Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/399

 indirectly by patronage or counsel. Your compliance will confer a favour in" your friend and admirer, . P.S.-The enclosed letter will convince you that application and signature are genuine from the Head of the House of Moylsey.

The accompanying letter was from the O'Conor Don, whom Irishmen hold to be the undoubted heir of Rhoderic O'Conor the last native king of Ireland, and it illustrated the pathetic tenderness with which historic memories are preserved among the descendants of the Celtic nobility that the letter to the MacDermott is addressed "My dear Prince."

The appeal which Mr. Pearson and Mr. Berry made to Colonial Office has been the subject of several Blue Books; this is the upshot: the Imperial Government received them graciously, but in the end intimated that the Victorians must settle their local quarrels at home. Ir. Berry and Mr. Pearson returned to Melbourne, and tough they had not been able to accomplish much were received in triumph by their friends. Some weeks later, Cashel Hoey sent additional news which seemed to intimate that the Imperial Government though unwilling to take any decisive step sympathised with the resistance to the Council.

I had strongly urged upon Mr. Berry to do justice to Mr. Hoey by reappointing him to the position from which he had been unfairly removed, and Hoey informed me that Mr. Berry had reappointed him temporarily and promised, if his colleagues assented, to make the office permanent, which he did, and Mr. Hoey held it through many administrations down to his death. In other respects I had fallen upon evil days. This extract from my diary tells its own sad tale:—