Fenians, a political association having for its aim the independence of Ireland. The name is derived from the Fionna or Fianna, an Irish militia or home guard organized in the 3d century, and commanded by Fionn or Finn, who is said to be the Fingal of Ossian. He was slain in battle in 283, and the Fianna under his grandson Osgar were practically annihilated during a civil strife in 296. ' We shall here treat of the acts of the various organizations in Great Britain and the United States, designated under the local names of the "Phoenix Society,"Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood" (I. R. B.),Fenian Brotherhood," and Nationalists," but better known as Fenians. The Fenian brotherhood was founded in New'York in 1857 by Michael Doheny, John O'Mahony, and Michael Corcoran, subse-quently a brigadier general in the Union army. At the same time a kindred organization already existing in Ireland, under the name of the Phoenix society, was developed into large proportions by James Stephens, the funds for its maintenance being sent over from New York. Stephens came to America in 1858, reported the existence of 35,000 enrolled and disciplined followers, and solicited further aid.

At a meeting of the friends of Ireland," called in New York, a fund was raised, and the Fenian brotherhood was formally organized under John O'Mahony as president. Just then several members of Phoenix clubs were arrested in Ireland; and this incident, revealing to Stephens the existence of traitors in his own ranks and the watchfulness of the British government, compelled him to adopt a course of caution and temporary inaction. But the occurrence gave a great impulse to the Fenian cause in America; one of its consequences being the organization of the first Phoenix regiment in the United States, Col. Corcoran's 69th New York national guard, which refused to parade at the visit of the prince of Wales in 1860. Stephens, who had taken up his abode in Paris, with large funds at his disposal, was buoyed up by the certainty that his supporters in America were hourly increasing. In Ireland his subordinates covered the provinces with a network of clubs, which met secretly to drill. In 1860 O'Mahony visited Ireland, inspected the most important districts, and held a meeting of the Fenian leaders in Dublin, at which definite plans of action were agreed upon.

Stephens forthwith returned to Ireland, and O'Mahony to the United States, the organization receiving from their presence a new impulse in both countries. The Fenian brotherhood, when O'Mahony was first placed at its head, numbered 40 members, all in New York city; it now extended its ramifications all over the United States, and even into British America and Australia, while in Great Britain it established circles wherever Irishmen were to be found. Stephens divided his followers into four classes: A, colonels, in command of battalions; B, captains, commanding companies of 100 men; 0, sergeants, at the head of 20 men; D, privates. Unreserved obedience to orders, absolute discretion in communicating with outsiders, and active zeal in extending the organization," were the main principles inculcated on all. Catholics in Ireland were prohibited by law from possessing firearms; hence one of the great difficulties of carrying out any aggressive movement. But smithies for the manufacture of pikes were stealthily established in many places. This deficiency of firearms, and the want of preconcerted action among the leaders, combined with other reasons, caused the failure of the enterprise in Ireland.-In the United States up to 1863 the Fenian organization was but little known and less understood.

Americans saw men assembling by night, and quietly drilling; but they were confounded with the military organizations everywhere existing, and were supposed to be made up of working men who could meet for drill at no other time. The circles established in all American cities furnished not a few regiments at the commencement of the civil war. After the first battle of Bull Run, and the return to New York of the 69th regiment, the "Irish Brigade" under Thomas Francis Meagher was formed; the movement was imitated elsewhere, even in the south, and the Fenian element was active in filling up the ranks of volunteer regiments. When in 1862 Michael Corcoran was liberated from a southern prison, his prominent position as a Fenian leader served not a little to draw the organization into the Union ranks, with the ulterior hope of using the military experience thus acquired in the cause of Ireland. This raised the hopes of Stephens and his confederates in Ireland. Early in 1863, T. C. Luby, one of the Irish leaders, came to America, and not only visited in com-pany with O'Mahony the principal Fenian centres in the United States, but was allowed to penetrate the lines of the Union army, and to hold meetings at the headquarters of Irish regiments.

This tour raised on both sides of the Atlantic expectations of speedy success. On Nov. 3, 1863, the American organization, or Fenian brotherhood, held its first "national congress in Chicago, the delegates representing 15,000 enrolled Fenians, one half of whom were in the Union army. This assembly proclaimed the Fenian brotherhood to be strictly in accordance with the laws of the United States, ignored partisan politics and difierences in religion, and declared the Irish people to be a distinct nationality, with James Stephens as its head, to whom, with central officers elected by an annual congress, state officers elected by state organizations, and "centres" elected by circles, the direction of affairs should be intrusted. A grand fair, ostensibly for the relief of Irish sufferers, but in reality to aid the Fenian brotherhood, was held in Chicago at the close of this congress, and contributed a large amount to the treasury. The cause had hitherto had no official organ in Ireland. Immediately on his return to that country, however, was published the first number of the "Irish People" in Dublin, Nov. 28, 1863. The bold utterances of this sheet caused the police to watch every movement at the various centres of Fenian activity.