 passively to its orders. He was the leader, alone 
 
 * " Whfn we were assembled in the drawing-room before dinner, the 
 Duke [of Wellington] entered, with the proclamation issued at Dublin 
 Castle, to repress the Repeal meeting at Clontarf on the 18th inst., which he 
 had just received from town by express. ... I could see that he was much 
 pleased with this exercise of authority, and that he thought the Government 
 had been dilatory in not adopting these strong measures at an earlier period. 
 He said — 'We must now show them we were really in earnest; they give us 
 now a fair pretext to put them down, as their late placard invites the mob 
 to assemble in military order, and their horsemen to form in troops. This 
 order probably was not written by O'Connell himself, but by some eager 
 zealot of his party, who has thus brought the affair to a crisis. Our procla- 
 mation is well drawn up, and avails itself of the unguarded opening which 
 O'Connell has given us to set him at defiance ' " (" Raikes's Diary "). 
 
1843.] THE BECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 183 
 
 commissioned to act with decisive authority, and he 
 warned the people from appearing at the appointed 
 place. By assiduous exertions of the local clergy 
 and Eepeal wardens they were kept away, and a col- 
 lision with the troops avoided. But such a termina- 
 tion of a movement so menacing and defiant was a 
 decisive victory for the Government ; they promptly 
 improved the occasion by announcing in the Evening 
 Mail their intention to arrest O'Connell and a batch 
 of his associates on a charge of conspiring to '' excite 
 ill will among her Majesty's subjects, to weaken 
 their confidence in the administration of justice, and 
 to obtain by unlawful methods a change in the con^ 
 stitution and government of the country, and for that 
 purpose to excite disaffection among her Majesty's 
 troops." 
 
 Next day, Saturday, the 14th of October, O'Con- 
 nell, his son John, T. M. Ray, Secretary of the Asso- 
 ciation ; three journalists of the national party, John 
 Gray, Charles Gavan Duffy, and Richard Barrett ; 
 and two country priests. Fathers Tyrell and Tierney, 
 were arrested, but admitted to bail to take their trial 
 for the imputed offence. 
 
 In the same number of the Nation which announced 
 the Clontarf proclamation, there was a poem from 
 Davis exhorting the sculptor to make the intended 
 statue of O'Connell a likeness in which the history 
 of his country and the epic spirit of resistance, never 
 quelled in the Irish race, might be read as in a book. 
 
 " On his broad brow let there be 
 A type of Ireland's history ; 
 Pious, generous, deep, and warm, 
 Strong and changeful as a storm ; 
 Let whole centuries of wrong 
 Upon his recollection throng — 
 
184 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 Strongbow's force, and Henry's wile, 
 Tudor's wratli, and Stuart's guile, 
 And iron Strafford's tiger jaws, 
 And brutal Brunswick's penal laws ; 
 Not forgetting Saxon faith, 
 Not forgetting Norman scath., 
 Not forgetting William's word, 
 Not forgetting Cromwell's sword. 
 Let the Union's fetter vile — 
 The shame and ruin of our isle — 
 Let the blood of 'Ninety-Eight 
 And our present blighting fate — 
 Let the poor mechanic's lot, 
 And the peasant's ruined cot, 
 Plundered wealth and glory flown, 
 Ancient honours overthrown — 
 Let trampled altar, rifled urn. 
 Knit his look to purpose stern." 
 
 But the likeness of the chief must recall Ireland's 
 victories as well as her reverses. 
 
 " Let the memory of old days 
 Shine through the statesman's anxious face — 
 Dathi's power, and Brian's fame. 
 And headlong Sarsfield's sword of flame ; 
 
 " And the spirit of Bed Hugh, 
 And the pride of 'Eighty-Two, 
 And the victories he won, 
 And the hope that leads him on ! 
 
 " Let whole armies seem to fly 
 From his threatening hand and eye ; 
 Be the strength of all the land 
 Like a falchion in his hand. 
 And be his gesture sternly grand." 
 
 Above all, it must picture the Mallow defiance, 
 when he was *' content to die but never yield." 
 
 " Fancy such a soul as his. 
 In a moment such as this, 
 Like cataract, or foaming tide, 
 Or army charging in its pride. 
 
1843.] THE EECREATI0N8 OF A PATRIOT. 185 
 
 Thus he spoke, and thus he stood, 
 ProfferiBg in our cause his blood, 
 Thus his country loves him best — • 
 To image this is your behest. 
 Chisel thus, and thus alone, 
 If to man you'd change the stone." 
 
 When the news of the proclamation reached him 
 at Galway, he saw that the supreme crisis of the 
 cause had arrived. He knew that O'Connell was 
 pledged to resist any violation of the right of public 
 meeting till the aggressor passed over his dead body, 
 and he was persuaded that the people at the slightest 
 sign would fly to his assistance. He started straight- 
 way for Castlebar to consult John Dillon on ulterior 
 measures, and, as he had papers at Bagot Street 
 which might compromise others, he sent instructions 
 to his mother to burn them. But, when the arrests 
 provoked no resistance, he hurried back to Dublin. 
 When he met his friends we found him painfully 
 discomposed by the retreat before the proclamation. 
 The gathering confidence of the people in their own 
 strength, their reliance on the promises of their 
 leader, as well as the new desire which Davis had 
 done so much to plant, that their acts might adequately 
 correspond with their words, were all dissipated. 
 After such an anti-climax it was impossible to believe 
 that a conflict with England, in which the whole 
 nation would be arrayed under the green banner, 
 would take place during the lifetime of O'Connell. 
 
 It is needless to detail how disastrously our dreams 
 were scattered, — 
 
 " How toppled down the piles of hope we reared." 
 It was a time of despondency and misery, of rage, 
 and almost of despair. Davis's first emotion was 
 expressed in mingled wrath and scorn : — 
 
186 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 " We must not fail, we must not fail, however fraud or force assail ; 
 By honour, pride, and policy, by Heaven itself! — we must be 
 free, 
 
 " We called the ends of earth to view the gallant deeds we swore 
 to do ; 
 They knew ns wronged, they knew us brave, and, all we asked, 
 they freely gave. 
 
 "We promised loud, and boasted high, 'to break our country's 
 chains, or die ; ' 
 And, should we quail, that country's narae will be the syno- 
 nym of shame. 
 
 " Earth is not deep enough to hide the coward slave who shrinks 
 aside ; 
 Hell is not hot enough to scathe the ruffian wretch who breaks 
 his faith. 
 
 " But — calm, my soul ! — we promised true her destined work our 
 land shall do ; 
 Thought, courage, patience will prevail ! we shall not fail — we 
 shall not fail ! " 
 
 Up to this time Davis's policy miglit be expressed 
 in the simplest formula. He desired that the passion 
 and purpose of the people should be raised to the 
 scale of 1782, when England would again yield to the 
 will of a united nation, or, if she would not yield, 
 that the Eepealers should do what the Volunteers 
 w^ould assuredly have done, fight for the liberty denied 
 to them. When these hopes disappeared, his first 
 thought was to quit the Kepeal Association for ever, 
 and serve Ireland in some other field. A great 
 purpose is like a great river, dammed at one point it 
 forces its way by some other towards its unchanging 
 goal. It was only a question of where he might 
 most usefully and honourably devote his life. 
 
 After repeated conferences, we resolved to accept 
 the situation, and turn it to account in preparing for 
 
1843.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 187 
 
 the future. Nothing could be done now, everything 
 might and must be done hereafter. From that time 
 the energy of the young men was employed in pro- 
 jects of education and discipline. Between the arrest 
 of O'Connell and the era of the famine and the French 
 Eevolution, the Nation swarmed with projects foster- 
 ing a lofty but not impracticable nationality. The 
 fruition of our hopes was admitted to be distant, 
 but it might be made more sure and more precious 
 by a wise use of the interval.* 
 
 The O'Connell trial can only be glanced at in a 
 memoir of Thomas Davis. It proved a signal con- 
 summation of the system of misgovernment on which 
 he made war, and rendered its hidden iniquity in- 
 telligible to Europe and America. The Catholic 
 chief of a Catholic nation was tried in a Catholic 
 city before four judges and twelve special jurors 
 among whom there was not a single Catholic. But 
 among the four Irish judges there was an English- 
 man, and among the twelve Irish jurors there was 
 another of the same race and opinions. 
 
 The trial lasted five and twenty days, and at 
 every stage was marked by the infringement of the 
 settled law or established practice governing trials 
 of this nature. At the close the Chief Justice charged 
 for a conviction with what proved to be illegal vio- 
 lence ; and a jury of partisans, as carefully selected 
 as the juries which tried the State prisoners of the 
 Stuarts, found a prompt verdict against all the tra- 
 versers of whom one had only attended a single 
 
 * One of the poets of the era illustrated in a striking image the change 
 that in good time would be sure to come. 
 
 " Our hope, like some revolving light, but turns its darker side, 
 And soon will shine our beacon light as quenchless o'er the tide " 
 
 (De Jean Frazer). 
 
188 MEMOIE OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 meeting of tlie Association and been a member barely 
 five days. 
 
 The prosecution brought a great accession of 
 funds and a large body of recruits to the Eepeal 
 party. The most notable recruit was William Smith 
 O'Brien. He was younger son of a house famous 
 in Irish annals, since more than a century before the 
 English invasion. He was a man of good estate, 
 long discipline in Parliament and public life, of active 
 intellect, but, above all, of uuiversally acknowledged 
 probity and disinterestedness. He was received with 
 enthusiasm, and immediately became by common 
 consent the second man in the movement. 
 
 Between the verdict and the sentence, O'Connell 
 was urged by Whig friends to visit England, and 
 promised a significant ovation. He might help 
 them to overturn Peel, and if this could be done 
 promptly, he would never be called up for judgment. 
 At worst his reception in England would remind 
 Peel what sort of prisoner he had to deal with. 
 But the most serious of the national party greatly 
 dreaded the experiment. O'Connell, as they knew, 
 stood between two dangers. He was strongly 
 possessed with the apprehension that Peel would 
 improve his victory by a Coercion Act, enabling 
 him to suppress the Association and forbid public 
 meetings. And he was surrounded by Whigs of 
 the ofiicial class, wooing him back to the bosom 
 of that party. Immediately after the verdict he 
 went the length of proposing in committee to dis- 
 solve the Eepeal Association ; and this disaster was 
 only averted by the young men declaring that they 
 could not follow him into a new association if the 
 existing one was sacrificed to a panic. O'Connell 
 
1813.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 189 
 
 was made to realize, almost for the first time, that a 
 new class had grown up about him, who were his 
 faithful and zealous allies, but would never be his 
 servitors or henchmen. 
 
 Davis wrote to Smith O'Brien, who was in the 
 country, warning him of the danger, but suggesting 
 that a visit to England by O'Connell was a smaller 
 peril than a series of meetings at home, which was 
 the necessary alternative. 
 
 " If O'Connell were firmer," he said, " I would say he ought 
 not to go to England ; but fancy his speeches at ten meetings here 
 with the State trial terror on him ! I fear we must keep him out 
 of that danger by an English trip till Parliament meets, and then 
 all will be well." 
 
 O'Connell went to England, and was rapturously 
 welcomed to Parliament by the Whig opposition ; 
 went to an Anti-Corn Law League meeting at Covent 
 Garden Theatre, and was the hero of the occasion; 
 was invited to public meetings in various large towns 
 in the north, and to a public dinner in London. 
 But what his English sympathizers claimed on his 
 behalf was such justice to Ireland as would supersede 
 Eepeal. The official organ of the Whig party 
 invited him to abandon an unattainable end, and 
 trust to Lord John Russell to do to Ireland the com- 
 plete justice which he meditated. O'Connell's 
 language before his English audience was not 
 reassuring ; and he alone of all men could sacrifice 
 the national cause. He could no longer induce the 
 people to retreat openly as in 1834, but he might 
 render success impossible during his lifetime. Davis 
 was deeply pained and alarmed. He wrote a letter 
 to John O'Connell, intended as usual for his father's 
 eyes, and his grief and fear pierce through its 
 courteous and moderated phrases. 
 
190 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 "61, Bagot Street, March 8, 1841. 
 
 " My dear O'Connell, 
 
 " I meant to have called on you, but, being unable to do 
 so, I must write instead. I for one recommended your father to go 
 to London on Sheil's and Pigot's repeated assurances, that he was 
 not to be asked to recede, but, on the contrary, would be urged to 
 take a peculiarly bold and Irish course, and to retUrti immediately 
 after the Debate. The reverse of all this has happened. His 
 speech on the Debate was able and dignified, though surely not 
 very strong. No Repealer, however, could complain of it. But I 
 am certain that his present course is not politic. He roused Ireland 
 by staying at home — is he not letting her spirit sink by going 
 abroad? While he was holding monster meetings, he breathed 
 the most fiery and jealous nationality. He now prizes the cheers, 
 the rights, and the feelings of the British, as much or more than the 
 Iri.sh. Repeal and Federalism all go on the doctrine of leaving 
 England to settle her internal affairs, and Ireland her own internal 
 affairs exclusively. And he expressly avowed, and publicly and 
 repeatedly preached, that we would neither depend on the aid nor 
 meddle with the business of England. He is now interfering with 
 it in all important matters, he calls Ireland and her representatives 
 to interfere, he attends Anti-Corn Law meetings, he has brought 
 in a Bill in the Commons, and seems to rely on English sympathy 
 for redress. Now, I do not complain of this (though if Mr. Shell 
 or Mr. Pigot [D. R. Pigot, afterwards Chief Baron] are parties to 
 the course I would have reason to complain of them), but I question 
 the policy of it. I see that he has not got one sympathizer more 
 than he had a year ago. These men are powerless to achieve their 
 own end. The [Anti-Corn Law] League may use your father's 
 name and oratory, and seek in exchange to keep him from prison, 
 but it will not help Repeal. I know this. Mr. Sturge is very 
 amiable, but he has little ability and less influence. 
 
 " The late and coming meetings and speeches are contradictory 
 to the whole policy of the past Repeal agitation, and equally 
 opposed to what that agitation must be if vigorously resumed* 
 They therefore shake the Irish people now, and will embarrass 
 them hereafter; for, believe me, John O'Connell, every single 
 inconsistency injures the character and weakens the power of 
 a statesman. If all this be true, the only effect of this English 
 movement will be to check and embarrass Repeal. I do not, and 
 cannot suppose that your father ever dreamt of abandoning Repeal 
 to escape a prison, yet that is implied in all the Whig articles. If 
 he had such a purpose, this partial conciliation of Leaguers and 
 
1843.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 191 
 
 demi-Chartists would not accomplish it. Peel, not Sturge, wields 
 the judgment. Nothing but a dissolution of the association would, 
 we are directly told, prevent the sentence. To dissolve the 
 association would be to abdicate his power, and ruin his country. 
 He is incapable of it ; you of whose fidelity to Ireland no one feels 
 a shadow of doubt, you, would be no party to it; 'tis not thought 
 of, and so I gladly pass from this insulting suggestion of the 
 Whigs. 
 
 " Then, why should your father embarrass his future Eepeal 
 policy by a sojourn in England, and still more by identifying us 
 with the English as if he were (still) a Precursor and souglit to 
 cement the Union, not dissolve it? Why for a momentary and 
 delusive gain, why for the ' hurrays ' and ' Never, never ' of 
 London or Birmingham which are powerless to prevent his 
 imprisonment, why cloud the future ? In six months or twelve he 
 will be obliged to throw all this overboard with much loss of time, 
 labour, and strength. Ireland is not what she was a month ago. 
 If this continues we shall have neither a Eepeal agitation nor a 
 Liberal Government, whereas a vigorous pursuit of Eepeal now 
 would retain the one and give the only chance of the other. 
 
 " I am anxious to avoid this subject in public ; I entirely rely 
 on your personal kindliness and your devotion to our country; I 
 want to see if we cannot pull more surely together ; and I am 
 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 " Thomas Davis." 
 
 The private correspondence of Davis was rarely 
 more extensive and varied than at this period. Ho 
 wrote to Maddyn in the interest of a poet whom we 
 all cherished. 
 
 " I think you were a reader of the University Magazine. If so, 
 you must have noticed the ' Anthologia Germanica,' ' Leaflets from 
 the German Oak,' 'Oriental Nights,' and other translations, and 
 apparent translations of Clarence Mangan, He has some small 
 salary in the College Library, and has to support himself and his 
 brother. His health is wretched. Charles Duffy is most anxious 
 to have the papers I have desciibed printed in London, for which 
 they are better suited than for Dublin. Now, you will greatly 
 oblige me by asking Newby if he will publish them, giving 
 Mangan £50 for the edition. If he refuse, you can say that 
 Charles Duffy will repay him half the £50 should the work be a 
 failure. Should he still declare against it, pray let me know soon 
 
192 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 what would be the best way of getting some pajnuent and publica- 
 tion for Mangan's papers. Many of the ballads are Mangan's own, 
 and are first-rate. Were they on Irish subjects he would be paid 
 for them here. They ought to succeed in London nigh as well as 
 the 'Prout Papers.'". 
 
 Maddyn doubtless did bis best, but be did not 
 succeed, and tbe greatest poet of bis generation lived 
 and died unknown to London publisbers. After a 
 little, Davis renewed tbe subject : — 
 
 " The care you took about Mangan was very kind. He, poor 
 fellow, is so nervous, that it is hard to get him to do anything 
 business-like ; but he is too good aud too able to be allowed to go 
 wrono". But I want to inflict another labour on you. Chapman 
 and Hall tell James DuSy that their arrangement with him does 
 not include political poems, so they refuse the agency of the 
 ' Spirit of the Nation.' Now I am, for half a dozen reasons, more 
 anxious about this than any other book of his, and I venture to 
 ask you, therefore, to show it to Moxon ; tell him that it will be 
 completed in eight numbers, and in London bound in a volume in 
 green silk with double titles, English and Irish indexes, etc., on 
 the 1st or 2nd of January, price 10s. Qd. Show him some of the 
 notices ; ask him, as the poem publisher, to act as London 
 publisher and agent. 
 
 "How are your spirits and strength? O'Connell and the 
 Tablet have created some bigotry here, but with God's blessing 
 we'll crush that too." 
 
 In tbe same letter be finds time, amid tbe burri- 
 cane of excitement in Ireland, to watcb over tbe 
 interest of tbe magazine. 
 
 "Your article [for the Dublin Monthly^ will be most welcome, 
 and the sooner it comes the better. Let me know whether I shall 
 send you proofs, and whether I may mention the authorship to 
 William Hudson. The management of the magazine and the 
 expense of it are on his shoulders. He is full of hope, and 
 delio-hted with the quiet sure progress nationality in knowledge, 
 art and feeling is making here. I'he new number will not be out 
 till to-morrow or Monday, or else you would have received it, and 
 the two preceding ones at the Garrick Club. The change of 
 publisher disturbed all our details, but we'll go on better for 
 
ISiS.J THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 193 
 
 the future. I have a long paper this month, on the men of the 
 Parliament of 1690. By next month, when we shall close the 
 subject for the present I think, at least as much wall have been 
 clone for the civil history of that epoch as for any other in our 
 history." 
 
 Maddyn replied : — 
 
 " London, July 3rd. 
 " I am much obliged by the trouble you have taken about the 
 magazines, which I received safely. Hudson's article disappointed 
 me on the land question very much. It is wild and rambling, 
 unlike the calm head of a contriver. The State papers [on 
 James II. 's Parliament] are most interesting and valuable. Your 
 brief summary of the events that caused 1688 is Yevy fair, hardly 
 could be more so. Wallace, McCullagh, the Westminster Ee- 
 viewers, etc., are wasting breath in debating the meannesses and 
 peccadilloes and duplicity of the Whig leaders. Is the Protestant 
 religion to be held responsible for Henry the Eighth and Co. ? or 
 the Catholic for the many guilty popes, besides the shameless 
 cardinals Dubois et hoc genus ? No more than the moral lustre of 
 ' the Eepeal ' is to be dimmed by that prominent agitator, who is 
 now a violent Eepealer, though he abused Pigot in the columns of 
 the Dublin papers, because he (Pigot) gave him (agitator) no 
 place ; or by Alderman Hayes's consistent career (he worked hard 
 for the Brunswicker, Gerard Callaghan), or Dan Callaghan's ditto. 
 What Burke said of 1688 is the best theory of it : ' la truth, it was 
 rather a revolution prevented than a revolution effected.' It secured 
 the parliamentary government of England, and that was a great 
 deal. I don't see that McCullagh has taken either a profound 
 or novel view of it, and his ostentatious parade of notes with 
 references to authorities in every one's hands is ridiculous. His 
 quoting Wallace is ridiculous. He is not the slightest authority. 
 You are aware of his superb fluke of Barnett." 
 
 lu the end, Maddyn suggested that a Hterary 
 pension should he asked for Mangan out of the taxes 
 to which we all contributed. 
 
 " I entreat that there may be no democratic or high republican 
 squeamishness shown in this matter," he wrote. " So long as we 
 are living under a monarchy, let us at least have the advantages 
 of it. And the Eepealers do not profess to be anti-monarchical — 
 neither are they, I am sure. Therefore let Mr. Mangan's friends 
 
194 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 not scruple to do for him what Leigh Hunt's friends did three or 
 four years since, when Ihey sought to interest Queen Victoria for 
 the Eadical poet. In short, this point is really of consequence, 
 and if Mangan could he well launched, bis future voyages would 
 be easier and more agreeable. . . . 
 
 "Whoever told you that Mr. Mahony [Father Prout] is not 
 addressed as 'Eevd.' said what is not the fact. He is invariably 
 styled ' Kevd.' in society, and he stands by his order manfully. 
 O'Connell or his informants probably confound him with Maxwell, 
 who was a 'Eevd.,' but who has dropped the title and added 
 ' esquire ' to his name. By the special terms of Mahony's ordina- 
 tion he need only perform ecclesiastical functions, he is not com- 
 pelled to do so; he is ordained titule patrimonii, and not titule 
 missionis.^' 
 
 The magazine on which he had spent so much 
 care and pains was staggering towards a final falL 
 In January he wrote to Maddyn : — 
 
 " Wallis has finally given up the Duhlin Magazine, for that is 
 its last baptism, and Hudson and every one else of us looks a little 
 after it. What will come of the new experiment of gossip-editing 
 remains to be seen. I have written a couple of little introductions 
 to the statutes of 1689. Banim, by the way, has not done justice 
 to that time." 
 
 The experiment answered as might have been 
 expected ; three months later he wrote to the same 
 friend: — 
 
 "61, Bagot Street, April 13, 1843. 
 " Our poor magazine is really dead at last. The expense had 
 kept increasing, and the sale diminishing, and it was necessary 
 to stop. The amphibious politics of the magazine, the high price 
 and unequal ability were enough to sink anything. The publishers 
 were careless and without influence, and the perpetual change of 
 size and price most absurd." 
 
 Other educational projects were pushed on vigor- 
 ously. Davis negotiated successfully between James 
 Duffy, the recognized publisher of the party, and 
 the author's brother, for a uniform edition of the 
 national novels of Gerald Griffin, and with Dr. R. R. 
 
1843] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 195 
 
 Madden for a new edition of his " United Irishmen." 
 One of his colleagues induced the publisher to accept 
 a manuscript novel from William Carleton, up to 
 that time a name odious to Catholic booksellers ; and 
 '' Valentine McClutchy " marked a new departure in 
 the career of a man of genius. O'Connell's " Memoir 
 of Ireland, Native and Saxon," had been originally- 
 published in America, and the European copyright 
 was presented by the author to O'Neill Daunt, on 
 whom the labour of collecting the materials had 
 chiefly fallen ; and the same colleague induced James 
 Duffy to purchase it at three hundred pounds — a large 
 price for a volume to be published at a couple of 
 shillings. A " Pictorial History of Ireland," consist- 
 ing of coloured lithographs by Henry MacManus, 
 with short biographical or historical illustrations by 
 O'Callaghan, proved unhappily a failure — the only 
 complete colla23se among the projects of the party. 
 The signs of intellectual success, which were dis- 
 cernible on all sides, have been described elsewhere 
 in language which it will be convenient to borrow : — 
 
 "Books upon the history and condition of Ireland were now- 
 published in France, Prussia, and Belgium, and portraits of the 
 conspirators were to be found in everj^ town and village between 
 the Atlantic and the Pacific, and in almost every city on the 
 continent of Europe. More than a quarter of a century later, 
 when these transactions were nearly forgotten by a nev/ genera- 
 tion in Ireland, I was startled to find for sale under one of the 
 piazzas of Turin a large lithogiaph designated ' Capi e Promotori 
 della Questione Irlandese' — being no other than the convicted 
 conspirators of 1844. 
 
 " The association, in pursuance of its new policy, offered a prize 
 for the best essay on a Constitution for Ireland, and exhorted 
 competitors to remember that 'the difficnlties of the case must not 
 be evaded, but frankly stated, and the means specified by which 
 they might be best met.' The Celtic race, though obstinate in its 
 habits, is very susceptible of discipline; no peasant is so easily 
 
196 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 transformed into a soldier; no peasant girl so speedily acquires 
 ease and intelligence by living among the cultivated classes. The 
 enthusiasm of the time which had enabled an entire nation to 
 become water-drinkers would, it was hoped, enable them to submit 
 to other discipline and other sacrifices. It was admirable to see 
 how young men of all ranks entered into this idea. Townsmen 
 took up the defence of farmers who were unable to assert them- 
 selves before a landlord armed with a merciless code; the ancient 
 seats in piety and learning were wantonly desecrated as granaries, 
 cattle-sheds, and ball-courts, or as quarries for the neighbouring 
 squire or parson ; and young persons volunteered to become their 
 guardians till the time arrived when a National Government 
 would take them in charge. This progress was obvious ; but 
 there was progress more important which could not be measured. 
 Davis possessed the rare faculty of exciting impatience of wrong 
 without awakening the deadly hatred of those who profit by it; 
 and it was only in after years men came to know how deeply the 
 new ideas penetrated among cultivated Protestants. Joseph Le 
 Fanu was tlie literary leader of tlie young Conservatives, and 
 Isaac Butt their political leader ; both were at this time engaged, 
 privately and unknown to each other, in writing historical 
 romances which would present the hereditary feuds of Catholics 
 and Protestants in a juster light to their posterity. Their books 
 were published anonymously, and not for some years after they 
 were begun ; but I can state on their authority respectively that 
 they had constantly in view in pursuing their task to gratify the 
 new sentiment which the Nation had awakened. Samuel Ferguson, 
 more essentially a man of letters and more indisputably a man of 
 genius than either, broke through the hostile silence of the Dublin 
 University Magazine, by predicting with generous exaggeration 
 that, if no untoward event interrupted their career, the time 
 would come when the national writers in Dublin would be read 
 with something of the same enthusiasm in Paris as men in Dublin 
 were reading Beranger and Lamartine. Mr. Lever, who winced 
 under contemptuous criticism in the Natioti (for the young men 
 rejected his drunken squires and riotous dragoons as types of the 
 Irish character), could not altogether resist the same sentiment ; 
 his historical stories took a tone so national that his cautious 
 Scotch publisher demanded if he was ' repealizing like the rest.' 
 Even in Ulster, the home of prejudice in latter times, they had 
 reason to know that their songs found favour, and, like Moore's, 
 were heard in unwonted places. And in the stronghold of bigotry, 
 in the office of the Evening Mail, at the feet of the astute parson 
 
1843.] THE RECBEATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 107 
 
 who directed its politics, there was growing np a lad who in a few 
 years broke away from hereditary prejudice to become the laureate 
 of Irish treason. 
 
 "History and historical poetry, which elsewhere are the food 
 of patriotism, were wholly excluded from public teaching in 
 Ireland, and it was well entitled to be regarded as a notable event 
 when professors of Trinity College and professors of Maynooth, 
 Protestant and Catholic clergymen, Conservative and National 
 barristers and journalists, were seen side by side in the Eotunilo 
 while Moore Stack recited ballads and speeches alternately from 
 the classics of Irish literature and the recent writings in the 
 Nation. A little later a similar combination took place on behalf 
 of the widow of John Banim, a writer intensely national in his 
 scope and spirit, and whose name at an earlier period would 
 certainly have frightened away Conservatives. A committee, 
 selected alternately of Eepealers and Conservatives or Whigs, was 
 organized to purchase her an annuity, but were relieved froQi the 
 duty by the frank concession of a pension by Sir Eobert Peel, 
 impressed perhaps by the unprecedented phenomenon of such a 
 combination. Society, which in Dublin was like a British camp, 
 began to open its doors to the young orators and poets, and the 
 songs of the Nation were heard in drawing-rooms where nationality 
 had never penetrated since the Union, except in the disguise of 
 Moore's ' Melodies.' Good old Tories shook their heads and pre- 
 dicted perilous consequences. There was a story of a dowager 
 who, after one of the national songs, gathered her flock and 
 carried them off in a pretended panic, crying, 'Come away, my 
 dears, before we are piked out.' " * 
 
 Before this time Dillon bad ceased to write iu 
 the Nation, except on an occasional spnrt ; MacNevin 
 took his place, and gay banter and persiflage suc- 
 ceeded to philosophical speculation and humanized 
 Benthamism. But be was not idle ; he was a con- 
 stant critic on his friends, and bis lenient and sympa- 
 thetic strictures sank deep. MacNevin declared that 
 Dillon's scraps of advice were not like beads strung 
 at random, but, when you came to think of it, each 
 took its place as part of a complete whole, like links 
 in a chain of demonstration. 
 
 * " Younti Ireland," chap, iv., bk. ii. 
 
198 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 Of the Nation of this period Davis has written, 
 "Duffy and I wrote most of the paper;" but 
 he wrote much more than I did, as the business of 
 administration fell exclusively on me. A modern 
 editor, sometimes, like the leader of an orchestra, 
 never plays a bar, but is content to direct the move- 
 ment and determine the time of his band. This was 
 not my idea of the duties of the position. I wrote 
 as much as an office permitted which involved a 
 large correspondence and a constant supervision of 
 whatever was published, that the character of the 
 journal might be guarded as scrupulously as a gentle- 
 man guards his personal honour. 
 
 While the " Spirit of the Nation " continued to 
 win praise from representative Englishmen for its 
 originality and vigour, we could find no London 
 booksellers to circulate it, other than the Catholic 
 tradesmen in back streets who dealt in Irish news- 
 papers and books of piety ; and the first batch of 
 Mangan's poems, which will live as long as Tenny- 
 son's or Browming's, were not accepted by any 
 London publisher, and only got published in Dublin 
 by a bonus of ^£50 being paid by one of his friends 
 to Curry and McGlashen, whose magazine they had 
 enriched. 
 
 The verdict against the State prisoners was not 
 followed, as we have seen, by immediate punishment, 
 the sentence being postponed, according to practice, 
 until the opening of next term. In the interval 
 eminent lawyers at the English and Irish bar pro- 
 nounced the proceedings to be illegal in essential 
 particulars, and advised an appeal to the House of 
 Lords by writ of error. O'Connell, when he returned 
 from his English expedition, found the people ex- 
 
1843.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 199 
 
 asperated by the idea of his imprisonmeut, and 
 attempted to tranquilize opinion by a device which, 
 like an accommodation bill, helped to swell his liabi- 
 lities to an impossible total. " Give me," he said, 
 " but six months of peace, and I will give you my 
 head on a block if we have not a parliament in 
 College Green." 
 
 Davis reported to his friend Pigot the state of 
 affairs in Dublin at this period. 
 
 " The newspapers will tell you the hews. Your Whig friends 
 are wrong. There is, at last, a dogged spirit in this country 
 which will tell in any way we have to use it. The only danger 
 is that the sudden news of O'Connell's imprisonment, which was 
 not expected, may cause some petty rows. But it is so late in the 
 week that, though he will probably be sentenced to-morrow, he 
 will not be in gaol before Saturday or Monday, and meantime 
 we'll have warned them and make them sullen, not rash. 
 
 " O'Brien and I are in particularly good spirits. If Wyse and 
 his Federalists would work as we're working, all might end quietly 
 in our favour in two or three yeais ; but the chances are in favour 
 of a more remote and sterner ending. I hope the former. 
 
 " 0'C[onnell] and Duffy are in good health and spirits, and 
 they are the most important [of the Repeal convicts]." 
 
 Davis esteemed Wolfe Tone to be the most saga- 
 cious Irishman born in the eighteenth century. He 
 projected a union of Catholics and Protestants in the 
 distracted country, and accomplished his design in 
 the United Irishmen. He landed in France without 
 credentials or money, and negotiated successfully 
 with Hoche and Carnot. He launched a French 
 expedition against the British power in Ireland, 
 which failed, like the Armada, only because it was 
 scattered by a hurricane. His name was familiar to 
 students, but, though he had a monument in the 
 IjEited States, there was no memorial of his ser- 
 vices in the land for which he died. A few friends 
 
200 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 subscribed funds to place a tombstone on his grave in 
 Bodenstown cemetery,* and Davis reported progress 
 to Pigot, wbo took a lively interest in the project. 
 
 " (Private). Wednesday, April 17, 1844. 
 
 " Dear Johk, 
 
 " Inclosed is a sprig of ivy from over the grave at 
 Bodenstown. Gray and I were there to-day, and the first Irish 
 monument to him will be put on his tomb on Sunday nest at half- 
 past eleven. 
 
 " The monument, you know, is a plain black marble slab, very 
 massive ; on it are to be the "words — 
 
 "'Theobald Wolfe Toxe, 
 
 Born 20th June, 1763; 
 
 Died 19th November, 1798, 
 
 FOR 
 
 IRELAND.' 
 
 I like the inscription, though "tis mine. It says enough for this, 
 and perchance enough for all time. The reason of its being put 
 down now is that Mrs. Tone wrote to say she wished it. Her 
 letter is plain and heroic ; better than ever a woman of Sparta 
 wrote. She says she had wished and had hoped to have done this 
 last office, and to have laid her bones beside his, but the infirmities 
 of seventy-six years prevent her." 
 
 "... I suppose you see J. O'Hagan often. Tell him that three 
 several persons who worship his ' Dear Land ' are displeased with 
 ' crimson red,' and that he ought to alter it. Also say that the 
 concluding line of Ingram's first verse is bad English ; it should rtm 
 ' his glass ' not ' your glass ' [in the song ' Who fears to speak of 
 'Ninety-eight?']. But, then, 'your' is a far better singing word; 
 so let him write forthwith to Ingram to shift the line, so as to 
 secure the English and smoothness. I think the two last lines, in 
 
 * The design originated witli Dr. Gray, but was probably suggested by a 
 stanza in a little poem of Davis's : — 
 
 _ " Once I lay on that sod — it lies over Wolfe Tone — 
 And thought how he perished in prison alone, 
 His friends unavenged, and his country unfreed — 
 ' Oh, bitter,' I said, ' is the patriot's mted ; 
 
 " ' For in him the heart of a woman combined 
 With a heroic life, and a governing mind — 
 A martyr for Ireland — his grave has no stone — 
 His name seldom named, and his virtues unknown.' " 
 
1843.] TEE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 201 
 
 verse one, would sing better and read better thus than as at 
 present — 
 
 " ' But you man, a true man, 
 Will fill your glass with us.' 
 
 " I have the first- proof sheet of first part of the new edition [of 
 the ' Spirit of the Nation '] on my desk. The music is very well 
 done, and the paper and letter-press are superb. Nothing like 
 them> have been attempted here before. Have you musicked 
 ' Tipperary ' yea or nay ? 
 
 " O'Connell is in spunk and spirits, and very civil these times. 
 Our parliamentary committee is working admirably. I have a 
 hundred pages of their reports laid by already. In another week 
 I'D. have another hundred. 
 
 " When Parliament rises we are to publish the ' Statistics of 
 Ireland,' with maps, etc. 
 
 " My poor sister continues dangerously ill. She is at Ennis- 
 kerry. 
 
 " Your translation of Venedy * was corrected by Anster. I 
 believe I shall go to London in the summer, but am not sure. I 
 fear you and I would idle each other cruelly there. 
 
 " My latest project is a ' Ballad History of Ireland ; ' not a con- 
 tinued metrical chronicle, but a rosary of ballads by every one 
 who could write one. I calculate that a fifth of such a work or 
 more has been done. Would it not be the most potent and im- 
 perishable of books, if well done ? Besides, it could be continually 
 improved by the insertion of new, or the re-writing of old ballads. 
 
 " Why don't you write ? Make, force, drive J. O'Hagan to 
 write. It is cruel of him not to do so. I wish he'd write on 
 Aughrim or Clontarf, or anything down to the rent [the Repeal 
 Rent, a subject no one adopted willingly], if he'd but write. 
 Ingram, too, is inexcusable. One poem now is worth twenty to be 
 brought out in five years. Have you heard W. J. Fox, the nega- 
 tive Pantheist of Finsbury ? You will see him cleverly sketched 
 in the next Nation. He is well worth hearing." 
 
 On the subject of Tone's monument Davis again 
 wrote to Pigot, that it was considered discreet to 
 postpone the project till after the sentence on O'Con- 
 nell and the other traversers. 
 
 * Herr Venedy, a German democrat who visited Ireland in this year, and 
 wrote an account of his visit. 
 
202 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1S43. 
 
 " I did not forget you or your rights. None of us have yet 
 paid our quotas. The tomb is not set up. It was taken to Bodens- 
 tovni, and all the parties were to have gone down to have lent a 
 hand in placing it over the sod where he lies; but some of the 
 ' Conspirators' ' counsel objected to its being done just then ; so it 
 was postponed and will, I think, not be done till the end of June. 
 Do not speak of any of these facts. 
 
 " My poor little sister has not mended much. She says she 
 is better. God grant it : but I doubt, and so does her medical 
 attendant. The wind is very bad for her. If J. O'Hagan is 
 writing songs, make him do so to Irish airs, for which no good 
 words are extant. 
 
 " Smith O'Brien wants, as soon as the ' Spirit of the Xation ' is 
 out, to reissue the songs and music of the ' Citizen.' After that 
 ' Spirit of the Citizen ' a re-issue of ' Bunting,' with new words, 
 would be sublime. I'm going to try an air or two, and be damned 
 to your objections against my metre ! " 
 
 " May 29, 1844. 
 
 " Parties here are just now looking f -r the healthiest gaols, for 
 they expect to be sentenced to-day. It will task our energies to 
 keep the people quiet. They did not believe O'Connell could be 
 imprisoned — he, the thirty years' king of their hearts. 
 
 " Make Prout balladize for us "Fr. M^hony, whom Pigot met 
 in London]." 
 
 On ]May 30, 1844, the traYersers were brought up 
 for judgment. They claimed to stand out till the 
 writ of error was tried by the House of Lords ; but 
 they were immediately sentenced to fine and im- 
 prisonment, and sent to Richmond Bridewell. The 
 metropolitan prisons were under the control of the 
 Dublin corporation, and by their connivance the 
 imprisonment amounted to mere detention in a 
 country-house with handsome and extensive gardens. 
 The governor and deputy-governor were authorized 
 to let theii' official residences to the prisoners. We 
 had separate suites of rooms, our own servants, a 
 common table, which was rendered luxurious by gifts 
 of venison, fish, game, and hot-house fruits, and the 
 
1843] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 203 
 
 unrestricted society of our Mends. O'Connell pro- 
 posed to write his memoirs in this retirement, and 
 the journalists worked unrestrictedly at their profes- 
 sion. John O'Connell, who liked to play at jouimal- 
 ism, set up a Piiclnnond Prison Gazette, consisting 
 chiefly of banter and pasquinades on the prisoners 
 by each other ; and we gave audience to sympathizers 
 on fixed days, and had a conference with Smith 
 O'Brien on the business of the Association twice a 
 week.* 
 
 During the weary progTess of the State trial, 
 Davis spoke to me for the first time of a long retire- 
 ment from the Nation. He would travel, he would 
 employ himself in historical or political studies, but 
 he still doubted if there was any useful or honourable 
 work for him at Concihation Hall. These designs, 
 as we shall see, were not altogether relinquished, but 
 his fidelity to O'Brien and to his more intimate asso- 
 ciates, and the necessity which a strong man feels to 
 face the danger nearest at hand kept him at his post, 
 and to do his best while he was on duty was the 
 
 * The imprisonment was borne ctieerfally, bat no doubt it was easily 
 borue. Davis sung the spirit in wliicb such an ordeal should be encountered 
 if its perils were graver : — 
 
 " 'Tis sweet to climb the mountain's crest, 
 And run, like deer-hound, down its breast ; 
 'Tis sweet to snuff the taiutless air, 
 And sweep the sea with haugiity stare : 
 And sad it is when iron bars 
 Keep watch between you and the stars ; 
 And sad to find your footstep stayed 
 By prison-wall and palisade ; 
 
 But 'twere better to be 
 
 A prisoner for ever, 
 With no destiny 
 
 To do, or to endeavour ; 
 Better li;"e to spend 
 
 A martyr or confessor. 
 Than in silence bend 
 To alien and oppressor." 
 
204 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 practice of his life. He made suggestions to the 
 counsel of the traversers, especially to Whiteside, 
 on the historical defence relied on, which proved of 
 substantial value. 
 
 A design which Davis long cherished was to write 
 a history of Ireland. It was a great want. There 
 was no history which could be put into the hands of 
 a student or an inquirer without shame, and no one 
 was so fit as he for the task. But its chief attraction 
 for him was the escape it would afford him from 
 Conciliation Hall, and his friends, who knew that he 
 would leave a fatal void in the national ranks, dis- 
 couraged the design. He was engaged in v/ork which 
 was not indeed higher, for a Prescot or Thierry is 
 one of the greatest gifts Providence could bestow 
 upon Ireland, but was far more pressing. It would 
 have been a bad economy of life to lay down his 
 habitual task, and seclude himself from the interests 
 of the hour, even for such a purpose ; yet this is 
 what he desired to do. Confident in the variety and 
 accuracy of his studies, he spoke of a few weeks or 
 months as sufficient leisure ; but not mouths but 
 years were needed to produce such a book as he 
 designed. In the middle of the State trials he 
 pressed the project on me for the second or third 
 time. 
 
 "My dear Duffy, 
 
 " I think it better for me to begin my history at once, 
 and give the next five weeks exclusively to it, and I caii work for 
 the same time in summer for you, which will transfer the teim of 
 our arrangement to the beginning of July instead of the end of 
 May. I can be much more useful to you then than now ; and, at 
 any rate, I know that, as it will convenience me, you will manage 
 without me for a while. I have been thinking wliat you had best 
 do, and here is my thought. To arrange the paper in the way I 
 have indicated in the enclosed plan. To give the second literary 
 
lSi3.] THE BECEEATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 205 
 
 page to the trials, which will prevent breaks. To get our London 
 friend [Maddyn] to write critical letters or sketches of Irishmen 
 as literary leaders. His would be the most efficient, simply to 
 keep up the literary character of the paper. To keep the P.O. 
 [Poet's Corner] good, and the leading poetry brilliant. To get 
 iVJacNevin to write gay finished special articles, and not loose 
 generalities on subjects which he has not mastered. Doheny 
 would write too ; or possibly an article from Dillon or Godkin 
 could be got as a good substitute. 
 
 " I think that, obliged as you are to be in court, it would bo 
 .most easy for you to write the State Trial articles, and that it 
 would prevent your getting idle or ennuye at court. You ought to 
 rise and breakfast at seven, and take half an hour's run before you 
 go to the court, and, in fact, resolve to lead a most fresh vigorous 
 life to sustain you agains^t Qui Tanis speeches [Qui Tam was a 
 nickname for the Attorney-General]. I'll see you at court to- 
 morrow." 
 
 He set to work making a ground plan of Ms pro- 
 posed history, estimating the space each era would 
 require, putting previous studies in order, and seeking 
 new materials wherever they were to be found.* 
 Here is a note from John O'Connell in reply to an 
 application for papers relating to the service of Irish 
 troops on the continent : — ■ 
 
 " My dear Davis, 
 
 " It was but yesterday evening I got your note, referring 
 to the matter of my 'Irish Brigade' documents. Your patriotic 
 object, of course, has my very valueless approbation ; but I had, 
 previous to hearing from you, deprived myself of control over the 
 documents you wish to see. They are in O'Callaghan's hands 
 since Monday, and have been out of mine and lying waiting for 
 him at the association during two previous days. I do not expect 
 to see him for some days — and you live near him — (I believe his 
 address is 37, Upper Merrion Street) — and I am sure he will not 
 hesitate to convenience you. I have made them entii'ely over to 
 him. 1 have been looking for an oi:)portunity of telling you that, 
 knowing you were lending Eay 'Brown's' trade-pamphlets of 
 early last century, I looked over them in his possession, and made 
 some extracts, to appear in the species of ' Repealer's Manual ' that 
 
 * See Appeiidix. 
 
206 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 I am compiliDg, and that if you had, or have, any objection to 
 their being made use of, I will destroy them at once. I have felt 
 I ought to have taken care to ask your permission ere taking my 
 extract from them. 
 
 " I have not seen my father since Monday, nor expect to see 
 him before to-morrow afternoon, so cannot yet answer your ques- 
 tions respecting Sarsfield's death- words and the T.C.D. MS. account 
 of Brian O'Neil's murder. Banim's novel, the name of which I 
 forget, upon the sieges of Derry and Limerick, has, I think, the 
 Sarsfield anecdote with its authority. O'Neill Daunt was the 
 collector of the more out-of-the-way matter in ' Ireland and the 
 Irish.' "Wishing you success in your excellent undertakings, 
 
 " I remain, my dear Davis, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " John O'Connell." * 
 
 A month later Davis recurred to his project : — 
 
 " Dear D., 
 
 " Here are some scribbles, hard and tender mixed. I saw 
 O'C. yesterday; he is very Repeal, and vigorous and polite; says 
 he would not go to Cork were't not to be a Eepeal dinner. I'll 
 give your printer a literary leader on the state of Wales and the 
 ' Haverty,' and, in fact, I'll work at the Nation till April, if you 
 don't go to gaol or do. Is not that as rude and rapparee a way of 
 talking of your liberty as I could adopt? 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 "T. D." 
 
 The remonstrance of his friends and the intract- 
 able difficulties of the case induced him to modify 
 his plan into the project of a history in eras, each 
 era treated hj a separate writer. Among his papers 
 I find a note of the latter design : — 
 
 " ' History of the Pale,'— C. G. D. 
 
 " ' The Civil Wars,' i.e. from end of Pale to Cromwell's, and the 
 Acts of his Parliament quoad Ireland, — T. D. 
 
 '"Patriot Parliament,' 1689 to 1792, and from 1792 to 1800,— 
 T. D. ; 1800 to 1844,— D. 0. M." 
 
 But three men can no more write history to the 
 
 * Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, March 8, 1843. 
 
1843.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 207 
 
 accompaniment of a State trial than one man. In 
 the end it was determined to hegin modestly, and 
 put off the larger design for calmer times. The 
 Committee of the Kepeal Association were induced 
 to offer a prize for a school history of Ireland, and 
 I find among his papers a letter discussing this pro- 
 ject :— 
 
 " I wish you would consider these two suggestions about the 
 proposed history while the notice is still unpublished. 
 
 "1. It ought to come down to the Union, and no later. If it 
 come to the present time, you will have odious and lying exaggera- 
 tions about O'Connell, and, what is worse, injustice to the other 
 men engaged in the Catholic Agitation. Depend upon it there 
 will be no avoiding this, but by stopping the history at the Union. 
 Moreover, proceedings so recent will occupy such an undue share 
 of the book as to crush out more material facts. Let the O'Connell 
 Agitation be glorified in a book published for the special purpose, 
 and written by Dr. Stephen Murphy ! 
 
 "2. Eight months is obviously too short a period to write a 
 history in. Take an average writer, and he would need three 
 months to collect his materials, three months to arrange and digest 
 them, and, if he wrote the book in three months more, it would be 
 at the rate of a hunt. This would be nine months. But, as a 
 writer is a man and not a steam-engine, j'ou would need to throw 
 in a couple of months for relaxation and his other employments. 
 He may be a farmer (John Keogh's grandson), an attorney 
 (Mitchel), a doctor (Cane), or some other man with his hands full 
 of work, and it is surely more important to have a good book than 
 to have one a few months before the seasonable time. I think you 
 ought to allow a year for a book that you intend to be permanent 
 and standard ; but if it be desirable to avoid so long a delay, fix 
 the first of March instead of the first of January, 1846. This will 
 only postpone the book two months — nothing to the Association, 
 everything to the writer plunging hopelessly through his last 
 chapters. 
 
 " I am anxiuus about this, not only on public grounds, but 
 because one of our friends [MacNeviu] proposes to try his chance ; 
 therefore don't set down my letter entirely to the credit of public 
 feeling. But I do fully believe that the delay will be as necessary 
 for every possible competitor as for him. If you think with me 
 
208 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 the changes can be easily made in committee, and will equally 
 affect Trojan and Tyrian. 
 
 " Thomas O'Hagan has seen a good deal of Grey Porter lately, 
 and he tells me that he has a pamphlet nearly ready for the press, 
 in which he takes a strong tone against the Association, and recom- 
 mends a reconsideration of the Act of Union simply with a view 
 to increase the number of Irish representatives. You ought to 
 see to this (without mentioning O'H.'s name), for a useful man 
 like Porter ought not to be let run into a foolery that will render 
 him ridiculous for evermore." * 
 
 Early in 1844 lie renewed the proposal to retire 
 temporarily from the Natimi, but was again dissuaded. 
 
 " Will you or MacNevin," he wrote to me, " deal with the 
 Debate? My mother's sister is dying in our house, and I cannot 
 bring myself to this work. 
 
 " And now I want to know could you postpone the second half 
 of my engagement with the Nation till autumn, or entirely? I 
 know this is a very unreasonable request. But I find that I must 
 either give up the notion of writing the history, or absolutely 
 stop writing for the Nation during the spring. Would not the 
 sura you agreed to give me procure a sufficient variety of other 
 writing to compensate for the absence of my harum-scarum 
 articles ? But do not decide hastily. I am in a very sobered 
 mood, and feel doubts, serious doubts, of my ability to write the 
 history at all. But I shall speak to you next week of this. 
 
 "I do not expect my poor aunt to live out the night, so I'm 
 not likely to see you for a few days." 
 
 While he still meditated writing the history im- 
 mediately, he had correspondence with Maddyn and 
 John 'Donovan, the antiquary, which is of per- 
 manent interest, though perhaps the latter permits his 
 opinion to he a little too much tainted with jealousy 
 of a rival, and quite inferior, translator from the 
 Gaelic. 
 
 'Donovan wrote to him : — 
 
 " Having heard that you are engaged on a history of the Eng- 
 lish Invasion of Ireland, I beg to say that I am anxious to show 
 
 * Duffy to Davis. 
 
lSi3.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 209 
 
 you some notes of mine on certain facts connected with this period 
 of Irish history. I do not want to force any opinions upon you, 
 hut, having spent years in comparing the different English and 
 Irish authorities, I wish you to see certain observations which I 
 have written, and which ma}'- be of some use to yon. The trans- 
 lation of the ' Annals of the Four Masters,' published by Mr. 
 Geraghty, though put into readable English by Mangan, is full 
 of errors, and you will find it very unsafe to trust it. Truth is 
 one thing and national honour another ; and, though it may be 
 but prudence to suppress certain facts at certain periods, no his- 
 torical work will live but that which has truth for its object. In 
 translating the monuments of the history or superstitions of a 
 people, we should suppress nothing, nor should we make the lan- 
 guage of the translation better than the language of the original ; 
 that is, if a story be badly told in the original, it should not be 
 well told in the translation ; if an original author thought proper 
 to introduce into his chronicle, as an historical fact, that a certain 
 ancient crozier held a conversation with a certain priest, the trans- 
 lator of that chronicle should not write, in English or in any other 
 language, that this crozier never spoke a word. Again, if an 
 original chronicler has written that, at the siege of a certain town 
 or castle, the besiegers put men, women, children, horses and fools 
 to death, his translator should not omit the loomen, and children 
 and fools ! And, again, if an original writer in an original lan- 
 guage has recorded that a certain Hugh de Lacy was killed while 
 accompanied by three of his people, his translator is actually giiilty 
 of historical forgery if he changes three of his people to one-third of 
 his nation. Small forgeries of this kind very much affect the phases 
 of historical events, and the person who indulges in them deserves 
 the opprobrious name of 'historical charlatan.' ... I see that Mr. 
 Duffy has made a slight allusion to the stiffness of my translations 
 from the Gaelic, because I do not know English. I know English 
 about six times better than I know Irish, but I have no notion of 
 becoming a forger, like MacPherson. The translations from Irish 
 by Mangan, mentioned by Mr. Duffy, are very good ; * but how 
 near are they to the literal translations furnished to Mangan by 
 Mr. Curry ? Are they the shadow of a shade ? Mr. Duffy speaks 
 as if Mangan had translated directly fiom the original ! But the 
 world is now too knowing for silly assertions of this kind. ... It 
 may be useful just now to talk of long-faded glories ; but it is my 
 opinion that we have but few national glories to boast of in our 
 history, which only proves that, though we were vigorous and 
 * " Ballad Poetry of Ireland." 
 
 P 
 
210 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1843. 
 
 partially civilized, we never liad any national wisdom. The day 
 is approaching, however, when we shall be wiser, and our past 
 history will then amuse, and perhaps also instruct us, by exhibiting 
 to our view many glorious examples of the sad results of disunion. 
 The great Dan knows this well, for, though he is but a bad his- 
 torian and worse antiquary, he has a big head. Let me conclude 
 by one remark, that it is my opinion that the Nation newspaper, 
 even though it is no child of the tribe of Dan, has done more to 
 liberalize the Irish and implant in the minds of the Anglo-Irish 
 and Iberno-English the seedlings of national union, than all the 
 histories of Ireland ever written, and that, if it continues to live 
 as long more as it has already lived, without flinching from the 
 noble principles it has hitherto maintained, its effects on the 
 national mind will not be easily removed. I wish I could boast 
 of our having had such literature in the days of Cormac Mac Art, 
 or even of Brian Boru." 
 
