The Partial Diary of "Honest" John Martin, Young Irelander, 1812-1875 Co. Down, Ireland

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Monday 3 May

Mary got up yesterday evening and sat in the salon for above 3 hours. She was very weak & coughed a good deal. We cannot prevail upon her to attempt swallowing any medicine. Today she seems rather more poorly and she was in bed when I left her at ½ past 2 O’Clock. She is low-spirited. I observe that getting her into an interesting conversation seems to make her feel better.

Yesterday I went to visit the Leonards at their lodging in the rue de Vienne & while I was away they arrive to pay a visit at the rue Val de Grace. Simpson told Leonard how I had viewed a letter a couple days ago from John Pigot containing news to the effect that Mr. Holland now declines to publish the translation of Robert Emmet as a book, but talks of printing it in his newspaper with the purpose of afterwards using the type so set up for printing it in a book. Leonard was of course almost frantic with indignation & disappointment. But seeing that no intimation about such a change of intentions has been sent by Mr. Holland to Leonard, I incline to hope that he (Holland) has returned to his original purpose of publishing the book. It will be very vexatious if it do not be published in Ireland. About the beginning of January, immediately after the publication of the book in Paris, Colonel Byrne asked me whether I would undertake to translate it if the author should request me, & I expressed my readiness to undertake the translation. He then communicated to me a message from Madam D’Haussonville requesting me to call at her house to arrange the matter. Unluckily I was sick of influenza just then & could not go to keep the appointment

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until about a week after. When I at length saw the lady she told me she had received a letter from a Mr. Leonard proposing to translate her book & she desired me to agree with Mr. Leonard as to which of us should do the work. I knew how strongly Leonard’s feelings would be engaged in such a matter, how keenly he would relish the literary fame & patriotic display of appearing as translator of such a book. I supposed too that he might feel jealous & displeased with me if I took it out of his hands. So, thinking of course that he could perform the task respectably enough & knowing that he would be well disposed to accept my advice and assistance, I resigned the work in his favour. I told Madame that I was nothing of a letterateur while Mr. Leonard was a professor. Madame probably did not consider the abominable French I talked a good mark of my abilities. I think she was well pleased to have the task transferred to Leonard. --I went back to Colonel & Mrs. Byrne and told them how the case stood, and assured them that I had great influence over Leonard & that I would do my best to make his translation as good as if it were my own, while perhaps he could himself translate better than I.

So Leonard set to work as translator.

Saturday 8 May.

Leonard’s lessons at his colleges and with private pupils occupy him every day nearly the entire time from early in the morning till 6 or 7 at night. In order to work at the translation he had to sit up late & rise early. As he wrote out a fair copy he sent the sheets to me for my corrections; and I corrected

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so much that he had to write the sheets all over again. He said to me that he adopted all my alterations, but I am not quite sure that in some cases he did not adopt versions supplied to him by a Mr               a Scotchman for some parts of the book. The poor man had very heavy labour at the book. I am pretty sure he wrote out every sentence at least three times, some passages four or five times. He consumed a great quantity of paper, gave up much of his natural rest, turned his house topsy-turvy and worried poor Mrs. Leonard out of all patience. I was kept either in occupation at the corrections or in expectation of new sheets of manuscript or engaged with visits or correspondence about his work, so much that I quite gave up my own for the time and lost the habit of working I had begun to form. I calculated from the rate in which I finished certain passages for him that I could have fairly written out the translation of the whole book in a fortnight, working at least 5 hours a day. Leonard’s translation was dispatched to an English publisher, Richardson of Derby about the beginning of March (I think).

Sunday 30 May

During the three weeks that have passed since my last writing here sundry little occupations, most of them connected with Mary and the children, have consumed the small portion of each day which my habits of late rising and of going to a café immediately after dinner and smoking & reading from my return home (generally past 10 O’C) till bed-time, leave available for literary work. My health too has been

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feeble and sometimes worse than feeble.

Mary’s health beginning to cause us all (Tom, Maxwell and myself) some alarm, she consented to go out of town to Fontainebleau in the hope of being benefitted by the change of air & scene. Maxwell accompanied Baby and her to Fontainebleau on Sunday the 16th. I rejoined them there on Tuesday the 18. I found Mary still very feeble and subject to become feverish in the evenings, when her pulse was over 90. She coughed a great deal at night, sometimes so much as to get very little sleep. Yet her appetite was improving and her looks. We took a drive of a couple of hours in the forest before dinner, and she enjoyed the drive greatly and dined very well on our return. We remarked next day that Mary’s room was just over the kitchen of the hotel, and concluded that the heat & odours of the cooking was partly the cause of her fever in the evenings. She avoided her own room in the evenings for the rest of our stay, using mine as the sitting-room, and she got better of the fever every day. On friday I found her pulse only 72, while for some weeks past I had never counted it under 80 & generally over 90. Her appetite and looks were greatly improved & her strength also. We had driven in the delightful forest & walked there and in the gardens of the Chateau for great part of each day. I found the fresh pure air of the forest and the quietness and comparative coolness of the country to work a magic improvement upon my own health. For nearly a week before coming to Fontainebleau I had suffered from violent diarrhea which seemed to me to be caused by the heat of my blood—my feebleness. The second day of my stay at Fontainebleau I was quite free of it and I felt better in strength and energy than I had done for months.

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Maxwell had gone back to Paris on the night of Tuesday, the day of my arrival. Baby of course remained, &, though her pittedness caused her Mamma a good deal of drudgery & me a good deal of irritation, she was not a useless member of the party. She enjoyed everything greatly.

On friday Mary insisted on returning to Paris, considering the expense of living in the hotel too great. I in vain opposed her return, fearing that the excursion had as yet been too short for the restoration of her health. On inquiry I found the bill so large that I had not cash enough with me to pay it. I told the landlady so, who graciously assured me, ca ne faisail rien. We left Fontainebleau by the train at 7 O’C p.m. and reached the rue du Val de Grace about ½ past 9. I found the air of the Paris streets almost insufferably hot, close and filthy. It seemed like an exhalation from dunghills. My senses had become over-keen by my few days in the forest.

