leader Repealers read with consternation the names of O'Connell and his favourite son. The Evening Mail, which undertook to describe the meeting in some detail, attributed to O'Connell a statement that all he wanted was a real union, the same laws and franchises for both countries. It seemed to us highly improbable that while he kept the doors of Conciliation Hall open O'Connell would make such a complete submission; that he was toying with the Whigs we knew, but that they had successfully wooed him to dishonour was still doubtful. The Nation insisted that the report was false and impossible.[1] It was necessary to carry the denial to Conciliation Hall, and Meagher undertook this duty. His oratory had become a recognised popular force, and he exercised all his powers to paint the infamy of deserting the national cause. Mitchel, O'Gorman, and Barry also spoke, and the debate was raised to a scale almost forgotten in Irish affairs. I have described it sufficiently elsewhere,[2] and must not renew the narrative here. The Head Pacificator thought such admonitions were highly unbecoming addressed to men not wavering under the advent of the Whigs, but determined to prosecute their object to the end. At the ensuing meeting a letter was read from O'Connell. He declared the rumours which suggested that the Repeal cause was to be abandoned, postponed, or compromised were quite unfounded. He recommended that the pledge adopted at the last Repeal levée should be read. This precaution might take away claptraps from some juvenile orators, but it would satisfy every rational Repealer that the cause could not be sacrificed to any party or postponed for any purpose. The pledge, which was read, declared that the men signing it would
- ↑ The article, which was written by Mitchel, contained this vigorous denial of the story:— " O'Connell did not say this, or anything like this he neither said nor thought it and no Repealer, even if he were base enough to think it, would dare to whisper it in the solitude of his chamber, lest the very birds of the air might carry the matter to an Irish ear. Heaven and earth! what would those words, in the mouth of a Repealer, mean? Listen to us, Irishmen, and we will tell you. They would mean that for four years past—at some thousand meetings—through five million throats from Tara to Mullaghmast from palaces of Irish kings and graves of Irish martyrs, Ireland had been bellowing forth one monstrous lie in the face of all mankind and of God Almighty—one loud, many-voiced national lie, which the vales re-echoed to the hills, and they to heaven"
- ↑ "Four Years of Irish History," bk. i. chap, v
