respectfully brought under their notice. As a matter of course, all official interference of priest or bishops against us will be condemned also. And these results will suffice for us: because if once the people are permitted to reflect upon the merits of our cause, the delusion under which they labour must vanish; and they will be driven to think on the merits when priestly support, on which alone they now pillow their consciences, shall have slipped from under them."
The project was finally carried out, but without any result worth pausing upon.
This was the editor's room in 1847. The tumult of passion on a battle-field scarcely transcends the torpor of ordinary existence more than the vivid sense of life which beats in the pulses of men who hope to accomplish memorable changes. There was no rivalry among the young men, not only because there was a spirit above personal aims, but because every man's place was ascertained and acknowledged. He had had a free field, and faisait son fait according to his gifts. If he did new and unexpected work, as sometimes happened, it was credited to him with no more cavil or contumacy than a sum placed to one's credit by his banker.
My health, which was never robust, gave way under the long strain of responsibility, and I was ordered a few weeks' rest. I projected taking it in the North of England, but a strong remonstrance from my colleagues in London altered my determination, and I made my way to them.
"My dear Friend,—You are ill, and out of spirits; won't be in Dublin for a week, and are within an hour's journey of this. Now listen to me. Put that trash about idling us out of your head. Come here. I have a great deal to say to you. Pigot has a great deal to say to you. Lucas has an enormous deal to say to you, and you have, or ought to have, a vast deal to say to the ' True Thomas.' Indeed if it were for nothing else but to get a cup of tea from Mrs. T. T., you ought not to hesitate. You sha'n't idle us. I will work in Chambers every day till three or four. In the meantime you may be with Lucas a-sauntering through the National Gallery, or collecting books from your friend Peitheram in Chancery
