called Phenix Park, have a circumference of eight miles.  “Do not suppose,” said a friend to me, “that these spacious houses which you see about you, are always furnished with a magnificence corresponding to that of their exterior.  It is often the case that a few rooms only of these great ranges of apartments are provided with furniture, and the rest left empty and unoccupied.  The Irishman of the higher class, as well as of the humbler, is naturally improvident, generous, fond of enjoying the moment, and does not allow his income to accumulate, either for the purpose of hoarding or the purpose of display.”

I went into Conciliation Hall, which resembles a New York lecture-room, and was shown the chair where the autocrat of Ireland, the Liberator, as they call him, sits near the chairman at the repeal meetings.  Conciliation Hall was at that time silent, for O’Connell was making a journey through several of the western counties, I think, of Ireland, for the purpose of addressing and encouraging his followers.  I inquired of an intelligent dissenter what was the state of the public feeling in Ireland, with regard to the repeal question, and whether the popularity of O’Connell was still as great as ever.

“As to O’Connell,” he answered, “I do not know whether his influence is increasing, but I am certain that it is not declining.  With regard to the question of repealing the Union, there is a very strong leaning among intelligent men in Ireland to the scheme of a federal government, in other words to the creation of an Irish parliament for local legislation, leaving matters which concern Ireland in common with the rest of the empire to be decided by the British Parliament.”

I mentioned an extraordinary declaration which I had heard made by John O’Connell on the floor of Parliament, in answer to a speech of Mr. Wyse, an Irish Catholic member, who supported the new-colleges bill.  This younger O’Connell denounced Wyse as no Catholic, as an apostate from his religion, for supporting the bill, and declared that for himself, after the Catholic Bishops of Ireland had expressed their disapproval of the bill, he inquired no further, but felt himself bound as a faithful member of the Catholic Church to oppose it.

“It is that declaration,” said the gentleman, “which has caused a panic among those of the Irish Protestants who were well-affected to the cause of repeal.  If the Union should be repealed, they fear that O’Connell, whose devotion to the Catholic Church appears to grow stronger and stronger, and whose influence over the Catholic population is almost without limit, will so direct the legislation of the Irish Parliament as only to change the religious oppression that exists from one party to the other.  There is much greater liberality at present among the Catholics than among their adversaries in Ireland, but I can not say how much of it is owing to the oppression they endure.  The fact that O’Connell has been backward to assist in any church reforms in Ireland has given occasion to the suspicion that he only desires to see the revenues and the legal authority of the Episcopal Church transferred to the Catholic Church.  If that should happen, and if the principle avowed by John O’Connell should be the rule of legislation, scarcely any body but a Catholic will be able to live in Ireland.”