decided reluctance to draw it.  It is far from our intention to cast the slightest reflection on the spirit or courage of the nationalists of 1848.  We know that it was no selfish regard for their own safety made the leaders in Wexford, Kilkenny, and elsewhere, shrink from counselling an immediate outbreak in their localities; the people, as well as the men who led them, looked forward to the rising of the harvest moon, and the cutting of their crops, as the precursors of the herald that was to summon them to aims.  Their state of organization was lamentably deficient; anticipating a month of quiet preparation, they had neglected to procure arms up to the date of O’Brien’s arrival, and a few weeks would at least be required to complete their arrangements.  In Kilkenny, for instance, not one in every eight of the clubmen possessed a musket, and even their supply of pikes was miserably small.  But they were ready to do all that in them lay; and when O’Brien, Dillon, and Meagher quitted Kilkenny on Monday, July 24th, they went in pursuance of an arrangement which was to bring them back to the city of the Nore before the lapse of a week.  They were to drive into Tipperary, visit Carrick, Clonmel, and Cashel, and summon the people of those towns to arms.  Then, after the lapse of a few days, they were to return at the head of their followers to Kilkenny, call out the clubs, barricade the streets, and from the Council Chambers of the Corporation issue the first Revolutionary Edict to the country.  They hoped that a week later the signal fires of insurrection would be blazing from every hill-top in Ireland; and that the sunlight of freedom, for which so many generations of patriots had yearned, would soon flood glebe and town, the heather-clad mountains, and pleasant vales of Innisfail. Diis aliter visum; the vision that glittered before their longing eyes melted away with the smoke of the first insurgent shot; and instead of the laurel of the conqueror they were decked with the martyr’s palm.

On arriving in Callan the travellers were received with every demonstration of sympathy and welcome.  The streets were blocked with masses of men that congregated to listen to their words.  A large procession, headed by the temperance band, escorted them through the town, and a bonfire was lit in the centre of the main street.  They told the people to provide themselves at once with arms, as in a few days they would be asked to march with the insurgent forces on Kilkenny—­an announcement that was received with deafening applause.  After a few hours’ delay the three compatriots quitted Callan, and pursued their road to Carrick-on-Suir, where they arrived on the some evening and received a most enthusiastic reception.  They addressed the excited multitude in impassioned words, promised to lead them to battle before many days, and called on them to practice patience and prudence in the interval.  On the following day they quitted Carrick, and took their way to Mullinahone,