-To O’Mahony from James Johnson (Stephens)- September ?, 1860

Thursday morning [Sept. 1860], Paris. 'My dear Marquis, Mr [Edward] Boyle is one of those rare natures for which a people can never be too grateful to for. This said, I need not tell you the pleasure I have had in his society, spite of the circumstances which did not slack their hell-gripe on me. Let me say how peculiarly trying these circumstances have been. Though stopping in the house with me I must allow Mr Boyle to pay the few francs for his room; I have not been able to offer him a dinner of any kind; the four days he has breakfasted here I could not give him even an egg: and three of those days I had to get money from him to pay for what was laid before him;

going about the town I could not offer him refreshment in any shape; if we got on an omnibus it was at his expense; the very tobacco we have been smoking here has been furnished out of his own pocket, etc., etc. It sickens me beyond words to write this;

but I do so that you may excuse me to all my friends, telling Mr Boyle himself how differently he should have found me had I been able to act up to the dictates of my head and heart.

'You must see from the preceding that I have been again disappointed in getting money. Now I have been disappointed in so unexpected a way as to make it appear as if ill-luck were bent on dogging my steps. For the order, a small part of which I was to have sent, was actually in the party's hands, and yet—from causes too complex to explain here—the money cannot be had for twelve months. This however is not the money with which I mean to settle my affairs here in order to go home with an unsmirched name; that I never expected to get before next month. And this brings me to my movements. You ask if I could not without dishonor make a temporary compromise of some sort with my creditors. It seems to me that I may possibly do so without dishonour; but not without discredit—not without making it next to impossible to come here again. If my creditors let me go it will be only because they believe there⁶ is nothing to be got by detaining me here. It would be most unfortunate to leave them under such an impression. For it is essential that I should return here, and that on my return I should find my name without reproach. This shows you that I have lost none of my hopes; but they do not lie in the quarter you allude to, though under certain circumstances even that might be made available. Do not let the big talkers throw dust in your eyes on this point however.

'But to return to my movements. C. [James Cantwell] must have told you about a visit I paid to a friend the day before he left.⁶ That friend, though wealthy, could lend me nothing before the month of October (next month), when he would be able to let me have a good round sum. It is on that I have been relying to get away, any other hope I might have had resting on bare contingencies. Shall I be again disappointed ? I am not without apprehensions, owing to the state of the crops, etc., by which his income (owing again to peculiar armagements) may be modified to an extent to make it difficult to let me have a large sum of money without putting himself to more inconvenience than I could reasonably expect. Thus I may be disappointed once more. That being so, here is what I propose. I told John [John O'Mahony] in my last letter that I thought it better he should send me no more money till we had come to so thorough an understanding as to make a want of confidence henceforth impossible. I think so still and mean to act up to my thought. Disappointed here, you see it

' their MS. * See document ii.

would be impossible for me to move without some other alternative.

'To my plan. While refusing to make use of the public funds, even to work for the public weal, I am willing to accept a loan from any friends of mine or the firm who have sufficient confidence in me to make the advance on my sole responsibility. I even make my conditions: should I die at my post the firm will make good the advance;

should I survive the struggle my creditors will give me time to meet their claims. I also insist on paying interest (10 per cent in America and 6 per cent at home) on the money so advanced long as it remains unpaid. Lastly, I will take any sum not exceeding ^400. Should you meet any parties willing to treat, do so, as I hereby appoint you my agent. John [John O'Mahony], and in his absence Michael [? Michael Cavanagh], will do the same for me in the States.

'There are a great many points in your last on which I should like to touch, but Mr [Edward] Boyle will tell you how little time I have. Rely on my going into them in my next. One point however I feel bound to set your mind at rest on at once. If M.'s [? John Mitchel] calumnies do no injury to the cause, it would cost me nothing to pass them by in silence. "But no man" (as I told John in the letter sent with yours) "shall injure the firm with impunity." The question at issue then is to know if he have injured it. This knowledge cannot be had till all our papers, letters, oral reports, etc., shall have been communicated to our American customers and their pulse felt. I have given John instructions to this effect. As to my friends at home I am confident that calumny of any shape, vented by no matter whom, can only strengthen the links that bind us—shall not cease to bind us to the end. Yours ever affectionately.

' [P.S.] I have no time to write down in the note to John how I meant to have the loan raised. Add to it.

'Do not let my sores stink overmuch in the public nostril, thinking to do good. A word to the wise.'