At the rue Val de Grace we found Tom & Johnny Barnes sitting with Maxwell. Etty was in bed ill of some smart feverish attack, with a pulse of 110 - 120 & a sore throat. Mary had come home in her feeble health to a household where all the drudgery must fall upon her except what the children might share with her. It was arranged that Johnny & Max should stay at home from School, Johnny to act as cook housemaid &c & Max to attend Dada & Baby in their walks in the Luxembourg Garden. Lucy could help as messenger. Mary’s health, as might be expected, suffered a good deal from the drudgery she underwent during Etty’s illness (Etty is yet very weak & unable to do much), particularly because she took the opportunity of Etty’s confinement to bed for giving the house a more effectual cleaning than it was accustomed to from such a dirty daw as Etty has become under her very inefficient mistress. However, Mary’s constitution seems to have triumphed over this as it did over several

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previous attacks of an alarming character. She is now to all appearances almost quite well.

My health has become again delicate since my return to Paris. My habits are very bad & it vexes me greatly sometimes that I have not the resolution to improve them. I seldom rise out of bed till 9 O’C. After spending ½ an hour or ¾ in ablutions & dressing I go down to breakfast or tea & a couple of eggs with bread & butter. About ½ past 11 I ordinarily go to the rue du Val ohfrace. Then I teach Lucy a lesson of spelling or reading which occupies an hour. Another hour or more is spent in the house. Then we chat with Mary often mixed with grumbling & scolding about the want of discipline and order among the children and the discomfort &c to Mary herself & all in the house from the neglect of order & neatness. I often take out the 3 youngest children to walk in the Luxembourg, and I induce Mary herself to come out as much as I can. Once in 5 or 6 days I visit at Col. Byrne’s & my visit there always last still it is time for me to hurry home for dinner. I feel so heated and wearied & fevered in the head & fat that I am hardly able to write. Then dinner comes at ½ past 5. I always feel light & refreshed for a while after dinner. From the dinner table I always go straigh to the café (except when I rarely call at Ru Val de Grace first) and at the café I glance at the journals, play chess or chat with acquaintances till 10 O’Clock or much later. Dr. Hirst goes to the café pretty regularly every night; but he always leaves it, to return to his studies, at 8. Dr. Simpson comes now & then & plays chess. Capt. Barnes comes occasionally, & plays chess. He always comes late & is disposed to keep his friends there till the time for closing the café at midnight.

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Thomas Pigot comes there pretty often, mainly to see me; & Jones (James?) Pigot came also while he was staying at Paris. MM. Rosing, Frapoli, & Lieben come pretty often, & we generally have a chat when we meet. Two Germans whose names I don’t know have lately become habitués of the same café. (Café Soufflet new Boulevard, opposite rue Rolline & rue de l’Ecob de Medicine), and they play chess every night & frequently with me. ---On returning from the café to my chamber I light my pipe & smoke & read till 12 or 1 O’C, when I go to bed _______cated & more or less sick with the tobacco, the juice of which I suck down the pipe by my strained fashion of drawing it. I have heavy dreams and great load of blood in the eyes & head. The first streaks of dawn always cause me to awake & I feel how good it would be to arise then & enjoy the fresh cool air: but I always persuade myself that for that particular time it is needful or pardonable to turn over for more sleep, intending for the future to go to bed earlier so that I may have enough of sleep before the dawn. So my days pass and I do no work at all.

While at Fontainebleau I wrote out a translation of a long notice of Robert Emmet which appeared in the Revae Critique of Geneva for March, and sent it for publication in his newspaper to Mr. Holland. Since my return to Paris I have written out a translation of another notice of Robert Emmet (from the Journal de C’Instruction Publique) and sent it to Mr. Sullivan for publication in the Nation. Col. Byrne had expressed a wish to have some of these reviews of the book published in Ireland, to draw attention to it there. –

The affair of the publication of the book has been satisfactorily arranged. I wrote to John Pigot (through whom I had learned how Mr. Holland spoke of only or first printing it in his newspaper) to remonstrate. In reply he informed me that Mr. H. had now determined certainly to publish it as a book. Very soon after came a letter from Mr. Holland himself to Leonard, to the same effect, and explaining how his heavy

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labours in conducting the Ulsterman (3 days in the week) and in preparing to establish the Irishman (a weekly it appears simultaneously in Dublin and Belfast), together with his want of the machinery for book- printing & his ignorance of that business, had tempted him to think of withdrawing from his undertakings and declaring that he will do his best, through patriotism & respect for the memory of Emmet, to bring out the book & respectably. Leonard was satisfied and even delighted with the letter, which was very courteous towards him, and he immediately turned from fury against Holland to admiration & entire confidence in him. I liked the letter of Holland so well that I immediately wrote to him myself, to ensure the printing of the book—Leonard now declaring himself disposed to leave all to Holland’s good-will and convencine. I received a very good letter in reply which gives me a very favourable impression of Holland, whom as yet I have never seen. The book is to be published about the 1st of July.

Thursday 3 June

Within the last few days I received a long letter from Mr. Mahon (who is in Blarney on account of his health) in which besides dwelling a good deal upon the "lying habits" of the Irish Catholic peasantry he asks me to argue the question of the necessity of rational independence as preliminary to even the material prosperity of the country. He wishes to convert a Mr. Griffith a lawyer & a friend of his (son of the Commissioner of the Irish Survey) & also (he says) himself. I wrote a long letter in reply, but not to my own satisfaction. I cannot write to order.

I received also a long letter from S. O’Brien imploring me not to practise "self-denial" to such a degree as to destroy my health, not to deny myself the comforts of life needful for my my health, not to trouble myself about the L200 Melbourne money &c.  The letter is truly affectionate, and O’Brien was actually in serious alarm about my

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health and persuaded that I was injuring it in order to save money to pay the L200. I immediately guessed that this is Leonard’s doing. Sometime ago by way of friendly courtesy but without the least idea of minding anything he might say on such a subject, I told him how I was ready to apply the money and desired advice as to a proper object. He wrote me a long letter which I hardly read though I saw it was a remonstrance against my paying the money at all and an advice to employ it in providing additional comforts for myself making pleasure-tours, &c.  He has imagined that it would be grandly romantic or pathetic or the like for a patriot to be starving and tormenting himself in order to pay money that nobody wants from him and as he likes & admires me greatly he puts me in the place of his imaginary hero & after writing some high-flown letters upon the subject first hinting and lastly broadly affirming that such is my conduct he begins to half believe the story he has invented. It is evident that he has quite convinced O’B that his story is true. Of course, how could he doubt it, such a simple gracious man as O’Brien, who does not know the windiness & frothiness of Leonard. I felt indignant & got much amused. I wrote O’Brien, perhaps too severely dealing with Leonard who certainly loves me and would die for Ireland.

Received also a long letter of friendship & "allegiance" from Alex- Sullivan present editor of the Nation. He estimates me quite too highly, and I fear he is too much of a hero-worshipper.

