When in September 1845, Davis unexpectedly died of scarlet fever, Duffy asked Mitchel to join the "Nation" as chief editorial writer. He left his legal practice in Newry, and brought his wife and children to live in Dublin, eventually settling in Rathmines. For the next two years Mitchel wrote both political and historical articles and reviews for "The Nation". He reviewed the "Speeches" of John Philpot Curran, a pamphlet by Isaac Butt on "The Protection of Home Industry", "The Age of Pitt and Fox", and later on "The Poets and Dramatists of Ireland", edited by Denis Florence MacCarthy (4 April 1846); "The Industrial History of Free Nations", by Torrens McCullagh, and Father Meehan's "The Confederation of Kilkenny" (8 August 1846).