 As Maddyn had a book of three vokimes in hand,* 
 he could not undertake any portion of the history, 
 but he was enthusiastic in his reception of the idea. 
 
 " Depend upon it you are quite right in supposing that all 
 that humanizes any portion of mankind, must be thoroughly useful 
 to the mass. The leaven spreads, and admiration of ideal excel- 
 lence has effects profoundly useful, even for the multitude. The 
 curse of our age in Ireland is, that only the coarse agencies 
 are employed upon Irish society. The British Power governs by 
 a coarse terrorism ; the Irish Democracy seeks to vindicate itself 
 by a coarse O'Connell-born demagogism ; Irish individual ambi- 
 tion has coarse and palpable objects — it courts broad notoriety 
 instead of permanent fame, and aims at table-talk celebrity instead 
 of the glory that springs from the acclaim of posterity. Irish 
 religion is coarse — bear witness the Calvinism of the miscalled 
 Church of England prevalent in Ireland, the utilitarianism of the 
 Unitarians, and the unpoetical as well as unphilosophical dogma- 
 tism of the Catholicism. The last is proportionably the best in 
 Ireland, and most true to its own ideas. Again, oratory, more than 
 poetry or philosophy, is worshipped by the coarse student-mind of 
 Ireland. We have a people amongst whom is widely spread a 
 capacity for the ideal and romantic, but we have no peasant minds 
 like Burns, Elliott, or the hosts of artisan intellects of England. 
 But cui bono, cui bono f all this ? The remedy is not to wish that 
 
 * " Ireland and its Rulers." 
 
1843.] THE RECREATIONS OF A PATRIOT. 211 
 
 things were otherwise in Ireland, but to will that we ourselves at 
 least should be as much as possible above the faults of our time, 
 while we at the same time remain vitally true to the instinct of 
 country. Lavater says, ' Wishes run with loquacious impotence, 
 but will presses forward with laconic energy.' Ireland has been 
 eternally wishing, but never willing. Let some twenty or thirty 
 Irish minds determine to be true to their individual psychology, 
 while they will purpose to represent and illustrate the spirit of 
 their country, they would create an age of which the effects w^ould 
 remain when the Corn Exchange was a thing of mere historical 
 recollection. But enough of a futile topic." * 
 
 On a detached sheet of his diary, without date, 
 I found a significant entry, which, as I conjecture, 
 belongs to this period. He had never travelled, and 
 he longed to obtain the practical acquaintance with 
 races and institutions, and with art and political 
 geography, which travel alone supplies. It was only 
 at this period of his short public life that he could 
 have withdrawn himself from his engagements for 
 six months, and he still feared that there would be 
 a long interval of timid and wavering counsels when 
 he would be best employed in training himself for 
 the future. 
 
 " Write for Nation till Aiigi;st, then Scotland and Norway for 
 two months (£50), Hamburg, Prussia, Munich, Austria, Venice, 
 Switzerland, Paris, Turin, Italy, Spain and home ; £250 or £300 
 in all. Or go in June to Scotland, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, 
 Vienna, Trieste, Venice, Switzerland ; in all, three months : then 
 September and half October in France, half October, November, 
 and half December in Italj^, home to Christmas : in all, six months. 
 Good ! Morning, finish letters to Dillon and Duffy." 
 
 But the imprisonment opened an era and an 
 opportunity which put these dreams to flight. 
 
 * It was probably in relation to the projected history that he apphed to 
 the controller of the ordnance survey for certain information. Major Larcom, 
 who was his personal friend, replied, " I do not know that any remains of the 
 Strafford army exist, but I shall obtain more information on that point when 
 I get to work on Sir W. Petty's account of the Down survey. It was once 
 doubted whether there ever were maps with the Stratford survey, but I am 
 already tolerably sure there were, and that they existed in Petty's time." 
 
212 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 CHAPTEE YI. 
 
 THE STATESMAN. 1844, 
 
 O'CoNNELL and half a dozen selected agitators were 
 locked up in prison, and now the critical question 
 arose, Could the agitation live without the agitators ? 
 It is a strange craze of English politicians to believe 
 that discontent in Ireland depends upon the action 
 of this man or that, instead of springing perpetually 
 from the condition of the people. It is a power 
 which may be regulated and disciplined, indeed, but 
 it is no more created by human skill than one of the 
 unintermittent forces of nature. It was now about 
 to become more vigilant and formidable, more patient 
 and determined after defeat, than it had been at the 
 height of the monster meetings. 
 
 The new leader was a man of good capacity, care- 
 ful training, and large experience in public affairs. 
 His manners were a little rigid and formal, and his 
 utterance too deliberate for Celtic taste, but his 
 generous heart kept him young and fresh. He was 
 ready to compete with his juniors in labour and to 
 surpass them in sacrifice. As a scion of a great 
 historic house descended from King Brian, the 
 Alfred of Ireland, and a member of Parliament of 
 unstained probity and recognized success, he occu- 
 
1844.] TEE STATESMAN. 213 
 
 pied a unique position. He was not only the 
 greatest recruit the cause had won, but he created 
 the hope of a decisive movement among the class to 
 which he belonged. O'Connell had proclaimed him 
 his personal representative, and the mouthpiece of 
 the national cause during the imprisonment ; and 
 O'Brien devoted every faculty of his being to the 
 task imposed upon him. He loved to be surrounded 
 by men of probity and capacity, and had no jealousy 
 of their gifts. He had large belief and confidence in 
 Davis, who speedily came to bear the same relation 
 to him that Alexander Hamilton bore to Washington. 
 He formulated the policy of the official chief, supple- 
 mented his projects with kindred proposals of his 
 own, and clothed their common purpose in the 
 persuasive language of genius. O'Brien visited 
 O'Connell and the State prisoners almost daily, con- 
 sulted them on his plans that nothing might be done 
 which had not the assent of the imprisoned leader, 
 but his own character, and that of Thomas Davis, 
 were soon broadly stamped on the national movement. 
 Davis for the first time had a free field for his 
 policy, and a direct control of public affairs, and we 
 are able to judge of his gifts as a statesman. There 
 was no more thought of travel or of retirement ; no 
 more despondency : like a vigorous young tribune 
 called from the ranks of Opposition to be a Minister 
 of State, he began to act and direct like one who 
 had found his proper work, and his influence was 
 soon felt in every province of public affairs. His 
 policy was ready for the hour and for the genera- 
 tion. He had lived in solitude with the great 
 thinkers and reformers, and was accustomed to note 
 the currents and undercurrents which govern opinion 
 
214 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 and to foresee the forces which would be at work 
 to-niorrow. 
 
 The new administration of national affairs opened 
 with a characteristic incident. The Government 
 press circulated a rumour that it was intended to 
 suppress the Association and shut up Conciliation 
 Hall. O'Brien immediately declared, with an intre- 
 pidity which was universally felt to be spontaneous 
 and unaffected, that if such an attemj^t were made 
 he would request the committee to place him in 
 the chair, that he might try in his own person the 
 question whether the constitutional right of public 
 meeting could be extinguished by official authority 
 in Ireland. 
 
 A parliamentary committee, organized by^O'Brien 
 during the State trial, now completed a series of 
 reports dealing with the main branches of the 
 national question in an exact and practical manner, 
 like men who might soon be called upon to exercise 
 the unctions of a national Government. Davis 
 believed that the chief men engaged in this work 
 were more competent and resolute than the advisers 
 who surrounded Grattan in 178"2. '''The Parlia- 
 mentary Committee,'" he said, "is a deal tougher 
 than 'the Whig Club.'" Somewhat later, O'Brien 
 discovered that these political studies had excited 
 interest among a class unusually cold and sceptical, 
 the gentlemen who sit on both sides of the Speaker's 
 chair. 
 
 " I find," lie wrote to Davis, " that our reports have produced 
 in the minds of the English members an extraordinary effect, and 
 that my notion of making the Eepeal Association an introductory 
 legislature has been completely realized. Every intelligent M.P. 
 says that they are calm, able, and most useful." 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 215 
 
 Robert James Tennent, an indolent man of 
 genius, who long led the Liberal party in Belfast, 
 and might have done anything with them if his great 
 faculties had been associated with a great purpose, 
 applied to one of his friends in Dublin for a copy of 
 these State papers. 
 
 " Do 3'ou know," lie wrote, " if it would be possiljle to procure 
 a complete set (a& initio) of the Repeal Association Eeports? My 
 friend, Thomas O'Hagan, has given himself trouble for me about 
 this, but, I fear, unsuccessfully." 
 
 It was welcome news to Davis when the Congre- 
 gational minister of his native town* echoed this 
 criticism : — 
 
 " The members of the parliamentary committee," he wrote, 
 " are doing wonders. I am astonished, amazed ; I did not think 
 there were such men, such thought, such true nationality combined 
 with such indomitable jDcrseverance, in the country. We have in 
 this department of the association something like the best part of 
 our Parliament; and of this there can be no doubt, that you fairly 
 represent the country. And what is better, you are attaining 
 more strength and life and vigour, and consequently more impor- 
 tance in the eye of the nation, every day. Go forward, and may 
 God bless you ; and He will bless you, for you labour for the 
 country which you love." 
 
 His friend Webb, whose connections by birth and 
 marriage were intensely anti-national, sent hiui a 
 report of good work in which he was engaged: — 
 
 " I employ myself at present a good deal in giving my woman- 
 kind here some inkling of Irish history. They begin to take an 
 interest in it, are becoming somewhat alive to the disgrace of 
 ignorance respecting it, and seem much astonished at its revela- 
 tions. I am thus a humble and far-off gleaner in the field, whose 
 harvest your sickle has entered so deeply — Parva sed apta milii. 
 Even this, however, tends perhaps to save some of the coming 
 generation from those thick and impenetrable prejudices, which 
 have so long and so fatally been interposed between Ireland and 
 the affections of her children." 
 
 * Rev. Mr. Gibson. 
 
216 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841. 
 
 Davis's share of the work he projected was com- 
 monly to do half of it, and revise the other half. He 
 wrote to O'Brien : — 
 
 " Either you or I, or some one, should compile a short account 
 of the geography, history, and statistics of Ireland, to he printed 
 in fifty or sixty pages of a report, accompanied by a map, and 
 circulated extensively. We must do more to educate the people. 
 This is the only moral force in which I have any faith. Mere 
 agitation is either hulljing or preparation for war. I condemn 
 the former, others of the party condemn the latter. But we all 
 agree in the policy of education. . . . The members of the Fran- 
 chise Committee should apply themselves, under your guidance, to 
 the Grand Juries. I suppose we shall be able to work up some 
 account of the Customs, Excise, and Post OfQce from Stritch's and 
 Eeynolds's reports. We should get Mr. Mullen to make a report 
 of the Poor Law Commission and its working. I shall make up 
 the Education and Police as soon as the Estimates Report is out. 
 Dillon and I have agreed to prepare facts, etc., on (land) tenures 
 (Irish and foreign). Thus, I think, we are on the way of having 
 proper materials for a statistical account of Ireland both internally 
 and in relation to the British Empire." 
 
 As agencies for local action, Eepeal Eeading 
 Rooms were multiplied. There were already three 
 hundred : it was determined to increase them to 
 three thousand ; and they were directed to contest 
 every elective office in the interest of Repeal, with 
 candidates of the best character and capacity obtain- 
 able. Though the main agency relied upon was 
 education, it was not merely the education of books, 
 but still more the education of action and responsi- 
 bility. To plant opinion and create habits, is to 
 form men, but discipline in public duties alone can 
 form citizens ; and corporations, boards of guardians, 
 public schools and colleges, if occupied by men of 
 public spirit, might, he felt assured, help — 
 
 " To gather up the fragments of our State, 
 And in its cold, dismembered body breathe 
 The living soul of empire." 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 217 
 
 Davis rarely spoke in the Association, but liis 
 friends O'Brien, Dillon, MacNevin, Barry, and 
 0' Gorman were often in the tribune, and gave a 
 tone of confidence to debate, to which it had been 
 a stranger of late. Nature gave him the passions 
 and convictions which make an orator, but he 
 thought the art of oratory greatly overrated. In 
 conversation, as well as in his writings, he often 
 repeated the truth — "A great orator is of no use, 
 unless he is also a great man. Nay, the most 
 eloquent orator can never become great if he wants 
 moral power." 
 
 The Eepeal members were summoned to attend 
 
 the weekly meetings at Conciliation Hall, and the 
 
 leading Eepealers in the provinces came up in 
 
 batches for the same purpose, carrying addresses to 
 
 the State prisoners. Preparations were begun for 
 
 a general election, and candidates of honour and 
 
 capacity, fit to be the spokesmen of a nation, were 
 
 sought for. What sort of representatives the new 
 
 men wanted was not left in doubt. The existing 
 
 members had been elected before the country was 
 
 awakened on the national question, and were for the 
 
 most part despicable in character and capacity. As 
 
 missionaries of a subject nation to a dominant one, 
 
 they were like Lascars sent to convert Brahmins. 
 
 Davis, in lieu of speaking in Conciliation Hall, 
 
 wrote on the subject in the N'ation with admirable 
 
 frankness : — 
 
 "If oiTr members were a majority in the House," he said, "it 
 might not be very moral, but at least it would have some show of 
 excuse, if we sent in a flock of pledged delegates to vote Eepeal, 
 regardless of their powers or principles ; though even then we 
 might find it hard to get rid of the scoundrels after Eepeal was 
 carried, and when Ireland would need virtuous and unremitting 
 
218 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 •wisdom to make hei- prosper. . . . We want men who are not 
 spendthrifts, drunkards, swindlers, — we want honest men — men 
 whom we would trust with our private money or our family's 
 honour; and sooner than see faded aristocrats and brawling pro- 
 fligates shelter themselves from their honest debtors by a Eepeal 
 membership, we would leave Tories and Whigs undisturbed in 
 their seats, and strive to carry Repeal by other measures." * 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " We want legislators ; we do not want mere farmers, mere fops, 
 mere scamps, or mere fools. We want, in London or Dublin, 
 men trained in the whole circle of knowledge — familiar with the 
 country's agriculture, and trade, and resources. We want men 
 who have learned how to wield the present, by having studied the 
 past— men familiar with onr history and the history of other nations. 
 An Irish Representative should not only know the statistics of this 
 country better than the names of his neighbours; he should be 
 familiar with the government, tenures, and condition of other 
 countries, especially of countries in a half-provincial state. He 
 should have studied human nature and natural science. He will 
 have to deal with men's motives, not only in policy, but legislation, 
 — not only in managing a party or a committee, but in making 
 civil and criminal laws, whether here or in London, for Ireland 
 or the empire. He will have to deal with the physical resources 
 of the country, and the useful arts, and the bearing of laws on 
 production. Let constituencies look about them, and say are they 
 represented thus?" 
 
 The tone of strict and haughty discipline, designed 
 to make the people fit to use and fit to enjoy liberty, 
 was illustrated in the method of dealing with a 
 public riot at this time. One of O'Connell's jurors 
 had an establishment in Kilkenny, and a mob 
 avenged themselves on him, for his partisan verdict, 
 by wrecking his shop. The transaction was promptly 
 censured in the Association, and in the Nation Davis 
 used this emphatic language : — 
 
 *' We have heard with surprise and anger that a house in 
 Kilkenny, belonging to one of the jurors in the State trials, has 
 been wrecked. 
 
 * Nation. June 29, 1844. 
 
1844.] TEE STATESMAN. 219 
 
 " Such an outrage is an outrage against law, which we hope 
 and believe the law will sharply punish. 
 
 " It is much worse— it is a direct violation of the principles of 
 the agitation — it is a gross breach of Eepeal discipline — it is 
 a crime against Ireland. 
 
 " If a soldier, no matter from what motive, rushes from his 
 ranlf in battle, he is, very properly, sabred or shot instantly. If 
 we had the men who perpetrated this outrage before us, and a clear 
 field, we should just as unhesitatingly cut them down. 
 
 " If we are to carry Eepeal — if this is not to be another of 
 these damnable failures that have disgraced our intellect and our 
 character — there must not be one other popular crime. The Irish 
 people deserve to rot in slavish poverty if they will not keep the 
 discipline under which they enlisted." 
 
 And lie taught the rationale of this rigid discipline 
 in language of transparent plainness : — 
 
 " We are not men who bid the people to expect Eepeal in the 
 change from leaf to fruit in any year. We have never said it was 
 certain. It is not certain ; for if the people do not persevere with 
 a dogged and daily labour for knowledge and independence they 
 will be slaves for generations. It is not at hand, for the Protes- 
 tants must be in our array, or foreign war must humble our foe ; 
 Ireland must be united, or our oppressor in danger, ere we can 
 succeed by moral force ; but we ask those who require knowledge, 
 discijiline, and civic wisdom as guarantees for our fitness for 
 nationality — Has not Ireland done something to solve their doubts 
 and satisfy their demands ? " 
 
 He appealed to the minority in language they 
 had never heard before — in language, indeed, never 
 heard in Ireland since Grattan was laid under the 
 flag-stones of Westminster Abbey. 
 
 " Poor deluded Irish Protestants ! " he said, — " brave ! fierce ! 
 impotent ! You have denied the country for which a race of 
 Protestant patriots — Daniel O'Neill, Molyneux, Swift, Lucas, 
 Flood, Grattan, Tone, and Saurin — fought and spoke. You, who 
 threw off the uniform of '82, and used its muskets against liberty — 
 you, who would not listen to Stuart, became the clients of Castle- 
 reagh. You saw commerce extinguished, manufactures withered, 
 your militia abolished, your parliament abolished — your gentry. 
 
220 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [184 i. 
 
 and your genius, and your revenue swept away, — and now the vile 
 pelf, and now the haughty lordship, for which you hore all this, 
 are wrenched from you without pity, wdthout compromise. Are 
 you men and bear it ? Are you fools and cowards ? Or have your 
 hearts grown so base that interest, patriotism, and vengeance 
 plead alike in vain? — and are you content to accept the degrada- 
 tion of your country as reward enough for your subserviency 
 to England ? " 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " Where else in Europe is the peasant ragged, fed on roots, in 
 a wigwam, without education? Where else are the towns ruined, 
 trade banished, the till and workshop and the stomach of the 
 artisan empty ? Where else is there an exportation of over one- 
 third of the rents, and an absenteeism of the chief landlords ? 
 What other country pays four and a half million taxes to a foreign 
 treasury, and has its offices removed or filled with foreigners ? 
 Where else are the people told they are free and represented, yet 
 only one in two hundred of them have the franchise ? Where 
 beside do the majority support the clergy of the minority? In 
 what other country are the majority excluded from high ranks in 
 the University ? In what place, beside, do landlords and agents 
 extort such vast rents from an indigent race. Where else are 
 the tenants ever pulling, the owners ever driving, and both full of 
 anger ? And what country so fruitful and populous, so strong, so 
 well-marked and guarded by the sea, and with such an ancient 
 name was reduced to provincialism by bribery and treacherous 
 force, and is denied all national government. 
 
 " And if the answer be as it must, ' NoW' here is the like seen,' then 
 we say that union amongst Irishmen would make this country 
 comparatively a paradise." 
 
 And, like Swift, he sought to arrest the ear of 
 the Protestant democracy by associating their party 
 tunes with generous and patriotic sentiments. 
 
 " Fruitful our soil where honest men starve; 
 Empty the mart, and shipless the bay ; 
 Out of our want the Oligarchs carve ; 
 Foreigners fatten on our decay ! 
 Disunited, 
 Therefore blighted, 
 
1844.] TEE STATESMAN. 221 
 
 Ruined and rent by the Englishman's sway ; 
 
 Party and creed 
 
 For once have agreed — 
 Orange and Green will carry the day ! 
 
 Boyne's old water, 
 
 Eed with slaughter ! 
 Now is as p^^re as an infant at play ; 
 
 So, in our souls, 
 
 Its history rolls, 
 And Orange and Green will carry the day ! " 
 
 He had somewhat earlier formulated the policy 
 on which, and on which alone if arms were relin- 
 quished, O'Connell's great design might be realized. 
 He strove to keep steady and uniform a policy which 
 had a tendency to run sometimes into insincere 
 violence, sometimes into offensive bigotry. 
 
 " Conciliation of all sects, classes, and parties who oppose us, 
 or who still hesitate, is essential to moral force. For if, instead of 
 leading a man to your opinion by substantial kindness, by zealous 
 love, and by candid and wise teaching, you insult his tastes and his 
 jDrejudices, and force him either to adopt your cause or to resist it, — 
 if, instead of slow persua^sion, your weapons are bullying and 
 intolerance, then your profession of moral force is a lie, and a lie 
 which deceives no one, and your attacks will be j)romptly resisted 
 by every man of spirit." 
 
 And on another occasion : — 
 
 " If Irishmen were united, the Repeal of the Union would be 
 instantly and quietly conceded. A Parliament at whose election 
 mutual generosity would be in every heart and every act, would 
 take the management of Ireland. For oh ! we ask our direst foe 
 to say, from the bottom of his heart, would not the people of Ireland 
 melt with joy and love to their Protestant brethren if they united 
 and conquered? And surely from such a soil noble crops would 
 grow. No southern plain heavy with corn, and shining with fruit- 
 clad hamlets, ever looked so warm and happy as would the soul 
 of Ireland, bursting out with all the generosity and beauty of a 
 grateful people. . . . Fancy the aristocracy placed by just laws, or 
 by wise concession, on terms of friendship with their tenants, 
 securing to these tenants every farthing their industry entitled 
 
222 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 tliem to, living among them, promoting agriculture and education 
 by example and instruction, sharing their joys, comforting their 
 sorrows, and ready to stand at their head wlienever their country 
 called. Think well on it — suppose it to exist in your own countr}', 
 in your own barony and parish. Dwell on this sight. See the 
 life of such a landlord and of such farmers — so busy, so thoughtful, 
 so happy ! How the villages would ring with pleasure and trade, 
 and the fields laugh with contented and cheered labour. Imagine 
 the poor supporting themselves on those waste lands which the 
 home expenditure of our rents and taxes would reclaim, and the 
 workhouse turned into a hospital or a district college. Educa- 
 tion and art would prosper ; every village, like Italy, with its 
 painter of repute. Then, indeed, the men of all creeds would be 
 competent by education to judge of doctrines ; yet influenced by 
 that education, to see that God meant men to live, and love, and 
 ennoble their souls ; to be just, and to worship Him, and not to 
 consume themselves in rites or theological contention, or, if they did 
 discuss, they would do so, not as enemies, but inquirers after truth. 
 " The clergy of different creeds would bo placed on an equality, 
 and would hope to propagate their faith, not by hard names 
 or furious preaching, but by their dignity and wisdom, and by the 
 marked goodness of their flocks. Men might meet or part at 
 church or chapel door without sneer or suspicion. From the 
 christening of the child, till his neighbours, Catholic and Protestant, 
 followed his grey-haired corpse to the tomb, he might live enjoy- 
 ing much, honoured much, and fearing nothing but his own care- 
 lessness or vice." 
 
 In the midst of his serious labours, he burst con- 
 stantly into verse, as into the region where he was 
 free to speak his mind without limitation. His 
 ballads were for the most part historical or legendary, 
 and were in effect Irish history in the costume of 
 verse ; for whatever he wrote had still the same 
 aim, to raise up his people by making them better 
 men and better patriots. 
 
 It is not easy to evoke poetry out of morals or 
 metaphysics, but he knew that verse is the best 
 vehicle to pass current maxims for the people, and he 
 often employed it to teach them their higher duties : — 
 
1814] TEE STATESMAN. 223 
 
 " Then, flung alone, or hand in hand, 
 
 In mirthful hour, or spirit solemn ; 
 In lowly toil, or high, command ; 
 
 In social hall, or charging column : 
 In tempting wealth, and trj'ing woe, 
 
 In struggling with a mob's dictation; 
 In bearing back a foreign foe, 
 
 In training up a troubled nation : 
 Still hold to Truth, abound in Love, 
 
 Eefusing every base compliance — 
 Your Praise within, your Prize above. 
 
 And live and die in Self-Eeliance ! " 
 
 It sometimes served even the purpose of contro- 
 versy. O'Connell bad elevated into an axiom the 
 preposterous paradox that no poHtical amehoration in 
 any time or country was worth one drop of blood. 
 It would have been unwise to raise a controversy 
 with the leader where it could be honourably avoided, 
 and Davis contented himself with putting into 
 enduring verse the nobler and truer sentiment : — 
 
 " The tribune's tongue and poet's pen 
 May sow the seed in prostrate men ; 
 But 'tis the soldier's sword alone 
 Can reap the crop so bravely sown ! 
 No more I'll sing nor idly pine, 
 But train my soul to lead a line — 
 A soldier's life's the life for me — • 
 A soldier's death, so Ireland's free ! 
 
 " The rifle brown and sabre blight 
 Can freely speak and nobly write — 
 What prophets preached the truth so well 
 As HoFER, Brian, Bruce, and Tell ? 
 God guard the creed these heroes taught — 
 That blood-bought Freedom's cheaply bought. 
 A soldier's life's the life for me — 
 A soldier's death, so Ireland's free ! " 
 
 One of his disciples echoed this sentiment later, 
 in graver tones : — 
 
224 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 " "When on the field where freedom "bled, 
 
 I press the ashes of the brave, 
 Marvelling that man should ever dread 
 
 Tims to wipe out the name of slave ; 
 No deep-drawn sigh escapes my breast — 
 
 No woman's drops my eyes distain, 
 I weep not gallant hearts at rest — 
 
 I but deplore they died in vain." 
 
 ^ If the conciliation preaclied on the platform and 
 in the press were to prove a real force in affairs, it 
 was manifest that it must be translated into action. 
 In selecting candidates for Parliament, an excellent 
 class would be men who had been honestly converted 
 to Nationality. There was a wide distinction between 
 Whigs who had been, and might again be, dangerous 
 enemies to Nationality, and Whigs who were Fede- 
 ralists or likely to become so. These Davis regarded 
 as our natural allies, and he framed resolutions in 
 this spirit to be proposed in the Association, and, as 
 they amounted to a new departure, sent them to 
 John O'Connell for his father's consideration. 
 
 "1. — That we think it will be the imperative duty of the 
 Eepeal constituencies in future to return no one to Parliament 
 wh.0 is not an avowed and certain advocate of Domestic Legislation 
 for Ireland, and a man eminent for patriotism, virtue, and ability. 
 
 " 2. — That whereas the majority of persons holding Federalist 
 opinions are worthy and patriotic men, and are advocates of 
 Domestic Legislation for Ireland (though they superadd thereto 
 Irish, representation in an Imperial Parliament), we are of opinion 
 that pledged Federalists, if otherwise desirable, may be supported 
 by the Eepeal constituencies wisely and consistently, and if members 
 of the association, should be ; and that we strongly deprecate con- 
 tests between simple Eepealers and Federalists. 
 
 " 3. — That it is desirable to postpone all attempts to pledge the 
 Irish members to the advocacy of Domestic Government, until the 
 certain approach, of a general election, and then that such pledge 
 should be sought in the most conciliatory manner, and that its 
 refusal should not be resented in angry words, but repaired by the 
 substitution of a National candidate." 
 
^81-1.] THE STATESMAN. 225 
 
 " My dear Davis" (John O'Connell replied), 
 
 " My father has considered your resolutions and made 
 amendments which Crean [Acting Secretary of the Association] 
 will communicate to you. He has written his reasons on them. 
 We can talk the matter over here when you come. Dinner, you 
 know, every day at five sharp, and a corner of a chair, at any rate, 
 vacant for ' The Celt.' " * 
 
 One of the hardest tasks an Irish leader could 
 attempt, was to teach his countrymen to respect the 
 law in a country where the law was so often used as 
 an instrument of torture, but Davis did not shrink 
 from the attempt, for he knew that deference for 
 authority is an essential basis of good citizenship, 
 and that France had tossed in unrest for half a 
 century because she remembered too exclusively 
 the abuses of a power shamefully misused. 
 
 " It has been our fondest aim," he wrote at this time, " to 
 shelter the administration of the law from suspicion. Coarse, and 
 criminal, and crude as it is, we had rather see it observed in the 
 sincerity of a delusive confidence in its integrity, than see wronged 
 men loose themselves from its obligations, and take vengeance into 
 their own hands, or weak men bowing to it with slavish fear." 
 
 To complete the records of public duties which 
 Davis taught, it will be necessary to cite here 
 language which he employed somewhat later to 
 rebuke agrarian crime in the south, language in 
 which the sternness of an indignant judge is miti- 
 gated by the passionate tenderness of a father who 
 sees his children misled to their ruin. 
 
 " The people of Munster are in want — will murder feed them? 
 Is there some prolific virtue in the blood of a landlord that the 
 
 * For those to whom the story is unfaraiUar, I may state that after 
 a time O'Connell adopted this policy of supporting only Mationalists at elec- 
 tions, enforced it with great vehemence, and with threats and warnings to 
 individual Whigs that they must become Eepealers or retire from Parliament; 
 but finally, in 1846, suddenly abandoned it, and broke with the Young 
 Irelanders on the point of supporting Richard Shell at Dungarvan, bheil 
 being at that time an official Whig who had renounced National opinions. 
 
226 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 fields of the south will yield a richer crop where it has flowed? 
 Shame, shame, and horror ! Oh, to think that these hands, hard 
 with innocent toil, should be reddened with assassination ! Oh, 
 bitter, bitter grief, that the loving breasts of IMunster should 
 pillow heads wherein are black plots, and visions of butchery, and 
 shadows of remorse ! Oh, woe unutterable, if the men who 
 abandoned the sin of drunkenness should companion with the 
 devil of murder; and if the men who last year vowed patience, 
 order, and virtue, rashly and impiously revel in crime ! 
 
 " But what do we say ? Where are we led by our fears ? 
 Surely Munster is against these atrocities — they are the sins of 
 a few — the people are pure and sound, and all will be well with 
 Ireland. 'Tis so, 'tis so ; we pray God 'tis so ; but yet the people 
 are not without blame ! 
 
 "Won't they come and talk to us about these horrid deeds? 
 Won't they meet us (as brothers to consider disorders in the 
 family) and do something — do all to stop them ! Don't they 
 confide in us ? Oh, they know, well they know, that our hearts 
 love them better than life — well they know that to-morrow, 
 if 'twould serve, we would be ready to die by their side in battle ; 
 but we are not ready to be their accomplices in crime — we would 
 not be unsteady on the scaffold, so we honestlj' died for them, but 
 we have no share with the murderer ! " 
 
 The new policy did not long escape notice. Some 
 of the best informed of the English journals pro- 
 nounced that the agitation had become far more 
 formidable and menacing than in its boisterous days, 
 for it was now sincere and practical, and the ex- 
 tremest of the Orange journals at home declared that 
 the moderation of the leaders was a cover for the 
 worst purposes. 
 
 Taifs Magaziyie was at that time the chief organ 
 of cultured Eadicalism in Great Britain, and its 
 editor was among the first to recognize the change. 
 Two months after the imprisonment had commenced, 
 he published this remarkable estimate of the re- 
 organized movement : — 
 
 " In Ireland, agitation goes on with a quiet, self-assured 
 strength, that seems remarkably independent of extraneous excite- 
 
1841] TEE STATESMAN. 227 
 
 ment. It lived once in the breath of the Agitator — it has now a 
 life of its own. The ' Eent of the Captivity ' flows in — sometimes 
 a little faster, sometimes a little slower — on the whole, in a full, 
 deep tide, that betokens something more serious than ' enthusiasm ' 
 as its source. The chief thing we note in the more recent aspects 
 of this agitation is, that, as the Eepealers grow more powerful, 
 they grow more conciliatory and more cautious. Tliey treat their 
 non-repealing countrymen with a respect and cheerful good temper, 
 from which we Saxon agitators for Free Trade and Suffrage miglit, 
 perhaps, take a lesson ; are most tolerant of one another's diversities 
 of opinion ; dissuade over-zealous constituencies from pressing too 
 hard on their present representatives ; exhort their Orange brethren 
 to leave off ' looking at Irish things from opposite sides of the 
 Boyne; ' and pay particular attention to the registration. As their 
 power increases, so does their vigilance, their anxiety to make no 
 mistakes. The old English notion — we suspect still the prevalent 
 one — of Irish patriots and agitators, as being a herd of boastful 
 and frothy rhetoricians, is now ludicrously false. They are most 
 careful and earnest men of business. They rejoice in their stiength, 
 but it is with fear and trembling. With the exulting conscious- 
 ness of power that men must feel who hold in their hands the 
 allegiance, and sway the volition of a nation, thej^ seem to live in 
 perpetual dread of making a false move. In their own words, 
 ' There is the demon of repeated failure casting his shadow by us as 
 we move on ; ' and the}' are determined, once for all, to exorcise this 
 same demon out of their country's history. The rumours of a 
 Whig accession, to be followed by a gracious and merciful liberation 
 of the Liberator, made them quite nervous; that would be a diffi- 
 culty, indeed : yet they think they could get through it. Even 
 the decision on the wiit of error is anticipated, by these impiac- 
 ticable and hard-headed patriots, with much less of eager excite- 
 ment than one would suppose. We repeat the expression of our 
 conviction, that the state of Ireland is formidable and menacing, 
 to a degree far beyond what public opinion in Great Britain has 
 yet realized to itself. It is frivolous now to talk of Sir Robert 
 Peel's 'chief difficulty.' Ireland is coming to be an Imperial 
 difficulty — a perplexity and peril to Tory, Whig, and Eadical 
 alike. The difficulty is growing, at a rate at which it must very 
 soon outgrow the best statesmanship of our most able and honest 
 public men." 
 
 Frederick Lucas,* the Catholic publicist, who 
 
 * Editor of the Tahht, and afterwards M.P. for INhath. 
 
228 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 was a steady supporter of O'Connell's policy, and a 
 better judge than most men of political forces, held 
 language more precise : — 
 
 " Never," he said, " were both the leaders and the led more 
 deeply in earnest or more assiduous in their labours. The con- 
 test has become less noisy, and this deceives the vulgar, but it has 
 in exactly the same proportion become more real, more true, (shall 
 we say it?) more honest and more respectable. It has now become 
 a recognized fact that the struggle for Eepeal may be a long one; 
 and all parties are girding themselves up for that march through 
 the wilderness which is to pr^are them for the possession of the 
 promised land. . . . And in the mean time the years of the 
 pilgrimage will not be wasted. They will be spent in earnest, 
 anxious, painful efforts to acquire knowledge and discipline, and 
 every spiritual, moral, and intellectual quality which can ac- 
 complish and adorn freedom. . . . Instead of the pike and drum 
 with which we were distracted last summer, this year shows us 
 the reading-room, maps, books, papers — the furniture of the mind, 
 not of the barracks. Instead of battlefields and assembled myriads, 
 we are to have a more peaceful discipline — combination against 
 the excise, against spirits, tobacco, tea, coffee, and against all 
 manufactures that are not of Irish production. When to this we 
 add a very possible revival of the Arbitration Courts, we have 
 described a system of agitation which, if properly and heroically 
 worked into practice, will succeed." 
 
 But though there was a new policy and new 
 leaders, it was a change of cabinet, not of dynasty, 
 which had taken place. Business was conducted in 
 the name and with the sanction of the imprisoned 
 ehief, and his position in the confidence and affection 
 of his race was carefully maintained. Davis wrote 
 on this point with striking efi'ect in a second letter 
 to the Duke of Wellington, in the character of a 
 Federalist : — 
 
 "You have got O'Connell at last into gaol. But does your 
 Grace really believe that will stop the agitation ? Don't you know 
 that all the Eoman Catholics, Repealers or not, look upon him as 
 their 'Liberator'? Indeed, my lord, I think they underrate the 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 229 
 
 service done by Grattan, Wolfe Tone, Plunket, and your Grace, in 
 bringing about emancipation. But this, you see, is an error that 
 makes his imprisonment more unpopular. 
 
 " Then, O'Connell is a great man — has stood in the foreground 
 of Irish history for near thirty years. Much as we may sneer at 
 it, he, in some sort, represents Ireland, and every Irishman feels 
 this. The imprisonment of such a man is, after all, a national 
 insult. I doubt its being forgiven for a long time. He is im- 
 prisoned against the will of the majority of the Irish people, to 
 satisfy the policy of England. This, in some sort, lowers all 
 Irishmen, even his opponents. 
 
 " Eecollect, the populace idolize him. His person is more 
 known than that of any man alive. There's hardly a man, 
 woman, or child, from Nevvry to Tralee, but has looked on his 
 manly figure and his winning manner, and heard his wonderful 
 voice, and plausible and tender eloquence. They think more of 
 him than of their farming, or religion. They prefer him to priest, 
 or neighbour, or angel. He is their hero. They pray for him, 
 endure for him, obey him, would die for him. If you had doubled 
 the tithes, or restored the hearth and window-tax, or put an excise 
 on potatoes, you could not have so deeply and lastingly irritated 
 the people. I think better of the people for such devotion; but, 
 whether better or worse, the fact is material, and you seem to 
 have forgotten it. The repute of having carried Emancipation, 
 reduced the tithes, obtained corporations, praised and defended 
 the people, weie his. His person was equally known and prized 
 by them as his deeds; he only wanted the martyrdom or its 
 appearance to make him a saint all out in the mind of a people 
 who naturally connect suffering under the law with piety, valour, 
 and patriotism. The hereditary love of the Irish for tragedy, 
 even in their greatest aftairs, is satisfied at last in him who seemed 
 hitherto to have plucked danger from the patriot's path." 
 
 A note from O'Brien to Davis, before tlie first 
 month of imprisonment had expired, will illustrate 
 the care that was taken to avoid any difference wdth 
 O'Connell :— 
 
 " I was much concerned to find that some parts of your report 
 on Kane [Kane's 'Industrial Eesources of Ireland'] did not 
 altogether accord with the views of the prisoners. I think that 
 we are bound to show much greater deference to their wishee, 
 
230 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844:. 
 
 now that they cannot speak for themselves, than if they were 
 free." 
 
 The imprisonment at Eichmond was, as I have 
 said, a detention on parole, in a pleasant country- 
 house, \Yhere a good table, and troops of visitors on 
 appointed days, and leisure for study or business on 
 the other days made time pass without ennui. Davis 
 described to Pigot what he found at the Bridewell : — 
 
 " The prisoners have two large gardens, a sitting-room and 
 bed-room each, constant visitors, good health and good spirits. 
 The last we all have. We have played our game well and out- 
 manoeuvred the Government, and, as far as I can judge, we are an 
 ovei match for them. But 'tis ' a long cry to Loch Awe,' as the 
 Scotch say, and I'm in no hurry. I need not say I am busy at 
 everything but speech-making, which I resolutely avoid and so 
 shall continue. 
 
 "My sister is better, but still very weak, Duffy says your 
 song is high treason at least ; but I'll read it with him to-morrow 
 again.* D. is certainly better since the key turned on him, but he 
 got a cold from dining in a big tent which they set up in one of 
 the gardens. Just think of their audacity — they had a tricolour 
 flag at the head of the tent, till the governor of the gaol struck it ! 
 
 " Matters are glorious in Ulster. The Belfast Whigs coming 
 out at last. The '98 drop is in them yet, God bless them therefor! 
 What is J. O'H. at ? His is the jDen for this time. 
 
 "Don't say how well off our friends are [the Eepeal prisoners]. 
 All anxiety for them is over, so we can move on with light 
 hearts. 
 
 "Henry Grattan and Alexander McCarthy come to-morrow, 
 and we shall have a gieat day. We are organizing the rent 
 system, and metbinks 'twill be sure and ample henceforlh." 
 
 The Nation, which I continued to edit without 
 interruption at Richmond, seconded the new policy 
 con amove. The high prerogative law of the Queen's 
 Bench was repudiated or ignored. On the week the 
 
 * Pigot fell into occasional extravagancies, which it was necessary to 
 repress. Davis laughingly suggested that he had better set up a journal of 
 his own for these ecstatics, and call it PigoCs Penny Pike. 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 231 
 
 imprisonment commenced the journal was printed 
 with green ink, to express hope and confidence ; the 
 articles which had been pronounced seditions were 
 republished in a little volume entitled " The Voice 
 of the Nation," and the prosecuted verse in a new 
 and costly edition of " The Spirit of the Nation." 
 
 " You have imprisoned three newspaper proprietors," Richard 
 Sheil exclaimed in Parliament, " and the Irish Press is as bold and 
 as exciting as it was before. Eleven thousand copies of the 
 Nation newspaper circulate every week through the country, and 
 administer the strongest provocation to the most enthusiastic 
 spirit of nationality which the highest eloquence in writing can 
 supply." * 
 
 Literary projects, designed to educate and fortify 
 public opinion, were pushed on towards completion, 
 and Davis's correspondence at this time is largely 
 occupied with them. The success of the " Spirit of 
 the Nation " induced the publisher to bring out a 
 quarto edition, in monthly parts, with music, and 
 Davis took endless pains to have the Irish phrases 
 corrected and the songs adapted to national airs. 
 To Pigot he wrote : — 
 
 " Will you take some trouble for me ? 'Tis to write on one 
 side of music paper the ' Corravath Jig,' the ' Siego of Belleisle,' 
 yonr air to the ' Gilla Machree,' the ' Bovne Water,' and ' O'Con- 
 nell's March ; ' and would you try and discover some woeful old 
 air for the 'Lament of Owen Eoe,' and fit ones for the 'Girl of 
 Dunbuidhe,' and the ' Men of Tipperary ' ? ' 
 
 Eugene Curry answered inquiries about Dathi, 
 an Irish king who plundered Britain and Gaul before 
 the Christian era. 
 
 "' Dathi's body was brought to Cruachain, and was buried in 
 Relg-na-Eiogh at Cruachain, where the great part of the kings 
 
 • The Nation was then iirice siKpence, and eleven thousand of a circuhi- 
 fion which will appear small in the age of penny papers, represented £550, 
 which the peopile paid weekly for the pleasure of reading it, — sometimes 
 more than the Repeal rent. 
 
•232 MEMOIE OF THOMAS DAVIS. [18W. 
 
 of the race of Heremon were buried, where unto this day remains 
 the Cairrthe dearg (Eed rock) as a flag over his grave in his 
 Leacht (Carn) near the Eath of Cruachain, even to this time, 1666 ' 
 (Duald MacFirbis). 
 
 " The name of Dathi's buiial place is spelled, in modern times, 
 Eoilig-na-Eiogh, ' Burial-place of the Kings.' The above curious 
 notice is now printed as part of the essay or chapter on the ancient 
 pagan cemeteries of Ireland in Mr. Petrie's ' Eound Towers ; ' 
 therefore you will not anticipate him in putting it in any shape 
 before the public. You will see more on Dathi at page 21 of the 
 forthcoming volume of the Irish Archaeological Society's Transac- 
 tions, which is now in the binder's hands. Could you look in at 
 me for a moment ? " 
 
 To me he wrote at the same time : — 
 
 " I send you the poetry that appeared from October 14th to 
 December 30th, and was at all noticeable, except some of which 
 I had no copies. Fortunately I think all these ought to be 
 omitted. They are McCarthy's ' Intercepted Despatches,' ' The 
 Siege of Waterford,' my lines to Nogan, all too long ; also my lines 
 ' We must not fail,' which are rhetoric, not poetry, and I hate 
 them. I have altered some of the ' Girl of Dunbuidhe,' and re- 
 written my ' Christmas Carol.' I hope you will agree with my 
 notions on these matters. I have turned them about in my mind, 
 and am very deliberate in my liking for them." 
 
 " H. [Hudson] has written music for the ' Men of Tipperary,' 
 
 and will do so for the entire series. B wants time only, so 
 
 I suppose he will make the sketch. But don't mention his name 
 to any one at all. I feel bound to secure him in this, as it is for 
 me he is going to make the design. ... In comparing the list 
 [for the new edition] with the [old] ' Spirit of the Katiou,' I recall 
 that you were to have sj^oken to Walsh about his ' Voice of Tara,' 
 and got Williams to unite three of his war songs into one — leaving 
 his admirable Munster war song untouched, but giving it some 
 other name, such as ' Hymn of Thurles.' Walsh's poem on quiet 
 re-reading I think very well of, and there are several strong- 
 thoughts and racy lines in Williams's veises. I enclose both. . . . 
 The oftener I see our names printed under the titles of our verses, 
 the more immodest it seems. If you at all concur with me, a pen 
 stroke to each poem will cure them. Some names being fictitious 
 is another reason for the change. J. E. P. wishes to be signed 
 Fermoy, not Eoche Fermoy. He and John Hagan are w^riting 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 233 
 
 songs. . . . What will you do with Maddyn's long story ? Keep, 
 publish it, or send it back? Have you reviewed the magazines? 
 Mind, I'll not give the ' Black Cabinet ' unless you have the maga- 
 zines done in time. I am just going to write it, and shall not see 
 you, as I dine out to-day ; but shall to-morrow. I extirpated the 
 historical error of the ' Stone of Fate ' from Dathi [a ballad by 
 Davis] and now defy your criticism there anent. Can you let me 
 have the ' Invasion ' ? [a novel by Griffin.] " 
 
 "I leave with you a 'Hesiod' [Flaxman's "Illustrations"], 
 and you can send me the volume you have. I think ' The Golden 
 Age,' and ' The Carrying of Pandora by Mercury,' two of the most 
 beauteous and true compositions I ever saw, and well worth ten 
 ' Spirits of the Nation.' Glory to Flaxman, though he was Saxon." 
 
 Davis, wlio set slight value ou what is called 
 fame, used to say that, if he had his will, the songs 
 of the Nation would be remembered in after times, 
 and the authors quite forgotten, or survive only 
 in a legend attributing them to some O'Neill or 
 McCarthy, whose existence critics would naturally 
 dispute. But the age of myths ended when the 
 printing-press was set up. 
 
 In his own verses he made some corrections 
 which were excellent, but one to which I strongly 
 objected. The dramatic opening of " Owen Eoe " is 
 a striking beauty, but he proposed to efface this 
 effect, by inserting a prefatory verse describing 
 how the interlocutors in this dialogue came on the 
 stage. He appealed to two of his friends in London 
 on the point. 
 
 " I have rewritten the two first verses of ' Owen Eoe,' or rather 
 a line in veise one, and three lines in verse two. Tlie dialogue 
 before was complex and unnatural, and the rhythm nil. Now the 
 Sb-^ond verse belongs eiitirely to the messenger, who states in some 
 detiiil how Owen died, having before the ballad opens just told 
 that Owen was dead, poisoned by the English. The whole first 
 verse belongs to the lamenter. Tell me what you and John 
 O'Hagan think of this change, and tell me at once." 
 
231 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 Judgment went against him on the appeal, and 
 he submitted like a man of sense. He wrote to me : — 
 
 " I find every one, including John O'Hagan, etc., are against 
 me on the ' Owen Eoe,' so I must surrender. Will you take the 
 blame of restoration with James Duflfy ? [the cost of alterations 
 fell on the publisher]. If so, put back verse one as in the present 
 ' Spirit of the Nation,' but I plead to have verse two run thus— 
 
 ' From Derry we were marching, false Cromwell to o'ertlirow, 
 And who can doubt the tyrant's fate had he met Owen Roe ? 
 But the weapon of the Saxon met him on his way, 
 And he died, etc' 
 
 " You, I think, agree with this. Will you put my ' Aileen 
 Aroon ' into the first number, where the ' Corravath ' comes now, 
 and push that farther on ? This will oblige me. Inclosed is the 
 correct copy. I shall leave the music of the ' Corravath ' to- 
 morrow." 
 
 To O'Hagan he wrote : — 
 
 " The last number of the ' Spiiit ' will appear on the 24th of 
 December next. I wish you had something of a ballad going into 
 it. Write on the Volunteers. My 'Dungannon ' is unanimously 
 put aside, and you could not have a better subject. Your Munster 
 begins number seven, and Duify has your ' Expostulation ' to 
 suggest some changes. ... I wish you would write words to 
 some popular airs. Your ' Paddies evermore ' shows you could 
 do anything you tried in that way. Pray think of this ; 'tis well 
 worth doing." 
 
 To Maddyn he wrote : — 
 
 " One of your recent letters made me hope that you were 
 coming to reside here for a time. Should you do so, I think we 
 could, immediately after, reduce the project of a history of Ireland 
 in the eighteenth century to certainty. Could you not, on Willis's 
 return to London, come directly here? You would see how things 
 are; we could project, and discuss our projects; you would come 
 to know every one of every party worth knowing, and you would 
 draw fresh life from resting awhile on your native earth. Do 
 come within a month; the weather will then be 'settled fine;' 
 our summer excursions to the Castles of the Pale and the sites of 
 Finian glory will have begun ; I shall show you Glennamole and 
 Glenolam and Tara and the Boyne. I am anxious, too, that you 
 
184-1.] THE STATESMAN. 235 
 
 should come before the meetings of the Eoyal Irish Academy close, 
 as our evening meetings will give you endless opportunities of 
 making agreeable acquaintances." 
 
 Among the sympathizers with O'Connell in prison, 
 the Whig journals were conspicuous. If a change 
 of Government took place, they insisted that the 
 victims of a packed jury and a partizan judge should 
 be immediately released. But what some of us 
 feared most — not without reason as it proved in the 
 end — was a renewal of confidential relations between 
 O'Connell and a Liberal Glovernment. It was not 
 thirty months since he had been their submissive 
 ally in Parliament, and the chief controller of their 
 Irish patronage, and a renewal of these relations 
 must be fatal to the national cause. And he still 
 maintained, though we little knew it at the time, corre- 
 spondence with some of them, unbecoming his posi- 
 tion and professions in Ireland. The Nation aimed 
 to avert the danger of a new Whig compact, by 
 recalling the offences of the party against the country. 
 But we were unexpectedly met by private assurance, 
 that the worst of these offences had been prompted 
 or approved by O'Connell himself. Thomas O'Hagan,* 
 who had been my counsel in the State trials, and 
 whom I had the happiness of including among the 
 most valued of my private friends, was asked to 
 remonstrate with me on the subject. In July he 
 wrote to me at Richmond prison :— 
 
 " I am sorry tliat I shall be unable to get out to you to-day, but 
 I have several cases to dispose of, and 1 am considerably pressed. 
 I enclose a letter which I had from our friend Deasy. It will 
 explain itself and the views which he wishes to press, better than 
 any account I could give of it, I need not tell you my own notions, 
 
 * Afterwards Lord 0' Hasan. 
 
236 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 which you know, but we can talk of the matter when I see you, 
 as I hope to do, to-morrow. 
 
 " Affectionately yours, 
 
 " Thomas O'Hagan." 
 
 The enclosed letter addressed to O'Hagan by Mr. 
 Eickard Deasy is of historic interest. Mr. Deasy 
 was at that time a young barrister in good practice, 
 associated with the most liberal of the Whigs, the 
 men who in the end became Federalists, as he did 
 himself. Ten years later, however, when the national 
 spirit had collapsed, he was a Law Officer of the 
 Crown, and, in the end, became a Baron of the 
 Exchequer. 
 
 " During the period I have mentioned," he wrote, " some of the 
 worst acts of the Whig Government were those which the Eepeal 
 party most loudly applauded, and that Government prevented the 
 commission of some errors which the very same party tried to 
 force them into. You may remember how O'Connell himself pro- 
 posed a Coercion Bill for Ireland, which I believe the Government 
 refused to adopt, and which Sharman Crawford was ' blackguarded ' 
 for opposing. You also remember how O'Connell supported the 
 appointment of Lord Campbell [to the Irish Chancellorship], which 
 but for that support I believe would not have taken p]ace. I do 
 not know whether you are aware that the Irish popular members, 
 including O'Connell, pressed upon the Whig Government the 
 adoption of Shaw and Peel's plan for aholishing corporations in 
 Ireland, and that it is principally to the firmness of Lord John 
 Eussell that you are indebted for the existence of Eepeal Mayors, 
 etc., to sign municipal declarations for you. Of personal meanness 
 on the part of some of your most high-flown patriots I shall not 
 speak, as I believe you and I are of the same opinion respecting 
 them.* 
 
 These disclosures, so far from being an answer to 
 our fears, only increased and confirmed them. 
 
 The new policy of the Association was not too 
 welcome at head-quarters. O'Connell, like both the 
 
 * June, 1844. 
 
ISU.] THE STATESMAN. 237 
 
 Bonapartes, was determined to found a dynasty at 
 all costs ; and his second son, his destined successor, 
 was already known among his parasites as the Young 
 Liberator. That he had none of the essential gifts 
 of a tribune did not quench his ambition, and he 
 dreaded the rise of men who would be unlikely 
 to accept a lay figure as a national leader. To him 
 the best-informed writers agree in attributing troubles 
 which now began to appear. It was the practice 
 of the Association that no resolution should be pro- 
 posed which had not been previously submitted to 
 the general committee, but Daniel, the cadet of 
 the O'Connells, a young man whose share in public 
 affairs consisted in the task of reading at Concilia- 
 tion Hall a weekly bulletin from his father in 
 prison, proposed, without previous consultation with 
 the committee, a vote of thanks to the most dis- 
 creditable and untrustworthy of the Irish members, 
 for a speech in which he had assailed, in violent 
 language, the most influential of the Irish Federalists. 
 Davis was deeply moved, less by the dangerous 
 breach of discipline than by a deliberate reversal 
 of the policy of the Association regarding the Federa- 
 lists taken with the assent of O'Connell. He wrote 
 to O'Brien, who was in the country at the moment : — 
 
 " When you write to Eichmoncl notice the fact that Mr. 
 O'Conrtell's son moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Dillon Browne 
 without the consent of the committee, and did so because of Mr. 
 Browne's opposition to the Charities Bill, which in its present 
 form a majority of the committee approved. What is worse, he 
 did so after Mr. Browne had made a speech adverse to our whole 
 policy, attacking the Federalists, calling on the people to turn 
 them out, and this because they did not aid his opposition to 
 a U8eful measure. I have made up my mind if such conduct be 
 repeated to withdraw silently from the Association. . . There are 
 
238 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [184i. 
 
 higher things than politics, and 1 never will sacrifice my self- 
 respect to them." 
 
