r many
wants, and peace, freedom and happiness to her long oppressed
and long enduring people,

"I have the honour to be, Sir,

"Your obedient servant,

"JOHN O'CONNELL.

"To the Chairman of the Committee of Selection."

These documents were entered on the minutes of the Association, and
remained on its records with the original resolution. But no more was
done in the matter until the beginning of April, 1846.

Mr. O'Connell and his son were in London, and Mr. O'Brien remained in
Ireland. They had been all summoned to attend on committees. When Mr.
O'Brien reached London, he found that the Messrs. O'Connell, without any
previous communication with him or with the Association, and without
reference to the solemn resolution, to the contrary, of that body, were
acting on committees. This deeply disappointed and mortified him, and he
at once resolved to remain faithful, at all risks, and though he stood
alone, to the obligation which he had contracted with the sanction and
approval of his country. Whatever may be the temper and resolution of
the House of Commons, had it been resisted by the unbroken strength of
the Association, it felt confident of its power to crush Mr. O'Brien
alone, separate from, nay, abandoned by, the great leader of the Irish
people. It must be acknowledged that the course pursued by the Commons
was considerate and moderate. A principle involving their liberty of
action was in issue; to vindicate it was indispensable; but finding
themselves only opposed by a single man, of all those who had provoked
the encounter, they proceeded with caution and forbearance. They
forewarned, counselled and remonstrated during the time that intervened;
and several members of the House, including Mr. O'Connell, urged Mr.
O'Brien to give way. He refused, determinedly, and it may be supposed
not the less sternly, when he found, among those who advised him to
falsify his solemn promise, the man upon whose authority and through
whose influence he had made it. The result was, his arrest and
imprisonment, for disobedience to the House. Circumstances more trying
never beset the fortitude of a great man. Personal liberty was his
slightest loss. The sneers of his enemies, the pity of his personal, and
the desertion of his political, friends poisoned[A] the very air of the
miserable cell to which he was consigned, and what completed his agony
was a notion that he had been abandoned by his country.