u published in Liverpool, and know you
for an old and zealous worker in the national seed field."

His son, George Gavan Duffy, is a solicitor, practising in London, and
an active worker in the national cause. His wife is a daughter of the
late A.M. Sullivan, and is as zealous a Nationalist as was her father,
and as patriotic as her husband.

The first book of National poetry I ever read was one compiled by
Charles Gavan Duffy--"The Ballad Poetry of Ireland." I should say that
this has been one of the most popular books ever issued. There are none
of his own songs in this volume. The few he did write are in the "Spirit
of the Nation" and other collections. These make us regret he did not
write more, for, in the whole range of our poetry, I think there is
nothing finer or more soul-stirring than his "Inishowen," "The Irish
Rapparees," and "The Men of the North."

It is unfortunate that we have nothing from the pen of Thomas Davis on
the subject of the Irish drama and dramatists, for among the most
delightful and valuable contributions to the Anglo-Irish literature of
the nineteenth century were his "Literary and Historical Essays."

For students, historians, journalists, lecturers, and public speakers,
they have been an inexhaustible mine, since they first appeared week by
week in the "Nation" during the Repeal and Young Ireland movements. As
sources of inspiration they have been of still more practical value to
the Irish poet, painter, musician and sculptor.

Though he was apparently in good health up to a few days of his death,
which was quite unexpected, Davis, in giving to his country these
unsurpassed essays, might have had some idea that his life would not be
a long one, and that, if he could not himself accomplish all he had
projected, he would at least sketch out a programme for his brother
workers in the national field, and for those coming after them.

A glance at the contents of Davis's Essays will show how fully he has
covered almost every field in which Irishmen are or ought to be
interested. We have Irish History, Antiquities, Monuments, Architecture,
Ethnology, Oratory, Resources, Topography, Commerce, Art, Language, Our
People of all classes, Music and Poetry dealt with in an attractive as
well as in a practical manner. Anyone who has ever gone to these Essays,
as I have over and over again, for information, has always found Davis
completely master of every subject that he touched. His "Hints to Iris