MAR
MAS
Irish political prisoners, Mr. Martin en- joyed comparative freedom in the district assigned to him. In 1854, together with W. Smith O'Brien and Kevin I. O'Doherty, he was pardoned, on condition of not visiting the United Kingdom, whereupon he returned to Europe by the overland route, and settled in Paris in October. Two years afterwards his pardon was made unconditional, and he paid a short visit to his friends in Ireland. He had made no eflFort to secure these pardons, and in accepting them placed himself under no restraint as to his future action. His sister- in-law died in 1858, and the illness of his brother induced him to return to Ireland to tend him in his dying moments, and to assume the guardianship of his children and the care of his business at Kilbroney, Eostrevor. These duties he performed with scrupulous fidelity, and in their discharge, and in communion with nature in the romantic neighbourhood of Eostrevor, he found the best support against the anguish he endured at the failure of his hopes for Ireland, and the faithlessness of many of his old friends. In January 1 864, with The O'Douohoe and some others, he established "The National League," having for its object the securing of the legislative independence of Ireland. It had a short existence, chiefly owing to the active op- position of the Fenian party, then rising into power. On Sunday, 8th December 1867, Mr, Martin took a prominent part in the funeral procession in Dublin in honour of Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien, who had been executed at Manchester a few days previously. For this he was prosecuted by Government, and defend- ing himself in a speech of singular ability and moderation, was acquitted. Mr. Martin gave in his hearty adhesion to the principles of the Home Government Association, established in May 1870, to agitate for a federal arrangement between Great Britain and Ireland. Late in the same year he was, without cost to himself, elected member of Parliament for Meath. When applied to by the editor of Dehretfs Heraldic and Biographical House of Com- mons for his arms, he wrote : " I carry no arms : this is a proclaimed district." He was re-elected by an overwhelming ma- jority at the general election in 1874. Attendance at the House of Commons was very irksome to him : yet when he spoke it was with feeling and impressivene'ss, and he won general respect. His greatest parliamentary efibrt was perhaps a speech delivered during the discussion of a Coer- cion Act, 26th May 1871, in reply to Mr. Gladstone, who taunted him with
being " the servant of the evil traditions of his country," and said the Ministry were " not afraid to compete with him for the future confidence of Ireland." At the Home Eule Conference of 1873 in Dublin, he unreservedly accepted the programme then adopted. For a time he was induced to occupy the post of Secretary to the Home Eule League — drawing, however, only half the salary agreed upon, although his means had been much straitened by his unceasing sacrifices for Ireland. Shortly before his death he resigned the paid secre- taryship, and accepted an honorary one, finding it impossible, on any terms, to re- ceive money for patriotic services. The death of his friend and brother-in-law, John Mitchel, in March 1875, ^^ ^ severe blow to him. Within one week thereafter he succumbed to an old complaint, spasmodic asthma, on the 29th March 1875, aged 62, and was buried in Loughorne churchyard, close by the homestead^where he was bom. Few men have been more revered both in public and private life. He was lovingly known in Ireland as "Honest John Mar- tin." His knowledge of languages was extensive, and his literary tastes were refined. '" 233 308
Martin, Mary Lsetitia Bell, an authoress, daughter of Thomas B. Martin, of Ballinahinch Castle, County of Galway (who died in 1847), was born early in the present century. An heiress to landed pro- perty in the county, worth some ^£5,000 per annum, she married Arthur G. Bell, who took her name. She was a writer of no mean ability, and contributed largely to the Encyclopedie des Gens du Monde and other French periodicals, besides writing some novels, of which St. Etienne, a Tale of the Vendean War, and Julia Howard may be mentioned. The failure of the potato crop and the famine and pestilence of 1845 -'7 caused the financial ruin of herself and her husband. " Her projects for the improvement of the wild district over which she had reigned as a sort of native sovereign were at an end, and she went forth from the roof of her fathers a wanderer, without a home, and, as it would appear, almost without a friend." She died in a hotel in New York, 30th October 1850, ten days after her arrival in America, having sufiered much from fever, the consequence of a premature confine- ment during her passage on board a sailing vessel. 7 -6
Massey, Eyre, Lord Clarina, was born in Ireland, 24th May 17 19. He en- tered the army at an early age, and was wounded at Culloden in 1745. At the head of the storming party that took Moro 333
