The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848Doheny, Michael
History
The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848
Doheny, Michael
Ireland -- History -- Rising of 1848; Young Ireland Party -- History; Young Ireland movement
trustees of the Glasnevin Cemetery were generous in appropriating the
fund at their disposal to the purposes of the funeral; but when the
sincerity of the mourners' grief came to be tested, by the claim for a
contribution to erect a suitable monument to the great champion of the
age, it was found how hollow was their woe, and how lying their
adulation. Daniel O'Connell is yet without a monument, save that which
his own genius has raised in the liberalised institutions of his
country.
The reaction in the public mind, consequent on his death, was
short-lived; and the Confederation progressed rapidly, during the
closing months of the year 1847. Although not formally acknowledged,
every one saw that it was the only public body in the country deserving
or enjoying anything like public confidence.
CHAPTER VI
THE SPLIT WITH MR. MITCHEL.--HIS TRIAL, CONVICTION, SENTENCE AND
SPEECH.--THE "FELON" AND "TRIBUNE" ESTABLISHED.--ARREST OF MESSRS.
MARTIN, O'DOHERTY, WILLIAMS AND DUFFY.--CONVICTION OF MR. MARTIN.--HIS
SPEECH.--CONVICTION, SENTENCE AND SPEECH OF MR. O'DOHERTY.--DISSOLUTION
OF THE CONFEDERATION.--THE LEAGUE
At the opening of the new year, which was destined to be its last, the
Confederation, though yet regarded with coldness by the Catholic
Hierarchy, was in full career. Its members had won the respect of every
educated man in the land, however widely most of them may have differed
from it in political faith. Among the middle classes of the Catholics,
all that were left uncorrupted fell into its ranks, and embraced its
belief. Men began to regard as possible everything which enthusiasm
advanced with such unhesitating courage and devoted self-sacrifice. Mr.
Mitchel delivered some lectures on land tenure and the poor-law system,
which startled thoughtful and unthinking men alike. He had previously
made an able and sincere effort in the Irish Council to compel the
landlord class to some redeeming act of good sense and good will, which
their own true interests required as well as the agonies of the starving
tenantry. He was met by ignorance, stolidity and scorn. A timid and
narrow measure of improvement in the relation between landlord and
tenant had been proposed, and ably supported by Messrs. Ferguson,
Ireland and O'Loghlen; and such was the obstinate aversion to all
amelioration, on the part of the landlords, that they abstained from
resisting Mr. Mitchel's amendment, lest they would be thereby committed
to the milder reform proposed by Mr. Ferguson. His motion was lost only
by a majority of two several of the five-pound Repeal representatives,
who brawled at tenant-right meetings, and one member of the
Confederation, Mr. M'Gee, being included in the majority.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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