 The Pilot, which was the organ of the O'Connell 
 family for any action or advice which it might 
 be convenient to disavow, followed up the move 
 in the Association by a direct attack on the policy 
 which was giving it dignity and power. I find 
 among Davis's papers a note of this date : — 
 
 " There was a disgusting article in the Pilot last night ; one 
 which, I think, Barrett would never have dared to write without 
 the knowledge of his masters. It must be dealt with one way 
 or the other ; and I wish you would come out as early as you can 
 in the morning to talk over it. I think it desirable to have 
 O'Connell discountenance, or countenance it (whichever he chooses), 
 that we may deal with it accordingly. The gist of it is an attempt 
 to stop the Eepeal Eeading-rooms." * 
 
 Before these troubles became dangerous they 
 were forgotten in the tumult of unsuspected events. 
 It is held as an axiom in Ireland that no concession 
 was ever won except when England was in some 
 imminent difficulty, and it was naturally regarded 
 as good news that troubles with France suddenly 
 broke out in two hemispheres. King Louis Philippe 
 had a quarrel with Morocco, and threatened to bom- 
 bard the capital if his demands were not satisfied ; 
 England interposed in defence of the Dey, whose 
 territory supplied Gibraltar with necessary provisions ; 
 and one of the king's sons rejoined by the publica- 
 tion of a pamphlet insisting that the navy of France 
 was now a match for the navy of England, aud not 
 indisposed to try issue with it on the earliest oppor- 
 tunity. The other trouble arose in the South 
 Pacific. Pritchard, the English consul at Tahiti, 
 
 * Duffy to Davis, Eichmond Prison. 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 239 
 
 attempted to influence the Queen after she had 
 placed her territory under the protection of France, 
 and was rudely repulsed by a French ofiicial. In 
 the language of Sir Eobert Peel, he was subject 
 to "a gross outrage accompanied by a gross in- 
 dignity." Here were good grounds of quarrel, and 
 it w^as admitted on both sides of the channel that, 
 before fighting France, Peel must conciliate Ireland, 
 and, as a first step, set free the prisoners at Eicli- 
 mond. O'Connell and Lord Palmerston were equally 
 of this opinion ;* which was naturally shared by 
 multitudes of enthusiastic people, who already saw 
 the door of Eichmond opened. The Queen, it was 
 rumoured, would be sent over to perform the task 
 graciously. 
 
 The deliverance could come in no way more satis- 
 factory to Davis, who desired that the country should 
 have relations with France and America amountingf 
 to a definitive foreign policy. At an earlier period 
 he wrote his matured thoughts on this subject : — 
 
 " Ever since those distant ages when Europe rang with the 
 praise of Irish scholaiship, we have been too secluded. Yet some- 
 thing remained besides English intercourse. During the long 
 struggle with England the sons of the Irish chiefs were commonly 
 brought up at the Spanish or Roman Courts, and during the wars 
 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was constant 
 commercial, military, and diplomatic intercourse between Ireland 
 and the Continent. We made treaties with France, Lorraine, 
 Spain, and the Ecclesiastical States ; we exchanged our fabrics for 
 theirs ; we received assistance in arms and men from them all. 
 Still there was not enough of this. There was enough to make 
 Irish parties occasionally the tools and victims of foreign ministers ; 
 not enough to secure help when and how 'twas required ; not 
 enough to obtain habitual recognition of our nationality, which 
 would have awed down Italian intriguers and English tyrants. 
 
 * See " Young Ireland," chap. ii. 
 
240 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 In the eighteenth century there was still some intercourse, but it 
 was by stealth, and existed only to procure soldiers for the con- 
 tinental armies, and maintain certain religious connections. Our 
 foreign relations, restored for a moment during the existence of the 
 French Eepublic, perished with the Union, and it was not till the 
 crisis of the Catholic agitation, in 1827, that we again established 
 them. 
 
 " How great an influence our American and French connec- 
 tions exercised on our oppressor need hardly be repeated. We 
 had aided America during her struggle with 16,000 soldiers and 
 her best general — Montgomery. Grateful for our help, and filled 
 with our exiles, she was ready to return the service. Fearful lest 
 the veterans of Valley Forge should come eastward, or France 
 spare Lafayette for a campaign, England grew pale and conceded 
 fiee trade in 1779, and legislative independence in 1782. Not 
 that England feared France or America ; but she feared Ireland, 
 when aided by them. It has been often said that Dumourier 
 helped to carry the Toleration Act of 1793; but his victory of 
 Jemappe derived half of its persuasive power from the intimacy 
 of Ireland with France, amounting to fraternity in the case of the 
 Ulster Protestants. For Belfast boasted a brotherhood with Paris, 
 and Irish addresses were seen on the table of the Convention. In 
 1828, the letters, money, and miscellaneous hints from America, 
 the instructive voice of the Parisian press, and the minute in- 
 quiries made by the French Cabinet into certain branches of Irish 
 statistics, hastened emancipation. . . . Foreign alliances have ever 
 stood among the pillars of national power, along with virtue, 
 wise laws, settled customs, military organization, and naval posi- 
 tion. Advice, countenance, direct help, are secured by old and 
 generous alliances. Thus, the alliance of Prussia carried England 
 through the wars of the eighteenth century ; the alliance of France 
 rescued the wavering fortunes of America ; the alliance of Austria 
 maintains Turke}' against Eussia; and so in a thousand instances 
 besides.* 
 
 Dillon, wlio was in the country, took a more sober 
 view of the situation. In a note to Davis, he wrote : — 
 
 " What do you think this African business will come to ? I 
 cannot believe that it will terminate in anything serious for the 
 present. The old black rascal will concede anything the French 
 please to demand, and they have no notion of anything more than 
 
 * " Voice uf the Nation." 
 
1841.] THE STATESMAN. 241 
 
 compelling him to let them alone. As for Pritchard, I agree with 
 the sage of the Evening Post that the knowing ones at both sides 
 have no notion of fighting about such a paltry business. . . . Say- 
 in your answer how Duffy is, what he is doing, and do not omit to 
 remember me to him." 
 
 The action of the French fleet on the African 
 coast did not release the State prisoners ; but that 
 event came about in a way nearly as unexpected.* 
 When sentence was pronounced, notice, as we have 
 seen, was given of a writ of error before the House 
 of Lords, and when the prisoners were nearly three 
 months in Eichmond, a day was fixed for taking into 
 consideration the question whether they were legally 
 convicted. This appeal excited but languid interest 
 in Ireland. Justice from such a Court seemed hope- 
 less, and the preliminary stages of the inquiry strength- 
 ened this distrust. The English judges, according 
 to practice, were called upon to advise the Lords on 
 the legal bearing of the questions at issue, and a 
 large majority of them advised that the conviction at 
 Dublin was a good one. There was still a chance of 
 success, however, for which it was right to be pre- 
 pared, and Davis wrote to John O'Connell, suggesting 
 
 * What ulthnately came of French enterprise in Africa, Davis sang 
 later : — 
 
 "The Frenchman sailed in Freedom's name to smite the Algerine, 
 The strife was sliort, the crescent sunk, and then his guile was seen ; 
 For, nestling in the pirate's hold — a fiercer pirate far — 
 He bade the tribes jield up their flocks, the towns their gates unbar. 
 Eight on he pressed with freemen's hands to subjugate the free, 
 The Berber in old Atlas glens, the Moor in Titteri ; 
 And wider had his razzias spread, his cruel conquests broader. 
 But Gi'd sent down, to face his frown, the gallant Abdel-Kader — 
 The faithful Abdel-Kader ! unconqnered Abdel-Kader. 
 
 Like falling rock, 
 
 Or fierce siroc — 
 
 No savage or marauder — 
 Son of a slave ! 
 First of the brave ! 
 
 Hurrah for Abdel-Kader ! 
 
242 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 that liis father ought to be ready, in case of his 
 deliverance, with a plan for carrying the cause the 
 next stage towards success. O'Connell, who, as it 
 proved in the end, had now no plan, and no longer 
 believed that any plan would succeed in his lifetime, 
 could only send a placebo of general assurances. 
 
 " The agitation, when he gets out, will be active, you may be 
 sure; but as to the precise steps, he is meditating on tliat point, 
 and says nothing definite upon it yet. I think, however, all are 
 agreed to have no more monster meetings — at least, designedly 
 so." * 
 
 When the writ was heard. Lord Lyndhurst (Lord 
 Chancellor) and his friend Lord Brougham sus- 
 tained the judgment of the Irish Court, and Lord 
 Cottenham (the Whig Ex-Chancellor), Lord Denman, 
 and Lord Campbell (Whig Law Lords) reversed it, 
 with grave censure of the Irish Chief Justice and the 
 system of jury-packing which he had upheld. Davis, 
 in a letter to Pigot, announced the reception of the 
 news in Ireland, and the surprise it produced : — 
 
 " Thiusday night.f 
 " You may guess our wonder when in committee to-day the 
 news came in that judgment was reversed; it literally rang 
 through Dublin, strangers stopping each other to tell it, 'Tis 
 a great and useful triumph ; would it had not come from a trium- 
 virate of English Whigs ! 
 
 "We have arranged a procession for Saturday to bring our 
 friends from prison, and carry them by the Four Courts, Castle, 
 Parliament House, with bands and banners, and a review of the 
 trades at Richmond ; but don't suppose we're off our legs. O'Brien 
 and I have just parted after grave speculations as to the future, 
 and I, as usual after success, am in low spirits." J 
 
 * John O'Connell to Davis, Eichmond Prison, August 26, 1844. 
 
 t August 27, 1844. 
 
 % The day before, Davis wi'ote to Webb ; — 
 
 " I cannot go to you on Monday nor any day next week ; but the coming 
 decision on the writ of error and the threatened visit of the Queen will oblige 
 me to stay in town till both are over. I shall go to you for a day or two 
 before I take to the hills. O'Brien's conduct pleased every one except the 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 243 
 
 O'Counell's victory over the Government gave 
 the national cause an immense impetus. It was a 
 great opportunity, but he was in a condition of 
 mind and body when opportunities come in vain. 
 Physically he was in the preliminary stage of a mortal 
 disease, and morally he had fallen under the influence 
 of his incapable son, and thought only how best to 
 retreat from a position which he considered unten- 
 able. The circumstances of the hour were peculiarly 
 favourable to a steady advance on the lines occupied 
 by the recent policy of the Association, of resolute, 
 practical, unboasting but unshrinking nationality. 
 
 At the first meeting Davis produced a pamphlet 
 in favour of a Federal Union, just published by Mr. 
 Grey Porter, the High Sheriff of the peculiarly Pro- 
 testant county of Fermanagh, himself the grandson 
 of a bishop. Henry Grattan proposed Captain Mockler, 
 the representative of a noted Orange family, as a 
 member; and Smith O'Brien announced the adhesion 
 of Hely Hutchinson, brother of the Earl of Donough- 
 more. O'Connell's speech, however, was what men 
 awaited with strained attention, as the fingers of the 
 barometer which announced the coming weather. 
 It predicted uncertain times. He noticed in 
 succession various pleas for advancing the cause, 
 only to reject them ; and reserved his favour for the 
 preposterous design of appealing to the English 
 constituencies, to require their members in the 
 House of Commons (where Irish nationality was in 
 a minority of about two in the hundred), to impeach 
 
 Tory bigots, who found he had worsted their representative, Lord Erne. 
 
 Lord H has done nothing. His policy is stagnation till the Queen 
 
 comes, as she will unless new events interfere. I trust I have taken pledges 
 enough for Irish dignity should she come ; '21 shall not occur again [the 
 period of George IV.'s visit to Ireland]. Kumours we have enough, but 
 none worth troubling you with. The facts are in the Nation." 
 
244 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 the Government for misfeasance in tlie late State trial, 
 before the House of Lords, where our cause had not 
 so much as one solitary representative. It is scarcely 
 necessary to add that impeachment was a process as 
 obsolete as trial by combat. He talked in private 
 of letting the Federalists show their hand, and, after 
 a few feeble speeches in public, retired to Darrynane 
 to take his annual holiday. At the same time, 
 O'Brien, who had been overworked during the three 
 months of the imprisonment, went to his country- 
 seat, for a short recess, and John O'Connell reigned 
 at Conciliation Hall. 
 
 Davis urged me also to make holiday after my 
 temporary imprisonment, and volunteered to take 
 charge of the Nation during my absence. If rest be 
 the legitimate requital of work, he had more claim 
 to a holiday than any of us, but he would not hear of 
 beginning it till after my return. 
 
 I had accepted an invitation from O'Connell, to 
 visit him in his mountain home in Kerry ; two of my 
 friends, John O'Hagan and D. F. McCarthy, accom- 
 panied me, and there are frequent allusions to this 
 excursion in Davis's letters at this time. To Pigot 
 he wrote : — 
 
 " O'C. left yesterday for Darrynane. He is wisely playing a 
 slow game to let the Federalists and travelling Parliament men 
 [the supporters of Dr. Maunsell's project of a Parliament sitting 
 alternately in London and Dublin] show themselves, as they are 
 about to do. 
 
 "He expects you to Darrynane. You will meet Duffy, etc., 
 there, and would greatly like it. . . . Hudson is in Wales, and 
 sent me a trumpet call, a quick step, and an air from it. Also an 
 essay on the language which, after all, he seems to think is Celtic. 
 Hurrah for my ancestors, and for yours, and you, and myself, and, 
 as poor Tone I think says, hurrah generally." * 
 
 * 67, Bagot Street, September 29, 1844. 
 
1844.] TEE STATESMAN. 245 
 
 His constant engagements at the Nation office did 
 not slacken his correspondence. He announced to 
 Walhs Maddyn's final decision not to take part in 
 any device for reviving the dead Dublin Magazine, 
 and Wallis replied in a singularly characteristic 
 letter. The man who did nothing but lecture those 
 who worked, naturally remonstrated with the man of 
 action for his languor and indecision, and pronounced 
 the world in general out of joint : — 
 
 " I am no way surprised at wLat you tell me relative to 
 Maddyn. I could have set your mind at rest on that subject six 
 months ago, had I understood how much depended on it, and had 
 you been content to take my word for it. But I think it a great 
 pity the project should end in nothing on any such account; and 
 you must not be angry with me for saying that Maddyn's conduct 
 and your discomfiture at it, both bear too much the stain of that 
 caprice and irresolution which will, I fear, despite all our eiforts 
 at amendment, continue long, alike individually and collectively, 
 our besetting and betraying sins. Because a particular man will 
 not guide the plough, or a particular horse draw in it, the field is 
 not to be tilled at all! I can well understand that James Duffy 
 would be better inclined to risk his capital with a man of Maddyn's 
 now established reputation. Not but that I fear he would find 
 himself out in his reckoning. In fact, I must say that, as regards 
 writing, I know no two men so little suited to serve a popular 
 periodical of the kind proposed as Maddyn and myself. And for 
 management and editorship surely a dozen men might be found 
 possessing in a greater degree than either of us the requisite 
 steadiness and discretion. As to the ever-increasing want of such 
 an organ, there can surely be no second opinion. Does not every 
 political vacillation, every incoherent pamphlet, every applauded 
 gasconade, every new rampancy of ignorance and intolerance, 
 every mock miracle,* and still baser mock belief in it, demonstrate 
 alike to friends and foes our lack of all manly discipline ? Have 
 not even the chattering chimpanzees of Paris learned to scoff and 
 scorn us ? For it is not that our people do not think for themselves, 
 but, properly speaking, they do not think at all. Neither do they 
 read, God help them, anything that can be called reading." 
 
 * Some orator at Conciliation Hall has spukcn of O'Connell's deliverance 
 from the House of Lords as a manifest miracle. 
 
24.6 ^fE^WIIi of thomas davis. [i8i4. 
 
 After three ^veeks spent among the noble scenery 
 of Waterford, Cork, and Kerry, as Davis's touring 
 friends approached Darrynane, I announced my inten- 
 tion of returning immediately to town, and setting 
 Mm fi-ee for an autumn excursion, hut he declined 
 the proposal. 
 
 " My PEAK D., 
 
 '• Tou must not come back here till tlie micldle of 
 Octolter. I cannot leave town, as one of my brothers is going to 
 be married about the middle of next month I will then go to 
 Belfast to meet Thomas O'Hagan. The Xation is easy to me, and 
 ■will groAv ea^;ier. Send ' Laurence O'Toole ' within a week, or 
 leave it to number six of the revised ' Spirit of the Nation.' I am 
 proud of my own dear, dear Munster having pleased you sj much. 
 I love it almost to tears at the thought. Maddyn has pufled me 
 frightfully in the third part [of " Ireland and its Eulers'"]. Tou 
 forgot the literary materials [materials for the literary page of tho 
 Natioti]. O'Connell holds out again&t any rule on the reading- 
 rooms [a rule to gTant a subsidy on certain conditions], but is 
 practically liberal in voting money for them, so we must make the 
 be^t of it. I wrote to William GrijSin [brother of Gerald Griffin, 
 author of the " Collegians "]. he will gladly giiide you [in 
 Limeiick]. Tell McCarthy to write words to McCarthy's march 
 in the Ciii~en. Give him my respects, and my best regards to 
 John O'Hagan. E. B. Eoche * wants much to meet you and to 
 get you to Trabolgan. 
 
 " Tell O'Connell that the first news Eobert Tighe [an Irish 
 barrister] had of the liberation was from the shouting of the 
 Frankfort mob ! What other man since Xapoleon could have pro- 
 duced such an effect ? Present my respects to the OConnells, and 
 believe me as busy as a swallow." 
 
 x\ coup)le of days later there came another hasty 
 note : — 
 
 '•DeaeR. 
 
 " Here are some letters which you can leisurely answer 
 at DaiTynane. I reviewed the ' Memorandum on Irish Matters * 
 on September 14th. Get John Pigot to play the 'Boucleen 
 
 * Then M.P. for Cork County, afterwards Lord Fermoy. 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 247 
 
 Buidhe ' and ' The Marriage ' for you [airs to which Davis Lad 
 recently written songs]. 'Tis as sweet as your 'Mina Mumiiain.' 
 
 " For God's sake get O'Connell to undertake, or to allow others 
 to undertake, a plenipotentiary mission to establish Eepeal Read- 
 ing-rooms, and give them books and good advice. Damn the 
 ignorance of the people — but for that we should be lords of our 
 own future ; without that, much is insecure." 
 
 O'Connell, in his pleasant home fast by the Atlan- 
 tic, was a patriarchal chief. His talk was of rural 
 sports for the most part, and the duties of a country 
 gentleman. He wrote to his most confidential corre- 
 spondent, as he talked, of what was uppermost in his 
 mind. 
 
 " I found everything in the best order here. I am, in truth, a 
 great farmer, and have certainly the best crop of hay in proportion 
 of extent of ground or beyond it of any farmer in the province. 
 The potato crop in this vicinage is excellent — considerably beyond 
 the consumption of the growers, and on that account a very prob- 
 able source of wealth, as the inhabitants of other districts are 
 deficient in that necessary article of Irish food. I fuund my pack 
 in the high pride of beauty. It would delight any being capable 
 of delight to see them and hear them trail. I had a splendid hunt 
 yesterday." * 
 
 The thii-d part of " Ireland and its Eulers," which 
 appeared at this time, contained a sketch of Davis 
 under the name of Dormer, in strong contrast to the 
 bulk of the book, which was hostile to nationality. 
 
 " Dormer," he wrote, " brought to the service of the Irish masses 
 an amount of natural ability and acquired talent, rarely, indeed, to 
 be found in the cause of the Irish multitude. Of acquirements 
 vast in extent, though perhaps too miscellaneous in their character ; 
 of an intellectual suppleness that allowed him to manifest the 
 powers of a poet of high promise, while he was immersed in the 
 details of political life; learned profoundly in the history of his 
 own country, and well acquainted with that of other nations, and 
 with philos^'phical capacity of considerable original grasp — he pos- 
 
 ♦ O'Connell to P. Y. FitzFatrick, October 3, 1844. 
 
248 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 sessed a mind and accomplishments which of themselves would bo 
 sufficient to secure for him the respect of all those who admire 
 genius and knowledge. But when it is added that his fine and 
 valuable mental gifts are conjoined with an unsullied character, 
 remarkable not only for the noble disregard of self but for its love 
 of fair play, while dealing with an avowed opponent, how much 
 ought such a man to be admired while developing his activity and 
 working out his energy in a gangrened state of political society 
 like that of Ireland ? For though Dormer could with eminent 
 power lash the passions of liis party into phrensy, not even in his 
 most excited hours would he be guilty of the characteristic faults 
 of the Corn Exchange. An Irish patriot, without the taint of 
 vanity ; an Irish democrat loathing those vile arts which have 
 made the word ' agitator ' synonymous with much of what is 
 abominable ; an Irish popular leader without hypocrisy, servilit}^ 
 or meanness — such is the spirited and generous Dormer." * 
 
 The criticism on O'Connell was often liarsh and 
 unjust, but the volume contained practical sugges- 
 tions and historic warnings of great value. O'Brien 
 was much pleased with it, and seemed to regard its 
 bitters as wholesome and tonic. 
 
 " O'Brien," Davis w^rote to the author, "is in delight with your 
 book. He says not three men in the empire could w^rite so well, 
 and hopes and expects you to be yet with us and for us. God 
 grant it." 
 
 Eespecting the sketch of himself, he added : — • 
 
 *' It would be folly to say that I do not see you meant to 
 describe me in one of its chapters. I am warmly grateful for the 
 affection that misled you into it. I am but one of many, as 
 resolved as a river is to descend, to lift the English rule from off 
 Ireland and give our country a career of action and thought. For 
 this purpose much action and thought through a series of years 
 must be used by us. Action, even in a military sense, is not mere 
 cutting, tiring, and charging. Organization, education, leadership, 
 obedience, union, are all action, too — the best and most mature 
 action in some cases — in ours, I think, for instance. There is as 
 much action in the depot as in the service companies, as any soldier 
 
 * "Ireland and its Rulers," pt. ill., p. 252. 
 
1844.] TUE STATESMAN. 249 
 
 can tell you. Again, I believe your conclusion, that success is 
 impossible save by war, to be wrong in part. Well, no matter 
 now — time will judge us, and, if we fail, will be justly as strong 
 against our policy as you, while it will have none of the apologies 
 for our difficulties, the respect for our intentions, nor the tender- 
 ness which so overpraises, as you have. I do not pale at such 
 censure, but trust and try to overcome it by success. Our work is 
 only beginning. This is all about myself, and you are to blame. 
 ... I have thought it better, considering the bitterness of your 
 attacks on O'Connell, not to write an analysis of your third part. 
 Do you mean to write a fourth part? I advise you no<. Indeed 
 I go further, and recommend you to avoid touching your Irish 
 political contemporaries for some years to come." 
 
 The opinion of Davis's closest friends on the 
 sketch was probably expressed with sufficient accuracy 
 in a note I sent him from Darryuane. 
 
 "We got the Tablet at Father ]\Iathew's, and read 'Dormer' 
 there, wliich we thought clever and generous, but not graphic. 
 As O'H. says, an acquaintance recognizes its truth, but it would 
 give a stranger no clear notion of the original. It is a sin to 
 complain, however, where there was so much good feeling aud 
 manliness. 
 
 "From Darrynane we will go to Limerick ; where I will call 
 on your friend Griffin, and home immediately, making a month in 
 all — the pleasantest I can recall, alwaj's excepting my honeymoon. 
 Apropos of honeymoons, I wi.sh it was your brother's brother that 
 was getting married — I fancy it would promote his happiness, and 
 put a strait waistcoat upon discontents which shake the peace of 
 Juj)iter in his seclusion." 
 
 The object of the northern journey, where he pro- 
 posed to meet Thomas O'Hagan, was one of grave 
 import. Mr. O'Hagan had joined the Eepeal Asso- 
 ciation as a Federalist, and many of the more liberal 
 and enlightened Whigs came to share his belief that 
 Federation would furnish a solution of the national 
 difficulty. Sharman Crawford openly declared for 
 it ; and Mr. Eoss, the member for Belfast ; Colonel 
 Caulfield, brother of the Earl of Charlemont ; Mr. 
 
250 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1841. 
 
 Thomas Huttou, formerly member for Dublin city ; 
 and a number of barristers of good standing in tlieir 
 profession, were in general agreement with him. It 
 was proposed to hold a private consultation at Bel- 
 fast, the cradle of the greatest national movements 
 in the last century. Hudson and Davis, who were 
 ready to go all lengths for unmitigated nationality, 
 promoted this conference, and would have accepted 
 Federalism, and given it a fair trial. From his cor- 
 respondence at this time, we may infer that the 
 design of a conference originated with Davis. Mr. 
 Eoss wrote to him in October : — 
 
 " I should be very liappy to meet jovl and Mr. Hudson, and talk 
 over the Federal scheme ; and, if it were possible, I would go to 
 Belfast on the 19th for the express purpose. . . . You won't find 
 much interest in Federalism or any other 'ism' among the flax- 
 spinners and linen-merchants of the north. They are driving a 
 good trade and making money fast ; you well know how people 
 thus circumstanced are distrustful of experiments of a political 
 nature : not that they are indifferent to politics, far from it ; if any 
 existing right were in jeopardy they would be up in arms in a 
 moment." 
 
 And again, a fortnight later : — 
 
 " We are both surprised and vexed " [he is speaking for Shar- 
 man Crawford and himself] " at the hesitation of parties who, till 
 lately, seemed all eagerness to take the initiative in a Federal 
 movement; but we are ready to adopt any modification of our 
 manifesto which may render it generally acceptable — provided the 
 change proposed shall not affect its essential character. . . . Either 
 the control of national ecclesiastical property must be given to a 
 national representative body, or, as Mr. Caulfield suggests, the 
 whole question of the Irish Church Establishment must be settled, 
 as a preliminary step to the organic change we have in view. Mr. 
 Caulfield's plans do not admit of his going to Dublin immediately; 
 neither do mine : but if you and Sharman Crawford would meet 
 Button, J. Perry, O'Hagan, Murphy and the rest, ascertain our 
 real position before the country, and come to some general under- 
 standing among yourselves, neither Mr. Caulfield nor I would find 
 
1844.] TEE STATESMAN. 251 
 
 mnch difficulty in ioining j'ou afterwards. From all that I can 
 gather of public opinion, it appears to me that Cork is our only 
 stronghold at present; and certainlj^, if we cannot find cordial sup- 
 port from a pretty numerous body of influential men in Dublin and 
 in the north, it would be worse than idle, as far as the cause is 
 concerned, and exceedingly detrimental to ourselves as public men, 
 to make a fruitless parade of our opinion before the world." 
 
 One of the projects which occupied this period of 
 inaction at Conciliation Hall was a National Club, 
 with a high subscription, a handsome uniform, and 
 a close ballot to propitiate the fastidious. It origin- 
 ated among the Eichmond prisoners — with Dr. Gray, 
 I think, — and was taken up warmly by Davis. He 
 believed such a body would win recruits who would 
 never join the Eepeal Association. He ventured 
 even to hope that it might become a substitute for 
 the Council of Three Hundred. 
 
 He wrote to Maddyn : — 
 
 " We are getting up a 1782 club here. You must join it; for, 
 with God's blessing, Ireland will take you back some day and 
 nurse you tenderly after your exile." 
 
 And to Denny Lane : — 
 
 " You ought to get your uniform at once, and at any incon- 
 venience attend the opening day. You should send us more 
 members. Cork has more men fit for the club, and fewer in it, 
 than most of our provincial cities. This club can do all we want, 
 if it be resolutely and earnestly supported. I entreat of you to 
 work for it, and that without delay. Send us candidates, make 
 members, get them dresses, push its reputation everywhere. I'd 
 like to have a talk wdth you on this. Barry is well and idle ; 
 Dillon ditto. Poor Duffy has lost his eldest child, and his wife 
 is dying. John Pigot in London, preparing himself for the Bar. 
 T. MacNevin is working like an enthusiast, S. O'Brien is and 
 does all we could desire. We are making great way with the 
 educated Conservatives ; but do not talk of this." 
 
 But to win those who held aloof fi'om the Asso- 
 
252 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 elation, tlie club must exclude tlie men who made 
 the Association odious, and this was an experiment 
 of a character which cost Yergniaud and Madame 
 Eoland their heads. Carlyle scoffs at the futility of 
 attempting to make a revolution by excluding the 
 ruffians, and, if the ruffians are strong and malignant, 
 it is never likely to prove an agreeable task. Lane, 
 in reply, opened up this objection and others, which 
 proved to be well founded : — 
 
 " I'm sorry that I can't have a talk with you on the subject, 
 as I confess I do not at all understand the 'Eighty-Two Club. 
 I fancied at first that I hnd some glimmering of its meaning, but 
 I thought that the means adopted were altogether inadequate and 
 inappropriate to secure the end in view. I fancied it was to make 
 Eepeal genteel — which I do not consider of any value, even if it 
 were possible, — to turn Hercules into an Antinous, and teach, him 
 to wield his club gracefully, is, I think, an idle task. Let 
 Eepealers be strong and earnest and they may be as ungraceful as 
 they will — it is better have them clench their teeth and knit their 
 brows than smile with elegance. It would be impossible to form 
 a large body of Eepealers who have what may be called ' position 
 in society.' If you can form a star of them so much the better, 
 but where do you draw the line of distinction between the nucleus 
 of aristocracy and the nebulous mass of shabby gentility which 
 surrounds it? Begin with Lord French, Sir Richard Musgrave, 
 Smith O'Brien, and the members of Parliament, — exclude M. N. — 
 lie is indignant, — admit him — well, exclude 0. P. and he is out- 
 rageous; or admit him and you must admit X. Y. Z.,* and so on, 
 until you include every man who can borrow a guinea and get 
 tick from his tailor — or else you cause dissension. You must 
 either miss your proposed object, or do worse, divide your party. 
 No ! You should have got up a good club, like the Kildare-street, 
 where a man could not complain if he were rejected ; or you should 
 have had a society of some sort like what you once proposed to Le- 
 fanu for the Young Ireland of both parties, into which men of all 
 opinions would be admitted ; or you should deluge Royal Irish 
 Academies, and Royal Dublin Societies, and every old institution 
 with Repealers. You may make the great body of the Protestants 
 
 * The original letter contains the names of the persons indicated above 
 by the letters of the alphabet. 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN. 253 
 
 at present swallow Nationality, but you cannot make tliem gulp 
 down Eepeal, or, as they believe it to be, O'Connellisui. If they 
 become national 'tis all we want; the rest will follow as sure as 
 the fruit follows the flower — you must have a spring and a summer 
 before you have an autumn. 
 
 "I had another idea about the 'Eighty-Two Club, that it 
 might be turned into a National Convention, — the method in which 
 the men were admitted at the first ballot puts this out of the 
 question. It was very injudicious to have such a flourish of 
 trumpets at its foundation, and such trivial rules coming imme- 
 diately after. [Eules as to uniform, entrance fee, etc.] There 
 was a good deal of the old Irish fanfaronade about it which I 
 hoped was dying out amongst us. In Cork the people in general 
 have a great hatred of uniforms; the town councillors and alder- 
 men here could not be got to wear robes. This I think principally 
 arises from the morbidly keen sense of the ludicrous which Cork 
 men generally possess. Tom Steele could not live a week in Coi'k." 
 
 We shall see later that these predictions were 
 bitterly verified. 
 
 At this time ]\Iaddyn announced a project he had 
 in hand, which greatly interested his friend : — 
 
 " I have been collecting a few books for a life of Flood, to be 
 published in England. It would state his merits clearly, intel- 
 ligibly, and with fairness. The worst thing I know about Fluod 
 was his hinting that he was Junius ! When I was in Dublin last 
 there was an anti-Grattanite set amongst your party — a set which 
 cried up Flood. His anxiety to get into the English House of 
 Commons, while there was a Parliament in Ireland, shows that, 
 after all, his views on ' Nationalism ' were very equivocal, and 
 certainly were inferior to those of Grattan. The first twenty years 
 of his life were the best. His influence upon Grattan was very 
 decided : ' He persuaded the old, he inspired the young ' is a half 
 confession of that influence. He was a man of great power of 
 mind, but ' there was a screw loose ' somewhere in his character or 
 in his body, that prevented him from a harmonious development 
 of his nature. . . . With my life of vexation and annoyance, I 
 deliberately read the books in which joy and the good of life and 
 the world are depicted by genius. I have found Moliere an admir- 
 able adviser and companion — he beats any author I know for 
 imparting a sense of cheerfulness, and for sharpening our percep- 
 tion of the joyous and the gay." 
 
254 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1844. 
 
 Davis wished tlie book to become part of a series 
 of Irish orators then in course of publication, and his 
 friend seemed not unwilling. In his reply he dis- 
 cussed the rival orators of 1782 with discrimination 
 and sympath}^ : — 
 
 "In the foreign politics of Ireland Henry Flood was the true 
 statesman, but in the domestic politics, Grattan had the larger, 
 more generous, and more enduring views. Flood's nationality was 
 entirely too Northern for a whole Irishman — it had no dash of the 
 Milesian in it ; but there was merit in Grattan's feelings for the 
 Catholics that all true Muuster men would deeply sympathize 
 with. Admitting that Flood was right on the 'simple Eepeal,* 
 yet we are not to forget all Grattan's other illustrious services. 
 In talent for statesmanship, and capacity for calculating occur- 
 rences, and the means of bringing them about, it strikes me that 
 Wolfe Tone was much abler (albeit that he failed) than either 
 Flood or Grattan. Had he been in the shoes of either, had he had 
 the rank, fortune, family, and authority of Flood, or had he had the 
 stirring power and electrical eloquence of Grattan, he would have 
 created more of an era than both of his predecessors did. His 
 design of 'The United Irishmen' showed more political thought of a 
 masterly and comprehensive kind than anything I know in Grattan 
 or Flood." 
 
 MacNevinhad abeady taken up the same subject, 
 and when Davis wished to transfer it to a man whom 
 he esteemed a better historical critic, and a more 
 experienced writer, MacNevin petulantly refused to 
 give way. But after a little his better nature pre- 
 vailed, and he consented to do whatever Davis 
 thought most useful. 
 
 " I do not feel inclined," he wrote at first, " to accede to your 
 unreasonable request that I should give up my intention to write 
 a memoir of Flood, the materials of which I had half collected, 
 and the subject of which I like exceedingly, for some great un- 
 known of yours that is to be brought into light by the patronage 
 of Anglesea Street. James Duffy asked me to do it. I wrote to 
 Dillon to incite him to do it ; he declined, and wished me to do it ; 
 and, unless I can see some better reason than you have yet given, 
 
1844.] THE STATESMAN, ZOO 
 
 I will do it. I have no notion of relinquishing what pleases me, 
 for the peculiar behoof and benefit of some nest-egg of yours. . . . 
 If this hidden great man wishes to become a writer to my incon- 
 venience and annoyance, let him take Shell. I prefer Flood." 
 
 But after a little time he felt he could not resist 
 Davis. 
 
 "If you have any peculiar desire to take Flood, do it. It 
 would be a great disappointment to me, for I expended time and 
 money in collecting materials, and I like the subject much more — 
 infinitely more — than Shell. I have opinions of my own upon 
 that era, and I wisli to write them, but I don't wish to annoy you 
 by a refusal. So act as you please." 
 
 The result was not fortunate ; Maddyn finally 
 shrunk from the enterprise, and, after half a century, 
 Flood's speeches haA^e not yet been collected. But 
 MacNevin, with effective assistance from the great 
 rhetorician himself, made an excellent collection of 
 the speeches of Eichard Shell. 
 
256 
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. 
 
 [1845. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 CONFLICTS WITH CONNELL. 1845. 
 
 We have seen that the Federalists, consisting mainly 
 
 of Whigs, but with some notable sympathizers among 
 
 the Tories, were beginning to move. There was no 
 
 public muster-roll of the party, but a memorandum 
 
 found among Davis's manuscripts indicates how 
 
 widely he believed the desire for a Federal Union 
 
 had spread. 
 
 "The wealtliiest citizens of Dublin, Cork, and Belfast, many 
 of the leading Whig gentry and barristers, and not a few Conserva- 
 tives of rank, hold Federalist opinions. They include Episco- 
 palians, Presbyterians, and Koman Catholics, Eepealers and 
 Anti-Eepealers." 
 
 Hudson, at the same time, prepared and sent to 
 his friend a list of actual or probable recruits, which 
 will give at least the measure of their hopes. 
 
 Arran. 
 
 Miltown. 
 
 Lismore. 
 
 Cremorne. 
 
 Kenmare. 
 
 Southwell. 
 
 Peers. 
 
 Fin gal. 
 
 Howth. 
 
 Cloncurry. 
 
 Meath. 
 
 Stuart de Decies. 
 
 Eossmore. 
 
 Charlemont. 
 Listowel. 
 Netterville. 
 Talbot de Malahide. 
 Mount Morris. 
 Carew. 
 
 Ulster. 
 
 Sharman Crawford. D. E. Eoss, M.P. Lord Achison. 
 
 Colonel Eawdon, M.P. Saunderson (Cavan). 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 257 
 
 Connaught. 
 Lord Clements, Col. Samuel White. Sir Valentine Blake. 
 
 Thomas Martin. The O'Connor Don. 
 
 Leinster. 
 Lord Brabazon. Chapman. 
 
 Colonel White. Boyce of Bannow. 
 
 William Murphy (Smithfield). Luke White. 
 James Grattan. Thomas Hutton. 
 
 Torrens IVIcCullagh. J, Perry. 
 
 Archbold (Kildare). Sir Wm. Somerville. 
 
 diaries Walker. Colonel Butler. 
 
 J. H. Talbot, and Sir Ed. Nagle. 
 
 J. Maher (Wexford). Farrell (Athlone). 
 
 Hugh Morgan Tuite. 
 
 Munster. 
 
 Colonel Macnamara. Thomas Wyse. 
 
 William Fagan, M.P. Hayes, Cork. 
 
 Colonel Beamish. Eichard Dowden (ditto). 
 
 Sir Eichard Musgrave. G. S. Barry. 
 
 Sir William Beecher. Sir J. Power (Kilfane). 
 
 Sir Denham Norreys. Sir E. Keane (Cappoquin). 
 
 Morgan John O'Connell, M.P. Sir David Eoche, M.P. 
 
 Power of Gurteen. John O'Brien. 
 
 The theory of the party was that the Union had 
 been effected by corruption and force, that it had 
 worked ruinously for Ireland, and that a new inter- 
 national treaty with juster provisions ought to be 
 substituted for it. Davis, under the title of a Fede- 
 ralist, in an anonymous letter to the Duke of 
 Wellington (already cited), formulated their prin- 
 ciples, and it is curious to note that public opinion 
 in the two islands, after nearly half a century, is 
 running abreast with their theories : — 
 
 " I do not seek a raw Eepeal of the Act of Union. I want you 
 to retain the Imperial Parliament with its imperial powers. I ask 
 you only to disencumber it of those cares which exhaust its patience 
 and embarrass its attention. I ask you to give to Ireland a Senate 
 
2o8 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 of some sort, selected by the people, in part or in whole ; levying 
 their customs and excise, and other taxes ; making their roads, 
 harbours, railways, canals, and bridges; encouraging their manu- 
 factures, commerce, agriculture, and fisheries ; settling their poor- 
 laws, their tithes, tenures, grand juries, and franchises; giving a 
 vent to ambition, an opportunity for knowledge, restoring the 
 absentees, securing work, and diminishing poverty, crime, igno- 
 rance, and discontent. This, were I an Englishman, I should ask 
 for England, besides the Imperial Parliament. So I would for 
 Wales, were I a Welshman, and for Scotland were I a Scotchman ; 
 this I ask for Ireland. 
 
 " It is not impossible to combine an Irish legislature for local 
 purposes with the integrity and foreign importance of the empire. 
 A local parliament granted soon, and in a kindly and candid spirit, 
 would be fairly worked, and would conciliate that large and varied 
 body, which, from wisdom, or want, or patriotism, or ambition, 
 are intolerant of having their local laws made, and their local 
 ofiices filled, by Englishmen. Allow them to try their hands and 
 heads at self-government; it will consume their passions, and, 
 unless they are blockheads, will diminish their sufl'erings. Aid 
 them by advice. You are an Irishman and a consummate genius 
 — you might have been a hero. Do not lose your last opportunity. 
 Believe me, my lord, if you and half a dozen men of business — 
 Imperialists, Federalists, and Eepealers — were to sit down in 
 earnest to devise a plan for satisfying the wants and calls of 
 Ireland for local government, while you guaranteed the integrity 
 of the empire, you would accomplish your object without much 
 difficulty, and disappoint the foreign foes of that empire who justly 
 regard Ireland as an ally." 
 
 Davis's relation to Federalism is not difficult to 
 understand ; after the Clontarf surrender, he looked 
 upon it as a possible and honourable compromise. 
 Shortly after that event he wrote to a correspondent 
 in England : * "So strong is the desire for a quiet 
 and friendly resumption of nationality, that if Eng- 
 land offered us a federal connection to-morrow it 
 would have the support of even the ultra men." 
 
 In a review of Sismondi's "Italian Eepublics," 
 
 * R. E. Moore, of the Anti-Corn Law League. 
 
1845] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CON NELL. 259 
 
 he painted with evident sympathy the public spirit, 
 local patriotism, and indestructible vitality of small 
 states federated together, as contrasted with the 
 internal weakness of great unwieldy empires, often 
 overthrown in a single battle. In fact, the existing 
 condition was intolerable, the end most desired was 
 impossible for the present, but here was a tertium 
 quid. 
 
 The best thing that could befall O'Connell after 
 his imprisonment was that the Liberal party should 
 take up Federalism. It would increase prodigiously 
 the chance of a speedy settlement, whether on his 
 lines or theirs. He strove to persuade Crawford and 
 others that their proper course was to join the Asso- 
 ciation, not as Eepealers but as Federalists, as Mr. 
 O'Hagan and the Bishop of Killaloe had done ; but 
 they would not listen to this proposal. Some of them 
 disliked and distrusted him personally, and they all 
 knew that no one could induce a tithe of the party 
 to enter Conciliation Hall on any pretence. But 
 the objection to his scheme lay deeper; if the pro- 
 posal was to be listened to in England, and accepted 
 as an alternative to Eepeal, it was plain that it must 
 not originate with the Eepealers. When it became 
 certain that the Federalists would not join him, 
 O'Connell was seized with the fatal idea of joining 
 them, by declaring himself a convert to their opinions. 
 He had left prison with the determination of retreat- 
 ing definitively from the position of the Mallow 
 defiance, and here, unfortunately, he perceived a 
 favourable opportunity. He privately urged two 
 Federalists who were amoug his personal friends, 
 William Murphy, a Smithfield salesman of great 
 wealth, and Thomas O'Hagan, to ascertain the wishes 
 
260 ME MO IB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 and intentions of their Federal associates. They 
 tried doubtless to comply with his wishes, but without 
 much success. From Darrynane he wrote to Vincent 
 FitzPatrick, the most trusted of his confidential 
 
 agents : — 
 
 " I am becoming very impatient to hear authentically from the 
 Federalists. Are they at work? . . . O'Hagan will do well to 
 ascertain, and in ivriting, the views of as many as possible, but he 
 ought to be cautious as to publication. I am writing a letter that 
 will contain the principles of federation, leaving the details for 
 futui'e consideration." * 
 
 His impatience overcame him, and, while the Belfast 
 consultation was in progress, he wrote a letter to the 
 Association announcing this change of opinion. In 
 the midst of a long political disquisition there was 
 this pregnant sentence : — 
 
 "For my own part," he said, "I will own that since I have 
 come to contemplate the specific differences, such as they are, 
 between simple Eepeal and Federalism, I do at present feel a pre- 
 ference for the Federative plan, as tending more to the utility of 
 Ireland and the maintenance of the connection with England ihan 
 the proposal of simple Eepeal. But I must either deliberately 
 propose or deliberately adopt from some other person a plan of 
 Federative Union before I bind myself to the opinion I now 
 entertain." 
 
 The Duke of Wellington's conversion to Catholic 
 Emancipation, Peel's to Free Trade, Disraeli's to 
 Household Suffrage, or Lord John Eussell's to reli- 
 gious intolerance in 1851, did not take his party by 
 more complete surprise that this startling declaration. 
 The time was when it would have been received 
 without criticism in the press, as it was actually 
 received in the Association, or with only a subter- 
 ranean murmur of dissent, but that time was passed. 
 It was felt instinctively that this sudden surrender 
 
 * " Private Correspondence of O'Connell." 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 2G1 
 
 might be fatal to the national cause by killing 
 popular confidence, and that even as a stroke of 
 policy it was a mistake. If there had not been 
 a national movement, strong and triumphant, Fede- 
 ralism would never have been heard of ; if the national 
 movement was transformed into Federalism the 
 existing party would probably disappear, for Sharman 
 Crawford and his friends would never serve under 
 O'Connell. Davis was at Belfast, Dillon in Mayo, 
 and all the men with whom I was accustomed 
 to consult gone on their autumn holiday. The course 
 the Nation would take was of supreme inportance, 
 for if it was silent no national journal in the island 
 could be counted on to face the wrath of O'Connell. 
 But Davis was actually engaged in Federal negotia- 
 tions at the moment, and to denounce Federahsm in 
 the Nation would be to put him in a false position. 
 On the other hand, to acquiesce after the people had 
 been pledged in twenty monster meetings to un- 
 limited nationality would shame us before our allies 
 in America and France, and humiliate us before our 
 opponents in England, and would infallibly drive the 
 best men out of an association which did not know 
 its own mind on the most momentous question. It 
 was not Federalism that was objectionable, but 
 putting the livery of the party on the shoulders 
 of Nationalists. 
 
 I solved the diflQculty by writing as the leading 
 article in the Nation a letter to O'Connell in my 
 own name, and speaking only for myself. I objected 
 to the change he proposed, contending that it would 
 not serve Federalism and might ruin Eepeal, and 
 insisting courteously that the Association had no 
 more right to alter the constitution upon which its 
 
262 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845.- 
 
 members were recruited thau the Irish Parliament 
 had to surrender its own functions without consult- 
 ing its constituents. The letter was reproduced 
 extensively by the newspapers, and the controversy 
 spread to nearly every journal in the empire, and 
 finally to those of France and the United States. 
 It was generally predicted that the Nation and the 
 party it immediately represented would be destroyed, 
 but that, though O'Connell would conquer them, his 
 new profession of faith might be regarded as the 
 funeral oration of Repeal. Neither prediction was 
 verified, both the Nation and the public cause out- 
 lived the difficulty. The story has been told in detail 
 elsewhere,* and we have to do with it here only as it 
 concerns Thomas Davis. 
 
 Before O'Connell's letter appeared he wrote to 
 me from Belfast: " Our mission here has prospered 
 beyond hope, but if Dublin holds back all may yet 
 fail." When it appeared he received the first 
 announcement with singular self-control. 
 
 "O'Connell's letter," he wrote to Smith O'Brien, "is verj^ able 
 of its kind, but it is bad policy, if not worse, to suddenly read his 
 recantation. He insulted the Federalists, then patronized them, 
 then refused to tolerate them in Parliament unless they joined the 
 Association, and now he discovers they are right all out, and of 
 course were right all through. My opinion is, you know, what 
 I have always avowed in the Nation — namely, that Federalism 
 is not, and cannot be, a final settlement, though it deserves a fair 
 trial and perfect toleration. I believe there would be no limit 
 to our nationality in twenty years whether we pass through Fede- 
 ralism or — [a blank in the original letter]. I write by this post 
 to John O'Connell, urging his father not to repeat his opinions, 
 at least till Federalists do something." 
 
 I wrote to Davis describing the stress of circum- 
 stances under which I had acted, and inviting him 
 
 * See "Young Ireland," book iii., chap. 3. 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 263 
 
 if he agreed with me, to take part iu the controversy. 
 He replied : — 
 
 " Monaghan, Thursday morning. 
 "My dear D., 
 
 " On reflecting that other events may have happened 
 since I left, and regarding the policy of pressing the discussion 
 further at this moment as doubtful, I have concluded not to write 
 on our relations to Federalism, and to ask you to weigh the 
 propriety of letting it be for a week. I shall be in town on 
 the 1st." 
 
 During the week's truce of silence which I 
 adopted on Davis's suggestion, O'Conuell's personal 
 enemies in the press yelled forth that the Young 
 Irelanders were manifestly conquered in the first 
 skirmish ; were dumb, and swallowed their leek in 
 silence, and so forth. 
 
 Davis returned to town immediately, and asso- 
 ciated himself with the course taken by the Nation. 
 
 " "We shall rejoice," he wrote, " at the progress of the Federalists, 
 because they advocate national principles and local government. 
 Compared with Unionists they deserve our warm support; but 
 not an inch further shall we go; principle and policy alike forbid 
 it. Let who will taunt or succumb, we will hold our course. No 
 anti-Irish organ shall stimulate us into a quarrel with any national 
 party ; no popiilar man or influence shall carry us into a com- 
 promise. Let the Fedeialists be an independent and respected 
 party ; the Repealers an unbroken league — our stand is with the 
 latter." 
 
 And on my behalf I added, in relation to the 
 storm of menace with which we w^ere assailed, — 
 
 "The legitimate leader of the movement was not more willing 
 to lead than we to follow; we proclaimed strict obedience and 
 discipline as essential to success, and we practised them ; for where 
 there are many captains the ship sinks. But at all times, and 
 now not less than any other time, we stood prepared to hold our 
 own opinion against him upon a vital question (such as the 
 present) as freely as against the meanest man of the party. We 
 
26-i MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 do not run all risks Tvith a hostile Government, in proclaiming day 
 by day weighty and dangerous truths, to abandon the same right 
 under any other apprehension." 
 
 The Federal cause, Davis assumed, was completely 
 ruined by this unexpected coiq? of the leader. To 
 O'Brien, he -wrote : — 
 
 " All chance of a Federal movement is gone at present, and 
 mainly because of O'Connell's public and private letters ; yet I am 
 still doing all in my power to procure it, for I wish to cover 
 O'Connell's retreat. He is too closely bound up with Ireland for 
 me ever to feel less than the deepest concern for his welfare and 
 reputation." * 
 
 The Federalists were naturally discouraged and 
 angry. '' O'Connell," said Deasj^, " has jumped into 
 our boat and swamped it." Sharman Crawford was 
 deeply indignant, and complained privately to O'Brien 
 that O'Connell had first attempted to wheedle the 
 Federalists, and then betrayed them. 
 
 " He wants," he said, referring to a former transaction, — " he 
 wants to take the same undignified course, humbugging both 
 Eepealers aud Federalists ; trying to make the Eepealers believe 
 they are Federalists and the Federalists that they are Eepealers; 
 and keeping a joint delusive agitation, knowing right well that 
 whenever particulars came to be discussed they would split up 
 like a rope of sand." 
 
 But he had inflicted a worse injury on himself 
 
 • O'Connell had not consulted O'Brien on this new movement ; but when 
 the controversy sprung up in the press be wrote him a private note, suggest- 
 ing how much might come out of it: — 
 
 " 'Jbe principal actor in Dublin," he said, "in the arrangement is William 
 Murphy, called 'of Sniithtield.' He is a man who has acquired enormous 
 wealth, and has long been a principal 'brains carrier' of the Irish Whigs. 
 A most shrewd sensible man, Thomas Hut^on, the very wealthy coachmaker, 
 has assisted and is assisting. I could mention other iutluential — highly 
 influential — men. There is to be a Federalist meeting; at Belf:ist on the 26th. 
 Cauifield, brother of Lord Cbarlemont, leads or presides. Sharman Crawford, 
 Ross, the member for Belfast, and other notabilities attend. Hutton, who 
 is a Presbyterian, goes there, and passes through Armngh, to muster as many- 
 important Presbyterians as he can, cr at least to procure their signatures. 
 O'Hasan, the barrister, attends the registrv, and will be at the meeting on 
 the 26th." 
 
1845] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CONN ELL. 265 
 
 than on any one else. The tone of the national press 
 and of conspicuous Nationalists was so hostile to his 
 new opinions that he had to renounce them with 
 something like contempt. While he still lingered 
 in the country, he began to note painful evidence 
 that his old popularity had received a dangerous 
 check, owing, it may be confidently surmised, to his 
 Federal escapade. At the beginning of November 
 he wrote to the Secretary of the O'Connell Tribute : 
 
 "Do you know that I have a feeling of despondency creeping 
 over me on the subject of this year's tribute. It seems almost to 
 have dropped still-born from the press. In former years, when 
 the announcement appeared it was immediately followed by 
 crowded advertisements in the Dublin papers to meet and arrange 
 the collection. The Cork, Waterf ird, Limerick, etc., newspapers 
 followed, but there is not one spark alight." * 
 
 Doheny, who encountered him at a public dinner 
 at Limerick on his way to town, thought he was 
 ruffled by a similar feeling among his audience, and 
 he arrived in Dublin in no pleasant mood.f 
 
 He returned to the Association at the end of 
 November, and broke contemptuously with allies 
 he had so recently sought. 
 
