to England for safety, and the Times made arrangements for receiving its expresses by way of Cork and Bristol in case Dublin should fall into the hands of the Confederates."
And what at the time seemed more hopeful, the long-delayed Conference between Old and Young Ireland, met at the Freeman's Journal office daily for a week, and agreed to the terms of a compromise. It was determined to dissolve the two Associations, and create a new one to be called the Irish League. The Committee of the Repeal Association and the Council of the Confederation accepted the terms, and ordered that public meetings should be called to confirm them.
When the proceedings had reached this stage Mr. John O'Connell, who was one of the delegates, astounded us by a new difficulty. He had received a warning that he was on a wrong path from a person "whose importance could not be overrated"; and he required a fortnight for further consideration, and to ascertain the opinion of the country. A fortnight wasted at such an era was a grievous loss; but the Confederates bore it good-humouredly. They utilised the interval in founding clubs; as clubs—so it was conditioned—were to be kept entirely separate from the League. How Mr. John O'Connell employed it is a matter of conjecture; but at the close of the fortnight he announced that he would not join the League, but retire for a time from public life. He was charged at the moment with being a tool of Lord Clarendon's to keep separate the priests and the Confederates; but it is possible that he was merely influenced by doubt and trepidation, for his mind was as unsteady as a quagmire. The June revolution in Paris, in which a hundred thousand workmen rose against the Republic which they had created, the murder of the Archbishop of Paris engaged in a mission of peace, the scorn of the Pope's concession in Italy by men who would hear patiently of nothing but a republic, alienated the clergy and the middle classes throughout Europe, and enabled the Castle Press to predict what enormities Smith O'Brien and his Associates had in view. But the Confederates pursued their task persistently; each of them undertook to organise a district of the country into clubs, and the first meeting of the Irish League was fixed to be held in July. But the Government, encouraged by the state of public
