while the people of Ireland are satisfied with the government they live under; and that, if it were otherwise, nothing can be done for a people which either elects jobbers to Parliament, or suspects every man of being a traitor who proceeds, when there, to do the business of his function.  I suspected that Patrick would find out some of these things for himself in London; and I left him to make his own discoveries, when I had pointed out one or two paths of inquiry.

The process was a more rapid one than I had anticipated.  He reported his first letter to the “Nation” with great satisfaction.  He had begun his work in London.  He went to the House of Commons, and came away sorely perplexed.  After having heard and written so much of the wrongs of Ireland under the domination of the English Parliament, he found that Ireland actually and practically formed a part of that Parliament,—­the legislature being, not English, but Imperial.  He must have known this before; but he had never felt it.  He now saw that Ireland was as well represented as England or Scotland; that political offices were held in fair proportion by Irishmen; and that the Irish members engrossed much more than a fair share of the national time in debate and projects of legislation.  He saw at once that here was an end of all excuse for talk of oppression by Parliament, and of all complaints which assumed that Ireland was unrepresented.  He was previously aware that Ireland was more lightly taxed than the rest of the empire.  The question remained, whether a local legislature would or would not be a better thing than a share in the Imperial Parliament.  This was a fair subject of argument; but he must now dismiss all notions grounded on the mistake of Ireland being unrepresented, and oppressed by the representatives of other people.

In the letter which disclosed these new views Patrick reported his visit to O’Connell.  He had reminded his friend, the junior O’Connell, of Dan’s invitation to him to go to see him in London; and he had looked forward to their levee with delight and expectation.  Whether he had candidly expressed his thoughts about the actual representation of Ireland, I don’t know; but it was plain that he had not much enjoyed the interview.  O’Connell looked very well:  the levee was crowded:  O’Connell was surrounded by ardent patriots:  the junior O’Connell had led Patrick up to his father with particular kindness.  Still, there was no enthusiasm in the report; and the next letter showed the reason why.  Patrick could not understand O’Connell at all.  It was certain that Dan remembered him; and he could not have forgotten the encouragement he gave him to write on behalf of his country; yet now he was cold, even repellent in his manner; and he tried to pretend that he did not know who Patrick was.  What could this mean?