his pen. All that had a tendency to elevate and ennoble, he rescued from
the past to infuse into the future. His songs, so soft and tender, and
yet so redolent of manliness and hope, inspired the ambition to compose
a minstrelsy as wild and vigorous as themselves. They were read and
learned and sung with an avidity and pride heretofore unknown.

The monster meetings were long a design of Thomas Davis, John Dillon and
the present writer. One great object with them was to train the country
people to military movements and a martial tread. This object it would
be unsafe to announce, and it was to be effected through other agencies
than drill. The people should necessarily come to such rendezvous in
baronial, parochial or town processions, and under the guidance of local
leaders. Order is a law of nature; and, without much trouble on the part
of those leaders, it would establish itself. The present writer left
Dublin early in the spring of 1843 to carry this design into effect. Sir
Robert Peel, then Prime Minister of England, alluding to the fact in the
House of Commons, said that the first Monster Meeting was purposely
held on the anniversary of the very day, the 22nd of May, destined for
the rising of '98. Sir Robert was wrong in his inference, though it was
a natural and nearly justifiable one; for at that Cashel meeting were
offered unmistakable evidences of the tendency of the agitation. Upwards
of £1,100 were handed to Mr. O'Connell. Each parish came in procession,
headed by a band and commanded by some local leader; and those who took
part in the public procession marched in excellent order for upwards of
eight miles. A military and magisterial meeting had been previously held
in the barracks of Cashel to consider whether the people should not be
routed at the point of the bayonet. But though the committee were fully
aware of this consultation, they decided unanimously that the meeting
should go on. The meeting itself passed the strongest resolutions, and
adopted a petition to the Legislature, consisting of a single line,