Mitchel determined to get out of New York for a time, and to take his family to the sea. It was arranged between Mitchel and his friend, John Dillon, that the two families should go together to a place called Stonington, in Connecticut. This was one of the regular watering-places for New Yorkers, "occupied by vast hotels or public boardinghouses, where people live in crowds, as New Yorkers delight to live, and where the main occupation of the women is dressing, that of the men lounging and smoking, with their heels upon a balcony rail."

The society at Stonington was far too Puritanical for Mitchel; yet some of the people there were disposed to be social and friendly after their fashion :

It happened that there were two or three professors of what are called here "colleges" amongst the guests; and these, when they found out who Mr. Dillon and I were, showed a disposition to enter into conversation with us. It appeared that they were particularly delighted with me on account of my letters to Archbishop Hughes. They praised my style of writing—had the kindness to bid me stick to that, and came out with a good deal of mere vulgar Protestantism on the occasion. This was highly offensive to me; and I opened upon their Protestantism in a manner which made Dillon laugh loud. My professors smiled also, in a dubious way. It was clear they thought they had lighted upon a very bright and intelligent maniac. They continued quite polite until we left Stonington; yet as they spoke to me the dubious smile was still there.

From Stonington he wrote to Miss Thompson on the 26th of August, a letter from which the following passage is extracted :

... We live (as all people at American watering-places do) in a huge hotel with a public table, the guests almost all descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, with a righteous horror of the South. They looked at me with a sort of obscure and grave horror at first, for I am a hissing to New England. Yet I have conciliated some of

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the dismal folk; and as for Jenny, she is a favourite. Amusements--boating, driving in hired conveyances to the neighbouring Connecticut villages, all clean, prim, and wooden as Stonington, bathing, for which the beach is not very favourable, and, by way of variety, there was last night a "fair" in the school-house attached to one of the churches, the sort of thing which in Ireland is called a bazaar, for selling knick-knacks to raise money for some congregational purpose. On the whole, I like Virginia much better than this region; and if I had only "a good plantation" there-- But I will not shock you.

After a stay of a few weeks at the seaside, during which they "derived from Stonington all the health and amusement it was calculated to afford," Mitchel and his family returned to New York.

During the remainder of the year 1854, and until Mitchel severed his connection with the Citizen, his outer life was uneventful. The course of his mental life, the subjects which mainly occupied his thoughts, can be traced in his writings in his paper. In the month of October he received the news of the unconditional release of Smith O'Brien and the other political prisoners in Van Diemen's Land. The fact of the pardon being unconditional was a surprise to the prisoners themselves; but Mitchel was not in a mood to allow much credit for this to her Majesty's ministers. A great meeting was convened at the Tabernacle in New York to adopt an address of sympathy with O'Brien. The requisition calling this meeting was signed by the mayor, the ex-mayor, and many of the leading citizens of New York. Mitchel had by this time learned to estimate these demonstrations at what they were worth. But, with all allowance for motives, he was much pleased with this O'Brien demonstration :—

On this occasion I am in high good-humour; forbear even to intimate that all the parade is only to make capital for certain

politicians with the multitudes of Irish voters. What if it be so? Is it not gratifying that the said politicians know they can make their capital with our people only by sympathizing with rebels and affronting the English Government?

The meeting was a marked success. The Tabernacle was crowded to its utmost capacity; and although the great majority of the meeting were Irish, there were upon the platform quite a number of prominent Americans. Mitchel and several of his friends were present :

Other associates of Mr. O'Brien were present-Meagher, O'Gorman, Doheny, Dillon, and the present writer. We were there to enjoy the scene, not to take part in it; but were all called upon imperatively by the audience; obliged, in short, to come to the front to say a few hearty words.

On the whole, I must admit, though hard to please, that the occasion was one of unmingled gratification. We knew well how these words of cheer, coming from the grand free city of New York, would soothe the spirit of the brave and impenitent rebel.

This was the last noteworthy public occasion in which Mitchel took part in New York for some considerable time. It was now near to the end of 1854, and Mitchel had been a year in America. He had learned a good deal during that time; and what he had learned had considerably chilled that enthusiasm for America and American institutions with which he had landed at San Francisco a year before. Above all, he had learned (what was new to him) that the United States was, in truth, inhabited by two distinct nations; and the whole bent of his nature led him to sympathize with the planters of the South rather than with the Puritans of New England. From the time of his first visit to Virginia he had wished for a residence in the south; and many motives now combined to make him anxious to leave New York. Amongst these motives was one not uncommonly found with men of genius. He

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expressed the feeling afterwards in a letter to a friend by saying that every place is detestable while you are there. He had a high ideal of what human nature ought to be, though not, strictly speaking, of what human nature might be, since he never had much faith in the perfectibility of the species. Still, when he found that the motives and desires of the crowd amongst which for the time being he moved were, as a rule, "pretty mean," he became impatient, and indulged a sort of vague hope that he might find things better somewhere else.

I have already tried to describe and account for that eager, restless tendency which was so marked during the life in Van Diemen's Land. This tendency was now asserting itself again. Indeed, from the time John Mitchel was carried off from Ireland, he seemed incapable of settling down finally in any one place. He had a sort of feeling that Ireland was his natural home, and that nowhere else could he have rest.

none except the members of

But, besides causes that formed a part of his character, there were special reasons which induced Mitchel to throw up the Citizen and leave New York. His eyes became affected, and he was advised that for a time, at all events, he must give up work at the Citizen office. But even this might have been got over. The motive which finally decided Mitchel was known to his own family. He still continued to hope that affairs in Europe might take some sudden turn which would offer a chance for Ireland. He wished to be free to go over at once should the opportunity come. While his family were living in New York, and were depending on his pen for the means of living, he could not very well leave them. He wished to place them in such a way as would leave him free to go to Ireland in case the chance-so long wished for-were to come at last.

He turned his thoughts to the southern states. He had been told that the eastern part of Tennessee was a very beautiful country, and that land was to be had cheap there. He determined to move to East Tennessee, and to again try his hand at farming. It is true that his farming experiences in Van Diemen's Land had not been altogether pleasant. But he would never admit that this was a fair test. Any sort of life there would have been

intolerable to him.

With the close of the year 1854, Mitchel ended his connection with the Citizen. The paper was made over to McClenahan. In a parting address published in the paper, Mitchel bade farewell to his readers. After giving some account of his experiences as editor, he proceeds :—

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It is true that along with a great deal of sincere good-feeling, I have experienced a great deal of real, and much more fictitious, hostility. Probably I want prudence and "policy;" for on all sides I am credibly informed that I have made enemies. The Alabama plantation" swept off ten thousand readers at one blow. Archbishop Philo-Veritas, with his pastoral crozier, drew away a few thousands more. The Rev. Mr. Beecher.rushed upon me with his tomahawk at one side; some Catholic priests cursed me from their altars at the other. Now a zealous Irish Catholic wrote me an abusive letter; and now a true-blue Irish Orangeman sent me private intimation that he feared I would be assassinated. Yet the Citizen has survived. There has been proved to be enough of independent and honest feeling in the country to sustain such an organ as was needed. And I have some reason to believe that it may be still better sustained, and therefore more useful, when it is divested of that intense personality which, during my editorship, has attached to every article, every paragraph, almost every advertisement in the paper. It was all "John Mitchel," and therefore liable to all the disfavour and hatred which pursued that individual. Not so much the intrinsic truth or justice of what was said, but whether it became this John Mitchel to say it, was the thing generally considered.