Nine months later I wrote to him again, when he had become a peer and head of his profession:—
"Melbourne, March 1, 1869."My dear O'Hagan,—I have not had such a thrill of satisfaction since I saw you last, as on reading your name as Lord Chancellor. That office ought to carry with it the Government of Ireland in all important matters, and a career as fruitful as Thomas Drummond's and as brilliant as Plunkett's. To govern Ireland wisely and nobly implies heroic works of reform in various directions. I declare before Heaven you have no right to expect tranquillity till an Irish peasant can live in Ireland as prosperously, and an Irish gentleman, of the Irish race, can feel himself as much at home there, as the peasants and gentlemen of other European countries in their native lands. It is for this reason that I estimate so highly the public advantage of having you in your present place.
"When I first held office here there was next to no Catholic Irishmen in the public service, the magistracy, or local force; and they were nearly as discontented as at home. I urged on my colleagues the policy of satisfying their just and reasonable demands, and it was done by Governments in which there were never more than two Catholics in the Cabinet out of ten. Done as a policy proclaimed and defended, not by stealth. In Ireland it is not by offices and honours, but by wise laws and a vigilant executive the people will be contented. If I were Chief Secretary of Ireland, I would set myself the task of making the Irish farmer as secure and prosperous as the Belgian farmer; if I were Lord Chancellor (which Heaven forbid) I would treat the Belfast riots as sternly as the English Government treated the Manchester riots till the idea of an Orange procession or any wanton provocation of the people died out. I would pass an Act of Parliament repealing the insolent and virtually penal law, which maintains the statue of William III. in College Green as a badge and symbol of conquest. (You are aware that it is maintained by law.) The mass of the people would consider the fact of its removal as significant as the fall of the Establishment.
