Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/417

 scheme of a plot for effecting the freedom of Ireland was broached to him by John O'Mahony [q. v.], and while O'Mahony and Doheny proceeded to America to see what could be done in that quarter, Stephens, accompanied by Thomas Clarke Luby [q. v. Suppl. II], made a tour of inspection through Ireland. After travelling up and down the country for nearly a year and mixing with all classes and conditions of the population, Stephens was convinced of the feasibility of a fresh movement in the form of a secret conspiracy, with himself as its chief organiser.

Thus the Irish Republican Brotherhood, as it was afterwards called, came into being. The society was based on military principles, the unit being the 'circle' or regiment. For the purposes of organisation the country was divided into provinces, and to each province (Dublin being reserved by Stephens for himself as a separate province) was assigned an organiser whose business it was, wherever he thought fit, to select some individual as a 'centre' or colonel, who in his turn was to choose nine captains, each captain nine sergeants, and each sergeant nine men to form the rank and file of the 'circle.' In this way a 'circle' would consist of 820 men. The scheme appealed to the military instincts of the Irish, and before long Leinster and Munster and even parts of Ulster were dotted with 'circles.' The main drawback was the lack of funds to provide arms. To remedy this defect Stephens visited America towards the close of 1858. During the five months he spent there his enthusiasm and ability as an organiser gave life to the Fenian Brotherhood, which was simultaneously planned on the same lines and with the same aims as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, established there by O'Mahony, and when he returned to Europe in March 1859 he was richer by some 100l. His success stimulated the movement in Ireland, and in 1861, by way of demonstrating the strength of his organisation, he exerted himself, after some hesitation, to give as imposing a character as possible to the public funeral in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin, of Terence Bellew MacManus [q. v.], a rather insignificant member of the Young Ireland party. After that event there was no question as to the strength of Fenianism in Ireland. But neither the arms nor the opportunity of using them seemed to be forthcoming, and as time went on Fenian opinion in both Ireland and America grew restive. Stephens encouraged the belief that O'Mahony was to blame for the inaction. The result was that under the impression that O'Mahony was acting as a drag on the movement a party of action sprang into existence in America which in the end wrecked the conspiracy.

Meanwhile Stephens had been employing his leisure time in drawing up a scheme for the future government of Ireland in the event of the success of the conspiracy, which he published as a pamphlet entitled ’On the Future of Ireland, and on its Capacity to exist as an Independent State. By a Silent Politician' (Dublin, 1862). If his plan had been realised, it would have conferred almost unlimited power on him as the probable president of the proposed republic (cf., Secret Hist. of the Fenian Conspiracy, i. 288-95). In the autumn of 1863 Stephens founded a newspaper for the propagation of his ideas. Under the editorship of Luby, Kickham, and O'Leary the 'Irish People' proved a great success both financially and as an organ of the party. In America, on the other hand, the agitation, owing to the quarrel between O'Mahony and the party of action, was stagnating, and in March 1864 Stephens recrossed the Atlantic. Though his intervention was at first resented by O'Mahony he was on the whole well received, and during his five months' visit he did much to restore order and to extend the organisation. He announced that in the case of England being drawn into war, as seemed probable at the time, over the Schleswig-Holstein business, he would at once raise Ireland, and that war or no war a rising should take place in 1865 or the association be dissolved. His pronouncement stimulated the flow of subscriptions.

On returning to Ireland in August, Stephens found things there in a very forward state. But England did not go to war, and when the summer of 1865 arrived the situation was unchanged except for the fact that the clamour for an immediate rising or dissolution, fed by American intrigues, had grown practically irresistible. Unable to go back on his promise, Stephens finally fixed as the day for the rising the anniversary of Robert Emmet's execution, 20 Sept. But before that day arrived government had obtained information of what was intended, and on 15 Sept. the offices of the 'Irish People' were raided and the principal conspirators arrested. Stephens represented that the loss of some papers by an American envoy put the police on the track. On the other hand