THK LIBERATOR 
 
 l\S j_^IFE AND J" I y 
 
THE LIBERATOR: 
 
 HIS 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL. 
 
 BY 
 
 M. F. CUSACK, F 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE " ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF IRELAND," ETC. 
 
 bOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 CHESTS UT HILL, MASS, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 KEN MARE PUBLICATIONS. 
 
[All Rights Reserved.] 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 §^p^T is strange, but none the less true, that the 
 ^JK$ majority of Englishmen know far less about 
 kSssI the real state of Ireland than they do about 
 the state of continental countries. The result of 
 this ignorance is an intellectual disability to appre- 
 ciate a character like O'Connell's. We believe this 
 ignorance arises from one cause, and from one cause 
 only : it is impossible to form a correct judgment on 
 any subject when the will is biassed by prejudice, 
 and the incorrectness of the judgment will be propor- 
 tioned to the extent of the prejudice. 
 
 It has been our one special object throughout the 
 present work to quote from English authorities for 
 proof of all assertions made regarding English mis- 
 government of Ireland. Irishmen do not need such 
 corroborative evidence ; but as we believe that this 
 work will circulate as largely as other historical 
 works by the present writer amongst Englishmen of 
 the upper classes, we offer them, in proof of our 
 assertions, such evidence as they can scarcely set 
 aside. 2941 
 
viii 
 
 Preface. 
 
 We are very far from wishing to add strife to 
 strife ; but the elements of discord, which have 
 stirred the waves of popular opinion for some eight 
 hundred years and more, are slowly abating. It is 
 true, indeed, that the gibbet and the triangle are no 
 longer used to silence the cries of an oppressed 
 nation, but Ireland is not spared the lash of the 
 tongue, even by those whose position, as rulers of a 
 kingdom which is said to be "united," should suggest 
 a wiser, if not a more paternal course. 
 
 The prejudice which prevents the calm and dis- 
 passionate consideration of Irish affairs and Irish 
 character is the result, in some cases at least, of cul- 
 pable ignorance. And yet, unfortunately for the 
 national credit, and still more unfortunately for the 
 national peace, those who are most ignorant are not 
 unfrequently the most confident of the correctness of 
 their conclusions. As an evidence of this prejudice, 
 warping the opinions of a highly intellectual mind, I 
 quote the following extract from the conclusion of 
 Mr. Lecky's essay on O'Connell, in his work on "The 
 Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland 
 
 " When to the great services he rendered to his country we 
 oppose the sectarian and class warfare that resulted from his 
 policy, the fearful elements of discord he evoked, and which he 
 alone could in some degree control, it may be questioned 
 whether his life was a blessing or a curse to Ireland." 
 
 The most cursory acquaintance with the history 
 of Ireland during O'Connell's long and chequered 
 career, would surely prove the incorrectness of such 
 
Preface. 
 
 ix 
 
 a conclusion. No man was ever more opposed to 
 " sectarian" warfare than O'Connell ; and, indeed, 
 Mr. Lecky admits this himself in the earlier part of 
 his essay, where he says : 
 
 " With the exception of his advocacy of Repeal, no part of 
 his Irish policy injured him so much in the eyes of the English 
 people as the opinions he hazarded about the Church ; hut 
 judged by the light of the events of our own day, they will be 
 pronounced very reasonable and very moderate." 
 
 How entirely true this statement is with regard 
 to O'Connell's public career is well known, and the 
 present work affords evidence. His moderation was 
 the result of principle, since in his private correspon- 
 dence he expresses himself as he did in public. 
 When his religion was attacked he defended it witli 
 the vigour of a man who had a definite creed to up- 
 hold, but certainly no u sectarian warfare" resulted 
 from his policy. Class warfare had existed in Ireland 
 too long, and that which pre-existed certainly could 
 not " result" from a future cause. That he " evoked 
 discord" can only be said of him in the sense in 
 which it may be said that a man provokes a quarrel 
 when he is obliged to fight for his rights. It would 
 be quite as correct to assert that Tell evoked dis- 
 cord in Switzerland when he roused up the Switzers 
 to resist a tyrannical oppressor. 
 
 Mr. Lecky concludes by doubting whether 
 O'Connell's life was a blessing or a curse to Ireland, 
 and yet we think Mr. Lecky would scarcely deny 
 that O'Connell obtained Emancipation for Ireland, 
 
X 
 
 Preface. 
 
 and that Emancipation was an act of justice. It is 
 thus that prejudice leads Englishmen of the highest 
 intellectual calibre to write, to think, and to speak of 
 Ireland. 
 
 There are two evils caused and fostered by this 
 prejudice. Conclusions are drawn on false premises, 
 and, of necessity, acts follow which are more than 
 injudicious. The Irish are admitted to be an intelli- 
 gent race even by their worst enemies ; they cannot 
 fail to see the injustice which is done to them day 
 after day by educated Englishmen ; and they cannot 
 fail to feel, and to feel keenly, that their misfortunes, 
 to use a mild expression, which are not their own 
 fault, are made a subject of ridicule by those whose 
 first object, whose first duty should have been to 
 alleviate them. 
 
 In the limits of a preface it is impossible to do 
 more than to indicate subjects for consideration in 
 connexion with the work to which the preface is pre- 
 fixed. We can, therefore, only give Mr. Lecky's 
 incorrect estimate of O'Connell's character as a 
 sample of the opinion of educated Englishmen. 
 Having done so, we descend a little lower in the 
 intellectual scale, and quote Mr. Lowe's recent 
 observations on Irish fisheries as an example, and a 
 most painful one, of the flippancy with which Irish 
 grievances are treated, not only by some educated 
 Englishmen, but by men who, in virtue of their office, 
 should be anxious to promote kindly feelings between 
 Great Britain and Ireland, even should they not be 
 
Preface. 
 
 si 
 
 bound by their position as members of Government 
 to do acts of justice. 
 
 One of the great outcries of the day is, that 
 politics and religion should be treated as separate 
 questions. We shall have a few words to say on 
 this subject presently ; but we presume no Christian 
 man will deny the duty of practising Christian charity 
 in public life, or will deny that the circumstances of 
 our birth were not under our own control. Mr. 
 Lowe might have been born a poor Claddagh fisher- 
 man. Instead of holding the reins of government and 
 receiving the freedom of boroughs, he might have 
 been toiling along the wild Atlantic coast for a bare 
 subsistence for wife and child, lie might have been 
 the victim of a God-sent famine, which left hearth 
 and home utterly desolate ; he might have lost his 
 little all in that year of misery and anguish, which is 
 perhaps the only Irish calamity which no man has 
 ever dared to charge on the Irish themselves. He 
 might have been unwilling to beg ; he might have 
 had an honest pride which kept him from the work- 
 house ; he might have loved his home, wretched as 
 it was, and his sea-girt island, poor as she is, too well 
 to emigrate to the great Irish empire in the West, 
 where an honest day's wage can be had for an honest 
 day's labour. In his trouble he might have gone to 
 his parish priest — the poor man's only friend — and 
 prayed him, for God's great love, to help him to the 
 means of getting an honest living, however humble. 
 The priest would have replied, "I cannot help you ; 
 
xii 
 
 the gentlemen who govern the country will not help 
 you. The troubles of poor fellows like yourself used 
 to be called sentimental grievances, there is another 
 name for them now — they are called ' amusing 
 grievances/ The Scotch fisheries are well protected 
 by English gun-boats, and well assisted by the English 
 Government ; but you are only a poor Irish fisher- 
 man. You have at least a choice : emigrate, if you 
 can get the money ; if you cannot — go to the work- 
 house." 
 
 The Cladda<?h fisherman would have asked the 
 
 o 
 
 reason of this strange inhumanity ; and it would not 
 have added to his affection for English Government 
 to be told that the gentleman who found Irish misery 
 so amusing, admitted that he did not exactly under- 
 stand what had caused it ; that he believed the bad 
 harvests had ruined the Irish fisheries ; though, 
 indeed, he did not think that could have been the 
 reason ; that, in fact, he knew very little about it, 
 though it certainly was his business to know ; and 
 that all he seemed quite sure of was, that it was 
 " amusing." 
 
 The Claddagh fisherman, some few weeks after, 
 might have seen — for Irishmen are all great readers — 
 an old newspaper, in which he would have found the 
 following extract, taken from a speech made by a 
 Cabinet Minister at Glasgow, when he received the 
 freedom of the city ; a cursory perusal of it would at 
 once explain the priest's meaning : 
 
 " I will now enter on my last topic. I have made it last, 
 
Preface. 
 
 xiii 
 
 because it is a little more amusing than those that preceded it. 
 It is that Ireland has another grievance. (Laughter.) That 
 grievance is this — the fisheries of Ireland have very much de- 
 clined. I cannot say exactly why, but it is perhaps the reason 
 given in a committee of the House of Commons, that they had 
 given up the fisheries because they were so much discouraged 
 by bad harvests. (Great laughter.) I don't think that could 
 have been the reason, but, whatever is the reason, they come 
 and ask me to lend them money on personal security — (renewed 
 laughter) — the security of the fishermen and that of the priests, 
 to lend money for nets and boats to resume these fisheries. 
 Well, I said to them I was not in the habit of lending money 
 in that way, and so the matter came to an end, and they assured 
 me that if they had Home Rule it would be done at once. 
 (Applause.)" 
 
 He would have observed that the gentleman con- 
 cluded his speech with this quotation : 
 
 " Only the actions of the just 
 Smell sweet and blossom in the dust." 
 
 And it might have occurred to him that a quotation 
 from an older writer than Shakespeare would have 
 suited his side of the question better. Has it not been 
 written : 
 
 11 The just showeth mercy, and shall give." 
 
 This habit of meeting Irish complaints with con- 
 tempt, was reprobated again and again by O'Connell, 
 and yet it still continues. Even if the Irishman was 
 still an " enemy," it would be unmanly to ridicule his 
 misfortunes, when those misfortunes are, at least to a 
 considerable degree, the fault of his rulers. Such 
 ridicule reflects most on him who uses it. 
 
xiv 
 
 Preface. 
 
 It is indeed scarcely possible to take up any work, 
 whether of fact or of fiction, in which Ireland is men- 
 tioned, without finding this spirit of ridicule ; and 
 sometimes its bitterness is more than a joke. At the 
 present time, an autobiography is dragging out its 
 slow length in the pages of Frasers Magazine, the 
 sole object of which appears to be to throw contempt 
 on Ireland and the Irish ; and the suggestion is made 
 for the hundredth time, to try depopulation, and 
 rather to " populate the land with Chinese and reap- 
 ing-machines, with monkeys, or any other animal but 
 the Celt." The plan of populating Ireland with 
 beasts has been partly tried, and does not seem to 
 have given as much satisfaction to the proposers as 
 they expected. How a country could be populated 
 with "reaping-machines," is an enigma we do not 
 pretend to solve. The plan of extermination was 
 tried on a very large scale, and with very great suc- 
 cess, in the year of grace 1654 ; but the results were 
 contrary to expectation. A work has been written 
 by an Irish gentleman, in which he gives statistics of 
 the grand transplantation scheme which was then 
 tried. . The accounts are taken from no doubtful 
 source, they are compiled from State-papers, But 
 the result was, that when English soldiers were trans- 
 planted to Ireland, they were not at all more disposed 
 to submit quietly to injustice than the "Irish enemy" 
 whom they had displaced. 
 
 A plantation of Chinese and reaping-machines 
 would probably prove a failure also. 
 
Preface. 
 
 XV 
 
 But there is a yet deeper depth to which some 
 Englishmen descend when they write or speak of 
 Ireland. The pages of F raters Magazine are deli led 
 by the suggestion to "abolish juries, burn the Habeas 
 Corjms, and erect a factory in the Lower Castle Yard 
 for spinning halters and cat-o'-nine-tails." The sug- 
 gestion may be intended as a joke ; we suspect it is 
 so couched to hide an earnestness of which the writer 
 lias the grace, as yet, to be a little ashamed. But if 
 gentlemen write such jokes, they must recollect that 
 those to whom thev would not <nve that name will 
 write such things in earnest, and probably support 
 their degradation of our common humanity by quoting- 
 higher authority. It is not long since a letter went 
 the round of the provincial papers in England and 
 Scotland, in which it was suggested, not that a cat- 
 o'-nine-tails should be made, but that it should be 
 used wherever an outrage was committed in Ireland, 
 the parish priest to be the victim, because he was 
 supposed to be cognisant of the offender through 
 the confessional, and unwilling to give him up to 
 justice. Are we returning to the dark ages? The 
 suirorestion of deeds of blood and brutalitv is the first 
 step towards their accomplishment when opportunity 
 offers. 
 
 But there is yet another class in England who do 
 not suggest such measures for the pacification of Ire- 
 land either in joke or in fact, but who seem, never- 
 theless, to consider that good advice is the one thing 
 which Ireland requires. And this advice sometimes 
 
xvi 
 
 Preface. 
 
 emanates precisely from those very persons who, for 
 various reasons, are the very last individuals who 
 should offer it. 
 
 We take the opinions expressed by a recent 
 article in the Contemporary Review as a sample. It 
 may be said that opinions expressed in reviews, maga- 
 zines, and newspapers are but the expression of an 
 individual mind ; but this is very far from being the 
 case. Those who write are persons who, either from 
 circumstances or capability, express the opinions 
 which others entertain. The greater number of 
 people, both educated and uneducated, confine their 
 reading to such books or serials as express their own 
 sentiments on religion or politics. Publishers and 
 editors cater for the taste of their public. No doubt 
 in many instances opinion is influenced by writers, 
 but it is rarely formed by them. 
 
 It might be supposed that Irish gentlemen were 
 capable of taking care of their educational interests, 
 and that if they required advice, they would scarcely 
 seek it from a gentleman, however accomplished, who 
 has changed his religion more than once. But as the 
 advice has been given, we may consider it briefly as 
 an expression of English opinion on an important 
 subject. 
 
 From the day on which O'Connell obtained free- 
 dom of education for Irish gentlemen to the present 
 hour, a certain party, and a large party, of English 
 gentlemen have tried to fetter that freedom as far as 
 it was possible for them to do so. In O'Connell's 
 
Pre/nee. 
 
 xvii 
 
 private correspondence with Dr. MacIJale, lie reite- 
 rates his opinion that the education of Irish gentlemen 
 should be confided to the clergy of their Church. If 
 Irish gentlemen wish for such education, is it not a 
 grave interference with the liberty of the subject to 
 forbid it to them. 
 
 In Mr. Capes' article also, it may be remarked, in 
 passing, that, while it is entirely free from the sar- 
 castic spirit which disgraces so many English com- 
 ments on Irish affairs, there is nevertheless a de haul 
 en has tone— a quiet conscious superiority. It is 
 taken for granted that the Irish gentleman belongs 
 to an inferior race, and that M we," the people of 
 England, are free to deny or grant, as in our wisdom 
 we think fit, with but scant reference to the wishes 
 of the inferior being. 
 
 The Irish gentleman is treated throughout as a 
 person who should submit with thankfulness to the 
 regulations made by the superior wisdom of his Eng- 
 lish master. The Irish peasant is treated as pa'rt 
 knave and part fool, and as altogether incapable of 
 the exercise of even ordinary reason. 
 
 Of the hundreds who have read Mr. Capes' article 
 in the Contemporary Review, few indeed will have 
 read his long and scholarly preface to the " Life of 
 St. Frances of Rome," published in the year 1855. 
 In the preface he wrote thus of the Catholic clergy, 
 at the conclusion of an exhaustive defence of 
 miracles : 
 
 " Whether the Catholic religion is true or false, it is beyond 
 
xvlii 
 
 Preface. 
 
 the limits of credibility that its ruling" principle can be one of 
 intentional deception. . . . The Catholic system must have 
 fallen to pieces a hundred times over if its chief ruler and his 
 subordinates were mere tricksters, playing upon the credulity of 
 a fanatical and besotted world." 
 
 On the subject of miracles lie argues forcibly; 
 first, against the Protestant opinion that Catholics are 
 fools, and then against the Protestant opinion that 
 Catholics are all knaves. "If/ 1 he says, "we are 
 sincere in our faith, it is impossible to suppose us 
 willing to be imposed on." Writing of the Lives of 
 Saints, he says : 
 
 " Thus, too, I am myself engaged in a similar work, either 
 laughing in my sleeve at the credulity on which I practise, or 
 submitting from sheer intellectual incompetence to be the tool 
 of some wily Jesuit who enjoins the unhallowed task." 
 
 We leave Mr. Capes to select either horn of the 
 dilemma. Perhaps, he may appeal from Philip drunk 
 to Philip sober ; but under any circumstances he 
 should refrain, in common consistency, from offering 
 his advice to Irish gentlemen. 
 
 When English gentlemen have quite decided 
 what religious belief they really consider true— when 
 they have decided whether they will believe in one 
 creed, in three creeds, or in none — then, but not until 
 then, should they offer any suggestion, or interfere 
 with Irish gentlemen in the choice of a religion, or of 
 educational guides. 
 
 The struggle is a hopeless one. It will be better 
 to abandon it, and to have peace. Irishmen only ask 
 
Preface. 
 
 xix 
 
 for justice. They do not want more ; they will not 
 be satisfied with less. All through his long and 
 stormy life, O'Connell was breasting the waves of 
 English injustice. The truth may be evaded, it may 
 be denied ; but it is still truth. Day after day, week 
 after week, year after year, he asked only for justice. 
 It was granted, at least in a measure ; yet, for all that, 
 much more remains to be granted. If Englishmen 
 would take pains to study Irish history, if they would 
 make themselves acquainted with a life like O'Con- 
 nell's, if they would calmly consider why he agitated, 
 and for what he agitated, the future both of England 
 and Ireland would be happier. 
 
 But, in order to effect this desirable end two 
 things are necessary : first, that the student should 
 divest himself, as far as possible, of insular preju- 
 dice ; and secondly, that he should make himself 
 acquainted with the facts of Irish history, not from 
 the narratives of those who have distorted it to suit 
 their own ends, but by weighing the statements of 
 the oppressed as well as those of the oppressor. 
 
 This view of the subject was ably treated in the 
 North British Review for October 1869. It is well 
 remarked that : 
 
 " Those who are not resolved to be misled by a fragmentary 
 literature, should diverge from the beaten path to seek its com- 
 plement, so that whatever judgment they may form at last may 
 be formed after they have heard both sides." 
 
 The habit of forming conclusions from the evi- 
 dence of one party only, above all when that party is 
 
 b 
 
XX 
 
 Preface. 
 
 the one complained of, is neither wise nor philoso- 
 phical. It has done more to deepen and widen the 
 gulf of bitterness between England and Ireland than 
 all the suspensions of the Habeas Corpus or all the 
 promulgations of Insurrection Acts. 
 
 The Irish naturally suppose that educated English- 
 men have been at some pains to understand their real 
 condition, and when they find the facts of that state 
 denied or ridiculed, they can only conclude that the 
 denial or the ridicule has been the result of bitter 
 prejudice, and an irradicable hatred. The lower class 
 of Irish do not know, they would perhaps scarcely 
 believe, that so many English gentlemen are so igno- 
 rant of the country to which they give so much good 
 advice. 
 
 We doubt if even English premiers take pains to 
 know the condition of Ireland as it is. Mr. Glad- 
 stone may read the Times for information ; but the 
 Times will not tell of landlord oppression or tenant 
 wrong, unless some flagrant case comes before the 
 public, which is forgotten almost as soon as it is read. 
 He may read the Telegraph for sympathy ; but a 
 ministerial organ is not likely to trouble the minis- 
 terial conscience with reproof. He may read the 
 Standard to learn Conservative opinion ; he will find 
 his Irish policy roughly handled, but he will know 
 well that this is done chiefly from political motives. 
 
 What statesman ever troubles himself to read the 
 Freeman's Journal, or the Telegraph, or the Irishman, 
 or the Cork Examiner or Herald, or the Northern 
 
Preface. 
 
 xxi 
 
 Star, or the people's papers in Deny and Gal way 
 and Waterford and Clomnel ? And descending- 
 lower in the social scale, the ignorance increases ; 
 the mass of middle class Englishmen know nothing 
 of the state of Ireland, except through the grossest 
 misrepresentation. What wonder, then, that the 
 countries are u united" only in name, and that the 
 severance of this union is demanded by those who 
 are hopeless of being understood ! 
 
 We can here but draw attention to this subject, 
 earnestly hoping that our efforts may not be in vain. 
 There are thousands of honest, earnest, true-hearted 
 English gentlemen, tradesmen, and mechanics, who 
 would be as indignant as the Irish themselves if they 
 could really understand the causes of Irish poverty, 
 and consequently of Irish discontent. We have not 
 space here to enter into details on this subject ; but, 
 as we have throughout this work given English 
 opinion on Irish affairs, well knowing that Irish 
 opinion would not be credited by some of our 
 readers, we give briefly now some English statements 
 on the causes of Irish discontent : 
 
 The Irish are taunted and reproached, I must say 
 cruelly, with their poverty ; yet, until the passing of 
 the recent Land Bill, they were not allowed even a 
 chance of bettering their condition. They were to 
 make bricks, they were cried out against as idle, yet 
 never a straw were they allowed ; nay, if they even 
 attempted to find straw it was taken from them. 
 
 Enough of Irish history is known in England to 
 
xxii 
 
 Preface. 
 
 prove the unhappy Irish peasant was not allowed to 
 till the soil for himself, or even to practise any trade 
 until the close of the last century. Every industrial 
 resource was sternly forbidden ; how then could 
 capital accumulate in the country ? Sir John Davis 
 said the state of the bond slave was better than the 
 state of the Irish peasant, "for the bond slave was 
 fed by his lord — but here the lord was fed by his 
 bond slave.' 7 
 
 But it may be said, all this has passed away. We 
 must not lay this flattering unction to our souls — no 
 mistake could be more fatal — and yet no mistake is 
 more frequent. English gentlemen, with the best in- 
 tentions, will express themselves utterly disgusted 
 with Ireland, and will fling aside all thought of doing 
 her justice, because, as they say, they have done so 
 much and she still complains. They have disestab- 
 lished the Protestant Church in Ireland, but they 
 cannot pardon us for saying that this disestablishment 
 has not bettered the condition of the poor or middle 
 classes one iota. Irishmen, too, cannot but know 
 that that justice was done rather as a peace-offering 
 at the shrine of public opinion than as special kind- 
 ness to them. We are far from wishing to hear of 
 the disestablishment of the Protestant Church in 
 England ; but if it does not disintegrate itself from 
 utter inability to cohere in almost every point of 
 doctrine, those who note the signs of the times on 
 the political horizon, are freely predicting its speedy 
 dissolution by Act of Parliament. 
 
Preface. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 The recent Land Bill has done a certain, or 
 perhaps it would be more correct to say an uncertain 
 amount of good in Ireland. But how much more 
 needs to be done, is best known to those who have 
 personal acquaintance with the miserable state of the 
 Irish peasantry. There are absentee landlords, who 
 own thousands of acres of Irish land, whose one sole 
 object seems to be to get the most rent they can from 
 their half-starving tenantry. They may speak well, 
 they may write well, they may enter cordially into 
 every philanthropic scheme, except such as touch 
 their own interests. Yet these men are pointed out 
 as 'model landlords, because they visit their estates 
 once perhaps in two or three years, for two or three 
 weeks — because, at the order of an agent, whom the 
 unhappy tenant dare not disobey, costly rejoicings 
 are made for the visit ; but the landlord does not 
 hear, and the agent does not care for the " curses, 
 not loud but deep" which precede and accompany 
 the demonstration. 
 
 Even if no other evil were done thereby, the with- 
 drawal of thousands a year from the country, which 
 is spent in a distant land, is in itself a most grievous 
 injustice. It is a natural law, that if you take crops 
 from land you must pay nature back with interest. 
 This natural law holds good in political economy as 
 much as in physical science. Men may not defy the 
 divinely-imposed conditions of nature, or if they do, 
 they know the penalty ; but they do defy it when 
 the penalty does not fall upon themselves. Again, 
 
xxiv 
 
 Preface. 
 
 the tiller of the land is the only trader who does not 
 receive consideration in case of loss or failure. In 
 some rare instances — and how rare they are Irish 
 tenants best can tell — some consideration is made for 
 bad weather and cattle plague, or other providential 
 calamities ; but, for the most part, there is no such 
 consideration. The rent is demanded equally, be 
 the crop more or less, and the unhappy tiller of the 
 soil who has already lived on almost famine fare, 
 must only live on less. 
 
 No couDtry can prosper unless those who till the 
 soil are permitted a sufficient remuneration for their 
 labour, to enable them in their turn to encourage 
 manufacturers, Chinese and reaping-machines might 
 support absentee landlords in affluence, but they 
 could not raise any country in the social scale. 
 
 If English gentlemen can forget their manhood, 
 and degrade their nationality by attempting anything 
 like a wholesale depopulation of Ireland, they would 
 hear, not " Whisper in your ear, John Bull," but a 
 thunder of indignation, which would soon break out 
 into thunder of another kind. It is too late in the 
 nineteenth century for such folly ; and as the folly is 
 impractical, it would be better for the self-respect of 
 those who utter it if they would keep silence for the 
 future. 
 
 Taunts like Mr. Lowe's, and insults such as have 
 disgraced the pages of more than one English 
 magazine, do more to widen the breach between 
 England and Ireland, do more to increase expressions 
 
Preface. 
 
 XXV 
 
 of Irish discontent, do more to make rebels than the 
 speeches of the wildest Fenian, or the leaders of the 
 Irishman or Nation. 
 
 To honest Englishmen who wish to know the 
 true state of Ireland, we say, Read the Irish local 
 papers. You will find that even at the present day 
 the most cruel and capricious evictions are taking 
 place ; and you will find that whole tracts of land 
 are reclaimed by honest and industrious peasants, 
 only to have their rents raised as a reward for their 
 labour. You will find, as the able writer of the 
 article on the Literature of the Land Question in 
 Ireland has said, " Opinions may vary as to points of 
 policy suggested by the popular writers, and as to 
 the gravity and bearing of particular statements ; but 
 it is clear that a thorough understanding of the Irish 
 question cannot be obtained without a knowledge of 
 the existence of this literature, and a careful study of 
 it." In this article also the writer fully exposes the 
 dealings of two agents, both magistrates. 
 
