"Peace!" Ireland answered "There is no peace." England sanctioned the outrage of the law. Ireland retorted with such puny outrage as it could. During a large portion of the seventeen years here under review, the government was very much or entirely under the control of Lord Palmerston. With trifling exceptions he was either Premier or an influential member of the cabinet. Perhaps that may have had something to do with the persistency of outrage and the secrecy with which it was carried on; for it is not unlikely that his well-known sympathies were calculated to stimulate the evictions and other agrarian miseries that abounded. To every effort to afford relief he firmly opposed all his influence. Tenant-right was much in demand and much talked of. His well-known answer that "tenant-right is landlord wrong" no doubt tended to justify to their consciences the deeds that so many landlords were engaged in. An indelible mark upon the period is that made by the census of 1861, the figures of which are almost as startling as those of the previous census: Population in 1851, Decrease, 6,515,794 5,764,543 751,251 So far, since O'Brien's time, resistance to the law seemed to be isolated. There was no considerable avowal or suspicion of systematic combination. To all appearance the authorities had only to contend with maddened individuals, and the government, with its army and its police, cared nothing for mere individuals. They could be easily put down. The period that was so dominated by Palmerston came to an end with his life. While yet "in harness," as he himself expressed it, and as he had often said he desired to be at such time, he died on the 18th of October, 1865, thus vacating the premiership with notable suddeness, leaving to others the heavier responsibilities that had, during his own rule, accumulated for a still more troubled future. CHAPTER XLII. THE FENIAN PERIOD. WHILE the seventeen years were passing away from 1849 to 1865, and the English government and English society were imagining vain things, under the false impression that they had finally put down organized sedition in Ireland, there was secretely hatching such a desperate conspiracy and organization as had never been known before. The conflict in the United States having come to an end, early in 1865, and its termination being signalized by the assassination of President Lincoln, that event closed a long period of exciting news that had served to fill the columns of the English papers to repletion for some years previously. It was at that period of editorial exigency that Fenianism opportunely turned up to fill the void caused by the withdrawal of the long-accustomed war-news from America. Amongst the associates of Smith O'Brien in 1848, who managed to escape official notice at that time, was James Stephens, who was destined in due time to make some ugly marks on the history of the United Kingdom. He was born at Kilkenny in 1824. His father was an auctioneer's clerk as well as a small farmer. In his earliest days he was noted for his thirst for knowledge. He excelled in mathematics and other accomplishments, became a civil engineer, and was engaged in the construction of the Limerick and Waterford Railway. On the completion of that line, he was thrown out of employment, migrated to Dublin, and became a Young Irelander. He spoke a little, wrote a little, but worked in other ways more effectually. cautious, and hence his evasion of the authorities. He was quiet and He was very pre ORGANIZATION BY STEPHENS. 299 possessing, with a graceful figure, a smooth bright face, and with a most persuasive manner. During the Ballingarry affair he was slightly wounded, and, falling into a ditch, became insensible or feigned to be so, and was hence passed by the police as dead. He deliberately lay for an hour or more, and then bandaged his wound, exchanged clothes with a sympathizing peasant, and so escaped arrest. Another of those who escaped on that day was Michael John Doheny, but he was already well known and described in the "Hue and Cry" as a "barrister, aged about forty, height, five feet eight inches, sandy hair, grey eyes, coarse red face like that of a man given to drink, high cheek bones, wants several of his teeth, very vulgar appearance, peculiar coarse unpleasant voice, small red whiskers, dresses respectably." Otherwise he is described as brave, resolute, and full of energy and resources. Stephens and Doheny were companions in flight, and had with them a sister-in-law of Doheny, who took refuge with them in woods and ravines, and led with them a life of great hardship and privation. Stephens supplied the most moral force, being described as exhibiting astonishing coolness, and continually cheering his companions with songs and jests. Their great ability in eluding discovery and yet in obtaining assistance from sympathizers, whom they contrived to communicate with, gave them courage and hopes of doing something worthy of notice immediately. One of their projects at this time was to kidnap the Premier, Lord John Russell, and he only escaped their attentions by leaving his quarters earlier than