Mr. Parnell was then elected President.

The Convention of 1877 ended with the adoption of a resolution, on the motion of Mr. Peter Mulhall (Liverpool), seconded by Mr. Ryan (Bolton):—­

     That this Convention of the Home Rule Confederation of Great
     Britain hereby endorses the vigorous policy of the Home Rule
     Parliamentary Party who are termed “Obstructionists.”

Mr. Mulhall just mentioned was an active worker in the National ranks in Liverpool, and even a more valuable adherent a little later was his younger brother James, one of the most thorough, sincere, and upright of our young men, who never spared himself when there was good work to do.

Before the venerable figure of Isaac Butt disappears from the scene, let me say a few words about his eminently agreeable personality.

There was not an atom of selfishness about him.  I remember his making little of the difficulties some people used to raise in connection with the planning of a Home Rule Bill, and saying, “Three men sitting round a table could in a short time draw up a plan of Home Rule for Ireland that would act, providing people all round meant honestly.”

He used to tell us humorous anecdotes of his experiences in the courts, of which I can recollect the following one:  “A man came before a magistrate to have a neighbour bound over to keep the peace.  In his deposition he stated after the usual preamble:  ’That said Barney Trainor at said time and place threatened to send said deponent’s soul to the lowest pit of Hell, and this deponent veribly believes that had it not been for the interference of the bystanders the aforesaid Barney Trainor would have accomplished his horrible purpose.’”

Another story that I remember him telling was as to the origin of “Bog Latin.”  A sheriff’s officer was sent to serve a writ, but the object of his search took refuge in a bog.  The sheriff’s officer, determined to do the thing properly, endorsed his writ “Non comeatibus in swampo,” and in Irish legal circles the term “Bog Latin” was thereafter used to describe any mode of caricature of the ancient tongue.

In something less than two years after Charles Stewart Parnell had succeeded him as our President, Isaac Butt died, on the 5th of May, 1879, mourned by Ireland as one of the most brilliant, patriotic, and self-sacrificing men she had ever nurtured.

Of the members of Parliament and embryo members present at the 1877 Convention, I should say a word of Tim Healy, by which name he is most frequently known, who, since then, has been on many occasions one of the most prominent figures in Irish politics.

From the day when I first met him, a keen, quick-witted, enthusiastic Irish lad of about 18, from Newcastle-on-Tyne, until this 1877 Convention and later, he did good work for the Cause.  Great as is my affection for him, my pain at his attitude in recent years has been as great.