James Fintan Lalor

“ I have long seen and felt—what every man who retains, in this most contagious country, the use of his own mind, and of his own senses, to see, to hear and to judge for himself, perceives—the absolute necessity which exists, that all agitation for political objects should entirely cease, before any improvement can be effected in the condition of the Irish people. I am most anxious that the present Repeal-movement should be speedily and safely suppressed—not imperfectly and for a period, but fully and for ever. ”

“ I cannot help considering that I am— from facilities of position and other circumstances better acquainted with the existing movement—its extent, strength, leaders, motives, means and intentions—than most, or perhaps than any one, of those whose means of information are at the service of Her Majesty’s Ministers. I can scarcely conceive, more especially, that any person holding an official situation can possibly know the agitation or the agitators so thoroughly and truly as I do. They see only the exterior of that agitation—I see its interior. ”

“ I am inclined to fear, however, that it may possibly not be such as can altogether be relied upon for enabling Her Majesty’s Government to see the facts of the present movement in their true dimensions and colours, or to form a correct estimate of the effects likely to follow any particular line of action. ”