 If Irish evidence will be accepted, we would refer 
 to the statements of the "Meath Tenant Defence 
 Association," as published in the Drogheda Argus, 
 and signed by the Very Rev. John Nicolls, P.P.,V.G., 
 and his curate, the Rev. P. Kenny, C.C., published in 
 the month of February 1872. 
 
 By law, the Irish are free to choose and practise 
 their own religion, yet there is an increasing attempt, 
 on the part of English writers at least, to deprive 
 them of that liberty. If it were possible to find any 
 
Preface. 
 
 individual who could look at the whole question and 
 consider both sides, his judgment would surely be, 
 that until English gentlemen claimed personal or 
 Divine infallibility of belief, they should not interfere 
 with the belief of others. If the Catholic is aggressive 
 in his religion, he is at least consistent. He believes 
 in the Divine origin of his Church, and therefore he 
 obeys her commands, and does his best to induce 
 those who are without the fold to enter into it. The 
 Divine origin of the Catholic Church may be denied ; 
 but granted a man believes in it, there is no incon- 
 sistency, logical or otherwise, in his acting on his 
 belief. With the Protestant, whether he protests for 
 a State Church or no Church, for three creeds or for 
 none, the case is entirely different. Believing that 
 all men are left to choose their religion, and not 
 being able to deny that such choice leads to the 
 selection of the most opposite forms of belief, he 
 should in common consistency leave the Catholic to 
 follow the dictates of his conscience, without even so 
 much as verbal molestation. 
 
 The strife between the world and the Church has 
 never raged so fiercely as at the present day. It is 
 the practice to speak as if politics and religion were 
 two separate subjects, which should be kept carefully 
 apart ; and yet the two subjects always have been, 
 and always will be, inseparably united while time 
 shall last. Where there is simple misapprehension 
 on the subject, it arises from not clearly under- 
 standing what politics really are. Where there is a 
 
Preface. 
 
 xxvii 
 
 particular bias, as in the case of those who are con- 
 stantly declaiming against the interference of priests 
 in politics, the case is different. 
 
 Politics are taken simply to mean the rivalries of 
 certain opposite parties for power. Even taking this 
 lowest view, religion must enter into the question. 
 In England we find Mr. Gladstone taunted again and 
 again with subservience to the Irish hierarchy on the 
 Education question, for the purpose of keeping him- 
 self in power. The entire politics of the day in 
 Germany turn on religious questions, and Bismarck, 
 after expelling the Jesuits, is occupying himself with 
 an attempt to get rid of the Catholic hierarchy. 
 " We may wonder at the authority the Pope exercises, 
 and we may regret it ; but there it is, a patent and 
 incontestable fact." 1 So patent and incontestable is 
 this fact, indeed, that one might have supposed the 
 world would have learned to submit quietly to it, if 
 we did not know that an eternal enmity between 
 the world and the Church has been predicted by 
 the Eternal Truth. 
 
 If we take the word "politics" in the largest 
 sense, we shall see at once that we cannot separate 
 politics from religion. Politics are part of the ethics 
 of government ; to govern implies not merely to 
 make war or peace, but to rule and regulate all the 
 internal constitution of a kingdom. How can such 
 ruling be separated from religion ? Statesmen must 
 either govern the state under some kind of submission 
 
 1 Standard, 1st Oct. 1872. 
 
XXVlll 
 
 Preface. 
 
 to it Supreme Power, or they must govern it as in- 
 fidels. Human beings, considered in the aggregate, 
 are the subject matter of political science ; when 
 amongst, say four millions of human beings, there 
 are two or three different forms of religious belief, 
 and when this religious belief is of a practical cha- 
 racter, the politician cannot govern without special 
 reference to it. 
 
 If this subject were more carefully considered, 
 more than half the matter which has appeared in 
 print on the subject of the interference of the Catholic 
 clergy in politics, would be treated as simply useless. 
 If Englishmen do not know they ought to know, 
 that Catholics cannot separate politics from religion. 
 There is a moral aspect in every political question ; 
 the Catholic receives his moral teaching from his 
 Church ; it is then absurd to ask him to consider 
 such questions apart from such teaching ; it is childish 
 to bandy such names as "priest-ridden" and Ultra- 
 montane." 
 
 Protestants choose to call the Irish peasant priest- 
 ridden, simply because they cannot understand the 
 principle upon w T hich the Irish peasant acts. Because 
 he is consistent ; because, believing a certain faith, 
 he acts on his belief he is made an object of scorn, 
 or at best, is looked upon as an incomprehensible 
 being. So it is with those of the higher classes who 
 are spoken of as being Ultramontane : they certainly 
 do believe in the authority of the successor of Peter 
 " over the mountains it is a fact, there is no use in 
 
Preface. 
 
 xxix 
 
 quarrelling with it ; nor is there any wisdom in 
 alleging .any reason for it except the true one. 
 
 It is useless to devote pages of a serial to com- 
 bative articles on the Irish Koman Catholic laity to 
 talk of their bein^ under the rule of an " arrogant 
 and domineering priesthood" in one breath, and in 
 the next to say that they " detest and dread" the 
 priest, because he " flatters the prejudice of the 
 peasantry." 1 All such writing is simply the result of 
 ignorance. 
 
 There are indeed, unhappily, some few Irish 
 Catholics who have lost the freshness of their faith, 
 who are half ashamed of the religion which they are 
 still afraid to forsake. Perhaps fifty such gentlemen 
 might be found in all Ireland — we doubt if there are 
 ten — but they generally come prominently forward ; 
 they are complimented largely on their liberality and 
 their spirit by their Protestant friends ; and they are 
 gratified by the compliment. They may proclaim 
 their own opinions, but they have no right to speak 
 for others, or to give a false impression of their 
 religion. 
 
 The subject of Education is not unlikely to be a 
 ministerial crisis in the next session. If the Catholic 
 nobility and gentry, the barristers and magistrates of 
 Ireland were as anxious to have their children 
 educated by Protestants as some persons suppose, 
 they have every facility for obtaining such education 
 
 1 " The Irish Roman Catholic Laity." Fraser's Magazine. 
 
XXX 
 
 Preface. 
 
 for them. It is therefore idle to taunt them with 
 moral cowardice, because they follow their ecclesi- 
 astical superiors in obedience to their conscience ; 
 rather should the taunt be levelled against those who, 
 while still claiming the name of Catholic, have ceased 
 to be Catholics in unity or in practice. It is worse 
 than an insult, to assert that the* Catholic gentlemen 
 of Ireland admire the " manly courage" and " fervid 
 eloquence" of Mr. Justice Keogh at Galway, and 
 that they agree with him in denouncing " the tyranny 
 of the bishops, the violence, dishonesty, and equi- 
 vocation of the priests." We have yet to learn that 
 it is " manly" to attack those who could not defend 
 themselves, or that rant is " fervid eloquence." It 
 might be supposed that those who write for the public 
 would take at least some little pains to make them- 
 selves acquainted with public opinion, would be at 
 some pains to make themselves acquainted with the 
 previous history of those whom they commend, and 
 with the sentiments of those whose true opinions they 
 profess to know by some mysterious species of in- 
 tuition. 
 
 With regard to Mr. Justice Keogh, he had un- 
 doubtedly a right to change his mind both on political 
 and religious questions, but his English admirers have 
 no ground for honouring him as a consistent defamer 
 of the priesthood or eulogist of a certain class of 
 landlords. The truth is, that the great majority of 
 English writers are entirely ignorant of what is well 
 known to every man, woman, and child in Ireland ; 
 
Preface. 
 
 xxxi 
 
 or possibly, in some cases, they find it convenient to 
 ignore what it does not suit their purpose to re- 
 member. We would ask the thousands of honest- 
 hearted Englishmen who have taken the judicial 
 harangue of Mr. Justice Keogh for gospel to read a 
 history of his career, published and circulated from 
 one end of Ireland to the other. 
 
 In the year 1851 this gentleman published a 
 pamphlet, in which he revised a speech of his own, 
 made at the Athlone Banquet, and from this speech, 
 as published by himself, we give the following ex- 
 tract : 
 
 " I see here the venerated prelates of my Church — first 
 among them, ' the observed of all observers,' the illustrious 
 Archbishop of Tuam, who, like that lofty tower which rises 
 upon the banks of the yellow Tiber, the pride and protection of 
 the city, is at once the glory and the guardian, the decus et 
 tutamen of the Catholic religion, joining with the tried and 
 faithful representatives of the people, who, after each in his 
 own locality receiving the approbation of his constituents, have 
 done me the great honour of attending this banquet, to testify 
 that I too was one. even though the humblest of that number, 
 who, in a time of great trial, were found true to their country, 
 their honour, and their God." 
 
 In the same speech he denounced the landlords 
 of Ireland as a " heartless aristocracy," as "the most 
 heartless, the most thriftless, the most indefensible 
 landocracy on the face of the earth," and as men who 
 have made Ireland " a howling wilderness." 
 
 It is conveniently forgotten, too, that Mr. Justice 
 Keogh made a famous declaration — in which he in- 
 
xxxii 
 
 Preface. 
 
 voked the name of God in the most solemn manner 
 again and again — to convince the Irish people of his 
 sincerity to the national cause, a sincerity of which 
 some keen-sighted gentlemen had their doubts. It is 
 forgotten also, that on the 2nd of April 1853, he 
 spoke of the Catholic bishops and clergy as his 
 " revered friends." 
 
 But there is a yet more startling phase in the 
 career of this gentleman whom so many English 
 writers are delighted to honour. If they praise his 
 Galway utterances as " manly" and " fervid," they 
 must surely give the same praise to his speech at 
 Athlone, where according to the statement of the 
 Lord-Lieutenant of the day, he distinctly recom- 
 mended assassination. The subject was brought 
 before the House of Lords on the 10th of June 1853, 
 by Lord Westmeath. He said : 
 
 " Mr. Keogh, standing on the right hand of that candidate 
 (Captain Magan), spoke to the audience, the mob, in broad day, 
 in the streets, the words which he should presently read for 
 their lordships — words which had been heard by three magis- 
 trates of the county, and which they were ready to corroborate 
 on oath. At a place called Moate, from Magan's committee- 
 room, Mr. Keogh said : ' Boys, the days are now long and the 
 nights are short. In autumn the days ivill be getting shorter 
 and the nights longer. In ivinter (or November) the nights 
 will be very long, and then let every one remember ivho voted 
 for Sir R. Levinge.' It was rumoured that vacancies were 
 about to occur on the Irish Bench and that Mr. Keogh was 
 not unlikely to succeed to one. Though it might be alleged 
 that Mr. Keogh was not Solicitor- General when he made the 
 
Preface. 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 speech to which he (the Marquis of Westmeath) referred, he 
 wished to know whether any person who would attempt to 
 advance any purpose, whether political or social, by such 
 means, was Jit to be placed on the Irish Bench?" 
 
 Lord Derby said : 
 
 " The noble Earl (Aberdeen) says he knows nothing about 
 that election speech, and, of course, I am bound to believe him ; 
 but it appears to me to show a great ignorance — I do not moan 
 the word offensively — but, at any rate, a great absence of 
 knowledge in the noble Earl not to have known that, at the 
 time when Mr. Keogh was made Solicitor-General, he was 
 accused of having made that speech. The county of "West- 
 meath is one in which Mr. Keogh has not a foot of land. He 
 was acting there as a leader or partisan of what is called the 
 Liberal interest in Ireland — liberal enough in some respects, 
 but illiberal in others — and hi that capacity, having been a 
 member of the former parliament and a candidate for a seat in 
 the next, and intending to make his support valuable to the 
 Government, he is reported to have warned the people that the 
 nights were then short and the days long, that the time was 
 coming when the nights would be long and the days short, and 
 that that woidd be the time at which any person who might 
 vote for Sir R. Levinge for Weshneath ought to look out 
 for what might follow. And, if I am not much mistaken, 
 there was a recommendation that the people of that county 
 should collect together and go into the town of Athlone, for 
 which he was himself a candidate, armed with shillelaghs and 
 take care to use them when they got there. This may have 
 been totally incorrect ; but if this, or anything like it, was said 
 by Mr. Keogh so openly and publicly that it was a matter of 
 general notoriety, I say it disqualified that honourable and 
 learned gentleman from being put into any situation in any 
 government in which, in the slightest degree, he might be 
 
xxxiv 
 
 Preface. 
 
 called on to support, or nominally to support, the administra- 
 tion of the law." 
 
 Mr. Keogh denied the charge, but the Protestant 
 rector of Moate, the Kev. Mr. Hopkins, wrote to Lord 
 Westmeath to maintain that he had used the words, 
 and his testimony was supported by the solemn 
 assurance of several magistrates, and of two members 
 of the Society of Friends. How Mr. Justice Keogh 
 would have dealt with such testimony — had it been 
 offered in the Galway trial, we all know ; with what 
 withering scorn, with what scathing denunciation, 
 with what " fervid eloquence/' would he not have 
 borne down upon the unhappy priest who might 
 have allowed such words to escape his lips ? His 
 fine sense of justice would have been horrified, his 
 power of denunciation would have been exhausted ; 
 with that exceptional refinement and delicacy which 
 characterises his judicial utterances, he would have 
 imitated the tone and the manner of clerk or laic 
 who had dared to commit such an outrage on the 
 honoured aristocracy of the land. He would have 
 forgotten in his just indignation to criticise the 
 grammar of his victim, to give historical lectures, or 
 to comment on his rhetoric. His grand thirst for jus- 
 tice would have controlled all the petty pride which 
 might tempt him to the little vanity of a display of 
 superior education and knowledge ; the victim would 
 have been held up to the scorn of the United 
 Kingdom — would have been indicted without a day's 
 delay for seditious utterances. 
 
Preface. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 Mr. Keogh's apology for his observations at Moate 
 were conveyed in the form of a letter to the Duke of 
 Newcastle, in which he said : 
 
 " It did not occupy five minutes, and I was not reported so 
 as to enable me to refer to it. I have no recollection whatever 
 of using any language even similar to that attributed to me ; 
 but my memory may fail me as to the precise words used in 
 the heat and excitement of election occurrences, and I trust, 
 therefore, rather to the evidence of friends who were present, 
 and the inherent improbability of my expressing sentiments 
 which I never entertained rather than to my own recollection." 
 
 The Dublin Evening Mail, 2nd June, 18o3, an 
 Orange organ, observed that " the seditious speech 
 was no longer denied, but it was only a little one." 
 Lord Eglinton read for the House a letter from 
 Arthur Brown, Esq., J.P., in which he said : 
 
 " I wish (as the magistrate who took the declaration of 
 James Burke) to satisfy you that every word in that declara- 
 tion is true, and that at least twenty gentlemen of independence 
 and station (among them the rector of Moate, the Rev. Mr. 
 Hopkins,) are ready and willing to support the truth of that 
 deposition by their evidence on oath. The gentlemen in 
 question were present on the occasion, heard the words so 
 delivered, and there can be no more doubt of their utterance 
 than of any other truth which cannot be disputed." 
 
 We do not desire to pursue the unwelcome 
 theme further. Our one object is gained if we can 
 induce those English gentlemen who shall read this 
 work to ask themselves why Irish Catholics of all 
 classes, not only in Ireland, but throughout the world, 
 are justly indignant at the Galway judgment, and, 
 
 c 
 
XXX VI 
 
 Preface. 
 
 what is, if possible, of far greater importance, why- 
 Ireland is not prosperous with English rule. It is 
 frequently believed that " things have changed since 
 O'Connell's time," that " the Irish are a discontented 
 race whom nothing can satisfy," that " their grievances 
 are sentimental." Certainly during O'Connell's long 
 and noble career he obtained much justice for Ireland, 
 certainly much has been done lately ; but while 
 much yet remains to be done, it is neither right for 
 English honour, nor safe for English prosperity, to 
 refuse all that Ireland needs in order to be prosperous 
 and content. 
 
 The Irish peasantry are not in a prosperous con- 
 dition ; and while the Irish hear their clergy ridiculed, 
 and their conduct basely maligned and misrepresented, 
 with the full approbation of the great majority of 
 English writers, there can scarcely be peace between 
 the two countries. 
 
 At a meeting of the clergy of the diocese of 
 Gal way, the following solemn protest was put on 
 record : 
 
 " We deem it our duty to record our solemn protest, not 
 only against the judgment itself, but, for the information of the 
 public and the Imperial Parliament, who had no opportunity of 
 witnessing the strange scene, against the gross impropriety of 
 manner attending its delivery, which we have no hesitation in 
 describing as a desecration of the sanctuary of justice — shocking 
 to the feelings of every impartial listener. We leave the public 
 to judge of this, whom, from personal observation, we assure, 
 that the delivery of the judgment, which occupied nearly eight 
 hours, was but a continued paroxysm of rage, seemingly un- 
 
Preface. 
 
 XXXY1L 
 
 governable— one uninterrupted scene of roaring, screaming, 
 foaming, violent striking of the desk with clenched fist, oc- 
 casional walking backward and forward, with wig flung aside, 
 mimicry of adverse witnesses, fulsome adulation of landlords 
 and gentry, of which no printed report could give any idea 
 whatever." 
 
 So long as there shall be any distinction between 
 the administration of justice in England and in 
 Ireland, so long will the two countries remain dis- 
 united. So long as English public opinion of Ireland 
 is governed by prejudice, there can be little con- 
 fidence. Let Englishmen show themselves ready not 
 only to do justice, but to speak justice. 
 
 We cannot conclude this preface without ac- 
 knowledging our obligations to those gentlemen who 
 have placed valuable documents, private papers, and 
 letters at our disposal for the present work. To his 
 Grace the Archbishop of Tuam we are especially 
 indebted for the use of his long private correspon- 
 dence with the Liberator, and for the copies of the 
 few of his own letters to O'Connell which he has 
 preserved. Bis Grace had intended to publish this 
 correspondence himself ; but, with his usual disin- 
 terested generosity, he transferred it to the present 
 writer on hearing that she was about to publish this 
 work. We are indebted also to the Most Kev. Dr. 
 Purcell, Archbishop of Cincinnati, for some docu- 
 ments on the subject of slavery, which, with some 
 other papers, are reserved for another work. We 
 owe him thanks, too, for his words of encourage- 
 
xxxviii 
 
 Preface. 
 
 ment and for help, which has not limited itself to 
 words. 1 
 
 We have to thank W. J. Fitzpatrick, Esq., J.P., 
 for the use of a valuable collection of old newspapers, 
 and for advanced sheets of his forthcoming work, 
 " The Life of Dr. Lanigan," the well-known Irish 
 ecclesiastical historian, and the consistent and ardent 
 opposer of the Veto. 
 
 To Maurice Lenihan, Esq., J. P., Limerick, we 
 are obliged for a very valuable collection of private 
 papers, of which we hope to make more use in 
 another work, and for the original of the King of 
 Bavaria's letter to O'Connell. To Isaac Butt, Esq., 
 M.P., we are indebted for the appendix to Chapter 
 XV., and for his interest in our work. To Sir John 
 
 1 A sample of the contradictory charges made against Catholics 
 occurred lately in America. The Catholic clergy had been again 
 and again taunted with indifference to literature ; nuns had been 
 represented again and again as either half imbecile, or wasting their 
 lives in useless and frivolous employments, unless they happen to 
 make their work public as Sisters of Mercy. Yet there are few 
 Orders in the Church in which the religious are not engaged actively 
 and unceasingly in the great and noble work of education ; and even 
 the most highly educated of these religious must continue to study 
 both history and science, in order to impart the knowledge of both, 
 as well as the lighter accomplishments which her pupils require, to 
 fit them for their places in society. The charge of intellectual in- 
 activity is about the most groundless which ignorance has made, 
 and which prejudice persists in keeping up. 
 
 Every nun who teaches the higher classes must teach history, 
 and must write notes for her classes on history if she wishes to 
 teach it thoroughly. Nor can she teach logic without explaining 
 politics ; and though the angry discussions of the politics of the day 
 
Preface. 
 
 xxxix 
 
 Gray, M.P., we are obliged for the narratives of his 
 prison life, and to Lady Gray for assisting in pro- 
 curing them. To P. J. O'Carroll, Esq., we are in- 
 debted for newspapers relating to O'Connell's trial, 
 and we are especially indebted to J. Leyne, Esq., of 
 the Registration Office, Dublin, for the O'Conncll 
 pedigree at the end of the work, and for the notes 
 appended thereto. 
 
 Our special thanks are also due to Mitchel Henry, 
 Esq., M.P., for a copy of his speech in the House of 
 Commons on the 25th of July, 1872. Each part of 
 the judicial harangue is carefully examined therein, 
 and triumphantly refuted. This speech is all the more 
 remarkable, as it comes to us from a Protestant gentle- 
 
 cannot be beard in tbe conventual class-room, tbe whole subject of 
 politics, in tbeir bigbest and truest sense, must be explained. 
 
 Even at tbe risk of making tbis note very mucb longer tban it 
 was intended to be when commenced, we would call attention to tbe 
 discussion going on at present in tbe Englisb scbool boards, where 
 it is found tbat history cannot be taught apart from religion. Not 
 long since Mr. Arnold said be would not send Protestant children to 
 a Catholic school. The school-board solicitor replied tbat the 
 religious instruction ceased at half-past nine in the morning ; but 
 Mr. Arnold answered tbat the elements of religious education were 
 sometimes taught in other forms. The reports of the English Poor 
 School Committee speak expressly on the matter ; and Canon 
 Oakley, in his discussions on this subject in tbe Catholic papers, 
 states that a " distinguished Protestant Government inspector" 
 says that it may be necessary hereafter to proscribe history during 
 the period of secular instruction. A little common sense, indeed, 
 would show that it is almost impossible to teach any subject except 
 pure mathematics, without giving at least a bias to tbe pupil's mind 
 on religious questions. 
 
Preface. 
 
 man. Those who strive to persuade themselves and 
 others that Catholic gentlemen secretly admire the 
 denouncer of their religion, and the reviler of their 
 clergy, would do well to recollect that there are many 
 Protestant gentlemen who have had the courage and 
 justice to express their disgust for such a degradation 
 of the bench in Ireland. Mr. Henry, being a large 
 landed proprietor, was selected for special compli- 
 ments, an honour which he scorned as it deserved. 
 But Mr. Henry's relatives, though they had no con- 
 nexion whatever with Gal way, or the Gal way judg- 
 ment, were selected for comment ; and as his brother 
 happened to be a priest and a convert, the judge, to 
 enhance his rhetoric, and we must suppose to pander 
 to the class in England to whom he knew the judg- 
 ment would be acceptable, gave him the title of 
 Jesuit. 
 
 As we fear that many, to whom it would be of 
 most service, may not see Mr. Henry's able pamphlet, 
 we give the following extracts, as an evidence of 
 Protestant opinion on the subject, from an able and 
 educated man : 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Speaker, I charge Judge Keogh with deliberately 
 outraging the religious feelings of a religious people; and there 
 is no one passage in his harangue which has given so much 
 offence, and occasioned so much consternation, as his sneers at 
 the efficacy of prayer. 
 
 " Go among the peasantry of Ireland, and your greeting, 
 from the bottom of their hearts, is ' God save you visit them 
 in their sickness and sorrow, when their crops have failed and 
 hard hunger knocks at their door, and their commentary is, 
 
Preface. 
 
 xii 
 
 'God is good.' Do them a service, and the highest reward 
 they can promise you — not in meaningless words, but out of 
 the sincerity of their religious nature— as I have heard a 
 thousand times, is, ' We will pray for you for this people 01 
 the West pray not with their lips only — they believe in prayer ; 
 they believe that they have a Friend in Heaven, who will at 
 last redress their wrongs and vindicate Himself to them. And 
 yet, sir, before such a people, Judge Keogh, from the judgment- 
 seat, and clothed in the official ermine, retails a stale and ribald 
 jest, and fathers it withal on a priest, to show that it is no use 
 their praying for rain unless the wind changes. 
 
 "It is almost incredible. When he calls a Gal way priest 
 1 this insane disgrace to the Roman Catholic religion,' I cannot 
 help asking what religion he owns himself, and whether he 
 disgraces it or not — and whether he is sane ?" 
 
 We have mentioned elsewhere the obligations to 
 the Rev. John O'Hanlon, C.C., for the record ol 
 O'Connell's last days, which will be found at page 
 756, and to the Rev. M. Close for a verbatim copy of 
 this interesting document. To Mr. Close I am in- 
 debted for much help in my literary labours, given 
 with so prompt courtesy, which enhances their value. 
 
 We may also observe, for the national credit, that 
 we have found the proprietors of Webb's Library, in 
 Dublin, most obliging in supplying w r orks of refer- 
 ence. We can confidently recommend this library 
 to students. It was first brought to our notice by 
 several Catholic clergymen. The proprietors are, 
 we believe, Protestants — another evidence, were it 
 needed, that the Catholic clergy are readers of a 
 high class of literature, and that party prejudice is 
 
xlii 
 
 Preface. 
 
 confined now, as it was in the time of O'Connell, to 
 a class whom nothing will satisfy except Orange 
 ascendancy, and liberty to tyrannise over all who 
 differ from them in politics or religion. 1 
 
 1 As we have been unable to use a considerable quantity of 
 material which we have collected for the Life of O'Connell in this 
 work, we purpose using it on a future occasion. We shall be 
 obliged for any information which may be useful for this purpose. 
 
ONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER. L 
 
 FAMILY BIRTH BOYHOOD. 1771-1790. 
 
 PAGES. 
 
