e coming leader in
Charles Stewart Parnell, who used to refer to him in private
conversation as his "political godfather" on account of the prominent
part he had played in securing his first election to Parliament for the
County Meath, in succession to John Martin.

During the early part of the Land League agitation he was three times
nominated, for King's County, Meath, and Tipperary, for Parliament, but
he refused election, on the ground of being an advanced Nationalist. I
have more than once talked this matter over with Pat Egan, and, as I may
say in everything else, we were in complete accord; we neither of us
could bring ourselves to swear allegiance to what we considered a
foreign power. At the same time, as practical patriots, we helped every
movement, inside the constitution as well as outside of it, calculated
to benefit Ireland.

When the Land League movement was started in 1879, Egan became at once
one of the most prominent figures in it, and, besides acting as Trustee
along with Joseph Biggar and William H. O'Sullivan, he was Honorary
Treasurer.

In the famous trial of the Land League Executive, in 1880-1881, he and
Mr. Parnell and eleven others were prosecuted, the jury being ten to two
for acquittal.

In February, 1881, when coercion was so rampant in Ireland, he left his
business in the sole charge of his partner, James Rourke, and went to
Paris, by desire of Parnell, Dillon and the other leaders, to keep the
League Funds out of the hands of the enemy. While he was there I was
brought into close relations with him in my endeavours, as I have
already described in this narrative, to carry out the honourable part
allotted to me by our leaders of keeping "United Ireland" in circulation
in every corner of the land, notwithstanding the watchfulness of the
entire British garrison.

In October, 1882, a National Convention passed a unanimous vote,
thanking him for his distinguished services and sacrifices as Treasurer
of the League, he having given gratuitously to the Cause three entire
years of his life, something like a million and a quarter of dollars
having passed through his hands during that time. These and many other
circumstances that came to my knowledge abundantly prove that no man has
more deserved the confidence and gratitude of the Irish race.

In February, 1883, Michael Davitt tells us "In order to avoid the
machinations of agents in the pay of Dublin Castle, he left Ireland."

I don't know