Carlow Sentinel Office. | Sep. 24, 1848.
My dear Sir,
Having been absent during the last fortnight, at Kingstown,1 I had no opportunity of replying to your note of the 14th inst.2 and I feel assured you will do me credit when I state that the omission was not occasioned by neglect, or from any indifference arising from some imaginary notion that you changed your principles.
But supposing your principles had undergone a change, arising from matured reflection, or experience, I do not see why even that change should cause a disagreement between old friends. I shall feel most happy to hear from you as frequently as possible, and to see you here for a few days, should you visit your native country.
It is needless to detail the sad incidents connected with our history during the last two years,3 but the inference may be legibly read in the reckless countenance of the Irish peasant. We had just escaped the consequences of famine and pestilence through Divine favour, when a Rebellion4 (if the late outbreak could be so termed) burst on the country, and between the agitation of the public mind – the malignant and wide-spread disaffection of the Peasantry, the tide of emigration flowing rapidly – and a general combination against the payment of rents in the South, you may picture to yourself the hopeless condition of this unfortunate country. In this and the neighbouring counties the Peasantry are well affected – and industrious; but the failure of the potato crop a third time has been attended with considerable disappointment, if not dismay. But I sincerely hope after this struggle is over – and the minds of the Peasantry turned to the growth of other articles of food – and the Irish Gentry become more industrious, humble and provident, better days will dawn on this country.
It is unnecessary for me to state what I have before repeated, how glad I shall be to receive any communication from you suited to the columns of a Journal,5 literary, political, Scientific or otherwise. I am during a considerable period less of a politician myself, having devoted the greater portion of my leisure time to the study of Geology and Agricultural Chemistry – but to say that I have attained ordinary proficiency in either science would be giving too flattering an account of myself.
Whether it be from close study, from the application of your mind exclusively to dry scientific subjects, or otherwise, I am not aware, but I fear you have become too morbidly sensitive in supposing that I pay no attention to your communications. Now let me inform you that your letters from Paris were most interesting, and were perused with gratification, and that they one and all appeared in the Sentinel,6 copies of which were forwarded as directed. I should like to know whether they reached you or not. I hope you will not in future cast any suspicion on my motives for being certainly at best but an irregular correspondent – but I shall never plead guilty to the neglect of a friend for whom I always entertained a high personal respect and in whose prospects and pursuits I felt more than ordinary interest. Again I repeat the sooner and more frequently I hear from you, the more gratified I will feel.
Yours faithfully, | Thos. H. Carroll.7
RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3492
LT Transcript Only
Kingstown: a town in County Dublin, Ireland. The town’s name was changed from Dún Laoghaire (alternate spelling: Dunleary) to Kingstown in 1821. In 1920, the town’s inhabitants changed its name back to Dún Laoghaire.
note of the 14th inst.: letter missing.
our history during the last two years: Carroll is alluding to the Great Famine (also called the Irish Potato Famine), which began in 1845 and would last until 1852. The famine resulted in mass starvation and a spike in emigration from Ireland.
a Rebellion: probably the Young Irelander Rebellion, which took place in July of 1848 in the town of Ballingarry, County Tipperary. A small group of Irish nationalists attempted to begin a revolt and engaged in an armed conflict with local police constables; the constables famously retreated to the home of Margaret McCormack, where they took the McCormack family hostage. The conflict dispersed when police reinforcements arrived.
suited to the columns of a Journal: i.e., the columns of the Carlow Sentinel, of which Carroll was editor and proprietor.
the Sentinel: the Carlow Sentinel; see n. 5.
Thos. H. Carroll: Thomas Carroll (d. 1861), editor of the Carlow Sentinel for more than 30 years. Following the death of Henry Malcolmson in 1843, he also became the paper’s proprietor.
Please cite as “Tyndall0360,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0360