146 IRISH REPEAL MEETING. [CHAP. XI. 



They speak also with kindness of the Irish, saying they are 

 most willing to work hard, keep their temperance vows, and, in 

 spite of the considerable sums drawn from them by the Catholic 

 priests, are putting by largely out of their earnings into the 

 Savings Banks. It is also agreed that they are most generous to 

 their poor relations in Ireland, remitting money to them annually, 

 and sometimes enough to enable them to pay their passage across 

 the Atlantic. At the same time they confess, with much con 

 cern, that the efforts now making by the people at large, aided 

 by the wealthiest class, to establish a good system of state 

 instruction, and to raise the moral and intellectual character of 

 the millions, must be retarded by the intrusion of so many rude 

 and ignorant settlers. Among other mischiefs, the political 

 passions and party feelings of a foreign country are intruded into 

 the political arena, and a tempting field laid open to demagogues 

 of the lowest order. 



Returning home one night after dark from a party, I heard 

 music in a large public building, and, being told it was a repeal 

 meeting held by the Irish, had the curiosity to look in. After a 

 piece of instrumental music had been performed, an orator, with 

 an Irish accent, addressed the crowd on the sufferings of the 

 Irish people precisely as if he had forgotten on which side of the 

 Atlantic he then was. He dwelt on the tyranny of the Saxons, 

 and spoke of repeal as the only means of emancipating their 

 country from British domination, and solicited money in aid of 

 the great cause. Seeing, with no small surprise, an industrious 

 native-born artisan of Boston, whom I knew, in the crowd, I 

 asked him, as we went out together, whether he approved of the 

 objects of the meeting. He belonged to the extreme democratic 

 party, and answered, very coolly and quite seriously, &quot; We hope 

 that we may one day be able to do for Ireland what France did 

 for the United States in our great struggle for independence.&quot; 



On my return home, I found that my pocket had been picked 

 of a purse containing fortunately a few dollars only, an accident 

 for which I got no commiseration, as my friends hoped it would 

 be a lesson to me to keep better company in future. 



That a humble mechanic of Boston should be found who 



