every one else. Of all the men implicated in the late affairs there was no one who excited more interest among friends and foes than you; no one for whose escape more joy was expressed. That you have a great career before you, and will not only be a happy man, but an eminent man in your new sphere I feel assured. Still you must keep your eye on Ireland. To serve her is your true mission.
"For us, I have still great hopes of this country, provided we succeed in saving Duffy. I cannot express how much I feel to depend on that. Let him be free to direct his labours to the reconstruction and proper direction of the Young I. party, and let Lucas come here to give a right bent to the priests, and we will be better before the wind than ever. We were very sanguine last week of succeeding in a plea in abatement in Duffy's case, but, contrary to all expectations, the judges (Perrin and Richards) decided against us. A demurrer is now being argued by Butt and O'Loghlen. A jury will not be sworn, I think, till Monday next. They have packed the panel infamously.—Ever my dear D., hoping to hear from you, your affectionate friend,
"John O'Hagan."
Isaac Butt thought the time was come when he might advantageously go into Parliament, and asked me to recommend him to a constituency, and to get O'Brien and Meagher to do the same. I was quite willing to do so if he made it possible by declaring himself a Nationalist. Meagher took the same ground. He wrote to me:—
"At the time Butt undertook my defence in the Sedition Case he assured me he would not have the slightest hesitation in avowing himself in favour of self-legislation; and I can't see why he should have changed his mind since then. Let him declare for the Constitution of '82, and no man was ever returned more triumphantly than he will be; the whole of Munster will be up for him, and he will be loved and worshipped by the people. In fact the tribuneship is vacant, and whoever had the genius and the boldness to step up to it, will win it amid the acclamations of the country. Butt has the genius—Heaven grant he may have the boldness!"
