ery eye was wet and every tongue silent. If ever sorrow was too deep
for utterance, it was that which settled above the early grave of Thomas
Davis.

During the summer, no effort of the Association rose above the hacknied
level of the usual weekly meetings and the repetition of the same stale
grievances, except a gathering of Tipperary at Thurles, which took place
on the 23rd of September. This was the largest of the monster meetings:
but, although the crowd was enormous and the shouting loud, it seemed
without purpose or heart. During the preparations for that meeting I had
to encounter difficulties of the most extraordinary kind. First, the
meeting was opposed by certain influential clergymen; and when they
found themselves too feeble to resist, they transferred all their
opposition to me. There is no petty cavil they had not recourse to, to
thwart and discourage, and even when all had succeeded I was treated
with personal discourtesy and annoyance at the public dinner. The seeds
of strife, afterwards destined to bear such deadly fruit, had already
begun to manifest themselves, and petty calumnies were insinuated in the
name of religion and morality. From that great meeting the crowd retired
quickly, and, almost as instantaneously, its effect faded from the
public heat. All that remained was soreness and distrust.

No event worth a memory marked the close of 1845, or the first months of
1846. The Colleges Bill had passed, without a single important
amendment, and a Roman Catholic priest accepted the nomination of
Government, as president of one of the institutions. Some of the
prelates, too, were said to be favourable to the colleges, even as they
were then constituted, and the divisions supposed to exist among them
were imparting their acridity to the deepening distractions of the time,
when an event occurred--the advent of the Whigs to office--which broke
up the great confederacy on which the hopes of the nation were staked.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: The Repeal "Rent." The weekly contributions to the funds of
Conciliation Hall.--Ed.]

[Footnote 6: Moved by the Right Reverend Dr. Brown of Elphin; seconded
by the Right Reverend Dr. McNally of Clogher. Resolved: That the Most
Reverend Dr. Crolly be requested to reply to the letter received from
the Holy Father, stating that the instructions therein contained have
been received by the assembled prelates of Ireland with that degree of
profound respect, obedience and