found among the documents in this volume.*

Other

and more important correspondents he also gained about the same time, but we doubt if any accession to his list could have gratified him more than that of O'Connell's most faithful adherent. His own attachment to the deceased leader had been almost as enthusiastic as Steele's. He was one of his sincerest followers living, and one of the most deeply affected of all the immense multitude who followed him to his honored rest, in Glasnevin cemetery.

It had been one of O'Connell's most cherished objects to transfer the party he had formed-if two-thirds of a nation may justly be designated a party-to the leadership of his favorite son, John. Those who were nearest the capital of the agitation early saw that Mr. John O'Connell had neither the gifts of mind, body or temper, necessary to supply his father's place. To throw on him the whole blame of "the secession" of 1846, would be unfair and untrue; there was on the the other side some precipitancy, much self-opinion, and great recklessness of consequences. Had, however, the new candidate for chieftainship possessed the ordinary qualities by which power once created is conserved, there is little doubt that the majority of the present generation would have faithfully followed him. We write with the impartiality

* See Appendix.

of many added years of experience, when we avow our firm conviction that he was wholly deficient in the amenity, generosity, vigor and justice so necessary in the successor to a popular sovereignty. The patriotic prelates who had most heartily entered into the fond father's views, began one by one to make this discovery, as time wore on. In June, '48, we find the Bishop of Clogher, one of the most devoted friends of O'Connell, writing to Dr. Maginn: "Mr. J. O'Connell is pursuing a course which will strengthen his opponents and leave him powerless. I made an effort last week to communicate briefly to him my poor opinion, but my letter, though not marked as such, he has, I suppose, looked upon as 'private,' likewise Dr. Blake's" the aged Bishop of Dromore. It is plain, from the letters of seve ral Bishops which we have seen, that, though no one could be more obsequiously humble while they were cooperating with him, he could also be petulantly selfwilled when they became his catechists or counsellors. Like most small minds he seems to have mistaken obstinacy for firmness, and to have clung the more desperately to his few driftless ideas, as adviser after adviser parted his company. It is impossible to account for his conduct in the first half of '48, on the hypothesis of his political honesty, without admitting the aggravating ill effects of his most unfortunate temper.

The political torpor of 1847 was thoroughly dispelled

by the French Revolution of February, '48, and the stirring events that followed it. Every lover of the country was stirred by the glorious opportunity presented. The high-spirited old peers, Lord Cloncurry and Lord French, who remembered Ireland before the Union declared emphatically for its "repeal;" Lord Wallscourt, a Connaught proprietor, half French socialist, half feudal chief, joined the Young Ireland party; Lord Miltown returned to the old one. Many patriotic Priests began to agitate the union of both sections, and the co-operation of the Bishop of Derry was earnestly solicited.

Dr. Maginn's relations at that time to each section, may best be stated in the language of his own letters. In '47 he had given in his adhesion to Mr. John O'Connell, in a public letter characterized by all his usual fervor and energy. In acknowledgment of this adhesion, he received the following reply from Mr. John O'Connell:

DALKEY, (GOWRAN HILL,) DUBLIN, May, 8, 1847.

Right Rev. my Very Dear Lord:

I am in receipt of the great and kind favor of your lordship's condescending letter enclosing ten pounds, (half note,) your own munificent donation and that of your respected clergy to the Repeal Rent. I say munificent, for its actual magnitude is enhanced by the circumstances of the terrible distress and terrible burthens upon you, which the calamity of the country has caused.

I shall of course observe your lordship's injunction as to not giving the names to the papers. How is it possible I can thank you for your generous, your affectionate kindness to my dear, dear father! Alas, he is in a very low state. The hope is yet left to us, in addition to our

humble trust that Providence raised him up for a special purpose, and will support him to its accomplishment.

If I want words to thank you for him, how can I possibly hope to express my feelings at the surpassing kindness and generous encouragement of your too—I must say FAR too high opinion of myself. Would to God I in any way merited it! Then I might be of use to poor Ireland; whereas now I can do little more than give her my eart's best wishes, and if need were, its blood.

The attempted conference between "YOUNG" and "OLD" Ireland has failed of good results, and the "Nation" fiercely attacks me upon the untrue-most utterly untrue-assertion that I contemplated alliance and place-seeking with and from the government In the "Nation" itself they have been obliged to give my correction of this gross mis-statement, although they so furiously attack me. They also attack me because I refused to consent—at least without my father's assent duly had, to the dissolution of the Association, to spare the Young Irelanders the "mortification," as they alleged, of re-joining the body. They want to establish a new body, made up of the old, and of their own confederation; but OBJECT to the spirit, as well as the sense of the peace resolutions, (see "Nation," leading article this day,) although they talk of taking counsel's opinion on the rules of the new body, whatever kind of thing it should turn out to be. They are very indignant at my not at once consenting to give up the association that weathered the storm of the state-prosecutions, &c., &c.

Coupling this with the exceedingly violent speeches made on recent occasions by Meagher, O'Gorman, Mitchel and Doheny, I do not indeed, my dear lord, see how it is possible, at least at present, to make another advance towards these gentlemen. Their language is getting every day more and more inflammatory, and there is an attempt at fraternization with the fag-end of the implacable Orange party, who delude them with some fair words, and who really want to gather aid against what they call "priestly encroachments."

We have no immediate letter about my dear father, at least that I have as yet seen--(2 P.M.) but by the newspapers we learn he has been again able to move a little way on-slowly. I fear he cannot possibly go farther than the South of France this summer. Believe me.

reverend my dear lord, most respectfully and most heartily your much obliged and very faithful,

JOHN O'CONNELL.

At the end of the previous year, just at the time "the Irish Confederation" was founded, and six months after the secession, he had the following correspondence with Mr. Duffy, Editor of the Nation:

DR. MAGINN TO MR. DUFFY.

Dear Sir-I here with send you a post-office order, amount, £1 6s., due, or coming due, for the Nation newspaper. You will have the goodness to desist, for the present, sending it to me, lest my continuing a subscriber should be interpreted an approval of a schism inauspiciously begun and mischievously persevered in. Having had the pleasure of an early acquaintance with your respectable family, I do candidly say that I took an interest in everything that appertained to you, and was proud, as a Northman, of the exceedingly able paper which you edited. Since, however, it has become an instrument of dissension, advocating the eternal separation of those whom a common aim and object should unite in the strong sentiments of brotherhood, and aspersing the sacred character of one so justly dear, even had he a thousand faults, to every genuine Irishman, to retain it longer must seem a dereliction of duty. If you were to take the advice of one who wishes you well, I would in all earnestness recommend, for the good of your country, a sacrifice of your own cherished opinions—a forgetfulness and a forgiveness of whatever wrongs you may think you have endured, and a speedy reconciliation with "the Liberator." If nothing else could induce you to take this advice, the fact of your paper becoming the pet of the unblushing haters of your country, should make you perceive that your present course is not a proper one. Believe me, since Mr. O'Connell's proposed reconciliation, public opinion is fast ebbing from you, and the abettors of your party are here merely a few among the dregs of society, whose support of any cause must prove its ruin. To speak thus to you gives me exceeding pain, and were I not your friend I would have been more brief and less candid. I am, dear Sir, yours truly, EDWARD MAGINN.

MR. DUFFY TO DR. MAGINN.

January 6, 1847.

My Dear Lord-I am sincerely obliged by your kind letter and by the motives that suggested it; and I am not the less grateful to your