The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-07-15
From. the American Ceh.
. Witt to Thomas Francis Meagher.

.one1Iv in the chief cities of the Union. The
citizens of Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Al
bany and Cincinnati, have already invited him.
with great cordiality, to visit them. we oeheVe
MIR. Meagher has not concluded to make tour
of the country under present clrcumstances.-
He thinks-and to us his reflections seem very
prudent-that there is no good object in an agi-
tation of that sort while, very anxious to show
his regard for every kind, he is not the sort OF
man to sell his reputation for the hasty and
honest, but often empty, acclamations of an
evening meeting. 1t is his intention, We under
stand. to proceed to some European country
where he can have convenient interview with
his relatives now in Ireland, and then, rejoined
by his noble-spirited wife, to return and make
America his home.
Among those most anxious TO see him may be
counted many of our readers. As they have
often consented to see with our eyes, we desire
to extend to them the benefit of our late visit to
the fortunate ex-exile of Van Dieman's Land.
One evening last week, accompanied by some
Boston and New York friends, we found Meagh-
er in his retreat, at Glencove, Long Island. 1t
was four years, lacking month, since we had
last met In that time he had undergone much
of experience, and we expected to find him more
changed in manner than in person. But the
chief changes we noticed were his complexion of
the Indian sun, and certain roundness of the
side head, which bespoke still growing brain.
His CHEEKY blue eyes, his slightly English accent
(picked up at Stonyhurst) and his square figure,
(''frm- as the statute of an orator. were the
same TO O hair We would pronounce him a
and bodily, than when we heard him four years
ago, swaying the multitudes in his native ISL
and
1t is not for us to repeat the details of pri-
vate conversation, but the reports which Mr..
Meagher gave of his companions in captivity,
have public interest. O'Dougherty, we learned,
is physician to aprivate charity at Hobart Town,
and doing well Martin is teaching an academy,
and equally respected Mitchell is farming
and educating his children. His hereditary i'll
health has greatly improved in the delicious eli
mate of the island but, it is needless to add,
he is far from happy in such alife-in-de land,
even though perfumedby the aroma of the gum
tree.
What shocked US, was the account of Smith
O'Brien. He told us, that noble man. not yet
in his fftieth year, had grown quite stopped and
gray, and was periodically affected with COM
plants Of the heart. Reader we remember
him straight as a lance and sound as a bell
No heart ache had Smith OBren till the famine
and oppression of Ireland gave it to him. And
this is the man, singular in his order for devo-
ton of his country, that the Scotch shadow of
the English Queen dares to denounce in Dublin
iS tba bo hoo br1t lrovu
his damask curtains down, and shut out the
cries of the poor in '48, to be a stiff magnate in
his own land instead of being an outlaw at the
antipodes. This is the man whose sole crime
was that he could not look on at the slaughter
of mere peasants, without feeling his heroic
blood in his arm, raising one cry for ''rescue !
rescue :" gentleman, nobly descended a
man Of intellect, highly educated a statesman
thoroughly versed in great affairs what has he
come to be ? The prey of vile police, the pitt
ed of the very felons, who, before they saw him,
were deemed incapable of another emotion of
pity People of America, behold the penalty
of patriotism under the scepter of Victoria =
Why is Smith O'Brien doomed to death III u ras-
cal colony Why does his wife mourn her wild
owhood in the spacious halls of his fathers .
Why are his five children faith herless in the land
of his and their birth Answer, ye hypocrites
-ye zealOts for Anglican alliance. Answer
ex-exle of Kuytaha, if there is truth left in
you. Tell us before, you 60, how to account
this conduct of your ''Queen on the throne who
represents the principle of liberty?" Here is
man good and brave and noble-no half-bred
Slovack-no scheming notary. Has your pro-
gramme no place for him, Oh Apostle of Solidar-
tie ? Have you no recollection of him. you
prompt redressers of all reported European
wrongs.
But why need we ask, such questions. The
age likes to be humbugged, and it will be- A
man with only great virtues and sufferings to
recommend him, is easily overlooked. He can
not make party, out of his personal wrongs.
He will not go into Mysteries at way stations
and take regular convulsons at grand functions.
Alas F.. the age has no consciousness of unosten-
banished and welcome. Some theatrical Cymon
snowy Alcibiades, suits it best Democracy
with feather in his hat and a suite, and SEN
try, and bonds, is the Democracy to be honored
and tete'd. Patriotism in chains and expatria-
ton, is too troublesome and too commonplace
any longer to excite our exhaused sympathes.
1t is a lesson for US all to see Louis Kossuth
on his way to protection and patronage in Lon
don, while Smith O'Brien is sinking under a
cruel persecution in Australia 1t is lesson