Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/40

 admitted to a small share in the business. He managed it for three years at his discretion, when he suddenly announced his determination to retire, and claimed that a large balance was due to him, of which he demanded instant payment. I showed his abstract of accounts to M'Kenna, who, after a brief study of it, assured me that he had no doubt that the claimant on his own showing was in my debt. Mr. M'Grath took proceedings against me in Chancery, and the case was referred for the consideration of a Master. Mr. M'Kenna, who was a barrister as well as a banker, represented me, and before his scrutiny the entire claim disappeared, and Mr. M'Grath was brought in my debtor. Thus one good turn not only deserved but obtained another.

Shortly after the revival of the Nation a national requisition was put in course of signature, largely signed by ecclesiastics and laymen of note, to consider the state of the country. Mr. John O'Connell thought this a fitting moment to re-open Conciliation Hall and demand the immediate Repeal of the Union. He had become a militia captain since his last appearance in public, and some angry Nationalists denounced this violation of the peace principles of his father, but a caustic critic in the Nation told them "they were unreasonable, as it was quite certain he would not in his new capacity shed one drop of blood." I may dismiss Mr. John O'Connell from this narrative by stating that whatever was done for Ireland from that date till his death found him whining a feeble opposition. The country did not sustain the revived Conciliation Hall, and to keep the doors open he sold the noble library, collected at the cost of the Irish people, sold the instruments of the National Band, and finally sold the lease of Conciliation Hall and violated his father's will and testament as shamelessly as Nelson's will was violated by his brother, and by all these sacrifices succeeded only in assembling about a dozen coal porters and basket women once a week in a hall which had once held the flower of the Irish race.

A letter which I wrote to M'Gee when the Nation was revived tells in the briefest terms several things necessary to the integrity of this narrative:—