ances affecting the religion of any class of Irishmen; that the Association should cease to circulate any newspaper; that a committee should be appointed to secure the election of Repealers in all Repeal constituencies at the coming General Election; that the conference should make arrangements for the publication and audit of the Repeal Fund, and for the trusteeship of all money and property of the Association; and that no paid officer should be a member of the committee or be allowed to take any part in the public proceedings, except by direction of the committee."
O'Brien afterwards added an additional condition on which he intended to insist, that no member should be expelled from the Association except by a public meeting and after a week's notice. Without these conditions it was certain the provincial seceders or the Dublin artisans would never re-enter Conciliation Hall.
O'Connell closed this negotiation as he had closed his negotiations with the Federalists—by insulting to-day the men he had courted the day before:—
"It is all over," he cried. "There is an utter end to it. The Association will work on its way as well as it can without them, in total disregard, not to use a harsher term though the use of a harsher term may be more applicable of the paltry machinations and movements of the Little Ireland gang. I tell them this I set them at defiance and let them keep up as many dissensions as they please, and foment disaffection to no end, I shall still disregard them. … What crime has the Association committed that, in the first place, it should be condemned, and next handed over to such executioners as Duffy, Mitchel, and the other Young Irelanders? I would rather see the Association emptied of the last man than I would submit to their dictation."
It was indeed all over. The influence of the Association was gone; the potent sway of the great Tribune was at an end, and the remainder of his life was a protracted tribulation. It must have wrung his heart to see the people dying without effectual help or sympathy from the Minister in whom he bid them trust.
The bitterness was greatly increased by the circumstance that O'Connell used his influence with the Whigs for his
