when I considered the time come to ask the assistance of the committee, Peter Purcell, the honorary secretary, warned me that I was building in the clouds. The plans and specifications of popular colleges were fascinating, he said, but where were the ways and means? One half of the important personages who had joined the committee had never paid a penny of their subscriptions: the funds actually obtained were barely sufficient to defray the debt for medals which Father Mathew had incurred to Birmingham manufacturers. It is never easy to accomplish any good work for Ireland, and this attempt followed the common rule. But I had a more bitter illustration of this law in a painful communication with Father Mathew himself:—
"It was indeed good of you," he wrote, "to send your subscription direct to Cork, without the hesitation and diffidence displayed by many of my friends in Dublin. Nolens volens, they almost insist upon my surrendering myself into the hands of a self-elected committee, to unfold to them my most private affairs, allow them to arrange with my creditors, and receive from them whatever pittance they may deem sufficient to supply my daily wants. To this I will never submit. I would rather take a staff in my hand and walk to the Temperance Meetings, and depend for support on the affection of my poor teetotalers.
"I was solicitous to rebut the calumny of having amassed wealth by the sale of medals. The formation of bands, purchase of musical instruments, support of temperance rooms, &c., subjected me to vast expense. I hoped to get a part of the money received for medals, and I borrowed from my family in the expectation of being able to repay it. I was promised by an aged relative a large sum, but this promise was not fulfilled.
"If I had the half of what I voluntarily bestowed, not to include what is due to me, I need not now be a heavy tax on my friends. …
"Pardon these details, but I find relief from pouring my grievances into a sincere and sympathising breast. Yours affectionately, "Theobald Mathew.
- "Cork, Nov. 6, 1844."
