they had not the ghost of a chance without the Irish and Catholic vote, which formed fully half the strength they could generally count upon.  On the other hand, we could not carry the seat by our own unaided vote.  But, to show the Liberals that we would not have their man under any circumstances, it was arranged that if he were willing we should put Charles Russell forward as our candidate.  As secretary it became my duty to ask him to place himself in our hands.  He agreed, on the understanding that he was to be withdrawn if our action had the effect of forcing the Liberals to get a candidate more acceptable to us.  We succeeded, and, of course, withdrew our man.

When we started the Home Rule organisation in Liverpool, we asked Charles Russell to be chairman of our inaugural public meeting.  He had been contesting Dundalk as a Home Ruler, so we thought he was the very man to preside at our meeting, and gave that as our reason for asking him.  He received the deputation—­my friend, Alfred Crilly and myself—­with that geniality and courtesy which were so characteristic of him.  As it happened that the three of us were County Down men, who are somewhat clannish, we soon got talking about the people “at home.”  He knew both our families in Ireland, and had served his time with a solicitor of my name in Newry, Cornelius Denvir, before he had entered the other branch of the legal profession.  We also got talking of the barony of Lecale, which he, as well as my own people, had sprung from, and how it had been the only Norman colony in Ulster; how many of the descendants of De Courcy’s followers were still there, as might be seen from their names—­Russells, Savages, Mandevilles.  Dorrians, Denvirs, and others, whose fathers, intermarrying with the original Celtic population, MacCartans, Magennises, MacRorys, and so on, had become like the Burkes, Fitzgeralds, and other Norman clans, “More Irish than the Irish themselves.”

This was all very well, and very interesting, but it did not get us our chairman.  Charles Russell was too wary, and, perhaps, too far-seeing, who can tell? for that.  It was quite true, he said, he had contested Dundalk as a Home Ruler, and, of course, he was a Home Ruler, but he advised us to ask Dr. Commins to be our chairman, as being so much better known than himself.  We did ask “The Doctor,” and, kindly and genial as we ever found him, he at once consented.

Nearly forty years have passed since then, and I really believe that these two, then comparatively young men, practically made choice of their respective after-careers on that occasion.

Dr. Commins, who, like Charles Russell, was a practising barrister on the Northern circuit, held for some years the highest position his fellow-countrymen could give him as President of the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, and became a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

Charles Russell, though always a Home Ruler and sincere lover of his country, made a brilliant career for himself as a great lawyer and Liberal statesman.  I have often wondered since, if he had become chairman of our meeting in 1872, and had then identified himself with the Home Rule movement, if his statue would be to-day as it is in the London Law Courts, or if he would ever have been Lord Chief Justice of England and Lord Russell of Killowen?  I think not.