 " They were bound," he said, " to declare their plan, and he 
 had conjectured that there was something advantageous in it, but 
 he did not go any further ; he expressly said he would not bind 
 himself to any plan. Yet a cry was raised, a shout was sent forth, 
 by men who doubtless thought themselves fitter to be leaders than 
 he was, and several young gentlemen began to exclaim against 
 
 * O'Connell to P. V. FitzPatrick, ]N'ov. 2, 1844:, " Private Correspondence 
 of O'Connell." 
 
 t " Your name was received with the loudest cheers ; to such a degree 
 indeed as, in my mind, to rouse the great man's wrath. But although the 
 reception was most flattering, still there is a strong feeling that the Nation 
 was wrong in intimating that Dan had abandoned the cause. To be sure 
 most men who entertain that feelini; have not inquired into the justice or the 
 value of the argument in the Nation: they content themselves with saying 
 that it is necessary to preserve the inviolability of his character " (Doheny 
 to Duffy.) 
 
'2G6 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 him instearl of reading his letter for explanation. It was not that 
 they read his letter and made a mistake, but they made the mis- 
 take and did not read the letter. He had expected the assistance 
 of the Federalists, and oiDened the door as wide as he could without 
 letting out Irish liberty. But," he continued, '"let me tell you a 
 secret: — Federalism is not worth that" — snapping his fingers. 
 " Federalists, I am told, are still talking and meeting — much good 
 may it do them ; I wish them all manner of happiuess : but I don't 
 expect any good from it. I saw a little trickery on the part of 
 their ' aide-de-camp,' but I d<m't care for that ; I have a great 
 respect for them. I wish them well. Let them work as well as 
 they can, but they are none of my children ; I have nothing to do 
 vnih. them." 
 
 The risk of the Association heing suddenl}^ trans- 
 formed was at an end, but his northern allies were 
 disgusted and alienated, and cyni<5al politicians de- 
 clared that the punishment of the Nation was only 
 postponed to a favourable opportunity. Davis did 
 not allow himself to be moved either by the vacilla- 
 tion or the menace, but pressed on towards his life's 
 purpose with unfaltering step. 
 
 " Disunion," he wrote, " has ceased among your leaders — let 
 energy revive amongst you. The parties of England scoff at your 
 complaints and jest at your sufferings. Poor millions of Irish, 
 half-clad, half-housed, half-fed, England jests at you ; middle 
 classes of Ireland, men full of ambition and genius, robbed of your 
 commercial gains and your political rights, England spurns your 
 prayer as the writhing of helpless worms. Are you helpless, 
 millions of Ireland? Strong hands, brave hearts, growing minds, 
 owners of the kingdom of Ireland, are j-ou poor imbeciles? Have 
 you blood, and strength, and manhood? And if you have, what 
 will you do? Will you burst into an unskilled insurrection and 
 feed your foes with your ruin ? Will you drop your heads and 
 sob like overworked horses, and let these despots drive you as 
 they like ? Will you take to the miserable resources of the 
 drunken Eibbun Lodge or the blind fury of assassination? We, who 
 are ready for anything, so that it give good hope of your success, 
 we answer for you — we answer thus : We will teach and avow 
 Eepeal more openly' and boldly than ever ; we will establish 
 people's courts, people's bands, people's reading-rooms; we will 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'COXXELL. 267 
 
 be more earnest of conciliation, more tolerant to the errors of all 
 who are for independence; and now, coming on this winter, we 
 pledge ourselves to each other and to the teeth of onr tyrants — 
 that we will carrj^ the Eepeal organization into every parish, and 
 wait until onr leaders tell us we are organized enough, united 
 enough, and educated enough to use the first opportunity." 
 
 The press of all joarties made itself busy with 
 the controversy and its abrupt conclusion. Taifs 
 Magazine summed wp the situation in terms which 
 represented adequately the verdict of independent 
 spectators : — 
 
 " The Agitator has ceased to be master of the agitation. The 
 magician is impotent to exorcise — Las only a qualified and con- 
 ditional power to command — the spirit that his spells have evoked. 
 He cannot now do what he will with his own ; there is a power 
 in the Loyal National Eepeal Association, behind the chair, and 
 greater than the chair. Why did Mr. O'Connell take the first 
 opportunity he could find to snap his fingers at Federalism, so 
 soon after having deliberately and elaborately avowed a preference 
 for it? Not merely because Federalists stood aloof, and did not 
 seem to feel flattered by his preference, but chiefl}^ because Mr. 
 Dufi"y wrote a certain letter in the Nation — 3i letter, we may say 
 in passing, which more than confirms the sense we have long 
 entertained of this gentleman's, and his coadjutors', talent, 
 sincerity, and mental independence — refusing, in pretty flat terms, 
 to be marched to or througli the Coventry of Federalism. Mr. 
 O'Connell has since, not in the best taste or feeling, sneered at 
 ' the young gentlemen who thought themselves fitter leaders than 
 he was ; ' but the 3'oung gentlemen carried the day, nevertheless, 
 against the old gentlemen. ^Ye see in this, that there is a limit 
 to the supremacy of this extraordinary man over the movement 
 which his own genius originated; what he has done he is quite 
 unable to undo ; Eepeal has a life of its own, independent of his 
 influence or control; his leadership is gladly accepted and sub- 
 mitted to, but always under condition, that lie leads the right 
 way." 
 
 The genuine disposition of the party to avoid any 
 quarrel with O'Connell, compatible with the main- 
 tenance of their integrit}', is evidenced by con- 
 
208 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 temporary correspondence. I found among Davis's 
 papers a note I wrote to him at this time, before 
 leaving for London to keep my terms. 
 
 " Dillon and J. O'H. have been here to counsel two things, the 
 suppression of MacNevin's letter (on Young Ireland) as a pamphlet, 
 and the receiving of O'Connell's last letter as a full declaration for 
 Eepeal, as the Freeman has done. Dillon, who is anxious, will 
 speak to you about this himself. I am inclined to agree with him. 
 All we can hope from O'Connell is a practical return to Eepeal, a 
 verbal confession of error is out of the question. Dillon justly 
 argues, that if we treat him captiously, we will have no sympathy 
 from the people, who want to see him right, but don't want to see 
 him scolded." 
 
 During this visit to London we made an unsuc- 
 cessful attempt to carry our opinions into the House 
 
 of Commons. Mr. E , afterwards Lord , was 
 
 in personal and political sympathy with us, and one 
 of us wrote a speech which he uudertook to deliver 
 in that assembly. Pigot, in a note to Davis, an- 
 nounced the result of the experiment. 
 
 " Saw Dufify on the evening before. He looks somewhat torn 
 down, but better than I expected. We went to the House last 
 
 night to hear R , who stammered and spoke so badly that we 
 
 ran away before seeing him after the debate. It is true he said 
 the words that contained an iilea of our partj^'s policy, but he did 
 it so badly that they fell dead. The House was very kind, and 
 showed him more favour than he deserved." 
 
 The punishment of the Nation was indeed only 
 postponed. I have heard an experienced states- 
 man declare that the hardest penalties he suf- 
 fered in public life were penalties for doing some 
 manifest duty, and the young men were destined to 
 pay for their success in this unsought contest by a 
 long conflict with O'Connell, which proved disastrous 
 to them, and in the end fatal to him. 
 
 We have seen what Davis and his comrades were 
 
18i5.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 269 
 
 doing for the Irish cause, and how forbearing was 
 their judgment of O'Connell. They had won a right 
 to his absokite confidence, and the generous inter- 
 pretation which confidence begets; but strong men are 
 rarely magnanimous, and poHtical leaders, like kings, 
 come to regard independence as incipient treason. 
 There is now no doubt that the leader determined to 
 break with the young men, and, if he could not reduce 
 them to unquestioning submission, to reduce them 
 at any rate to political impotence. Paragraphs began 
 to appear in provincial papers charging Davis with 
 anti-Catholic sentiments. They might as reasonably 
 have charged him with anti-Irish prejudices. He 
 was a Protestant with the most generous and con- 
 siderate indulgence for the opinions of the bulk of 
 his countrymen. But it was a point on which the 
 people were naturally sensitive and ready to take 
 alarm. The first name which came to light in con- 
 nection with this detraction was a singularly unex- 
 pected one. Edward Walsh, a National schoolmaster, 
 contributed some sweet simple verses to the Nation, 
 and having afterwards fallen under the censure of the 
 Board of Education and got dismissed, supposed that 
 his connection with the Nation had done him a disser- 
 vice. I accepted this view of the situation, and 
 obtained other employment for him from Mr. Coffey, 
 proprietor of the Monitor. The close work of a news- 
 paper office galled him, and Davis, who sympathized 
 with the poet harnessed to unaccustomed work, got 
 him transferred to the staff of Conciliation Hall, and 
 after a little time procured him shorter hours and 
 better pay. These circumstances naturally increased 
 our surprise on reading, in a county paper, a letter 
 from Mr. Walsh, stating that Davis, during my absence 
 
270 MEMOm OF THOMAS DAVIS. [18^5. 
 
 on the excursion to Darrynane, had rejected one of 
 liis poems on account of the Catholic sentiments it 
 contained.* Making the largest allowance for the 
 sensitiveness of the poetic temperament, this imputa- 
 tion was little short of an act of baseness, for nothing 
 can be more certain than that such a motive did not 
 operate at all. 
 
 An attack of a much graver character came from 
 another quarter. The Dublin Review, in noticing 
 Maddyn's recent book, pointed out that the assailant 
 of O'Connell was a man who had once been a Catho- 
 lic but had abandoned his creed for a more prosperous 
 one, and it treated the criticism of such a person 
 with contempt. The review^er was a professor of 
 dogmatic theology, writing in a religious periodical, 
 and no one will wonder that he insisted on this view 
 of the transaction. But Davis, who was jealous for 
 his friend, and still more for religious liberty, censured 
 the spirit of the reviewer as destructive of Irish 
 union. 
 
 " If this be, as it seems, a threat, all we can say is, it shall be 
 met. The Eepeal Association, tinder O'Connell's advice, censured 
 most severely those in Cork who hissed a convert to Protestantism. 
 Neither he nor we nor any of our party will stand tamely by and 
 see any man threatened or struck by hand or word for holding or 
 changing his creed. If this were allowed (we say it in warning), 
 events would ensue that would indeed change the destinies of 
 Ireland." 
 
 The reviewer, who was a strong, passionate, but 
 perfectly honourable man, turned fiercely on his 
 critic, and, in a letter to the Weekly Register, ■f 
 denounced the Nation as teaching anti-Catholic doc- 
 
 * The letter appeared in the Wexford Independent. 
 
 t The Weekly Register (which had outlived the Morning Register, of 
 which it was an offBhoot). He wrote under the signature of " An Irish 
 Priest." 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CONN ELL. 271 
 
 triues. Several instances were cited wliich it was 
 perfectly possible for a teacher of dogmatic theology 
 to consider dangerous, but which were innocent in 
 design, and if they appeared in any Irish journal of 
 to-day, would not attract the slightest censure. The 
 reviewer would have scorned to make any charge 
 which he did not believe to be substantially true, but 
 he was in a passion, and he was fighting for his indi- 
 vidual will as vehemently as for his convictions. 
 
 These events gave a convenient text to Mr. John 
 O'Connell, and we found after a little time that it was 
 circulated among the priests south and north, that 
 there w^as a dangerous spirit in the Nation, hostile to 
 religion. It is needless to give any answer at present 
 to these accusations. The WTiters of the Nation have 
 lived their liA^es and for the most part died their 
 deaths, and the question is disposed of on the best 
 evideuce. But it is certain that a serious impres- 
 sion was produced at the moment, and carefully 
 worked up by the industry of the " Young Liberator " 
 with at least the tacit sanction of his father. Davis 
 was seriously moved by the fear that, after all that 
 had been done and sufi'ered, the national cause might 
 be again ruined by bigotry and hypocrisy. He was 
 still in Ulster when the letters of " An Irish Priest " 
 were published, and he wrote to me from Belfast : — 
 
 " I have written to J. O'Connell, O'Brien, etc., by this post, to 
 stop the lies of the bigot journals. I have done so less even on 
 account of the Nation (which can be steered out of the difficulty in 
 three weeks without any concession) than to ascertain whether 
 the Catholics can and will prevent bigots from interfering with 
 religious liberty. If they cannot, or will not, I shall withdraw 
 from politics ; as I am determined not to be the tool of a Catholic 
 ascendancy, while apparently the enemj- of British domination. 
 . , . The last Nation is excellent, and is another proof that, after 
 March next, you will be able to let me retreat for a year on my 
 
272 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 history [of Ireland]. I have given up verses since I left Dublin, 
 and feel as if I could not write them again ; so leave plenty (for 
 publication in the Nation) when you are goiug to London. I shall 
 be up by the end of the week. Hudson and I took a sly trip 
 through Monaghan, Leitrim, Eoscommon, etc. I am tolerably 
 well in body, and in good spirits." 
 
 On the same day, lie wrote to Smitli O'Brien : — 
 
 " I entreat of you," he said, " to write to O'Connell requiring 
 some disavowal, or at least a stop to the bigoted attacks on the 
 Nation. I wrote that a man had as good a right to change from 
 Catholicity to Protestantism as from Protestantism to Catholicity, 
 and called the State trial miracle ' mock,' and censured the Italian 
 censorship. I shall do so again ; and I shall never act with a 
 party that quarrels with such opinions. I will not be the con- 
 scious tool of bigots. I will not strive to beat down political, in 
 order to set up religious, ascendancy. Yon, unless I have much 
 mistaken you, will subscribe to what I now say. The Federalist 
 leaders here go entirely with me, and, in fact, now or never, we 
 Protestants must ascertain whether we are to have religious 
 liberty. I have written to J. O'C. on this. My defence of 
 D. 0. Maddyn (' Ireland and its Eulers,' part iii.) against the 
 Dublin Bevietc seems to have called out this attack. Is this to be 
 endured ? Is it even politic to endure it ? " 
 
 O'Brien's reply exhibits the jnst and considerate 
 character of the man. He put himself in the place 
 of his opponents in the controversy, and suggested 
 how much they might urge in support of their views. 
 
 "In compliance with yonr request," he said, "I have written 
 to O'Connell requesting his intervention to put a stop to the dis- 
 cussions arising amongst the national party. I have read the letter 
 of ' An Irish Priest.' It is very clever, very Catholic, and, if unity 
 were not essential, it would be a fair manifestation of opinion 
 adverse to those promulgated by the Nation. I need not say I 
 agree much more with the opinions of the writer in the Nation 
 than with those of the Irish Priest ; but, then, you and I should 
 remember that we are Protestants, and that the bulk of the Irish 
 are Catholics. I foresee, however, that unless O'Connell is able 
 and willing to act as a mediator on the present occasion, we shall 
 have a Priest and an Anti-Priest party among the Catholics of 
 Ireland. This I should much deplore. Unity is essential to our 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 273 
 
 success, aud therefore division at present would be madness ; but 
 even if Repeal were won, I should deeply regi'et such encroach- 
 ments on the part of the clergy as would justify organized resist- 
 ance, or, what is quite as had, infidel hostility to all those feelings 
 and opinions upon which religion rests. I make these observa- 
 tions without professing any sort of propagandism in regard of 
 the matter of Faith, aud as an. uncompromising advocate of civil 
 and religious liberty in its most unlimited sense." 
 
 I wrote a specific reply to the Irish Priest in the 
 journal where his letter had appeared,* and Davis, 
 who maintained friendly relations with the proprietor 
 since his brief connection with the Register, re- 
 monstrated with him personally on the injury he 
 was inflicting on the public cause. 
 
 " [Strictly private and confidential.] 
 
 " My dear Stau^'ton, 
 
 " You are a patriot, and you are not a bigot, and there- 
 fore I am at a loss to account for your having published an 
 anonymous letter full of illiberal princij^les and malicious hints. 
 Nothing would have tempted me to do so towards you. But, 
 laying that question aside, I seriously wish you to reflect, ere you 
 publish another of these documents, where tliis quarrel may end. 
 A man professing himself a Priest advocates a censorship, advo- 
 cates social ^persecution of converts from his creed ; is indignant at 
 praise of the greatest Irish writer of fiction alive [Wm. Carleton], 
 because he wrote anti-Catholic stories years ago, decries the 
 superstition of some of the Irish leaders of both sides ; and finally 
 cries out ' Infidels ' against those who are opposed to his intolerant 
 opinions. If his opinions be patronized by the Irish Catholics, 
 the Irish Protestants must feel that religious liberty is in danger, 
 
 * As re.spects the journal publishing the imputation, I reminded the 
 editor that there was not one of us now charged, with anti-Catholic designs 
 who had not frequently written iu his own paper, before the Nation came 
 into existence, and I invited him to account for the metamorphoses we mu.st 
 have \mdergone, if the imputation were well ibuuded, in passing from 
 Elephant Lane to D'Olier Street. As regards Davis, whose very name was 
 unknown to the bulk of the National party, I said, " I am ashamed that any 
 Catholic should, make a defence necessary iu the case of a Protestant who I 
 believe in my soul, has done more for the nationality of Ireland than any 
 man living but O'Connell — a man whose labours are traceable through all 
 the counsels and all the publications of the association, and iu a new and 
 healthy influence on the art and literature of the country." 
 
274 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 and will take measures to preserve it. Such, I assure you, is the 
 feeling amongst the members of my Church, strongly so among 
 the Repealers, and still more strongly among the Federalists, Of 
 course the least continuance of such a quarrel will be regarded by 
 the Conservatives as putting aa end to all hope of compromise. 
 I am resolved not to yield one of the points in dispute, nor to 
 submit for an hour to such an Inquisition. You must now see 
 that the very existence of a Repeal party is perilled, and I trust 
 that solely on puhlic grounds you will put an end to so hazardous a 
 quarrel. 
 
 " Truly and friendly yours, 
 
 " Thomas Davis.* 
 " To M. Staunton, Esq." 
 
 John O'Connell replied to Davis's remonstrances 
 in vague generalities, with a significant allusion to 
 the Federal controversy ; f but his father joined 
 issue in an able and trenchant letter, which treated 
 the remonstrances with scorn, thinly veiled within 
 irony. 
 
 " Dairynane, October 30, 1844. 
 
 " My dear Davis, 
 
 " My son John has given me to read your Protestant 
 philippic from Belfast. I have undertaken to answer it, because 
 your writing to my son seems to bespeak a foregone conclusion in 
 your mind, that we are in some way connected with the attacks 
 upon the Nation. Now, I most solemnly declare that you are most 
 entirely mistaken — none of us has the slightest inclination to do 
 anything that could in anywise injure that paper or its estimable 
 proprietor, and certainly we are not directly or indirectly impli- 
 cated in the attacks upon it. 
 
 " With respect to the ' Italian Censorship,' the Nation ought to 
 
 * 67, Bagot Street, November 6, 1844. 
 
 t " I need not in any way discuss the question of the letters of the ' Irish 
 Priest,' as my father has written to you on that subject, and I think I had 
 better not interfere; neither will I discuss the FederaUst affair. My father 
 has gone to town to show what his ideas, plans, and hopes are ; and you have 
 there the opportunity of discussing them with him, while I, in these remote 
 parts, remain in waiting for his words to intluence my opinions and acts. I 
 am very sorry indeed to gather from your letter that neither your bodily- 
 health nor spirits are what I sincerely wish them. Take care you do not 
 overwork both, as I strongly think you have done, especially the physical 
 vigour. To judge from your sweet poetry, the powers of the mind in no 
 way fail under their fatigue" (.John O'Connell to Davis). 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 275 
 
 be at the fullest liberty to abuse it ; and, as regards the ' State 
 Trial Miracle,' the Nation should be at liberty to abuse, not only 
 that, but every other miracle, from the days of the Apostles to the 
 present. 
 
 "But we Catholics, on the other hand, may be permitted to 
 believe as many of these miracles as we may adopt, either from 
 credulity or convincing proofs. At the same time, I see no objec- 
 tion to a Catholic joriest arguing any of these points, or censuring, 
 in suitable and civil terms, opinions contrary to his own. 
 
 "As to the Cork attack upon a Protestant proselyte, you know 
 that I publicly and most emphatically condemned it, as did the 
 Catholic press of Cork. 
 
 " With respect to the Duhlin Beview, the word ' insolence ' 
 appears to me to be totally inapplicable. All the Beview did (and 
 I have examined it again deliberately) was to insist that a man 
 who, from being a Catholic, became a Protestant, was not a faith- 
 worthy witness in his attacks upon the Catholic clergy. Now, 
 independent of that man's religion, of which I care nothing, there 
 never lived a more odious or disgusting public writer, with one 
 single exception, and that is the passage in which he praises you. 
 
 " The ' insolence ' of the Dublin Beview consisted, as I have said, 
 of merely stating that a pervert from Catholicity, who abused the 
 Catholic clergy, was a suspicious witness in declaring their guilt. 
 Would you not have a right, if a person who from being a Pro- 
 testant became a Catholic and abused the Protestant clergy, to 
 state that his evidence against them ought to be considered as 
 suspicious or even unworthy of belief? Yet, for no greater offence 
 than that, the Beview is attacked, and a high and a haughty tone 
 of threatening assumed in speaking of it. 
 
 "I really think you might have spared the insini;ation that 
 you and other Protestants were ' pioneering the way to power ' for 
 men who would establish any sort of Catholic ascendancy. I know 
 this, and I declare it most solemnly, that in the forty years I have 
 been labouring for the public I never heard one bigoted expression, 
 not only in our public meetings, but in our committees and private 
 discussions, from a Catholic; but I have often felt, amongst somf: 
 of the Liberal Protestants I have met with, that there was not the 
 same soundness of generous liberality amongst them as amongst 
 the Catholics. 
 
 " I hate bigotry of every kind — Catholic, Protestant, or Dis- 
 sent—but I do not think there is any room for my interfering by 
 any public declaration at present. 1 cannot join in the exaltation 
 of Presbyterian purity or brightness of faith; at the same time 
 
276 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 that I assert for everybody a perfect right to praise both the one 
 and the other, liable to be assailed in argument by those who 
 choose to enter into the controversy at the other side. But, with 
 respect to the Dublin Review, I am perfectly convinced the Nation 
 was in the wrong. However, I take no part either one way or 
 the other in the subject. As to my using my influence to prevent 
 this newspaper war, I have no such influence that I could bring 
 to bear. You really can much better influence the continuance or 
 termination of this by battle than I can. All I am anxious about 
 is the property in the Nation; I am most anxious that it should 
 be a lucrative and profitable concern. ]\Iy desire is to promote its 
 prosperity in every way I could. I am, besides, proud as an Irish- 
 man of the talent displayed in it, and by no one more than by 
 yourself. It is really an honour to the country, and if you would 
 lessen a little of your Protestant zeal, and not be angry when you 
 ' play at bowls in meeting rubbers,' I should hope that, this skir- 
 mish being at an end, the writers for the Nation will continue 
 their soul-stirring, spirit-enlivening strains, and will continue to 
 ' pioneer the way ' to genuine liberty, to perfect liberality, and 
 entire political equality for all loligious persuasions. 
 
 " If I did not believe that the Catholic religion could compete 
 upon equal and free terms with any other religion, I would not 
 continue a Catholic for one hour. 
 
 " You have vexed me a little by the insinuations which your 
 letter necessavilj^ contains, but I heartily forgive you. You are an 
 exceedingly clever fellow, and I should most bitterly regret that 
 we lost you by reason of any Protestant monomania. 
 
 "We Papists require co-operation, sujiport, combination, but we 
 do not luant protection or patronage. 
 
 "I beg of you, my dear Davis, to believe, as you may do in the 
 fullest confidence, that I am most sincerely 
 
 " Your attached frieiid, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell." 
 
 Some of the Protestant repealers shared Davis's 
 apprehension. Hely Hutchinson remonstrated with 
 Maurice O'Connell on the danger to the cause, and 
 Burke Eoche, afterwards Lord Fermoy, threatened, 
 a little too hoisterously perhaps, the measures of 
 defence he meditated. 
 
 "If I hear much more of this damned outlandish bigotry in 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH OXVNNELL. 277 
 
 Conciliation Hall," he wrote to Davis, "I will go over and give 
 3'ou all a piece of my mind, which will be more useful than 
 palatable." 
 
 Dr. Cane, oue of our most notable adherents 
 among the professional class, treated the move as 
 a pure party trick to be evaded, not a sincere senti- 
 ment before which it might be necessary to give way. 
 
 " You told me," he wrote to Davis, " if such a view spread itself, 
 you and a large number of Protestants would I'etire ii'om the pre- 
 sent movement. Now, am I safe of not offending 3^011 if I say. If you 
 have a statesman's eye, you must have seen how natural and how 
 likely was such a move ; and, if you are of the fit material for 
 a leader, that move could neither surprise nor atl'right you from 
 the national field. It would be but the arising of a new difficulty, 
 which would be removed, not by the man who blindly dashed his 
 shoulder against it, but by him who sloAvly, steadily, cautiously 
 placed the lever i;nder it, and with imperceptible moves overcame 
 it and cleared the way." 
 
 In the beginning of November Davis again wrote 
 to O'Brien, sending him country journals in which 
 the attack had been reiterated, and others in which 
 it was rebutted. 
 
 While Davis was thinking only of the public 
 cause, his associates were thinking of him ; they 
 determined to stake all they were or might become 
 in his defence. He was right, and grandly and 
 heroically right, and they would stand by him who- 
 ever might be his assailants. He must not be singled 
 out or isolated ; they were all his comrades, and 
 it was a common cause. The prevailing sentiment 
 was not alarm but bitter indignation. It seemed 
 to them manifest perfidy to the cause to assail the 
 man who had served it with most conspicuous genius 
 and a patient assiduity and self-negation without 
 parallel. O'Connell was receiving a princely income 
 
278 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 from the people ; his son was candidate for the suc- 
 cession to the popular trihunate ; but Davis sought or 
 accepted no reward for his labours, beyond the scanty 
 income of a journalist, and was unwilling that his 
 name should be ever heard in public places or seen 
 in the newspapers. 
 
 MacNevin was among the first to give expression 
 to this feeling. In a letter to a Belfast newspaper 
 he vindicated his friend. 
 
 " Woe," he said, " to the country wherein coiild be found a 
 single tongue to slander so pure and earnest a man ; one whose 
 indomitable labour, whose wonderful information and enthusiasm 
 are devoted, without one thought of ambition or self, to the arduous 
 task of raising up our country." 
 
 But his generous indignation carried him further. 
 Davis had friends, he declared, who would not 
 permit him to be sacrificed. They repudiated 
 the somewhat fantastic name of "Young Ireland" 
 which had been bestowed upon them, but they ad- 
 mitted and proclaimed the fact of their friendship 
 and union. They were members for the most part 
 of the professions, or artists or writers, of competent 
 means and liberal education ; and a habit of consult- 
 ing together and of meeting in social intercourse 
 gave them the appearance of a party, without an}'- 
 desire or design on their part. Why were these men 
 suddenly assailed in national journals ? Were they 
 tainted in morals, dishonest in their dealings with 
 the world, or disreputable in their conduct ? A charge 
 had never been made against any man supposed to 
 belong to their obnoxious school of any crime, vice, 
 immorality, or dishonesty, and they might at least 
 ask that unblemished lives and unimpeached honour 
 should raise the prejudice in their favour of strong 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 279 
 
 religious convictions. Most of the prominent men, 
 he went on to say, were Catholics — neither cold, in- 
 different, nor anti- Catholic. There were undoubtedly 
 anti-Cathohc Catholics, but they were usually crawlers 
 at the Castle gate — wretches who traffic on the sale 
 of the little bit of religion which they have left ; 
 men, whose servihty extends even to the prostitution 
 of their souls, and whose black and bitter bread was 
 earned by the barter of their faith. But it was not 
 men who joined the popular party, who worked in its 
 ranks with disinterested zeal, who toiled in its com- 
 mittees, and who exposed themselves to want of patron- 
 age at their profession, and to all the assaults of an 
 adverse and an angry press ; — it was not these men 
 who are usually found anti-Catholic, or infidel, or 
 indifferent. The enthusiasm which led them into 
 action would preserve them from the withering tenets 
 of the sceptic or the infidel. They adopted a re- 
 spectful and conciliatory tone towards their Protes- 
 tant fellow-countrymen ; they abstained from scornful 
 and angry controversy, and they would continue to 
 do so. They would prefer to endure the low and 
 ignorant abuse to which they have been lately ex- 
 posed, rather than to give the Protestants and 
 Presbyterians of Ireland any reason to suppose that 
 they sought to entrap them into a struggle for inde- 
 pendence only to make them the victims of sectarian 
 bigotry and ambition. 
 
 "And what was there that was new and fresh in the agiiation 
 in which this party did not participate — nay, I fear not to say it, 
 which they did not devise and originate ? Their ohject was, not 
 to supersede the wholesome excitement of public meetings — the 
 ancient and venerable routine of prescriptive agitation, — but to add 
 to the stimulant of public talking the quiet teaching of the press, 
 the instruction to be derived from books, the more refined excite- 
 
280 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1815. 
 
 ment of bold and vigorous poetry. Their songs are sung in 
 Protestant drawing-rooms, and their poets have received the 
 imbought approval of the greatest critics of England — poets, let 
 me add with pride, in some instances members of that Catholic 
 priesthood whose teaching we are slanderously represented to 
 disregard, and whose character and sacred profession we are, with 
 audacious falsehood, said to despise." 
 
 Character, he said in conclusiou, was dear to all 
 honourable men, and, as it was all the reward they 
 sought, they would not permit it to be filched away 
 in silence or with impunity. 
 
 The systematic design to defame Davis produced 
 a reaction which first taught the young men their 
 power. Hitherto they had never aimed at any other 
 result than to work silently in the national cause. 
 They were not popular in the sense of being familiar 
 and favourite names with the people, for to win 
 popularity there must be much self- display and self- 
 assertion, and most of them shrunk from exhibiting 
 themselves. Davis's position in the Irish movement 
 was not unlike Alexander Hamilton's in the American 
 Revolution, and Dillon was in some points akin to 
 Franklin. How obscure these founders of the United 
 States were in their day beside Patrick Henry or 
 Thomas Jefferson, yet without Franklin and Hamilton 
 the revolution would have probably been abortive. 
 Dillon, like Franklin, loved to reduce his- opinions to 
 axioms which lodged themselves in the mind. He 
 was fond of quoting Franklin's maxim, that justice 
 is as strictly due between neighbouring nations as 
 between neighbouring citizens, as a man is not less 
 a robber if he plunders in a gang than if he robs for 
 his own hand. And Davis, like Hamilton, silently 
 and in the shade was shaping the policy which other 
 men carried to council chambers and platforms. 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 281 
 
 Frederick Lucas, wlio in the j)i"esent controversy 
 and in many whicli succeeded it, sympathized with 
 Conciliation Hall rather than with them, estimated 
 the position of the young men fairly and liberally. 
 
 " They have been rapidly rising," he said, " into notice, and 
 into power. They are indeed subordinate to O'Connell, but they 
 openly avow that they belong to another school of doctrine; they 
 have grown up under the shadow of his wings. They have fought 
 cheerfully and loyally under his banners ; and, so far as we can 
 judge, they have never exhibited any symptom of a mean, stupid, or 
 illiberal jealousy of his extraordinary and overwhelming authority. 
 But, though they have displayed this free-will docility, 'this proud 
 submission,' 'this dignified obedience,' they have never concealed 
 the fact that they have marked out a clear and distinct course for 
 themselves ; that they are not the mere echoes of Mr. O'Connell's 
 sentiments ; that they are not the slaves or the servants of any man." 
 
 While this controversy was still running its course 
 it was checked by a counter-current. It became 
 known that the English Government, which had 
 long maintained occult relations with the Court of 
 Eome, had recently sent a gentleman of an old 
 English Catholic family to the Pope to induce him 
 to forbid Catholic bishops taking part in the Kepeal 
 movement. A letter had arrived from the Propaganda 
 bearing this character, and the question how it would 
 be received was anxiously debated among Protestant 
 Nationalists. The jealousy of foreign interference, 
 which Irishmen have always felt and still feel, burst 
 out like a volcano. All sections of the National 
 party, O'Connell, the Young Irelanders, and the 
 National Whigs took a decided stand against any 
 interference by Eome in our secular affairs, and it 
 became quite plain that fears in this direction were 
 altogether groundless. The bulk of the Irish bishops 
 interpreted the Koman letter as not interfering with 
 
282 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 tlieir liberty, and continued to act with the Eepeal 
 Association. 
 
 Other events ensued which made any open attack 
 on the young men impossible at the moment. Grey 
 Porter, of whom I have already spoken, joined the 
 Association on the specific condition that its accounts 
 should be audited and published. Lord Cloncurry, 
 who could not be induced to enter Conciliation Hall, 
 justified the hopes of the founders of the 'Eighty-two 
 Club by becoming a member of it. Neither of them 
 would have remained a moment if the bigotry 
 privately fomented made itself heard on the platform. 
 The Dublin Library, an old popular institution, 
 elected the principal Young Irelanders * and some 
 of their friends on its managing committee, and 
 Davis was admitted a member of the Eoyal Irish 
 Academy. The Art Union of Dublin, under pecu- 
 liarly Conservative management, offered for the first 
 time prizes for the best works by resident painters 
 and sculptors on Irish subjects. 
 
 Carleton, who had long and justly been regarded 
 as an opponent by the people, wrote at the instiga- 
 tion of the young men a powerful novel, exposing 
 the iniquities of the Irish land system. "Valentine 
 McClutchy " was originally intended as a feuilletou 
 for the Nation, but in process of construction had 
 swollen to a three-volume novel. Isaac Butt and 
 Joseph Lefanu, the political and literary leaders of 
 the young Conservatives, were engaged writing 
 historical novels, treating the wars of the seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth centuries with generous fair- 
 ness, and a flood of Irish books poured out equally 
 
 * Davis, MacNevin, John O'Hagan, Eichard O'Gonnan, Gavan Duffy, 
 and their friends Smith O'Brien and Sir Cohnan O'Loghlin, were among the 
 number. 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CON NELL. 283 
 
 from the Conservative and Nationalist press. A 
 translation by Jolin 'Donovan of the " Annals of 
 the Four Masters," the great storehouse of Celtic 
 history, was produced in handsome and costly volumes, 
 at the risk of the University. A popular edition 
 translated by Mr. Geraghty, a good Irish scholar to 
 whom English was somewhat a foreign tongue, was 
 announced, and Clarence Mangan undertook to turn 
 it into presentable English. The competition was 
 not desirable in the interest of Irish literature, but 
 it could not be prevented without doing more harm 
 than good. O'Connor's " Mihtary History of Ire- 
 land," revised by Samuel Ferguson,* was also in 
 preparation. The work done and influenced by the 
 young men made it a dangerous as well as a wicked 
 folly to disparage them. 
 
 O'Brien made a point that Davis should take the 
 chair at Conciliation Hall,t and a little later moved 
 
 * Afterwards Sir Samuel Fergusun, President of the Royal Irish 
 Academy, and author of " Lays of the Western Gael," etc. 
 
 t " I must positively insist upon your taking the chair next Monday. 
 Tlie time is come when you oucrht to act a prominent part in Irish affairs. 
 O'Connell will attend the meeting alter next (Jan. 20th), and there are many 
 reasons why it is better that you should make your appearance during his 
 absence." 
 
 The language Davis held in the chair was characteristic. He spoke the 
 simple truth, without a touch of exaggeration, when he said, from the chair 
 of the Association, " I thank you for your cheers : but it would not be candid 
 iu me to let you conceive that it was for them I laboured. I and others 
 work not for po^jular applause — if your shouts were given to our enemies 
 and your curses to us, we would work exactly as we are doing." And on 
 another occasion, " Trust me that no men in the country have more clearly 
 considered the greatness of English power and the animosity of English 
 feeling towards Ireland than the men who are now in that box (the box 
 reserved for the Committee), and who iu the Committee-room upstairs 
 laboured day after day to remove English rule from Ireland. Have you, 
 before embarking in this great contest, looked to the magnitude of it ? Have 
 you clearly weighed that this power which you seek to get rid of has now 
 ruled your country for six centuries ; that it is an empire with hundreds of 
 thousands of soldiers in India, and with an extent of Canadian territorj' so 
 large that from its face the whole surface of England and Ireland would not 
 be missed ; or are you men v/ho have rashly entered into perchance a quarrel 
 — certainly a serious moral struggle — with such a power as this ? If you 
 are, and you arc now looking upon these things for the first time, you w'ill be 
 
284 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [18 i5. 
 
 a vote of thanks to him for his valuable reports, 
 constituting the best part of the work done by the 
 Parliamentary Committee. 
 
 I have noticed how a quarrel with France during 
 O'Connell's imprisonment stimulated Irish hopes. 
 Since the imprisonment troubles with the United 
 States arose, w^hicli promised to have a still more 
 significant result on the policy of the country. 
 England had certain claims on the Oregon territory, 
 and the language used by the Prime Minister in 
 Parliament implied that she would support them by 
 force. At the opening of the session of 1845, Peel 
 recurred to the subject, and frankly declared that he 
 desired to make peace with Ireland before engaging 
 in a foreign contest. There was a dangerous con- 
 spiracy in thafc country against the authority of 
 Parliament which could not be broken up by force ; 
 but he was persuaded that it might be broken up by 
 a spirit of forbearance and generosity. And he was 
 about to make the experiment forthwith. 
 
 His first proposal was to increase the grant to 
 Maynooth College, and make it a permanent appro- 
 priation, instead of a vote on the estimates, which 
 provoked an annual faction fight. The Maynooth 
 Bill was fiercely resisted in England as "an endow- 
 ment of Popery ; " there was a stormy protest in the 
 House of Commons, and a hurricane of petitions 
 against it from the country. In Ireland the Nation- 
 alists received it thankfully, but the party who were 
 
 beaten, and will deserve to be beaten ; you will be trampled ou by the British 
 Minister. If you are cowards — if you are rash — if you are capricious men 
 \\ho shrink from long labour — I tell you, you will be beaten and put down 
 amidst the scorn of Europe, and you will deseive it. But if you have clearly 
 considered the cost of what you are doing, if you are resolved that you will 
 succeed — from this spot, in the name of my friends- -in your name — I may 
 tell the British Minister to give \\\) this idle contest in which he must 
 eventual! V be beaten." 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 285 
 
 in tranquil possession of a profusely endowed Church 
 and a wealthy University, opposed it tooth and nail. 
 The Evening Mail warned the Government that 
 resisting the higots was a dangerous game. " The 
 Union w^as carried by a rebellion in which the then 
 Government was more than suspected of being a 
 party. Let Sir Eobert Peel take care that it be not re- 
 pealed by a similar process." This was a threat, which 
 has since grown somewhat stale, that the Orangemen 
 would rebel if they did not get their own way. 
 
 After Peel's policy was announced, Davis wrote to 
 Denny Lane : — - 
 
 "I am weary wishing you here. The events as to Maynooth 
 will greatly wealcen onr enemies ; and Oregon promises well, 
 though I tnxst nothing to it. For onr hopes' sake do not let Cork 
 be guilty of any meanness should the Queen come. This should 
 be easy in Cork ; here it will be harder. But we are resolute and 
 timel}^ and cannot fail; so her coming shall be turned to good. 
 Why don't you write more songs? Your last, to the air of 'The 
 Foggy Dew,' was beautiful, and comes constantly on my recollec- 
 tion like a southern twilight. I have nearlj^ recovered the cold, 
 winter, and Repeal essays [he was one of the judges whose duty it 
 was to read a long series of prize essays on Eepeal], but have too 
 many things to do, and so my life is a string of epigrams which 
 displeases me. I am left too much without affections; but I am 
 coldly liappy and dutiful. . . . Duffy is well as a man can be who 
 sees his young wife dying by inches. Barry and the rest of the 
 set well, and more serious than they used to be." 
 
 Peel's second proposal was to found an adequate 
 system of middle-class education. Colleges would 
 be established in Cork, Belfast, and Galway, liberally 
 endowed by the State to provide a purely secular 
 education. To this scheme the bulk of the Liberal 
 Irish members, led on this question by Thomas 
 Wyse, gave a cordial welcome. A majority of the 
 Catholic bishops approved of the general design. 
 
286 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1815. 
 
 objecting to certain details. All the barristers and 
 country gentlemen in the Association, and the 
 middle-class generally, supported it. To Davis it 
 was like the unhoped for realization of a dream. To 
 educate the young men of the middle class and of 
 both races, and to educate them together, that pre- 
 judice and bigotry might be killed in the bud, was 
 one of the projects nearest to his heart. It would 
 strengthen the soul of Ireland with knowledge, he 
 said, and knit the creeds in liberal and trusting 
 friendship. He threw all the vigour of his nature 
 into the task of getting this measure unanimously 
 and thankfully accepted. The plan needed amend- 
 ment in essential points, but those who designed it 
 would not, it might be safely assumed, permit it to 
 be spoilt for want of reasonable amendments. The 
 students were to be non-resident, and there was not 
 adequate security provided for their good conduct 
 and moral discipline out of class. The appointment 
 of professors was retained in the hands of Govern- 
 ment — a method which tended to destroy academic 
 independence. But if these defects were removed, 
 the colleges would be an inestimable gain. There 
 was no people on the earth among whom systematic 
 education was so grossly neglected ; we sent out our 
 young men habitually to fight the battle of life with- 
 out the arms of defence or offence possessed by all 
 their competitors, and they commonly paid the 
 penalty in laborious and unprosperous lives. 
 
 The first note of dissension came from the mar- 
 plot of the National party. Mr. John O'Connell, in 
 the committee of the Association, denounced the 
 measure as a plot against the faith and morals of 
 the Irish people. This criticism would have been 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 287 
 
 treated with contempt but that his father unex- 
 pectedly came to his assistance. O'Connell during 
 his pubHc Hfe had repeatedly advocated the education 
 of our young men in mixed schools and colleges for 
 the same motives which influenced Davis, but he 
 now renounced this opinion as unexpectedly as he 
 had renounced Nationality for Federalism a few 
 months before, and, echoing the language of a Tory 
 bigot in the House of Commons, declared the 
 measure to be a huge scheme of godless education. 
 Davis besought him to keep the question out of the 
 Association, whose sole object was to repeal the 
 Union, and where angry debate was sure to follow 
 on such a collateral question. This truce O'Connell 
 positively declined, and at the first meeting in Con- 
 ciliation Hall he proclaimed his fierce antipathy to 
 the scheme. He was willing, he said, to leave the 
 question to the bishops ; if they accepted the 
 measure he would feel bound to do so, but meantime 
 his opinion was that it was hopelessly vicious. Mr. 
 John O'Connell followed. He denounced the Irish 
 members who had presumed to sanction this abomin- 
 able scheme in Parliament. The laity ought to leave 
 the question to the bishops, but, though willing to 
 do so, he could not altogether suppress the feelings 
 of abomination and execration at so infamous a pro- 
 posal. While the heir-presumptive employed this 
 language he was well aware that the best men in the 
 Association approved of the measure, but he probably 
 hoped that they would be silent to avoid dissension. 
 Peace may be bought at too high a price, however, 
 and Davis immediately followed him, analyzing and 
 vindicating the plan. O'Connell interposed to 
 declare that debate was premature, as they had not 
 
283 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 seen the measure. He could not blame Mr. Davis, 
 as the question had been opened by himself, but it 
 would be more judicious to wait till the bill was 
 printed. 
 
 Next day a renewed attempt to keep the question 
 out of the Association was made. A memorial, 
 signed by forty members of the general committee, 
 was privately presented to O'Connell supporting 
 this proposal. The remonstrance was so formidable 
 that he felt compelled to acquiesce. It was agreed 
 that the question should be mentioned no more in 
 the Association till the bishops had decided, but 
 both parties were to be at liberty to push their 
 opinions outside Conciliation Hall. Davis and all 
 the writers of the Nation appealed successively to 
 the people, and O'Connell wrote a series of leading- 
 articles in the Freemaii's Journal to refute them. 
 These proceedings were within the legitimate con- 
 ditions of the truce, but Mr. John O'Connell con- 
 sidered himself at liberty to use the agency of the 
 Association to send to the country for signature 
 petitions praying for the utter rejection of the Bill. 
 Among the men of mark in the movement there was 
 not so much as one who sided with the O'Connells. 
 But the men of no mark, "the parasites and pickers 
 up of crumbs," were very busy stimulating resistance. 
 And John O'Connell, who had recently represented 
 the Young Irelanders as indifferent to religion, found 
 here a lucky opportunity of insisting that his sus- 
 picions were well founded. But his sagacious father 
 began to discover a fact he had little suspected, that 
 with the Young Irelanders had grown up a new class 
 of politicians as different from his ordinary retinue as 
 the teetotalers were from the sots. 
 
1815.] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CONN ELL. 289 
 
 Smith O'Brien, being in the country at the 
 moment, wrote a letter supporting the colleges, 
 which he wished to have read to the Association. 
 When it was submitted to the general committee, 
 according to practice, O'Connell opposed its being 
 read while the question was temporarily withdrawn 
 from debate. It was urged that O'Brien ought to 
 have the same opportunity that other leaders had of 
 putting his opinions on record, and that a letter from 
 the country was not like a speech, a renewal of the 
 debate. But O'Connell would not jdeld the point, 
 and Sir Colman O'Loghlen and Davis, both friends 
 of O'Brien who shared his opinion on the point at 
 issue, consented to withdraw the letter for a time. 
 There was no choice between doing so and breaking 
 up the committee. But O'Brien was dissatisfied, and 
 complained in terms which seem to me to exhibit a 
 want of consideration unusual in him. 
 
 " Cabirmoyle, May 18, 1845. 
 
 " My dear Davis, 
 
 " Being inexpressibl}' annoyed by the suppression of my 
 letter on the subject of academical education, I sat down and 
 wrote a long letter to you on the subject, but fearing lest it might 
 give you unnecessary pain, I have since burnt it. I now enclose a 
 note for Mr. Eay, which I shall feel obliged by your transmitting 
 to him as soon as you have read it. If my letter appear in Tues- 
 day's Evening Freeman, or Wednesday's Morning Freeman, the object 
 which I had in view in writing it will be partly attained. I am 
 quite unable to understand why any except the ' Separatist ' of the 
 committee should have consented to its suppression. Feeling that 
 I have other duties to perform as well as this which belongs to 
 me as a member of the Eepeal Association, I cannot consent to 
 withdraw it. 
 
 " I hope, therefore, that there will be no further postponement. 
 It is quite impossible to conceal the differences which exist on the 
 subject of academical education. It would be base and unmanly 
 on my part to seek to conceal the strong opinion which I entertain 
 respecting a question in reference to which I have already taken a 
 
 u 
 
290 MEMOm OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 very prominent part, I have not the least objection that others 
 should state their opinions with equal candour, and, indeed, they 
 have done so already. There was nothing in my letter which 
 could possibly offend any one. 
 
 " I shall probably be in Limerick on Monday, so please to direct 
 thither. I shall not be able to attend the Navan dinner. 
 " Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 " William S. O'Brien. 
 
 " All well here. The country very charming." 
 
 Davis replied with a temper and forbearance which 
 must have realized, to a just and reasonable man like 
 O'Brien, how completely he was in the wrong. 
 
 " I should not have consented," he said, " to the holding over 
 of your letter, but that had it been read yesterday it would have 
 led to a violent debate which would almost necessarily have broken 
 up the association. Theire was no second opinion as to the danger. 
 Under such a peril I and others who concurred in your views 
 acted as we did, though certainly I felt that our doing so might cause 
 you much annoyance, and would be a very great libeity — one that I, 
 at least, shall never take again." * 
 
 The meeting of the Catholic bishops resulted in 
 a memorial to the Lord Lieutenant, professing their 
 '' readiness to co-operate with the Government on 
 fair and reasonable terms, in establishing a system 
 for the further extension of academical education," 
 but not in the proposal as it stood, which they con- 
 sidered dangerous to faith and morals. The terms 
 they proposed seem to me to fall within these lines, 
 
 * During the period of doubt, he wrote to Maddyn ; — 
 " I long more and more for your coming soon. We are, of course, anxious 
 about the academical question. Sliould the Catholic bishops go strongly 
 against mixed education, or should Government persist in claiming the 
 nomination and dismissal of the professors, the plan must fail. The latter 
 danger is the greater, as, by what I hear, the best of the bishops are with us. 
 Should the plan be freed from Government despotism and be carried out, 
 we shall have : (1) a home provision for a literary and scientific class; (2) 
 security for an educated middle and upper class in four or six years ; (3) we 
 shall have got over the last subject, short of fighting, which could break up 
 the partv. Our after-course will have only front foes, and I don't care for 
 them." "(May 18th.) 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 291 
 
 being essentially just and reasonable. They asked 
 that a fair proportion of the professors and other 
 office-bearers in the colleges should be Catholics, 
 whose moral conduct had been certified by testimo- 
 nials from their respective prelates ; that all ap- 
 pointments to office should be made by a board of 
 trustees, of which the Catholic bishops of the province 
 where the college was erected should be members ; 
 that any officer convicted before the board of attempt- 
 ing to undermine the faith or injure the morals of 
 any student should immediately be removed from 
 office by the board ; that as the students were to be 
 non-resident, there should be a chaplain appointed 
 to superintend the moral and religious instruction of 
 the Cathohc students, to be appointed on the recom- 
 mendation of the bishop of the diocese in which the 
 college was situated, who should also have the power 
 of removing him. 
 
 In a Catholic country, where a Protestant Church 
 was profusely endowed out of the earnings of the 
 people, and a Protestant university out of the confis- 
 cation of Catholic lands, and where education had 
 been an agent for proselytism for two hundred years, 
 these precautions were neither unreasonable nor 
 excessive. 
 
 There was another concession demanded which 
 might have been made the subject of a compromise. 
 The bishops pointed out that Catholic students could 
 not attend lectures on history, metaphj^sics, moral 
 philosophy, geology, or anatomy, as they were taught 
 by Protestant professors, without imminent danger 
 to their faith and morals. But history might have 
 been omitted from the course ; it is best studied in 
 the closet ; and Protestants, it was suggested, would 
 
292 MEMOIFx OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 not object to anatomy or geology being tauglit by 
 Catholic professors. With respect to the few remain- 
 ing subjects there might be two professors for each — 
 an expense and inconvenience worth encountering 
 for the inestimable advantage of rearing up a genera- 
 tion in habits of personal friendship. But O'Connell 
 was determined there should be no agreement. He 
 would defeat the Young Irelanders where they had 
 put forth all their strength ; and it may be further 
 surmised that he was determined Peel should not rob 
 his late allies, the Whigs, of the credit of conciliating 
 Ireland. Kt the meeting following the publication 
 of the bishops' memorial, he declared that they had 
 pronounced the nefarious scheme dangerous to faith 
 and morals, and affirmed that it must be rejected 
 utterly. Let there be separate colleges in separate 
 cities for Catholics, Protestants, and Presbyterians, 
 and no education in common. Mr. John O'Connell 
 followed, exaggerating the opinions of his father, and 
 denj'ing that the bishops sanctioned mixed education. 
 Smith O'Brien, who had at length the opportunity of 
 being heard, declared that he honoured the solicitude 
 of Catholics for religious education, but he himself 
 thought a system of adequate precaution might be 
 engrafted on the Government scheme. 
 
 Among Davis's fellow-students in College was a 
 young man named Michael George Conway. He was 
 gifted with prompt speech and unblushing effrontery. 
 In college his capacity was early recognized, and an 
 eminent man, who was a tutor when the}^ were under- 
 graduates, assured me that a more successful career 
 was predicted for Conway than for Davis. But he 
 wanted conduct and integrity, and had gradually 
 fallen out of men's esteem. He was among the 
 
1815.] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CO XX ELL. 293 
 
 candidates for the 'Eighty-two Club who had been 
 recently blackballed, and he came down to the Asso- 
 ciation burning for revenge. He fell on a chance 
 phrase of Barry's in the debate, misrepresented it 
 outrageously, and declared that it was characteristic 
 of his party and his principles — a party on which the 
 strong hand of O'Connell must be laid. 
 
 " The sentiment triumphant in the meeting that day was a 
 sentiment common to all Ireland. The Calvinist or Episcopalian 
 of the North, the Unitarian, the Sectaries, every man who had 
 any faith in Christianity, was resolved that it should neither be 
 robbed nor thieved by a faction half acquainted with the prin- 
 ciples they put forward, and not at all comprehending the Irish 
 character or the Irish heart. Were his audience prepared to yield 
 up old discord or sympathies to the theories of Young Ireland? 
 As a Catholic and as an Irishman, while he was ready to meet his 
 Protestant friends upon an equal platform, he would resent any 
 attempt at ascendancy, whether it came from honest Protestants 
 or honest professing Catholics," 
 
 During the delivery of this false and intemperate 
 harangue O'Connell cheered every offensive sentence, 
 and finally took off his cap and waved it over his 
 head triumphantly. He knew, as all the intelligent 
 spectators knew, that a man destitute of character 
 and veracity was libelling men as pure and disinte- 
 rested as any who had ever served a public cause, 
 and he took part with the scoundrel. It v/as one of 
 the weaknesses of his public life to prefer agents who 
 dared not resist his will ; but this open preference of 
 evil to good was the most unlucky stroke of his life. 
 Twelve months later he died, having lost his pro- 
 digious popularity and power ; and of all the circum- 
 stances which produced that tragic result, the most 
 operative was probably his conduct during this day. 
 
 Davis followed Mr. Conway. The feeling upper- 
 most in his mind was probably suggested by the con- 
 
294 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 trasfc between the life of the man and his new heroic 
 opinions ; and it will help to put the reader in the 
 same standpoint if I inform him that the pious Mr. 
 Conway finally professed himself a convert to Pro- 
 testantism to obtain the wages of a proselytizing 
 society. 
 
