The Irish standard., 1894-02-10
James Stephens Says There We're
100000 Of Them in 1857, in
Guiding British Red Coats.
AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW.
The Ex-Head Centre Refutes the
Libels of a Writer in an Eng
lish Literary Review.

Telegraph, regarding the charges made
against the Fenian movement and him.
*saf by writer ia the Fortnightly
Review, signing himself "X." The para-
graph OF the Fortnightly article which
had special reference to Mr.. Stephens
WAS as follows:
"a tern Of obscure disorder ensued,
with nothing doing in parliament, but
with q marked activity among the police,
and with MF, James Stephens and Mr.
John O'Mahony looming from across the
Atlantic AZ ths heaven born leaders of
she Irish racs. They were highly vocal
rivas Ear tl,a privilege of freeing ireland
by force of asnas, and competed for pub
lic favor an.l subscriptions by loudly out
bidding esch other in the matter Of dates
and other vital details of their secret
conspiracy. It sounds comic enough,
but mauy hundreds of coniding mon
went to the scaHold or penal servlsnde
betore the joke was fully explained. 1t
Was only VIXEN the auditors uverhauled
the accounts of Meesrs. Stephens and
o C'Mahony chat he humor was laid bare.
The leaders had made money in one way.
Their hentenaats had proftsd in another
.,y marketing the so~called secrets OF the
organization 10 the home Office in White
hall. And SO there Yves a lifting end to
Fenianaaxa," ',@N.
THIS attention OF Mr.. Stephens was
drawn to these charges for the first time
hy the inGecvsewer, and he was at the
outset inclined TO treat the,n with con-
tempt. Having read the article in the
Fcrtuigdtly, slse old gentleman followed
with perasal Of Mr. Dayitt's reply in
the Speaker. @
Referring to the latter articls, he ex-
claimed: THAT is fcst.clase No reply
could DO Iettsr. 1t is quite true, as MIR.
Davitt says, THAI Colonel O'Mahony was
&, na st nnseIGsh man, VINO died without
3 half psnny III his possession -
''Then you quife concur in what Mr..
'Davitt says?"
"Not only so,' he replied, "but am
delighted with the force and vigor of his
article. AZ tbs same time could not
Smagine that Mr.. Davitt could write any
thing on che subject of our movement,
which would not be at once truthful and
honest @.
well, with regard to yourself, is there
any basis fer the inference conveyed by
the article that whom your accounts and
those of Mr.. O'MahoLy were overhauled
there was any discrepancy?
II can tell you" he said with emphasis,
sand no man alive can be better author
ity, that no such overhauliag OF joint or
separate accounts of Mr. O'Mahony and
myself ever took place. There never was
any question of 'oyerhauling,' and the
,raan who wrote that did not know what
he was writing about?"
"it ie an unpleasant subject; but ware
you always provided with funds in the
Feniap movement"
"I will give you an instance. Mr. Da~
witt refers to my journey from New York
in 1867. What he says is quite true. l
had just fi0 in my possession. But you
must remember that was accompanied
by several others connected with the
movement. We're it not lor the extreme
kindness OF friends in Paris we might
have all been in state OF destitution.
As. it was. we suffered some hardships.
and we we're only too anxious to get
away on the yacht, which was waiting
at Havre to carry us to Ireland. The
news OF the abortive rising, of course
spoiled all.' A5
'It is needless to ask you was Fenian-
lam. in your opinion, farce or joke?"
s.It was neither farce nor joke for us.
We were in earnest, and we hoped to
win. Why, we had from 240, 900 to 250.-
600 men, 100000 Of whom we're more or
less trained, with alarge percentage OF
veterans who had gone through the Ori-
mean, and Indian, wars, and those who
had gone through the American Civil
War, including generals. colonels and
other men OF experience ia the art Of war.
At least two regiments Of her msjesty's
army were, almost to aman, sworn to us,
and scat through that army were
many o6 6sseri. of every rank, VINO were
on our side !. .Iltsis not for me to say now
how III why Feni ianiism did not sucoeed
III yg aome tdasy talk On the subiect-but
.iit ~ entered into