 Political Situation at tho timo of O'Connell's Birth— His 
 Pedigree — Paul Jones — Smuggling in Kerry — English 
 Oppression — O'Connell's Affection for his Mother, and 
 Pride of Family — Darrynane Ahbey — The Clan O'Con- 
 nell — O'Connell's Early Aptitude for letters — His First 
 School-master — Tho "Crelaghs" — Father O'GraJy — 
 At School in Cork — Education in France — Early 
 Hatred of England — Reign of Terror — Louis XVIII. 
 and the Old Irish Brigade — General Daniel Count 
 O'Connell, ...... 3-58 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY DAYS AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 1790-1800. 
 
 The French Revolution and the Irish Rebellion Com- 
 pared—Louis XIV. and George III. — English Opinions 
 on Irish Policy — Louis XVI. — The Two Sheares — St. 
 Omer's — O'Connell and the Priesthood — His Opinions 
 of the French Revolution — Interview with Robert 
 Owen — At Lincoln's Inn — Origin of Constitution- 
 alism — Catholic Church Conservative — The English 
 and Irish Catholics Contrasted— Early Toryism — 
 Hardy's Trial — Home Tooke — The Georges and the 
 Stuarts — Rise of Democracy — American War — Ben- 
 jamin Franklin — The Irish in America, I . . Gl-100 
 
xliv 
 
 Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ENTRY ON PUBLIC LIFE POLITICAL SITUATION. 1775-1797. 
 
 PAGES. 
 
 Political Troubles in England — Attack on the King — 
 Fondness for Field Sports — Fever — First Visit to 
 Dublin— English Policy with Ireland— Forced Attempt 
 at Legislative Justice— Causes and Character of the 
 Irish Rebellion — Grattan — Lord Charlemont — Ireland 
 in Arms — Alarm in England — Wants of Ireland — Mr. 
 Fox — Repeal of Act VI. Geo. I. — Causes of the Ruin 
 of Irish Independence—English Bribery — Grattan's 
 Letter, 103-156 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CAUSES OF THE IRISH REBELLION. 1790-1800. 
 
 The Northern Whig Club— The United Irishmen Club- 
 Catholic Address to the King — Political Commotions — 
 Treachery of Pitt— Lord Fitzwilliam, the Catholic 
 Question, and the Beresfords — Maynooth Established 
 — The Orange Society — Catholic Clergy — Overzeal of 
 O'Connell— Arrests — List of Suspected Persons— Lord 
 Cornwallis' Administration — The Cromwell Policy — 
 State of the Peasantry — Testimony of Mary Lead- 
 better, ...... 159-194 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BAR AND POLITICS. 1798-1801. 
 
 First Circuit — At the Bar — Jerry Keller — Bar Stories — 
 Promise of Success — Clear Ideas of Fox — The Irish 
 Parliament — The Union — Policy of Pitt — Bribery — 
 The Priests — Concussion in Voting — Letter of Mr. 
 Luke Fox— The Bar and the Union— 4 'The Anti- 
 Union" — First Speech — Anti- Union Resolutions — 
 Personal Appearance — Grattan and Pitt — Personal 
 danger, ...... 197-254 
 
Contents. 
 
 xlv 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PUBLIC SPIRIT AND POPULARITY. 1802-1810. 
 
 On Circuit — In Court — Bar Anecdotes — Marriage — On 
 Guard — Fresh Risings and Revenges — Catholic 
 Church — Catholic Priests and Protestant Clergy— 
 Maynooth— The Veto — Pole — Wellesley — Castlereagh 
 — Plain Speaking — Love of Justice — Resolution to 
 Petition — Effects of the Union — Demand for its Re- 
 peal — Speech — Petition — The Hierarchy — The Pro- 
 testant Bishop of Meath — The Edinburgh Review — 
 Cobbett— Lift into Popularity, . . . 257-313 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PROFESSIONAL AND POLITICAL SUCCESSES. 1808-1812. 
 
 Orange Outrages — Religious Persecution — Intolerance in 
 the Army — Adventures on Circuit — Another Affair of 
 Honour — Professional Successes— Speech at Lime- 
 rick—Happy Allusions — Address from Dingle, and 
 Reply — Catholics Entertaining Protestants at the 
 Festive Board — The Government and the Catholic 
 Association — Mr. "Wellesley Pole — Addressing the 
 Prince of Wales — Speeches on the Address and Con- 
 duct of Pole — Mr. Perceval — Political Dissention 
 among Catholics — Right of Assembly — Arrest of Lord 
 Fingal — Shelley — English Injustice — Father Dan — 
 At Limerick and Cork, . . . .317-354 
 
/ 
 
 i VOL. L 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Frontispiece — The Clare Election. 
 
 Darrynane Abbey, ........ 8 
 
 M I'll make a stir in the "World yet," .... 48 
 
 Approach to Killarney, ...... 61 
 
 Lakes of Killarney, . . . . . . .103 
 
 O'Connell's escape in a London riot, . . . .110 
 
 Darrynane Aj3Bey, 159 
 
 Start on first Circuit, 197 
 
 O'Connell's First Speech, 230 
 
 Darrynane House, ........ 257 
 
 Portrait of O'Connell, 313 
 
 [For List of Illustrations to appear in Vol. II. — see next page.'] 
 
xlviii 
 
 List of Illustrations. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS TO APPEAR IN VOL. II. 
 
 O'CONNELL AT TARA. 
 
 Duel between D'Esterre and O'Connell. 
 Mount Melleray Abbey. 
 
 O'Connell's Address from the balcony in Merrion -square. 
 O'Connell's Statue in Limerick. 
 Dinner Party in Jail — " The Rising of the Nation." 
 O'Connell leaving Kingstown. 
 
 State Trials — The Lord Chancellor giving Judgment. 
 
 Portrait of Dr. Mac Hale. 
 
 The Triumphal Car. 
 
 O'Connell in Henry VII. 's Chapel. 
 
 O'Connell's Release from Jail — Triumphal Car passing the 
 Bank. 
 
 O'Connell's last look at the Irish Shore. 
 O'Connell at St. Mary's Hall, Coventry. 
 Monument to O'Connell in Rome. 
 The Dead Tribune. 
 
 Memorial Tower in Glasnevin Cemetery. 
 
Chapter Jtrsi 
 
 FAMIL Y— BIRTH— BOYHOOD. 
 1774—1790. 
 
 Political Situation at the time of O'Connell's Birth : 
 His Pedigree : Paul Jones : Smuggling in Kerry: 
 English Oppression: O'Connell's affection for his 
 Mother, and Pride of Family : Darrynane Abbey : 
 The Clan O'Connell: O'Connell's Early Aptitude 
 for Letters: His First Schoolmaster: The " Cre- 
 laghs :" Father 0' Grady : At School in Cork: 
 Education in France : Early Hatred of England: 
 Reign of Terror : Louis XVIII. and the Old Irish 
 Brigade : General Daniel Count O'Connell. 
 
HAR 7.. 
 
 IIE events Whfch made 
 the close of the eighteentli 
 century renowned, cannot 
 be thoroughly understood 
 without something more 
 than a glance at what was 
 W then the past, as well as what is to us also 
 the past. Europe and America, the New 
 World and the Old, were both convulsed 
 and revolutionised. One part, at least, of 
 the British Empire was also convulsed, 
 and it was also revolutionised. The con- 
 vulsion was indeed caused by that revolt 
 against injustice, which must come sooner 
 or later both to the peoples and the individuals who 
 are guilty of injustice. This revolution was termed 
 
4 
 
 History repeats itself. 
 
 a rebellion, because the cries of those who initiated it 
 were stifled in blood and death. 
 
 History repeats itself. It may be useful to re- 
 member this at a time when there is a probability of 
 another revolution, none the less dangerous to public 
 safety because it has its inception in a demand for 
 personal liberty — not indeed the personal liberty of 
 individual freedom to do justice, but the personal 
 liberty to prevent the doing of justice by others. 
 
 The American revolution was settled by law ; the 
 French revolution was quelled by the power of one 
 man. America obtained the freedom which every 
 state must have, if it is to bear its part creditably in 
 the political world. France was delivered from the 
 despotism of many by the power of one : hence when 
 the personal influence of the individual ceased, the 
 multitude were left to seek other guides, with what 
 result we all know. It might be king, or it might be 
 kaiser who influenced the impetuous Gaul ; as long 
 as the influence lasted all was well or appeared well ; 
 the influence once withdrawn and the hero dethroned, 
 for any reason or for none, the country is again a 
 prey to anarchy. 
 
 In Great Britain there was sufficient law to steer 
 the bark of government over the torrents of revolu- 
 tion, but unfortunately there was not always sufficient 
 justice. The law may be good, but if it is not ad- 
 ministered justly the results are scarcely less fatal 
 than if there had been no law to administer. 
 
 In England, law required justice to be done to the 
 
Law in England and Ireland. 5 
 
 poor, speaking broadly ; but practically the law was 
 not always administered justly, and had not private 
 individuals been far more generous in practice than 
 in theory, the peasants of Great Britain would have 
 given trouble to their masters — and something more 
 than trouble. 
 
 In Ireland, the laws, as made by Great Britain 
 and enforced by Great Britain, were not just ; and in 
 Ireland there was more than trouble. 
 
 From time to time the people rose up as they 
 could against public injustice, against public oppres- 
 sion — but might was for the time stronger than right, 
 and the Irish Celt was too often a victim at the shrine 
 of an unmanly revenge. Still something was gained, 
 even by these disastrous attempts. 1 There were men 
 in Ireland, and there are men in Ireland, who think 
 little of the personal sacrifice of liberty or life if they 
 may but gain some increase of liberty, some happier 
 
 1 I have confined myself almost exclusively to English autho- 
 rities for proof of every statement made in this -work with regard to 
 the condition of Ireland. In a letter from Edward Forbes, Esq., to 
 William Wickham, Esq., dated Dublin Castle, 28th July, 1798, he 
 says, " The universality of conspiracy, the frequent debates and the 
 consequent trials keep up irritation. Our military is also disorderly, 
 
 and our yeomen resentful We get rid of seventy prisoners, 
 
 many of the most important of whom we could not try, and who could 
 not be disposed of without doing such a violence to the principles of 
 law and evidence as could not well be justified. Our zealots and 
 yeomen do not relish this compromise, and there has been a fine 
 buzz on the subject, but it being known the Chancellor most highly 
 approves of it, the tone softens." — Cornicallis' Correspondence, vol. 
 ii. p. 378. 
 
6 
 
 The s Cornell Pedigree. 
 
 condition of life for those who shall come after them. 
 It remained for O'Connell to show that attention 
 could "he attracted to Irish affairs by public agitation, 
 and tha^, when attention was once given to them, 
 some, at least, would see the necessity for a govern- 
 ment of that country which should not excite rebellion 
 by the enforcement of unjust laws, or perpetuate it 
 by cruelty in the punishment of revolts excited by 
 those laws. 
 
 O'Connell was born at Carhen, near Cajiirciyeen, 
 cm the 6th of August, 1775, 
 
 The O'Conails, or O'Connells, were formerly 
 possessed of the lordsjiip of Magh-O-Goinin, now 
 Magoniby, in Kerry. The chiefs of the sept were 
 transported to Clare during the usurpation of Oliver 
 Cromwell. 
 
 Hugh O'Connell, of the race of Fiacha-Finghine, 
 son of Darie-Cearb, married Margaret, the daughter 
 of Moenmoy O'Brien, prince of Thomond. His son : 
 
 Geoffry O'Connell married Catherine, daughter of 
 O'Connor Kerry. His sons : 
 
 Donal, who married Honoria, the daughter of 
 0' Sullivan Bere : 
 
 Hugh, who was knighted by Sir Eichard Nugent, 
 lord-deputy of Ireland, with whom he was a great 
 favourite. This chieftain married Mary, base-daughter 
 of Donal Mac Car thy Mor, whose son : 
 
 Maurice declared for Perkin Warbeck, but ob- 
 tained the pardon of Henry VII., through the influence 
 
The O'Connell Pedigree. 
 
 i 
 
 of Mac Car thy Mor, on the 24th of August, 1496. He 
 married Juliana, the daughter of Rory O'Sullivan Mor. 
 IJis son : 
 
 ]\f organ married Elizabeth, the daughter of 
 O'Donovan, the chief of Clan-Cathail, in Carbery. 
 His son : 
 
 4-odh, or Hugh, married Mora, the daughter of 
 Sir Tadge O'Brien, of Baille-na-Carriga, in the county 
 pf Clare. His son : 
 
 IVforgan, called of Ballycarbery, high-sheriff of the 
 cpunty of Kerry, married Helena, daughter of Donal 
 Mac Car thy. His son : 
 
 Richard assisted the Elizabethan generals against 
 the great Geraldine, surrendered his estates, and o|> 
 {ained a re-grant thereof through the influence of the 
 lord-deputy. He married Johanna, the daughter of 
 Ceallaghan MacCarthy, proprietor of Carrignamult, 
 in the county of Cork. His son : 
 
 Maurice was high-sheriff of Kerry, and married 
 Margaret, the daughter of Conchobhar, or Connor, 
 O'Callaghan. His son : 
 
 Bartholomew married Honoria, MacCrohan's 
 daughter. His son : 
 
 Geoffry married Miss Barret, of county Cork. 
 His son : 
 
 Daniel, of Aghagabhar, jnarried Alice, the daugh- 
 ter of Christopher Segrave, Esq., of Cabra, in the 
 county of Dublin. His son : 
 
 John, called of Aghagower and Darrynane, 
 married Elizabeth, the daughter of Christopher 
 
8 
 
 Morgan O'Connell. 
 
 Conway, Esq., of Clachane, or Cloghane, in the county 
 of Kerry. His son : 
 
 Daniel married Mary, the daughter of Dubh 
 O'Donoghue, of Anwyss, in the county of Kerry. 
 His son : 
 
 Morgan, of Cahirciveen, in the barony of Iveragh, 
 married Catherine, the daughter of John O'Mullane, 
 Esq., of Whitechurch, by whom he had ten children, 
 who lived to the age of maturity ; viz., four sons and 
 six daughters. The sons were : first, Daniel, the 
 subject of this sketch ; second, Maurice, an officer in 
 the British service, who died at St. Domingo, in 
 1796 ; third, John O'Connell ; and fourth, James 
 O'Connell, now Sir James, Bart., of Lakeview. The 
 daughters were : first, Mary, who married Jeremiah 
 M'Carthy, Esq., of Woodview, county Cork ; second, 
 Honora, the wife of Daniel O' Sullivan, Esq., of Eeen- 
 donegan, in that county ; third, Ellen, who married 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq., solicitor- a t-law ; fourth, 
 Bridget, who married Myles M' Sweeny, Esq., late 
 of Drounquinney ; fifth, Catherine, who married 
 Humphry Moynihan, Esq., of Freemount, both in the 
 county Kerry ; and sixth, Alice, who married William 
 Francis Finn, Esq., of Tullyroan, in the county Kil- 
 kenny, for many years M.P. for that county. 
 
 u Daniel O'Connell, who married Morna Duiv, 1 
 
 1 Morna Duiv, or Black Mary, was a remarkable character. The 
 Kerry people are, or perhaps we should say were, noted for the 
 facility and appropriateness with which they gave nicknames. These 
 names were, and still are in common use. In fact, they are almost 
 
Black Mary. 
 
 9 
 
 and died in the year 1774, left his estate of Darry- 
 nane to his eldest son, Maurice O'Connell, and he, 
 having no family, adopted Daniel O'Connell [the 
 Liberator] and his brother Maurice. John O'Connell, 
 the Liberator's son, in a sketch of his father's life, 
 writes thus of another Daniel O'Connell (see note at 
 the end of this chapter) : 
 
 " Respecting him there existed many peculiar cir- 
 cumstances. First, he was the two-and-twentieth 
 child of his father and mother. Secondly, lie entered 
 the French service as a sub-lieutenant of Clare's 
 regiment, at the age of fourteen, in the year 1759. 
 
 necessary to distinguish the members of different families where a 
 number of people all bear the same surname. This lady belonged 
 to the old sept of the O'Donoghues of the Lakes, and was not a 
 little proud of her descent. Her violence of denunciation, and her 
 remarkable powers of invective are still remembered in Kerry. It 
 would appear that she kept the purse, for when paying the labourers 
 their weekly wages, she would thunder forth to each in her native 
 language "May God prosper, or make away your wnges as you 
 earned them." Morna was also a poetess, and her daughter, Mrs. 
 O'Leary, wrote a poem of fierce invective on the death of her 
 husband, Arthur O'Leary, who was shot by a common soldier for 
 refusing to sell his horse to a Protestant for five pounds ! u Thank 
 God," adds my informant, "those days are past." Morna Duiv's 
 eldest son, Maurice, who adopted the Liberator, was known by the 
 sobriquet of "Old Hunting-cap." He died at the advanced age of 
 ninety-five. I am told he was a splendid old man ; and though he 
 became blind as years advanced, preserved his other faculties to the 
 last. He always wore his hunting-cap. An old Irish bardic topo- 
 grapher writes thus of the O'Connells : 
 
 11 O'Connell of the slender sword, 
 
 Is over the bushy-footed hosts 
 
 A hazle-tree of branching palms 
 
 For the Munster plain of horse hosts." 
 
Count Q' Cornell. 
 
 Thirdly, unaided by anything but his merit, he rose 
 to the rank of major-general. He became colonel- 
 cqmmandaut of the German regiment, in the Frencl} 
 service, of Salm-Salm, of two battalions of twelve 
 hundred men each, which he converted from an un- 
 disciplined mob into confessedly the finest regiment 
 in the great French camp at Metz, in 1787. Fourthly, 
 hp served at the siege of Gibraltar, in 1782, being 
 tjien the second lieutenant-colonel of the regimen^ pf 
 royal Swedes — the first lieutenant-colonel being the 
 Cpunt Fersen, remarked for his personal beauty, and 
 his alleged intrigues at the court of Louis XVI. 
 Fifthly, Colonel Daniel Count O'Connell — to which 
 rank he had then arrived—volunteered, with one 
 hundred men, as marines, in the ship of the French 
 admiral, who vainly endeavoured to prevent the relief 
 of Gibraltar by Lord Hood. Sixthly, he was severely 
 wounded in the actual attack upon Gibraltar, when 
 the French were driven off by General (afterwards 
 Lord) Elliot ; and it was because of the gallantry he 
 then displayed, that Louis XVI. conferred upon him 
 the command of the regiment of Salm-Salm, already 
 mentioned. Seventhly, he was appointed, in the year 
 1788, one of the inspectors-general of the French 
 infantry. He was the actual author of the system of 
 internal arrangements of the infantry forces now 
 universally adopted in all the European armies. ? 
 
 1 Sir Bernard Burke, with reference to this system, tells us, that 
 in the year 1788, "The French Government resolved that the art 
 of war should undergo revision ; and a military board was formed 
 
Count O'Connell 
 
 Eighthly, he was entrusted in 1769, by Louis XYL, 
 during the first revolutionary violence, with the 
 command of ten thousand of the foreign troops "hy 
 which Paris was surrounded — and the writer of this 
 sketch has often heard him declare, that if Louis XVI. 
 had permitted the foreign troops to crush the Parisian 
 revolutionary mobs, they ^vere both able and willing 
 to 4o so ; but the humanity of that benevolent, but 
 weqk, monarch prevented the making of the great 
 experiment of suppression. Ninthly, he remained 
 about the person of the king as long as it was possible 
 for personal devotion to be of any use ; and only 
 emigrated when it was impracticable to serve the 
 king by any other conduct. He then made the Duke 
 of Brunswick's campaign, as colonel d la suite, in the 
 regiment of hussars, called k De Berchiny $ and, 
 after the close of that disastrous campaign, repaired 
 to {England, where he was principally instrumental 
 in prevailing on the British Government to take 
 into their service the officers of the Irish Brigade 
 
 for this purpose, comprising four general officers and one colonel. 
 The colonel selected was O'Connell, who was esteemed one of the 
 most scientific officers in the service. Without patronage or family 
 he had risen to a colonelcy before he had attained his fortieth year. 
 Only a few meetings of the board had taken place when the superior 
 officers, struck with the depth and accuracy of information, great 
 military genius, and correct views displayed by Colonel O'Connell, 
 unanimously agreed to confide to him the renewal of the whole 
 French military code ; and he executed the arduous duty so 
 perfectly that his tactics were those followed in the early campaigns 
 of revolutionised France, adhered to by Napoleon, and adopted by 
 Prussia, Austria, Russia, and England." 
 
12 
 
 The 0' Cornells in France. 
 
 late in the employment of France. Tenthly, there 
 were six regiments forming that brigade in the 
 British service ; and the command of one of them 
 was conferred upon him. Those regiments were 
 exceedingly ill treated by the British Government ; 
 and the officers (with the exception of the colonels) 
 were unceremoniously put upon half-pay. The 
 colonels, however, were, by stipulation, entitled to 
 their full pay for life ; and he accordingly enjoyed 
 that pay, and his rank of colonel in the British 
 service, during the rest of his life. Being married to 
 a St. Domingo lady, he returned to France at the 
 peace of Amiens, to make his claims to her estate ; 
 but, on the renewal of hostilities, he was detained as 
 a prisoner in France until the restoration of the 
 Bourbon family. Eleventhly, upon the accession of 
 Louis XVIII. , he was restored to his rank as general 
 in the French service, and received his full pay both 
 as a French general and a British colonel, from 1814 
 to the downfall of Charles X. in 1830. Having 
 refused to take the oath of allegiance to Louis 
 Philippe, he lost his French pay ; but retained his 
 pay as British colonel until 1834, when he died in 
 his ninety-first year." 1 
 
 As Daniel O'Connell's grandfather had twenty- 
 two children, and his father ten, a more detailed 
 account of his family connexions would occupy too 
 much space, and would scarcely be of general inte- 
 
 1 " Sketch of the Life of Daniel O'Connell, Esq., M,P.," by his 
 Son, John O'Connell, late M.P., p. 3. 
 
O'Connell's Grandfather. 
 
 13 
 
 rest. Mr. O'Neill Daunt gives an amusing anecdote 
 on this subject in his " Personal Recollections of 
 O'Connell." 
 
 "My grandmother," said the Liberator, "had twenty- two 
 children, and half of them lived beyond the age of ninety. . . . 
 Old Maurice O'Connell of Darrynane pitched upon an oak-tree 
 to make his own coffin, and mentioned his purpose to a carpenter. 
 In the evening, the butler entered after dinner to say that the 
 carpenter wanted to speak to him. ' For what?' asked my 
 uncle. ' To talk about your honour's coffin,' said the carpenter, 
 putting his head inside the door over the butler's shoulder. I 
 wanted to get the fellow out, but my uncle said : 4 Oh ! let him 
 in, by all means. Well, friend, what do you want to say to me 
 about my coffin ? ' — ' Only, sir, that I sawed the oak-tree your 
 honour was speaking of into seven-foot plank.' — ' That would 
 be wasteful,' said my uncle. ' I never was more than six feet 
 and an inch in my vamps, the best day I ever saw.' — ' But your 
 honour will stretch after death,' said the carpenter. ' Not eleven 
 inches, I am sure, j*ou blockhead ! But I'll stretch, no doubt, 
 perhaps a couple of inches or so. Well, make my coffin six feet 
 six, and I'll warrant that will give me room enough.' " 1 
 
 Morgan O'Connell, of Carhen, had a fair income 
 though only a second son. It is noticeable and 
 characteristic of the times, that he was obliged to 
 make his first purchase of land through the interven- 
 tion of a trustee ; and, although the consideration 
 was paid by him, yet if the trustee (a Protestant) had 
 chosen to violate the trust, he might have taken the 
 property to himself. Any Protestant in the com- 
 
 1 " Personal Recollections of O'Connell, " by O'Neill Daunt. 
 
14 
 
 Carhm. 
 
 niuhity, who chose to file a " bill of discovery," could 
 compel that trust to be disclosed, and could take pos- 
 session of the estate without repaying any part of the 
 purchase-money. 1 
 
 The young Daniel spent his boyhood partly with 
 his father at Carhen, and partly with his uncle at 
 Darrynane. There is ample evidence that he was & 
 child of more than ordinary intellect, and of more 
 man ordinary observation. He has left his earliest 
 impressions on record, and the effect deserves special 
 notice. 
 
 The famous Paul Jones got command of three 
 French 2 vessels, in 1778, to cruise in the Irish seas 
 
 " Sketch, &c," by John O'Connell, page 6. 
 
 2 Paul Jones' expedition caused considerable disgust and dismay. 
 Mr. Beresford wrote thus in a letter on the subject, dated Dublin, 
 27th April, 1778 : " Perhaps the most interesting to you may be to 
 know the disgrace brought upon the navy of Great Britain by a dirty 
 privateer of 18 guns, called, I think, the Ranger, commanded by a 
 Scotchman of the name of Jones. You have already heard of this 
 vessel having come into Carrickfergus Bay, and dropped anchor by 
 the Brake sloop-of-war of 20 guns, and of her retiring upon the 
 Drake's firing at her. She kept at the mouth of the harbour for 
 eighteen hours afterwards, then sailed for Whitehaven, where you 
 have heard what she did, as also in Scotland. She then came back 
 here to sail again into Belfast ; but the Drake having gone out on a 
 cruise, met her opposite to Donaghadee, where they engaged, and 
 after thirty-eight hours, she took the Drake, having killed her cap- 
 tain, his clerk, and several men, and wounded Lieutenant Dobbs, a 
 volunteer from Carrickfergus, and twenty-one men, shattered the 
 masts and rigging of the Drake. She took also two vessels which 
 she sank, and two others which she carried with her. She sailed 
 north with all her sails crowded', with her prizes, intending for Brest. 
 
The Irish Brigade. 
 
 and the Endish Channel, lie manned his small fleet 
 with English and Irish sailors who had been prisoners 
 of war at Brest, and who preferred such service to 
 dying amidst all the horrors of a French prison. A 
 company of the Irish brigade, always ready to fight 
 against the country that expatriated them, volunteered 
 to serve on board the Bonhomme liich&id, his flag- 
 ship. 
 
