the commonalty grows more ambitious; resources
diminishing as taxation increases; disaffection everywhere, in the towns
where they read, in the rural districts where they brood over their
poverty; and lastly, but greatest of all, schism in the Church, a mutiny
in that disorderly mass that was never yet disciplined to obedience. Are
these the evidences of strength, or are they sure signs of coming ruin?
Mark me," said he, hurriedly, "I do not mean from all this that such
puny revolt as we are now to see can shake powers like that of England.
These men will have the same fate as Tone and Emmet, without the
sympathy that followed them. They will fail, and fail egregiously; but
it is exactly upon this failure that our hopes of success are based. Not
a priest will join them. On the contrary, their scheme will be denounced
from our altars; our flocks warned to stand aloof from their evil
influence. Our bishops will be in close communication with the heads of
the Government; all the little coquetries of confidence and frankness
will be played off; and our loyalty, that's the phrase, our loyalty
stand high in public esteem. The very jeers and insults of our enemies
will give fresh lustre to our bright example, and our calm and dignified
demeanor form the contrast to that rampant intolerance that assails us."

"But for all this classic dignity," said Morlache, sneeringly, "you
need no money; such nobility of soul is, after all, the cheapest of
luxuries."

"You are mistaken, mistaken egregiously," broke in D'Esmonde. "It is
precisely at that moment that we shall require a strong friend behind
us. The 'Press' is all-powerful in England. If it does not actually
guide, it is the embodiment of public opinion, without which men would
never clothe their sentiments in fitting phrase, or invest them with
those short and pithy apothegms that form the watchwords of party.
Happily, if it be great, it is venal; and although the price be a
princely ransom, the bargain is worth the money. Fifty or a hundred
thousand pounds, at that nick, would gain our cause. We shall need many
advocates; some, in assumed self-gratulation over their own prescience,
in supporting our claims in time past, and reiterating the worn
assertion of our attachment to the throne and the constitution; others,
to contrast our bearing with the obtrusive loyalty of Orangeism; and
others, again, going further than either, to proclaim that, but for
us, Ireland would have be