10,000 was considered a very imposing display. We had not yet arrived at the "monster meetings." (O'Connell's usual travelling companions during the busiest period of the agitation, were Dr. Gray, proprietor of the Freeman's Journal; Richard Barrett, proprietor of the Pilot; Robert Dillon Browne, M. P. for Mayo; Mr. Steele, Mr. Ray (the Secretary of the Association), John O'Connell, and Charles O'Connell, of Ennis. I often formed one of the travelling party until 1843; but in that year so many meetings sprang up, which I was deputed to attend on the part of the Association, that I found it nearly impossible to accompany O'Connell to any of the celebrated "monster" assemblages. For instance, on the very day of the enormous Tara meeting at which 1,200,000 were assembled, I attended a meeting at Clontibret, in the County Monaghan, at which an experienced reporter computed that 300,000 persons were present. Such a gathering would at anyother time have excited a good deal of public notice; but it was quite thrown into the shade by the unprecedented muster which O'Connell addressed on the same day at Tara.)

O'Connell gave me a history of his journey from Darrynane to Killarney, on the 3rd of October, 1840. He had risen at six, and hunted across the mountains from Darrynane to Sneem. He detailed

with the greatest minuteness the day's hunt, describing each turn and double of the hare. "The hounds," said he, "were at fault for a few minutes, and a hulking fellow exclaimed: 'The good-fornothing dogs have lost the scent!' You vaga

bond!' cried I, 'have you got no better business than to be abusing my dogs?' I had scarcely said this, when a dog recovered the scent, and was joined by the whole pack in full cry. The fellow looked foolish enough."

He narrated these little incidents with an eagerness and minuteness that evinced the interest he took in his favourite sport.

He was, as usual, full of anecdote. One of his odd stories was about a miss Hussey, to whom her father bequeathed 1507. per annum, in consideration of her having an ugly nose.

"He had made a will," said O'Connell, “disposing of the bulk of his fortune to public charities. When he was upon his death-bed, his housekeeper asked him how much he had left miss Mary? He replied that he had left her 1000l., which would do for her very well, if she made off any sort of a good husband. Heaven bless your honour!' cried the housekeeper, and what decent man would ever take her with the nose she has got?'—'Why, that is really very true,' replied the dying father; I never

thought of her nose;' and he lost no time in adding a codicil, that gave miss Mary an addition of 1507. a year as a set-off against her ugliness."

He gave a humorous sketch of the mode in which a country friar had, in 1813, announced a meeting on the Veto:

"Now, ma boughali,' said the friar, you haven't got gumption, and should therefore be guided by them that have. This meeting is all about the veto, d'ye see. And now, as none of ye know what the veto is, I'll just make it all as clear as a whistle to yez. The veto, you see, is a Latin word, ma boughali, `and none of yez undherstands Latin. But I will let you know all the ins and outs of it, boys, if you'll only just listen to me now. The veto is a thing that -You see, boys, the veto

is a thing that

to be held about.

that the meeting

-that the meeting on Monday is

(Here there were cheers, and cries of 'hear! hear!) The veto is a thing that

-in short, boys, it's a thing that has puzzled wiser people than any of yez! In short, boys, as none of yez are able to comprehend the veto, I needn't take up more of your time about it now; but I'll give you this piece of advice, boys: just go to the meeting, and listen to Counsellor O'Connell, and just do whatever he bids yez, boys!"

We talked of the points of resemblance between the political condition of Ireland and that of Scotland.

"I do not feel sure," said I, "that the Union did Scotland any good; that is, that the Union gave her any thing that she might not have got without it."

“It gave her free trade,” replied O'Connell.

"I am aware of that; but I do not see why the Scotch could not have obtained free trade for themselves without the Union, as the Irish did in 1779? The American war, which afforded to us such a favourable opportunity, must have afforded a like opportunity to the Scotch."

"Quere de hoc?" said O'Connell. "If it had not been for the Union, which gave England the command of the military force of Scotland, it is possible that England would never have dared to go to war with America at all. However, I grant you," he added, "that it is not now in our power to say but that Scotland might have worked out free trade for herself; if not on that occasion, at least at some other favourable juncture. But we must not forget that the Union conferred free trade on Scotland, fully seventy years before the American war; so that it afforded scope to Scotsmen for commercial enterprise for the greater part of a century earlier than they might otherwise have obtained it."

This was doubtless true. But it is equally true that the crushing blow to national enterprise, na

tional spirit, and national pride, inflicted by the demolition of the Scottish Legislature, paralysed the energiesof the Scottish people to such an extent, that the commercial privileges conferred by the Union treaty, were scarcely availed of by the great mass of the nation for fully half a century. During that long period, the unpopularity that attached to the Union seems to have tainted the solitary benefit it contained.

It will also be conceded by all who are conversant with the history of Scotland for the last century, that the Union in all probability cost the empire two disastrous civil wars. It appears unquestionable that of those who took arms in 1715 and 1745, a large number were actuated more by the desire of regaining their parliament than restoring the Stuarts. When conversing on this subject with O'Connell, I once expressed some surprise that the Scotch of the present day did not try to recover the privilege of home legislation.-" One reason why they don't," said he, "is because the fellows have got no Daniel O'Connell among them."

He was a zealous advocate of Mary Queen of Scots against all the accusations levelled at her character. His enthusiasm for her memory was very great. "I saw her manuscript," said he, "in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh; I kissed the writing, and pressed it to my heart!"

Passing from Killarney to Mill-street, O'Connell