in her
recent discomfiture. But I must needs confess that it is a task of
extreme difficulty to reconcile her fall with the pre-conceived notions
or present prejudices of those who read her story through the false
medium of the press; nor do I hope for more than partial success from
the details I have been able to give of the circumstances of which she
was the victim and the dupe.

It is impossible fully to appreciate the pernicious effect of Mr.
O'Connell's teaching, without reviewing in minute detail the leading
circumstances of his wonderful career and the matchless and countless
resources with which he upheld his fatal system. In dealing with this
part of my subject my difficulties have been multiplied and enhanced by
a strong desire to do him no injustice, and to leave untouched by doubt
or suspicion a character so intertwined with my country's love. But it
became necessary to refer to those acts which chiefly tended to increase
the obstacles which beset our endeavours. In doing this, whether here or
elsewhere in my narrative, if I use phrases which would seem to imply
harshness to his memory, I wish them to be understood as applied in
reference to the attempt to effect the deliverance of Ireland by force
of arms, and establishing her entire and perfect independence. I have
avoided this question, assuming that I wrote only for those who agreed
with me in the belief that such is her true destiny, and the end for
which her children ought to strive.

In this view of her recent struggle, there can be no doubt of the
tendency of Mr. O'Connell's policy to demoralise, disgrace, enfeeble and
corrupt the Irish people, and it is in that sense, and that only, I have
always spoken of him.

Another subject, of perhaps greater delicacy and difficulty, was the
part taken by the Catholic clergy. On my arrival in America, I found a
fierce contest agitating, dividing and enfeebling the Irish-American
population. It was asserted on one side that the entire failure was
attributable to the Catholic priests, and that in opposing the
liberation of Ireland they acted in accordance with some recognised
radical principle of the Church.

I could not assent to either of these propositions. I knew several
priests who were fully prepared to take their share in an armed
conflict; in fact, the vast majority of those I met at the time. And
again, with respect to such as did interfere, and opposed the efforts of
the people's chiefs, I do not b