To-day I wrote a long letter to Mitchel, to tell him how glad I am that he has commenced a history of the Repeal Movement and its arrest in the Famine—"The last conquest of Ireland (Perhaps)" he entitles it. I have already received four chapters or letters of it, as published in his paper, the Southern Citizen. The fourth brings

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the story as far as the proclamation against the Meeting at Clontarf. It promises to be a right good book. –I had also to acknowledge the series of letters he had addressed to me in his paper, giving an account of a tour of his in the South-West of the States.

Saturday 5 June

Thursday night Col Byrne Mrs Byrne & Mrs. Power drunk tea at the Simpson’s lodging in the rue Val de Grace. Signor Frapoli also was there, and Dr. Hirst & Capt. Barnes and myself. The old ______ were in great force and conversed very agreeably. He is a splendid old man & the two ladies are worthy of him. I wanted to get Byrne and Frapoli together, because the former knew so many of the chief Italian refugees, Pepe, Allva, Manin, Mamiani, &c But Frapoli had not been personally acquainted with any of these he named. "Ah!" said Byrne to him "you Lombards ought to have established the republic at once, and so the Italian cause would have triumphed." – "For me, I don’t know" replied Frapoli " I only aimed at the success of the cause." Quite right, Frapoli.

I mentioned to Col. Byrne that I had received a letter of the warmest friendship from Sullivan, at which he seemed well-pleased. I told him, too, how Holland is getting married, & therefore may he delay a week or so with the publication of Robert Emmet.

Yesterday I was employed most of the day from breakfast till dinner in writing a history of my case of asthma. It is done at the request of Mr. Dowson for a friend of his, D. Hyde Salter, who is about to publish a book on the disease. I intended to put all I should say upon the subject into one closely-written letter of 8 pages: but I went so minutely into the case that my letter ended with my state at 20-22 years old. Today I intend to with another long letter to finish my memoir.

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Friday 11 June

On Sunday and Tuesday last I dispatched two more long letters to Mr. Dowson to continue and finish the account of my case of asthma.

On Monday, I wrote to Eva to acknowledge receipt of a note from her which she had addressed to care of Leonard. I warned her against being led into mistake about my sentiments towards her or concerning anything, through representations of Mr. L.

Yesterday I wrote a long letter to James O’Brien in acknowledgement of a huge letter I received from him at 2 March last. He wrote from New Orleans, and (encouraged by a previous letter of mine) gave me a sketch of his life & particularly an account of his voyage from Liverpool & New Orleans, his first impressions there about slavery &c, his experiences and adventures as a volunteer to join General Walker in Texas & his fortunes after his return to America up till the date of onty. A very interesting narrative, and it gives me a high idea of his intitled as well as of his spirit & generosity. A fine fellow.

Wednesday night Maxwell and Mary and I were at Col. Byrne’s by invitation. The company besides, Mademoiselle and M. Tourguereff (a boy of 16), Mr. & Mrs Conolly, Mr & Mrs Ayre, Rev. Mr. Richards, Mr. W. Emmet. Mr. Emmet I had never seen before except for once for a few minutes when he called upon me the winter after my first arrival in Paris.

Mrs. Power is gone away to Berlin on a visit to her niece Madame Pertz, and is not to be back for nearly 3 months.

Mary Simpson’s health seems quite restored. She looks very well, remarkably well, and seems full of energy.

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Sunday 13 June

The hot dry weather seems returned again. For 9 or 10 days up till last Tuesday (the 8th) the heat and drought had been remarkably great for the time of year. Many of the nights too the heat was such that I lay in a perspiration if covered at all, and in a fever, if uncovered. Yet my health did not suffer; & for the last fortnight I feel younger and more disposed to enjoyment than I have observed myself to be since before poor Anna’s disease became known to me to be consumption. On Tuesday last in the evening there was a thunderstorm and some rain. It was St. Midard’s day, the French (or Parisian) St. Iwithern. Wednesday & Thursday there was heavy rain. On Thursday night about 8 ½ O’C. I was crossing the Seion from the rue des Saints Peres to the Inilenis, and the fall of rain was such that it seemed an effort to bear up my umbrella under it. Never I think had I remarked heavier. After taking shelter for some minutes in the archway of the Quilenis , the shower having nearly passed, I crossed the court to continue my way to Leonard’s. Had I been wearing shoes the water would have been over my shoe-mouth, nearly every step. When I reached the rue St. Honori between the rue de l’Echille & the rue des Pyramides, the trotton was perfectly dry & not a drop of rain seemed to have fallen there for hours! --Yesterday there was no rain after 10 A.M., but at night there was incessant lightening in a particular portion of the heavens near the horizon to NE, lasting from before 10 p.m. till midnight.

This morning a letter from Millie to say that Robert has decided on their making the visit to Paris and that they are to leave Kilbroney on the voyage either next Saturday or the Wednesday following.

This day week I got from Leonard, to correct, the first proof sheets of Robert Emmet, which he had received the day before. The paper was not very good, the type rather small though clear, and the page too narrow & with too small a margins. I thought of writing to Mr. Holland in hope of inducing him to print

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the book on better paper & with a broader page: but I did not. He was just about celebrating his wedding & perhaps he is not at home. There were very few faults to correct in the printing. --- Some days after I visited Leonard again in consequence of an enthusiastic letter from him about certain letters of T.A. Emmet & Robert Emmet & members of their family addressed to a French lady, which have come into his hands. I found that the letters were about 20 in number, all written in French, all addressed to a Madame de Fontenaz, & written by Robert Emmet, T. A. Emmet, a daughter of Joseph Emmet, the wife of Robert Holmes, a daughter of Robert Holmes, a Lady Sarah Napier. I read some of them & found them very interesting. Madame de Fontenaz seems to have been an emigrie in Ireland & to have kept a school there or at least to have taught French to the Emmetts & others; and her character was such as to command the affection & esteem of them all. They write to her as to their most valued friend to tell of their sad fortunes. One letter of Thomas Emmet in which he speaks of the fate of Robert is very touching & noble.

