egard as possible everything which enthusiasm
advanced with such unhesitating courage and devoted self-sacrifice. Mr.
Mitchel delivered some lectures on land tenure and the poor-law system,
which startled thoughtful and unthinking men alike. He had previously
made an able and sincere effort in the Irish Council to compel the
landlord class to some redeeming act of good sense and good will, which
their own true interests required as well as the agonies of the starving
tenantry. He was met by ignorance, stolidity and scorn. A timid and
narrow measure of improvement in the relation between landlord and
tenant had been proposed, and ably supported by Messrs. Ferguson,
Ireland and O'Loghlen; and such was the obstinate aversion to all
amelioration, on the part of the landlords, that they abstained from
resisting Mr. Mitchel's amendment, lest they would be thereby committed
to the milder reform proposed by Mr. Ferguson. His motion was lost only
by a majority of two several of the five-pound Repeal representatives,
who brawled at tenant-right meetings, and one member of the
Confederation, Mr. M'Gee, being included in the majority.

The result of the division produced a marked change in Mr. Mitchel's
career. His lectures on land-tenure in Europe, displayed the bold
outlines and distinctive characteristics of his principles. His hopes
from the Irish landlords, of whatever shade of politics, had ever
afterwards vanished. He believed them incapable of being influenced by
commonsense or good feeling; and he turned to the people, with full
confidence in their fidelity and strength. All further attempts to
conciliate the upper classes, he regarded as foolish, feeble and
cowardly. He continued to reassert the substance of his lectures in
another form, in the pages of the _Nation_, of which he was at the time
editor-in-chief--that is, of which he wrote the greatest portion,
especially of its leading articles. Some of these articles gave rise to
a difference of opinion between him and Mr. Duffy, who, as responsible
owner and editor, had the sole control of the _Nation_. There were not
wanting men to take advantage of the difference and fan the flame.
Charles Duffy had messages conveyed to him, to the effect that a rumour
was abroad charging him with treachery; and to John Mitchel, perhaps by
the same agents of dissension, it was stated that he, too, was
suspected. It is unfortunately characteristic of Irishmen to be
suspicious; and it wa