 Davis did not regard himself as a debater, but he 
 proved himself on this occasion to be a master of 
 debate. Cool, resolute, good-humoured, he raised 
 and disposed of point after point with unbroken 
 suavity, in a manner I have never heard exceeded in 
 legislatures or party councils. After a man has 
 served as a Cabinet Minister he speaks with more 
 confidence and decision ; and it need not be doubted 
 that the large influence Davis had exercised during 
 the imprisonment, and the cordial acceptance of his 
 proposals in committee, brought the confidence 
 which only comes from success, and he treated with 
 O'Connell, modestly but firmly, as the representative 
 of opinions which could not be disregarded. 
 
 " ' I have not,' Davis said on rising, ' more than a few words to 
 say in reply to the useful, judicious, and spirited speech of my old 
 college friend, my Catholic friend, my very Catholic friend, Mr. 
 Conway.' 
 
 " Mr. O'Connell : ' It is no crime to be a Catholic, I hope,' 
 
 " Mr. Davis : ' No, surely no, for ' 
 
 " Mr. O'Connell : ' The sneer with which you used the word 
 would lead to the inference.' 
 
 " Mr. Davis : ' No, sir ; no. My best friends, my nearest friends, 
 my truest friends, are Catholics. I was brought up in a mixed 
 seminary, where I learned to know, and, knowing, to love my coun- 
 trymen, a love that shall not be disturbed by these casual and 
 unhappy dissensions. Disunion, alas ! destroyed our country for 
 centuries. Men of Ireland, shall it destroy it again ? ' " 
 
 The reader knows in some degree what Thomas 
 Davis was, what were his life and services, what his 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CONN ELL. 295 
 
 relations to his Catholic countrymen were ; that he 
 had left hereditary friends and kith and kin to act 
 with O'Connell for Irish ends ; and they may estimate 
 the effect which the attempt to represent him as a 
 bigot had upon the generous and upright among his 
 audience. John Dillon ruptured a blood vessel (as 
 we shall see later) with restrained wrath ; others 
 broke for ever the tie which had bound them to 
 O'Connell. He was not worthy, they declared, of 
 the service of men of honour, who used weapons so 
 vile against a man of unquestioned honour. Davis 
 took up the question of the colleges, and examined it 
 with undisturbed temper and judgment. While he 
 spoke, O'Connell, who sat near him, distracted him by 
 constant observations in an undertone ; but the young 
 man proceeded with unruffled demeanour and calm 
 mastery of his subject. He cordially approved of the 
 memorial of the Catholic bishops, which declared for 
 mixed education with certain necessary precautions. 
 They asked for '' a fair proportion " of the professors, 
 meaning, beyond dispute, that the remainder should 
 be Protestants — this w^as mixed instruction. They 
 asked that the bishops of the province in which the 
 college was situated should be members of the board 
 — this was mixed management. They demanded 
 that, in certain specified branches, Catholic students 
 should be taught by Catholic professors — this was a 
 just demand, but it implied a system of mixed educa- 
 tion. They asked for Catholic chaplains to protect 
 the faith and morals of the students — a perfectly just 
 demand. He too denounced the Bill as containing 
 no provision for the religious discipline of the boys 
 taken away from the paternal shelter. And, beyond 
 all, he denounced it for giving the Government a 
 
296 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 right to appoint and dismiss professors — which was 
 a right to corrupt and intimidate. 
 
 O'Connell, who had aheady spoken for two honrs, 
 made a second speech in reply to Davis. His pero- 
 ration was a memorable one. The venerated hier- 
 archy, he insisted, had condemned the principle of 
 the Bill as dangerous to the faith and morals of the 
 Catholic people. 
 
 " But," he said in conclusion, " the principle of the bill has 
 been supported by Mr. Davis, and was advocated in a newspaper 
 professing to be the organ of the Roman Catholic people of this 
 country, but which I emphatically pronounce to be no such thing. 
 The section of politicians styling themselves the Young Ireland 
 Party, anxious to rule the destinies of this country, start up and 
 support this measure. There is no such party as that styled 
 ' Young Ireland.' There may be a few individuals who take that 
 denomination on themselves. I am for Old Ireland. 'Tis time 
 that this delusion should be put an end to. ' Young Ireland ' may 
 play what pranks they please. I do not envy theoi the name they 
 rejoice in. I shall stand by Old Ireland ; and I have some slight 
 notion that Old Ireland will stand by me." 
 
 I have elsewhere described the scene which 
 ensued.* 
 
 " When O'Connell sat down consternation was universal ; he had 
 commenced a war in which either by success or failure he would 
 bring ruin on the national cause. Smith O'Brien and Henry 
 Grattan, who were sitting near him, probably remonstrated, for 
 in a few minutes he rose again to withdraw the nickname of 
 ' Young Ireland,' as he understood it was disclaimed by those to 
 whom it was applied. Davis immediately rcijoined that he was 
 glad to get rid of the assumption that there were factions in the 
 association. He never knew any other feeling among his friends, 
 except in the momentary heat of pnssion, but that they were bound 
 to work together for Irish nationality. They were bound, among 
 other motives, by a strong affection towards Daniel O'Connell ; a 
 feeling which he himself had habitually expressed in his private 
 correspondence with his dearest and closest friends. 
 
 * "Young Ireland," book iii., chap. 7, " The Provincial Colleges." 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 297 
 
 " At this point the strong self-restrained man paused from emo- 
 tion, and broke into irrepressible tears. He was habitually neither 
 emotional nor demonstrative, but he had been in a state of nervous 
 anxiety for hoi;rs ; the cause for which he had laboured so long 
 and sacrificed so much was in peril on both bands. The association 
 might be broken up by a conflict with O'Connell, or it might 
 endure a worse fate if it became despicable by suppressing con- 
 victions of public duty at his dictation. "With these fears were 
 mixed the recollection of the generous forbearance from blame and 
 the promptitude to praise which marked his own relations to 
 O'Connell, and the painful contrast with these sentiments pre- 
 sented by the scene he had just witnessed. He shed tears from 
 the strong passion of a strong man. The leaders of the Commons 
 of England, the venerable Coke, John Pym, and Sir John Eliot, 
 men of iron will, wept when Ciiarles I. extinguished the hope of 
 an understanding between the people and the Crown. Tears of 
 wounded sensibility choked the utterance of Fox when Burke 
 publicly renounced his friendship. Both the public and the private 
 motives united to assail the sensibility of Davis. 
 
 " O'Connell, whose instincts were generous and cordial, and who 
 M'as only suspicious from training and violent by set purpose, 
 immediately interposed with warm expressions of goodwill. He 
 had never felt more gratified than by this evidence of regard. If 
 Mr. Davis were overcome, it overcame him also ; he thanked him 
 cordially, and tendered him his hand. The association applauded 
 their reconciliation with enthusiasm. After this episode Davis 
 resumed — 
 
 " ' He and his friends, in their anxiety to co-operate with O'Con- 
 nell, had often sacrificed their own predilections, and never opposed 
 him except when they were convinced in conscience that it 
 was a duty to do so. He trusted their disagreement would leave 
 no sting behind. If there had been any harshness of feeling, if 
 any person had made use of private influence to foster dissension 
 and to misrepresent them to each other, he would forgive it, if the 
 ofi'ence were not repeated. He would sit down with a praj'er to 
 Almighty God that the people of this country, and the leaders of 
 the people, might continue united in the pursuit of liberty in which 
 they were so often defeated before at the moment of its apparent 
 fruition ; and with a supplication to God that they might not be 
 defeated again.' " 
 
 Davis's friends were too angry at the injustice he 
 had suffered to sympathize with his generous emotion, 
 
298 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845, 
 
 and some of them remonstrated.* But lie was deter- 
 mined to make nothing of the incident so far as it 
 concerned himself. He wrote to Pigot : — 
 
 " I send you the Freeman of to-day, by which you'll see that 
 O'Connell and I came to a blow-up in the assuciation, but were 
 reconciled, and fancy ourselves better fiiends than ever. I hope so. 
 
 " I ought to have taken any other hour to write to you, for I 
 am out of spirits, liaving just come from seeing John Dillon, who 
 is ill, transiently I hope. Do not write to him of it, as he may 
 get nervous. He has had a cough all the winter, and got generally 
 excited at the meeting yesterday, and had last night a slight bleed- 
 ing in the lungs. Corrigan says it is a little delicacy and no more ; 
 but I shivered when I was walking home at the possibility of 
 danger to him ; but, again, do not write to him of his illness nor 
 mention it to any one. 
 
 " Some other persons for whom I am much concerned are ill, 
 and only for political vows and the ever-recurring destiny which 
 I feel not to let this effort of Ireland be vain, I should sink into 
 gloom. 
 
 " My own health is excellent. So, I'm told, is yours. 
 
 "You seem much pleased with Carlyle. Duffy and J. O'H. 
 told me some talk of his that I thought vicious, and affected to a 
 serious extent. 
 
 " In a fortnight I hope affairs here will be recovered from 
 several little ills." 
 
 And again, a few days later : — 
 
 " I am delighted to tell you that John Dillon is better, and 
 Corrigan thinks he can travel to the country at once. On Monday 
 night he had an alarming effusion of blood in the lungs, and con- 
 sumption was feared. He had been subject to coughs all the 
 winter, used to sit in hot rooms, drink quantities of coarse tea, and 
 take little exercise. His chest is now relieved, his voice strong, 
 and his spirits up, but he must take the greatest care of himself 
 and live healthily. The excitement of Monday (for he was sitting 
 
 * "Your speech was admirable; your emotion to me unintelligible. 
 Was not John O'Connell, the Tanist that is not to be, present ? Was not 
 
 Clements? Was not Hopkins? How the d could yon feel amongst 
 
 them? The air is rarefied with I'ascality ; how could you breathe in it? . . . 
 By the way, I hereby abdicate the title of ' the most eloquent member of 
 Young Ireland.' There is more real eloquence in your manly enthusiastic 
 truth than in all my tinselled antitheses. I am cured of my ambition " 
 (MacNevin to Davis). 
 
18i5.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 299 
 
 beliind me when I bad the row with O'C.) seems to have caused 
 the rupture, and as he has got over it the alarm may be useful. 
 
 "I fancy O'C. wished to make it appear to those not present 
 that he had some triumph over me, for he was very wrath at the 
 tone of the Nation of Saturday, where I treated him as an equal ; 
 but I believe we shall have no further fight on the subject. He 
 offered on Saturday to canvass Merrion Ward for me ; but as I was 
 not on the Burgess Roll I could not stand. 
 
 " The report in the Nation is more correct than the Freeman s. 
 Conway caused the fight, designedly, because we refused his 
 alliance, and he was blackbeaned in the '82 Club. O'Connell 
 stood up cheering him after his most rabid sentences. From the 
 moment I rose, O'C, who was only separated from me by Henry 
 Grattan, maintained a running comment to disturb and frighten 
 me and to rouse the people — half his insolence is not given — but 
 he utterly failed. I spoke twice as well as if he had let me alone, 
 and I was listened to admirably. His reply was nonsense and 
 abuse. When he sat down, Steele rose so quickly as to prevent 
 me, and I said to O'C. : 'Mr. O'Cunuell, you are mistaken in sup- 
 posing us a separate party, or that we ever called ourselves Young- 
 Ireland. It was a nickname given and used in jest,' His apology 
 for the name gave me an opportunity, as I thought, of rescue. I 
 was much excited ; I remembered huw I used to regard him; one 
 letter (to a woman) crossed my mind, and so I found my tears, and 
 lost my voice, and sat down. O'C. appeared to every one affected, 
 and has spoken of me since as ' embedded in his heart,' but that 
 certainly is gammon. If this day go off well all will be well. 
 
 " I am glad the Bill is to go on, but I abhor the plan of Govern- 
 ment appointments." * 
 
 He wrote in the same spirit to Denny Lane. 
 Lane's reply will enable a judicious reader to com- 
 prehend the motive -powder of the party — the desire 
 to serve Leland at whatever disadvantage, and the 
 total absence of persoaal aims. On one point I 
 believe Lane was ill-informed. I never observed 
 anything in the bearing of Davis towards O'Connell 
 which a just and honourable man would resent ; it 
 was respectful but not obsequious, the natural de- 
 
 * 67, Bagot Street, Monday, June 2, 18t5. 
 
300 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 meanour of one gentleman to another. After the 
 public reconciliation, the Pilot, the confidential 
 organ of the O'Connells, continued to assail Davis 
 with coarse brutalities, and it was difficult to be 
 solaced by a harmony with an accompaniment like 
 this. His friend Lane, however, considered such an 
 antagonist, even with his semi-official character, as 
 of slight importance. 
 
 " I have read the article in the Pilot which you sent me, but do 
 not think it worth notice. You stand on too high ground to be 
 affected by such mean, unfair, and grovelling attacks. Moreover, 
 the article is so long, so illogical, so dislocated, and so indistinct, 
 that you need never fear the writer unless he mends his pen. 
 There is, as far as I can learn, only one opinion here about the 
 unjustifiableness and tyranny of ' O'Connell's attack on Davis.' 
 I cannot conceive that any man could entertain a doubt about the 
 character of Conway's attack on Barry. I quite agree in your 
 opinion of your own conduct ; the being affected was certainly 
 unfortunate, as every one of the public will attribute it to weak- 
 ness on the subject you were then engaged in, and cannot of course 
 guess that your feelings were excited by any other than present 
 causes. But you were certainly right in the main in the course which 
 you pursued, as no one could have anticipated what followed on 
 O'Connell's part — a line of conduct impossible to have been imagined 
 by any reasonable being. There can be no doubt that the whole 
 proceeding was a heavy blow and great discouragement to Young 
 Ireland ; but never mind — a man must expect those rebuffs, and 
 they ought only to incite him to work on, while they often give him 
 a useful lesson, . . . The first is that O'Connell is the most popular 
 man that ever lived, and will be implicity obeyed by a great body 
 of the people whatever be the orders he gives them. Next, he is so 
 used to implicit obedience, and has so often been able to get on 
 after having cast off those who mutinied against his nod, that he 
 will think nothing of doing the same again. . . . Next, the man is 
 so thoroughly Irish and hearty, and so devoted to the religion to 
 which the people are devoted, that he is, without exaggeration, 
 loved by them as a father. Next, the Catholics are bound to him 
 by their gratitude for his achievement of Emancipation, and nine- 
 tenths of the priests throughout Ireland are his servants and the 
 people's masters. AYell, what does all this come to ? To this, that 
 
1845] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CON NELL. 301 
 
 liis power is irresistible, and that the power of the people of Ireland 
 is rendered ten times more effective that it would otherwise be, 
 being concentrated in his person, so that, even if it could, it should 
 not be resisted unless in extremities. Next, he does not bear 
 control ; you can give him no more than a hint of differing in 
 opinion from him. If you have power, and differ from him, you 
 cause a split and do serious mischief. Suppose you have no power 
 besides your own, if you differ from him he cuts you off and 
 destroj's your usefulness to the cause. Division has been our bane, 
 and is to be avoided b^^ every means short of dishonour, or great 
 or irreparable injury to the cause; if it becomes absolutely neces- 
 sary to differ from O'Connell, you must get O'Brien, who is a 
 sensible man, and who will do so only in an extreme case, to 
 express in the most temperate manner your dissent. O'Connell 
 would never have dared to treat him as he treated you. . . . I have 
 heard people remark, what I never observed myself, that there is 
 often in your manner something very dictatorial. I suppose that 
 I am so used to your impertinence that I do not notice the fault, 
 but I am sure it exists, and it is a very dangerous one ; it fre- 
 quently makes enemies, and always deters those who would other- 
 Avise become converts. Try and ses yourself as others see you, and 
 mend the fault. You must, in the first place, feign the modesty, 
 which I believe you possess, and do not irritate a man like 
 O'Connell ; consider your own position relatively to his, and wear 
 that deference of manner to liim which you know he loves. You 
 will thus make yourself as useful to the country as you possibly 
 can, under present circumstances, . . . Do not overvalue any 
 triumph in the committee ; 'tis not the conversations of the actors 
 behind the scenes that make the drama. Your committee is good 
 for pointing out what is to be done in the association — a kind of 
 undress rehearsal, but it is what is done in public that really 
 produces the effect. I have more to say to you, but I am afraid 
 you are tired alread}^ I will write to you again to-morrow about 
 the display here. Show this letter to Barry, and also, if you like, 
 to Duffy 
 
 " * 
 
 It was not Davis's habit to justify himself; he 
 had entire reliance in the good faith of his friend, 
 and he accepted the censure on his demeanour in 
 committee without protest. 
 
 * Lane to Davis, Cork, June 11, 1845. 
 
302 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 " In committee (in which I find myself more powerful than you 
 suppose) J. O'C. has been lectured by O'Brien and reproved by 
 all the Catholic bar. In truth, Clements, O'Dowd, Costello, Drs. 
 Nagle and Murphy, are the only supporters of separate education 
 among us now, for Browne is on ' mission ' and Conway is below 
 par. What you say of my general manner is, I fear, quite true. I 
 lose patience with the lying, ignorant, and lazy clan who surround 
 O'C. Indeed I have to maintain a perpetual struggle to prevent 
 myself from quitting politics in absolute scorn ; but my heart 
 melts, when I think it possible for a union of brave, patient 
 men to lift up the country, in more ways than politics. But 
 till the 'scene' in Conciliation Hall, O'C. and I were most 
 courteous in manner to each other, though freqxiently opposed in 
 opinion. 
 
 " By the way, O'C. is not sincere for separate education. In 
 the absence of the O'C.slast autumn, O'Neill Daunt and I prepared 
 by order of the committee resolutions positively for mixed educa- 
 tion. They were passed unanimousl}^ by both committees, O'Brien 
 in the chair. On Johnnj^'s first appearance in the committee they 
 were read to him, and he gave them a flat negative, saying he 
 wished Eoman Catholic education to be under the Jesuits. In half 
 an hour afterwards O'Connell came in, heard them, and said, ' I 
 have been for years and still am an advocate for mixed education.' 
 He then went on to say that it would be right to consult the 
 bishops. In a few days after he recanted this opinion, under (we 
 have no doubt) Johnny's influence. 
 
 " I never intended to notice the attack in the Pilot, though it 
 and the Newry Examiner [edited by M. J. Conway] keep constantly 
 at me and the Nation. The regard for O'B. is all assumed, as I 
 could prove to you. He was within an ace of leaving the Hall on 
 Monday, during Johnny's speech." 
 
 The motive and animus of the young men in 
 maintaining this contest for the education and dis- 
 cipline of their own class, will be best understood 
 by the utterance of one of them at this time in 
 impassioned verse — 
 
 " How sorrowful the useless powers our glorious Island yields — 
 Our countless havens desolate, our waste of barren fields. 
 The all unused mechanic might our rushing streams afford, 
 The buried treasures of our mines, our sea's unvalued hoard ! 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 303 
 
 But, oh, there is one piteous waste •whence all the rest have 
 
 grown ; 
 One worst neglect — the mind of man left desert and unsown. 
 Send Knowledge forth to scatter wide, and deep to cast its seeds, 
 The nurse of energy and hope, of manly thoughts and deeds. 
 Let it go forth ; right soon will spring those forces in its train 
 That vanquish Nature's stubborn strength, that rifle earth and 
 
 main — 
 Itself a nobler harvest far than Autumn tints with gold, 
 A higher wealth, a surer gain than wave and mine enfold. 
 Let it go forth unstained, and purged from Pride's unholy leaven, 
 With fearless forehead raised to Man, but humbly bent to Heaven. 
 
 " Let it go forth — a mightier foe to England's power than all 
 The rifles of America — the armaments of Gaul ! 
 It shall go forth, and woe to them that bar or thwart its way; 
 'Tis God's own light — all heavenly bright — we care not who 
 
 says nay."* 
 
 Davis was not turned aside a moment from his 
 task. He prepared a petition asking amendments 
 in the Bill, which was signed hy leading citizens 
 of Dublin, the flower of the Liberal bar, and every 
 man of weight or character connected with the 
 Eepeal Association outside O'Connell's family. The 
 petitioners declared that provincial colleges were 
 necessary in Ireland, and if judiciously managed 
 would be a public blessing, and they recognized the 
 policy of establishing them as wise and concilia- 
 tory. They pointed out the necessity for providing 
 religious instruction for students, separated in many 
 cases from their parents or guardians, and they 
 contended that it would not be found imj)racticable, 
 without omittiug necessary branches of knowledge, 
 to guard on one hand against doctrines subversive 
 
 * Mr. Justice O'Hagan, the writer of the above verses, wishes me to say 
 that, wliile retaining to the full the strong desire for education, as one of 
 tlie supreme wants of Ireland, he felt and feels that the Irish bishops were 
 entirely in the right in not accepting the Queen's Colleges. 
 
304 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 of revealed religion, and on the other against 
 tampering with the religious tenets of any class 
 of students. They also prayed for the opening of 
 Trinity College and the estahlishment of a system 
 of practical and industrial education there. As 
 respects the appointment of professors they suggested 
 that they might be chosen in the first instance by 
 a board of examiners named in the Bill, and after- 
 wards by the governing body of each College. To 
 Lane, Davis wrote : — 
 
 " I am glad you like my petition. If anything could change 
 my mixed feeling of admiration and censure of O'Connell into 
 genuine hostility, it would be the vicious adulation and lying 
 incentives proffered to him by the little, stupid, mercenary devils 
 about him, and his patronage of the vilest and weakest of them. 
 They are trying to drive O'Brien, myself, and others to secession, 
 hoping to have the uncensured handling of public money with 
 their gluey claws ; but they shall be disappointed and beaten." * 
 
 Dr. Cooke Taylor, who was in communication 
 with the Liberal leaders, assured Davis that most or 
 all of the points insisted upon in the petition would 
 be conceded. 
 
 " Under the seal of secrecy I can give you some information 
 
 * The political lackeys of O'Connell felt free to be insolent to a person 
 out of favour, and one of them — Captain Broderick, I think — demeaned 
 himself in such a manner that Davis referred to a friend the question whether 
 he ought not to hold him responsible for his conduct in the manner then 
 usual. This note, from M. J. Barry, says all that is needful on the point : — 
 
 " The gentleman whom I consulted is advanced in life, was formerly in 
 the army, has been engaged in several affairs of honour, and would, I am 
 satisfied, recommend no course which was not strictly in accordance with the 
 most rigid demands of self-respect. I stated to him as fully as I could 
 remember all that occurred, omitting nothing that could be considered to 
 constitute an affront, either in manner or language, aad his distinct opinion 
 was that there was no ground for demanding an explanation, but that tlie 
 best course was to let the matter rest. Under these circumstances I could 
 not feel justified in advising you to any other course, and I am quite satisfied 
 to take on myself the full responsibility of recommending you to take no 
 further steps in the transaction. 
 
 " Show this letter to no one but Duffy or O'Brien ; but show it to these, 
 if you choose." 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CON NELL. 305 
 
 respecting the leading points in your petition. The appointment 
 to professorships will depend on some kind of examination, either 
 of testimonials ov of candidates themselves, and will not be a mere 
 piece of ministerial patronage. The Government is disposed 
 to open Trinity College, hut hopes to effect this object by a 
 proposal emanating from the college itself; the recent decision in 
 Heron's case is deemed likely to remove many difficulties. Deans 
 such as you recommend will certainly be appointed, and I believe 
 that every suggestion your petition contains will be acted upon to 
 the full extent. The only question will be as to the mode of 
 attaining; there is pretty cLjse agreement about the end to be 
 attained." 
 
 It was determined in the committee of the 
 Association that the Irish members should attend 
 Parhament for a short time, and strive to effect 
 amendments in the BilL To O'Brien, who arrived 
 first in London, Davis wrote : — 
 
 " O'Connell goes over [to London] to-night, and so much the 
 better. The effort of the Eepeal members [to amend the Bill] 
 should be made with all their force. It is also desirable that he 
 should be removed for a while from the persons who suggest 
 suspicions, alarm his Catholic feelings, and stimulate his large 
 but vehement soul. 'Tis marvellous what evil influence such 
 little creatures can exercise over so great a mind. We had a most 
 serious affair in committee yesterday, in which all Protectants 
 who interfered in the education question were denounced in the 
 strongest courteous language by O'Connell and his son, and by 
 other parties in a rougher fashion. O'Connell seemed anxious 
 that the supporters of mixed education should secede from the 
 association; but none of us did so, nor ought we under ann 
 circumstances short of impending expulsion. We have the samo 
 right to be in the a^•soc:atiou as any others, and no person ought, 
 on the principles of the association, to force on any question, 
 except Kej)eal, against the will of any considerable body of active 
 members. However, if there is to be a break-up, the longer 'tis 
 postponed the better; and you should on no account be absent 
 whenever O'Connell brings the question to such an issue, as ho 
 threatens to do on his return from London, In such a case, 
 dignified, cool, firm, combined action may enable us to avert dis- 
 aster fiom our cause and country. The subject is not to be raised 
 
 X 
 
306 MEMOm OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 in the association till O'Connell's return. He or his son lias 
 forwarded petitions plump against the Bill to the country." 
 
 Pigot reported the arrival of the Irish members 
 at the scene of action : — 
 
 " Last night I went to the House to see O'Brien. His motion 
 was on, so he could not come out to me. John O'Connell did, to 
 my great surjjrise. It was an unexpected pleasure to find he had 
 rot been left at home in Ireland to ruin matters while O'B. was 
 away. Maurice will be easier to deal with. O'C. himself came 
 np to the gallery to see me, but we had no word of politics, of 
 course, in such a place. I hope, from his manner last night, that 
 there is some chance of his being mild and reasonable in committee." 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel held out hopes that he would 
 modify the method of appointing professors, and he 
 promised to add clauses facilitating the endowment 
 by private benevolence of divinity lectures and the 
 erection of halls for their delivery. He was eager 
 to make the measure a practical success, but he had 
 the bigotry of England in revolt against him, and 
 O'Connell, whom he was accustomed to regard as 
 the legitimate spokesman of Irish opinion, showed 
 no disposition to be contented with any amendments. 
 He wrote repeatedly private notes to the Archbishop 
 of Tuam that the bishops had the game in their 
 hands, and would get all they wished if they only 
 stood iirm.* The result proved to be very different ; 
 the Bill was read a third time without serious modifi- 
 cation, and two generations of young Irishmen have 
 paid the penalty of mistakes on both sides which 
 rendered futile a beneficent design. | 
 
 * " Private Correspondence of O'Connell "' (John Murray, 1888). 
 
 t Some hopes were entertained that the Liberal members would succeed 
 without O'Connell, but they came to nothing. Pigot wrote to Davis : — 
 
 " I agree in your wish for success tliroui:h Wyse and corupany, and 
 perhaps it may be the result, too ; yet 'tis not that we ought to prepare for. 
 One great advantage is that good preparation for one implies and leads to 
 the best preparation for the other. The moment I am well enough I will 
 
lS4r>.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 307 
 
 In view of O'Connell's return to Dublin, the 
 project of breaking with the friends of mixed educa- 
 tion was eagerly debated among the partisans of the 
 "Young Liberator." A barrister without practice, 
 capacity, or conduct, who had been blackballed with 
 Mr. Conway in the club, publicly resigned his con- 
 nection w^ith the Association as he could not act 
 there with men w^ho expressed their want of confi- 
 dence in him elsewhere. Others who feared the 
 same discipline made his grievance their own, and 
 called on O'Connell to defend his true friends. Some 
 of the young men w^ere disposed to end the contest 
 by quitting the Association, but O'Brien, to whom 
 the design was reported, was against secession. 
 
 " I hope," lie wrote to Davis, " no one will dream of resigning. 
 The association is formed for national objects, and not to promote 
 the views of any one or more individuals. I trust, however, that 
 all the momentary difficulties which embarrass us will be removed, 
 and that we shall advance forward with increased rapidity. . . . 
 You ought to arrange that two or three of our young speakers 
 should take a part on each Monday during O'Connell's absence. 
 It is of the utmost importance that the country should bo made 
 to feel that Eepeal does not depend upon A or B or C, but will 
 always have champions bold, yet discreet, until the end shall be 
 attained." 
 
 Davis reassured him : — 
 
 " O'Loghlen [Sir Colman] and all whom I have consulted are 
 firm against secession, O'Loghlen proposes, and I agree with him 
 fully, that if O'Connell on his return should force the question on 
 Conciliation Hall, an amendment should be moved that the intro- 
 duction of such a question, against the wish of a numerous and 
 respectable portion of the committee, is contrary to the principles 
 of the association and likely to injure the cause of Repeal. A 
 steady elaborate discussion for a number of days would end in the 
 withdrawal of the motion and amendment, or in rendering the 
 
 begin my share again. Did you get the books as well as maps? I have 
 made an abstract into a MS. book, after the manner of the ' Maximes/ and 
 with a view to publication." 
 
308 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 motion, if carried, powerless. An explanation would follow, and 
 — tlie cause would still be safe. Secession would give Ireland up 
 without a contest to the bigots ; it would, besides, be criminal and 
 hardly honourable to secede, as if, forsooth, we had joined a retinue, 
 not a free league, and could take up our hats and abandon the 
 cause on receiving offence or injustice. . . . Once this peril is over, 
 all will be safe." 
 
 A few days later he says : — 
 
 " I have been, and am, doing all in my power to prevent the 
 injurious results of the differences on the Colleges Bill, and have 
 been fortunate enough to put an end to a discussion in committee 
 which was tending fast to mischief. In my mind any advantages 
 to be derived from the Bill are not worth even a moment's division 
 amongst us." 
 
 To this opinion O'Brien cordially adhered; he 
 was not prepared to sacrifice the greater cause to 
 the lesser : — 
 
 '*! feel entirely the importance to the cause of Eepeal of my 
 maintaining sincere, unreserved, and friendly co-operation with 
 O'Connell ; but I am bound also to add that, under the present 
 circumstances of our relative positions, I would prefer to withdraw 
 for a time from active efforts in the association, rather than 
 appear there as an adversary to his policy." * 
 
 All these proceedings, threatening, as he helieved, 
 religious liberty, deeply moved Wallis, and he un- 
 bosomed himself in a letter to Davis : — 
 
 " 'Tis a crushing blow, at the back of all other public and 
 private discomfitures, to behold, in the sixteenth year after Eman- 
 cipation, a deliberate and almost undisguised demand for the 
 establishment of an Inquisition in Iieland — not as bad as the old 
 inquisition of Spain and Portugal, but far worse — an inquisition 
 not expending its chief solicitude about the lana caprina of doc- 
 trines and ceremonies, or wielded as an engine of state by super- 
 annuated despotisms,— not such — not an inquisition of autos da fe 
 — but a far sleeker and subtler practitioner of moral infanticide, 
 and procurer of mental abortion, providing for the perpetual falsi- 
 fication of history, and menacing with extreme penalties all honest 
 * O'Brien tu Davis, Limerick, Decemb.-r 1, 184:4, 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 309 
 
 interpretation of the works of God ; wlietlier it be the Earth 
 which is His footstool, or Heaven which is His throne, or the body 
 of man which is His image, or the mind of man which is deemed 
 to be a quenchless spark of Himself. Talk of penal laws against 
 certain modes of worship ! What are these to penal discourage- 
 ments of all that does honour to human nature, of those who are 
 the very salt of the earth ; the miners and inventors, the essayers 
 and utterers of truth ? And then, to see, in Ireland, the more 
 honest portion of the National party taking letuge under those 
 very resolutions of the bishops, from the still more revolting 
 extravagancies of a ferocious demagogue ; and, in England, not one 
 word of honest rebuke from any representative of any party — in 
 Parliament, I mean, where it was most imperatively called for; — 
 I cannot digest it ; it literally chokes me to think of it." 
 
 Here was a contest iu which men of hberal 
 instincts outside Ireland could scarcely hesitate in 
 choosing sides. But so perverse and intractable are 
 national prejudices, that his most bitter assailants 
 were some of the leaders of liberal opinion iu Eng- 
 land. In an article written by Thackeray, which 
 took the form of a letter from "Mr. Punch (of 
 Puncli) to Mr. Davis (of the Nation),'" Davis was 
 turned into contemptuous ridicule, for presuming to 
 maintain his opinions against O'Connell, and assured 
 that, since Marat a more disagreeable demagogue 
 had not appeared than himself. 
 
 At the instance of Davis and O'Loghlen it was 
 determined to hold a national levee on the anniversary 
 of the O'Connell imprisonment, where a public 
 pledge might be renewed that corruption should not 
 seduce, nor deceit cajole, nor intimidation deter the 
 Irish people from seeking self-government. It was 
 held in the historic Round Eoom of the Eotunda, 
 and was attended by the municipal authorities and 
 the Repeal leaders from all the great centres in 
 Ireland. Some of the deputations urged upon both 
 
310 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 parties in the late contest that further division would 
 be fatal, and would not be supported or sanctioned 
 by the country. 
 
 Davis in a note to Maddyn described the im- 
 pression the national levee made upon him : — 
 
 " The most impressive scene I ever witnessed in a popular 
 assembly was when O'Brien pioposed the pledge. He shook like 
 an oak in storm with excitement, and his voice was like the wind 
 through its boughs. 
 
 " If I had to deal only with O'Connell we never would fall out ; 
 but he is surrounded by sycophants who lie away againsst every 
 man whose honesty they fear. Howevei', we are good friends 
 now, and if the Catholic laity are hold and _/jrm, the only question 
 likely to endanger our confederacy will be happily solved," 
 
 And to Pigot he wrote on the same subject : — 
 
 "Friday bi'ought the most iinjDosing scene I ever witnessed. 
 When O'Brien came to propose the pledge, the corporations were 
 seated in order down the side of the pillar-room, the club and 
 others on the floor, an oval space was in the centre with O'Brien 
 at one end and the Chair at the other; I was close to O'B., and 
 his breast heaved and his eyes clouded, and his voice gurgled with 
 passions. The assembly was as solemn, and the pledge was taken 
 in earnest. The ' martyrs ' [the late Eepeal i^risoners] were pre- 
 sent, and they signed the parchment afterwards. The round- 
 room was really a noble sight, and our club curved round the 
 seven oligarchs, and, stretching into the passages, gave it a military 
 air. The procession was immense, and spectators up to the 
 chimney-tojDS. Among the lookers-on was the Lord Lieutenant. 
 He was in a room in Sackville Street. The day was really great, 
 and the effects will be serious." 
 
 But the contest, of which the college question 
 was only the outward sign, was suspended, not com- 
 posed. To O'Brien Davis wrote confidentially his 
 impression of the actual position of affairs : — 
 
 " I will not interfere again till an attempt be made to pledge 
 the association to evil resolutions. If the O'Connells wish, they 
 can ruin the agitation (not the country) in spite of an}- one. 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 311 
 
 Between unaccounted-fur funds, bigotry, billingsgate, Tom Steele 
 missions, crude and contradictory dogmas, and unrelieved stupidity, 
 any cause and any system could be ruined. America, too, from 
 whence arose 'the cloud in the west' which alarmed Peel, has 
 been deeply offended, and but for the Nation there would not now 
 be one Repeal club in America. Still we have a sincere and 
 numerous people, a rising literature, an increasing staff of young, 
 honest, trained men. Peel's splitting policy [a policy which split 
 up the Tories], the chance of war, the chance of the Orangemen, 
 and a great, though now misused, organization ; and perhaps next 
 autumn a rally may be made. It will require forethought, close 
 union, indifference to personal attack, and firm measures. At this 
 moment the attempt would utterly fail ; but parties may be 
 brought down to reason by the next four months. Again, I tell 
 you, ) ou have no notion of the loss sustained by John O'Connell's 
 course. A dogged temper and a point of honour induce me to 
 remain in the association at every sacrifice, and will keep me 
 there while there is a chance, even a remote one, of doing good 
 in it." 
 
 This was O'Brieu's reply : — 
 
 "It is quite true that the tone taken by John OConnell has 
 done infinite mischief, and upon this point I have not concealed 
 my opinion from him. But I am not disposed, on that account, to 
 despond. The care which ought to be taken by the friends of 
 mixed education with regard to the matter should not be less firm 
 because we do not agree with the sentiments which he has put 
 forward. We have declared that we would repudiate the College 
 Scheme unless it gave security to religious men of all parties, that 
 religion should not be excluded wholly from these institutions — 
 and unless public liberty should be protected from the corrupt 
 influences of such extensive Government patronage. Whilst 
 therefoie no practical difference now arises between us and the 
 separate educationists, we are, in my opinion, bound to sustain 
 them in their opposition on those grounds on which we have our- 
 selves (whether wisely or not is not now the question) proclaimed 
 our opposition to the measure." 
 
 Davis's friends were determined that he should 
 no longer shelter himself from the public recoguition 
 of his services. Invitations came to him from the 
 provinces to various public entertainments. But 
 
312 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 this was not enough. For three years he had given 
 all his time and thought to the pnhlic cause, and 
 men to whom it was a profitahle trade to undertake 
 missions and other temporary employments for the 
 Eepeal Association scoffed at him as a briefless 
 barrister. He was briefless because he declined to 
 hold briefs, but he was competent to be a great 
 lawyer, and some of his friends urged him to go 
 circuit, and establish habitual relations with his pro- 
 fession. The project did not receive the universal 
 assent of his comrades. Dillon wrote to me : — 
 
 "If Davis will not attend two public dinners, I would much 
 rather he would select Sligo than Galway. Ttll him I will write 
 to him from Sligo, and, as I would say the same things to both of 
 you, that letter will do for you, and you can shew him this. I 
 was greatly annoyed at hearing a report that he was going circuit. 
 That, I think, w^ould be altogether ruinous. Every one would say 
 that he was driven out of politics. I have been thinking that he 
 and you ought to start a penny magazine, and conduct it your- 
 selves, making use of James Dufty to circulate it. If you would 
 join in the speculation I am certain it should necessarily succeed, 
 and it would be a powerful engine. ' It stands upon 3'oa ' to work 
 against the powerful confederacy that has been formed to crush 
 you, and in your persons everything that is upright and inde- 
 pendent in the country. Ma^' God defend the right." 
 
 On the other hand Denny Lane approved of the 
 design on public grounds : — 
 
 " I am very glad," he wa-ote to Davis, " to hear that you are 
 coming down to the Assizes. The going circuit, I think, more 
 than any thing else, can make a man acquainted with the provincial 
 mind of Ireland, which is really of much greater proportionate 
 power than the ex-metropolitan mind of any other country. In 
 fact we have no metropolis — neither the court of claret-coloured 
 coats nor that of wigs and gowns is enough to make Dublin any- 
 thing but a country town. We have no theatre, no periodical 
 literature, no gathering of artists, no great merchants, above all, 
 no legislative assembly collecting into a focus every raj' of intellect 
 and enterprise in the country. In fact we have nothing of what 
 
1345.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 313 
 
 nialces Paris or other capitals the 'governor' of the great engine 
 of a nation." 
 
 From this time forth till the day of his death 
 Davis was habitually slandered in private gossip by 
 a herd of blockheads who thought abuse of him a 
 sure road to favour with Mr. John O'Connell, who 
 now posed as the victor in the late contest. 
 
 When the autumn approached, the leaders of the 
 Association scattered for their usual holiday, and this 
 feeble, barren young man was placed by his father in 
 supreme control of the great popular organization. 
 It is still a point in controversy whether the dis- 
 astrous use he made of this opportunity was the result 
 of simple incapacity, or of that malicious spirit which 
 the Americans call " cussedness." It is certain that 
 he wished to rehearse the part of dictator, and was 
 not indisposed to do whatever the Young Irelanders 
 wished to be left undone. Week after week new 
 outrages were committed against the fundamental 
 principles on which the national confederacy rested. 
 It was open to Irishmen of all political opinions 
 who desired the repeal of the Union ; but it was 
 suddenly pledged to a Whig-Radical programme of 
 measures to be obtained at Westminster. It was 
 bound to cultivate the goodwill of friendly nations, 
 as an important moral auxiliary ; but the two most 
 friendly nations in the world, the only two wbich 
 took any genuine interest in our affairs, were wan- 
 tonly insulted. O'Connell himself declared that he 
 would not accept repeal if it were to be obtained 
 with the assistance of such a people as the French, 
 and he proffered England Irish assistance in the 
 Oregon controversy, to pluck down the stripes and 
 stars. That the Association should be free from sec- 
 
314 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 tariaii controversy was a condition of its existence ; 
 but week after week harangues were delivered on the 
 German Catholic Church, and the holy coat of Treves. 
 One of the most respectable men in the movement, 
 an adherent of O'Connell from the Clare election 
 down to that day, was asked by the Young Liberator 
 how he dared to come to the Association to remon- 
 strate against the attacks on America as unwise and 
 unnecessary. The evil wrought only concerns us 
 here from the necessity of explaining allusions in 
 Davis's correspondence, which might otherwise be 
 unintelligible. 
 
 The move towards Whig-Radicalism greatly 
 alarmed Smith O'Brien, who counted on Tory ad- 
 hesions. He wrote to Davis : — • 
 
 " I much regret to find that O'Connell has given notice of 
 some resolutions which commit the association to the adoption 
 of an opinion in favour of household suffrage, vote by ballot, the 
 voluntary principle, the al)olition of the poor-law. Nothing can 
 be more injurious than this plan of giving notice without con- 
 sulting the cmnmittee. Nothing can be more fatal to the success 
 of the cause than that it should be promulgated that those who 
 wish to give to Ireland a domestic legislature must consider them- 
 selves pledged to measures of so extreme a character as those 
 involved in these resolutions. . . . Having received lately inti- 
 mations of support of the Repeal cause from quarters in which I 
 did not in the least expect to find it, I am doubly disappointed in 
 finding that the policy about to be adopted b}-^ the leaders of the 
 association is such as to destroy all my hopes of immediate pro- 
 gress. We shall succeed in the end, but it is too bad that we 
 should so often spoil our own game and raise up difficulties and 
 delays." * 
 
 Of the attack on America, Dillon wrote to 
 
 Davis : — 
 
 " Everybody is indignant at O'Connell meddling in the business. 
 His talk about bringing down the pride of the American Eagle, if 
 
 * July 23, 1845. 
 
1845.] CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL. 315 
 
 England would pay us sufficiently, is not merely foolish, but false 
 and base. Such talk must be suprenielj" disgusting to the Ameri- 
 cans, and to every man of honour and spirit. He lectures the 
 Spectator for saying that the ' loyalty' of the Irish may be secured 
 for a ' consideration,' and he says the same himself the next 
 moment. The plain policy of the party now is to assume a 
 menacing attitude, for either there will be a war or England will 
 be obliged to shrink." 
 
 The effect of the mispolicy was speedy and signal 
 in America. The Eepeal Associations in Baltimore, 
 New Orleans, and other cities were dissolved, and. 
 the native press was furious against our ingratitude. 
 But the attack on individual liberty outraged Dillon 
 more than the blunders in 2:)ublic policy. 
 
 " I have just read," he wrote to Davis, " with inexpressible 
 disgust, the speech of John O'Connell, and the scene which followed 
 between himself and Scott. It behoves you to consider very 
 seiiously whether the Nation is not bound to notice this matter. 
 I feel very desirous that you personally should avoid any further 
 encounter with the O'Connells for some time. ... In truth, from 
 the turn matters are now taking, a decent man cannot frequent the 
 public meetings ; for he must either create dissension or have his 
 reputation damaged by silently listening to the absurd and mis- 
 chievous stuff that is talked there. But I doubt much whether a 
 new.sptper can, without compromising its character, allow these 
 proceedings to pass unnoticed. My notion is that Scott has a 
 right to protection, and that the public will, or oiTght to, feel 
 indignant if this protection be withheld. The Nation could not 
 possibly get a better opportunity of reading a long required 
 lecture to Johnny. The immediate topic is one on which public 
 opinion is universally against him. . . . [Mr. Scott, who was an old 
 man lung associated with O'Connell, and having no relations with 
 the Young Irelanders, made a slight effort to pacify America by 
 excluding from Conciliation Hall Negro slavery^ Texas, Oregon, 
 and the whole range of Transatlantic questions upon which 
 O'Connell and Mr. John O'Connell had been haranguing.] Can 
 anything be more evident than the puerile folly of it? When the 
 Ameiicans were engaged in their own struggle only fancy one of 
 their orators coming down to the Congress with a violent invective 
 against the abuses of the French Government of the day. Any 
 
316 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 man who is thorouglily in earnest about one thing cannot allow 
 his mind to wander in pursuit of things not merely unconnected 
 but inconsistent with that thing. It is impossible latterly to bear 
 with the insolence of this little frog. There is no man or country 
 safe from his venom. If there be not some protest against him, he 
 will Set the whole world against us." 
 
 Somewhat later he wrote, "In this county [Mayo], 
 as far as I can see, Kepeal is all but extinct." 
 
 But the public blunders of the maladroit tribune 
 did not exhaust his energies ; he found time to 
 stimulate the calumnies on Davis and his friends. 
 From Tipperary, Doheny wrote to Davis : — ■ 
 
 " It [the Nation'] is in great disrepute among the priests. I met 
 a Doctor at Neuagh who lost two subscribers to a dispensary for 
 refusing to give it up. ... I was thinking of writing an article 
 on the subject. If you and Duffy don't approve of it when you see 
 it, it can be left out. O'Connell's liints are taken to be corrobora- 
 tive of the ruffianism of others." 
 
 MacNevin's impetuous nature could not silently 
 wait events. He wrote to me at this time : — 
 
 " Dillon is sick of the abomination of desolation on Burghquay. 
 It never opens its sooty mouth on the subject of Eepeal now. By 
 the M'ay, where is the Repeal Agitation? Is it hunting at Darry- 
 nane? . . . My parliamentary mania is cured; I would not accept 
 the representation of any constituency at the beck of such a body. 
 I will work with you and Davis, but no more with the base 
 melange of tyranny and mendicancy. I am glad that Davis does 
 not go to the association ; I shall not go when I return." 
 
 When the people despair of political success, 
 disorder is sure to ensue, and the national cause 
 began to be stained with crimes. 
 
 " Can nothing be done," Smith O'Brien wrote to Davis, " to 
 stop the agrarian outrages in Tipperary? They are most injurious 
 to us, to the population, and to the country — to say nothing of the 
 horrors attendant on a system of private murder." 
 
 The most respectable of the recent recruits 
 
]845.] CONFLICTS WITH 0' CONN ELL. 317 
 
 began to waver. Grey Porter had retired, and Hely 
 Hutchinson decHned to enter Parhament, though a 
 southern county was offered to him. This w^as the 
 condition of public affairs a few weeks after the 
 question of the provincial colleges was forced upon 
 the Eepeal i^ssociation. 
 
 I have not tacked to any transaction in this 
 narrative the moral which it suggests ; the thought- 
 ful reader prefers to draw his own conclusions. But 
 for once I ask those to whom this book is dedicated, 
 to note the conduct of Catholic young men in a 
 mortal contest. The hereditary leader of the people, 
 sure to be backed by the whole force of the unre- 
 flecting masses, and supported on this occasion by 
 the bulk of the national clergy — a man of genius, an 
 historic man wielding an authority made august by 
 a life's services, a solemn moral authority with 
 wLich it is ridiculous to compare the purely political 
 influence of any one who has succeeded him as 
 tribune of the people — was against Thomas Davis, 
 and able, no one doubted, to overwhelm him and 
 his sj'mpathizers in political ruin. A public career 
 might be closed for all of us ; our journal might be 
 extinguished ; we were already denounced as in- 
 triguers and infidels ; it was quite certain that by- 
 and-by, we would be described as hirelings of the 
 Castle. But Davis was right ; and of all his asso- 
 ciates, not one man flinched from his side, — not one 
 man. A crisis bringing character to a sharper test 
 has never arisen in our history, nor can ever arise ; 
 and the conduct of these men, it seems to me, is 
 some guarantee how their successors would act in 
 any similar emergency. 
 
318 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [184c 
 
 CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 A NEW DEPAETUBE. 1845. 
 
 Under these checks and discouragements Davis did 
 not fall back, but pressed forward. When the sky 
 was clear he would gladly have retired for a time, 
 but when the wind was high, and the horizon dark, 
 retirement w^as impossible. To attend Conciliation 
 Hall was indeed a waste of life, but the special work of 
 the Nation, "mind-making," as he named it, remained, 
 and he threw himself into it with admirable industry. 
 It is necessary for parties to cast the lead from time 
 to time, and take an observation in order to know 
 their actual progress, and the late controversy enabled 
 him to measure the great gain in self-reliance and 
 independent opinion which the middle-class had 
 attained, and taught him to set his hopes on a sure 
 but distant future. It is pathetic, almost tragic, to 
 note the use he made of what proved to be the last 
 months of his life. 
 
 Only the work of a Minister of State, controlling 
 a great department, can equal the variety of interests 
 on which he had to issue instructions, tender advice, 
 or call for information. He sat in his little book- 
 lined den in Bagot Street, or in his bureau at the 
 Nation office, and moved a hundred minds to furnish 
 
l.'^4r..] A NEW DEFABTURE. 319 
 
 the data on which conchisions are founded, or to 
 carry out suggestions for promoting his main design. 
 I found among his papers a list of agenda, prob- 
 ably prepared about this time. Some of the work has 
 been since done, but whatever remains incomplete 
 has a valid claim upon the young men of to-day : — 
 
 1. Maps of Ireland (historical, and for practical use). A large 
 map; and little guide-book plans with sketches of every ruin. 
 
 2. Historical Buildings, Pictures, Busts, Statues, etc., in our 
 Towns. 
 
 3. Irish Almanacs (Irish letter-paper, with music, landscapes, 
 emblems, historical designs, etc.). 
 
 4. A Musical Circulating Library (established by a club, and 
 allowing counties to subscribe). 
 
 5. Irish Biographical Dictionary. 
 
 6. Absentee List [a roll of the owners of Irish estates who 
 were non-resident]. 
 
 7. Histury of the War from 1641 to 1662. 
 
 8. Military History of 1798. 
 
 9. Former Commerce with Denmark and Spain. 
 
 10. Irish Statistics (each county separately, as in Scotland). 
 
 11. An Illustrated Histoiy. 
 
 12. Restoration of Churches, etc. 
 
 13. Eeprint of Historical Pamphlets. 
 
 14. Lives of Illustrious Irishmen — Brian Boru, Dathi, Nial, 
 Columba, Culumbkille, Malachi, Duns Scotus, St. Lawa'ence, Cathal, 
 Donald O'Brien, McCarthy (with family notes and antiquarian 
 authorities, Lodge, Cambrensis, Lynch, O'Donovan (Annals of the 
 Forir Masters, Hallam, Keating, O'Halloran, O'Flaherty), Byine), 
 Art O'Kavanagh (see liish annals), Kildare, Shane O'Keil, Hugh 
 O'Donnell, Tiione, Settlement of Ulster, Roger O'More, Owen Eoe 
 and his brothers, etc., Ormond, Tirconnell, Sarsfield, Molyneux, 
 Swift, Lucas, Flood, Grattan, Tone. 
 
 The once simple programme of the National 
 party had become a tangled skein, but he pushed 
 controversy aside, and applied all his strength to the 
 purpose of training the people for freer lives and 
 higher duties hereafter. 
 
320 IdEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 The young men of the middle-class "were his 
 special pupils, and pleasant evidence came to him 
 how cheerfully they followed his counsels. Horace 
 Fitzgerald, a young Munster gentleman afterwards 
 memher for Tipperary, utilized a visit to Paris hy 
 searching for papers concerning the Irish Brigade, 
 and reported the result of his inquiries to Davis : — 
 
 " I applied to an old acquaintance, General de la Hite, who has 
 taken a great deal of trouble to obtain for me permission from the 
 Minister of War to inspect the documents regarding the old 
 Biigade. They wish, however, to know what particular period 
 I mean to inquire into, and they would then facilitate any research, 
 but it is absolutely necessary I must designate a particular epoch 
 and a person connected with the subject." 
 
 From Kome came the pleasant news that the 
 inscription on the tombs of the Irish princes buried 
 in the church of St. Pietro de Montorio, which time 
 had greatly effaced, had been revived by the care of 
 one of the noble house of Caulfield who was a des- 
 cendant of the princes of Tyrconnel. 
 
 Mr. Kingsley, a student at Highbury College, 
 preparing for the ministry of the Congregational 
 Church, wrote : — 
 
 " Your articles thrill my heart with fire and fury. I am ready 
 for any work that may be required of a southern patriot." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " A friend of mine, Mr. Gibson of Mallow, an Independent 
 minister there, is the proprietor of a printing establishment, and 
 has been for some time anxious to give whatever assistance he 
 could to the Repeal cause. It has occurred to him that the people 
 are not yet sufficiently educated to understand fully all the able 
 articles in the Nation and the other Eepeal papers, and that there 
 is room for a cheap publication, written in a style more suited to 
 the people's capacity. He has requested me to ascertain whether 
 it was likely that such a thing would ' take.' ... A circulation of 
 two thousand copies per week would yield him a clear profit of 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 321 
 
 three hundred pounds a year. So he calculates, and he seems 
 quite up to all the expense of printing, etc. Of this he woiild give 
 me one hundred pounds if I underfook the editorship. My heart 
 is in the cause, and it would gladden it to be employed in its 
 advancement." 
 
 The two new recruits asked guidance how to 
 make themselves good and serviceable Irishmen. 
 
 "Neither Gibson nor I," Mr, Kingsley wrote, "know anything 
 of the Irish language, nor, indeed, much of Irish antiquities. Wo 
 are, notwithstanding, Irish all out. Will you recommend mo 
 some books to get on Iri^h history, etc." 
 
 Davis wished his correspondent and young men 
 generally to study Graelic. 
 
 "The native language," he insisted, "should be cherished, not 
 only because it was the necessary instrument of all original research 
 in our early history, but because without it the geography, music, 
 and nomenclature of the country would be unintelligible. 
 