Last night I finished reading General Pepe’s Revolutions de l’Italie in 1847,8,9, the book which has chiefly occupied me when smoking for the last several weeks. A very sad book to me,---sad both for the defeats it chronicles of heroic efforts for national independence, and for the reflections it suggests of the slavishness of my own countrymen contrasted with the fine spirit of Italians & Hungarians. Let me note down some of the main facts & events of the book! Events in order of time: 1846 June . Pius IX elected Pope—soon after he proclaims an amnesty -- -- 1847 Sep. 1,2. Revolutionary attempts at Messina & at Reggio, undertaken in concert; at Messina the Garrison defeat the attempt; at Reggio the people at first gain a complete success, taking prisoners the garrison, ____ a provisional government proclaims the Constitutional King Ferdinand II. And the constitution of 1820. They seized the fortresses guarding the Strait of Farv. Troops arrived immediately in steamers from Naples, commenced to bombard Reggio; the peasantry were terrified from rising en masse & the insurrection was quelled.

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-- 1848 January 12. Insurrection of Palermo, which is successful. At news of it an insurrection at Cilente, in the province of Salerno, where 10,000 men collected in arms – Jan’y 27, 28. Rising in the City of Naples to which the king yields, promising a Constitution, which is proclaimed the 29th. –Feb’y 24 Revolution in Paris

– March 17. Flight from Milan of the Austrian Viceroy & commencement of the insurrection (on receipt of the news of the insurrection at Vienna) –March 17 At Venice the people force the Austrian governor to release from prison Daniel Manin & Nicolas Tommaset, who had been arrested on the night of January 18. The people seize the arsenal, the Austrian governor resigns his authority into the hands of the Military Commander Count Lichy, who signed a convention according to which the Austrian troops evacuated Venice (20,21 March) – March 23 Retreat of Redetzky from Milan – March 29 General Pepe arrives at Naples & is invited by the king to form a ministry – [crossed out words] In Sicily at the end of February the Neapolitan army held nothing except the fortress of Messina and the forts of Syracuse – In March & April the Sicilians engaged in negotiating with the English & French governments for a recognition of Sicilian independence. This was refused until after the Secilians should have chosen a king; and English Gov’t recommended an Italian prince. April 13 Sicilian Parliament pronounced the deposition of Ferdinand & his family: not till July did they elect the Duke of Genoa, whereupon the English & French war-vessels saluted the Sicilian flag. But in July Chles Albert lost the battle of Cuzzosa, and retreated to his own capital without attempting to defend Milan; & the British Gov’t changed its mind and declined to recognize the

Independence of Sicily, in which conduct the French Gov’t followed the example of England. – May 4 General Pepe, appointed Commander in Chief of Neapolitan’s Army of the Expedition for Station liberation, quits Naples --- May 11 [crossed out] at Bologna, Pepe receives letter

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from Manin dated May 11 telling of defeats of Pontifical troops near Venice, and of successful advance of Austrians, & p____ing him to hasten his advance with Neapolitan army – May 15 Letter from Charles Albert to Pepe at Bologna, inviting his advance into Lombardy – May 15 Sanguinary insurrection at Naples, which is quelled by Royal troops & partizans –May 18 Order of Neapolitan Government to General Pepe to bring back the Neapolitan Army – He endeavours to prevent the army from obeying, & invites it to follow him across the Po, to combat the Austrians. Only one division of infantry, one of cavalry, and a battery with sappers, followed him, in all                   men when he crossed on the 12 June 13 June Pepe arrives in Venice. He is appointed Commander in Chief -- -- July 6. Venice unites with Lombardy to form the Lombardo- Venitian Kingdom with King of Sardinia for King – In July the Sardo-Venitian fleet which had gone to blockade Trieste, induced by remonstrances of English & French Governments as well of German Confederation, returned to Venice – Aug 12—Armistice between Austrians & Charles-Albert, the latter evacuating the fortresses of Peschiern, Roeen d’Ango, & Asopo, and abandoning Venice – Aug 13 Venitians elect a Triumvirate for Government, Manin (presid.) Graziani, Cavadali – Sep 9 Due d’Harcourt (French Ambassador) writes from Rome to say that French Government have resolved to send 4000 men to Venice, & ships of war. – Sep 31 Letter from Mammiani (Prime minister ?), at Rome) to say that Pontifical Gov’t will probably ____ its troops from Lombardy & Venice. – Oct 27 Successful attack by Venetians upon Austrian position at Mestre. Austrians said to number 3000 & Venetians 1500. 600 Austrians killed or wounded. --- [crossed out lines] November 16 Revolution at Rome, which causes flight of the Pope. Triumvirate formed of Mazzini, Saffi, Armellini – Previously, in first week of August, the city of Bologna had been occupied by the Austrian army under Welden, & by a rising of the citizens had driven the Austrians out of the city, Aug 8 –

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November 24 Pope secretly flies from Rome – 1849 February 9, the Roman Assembly voted the papacy deposed from its temporal power. That Assembly elected by universal suffrage, 343,000 voting out of population of 2,800,000 – 1849 March 20. Charles Albert resumes hostilities. --- March 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 to Ap 2. Insurrection, bombardment, combats, in Brescia –March 26 or 27 Battle of Novara – March 29 Rupture of Armistice in Sicily, followed by defeat of Sicilian army under Microslawski, bombardment & sack of Catana, entry of Neapolitans into Palermo May 18 – Sicilians condemned to a war contribution of f

54,000,000 --- --- 1849 April General Pepe concerting measures with Republican Gov’t of Rome for expedition to Naples in order to excite a National Movement there by which Neapolitan forces might be gained to cause of Italy – April 24 French army disembarked at Civita Vecchin. Armies of Neapolitans, Austrians, and Spaniards, invade Roman territories. Garibaldi defeats Neapolitans at Palestrina. Austrians, after an assault of 12 days, gain possession of Bologna The French, after an ineffectual assault upon Rome, retire to Castel di Guido, a____ 3 miles distance. M. de Lesseps sent from Paris as Plenipotentiary, makes a treaty with Roman Government. In June (4th) (Constituent Assembly having been succeeds by the Legislative Assembly at Paris), French General by orders of his government, ___ news his assault & on the 2d July enters Rome. Next day the Romans proclaimed their Constitution from the Capitol, remaining there till chased away by the French bayonets – May 22 Pepe orders evacuation of Malghera – In June arrived at Venice a letter dated 9 May from Kossuth exhorting Venice to resist for two months more & promising succour from Hungary --. June 15 Venitian Government publish correspondence with M. du Bruck, Austrian Envoy, who had been heaty to induce them to submit. – July, August, Cholera & fever at Venice. 25 August. Pepe leaves Venice, a surrender being admitted necessary – Surrender of Venice ----------

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Tuesday 15 June

Weather Sunday yesterday and today very hot. Certainly there seems for the last 3 summers a remarkable change of climate in these latitudes. The heat each of these summers being far greater than it seems to me to have been formerly. To-day perhaps I feel it the more because I have been staying in my chamber (for fear of it) almost all day. And my chamber being on the 4th floor necessarily receives hotter air by its window than the rooms on the floors below. I found it so oppressive, from pure heat, the air not being heavy, that I could neither read, write, sit, lie, or exist at all in comfort in my rooms. I dared not venture out to a bath, though I suppose I would have suffered less in the streets than I did in my room.

