presence (they had already been speaking on the subject) Mr. Barrett made the statement to me that you had that very morning sent in to the authorities your submission; that you had sent it through the High Sheriff, as the formal channel of conveyance, and that he had the information from the High Sheriff. He said I was at liberty to make the statement in my communication with London, but not speak of it out-of-doors, as he intended to use it himself in his publication on the next day, Wednesday. … What my feelings were when I found that I had been imposed upon, what they continue to be, and ever will continue, I shall not attempt to describe. … What you shall be disposed to think of such an explanation of what was a great wrong done you by one on whom you had years ago conferred a great, the greatest favour, for reputation was at stake in it, I shall not presume even to think."
Richard Barrett, the "Dear Barrett" of O'Connell's public correspondence, the State prisoner of '44, was a man whose name made everything plain; he was and had habitually been a liar by profession. My friends were enraged with the O'Connell family, who must, they believed, have unmuzzled their bulldog. But I have no doubt Mr. Barrett was privateering on his own account. He had begun life as a Castle pamphleteer, and then deserted to O'Connell, but being now without a patron he returned to his original pursuit. A little later he published a brochure entitled, "The History of the Irish Confederation," a manifest Castle pamphlet, consisting mainly of statements about me as authentic as his communication to the correspondent of the Daily News. The fact most noteworthy in this transaction is the conduct of Lord Clarendon. The reader will not, I trust, suppose that after fifty years I retain any heat on the subject; but the government of Ireland at that time will be imperfectly understood without noting the conduct of the Chief Governor. The reader, I do not doubt, will be pleased that I found an opportunity of vindicating myself from so foul a charge. Not so Lord Clarendon. He wrote with his own hand to the Prison Board complaining that I had been permitted to send out such a letter, adding the malign suggestion that by doing so I had violated my personal engagement not to communi-
