THOMAS D'ARCY M'GEE.

Evening Post, Issue 146, 27 July 1865, Page 2

THOMAS D'ARCY M'GEE.

Mr. D'Arcy M'Gee, who was one of the most ardent of patriots during the Young Ireland excitment, is at present in Dublin in the capacity of principal commissioner from Canada to thelnternational Exhibition. Mr. M'Gee recently delivered an able and eloquent lectnre at Wexford on his experience in America. He took advantage of the occasion to speak some home truths to his countrymen. Such a thing as a national pro-Irish sentiment, he alleged, does not exist in the United States. " As a nation, they have no more feeling for Ireland than any other country." He strongly ridiculed the Fenian organisation ; in fact, he declared that it was all nonsense about its boasted extent and power. Mr. M'Gee advises the Irish emigrant to select Canada instead of the States as his future home, because of the social and political advantages it offers him. His picture of the position attained by two-thirds of the Irish who settled in the States was not a pleasant one. In speaking of his past career in Ireland, and answering those who contrast it with his present one, he boldly avowed that he was not so wise then as he is now. I left the country (he said) one among the Young Ireland Legion, and, though times have changed, 1 say to you all, I am not ashamed of Young Ireland. (Loud and prolonged cheers.) It has been cast in my teeth that I have veered about, have changed my opinions. I know that, politically speaking, we were a pack of fools then, ana not hole-and-corner 1 conspirators. We made no concealments, and at all events all that can be said of us is that at 21 we were not as wise as we are now at 41 Our countrymen by birth, and their immediate offspring to the Canadian provinces, Protestant and Catholic, as nearly as I can make out, exceed hfclf a million— one eighth of the whole popy^

lation; those who more remotely derive their origin from this kingdom may repreacnl another eighth. They are not in number one-tenth as numerous as our brethren in the United States ; yet, knowing both communities well, admitting the "enhanced energy which total independence gives a new country, I venture to say that our half million yield a larger aggregate of sterling worth, character, and influence, than the millions of our democratised countrymen put together. . . . We live in strange times, both for America and for you, and it is impossible to say what may come from this annual transfer of a third of a million of people (an excessive estimate of ihe yearly emigration, by th« way) from one sphere of existence to another — from the old world to the new — from monarchy to democracy. Have a care; you are giving away hands and brains to a system destined to combat your system of government sooner or later. — Home News.