Yesterday hot as it was I visited first Mr. Doherty on the rue Grenilu, next Col. Byrne in the rue Montaigue & lastly Mr. Leonard at the Plau de l’Empe. Col. Byrne was reading to me some passages in his memoirs in which he speaks of letters written by Curran in 1814 or 15 when he visited Paris, and in which he expressed himself in an offensive style of the Irish refugees in France. Col. Byrne speaks of him as a "splenetic scribbler" & he wanted my opinion as to the justice & propriety of such an epithet under the circumstances. I said at once I thought it was no more than Curran deserved. And yet perhaps it would be better for Col. Byrne to soften it. Curran was not a man that good Irishmen can long bear malice against, no matter for his spleen and his shortcomings. And then he is dead. I think I will suggest that the epithet be softened.

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Sunday 20 June

Mr. Rosing, a Norwegian with whom I have become acquainted this winter through Simpson (in the same laboratory with whom he has been pursuing Chemical investigations) is to set out for England to-morrow, and I am giving him some introductions for Ireland. After spending some months in England, chiefly in observing the farming operations there with a view to chemical science, he is to make a tour through Scotland and Ireland. I am afraid he will not be in Ireland till the end of October or beginning of Nov. He is to write me notice of his time of setting out for Ireland and I will then send him notes of introduction to such of my acquaintances as may seem best for my purpose. In the mean time I give him a list of persons I various localities to whom he may present his card as an introduction from me At Dublin John Dillon, + John E. Pigot, P. J. Smyth, + John O’Hagan, Dr. Kidd, +Dr. W. K. Sullivan, M. Gage. At Cork J. F. Maguire, D’Lane. } + I give him at

At Limerick Dr. D. Griffin, J. O’Donnell, D. Doyle, Father Kenyon, } present notes

A. S. O’Brien. At Belfast D. Holland, Rev. S. J. Moore. At Derry } to those whose none              At Galway none     At Newry R.R. Todd, Hill Irvine, } names are Rev.—Alexander, R Martin, D. Martin,           At Armagh    none } so marked At Wicklow G.C. Mahon

Sunday 27 June

Yesterday evening I dined at Col. Byrne’s. In returning Klapka’s Memoir about the Hungarian revolutionary war, I made some remark of the difficulty as well as pain that one feels in regarding Goergey as a traitor, and the inclination one has to ascribe his conduct to frenzy. Col. Byrne

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said the explanation offered by Klopka, viz. the jealousy and personal enmity conceived by Georgey against Kossuth and the leading men of the Government, is sufficient. That he himself had met with cases of men till then honourable as well as brave, and even of ardent patriotic feelings, becoming through personal enmity

enemies of the very cause they had loved & even in duty bound to hating it because it was the cause of the men they hated. I forget the particular instances he told me of. But that led him into other stories of his military life, in particular the duel between Corbet & Sweeney and the challenge of MacNevin to O’Connor. At the time of Napoleon’s elevation to be emperor, the army took oath of allegiance by each man holding up his hand & crying je le juri on the reading of the formula. The chef d’etal major of Anglican (then in command of the Irish Legion) complimenting the officers on the loyal feelings they had demonstrated, somebody alleged that Capt Sweeney had not held up his hand & had rather testified hostility to Napoleon. Sweeney on hearing the charge, suspected Corbet of having made the representation to his prejudice, and in presence of the other officers accosted him & demanded of whether it was the fact. Corbet haughtily declined to be catechised on the subject. Sweeney (a very powerful man) instantly struck Corbet with his fist on the brow & dashed him to the ground. Byrne took Corbet in his arms & with the other officers prevented Sweeney from doing him further violence. They were both put under arrest. The blow according to the French law of honour could be washed out only with blood. O’Connor, shortly before made General of Division, came with the Lieutenant of Augercan, and, in addressing the officers of the Legion made some remarks manifestly pointed at MacNevin (then either a Capt or Lieut in the Corps) charging him with exciting the quarrels which were the disgrace & bane of the Irish Corps. MacNevin did not reply, that being contrary to discipline. But

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some time after despairing of a descent being attempted on the coast of either Ireland or England, he resigned his commission & retired from the army, with the intention of emigrating to America. Immediately on obtaining his discharge he wrote to O’Connor or challenge for the affront given him on the occasion of the General’s address to the Irish Officers, & for previous causes of offence. He made three copies of the challenge; one for O’Connor himself, one for Marshal Augerian & the third for the Chef d’etat Major. These he showed to Byrne and two others (I think) whose names I forget. He requested them to be his witnesses of the fact of his writing & sending the challenge, a fact which he suspected O’Connor might hereafter deny. He sealed in their presence & desired them to put the letters in the post, which they did. He waited in France for a month or longer, but no notice was taken of the challenge by General O’Connor. And O’Connor afterwards did say he "received a challenge when the fellow who signed it was away on the ocean." -- -- -- As to Sweeney & Corbet, after a considerable time orders came to release them from arrest (that is to let them fight) They immediately met & fought with pistols at 12 paces. Byrne was a second of I forget which. At the first fire both were wounded, Corbet mortally & Sweeney severely. But they each fired 4 shots more. Sweeney recovered after a long time.

Col. Byrne said in reply to my question as to the course for the violent personal enmity between T.A. Emmet & Arthur O’Connor that he supposed (or believed) O’Connor had tried to seduce Mrs. Emmet when they were all at Fort George. –I remember Mrs. Connell of the Sugar Loaf told me a story of his having seduced some lady (I think a nobleman’s or baronet’s wife) before he left County Cork.—According to the obituary notice of him in the Moniteur (2 Mai 1852) he was in his 44th year when

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he married Mademoiselle Andorect, who was 17. She bore him 3 sons who are all dead. One of them was married to Mademoiselle Duvalde Fraville & left 2 children (sons) at the time of his father’s death.

