The Earl of Carlisle, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, ever anxious to give such encouragement as his presence could afford to any undertaking which promised to do good, came down from Dublin to Valentia, and attended a _déjeuner_ given by the Knight of Kerry to celebrate an event in which the keenest interest was evinced, although the heart of the country was thrilled by the dreadful intelligence of Indian mutinies and revolt. The country people flocked to the little island, and expressed their joy by merrymakings, dances, and bonfires. In an eloquent speech Lord Carlisle declared that though disappointment might be in store for the promoters, it would be almost criminal to feel discouragement then--“that the pathway to great achievements has frequently to be hewn out amidst perils and difficulties, and that preliminary failure is ever the law and condition of ultimate success.” These were prophetic words; in others, still to be fulfilled, “Let us hope,” he said. “We are about, either by this sun-down or by to-morrow’s dawn, to establish a new material link between the Old World and the New. Moral links there have been--links of race, links of commerce, links of friendship, links of literature, links of glory; but this, our new link, instead of superseding and supplanting the old ones, is to give them a life and intensity they never had before. The link which is now to connect us, like the insect in a couplet of our poet, ‘While exquisitely fine, Feels at each thread and moves along the line.’”