Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/236

 "A meeting of this committee will be held in the Upper Library on Wednesday next, the nth inst., at half-past one o'clock p.m. Your obedient servant, ",Sec.

Still I did not attend; my chief motive for remaining away was that I was indisposed to act again with Mr. O'Shanassy in Opposition or in office. In politics much has to be for-; given, but his appeal to and- Irish feeling against me seemed to me a just exception. The reconciliation was brought about by social rather than political influences. I have spoken of Dr. Quinn, the Bishop of Brisbane, who, though a kinsman of Dr. Cullen, had honoured me with his steady friendship. He had done notable work in his new diocese, not only in diffusing his missionary church, but for immigration, education, and social progress, with the assent of men of various parties. He had been so successful that some enthusiastic friends declared that the colony in gratitude ought to change its name from Queensland to Quinnsland. The good bishop came to Melbourne at this time, and appealed to me passionately to consent to a reconciliation with Mr. O'Shanassy. It was not merely a question of local politics, he said. Irish Catholics had fair play and fair recognition nowhere on the earth so unreservedly as in Australia, and if this quarrel continued it would divide them into two parties in every town and settlement on the continent. He brought me various explanatory messages from Mr. O'Shanassy, and finally induced us to dine with him, when he completed his generous enterprise. I said office had not been pleasant to me, and that if I ever returned to it it would be to settle the land question in the interests of the industrious classes. Mr. O'Shanassy said that was what he also desired, and that I would find him not an impediment, but an ally. An inner Cabinet of the party containing Mr. Haines, Mr. Nicholson, and Mr. Francis, as well as Mr. O'Shanassy and myself, considered the basis on which a Government might be formed which would be strong enough