resolved to treat O'Connell's
memory with the greatest respect. They resolved to attend his funeral
procession, in deep mourning; and they gave orders for expensive sashes,
of Irish manufacture, which the members of the council were to wear. Mr.
O'Brien communicated this purpose to Mr. J. O'Connell. The answer was
too plainly a prohibition; and the Confederation reluctantly abandoned
their design. Mr. O'Connell died at Genoa, on the 15th of May, 1847, and
was buried in Glasnevin, on the 5th of August. His corpse, which was
delayed some days in Liverpool, was conveyed through the streets of
Dublin, during the election scene which resulted in the return of Mr.
John Reynolds; being thus made subservient to the success of the man, to
whom, of all his followers, he was most opposed during his life. It was
a strange end, surely. Mr. O'Connell was buried with great pomp. The
trustees of the Glasnevin Cemetery were generous in appropriating the
fund at their disposal to the purposes of the funeral; but when the
sincerity of the mourners' grief came to be tested, by the claim for a
contribution to erect a suitable monument to the great champion of the
age, it was found how hollow was their woe, and how lying their
adulation. Daniel O'Connell is yet without a monument, save that which
his own genius has raised in the liberalised institutions of his
country.

The reaction in the public mind, consequent on his death, was
short-lived; and the Confederation progressed rapidly, during the
closing months of the year 1847. Although not formally acknowledged,
every one saw that it was the only public body in the country deserving
or enjoying anything like public confidence.

CHAPTER VI

THE SPLIT WITH MR. MITCHEL.--HIS TRIAL, CONVICTION, SENTENCE AND
SPEECH.--THE "FELON" AND "TRIBUNE" ESTABLISHED.--ARREST OF MESSRS.
MARTIN, O'DOHERTY, WILLIAMS AND DUFFY.--CONVICTION OF MR. MARTIN.--HIS
SPEECH.--CONVICTION, SENTENCE AND SPEECH OF MR. O'DOHERTY.--DISSOLUTION
OF THE CONFEDERATION.--THE LEAGUE

At the opening of the new year, which was destined to be its last, the
Confederation, though yet regarded with coldness by the Catholic
Hierarchy, was in full career. Its members had won the respect of every
educated man in the land, however widely most of them may have differed
from it in political faith. Among the middle classes of the Catholics,
all that were left uncorrupted fell into its ranks, and embraced its
belief. Men began to r