Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 1.djvu/251

 CHAPTER VI

CONFLICTING POLICIES

proposals designed to arrest the famine or to stimulate the people in the last extremity of national disaster to protect themselves had totally failed; and there was nothing in reserve in which to place solid confidence. O'Brien was still persuaded that the gentry who were disgusted by the wanton waste of national resources and the driftless measures of the Administration would declare themselves for self-government in decisive numbers if their fear of the democracy could be allayed. But his hopes were not largely shared by the Confederates. The need was deadly, and help of any sort was far away. John Martin had a rooted confidence in his friends and neighbours, the Ulster Presbyterians, and procured a public meeting in Belfast to receive a deputation from the Irish Confederation, which in tranquil times would have been regarded as a signal success. Several influential merchants, a 233