e Association, with a view of establishing a new body,
from which should be excluded all the "illegal" attributes and accidents
of the old. The suggestion was resisted by Mr. O'Brien, and all those
understood to belong to what was called the Young Ireland Party. They
protested against such a course as false, craven and fatal, and Mr.
O'Connell at once yielded to their vehement remonstrances.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: Doctor Cantwell to Mr. O'Connell. Given in the _Nation_,
Vol. III., No. 119.]

CHAPTER III

FURTHER EMBARRASSMENT CAUSED BY THE RESCRIPT--DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MR.
O'CONNELL AND THE PRIMATE.--FINANCIAL REFORMS IN THE COMMITTEE OF THE
ASSOCIATION, AND CONSEQUENT DISSENSION.--'82 CLUB.--THE COLLEGES
BILL.--DIFFERENCES AND CALUMNIES CONSEQUENT UPON IT. QUARREL WITH MR.
DAVIS.--THE GREAT LEVEE AT THE ROTUNDA.--DECLINE OF THE
AGITATION.--CLOSING LABOURS AND DEATH OF THOMAS DAVIS.

Thus wrote Thomas Davis at the opening of the new year:--

"Hitherto our dangers have been few and transient. The product
of mistake or enthusiasm, they were remedied by explanation and
kindliness. There are dangers threatened now, and against them
we shall try the same prompt and frank policy which never failed
us yet. Already the English press are quarrelling for the spoils
of the routed Repealers. They are almost unanimous in describing
the people as disgusted, the leaders as exhausted, and the
policy of the ministers as rapidly levelling the defences of the
once great party.

"We do not quail. We remember that whenever the rent[5] has
fallen, the same press cried out the people are sick of the
agitation. Whenever righteous discussion took place in our
councils, they exulted over our 'fatal divisions,' and at the
beginning of each new blunder of the cabinet, they sang victory.

"If the Irish be a hot or capricious race, who plunge into a new
policy because it is new, and abandon their dearest interests
and most solemn vows because their success needs time, then
indeed Repeal was hopeless and was always so. If the leaders
have not sagacity enough to embrace the business of an empire
and pierce through time, unwearied industry, pure hands and
resolute spirits, then to repeal is hopeless until a new race of
chiefs appears."

Almost contemporaneously with this article, the Catholic Primate
contradicted Mr. O'Connell's assertion res