But by 1844 he had advanced towards a Federal programme.
"Beside the local Parliament in Ireland having full and perfect local authority," he writes in that year, "there should be, for questions of Imperial concern, colonial, military, and naval, and of foreign alliance and policy, a Congressional or Federal Parliament, in which Ireland should have a fair share and proportion of representation and power." The proposed change of programme came in a questionable shape to a suspicious time.

It was not received with universal favour, and, to avert dissension, it was represented as a mere _ballon d'essai_ and was abandoned.

O'Connell died, and Repeal and Federation alike were swallowed up in the Great Famine.

But time was to renew its urgency.

The essential facts, and the logic of the facts, remained unaltered.