REMEDIES PRESCRIBED FOR IRELAND. 253 extensive and prolonged; who has mingled with his fellow-countrymen on terms of the most unreserved mutual confidence; who has seen their struggles against the tyranny that would grind them into powder; who has witnessed the anxious heavings of a nation's breast; who thoroughly knows the intense sincerity and unalterable determination with which his compatriots are actuated; who witnesses the persevering efforts of the anti-Irish class to prevent the disenthralment of the people from their bondage;—he who has seen the pernicious and deadly antagonism of the two great sections of the Irish nation, is compelled to trace the origin of Irish evils to English influence operating thro' an alien legislature, and exclusive institutions; and to recognize in the Repeal of the Union the only possible cure for the social disease; the only certain guarantee against relapse. It is perfectly manifest that exclusive institutions could not, in the present day, survive the restoration of the Irish Legislature. The class who are now infected with a vicious hatred of their native country, would then become nationalized in spite of themselves. They could not help it. The preponderating pressure of the national sentiment, having a legislature for its organ, would be too much for their puny resistance. 254 UTTER FUTILITY OF ALL REMEDIES Their prejudices would be swept away in the national torrent. They would, despite their contortions and grimaces, be made auxiliary to the general prosperity and glory. They would be at last merged in the great mass of Irishmen. Nothing short of the Repeal can fulfil the requirements of Ireland. Imagine every minor boon conceded that the most liberal Whig-Radical could proffer; imagine tithes abolished, the franchises enlarged, the representation extended, the bench purified, the magistracy weeded-yet, so long as Ireland possessed no Parliament, we should still have England's robber-hand in our pockets; we should still be at England's mercy or caprice respecting the control of our national purse; we should still remain degraded by the absence of that privilege without which man is a despised slave-the uncontrolled management of our own country for ourselves. Thus, if England were to give us everything else, yet so long as she withheld from us our Parliament, we should be deprived of that which were far more valuable than all the rest put together. John O'Connell achieved much good in Connaught. He received powerful assistance from that distinguished ornament of the Irish church, the Archbishop of Tuam. He held meetings at Carrick-on-Shannon; Carra Castle (co. Mayo); EXCEPT THE REPEAL. 255 the town of Roscommon; Castlerea (co. Roscommon); Castlebar; Tuam; and Ballymoe (co. Galway.) He also had the honour of participating in three or four clerical conferences; and during his tour contributed most efficiently to place the Repeal movement on a firm and permanent footing in the west. The result of the missions was increased perseverance and activity on an organized plan. Their immediate effect on the Repeal rent was remarkable. The week before the missionaries started, the rent was £45 14s. 8d. The week after their return it reached £235. 256 "THE NATION" STARTED. CHAPTER XVIII. True, my friend, as if an angel said it; Still we know the future holds no chance, Save in trampling down intolerance- This unchanging motto-DEEDS Not Creeds. Poetry of the Nation. A notable event in the year 1842 was the establishment of the Nation newspaper. The proprietor and editor, Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy, had previously exhibited the self-reliance of conscious talent in setting up the Belfast Vindicator, despite the discouraging predictions of numerous friends well acquainted with the North, who assured him that the failure of a Repeal journal in Saxonized Ulster was a matter of certainty. Duffy, nothing daunted, persevered in his experiment, and speedily reached a circulation of thirteen hundred; establishing a firm THE FREEMAN AND REGISTER. 257 footing in the heart of the enemy's quarters. The ability with which the Vindicator was conducted, soon acquired for its editor a high reputation as a journalist. Mr. Duffy felt, before long, that his talents required a wider scope for their exercise than could be afforded by the conduct of a provincial journal, however respectable. He resolved upon starting the Nation. In this new undertaking he encountered discouragement similar to that which had waited on his northern experiment. Intelligent, observant men, who wished him well, treated his hopes of success as quite chimerical; asserting with much colour of probability that the entire ground was preoccupied by the two respectable weekly metropolitan journals which were already the exponents and propagandists of Repeal doctrines. The Weekly Freeman's Journal had been edited in succession by several warm and able advocates of Irish independence; the Weekly Register, conducted by Michael Staunton, had acquired great value from the extensive and accurate financial and statistical knowledge profusely scattered through its leading articles, Mr. Staunton has been truly called the father of a distinct school-and a most useful one-of S |