74 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



cause fear and keep up excitement, sometimes quite 

 melodramatic. This was the object intended, and 

 nothing else. 



If any one wishes to see what the movement was 

 worth, let him read the narrative in Fraser's Maga- 

 zine for July 1872, of the man calling himself 

 General Cluseret. He had been mixed up in the 

 American war, and in divers revolutionary out- 

 breaks in Europe, and was supposed to have some 

 military skill. The Fenians had proposed to him to 

 take the command in Ireland, and he came to Lon- 

 don for that purpose. But first, he asked to be 

 satisfied that 10,000 men were armed and in some 

 degree organised. Afterwards he reduced Ms demand 

 to 5000 men. There were neither one nor the other, 

 nor any number of men, either armed or ready to 

 take arms. His contempt expressed for the whole 

 affair is the best comment on it. 



The true cause of the weakness of Fenianism and 

 all such movements in Ireland, and indeed of many 

 other miscliiefs of very different kinds, is the w^ant 

 of truth in the Irish character. Of course, there are 

 exceptions, but speaking generally there is no truth 

 amongst them, hardly more in one class than in 

 another. It is a main cause of the troubles of the 

 country, but it also draws the teeth of seditious 

 movements. The very quickness and cleverness of 

 the Irish, wliich is most striking and admirable, adds 

 to the effect of this want of truth. Every one at 



