awakened not merely some alarm, but also some sense of justice in
England.

Gladstone admitted that what first prompted him to set in motion the
movement for the disestablishment of the Irish Church was "the intensity
of Fenianism." But the result did not end there. For many an Englishman
was moved to the belief that surely there must be something wrong with a
system which provoked such a movement, something not wholly bad about a
cause for which men went with calm, proud confidence to the felon's cell
or the scaffold. And, even to-day, England--with all her secret service
facilities--does not know one-half of the danger from which she escaped;
nor can I repeat much of what I myself could say of Fenianism in
England.

There are men who have made large fortunes in business; there are
eminent men in many of the professions, whose former connection with
Fenianism is unsuspected, who, at the time, if the call had been made
upon them, would cheerfully have thrown aside their careers and taken
their places in the ranks.

Once again "a soul came into Ireland," and men were capable then of high
enterprises which to-day seem to belong to another age.

Even for myself, I have many times marvelled how light-heartedly in
those days I took the risks of conspiracy--how little it troubled me
that there were dozens of men who bore my liberty, and perhaps my life,
in their hands. But I never doubted them--and I was right!