the night
before, and seized all the copies of the paper found on the premises.

It was a bungled job, for the country edition had already gone out,
including the supplies for England and Scotland, so that the only copies
seized were those intended for Dublin and the suburbs.

Nothing indicated the intensity of the struggle going on between the
government and the people more than the dead set which was being made
against "United Ireland." Its editor was in jail, its sub-editor was in
jail, most of its contributors were in jail, even the commercial and
mechanical staffs had been seized, one by one, and in the paper each
week the names and descriptions of the victims appeared, prominently
set out in tabular form, in the place where the first leading article
had previously been printed.

But, in spite of these difficulties, the paper appeared regularly each
week, its fiery spirit not a whit abated, and its outspoken exposure of
Mr. "Buckshot" Forster and his methods in no way curtailed. Confronted
with this open failure, the government swallowed the last vestige of its
regard for appearances, and made the bold attack on the liberty of the
press involved in the seizure and attempted suppression of "United
Ireland."

It was not the first time (nor has it been the last) in Ireland that a
national organ was thus attacked. From the days of the United Irishmen,
towards the close of the 18th century, to those of 1867, there had been
a long series of suppressions, of which, perhaps, John Mitchel's "United
Irishman" (1847) and the Fenian "Irish People" are the best remembered
instances.

In this case, however, the leaders of the popular movement determined
that they would not be put down, but would use all "the resources of
civilization"--to quote Mr. Gladstone's famous phrase--to keep the flag
flying. I am very proud of the fact that they invited me to be their
instrument.

What happened was that two members of the printing staff, Mr. Edward
Donnelly, foreman, and Mr. William MacDonnell, assistant foreman,
escaped to England, taking with them stereo plates of the "suppressed"
issue. From these plates, my own jobbing machines not being big enough
to print a full-sized newspaper, I got a local firm to print sufficient
copies to cover the Dublin supply, which, as I have explained, had been
the only part of the issue which fell into the hands of the police. A
quantity of these papers, made up in innocent looking parcels, my son