poet:--

"You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."

John Mitchell was another remarkable member of this fraternity. He was a
solicitor, a Protestant, and a Dissenter. He was the most fiery of all
"the rebels," as these agitators ultimately became. Mitchell was a native
of Ulster, and possessed much of the spirit of the old Presbyterian
United Irishmen of 1798; indeed, some of their leaders were his
relations. He possessed a vigorous intellect, great energy of
thought and action, overbearing-purpose, and unflinching courage. His
information was not extensive, nor his judgment profound, and yet he was
a well-educated, well-read, and very thoughtful, reflective man. He was
adapted to be the sole leader of an insurrection where the object might
be clear, the undertaking desperate, and the work short. His nature was
not adapted either to lay an extensive plan, or co-operate with other
men of mental power in the execution of such. He was crotchetty and
impracticable, a man of rash judgment and hasty action-as brave and as
tenacious as a bulldog. In private life he was gentle and loving; it
was easy, as a friend or companion, to argue with John Mitchell, but
impossible to co-operate with him as a compatriot. He had not the mind
of a statesman, nor had he the prudence and policy requisite for a
popular leader anywhere, much less in Ireland, at a crisis of her
history so peculiar. This gentleman did much to precipitate the
insurrection which drew down upon Ireland, so soon after the period of
which we write, disgrace and ridicule. Like Smith O'Brien, he did
not thoroughly understand the people he was to lead, nor those of his
countrymen to whom he and they were so certain to be opposed, nor did
he compute the religious prepossessions by which those distinct parties
were respectively influenced. Mr. Mitchell was nominally a Unitarian in
his religious creed, but he held very lax notions of this theology, and
verged to Deism.

His views of political economy were erroneous and impracticable; yet he
seemed to pride himself upon his absurd economical theories. He seemed
to have no fixed views of government; he was neither monarchist,
aristocrat, nor republican: his opinions seemed to be incompatible with
all organised government, except a popular despotism, such as the French
empire exemplified. Hatred to England, her name, race, and institutions,
seems to ha