Col. Byrne called on him one morning in 1848 on the arrival of news that a rising had actually taken place in Ireland. He was full of sympathy for the Irish cause, shewed a note he had just written demanding an audience of General Cronignar upon the subject, & got Byrne to leave his autograph to be shown by him to Cavaignar as that of the confidential adviser in behalf of Ireland. Of course while England & France were at peace no open and declared aid could be sent by Cavaignor to the Irish. But O’Connor declared he would himself send 10,000 stand of arms by safe ship from Havre, & would do all in his power. Alas! He got no opportunity. ---As General of division it was not the uniform of the Irish Legion that O’Connor wore, though one can hardly conceive any other reason for his appointment except Napoleon’s idea of his influence in Ireland. He never was in active service.

Col. Byrne was talking of M. de Beaumont’s visit to Ireland to obtain materials for his book. He had often spoken of this to me before. Beaumont had been warned before leaving France to keep himself out of the hands of the O’Connell’s & he was directed to depend chiefly on Lord Cloncurry for information &c about Irish affairs. In Ireland Cloncurry introduced him to his friend "Billy" Murphy who as well as his 3 daughters spoke French perfectly. To Murphy’s inspiration Byrne attributes the view taken in Beaumont’s book of the ’98 movement. Murphy got away (in 1803?) to Portugal and then he resided for several years and made a large fortune in the wine trade, which fortune he enlarged still more after his return to Ireland by the cattle trade. It was whispered that before his flight from Ireland he was secret treasurer for the rebels,

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and that he carried off & appropriated whatever funds remained in his trust. Col. Byrne does not seem to attach much credit to this charge. At all events Murphy returned to Ireland a rich man and quite averse to revolutionary attempts, and Col Byrne thinks he was desirous to make the world believe the movements of ’98 & 1803 less important than they really were, & for that purpose informed de Beaumont that few considerable proprietors or persons of rank & influence were on the patriotic side—at least on the rebel side. When the book was published Col Byrne (as well as Mrs. Puttand & others) expressed great dissatisfaction at this misrepresentation, & de Beaumont hearing of it, requested him to write out a review & correction of the statements in the book. This Col Byrne did in a memoir which he shewed me in January, giving the names of great numbers of gentlemen of fortune and rank who were of the rebel party. He wished de Beaumont to append the memoir to a 2d edition of his book, or to use it for correcting the errors of the original edition. But de Beaumont on the contrary pressed him to publish it as a separate pamphlet.

He was talking too of Curtis, principal of the Irish College of Salamanca, "spy" of Lord Wellington in Spain, and afterwards Catholic Archbishop of Armagh. Natural enough for the Lord of a Salamanca College to oppose the invaders of Spain: but disgusting to see a Catholic Irish dignitary the willing tool of the English Government. Byrne considers that he exerted his influence in froom of English policy both in College of Maynooth & Irish College at Paris. --- It was a visit that Col Byrne had received the day before that set him to talk about Curtis. A tall handsome man called and introduced himself as the actual principal of the Irish College of Salamanca. I think his name is Macan, a nephew of "Tony Macan" well-known to Col Byrne.

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Saturday 3d July

Robert Martin and his wife arrived in Paris last Tuesday night. I was in waiting for them at the Havre railway station till ½ past 12 O’C. They are lodging in Faubourg St. Honore 38, the same house where I lodged for several months at the time of my first residence in Paris. This is Milly’s first visit to Paris. Robert was here for a few days in the summer of 1855 during the Exposition. They have left David in the house at Kilbroney with Jenny Cooley to take charge of the children in their absence. Wednesday they visited the Simpson’s at the rue du Val de Grace & thence I took them a walk through the quarter of the city about St. Sulpire, St. Germaine de Pris, visiting both those churches, on to the Palais Royal. Luckily the weather is not excessively hot, but is rather mild & very pleasant summer weather these 8 or 9 days past. Thursday I missed seeing them at all, having missed them on the Boulevard on Wednesday night & so not having an appointment made for meeting them somewhere. But Tom accidentally met them in a restaurant of the Palais Royal and he and his party kept them company till 11 O’C, bringing them to the Champs Elysies & a singing café there, which they enjoyed greatly. Tom’s friends, who also arrived in Paris on that Tuesday night are Mr. Wright & Dr. Fox of Broughton. I like them very much. They are staying at Madame Quence’s. On the first night they were tormented by bugs & so was I. Since then Emile has

treated our beds with insecticide powder, & the bugs ar quiet for the present. – Yesterday the Martins and Tom & his two friends went to Versailles in the morning by the "American railway" –that is an omnibus for 16 insides & 20 outsides which starting from the Place du la Concorde runs on rails along the river side as far as Sevges or a point between Leons & St. Cloud & then up the valley of Sevris & Chaville to Versailles, passing

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up the Avenue de Paris. Mary Simpson and I followed them at 2 O’C by the same route & conveyance. And Simpson with Johnny joined us just as we were sitting down to dinner at 6 O’C. After a run through the picture galleries & grand rooms of the Palace & a little turn in the Parc, we went to dine at the Café des reservoirs, Tom & I entertaining the party. An excellent dinner of course, & all was gay. Dr. Fox being the life of the party. /

Tuesday 6 July

Dr. Fox went away home yesterday. The Martins are still here, & so is Mr. Wright. On Sunday the Martins, Fox, Wright, Hirst & I, all made an excursion to St. Cloud where we took a pleasant stroll in the Park and afterwards dined at Segrids’. Wright becoming unwell, he & I went home soon after dinner. Rest of the party made their way to the Pri Catalan and after spending an hour or two there reached home sometime near 1 O’C. – Yesterday I took the Martins to see the tomb of Napoleon &c at the Invalides, the Champ de Mars, & a drive by the Port de Jena, Avenue Montagne, Rue Miromirel, Place d’Europe (calling on the Leonards) Chaussu d’Antin, Rue Richelieu, Bourse, Barque de France, Louvre, Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame, to Palais Royal. We entered Hotel de Ville & Notre Dame. Latter undergoing great alterations as to decoration. Pillars & ceiling being painted gorgeously. At Night Martins & I at Opera Ganeais, play being Se Ironvise.

Friday 16 July

The Martins went away on Sunday last. They went by railway to Boulogne and were to go by steamer thence to London. The weather was rather cool all the time of their visit. The Friday & Saturday immediately preceding their departure were very wet days. Millicent continues indefatigable in sight seeing, & Robert too was in good spirits all the time of their visit. I accompanied them to visit the Tomb of Napoleon &c at the Invalides, the Hotel Clung, the appartements at the Luxembourg, the Gohelins, the Sainte Chapelle, and other places which I forget. We had planned to go to Fontamebleau on either

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the Friday or the Saturday preceding their departure: but the rain prevented us. The last day of their visit we all (that is the 2 Simpsons, Hirst & I & the Martins) dined at the Hotel du Louvre at Robert’s cost. On the whole they had a pleasant visit and carried away pleasant recollections. During their stay two letters in succession arrived from David to say that all was going on well at Kilbroney and to encourage Milly to see everything & not mind expense.