originally intended. A few days afterwards, they separately escaped on shipboard under most romantic circumstances, and soon met again in Paris, where they were joined by John O'Mahony. Doheny went to America, and settled in the United States as a barrister and journalist. Stephens and O'Mahony remained in France for several years. In Ireland there remained a secret band, including Thomas Clark Luby, James Fenton Lahor, Joseph Brenan, and Philip Gray. The four formed themselves into a directory" and awaited events. These men originated Fenianism. It began to be active about 66 1853, when Stephens ventured into Ireland and O'Mahony joined Doheny in America. Amongst them they contrived to form what seems to have been one of the most determined and successful conspiracies on record, extending through Ireland and amongst the Irish in all parts of the world, especially in the United States. The original idea upon which they worked, was an "Irish Republican Brotherhood." Fenianism was a name first adopted by O'Mahony in America, in 1859. Being derived from ancient Irish traditions, and being distinctive, it was immediately adopted everywhere as soon as suggested. Under that designation the conspiracy grew apace, and Fenians became extremely numerous before their existence, as such, was suspected by anybody outside their own circle. Stephens, having learned the ways of French and other continental politicians, brought them to the aid of his remarkable ability for his office, and contrived to enlist the sympathies of numerous classes. Of course the broad basis of operations was the agricultural tenant class, amongst whom rack-rents and evictions sowed the seed of sedition that Stephens so successfully cultivated, but beyond this he insinuated. himself into the good-will and steady co-operation of commercial travellers, medical students, and other active and well-instructed classes, amongst whom the letters I. R. B. soon became regarded as the symbols of that Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenianism, with which they hoped to shake off the hated government of England. That it really was a hated government, in the deepest and extremest sense, was the essence of the success; if that government had not been vehemently hated by at least four-fifths of the Irish population everywhere, the conspiracy could not have subsisted for a month. The distinctive characteristic of Fenianism from the first, was the avowed intention and desire to resort to physical force whenever possible, and the repudiation of all attempts at peaceful or constitutional procedure. The leaders were encouraged in this idea, and their adherents accepted it, as the essential and inevitable outcome of previous experience. Half a century of deliberately systematic wrong. had to be avenged, to say nothing of preceding ages. Peaceful, and ORGANIZATION BY STEPHENS. 301 humble, and so-called constitutional means, had been tried too often to be any longer trusted. Not once in all that half century had the English Government or the English Parliament done a generous thing, or made a genial concession. Not once in all that half century, had a majority of the English Parliament exhibited one grain of good feeling towards Ireland-not in the estimation of a single hair. As admitted in such forcible language by the Duke of Wellington, as testified of by the Devon Commission, as confirmed by acts and deeds, and clouds of witnesses, during any decade of the five, the English Government and the English Parliament had never conceded anything to the people of Ireland, except under the sordid influence of flagrant selfishness, or the stern compulsion of cowardly fear. "Everything that had been wrung from England had been torn from her false heart by the red hand of the murderer." Under the stimulus of such sentiments, the Fenian conspiracy rapidly took deep root in the congenial soil prepared for it, watered by the tears of the thousands of evicted-stimulated into abnormal growth by the carnival of systematic outrage that was being indulged in by the dominant classes, as sketched in the preceding chapter. Stephens very soon got to be universally regarded as the supreme chief. He had four vice-presidents (one for each province of Ireland) known as V's, whose business it was to appoint a "centre" for every district. Each centre was sworn that he withdrew all allegiance from the British monarch; would be faithful to the Irish Republic; would keep all the secrets of the Brotherhood, obey all the lawful commands of its officers, and be ready to take up arms at a moment's notice. Each centre was known by the letter A, and each A worked by means of captains, each of whom was known by the letter B. Each individual officer knew only the officer immediately above him and no other except by accident. So completely and cautiously was this carried out, and so general was the willingness to join, and so careful was the selection of individuals, that it is said there was never known an instance when a B or an A betrayed his trust. As the organization increased, the letters C and D were introduced, and F for friend, |