ect they presented to me--a
prospect which long contemplation seemed to have realised into
fact--excluded from my mind the preliminary and intermediate
considerations of time, place, and other circumstances. There was but
one of any importance, the success of the commencement; and that seemed
beyond all question if, as I hoped, the neighbourhood of Carrick-on-Suir
were selected. As I approached that town in the grey of morning, and the
past and the future in burning recollection thronged on my brain, I
envied the destiny which God had awarded to its inhabitants, in breaking
the first link of the slavery of nearly twenty generations. This, alas,
was a dream. The people of Carrick had already, with shrinking hand,
marred their own immortal lot.

Arriving at the house of John O'Mahony, one of the truest of living
Irishmen, I heard what follows. On the previous day Messrs. O'Brien,
Dillon and Meagher had arrived at Carrick. Their arrival was unexpected,
sudden and startling. They had apprised no one of their approach; and no
counsel had been taken or decision come to. It is needless to say that
the crowd which gathered to see them, when the intelligence of their
arrival spread, came unarmed and unprepared. The speeches addressed to
them were brief, determined, and to this effect: "We learned," said the
chiefs, "that an act was passed authorising the Irish Government to
seize our persons without even the imputation of a crime. You have vowed
to strive with us in every extremity, and die with us if need be. We are
here to demand the redemption of your pledge, in the name of your
enslaved country. The hour has come when the truth of that country is to
be tested; and first among her children the trust of her honour is
committed to you." How much more might have been said, and how far short
of the passionate appeal made by the most gifted of men the above
language may fall, this is not the place to inquire. The crowd answered
with a loud shout. With the leaders of that crowd other thoughts were
busy. Some of them waited on the "Traitors"; others, and the most
influential, absented themselves. Among the latter was the Rev. Mr.
Byrne, who, up to that hour, had taken an advanced position among those
who were most forward in the cause of the country. Not a fortnight
before, he delivered a speech to nearly one hundred thousand persons in
the town of Carrick, pre-eminently insurrectionary in its tendency; and
he had acted more than on