." But
the time came when even Colonel Kelly and his party discovered that
Stephens was unworthy of their confidence. The chief whom they had so
long trusted, and whose oath to fight on Irish soil before January,
'67, they had seen so unblushingly violated, was deposed by the
last section of his adherents, and Colonel Kelly was elected
"Deputy Central Organiser of the Irish Republic," on the distinct
understanding that he was to follow out the policy which Stephens had
shrunk from pursuing. Kelly accepted the post, and devoted himself
earnestly to the work. In America he met with comparatively little
co-operation; the bulk of the Irish Nationalists in that country had
long ranged themselves under the leadership of Colonel W.R. Roberts,
an Irish gentleman of character and integrity, who became the
President of the reconstituted organization; and the plans and
promises of "the Chatham-street wing," as the branch of the
brotherhood which ratified Colonel Kelly's election was termed,
were regarded, for the most part, with suspicion and disfavour. But
from Ireland there came evidences of a different state of feeling.
Breathless envoys arrived almost weekly in New York, declaring that
the Fenian Brotherhood in Ireland were burning for the fray--that they
awaited the landing of Colonel Kelly with feverish impatience--that
it would be impossible to restrain them much longer from fighting--and
that the arrival of the military leaders, whom America was expected
to supply, would be the signal for a general uprising. Encouraged
by representations like these, Colonel Kelly and a chosen body of
Irish-American officers departed for Ireland in January, and set
themselves, on their arrival in the old country, to arrange the plans
of the impending outbreak. How their labours eventuated, and how the
Fenian insurrection of March, '67, resulted, it is unnecessary to
explain; it is enough for our purpose to state that for several months
after that ill-starred movement was crushed, Colonel Kelly continued
to reside in Dublin, moving about with an absence of disguise and
a disregard for concealment which astonished his confederates, but
which, perhaps, contributed in no slight degree to the success with
which he eluded the efforts directed towards his capture. At length
the Fenian organization in Ireland began to pass through the same
changes that had given it new leaders and fresh vitality in America.
The members of the organization at home b