Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 1.djvu/156

 into a great mistake in trying to ride Mangan's phooca. In the original himself there is a curious felicity which prevents us from being annoyed at his forced rhymes, but in any one else it does not do at all.

"Send me True Thomas's letter, and send me a letter from C. G. D. touching the Nation, and stating how far he agrees with P. and me. Yours ever faithfully, "."

This was my reply:—

"Mitchel has shown me your letter, and I agree with every line you have written. In fact I said the same sort of thing a week ago when I saw him last. To wit: 'Why, Mitchell, mon ami, where are you going? This is not 1843, but 1846. We are not in the tropics, but in the frigid zone. You write of insurrections as if they were made to order in the back office of a newspaper. Have we the priests, as in '43? Have we even the people? If we had, have we military leaders with skill and knowledge for such an enterprise? We have not, and what will come of feeding the people with false hopes?' Or, in the vein ironic, in relation to his recent perambulations among foreign politics—'I congratulate you on your expanding philanthropy and growing indifference to mere Irish interests almost in rivalry with the Head Pacificator. The Sikhs, the Armenians, the Poles, have had full share of your attention, but one might as well look for Ireland in a Queen's Speech as in your articles of late.'

"Now, I confess the shameful laxity of all this badinage. I should have said, ' Halt, this is a road we must not travel.' But the fact is that while I was working at my book I read the Nation as I did the Freeman—for news, and without any strong feeling of responsibility. Moreover, I calmed my conscience, now and then, by a vow that I would never again put the helm out of my hand for an hour while I commanded the ship. I have still over a month's hard work to do, and, that done, I will be anchored at my post. Meantime Mitchel, who feels the force of your remonstrances (I have not yet seen Pigot's) will act accordingly. I will write something even during the month of work. I have reviewed John O'Connell's Memoir of his father for next number."