Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 1.djvu/281

 he believed impossible, resting on means which he considered disgraceful.

By this time an article in the United Irishman, probably written by Reilly, recommending that vitriol should be thrown on the soldiers whenever a rising should take place, was widely quoted in the English newspapers, and in the ordinary spirit of faction attributed to the entire National Party. The night before he left London for Paris, O'Brien wrote to me:—

"I find myself connected, in the opinion of those who view things at a distance, with the proceedings of Mitchel, who is regarded as a 'bloodthirsty villain' by many who do not know his good qualities. As regards myself, painful as is this circumstance, I am contented to endure it; but I cannot, without the deepest regret, perceive the injury he has done and is daily doing to the cause of Repeal. It is because I fear that he will ruin the Confederation that I now write earnestly to exhort you not to allow him to plunge it into new difficulties."

I kept the Confederation in harmony with O'Brien's policy during his absence, but the United Irishman, over which I had no control, fell into new extravagances. The story of the deputation has been told elsewhere, and does not much concern me here. When they returned we applied ourselves with steady diligence to the policy of conciliation and popular organisation. A striking evidence of the authenticity of O'Brien's reliance on help from the middle classes came to encourage us. A Protestant Repeal Association was founded with Samuel Ferguson, a man of conspicuous honour and ability, at its head. He was the mouthpiece of opinions very welcome to the leading Confederates, but irreconcilable with the policy of the extreme party.

"God forbid," he said, "that a drop of Irish blood should be shed in vindicating any Irish right unless the Irish people be unanimous. And if you would make them unanimous, respect the opinion of your neighbours, and seek not by terrorism to compel any man to come into your ranks till his own conviction assures him he ought to do so."

Great efforts were made to bring in the representative men of the Conservative Party to this new organisation, but with