 • " The hills, and lakes, and rivers, the forts and castles, the 
 churches and parishes, the baronies and counties had Iiish names 
 — names which describe the nature of the scenery or ground, the 
 name of founder, or chief, or priest, or the leading fact in the 
 history of the place. Meath tells its flatness, Clonmel the abundant 
 riches of its valley, Fermanagh is the land of the lakes, Tyrone 
 the country of Owen, Kilkenny the Church of St. Canice, Dunmore 
 the great fort, Athenry the Ford of the Kings, Dunleary the Fort 
 of the Sea ; and the Phoenix Park, instead of taking its name from 
 a fable, recognizes as christener, the 'sweet water' which yet 
 springs near the East-gate." 
 
 From his native town one of his political pupils * 
 sent him a report on the progress of mind-making 
 there, but it is to be feared that his geese were too 
 habitually swans to please a man of Davis's rigid 
 accuracy. 
 
 "In this town there are several young men of good talents, 
 chieQy among the woiking classes ; one of our best Eepeal wardt^ns, 
 J, T. Collins, is a specimen, and one whose talents, if properly 
 
 * R. B. Barry, Mallow, March, 1845. 
 
322 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 cultivated, would add another to tlie school of Canova. His Execu- 
 tion of Momus, in stucco, would not dishonour Hogan or McDowel, 
 and yet this honest-hearted young fellow is more than half his 
 time out of employment, although he brings himself to work on 
 the roof of a house at 2s. 6d. per diem. Another of our townsmen, 
 Hickey, when a mere boy, a few years ago, got a prize in Dublin 
 for, I believe, a colossal figure of Homer : he is the son of a black- 
 smith. O'Donoghue, a lad of fifteen years old, and, walking our 
 streets literally clad in rags, possesses gifts that remind one of 
 Maclise. William Kent, a drunken (alas !) shoemaker, who is only 
 just returned from Wales, where he had been, by special invitation, 
 for the last two months, making a cork leg for a gentleman, pos- 
 sesses a natural talent which, if improved by study, would enable 
 him to rank with the Hunters in anatomy. In the school of design 
 we have Donovan, a common wood-turner, living in a back lane, 
 who was more than once the recipient of our gracious Queen's 
 Bounty for some curiously constructed miniature models of spin- 
 ning wheels, etc., which he sent to the royal children. Eobert 
 Winn, a horise-painter — a modest Mozart — is the leader of an 
 amateur band, second to none even in her Majesty's service. We 
 can also claim as a townsman Mr. Thomas Nagle, at present master 
 of Earl Listowel's — that excellent nobleman — private band; he is 
 self-taught, and a composer of no mean pretensions. 
 
 " The morality of war articles taught us self-restraint, while 
 they also taught us self-reliance, and made us look the enemy 
 more boldly in the face, not eager for an attack, yet not skulking 
 from an encounter; and, my dear sir, with such men as Davis, 
 Duffy, and Co., working in the same ranks with our well-beloved 
 O'Connell (during whose life, which may God prolong, no other 
 leader shall usurp our affections), I fear not for the liberties of old 
 Ireland, were they even to be battled for on the ' tented field.' . . . 
 Mr. Callaghan, Repeal M.P., sports two Eepeal buttons, but does 
 not subscribe a farthing to the association." 
 
 Dillon sent him some useful suggestions from 
 his retreat in the West : — • 
 
 " If you could do something towards suppljdng the country 
 bands with teaching and music, you would be doing a great 
 service. This always strikes me when I come to the country. I 
 t-pent the greater part of yesterday in the National school here, 
 and I was quite astounded at the quantity of information the 
 little fellows displayed. Their knowledge of geography in par- 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 323 
 
 ticiilar is most surprising. I think we must wait for these fellows. 
 I intend to get up a public examination in this school next summer, 
 and to give prizes. This will have the double effect of stimulating 
 their ambition and of putting some good books into the hands of 
 the best of them. Would it not be well to suggest a general 
 project of this kind in the Nation ? " 
 
 John Daly, a humble but zealous antiquai7, 
 projected a society for publishing Irish airs, gathered 
 in remote places, and asked Davis's assistance, 
 which was promptly granted : — 
 
 " I shall," he wrote, " gladly subscribe to, and, so far as my 
 scanty leisure and miserably deficient knowledge admit, shall 
 willingly act with your society; but I recommend you not to 
 issue your prospectus till after Dr. Cane's visit to Dublin." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " I can, I fear, only give you my name and subscription, for 
 m_y time is already over-taxed. If you will send the corrected 
 prospectus to Mr. Bindon, with this note, he may, perhaps, join 
 your committee, and he would be of real service to you. 
 
 " Also, perhaps Dr. H. Hudson, of Stephen's Green North, 
 would do so, and would be a most valuable auxiliaiy. His brother 
 is on the continent, or I should propose it to him. Your cum- 
 mittee is not large enough, and has too few Dublin men on it. . . . 
 
 " The only volumes of Danish history to which I can refer 
 you are Laing's ' Sea Kings of Norway,' recently published in 
 three volumes, and of tlie highest authority; Johnston's ' Guide, 
 etc.,' easily procured ; and a large folio, by a Copenhagen Society, 
 which is in the Queen's Inns Library, and, I suppose, in Trinity 
 College." 
 
 Daly explained his project, which he afterwards 
 to a considerable extent carried into effect. 
 
 " Ireland, indeed, stands indebted to Mr. Hardiman for rescuing 
 very many of her songs from oblivion ; but Mr. Hardiman's collec- 
 tion was published in such a manner as to put it entirely out of 
 the reach of the parties for whom such a work should be intended 
 — I mean the Irish peasantry. The plan which I intend pursuing 
 will be this: the work will be printed in numbers, containing 
 
324 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 eight octavo pages, good paper, and beautifully clear type, at the 
 price of two-pence each." 
 
 At the same time, the intellectual movement in 
 the provinces was fed from headquarters. Dr. Scott, 
 an industrious antiquary in Kilkenny, wrote to Davis 
 of the re-edification of a mediaeval church in that 
 city, for the Nation was the zealous guardian of our 
 historical and ecclesiastical remains : — 
 
 " The whitewash has at length been removed from the pillars 
 and the arches in the aisles of St. Francis' Cathedral; the wall 
 which divides the chancel from the aisles is to be taken down, and 
 a handsome open-work screen put in its place, on which is to 
 stand an organ with a double face — one looking into the aisles, 
 the other into the chancel. By this the whole length of the 
 church, in all the beauty of its elegant proportions, can be seen 
 at a glance. The windows over the grand entrance have been 
 restored to their original length; all the windows are to undergo 
 the same change. The aisle is vastly improved by these changes ; 
 the mouldings of the arches between the pillars in the aisle are 
 nut all of marble, some are a kind of rich-coloured sandstone. The 
 variety is pleasing ; all the pillars are of the one material — 
 marble. . . . The tomb of the Koman merchant (Banim Story) 
 was discovered the other day: ' Simon Carlovitchi, a.d. 1728.' " 
 
 Pigot, from London, reported the success of an 
 Irish artist in whom we were all interested : — 
 
 " Maclise has again this year painted the best picture in the 
 Exhibition. It is from ' Comus.' I think he improves niuch, 
 though he has done sublimer things before. McDowell [sculptor] 
 has one piece, but the drapery is very poor, and the merit most in 
 the idea only." 
 
 Maddyn projected a study of Burke for the Nation, 
 which he desired should be a searching and exhaustive 
 estimate : — 
 
 " Of all the numerous commentators on Burke," he wrote, 
 *' Mackintosh understood him best. Mackintosh's idea of Burke, 
 you recollect, was, ' that he was the greatest philosopher in action 
 that the world ever saw.' But clear as were Mackintosh's ideas 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 325 
 
 of him, he lost sight of the zeal and amazing personal ardour of 
 Burke. From what Mackintosh has written of him, no one could 
 imagine the fervour of Ilasting's prosecutor, or the blazing passion 
 of the old man roused on the brink of the grave by the French 
 Eevolution. The idea of ' philosopher in action ' was Burke's own 
 view of a true politician, whether he be democrat or royalist. . . . 
 I have given much consideration to your proposal of the History 
 of Ireland since 1688. It is a book I would be enchanted to set to 
 work upon. But long before you proposed it, I was thinking of 
 the ' Statesmanship of Ireland since 1688,' with these materials. 
 It would be a work partly critical and partly illustrative, consist- 
 ing of chapters on ' Molyneux and his Book,' ' Swift, his Influence 
 on Ireland,' ' Lucas,' ' Flood, and how much he did in Ireland,' 
 ' Henry Grattan,' ' William Pitt's Influence on Ireland,' ' Wolfe 
 Tone,' ' Clare,' and ' Castlereagh.' These are the men who ruled 
 the Ireland of the last century. Molyneux and Lucas are the 
 smallest of them, but nevertheless they would be missed out of 
 the working of the centxary. I regard Lucas as an excellent speci- 
 men of a workmanlike tribune — a man more anxious to produce 
 results than most popular leaders generally are. Pitt had more 
 influence in Ireland than any Englishman or Saxon since Crom- 
 well. The other English ministers had very secondary influence 
 on our destinies, and the other Irishmen (besides those I have 
 named) were more illustrative than active, more subsidiary to 
 their contemporary parties than substantially necessary to the 
 actual politics of the times. ... I would therefore prefer to write 
 a honct fide Histoiy of Ireland since 1688 to 1829. It would be 
 virtually a history of Irish Protestant Nationality, and I would 
 strongly sympathize with its local feeling, though, from my natural 
 prejudices as one born a Catholic, I would not feel with much of 
 its purposes. There would be plenty of Irish spirit in the book, 
 and I would labour to make it creditable to my name." 
 
 Davis replied : — 
 
 " Your plan about the ' Burke,' " he wrote, " is excellent, but 
 I think even with intervals in their publication the articles ought 
 not to exceed three. 
 
 "When you were here I think we all overrated Flood, and 
 •upon childish grounds enough — ' the Renunciation Act.' Both 
 Flood and Grattan were wrong in trusting the rights of a newly 
 emancipated province to the pledges of its old ruler. Might could 
 alone make such rights last. . . . 
 
326 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 "Nothing has heen settled about the history, as I am too 
 anxious for the arrangements to precipitate it. 
 
 " Pope was, in all his works, an intimate and favourite of 
 mine ; but I condemn him now on principle. Didactic writing for 
 the sake of action may well be in verse, but not mere criticism or 
 analj'sis. 
 
 "Have you ever tried dramatic writing? Do you know 
 Taylor's ' Philip van Artevelde,' and Griffin's ' Gisippus?' I think 
 them the two best serious dramas written in English since Shake- 
 speare's time. A drama equal to either of them on an Irish 
 subject would be useful and popular to an extent you can hardly 
 suppose. . . . Ireland is really ripening, that is my chief pleasure. 
 I have too many pursuits to enjoy any of them very keenly, save 
 for an hour of exultation now and then. 
 
 " I cannot be convinced that your frame is sickly. It is 
 sensitive, and your mind still more so. You have not attended to 
 your physical education, and London is unfit for you ; but more of 
 this some other time." ^' 
 
 The Kepeal Essays for wliicli the Association had 
 granted prizes, were now selected by O'Brien, Davis, 
 and John O'Connell. Davis announced the result 
 to Pigot. 
 
 " M. J. Barry got the 1st prize, Staunton the 2nd, for a great 
 reply to Rice and Martin ; and a Presbyterian clergyman (nameless 
 to the public) the 3rd. We are also going to print a short Federalist 
 Essay as an Appendix. Barrj's will do great good, it is so clear 
 and manly. 
 
 " Eepeal is bettering every day, and, thank God, is less windy 
 than it was. 
 
 * When the paper arrived he wrote again to Maddyn : — 
 " I am delighted to find you think of coming here. The offence you gave 
 by the book [' Ireland and its Rulers '] will never pass from the minds of 
 certain persons here, but any more general irritation has passed, and, though 
 I say it who should not, our immediate party is too strong to allow of your 
 being annoyed unless you sought (what you would avoid most) the society 
 of the persons to whom I have referred ; so come in May, and while you are 
 here other things will grow up and you will become native again, and we'll 
 solemnly exorcise sad demons from each other. J. D. told me a few days 
 ago that he did not like to begin the history (it is to be in parts) till January, 
 ly46 ; but as to you, he consented to your taking my place, and right glad 
 he ought to be at the exchange. Of that, too, shall we talk in the bright 
 coming May." (February 6, 1845.) 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 327 
 
 " We had. no opportunity of dealing with B. [Barret], as he 
 was an original member [of the 'Eighty-two Club]. The uniform 
 is strictly civilian, except the foraging cap. 
 
 " We are devoting much real thought to the Land Question, so 
 that we may be Tinanimous and practical. If we succeed in being 
 so, everything else will be easier. 
 
 " Cultivate acquaintance with any of the Young England, or 
 of the genuinely literary men, you can ; it will be most useful 
 by-and-by. 
 
 " Do not be impatient (as is your fault) with Wyse ; he is better 
 than his manner. His book on Education is admirable; though, 
 like all books on the subject I ever saw, not sounding the depths 
 of humanity. 
 
 "We shall have one hundred uniforms at the club on the 16th. 
 Lord Cloncurry cannot come to it, but it is otherwise all right. 
 AVe have had some blackbeaning and disputes, but things are 
 square enough now. 
 
 " Grey Porter's junction will secure the publication for which 
 he stijDulated [the publication of the accounts of the Repeal 
 Association]. He is manly, forcible, has seen the politics of Italy, 
 Hungary, Norway, etc., is no Quaker, but a little raw. 
 
 "Either Peel must finally break with his old friends or lose 
 the trivial profits of his concessions. 
 
 " We shall have a flood of Irish publications this coming season. 
 Curry has books forward. Hodges and Smith have Mat O'Connor's 
 ' Irish Brigade,' and two other most important but unnamable 
 books advanced. Petrie's book out ; Lefanu's ' Cock and Anchor,' 
 an Irish novel; the Eepeal Essays in one vol. Various Parlia- 
 mentary Committee Reports forward. MacNevin's ' Sheil ' 
 printed. My ' Curran ' partly in type and carefully edited. 
 ' Flood,' etc., under the tools. MacNevin's ' Volunteers ' (the first 
 of the shilling vohimes) partly in type. Duffy's collection of 
 ' Ballads ' ready. M}^ ' Tone,' and Barry's collection of ' Irish 
 Songs ' to be specially attacked. Henry Grattan's fifth volume just 
 ready for the press. Dr. R. R. Madden's third series sold to James 
 Duify per my agency, and many other things. Other literary 
 progress in 1846 promises to be real." 
 
 The Protestant clergyman who wrote the Repeal 
 Essay was Rev. James Godkiu, an Independent 
 IMinister. When his name hecarne pnhlic with his own 
 cousent, he was dismissed from his missionary duties, 
 
328 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 but Davis procured him employment in the Free- 
 man'' s Journal office, and hoped to get him appointed 
 a professor in the new colleges. From that time 
 forth he acted with the National party, through many 
 struggles and troubles, up to his death. 
 
 During this work Davis's correspondence with 
 private friends did not slacken, but it was directed 
 chiefly to stimulate them to work. To politicians, 
 literary men, artists, booksellers, and Eepeal Wardens, 
 he wrote a weekly shoal of letters enough to make a 
 dilettante stare. And all this without fussiness, self- 
 importance, ill-humour, or any of the vices by which 
 over-worked men avenge themselves on the world. 
 He wrote to Maddyn : — 
 
 " You promised once to write on the Irishmen in England — 
 pray do so, and fully ; we want them home. Classifying them into 
 artists, lawyers, writers, and politicians would be, I think, the best 
 plan ; but you can judge. In about a week I'll answer anent the 
 History ; for to accomplish the end sought, it should be a history, 
 not a series of sketches. 
 
 " When writing the notice of Burke for the Nation, you could, 
 without much additional trouble, prepare the selection of his speeches, 
 putting parts of the pamphlets in an Appendix. It maybe wanted 
 sooner than was expected. I think the ' Grattan ' gravely and 
 gracefully written, without a wrong sentence; but I wished for 
 more. His conduct from 1784 up is too lightly glanced at. I 
 A\ rite to you freely. Willis's ' Forde ' will be in the University 
 next month." * 
 
 To Pigot he reported progress generally : — 
 
 " Maddyn's ' Grattan ' is out, and is the best specimen of print- 
 ing ever seen in Dublin. Half of the ' Shell ' is in type. ' Curran ' 
 will be third. The intervals will be two months. 
 
 " We have agreed to give £100 prize for a School History of 
 Ireland, to be given in by January 1, 1846. 
 
 " The Land Question is now everything, and O'C. and I very 
 cordial on it and on most things. So far so good. Our power is 
 getting genuine at last. 
 
 * Feb. 2, 184.5. 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 329 
 
 •' Our '82 uniforms look admirably, and, were we rid of some 
 scamps, the club would be all right. As it is, we are in high 
 spirits, though somewhat at a loss for non-indictable songs. Duffy's 
 wife is still holding out. May I put you down for a copy of 
 Mangan's 'Poems,' price 10s. 6d.? Helen Faucet is very admirable 
 in every way, and your story a calumny. I met her at Stokes's, 
 but only dreamt once of her since, and that was last night when 
 she seemed strangely combined with a Repeal Essay ! Burton has 
 been picturing her, and a body of ' ?ts Academicians ! ' addressing her. 
 [The members of the Royal Irish Academy, of whom Davis was 
 now one, presented Miss Faucet with an address.] . . . Dillon has 
 drafted a report and swears to edit some speeches. [Dillon's philo- 
 sophic indolence was a common subject of banter among his friends.] 
 
 " I am equally glad of your health and your hard reading. 
 Vigorous habits, power equal to your need and position, and some- 
 thing over for adornment and benevolence, are the conditions of 
 happiness. I sometimes, when I see fine spirits, like rudderless 
 ships, drifting to ruin, think to be a preacher and to guide individual 
 minds, but end by returning to my public mission. Ever toil at 
 your sober duties. If great opportunities, lightening inspirations 
 come, be the man of the hour and act and create, but never toil 
 fur these things. Emerson's best critical thought is that Nature 
 does not endure a spy." 
 
 He knew that an tiistorical romance would greatly 
 move and instruct the popular mind, but he deluded 
 himself with the hope that such a work of art could 
 be had to order. He wrote to Maddyn : — 
 
 " ' The Boyne Water,' a novel by Banim, has excellent things, 
 such as the scenery at the Boyne and Fairhead, and the starvation 
 of Derry, which he exaggerates; but upon the great political 
 elements then at work he looked casually and unwisely. I wish 
 to heaven some one would attempt Irish historical fiction ! 
 Griffin's ' Invasion ' and some of his short tales were excellent ; 
 there is a novel, too, called ' The Adventurers,' written by I know 
 not whom, upon the wars of Hugh O'Neil in Elizabeth's time ; but 
 besides these and the ' Boyne Water,' I know nothing readable of 
 the class. There i.s a thought in the letter of Griffin, published in 
 the Nation, that to paint Ireland struggling incessantly and unsuc- 
 cesbfull}^ now beaming with hope, now crouching in despair, still 
 never crushed and never quite triumphant, would suit some master- 
 painter of history. Fiction could not deal with such a long period 
 
330 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 of this Enceladus history ; but it could take Ireland between two 
 crises, palpitating between the sorrows of some defeat and begin- 
 ning to be prepared for another strife. The characters on whose 
 loves and hates the plot rested should not be historical, for such 
 a work should not leach any decisive time in our history. It 
 should wind up with private fortunes, leaving the public and such 
 public men as were introduced still under the mountain. This, 
 you'll say, is to paint despair — say, rather, perseverance, for those 
 wlio struggled unsuccessfully did not struggle in vain ; they lived 
 vigorously and died well ; and at all events this is our history for 
 three hundred years past, and must be told. The weight of that 
 past is upon us now, and, sanguine as I am that this country 
 could be rescued, I often doubt if it will, for history casts shadows 
 on my hopes." 
 
 With leisure he would perhaps himself have 
 written historical romance, as he wrote historical 
 hallads, from the inspiration of a great purpose and 
 passionate love of the task ; but Maddyn was a 
 critic, not a creator. 
 
 Davis still hankered after a monthly magazine. 
 He knew that the organ we possessed had such access 
 to the popular mind as an academic periodical could 
 never attain, and that the minority whom he espe- 
 cially desired to reach read it in a way they had 
 never read the Citizeyi ; hut there are historical 
 subjects which need a large canvas, and his deeply 
 pondered scheme of a revived nation which had to 
 be poured out in driblets in a weekly journal, might 
 be deliberately formulated in magazine papers. There 
 was probably another motive. Shut out as he was 
 by his own choice from the popular tribune, he 
 wanted the instrument which Burke wielded with 
 such effect — the political pamphlet in the only shape 
 in which it survived in his generation. He applied 
 to his closest friends for advice and co-operation. 
 Wallis, who had a natural preference for his own 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 331 
 
 method, gave a prompt assent, and pointed out 
 dangers ahead which were not yet visible to many 
 eyes : — 
 
 " The matter you mention does not require any deliberation. 
 I say at once, that, should God spare me health, strength, and eye- 
 sight, all of which of late have threatened to be somewhat pre- 
 carious with me, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to 
 co-operate cordially and effectively in such a project as you speak 
 of; that is, of course, supposing a reasonable provision made — 
 which there ought not to be much difficulty in making — for the 
 exclusion of sectarian and other deleterious influences. . . . And 
 ' Catholicus's' attack on the Citizen, a couple of years ago, was but 
 a late outbreak of the grudge long nourished against that journal 
 for its moderate and unsectarian character. Again, you may not 
 be aware that O'Conuell several times tried to get hold of the 
 Citizen and make of it an incense-altar for himself; and in the 
 perplexities now before him, and which threaten to accumulate in 
 every shape the further he pursues his blind career, it is hard to 
 say Avhat he may not do, or what he may not lay hold of in his 
 desperation. Faith, contrary' as it would be to the tenour of his 
 whole life, and of the achievements which do him most honour, 
 I, for my part, should not be surprised to see him, some of these 
 days, making a new breach between Catholic and Protestant, and 
 playing the part of a Popish Tresham Gregg, on a vei-y gigantic 
 scale I Well, these portents and any such are no reason for our 
 not doing what we can, but rather a reason the more for working 
 harder and for being wary into the bargain. As to what depart- 
 ment I could best serve a journal of the sort you mention, it is 
 matter for after discussion. As far as I am concerned, what I 
 would be inclined chiefly to stipulate for, would be as follows : — 
 (1) A full cognizance of all preliminary arrangements; (2) a 
 thorough knowledge of the men I am to work with ; (3) a lion's 
 share in the management of my own department, whatever that 
 might be ; (4) a virtual control over the escapades of too zealous 
 coadjutors; (5) some check over [James] Duffy himself, in the 
 existence of a Proprietary or Committee, or some such body. 
 There may be objections to Duffy, but to have succeeded as he has 
 done implies the possession of many counterbalancing merits. 
 And then, he is the only man who could try the experiment with 
 any chance of success. I have at different times during the last 
 ct)Uple of years lamented the want of some such organ, and see 
 
332 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 inniTmerable things to be eflfected, that could be done in no other 
 way." 
 
 I also assented cordially on one condition — that 
 he would take the project into his own hands : a 
 method which would not only give his friends a 
 special interest in its success, but raise the periodical 
 to immediate importance as a younger brother of the 
 journal which had prospered so marvellously. 
 
 " Since I saw you I have been thinking of the magazine, and 
 I am convinced if you retain the proprietorship it may be made 
 successful and profitable. If I had no Nation to attend to, I believe 
 I might undertake to make it succeed, . . . Let it be a novelty ; 
 not a humdrum imitation of this or that existing periodical, but a 
 new creation, and the six or seven thousand persons who give six- 
 pence a week for the Nation will give a shilling a month for the 
 National Magazine. It will effect great good if it becomes popular, 
 as it may and must. Carleton's story of 'Willy Eeilly' [a story 
 Carleton had written for the Nation] would be a good one to open 
 with — it would probably attract an English and Scotch circula- 
 tion. Your Nation reputation will sell it in Dublin, and perhaps 
 throughout Ireland. The work is of a kind you would do with 
 more satisfaction to yourself than the drudgery of the law. Don't 
 say no. 
 
 " Always yours, 
 
 " C. G. D." 
 
 Davis replied, without deciding either way for 
 the moment : — 
 
 " August 5th. 
 " My dear Friend, 
 
 " Thanks very many for your note. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 "T. D." 
 
 Maddyn pleaded that his hands were already too 
 full :— 
 
 " With respect to the magazine, it would be impossible for me 
 to join in it; I cannot accept, for the present, more engagements 
 than I am under. I am very, very Aveary of writing for my bread. 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 333 
 
 It is a wretclied existence. I am going into a novel as soon as 
 I can get some ease and quiet." 
 
 And he informed his friend that he had under- 
 taken duties in connection with HoocVs Magazine, 
 and that he, too, was in search of recruits : — 
 
 " Hood's lamented illness has kept tliem back, but it will go 
 on, and no mistake, for Spottiswoode, the great printer, is the capi- 
 talist of the magazine. It will, I think, merge into a Liberal 
 organ before long, as the editor of it is biassed that way. Have 
 you anything that you would give them ? Turn it over in your 
 mind. The magazine sells three thousand a month, and your 
 writings would certainly be seen. Do you think Duffy could be 
 got to give some of his poems for it — even one short paper would 
 be of value ? " * 
 
 His friend WilUam Ehot Hudson, on whom the 
 burthen of the Citizen liad fallen, was willing to try 
 again, hut only after a carefully considered plan had 
 been accepted by a number of writers able to carry 
 it to success. The capitalists were forthcoming — 
 Colonel Caulfield, Thomas Hutton, and himself; but, 
 without turning iuto a new channel the stream 
 which kept the Nation at work, where were such 
 writers to be found ? 
 
 " As to the Mag. or Quarterly Keview, my conclusion is that 
 nothing of the kind can be done — can succeed — by mere dint of 
 money. Of course, a quantum stiff, of that ingredient is necessary. 
 But it is intellect of the proper order alone that can insure success. 
 A few active minds — spirits of energy, united and glued to the 
 undertaking, — ready pens, determined that it shall succeed — stored 
 with information and thought, and prepared to consider it their 
 own creation, — two, three, or four such would do it. Maddyu, 
 
 * It is notewortby that in the midst of a hundred engagements Davis 
 found time to send to Maddyn's magazine the contribution he asked. 
 
 "Here is a non-political ballad of the Irish Pale. If you like it, toss it 
 into your magazine ; if not, send it back with the scribblcment I sent before. 
 I suppose there is no hope of seeing you here. You ought to rule the new 
 Irish Society [in London] ; you and it would gain by the relation, and it 
 could be made very useful " (July 17, 1844). 
 
334 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 clearly, is one such. We want more. Two or three must make it 
 their principal object — others aiding may have primary objects, 
 and assist in this as secondary — but the two or three must be 
 ready to make all other projects secondary to this. 
 
 " That is, I consider, the conditio sine qua non. What could 
 T. H., Col. C, and I, with three or six or nine others such as we 
 do ? Not the essential thing. We could not he the materiel. 
 
 " To say it should be done in November is idle. It ought not 
 to be started Avithout a strong organization and abundant prepara- 
 tion. I am sick of failures — attempts — raw and imperfect plans. 
 
 " Wallis's case is a deplorable one. I find the same complaint 
 as you make of T. M. ' Nothing is right.' Indeed that unhappily 
 applies to both the above. It was all very well for a few years. 
 There is so much worry in the world that it is good to find it 
 pulled to pieces — but to be always pulling to pieces ! 
 
 "What you write about 'Irish airs' is connected with some- 
 thing I before hinted I should want to talk to you upon — but let 
 this and all the rest keep till we ' collogue.' " 
 
 Davis could have satisfied all his friend's reason- 
 ahle demands ; for, not only the best of the declared 
 Nationalists, but some undeclared ones, like Fergus- 
 son and Lefanu, would probably have aided him ; 
 but the magazine project never came to anything. 
 It was replaced, however, by a serial which proved 
 of permanent value. 
 
 It is a natural tendency to attribute to a notable 
 man whatever belongs to his era. Swift is the hero 
 of a hundred adventures of which he knew nothing. 
 Curran is made to father the bon-mots of a whole 
 generation. O'Connell not only represented his own 
 prodigious work, but the far-seeing policy of John 
 Keogh which dictated the election of a Catholic for 
 Clare, the movement of Pat Lalor which kindled 
 three provinces against tithe, and even the brilliant 
 tjiots of Dominick Eonayne ; and I have heard a 
 hundred times attributed to Davis work which was 
 not his but that of some of the friends around him, 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 335 
 
 though his own store was so fall and overflowing 
 that it need not he supplemented from any source. 
 
 The new project — the latest in which he had 
 a share— the Lihrary of Ireland — Davis did not 
 originate, hut accepted from me ; hut he threw all 
 his prodigious energy into it for the limited time 
 that remained, and though he only saw two volumes 
 issued, his own writings, collected after his death, 
 have added immensely to its popularity and useful- 
 ness. The design was to puhlish a monthly volume 
 of history, poetry, or fiction, calculated to feed the 
 national spirit or discipline the national morals ; and 
 millions of these books have since been printed and 
 are in the hands of Irishmen all over the world. 
 Early in autumn Davis wrote to Pigot that the 
 project was launched : — 
 
 " Your brother David was with a large party of us whom 
 James Duffy entertained j^esterday at Bray, [to celebrate the first 
 issue of the Library of Ireland], and I was delighted to find his 
 strength and spirits excellent. He is a very noble, thoughtful, 
 warm fellow. 
 
 " Our Library of Ireland promises better than any other under- 
 taking of our party, and, what is better still, is likely to be aided 
 by Whigs and Tories. 
 
 " The American hurrah for us, and against O'C.'s speech [on 
 Federalism], was a useful diversion. 
 
 "... Johnny has thrown the agitation two years back. John 
 Dillon doing well, C. G. D. better than ever in his life. Myself 
 in good health of body and in a calm mood — after a storm ; j'ou 
 know the proverb." 
 
 Shortly after, he wrote to the same correspondent: — 
 
 " iVugust 5, 1845. 
 " C. G. D.'s ballad volume is at its third edition, really honct 
 fide, and will, I am sure, sell 10,000 copies. 
 
 " He and every one gone to the country, and I am alone, anxious 
 for various reasons ; but in work, and that is a shield from most 
 assaults on the mind. 
 
336 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 " I am very glad jou are becoming a lawyer in more than 
 name. 
 
 " I have jnst this minute been looking at my niece who is two 
 hours old, and a verj' pretty little Irishwoman. Do you or don't 
 you mean to marry young? If I'm ever married, which is not 
 likely, our wives will, I suppose, be inseparable gossips, and with 
 that interesting prophecy, 
 
 " I am, as ever, yours, 
 
 " T. D." 
 
 In July be wrote to Lane : — 
 
 "My delight at finding you once more in health and spirits 
 makes me forgive your insolence, more especially as age and 
 weariness are creeping over me (I am twenty-nine, and can only 
 walk thirty miles), and I know no one qualified to succeed me, 
 being such as you describe, except Denny Lane. 
 
 "I have not yet seen your letter,* but shall get it to-night. 
 I think you are quite right in requiring Callaghan to attend Parlia- 
 ment or Conciliation Hall ; this is a fair and proper demand, and 
 a politic one. It totally differs from the attempt to bully men 
 into a Eepeal pledge, or a resignation, who entered Parliament un- 
 pledged, legislative trustees during the Parliament to which they 
 were elected, trustees for the whole country not the electing con- 
 stituency. Such is the constitution and such is the doctrine politic 
 for those who do not seek the turbulence of democracy. I for one 
 desire representative rule, and never will be a party to a system of 
 pledges, though I may, and in the case of a domestic legislation 
 pledge at next election will, consent to aid a revolutionary 
 exception. 
 
 " Thanks for ' Ariadne.' Keep Barry to songs. He writes 
 them incomparably better than any one else in Ireland, but I 
 do not like his political didactics." 
 
 Samuel Forde, who died of consumption in Cork 
 at three and twenty, was, in Davis's opinion, the 
 greatest artistic genius that Ireland ever produced. 
 Daniel MacUse, who was his fellow-student, declared 
 that his drawings were as vigorous and correct as 
 Michael Angelo's. Davis himself says of him : — 
 
 * Alluding to a letter Lane wrote under the signature of " An Elector," 
 calling on D. Callaghan, M.P. for Cork, to atteud the meetings of the 
 Repeal Association. 
 
1815.] .-1 XEJV DEFARTURE. 337 
 
 " We have seen on wrapping-paper, and on all manner of little 
 slips, pen-drawings by him of Irish draperies and figures, in which 
 the tall, vehement men and dear loving girls — the ample cotamores 
 and voluptuous cloaks of Munster, were as noble as anything in 
 classic sculptui-e, yet as real as you'd meet in a Bantry or a Mallow 
 market." 
 
 The yoiiug artist and his brother were sons of a 
 Cork artisan whom poverty and discontent drove to 
 America, leaving his famil}^ young and unprovided. 
 The elder brother became a composer, and a collector 
 of Irish airs, and Maddyn introduced him to Davis 
 with warm commendation. He sent, at tlie same 
 time, a paper on Samuel Forde, by another Cork man, 
 Mr. Willis, then a successful barrister, afterwards an 
 eminent judge, which he designed for the Dublin 
 University Magazine, if it should be acceptable in that 
 quarter. Maddyn complained with just indignation 
 how habitually the Celtic capital had neglected its 
 young men of genius. 
 
 " There has been no monument — not even a tombstone — erected 
 to Forde's memory in Cork. Even his name is not cut on the fla^- 
 beneath which he lies interred at St. Finn Barrs. There aro 
 several of us here who wish to make some stir about it ; the 
 publication of this sketcli of his life would help it verj^much. . . . 
 He was nut unlike Griffin in his reach of imagination, but far 
 more bold and original ; but, like Griffin, he was exquisitely tendt-r 
 and gentle. He w^as not, however, sorrowful or querulous, and, 
 though intensely religious, tliere was nothing dismal aboi;t Forde."' 
 
 By the intervention of Davis the sketch was 
 published in the University Magazine. 
 
 John Mitchel was engaged on a life of Hugli 
 O'Neil for the Library, and, being in doubt on the 
 subject of Irish standards and armorial bearings, 
 Davis asked light from the great antiquaries. John 
 'Donovan wrote him : — 
 
338 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1H45. 
 
 " Some shoi't time since Mr. Petrie slioweJ me a letter of you is, 
 making certain inquiries about the arms (not weapons) of Ireland, 
 and desired me to let Lim have anything I might havo gleaned on 
 the subject for you. I thought I had some notices of the ancient 
 arms of Ireland, which I copied from a MS. in the Lambeth 
 Library, but I could not find it at the time. I spent all this day 
 looking for ' rags and rhymes of history' relating to Ireland, and 
 found in the third stratuui of my papers the following notice of 
 the Irish Arms copied from a MS. about 150 years old, formerly in 
 the possession of Mr. Hardiman, author of the ' History of Galway,' 
 and now — God knows where ! Perhaps you will allow me to 
 copy it for your inspection, though I fear it is too late. 
 
 " ' The Armes of Ireland. Eeward and Revenge. The first 
 coate th'one side charged with a demi-Eagle on a field argent of 
 the right side signifies reward, for that bird is the most noble and 
 princel}'' of all birds, and the Irish are verie gratefull and loyall. 
 The hand of the left side with a naked sword signifies force and 
 revenge. Y® 2 colonres, black and white, signifie constancie and 
 honestie. The seconde coate three crownes; the third, to witt, the 
 Lyon, denotes courage and strengthe, is the same with that of Scot- 
 land thither introduced by the oulde Scottts of Irelande (which 
 untill the tenth century of Christianity was absolirelie Scotteland, 
 and the inhabitants Scottts, and thencefoithe fjr some ages called 
 Scotia Major, to distinguish it irom Scatia 3Iinor), for the double 
 X X counterflowered with which the ScotcheLyon is nowinvironed, 
 is but a late addition on their league with France. The fourth 
 coate, to witt the harp, to which Instrument the Irish above all 
 other nacions are much addicted to, and pfect players thereat, 
 is the Common Arms now borne for all Irelande in the Eniilish King 
 OF England's Armks.' 
 
 "My 'Irish Grammar' is at last printed, but it is so big that 
 nobody well ever think of reading it. We are too English at the 
 present day to throw away any time upon languages that have 
 died a natural death (for languages die while the people remain). 
 The vigour of the Saxons is admirable, and they must be considered 
 a superior race, as they have extended their language not only 
 over the three Islands of Great Britain, Mann, and Ireland, but alsO' 
 over the United States of America, and over a considerable portion 
 of Africa and Hindostan. They are indeed a great race, and though 
 they commenced their career in Britain by hellish treachery, 
 which would impress the conviction that they are descended, as 
 Professor ^ - • - "'' makes all mankind ^ from serpents (of the 
 Ichthyosaurus and Pleiosaurus class), still they have latterly 
 
184.-).] A NE]V DEPATiTUIiE. 339 
 
 exhibited siicli uolile qualities as would induce one to be of opiuiou 
 that they are descended from bull-dogs of the best breed. 
 
 " Believe me to be, 
 
 " Yours very sincei'ely, 
 
 "John O'Donovax. 
 
 "I have been a good deal amused at finding you set down as 
 Thomas O'Davis in the list of subscribers to a work by Colonel 
 Patrick O'Kell}' ! You are Cymbric and of Alchuth, not Gaelic." 
 
 Another emineut antiquary helped him respect- 
 ing a difficulty in the "Ballad Poetry of Ireland," 
 the second volume in the new monthly series. 
 
 " I cannot understand what meaning was intended for some of 
 the words in ' Shule aroon,' nor do I think the song, in its present 
 form, original or old. . . . The talented editor of this volume 
 leans heavily on tianslators from the Irish, in the opening of his 
 beautiful introduction. He is, certainly, right, though I think he 
 uses the word ' tianslator ' lather arbitrarily. If I understand him 
 correctly, the person who turns the substance of an Irish poem into 
 English verse, whether he does so directly or through the medium 
 of an interpreter, is the translator. And, according to this rule, 
 I find Mr. Mangan put forth as the best of all translators from the 
 Irish. Now, it so happens that Mr. Mangan has no knowledge of 
 the Irish language, nor do I think he regrets tliat either, but any 
 one reading this introduction must believe that he is deeply versed 
 in Irish, and that he has translated directly from the originals the 
 three pieces which appear with his name in this volume. ... It 
 was I that tianslated these poems (the three of them) from the 
 originals— that is, I turned the Irish words into English words; 
 and Mr. Mangan put those English words, beautifully and faith 
 fully, as well as I can judge, into English rhyme. If I have not 
 made a faithful translatinn, then the versification is not correct, 
 for it contains nothing but what is found in the translation, nor 
 d.oes it contain a single idea that is not found, and as well expressed, 
 in the original." * 
 
 Professor Anster, the translator of "Faust," sent 
 him a note respecting the same volume : — 
 
 " I find my name in the advertisements of the ' Library ol 
 Ireland.' I trust that publication may do. It looks well. I 
 
 * E. Curry, August 29, 1845. 
 
340 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 suppose the accident of my having written ' A Little Fairy Ballad ' 
 is my best claim for the promised immortality. I hope the date 
 of that ballad is preserved, as Banim and Lover have both imitated 
 it ; and, if reprinted in such good company, I should be glad that, 
 whatever may be thought of it, it should be known that it was 
 written ever so long before either of theirs. It was printed in 
 the Edinburgh edition of my poems in 1819, and written three 
 or four years before." * 
 
 Mr. Michael Banim, brother of John, and his 
 collaborateur in the " Tales of the O'Hara Family," 
 had a memoir of his brother in preparation, and 
 Davis asked him to give it to the new series. This 
 was his reply : — 
 
 "The memoir, I grieve to say, lies yet unfinished. You are 
 not unaware that my occupation is that of a man in trade, and 
 it requires almost constant personal attention to w^atch the busi- 
 ness I am engaged in. Since I called on you in Dublin, I have, 
 of necessity', devoted but little time to my desk, and, therefore, the 
 memoir is backward. If my more pressing occupations permit, 
 I intend sitting down to it shortly ; but I adhei'e to the resolution 
 of making it introductory to the republication of selected portions 
 of the ' O'Harra Tales.' Business is with me anterior, literary occu- 
 pation secondary; and it would be making an engagement which 
 circumstances might pi-event me from fulfilling, were I to say I 
 would perfect my j^et crude notions for publication as j^art of the 
 ' Library of Ireland.' " "j" 
 
 Davis urged John O'Donovan to collect a volume 
 of his historical miscellanies for the same series : — 
 
 "I fear," O'Donovan replied, "that my papers on the Irish 
 family names would not be worth reprinting in their present form, 
 and I have been thinking of compiling a larger work on the sub- 
 ject. This, however, I cannot do until the ' Annals ' are printed, and 
 if you think those little articles worth reprinting, I would have no 
 objection to see them out again, with a few corrections, which I 
 could easily make. From the Carew collection of manuscripts, in 
 the library at Lambeth, I have learned many new facts relating 
 
 * John Anster, LL.D., June 29, 1845. 
 t Mich. Banim, July 5, 1845. 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPAItTUBE. 341 
 
 to the Anglo-Irish families of Munster, which I should like to 
 insert ; hut I have little or no time to spare at present. . . . We, 
 Irish Shanachies, are beginning to dissipate the halo of national 
 enthusiasm which encircled our organs of veneration and self- 
 esteem, and are likely, in a few generations more, to settle down 
 to Saxon coolness. Then, however, we shall be more unmanage- 
 able to C)ur penal-law makers than were our more enthusiastic pre- 
 decessors, who excited their countrymen to deeds of desperate 
 bravery by describing to them the glorious deeds of Milesius, King 
 of Spain, 1300 before Christ. What astonishes me is, that our 
 ancestors, when they set about fabiicating a national pedigree, did 
 not trace themselves to Hercules, Hector, or Achilles. The trans- 
 lations and forged documents — I allude to what has been done in 
 Ireland for the last fifty years, for we have had a collectanea de 
 rebus Hibernicis, nearly all worse than forgeries ; the ' Chronicles 
 of Eri,' a barefaced and silly forgery; an essay on the ' Eound 
 Towers of Ireland,' by a Turlough O'Biien, who, out of vanity, 
 changed his baptism name from Terry to Ilenr}'. This last work 
 is a disgrace to the human intellect; but the author, I am glad, 
 for the sake of our literature, to say, was a madman, and died mad 
 in London. And in our own good times we have seen ' Etruria 
 Celtica' ushered into light under the name of ' The Ulster King 
 at Arms,' who is believed in England to be at the head of the 
 literature of Ireland. Tliis last work, though not what could be 
 jDroperly called a forgery, is still in its conclusions worse than any 
 that preceded it in silly audacities and childish conceits, which 
 a schoolboy could refute. . . . My eldest brother removed to 
 America, where he is beginning to acquire some of the original 
 courage of the mountaineei's of Carbery ! Xothing could recover 
 me ! I have ascended the highest mountains of Ireland, and viewed 
 all her most enchanting scenery, but still I never was cheered by 
 them. And, moreover, I have not yet learned to walk like a free- 
 man ! I was born a slave, and the impression stumped on the human 
 soul and impressed on the nerve by the consideration of having 
 been so born cannot be removed for life. This is a fact which 
 political philosophers do not take into consideration. ..." 
 
 He euds an elaborate pedigree of the O'Donovans 
 with this sketch of himself : — 
 
 "John, born August 3, 1809, and still living. He is of a 
 n"n^d race, and is beginning to think that he has derived more 
 of the elements of common sense from the Burkes, Archdeacons, 
 
342 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 and Puritans than from the Kavanaghs and O'Donovans of the 
 great race Olioll Olum." * 
 
 The success of the library was an infinite pleasure 
 to Davis, and he reported it exultingly to his friends. 
 To O'Brien he wrote : — • 
 
 " What of Sarstield's statue ? I think Moore would like to do 
 it [Christoj^her Moore, who had made efFective busts of Cuiran 
 and Plunket, but proved on trial to be unequal to statues]. Kirk 
 is not competent. The 'Ballad Poetry' [sec)nd volume of the 
 new " Library of Ireland"] lias reached a tliiid edition, and cannot 
 be jirinted fast enough for the sale. It is every way good. Not 
 an Irish Conservative of education but will read it, and be brought 
 nearer to Ireland by it. Tliat is a propagandism worth a thousand 
 liaiangiies such as you ask me to make. We are going to print 
 [Torrens] M'Cnllagh's 'Lecture on History' and O'Donovan's 
 ' Essays on Irish Names and Families ' in the series. Hugh 
 O'Neill's life is written, and is admirably done. One of the 
 volumes Avill be ' Thomond and the O'Briens,' dedicated to a living 
 member of that clan, written by a Clare mnn of Conservative 
 family; but this is a t-ecret known only to you, to the author, 
 and to myself. I have little chance of getting from town. Still 
 J am in iron liealth. Many thanks for your kind invitation to 
 Cahirmoyle. Grey Porter is here; he is unchanged." 
 
 To the first note O'Brien replied : — ■ 
 
 " I cannot but hope that the publication of the monthly volume 
 will be of infinite value to the national cause, if the intellectual 
 and moral standard of the work can be kept as high as it ought 
 to be. I like the two first numbers very much — I could not lay 
 down the ' Ballads ' until I had read the whole volume. I am 
 delighted with the article in yesterday's Nation respecting the pro- 
 spect of a union between Orange and Grreen. It makes me for 
 a moment believe that the dream of my life is about to be realized. 
 I know that I could not recommend [in the Association] that a few 
 hundred copies of this number of the Nation should be sent into 
 the Orange districts, without awakening jealousies which it is 
 very unadvisable to raise; but I think it worth while the con- 
 sideration of } ou and Dufty, whether it would not be avcII to print 
 this article on separate slips of paper, and send them by post into 
 
 * Julm U'JJouovaii, July 1'8, Iblu. 
 
18:t5] A NEW DEPARTUEE. 3^1:3 
 
 the heart of Fermanagh. Glorious, indeed, would be the spectacle 
 of a union of the two great contending Irish parties, who have 
 been taught to hate each other." * 
 
 The paralysis of the Eepeal Association led Davis 
 to renew the attempt to organize the Federalists. 
 At least, they might make their authentic opinions 
 known, and this could only be done effectually through 
 a journal. The first idea, as we have seen, was a 
 quarterly review, under the editorship of Maddyn. 
 Early in the year he wrote to him, again urging him 
 to accept this position. 
 
 Maddyn replied promptly : — 
 
 " There is nothing I would desire more than to be of use to 
 Ireland, but the deuce of it is I liave strung doubts about the 
 right of joining your party, which is the only one with ideas in 
 it. O'Connellism I dislike; there is so much public humbug in 
 it, and make-belief, etc., and yet I frankly confess that Natioualism 
 has fearful fascinations tu my mind." 
 
 But Davis came gradually to see, what was plain 
 euongli to some of his friends from the outset, that 
 a quarterly journal would reach so small a minority 
 of the people as to be nearly worthless, and in mid- 
 summer he informed jMaddyn that it was proposed 
 to buy the Monitor, a three-day evening paper, and 
 again invited him to take the editorship : — 
 
 " It is discussed among some Federalist friends of mine whether 
 they shall not buy the Monitor newspaper. It is a Whig paper, 
 has several times avowed Federalism, has the character of inde- 
 pendence and honour, but is much damaged by a bitter, hard, 
 narrow editor. The parties thinking of its purchase are men of 
 property, virtue, and education. They would seek in it an organ 
 fur independent national opinion, irrespective of parties or sects, 
 fostering an Irish literature, softening asperities, sustaining free 
 thought. Ultimately, if an opportunity came, they would like 
 
 * Furtli(.i cnn-es]Riii(lciiCL' rcspccling tlic '• Lilu-ary nf Jrehmd," Ijclweeu 
 tlic cclitur nf tliL' series auil literary allies, will be ioaiid in '' Yuuni:' Ireland," 
 bouk iii., c. G. 
 
314 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 to direct their influence to the carrying of a Federal arrangement 
 "bet^veen the two islands. The paper is pulDlished on Mondays, 
 "Wednesdays, Fridays. The Nation is printed w-ith its types, and 
 Tises sjnie of its news ; so is and does the Baihcay Gazette. 
 
 "But the whole project depends on getting as editor a man 
 to whose honour, patriotism, taste, education, and genius the pro- 
 prietors could commit the whole affair. I do not think there is 
 any one here or in London fit for it but yourself. It would give 
 you the opportunity I know you always desired, of raising the 
 moral and intellectual character of your country. Your income 
 would certainly be good, and would increase ; the men you would 
 have to deal with all you could wish; jour position quite inde- 
 pendent, alike of Castle and Conciliation Hall. 
 
 " Though I am certainly anxious, from personal feeling, that 
 you should be here, I would not advise you to this course if I 
 foresaw the least likelihood of annoyance to you in any stage of 
 it. Should you, as I trust and hope you will, approve of the 
 design, pray let me know quickly, as the whole project is unsettled, 
 but would, I am sure, be defined rapidly if you could be looked 
 tv with certainty." 
 
 Madclyn had grave objections to the projects 
 submitted to him : — 
 
 " I would not^ accept the Monitor under the p»rty that o-«-ned 
 the Citizen. I believe in their virtue and patriotism, but I have 
 not the least confidence in their literary or political capacity. 
 They might have done great things in the year 1843 and subse- 
 quently, but they had not the s^amina in them. Their pretensions 
 were immense, but their performances with pen or tongue did not 
 justify their claims to eminence of any kind. The kind of persons 
 that I would like to look to as my employers would be a set of 
 business men, of capital and social ambition (even of a coarse kind). 
 The kind of men I would like are those of vulgar sense and strong 
 hearty pui-pose. I could manage matters for them better than if 
 they were an ambitious junto of small politicians craving mere 
 j)ersonal notoriety. . . . The arrogance of a millionnaire or the 
 jiompous airs of a real Milesian never could have matter of offence 
 fur me. But there is one thing towards which I am cynical, and 
 that is the manner of a man like M . Superciliousness with- 
 out substantial power is very hard to bear, and the affected con- 
 descension of the diminutive great still harder to endure. Now, 
 if M was to be an owner of the Monitor, 1 would have nothing 
 
1845.] A XEW DErARTUEE. 345 
 
 to say to it. ... I should like to go to Dublin, but, at tbe same 
 time, the town life of London has a great deal to amuse and interest 
 a Gil Bias like myself; I would have more friends in Dublin and 
 less amusements. I would have a certainty of being useful there ; 
 I would have a better chance of being honourably known here. 
 It would be easy for me to go on with a balance of advantages 
 ad infinitum; but I will sum up by saying that a good salary and 
 moderate work would induce me to give up London, but not 
 literature." * 
 
 This was Davis's rejoinder : — 
 
 " The Monitor was suddenly stopped, so nothing will now be 
 done about a Federalist organ till November. If you come here 
 then I do not doubt that an ariangement quite satisfactory to 
 } ou can be made. 
 
 " Are your health and spirits good ? Tell me. In haste, 
 
 '' Yours, 
 " T. D. 
 " He of whom you spoke unfavourably had nothing to do with 
 the project." 
 
 The disappearance of the Monitor did not ter- 
 minate the negotiation. I find among Davis's papers 
 a note of mine furnishing the data for a new paper 
 in lieu of the Monitor. 
 
 " I send 5'ou the calculation (for a thrice-a-week paper) as exact 
 as I can make it. It can scarcely be a pound wrong. 
 
 " A twice-a-week paper will cost a third less and be equally 
 effective. The price will suit the public better, and it is a happy 
 compromise between a weekly which comes too seldom, you think, 
 and a three-day one which is too dear for a large circulation. 
 Don't suppose that it will make no difference to a wealthy party 
 whether the subscription is £2 or £3. Trust me it will. Besides, 
 it will make a serious difference to the proprietors, while they are 
 waiting for success, whether they have to pay £"36 a week or £47. 
 For propagandism twice a week is as good as twice a day, or better, 
 for men must have time to digest new opinions. 
 
 " Unless an unprecedented advertising connection can be 
 secured, there will, either way, be a considerable loss. They must 
 be prepared for this. A circulation of less than a thousand would 
 
 * Julv 3nL 
 
346 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 not pay, and such a circulation, I suspect, for a Federalist paper is 
 out of the question." 
 
 But the tragic event recorded in the next chapter 
 brought this and a hundred other beneficent projects 
 to an abrupt end. 
 
 As July approached, the era of party celebrations 
 in Ulster, Davis addressed to the Catholics and Pro- 
 testants respectively words of advice which they 
 may still read with advantage and with reverence, as 
 the latest counsel of a tried friend : — 
 
 " To the Catholics of Ireland, with great sincerity we would 
 say, Eespect the fooli-h enthusiasm of your brother. You have no 
 right to dictate to him what course he shall pursue. Strive with 
 him in kindness ; win him to your convictions by the silent elo- 
 quence of your conduct. If he forgets the courtesies which Chris- 
 tianity should have taught him, and insults your pride by the 
 celebration of your defeat, — pardon and pity him. You can effect 
 nothing by vulgar brawls but to render inveterate the jtassions 
 which offend you. Cultivate an honest pride which can look down 
 <m these mean aggressors, and a forgiving nature which will con- 
 ciliate towards you the hearts of your erring countrymen." 
 