 The first land made by Paul Jones upon his 
 cruise from Brest, was on the coast of Kerry. When 
 he closed in with the land, it fell a calm j and, the 
 tide running at the rate of three or four knots an 
 hour between the Skelligs rock and Valentia har- 
 bour, the situation of the vessels became dangerous, 
 and the boats were sent a-head to tow them out of 
 their difficult position. Towards dusk, a light breeze 
 springing up, the vessels got head-way, and were 
 moving from the coast, and signals were made for 
 the boats to cast off and come alongside ; but two of 
 the crews, consisting of some of the Brest prisoners, 
 
 Three frigates are, I understand after her, the Star/, of whom she has 
 just twenty-four hours' law, the Boston, and another whose name I 
 forget." An amusing observation of Mr. Harwood's, which he re- 
 cords at the end of this letter, deserves mention through not directly 
 with the present subject. You remember Mr. Harwood's observa- 
 tion, " that His Majesty, God bless him, was the best natured niah 
 in his dominions ; he was taking always the worst lawyers in the 
 nation to himself, and leaving the best ones for the defence of his 
 subjects." Mr. Harwood was M.P. for Doneraile in 1768, and wa r s 
 celebrated for his bon mots. — Correspondence of the Bight Hon. John 
 Beresford, vol. i. p. 29. 
 
1G 
 
 Paul Jones. 
 
 disregarded the signals, and, as the night darkened, 
 pulled manfully for shore. They reached Valentia 
 harbour safely- — pursuit being impossible. 
 
 Here they were received by a gentleman with 
 apparent hospitality, but the hospitality was only 
 apparent ; he at once despatched messengers privately 
 to Tralee, that a sufficient force of military might be 
 sent to apprehend them. 
 
 O'Connell was but three years of age when he 
 witnessed this treachery. Probably he did not 
 understand it until long after ; but he often spoke of 
 one of the prisoners with whose manner and appear- 
 ance he had been very much struck. This man was 
 mounted on a grey horse, and appeared to be the 
 lawyer of the party, as he remonstrated very loudly 
 against the injustice which they had suffered. 1 
 
 By way of reprisals, Paul Jones seized some 
 sailors whom he found at sea off the coast of Valen- 
 tia. These men, either willingly or unwillingly, were 
 engaged in the celebrated action off Flamborough 
 Plead, where Paul Jones compelled the Serajpis to 
 strike her colours to his fleur-de-lis, but when in the 
 
 1{< They remonstrated loudly against this treatment, alleging 
 that they had not committed nor intended any breach of the laws, 
 and that the authorities had no right to deprive them of their liberty. 
 I well recollect a tall fellow who was mounted on a grey horse, 
 remonstrating angrily at this coercion. No legal charge of course 
 could be sustained against them, and accordingly in the end they 
 were released." — Personal Recollections of O'Connell, by O'Neill 
 Daunt. 
 
Paul J> f. 
 
 17 
 
 act of securing his prize his own ship sank, shattered 
 by the fight and riddle 1 by cannon shot. 
 
 Lieutenants McCarthy and Stack, who boarded 
 with their few surviving marines from the tops, were 
 the only French officers unhurt in the action, although 
 they were the most exposed. McCarthy died a 
 lieutenant-colonel in the British service, and Stack 
 died a general in the same service. 
 
 The poor fishermen were taken to Brest, where 
 they were allowed to labour in the arsenal, and saved 
 money. In 1846, one of these men had but recently 
 died at a great age. He was a native of Valentia 
 island, by name John Murphy ; but from the time of 
 his compulsory adventure with the pirate down to 
 his latest day, he was better known by the sobriquet 
 of " Paul Jones ;" and such is the tenacity of the 
 peasantry in matters of nomenclature, that his son, 
 a respectable young farmer, was known as M Young 
 Paul Jones." The father was a man of ereat indus:: 
 and intesrritv, and died wealth v. 
 
 Whatever motive the gentleman who entrapped 
 Paul Jones' crew may have had, there is no doubt 
 that the "Kind's AYrit" did not alwavs run verv 
 safely in Kerry ; and that whatever righteous indig- 
 nation may have been publicly shown on the question 
 of foreign marauders, there was a good deal of privet? 
 connivance at overt acts of felony. 
 
 Dr. William Forbes Taylor, who wrote i: juemi- 
 niscences of Daniel O'Connell/' under the nam de 
 plume of a u Munster Farmer," says : 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Smuggling in Kerry. 
 
 ' ' In consequence of this form of intercourse (the periodical 
 emigrations to join the Irish Brigade in France), what the law 
 called smuggling and what those engaged in it called free trade, 
 was very active between the French ports and this part of Ire- 
 land. Morgan O'Connell's store or shop, at Cahirciveen, re- 
 ceived many a cargo of French laces, wines, and silks, which 
 were sold at an immense profit in the south and west of Ireland, 
 and enabled him rapidly to accumulate a large fortune. English 
 cruisers avoided the iron-bound coast of Kerry, which then had 
 a reputation even worse than its reality. It was said, that the 
 men of the Kerry coast combined wrecking with smuggling ; 
 and that, for both purposes, they had organised a very complete 
 system of posts and telegraphic signals along the bluff head- 
 lands. When a suspicious sail was announced, nice calcula- 
 tions were made to ascertain her probable position after nightfall. 
 A horse was then turned out to graze on the fields near that 
 part of the shore opposite to which she most probably was, and 
 a lantern was tied to the horse's head. Viewed from a distance, 
 this light, rising and falling as the animal fed, produced pre- 
 cisely the same effect as light in the cabin of a distant ship. 
 The crew of the stranger-vessel, thus led to believe that there 
 was open water before them, steered boldly onwards, and could 
 not discover their error until they had dashed against the rocks. 
 There is no reason to believe that the O'Connells engaged in 
 such treacherous transactions ; but there is indisputable 
 evidence that they were largely practised in this part of the 
 country, and that they afforded great protection to smuggling 
 by deterring the English cruisers from the coast. Daniel 
 O'Connell's infancy was thus passed amid scenes likely to 
 impress his mind with stern hostility to the Protestant ascend- 
 ancy, and the English Government by which it was supported. 
 In the name of that ascendancy, he was taught that his 
 ancestors had been plundered ; in the name of that ascendancy, 
 
 4 
 
Et / ud i Hon Fo / -l> iddeit . 
 
 19 
 
 he saw his religion insulted and his family oppressed ; for the 
 penal laws opposed serious impediments to his father's invest- 
 ment of the profits of his trade in the acquisition of land. All 
 around him were engaged in a fiscal war with the English 
 government, and, in the code of Kerry ethics, a seizure by the 
 officers of the Custom-House was regarded as a robbery, and 
 the defrauding of the revenue a simple act of jusHoe to one's 
 self and family." 1 
 
 Education was also under penal law. By the 
 penal laws it was t; an ofTence " for a man to practise 
 his religion. Englishmen had changed their religion, 
 
 1 Proof has so often been given of the truth of this assertion, 
 that it seems scarcely necessary to repeat it here ; yet the Irish are 
 so frequently taunted with laziness and indifference, that it should 
 be remembered how little there has been in their antecedents to 
 have induced habits of industry. They were not allowed to engage 
 in trade. Arthur Young, after alluding to the discouragements, 
 under the penal laws, to Catholics engaging in any regular trade 
 requiring both industry and capital, exclaims : "If they succeed 
 and make a fortune, what are they to do with it ? They can neither 
 buy land nor take a mortgage, nor even fine down the rent of a 
 lease. Where is there a people in the world to be found industrious 
 under such circumstances ?" 
 
 Down to the present century, the smugglers of England were as 
 injurious to their own government as servicable to that of France. 
 The Emperor Nnpoleon I. said, at St. Helena, to Dr. O'Meara : 
 " During the war with you, all the intelligence I received from Eng- 
 land came through the smugglers. They are terrible people, and 
 have courage and ability to do anything for money. ... At one 
 time, there were upwards of 500 of them at Dunkerque. J had 
 every information I wanted through them. They brought over 
 newspapers and despatches from the spies that we had in London. 
 They took over spies from France, landed and kept them in their 
 houses for some days, then dispersed them over the country, and 
 brought them back when wanted." 
 
20 
 
 Effects of Penal Laws. 
 
 and therefore the Irishman should change his. But 
 there was one curious fallacy in the mode of reason- 
 ing by which this conclusion was evolved. English- 
 men declared (in theory, and very loudly) that they 
 claimed for themselves the right of free judgment, of 
 believing as they thought fit— of interpreting the 
 Bible for themselves, But for the exercise of this 
 right, for which they even asserted a divine origin, a 
 similar liberty was not allowed to others — above all 
 to their Celtic neighbour. It was indeed true that 
 they denied this right even to each other, that they 
 were by no means agreed as to which was the divine 
 religion which men should accept as such ; that 
 Puritan and Baptist, Roundhead and Cavalier perse- 
 cuted each other when they could, for the love of 
 God, as cruelly as they united in persecuting the 
 Catholic ; ] but this was poor consolation to the Irish. 
 Englishmen had not often, or for any great lengtli 
 of time, the power of persecuting each other on 
 religious grounds — unhappily for themselves, they 
 had a permanent opportunity and a permanent power 
 of exercising such persecutions in Ireland. 
 
 1 " Afther well damning one half the community, 
 To pray God to keep all in pace an' in unity." 
 
 — The Fudges in England. 
 There is no doubt that these extremely clever sarcasms on the 
 anomalies of religious strife, had a powerful influence in removing 
 prejudice if not ignorance, and showed the folly of the state of mind 
 in which a man 
 
 " Pledged himself to be no more 
 
 With Ireland's wrongs begrieved. or shamm'd; 
 To vote her grievances a bore, 
 So she may suffer and be ." 
 
Lord CapeL 
 
 21 
 
 In entering fully into this matter, we would 
 observe that it is from no desire to recal the bitter 
 past, or to excite feelings which are suppressed, if 
 they are not passed away. But it would be quite 
 impossible to understand O'Connell's life, or 
 O'Connell's work, unless these subjects were fully 
 considered and thoroughly understood. In his boy- 
 hood he was himself the victim of these oppressions, 
 and though his experience of them was comparatively 
 trilling, it should not be forgotten that he lived at a 
 period when old men could tell him tales of personal 
 pains and penalties, of a rule which a truthful English 
 Protestant writer designated as only fit for the 
 meridian of Barbary. 1 
 
 In the year 1G95, some eighty years before the 
 time of which we write, when Lord Capel was 
 appointed Viceroy, he at once summoned a parlia- 
 ment, which sat for several sessions, and in which 
 some of the penal laws against Catholics were enacted. 
 
 1 11 Severity which seemed calculated for the meridian of Bar- 
 bary, while others remain yet the law of the land, which would, if 
 executed, tend more to raise than to quell an insurrection. From 
 all which it is manifest, that the gentlemen of Ireland never thought 
 of a radical cure, from overlooking the real cause of disease, which, 
 in fact lay in themselves and not in the wretches they doomed to the 
 gallows. Let them change their own conduct entirely, and the poor 
 will not long riot. Treat them like men, who ought to be as free 
 as yourselves ; put an end to that system of religious persecution 
 which for seventy years has divided the kingdom against itself — in 
 these two circumstances lies the cure of insurrection ; perform them 
 completely, and you will have an affectionate poor, instead of op- 
 pressed and discontented vassal?."— Young's Tour, vol. ii. 42. 
 
22 
 
 A Protestant Protest 
 
 As I believe the generality even of educated persons, 
 both in England and Ireland, are entirely ignorant of 
 what these laws really were, I shall give a brief 
 account of their enactments, premising first that seven 
 lay peers and seven Protestant bishops had the 
 honourable humanity to sign a protest against them. 
 
 (1.) The Catholic peers were deprived of their 
 right to sit in parliament. (2.) Catholic gentlemen 
 were forbidden to be elected as members of parlia- 
 ment. (3.) All Catholics were denied the liberty of 
 voting, and excluded from all offices of trust, and 
 indeed from all remunerative employment however 
 insignificant. 1 (4.) They were fined £60 a-month for 
 absence from the Protestant form of worship. (5.) 
 They were forbidden to travel five miles from their 
 houses, to keep arms, to maintain suits at law, or to 
 be guardians or executors. (6.) Any four justices of 
 the peace could, without further trial, banish any man 
 for life if he refused to attend the Protestant service. 
 (7.) Any two justices of the peace could call any man 
 over sixteen before them, and if he refused to abjure 
 the Catholic religion they could bestow his property 
 to the next of kin. (8.) No Catholic could employ a 
 Catholic schoolmaster to educate his children ; and 
 
 1 A petition was sent in to Parliament by the Protestant porters 
 of Dublin, complaining of Darby Ryan for employing Catholic 
 porters. The petition was respectfully received, and referred to a 
 " Committee of Grievances." — Com. Jour., vol. ii. f. 699. Such 
 an instance, and it is only one of many, is the best indication of the 
 motive for enacting the penal laws, and the cruelty of them. 
 
Against the Penal Laics. 
 
 23 
 
 if he sent his child abroad for education, lie was 
 subject to a fine of £100, and the child could not 
 inherit any' property either in England or Ireland. 
 (9.) Any Catholic priest who came to the country 
 should be hanged. (10.) Any Protestant suspecting 
 any other Protestant of holding property 1 in trust for 
 any Catholic, might fde a bill against the suspected 
 trustee and take the estate or property from him. 
 (11.) Any Protestant seeing a Catholic tenant-at-will 
 on a farm, which in his opinion yielded one-third more 
 than the yearly rent, might enter on that farm, and 
 by simply swearing to the fact take possession. (12.) 
 Any Protestant might take away the horse of a 
 Catholic, no matter how valuable, by simply paying 
 him £5. (13.) Horses and waggons belonging to 
 Catholics, were in all cases to be seized for the use of 
 
 1 It will be remembered that at this time Catholics were in a 
 majority of at least five to one over Protestants. Hence inter- 
 marriages took place, and circumstances occurred, in which Protes- 
 tants found it their interest to hold property for Catholics, to prevent 
 it from being seized by others. A gentleman of considerable 
 property in the county of Kerry has informed me that his property 
 was held in this way for several generations. 
 
 It was the opinion of O 1 Council himself, that no landed estate 
 could have remained in the possession of Catholics, " only that in- 
 dividual Protestants were found a great deal honester than the laws. 
 The Freeman family of Castlecor," he observed, "were trustees for 
 a large number of Catholic gentlemen in the county of Cork. In 
 Kerry there was a Protestant, named Hugh Falvey, who acted as 
 trustee for many Catholic proprietors there. In Dublin there was 
 a poor Protestant, in very humble circumstances, who was trustee 
 for several Catholic gentlemen, and discharged his trust with perfect 
 integrity."— O'Neill Vaunt's " Personal Recollections." 
 
24 A Conversion from Popery 
 
 the militia. (14.) Any Catholic gentleman's child 
 who became a Protestant, could at once take posses- 
 sion of his father's property. 
 
 O'Connell, who had a fund of anecdote, was 
 accustomed to relate an amusing incident on the 
 subject of the peculiar facilities afforded for a change 
 of religion : 
 
 A Mr. Myers, of Roscommon, was threatened that 
 a " bill of discovery' 7 would be filed against him ; in 
 other words, that one of the enactments of the penal 
 laws would be put in. force, and that he, being a 
 Catholic, would be ejected by a Protestant, who 
 would legally claim his estate. 
 
 Mr. Myers preferred his property to his religion, 
 and immediately posted to Dublin in all haste. Here 
 he proceeded to the Protestant Archbishop, and in- 
 formed him of his desire to be received into the State 
 Church. The archbishop examined him upon the 
 points of difference between the two churches, and 
 found that he knew nothing at all about the matter. 
 He accordingly said he could not receive him into the 
 Anglican Church unless he should get some previous 
 instruction ; and politely offered to commit him to the 
 care of the Rector of Castlerea, who chanced to be in 
 Dublin at the time. The proposal was most gratifying 
 to Mr. Myers, for he and the rector had long been 
 boon companions. They met in Dublin, as they had 
 met in Roscommon, dined together every day for a 
 week, and thus Mr. Myers went through his course 
 of theological instruction. The conversation may not 
 
And the grounds for it. 
 
 25 
 
 have been very spiritual, but O'Connell declares that 
 a good deal of spirits were consumed. Be this as it 
 may, and it certainly was the custom of the times 
 to indulge freely, Mr. Myers considered himself suf- 
 ficiently prepared — and his friend the rector agreed 
 with him. 
 
 Whatever the private feelings or reluctance of 
 the archbishop may have been, he could scarcely 
 refuse to receive an important convert ; he permitted 
 him to make his solemn public abjuration of the 
 errors of Popery, and to receive the Protestant sacra- 
 ment. In order to celebrate the happy event, the 
 prelate invited Myers and several zealous Protestant 
 friends to dinner. When the cloth was removed, his 
 Grace thus addressed the convert : " Mr. Myers, you 
 have this day been received into the true Protestant 
 Church. For this you should thank God. I learn 
 with pleasure from the Rector of Castlerea that you 
 have acquired an excellent knowledge of the basis 
 of the Protestant religion. Will you be so kind 
 as to state, for the edification of the company, the 
 grounds upon which you have cast aside Popery and 
 embraced the Church of England." " Faith, my lord," 
 replied Myers, M I can easily do that ; the grounds of 
 my conversion to the Protestant religion are two 
 thousand five hundred acres of the best- [/rounds in 
 the county Roscommon." The reply of the arch- 
 bishop is not on record, but we hope there are few 
 who will not agree with us in thinking it very pitiful 
 and very little creditable to humanity that man 
 
26 
 
 O'ConneWs Family. 
 
 should be compelled by his fellow-man to violate his 
 conscience on the pretence of enforcing a religion. 
 
 O'Connell was singularly susceptible of female in- 
 fluence, and if at one period of his early life this sus- 
 ceptibility led him into evil, it was only because alt 
 that is best and purest in human nature is liable to 
 perversion. He was tenderly attached to his mother, 
 and, like many great men, attributed much of his suc- 
 cess in life to her influence, example, and teaching. 
 
 He often spoke of her in after years ; and even 
 when his wonderful career was near its close, in 
 1841, he wrote thus : 
 
 ' ' I am the son of a sainted mother, who watched over my 
 childhood with the most faithful care ; she was of a high order 
 of intellect, and what little I possess was bequeathed me by 
 her. I may in fact say without vanity, that the superior situa- 
 tion in which I am placed by my countrymen has been owing 
 to her. Her last breath was passed, I thank Heaven, in calling 
 down blessings on my head ; and I valued her blessing since. 
 In the perils and the dangers to which I have been exposed 
 through life, I have regarded her blessing as an angel's shield 
 over me ; and as it has been my protection in this life, I look 
 forward to it also as one of the means of obtaining hereafter a 
 happiness greater than any this world can give." 1 
 
 He was proud of his family also, and anxious to 
 discover any mention of them in Irish history. How- 
 ever he may have used the suaviter in modo as his 
 style in winning popular affection and applause, he 
 could practise the fortiter in re, if any undue, or 
 
 1 Belfast Vindicator, letter dated 20th January, 1841. 
 
Dar ry wine Abbey. 
 
 27 
 
 shall Ave say u blarneying'' influence was tried on 
 him personally. There was some talk at Darrynane 1 
 
 1 The following account of the Abbey of Darrynane, of which an 
 illustration is given at the head of this chapter, was drawn up for 
 my 11 History of Kerry" by the present proprietor, Daniel O'Connell, 
 Esq., J. P., the grandson of the Liberator. This gentleman is de- 
 voted to archaeological pursuits, and a contributor to many scientific 
 journals. The u abbey," so called, of Darrynane, or Ahavore, was 
 a small establishment of Canons lingular of St. Augustine. The 
 remains consist of the church and some domestic buildings. 
 
 The church is a simple parallelogram, about 40 feet by 18 feet. 
 The walls remain, but the root* has long since disappeared. There 
 are two doors in the north and south walls, towards the west end, 
 opposite one another : that to the north has been the principal 
 entrance, and has some slight remains of a moulded jamb and arch, 
 the mouldings being of very early character. One of the heads 
 which supported the label moulding, and some traces of the mould- 
 ing itself, remain, but in a very worn and mutilated condition. The 
 south door opened into the court-yard of the monastery, and had a 
 plain chamfered jamb and arch. Both doors had pointed arches. 
 On the noith side, the church was lit by two small round-headed 
 lancets, having the common early "chamfer and square" for jamb 
 and arch moulding. A similar window is in the south-east corner. 
 The east window is a triplet of lancets, very narrow, with pointed 
 heads, and similar mouldings to the side windows. These east 
 windows have been at some period blocked up with masonry to 
 nearly half their height ; apparently at the same time the doors 
 have been partially blocked up on the inside, and converted into 
 square-headed openings. All the windows have very wide s\ lays 
 internally, carried round the heads of the eastern group. None of 
 the windows have any rebate or groove for glass, but seem to have 
 been barred with iron. 
 
 The floor has been greatly raised by interments. A piscina with 
 plain chamfer and round-headed trefoil arch remains. It has had a 
 double basin, and a credence-shelf. Owing to the rise of the floor, 
 the basin is now only a few inches over the ground inside. 
 
 A rude block of masonry at the east end formed an altar. Al- 
 
28 
 
 Darrynane Abbey. 
 
 one clay on the subject of pedigrees and descents. 
 O'Connell said something about his family. " Oh !" 
 exclaimed a guest, "I saw your name in MacGeo- 
 ghegan's 4 History of Ireland/ somewhere at a very 
 early date," 
 
 The Liberator looked greatly pleased. " Pray get 
 the book," he said ; u it is in the library." The book 
 
 though the upper part and slab are gone, still this rises much above 
 the sill of the east windows, and is singularly high compared to the 
 piscina. It would seem that, after being disused, and the floor 
 raised, the church had been again adapted for service, the present 
 altar built, and the windows behind blocked up to suit the altered 
 level. A curious projection of the rubble blocking of the north-east 
 lancet seems to have served as a corbel for a statue or lamp. 
 
 The domestic buildings are in the form of an L, one limb joining 
 the church near the south-east angle, the other projecting from this 
 to the west. These are very rude, and have no architectural fea- 
 tures of any interest. The limb joining the church has some rude 
 windows, and a door of rubble work in the east side wall, but they 
 are much injured. A door with pointed arch of rubble, may be 
 traced in the west wall, near the south-west angle. It is blocked, 
 and the gable of the second wing built against it. Of the latter, 
 only the gables and portions of the side walls remain. 
 
 All the buildings are of rubble work, very rude, with a great 
 quantity of mortar of the local slate stone. The window and door- 
 dressings in the church are of brown sandstone, from a quarry near 
 the luins. Owing to the bad weather- quality of this, they are much 
 injured by time. 
 
 The walls of the domestic buildings do not bond with those of 
 the church, nor with one another. The buildings appear, therefore, 
 to have been erected at three distinct periods — the church being 
 probably the earliest. No fire-places nor flues remain, or can have 
 existed. 
 
 In consequence of the east wall of the church having settled out, 
 and threatening to fall, Mr. O'Connell has lately had two strong 
 buttresses built to support it. 
 
The Irish Brigade. 
 
 29 
 
 was got, but the passage was not forthcoming, and 
 the gentleman was obliged to admit that he believed 
 he had made a mistake. 
 
 O'Connell flung himself out of the room with a 
 petulance he seldom exhibited, and as he retired was 
 heard muttering something about " humbug." Hav- 
 ing this anecdote from a gentleman who was present, 
 there can be no doubt of its authenticity. 
 
 O'Neill Daunt says, in his " Recollections," that 
 O'Connell " was angry at the disparaging manner in 
 which his family had been spoken of by an anony- 
 mous writer in the ' Mask,' who described leading 
 members of Parliament:. 4 The vagabond allows me 
 a large share of talent, but he says I am of humble 
 origin. My fathers family was very ancient, and my 
 mother was a lady of the first rank.' 1 
 
 " In the time of James II., Maurice O'Conal, of 
 Clare county, was a general of brigade and colonel 
 of the king's guards. In that regiment John O'Conal 
 of Darrynane — the lineal ancestor of the Liberator — 
 served at the head of a company of foot which he 
 himself had raised and embodied in the regiment. 
 
 "When the Irish lost the day at Aughrim, John 
 retired with his shattered regiment to Limerick, and 
 was included in the treaty or capitulation of that 
 stronghold. Respecting this gentleman, O'Connell 
 
 1 In one of Victor Hugo's works, there is an analysis made by hiin 
 of the great men of modern times who were respectively of noble and 
 plebeian blood, and among the former he classes " O'Connell, gentil- 
 homme Irlandais." 
 
80 
 
 4 
 
 John O'Connell of Ashtown. 
 
 told an anecdote in the House of Commons, which 
 awakened a storm of anger, groans, and turbulence. 
 When the storm had abated, O'Connell, unabashed 
 by the noisy vociferation of the house, proceeded with 
 his anecdote, which he deemed illustrative of the 
 subject before him : c On the morning of the battle of 
 Aughrim, an ancestor of mine who commanded a 
 company of infantry in King James's army, repri- 
 manded one of his men who had neglected to shave 
 himself, 4 Oh ! your honour,' said the soldier, 4 who- 
 ever takes the trouble of cutting my head off in battle 
 may take the trouble of shaving it when he goes 
 home.' n 
 
 Of another of his ancestors he spoke thus : 
 " In 1655, John O'Connell, of Ashtown, near 
 Dublin, the brother of the lineal ancestor of the 
 Liberator, proved his good affection to Oliver Crom- 
 well by conforming to Protestantism. He thereby 
 preserved his estate. 6 1 saw his escutcheon,' said the 
 Liberator, c on the wall of St. James's church, in 
 Dublin, some twenty years ago. I do not know if it 
 be there still.' " 
 
 In Smith's " History of Kerry," the O'Connell 
 family and pedigree are scarcely mentioned. A 
 reason is given for this omission which is singularly 
 and painfully characteristic of the times : 
 
 " In the course of his literary peregrinations, Dr. Smith 
 visited Darrynane, where he was entertained for several days by 
 the grandfather of the great Agitator. The patriarch of Iveragh, 
 in the course of conversation, communicated to the historian 
 
Date ofifCoimeWs Birth. 
 
