We do not propose to write here a detailed account of the last of the outbreaks which, since the Anglo-Norman invasion, have periodically convulsed our country.  The time is not yet come when the whole history of that extraordinary movement can be revealed, and such of its facts, as are now available for publication, are fresh in the minds of our readers.  On the night of the 5th of March, the Fenian bands took the field in Dublin, Louth, Tipperary, Cork, Waterford, Limerick, and Clare.  They were, in all cases, wretchedly armed, their plans had been betrayed by unprincipled associates, and ruin tracked their venture from the outset.  They were everywhere confronted by well-armed, disciplined men, and their reckless courage could not pluck success for the maze of adverse circumstances that surrounded them.  The elements, too, befriended England as they had often done before.  Hardly had the insurgents left their homes when the clear March weather gave place to the hail and snow of mid-winter.  The howling storm, edged by the frost and hail, swept over mountain and valley, rendering life in the open air all but impossible to man.  The weather in itself would have been sufficient to dispose of the Fenian insurgents.  Jaded and exhausted they returned to their homes, and twenty-four hours after the flag of revolt had been unfurled the Fenian insurrection was at an end.

Amongst the Irish officers who left America to share in the expected battle for Irish rights, a conspicuous place must be assigned Thomas F. Burke.  He was born at Fethard, county Tipperary, on the 10th of December, 1840, and twelve years later sailed away towards the setting sun, his parents having resolved on seeking a home in the far West.  In New York, young Burke attended the seminary established by the late Archbishop Hughes, where he received an excellent education, after which he was brought up to his father’s trade—­that of house painter.  For many years he worked steadily at his trade, contributing largely to the support of his family.  The outbreak of the war, however, acted in the same manner on Burke’s temperament as on thousands of his fellow-countrymen.  He threw aside his peaceful avocation and joined the Confederate army.  He served under General Patrick Cleburne, who died in his arms, and he fought side by side with the son of another distinguished exile, John Mitchel.  When the war had closed, he returned a Brevet-General, northwards, with a shattered limb and an impaired constitution.  In June, 1865, he joined the Wolfe Tone Circle of the Fenian Brotherhood in New York, and was appointed soon afterwards to act as organizer in the Brotherhood for the district of Manhattan.  He filled this post with great satisfaction to his associates, and continued to labour energetically in this capacity until his departure for Ireland, at the close of 1866.