was already stretched out to
crush the agitation whose object they detested, and whose strength they
had begun to fear. The accession of O'Brien, however, the prestige of
his name, and the influence of his example, was expected to do much
towards reviving the drooping fortunes of the Association. Nor was the
anticipation illusory. From the day on which O'Brien became a Repealer,
down to the date of the secession, the strongest prop of the
Conciliation Hall was his presence and support; he failed indeed to
counteract the corrupt influences that gnawed at the vitals of the
Association and ultimately destroyed it; but while he remained within
its ranks, the redeeming influence of his genius, his patriotism, and
his worth, preserved it from the extinction towards which it was
hastening.

At an early date the penetrating mind of O'Brien detected the existence
of the evil which was afterwards to transform Conciliation Hall into a
market for place hunters. "I apprehend," said he, in a remarkable speech
delivered in January, '46, "more danger to Repeal from the subtle
influence of a Whig administration, than from the coercive measures of
the Tories." And he was right. Day by day, the subtle influence which he
dreaded did its blighting work; and the success of those who sought the
destruction of the Repeal Association through the machinery of bribes
and places was already apparent, when on the 27th of July, 1846,
O'Brien, accompanied by Mitchel, Meagher, Duffy, and others arose in
sorrow and indignation, and quitted the Conciliation Hall for ever.

Six months later the Irish Confederation held its first meeting in the
Round Room of the Rotundo. Meagher, Mitchel, Doheny, O'Brien, O'Gorman,
Martin, and McGee were amongst the speakers; and amidst the ringing
cheers of the densely thronged meeting, the establishment was decreed of
the Irish Confederation, for the purpose--as the resolution
declared--"of protecting our national interests, and obtaining the
Legislative Independence of Ireland by the force of opinion, by the
combination of all classes of Irishmen, and by the exercise of all the
political, social, and moral influence within our reach." It will be
seen that the means by which the Confederates proposed to gain their
object, did not differ materially from the programme of the Repeal
Association. But there was this distinction. Against place-hunting, and
everything savouring of trafficking with the government, the
Confede