Committee there; it being, amongst other things, he says,
proposed that he should be kicked out of the Court-house, where the
Committee was assembled. The well-disposed few, he writes, advised him
to stay at Ennistymon for the night, or to take an escort of police with
him, should he persevere in his intention of returning to Ennis; "but,"
he continues, "with my double gun, a rifle, and three cases of pistols,
Mr. Gamble, myself, and Mr. Russell returned home. Mr. Russell was very
anxious to see a Clare Relief Committee. He was indeed astonished. He
said he would not have supposed matters were so bad."[150] There is a
fine dash of the sensational in this. Mr. Russell's anxiety was very
laudable, being evidently akin to that thirst for information which
excites travellers like Captain Cook or Dr. Livingstone to seek an
assembly or encampment of "natives" in some previously unexplored
region; but there happened to be members of the Ennistymon Relief
Committee in every respect the equals, and in some the superiors of
Captain Wynne and Mr. Russell. Major M'Namara, one of the members for
the county, thus gives his version of the affair to the Chief Secretary,
Mr. Labouchere: "I feel it to be my duty towards myself and the
constituency of this county, to state to you, as the organ of the
Government, that I was present on Thursday at Ennistymon, when Mr.
Wynne, an inspecting officer of the Board of Works, gave my colleague,
Mr. O'Brien, in the presence of several magistrates and gentlemen
assembled at the Ennistymon Relief Committee, the most unprovoked
insult, by stating that he treated what Mr. O'Brien said with utter
contempt, although Mr. O'Brien merely observed that certain letters
containing what we all believed to be unfounded charges against the
Liscannor Committee, afforded evidence of a vile conspiracy." Captain
Wynne being called on by the authorities for an explanation, charged the
gentry of Clare with putting their servants and dependants on the lists
for public works without being proper objects for them, and that they
were indignant with him because he took such persons off in great
numbers. He did not, however, deny the insult Major M'Namara had charged
him with giving his brother representative for the county, Mr. Cornelius
O'Brien.[151]

As to the complaint made by Colonel Jones about the preparation of the
lists, there does not seem to be much in it. Men of influence would
naturally try to get their own peop