a foremost place in the struggle.  And little less to be dreaded than Thomas Davis, was his friend and collaborateur, Charles Gavan Duffy, whose sharp and active intellect and resolute spirit were not in the least likely to allow the national cause to rest for ever on the peaceful platform of Conciliation Hall.  Death removed Davis early from the scene; but in John Mitchel, who had taken his place, there was no gain to the party of moral force.  Then there was that other young firebrand—­that dapper, well-built, well-dressed, curled and scented young gentleman from the Urbs Intacta—­whose wondrous eloquence, with the glow of its thought, the brilliancy and richness of its imagery, and the sweetness of its cadences, charmed and swayed all hearts—­adding immensely to the dangers of the situation.  O’Brien, too, staid and unimpulsive as was his character, deliberate and circumspect as were his habits, was evidently inclined to give the weight of his name and influence to this “advanced” party.  And there were many less prominent, but scarcely less able men giving them the aid of their great talents in the press and on the platform—­not only men, but women too.  Some of the most inspiriting of the strains that were inducing the youth of the country to familiarize themselves with steel blades and rifle barrels proceeded from the pens of those fair and gifted beings.  Day after day, as this party sickened of the stale platitudes, and timid counsels, and crooked policy of the Hall, O’Connell, his son John, and other leading members of the Association, insisted more and more strongly on their doctrine of moral force, and indulged in the wildest and most absurd denunciations of the principle of armed resistance to tyranny.  “The liberty of the world,” exclaimed O’Connell, “is not worth the shedding of one drop of human blood.”  Notwithstanding the profound disgust which the utterance of such sentiments caused to the bolder spirits in the Association, they would have continued within its fold, if those debasing principles had not been actually formulated into a series of resolutions and proposed for the acceptance of the Society.  Then they rose against the ignoble doctrine which would blot the fair fame of all who ever fought for liberty in Ireland or elsewhere, and rank the noblest men the world ever saw in the category of fools and criminals.  Meagher, in a brilliant oration, protested against the resolutions, and showed why he would not “abhor and stigmatize the sword.”  Mr. John O’Connell interrupted and interfered with the speaker.  It was plain that freedom of speech was to be had no longer on the platform of the Association, and that men of spirit had no longer any business there—­Meagher took up his hat and left the Hall, and amongst the crowd that accompanied, him, went William Smith O’Brien, Thomas Devin Reilly, Charles Gavan Duffy, and John Mitchel.