"House of Commons, August 7, 1853."Dear Mr. Duffy,—I saw Lord Palmerston to-day about Wm. S. O'Brien. He spoke kindly about him—but still stated that he and Sir George Grey did not consider that they could with propriety recommend to her Majesty his free pardon at present—but at the same time he desired me to say that he by no means wished to convey to me that the 'door of hope' was shut upon him. He recommended that he should do nothing which would altogether separate him from this country, as it is quite possible that at a not very distant future a more favourable answer to a similar application in his favour might be attended with better success.
"In fact his case is not decided favourably, because it would rule that of others whom they don't wish to pardon. "At any rate you have this satisfaction, that by the memorial which you alone were the means of procuring and by the efforts which have been made in his favour which your untiring energy in his behalf excited, Smith O'Brien stands in a far more favourable position than he did at the commencement of the session. Believe me, dear Mr. Duffy, ever faithfully yours,"Denham Norreys."
Before I left Europe, perhaps for ever, I determined to shake the hand of Smith O'Brien again, and I spent a few days with him in Brussels, where he then resided. Much of our talk is chronicled in my diary, but time has made it obsolete, and I only make a couple of extracts of collateral incidents:—
"O'Brien naturally wished to know the judgment of the country on our unsuccessful experiment. I told him I believed the country was just to his character, and unjust to his policy. No one doubted that he meant generously, and made noble sacrifices, but his own class would not be pursuaded that he was morally justified in attempting a revolution; the middle class, who had no such scruple, thought there ought to have been French or American officers procured to take charge of the operation, and the new secret societies declared 'it was a pity and a crime to sacrifice a grand opportunity to sentimental humanity; he ought to
