Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 1.djvu/87

 agitators—from O'Gorman Mahon, whose picturesque personality won favour with the multitude, to Feargus O'Connor, whose demagogic vigour enabled him to contest the lead with the great Tribune for a season, and Richard Ronayne, who believed in William Cobbett, and Marcus Costello, who believed in himself. All of us, and I above all, who was proprietor of the menaced journal, had to count the cost, and at the close of life it makes my heart throb to remember that we determined to hold on our course at any risk; the Nation might be ruined, but it should not be intimidated or dishonoured.

The denunciation, though it came at last, was so long postponed that the aim of the journal was happily accomplished before it arrived. "The new soul which had come into Ireland" beat not only in the breast of the suffering majority, but began to flutter in the bosom of the triumphant minority. When the Nation was established, whatever could be called literature in Ireland belonged exclusively to the Tories. The Dublin University Magazine was read throughout the two islands, but it was more vehemently anti-Irish than the Times. The only university in the country was a fortress of religious and political bigotry. The Whigs regarded O'Connell's movement without sympathy and with feeble interest; the Tories regarded it with open scorn. They despised it, but did not fear it. The members for the metropolis, and for the metropolitan county, were Tories, and there was not one man of notable ability, and miserably few of reputable character, among the handful of members who followed O'Connell into the House of Commons. At such a time it seemed, to the vulgar rich, a waste of life to preach a nationality embracing the whole nation without regard to creed, class, or genesis. But this is what the Nation did; the merits of Irishmen were recognised without any relation to their politics; Irish interests were promoted to whatever class the interest pertained. The injustice of the land system was systematically exposed, and the necessity of religious equality insisted on; not for the benefit of a party but the tranquillity and prosperity of the Irish nation.

With what success were these new opinions taught? Half a century has elapsed since that era, and a widened