 And he reminded the Protestants how little they 
 had gained by the triumphs over their own country- 
 men, of which they were so proud : — 
 
 " The men who defended Derry and Enuiskillen gained nothing. 
 Their lands were ravaged by the war, and, as appears from the 
 evidence of the Williamite, Dr. George, more by the English than 
 by the Irish army. They carried their complaints, these stunt old 
 militiamen, to Londun ; they printed their ' deplorable cases ' by 
 the hundred; they first got soft and then hard words ; they were 
 left to rot in the alleys of the English capital, never relieved by 
 a sixi)ence from king, nobles, or Parliament." * 
 
 The larger work on which Davis and his friends 
 were employed will be best understood by examples. 
 The Poyal Dublin Society asked for an increased 
 
 * yallcii, July i'J, lyi5. 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 347 
 
 grant from Parliament, and it was proposed to invite 
 the Irish members whom the Association could influ- 
 ence to support the claim. At the same time, the 
 society was requested, through Smith O'Brien, now 
 one of its members, to make some useful changes in 
 its administration. There were admirable lectures 
 delivered by eminent professors on industrial know- 
 ledge and the economy of ma,nufactures ; but they 
 were delivered at an hour when the artisans for 
 whose benefit they were intended could not be pre- 
 sent. It was proposed to substitute evening lectures. 
 The society had also exhibitions of Irish manufacture, 
 but they w^ere not well attended ; it was suggested 
 that the increased grant might enable the society 
 to open them gratuitously. The society acquiesced 
 in both suggestions, and showed a cordial willingness 
 to accept the popular initiative in practical questions. 
 The early death of John Banim, a national nove- 
 list, who shared the political hopes of his race, left 
 his widow ill provided. As the executive had the 
 disposal of an annual grant for literary pensions 
 derived in part from Irish taxes, it was resolved to 
 claim a provision for her from that source. A com- 
 mittee was organized by the writers of the Nation, 
 and it was considered at the time a note of progress 
 that the men who comj^osed it should have con- 
 sented to act together for any purpose. They were : 
 — Daniel O'Connell, M.P., John Anster, LL.D. (the 
 translator of " Faust ''), Smith O'Brien, M.P., Isaac 
 Butt, LL.D. (then leader of the extreme Conserva- 
 tives), Dr. Kane (since Sir Robert Kane), Jolni O'Con- 
 nell, M.P., Charles Lever (the author of " Harry 
 Lorrequer"), Torrens McCullagh, LL.B. (now Mc- 
 Cullagli Torrens), Thomas Davis, Samuel Fei'guson 
 
848 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 (the late Sir Samuel Ferguson, Deputy Keeper of 
 the Eecords in Ireland), Thomas O'Hagan (since 
 Lord O'Hagan), William Carleton (author of " Traits 
 and Stories of the Irish Peasantry "), E. B. Koche, 
 M.P. (since Lord Fermoy), Joseph Le Fanu (author 
 of *' The House hy the Churchyard," etc.), Charles 
 Gavan Duffy, Hubert Smith, M.E.I. A., Thomas 
 MacNevin, Dr. Maunsell (editor of the Evening Mail), 
 Grey Porter (still assiduous in Irish affairs half a 
 century later), James M'Glashan (proprietor of the 
 Dublin University Magazine), and M. J. Barry. 
 
 The committee succeeded, through the agency 
 of A. B. Eoche mainly, in inducing Sir Eohert Peel 
 to grant a small pension to Mrs. Banim.* 
 
 We made a determined effort to get popular 
 education organized and endowed by associating it 
 with the temperance movement. Before the estab- 
 lishment of the Nation, Father Mathew accepted, 
 and published broadcast, a proposal of mine, that he 
 should substitute moral stimulants for the sensual 
 stimulant which he had taken aw^ay — that the Tee- 
 total Societies should become Elysees for cultivating 
 the understanding and improving the morals of the 
 people. In time it seemed that every town in the 
 island would have its temperance hall, and every 
 
 * The surviving author of the " Tales of the O'Hara Familj%" who, in 
 politics, was an unswerving adherent of O'Connt'll, acknowledged that this 
 service to his brother's widow was attributable to the new men. 
 " Dear Sib, 
 
 " I beg to return you my very sincere thanks for the very effectual 
 performance of your promise to me, in my sister-in-law's business. However 
 others may have worked in the matter, I impute it solely to your kindness 
 that such success has been the result ; and I will always regard you as the 
 person to whom my brother's widow is really indebted. 
 
 "I am, dear sir, your obliged servant, 
 
 " M. Banim. 
 " Kilkenny, May 10, 1815. 
 
 "Chas. Gavan Duffy, Esq." 
 
18i5.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 349 
 
 liall, we insisted, ought to have its lectnre-room, 
 where the artisan might be taught the principles of 
 mechanics, the farmer the latest improvements in 
 agriculture, and every one something that w^ould 
 make him a better man and a better citizen. There 
 was a movement on foot to create some permanent 
 memorial to commemorate Father Mathew's services, 
 and we thought that such a system of adult educa- 
 tion would be a nobler monument than any carved 
 in marble or cast in bronze. Davis and I wrote 
 repeatedly in this sense, but in the end there were 
 no funds available. A long array of dukes, marquises, 
 earls, baronets, privy councillors, and members of 
 Parhament, ecclesiastics of both Churches, and the 
 leaders of the bench, bar, and magistracy served on 
 the preliminary committee ; but the treasurer, Mr. 
 Peter Purcell, assured me that one half of these 
 personages never paid their subscriptions, and a sum 
 sufficient to defray debts, which Father Mathew had 
 incurred to medal makers and printers on behalf 
 of the Temperance Societies, was all that could be 
 obtained. 
 
 Wallis, who was as morbid and almost as suspicious 
 as Kousseau, w^as discontented that his methods and 
 theories of public action were not accepted by his 
 friends, and that they did not do for his private 
 comfort and prosperity what every man in the end 
 must do for himself, or find left undone. He an- 
 nounced to Davis his intention of going to London 
 and living there by journalism. 
 
 " I have," he wrote, " a deep sense of your kindness, not alone 
 in affording me pecuniary aid ; but still more in the trouble you 
 have taken to find me occupation, and to procure and bring me 
 books to enable me to accomplish it. It is the more to be regretted 
 
350 MEMOIR OF THOMAS -DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 that we should take such opposite views, both of the Avork in qiies- 
 iion and of many higher and more serious matters. But the fault 
 is in our stars, and not ourselves; though it is strange that men 
 in a good many respects similar in temperament, and both notable 
 for a tardy development of such powers as they possess, should 
 prove, alike in theory and practice, in aims, and in the choice of 
 means to attain them, so different, if not antagonistic. . . . National 
 liberty is a gi'and and a very precious thing, worth paying a very 
 high price foi' ; but it is not worth the sacrifice of every other 
 liberty. Fur me, in my humble sphere, liberty of opinion and 
 speculation, freedom of thought and freedom of speech, were ever 
 the noblest of all rights and aims. For them I sacrificed, as the 
 event has proved, every element of well-being that my position 
 and character endowed me with. Every blossom of enjoyment, 
 every fruit of memory, every seed of hope I offered up on that 
 altar. . . . The heartless apathy evinced towards me by some of 
 my oldest and most intimate associates, and the studied contumely 
 with which they have cho>^en to demonstrate it, at a time when 
 my ill-health and other circumstances might have suggested a 
 little forbearance, have already greatly loosened the few remaining 
 ties I had to kind or country. If, at the present stage of the 
 matter, I find myself flung thns abruptly to rot or ri|ien on the 
 London dunghill, the severance will be complete. I shall never 
 return to Ireland again, or take any step to identify myself with 
 a land from which those who ought to have known me best have 
 so deliberately and scornfully ejected me. I shall deem myself 
 as virtually transported as if I had been dragged on a cart from 
 Kilmainham to the hulks. In which case, you will perceive my 
 undertaking as to Flood must fall to the ground." * 
 
 Samuel Fergason, who was gradually approaching 
 nearer to Davis in opinion, acknowledged a copy 
 of the quarto " Spirit of the Nation " in terms which 
 must have been very gratifying to his correspondent. 
 
 " Accept my best thanks for the ' Spirit of the Nation ' which 
 I will preserve as a memorial of your friendship and an incitement 
 
 * Wallis did not carry out his intentions quite as he had projected them. 
 A'"ter a short visit to Londtin, he returned to Dublin, and became a con- 
 tributor to the Nation. But bis morbid temper was a torture to himself and 
 others, and he finally returned to London, wliere he became a writer in the 
 Moniiiig Chronicle, in some sense its foreign editor I believe, and died in 
 1865, in a biiuilar employment. 
 
1845] A NEW DEPAETUBE. S^A 
 
 to my own love of song and conntl•5^ When I see Low we are all 
 working, I hope soon to see Dublin at least a better EdinLurgli. A 
 sentence of Bishop Parry's, addressed to Sir James Ware, is per- 
 ])etually sounding in my ears : Diu 7iimis ohscurnta tenehris delitiut 
 Hibernia, nee sibi prorsus cognita nee aim. Diu satis ecUpsim passa 
 est, rudis admodum et indigesta ; filiisque siiis peregrina, se ne fuinse 
 Lucus-que duhitavit. Tandem vero, tanqnam vero ad augendam CaroU 
 gloriam, ealamique vestri in honorem reservata, novos induit spiritus 
 formamque venustiorem. The contributioti to Charles's or Yicturia's 
 glory is a secondary matter. These efforts are sei'viceable to our- 
 selves, and will redound to the service of those who come afrer us. 
 God knows our self-reliance is all in all ; and, with the growing 
 self-reliance of the young men, wider prospects may open. In the 
 mean time I am satisfied with the progress we are making, even 
 though it aim at no greater result than literary and intellectual 
 supremacy." 
 
 Among the latest difficulties sent to DaA^s for 
 solution, was one which required peculiarly delicate 
 handling. O'Connell was a Celtic chief accustomed 
 to defend his clan in all emergencies, and some 
 of them were very trjung. There were two hundred 
 and fifty Eepeal wardens in London, industrious 
 artisans for the most part, who, after their day's 
 lahour was closed, undertook new work for the love 
 of Ireland. An inspector-general was appointed over 
 them, with so liberal a salary that it sometinjes 
 amounted to a lion's share of the weekly receipts. 
 The office was conferred on a dissolute poor relation 
 of O'Connell's, called in derision ' Lord Kilmallock,' 
 — the identical person from whom Thackeray, as we 
 learn from his correspondence, studied his Captain 
 Costigan and Mulligan of Ballymulligan. The 
 inspector-general got into debt, could only make his 
 appearance at Bepeal meetings on Sunday, and^ 
 to avoid arrest, lived the remainder of the week under 
 a feigned name in some inscrutable hiding-place. 
 The Repeal wardens complained that regular work 
 
352 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 was rendered impossible under this system, and tbey 
 were threatened from head-quarters with immediate 
 dismissal from their honorary employment. O'Con- 
 nell proposed to meet the difiiculty by increasing 
 Mr. William John O'Connell's salary. Davis and a 
 minority of the general committee stubbornly 
 resisted this waste of public money, and insisted 
 that the honest wardens should not be molested 
 for a just and necessary remonstrance ; but their 
 resistance was made in vain. 
 
 Thomas Meagher, who never saw Davis in the 
 flesh, saw him in the mirror of imagination. In 
 a lecture delivered in America he pictures him as he 
 was in the period at which we have now arrived : — 
 
 " Follow liim, and you will visit the workshop of the artisan, 
 where he talked of Irish oak for furniture — the studio of the artist, 
 to whom he has rapidly and brilliantly suggested and grouped a 
 picture froiu Irish history — the Galleries of the Eoyal Hibernian 
 Academy, wliere he has discovered new beauties in the lurid fancies 
 of Danliy, or the portraits of Burton— the Library of Trinity 
 College, where he has consulted an old manuscript and fixed a 
 date — the Museum of the Irish Academy, where he has met Doctor 
 Petrie and with him inspected some newly dug up Danish or 
 ancient Irish relic — the Committee Room of the Repeal Associa- 
 tion, where he threw new and friendly light upon some subject of 
 angry debate. Probably he has led you to the Nation office, where 
 he has corrected a handful of proof-sheets — visited half a dozen 
 booksellers' shops, and called on William Eliot Hudson, to hear 
 him play over an arrangement of some glorious old Irish airs, 
 which he had recovered frvjm a blind piper in the wilds of Conne- 
 mara or the glens of Munster." 
 
 But it must be confessed much of this incessant 
 labour yielded results which were only temporary or 
 illusory. He set an undue value, I think, on mere 
 social sympathy and the dilettante nationality which 
 grew enthusiastic over the Cross of Cong, or a Jacobite 
 song of the later bards, but was indifferent to the 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPABTURE. 353 
 
 present sufferiugs or hopes of the people. One of his 
 friends, who spoke in parables, told him the story of 
 a chemist who took infinite credit for a discovery by 
 which he could extract fire from snow, till some 
 realistic person requested him to specify how many 
 snowballs would boil his tea-kettle ? He desired to 
 make Conservatives Nationalists like Addis Emmett 
 or Whitley Stokes ; but he rarely succeeded in doing 
 more than making them Nationalists like Walter 
 Scott or John Wilson, devoted to the literature and 
 antiquities of their native country, but content with 
 its subjection to England. In Ireland Nationality 
 meant admitting the whole nation to a platform 
 where a single class had long exercised exclusive 
 authority — a voluntary sacrifice of old possession to 
 abstract justice which individuals will sometimes 
 make, but which it is visionary to expect of any 
 large class of mankind. 
 
 The last volumes on which Davis was engaged 
 were a new edition of Curran's speeches, and a 
 memoir of Wolfe Tone, w^hich was to appear as the 
 third volume of the "Library of Ireland." Of the 
 latter the printer wrote to him at the end of August, 
 reporting progress, and answering inquiries which 
 he had undertaken to make. 
 
 " 50, Capel Street, August 20, 1845, 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I send you a proof of your manuscript. 
 "Mrs. Moru Chandler, 148, Abbey Street, has the portraits of 
 Wolfe Tone, and you can see them whenever j^ou call. 
 
 " Mr. Scott has built on the site of Wolfe Tone's house — the 
 number is 44. He says that Mr. Thomas Jervis White, 4, Lower 
 Gloucester Street, who is agent for the property, is a very com- 
 municative old gentleman, and that he would feel a pleasure in 
 giving you all the information you desire. 
 
 " Dear sir, yours trnly, 
 
 " T. CAI>TnVET.L." 
 2 A 
 
354 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 The last letter Davis received from his friend 
 Maddyn announced two projects which he had in 
 hand, only one of which was ever realized. 
 
 " Sevenoaks, Kent, September 3, 1845. 
 
 " I have been working very hard upon a new book, the first 
 volume of which must be out in October. It is a large work, three 
 volumes— to be called ' The Age of Pitt a,nd Fox ; ' it is to be printed 
 with my name. Wlien I get back to town I will send your con- 
 tribution to the Nation. I came here to see Knole Manor, the 
 family seat of the Dorsets. I saw there the original portrait of 
 Goldsmith by Sir Joshua. I was sadly disappointed. The size 
 is kitcat, and the forehead wants the grandeur given it in the 
 engravings. 
 
 " I am meditating a series of papers for the Nation, to be called 
 the ' Who-can-he-be Papers.' Their idea is this : — ■ 
 
 " I stumble, in England, upon a gentleman whom the narrator 
 knows at once to be Irish, but he can't make out his name, or any- 
 thing about him. The stranger tells all manner of singular 
 anecdotes, sketches characters in a few sentences, describes men 
 and things with much spiiit and freshness. All the subject-matter 
 of bis discourses and anecdotes is Irish. I meet this Irish gentle- 
 man in London, I meet him at Windsor, in Devonshire, everywhere 
 I go ; other people also meet him, but none can t^ll who he is. 
 Through the papers a dramatic interest is kept up as to who he is. 
 His conversaticm and remarks are curious, interesting, and quaint ; 
 occasionally showing research and reflective spirit, always exhibit- 
 ing facility of reference. But his matter is entertaining and 
 readable. Such is the loose idea of the thing I propose. It would 
 be a novel feature in the Nation, and both you and Duffy could 
 write any papers in it, once the thing was set in motion. We 
 could try the effect of three or four. If the authorship could be 
 concealed from the public it would be a point in its favour. A 
 couple of papers relative to Ulster and Belfast would remove 
 suspicion from me. 
 
 " The ' Ballad Poetry of Ireland ' is admirable. It is all 
 to nothing the best edited collection T ever saw. The introduction 
 is a choice specimen of writing ; it merits what the Spectator said 
 of it— and what more could be desired ? It reflects immense credit 
 on Duffy." 
 
 As the autumn approached, Davis wrote a note to 
 Maddyn, which, like all his correspondence with that 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 355 
 
 bosom friend, disclosed the deepest feeling of the 
 hour : — 
 
 " As Duffy, and indeed every one who at all contributes to the 
 Nation (save myself), will be oiit of town for five or six weeks, 
 your sending me the ' Burke ' and, if possible, one or two other 
 papers, would be a great — a very great — convenience to me. I 
 would not ordinarily mind having the entire of the paper thrown 
 on me ; but I have been for some time, and am likely to continue 
 for a while, in a state of feverish anxiety on a subject pui'ely 
 personal, and which I hope I may yet be able to talk of to yon. 
 There is hardly any one I shall so rejoice on every ground to see in 
 October or November ; now I am too much troubled in mind to be 
 worth your society. Won't you come in the autumn? "VVe will 
 have delightful projects, and gossips, and expeditions, and I trust 
 some good to our common principles and country may follow too. 
 You don't know the men here ; the autumn is by far the best season 
 for that." * 
 
 Maddyn in his reply glances at Davis's personal 
 trouble, of which it will be now necessary to speak, 
 but he obviously misunderstood its nature. 
 
 " T am the more sorry for whatever is troubling you, as I 
 cannot be of assistance, but I hope that, whatever it is, it will 
 soon be over, and that you will not be disappointed. We Irish 
 often get too excited in difficulties; be calmly ready to bear the 
 worst, and, if it comes, indifference will be a shield — if the best, 
 you will have so much the more cause for joy." f 
 
 The personal trouble was one which is rarely 
 wanting as a motor in the lives of young men. He 
 was in love. When he began to write verse, one of 
 his friends who thought a Laura was an essential part 
 of the equipment of a Petrarch, asked him if he had 
 ever been in love. " I have never been out of it," 
 was his laughing reply. But these amourettes were 
 passing fancies, and his profound nature craved a 
 great and permanent passion. At length he encoun- 
 
 * Davis to Maddyn, July 31, 1845. 
 t Maddyn to Davis, August 4, 1845. 
 
356 MEMOIB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 tered the girl who was to rule his life. In September, 
 1844, during the Eichmond imprisonment, while he 
 was engaged in his most exacting work, the first refer- 
 ence to the lady crops up in his correspondence, 
 though he had known and loved her months earlier. 
 
 " You have Hibernicized the Huttons so much," he wrote to 
 Pigot, " that they have borrowed a lot of my collection of Irish 
 airs, and the lady whose name you write so flippantly sings the 
 * Bonny Cuckoo.' Are you very vain for all this ? " 
 
 Pigot, who was not slow to comprehend the state 
 of the case, replied : — 
 
 " You are amusing about the Huttons, but your coquetry is all 
 fair wheu you can get that graceful wild girl to sing ' Bonny 
 Cuckoo ' and 'Annie Dear ' for you. 'Tis very pleasant, too, to have 
 collections of music-books for such disinterested proselytism. . ." * 
 
 A couple of months later he wrote to the same 
 friend, projecting for him a destiny which he now 
 dreamed offer himself: — 
 
 " I am much grieved at your illness of mind and body ; take 
 care that you are not trying to live too much without personal 
 attachments. I wish you were married to a soft generous Irish 
 girl who would worship and nurse you." f 
 
 Annie Hutton was the only daughter of Thomas 
 Huttou, whom we have already heard of as a leading 
 Federalist — an opulent and honourable citizen who 
 had sat in the House of Commons for a time as 
 member for Dublin, and still took a lively interest 
 in public affairs. When Davis met her she was 
 barely twenty years of age, a slender, graceful girl 
 with features of classic contour and marble hue. 
 Ho has left a charming portrait of her in a little 
 poem written when she was about to visit Killarney, 
 from whose Elysian fields the imagery is all gathered. 
 
 * September 13, 1844. f November 10, 1844. 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPABTUBE. 357 
 
 " Her eyes are darker than Dunloe, 
 Her soul is whiter than the snow, 
 Her tresses like arbutus flow, 
 
 Her step like frighted deer : 
 Then, still thy waves, capricious lake ! 
 And ceaseless, soft winds, round her wake. 
 Yet never bring a cloud to break 
 
 The smile of Fanny dear ! 
 
 " Old Mangerton ! thine eagles plume — 
 Dear Innisfallen ! brighter bloom — 
 And Mucruss ! whisper through the gloom 
 
 Quaint legends to her ear ; 
 Till strong as ash-tree in its pride, 
 And gay as sunbeam on the tide, 
 We welcome back to Liffey's side. 
 
 Our brightest, Fanny dear." 
 
 For " Fanny "the sympathetic reader will now read 
 " Annie." The love-songs of that era are less natural 
 and spontaneous, I think, than the love-songs of his 
 peasants and peasant girls. They are less the first 
 passionate ardour of a youth for a maiden, than the 
 lofty devotion of a minstrel or cavalier for a gracious 
 lady. For example : — 
 
 " Oh, fairer than the dawn of day 
 
 On Erne's islands ! ^ 
 
 Oh, purer than the thorn spray 
 In Bantry's highlands ! 
 In sleep such visions crossed my view, 
 
 And when I woke the phantom faded ; 
 But now I find the fancy true, 
 
 And fairer than the vision made it." 
 
 Or this :— 
 
 " Methinks that there are passions . 
 Within that heaving breast 
 To scorn their heartless fashions. 
 And wed whom you love best. 
 
358 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845, 
 
 MetliinlvS you would be piouder 
 
 As the struggling patriot's bride, 
 Than it rank your home should crowd, or 
 
 Cold riclies round you glide." 
 
 The proverbial impediments which bar the course 
 of true love did not spring in this case from the 
 coldness of the lady. His songs are those of a 
 happy lover. Bat at thirty years of age, when the 
 responsibilities of manhood awaited him, it was too 
 plain that he had sacrificed professional advancement, 
 and all that is vulgarly called success, to public duty. 
 He was a perfect publicist, but in Ireland the 
 national journalist carried on his work under the 
 constant risk of ruinous State prosecution. Quite 
 recently the Lord Chief Justice, who under his 
 ermine cope carried the heart of a malignant partisan, 
 had directed a jury to find the Nation guilty of libel 
 for having repudiated a quack advertisement an- 
 nouncing pills which cured consumption in its last 
 stages. And while his acquaintance with ^Miss 
 Hutton was still young there broke out, on the other 
 hand, as we have seen, a storm of bigotry which 
 threatened to drive him from public life. If a prudent 
 father consented to overlook the insecurity of his 
 worldly position, a generous lover could not shut his 
 own eyes to it. Here was a source of grave and con- 
 stant anxiety, and of the low spirits already noted 
 in his correspondence with Maddyn. Pigot, too, 
 recognized the change of mood, though he does not 
 seem to have conjectured the cause of it. 
 
 " Your bad spirits," he wrote, " fret me a great deal, and I 
 woukl waste a long sheet, rating you, but that it is just post time 
 here. For Ireland, with God's blessing, you will ever work as 
 now ; but your hopelessness, or heartlessness, or something worse 
 — listlessness, is noways true — and I confess you put me in low 
 spirits that you should so yield to morbidness." 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPASTURE. 359 
 
 It is a conjecture merely that a verse in one 
 of his hallads suggested an alternative which must 
 sometimes have arisen in his mind — the picture of a 
 young energetic settler in a new country : — • 
 
 " Thei'e are lands where manly toil 
 
 Surely reaps tlie crop it sows, 
 Glorious woods and teeming soil, 
 
 Where the broad Missouri flows ; 
 Through the trees the smoke shall rise, 
 
 From our hearth with maitli go leor, 
 There shall shine the happy eyes 
 Of my Mdire bhcin a stoir. 
 
 Mild is Mdire bhdn a sloir, 
 Mine is Mdire hhdn a stoir. 
 Saints will watch about the door 
 Of my 3Idire hhdn a stoir." 
 
 It is good and pleasant to know that no impedi- 
 ment finally separated the noblest heart heating in 
 Ireland at that hour from the woman he loved. 
 During the most stringent labours of the period just 
 past in review, he became the affianced lover of 
 Miss Hutton. A single note from the lady will 
 sufficiently indicate the frank and chivalrous rela- 
 tions established between them. The love of Davis 
 raises his promised bride far above the region of con- 
 ventionality, and makes whatever concerns her of 
 an interest like that which kindles for the Beatrice 
 of Dante, or the heroic wife of Garibaldi the sym- 
 pathy and solicitude of a nation. 
 
 "How shall I tell you how happy I was to get your dear, 
 dear letter, for which I love you twenty times better than before, 
 for now you are treating me with confidence, not like a child 
 whom it pleases you to play with. Do you know that was (but 
 it is nearlj^ gone) the one fear I had, that you Avould think of me 
 as a plaything, more than as a friend ; but I don't think you will 
 
360 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 since last night. There now, dearest, you have all that is on my 
 mind. I would have told you the last day you were here, only I 
 did not know exactly how to say it, and thought it might be said 
 hotter in a letter. Why do you say you wish I was oftener kind 
 to you? And why do you think me cold sometimes? — indeed, I 
 don't intend it, love. You say 3-0U are 'lazy,' — I dont believe it; 
 'desultory,' — I loont believe it; 'of selfish habits,' — I carit believe 
 it ; — there now, ' tbim's my sintiments ! ' as our friend Dr. S. 
 would say. I'll tell you what, you must not write such nice 
 letters to me, because it makes me slightly insane, as you may 
 perceive. Oh ! I forgot I intended to begin this with a pro- 
 found scolding; I am really very angry with you for writing my 
 unworthy name in that beautiful book of ' Melodies.' Indeed, you 
 must not, dearest, be giving me so many books ; besides, I like 
 better to have them when they are yoiirs. 
 
 " I had such a lovely drive all round Howth yesterday, and at 
 the most beautiful part was alone, which I was very sorry for ; I 
 like to have some one to enjoy beauty with me, not to talk about 
 it, but just quietly to enjoy. It was very beautiful, Killiney all 
 brilliant in the sunlight, with white-sailed boats dancing merrily 
 over the water, and then the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains 
 behind frowning blackly, as if jealous that they had no sun, and 
 Bray Head, the Grey Stones, and Wicklow Head stretching out 
 farther and still farther away. And there wasn't a sound to be 
 heard — so different from the other busy side of Howth that we had 
 just come from. I had a pleasant comjDanion in the ' German 
 Anthology' [Clarence Mangan's Translations]." 
 
 Miss Hutton's mother, wlio was a woman of not- 
 able capacity and accomplishments, one of the gifted 
 circle whom Miss Mitford called her friends, valued 
 and esteemed Davis, understood the nobility of his 
 character and the vigour of his intellect, but was 
 far from being in sympathy wdth the main purpose 
 of his life. This was a trouble he had long en- 
 countered in his own family, among those whom he 
 loved best, and who loved him best ; and here is 
 evidence that difference of conviction would not 
 prevent the lady from being a gracious and con- 
 siderate belle- fuere : — 
 
1845.] A NEW DEPARTURE. 361 
 
 " Dear Mr. Davis, 
 
 " Many thanks for the tickets. One of my family will 
 avail himself of your kindness, but this morning T have only my 
 Annie at home; but some friends will be glad to go. I sent you 
 a note yesterday hefore I received yours. I am truly sorry you 
 should be out of spirits, but would prescribe a walk to the country 
 as a good restorative ; you may guess the direction. The spring 
 is lovely ; would that the living works of God were as perfect, 
 and then our spirits would not flag nor faint, and our eyes would 
 be open to the beauty that surrounds us in every form, marred 
 only by ourselves. Shall I be very angry or not with your in- 
 sulting phrase of my ' chance patriotism ' ? Oh that such spirits 
 as yours would see that no good can come through, bad means ! 
 and then you would mourn as I do, heart and soul, that the 
 character of our brave, noble, generous countrymen is debased 
 and deteriorated, not by their oj^pressors, but by their friends. 
 Now, don't smile in scorn at my patriotism. I am afraid I have 
 secured myself against another attack hy this infliction — a subject 
 that awakens such deep feelings and emotions; I ought not to 
 have touched upon where I cannot with any sense of mercy for 
 your valuable time even enter upon it properly. So farewell. 
 Don't believe I love my country less because, with all true and 
 deep acknowledgment of Mr. O'Connell's early services, I abhor 
 his late and present courses, and fervently wish such minds and 
 souls as yours and a few others were exorcised of this evil spiiit 
 and its influence. 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " M. HUTTON. 
 
 " Elm Park, Friday morning." 
 
 During these crowded raonths, the period of his 
 hardest work and most exulting happiness, he ripened 
 notably in health, spirits, and self-confidence. *' All 
 who remember him during that time," says one of 
 his friends, '' can testify to the wonderful change he 
 underwent even in appearance. His form dilated, 
 his eyes got a new fire, his step was firmer, and the 
 look of a proud purpose sat on him." * 
 
 When autumn arrived, he declined to share the 
 
 * Mr. Justice O'liajian. 
 
362 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 excursions of his comrades, having more attractive 
 engagements at home. But he insisted on my going 
 to the country, and volunteered to take charge of 
 the Nation. All the contributors were holiday- 
 making ; and the entire work of the journal became 
 oppressive to a man transported for a time into a 
 region where it is always holiday, and work is inter- 
 dicted. But in lieu of becoming querulous under the 
 burthen, he contented himself with a friendly remon- 
 strance to the malefactors through the "Answers to 
 Correspondents." * At the beginning of September 
 I returned to Dublin, and found him in vigorous 
 health and exuberant spirits, except when the talk 
 fell on the calamities at Conciliation Hall. For a 
 week or ten days things went on in their usual 
 course. He came daily to the Nation office to 
 consult on current topics, and was still full of pro- 
 jects for the far future. f 
 
 * "Most of onr poetical contributors seem to have glutted themselves 
 with summer fruits, and gone to sleep. Of course they will waken ' refreshed 
 giauts.' Meantime we shall despatch a fairy to trouble their dreams with 
 the old tune of 'get up early.' Waiving ceremony, we think the conduct 
 of half a dozen of oar best friends vile in the extreme. We wish we could 
 make the hills wetter, and the inns dirtier, their talk dull, and their tea 
 indigestible for such treachery " {Nation, August 30, 1845). 
 
 t I find amoni; his papers letters from Colonel Thompson, who repre- 
 sented generous and cultivated Radicalism; Sharman Cravvt'ord, a Federalist 
 and a friend to the tenant farmer; and Jatnes Hardiman, who cultivated 
 Irish antiquities and Celtic literature with steady enthusiasm, but only to a 
 limited audience ; but none of them are of permanent interest. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 1845. 
 
 In the midst of this generous and fruitful work, — on 
 the threshold, as it seemed, of a long and happy 
 career, — when his power to stimulate and control his 
 generation was greatest and most stringently needed, 
 — from the midst of a crowd of loyal friends, and from 
 the side of the woman he had wooed and won for his 
 bride, Thomas Davis, by God's inscrutable judgment, 
 received the summons which none can resist — the 
 strong no more than the weak. On the 9th of 
 September, 1845, he did not appear at the Nation 
 office as usual, but a note came from him announcing 
 what he believed to be a slight stomachic derange- 
 ment : — 
 
 " Tuesday morning. 
 «' My pear D., 
 
 " I have had an attack of some sort of cholera, and 
 perhaps have slight scarlatina. I cannot see any one, and am in 
 bed. Don't be alarmed about me; btit don't lely on my being 
 able to write. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 ' " T. D." 
 
 The lines were somewhat tremulous, but as I 
 learned from his servant that the note was written 
 in bed, the change from his usual clear and vigorous 
 
364 MEMOIB OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 handwriting excited no suspicion. A note from 
 MacNevin, written to him in a tone of banter, in- 
 tended to amuse a sick chamber, will sufficiently 
 indicate the entire absence of alarm among his 
 friends : — 
 
 "I regret very much to hear that you have been unwell, the 
 more especdally as your ailment took so unj)atriotic a turn as 
 'English' cholera. The unfortunate disease won't remain long in 
 your Celtic constitution. I suppose you are quite well by this 
 time. . . . Will you write me (and pray do it at once if you are 
 well) a list of places and books to find all about the. Ulster 
 Plantation in, as I have, greatly to my pleasure, been awarded 
 that subject by Charles Duify [for a volume of the " Library of 
 Ireland "J. It is not too antiquarian ; and I am quite sick of 
 modern patriotism. . . . Pray do now write me one line from your 
 couch, where ' Tityre tu recubans sub tegmine— quilti.' " 
 
 The brave young man, tossing in feverish pain, 
 was thinking chiefly of duties necessarily neglected 
 for a time, and of the risk that news of his condition 
 in some alarming shape should reach the heart which 
 it would wound the sorest. After a couple of days he 
 wrote to me again : — ■ 
 
 " Dear D., 
 
 " I have had a bad attack of scarlatina, with a horrid 
 sore throat; don't mention this to any one, for a very delicate 
 reason I have ; but pray get the Curran speeches read, except the 
 Newiy election. Have Conway's Post of 1812 sent back to him, 
 and read and correct yourself so much of the memoir as I sent. 
 In four days I hope to be able to look at light business for a short 
 time. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 " T. D." 
 
 The handwriting in this note was still more 
 blurred and tremulous than in the first, but the tone 
 was so confident, and the reliance of his comrades 
 on the vigour of his constitution, which seemed safe 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 365 
 
 against all the mischances of life, was so complete, 
 that they banished all apprehension. His mother 
 and sister, whom he tenderly loved, and who loved 
 him with passionate affection, were at his bedside. 
 Dr. Stokes, a physician in the first rank of his pro- 
 fession, was in attendance ; and no one doubted that 
 in a week or so he would be at his post again. I 
 replied to his second note as one does to a friend 
 absent for a day or two, by some casual mischance: — 
 
 " My dear Davis, 
 
 " I will do all you desire forthwitli. When may I hope 
 to see you? Leave word with your servant when you are well 
 enough to be seen. I cannot now keep your illness a secret, 
 because I told John O'Hagan and M'Carthy yesterday ; but I will 
 prevent them going to see you. John says you have an oppor- 
 tunity of rivalling Mii abeau, by dying at this minvite ; but he 
 begs you won't be tempted by the inviting opportunity. 
 
 "Always yours, 
 
 " C. G. D." 
 
 Towards the end of the week he improved greatly; 
 so greatly that he insisted on driving out for an hour 
 for a purpose which may be conjectured with con- 
 siderable confidence. A relapse followed this impru- 
 dence, but not a whisper of danger was heard. On 
 Tuesday morning, September 15th, I was summoned 
 to his mother's house to see his dead body. Never 
 in a long life has a stroke so wholly unexpected 
 fallen on me. There lay the man whom I loved 
 beyond any on the earth, a pallid corpse. His face 
 still wore the character of sweet silent strength 
 which marked it when he lived, and it was hard to 
 believe that I should never more feel his cordial 
 clasping hand, or see his eyes beaming with affection 
 and sincerity. He had grown rapidly worse during 
 the night time, but was confident of recovery until 
 
366 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 almost the end, and spoke impatiently of interrupted 
 work. At dawn he died in the arms of Neville, a 
 faithful servant, who had been in constant attendance 
 on him. 
 
 I immediately communicated the tragic news to 
 his closest friends who were absent from Dublin. It 
 was received with wails of pain and dismay.* 
 
 * "Your letter," Dillon wrote me, "was like a thrust from a dagsjer. I 
 had not even heard that he was unwell. This calamity makes the world 
 look black. God knows I am tempted to wish myself well out of it. I am 
 doing you a grievous wrong to leave you alone at this melancholy time. I 
 was ]>re paring to be off by the post-car, but my friends have one and all pro- 
 tested against it, and I verily believe that they would keep me by force if 
 nothing else would. God help us, my dear fellow; I don't know how we 
 can lonk at one another when we meet." 
 
 •'I have been," wrote MacNevin, "in a state of the greatest agony since 
 I got your letter last evening. I could have lost nearer than he with less 
 anguish; — he was such a nnble, gentle creature. And to me always 
 exaggerating my good qualities, never finding fault, and never, never with 
 an angry look or word. He was more than a brother; and I loved him 
 better than all the brothers .1 have. Our bond of union is broken ; what 
 mournful meetings ours will be in future. . . . My God, how horror-struck 
 will be Dillon and Smith O'Brien ! I never closed my eyes since I got the 
 fatal news." 
 
 A few days later he wrote : " I feel so lonely and bereaved, the soul has 
 gone out of all my hopes for the future, and even the conviction of the dear 
 friends I liave still goes but a short way to reconcile me to a loss that I know 
 is irreparable. I had a mournful satisfaction in reading the beautiful tribute 
 in the Nation to his extraordinary virtues." 
 
 Maddyn wrote in a more subdued tone of affection, which men of his 
 opinions, for he was a Unionist, may still read witli profit : — 
 
 "1 need not say how j'our letter stunned me. I can hardly credit the 
 intelligence still. With no one in this world did 1 more sympatliise. I never 
 loved any man so much, and I respected him just a^ much. But we all felt 
 the same way towards him : let ns see what we can do to honour his memory 
 and to preserve his f ime. The man Thomas Davis ought to be exhibited in 
 as strong colours as consist with truth, not only to his countrymen but to 
 the citizens of this empire. The world must be told wliat his nature was, 
 how large and patriotic were his designs, and how tiuly pure were his 
 jiurposes. For he was one of those spirits who quicken otiiers by communi- 
 cation with them. For the purpose of recording his career in a literary shai)e, 
 I venture to suggest that his personal friends should meet and determine 
 that his life should be given to tlie public, and that all of them should con- 
 tribute whatever materials they could to such a work. You ought to be the 
 lecorder of his life ; for that office you of all his friends are the most fitted, 
 not alone by talents and literary power, but by thoroughly close and catholic 
 sympathy wiih the nol)le Davis in all things. There was more of the idem 
 velle and idem nolle between him and you than between any other of that 
 large circle who admired him living and lament him dead. Your close inti- 
 macy and identification for the last three memorable years, your agreement 
 with him on all practical and speculative questions of Irish politics, your 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 367 
 
 Not one of them, it may be confidently sm'mised, 
 had conceived the possibiHty that the strong man 
 might disappear without a moment's notice, and 
 carry with him much that was most precious in their 
 lives. One of the most gifted of his friends wrote, 
 with scarcely a note of exaggeration: "The sun 
 shines and we note it not ; but let the eclipse eome, 
 and we fear and tremble. Over his glory has come 
 the eclipse of death, and we fear, and tremble, and 
 weep." I have already written what I saw and felt 
 on that occasion, and I prefer borrowing the narra- 
 tive to telling the same tale in other words. 
 
 "Though it was the season when Dublin was 
 emptiest of the cultivated class, a public funeral was- 
 immediately determined upon by a few leading men, 
 and the assent of his family obtained. But it w^as 
 no cold funereal pageantry that accompanied him to 
 the grave. In all the years of my life, before and 
 since, I have not seen so many grown men weep 
 bitter tears as on that September day. The members 
 of the 'Eighty-two Club, the Corporation of Dublin, 
 and the Committee of the Kepeal Association took 
 their place in the procession as a matter of course ; 
 but it would have soothed the spirit of Davis to see 
 mixed with the green uniforms and scarlet gowns 
 men of culture and intellect without distinction of 
 party and outside of all political parties. The anti- 
 quaries and scholars of the Eoyal Irish Academy, 
 the Councils of the iirchaeological and Celtic Societies, 
 the artists of the Eoyal Hibernian Academy, the 
 committee of the Dublin Library, sent deputations, 
 
 personal cognizance of the extent of his unseen labours to serve the country 
 he loved — these things seem to command that you honour yourstlf and your 
 friend by taking charge of his memory. Let me entreat of you to resolve 
 upon doing Sd." 
 
368 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 and the names best known in Irish literature and art 
 might be read next day in the long list of mourners. 
 He was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, in latter 
 years the burying-place of the Protestant community, 
 but once the pleasure-grounds of the suburban villa 
 where John Keogh the Catholic leader took counsel 
 wdth Wolfe Tone, the young Protestant patriot, how 
 to unite the jarring creeds in a common struggle for 
 Ireland. The Whig and Conservative Press did him 
 generous justice. They recognized in him a man 
 unbiassed by personal ambition and untainted by the 
 rancour of faction, who loved but never flattered his 
 countrymen ; and who, still in the very prime of 
 manhood, was regarded not only with affection and 
 confidence, but with veneration, by his associates. 
 The first proposal for a monument came from a Tory; 
 and Whigs and Tories rivalled his political friends 
 in carrying the project to completion. To the next 
 meeting of the Association, O'Connell wrote : ' I 
 solemnly declare that I never knew any man who 
 could be so useful to Ireland in the present stage 
 of the struggle.' O'Brien on the same occasion 
 described him as one who ' united a woman's tender- 
 ness with the soul of a hero.' Even Mr. John 
 O'Connell discovered, somewhat late in the day, that 
 '■ if there did exist differences of opinion (between 
 Davis and other Nationalists) they were differences 
 of honest and sincere conviction.' But the bulk of 
 the people throughout the island little knew the 
 calamity that had befallen them. A writer of the 
 period compared them to children who had lost their 
 father, and were unconscious of all the danger and 
 trouble such a fact implied. In Dublin it was neces- 
 sarily different ; many of the industrious classes 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 369 
 
 knew and loved liim ; and it was noted as a strange 
 instance of unsought popularity that the ballad - 
 singers of the Liberties, who had no longer, as of 
 old, a Swift or a Goldsmith for their poet, sang a 
 lament for Davis to street audiences in the traditional 
 tropes and jingles which he had so long laboured to 
 supersede by poetry and sense. ' Each brave Milesian, 
 of Erin's blessed nation (was invoked by the poets of 
 Meath-street) to join in the mournful theme for the 
 brave son of Granu, young Davis the hero, who never 
 knew terror or shame.' 
 
 " Judging him now, a generation after his death, 
 when years and communion wdth the world have 
 tempered the exaggerations of youthful friendship, 
 I can confidently say that I have not known a man 
 so nobly gifted as Thomas Davis. If his articles 
 had been spoken speeches his reputation as an orator 
 would have rivalled Grattan's, and the beauty and 
 vigour of his style were never employed for mere 
 show, as they sometimes were by Grattan ; he fired 
 not rockets, but salvos of artillery. If his pro- 
 grammes and reports, which were the plans and 
 specifications of much of the best work done in his 
 day, had been habitually associated with his name, 
 his practical genius would have ranked as high as 
 O'Connell's. Among his comrades who were poets 
 he would have been chosen Laureate, though poetry 
 was only his pastime. And these gifts leave his 
 rarest qualities untold. "What he was as a friend, so 
 tender, so helpful, so steadfast, no description will 
 paint. His comrades had the same careless confi- 
 dence in him men have in the operations of nature, 
 where irregularity and aberration do not exist. Like 
 Burke and Berkeley, he inspired and controlled all 
 
 2 B 
 
370 MEMOIB OF THOMAS BAVIS. [1845. 
 
 ■who came -within the range of his influence, without 
 aiming to lead or dominate. He "was singularly- 
 modest and unselfish. In a long life I have never 
 known any man remotely resemble him in these 
 qualities. The chief motive-power of a party and 
 a cause, labouring for them as a man of exemplary 
 industry labours in his calling, he not only never 
 claimed any recognition or reward, but discouraged 
 allusion to his services by those who knew them best. 
 Passionate enthusiasm is apt to become prejudice, 
 but in Davis it was controlled not only by a disci- 
 plined judgment but by a fixed determination to be 
 just. He brought to political controversy a fairness 
 previously unexampled in Ireland. In all his writings 
 there will not be found a single sentence reflecting 
 ungenerously on any human being. He had set 
 himself the task of building up a nation, a task not 
 beyond his strength had fortune been kind. Now 
 that the transactions of that day have fallen into 
 their natural perspective, now that we know what 
 has perished and what survives of its conflicting 
 opinions, we may plainly see, that, imperfectly as 
 they knew him, the Irish race — the gi'own men of 
 1845 — in the highest diapason of their passions, in 
 the widest range of their capacity for action or 
 endm'ance, were represented and embodied in Thomas 
 Davis better than in any man then living. He had 
 predicted a revolution ; and if fundamental change 
 in the ideas which move and control a people be 
 a revolution, then his prediction was already accom- 
 plished. In conflicts of opinion near at hand a 
 prodigious change made itself manifest, traceable to 
 teaching of which he was the chief exponent. During 
 his brief career, scarcely exceeding three years, he 
 
 \' 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 371 
 
 had administered no office of authority, mounted no 
 tribune, pubKshed no books, or next to none, and 
 marshalled no follo\Ying ; but with the simplest 
 agencies, in the cohimns of a newspaper, in casual 
 communication with his friends and contemporaries, 
 he made a name which, after a generation, is still 
 recalled with enthusiasm or tears, and will be dear 
 to students and patriots while there is an Irish 
 people." * 
 
 From the death-bed of my fi'iend, I passed at a 
 stride to the death-bed of my young wife, and was 
 for a moment unfit for work. But my absence proved 
 a gain. The article in the Xa//o;z announcing Davis's 
 death and burial, which attracted much attention at 
 the time, was written by one who did not share his 
 opinions or mine, but who honoured Davis's great 
 gifts, and was never more at home than when coming 
 to the aid of a friend in a critical emergency. The 
 late Lord O'Hagan, then a young barrister, every 
 moment of whose time was bespoken for professional 
 business, did me this essential service. His opinion 
 of Davis corresponds with the opinion of all men of 
 judgment and sympathy who encountered him, and 
 is a necessary part of the contemporary verdict of his 
 intellectual peers. 
 
 " Of his acquirements," lie said, " it were almost as vain to 
 speak, as of his genius. They ranged through all the vralks of 
 human thought and speculation, and they were profound as they 
 were various. But of his own people, of their annals, their 
 statistics, their literature, no man of his years, no man of his 
 generation, we believe, had so full an insight." 
 
 But rating his intellectual gifts so highly, he 
 
 * "Young Ireland," bk. iii., chap. x. 
 
372 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 regarded his faculty of conciliating opponents as his 
 most marvellous endowment. 
 
 " Bare qualities," he said, "must be his who, without compro- 
 mise of his own opiBions, nay, while he asserts them with peculiar 
 strength and boldness, can soften bitter asperities, conquer ancient 
 prejudices, and command the love and confidence of his political 
 foes. . . . Rare qualities are needed in him w^ho would bring 
 those who have held themselves apart in mutual distrust, because 
 in mutual ignorance, to look each other kindly in the face, to know 
 they have common thoughts and wishes, to recollect that they are 
 not only members of the brotherhood of humanity, but men who 
 have a common country to love, to serve, and to be proud of. What 
 ho did," he added, " was but a mere promise of the things to come, 
 had he been spared to form the mind, and lift up the spirit of his 
 countrymen." 
 
 His friends determined to make him known to the 
 world for what he truly was. A committee of leading 
 men of the metropolis, without distinction of party, 
 commissioned John Hogan to carve his statue in 
 white marble. Mr. Burton,* who knew and loved 
 him without sharing his political opinions, painted 
 his portrait. A memoir of him was published in the 
 Nation. A selection was made from his historical 
 and antiquarian essays, and his poems were collected 
 and carefully edited.f Elegies were written on his 
 memory by his most distinguished contemporaries. 
 A verse from Ferguson's elegy will adequately repre- 
 sent them all : — 
 
 " I walked through Ballinderry in the springtime. 
 
 When the bud was on the tree ; 
 And I said, in every fi-esh-ploughed field beholding 
 
 The sowers striding free, 
 Scattering broadcast forth the corn in golden plenty. 
 
 On the quick seed-clasping soil. 
 Even such, this day, among the fresh-stirred hearts of Erin, 
 
 Thomas Davis, is thy toil." 
 
 * The present Sir Frederic Burton. 
 
 t The poems were edited by Thomas Wallis, the essays by Gavan Duffy. 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 373 
 
 And the people to whom he was but a name began 
 to understand what an immeasurable calamity had 
 befallen them. As the biographies and correspond- 
 ence of the era get published, a new generation will 
 find data on which to judge what he was to his con- 
 temporaries. Among the distinguished men who 
 have acknowledged their obligation in youth to the 
 school of which Davis was the chief, it is pleasant to 
 recognize Professor Tyndallin his Presbyterian semi- 
 nary in the north. Father Burke, the greatest pulpit 
 orator of his generation and perhaps of his race, in 
 his Catholic school at Galway, Mr. Lecky in his 
 English University, and Carleton when he had 
 reached ripe manhood. 
 
 " I was but a boy at the time," said the great Dominican, " but 
 I remember with what startled enthusiasm I woiikl arise from 
 ' Davis's Poems,' and it would seem to me that before my young 
 eyes I saw the dash of the Brigade at Fontenoy. . . . He and the 
 men of the Nation did what the men of this world have never seen 
 done in the same space of time, by the sheer power of Irish genius ; 
 by the sheer strength of Young Ireland's intellect the Nation of 
 1843 created a national poetry, a national literature, which no other 
 country can equal. Under the magic voices and pens of these men 
 every ancient glory of Ireland stood forth again." 
 
 " In my experience of society, in my knowledge of life, and, I 
 think I may add, with some little insight into human nature," says 
 the greatest Irish novelist of latter days, " I feel bound to declare, 
 that no individual at all bearing any resemblance to Thomas Davis 
 ever came in my way. A character so full and complete, a mind 
 so large and comprehensive, is one which does not appear for 
 centuries." 
 
 Miss Mitford in her lettered leisure grows enthu- 
 siastic over his latest poem. 
 
 " The more we study this ballad * the more extraordinary does 
 it appear. Not only is it full of spiiit and of melody, but the 
 artistic merit is so grtat. Picture succeeds to picture, each perfect 
 
 * "Sack of Buhimore." 
 
374 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1815. 
 
 in itself, and each conducing to the effect of the whole. There is 
 no careless line or a -word out of place ; and how the epithets paint — 
 ' fibrous sod,' ' heavy balm,' ' shearing sword.' It is something that 
 he should have left a poem like this, altogether untinged by party 
 politics, for the pride and admiration of all who share a common 
 language, whether Celt or Saxon." 
 
 Jeffrey, no longer editor of the Edinhurgh Bevieiv, 
 but always a lover of letters, exhorts his wife to read 
 and enjoy a collection of Irish ballads which he 
 supposes to have been made by. the young writer in 
 the Xation who had just died so prematui'ely, but 
 w^hom he still knows so vaguely that he confounds 
 him, name and book, with one of his surviving 
 comrades.* 
 
 Vi'. E. Forster tells, in a diary pubhshed since 
 his death,f of meeting a young parson in Ireland who 
 was an enthusiastic lover of Davis ; and in Eng- 
 land, Erance, and Australia I myself have had 
 kindred experiences. 
 
 Shortly after his death Samuel Ferguson esti- 
 mated his labours in the Dublin University Magazine, 
 the mouthpiece of the Conservative majority, more 
 generously than would have been possible while he 
 was still an active combatant in pendent politics. 
 After speaking of the Repeal Association before the 
 rise of the Young Irelanders, in terms of inordinate 
 contempt, he says : — 
 
 * Lord Jeffrey wrote to his daughter at this time — " Granny (Lady 
 Jeffrey) went to church, and I read a very interef^ting little volume of ' Irish 
 Ballad Poetry,' published by that poor Duffy, of the Nation, who died so 
 prematurely the other day. There are some most pathetic and many most 
 spirited pieces, and all, with scarcely an exception, so entirely Xational. Do 
 get the book and read it. I am most struck with ' Soggarth Aroon,' after 
 the first two stanzas: and a long, racy, authentic, sounding dirge for the 
 Tyrconnel Princes. But you had better begin with ' The Irish Emigrant,' 
 and ' The Girl of Loch Dan,' which immediately follows, which will break 
 you in more gently to the wilder and more impassioned parts, . • . God bless 
 all poets ! and you will not grudge them a share even of your Sunday bene- 
 dictions." (Lord Cockburn's " Life of Lord Jeffrey," vol. ii., p. 405.) 
 
 t " Life of Hon. W, E. Forster," by Mr. Wemyss Keid. 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 375 
 
 "But, in tlie latter end of 18-i2, the agitation assumed quite a 
 new character ; and it became apparent that repeal had been taken 
 up by men who, believing the measure desirable and practicable, 
 agitated it for its own sake, and were evidently ready to make 
 great sacrifices for its attainment. The first fruits of sincerity were 
 respect and attention." 
 
 It soon became plain, he adds, that the new 
 teachers were bent on preaching generosity and 
 justice to the whole people, — 
 
 " and on stimulating in their hearts the noble sentiments of self- 
 respect and self-reliance, without which the liberty they demanded 
 would amount to no more than a license to put themselves into 
 the hands of new masters. They also observed, concurrently with 
 these manifestations of a lofty and sincere morality, in the organ 
 through which the leaders of the new school expressed themselves, 
 a surprising development of intellectual vigour in almost all 
 departments of literature, and a keen and generous appreciation of 
 genius, from whatever quarter it might present itself." 
 
 Thomas Da^ds, as a Protestant Hke themselves, 
 first became known to the Conservatives of the 
 capital, and, says Ferguson — 
 
 " when they found him a gentleman of most unafiected, charming- 
 deportment, a poet, a judge and lover of art and elegant literature, 
 exceedingly well read, and of a character and temper the most 
 genial and humane, it is not surprising that afi'ection for the indi- 
 vidual supervened on respect for the politician, and admiration for 
 the man of genius ; and that he speedily became the friend and 
 lavourite of the elite of the intellectual world of Dublin." 
 
