not employ my time better than in directing my countrymen to that part of the world where there is abundance of good land, a salubrious climate, where their faith will not be in danger, and where they can enjoy peace and prosperity after a few years, if it be not their own fault. As soon as I see the priests and the people standing together, and firm in the resolve to demand justice and protection for the farmers and labouring classes of Ireland, I will become the most strenuous advocate to keep the people at home. But I must say with all sincerity, I see no other hope at present for the poor downtrodden people of this country but to fly to the most distant part of the world, where there is perfect equality, civil and religious liberty, no poor-houses to demoralise the people, and no landlords to exterminate them."
Since Father Dunne penned these indignant words, the condition of the Irish peasant has been somewhat improved by remedial legislation, but it is susceptible of further improvement still. Though Irish families may no longer be under the dire necessity of flying for refuge to the most distant part of the world, they have yet many evils to encounter and many trials to endure in the land of their birth. But they are consoled by the hope and the expectation, that the day is not far distant when a domestic Parliament will sit in Dublin, and pass the requisite laws for the rectification of the long-standing evils and abuses of arbitrary power.
To say that one of these poor and friendless Irish emigrants to Queensland rose in a few years to be the chief guide and exponent of the public opinion of his adopted country, seems at first sight a somewhat extravagant statement; but it is nevertheless perfectly true of the late William O'Carroll, in his time the premier journalist of Queensland. A native of Cork, he