 31 
 
 many interesting particulars of local and domestic history. 
 Warmed by bis genial hospitality and delighted with bis fund 
 of anecdote, Dr. Smith proposed to Mr. O'Connell to devote a 
 due proportion of the forthcoming history to the virtues and 
 heroism of the Clan-Connell. The reply was not very en- 
 couraging: 'We have peace, in these glens, Mr. Smith,' said 
 the patriarch, ' and amid their seclusion enjoy a respite from 
 persecution : we can still in these solitudes profess the beloved 
 faith of our fathers. If man is against us, God assists us ; He 
 gives us wherewithal to pay for the education of our children in 
 foreign lands and to further their advancement in the Irish 
 Brigade ; but if you make mention of me or mine, these sea- 
 side solitudes will no longer yield us an asylum. The Sassenagh 
 will scale the mountains of Darrynane, and we too shall be 
 driven out upon the world without house or home.' The wishes 
 of the patriarch were respected by the historian — a broken 
 sentence is all he devotes to the annals of the Clan-Connell." 
 
 In truth, this anecdote, for the authenticity of 
 which we can vouch, reads but too much like the 
 piteous plea of the Red Indian to the white man ; all 
 he asks is to he left in peace, to be allowed to live — 
 to be spared even his poverty. It is not creditable to 
 our common humanity that such pleas should have 
 ever been uttered by those who were once united in 
 one faith, and who at least believed in one Father. 
 
 O'Connell was also very particular that the date 
 of his birth should be given correctly, and wrote on 
 one occasion to contradict some mistakes which had 
 been made on this subject. He commenced by 
 saying that it was right to be accurate in trifles. He 
 then goes on to say that a paragraph had appeared in 
 
Early taste for liter aim e. 
 
 the journals, which, he was desirous of contradicting. 
 " It contained two mistakes — it asserted that I was 
 born in 1774, and secondly, that I was intended for 
 the Church. I was not intended for the Church. No 
 man respects, loves, or submits to the Church with 
 more alacrity than I. But I was not intended for the 
 priesthood. It is not usual with the Catholic gentry 
 in Ireland to determine the religious destiny of their 
 children ; and being an eldest son, born to an inde- 
 pendence, the story of my having been intended for 
 the Church is a pure fabrication. I was not born in 
 the year 1774. Be it known to all whom it may 
 concern that I was born on the 6th of August, 1775, 
 the very year in which the stupid obstinacy of British 
 oppression forced the reluctant people of America to 
 seek security in arms, and to commence that bloody 
 struggle for national independence which has been 
 in its results beneficial to England, whilst it has shed 
 glory and conferred liberty, pure and sublime, on 
 America." 1 
 
 The Liberator's literary tastes manifested them- 
 selves early in life ; and again, in relating how lie 
 mastered the alphabet Ave find yet another illustration 
 of the unhappy state of unhappy Ireland. It was a 
 crime for a man to have his children taught to read 
 in Ireland ; and when it was found that Irish love of 
 learning was too strong even for penal laws, and that 
 the Irishman sent his sons to obtain abroad the ad- 
 
 1 Dublin Evening Post, 17th July, 1828. 
 
State of Education in Ireland. 
 
 33 
 
 vantages that were denied to him at home, it was far- 
 ther made penal to seek education abroad. In truth, 
 it was hard to know what was not penal in Ireland 
 for a Catholic — and, in truth, any reproach on "Irish 
 ignorance" comes with an ill grace from those whose 
 ancestors did their best to render Irishmen a nation 
 of ignorant slaves. We may be pardoned for doubt- 
 ing, since we neither desire to deny our nationality 
 nor apologise for it, if the case had been reversed, 
 whether the English serf would have made as painful 
 efforts and as areat sacrifices to secure himself educa- 
 tion, had it been thus denied to him. 
 
 For Protestant education, however, every provi- 
 sion was ma le. For the upper classes there was 
 Trinity College, Dublin ; for the lower classes there 
 were the Charter Schools. These schools were 
 founded in 1733, in response to a petition of the 
 Protestant primate and archbishop, clergy, and laity. 
 The preamble of the petition ran thus : 
 
 " Humbly sheweth, — That in many parts of Ireland there 
 are great tracks of mountaining [sic] and coarse land, of ten, 
 twenty, or thirty miles in length, and of a considerable breadth, 
 almost universally inhabited by Papists, and that in most parts 
 of the same, and more especially in the provinces of Leinster, 
 Munster, and Connaught, the Papists far exceed the Protestants 
 in all sorts of numbers [sic], 
 
 " That the generality of the Popish natives appear to have 
 very little sense or belief of religion, but what they implicitly 
 take from their clergy (to whose guidance in such matters they 
 pcem wholly to give themselves up), and thereby are unfit, not 
 only in gross ignorance, but in great disaffection to your sacred 
 
34 
 
 The Charter Schools. 
 
 Majesty and Government— so that, if some effectual method be 
 not made use of to instruct these great numbers of people in 
 the principles of loyalty and religion, there seems to be very 
 little prospect but that superstition, idolatry, and disaffection to 
 your Majesty, or to your royal posterity, will, from generation 
 to generation, be propagated amongst them." 1 
 
 And so the Charter Schools were established. It 
 was the old story, as old as the first ages of Chris- 
 tianity ; the Christians were disloyal because they 
 obeyed God in preference to Caesar, even while they 
 proved their loyalty to Caesar in all that was not dis- 
 loyal to their God, by pouring out their life's blood 
 in torrents for the support of the empire. The Thun- 
 dering Legion, whose Christian soldiers obtained by 
 prayer 2 the salvation of the army of Marcus Aureiius, 
 received no better treatment at the hands of their 
 Pagan calumniators than the Irish who were loyal to 
 James, the faithless Stuart. 
 
 And these schools, in which the "ignorant" Irish 
 were to receive their education, were thus described 
 by the benevolent Howard and Sir Jerome Fitz- 
 patrick the Government inspector-general : 
 
 a The children, generally speaking, are unhealthy, 
 half-starved, in rags, totally uneducated, too much 
 worked, and in all respects shamefully neglected." 
 
 1 " Ireland's Grievances — The Penal Laws," p. 29. Dublin : 
 1812. Catholics were not admitted to Trinity College, Dublin, until 
 1793, even as humble students, unambitious of academical honours 
 or promotion. 
 
 2 The authenticity of this miracle is admitted even by pagan 
 historians, See Dion Cassius, Capitolinus, Claudius, and Tillemont, 
 vol. ii. p. 370. 
 
Hedge Schoolmasters. 
 
 85 
 
 The hedge-schoolmasters who taught in fear and 
 trembling, while one pupil watched the road that all 
 might disperse promptly if an enemy to learning came 
 in sight ; or the itinerant schoolmaster who wandered 
 from house to house as perhaps a safer method of 
 obtaining a precarious existence, were the only in- 
 structors of the Irish jouth : yet for all that, the 
 Irish youth learned and learned well, and held his 
 place as a man of learning in after life in those Euro- 
 pean courts where he was welcomed, and showed 
 himself not only loyal to the foreign power under 
 which he took military service, but also of no ordi- 
 nary ability as a commander and a strategist. 
 
 At a time when O'Connell's own father could not 
 be lawfully his guardian, it can be a matter of little 
 surprise that he learned the rudiments of education 
 from an ordinary pedagogue. 1 
 
 1 In 1703, it was enacted "that no Catholic could be guardian 
 to, or have the custody or tuition of any orphan or child under the 
 age of 21 years, and that the guardianship, when a Catholic was 
 entitled to it, should be disposed of by the Chancellor to the nearest 
 Protestant relation of the child, or to some other Protestant, who is 
 thereby required to use his utmost care to educate and bring up such 
 child in the Protestant religion. Any offence against this act was 
 punished by a penalty of i!500." The act permitting Catholics to 
 be guardians to their own children was not passed until 1782. 
 
 Usher, who cannot be suspected of any partiality to " Papists," 
 has himself given an account of his visit to Galway, where he found 
 John Lynch, afterwards Bishop of Killala, teaching a school of 
 humanity. "We had proofe," he says, "during our continuance 
 in that citie, how his schollars profitted under him, by the verses 
 and orations which they brought us." Usher then relates how he 
 seriously advised the young schoolmaster to conform to the popular 
 
86 
 
 " A Spoonful of Honey y 
 
 Even in his own account of his first lesson in 
 reading we see his preference for the " spoonful of 
 honey" 1 sufficiently manifested; and though it can- 
 not be doubted that his personal experience of the 
 French Ee volution had a powerful effect on his future 
 career, and made him tenaciously fearful of physical 
 force, yet his natural character was gentle. The 
 schoolmaster won his affection in a peculiar manner. 
 His own son, John O'Connell, himself one of the best 
 and gentlest of men, has left the account on record, 
 and we give it in his words : 
 
 " An itinerant schoolmaster came to Carlien one day, and 
 
 religion ; but, as Lynch declined to comply with his wishes, he was 
 bound over, under sureties of £400 sterling, to " forbear teaching." 
 The tree of knowledge was, in truth, forbidden fruit, and guarded 
 sedulously by the fiery sword of the law. 
 
 For further information on this subject, and for details of the 
 history of Irishmen who distinguished themselves abroad and at home 
 under penal laws, we refer the reader to O'Callaghan's " History of 
 the Irish Brigade," and to our " Illustrated History of Ireland." 
 
 1 O'Neill Daunt says in his " Reminiscences :" <{ On one 
 
 occasion when O'Connell had listened to for a long time with 
 
 great suavity, I said, ' You were infinitely more civil to Mr.- 
 
 than I could have been.' 
 
 " 1 My dear friend,' replied he, ' you will catch more flies with a 
 spoonful of honey than with a hogshead of vinegar.' 
 
 " He admits, however, that he could show symptoms of being 
 bored now and then. 
 
 " Some of the habitues of the Repeal Association who knew 
 O'Connell's feelings on such matters, have whispered to me during 
 the speech of a long-winded orator, 'Watch Dan, now! observe how 
 bored he is — there he sits with his hat pulled down over his eyes, 
 patiently waiting until this gentleman finishes.' " 
 
O'ConnelVs First Lesson. 
 
 37 
 
 took the little fellow on his knee. He then took out a pocket- 
 comb and combed the child's hah* thoroughly, without hurting 
 him as the rough country maids scarcely ever failed to do. In 
 gratitude for exemption from his usual torture, the child readily 
 consented to learn his letters fi-om the old man ; and in the 
 short space of an hour and a half, learned the whole alphabet 
 perfectly and permanently. 
 
 " The moral of this tale is, not that you should comb 
 children's heads gently, in order to ensure their learning 
 quickly ; but that the difficulties of teaching them can be much 
 lightened by a little care to conciliate their good-will to the 
 task." 
 
 It is just possible that the brain was nervously 
 sensitive, 'as is frequently the case in children of more 
 than ordinary capacity, and they may be tried to 
 the very verge of endurance by ungentle usage. We 
 agree with Mr. O'Connell that children may be 
 taught the alphabet without " combing the head 
 gently," but it is worth considering that if delicate 
 and sensitive children were treated with more con- 
 sideration, it might be of advantage to them both 
 morally and physically. 
 
 O'Connell was then nearly four years old. The 
 schoolmaster s name was David Mahoney. 
 
 In 1787, O'Connell was taken to the Tralee 
 assizes and witnessed a curious exhibition of the 
 fashion in which justice was administered in those 
 days. From the manner in which the lower orders 
 of Irish were hunted from one place to another, not 
 only by the English army," but even by their own 
 lords, whose private feuds were neither few nor far 
 
38 
 
 The « Crelaghs." 
 
 between, many of them took to a predatory life from 
 necessity, and continued it from desire. A band of 
 these unfortunate men, who were called " Crelaghs," 
 infested the mountains of Glencarra and preyed on 
 the cattle in Clare and Galway, which they drove 
 away and sold daily in the fairs of Kerry ; or with 
 impartial rapacity swept off the stolen beeves of 
 Kerry and disposed of them retributively in Galway 
 and Clare. The harassed farmers regarded these 
 " Crelaghs" with both terror and loathing : but their 
 hatred was repressed by fear, because the Protestant 
 gentry extended to the freebooters a kind of negative 
 protection. A portion of the spoil which the grate- 
 ful robbers presented to the sympathising magistrates 
 rewarded this profitable connivance. Emboldened 
 by an impunity, which having purchased they re- 
 garded as a right, the robbers stole fourteen cows 
 from the lands of Morgan O'Connelh Exasperated 
 by this outrage, the father of the future Liberator, at 
 the head of an armed party, penetrated the mountain 
 defiles and proceeded to storm the haunt of the 
 banditti. The struggle which ensued was of a very 
 desperate and even sanguinary character, as the "Cre- 
 laghs' 7 offered a fierce resistance, in the course of 
 which the father of young Daniel wounded one and 
 captured two ; while the remainder of the robbers 
 broke through their assailants and effected their es- 
 cape, to renew in another part of the country the de- 
 predations which made them so formidable in Glen- 
 carra. One evening, as Morgan O'Connell was riding 
 
Justice in Ireland. 
 
 39 
 
 home alone, he was set upon by these desperadoes ; 
 determined to revenge on his friendless head the 
 injuries which, when surrounded by companions, he 
 had inflicted on them. Rushing down the slope of a 
 mountain, they called on him with threats to stop, 
 and fired on him as he continued his course. His 
 horse at this moment, terrified by the discharge of the 
 musket, became unmanageable, and he was flung 
 heavily to the grouud. While thus prostrate he was 
 again fired at, but fortunately without effect. Regain- 
 ing his feet he succeeded in recovering his horse, 
 and springing upon its back he was speedily beyond 
 the reach of the banditti, who pursued and fired at 
 him as he fled. 
 
 Some time subsequently one of the "Crelaghs" 
 was convicted of horse-stealing at Tralee. Leaning 
 on the bar, he heard the sentence of death with a 
 degree of savage apathy which astonished every 
 spectator in the court. M Is it listening to his lord- 
 ship you are, you stupid gomeril ? n exclaimed a 
 bystander, with unfeigned amazement. " Don't you 
 see it's listening I am T replied the prisoner angrily ; 
 "but fot do I care fot he says. Is not Colonel 
 Blennerhasset looking at me — isn't he — all the time ? 
 and he says nothing." The prisoner, doubtless, relied 
 on the presents which he had given the colonel for 
 an entire immunity from the penalty of crime. 1 Even 
 
 1 Kerry cows were the victims of Kerry feuds from an early 
 period, but especially during the Desmond war. The following ex- 
 
40 
 
 A Judge Bribed. 
 
 the judges of that day were not all exempted from 
 the weakness of accepting a bribe, though, for the 
 credit of the bench, we must hope these delinquents 
 were the rare exception. Denis O'Brien, a man not 
 noted for obedience to law, had a record at Nenagh, 
 and learning that the judge had talked of purchasing 
 a set of carriage horses, Denis sent him a magnificent 
 set. The judge graciously accepted the horses, 
 praised their points extravagantly, and then, charging 
 the jury in favour of Denis, obtained a verdict for 
 him. The moment Denis gained his point, he sent in 
 a bill to the- judge for the full value of the horses. 
 His lordship called Denis aside to expostulate pri- 
 
 tract from our " History of Kerry," recently published, will show 
 how justice was administered : 
 
 " The judges went circuit twice a year, except in the county 
 Kerry, but whether the county was exempted from judicial visits on 
 account of the general propriety of the inhabitants, or because of its 
 remoteness and inaccessibleness, is by no means evident. Justice 
 was administered with tolerable impartiality, for amongst the earliest 
 Kerry records we can find of the seventeenth century, Sir Thomas 
 Denny was fined £300, and bound ' to good behaviour' for seven 
 years towards John Darroe : his bails were John Fitzmaurice and 
 Eev. Barry Denny ; and at the same assizes Matthew Boarman and 
 Daniel Sullivan were indicted, for that they, 19th December, in the 
 nineteenth year of his Majesty, at Tralee, did assault, beat, batter, 
 and whip John Darran. Summer assizes were then held, and in the 
 same year David Sullivan was released from custody, wherein he had 
 been detained since the summer assizes of 1740, for non-payment of 
 a fine of £15, to which he had been sentenced for stealing a deer 
 from the park of the Knight of Kerry. In 1777 a number of persons 
 were sentenced, and a man was actually condemned to be hanged for 
 stealing ' one Caroline hat, value 10s, and one wigg, value 6s. strls-' " 
 
A Scotch Ballad. 
 
 41 
 
 vately with him. " Oh ! Mr. O'Brien/' said he, M I did 
 not think you meant to charge me for those horses. 
 Come now, my dear friend, why should I pay you 
 for them ?" — " Upon my word, that is curious talk," 
 retorted Denis, in a tone of fierce defiance, " I'd like 
 to know why your lordship should not pay me for 
 them ? " To this inquiry, of course, a reply was im- 
 possible. The judge was obliged to hold his peace 
 and pay the money. 
 
 While enjoying the amusements of the county 
 town, with keen eye seeing and sharp ear hearing 
 what perhaps was scarcely noticed by others, 
 O'Connell listened to a ballad which made an 
 indelible impression on his memory. He related the 
 circumstance thus to O'Neill Daunt many years after- 
 wards : 
 
 "I liked ballads above all things when I was a boy," said 
 O'Connell. " In 1787 I was brought to the Tralee assizes. 
 Assizes were then a great mart for all sorts of amusements— and 
 I was greatly taken with the ballad singers. It was then I 
 heard two ballad- singers, a man and a woman, chanting out a 
 ballad which contained a verse I still remember : 
 
 ' I leaned my back against an oak, 
 ' I thought it was a trusty tree, 
 But first it bent, and then it broke — 
 'Twas thus my love deserted me.' 1 
 
 He sang the first two lines — she sang the third line, both 
 together sang the fourth, and so on through the whole ballad." 
 
 1 This is a verse from the well-known Scotch ballad : — 
 " Oh waly, waly up the hank, 
 
 And waly, waly doun the brae." 
 
42 
 
 O'Connell in his Boyhood. 
 
 O'Connell spent much of his time, even at this 
 early period of his life, in study. When his play- 
 mates were engaged in noisy games, he would sit 
 apart absorbed in some book ; and books were rare 
 enough then to be dearly prized. The " Voyages of 
 Captain Cook " specially interested him, and he 
 would sit for hours poring over the volume, or finding 
 out the places on the map. He had also a great 
 fancy for the Dublin Magazine, which was taken in 
 by his uncle. This serial contained portraits of 
 distinguished personages with their biographies, and 
 even then some vision of and aspiration for future 
 fame must have entered his mind, for he used to say 
 to himself, " I wonder will my portrait ever appear in 
 this.' 7 Yet, even in his wildest dreams, how little 
 could he have anticipated his magnificent future. 1 
 
 On one occasion when the family were eagerly 
 discussing the topics of the day, and the respective 
 merits of Burke and Grattan, O'Connell, then only a 
 lad of nine years of age, was observed sitting in an 
 
 1 Speaking of his own early recollection, O'Connell said : " My 
 uncle used to get the Dublin Magazine at Carhen ; it usually con- 
 tained the portrait of some remarkable person, with a biographical 
 notice. I was always an ambitious fellow, and I often used to say 
 to myself, < I wonder will my visage ever appear in the Dublin 
 Magazine.' I knew at that time of no greater notoriety. In 1810, 
 when walking through the streets soon after some meeting at which 
 I had attracted public notice, I saw a magazine in a shop-window, 
 containing the portrait of ' Councillor O'Connell,' and I said to 
 myself with a smile, £ Here are my boyish dreams of glory realised.' 
 Though I need not tell you that in 1810, I had long outgrown that 
 species of ambition."— Personal Recollections, vol. i. p. 102. 
 
" Fll make a stir in the fborld" 43 
 
 arm-chair, silent and abstracted. He was asked by a 
 lady, who wondered at his silence, " What he was 
 thinking of? " His reply was characteristic : 
 
 " I'll make a stir in the world yet ! " 
 
 Father O'Grady was then the chaplain of the 
 O'Connell family, and prepared the boy for the 
 Sacraments. A curious anecdote is told of this 
 ecclesiastic. He resided at Louvain during the wars 
 of Marlborough, and from the troubled state of Flan- 
 ders he was reduced to the deepest distress. He 
 begged his way to the coast, hoping to meet some 
 vessel whose captain might take him for charity to 
 Ireland. As he was trudging slowly and painfully 
 along, he suddenly fell in with a band of robbers. 
 One of the robbers was a Kerryman, named Denis 
 Mahony, who, moved to compassion by the penniless 
 poverty of the priest, and charmed wjjth the sound of 
 his native tongue, gave him out of his own share of 
 plunder the means of returning to Ireland. " God be 
 merciful to poor Denis Mahony ! " Father O'Grady 
 was accustomed to say, when relating this adventure ; 
 M I found him a useful friend in need. But for 
 all that, he might prove a very disagreeable neigh- 
 bour." 
 
 The Liberator in after years accounted for the 
 appearance of a native of Kerry among a gang of 
 Flemish robbers, by supposing that he had served 
 in Marlborough's army, and, deserting from ill-treat- 
 ment, sought subsistence on the highway as a foot- 
 pad. 
 
44 Acquittal of a Popish Priest. 
 
 But poor Father O'Grady only escaped from the 
 perils of starvation and the sea, to run the^risk of 
 hanging or imprisonment at home. He was seized 
 on his return to Ireland, and tried on the charge of 
 being a "Popish priest." A witness mounted the 
 table and s wore he had heard him " say" Mass. 
 
 a Pray, sir," said the judge, " how do you know 
 he said Mass ?" 
 
 " I heard him say it, my lord," replied the wit- 
 ness. 
 
 " Did he say it in Latin ?" inquired his lordship. 
 
 " Yes, my lord." 
 
 " Then you understand Latin ?" 
 
 " A little." 
 
 " What words did you hear him use ?" 
 " Ave Maria." 
 
 " That is part of the Lord's Prayer ; is it not ?" 
 
 " Yes, my lord," was the fellow's answer. 
 
 " Here is a pretty witness to convict the prisoner," 
 cried the judge; "he swears that Ave Maria is 
 Latin for the Lord's Prayer." As the judge pro- 
 nounced a favourable charge, the jury acquitted 
 Father O'Grady. 1 
 
 O'Connell was sent to school in Cork by his 
 uncle Maurice at the age of thirteen. This school 
 was the first establishment of the kind which had 
 
 1 An English Protestant writer says : " For many a long year, 
 Irish history is but a melancholy recital of religious intolerance and 
 party vindictiveness," — Ireland under British Rule, by Lieut. -Colonel 
 Jervis, R.A., M.P., London, 1868, p. 208. Again he says : " The 
 
O'ConnelVs School Life. 
 
 ■15 
 
 been opened in Ireland since the Protestant Refor- 
 mation. Mr. Fagan, in his "Memoir of O'Connell," 
 says that he did not exhibit any extraordinary intel- 
 lect at this period ; and as his own father was a 
 school-companion of the Liberator, he had good op- 
 portunity for correct information. 1 
 
 O'Connell, however, considered himself to have 
 been a quick child ; and as lie was not remarkable for 
 modesty, he had no hesitation in saying so. On one 
 occasion, when travelling with O'Neill Daunt, he 
 
 following rewards were fixed for the discovery of Popish clergy and 
 schoolmasters : 
 
 "For an archbishop, bishop, vicar-general, or any other 
 person exercising any foreign ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion • . . £50 
 
 For each clergyman, and each secular clergyman, not 
 
 registered according to 2 Anne, c. vii. . . .20 
 For a schoolmaster or usher . . . . .10 
 — Anne, c. iii., Irish Statutes. 
 
 He adds : " To limit the power of a Papist to take leases for 
 more than thirty-one years, made him care but little for investing in 
 land till death gave him 1 a Protestant lease of the sod.' To forbid 
 the education of Popish children by Papists, either abroad or at 
 home, secured their continuing or remaining in happy ignorance." 
 p. 215. 
 
 1 " Daniel O'Connell was early sent by his uncle, Maurice, by 
 whom he was adopted, to Mr. Harrington's school, in the great 
 island of Cove, near Cork. The father of the writer was a school- 
 fellow of his, and we have often heard him say, that O'Connell did 
 not display any extraordinary precocity of intellect. He was, like 
 Swift and Sheridan, and a thousand others who afterwards rose to 
 eminence, but an ordinary scholar." — Fagan s Life of O'Connell. 
 [This work was reprinted from the very type used for its original 
 destination — a newspaper.] 
 
46 
 
 0* Cornell's College Life. 
 
 made this assertion : " I was, in childhood, remark- 
 ably quick and persevering. My childish propensity 
 to idleness was overcome by the fear of disgrace : I 
 desired to excel, and could not brook the idea of 
 being inferior to others. One day I was idle, and 
 my teacher finding me imperfect in my lesson, threat- 
 ened to beat me. But I shrank from the indignity 
 exclaiming : " Oh, don't beat me for one half hour ! 
 If I haven't my lesson by that time, beat me then ! 
 The teacher granted me the reprieve, and the lesson, 
 rather a difficult one, was thoroughly learned." 
 
 On another occasion, O'Connell said to O'Neill 
 Daunt : "I was the only boy who wasn't beaten at 
 Harrington's school ; I owed this to my attention." 
 
 In 1791, Maurice O'Connell sent the two bro- 
 thers to Flanders, intending that they should enter 
 the famous Jesuit college at Liege. They sailed from 
 Ireland in a brig bound for London. The captain 
 undertook to land them at Dover, whence they were 
 to take the packet to Ostend. 
 
 The tide not serving when they arrived at their 
 destination, they were landed in boats, and Mr. 
 O' Conn ell's first acquaintance with the English shore 
 was made as he stumbled upon the beach after a 
 thorough submersion from a capsized boat. 
 
 An opportunity offering in a few days, the party 
 proceeded to Ostend, and thence by diligence to 
 Liege, where, however, a disappointment awaited 
 them. Mr. O'Connell was found to have passed the 
 age when boys could be admitted as students, and 
 
OConnell at Douay. 
 