 The effect which the writings in the Xatiou pro- 
 duced, and the generous competition which Davis's 
 genius called forth to rival his own work, greatly 
 impressed Ferguson. 
 
 " The young mind of the country," he says, " starting as from 
 a trance — or from that fabulous spell which our legends tell us 
 keeps Finn's mighty youths asleep under the green hills, waiting 
 the advent of an Irish Arthur — came out from its forgotten 
 recesse«, strong and eager for any achievement to which he might 
 
376 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 desire to guide it. Song, the instinctive expression of generous 
 emotion, gave the first indication of reviving power. He had 
 sotinded the intellectual reveille of a whole people ; and, if they 
 had slept long, they awoke refreshed. Strains as bold as his own 
 replied to him on every side. The sternest opponents were cap- 
 tivated ; and all parts of the United Kingdom yielded a generous 
 applause." 
 
 Ferguson bears testimony to the use wliicli Davis 
 and his friends made of the influence they won. 
 
 " They sought," he says, " to teach the people justice, manli- 
 ness, and reliance on themselves ; to supplant vanity on the one 
 hand, and servility on the other, by a just self-appreciation and 
 proper pride ; to make them sensible that nothing could be had 
 without labour, and nothing enjoyed without prudence ; to teach 
 them to scorn the baseness of foul play, and that if they were to 
 fight, they should fight like men and soldiers — these were the 
 lessons which he now appeared a chosen instrument for imparting ; 
 and in fulfilling this mission, while Pi'ovidence left him with us, he 
 did toil with faithful and unremitting energy." 
 
 The influence extended from Hterature to art, 
 and exercised a strong and beneficial sway over 
 public taste : — 
 
 " Some of the most beautiful of both Petrie's and Burton's pic- 
 tures have been executed within the last year, but the poetic sen- 
 timent which pervades them we cannot help claiming as in some 
 measure a tribute to the memory of him by whom so many minds 
 were opened to all poetic influence." 
 
 Even Davis's appeals to the military spirit of the 
 country were preferable, he conceived, to the in- 
 credible dictum that no political amelioration was 
 worth one drop of blood : — 
 
 " The Irish Protestants, who created, at the cannon's mouth, 
 the only real Parliament this country ever possessed, have not 
 hitherto felt themselves so defrauded by its transfer, as to make it 
 their duty or interest to demand its restitution. If they did make 
 such a demand, it would be with the cannon in the background, 
 and that behind no masked battery." 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 377 
 
 And he adds later, in allusion to English criticism 
 on Irish nationality, — 
 
 " If the Conservative gentry of Ireland thought fit to invite 
 their friends and tenants to meet them at a new Dungannon, there 
 is no power in Britain which could prevent the severance of the 
 two islands. And there can be no more fatal delusion than to 
 suppose that Irish gentlemen, because they do not profess the 
 Roman Catholic religion, are insensible to contemptuous language 
 against their country ; or that they are disposed to rest satisfied 
 under any social inferiority whatever to the rest of the United 
 Kingdom." 
 
 The sympathetic reader has now seen what was 
 the life of Thomas Davis. At the outset he had the 
 choice to accept the estimate of tlie biographer, or to 
 reject it as incredible. Now he can judge for him- 
 self. He has seen what the young man of one and 
 thirty did and projected, what impression he made 
 on those who surrounded him, and those who only 
 saw him from afar off. How many loved him with- 
 out sharing his opinions ! They saw, in the language 
 of one of them, " a bubble where he saw a star ; " but, 
 whatever were his opinions, they recognized in the 
 man himself one '' whose daily bread had been heroic 
 thought." It is the sure fate of a feeble fire to go 
 out and be forgotten. But Davis's reputation has 
 gone on gathering increased light and heat for 
 nearly half a century.* Comparing him and one of 
 his associates, a keen observer once said, " That 
 dandified young cynic chills me like the east wind, 
 
 * A Welsh bishop was good enough to call my attention to a periodical, 
 published in tlie Principality, called The Red Dragon, which contained a 
 memoir of Thomas Davis among a series of the notable men of Wales. The 
 memoir was just and cordial, but it was accompanied by a portrait posed and 
 costumed lilie a Grerman student, but scarcely more lilse Davis than I to Hercules. 
 And while this book is passing througli the press, a volume of Thomas Davis's 
 Prose Writings, edited with complete sympathy and appreciation by Mr. T. 
 W. Rolleston, has appeared in the popular Camelot series, and will help to 
 make him known to Englishmen and Scotchmen. 
 
378 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 but Davis, though he is sometimes abrupt and dog- 
 matic, warms my whole being with a sense of sincerity 
 and friendliness." And this love of race and kind 
 still radiates out of his memory, as it radiated out of 
 his life. A young Celtic poetess who only became 
 acquainted with his writings after his death, ex- 
 claimed, " Might not one such Protestant make us 
 forget the Penal Laws ? " 
 
 A man may be as surely known by the character 
 of his enemies as by the character of his friends. To 
 the chorus of praise and blessings, there were natural 
 exceptions. Mr. Kenealy, known at a later date as 
 leading counsel for the claimant of the Tichborne 
 estates, was at this time a contributor of sensational 
 papers to the Dublin University Magazine, where he 
 took occasion to deplore the folly of a country which 
 neglected the genius of Sheridan Knowles and set up 
 altars to the memory of a " dogfaced demagogue of 
 two and thirty." An experienced statesman has 
 bequeathed us the warning that when a publicist is 
 bitterly slandered the chances are that he provoked 
 the slander by doing some essential duty. And this 
 was Davis's case. A year earlier Mr. Kenealy wrote 
 in the same periodical a paper on Thomas Campbell, 
 in which he declared that the Scottish poet was a 
 creature as unpoetical as a dry old mummy disen- 
 tombed from an Egyptian catacomb ; and that it 
 would be just as possible to create a sympathetic 
 interest for one as for the other. He retailed at the 
 same time some criticism imputed by him to Camp- 
 bell on his peers, the poets of England, a specimen of 
 which is worth reprinting. 
 
 " ' Swift,' says Campbell, ' was an abominable rnffian, though a 
 shrewd knowing knave, and I am glad Joffiey always goes out of 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 379 
 
 Lis way to attack him in the EdinhurgJi . Swift had absolutely no 
 one good quality, and in this he differs from nearly all other lite- 
 rary men. Byron was a blackguard and a liar, but he had a lurk- 
 ing love for liberty, which redeemed some of his errors — indeed, I 
 should say a great many. Shelley was a filthy atheist, but the 
 most sincere of men. Pope was a knave and slanderer, but he was 
 occasionally charitable. Gray was a selfish scoundrel, but he had 
 at least the merit of being inoffensive ; as we say of a sloth or a 
 sow, he was a harmless, dirty beast. Johnson was a coarse brute 
 and a tyrant, but then he was a good Protestant. Milton, a savage- 
 minded wretch, but he did one good act — he defended the execu- 
 tion of Charles the First. I might go through the list for ever. 
 Swift had not a single good quality, from the first moment of his 
 rascally birth to the last minute of bis miserable death," 
 
 Davis rebuked this savage scurrility iu the Nation, 
 not fiercely, hut with sweet serene counsel, which 
 seems to have stung the critic to a blind rage. 
 Punishment was due, he said, to great criminals 
 living or dead, — 
 
 " but the reputation of a struggling man of genius — of a man 
 who had intellect enough to illuminate his age, but not craft 
 enough to conceal his own weaknesses — the reputation of such a 
 man is a tender and delicate thing with persons of generous 
 natures and high feelings. Nay, the weaknesses, the vacillations, 
 the inconstancies, the anger, the furious passion, the hasty revenge, 
 the broken promise, the abandoned friendship — all these things 
 are not to be marshalled and recorded against a heart that, after a 
 life of care and agony, lies cold and pulseless — against a reputation 
 that is part of the intellectual history of a nation." 
 
 Another assailant was Mr. John O'Connell. 
 When Davis was nearly three years in his grave he 
 moaned out his regret that a brother member of Par- 
 liament had made him acquainted with a cowardly 
 piece of treachery of which Thomas Davis had been 
 guilty ! When an explanation was insisted on, the 
 brother member turned out to be the worthy Mr. 
 Dillon Browne, and the cowardice was Davis's hidiug 
 away in Counaught after the Clontarf Proclamation, 
 
380 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 when he had gone to Mayo to consult with John 
 Dillon. Dillon, in a few contemptuous sentences, 
 blew the calumny out of the region of controversy.* 
 
 A word must be said of his literary remains. The 
 unpublished writings found among his papers consist 
 of two or three reviews, a lecture on the study of 
 Irish history, and verses addressed to the lady whom 
 he loved which were withheld from publication for 
 obvious reasons. They were written in the last few 
 months of his life, and are of unequal merit, but 
 those who love him will rejoice to see them all. 
 
 Here is one, painting his new happiness : — 
 
 "I. 
 
 " Eefreshened and uncloyed 
 
 They are sj)ringing out again, 
 The passions of my boyhood, 
 Like lions from, a den : 
 
 * " To THE Editor of the ' Nation.' 
 
 " 20, Great Charles Street, March 17, 1848. 
 
 "My dear Dufft, 
 
 " The last number of your journal contained an address from Mr. 
 John O'Connell, in which he repeated a very scandalous and malignant 
 calumny against the memory of our late lamented friend, Thomas Davis. . . . 
 The facts connected with Davis's absence from Dublin at the period of the 
 arrests, are shortly these. About a month before the time fixed for the 
 meeting at Clontarf, when no person dreamed of arrests, he left Dublin, in- 
 tending to make a tour of the south and west of Ireland. ... At the time the 
 arrests took place he had reached Castlebar, and in a few days after he 
 paid me a visit, where I was then staying, in tlie country. I need hardly 
 state (the supposition is ludicrously inconsistent with his character) that he 
 took no steps to conceal himself from the local authorities ; and, after remain- 
 ing two days with me, he started for Dublin, alleging as a reason for his 
 departure the necessity of being present at head-quarters at such a crisis. I 
 cannot refrain from observing, that this accusation might have come with 
 better grace from any other quarter. Considering that Mr. John O'Connell 
 professed to be the friend of Davis to the hour of his death, and bearing 
 in mind the tears which he and his father shed over his grave, it might have 
 been expected that he would have Itft this calumny to the vile or malignant 
 slanderers who originated it. 
 
 " I am, my dear Duffy, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " John B. Dillon." 
 
 Wee uuto on IMauricu O'Connell, p. 388. 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 381 
 
 There are crowns upon the bramble, 
 
 And angels among men, 
 And triumph, in each ramble, 
 
 And fairies in the glen. 
 
 "11. 
 
 " I rush across the mountain 
 
 Twice wilder than the wind, 
 I squander without counting 
 
 The money of my mind. 
 All hands have pleasant pressure, 
 
 All voices sing a song, 
 ' Tlie world was made for pleasure, 
 
 And it cannot last too long.' 
 
 " III. 
 
 " And what has changed my being, 
 
 And what baptized my heart. 
 That, 'mid old sorrows fleeing, 
 
 My lightning spirits dart? 
 And why this cherub chorus ? 
 
 And why this hov'ring dove ; 
 Peace round, within, and o'er us? — ■ 
 
 Sweet sweetheart, it is love." 
 
 There is another of the same period, and the same 
 exultant spirit : — 
 
 "I. 
 
 " I used to sing of war and peace, 
 
 Of heroes dead and buried ; 
 Of Ireland's wrongs forbade to cease 
 
 Until her sons were serried. 
 But now I've not a fiery thought. 
 
 Nor rhymes, who had so many : 
 My soiil is soft ; my heart is caught ; 
 
 I only sing of Annie. 
 
 "II. 
 
 " Xow, if I read of ancient days. 
 
 Or search through storied regions, 
 'Tis but to swell romantic lays, 
 Or mould beguiling legends. 
 
382 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 Nay ! if I sit and liear tlie wind 
 
 Pour througli a castle's cranny, 
 I only seek sweet sounds to find 
 
 And weave in songs for Annie. 
 
 "III. 
 
 " Or if at times I lift my hand 
 
 In warning or in anger, 
 Or blow a blast across the land 
 
 To startle coward languor ; 
 And if at times I toil to shield 
 
 The wronged and hapless many, 
 It is to have a blither field 
 
 To sing my songs for Annie. 
 
 " IV. 
 
 " And yet, Machree, were we not fond 
 
 Of Freedom and Old Erin ; 
 Were we not fretted by each bond 
 
 Our countrymen are wearing ; 
 Were we not full of hope to see 
 
 Our country great as any, 
 Methinks the power would pass from me 
 
 To sing for even Annie." 
 
 His Annie made a visit to the South, and he 
 pursued her with sympathy and fond, wishes. 
 
 "I. 
 
 " Would I were now thy guide, 
 
 Annie dear. 
 Where across Munster wide, 
 
 Annie dear, 
 Cliff- guarded rivers glide, 
 Lakes in the mountains hide. 
 Towers topple o'er the tide, 
 
 Annie deai*. 
 
 "II. 
 
 " Glance down the silver Nore, 
 Annie dear. 
 Whisper till day was o'er, 
 Annie dear 
 
1815.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 383 
 
 Tenderly lead thee through 
 Soft winding Avondhu, 
 Softer 'twould seem for you, 
 Annie dear. 
 
 " III. 
 
 " Fairest I'd show you there, 
 
 Annie dear, — 
 Brave men and maidens fair, 
 
 Annie dear; 
 Never a nobler race. 
 Sweet tongue and gentle grace. 
 Often how sad the face, 
 
 Annie dear. 
 
 "IV. 
 
 " Then, would you list me tell, 
 
 Annie dear. 
 How their sad fate befell, 
 
 Annie dear, 
 Faith to a foreign king, 
 Feuds thick as leaves in spring ; 
 Oh, 'twould your bosom ring, 
 
 Annie dear ! 
 
 "V. 
 
 " No, we would haste away, 
 
 Annie dear, 
 Off to Cuman Eigh, 
 
 Annie dear ; 
 Wander in Finbar's isle, — 
 Was it a maiden's wile 
 Drove him to that defile, 
 
 Annie dear? 
 
 "YI. 
 
 " Lone in some gliding boat, 
 
 Annie dear. 
 Oft from Glengariff float, 
 
 Annie dear ; 
 List to the ocean's sighs. 
 Look in the purple skies. 
 Look in each other's eyes, 
 
 Annie dear. 
 
384 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 "VII. 
 
 "Holding yoT;r bridle rein, 
 
 Annie dear, 
 Arran's steep ridge we'd gain, 
 
 Annie dear; 
 Never was view so fair, 
 Island, lake, hill, and air, 
 Dieam a long day-dream there, 
 
 Annie dear. 
 
 " VIII. 
 
 " Long silent echoes wake, 
 
 Annie dear. 
 Circle round Killarney Lake, 
 
 Annie dear; 
 Mingling wild minstrelsy. 
 Legend, and history. 
 Pondering love's mystery, 
 
 Annie dear, 
 
 " IX. 
 
 " Oh ! that it ne'er would end, 
 
 Annie dear ; 
 Sweet 'twere such life to spend, 
 
 Annie dear ; 
 Then, like an angel's dance, 
 Ending in a holy trance, — ■ 
 Ah ! 'tis a wild romance ! 
 
 Annie dear." 
 
 "ANNIE AWAY. 
 
 " Air—' Mary Neili: 
 "L 
 
 "IL 
 
 " Her hair it is the trees at night ; 
 Her forehead is the moon ; 
 Her eyes they are a nameless sight ; 
 Her heart a tender tune. 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 385 
 
 We told each other to forget, 
 
 As if we thought we shoukl ; 
 'Twas said we might not wed, and yet 
 
 We kissed as if we could. 
 
 " III. 
 
 " They said 'twas good for us to part, 
 
 Nor, maybe, meet again ; 
 Or, if we met, her callow heart, 
 
 Might well be changed ere then. 
 They knew not Annie as I knew. 
 
 For all their kindly fear; 
 For all our sad and strange adieu. 
 
 You'll wed me, Annie dear." 
 
 "MY ANNIE. 
 
 " So gentle and joyous — the cloud floating by 
 Doesn't sail half so gracefully over the sky; 
 And the sun in the flower-bedded dewdrop that lies 
 Is common and cold to the love in her eyes. 
 
 " Oh heaven, such a heart ! and to think that it's mine ! 
 To think, when I'm absent, that sweet heart would pine ; 
 To think that she pants when my footstep is near, 
 And dreams of my breast as a refuge from fear. 
 
 " My God, look ujaon her ! how good and how fair ! 
 And charge the good angels to make her their care ; 
 And grant that our grey hairs may mingle below, 
 Ei-e our souls close together to Paradise go." 
 
 Two or three ballads on other subjects, which he 
 left ready for publication, will be found in the Ap- 
 pendix, and must find a place in all future editions 
 of his poems — a book w^hich will not disappear, 
 methinks, while any Irish literature remains. I have 
 omitted to note one of its most significant charac- 
 teristics ; his verses are not only as natural, as 
 buoyant, and as full of the spirit of the country as 
 the best of her sons, but as pure as her daughters. 
 
 2 c 
 
386 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 Moore has left behind him youthful erotics, for which 
 in his old age he not only blushed but wept. It 
 needs a large charity towards the sins of genius to 
 pardon the loose life and vagrant muse of Burns. 
 The noble, personal independence of Beranger, who 
 would not accept fee or favour from any party ; who 
 refused to be presented to the Citizen King, to sit in 
 the Eepublican Assembly, or to touch the gifts of the 
 Bonapartes, cannot make us forget that his chan- 
 sons graveleuses have, perhaps, corrupted the morals 
 of France as decisively as his patriotic songs fortified 
 its public spirit. But there is not one impure thought 
 in the poetry or prose of Davis. 
 
 The grievous blow which so suddenly destroyed 
 Miss Hutton's happiness had such an effect on her 
 health that her mother hurried her abroad in tlie 
 hope that the distraction of foreign travel might 
 divert her thoughts from her sorrow. A letter WTitten 
 to a sympathetic friend at this time is all the more 
 touching from the fact that the death-stroke which 
 struck down Davis struck down as surely her who 
 was to have been his wife : — 
 
 " In the midst of all my sorrow the thought flashes through 
 me, What pride, what glory to have been the chosen one of such a 
 heart ! Oh, if I were to live through an eternity of grief I would 
 not give up that short month of happiness, that little time of com- 
 munion with all that was most pure, most holy on earth. ... I 
 try to think of all he has been spared ; no woman's love could have 
 saved him from bitter disappointment ; no care of mine could have 
 prevented his glorious spirit being bruised, crushed by the un- 
 worthiness of those he had to deal with. . . . No ideal 1 could 
 form could be brighter, jDurer than he was. . . . One little short 
 month it was, and yet a whole existence of love, which I pray will 
 purify and raise my whole soul till it be worthy to join that bright 
 one gone before." 
 
 " She faded away," says a friend who knew her 
 
1845.] DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS. 387 
 
 well, '' from the hour of his death." One task alone 
 interested her : he had asked her to translate from 
 the Italian, " The Embassy in Ireland of Monsignor 
 Rinuccini," which lights up a period of profound 
 historical interest. But the task was beyond her 
 strength, and the book was only completed and 
 published by her mother twenty years after her 
 death. She died on the 7th of June, 1853, in the 
 twenty-eighth year of her age, and will live long in 
 the memory of those who love and honour Thomas 
 Davis. None of us can escape the question she 
 raises in her letter, "What would have befallen if 
 Davis had not died ? Our history, like all histories, 
 is full of problems like this. If Swift had accepted 
 the Captain's commission which William III. offered 
 him ? If Phelim O'Neill had been captured with Lord 
 Maguire ? If Tone had been permitted to colonize 
 his island in the Pacific ? If Hoche had landed in 
 Munster ? If a mitigation of the penal laws had not 
 opened the bar to O'Connell ? Any one of these 
 casual circumstances would have turned backward 
 the current of our history. If Davis had not died, 
 he would probably have been driven out of the Repeal 
 Association, with Smith O'Brien, when the new 
 Whig compact was completed, and he would have 
 brought to Munster in '48 the foresight, will, and 
 resources of a born soldier. He would not have 
 succeeded, for the time for success was past, but 
 he would have failed gloriously. As it is, has he 
 not succeeded gloriously ? His spirit has palpably 
 animated whatever generous work was undertaken 
 for Ireland from the day of his death to this hour. 
 His comrades, while they survived, carried the 
 opinions which they shared with him into literature 
 
388 MEMOIR OF THOMAS DAVIS. [1845. 
 
 and public life, into confederacies and parliaments, 
 into prison and exile, and never failed to take up 
 the Irish question again and again while life re- 
 mained. A new generation, scattered over three 
 continents, has found inspiration in his writings, 
 even when they have sometimes wandered aside 
 from the broad and noble highway which he traced 
 out for Irish liberty. It is easy enough now to see 
 that the work for which he was fittest was to be a 
 teacher, and he is still one of the most persuasive 
 and beloved teachers of his race ; but beyond the 
 pregnant thoughts he uttered, and the noble strains 
 he sang, the life he led was the greatest lesson he 
 has bequeathed to them. 
 
 Maurice O'Connell on Davis. 
 
 It is right to state that Maurice O'Connell, who had a gaHant and generous 
 nature, clouded by jDersonal troubles, distinguished himself from his brother 
 by a genuine appreciation of Davis. He wrote a touching monody on his 
 death, and it came in a note which did not exaggerate his sentiments 
 towards the dead patriot : — 
 
 " Darrynane Abbey, October 14, 1845. 
 " My Dear Duffy, 
 
 " I have not addressed you since the death of our beloved friend, 
 because the crowd of condolers would give the air of conventional compliment 
 even to an expression of sincere sorrow; and next, tliough not least, that I 
 grieved to know that you had other and more sacred matters of sorrow. 
 May the Giver of all things console you in that bitterest of afflictions. I 
 enclose a few verses framed, I think, in a tone which poor Davis himself would 
 approve of — as my offering to his memory.* 
 
 "Amidst this wilderness of song and testimonial, surely the most effectual 
 tribute to his memory will not be neglected. His writings should be col- 
 lected and published as soon as possible. They were his offeiings to his 
 country, and should be perpetuated. It will be an interesting study to trace 
 the workings of his mind, and to point out to the future men of Ireland how 
 much he did to advance her literature and her liberty, and in how short a 
 space, by strenuous unremitting devotion to her cause. 
 
 "Yours, my dear Duffy, most truly, 
 
 " Maurice O'Connell. 
 " Chas. Gavan Duffy, Esq." 
 
 * The verses will be found in the Nation of November 8, 1845. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 UNPUBLISHED VERSES. 
 
 Hebe is a street ballad, written with soraething of the plainness 
 and vigour of Swift, which he probably intended for an experi- 
 ment often debated, and made by some of his friends after his 
 death, of substituting sense and spirit for the incoherent nonsense 
 which made up the bulk of ballads sung to the people. 
 
 "OUR PARLIAMENT— A STREET BALLAD. 
 
 "Air — '■ Faga an helac' 
 
 "L 
 
 " 'TwAS once in College Green, boys. 
 Our parliament, our parliament. 
 But its blessings might be seen, boys. 
 Where'er you went, where'er you went. 
 'Twas won by armed men, boys, 
 The Volunteers, the Volunteers ; 
 We were united then, boys, 
 And had no fears, and had no fears. 
 But England sowed dissensions. 
 And reaped 'em, too, and reaped 'em, too : 
 From Ireland's " mad contentions " 
 The Union grew, the Union grew. 
 
390 APPENDIX. 
 
 II. 
 
 " The arms that won our right, boys, 
 Were crossed in wrath, were crossed in wrath ; 
 And England urged the fight, boj's, 
 To weaken both, to ruin both. 
 And some were English slaves, boys, 
 Who bent, alas ! who bent, alas ! 
 And some were greedy knaves, boys, 
 AVho sold the pass, who sold the pass ; 
 And thus tbey took away, boys. 
 Our parliament, our parliament : 
 God's curse upon the day, boys. 
 When off it went, when off it went. 
 
 "III. 
 
 " But as our fathers did, boys, 
 In 'eighty-two, in 'eighty-two. 
 And Right and Honour bid, boys. 
 Their sons can do, their sons can do. 
 Let Protestant unite, boys, 
 "With Catholic, with Catholic, 
 And we'd this very night, boys. 
 The English lick, the English lick. 
 'Twas once in College Green, boys, 
 Our parliament, our parliament. 
 And there it shall be seen, boj^s. 
 Or they'll repent, or they'll repent." 
 
 "AN IRISH NAVY. 
 
 "I. 
 
 Oh, 'tis a sight to heal the blind 
 
 And make the cripple leap, 
 Our banner romping with the wind, 
 
 Our navy on the deep, 
 
 Our navy on the deep ; 
 And our batteries roar. 
 
 As the Irish vessels sweep 
 From our shore. 
 
APPENDIX. 391 
 
 "II. 
 
 " Was ever laud so marked hy God 
 To rule uj^ou the waves? 
 The surges corae to court her sod 
 And own themselves her slaves, 
 And own themselves her slaves. 
 Oh no, her subjects ever true, 
 Whatever Erin craves 
 The}^ will do. 
 
 " III. 
 
 " That navy goes in Indian seas. 
 To guard our m-erchant's barque, 
 To tell on every breeze 
 
 How well our cannon bark, 
 How well our cannon bark ; 
 And oh ! how bitterly they bite. 
 When Ireland's foes they mark 
 In the fiffht ! " 
 
 "EOUGH DRAFT OF A SONG FOR THE 
 'EIGHTY-TWO CLUB. 
 
 " Oh ! when their ancient rights our buried fathers won, 
 It was with drum, and cannon, sword, flag, and gun. 
 Then, ye gallant 'Eightj-Two — 
 With your green coats, ready leaders — 
 Where are your swords ? 
 
 "II. 
 
 " The lion, ere he springs, may be stopped by word or eye ; 
 But when once he is blooded — slay him or die ! 
 Oh ! when in that hour of need. 
 Be your stroke quick and steady — 
 Waste not your words ! 
 
 "III. 
 
 " Th' avalanche that stops, can't resume its fatal might ; 
 If the hawk paused in swooping, who'd heed his flight ? 
 Oh, a people's hopes set loose. 
 They must triumph soon, or perish ! — 
 Which shall it be ? " 
 
392 APPENDIX. 
 
 Here are a couple of fragments worth preserving :- 
 
 "I. 
 
 " Her cTieeks are fresh as April showers, 
 Her step would hardly bruise the flowers, 
 Her heart is gay as summer hours, 
 
 When on a May eve stealing 
 To meet the lad she loves so well 
 And hear him how he loves her tell — 
 His own dear girl, his dark-eyed Nell, 
 
 Sweet Eily of Lough Greeling! 
 
 "11. 
 
 " She hastens down the thorn brake. 
 And reaches soon the whispering lake ; 
 'Tis ever bright, yet for her sake 
 
 She thinks it now looks brighter. 
 And Hugh O'Eeilly waits her there, 
 And sad his eye and wild his air, 
 Oh, does he strive with deadly care, 
 Or does he wish to spite her ? 
 
 "III. 
 
 Not he, but Tyranny's hard hand ; 
 For alien law his life has banned. 
 And he must leave his native land. 
 And but for his " 
 
 " My love is gay and tender, 
 
 His coat is Irish green. 
 He is a brave Defender 
 
 As ever yet was seen. 
 Oh, many are in prison. 
 
 And many more are dead. 
 Had Ireland sooner risen, 
 
 The green had beat the red." 
 
 Here is a hymn which I found in his handwriting, unlike in 
 many respects anything else he has written. It is, perhaps, a 
 translation, or, possibly, a copy of verses which pleased him. I 
 feel a doubt whether it be his : — 
 
APPENDIX. 893 
 
 "PILGEIM'S HYMN. 
 
 " Fading, still fading, the last beam is shining ; 
 Ave Maria, day is declining. 
 Safety and innocence fly with the light. 
 Temptation and danger walk forth with the night ; 
 From the fall of the shade till the matin shall chime : 
 Shield ns from danger and save lis from crime, 
 Ave Maria, audi nos. 
 
 " Ave Maria, hear when, we call, 
 Mother of Him who is brother to all ; 
 Feeble and failing we tnxst in thy might, 
 In doubting and darkness thy love be our light ; 
 Let us sleep on thy breast w^hile the night taper burns, 
 And wake in thine arms when the morning returns : 
 Ave Maria, audi nos." 
 
 IRISH HISTOEY. 
 
 The sympathetic student will be glad to have the hints which 
 Davis wrote on a single sheet of letter paper for his proposed 
 history. 
 
 Political, Social, and Military History, from 1692 to 1829. 
 
 Books, &c. 
 
 College Library 
 British Museum 
 
 Marsh's Library | 22 pts. | Rolls office. 
 Paris I 
 
 Governors of Ireland ] Plowden | Thorpe papers | Ormond. 
 
 Write to priests for anecdotes of Penal laws. 
 
 Statutes I Journals of Commons | Walker's Magazine. 
 
 Cox's Magazine | Dalrymple j Swift's Works | Mason's State P*"" to 
 W. W.'s, Dublin | King & Harris MS. 
 
 Tone's life | Madden | Lucas' Works [ Flood's Life and Letters. 
 
 Grattan's Memoir & Speeches | Curran's | Pamphlets. 
 
 Baratiana | Travels in Ireland, see College Library. 
 
 Edgeworth, Morgan, Griffin, Banim, Campbell's L. of Ireland. 
 
 Arthur Young on Manners, 
 
 Dublin Society's Labours | Wyse and reports. 
 
 Curry's Life, Parnell's, O'Connor's, Howard's, Scully's. 
 
 MS. notes on Penal laws. Sir J. F^'^ the fair of Cashell, Pipers 
 
 I Sheehy | fee simples O'Sull" (Thierry as a model) recruit- 
 ing for the Brigade (see papers). 
 
394 APPENDIX. 
 
 Music, Bunting, Squire Jones [ Dr. M'Donnell, 
 Local Hist"*^^ Hardiman, Macgregor, Smith, Mason, Windele Dulton, 
 (Rowley Lascelles) An'" Hy., Wilson's Volunteers | Teeliug, 
 Hay, Graham, Musgrave, Holt, Lord E. Fif* diff' States in 
 diff' Provinces. 
 Chr' table. Financial tables. 
 
 Catalogue of Pamphlets, books, p^ption. 
 
 etc., used, & criticisms on Surface & dis™'- 
 
 them & papers. Tables of gov"'- 
 
 Ch^^" Ministers. 
 
 Arts & lif- during this time, ^^ch. bps. & bps. 
 
 costume. Provosts. 
 
 Society, arch''^- Parliaments. 
 
 Trade (Spain, Engl.) Lists of Absentees. 
 
 He estimated, at the same time, the space the separate periods 
 would occupy. 
 
 Intro" & Eev" 50 
 
 (clear and highly wrought.) 
 First effect of Kev" 20 
 
 Molyneux 
 
 5 
 
 — to Swift 
 
 15 
 
 Swift 
 
 60 
 
 Lucas 
 
 30 
 
 Flood 
 
 50 
 
 Grattan 
 
 50 
 
 • to Cath^ Com^ 
 
 30 
 
 Lord Fitz"" 
 
 20 
 
 U. L 
 
 30 
 
 Insur*" 
 
 50 
 
 Union 
 
 50 
 
 To 1812 
 
 30 
 
 To 1817 
 
 20 
 
 To 1823 
 
 SO 
 
 To 1829 
 
 50 
 
 580 
 
INDEX. 
 
 American sympathy with Ireh\nd, 155 
 Arms Bill, resistance to, li9 
 
 Bauim, Michael, 340; note from, 348 n. 
 
 Barry, M. J., joins the R_-peal Associa- 
 tion, 112; letter to Davis on proposed 
 duel, 304 
 
 Burke, Father, 373 
 
 Butt, Isaac, 282 
 
 Campbell, Lord. 45 
 
 Carletou, William, 131, 282 ; estimate 
 
 of Davis, 373 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 153 
 Clements, Lord, 149 
 Colleges, provincial, 285 et seq. 
 Council of Three Hundred, 153, 173, 
 
 176 
 Crawford, Sharman, 149 
 Croker, John "Wilson, 141 
 Curry, Eutjene, 87, 231; on "Ballad 
 
 Poetry of Ireland," 339 
 
 Daunt, W. J. O'Neill, 72 
 
 Davis, Thomas, his birth, 2 ; parentage, 
 3 ; education, 4 ; early years, 5 ; 
 enters college, 6 ; college friends, 7 ; 
 misjudged by his fellow-students, 8; 
 studies in college, 9 ; relations to 
 Thomas Wallis, 10 ; joins Historic 
 Society, 14 ; his first pamphlet, 28 ; 
 his address to College Historic So- 
 ciety, 32 ; letter to Savage Landor, 
 41 ; opposition to the apjjoiutment 
 of Lord Campbell, 45 ; defence of the 
 Royal Dublin Society, 46 ; joins the 
 Dublin MorniiKj Begider, 54; retire- 
 ment from The Register, 57 ; joins 
 Repeal Association, 58 ; letters to C. 
 Waddy, 73, 81 ; letters to P. R. Webb, 
 74, 75, 76; letters to Maddyn, 81, 
 82, 83; letter to Maddyn on first 
 number of the Nation, 91 ; letter to 
 Maddyn on the French press, 91 ; 
 
 Davis's articles in the Nation, 105 ; 
 his literary papers, 105 ; in the Re- 
 peal Committt-e, 107 ; letter to Mad- 
 dyn on proposed Revieiv, 111; his 
 historical ballads, 121, 125; his pea- 
 sant ballads, 123; among his com- 
 rades, 127; his temper, 129; his 
 industry, 130 ; letters to Maddyn on 
 the memoirs of Curran, 143, 144 ; 
 his memoirs of Curran reviewed in 
 the Athenamm, 146 ; note to Maddyn 
 on Richard Ronayne, 148 ; letter to 
 Maddyn on the position of the Re- 
 peal party in 1843, 156; his excursion 
 in Munster, 162 ; proposes to visit 
 Smith O'Brien, 169 ; visits Maurice 
 O'Counell in Kerry, 170; visits Dr. 
 Griffin in Limerick, 171 ; article 
 against hanging, 173 ; correspond- 
 ence about the Council of Three 
 Hundred, 174, 175, 176; letter to 
 the Duke of "Wellington, signed a 
 " Federalist," 178 ; visit to Dillon at 
 Castlebar, 185 ; verses after the arrest 
 of O'Connell, 186; his policy before 
 O'Connell's arrest and after, 186 ; 
 letter of " a Protestant," ISO ; verses 
 to Hogan, the sculptor, 183 ; letter 
 to John O'Connell on his father's 
 policy, 190 ; letters to Maddyn on 
 Clarence Mangan, 191, 192, 193; to 
 Maddyn on Dublin Magazine, 194 ; 
 his proposal to retire from the Na- 
 tion, 203 ; 2:)rojects to write a history 
 of Ireland, 204, 208 ; renews his pro- 
 posal to retire for a time from the 
 Nation, 201, 208 ; history of Ireland 
 in eras, 206 ; proposes to travel, 
 211 ; his i^osition as a leader after 
 O'Connell's imprisonment, 213 ; letter 
 to O'Brien on the Parliamentary 
 Committee reports, 216 ; his opinion 
 of the Parliamentary Committee, 
 213 ; his ideal of an Irish member, 
 
396 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 217, 218 ; his repression of violence, 
 218'; his rigid discipline, 219; appeal 
 to Irish Protestants, 219, 220; his 
 national policy, 221 ; his resolutions 
 respecting the Federalists, 221; 
 teaches deference to the law, 225 ; 
 rebukes agrarian murders, 226 ; letter 
 to the Duke of Wellington ou O'Con- 
 nell's imprisonmeut, 228 ; note to 
 Pigot describing O'Connell's im- 
 prisonment, 230 ; note to Eugene 
 Curry respecting King Dathi, 231 ; 
 to Duffy about tiie " Sj^irit of the Na- 
 tion," 232, 231 ; to O'Hagan ou same 
 subject, 231; to Maddyu, inviting 
 him to Ireland, 231 ; letters to Duffy 
 at Darrynane, 216, 217 ; ou Maddyn's 
 sketch of him as Dormer, 218 ; his 
 relation to Federalism, 258 ; notes to 
 Duffy on Federalism, 262, 263 ; let- 
 ter to Staunton ou the Irish priest, 
 273 ; defamed by the partisans of Mr. 
 John O'Connell, 280 ; language in 
 the chair at Conciliation Hail, 283 n. ; 
 letter to Laue ou Peel's policy, 285 ; 
 note to O'Brien on the suppression 
 of his letter to the Kepeal AssoL-ia- 
 tiou, 289 ; his policy ou the Provin- 
 cial Colleges, and conflict with M. G. 
 Conway, 292-298 ; letters to Deuuy 
 Laue on Colleges controversy, 299, 
 302 ; letters to O'Brien ou the same, 
 306, 310 ; notes to O'Brien against 
 quitting the Kepeal Association, 307, 
 308 ; note to Maddyu on the national 
 levee, 310; ditto to Pigot, 310; his 
 intention to go circuit, 312 ; new de- 
 parture after the Colleges controversy, 
 318; national agenda, 319 ; notes to 
 Mr. Daly ou Irish music, 323 ; note 
 to Maddyu on Burke, 325; note to 
 Pigot on progress of national litera- 
 ture, 328 ; to Maddyu ou historical 
 romance, 329 ; note to Duffy respect- 
 ing a national periodical, 332 ; note 
 to Pigot on the Library of Ireland, 
 335 ; notes to O'Brien on the Lib- 
 rary of Ireland, 312 ; invites Mad- 
 dyu to become editor of The Monitor 
 newspaper, 343 ; addresses to Pro- 
 testants and Catholics ou the folly of 
 l^arty spirit, 346 ; his love for Miss 
 Hutton, 355-361 ; suugs for Annie 
 Hutton, 357, 359; his management 
 of the Nation in August 1845, 362 ; 
 his last illness, 363 ; his death, 365 ; 
 letters from Dillon, MacNevin, and 
 Maddyu on his death, 366 ; his 
 fuueral, 367 ; estimate of his charac- 
 ter by Lord O'Hagan, Sir Samuel 
 Furguson, Father Burke, Carleton 
 
 and Miss Mitford, 373-376; post- 
 humous poems, 380-385 and Ap- 
 pendix. 
 
 Deasy, Rickard, letter ou Whig policy, 
 236 
 
 Dillon, John, 43 ; article on the Royal 
 Dublin Society, 52 ; note to Davis, 
 53 ; his address to the College His- 
 torical Society, 64 ; letters respecting 
 the Dublin Montlily Magazine, 80, 
 197; note on the French policy in 
 Morocco, 240 ; on Davis' intention to 
 go circuit, 312 : letter to Davis upon 
 National Schools, 322 ; letter on 
 Davis's death, 366 
 
 Dublin Historical Society, 27 
 
 Duffy, Charles Gavau, iirst meets Dil- 
 lon and Davis, 71 ; conversation 
 proposing foundation of the Nation, 
 72 ; arrested, 183 ; letter to Davis ou 
 proposed school history of Irelaud, 
 207 ; visit to O'Connell at Darrynane, 
 244 ; letter to O Council on Federal- 
 ism, 261 ; note to Davis enclosing 
 estimate for a three-day paper, 315 ; 
 article on the relation of the Nation 
 to O'Connell, 263 ; letter to Davis in 
 his last illness, 365 
 
 Eighty-two Club, 251, 252 
 
 Federalism, muster of the party at 
 Belfast, 250 ; Hudson's list of prob- 
 able recruits, 256 ; O'Connell de- 
 clares for, 259 ; breaks with, 261 
 
 Ferguson, Samuel, note from, 350 ; his 
 estimate of Davis and his public 
 services, 374 
 
 Ford, Samuel, 336 
 
 Godkin, Rev. James, 327 
 Graj', Wilson, 13 
 Griffin, Gerald, 92 
 
 Hogan, John, 163, 168, 183 
 
 Hudson, William Eliot, 28, 43; note 
 
 on National periodical, 333 
 Hutton, Miss, letter to Davis, 359 . 
 
 letter after Davis's death, 386 
 Hutton, Mistress, letter to Davis, 361 
 Hughes, T. M., 72 
 
 Ingram, J. K., 70 
 
 Ireland in 1842, 58 ; foreign policy of, 
 
 239 
 Irish Club, started in London, 151 
 history, how it was taught in the 
 
 Nation, 137; Davis's proposed history, 
 
 204 and Appendix. 
 liberal members, their appeal to 
 
 England, 150 
 
INDEX. 
 
 397 
 
 Irish literature in 1842, 138 
 priest, letters of, against the Na- 
 tion, 272 
 
 Kearney, Francis, 30 
 
 Kenealy, Dr., his attack on Davis after 
 
 his deatli, 378 
 Keogh, William, 13 
 Kiugsley, Mr., 320 
 
 Lalor, John, 13 
 
 Landor, Savage, letter from, 40 ; Davis's 
 
 letter to, 41 
 Lane, Denny, 15 ; bantering letter to 
 
 Davis, 172; letter on 'Eighty-two 
 
 Club, 252 ; letter to Davis on the 
 
 Colleges controversy, 300 ; on Davis's 
 
 intention to go circuit, 312 
 Lcfanu, Joseph, 13, 14 ; estimate of the 
 
 Nation, 141, 282 
 Lucas, Frederick, on the policy of 
 
 O'Brien and Davis, 228 ; on the 
 
 Young Ireland party, 281 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, on the " Spirit of the 
 Nation," 142 
 
 MacDermott, Martin, 105 n. 
 
 MacManus, Henry, 134, 195 
 
 MacNeviu, Thomas, 13, 17w. ; joins 
 the Repeal Association, 112 ; his 
 " Irish State Trials," 147 ; defence 
 of Davis, 278 ; letter to Davis during 
 his last illness, 361 ; letter on Davis's 
 death, 366 
 
 McCartliv, D. F., 131, 232 
 
 McCullagh, Torrens, 12, 13, 14 
 
 Maddyn, D. 0., 14, 15 ».; his first ac- 
 quaintance with Davis, 15 ; estimate 
 of him, 18, 88 ; objections to Davis's 
 policy, 157; letter to Davis against 
 entering the Council of Three Hun- 
 dred, 176 ; on Clarence Mangan, 
 193 ; his character of Davis as Dor- 
 mer, 247 ; on Henry Flood, 253 ; on 
 thecliaracterof Burke, etc , 325; notes 
 to Davis on a national periodical, 
 331, 333; refuses editorship of il/o?ii- 
 tor, 314 ; letter to Davis on " Age of 
 Pitt and Fox " and on " Ballad 
 Poetry," 354 ; letter on Davis's death, 
 366 
 
 Magistrates, dismissal of, 112 
 
 Mangan, Clarence, verses, 89 ; his 
 habits, 131 ; proposal to publish his 
 poems in London, 191 
 
 Meagher, Thomas Francis, on Davis, 
 352 
 
 ]\Iilnes, Monckton, 142 
 
 Mitchel, John, 337 
 
 Mitford, Miss, on Davis, 373 
 
 Mongan, Mr., his school, 4 
 
 Moore, E. R., note from, 149 
 Moore, Thomas, 196 
 Morocco, the French quarrel with, 238 
 IMouiitmellery Abbey, 166 
 Murphy, Bishop, 163, 165 
 
 Nation, first appearance of, 87 ; author- 
 ship of articles in first number, 89; 
 of articles in second and third num- 
 bers, 91 ; policy and opinions of, 97 
 
 National Levee, 309 
 
 National literature in Ireland, 54 
 
 Norway and Ireland, 42 
 
 O'Brien, William Smith, 149 ; joins 
 the Repeal Association, 188 ; sk(jtch 
 of, 212; note to Davis during O'Con- 
 nell's imprisonment, 229; note to 
 Davis on the suppression of his letter 
 to the Repeal Association, 289 ; let- 
 ter to Davis against quitting the 
 Repeal Association, 307; on John 
 O'Connell, 311 ; on Orange and 
 Green, 342 
 
 O'Callaglian, John Cornelius, 134; 
 letter from, 135 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, his position in 1842, 
 61 ; history of the first Repeal agita- 
 tion, 62 ; in the Repeal Association, 
 106; speech in the Dublin Corpora- 
 tion, 107; his Mallow defiance, 154; 
 letler to Lord CamiDbell, 178; ar- 
 rested, 183; his trial, 187; his visit 
 to England after the trial, 189 ; sen- 
 tence and imprisonment, 202 ; his 
 determination to found a dynasty of 
 leaders, 237 ; liberation from prison, 
 242; policy afterwards, 243; his 
 declaration in favour of Federalism, 
 260; effects of his Fedeial declara- 
 tion, 265 ; letter to Davis in rela- 
 tion to the Irish priest, 274; policy 
 on the Provincial Colleges question, 
 287 ; on Davis's death, 368 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, juniur, his unautho- 
 rized resolution, 237 
 
 O'Connell, John, letter to Davis on the 
 Irish brigade, 205 ; note to D.ivis 
 respecting Federal resolutions, 225 ; 
 his dictatorsliip after the Colleges 
 controversy, 313, 316; eloge on Davis, 
 368 ; his attack on Davis, after his 
 death, 379 
 
 O'Connell, Maurice, Davis's visit to, 170 
 
 O'Connell, iNIorgan, John, 152 
 
 O'Donovan, John, 87 ; letter to Davis 
 on Irish historj^, 208 ; on Irish stan- 
 dards, 338 ; note to Davis on Irish 
 family names, 341 
 
 O'Hagan, John, 70, 72, 133 ; verses on 
 the edacatio.i couiroversv. 302 
 
398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 O'Hagan, Tliomas, 28 ; joins the Ee- 
 peal Association, 112 ; note to Duffy, 
 235 ; article on Davis's death, 371 
 
 O'Hea, James, 13 
 
 O'Loshleu, Sir Colman, 112, 307, 309 
 
 O'Sullivau, Eev. Mortimer, 55 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, his policy of con- 
 
 ciliatins; Ireland, 28i 
 Pigot, Chief Baron, 152 
 Pigot, David, 335 
 
 Pigot, John, 72, 133 ; letter from, 168 
 Pilot newspaper, 88 
 Polock, Joseph, 13 
 Porter, Gray, 282, 31 G, 327 
 Provincial Colleges, 285 et seq. 
 
 Pay, T. M., arrested, 183 
 Eoss, D. E., 152 
 
 Savage, Marmion, 145 
 
 Scott, Dr., 324 
 
 Sheill, Eichard, on the Nation during 
 
 O'Counell's imprisonment, 231 
 Staunton, Michael, 52, 57 
 
 Taifs Magazine, 158 ; on the policy of 
 Conciliation Hall under O'Brien and 
 Davis, 226; on the Federal con- 
 troversy, 2G7 
 
 Taylor, William Cooke, letter on the 
 
 Colleges controversy, 304 
 Thackeray, his squibs in the Nation, 
 
 115 ; on Davis, 309 
 Trevelyan, Sir Charles, letters from 
 
 Ireland, 177 
 Tyndall, Professor, 373 
 
 Waddy, Cadwallader, letters from 
 Davis, 73, 81 
 
 Walsh, Edward, 269 
 
 Wallis, Thomas, estimate of Davis, 11, 
 12, 13; advocacy of a montlily 
 periodical in lieu of the Nation, 79 ; 
 letters to Davis, 90, 92, 246 ; letter 
 to Davis on Colleges controversy, 
 308 ; note to Davis announcing his 
 departure from Ireland, 349 
 
 Webb, Eobert, 24, 43 ; note from Davis 
 to, 51 ; letter to Davis, 215 
 
 Wolfe Tone, monument to, 102, 199, 
 200, 353 
 
 Writ o( Error, 241 
 
 Wyse, Thomas, 150 n. 
 
 Young Ireland party, principles of, 99 , 
 described by Sir Charles Trevelyan, 
 178 ; their fidelity to Davis, 317 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND HECCLES. 
 
WOKKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 YOUNG IRELAND: 
 
 A Fragment of Irish History. — 1840-1845. 
 
 From The Times. 
 " The gifted and ill-fated Party of ' Young Ireland ' certainly deserved an 
 Apoloriia, and it is past dispute that no one could be more competent for the 
 task than Sir Charles Gavau Dufty. Notwithstanding the genuine modesty with 
 which he always attributes the origin of the school (jfor, in the true sense, it was 
 a school ratlaer than a party) to Thomas Davis, he will, we think, be always 
 regarded as its true founder. ... The literary quality of the book is remark- 
 able ; the style is vivid and graphic." 
 
 From The Saturday Review. 
 
 " Sir Charles Duffy has many qualifications for his task. With great ability 
 and much literary experience he combines an earnest belief in the justice of his 
 cause ; and it may be added that he always writes in the language and the.spirit 
 of a gentleman," 
 
 From The Edinburgh Eeview. 
 
 " These, it seems, were the founders, heroes, and martyrs of the Nation, and 
 we are free to confess that the 'Young Ireland' of those days had incomparably 
 more patriotism, eloquence, and energy than their degenerate successors. But 
 even Ireland cannot produce an inexhaustible supply of Davises and Duftys. 
 It is in the nature of all human things — 'In pejus mere et retro sublapsa 
 referri.' " 
 
 From The Dublin Eeview. 
 
 " The remarkable and romantic career of the author serves to stimulate the 
 CTiriosity of the public ; but, independently of these advantages, this book con- 
 tains literary merit of too high an order, and historical matter of too great value, 
 to allow of its being, under any circumstances, ignored or forgotten." 
 
 FOUR YEARS OP IRISH HISTORY.— 1845-1849. 
 
 From The Spectator. 
 " Sir Charles Gavan Dufty's Book, large as it is, will have for politicians 
 more than the interest of a novel, as well as more than the instructiveness of a 
 history. We need not say that we cannot always agree in the drift of Sir Charles 
 Gavan Duffy's political criticism. It is a very powerful, and for the most part 
 a very just, indictment against the Irish policy of Great Britain. The brief 
 review of Irish history is one of the most vigorous aud one of the most painful 
 ' acts of accusation ' against tliis country which was ever penned, and for English 
 readers one of the most wholesome lessons." 
 
 From The Nation. 
 " It is not very often that a man retains up to the age of sixty-five years the 
 faculties which in the prime of life enable bun to thrill his readers, like wine ; 
 but it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that in these pages is to be found not 
 merely the statosmansliii) wliich comes of experience, but the power of rousing 
 the emotions which is usually associated with the glowing period of youtli." 
 
 From^ The Irishman. 
 "So vivid are tlie scenes, so enthralling is the story, so intense is tlie con- 
 tagion of its potent enthusiasm, that tlie reader of the book must keenly regret 
 he did not iiave his part in tliose gay. gallant, and tragic times." 
 
WOBKS BY TEE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 From The New York Tribune. 
 " The literary workmanship is excellent, and the author's tone throughout is 
 singularly candid and sincere. If he aims to reverse many popular conceptions 
 respecting O'Connell's closing years, the evidence from contemporary corre- 
 spomlence and diaries sustains liis judgment; and even in his most controversial 
 chapters there is never any lack of diguity nor the slightest taint of prejudiced 
 partisanship." 
 
 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF IRISH HISTORY. 
 
 From The American (Philadelphia). 
 " The historical chapter in Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's ' Young Ireland ' was 
 recognized generally as the only readable account of Irish history which had 
 appeared in the English language. It is the story of Ireland's wrongs, told by 
 a decided, but not an extreme Irish patriot, and goes a great way to explain the 
 utter discontent with which the Irish people regard English rule." 
 
 From The Age (Melbourne). 
 " As a plea for Irish Home Rule, nothing more brilliant than the chapter 
 entitled, ' A Bird's-Eye View of Irish History,' has ever been printed." 
 
 From United Ireland (Dublin). 
 "Whosoever wants to know the main facts and the rationale of Irish History 
 will find them enshrined in limpid and flowing English, and will rise from 
 perusing the little book refreshed and proUil — not, as often happens, after toiling 
 through Irish histories, weary and dejected." 
 
 From Vanity Fair. 
 "There is furthermore a splendid condensation of Irish History wliich one 
 can admire as an example of telling journalism, and there are numberless sly 
 references to the events of this present period." 
 
 From The Irish Times. 
 " Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's ' Bird's-Eye View of Irish History ' is a chapter 
 which, on account of its style alone, could ill be spared from this volume. It is 
 written with great pureness and force." 
 
 BALLAD POETRY OP IRELAND. 
 
 Forty-First Edition. 
 
 From The Dublin Eeview, 1846. 
 " Our readers will hardly require, on our part, any profession of the unaffected 
 satisfaction with which we welcome this delightful volume, and the ' Library of 
 Ireland,' to which it belongs. It is a great step towards the realization of that 
 fond dream of a National Literature. We would fain believe that Mr. Duffy's 
 eloijuent and earnest Introduction represents the feelings of a large secti(m of 
 the educated public in Ireland ; and if this be so, there shall not be wanting a 
 will or a way towards complete success. It would be difficult to speak too 
 highly of this Introduction — equally difficult, we trust, to over-estimate its 
 intluence. Without reading one word of the volume, every educated man will 
 at once pronounce tliat a collection made by such an editor must possess merit 
 of the very highest order. We regard it, indeed, as perfect in its kind — correct, 
 yet calm, passionate, but subdued — and combining enthusiasm and order witli 
 that tolerance which makes enthusiasm amicable, and that practical sense which 
 prevents ardour from evaporating in noisy and ineffective display." 
 
 From Davis's Essays. 
 "Never was there a book better fitted to advance that perfect nationality to 
 which Ireland begins to a^^pire." 
 
 ^ 
 
5117 
 
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