are not generally slow to
take the lead among their humbler fellow-countrymen.

One of the finest Irish scholars in the Gaelic League was Mr. Thomas
Flannery. He, too, was a valued contributor to my "Monthly Irish
Library," two of the best books in the series, "Dr. John O'Donovan," and
"Archbishop MacHale," being from his pen. In fact, he and Timothy
MacSweeny I might almost look upon as having been the Gaelic editors of
the "Monthly."

I once, when in business in Liverpool, printed a Scottish Gaelic
Prayer-Book for Father Campbell, one of the Jesuit priests of that city,
for use among the Catholic congregations in the highlands and islands of
Scotland. John Rogers, like Timothy MacSweeny, a ripe Irish scholar,
called on me while it was in progress, and was delighted to know that
such a book was being issued. To Mr. MacSweeny I also sent a copy, and
they both could read the Scottish Gaelic easily, showing, of course, how
closely the Irish and Scottish Gaels were, with the Manx, united in one
branch of the Celtic race, as distinguished from the Bretons and Welsh.

I have always had an intense admiration for the poetry of "Young
Ireland." I used to call it Irish literature until I found myself
corrected, very properly, by my Gaelic League friends, who maintained
that, not being in the Irish tongue, its proper designation was
Anglo-Irish literature.

I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of one of the leading
young Irelanders, Charles Gavan Duffy, after his return to this country,
when he assisted at the inauguration of our London Irish Literary
Society, which has been a credit to the Irishmen of the metropolis. Much
of the success of the Society is due to Alfred Perceval Graves, author
of the well-known song "Father O'Flynn," a faithful picture of a genuine
Irish _soggarth_. Among others of the members of the society who have
made their mark in Irish literature is Mr. Richard Barry O'Brien, the
President, the author of several valuable works of history and
biography.

It was at the opening of our Literary Society that I first met Duffy in
the flesh, but I had known and admired him in spirit from my earliest
boyhood. I was greatly pleased when he told me he had been much
interested in my publications, not only those issued more recently, but
those of many years before. I afterwards had a letter from him in
reference to my "Irish in Britain," in which he said: "I saw long ago
some of the little Irish books yo