administered to the great projector of " simple" remedies just mentioned.

Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of undesirable notoriety, printer and "publiciste" of New York, proprietor of the New York Herald newspaper, a fruitful repertory, according to all accounts, of calumnies, personal attacks of all kinds, and scurrility of the most shameless description, had the powers of face to present himself for admission to one of the meetings of the Repeal Association at which my father personally attended.

The card of this "distinguished stranger" was handed in to Mr. O'Connell, accompanied by the information that it was that of " an American gentleman" desirous of witnessing the proceedings of the great popular Association of Ireland, and making the personal acquaintance of its founder and originator. Not looking with sufficient attention at the name, or in the hurry of the interruption not at once recollecting what he had heard respecting the individual who bore it, Mr. O'Connell desired him to be conducted in at once. To understand the dramatic effect of the short scene that followed, it is necessary to premise with a short description of the manner in which admission

to the reserved seats near the chairman, and therefore the posts of honour, was arranged.

The old "Great Room" of the Corn Exchange Buildings is an oblong quadrangle, entered by three doors, two of them at either corner of one of the smaller sides of the quadrangle; and the third a large folding door in the centre of the other and opposite smaller side. This latter door, however, which opened upon a great staircase, leading down to the corn merchants' hall on the ground-floor, was not only entirely unused by the Association, but was, in fact, barred by a mountain of benches, rising from the floor to within a few feet of the ceiling, and destined, of course, for the accommodation of parties attending the meetings, Of the two other doors at the other end, one (the larger of the two) was appropriated for the admission of the general crowd of the auditory; the other (a small narrow closet-like door, leading from the Committee and office rooms,) was reserved for the entry of the chief members, mem¬ bers of the Committee, the usual speakers, strangers, and reporters of the press.

As the Chair stood rather more than two-thirds up the room, and away from the entrance doors,

the use of this small private door would have been little, if some kind of private passage were not also managed, whereby the privileged could get to their seats, without having to struggle through the crowd of the general attendants at the meetings. This was accomplished by giving them admission under the tiers of side benches, which rose in a similar manner and for a similar purpose as the end benches before mentioned, from the floor to a good height on the side walls. A party entering, then, through the little door in question, advanced along the wall of the room fully twothirds of its length without being seen at all; his way leading him, as has been described, under the side benches, the backs of which were all carefully boarded up, to prevent any of the sitters on them from dropping down into the passage below. Arrived so far, a sharp turn brought the party out into view, close by the seat of the chairman ; when, if it was a stranger, or any one to whom the leaders of that body wished to show a particular mark of attention, he was invited to cross the reporter's table, (that occupied the space between the side benches, for about fifteen feet of the floor of the room, in a direct line

welfare of the country, and the profits of all connected with the land in Ireland, had been a constant theme of our discussions in the Repeal Association from its beginning; and a thousand different suggestions and propositions had been brought forward from time to time, for the equitable settlement of this most difficult subject. A Committee of the Association, specially appointed for the purpose, was holding its sittings to consider and report upon these various plans; and it was their published advertisement, inviting communications from all who conceived themselves competent to shape out a measure of relief or remedy, that brought upon us the visitation I am about to allude to.

My father was absent from town upon the day in question, having to attend one of the great country meetings many miles away. We had just entered upon the ordinary routine of our business, after reading and confirming the minutes, and some short speeches had been made, and remittances handed in, when it was announced to us that Mr. William Connor, who had become known by his public letters on the landlord and tenant question, in the Repeal newspapers, was

outside, and was desirous of being admitted, in order to have an opportunity of laying before the Association, and before the country, his particular nostrum for a full, final, and, to all parties, satisfactory arrangement.

He was of course admitted without delay" to the honours of the sitting," as our French neighbours phrase it; and got a few cheers on entering by way of an advance on the security of his grand promised plan to take us out of the difficulty in which we were, of satisfying the impatience of the rural districts, and their appeals to us at headquarters, for the shaping out of a measure that would remove the heavy grievance of which they complained.

He commenced his speech with a proposition that no one was inclined to contest or deny. It was something as follows:

"Mr. Chairman: I am of opinion that the simpler the remedy can be that shall be applied to the distracted state of the relations between landlord and tenant in Ireland, the better for all parties."

So far there was general agreement; and Peel himself was never more vociferously cheered in