ression upon his hearers which was warranted by his reasoning.
Meagher's delivery of the sword speech had more of ostentation than
grace in it. A common gesture of his (if it can be called such) was to
place his arms a-kimbo, and turn his head a little to one side,
suggesting the idea that this attitudinizing was meant to attract
admiration to himself rather than to his argument. His voice was good,
but his intonation unmusical, and he invariably ended his sentences on
too high a note; but his fiery rhetoric carried the audience almost
completely with him, and he was cheered again and again to the echo.

[107] Many a fine, stalwart peasant said to me, during the great era of
the Monster Meetings, "I'm afraid, sir, we'll never get the union
without fighting for it." I know for a fact, that wives and daughters
and sisters endeavoured to dissuade fathers and husbands and brothers
from going to the great Tara Meeting--suspecting, as they said, that
"bad work would come out of it," _i.e._, fighting.

[108] _Daily and Weekly Press. Census of Ireland, 1851._

[109] _Correspondence relating to the measures adopted for the relief of
the distress in Ireland (Commissariat Series), p. 3._

[110] This estimate is said to have been compiled from the best
available sources for Thom's Almanac and Directory for 1847. The
quantity of potatoes in each of the four Provinces, and their probable
value were:

Ulster, 352.665 acres, valued at L4,457,562
Munster, 460,630 " " 6,030,739 10s.
Leinster, 217,854 " " 2,814,150
Connaught, 206,292 " " 2,645,468
------- ---------
1,237,441 L15,947,919 10s.

[111] Letters on the state of Ireland, by the Earl of Rosse: London,
1847. _Halliday Pamphlets, vol. 1993_. These letters were originally
sent to the _Times_, but that journal having refused them insertion, the
noble author published them in a pamphlet. The Rev. Theobald Mathew
said, I do not know on what authority, that two millions of acres of
potatoes were irrevocably lost, being worth to those who raised them L20
an acre. This estimate would make the loss L40,000,000.

[112] _Mayne on the Potato Failure_. The potato crop, for the most part,
continued to look well up to the end of July, but the blight had
appeared, in the most decided way, during the first half of that month,
although not then very app