 -17 
 
 they had to retrace their steps as far as Louvain, 
 there to await new instructions from home. 
 
 The difference of disposition between the two boys 
 was here strikingly shown : Maurice, the } T ounger, 
 naturally enough, availed himself of his six weeks' 
 unexpected holidays (the interchange of communica- 
 tions between their then abiding-place and the remote 
 shores of Kerry requiring that interval,) to indulge 
 in all a boy's vacation amusements ; while, on the 
 other hand, his brother, feeling no relish for idleness, 
 attended class in one of the halls at Louvain as a 
 volunteer ; and with such assiduity, that ere the arri- 
 val of letters from home, for which they were wait- 
 ing, he had risen to a high place in a class of one 
 hundred and twenty boys. 
 
 Their uncle's new orders were, that they should 
 go to St. Omer's ; whither accordingly they pro- 
 ceeded, and remained a year — viz., from early in the 
 year 1701 till a similar period of 1792 — when they 
 were removed to the English college of Douay for 
 some months. 1 
 
 An anecdote is told of O'Connell's journey, which 
 shows, were it needed to show it, how deeply the 
 minds of Irish youth were impregnated with hatred 
 for England, or rather with hatred for English rule. 
 It would be well if those who object to such mani- 
 festations of feeling would, for one moment, put 
 themselves in the place of these expatriated boys, 
 
 1 " Memoir of O'Connell," by his Son, vol. i. p. 7. 
 
48 
 
 O'Connell and the Frenchman. 
 
 and ask themselves how they would have felt and 
 acted had Ireland been master of England, and had 
 Irish law-makers compelled the scions of England's 
 most ancient houses to seek education in foreign 
 lands, because it was not only denied but even pro- 
 hibited under the most terrible penalties in their own 
 country. If such considerations were made honestly, 
 we think Englishmen would lose nothing, and might 
 gain a great deal. There is no possible advantage to 
 be gained from wilful blindness to facts. We have 
 heard of somewhat similar instances in the present 
 day. 
 
 As the O'Connells travelled in the diligence, a 
 young Frenchman discovered, or supposed he had 
 discovered, their nationality. He immediately com- 
 menced pouring out the most violent tirades against 
 England. O'Connell seemed perfectly satisfied ; and 
 the Frenchman astonished at his apathy, after talking 
 a long time, lost patience with the young traveller : 
 
 " Do you hear ? Do you understand what I am 
 saying, Sir ?" 
 
 " Yes, I hear you — I comprehend you perfectly." 
 
 " And yet you are not angry ?" 
 
 " Not in the least." 
 
 " How can you so tamely bear the censures I pro- 
 nounce against your country ?" 
 
 " Sir, England is not my country. Censure her 
 as much as you please — you cannot offend me. I am 
 an Irishman, and my countrymen have as little reason 
 to love England as yours : perhaps less." 
 
The Kerry Peasantry. 
 
 49 
 
 There is ample evidence that O'Connell distin- 
 guished himself at St. Omers, He took the first 
 place there in every class, probably owing to his 
 proficiency in classical learning. The natives of 
 Minister, and it is well known of Kerry and Cork in 
 particular, were often found with Latin primers in 
 their possession, and even with some fair knowledge 
 of that language, at the very time that education was 
 most sternly prohibited." 1 
 
 1 An attendant of Rinuccini, who visiled Ireland as Papal Legate, 
 in October 1G45, lias left some very interesting details on this sub- 
 ject in a MS. addressed to Count Thomas Rinuccini, but the writer 
 is supposed to have been the Dean of Fermo. He gives a graphic 
 description of their arrival at Kenmare — "al porto di Kilmar" — and 
 of the warm reception they met from the poor, and their courtesy — 
 4 'La cortesia di quei poveri popoli dove Monsignor capito, fu in- 
 comparabile." He also says: "Gran cosa, nelle niontagne e 
 luoghi rozzi, a gente povero per le devastazioni fatte dei nemici 
 eretici, trovai peid la nobilta della S. fede Catoliea, giache auro vifu 
 uomo, o donna, o ragazzo, ancor che piccolo che non me sapesse 
 rccitar il Pater, Ave, Credo, e i commandamenti, dtlla SaDta 
 Chiesa." " It is most wonderful that in this wild and mountainous 
 place, and a people so impoverished by the heretical enemy, I 
 found, nevertheless, the noble influence of the holy Catholic faith ; 
 for there was not a man or woman, or a child however young, who 
 could not repeat the Our Father, Hail Mary, Creed, and the com- 
 mands of Holy Church." We believe the same might be said at 
 the present day of this part of Ireland. It is still as poor, and the 
 people are still as well instructed in and as devoted to their faith 
 now as in that century. 
 
 A work was published in Florence, in 18-14, entitled "Xunziatura 
 in Irlanda," di Gio. Battista Piinuccini. This work, which throws 
 great light upon the history of the period, contains a part of the 
 Riiiuccini MS. This volume also contains, in the original Italian, 
 
 4 
 
Imaginary "Hajmy Ignorance." 
 
 It is true, indeed, that an English Protestant wri- 
 ter has recently asserted that the prohibition of edu- 
 cation in Ireland resulted either in the conformity of 
 individuals to the state religion or in " happy igno- 
 rance." But this assertion, like many another made 
 by those who are utterly ignorant, though perhaps 
 not always wilfully so, of the subject on which they 
 write, is simply false. The instances of " confor- 
 mity" are indeed rare, and few have been so bold as 
 to assert that these " conformities" were conversions. 
 The 'Miappy ignorance" is imaginary. If ail who 
 were educated in Catholic continental colleges did 
 not exhibit as brilliant manifestations of intellect as 
 O'Connell, it was not because their education was 
 defective, but because intellectual gifts are not 
 equally distributed. 
 
 Maurice O'Connell must have been an educated 
 man himself, or he would scarcely have been so de- 
 sirous of procuring educational advantages for his 
 nephews. He was by no means content with sending 
 them to college, at considerable expense — while they 
 pursued their academic career, he took care to inform 
 himself of their progress ; and the following letter to 
 him from the Rev. Dr. Stapylton, the President of 
 St. Omer's, is alike creditable to the boys and to 
 
 the report presented by Binuccini to the Pope on his return from 
 Irelarid. Burke nM given some extracts from the MS. in his 
 "Hibernia t)6mihicaha," and Carte mentions it also; but otherwise 
 these very important documents appear to nave been cfuite over- 
 looked. 
 
Early Pi 
 
 omise. 
 
 01 
 
 their self-appointed guardian. It is dated January, 
 1792 : 
 
 H You desire to have ray candid opinion respecting your 
 nephews ; and you very properly remark, that no hahit can be 
 worse than that the instructors of youth who seek to gratify the 
 parents of those under their care, by ascribing to them talents 
 and qualities which they do not really possess. You add, that 
 being only the uncle of these young men, you can afford to 
 hear the real truth respecting their abilities or deficiencies. It 
 is not my habit to disguise the precise truth, in reply to such 
 inquiries as yours. You shall, therefore, have my opinion with 
 perfect candour. 
 
 " I begin with the younger — Maurice. His manner and 
 demeanour are quite satisfactory. He is gentlemanly in his 
 conduct ; and much loved by his fellow-students. He is not 
 deficient in abilities ; but he is idle, and fond of amusement. 
 I do not think he will answer for any laborious profession ; but 
 I will answer for it, that he never will be guilty of anything dis- 
 creditable. At least, such is my firm belief. 
 
 With respect to the elder, Daniel, I have but one sen- 
 tence to write about him, and that is— that I never was so much 
 mistaken in my life as I shall be, unless he be destined to make 
 a remarkable figure in society." 
 
 " It is needless to say," observes Mr. John O'Connell, 
 "that the times were as perilous for strangers as for natives, 
 especially English strangers ; under which designation the un- 
 happy continental custom (now at last beginning to be altered) 
 of classing natives of Ireland abroad, caused Mr. O'Connell and 
 his brother to be included. They had to remain, however, at 
 Douay during several weeks of the Reign of Terror, not teing 
 able to follow the example of other students in going home, 
 owing to the interruption and delay of communications from 
 Ireland. During this later period, the boys were several times 
 
52 
 
 A Fortunate Escape. 
 
 insulted by the soldiery that passed through Douay on their 
 way to and from the seat of war on the northern frontier. On 
 an eminence just outside the town are the traces of a Roman 
 camp, attributed to Csssar ; and here thirty-six thousand troops, 
 the great majority raw boys, were for some time encamped, 
 rendering residence at Douay still more dangerous and dis- 
 agreeable. ' Little aristocrats/ ' young priests,' &c, were the 
 mildest terms in which the unbridled soldiery saluted the boys 
 Yvdiereyer they met ; and on one occasion, the soldiers, as they 
 were marched through the town, heaped the fiercest execrations 
 and insults upon them." 
 
 O'Neill Daunt says : " The Bishop of Ardagli 
 told me that a French captain of artillery said to him 
 shortly after the irois jours de Juillet, 4 Some of us 
 imagined that your O'Connell was born at St. Omer's. 
 Ah! if he had been a native of our country we should 
 have made him king of the French.' " 
 
 When we recollect the fate of many French kings, 
 whether reigning by legal or popular right, we cannot 
 but observe that O'Connell had a fortunate escape. 
 
 A French statesman has dared to face the scepti- 
 cism of the age, or it might be more correct to say, 
 has anticipated it, by writing of " God in History." 
 It is not fashionable to attribute much influence to 
 Providence ; but we do not profess or desire to 
 follow the multitude : we would therefore surest 
 that a most merciful Providence permitted O'Connell's 
 residence in France while that unhappy country was 
 being purged in the terrible furnace of self-created 
 incendiarism. We cannot doubt that the impression 
 made on his mind by what he saw, and still more by 
 
"Semper et TJbique Fide I is." 
 
 53 
 
 what lie heard, was a powerful restraint on his 
 conduct in after life and made him dread that violent 
 kindling of the passions which so surely ends in dia- 
 bolic crimes. 
 
 Note. — After the full of Napoleon in 1811-15, and the restora- 
 tion of the Bourbons, in the person of Louis XVIII., that monarch, 
 as so mu'-h attached to the old recollections of his dynasty, was not 
 unmindful of the Irish Brigade. Above all, he could not forget how, 
 in 1792, he himself conveyed the final expression of the gratitude of 
 his family to the representatives of the three last regiments of the 
 Brigade, or those of Dillon, Walsh, and Berwick, with a 11 drapeau 
 d'adieu," or farewell banner, emblematic of their national deserts, 
 and accompanied by these words : 
 
 M Gentlemen, — We acknowledge the inappreciable services that 
 France has received from the Irish Brigade, in the course of the last 
 100 years ; services that we shall never forget, though under an 
 impossibility of requiting them. Receive this standard, as a pledge 
 of our remembrance, a monument of our admiration, and of our re- 
 spect ; and in future, generous Irishmen, this shall be the motto of 
 your spotless flag : 
 
 ' 1G02— 1702,' 
 1 Semper et ebique fidelis.' " 
 The banner for the Brigade represented an Irish harp, and was em- 
 broidered with shamrocks and fleurs-de-lis, or lilies. In 1811, the 
 ofucers of the Old Irish Brigade in France requested the Duke of 
 Fitz-James to present them to the king ; which request the Duke, 
 after thanking them for the honour thereby done him, complied with, 
 in these few words, " which are a summary of the Irish character, 
 in all its chivalrous sublimity," says my French authority : 
 
 " Sike, — I have the honour of presenting to your Majesty the 
 survivors of the Old Irish Brigade. These gentlemen only ask for 
 a sword, and the privilege of dying at the foot of the throne." 
 
 Louis, however, was too deeply indebted to England for the re- 
 covery of his crown to do anything directly opposed to the wishes of 
 her government; and it particularly pressed upon him, through Lord 
 Castlereagh, that there should be no restoration of an Irish Brigade 
 in France. " This fact is certain," alleges a contemporary in 1814, 
 
54 
 
 The Youngest of Twenty-Two. 
 
 " and very uncommon exertions must Lave been used to procure 
 this concession from Louis ; because, independent of the general 
 claims of this body on the gratitude of the French monarchy, one of 
 these regiments had received a promise from the present king — that, 
 in the event of his restoration, the regiment, for its fidelity, should 
 be promoted to the rank of the Guards of the King." 
 
 I have now only to conclude with notices of two venerable sur- 
 vivors for many years, of the gallant corps to which they belonged — 
 the one, an officer of equally high rank and merit — the other, the 
 last who died on the Continent. 1. Of the former survivor of the 
 old Brigade, who was uncle to the celebrated Daniel O'Connell, this 
 memoir, from a member of the family, is given, with some slight 
 alterations and compression : " General Daniel Count O'Connell, 
 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Ghost, and Colonel of 
 the late 6th Regiment of the Irish Brigade in the British service, 
 entered the French army at the age of 14, in the year 1757, as 
 second Lieutenant in the Regiment of the Irish Brigade, commanded 
 by, and called after, the Earl of Clare. He was the youngest of 
 twenty-two children of one marriage, and was born in August, 1743, 
 at Darrynane, in the county of Kerry, the residence of his father, 
 Daniel O'Connell. His education had, at that early period, been 
 confined to a thorough knowledge of both Greek and Latin : 
 a knowledge which he preserved to the latest period of his life — 
 as also a familiar acquaintance with the elements of the mathematics. 
 He served his first campaign during the Seven Years' War in Ger- 
 many, and became respected by his superior officers from his strict 
 attention to all his military duties, and beloved by all his com- 
 panions from the unaffected grace, gaiety, and generosity of his 
 disposition. At the conclusion of the war, instead of devoting the 
 hours of peace to idleness or pleasure, he dedicated them, with the 
 closest attention, to the study of literature generally, but especially 
 to that of the branches of military engineering. He was attached to 
 the Corps chi Genie in its early formation, and soon became known 
 to be one of the most scientific of the military engineers of France. 
 He distinguished himself at the siege and capture of Port Mahon 
 in Minorca, from the English in the year 1779, being at that time 
 Major in the Regiment of Royal Swedes. He received public thanks 
 for his services on that occasion, and a recommendation from the 
 
The ^oilier' Lieutenaixl-Colonel. 
 
 55 
 
 Commander- in- Chief to the Minister of War, for promotion. That 
 promotion he immediately obtained, and served at the siege of 
 Gibraltar in the }*ear 1782, as Lieutenant-Colonel of his Regiment, 
 the Royal Swedes, but attached to the corps of engineers. Every- 
 body remembers the attack made by the floating batteries on 
 Gibraltar on the 13th September 1782, and the glorious and trium- 
 phant resistance of the English garrison, under General Elliott. 
 Lieutenant- Colonel O'Connell was one of the three engineers to 
 whose judgment the plan of attack was submitted, a few days before 
 it was carried into eAect. He gave it, as his decided opinion, that 
 the plan would not be successful. The other two engineers were of 
 a contrary opinion, and the attack took place accordingly. The 
 event justified his judgment. Upon a point of honour recognised in 
 the French army, he claimed a right to share the perils of an attack, 
 which was resolved upon against his opinion. When the attempt to 
 storm Gibraltar was resolved on, it became necessary to procure a 
 considerable number of marines to act on board the floating batteries : 
 for this purpose, the French infantry was drawn up, and being in- 
 formed of the urgency of the occasion, a call was made for volunteers, 
 amongst the rest of course from the Royal Swedes. Lieutenant- 
 Colonel O'Connell's regiment was paraded, and the men having been 
 informed that he was to be employed on the service, the battalion 
 stepped forward to one man, declaring their intention to follow their 
 Lieutenant-Colonel. It so happened that the senior Lieutenant- 
 Colonel, the Count De Ferzen, then well known as • le beau Ferzen,' 
 and towards whom it was more than suspected that Marie Antoinette 
 entertained feelings of peculiar preference, had arrived from Paris, 
 but a short time before to join the regiment, which since his appoint- 
 ment he had scarcely seen. Attributing the enthusiasm of the men 
 to his appearance, he rode up and assured them that he would be 
 proud to lead them. A murmur of disappointment passed along the 
 line ; and, at length, some of the older soldiers ventured to declare, 
 that it was not with him they volunteered, but with the other Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel, who had always commanded, and always protected 
 them. With a generosity which does him honour, Ferzen imme- 
 diately declared, that he would not attempt to deprive Colonel 
 O'Connell of the honour he so well deserved ; but that, in making 
 way for him, he would say, that he hoped when the regiment knew 
 
56 
 
 Master in Art of Drill 
 
 so much of him, they would be equally ready to follow him. Colonel 
 O'Connell was named second in command of one of the floating 
 batteries, and this battery was among the first to come into action. 
 He had, in the early part of the fight, a portion of his ear taken oft' 
 by a ball ; about the period when the batteries began to take fire, a 
 shell from the English mortars burst close to his feet, and severely 
 wounded him in no less than nine places. Although almost covered 
 with wounds, his recovery was not slow, and, being placed high on 
 the li;:t of those recommended for promotion, he was, in the ensuing 
 year, appointed Colonel commandant of a German regiment of two 
 battalions of 1,000 men each, then in the French service, but belong- 
 ing to the Prince of Salm-Salm. The regiment, when Colonel 
 O'Connell got the command, was in the most lamentable state of 
 disorganisation and indiscipline — and it was announced to him, by 
 the French Minister of War, that one reason for giving him that 
 regiment was the expectation that he would remedy all its disorders. 
 Nor was that expectation disappointed. There was, in 1787, a 
 grand review of upwards of 50,000 French infantry in Alsace, and 
 it was admitted, that the Kegiment of Salm-Salm was the regiment 
 in the highest state of discipline in the whole camp, and its Colonel 
 received public thanks on that account. Be was soon after ap- 
 pointed to the high and responsible office of Inspector- General of all 
 the French Infantry, and he attained also the rank of General 
 Officer. In this capacity he was intrusted with the organisation of 
 the general code of military discipline, especially as relating to the 
 interior regimental arrangements ; and as his suggestions and book 
 of regulations were adopted into the French armies after the Revolu- 
 tion, and imitated by other nations, the advantages derived from 
 them are still felt by every army in Europe. We have thus traced 
 his career from his entrance in the French service as a second Lieu- 
 tenant. From that rank, unaided by any interest, without a patron 
 or a friend, save those he attached to himself by his virtues, he rose 
 to the command of a splendid regiment, and to a rank but little 
 below the highest in the service of France ; and he attained that 
 station, at a time when the bigotry of the Penal Code precluded him 
 from holding the most insignificant commission in the British army. 
 Still more brilliant prospects lay before him ; but the French Revo- 
 lution, overturning thrones and 'altars, obliterated from the recollec- 
 
Thanks of Pitt 
 
 57 
 
 tion the fate of private individuals in the absorbing nature of 
 national interests which that mighty movement involved. He was, 
 it may be well said, stripped of his fame and fortunes by that 
 Revolution ; but he might have retained both if he could sacrifice 
 bfs principles, because both Dumourier and Carnot pressed him, 
 more than once, to accept the command of one of the revolutionary 
 armies. He totally declined any such command ; feeling it a duty 
 to remain near the person of Louis XYL, and to share, as he did, 
 some of his greatest perils in the days of tumult and anarchy, until 
 that ill-fated, but well-meaning monarch was hurled from his 
 throne, and cast into prison. Unable any longer to serve the Bour- 
 bon cause in France, General O'Connell joined the French Princes 
 at Coblentz, and made the disastrous campaign of 1702, under the 
 Duke of Brunswick, as Colonel of the Hussars de Berchinv. In 
 1703, General O'Connell was, on his return to his family in Kerry, 
 detained in London, with other French officers, by the British 
 Government to lay and digest plans for the restoration of the Bour- 
 bon family. Upon this occasion, he sent in a plan for the campaigu 
 of 1794, which attracted so much attention, that Mr. Pitt desired an 
 interview, and received with thanks many elucidations of the plan." 
 Boon after, the Ministry having determined to form an Irish Brigade 
 of six regiments in the British service, "this determination was 
 carried into effect, and one of those regiments was placed under the 
 command of General O'Connell. It was stipulated that the Colonels 
 should not be raised to the rank of Generals in the British service, 
 but should receive full pay for life." General O'Connell, during the 
 peace of 1802, returned to France, to look after a large property to 
 which his lady was entitled : he became a victim of the seizure of 
 British subjects by the then First Consul, and remained a prisoner 
 in France until the downfall of Napoleon and the restoration of the 
 Bourbons. That event restored him to his militar}' rank in France ; 
 and he enjoyed, in the decline of life, amidst the affectionate respect 
 of his relations and friends, the advantage of full pay as General in 
 the service of France and Colonel in the service of Great Britain — 
 an advantage which circumstances can, perhaps never again produce 
 for any man, but which he enjoyed with the full knowledge and 
 approbation of both powers. During the peace of 1814, Genera 
 O'Connell met Marshal Xey at dinner, at the house of one of the 
 
58 
 
 Christian and Patriot 
 
 then Ministry. A good deal of conversation passed between them, 
 and at length Ney stated that he had known General O'Connell be- 
 fore the Revolution, and mentioned in particular having frequently 
 seen him in the year 1787. " My memory," replied the General, 
 " is particularly good; I have seen few officers whom I do not re- 
 collect, and I do not think I could have seen a person so likely to be 
 remarkable as Marshal Ney without recollecting him." " General," 
 returned Ney, " you could not have remarked me; you then com- 
 manded the regiment of Salm-Salm ; I was a corporal of hussars ; 
 our Colonel and you were fast friends, and frequently exchanged 
 guards ; and I have often, as corporal, posted and relieved the 
 hussar sentinel on your tent, while one of your corporals was going 
 through the same duty at my Colonel's." The Revolution of 1830 
 deprived him, however, of his pay as French General. He refused 
 to take the oath of fidelity to Louis Philippe, and was, of course, 
 destituted. He retired to the country seat of his son-in-law, at 
 Madon, near Blois — a beauteous spot on the Loire, which he had 
 himself ornamented in the most exquisite style of English planting — 
 and there, in his declining health, he waited with resignation the 
 call of his God, which occurred on the 9th of July, 1838, he having 
 then nearly completed his 90th year, being the oldest Colonel in the 
 English service. " He had never, in the season of his prosperity, 
 forgotten his country or his God. Loving that country with the 
 strongest affection, he retained to the last the full use of her native 
 language ; and, although master of the Spanish, Italian, German, 
 Greek, and Latin, as well as French and English languages, it was 
 to him a source of the greatest delight to find any person capable of 
 conversing with him in the pure Gaelic of his native mountains. 
 There never lived a more sincere friend — a more generous man. His 
 charities were multiplied and continuous ; and it was the surprise of 
 all who knew him, how he could afford to do all the good he did to 
 his kind. He was, all his life, a practical Catholic, and had the 
 comfort of dying, without a pang, amidst all the sacred and sweet 
 consolations of that religion, which he had not forgotten in his youth, 
 and which did not abandon him in the days of darkness and death. — 
 Ilequiescat in pace. 
 
Chapter j^crontr. 
 
 EARLY DAYS AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 
 1790—1800. 
 
 The French Revolution and the Irish Rebellion 
 compared: Louis XIV. and George III.: English 
 opinions on Irish Policy: Louis XVI. : The two 
 Sheares: St. Omer's : O'Connell and the Priest- 
 hood: His opinions of the French Revolution: 
 Interview with Robert Owen: At Lincoln's Inn: 
 Origin of Constitutionalism : Catholic Church 
 Conservative: The English and Irish Catholics 
 contrasted: Early Toryism: Hardy's Trial: 
 Home Tooke: The Georges and the Stuarts: Rise 
 of Democracy: American War: Benjamin Frank- 
 lin: The Irish in America. 
 
-'f-r.-.j.j-c 
 
 1 JL 
 
 has been more than once 
 suggested tliat the Irish Re- 
 bellion of 1798 was inspired 
 by the French Revolution, 
 which syncronised with it. That 
 n some of the leaders of revolt in 
 Ireland did look to France for 
 assistance is a matter of history ; but 
 £no two public events could have been more 
 dissimilar in cause and in effect, than the 
 Irish Rebellion and the French Revolution. 
 
 In Ireland the people rebelled against 
 the relentless persecutors of their faith ; in 
 France, the nation trampled on and defiled 
 even the very symbols of their religion. In 
 Ireland, the outrages which were committed 
 by the rebels, however, would have been considered 
 simply as unjustifiable reprisals for atrocities which 
 
62 
 
 Close to the " Tarpeia?i Bock. 
 
 cannot be denied, and which cannot be excused, had 
 the perpetrators not been Irish. The French Revolu- 
 tion was a revolt against all authority ; the Irish 
 Rebellion was the cry of the oppressed against the 
 oppressor— the cry of the enslaved for freedom, the 
 effort which must be made sooner or later, with 
 failure or with success, as God wills, for those who 
 have suffered long and unjustly. 
 
 In France, the first assembling of the tiers Stat 
 looked like a pledge of national restoration and 
 national freedom ; but France had no definite aim, 
 though, in truth, its wants were many — and France 
 had no master mind to explain or rather to compre- 
 hend its needs. Mirabeau, indeed, had foretold its 
 future with the prophetic utterance of keen worldly 
 wisdom and acute self-interest : " There is but one 
 step from the Capitol to the Tarpeian Rock." It 
 was true. But unhappily the few who strove to find 
 a place in its Capitol also sought to govern, and fail- 
 ing, were dashed to nun down the steep precipice of 
 popular odium ; there were thousands who never 
 sought to rule, who only desired to be ruled justly — 
 and yet, for them also, the end was death and 
 agony. 
 
 If the leaders of the French Revolution steeped 
 their unhappy country and their own souls in crime 
 and misery, they were at least men with a policy, 
 with a policy of cruelty like Robespierre, with a 
 policy of selfishness like Dan ton ; but in Ireland there 
 was not a single man with a policy. Yet the leaders 
 
The V6k Poind i. 
 
 of Irish revolt were undoubtedly men who sacrificed 
 their own interests to the popular cause. 
 
