19, Chesham Place, S.W., July 9, 1877.My dear Duffy,—I have been watching your public action with the deepest interest. I need not say that I rejoice at the honours you have won; the spontaneous support of your constituency and your elevation to a post which, in Australia as in England, must be one of the higher distinction. But rry feeling has not been unmixed—I fear that my hope of having you near me for the remainder of my life runs the risk of disappointment. Contracting new obligations and looking to new prospects, you may not realise your promise of return to Europe as your home, and I cannot help regretting that it may be so.
I read, with keen pleasure, the papers which you sent me. They show that your hand has not lost its cunning—they have all the old lucidity and power, and multiply your claims on the country of your adoption.
I have important news to tell you of myself. My little wife promises to give a companion to her daughter, who flourishes extremely: and the sad and sudden death of the heir of Townley will give her, when her father passes away, a third of the old estates which may, I suppose produce to us some £10,000 a year. The change is startling, and, in connection with the antecedents of my life, seems sometimes, to myself the marvel of a dream. God grant that we may rightly utilise it!
Shortly afterwards a telegram brought me the happy new of the birth of a son and heir. In December, '78, I wroto to him:—
Many thanks for your telegram which brought the pleasantest news that has come across the Pacific to me for many a long day. May the young O'Hagan be as wise and patriotic as the Brehons of Tyrowen, and a prosperous and consistent as the old steadfast Townleys. To train him for a public career will be a pleasant task for the rest of your life. But for the next half-dozen years he will belong to his mother, and I congratulate her with all my heart on the gift Heaven has sent her.
I fear there will be now little chance of your venturing on a long voyage till Thomas II. is out of his long clothes; else here is still the southern world worth exploring.
Of the few hereditary titles in Ireland which have survived the ages of ravish and ruin, one of the most noted is the MacDermott of Coolavin. The MacDermott of that day sent me a young man of our common race who was welcome on his account.
Although we have never met I claim you as allied to our ancient House still subsisting and likely to live true to the family motto! Had I no such claim, have I not, as an Irishman a potent claim on one who has by his talents and magnanimity shed lustre on the Celtic race, and made Ireland prominent—famous let me say—in many a clime and country by his courage and abilities. I make bold therefore to recommend to your notice the son of a peasant patriot, Mr. Thomas Roland, who first emigrated to Queensland but left for Melbourne. I undertake to assure you you will find young Roland worthy of any support you may give him directly or
