His history previous to the conviction of his friend and school-fellow, John Mitchel, if it includes no events of public importance, possesses for us all the interest that attaches to the early life of a good and remarkable man.  John Martin was born at Loughorne, in the lordship of Newry, Co.  Down, on the 8th of September, 1812; being the eldest son of Samuel Martin and Jane Harshaw, both natives of that neighbourhood, and members of Presbyterian families settled there for many generations.  About the time of his birth, his father purchased the fee-simple of the large farm which he had previously rented, and two of his uncles having made similar investments, the family became proprietors of the townland on which they lived.  Mr. Samuel Martin, who died in 1831, divided his attention between the management of the linen business—­a branch of industry in which the family had partly occupied themselves for some generations—­and the care of his land.  His family consisted of nine children, of whom John Martin—­the subject of our sketch—­was the second born.  The principles of his family, if they could not be said to possess the hue of nationality, were at least liberal and tolerant.  In ’98, the Martins of Loughorne, were stern opponents of the United Irishmen; but in ’82, his father and uncles were enrolled amongst the volunteers, and the Act of Union was opposed by them as a national calamity.  It was from his good mother, however, a lady of refined taste and remarkable mental culture, that young John derived his inclination for literary pursuits, and learned the maxims of justice and equality that swayed him through life.  He speedily discarded the prejudices against Catholic Emancipation, which were not altogether unknown amongst his family, and which even found some favour with himself in the unreflecting days of boyhood.  The natural tendency of his mind, however, was as true to the principles of justice as the needle to the pole, and the quiet rebuke that one day fell from his uncle—­“What!  John, would you not give your Catholic fellow-countrymen the same rights that you enjoy yourself?” having set him a thinking for the first time on the subject, he soon formed opinions more in consonance with liberality and fair play.

When about twelve years of age, young Martin was sent to the school of Dr. Henderson at Newry, where he first became acquainted with John Mitchel, then attending the same seminary as a day scholar.  We next find John Martin an extern student of Trinity College, and a year after the death of his father he took out his degree in Arts.  He was now twenty years old, and up to this time had suffered much from a constitutional affection, being subject from infancy to fits of spasmodic asthma.  Strange to say, the disease which troubled him at frequently recurring intervals at home, seldom attacked him when away from Loughorne, and partly for the purpose of escaping it, he took up his residence in Dublin in 1833, and devoted himself to the study