Meantime, Mr. O’Connell returned to the Hall, and repeated to a jaded audience, week after week, the same stale list of grievances.  From any other man the repetition would be intolerable.  But the public ear had become attuned to his accents, to which, whatever the sense of his language, men listened as to a messenger of heavenly tidings.  Mr. Duffy strongly urged upon his fellow labourers the improbability of success, and advised a distinct change of policy.  In this he was overborne by their united opinion, and the Nation continued to promulgate the same bold, unwavering course.  By degrees the feeling of bitterness entertained by the anti-education section of the priests found utterance, and the paper was, almost openly, denounced as an infidel publication.  At first indeed, the charge was shrouded in mysterious insinuations; but it soon gained strength and audacity, and received the unblushing sanction of at least one prelate.  The answer of the Nation was confined to one indignant line.  Proof was demanded and was not offered; but its very absence only deepened the malignity of the slanderers.  Even in the midst of this storm the muse of Thomas Davis sang no discordant strain, nor did his pen trace one angry word.  On the contrary, he summoned his whole energies to the task of harmonising the jarring elements around him.  His inspiration rose to that unearthly height, whereon guidance becomes prophecy.  Great, strong and unselfish convictions, entertained holily and uttered sincerely, are assurances of new creations, pledges of the destiny to which they tend.  In this spirit, spoke and sang Thomas Davis during a time of bitterness and dissension.  And his counsels had been successful, but alas! in that last effort his fond, faithful, trusting heart was broken.

There was a perceptible lull in the agitation.  The country gradually relapsed into a state of inactive and vague hope, which centred in the mental resources of Mr. O’Connell.  The difficulties which the people should have appreciated and learned to overcome, they transferred, with easy and trusting indifference, to the energies of the “Liberator,” which they not only deemed boundless but immortal.  From all educated and thoughtful men, however, hope in those energies had passed away.  Davis seduously endeavoured during the summer months of 1845, to gather these, and others of the same class from the Conservative ranks, round some common object or endeavour, outside Mr. O’Connell’s path, and not calculated to wake their prejudice or jealousies.  The Art Union, the Archaeological Society, the Royal Irish Academy, the Library of Ireland, the Cork School of Design, the Mechanics’ Institute and every effort and institution, having for their aim the encouragement of the nation in arts, literature and greatness, engaged his vigilant and embracing care.  Of each of these institutions he became the great attraction, the real centre and head.  While he successfully wrought