Mr. Wright went away on Monday night. Or rather he left Paris on Monday morning, though it was at night late he left Rouen on his way homewards. Tom accompanied him to Rouen.

Sometime last week I received a letter from Mr. Sullivan of the Nation in which, after thanking me for a translation I had sent him of a letter by a Spaniard to me of the Paris papers about the insulting language of Lord Mallnesborg in the English Parliament, he spoke of Mr. Mitchel having bitterly resented the Nation’s remarks about the Mitchel & Duffy feud, made on the occasion of reprinting one of the first of the letters of The Last Conquest—Perhaps. As I had regularly received all the letters that had yet reached Europe, and had seen nothing of the sort in any number of Mitchel’s paper, I hoped that Sullivan was mistaken & that Mitchel had never taken any public notice of his remarks. But on Sunday at Leonard’s I saw the Nation of the previous day & there I found an article of the editor containing a letter from Mitchel and comments upon it. The letter points out the misrepresentations in the Nation’s remarks & complains of the groundless impressions they were calculated to produce as to Mitchel’s treatment of Mr. Duffy in the History; it also notices how the Nation in reprinting his letters omits to mark them as quoted & seems to indicate that it published them at his request. All this logical enough, & Sullivan’s remarks were I suppose so interpreted by all readers who did not from other sources know to the contrary. But I am sorry Mitchel’s remonstrance is so haughty & bitter. Sullivan instead of treating it in a spirit of dignified sorrow (as he did in his private letter

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to me) publishes in the Nation a very improper and offensive article—stilted, quibbling, insolent. I was exceedingly vexed. – When I was in Dublin & about setting out on my tour in Munster in October last year, Smyth introduced Sullivan to me & we had a conversation of half an hour or more, chiefly about the Indian revolt He seemed well-pleased to make my acquaintance. It was some months after, I think, when he became editor of the Nation. Smyth & he were then very intimate and Smyth helped him with articles &c: yet I now remember that Smyth objected to my becoming a subscriber to the paper, as if that mark of confidence were not yet quite earned. The paper was (in my judgment) ably conducted & in a good spirit, from Sullivan’s accession to the editorial power. But in the beginning of March appeared an editorial article condemning attacks that had appeared, on Mr. G. H. Moore’s political conduct, in the Irish News of N. York The attacks were contained in letters signed Kilmainham & written by Smyth. The Nation’s article was in an earnest and friendly spirit & had nothing offensive I immediately wrote to Smyth to say that Sullivan was in the right to defend his friend Moore, that his article was creditable in manner & spirit, & that he ought to receive it in a friendly spirit. My letter (I think) crossed one from him complaining of the Nation’s conduct, particularly as Sullivan had been speaking to him in their ordinary friendly manner the very day before it appeared & had never mentioned the subject, and as the attacks on Moore had taken place several months before. Smyth sent to the Nation either one or two notes in his own vindication, & the Nation’s comments on them struck me as being illogical, quibbling & of a bad spirit. – A long time after, in May, Col. Byrne shewed me a letter he had received from Sullivan in reply to one he had sent to apply for some back numbers of the paper. In Sullivan’s letter there was an expression of warm regard for me. Col. Byrne just then wanted to get some reviews of Robert Emmet by Continental Journals translated & sent for publication in Ireland, in the Nation & other papers. I translated two & sent one of them to the Nation. In

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return I had an exceedingly friendly letter of "allegiance" &c from Sullivan. Among other things that pleased me greatly he declared his distress at the feuds in our national ranks and his own determination to heal them as much as he could. – Well: on reading his nasty article about Mitchel I wrote him a long letter, letting him frankly my mind upon the whole matter & bidding him farewell. That was on Monday. On Wednesday I wrote to Mitchel, remonstrating with him for being so haughty & bitter.

In the letter I wrote to Mitchel on Wednesday I implored a reconciliation between him and Mary Simpson. There is no enmity, indeed, between them. But ever since in 1854, I sent him her letter lamenting his escape by methods she considered inconsistent with honour, they are formally as strangers to each other I would fain not die & leave that quarrel in existence.

Wednesday 21 July

I wrote to Jane Fraser last Thursday. I had heard from Elizabeth that Jane complains of so seldom getting letters from any of us.

On Sunday all the Simpson family—Maxwell, Mary & the five children and the servant Etty—went to St. Cloud, at my suggestion, and spent several hours in the pleasant shades of the Parc. All of us were the better of the fresh air and the exercise upon the turf. I have felt less feeble ever since. Mary had provided some cold meat & bread and we got two bottles of French beer at the little cabaret of the Lanterne de Diogines, and so we made a pleasant dinner, sitting on the moss among the trees. We had some trouble and delay in getting our numerous party conveyed back to Paris. The two elder boys & I had come on the voiture which starts from the rue Boiloi (a very pleasant conveyance, outside). Maxwell had brought the rest in the cab. But at St. Cloud at ½ past 7 O’C when we wanted to return, he would not hire a cab for less than 8f, which he refused as an extortion. We then went over the bridge and to the station of the American railway at Boulogne.

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There was a crowd of people in queue waiting their turn to get tickets. I joined the queue, & after a stand of half an hour, got tickets for our party, which enabled us to take our seats in a voiture just arrived & which started 15 minutes after. So we reached the Place de la Concorde nearly at 10 O’C.

