an was shown by the
devoted priests--English as well as Irish--in ministering to the sick
and dying. So terrible was the mortality amongst them that several of
the churches lost their priests twice over. Our own family were nearly
left orphans, for both father and mother were stricken down by the
fever, but happily recovered.

It will not be wondered at that one who saw these things, even though he
was only a boy, should feel it a duty stronger than life itself to
reverse the system of misgovernment which was responsible.

There was, no doubt, a good deal of English sympathy for the
famine-stricken people, and there were some remedial measures by
Parliament--totally inadequate, however, but I am afraid that the
"Times" and "Punch," two great organs of public opinion, but too
faithfully represented the feelings of many of our rulers. The "Times"
actually gloated over what appeared to be the impending extinction of
our race. Young as I then was, but learning my weekly lessons from the
"Nation," I can remember how my blood boiled one day when I saw in a
shop window a cartoon of "Punch"--a large potato, which was a caricature
of O'Connell's head and face, with the title--"The Real Potato Blight."

At the time of the Rising of 1848 I was commencing my apprenticeship
with a firm of builders, who were also my father's employers. They were
successors to the firm through whose agency he had been sent to Ireland
as clerk of the works, just previous to my birth there. It was the
custom of the firm, when a boy came to commence his apprenticeship to be
a joiner, to keep him in the office for a time as office boy. I was
employed in the office at the time of the Rising, but one of the
partners in this firm of builders, who was also an architect, seeing
that I had had a good education, and, through attending evening classes
at the Catholic Institute and Liverpool Institute, had a considerable
knowledge of mathematics and architectural drawing, gave me employment
which was more profitable to the firm and congenial to me than that of
an ordinary office boy or junior clerk. Besides helping in the ordinary
clerical work in the office, I was put to copying and making tracings of
ground plans, elevations and sections of buildings, and working drawings
for the use of the artizans, besides assisting in surveying. I was about
three years employed in this way before entering into the joiners'
workshop. The firm was most anxious that I should r