Arriving at the house of John O’Mahony, one of the truest of living Irishmen, I heard what follows.  On the previous day Messrs. O’Brien, Dillon and Meagher had arrived at Carrick.  Their arrival was unexpected, sudden and startling.  They had apprised no one of their approach; and no counsel had been taken or decision come to.  It is needless to say that the crowd which gathered to see them, when the intelligence of their arrival spread, came unarmed and unprepared.  The speeches addressed to them were brief, determined, and to this effect:  “We learned,” said the chiefs, “that an act was passed authorising the Irish Government to seize our persons without even the imputation of a crime.  You have vowed to strive with us in every extremity, and die with us if need be.  We are here to demand the redemption of your pledge, in the name of your enslaved country.  The hour has come when the truth of that country is to be tested; and first among her children the trust of her honour is committed to you.”  How much more might have been said, and how far short of the passionate appeal made by the most gifted of men the above language may fall, this is not the place to inquire.  The crowd answered with a loud shout.  With the leaders of that crowd other thoughts were busy.  Some of them waited on the “Traitors”; others, and the most influential, absented themselves.  Among the latter was the Rev. Mr. Byrne, who, up to that hour, had taken an advanced position among those who were most forward in the cause of the country.  Not a fortnight before, he delivered a speech to nearly one hundred thousand persons in the town of Carrick, pre-eminently insurrectionary in its tendency; and he had acted more than once as controller and regulator of the violent passions his own vehemence aroused.  For this duty, which he effectively discharged because of his known disloyalty, he received the public approval of England’s Prime Minister.  From all these circumstances, the responsibilities of his position were such as it would require great hardihood of character to shrink from.  It was reported at the time that he did not rest content with abandoning a post which he had attained with intense ambition, but exerted his utmost influence with the people against an enterprise which he designated as rash, ill-designed, and fraught with ruin to the town.  This report has been repeated as a fact by the present writer, and has not been contradicted by the Rev. Mr. Byrne.  But it is right to add that a very respectable gentleman, a witness of that day’s proceedings, has distinctly contradicted it.  He added that the Rev. Mr. Byrne remained a passive spectator; and he defended the conduct of those who really influenced the people, on the ground that the preparations seemed of their very nature to preclude the possibility of success; and that it was the sacred duty of every man capable of appreciating the position and resources of the people, the difficulties of the enterprise and the consequences