Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. IN undertaking to write a memoir of Thomas Francis Meagher, I have been actuated, in the first place, by a desire to pay a tribute of affectionate respect to the memory of an illustrious fellow-countryman, a patriot of whom I had been an enthusiastic admirer since boyhood, and with whose confidence I was honored from the moment of our first personal acquaintance, in 1848, to the last year of his life.