where the people gathered in thousands to receive them.  The number of men who assembled to meet them was between three and four thousand, of whom about three hundred were armed with guns, pistols, old swords, and pitchforks.  The gathering was reviewed and drilled by the Confederates; and O’Brien, who wore a plaid scarf across his shoulders, and carried a pistol in his breast pocket, told them that Ireland would have a government of her own before many weeks.

On the evening of Tuesday, July 25th, the Confederate leaders arrived in Mullinahone, where they slept.  On the following morning they addressed the people, who flocked into the town on hearing of their arrival.  And here it was that O’Brien himself dealt the death blow of the movement.  The peasantry, who came from their distant homes to meet him, were left the whole day long without food or shelter.  O’Brien himself gave what money he had to buy them bread; but he told them in future they should provide for themselves, as he could allow no one’s property to be interfered with.  Hungry and exhausted, the men who listened to him returned at night to their homes; they were sensible enough to perceive that insurrection within the lines laid down by their leaders was impossible; the news that they were expected to fight on empty stomachs was spread amongst the people, and from that day forward the number of O’Brien’s followers dwindled away.

On July 26th, O’Brien and his party first visited the village of Ballingarry, where he was joined by M’Manus, Doheny, Devin Reilly, and other prominent members of the Confederation.  They took a survey of the village and its neighbourhood; addressed the crowd from the piers of the chapel gate, and slept in the house of one of the village shopkeepers.  Next day they returned to Mullinahone and thence to Killenaule, where they were received with every demonstration of welcome and rejoicing.  Bouquets fell in showers upon O’Brien; addresses were read, and the fullest and warmest co-operation was freely promised by the excited crowds that congregated in the streets.

The exact position which the Confederates had now assumed towards the Crown and government, is deserving of a moment’s attention.  Up to the last they carefully distinguished between resisting the acts of the government and disputing the sovereignty of the queen.  They regarded the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act as unconstitutional in itself; and when O’Brien told her Majesty’s Ministers in the House of Commons, that it was they who were the traitors to the country, the Queen, and the Constitution, he did but express the opinions that underlay the whole policy of the Confederation.  Even the passing of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act was not quite sufficient to exhaust their patience; in order to fill the measure of the government’s transgressions and justify a resort to arms against them, it was necessary in the opinion of O’Brien and his associates, that the authorities should attempt