Notwithstanding the hindrances under which his genius was developed, Thomas D'Arcy McGee from a very early age gave unmistakable evidence of the possession of uncommon abilities. He learned his lessons, whatever they were, with astonishing rapidity, and without any apparent mental effort. He was endowed with an ardent imagination, delighted in poetry, and had ever at command a flow of that brilliant eloquence and wit which are the especial birthright of so many of the sons of Erin. He read much, and remembered everything of importance that he read. He had an especial fondness for the history and literature of his native land, and was never weary of declaiming to his youthful associates about "Ireland's Golden Age." He lived an imaginative life, and indulged in all sorts of wild dreams about the future of his race. He had his full share of ambition, however, and saw no means whereby he could acquire fame and influence at home. Like many another clever young Irishman, he cast longing eyes across the Atlantic, to that favoured land where hundreds of thousands of his race have found refuge from the buffetings of adverse fortune. When he was seventeen years of age he emigrated to the United States, accompanied by one of his sisters. After a brief visit to a maternal aunt who resided at Providence, Rhode Island, he repaired to Boston, whither he arrived in the month of June, 1842. A few days later came the annual Fourth of July celebration, which afforded him an opportunity of addressing a large crowd of his fellow-countrymen. His various biographers unite in describing his eloquence on this occasion as something marvellous. When it is borne in mind that he was only seventeen years of age, and that his audience was chiefly composed of emotional Irishmen, ready to applaud any sentiment from the young orator's lips, so long as it was sufficiently anti-British in its tone, a considerable discount from the commonly-accepted estimate is permissible. The speech was probably a fervid, audacious, emotional effort, partaking largely of the "spread-eagle" character, and addressed to the prejudices of the audience rather than to their calm judgments. It answered the speaker's purpose, however, by attracting a due share of attention to himself. A day or two later he obtained employment on the staff of the Boston _Pilot_, a weekly newspaper which was then, as now, the chief exponent of Irish Roman Catholic opinion in New England, and which was then, and for many years afterwards, controlled and published by Mr. Patrick Donahoe. To its columns young McGee contributed some "slashing" articles, and numerous short poems on national subjects, all of which were eminently calculated to compel admiration from its readers. Two years later he succeeded to the chief editorship. He had meanwhile acquired a good deal of additional knowledge as to the proper functions of a journalist, and had adopted a somewhat more chastened style than he