me to know precisely what he meant by that, and what he proposed to do in consequence.  He thought it a sin and shame that Ireland should be trodden under the heel of the Saxon; he thought the domination of the English Parliament intolerable; he considered it just that the Irish should make their own laws, own their own soil, and manage their own affairs.  He had no wish to bring in the French, or any other enemy of England; and he was fully disposed to be loyal to the Crown, if the Crown would let Ireland entirely alone.  Even the constant persecution inflicted upon Ireland had not destroyed his loyalty to the Crown.  Such were the views on which his letters to the “Nation” newspaper were to be grounded.  In reply, I contented myself with proposing that he should make sure of his ground as he went along; for which purpose he should ascertain what proportion of the people of Ireland wished for a repeal of the Union; and what sort of people they were who desired Repeal on the one hand, or continued Union on the other.  I hoped he would satisfy himself as to what Repeal could and could not effect; and that he would study the history of Irish Parliaments, to learn what the character and bearing of their legislation had been, and to estimate the chances of good government by that kind of legislature, in comparison with the Imperial Parliament.

If any foreign reader should suppose it impossible, that, in modern times, there can have been hopes entertained in Dublin of the streets being inundated with blood, such reader may be referred to the evidence afforded of Repeal sentiment five years later than the time of which I write.  When the heroes of that rising of 1848—­of whom John Mitchell is the sample best known in America—­were tracked in their plans and devices, it appeared what their proposed methods of warfare were.  Some of these, detailed in Repeal newspapers, and copied into American journals, were proposed to the patriotic women of Ireland, as their peculiar means of serving their country; and three especially.  Red-hot iron hoops, my readers may remember, were to be cast down from balconies, so as to pin the arms of English soldiers marching in the street, and scorch their hearts.  Vitriol was to be flung into their eyes.  Boiling oil was to be poured upon them from windows.  This is enough.  Nobody believes that the thing would ever have been done; but the lively and repeated discussion of it shows how the feelings of the ignorant are perverted, and the passions of party-men are stimulated in Ireland, when unscrupulous leaders arise, proposing irrational projects.  The consequences have been seen in Popish and Protestant fights in Ulster, and in the midnight drill of Phoenix Clubs in Munster, and in John Mitchell’s passion for fat negroes in the Slave States of America.  In Ireland such notions are regarded now as a delirious dream, except by a John Mitchell here and there.  Smith O’Brien himself declares that there is nothing to be done