 There were exceptions, but they were exceptions, 
 and only proved the rule. In all revolutions there 
 never was a knight so pure and without reproach, so 
 single-minded in his purpose, so disinterested in his 
 efforts, as the young scion of the lordly house of Fitz- 
 gerald — the young noble, sans peur et sans rej>ruehe, 
 the victim of the traitor — who died, loving, not 
 wisely but all too well the unhappy land to which he 
 belonged by right of consignment rather than by 
 right of nativity. 
 
 The only strict parallel between the state of 
 France and the state of Ireland, at the close of the 
 last century, ban be found in the condition of the 
 people. The leaders of the French devolution would 
 not have succeeded unless they had been supported 
 by the people. We are far from desiring to maintain 
 the vod' pqpttti vox Dei principle. The voice of the 
 people is not always divine, but the voice of the peo- 
 ple should at least meet with a patient hearing from 
 those who govern the people. 
 
 If the voice of the people had been heard either 
 in France or in Ireland — or rather if the voice of the 
 people had been listened to patiently, and if men who 
 professed themselves able to guide and govern the 
 people had taken some little pains to understand that 
 voice, a bloody chapter of European history might 
 have remained unwritten. 
 
 In France, a certain stereotyped nobility was 
 
64 
 
 Without a King. 
 
 necessary for personal or professional advancement. 
 In Ireland that advancement depended on the profes- 
 sion of a certain religious belief. The results were 
 almost the same. 
 
 In France, the peasantry were sold like cattle with 
 the soil ; in Ireland they were legally transferred. 
 
 In France, the old ties of feudal affection, if such 
 affection had ever existed, which we very nine]! 
 doubt, were shattered by ever increasing- exactions ; 
 in Ireland, where such affections had existed, it was 
 weakened past recal by indifference and tyrannical 
 bondage of opinion. 
 
 In Ireland, the people knew no king. The king 
 of England was indeed nominally their monarch, but 
 he was not the monarch of their affections. He was 
 the grim, stern, and alas ! vindictive lawgiver. He 
 was the power from whence emanated the decrees of 
 life and death ; from whom they were compelled to 
 receive a religion of which they knew nothing, except 
 that it was not the religion of their fathers — and 
 laws which seemed to have been passed only that they 
 might live to provide abundance for their legislators 
 while they themselves were starving. 1 
 
 1 Again, I would give English opinion on the subject of English 
 policy. No Irish writer has ever spoken half as severly on this sub- 
 ject as an English statesman. In 1793, Charles James Fox writes 
 thus of English foreign policy: " Our conduct to them [the Ameri- 
 cans] as well as to the Danes, Swedes, Duke of Tuscany, and others 
 who wished to be neutral, has been insufferable both for arrogance 
 and injustice." — Memorial and Correspondence of Charles James Fox, 
 vol. iii., p. 47. 
 
 " For many a long year, the history of Ireland is but a melan- 
 
Wholesale Connscatwn. 
 
 65 
 
 If Louis the Fourteenth of France alienated the 
 affections of his people by his indifference, George 
 the Third of England was practically unknown to his 
 Irish subjects. Yet terrible as were the wrongs of 
 Ireland, and oppressed as they were by years of in- 
 justice, we believe few will say that the most ex- 
 asperated Irish rebel would have imbrued his hands 
 in the blood of his kins:. 
 
 There was indeed one part of France which was 
 exempted from the crimes, though not from the suf- 
 ferings of the Revolution. A brief elance at the 
 causes which exempted it. may be useful to our 
 future ; and it is surely instructive. The luxuries 
 of the capital had not penetrated into the Vendean 
 provinces, and, what was almost the inevitable con- 
 
 eholy recital of religious intolerance and party vindictiveness. 
 William sanctioned the outlawry of three thousand nine hundred 
 and twenty followers of King James in Ireland, at a time when but 
 fifty-four people in England suffered for the same offence ; and, 
 taking advantage of the consequent forfeitures of land, which 
 amounted to 1.060,792 acres, he lavishly distributed them amongst 
 his immediate friends. This act was too gross not to attract atten- 
 tion ; and the English Parliament, in 1699, appointed commis- 
 sioners to inquire into the matter. The following year, they re- 
 ported to the House that Elizabeth Villiers. Countess of Orkney, 
 had obtained 97,649 acres ; Keppel, created Lord Albermarle, 
 108,000 ; Ginckle, Baron of Aughrim and Earl of Athlone, 28,480 ; 
 Henri de Massue, Marquis de Rouvigny, created Earl of Galway, 
 36.148 acres ; Bentinck, Earl of Portland and Lord Woodstock, 
 135,000. In consequence of this report a Bill of Assumption was 
 introduced into the English Parliament, and passed, much to the 
 discomfiture of William ; and it is worthy of observation that a 
 
 5 
 
m 
 
 Vendean and Irish Peasantry. 
 
 sequence, the relationships between the governed and 
 the governing classes were based on principles of 
 justice. The proprietors were resident. " They 
 were constantly engaged in connexions either of 
 mutual interest, or of kindly feeling with those who 
 cultivated their lands." They sympathised with the 
 people when they wept, they rejoiced with them 
 when they rejoiced. Thus, when the peasantry else- 
 where in France rose up against their landlords, those 
 of La Vendee died in defending theirs. 
 
 In Ireland in the far south, in the yet farther 
 west, there were a few such landlords, and as a 
 
 clause was inserted in this Act especially protecting such of the 
 Irish as had re-obtained estates in accordance with the treaty of 
 Limerick, although it was stated by the commissioners that many of 
 these restitutions had been corruptly procured. The Irish Parlia- 
 ment, however, was not so impartial, Taking advantage of the dis- 
 pirited condition of the Roman Catholics, it enacted statutes against 
 them from time to time, as insulting as they were oppressive. Any 
 lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of which any Protestant was, or 
 should be seized in fee-simple, absolute, or fee-tail, which by the 
 death of such Protestant or his wife ought to have descended to his 
 son, or other issue in tail, being Papists, were to descend to the 
 nearest Protestant relation, as if the Popish heir and other Popish 
 relatives were dead. The small remnant of the Roman Catholic 
 gentry mustered courage enough to demand to be heard by counsel 
 against the provisions of the Act, which privilege being granted to 
 them, we find the curious picture of Papist counsel quoting Scripture 
 and the right of common law at the bar of a Protestant Parliament, 
 to urge upon it the necessity of observing solemn treaties and of not 
 passing enactments which would have disgraced a pagan state." — 
 Ireland under British Rale. By Lieut.-Col. Jervis, R.A., M.P. 
 London, 18G8, pp. 210-215. 
 
A Distinction with a Difference. 
 
 G7 
 
 necessary consequence a few faithful followers j but 
 for theni the antagonism was bitter, and the result 
 misery to both oppressor and oppressed. 
 
 It was a maxim of Sully's that the people never 
 revolt from fickleness or the mere desire of change. 
 One of the most eminent of English historians has 
 approved this maxim, but with a nece-sary qualifica- 
 tion, 1 and he might have added that the intensity of 
 the result would be generally proportional to the 
 intensitv of the cause. 
 
 Burke described the state of France as " perfectly 
 simple." c; It consists;' he said, " of but two classes, 
 the oppressors and the oppressed ; and if the op- 
 pressed became in turn the most cruel of oppressors, 
 it was because the first oppressors had made the 
 priests and the people formally abjure the Divinity, 
 and had estranged them from every civil, moral, 
 and social, or even natural and instinctive sentiment, 
 habit, and practice, and had rendered them syste- 
 matically savages/' 
 
 It was principally this formal M abjuration of the 
 Divinitv" which made the most striking difference 
 between the conduct of the French and Irish revolu- 
 tionists, and it is not a little remarkable that the men 
 who were most earnest in their efforts to procure 
 
 • 1 " Subsequent events have not falsified the maxim of Sully, 
 though they have shown that it requires modification. The obser- 
 vation, moreover, is true only in reference to the circumstances of 
 revolutionary troubles. The people over a whole country never pass 
 from a state of quiescence to one of trouble without the experience of 
 practical grievance.'* — Alison's Histonj of Europe, vol. i. p. 63. 
 
68 
 
 Death of Louis XVI. 
 
 French assistance for Ireland, were, I will not say 
 Protestants, though they were nominally such, but 
 rather infidels. 
 
 When Daniel and Maurice O'Connell sailed from 
 France, the two Sheares were their fellow-travellers. 
 It was the same packet-boat which brought over the 
 intelligence that the unfortunate Louis had died like 
 a king, if he had not lived 1 like one. 
 
 The murder of the king was necessarily the one 
 subject of conversation. The Sheares were com- 
 municative. They had been in Paris at the time, and 
 
 1 Perhaps the one only scene in the life of this unhappy monarch 
 in which he showed anything like kingly dignity, was that which 
 occurred on the 20th June, 1792. Sansterre and the Marquis cle 
 Huen had burst into the royal presence at the head of an infuriated 
 mob. The men shouted " Ca ira" and amongst other banners of a 
 horrible and blasphemous character, they bore one with the words, 
 " The Constitution or Death !" while one demon incarnate carried a 
 bloody calf's heart on the point of his pike, with the inscription round 
 it, " The heart of an aristocrat." Louis was placed on a chair, which 
 had been raised on a table, by a few of his faithful attendants, while 
 the mob raged howling and dancing through the palace. He alone 
 remained unmoved. A drunken workman handed him the red cap of 
 liberty, fit emblem of the only liberty it allowed — the liberty to die, or 
 blaspheme God. The king placed it on his head, and wore it for three 
 hours. Had he hesitated for a moment, he would have been stabbed 
 to death. His heroic demeanour, when drinking a glass of water, 
 which he had every reason to believe had been poisoned, excited the 
 applause even of the friends who watched him. When at length a 
 deputation of the Assembly arrived, headed by Vergniaud and Isnard, 
 they found the king " unshaken in courage, though nearly exhausted 
 by fatigue." One of the National Guard approached him to assure 
 him of his devotion. "Feel," he replied, laying his hand on his 
 bosom, " whether this is the beating of a heart agitated by fear." — 
 Alison, vol. ii. p. 89. 
 
"Love of the Cause, Sir" 
 
 69 
 
 they loudly proclaimed their approval of the popular 
 fury. An English gentleman continued the sub- 
 ject, and at last, the brothers boasted that they had 
 actually been present when the deed of blood was 
 done. 
 
 " Good heavens ! sir," exclaimed their horrified 
 questioner, " what could have induced you to witness 
 so horrible a spectacle !" 
 
 " Love of the cause, sir," was the prompt reply ; 
 and in truth, many of the patriots who led or aided 
 in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, were men like the 
 Sheares, who had no personal or relative wrongs to 
 redress, but who were impregnated with the revolu- 
 tionary spirit of the day, and found in Ireland the 
 field for action which their restless spirits desired. 1 
 
 ^he Sheares were natives of Cork, whither the younger pro- 
 ceeded in May 179S, for the purpose of organising that county. An 
 energetic co-operator in this movement was a silversmith named 
 Conway, a native of Dublin. The treachery of this man was so art- 
 fully concealed, that his most intimate friends never suspected him. 
 
 " If those who join secret societies," writes a Cork correspondent, 
 " could get a peep at the records of patriotic perfidy kept in the Castle, 
 they would get some insight into the dangerous consequences of 
 meddling with them. There is a proverbial honour amongst 
 thieves ; there seems to be none amongst traitors. The publication 
 of the official correspondence about the end of the last century made 
 some strange revelations. In Cork, there lived a watchmaker 
 named Conway, one of the directory of the United Irishmen there. 
 So public and open a professor of disloyal sentiments was he, that 
 on the plates of his watches he had engraved as a device a harp 
 without a crown. For a whole generation this man's name was pre- 
 served as 1 a sufferer for his country,' like his ill-fated townsmen, 
 John and Henry Sheares. The ' Cornwallis Correspondence ' (vol. 
 
70 
 
 An Omen of Success. 
 
 The Sheares were so exultant and certain of suc- 
 cess that they took little pains to conceal their pro- 
 ject ; a curious example of the fatuity of those 
 engaged in the " secret society" which they were so 
 desirous of promoting. The very quickness of the 
 passage was made a subject of remark, and taken as 
 omen of success, for they had been twice wrecked 
 on previous voyages, once when crossing to France, 
 and once when crossing between Dublin and Park- 
 gate. 
 
 But if O'Connell was a pacificator in public life, 
 it would appear that in his youth he had no objection 
 to settle private feuds vi et armis. Some schoolboy 
 quarrel arose at St. Omer's, and he had recourse to 
 
 iii. p. 85) reveals the fact that Conway was a double-dyed traitor ; 
 that he had offered to become a secret agent for detecting the 
 leaders of the United Irishmen, and that the information he gave 
 was very valuable, particularly as confirming that received from a 
 solicitor in Belfast, who, whilst acting as agent and solicitor to the 
 disaffetced party, was betraying their secrets to the executive, and 
 earning, in his vile role of informer, a pension, from 1799 to 1804, 
 of £150, and the sum of £1460, the wages he received for his 
 services." 
 
 The Sheares, through nominally Protestants, were tinged with 
 deistical ideas. "I heard it stated," observed Mr. Patten, " that 
 when the hangman, was in the act of adjusting the noose round the 
 neck of John Sheares, before proceeding to the scaffold, he ex- 
 claimed, ' D — n you, do you want to kill me before my time ?' I 
 could not credit it, and asked the Kev, Dr. Smith, who attended 
 them in their last moments, if the statements were correct, ' I am 
 sorry to say,' replied Dr. Smith, ' that it is perfectly true. I my- 
 self pressed my hand against his mouth to prevent a repetition of 
 the imprecation.' " — The Sham Squire ; or, the Bebellion in Ireland 
 of 1798, p. 190. By W. J. Fitzpatrick, Esq., J.P., 1868. 
 
Adjustment of a Quarrel. 
 
 71 
 
 something stronger than moral force in the assertion 
 of his rights. His fellow-student was not accustomed 
 to pugilistic encounters, and said so. O'Connell in- 
 quired what he wished to fight with. 11 The sword, 
 or pistols," replied the young Frenchman. " Then 
 wait a moment," replied O'Connell — who left the hall 
 only to return in a few moments and offer his oppo- 
 nent the weapons he had named, begging he would 
 take his choice, as it was just the same to him with 
 what weapons he fought. 
 
 The French youth declined further combat, and 
 it is said that no one attempted any annoyance to 
 O'Connell during the remainder of his brief residence 
 at St. Omer's. 
 
 It was at one time very frequently asserted that 
 the Liberator had been intended for the priesthood. 
 This mistake arose naturally from the fact of his 
 having been educated at St. Omer's, and from igno- 
 rance of the course of education pursued there. The 
 college was originally founded for ecclesiastics, but 
 there was also a separate foundation for secular 
 students. 1 It is probable that the misapprehension 
 
 Florence Corny, Archbishop of Tuam, and founder of the Irish 
 College of Louvain, was one of the first to suggest and to carry out 
 the idea of supplying Irish youth with the means of education on 
 the Continent which they were denied at home. It is a fact, un- 
 exampled in the history of nations, that a whole race should have 
 been thus denied the means of acquiring even the elements of learn- 
 ing, and equally unexampled is the zeal with which the nation 
 sought to procure abroad the advantages from which they were so 
 cruelly debarred at home. At Louvain, some of the most distin- 
 
72 
 
 O'Connell and the Church. 
 
 was encouraged for political purposes, though O'Con- 
 nell took pains to contradict it on more than one 
 occasion. 
 
 In a letter published in the Dublin Evening Post, 
 July 17, 1828, he says: — "I was not intended for the 
 Church. No man respects, loves, or submits to the 
 Church with more alacrity than I do, but I was not 
 intended for the priesthood." 
 
 As O'Connell gave his opinion on the French 
 Eevolution very fully to O'Neill Daunt, and as that 
 opinion has been recorded by him, we shall do well 
 to insert it at length. 
 
 O'Connell was asked in the course of our after- 
 
 guished Irish scholars were educated. An Irish press was estab- 
 lished within its halls, which was kept constantly employed, and 
 whence proceeded some of the most valuable works of the age, as 
 well as a scarcely less important literature for the people, in the 
 form of short treatises on religion or history. Colleges were also 
 established at Douay, Lisle, Antwerp, Tournay, and St. Omer's, 
 principally through the exertions of Christopher Cusack, a learned 
 priest of the diocese of Meath. Cardinal Ximenes founded an Irish 
 College at Lisbon, and Cardinal Henri quez founded a similar estab- 
 lishment at Evora. It is a remarkable evidence of the value which 
 has always been set on learning by the Catholic Church, that even 
 in times of persecution, when literary culture demanded such sacri- 
 fices, she would not admit uneducated persons to the priesthood. 
 Before 1793 there were four colleges at Douay. 1st, The grand 
 college for secular students called the Grands Anglais. It was pur- 
 hased by the French Government in 1820, and is now used as an 
 rtillery barracks. 2nd, The Scotch College, now occupied by a 
 religious order. 3rd, The*|Irish College, which is completely de- 
 stroyed, and the site occupied by private houses. 4th, The Bene- 
 dictine' College, which still flourishes." It was built in 1768, and 
 re- opened in 1818. 
 
The French Revolution. 
 
 1-d 
 
 dinner table-talk, whether he had read Thiers' work 
 on the French Revolution?" 
 
 " Yes," he replied, " and I do not very much like it. 
 Thiers has a strong propensity to laud every one who 
 was successful, and to disparage those who did not 
 succeed. The best account of the French Revolution 
 is in one of the volumes of Marmontel's 1 Memoirs.' 
 Certainly," continued he, u that Revolution was 
 grievously needed, although it was bought at the 
 price of so much blood ! The ecclesiastical abbes 
 were a great public nuisance ; they were chiefly 
 cadets of noble families, who were provided for with 
 sinecure revenues out of the abbey lands. The 
 nobility engrossed the commissions in the army, and 
 both the clergy and the nobility, although infinitely 
 the richest bodies in the state, were exempt from 
 taxes. The people were the scapegoats — they were 
 taxed for all : the burdens of the state were all thrown 
 upon them, whilst its honours and emoluments were 
 monopolised by the untaxed. This was a gross 
 wrong — the Revolution has swept it away. It was 
 highly creditable to the fidelity of the French Catholic 
 clergy, that so few of them joined the enemies of 
 religion at that trying time of error. I question 
 whether a dozen of the French Catholic bishops 
 apostatised ; and as for the vast mass of the parochial 
 clergy, they afforded a most glorious and sublime 
 example of devotion and faithfulness. Catholicity, 
 I trust will rebound against French infidelity, as she 
 is daily doing against English sectarianism." 
 
74 
 
 Interview with Robert Owen. 
 
 He then spoke of an article in the Edinburgh 
 Review, and expressed his satisfaction that the writer 
 was compelled to admit that the Catholic religion is 
 perennial and immortal— and as vivacious in the 
 19 th century of her existence as she was the day of 
 her first institution.' 7 
 
 O'Connell's abhorrence of anything which tended 
 to undermine religious influence showed itself re- 
 peatedly in his conversations. The account which 
 he himself gave of his interview with the secularist 
 Owen, is worth recording here as an evidence : 
 
 "'Owen called upon me,' said he, 'and told me he 
 had come for my co-operation in a work of universal 
 benevolence.' I replied that 4 1 should always be 
 happy to aid such a work.' ' I expected no less from 
 your character, Mr. O'Connell,' said Owen. ' Would 
 not you wish — I am sure you would — to elevate the 
 condition of the whole human race ?' ' Certainly, 
 Mr. Owen,' replied I. c Would not you wish to see 
 a good hat on everybody ?' ' Undoubtedly.' 'And 
 good shoes ?' ' Oh, certainly.' 'And good trousers ?' 
 ' Unquestionably.' 'And would not you desire to see 
 the whole family of man well housed and fed ?' 
 ' Doubtless. But, Mr. Owen, as my time is much 
 taken up, may I beg that you will proceed at once to 
 point out how all these desirable objects are, in your 
 opinion, to be worked out ?' ' In the first place, Mr. 
 O'Connell,' said Owen, ' we must educate anew the 
 population of these kingdoms, and entirely -remove 
 the crust of superstitious error from their minds. In 
 
O'Connell at Lincoln s Inn. 
 
 75 
 
 fact, the whole thing called Revealed Religion must be 
 got rid of.' I thought my worthy visitor was going 
 too far. I rose and bowed him out. c I wish you a 
 very good morning, Mr. Owen,' said I. 1 It would 
 be useless to prolong our interview. I see at once 
 that you and I cannot co-operate in any work, or 
 under any circumstances*' n 
 
 In 1794, O'Connell entered as a student in Lin- 
 coln's Inn, London. He lodged at first in a court on 
 the north side of Coventry-street. Fifty years after, 
 as he passed by the place, he called the attention of a 
 friend to a fishmonger's shop, saying, " That shop is 
 precisely in the same state in which I remember it 
 when I was at Gray's Inn. It has the same-sized 
 window, the same frontage, and I believe the same 
 fish I" While residing here he followed his private 
 occupation of writing, but his taste for a country life 
 induced him to make a change of residence in 1795. 
 lie thus describes his new 7 abode in a letter to his 
 brother Maurice : 
 
 "I am now only four miles from town, and pay the same 
 price for board and lodging as I should in London J but I en- 
 joy many advantages here (in Chiswick) besides air and retire- 
 ment. The society in the house is mixed — I mean composed 
 of men and women, all of whom are people of rank and know- 
 ledge of the world ; so their conversation and manners' are 
 perfectly well adapted to rub off the dust of scholastic educa- 
 tion; nor is there any danger of riot or dissipation, as they are 
 all advanced in life — another student of lav/ and I being the 
 only young persons in the house. This young man is my most 
 intimate acquaintance, and the only friend I have found among 
 
7G 
 
 O'ConnelVs Ambition. 
 
 my acquaintance. His name is Bennett. He is an Irishman 
 of good family connections and fortune. He is prudent and 
 strictly economical. He has good sense, ability, and applica- 
 tion. I knew him before my journey to Ireland. It was before 
 that period our friendship commenced. So that on the whole I 
 spend my time here not only pleasantly, but I hope very use- 
 fully. 
 
 " The only law books I have bought as yet are the works of 
 Espinasse on the trials of nisi piias. They cost me £1 10s., 
 and contain more information on the practical part of the law 
 than any other books I have ever met. When in Dublin, I re- 
 flected that carrying any more books than were absolutely 
 necessary would be incurring expense ; so I deferred buying a 
 complete set of reports until my return thither. 
 
 "I have now two objects to pursue — the one, the attain- 
 ment of knowledge ; the other, the acquisition of those qualities 
 which constitute the polite gentleman. I am convinced that 
 the former, besides the immediate pleasure that it yields, is 
 calculated to raise me to honours, rank, and fortune ; and I 
 know that the latter serves as a general passport : and as for 
 the motive of ambition which you suggest, I assure you that no 
 man can possess more of it than I do. I have indeed a glowing 
 and — if I may use the expression — an enthusiastic ambition, 
 which converts every toil into a pleasure and every study into 
 an amusement. 
 
 " Though nature may have given me subordinate talents, I 
 never will be satisfied with a subordinate situation in my pro- 
 fession. No man is able, I am aware, to supply the total 
 deficiency of ability ; but everybody is capable of improving and 
 enlarging a stock, however small and, in its beginning, con- 
 temptible. It is this reflection that affords me consolation. If 
 I do not rise at the bar, I will not have to meet the reproaches 
 of my own conscience. It is not because I assert these things 
 
Catholic Church Conservative. 
 
 77 
 
 now that I should conceive myself entitled to call on you to 
 believe them. I refer that conviction which I wish to inspire 
 to your experience. I hope — nay, I flatter myself— that when 
 we meet again the success of my efforts to correct those bad 
 habits which you pointed out to me will be apparent. Indeed, 
 as for my knowledge in the professional line, that cannot Ve 
 discovered for some years to come ; but I have time in the 
 interim to prepare myself to appear with great eclat on the 
 grand theatre of the world." 
 
 At this period of O'Connell's life, lie was un- 
 doubtedly a Tory. His account of his conversion to 
 Liberal opinions is both curious and instructive, and 
 it explains an intellectual and moral difficulty which 
 has perplexed many English Protestants. 
 
 The Catholic Church lias always been conserva- 
 tive both in principle and in practice : but because it 
 has always set its face steadfastly against individual 
 and public abuses, because it has always taken the 
 part of the oppressed against the oppressor, its policy 
 has been misrepresented by those who desire to 
 exercise arbitrary power unchecked — and misunder- 
 stood by those who are too indifferent or too pre- 
 judiced to reason calmly. 
 
 And yet one of the most eminent English Protes- 
 tant historians has admitted this truth, has proclaimed 
 it, has asserted it. The historian of the French 
 Revolution writes thus : 
 
 " It was the Christian Church, the parent of so many lofty 
 doctrines and new ideas, which had the glory of offering to the 
 world, amidst the wreck of ancient institutions, the model of a 
 form of government which gives to all classes the right of suf- 
 
78 The Church and Civilization. 
 
 frage, by establishing a system which may embraee the re- 
 motest interests, which preserves the energy and avoids the 
 evils of democracy — which maintains the tribune, and shuns 
 the strife of the forum. 
 
 " The Christian councils were the first examples of represen- 
 tative assemblies ; there were united to the whole Roman world 
 there a priesthood which embraced the civilised earth assembled 
 by means of delegates to deliberate on the affairs of the universal 
 Church. When Europe revived, it adopted, the same model. 
 Every nation by degrees borrowed the customs of the Church, 
 to her the sole depository of the traditions of civilisation. 
 