I visited Col. Byrne on Monday. He made Madame read me the passage of his memoirs in which he tells of the duel of Corbet & Sweeney, and that which mentions the challenge of MacNevin to O’Connor. He omits the shocking details of the duel—the 5 shots exchanged; the continuing of the combat after Corbet was mortally wounded &c; and merely says that after the two officers had been under forced arrest for more than two months (I think) an order arrived from Mareschal Augereaut to liberate them and restore them their swords. It was immediately understood that they must fight and that one at least must die. Corbet was not liked in the regiment, and besides there was a general reluctance to take part in such an affair, and he found it difficult to get a second. Weare & Byrne were just setting out for the country, in order to avoid being present at the duel when a note from Corbet reached the former begging him to assist as second. Byrne & he there upon returned and were present. I think it was MacSheehy who was second to Sweeney. Sweeny’s pistols were excellent. Both men were good shots. Corbet’s pistols were good, but a little heavy & threw the shot low. The men were placed at 12 paces. Both fired, and Corbet was shot through the belly while Sweeney escaped untouched. Before coming to the field Corbet had engaged the Surgeon who was to be present to tell him frankly whether any wound he might receive were mortal. The surgeon pronounced his wound mortal. Corbet desired to be placed nearer than 12 paces and (I think) his wish was obeyed. At second exchange of shots both were hit, Sweeney receiving the ball in his thigh, Corbet (I think) in the breast. Sweeny then proposed that they should take to their

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swords. Corbet said "You were always a blustering bully and you shall die so" & he refused to change the weapon. They fired again three times, & I think more wounds were received by both. Corbet died that night. Contrary to expectation Sweeny recovered. The ball was extracted. He retired to Brest (?) and engaged in

business. He married there and had several children, some or all of whom survive. Though of republican sentiments he raised a troop of volunteers for Napoleon about the time of the 100 days—Sweeney was a tall, handsome, very powerful man. Corbet was of middle size and slight figure.

Byrne seems to attribute this shocking quarrel mainly to the bitter jealousy of Mac Sheehy against O’Connor, which made him intrigue to destroy O’Connor’s friends, & Corbet was one of them.

Col. Byrne & Madame expressed a wish to have M. de Lamartine’s letter in "reply to an English Review" (The Saturday Review, which lately published a bitter article against him, in reference to the National Subscription) translated & published in some of the Irish papers. Accordingly I took home with me a copy of the speech, and next day yesterday translated it and sent it to the Dublin Nation. I felt a grudge at sending any contribution to the Nation after Sullivans nasty article about Mitchel, and it is only to oblige the Byrnes I do this. I did not add a word of explanation but merely inclosed the translation in an envelope properly addressed.

Tuesday 27 July

The Nation of last Saturday contained my translation of Lamartine’s letter. Among the notes to correspondents was one seemingly in answer to my private letter to Sullivan—not satisfactory, but exhibiting a desire to have done with the subject.

I visited the Byrnes yesterday. They had been so delighted with the appearance of the letter of Lamartine in the Nation that they went that Sunday evening to his house to show it to him & Madame de Lamartine. Of course they praised my work, being indeed strongly prejudiced in favour of anything I do.

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They propose to take me to M. de Lamartine’s house some night, but I feel unwilling to go, because, while pitying the man greatly and admiring his public conduct (so far as I know it) & liking his character in many respects, I do not feel at all a partizan of his. And I am afraid my visiting him so would cause me to be regarded as such.

The first number of Mr. Holland’s Irishman has appeared. It is dated Saturday July 17. Leonard sent me a copy of it on Sunday evening. The leading articles are not striking for ability or wit or judgment, but yet respectably written and in a good spirit. There are some conspicuous instances of exaggeration and other carelessness—such as an assertion that Ireland lost 2,000,000 of inh. in the one year 1848. – The editor begs for indulgence for his first number, which is bat reasonable. The paper has the form & size very nearly of the United Irishman, Felon, & Tribune.

Wednesday 28 July

For a long time now I am subject to low spirits. I think the commencement of this state of mind was about the time of my quitting Australia in virtue of the "conditional pardon." While I was in Melbourne, waiting for the deputation of the ship in which I was to sail, came, the news of the abominable quarrel between Mitchel and Duffy. About the same time or very shortly previous I had seen how Mitchel had excited the rage and grief of many thousands of his political friends against him by the course he took on the question of Negro-slavery. Then was also the distressing subject of his escape from V.D.Land which was condemned as inconsistent with honour by some honest and friendly persons, in particular by the Simpsons. I lost the confident hopes that I had rested on him. I saw that his power for uniting and organising the Irish patriots was gone, and the haughty violence he was displaying and the wrong-headedness that I attributed to some of his acts made me despair of his ever regaining his

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power. Nobody else appeared to me to possess the qualities for a leader in our cause so eminently as Mitchel. O’Brien has indeed excellent qualities, --firmness, honour, clear judgment, love for Ireland, public spirit, and very respectable powers as a writer and speaker: but he wants elan, fierce activity or indefatigable persistence in effort, above all that feeling of the necessity of ceaselessly----I can’t properly express my meaning I wish to say that O’Brien, while assuming perfect freedom for his own opinions about politics, seems to think it right to leave to other men to form their opinions without his interference, and rather waits for their invitation before he will act for them. Whereas a leader for our cause must not only allow recognise perfect liberty of opinion in other men, but yet exert all his influence to keep before them the reasons for the national opinion, to inspire them with the hopes, the pity, the shame, the love, all the feelings which may band them together and organise them to conquer our independence. He must have a divine impulse which keeps him ever at the work of the leader, though he need not be aware that he is a leader, though he need not be at all deficient in the modesty & gentlemanly feeling which make O’Brien keep back and behave with too much reserve. Ah Davis! ---

Losing very much of the confidence I had reposed in Mitchel, I lost also nearly all of those vague hopes I had allowed to flutter before my fancy during my captivity---hopes that I myself, were I in Europe or America and free though in exile, might do something for the cause. It was partly that I had always counted on cooperating with Mitchel, on having the national ranks broken up no further than by the acts & victory of the Enemy and susceptible of being brought again into cooperation at least morally and partly that I had permitted myself to be deceived into regarding the physical obstacles of my captivity as the only ones which could

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keep me inactive and useless. –When I arrived in Paris and read the Irish newspapers and observed the interest taken by the Irish in the Russian War then raging, my disappointment grew worse & worse. I saw that great progress had actually been made towards the denationalisation of Ireland. So many thousands of those men who actually were nationalists, and of those who from their youth, spirit, & social position were most likely to become nationalists, had emigrated. So general a demoralisation had been caused by the famine and the industrial anarchy that accompanied it. The mass of the people were as yet delighted to get enough of the coarsest food, and remembering the famine, felt such a state of things prosperity. The famine itself, though generally felt by the people to be the work of the English rule, was hardly charged by anybody against England as a crime to be punished or as a wrong to be avenged. The crime & wrong were on so grand a scale that people knew not how to class them and so let the matter pass as something for which there was no fitting punishment or vengeance. But what vexed me most in the public opinion of Ireland was the war-spirit that seemed to exist there in reference to the quarrel of the French & English Governments with the Russian. When I reflected a letter I admitted that this spirit, however absurd & despicable, was not to be wondered at.