which startled thoughtful and unthinking men alike.  He had previously made an able and sincere effort in the Irish Council to compel the landlord class to some redeeming act of good sense and good will, which their own true interests required as well as the agonies of the starving tenantry.  He was met by ignorance, stolidity and scorn.  A timid and narrow measure of improvement in the relation between landlord and tenant had been proposed, and ably supported by Messrs. Ferguson, Ireland and O’Loghlen; and such was the obstinate aversion to all amelioration, on the part of the landlords, that they abstained from resisting Mr. Mitchel’s amendment, lest they would be thereby committed to the milder reform proposed by Mr. Ferguson.  His motion was lost only by a majority of two several of the five-pound Repeal representatives, who brawled at tenant-right meetings, and one member of the Confederation, Mr. M’Gee, being included in the majority.

The result of the division produced a marked change in Mr. Mitchel’s career.  His lectures on land-tenure in Europe, displayed the bold outlines and distinctive characteristics of his principles.  His hopes from the Irish landlords, of whatever shade of politics, had ever afterwards vanished.  He believed them incapable of being influenced by commonsense or good feeling; and he turned to the people, with full confidence in their fidelity and strength.  All further attempts to conciliate the upper classes, he regarded as foolish, feeble and cowardly.  He continued to reassert the substance of his lectures in another form, in the pages of the Nation, of which he was at the time editor-in-chief—­that is, of which he wrote the greatest portion, especially of its leading articles.  Some of these articles gave rise to a difference of opinion between him and Mr. Duffy, who, as responsible owner and editor, had the sole control of the Nation.  There were not wanting men to take advantage of the difference and fan the flame.  Charles Duffy had messages conveyed to him, to the effect that a rumour was abroad charging him with treachery; and to John Mitchel, perhaps by the same agents of dissension, it was stated that he, too, was suspected.  It is unfortunately characteristic of Irishmen to be suspicious; and it was the object of one of Mr. O’Connell’s eternal lessons to perpetuate and extend this degrading national vice.  Whether the representations made to either of these friends were the result of national prejudice, or proceeded from a baser motive, it is scarce worth while to inquire.  A separation ensued.  Mr. Reilly adopted the resolution of his friend Mr. Mitchel.  Mr. M’Gee adhered to Mr. Duffy; and a new career and distinct fortunes opened to the enterprise of the four men, whose united efforts elevated the popularity of the Nation to a height never before enjoyed by an Irish journal.