He said, the language of Mr. Meagher was so dangerous to the
Association, that it must cease to exist, or Mr. Meagher must cease to
be a member of it. Mr. Meagher again essayed to speak, but failed to
obtain a hearing. Mr. John O'Connell continued: Unless, he said, those
who acted with Mr. Meagher stood by the Peace Resolutions, they must
adopt other resolutions and another leader; upon which Mr. O'Brien and
the Young Ireland party abruptly left the Hall, amid much excitement and
confusion. They never returned to it: the rupture was complete.
Thus, at a most critical moment, standing between two years of fearful,
withering famine, did the leaders of the Irish people, by their
miserable dissensions, lay that people in hopeless prostration at the
mercy of the British Cabinet, from which, had they remained united, they
might have obtained means of saving the lives of hundreds of thousands
of their countrymen.[106]
It matters but little now which party was in the right and which in the
wrong. Looking back, however, through the cool medium of a quarter of a
century, it would seem that each side had something of right to support
its views. In the earlier part of his career, O'Connell did not disclaim
the use of physical force, nor denounce the employment of it, in the
cause of liberty, as it became his habit to do towards the close of his
life; and if ever he did so, it was usually after telling his audience,
as Mr.
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