It was again, in its modified form, transmitted to Mr. O’Connell, and returned with his disapprobation.  Captain Broderick read a letter from him, to that effect, at a meeting of the committee, suddenly summoned on Monday, the 4th of May, a few hours only previous to the public meeting of the Association, deprecating the passing of the resolution in any form.  The present writer was the proposer of the resolution, and, feeling that he had already made too great a compromise, he refused to accede to this last request of Mr. O’Connell.  The resolution was proposed and adopted with acclamation, and a letter was read from Mr. O’Connell, by Mr. Ray, in which he stated that the resolution did not go far enough.

In the provinces, the timid policy of the Association was decried with bitterness, and the men who struggled, against great odds, to identify the whole island with Mr. O’Brien, and pledge it to sustain him to the last, were subjected to the most virulent denunciations.  Because the compromised resolution was moved, seconded, and spoken to by them, the whole country regarded them as the betrayers of their own avowed chief, and the violence with which they were attacked was unmeasured and unscrupulous.

They made no reply.  No unjust aspersions from a people in ignorance of the resistance offered to them, and the motives that influenced them, could induce them to explain the position they had taken.  But when they saw while they were subjected to the storm that Mr. O’Connell’s friends, on the authority of his published letter, took credit for neutrality, they resolved once more to test the question in a body, whose proceedings were of a more private character, and where the most marked difference of opinion could lead to no fatal result—­the Eighty-Two Club.  Mr. O’Connell was the president of this club, and Mr. O’Brien one of its vice-presidents.  A meeting was called.  The attendance was unusually large.  Men who had never before, and have never since, appeared at its meetings, were present.  The question proposed was that an address be presented to Mr. O’Brien, in which his principles and his conduct would be fully recognised, approved of and adopted.  This led to a discussion that lasted two days, but the motion was carried in the end by a majority of two to one.  One man, and one only, unconnected with Mr. O’Connell, either by personal friendship or personal obligations, voted against the resolution.  That man is Sir Colman O’Loghlen.  His name is mentioned, because he was the only member of the minority whose motives could be regarded as unquestionable.  For the rest, the minority was composed of Mr. O’Connell’s sons and relatives, with Mr. Ray and Mr. Crean, officers of the Association, and one or two members whom he had caused to be returned to Parliament, amounting to twelve.  A committee was appointed to prepare the address and resolutions, which were written by John Mitchel, and adopted by the committee without