, took up
the one cause not represented, namely, that of the country. Davis
denounced the appointment as an insult to that country, and with a bold
hand vindicated the superiority of its Bar, without any reference to
party, above the adventurers whom each faction placed over it in turn.

Soon after he and his friend ceased to write for that paper; but not
until satisfied by the experiment that a journal devoted to Ireland,
guided by truth, and sustained with earnest ability, would supersede the
whole jaundiced literature of the metropolis, and create a new era in
the progress of the country's civilisation and ambition. They
immediately busied themselves to establish such an organ. Charles Gavan
Duffy, late editor of the _Belfast Vindicator_, entered into the spirit
of the enterprise, and after an evening's ramble in the Park, during
which the terms and the principles of the paper and the spirit in which
it should be conducted were canvassed, the publication of the _Nation_
was determined on. Mr. Duffy was convicted for having written a libel in
the _Vindicator_, and his friends earnestly advised him to compromise
the matter with a view of bringing more powerful energies to the same
task in a wider field.

The first number of the new journal appeared on the 12th of October,
1842. It had been announced under auspices calculated to ensure its
success, but its unexpected ability, the ground it broke in the national
policy, and the vast intellectual resources it developed eclipsed the
prestige under which it was deemed necessary to usher it into existence.
It was at once a proof of greater powers than the country had yet
witnessed, and a prophecy of a different fate from what she hoped for.
The aims, the logic, the very language of factious diplomacy were
eschewed. It seemed as if a light had streamed down from heaven, fresh
from God, to give the people hope, comfort and assurance. The genius of
Davis seized the opportunity as though he were His deputed messenger in
the great work of regeneration. For the first time men awoke to the
consciousness of what they were or might be. Harnessed to the triumphant
car of one gigantic intellect, they had forgotten the dignity of their
own nature, and were astonished to find how transcendant its resources
and sufficient its strength. The publication of the _Nation_ was really
an epoch which marked a wonderful change, and from that day forth
self-reliance and self-respect began to take