Confederation, which had previously been in Manchester, were for
convenience removed to my place of business. As the executive meetings
and the meetings of the newspaper directors were held there, I
frequently had the pleasure of meeting under my own roof Irishmen who
either then were or afterwards became prominent members of the Irish
Parliamentary Party, including Isaac Butt, Charles Stewart Parnell, and
Joseph Biggar.

Mr. Biggar and I were always great friends. He had the reputation of
being close-fisted and penurious; but that this was not so I knew from
many circumstances, though it is quite true he would not allow himself
to be defrauded of a penny.

He became a Catholic in his later days. Though such of us as were of
the household of the faith welcomed him into the fold, his conversion
did not increase his value in our eyes--indeed, from a political point
of view, he was of more service to the cause as an Irish Protestant,
there being too few of them in our ranks. He had a fresh, pleasant,
shrewd-looking face, and spoke with a decided northern accent, which had
somewhat of a metallic ring. Some of his brother Members of Parliament
thought his "obstruction" methods highly ungentlemanly, but he believed
in fighting England with her own weapons. If good Irish measures were
not allowed to pass, he would throw every obstacle in the way of English
measures being carried. The tempest of rage that assailed him in the
"House" only added to his popularity outside. Not only was he an immense
favourite amongst Irishmen, but with democratic Englishmen also; and at
great mass meetings of English miners and agricultural labourers he
could always get resolutions carried by the honest, hard-handed sons of
toil in favour of the restoration of Ireland's rights.