August, 1875.I am going to. Dublin to-day, to attend the O'Connell Centenary. I sent an apology and hoped to evade the noise and trouble, but the Committee sent me a resolution entreating me to go as O'Connell's fellow-prisoner of '44, and the Lord Mayor came to me in London on the subject, and finally I had to give in. I will remain about a month in Ireland to pay a few visits, for which I have accepted invitations, and to visit my mother's grave. The Irish in Melbourne sent me a letter, asking me to represent them on the occasion, and it reconciles me to the trouble of going, that I will not disappoint them. I will take a look at Merton and Whitehall, for sake of "Auld lang syne"; and at Richmond Penitentiary. Newgate has just been carted away as rubbish, and the old Nation office has passed to other purposes. And what a sweep of men within a little time—Dillon, Moore, Mitchel, Martin, John Gray, Wilson Gray, and Arthur O'Hagan, dead since I was there last!
Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, August 15th.I write to you from Dublin while the things I have seen and heard here are fresh in my memory. About public proceedings, I send you the newspapers. I have only to add that a number of Bishops and other influential people strongly urged on me again to go into Parliament, but I am less disposed than ever to do so. The day I arrived I had an invitation to dine, the first open day, with an Australian lady, who has married the eldest son and successor of Sir John Gray; and who should she prove to be but Carrie Chrisholm. She is a charming young woman but rather an invalid just now. Her mother has not left her bed for years. Fancy a vigorous woman like Mrs. Chrisholm bedridden!
I went to visit Merton[1] and found new people, who have recently purchased it, in possession. I went up to a grave old lady, who was giving directions to a gardener, took off my hat, and told her that this house had great interest for me, as it was there I brought home my young wife long ago. The old lady was quite touched by such a sentiment, and carried me to every part of the house and grounds. Perhaps she was once a young bride, but it was long ago!
Every one asked whether you were in London or Paris, and could scarcely be persuaded that you were in Melbourne. So that I had to announce I was going to rejoin you there forthwith, or I would probably have been ducked in the Liffey—for this is a very chivalrous nation.
The O'Connell Centenary promised to be a triumphant success. Dublin was full of deputations sent to represent a hundred cities, towns, and hamlets, and a vast number of stalwart men came to take part in the procession to his monument.
Princes and ecclesiastics from Germany and France, who sympathised either with the great Catholic or the great Nationalist arrived to grace the occasion, and the recognition of Ireland as an ancient, pious, and indestructible nation promised to be complete. But in all our annals before and since the spirit of faction has played a fatal part, and when I arrived in Dublin I found the committee of the Centenary
- ↑ Our former residence near Dublin.