 " It was the religion of the vanquished people, and the clergy 
 who instructed them in this admirable system, which flourished 
 in the councils of Nice, Sarclis, and Byzantium, centuries before 
 it was heard of in Western Europe, and which did not arise in 
 the woods of Germany, but in the catacombs of Rome, during 
 the sufferings of the primitive Church." 1 
 
 1 Alison s History of Europe, vol. iii. p. 176. — Elsewhere he 
 says : " The councils of the Church had, so early as the sixth 
 century, introduced over all Christendom the most perfect system of 
 representation. . . . Every Christian priest, however humble 
 his station, had some share in the practice of these great assemblies, 
 by which the general affairs of the Church were to be regulated.' 
 In truth this system of conservative and representative government 
 has continued in the Catholic Church with unbroken regularity from 
 the first council at Antioch, where there was "much disputing" 
 until Peter spoke, until the last council at Rome, where there was 
 also much disputing until the voice of the Church spoke through 
 the majesty of her pastors. Even the infidel Voltaire admitted that 
 the Popes restrained princes, and protected the people. The Bull 
 In Ccena Domini contained an excommunication against those who 
 should levy new taxes 'upon their estates, or should increase those 
 already existing beyond the bounds of right. For further informa- 
 tion on this subject, see Balmez, European Civilisation, passim. M. 
 Guizot says : " She [the Church] alone resisted the system of 
 
Loyalty of Catholic*. 
 
 71) 
 
 The Catholic is conservative bv religious belief ; 
 but by conservatism, he understands the protection 
 and the preservation of right, the protection of human 
 nature against itself by the enforcement of divine law. 
 
 How much, how often, and how severely Catholics 
 have suffered for conservative principles, let history 
 relate. In Ireland they were faithful to the most 
 faithless of monarchs. In England they were faith- 
 ful to the most thankless, and one of the most un- 
 worthy of kings ; and this not from any preference 
 for the foolish James or the wanton Charles, but 
 simply from active belief in the divine principle, 
 " Render to Crcsar the things that are Caesar's" — from 
 the divine principle of eternal right and justice. It 
 may be objected, it has been objected, that Catholics 
 hiive rebelled against their temporal sovereign, and 
 the Irish Rebellion will be quoted as an evidence 
 that Catholics can be, and have been, not only demo- 
 cratic, but even infidel. The exception proves the 
 rule. Catholics have never rebelled against any 
 temporal sovereign, unless such rebellion has been 
 justified by the necessity for the conservation of the 
 power of One higher than any earthly monarch ; and 
 such resistances to any lawful constituted human rule 
 have been rare. 1 
 
 castes ; she alone maintained the principle of equality of competi- 
 tion ; she alone called all legitimate superiors to the possession of 
 power." — Hist. Gen. de la Civilization en Europe, Lect. 5. 
 
 1 It is difficult to induce some persons to consider any such 
 question calmly and dispassionately. Englishmen who think at all 
 
80 
 
 The Clergy and the Revolution. 
 
 In France it was not Catholics, but those who 
 had long ceased to be Catholics, who were guilty of 
 regicide, and of crimes whose atrocity shocked the 
 whole civilised world. The men who dragged Louis 
 XVI. to the scaffold, openly renounced all religious 
 belief. The men who murdered Charles made a 
 pitiful boast of their religion. 1 
 
 In England, except during times of special perse- 
 cution, which were comparatively rare, Catholics did 
 
 on the subject, are generally loud in their assertions of Irish dis- 
 loyalty. Now there is a very wide difference between loyalty to a 
 sovereign and approbation of all his acts, or the acts performed by 
 his government. Every English monarch who has ruled Ireland 
 has been treated with respect, and even those Irish papers which 
 write most strongly on the subject of English misgovernment, in- 
 variably respect the person of the sovereign. When the English 
 nation rebelled against James II., he took refuge in Ireland; how 
 he repaid Irish loyalty is but too well known and remembered in 
 Ireland. 
 
 1 In France, though many of the clergy were corrupted by the 
 deluge of evil which inundated the land, where, and because, all 
 religious interests were withdrawn, there were yet a much larger 
 number who were faithful. " The clergy in France were far from 
 being insensible to the danger of this flood of irreligion which 
 deluged the land." — Alisons History of Europe, vol. i. p. 89. 
 Again "In a general assembly of the clergy, held in 1770, the most 
 vigorous resistance against the multiplication of irreligious works 
 were made. ' Impiety,' they said "is making inroads alike on God 
 and man ; it will never be satisfied till it has destroyed every power 
 divine and human.' " — p. 87. " It is a remarkable proof how 
 completely ignorant the most able persons in Europe were of the 
 ultimate effects of this irreligious spirit, that the greatest encourage- 
 ment which the sceptical philosophy of France received was from 
 the despots of the north — Frederick the Great and the Empress 
 Catherine." — p. 88, 
 
81 
 
 not suffer from political or legal injustice. It is true, 
 indeed, that they were denied the rights of citizens ; 
 but they were tolerated, especially when heavy fines 
 could be obtained to replenish the coffers of needy or 
 licentious monarchs. The fewness of their number 
 protected them, and what was of still more impor- 
 tance, united them. The very hopelessness of suc- 
 cess, if they attempted to interfere in public affairs, 
 kept them silent. Agitation would have been worse 
 than imprudent, and they had so long learned to keep 
 silence, to submit, to live apart from their fellows, to 
 believe peace to be the one thing above all others to 
 be desired, that they at last came to believe any 
 demand for redress to be dangerous, if not positively 
 wrong ; and any agitation to be imprudent to the 
 highest degree, if not positively culpable. 
 
 Hence the English Catholics, and especially the 
 English Catholics of the upper classes, were neces- 
 sarily conservative, and hence also many Irish 
 Catholics of the upper classes, from association or 
 intermarriage with English Catholics, became conser- 
 vative also. Their few dependants believed as they 
 believed, and thought as they thought. They also 
 intermarried with each other, and lived apart, and 
 they also feared all change, because, as a general 
 rule, change was productive of evil. 
 
 But with the great mass of Irish Catholics, with, 
 in fact, all of the middle or poorest class who thought, 
 there was a little love for Conservatism. Their state 
 was such until the close of the last century (and it is 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 Irish Catholic Politics. 
 
 of that period we write), that however their condition 
 might be improved by any change, it could scarcely 
 be injured. 
 
 They had none of the English Catholic traditional 
 love of, or reverence for monarchy. How, indeed, 
 could they have it ? They were told that a certain 
 person was king of England, but whether that person 
 was a William or a George was quite the same to 
 them. It was a sound, and nothing more. 
 
 They heard indeed the name of their king, but 
 they never saw him, they never even felt his influence. 
 A royal birth or death was neither a subject of grief 
 nor sorrow. They heard that such events occurred, 
 perhaps long after they had happened, but for all 
 practical interest or difference which it made to them, 
 the birth or death of a New Zealander would have 
 been just the same. 
 
 But when they complained from time to time 
 against injustice, or when they rebelled against it, 
 then indeed they were made to feel the power of this 
 distant sovereign, of this individual in whose name 
 vindictive and cruel punishments were inflicted : 
 certainly they had no reason to uphold monarchy, 
 to revere English law, or to desire to preserve Eng- 
 lish government, as it showed itself to them. They 
 could not be conservative. 1 
 
 The influence of the Catholic faith, and the power 
 of the Catholic priesthood alone prevented the Irish 
 
 1 When the Irish were not allowed even to rent a small piece of 
 land, they called the little plot of earth which could not be denied 
 
The Worst Church in Christendom. S3 
 
 Celt from avenging his wrongs, not indeed with the 
 ferocity of a Communist, for the Irish Celt has no 
 taint of cruelty in his nature, but with the unflinch- 
 ing vengeance of a Roman plebeian. 
 
 It was precisely because many English Catholics 
 failed to see the difference between their own position 
 and the position of their Irish brethren, that they 
 looked coldly upon O'Connell's career, that they 
 would rather have kept their chains around them a 
 little longer than have accepted release by the means 
 
 them, a 11 Protestant lease of the sod." It was in allusion to this 
 penal law that the Irish rhymer made the attendants at the felon's 
 wake sing : 
 
 " But when dat we found him quite dead, 
 In de dustcase we bundled Ins carcase, 
 For a Protestant lease of the sod." 
 
 —Sketches of Ireland Sixty Years Ago, p. 89. Dublin, 1847. 
 
 Colonel Jervis says : " To hold out the bribe of the father's pro- 
 perty to conforming children, brought into play every ill feeling of 
 which man is capable — impiety, ingratitude, hatred between father 
 and son, brother and brother. But the penal law has never been 
 found which could convert mankind to any one doctrine ; on the 
 contrary, persecution breeds obstinacy, and the ignorant sinner be- 
 comes elevated into the proud martyr. Besides, in Ireland there 
 were still no means of exemplifying to the massos the greater wisdom 
 of the Church of England. The Protestant Lord Clarendon com- 
 plained of the absence of the bishops in England, and of the dis- 
 graceful state of their dioceses. Queen Mary, as head of the Church, 
 wrote to William when in Ireland to take care of it, 1 for everybody 
 agrees it is the worst in Christendom.' Many years later the illus- 
 trious Bishop Berkeley gave a similar account. Conformity meant 
 not a belief in Church of England doctrines, but a disbelief in re- 
 vealed religion." — Ireland under British Rule, p. 217. No one could 
 desire the conservation of such a state of government, or manifest 
 attachment to it. 
 
84 
 
 ■ 
 
 O'Connell a Tory in his youth. 
 
 which, he used to obtain it for them. And yet, as 
 we have said, O'Connell began life as a Conservative. 
 His son thus describes the time and manner of the 
 change : 
 
 "On the 21st December, 1793, the day the un- 
 fortunate Louis was beheaded at Paris, the brothers 
 set out in a voiture for Calais, which they reached 
 early on the morning of the 23rd ; not, however, 
 without some parting compliments from their friends 
 the soldiery — who went so far as several times to 
 strike the head of the vehicle with their musket 
 stocks. The English packet-boat, aboard of which 
 the boys proceeded with as little delay as possible, 
 was presently under weigh ; and as she passed oat 
 of the harbour, Mr. O'Connell and his brother 
 eagerly tore out of their caps the tricolour cockades, 
 which the commonest regard for personal safety 
 rendered indispensable to be worn by every one in 
 France ; and, after trampling them under foot, flung 
 them into the sea. This boyish outburst of natural 
 execration of the horrors which had been committed 
 under that emblem, procured them a few of those 
 sonorous curses which only a Frenchman can give, 
 from some fishermen rowing past at the moment, by 
 whom the cockades were rescued from the waves 
 and placed in their hats with all becoming reverence. 
 It is not to be wondered at that Mr. O'Connell 
 should, when, in 1794, he became a law-student in 
 Lincoln's Inn, be in a state very nearly approaching, 
 as he has often said, to that of a Tory at heart. 
 
Conversion to Popular Opinions, 
 
 85 
 
 " So strong and ardent were these feelings, that, 
 the celebrated trial of Hardy and others having 
 occurred about this time (viz., October, 1794), Mr. 
 O'Connell attended it daily, certainly not more for 
 the mere interest of the thing, or benefit of the law- 
 arguments to him as a student, than for the gratifica- 
 tion of anti-revolutionary feeling, at seeing a supposed 
 offender against law and social order in a fair way of 
 receiving condign punishment. 
 
 u To Mr. O'Connell's astonishment he found, ere 
 the trial had proceeded far, that his sentiments were 
 last changing to those of pity towards the accused, 
 and of something of self-reproach for having desired 
 his conviction and punishment ; and, each successive 
 day revealing more and more the trumped-up and 
 iniquitous nature of the prosecution, 1 the process of 
 change in Mr. O'Connelfs mind ended by fully and 
 
 1 This famous trial excited an immense sensation at the time. 
 John Horne Tooke had been, and according to English law was a 
 clergyman, having embraced the ecclesiastical state to please his 
 father, and very much against his own inclination. He was educated 
 at Eton, and afterwards at St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1773, 
 he studied law. While a student he assisted Dr. "William Tooke 
 upon an enclosure-bill, a subject which no doubt led him to consider 
 popular politics, or rather to consider politics from the people's point 
 of view. He took up the American War with more energy than 
 discretion, condemned the conduct of the government, and made a 
 subscription for the widows and orphans of those Americans who 
 had been 44 murdered by the king's troops at Lexington and Con- 
 cord." He was the author of the elaborate "Diversions of Purley." 
 John Thelwall was also a writer of seme reputation. He retired to 
 Wales after his acquittal, and died at Bath in 1834. 
 
86 
 
 Nonsense about Conspiracy. 
 
 finally converting him to popular opinions and 
 principles, and confirming his natural detestation of 
 tyranny, and desire of resisting it." 
 
 Even Fox had been disgusted with this trial, and 
 saw clearly the effect it would be likely to produce 
 on the public mind. He writes thus to Lord Holland, 
 June 23, 1794 : 
 
 " I think, of all the measures of Government, this 
 last nonsense about conspiracy is the most mis- 
 chievous, and at the same time the most foolish. 
 How truly have they made good that parallel you 
 drew between the Jacobins of France and the Crown 
 party here ! If they succeed in committing and hang- 
 ing any of these fellows whom they have taken up, 
 it will be considered as a corroboration of the con- 
 spiracy, and a pretence for more extraordinary 
 powers ; if they fail, as I rather think they will, then 
 the consequence that always belongs to men who 
 have been falsely accused and acquitted will attach 
 to Home Tooke, Thelwall, and others like them — 
 and possibly that danger which was only imaginary 
 may in time become real by those wise manoeuvres 
 which, unaccountably to me, my old friends think 
 calculated to dispel it." 
 
 The state of England at this period was scarcely 
 less a subject of apprehension to public men than the 
 state of Ireland. The most fatal and disastrous 
 calamities might have happened in that country if 
 timely concession had not been made. In Ireland, 
 rebellion was wilfully and advisedly excited. In 
 
The Qeorges and their Ministers. 87 
 
 England every reasonable effort was made to con- 
 ciliate. This is a fact which has been completely 
 overlooked in considering the history of the period, 
 when studied in connexion with Irish politics. 
 
 George III. ascended the throne in the- year 1760. 
 His reign was an eventful one, but the circumstances 
 which made it such were not turned to the national 
 advantage. It may be questioned, indeed, whether 
 the stolid Hanoverian princes were capable of a 
 large or enterprising policy : that they were capable 
 of mistrusting ministers who were possessed of larger 
 minds than their own and of following ministers 
 who were too pliant for effective service, the con- 
 temporary history of the period sufficiently proves. 1 
 
 1 Perhaps, however, some of his ministers were as much to blame 
 for facility of acquiescence. Lord North's character is thus described 
 by his own daughter, Lady Charlotte Lindsay : — " His character in 
 private life was, I believe, as faultless as that of any human being 
 can be ; and those actions of his public life which appeared to have 
 been the most questionable, proceeded, I am firmly convinced, from 
 what one must own was a weakness, though not an unamiable one, 
 and which followed him through his life— the want of power to resist 
 the influence of those he loved.'' — Appendix to Lord Brougham's 
 *t Historical Sketches of Statesmen who flourished in the reign of 
 George III" Lord North was made Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 in his thirty-sixth year. His parliamentary career commenced in 
 1754, and during Mr. Pitt's first administration he occupied a seat 
 at the Treasury Board. He was removed by the Eockingham 
 ministry in 1765, but came' into office again with Lord Chatham as 
 paymaster. 
 
 A few days only before he became Prime Minister, one of his 
 keenest opponents, Mr. Burke, thus described him in the House of 
 Commons: — ''The noble lord who spoke last, after extending his 
 
88 
 
 Democratic Tendency of the Age. 
 
 Two great events of the age, the French Revolu- 
 tion and the revolt of the American colonies, reacted 
 on English society, and on English social life. The 
 monarchs who preceded George III. were unpopular • 
 partly because they were devoid of those personal 
 attractions which fascinated the followers of the 
 house of Stuart, and partly because they neither 
 understood nor took much pains to understand, their 
 English subjects. 
 
 The severity with which social crimes were 
 punished only tended to increase them, and de- 
 veloped political agitations for which there was 
 already sufficient cause. The nation had ceased to 
 speak of or believe in the divine right of kings. 
 The person of the sovereign was no longer an object 
 of respect. This democratic tendency of thought, 
 reacted upon by the revolutionary spirit of France, 
 which began by denying divine right, and ended 
 by denying human justice, had its culmination in 
 England in a personal attack on the king, of which 
 O'Connell was an eye-witness. Of this attack we 
 shall speak more fully after entering into the details 
 of the circumstances which preceded it. 
 
 George III., however, had two advantages, of 
 which, however, he was unfortunate enough not to 
 have made the most. He was born in England, and 
 he had just sufficient wit to see that this was a claim 
 
 right leg a full yard before his left, rolling his flaming eyes, and 
 moving his ponderous frame, has at length opened his mouth." — 
 Speech of January 9, 1770, " Pari. Hist." xvi. p. 720. 
 
George 111. and Royal Supremacy, 
 
 89 
 
 on the fealty of his English subjects. His private 
 life was virtuous, and formed a contrast to that of 
 the majority of his predecessors. 1 
 
 Unfortunately for himself, he was under the in- 
 fluence of the Earl of Bute. This influence was one 
 which had taken its rise in his early life, and under 
 somewhat questionable circumstances. The king is 
 said to have written his first speech to Parliament 
 himself, but it was alleged that Lord Bute amended 
 it, and substituted the word Briton for Englishman. 2 
 This, certainly, gratified the Scotch party, if it did 
 not merit the approbation of the Tories. The Whigs 
 had been fifty-five years in office, but Tory prin- 
 ciples, such as they then were, suited the king, who 
 had wooden ideas on the subject of royal supremac}-, 
 for it was not the supremacy of divine right, but the 
 supremacy of a wooden, unvarying rule. 
 
 Eiots began early in this reign. The Whigs 
 
 1 " "When George II. had to receive the Holy Eucharist, his 
 main anxiety seems to have been that the sermon on that day might 
 be a short one, since otherwise he -was, to use his own words, ' in 
 dauger of falling asleep and catching cold.' " — Lord Afahon, Hist. 
 v. p. 54. Bishop Newton says (Works, i. p. 76, ed. 1787), that he 
 always took care in his sermons at Court to come within the com- 
 pass of twenty minutes ; but after a hint as to brevity, " on the great 
 festivals of the Church, he never exceeded fifteen, so that the King 
 sometimes said to the Clerk of the Closet, ' A good short sermon.' " 
 
 2 " I have heard it related," says Lord Mahon, iv. p. 212, " but 
 on no very clear or certain authority, that the King had in the first 
 place written the word ' Englishman,' and that Lord Bute altered it 
 to ' Briton.' " The King's speech was admired by Frederick the 
 Great.-r Mitchell Papers, vol. v. No. 201, p. 148. 
 
00 
 
 The Worst English Government. 
 
 believed that Bute intended to undermine their 
 power, and a beer-tax, of which he got the credit, 
 made him unpopular with the people. There was a 
 disturbance in the play-house the year after the 
 king's accession. 1 
 
 The Bute administration lasted just ten months, 
 and the Scotch lord went out of office, having made 
 a peace which was unpopular because he made it, 
 and leaving his own unpopularity as a bequest to his 
 master. 
 
 His family said that he retired from office for the 
 sake of his personal safety ; his own account of the 
 matter was that he was afraid of involving his royal 
 master in his ruin. 2 
 
 The Grenville administration followed, and the 
 king found himself lectured in his closet, and snubbed 
 
 1 A few days after Lord Bute was sworn in to the Privy Council, 
 a handbill was affixed to the Koyal Exchange, with these words : — 
 " No petticoat government, no Scotch favourites, no Lord George 
 Sackville." A joke went round the Court whether the King would 
 have " Scotch coal, Newcastle coal, or Irish coal." 
 
 2 " The alarms of Lord Bute's family about his personal safety 
 are reported here to be the immediate cause of his sudden abdica- 
 tion." — Memoirs of RochingJiam, vol. i. p. 165. — " Single in a 
 Cabinet of my own forming : no aid in the House of Lords to 
 support me, except two Peers (Denbigh and Pomfret) ; both the 
 Secretaries of State (Lords Egremont and Halifax) silent ; and the 
 Lord Chief Justice (Mansfield), whom I myself brought into office, 
 voting fur me and yet speaking against me — the ground I tread 
 upon is so hollow that I am afraid not only of falling myself, but of 
 involving my royal master in my ruin. It js time for me to re- 
 tire. " — Adoljriius, vol. i. p. 117. See also " The Correspondence of 
 George III. aud Lord North," vol. i. p. lxxi. 
 
Inauguration of Civil War. 
 
 91 
 
 in his most innocent pursuits. Macaulay character- 
 ised this administration as the worst which ever 
 governed England since the Revolution. The king 
 bore the lectures as best he could, but he could not 
 get even a small sum of money to purchase some 
 fields near the Queen's House. 
 
 The Rockingham administration succeeded, and 
 its members treated their sovereign u with decency 
 and reverence but Pitt could not work with them, 
 and they could not work without Pitt. 
 
 In 1763, on the 14th of March, George IIL 
 recommended a proper compensation to be made to 
 the Americans for their expenses in the war of 1756. 
 Almost on that very day twelvemonths, Mr. Grenville 
 brought forward his unfortunate resolution (9th 
 March, 1764), which inaugurated the civil war. 
 " That towards defraying the said expenses, it may 
 be proper to charge certain stamp-duties on the said 
 colonies and plantations." In February, 1765, this 
 resolution passed into a law. The law passed with 
 little anticipation of its fatal results. Burke sat in 
 the gallery listening to the speeches, and declared he 
 never heard " a more languid debate." The House 
 of Lords did not even trouble themselves to debate. 
 
 The truth was, that English senators looked on 
 the American colonies as a dependency which they 
 could treat as they pleased. They forgot that the 
 descendants of the sturdy race of men who fled from 
 England to escape religious and political oppression 
 were scarcely likely to submit to it in their adopted 
 
92 
 
 Mismanagement of the Colonies. 
 
 country. They forgot that the descendants of such 
 men were likely to be thinkers — to be men who 
 would know their own interests. 
 
 It was a brief history certainty, but it was none 
 the less significant. 
 
 The English government relied too much on the 
 possible effects of their traditional reverence for that 
 land from which they had expatriated themselves. 
 That reverence did exist, but it was merely tradi- 
 tional. The moment the tradition was weakened by 
 the stern logic of facts, its shattered links fell to the 
 ground, and never again re-united. 
 
 There were few men in England who grasped 
 the difficulties of the case, who had sufficient intellect 
 to look beyond the present, sufficient self-sacrifice to 
 forego present gain when it was sure that it must be 
 purchased at the cost of future loss. 
 
 Burke indeed did his best. He warned the 
 Government that they were treating with an in- 
 telligent people, and with a people who not only 
 loved justice, but thoroughly understood law, 1 a 
 
 1 Burke, speaking of the education of the colonists, said : "I 
 have heen told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his 
 business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as 
 those on the law exported to the plantations. The colonists have 
 now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear 
 that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's ' Commentaries' 
 in America as in England. General Gage marks out this disposition 
 very particularly in a letter on your table. Pie states that all the 
 people in his government are lawyers, or smatterers in law ; and 
 that in Boston they have been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly 
 
Contempt for A merica. 
 
 93 
 
 people " who snuffed the approach of tyranny." 
 Chatham did his best also, but the tide had set in 
 the wrong direction ; and who could control an 
 obstinate king and ministers, some of whom were 
 self-sufficient, and some of whom were self-inte- 
 rested ? 
 
 But the public were not satisfied with contempt 
 for American intellect. 1 There was open contempt 
 for American military power, and both public and 
 private contempt was heaped on Franklin — one of 
 America's greatest men. Attorney-Generals have 
 not always distinguished themselves by prudence, 
 but few men who have held that position in England 
 
 to evade many parts of one of your capital penal constitutions. . . . 
 This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dextorous, prompt in 
 attack, ready in defence, full of resources. In other countries the 
 people, more simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill 
 principle in government only by an actual grievance ; here they an- 
 ticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the 
 badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance, 
 and Bnuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze." 
 
 1 In the debate of lGth March, 1775, Lord Sandwich said : " The 
 noble lord [Camden] mentions the impracticability of conquering 
 America. I cannot think the noble lord can be serious on this 
 matter. Suppose the colonies do abound in men, what does that 
 signify ? They are raw, undisciplined, cowardly men. I wish that, 
 instead of 40,000 or 50,000 of these half-bred fellows, they would 
 produce in the field at least 200,000, the more the better, the easier 
 would be the conquest." Then he related an anecdote of Sir Peter 
 Warren, and continued : " Believe me, my lords, the very sound of 
 a cannon will carry them, in his [Sir Peter's] words, as fast as their 
 feet could carry them." — See "Life and Times of C. J. Fox," by 
 Earl Piussell. 
 
94 
 
 Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 have stultified themselves or their country so com- 
 pletely as Wedderburn, one of the Solicitor-Generals 
 who ruled the legal destinies of England in the reign 
 of George til. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin was the son of a Boston 
 merchant. He began life as an apprentice to his 
 father's business, though it is said he was originally 
 intended for the ministry in some religious per- 
 suasion. But the lad abhorred trade, and at last 
 obtained service with his brother, a printer. After a 
 time he removed to Philadelphia. Here he was 
 noticed by the English governor, Sir William Keith, 
 and it is said that he was deceived by him. Possibly 
 Sir William only promised more than he could per- 
 form. 
 
 The result was, Franklin's removal to England as 
 early as 1725, when he entered as a journeyman in 
 the well-known and time-honoured establishment of 
 Messrs. Cox and Wyman. He returned again to 
 America, where he married a rich widow, and 
 published the famous "Poor Richard's Almanack." 
 In 1757 he was sent to England as a delegate for 
 Pennsylvania. Fie returned once more to his native 
 land, and in 1764 and 1766 he was examined at the 
 bar of the English Flouse. 
 
 The members were anxious to prove that the 
 American colonies were contumacious, but ' all evi- 
 dence goes to prove that they were not, and that 
 they did not desire separation from England until 
 they found that England compelled them to revolt, 
 
Washington on the Colonies. 
 
 95 
 
 and left them no other alternative. Franklin de- 
 clared that " the authority of Parliament was allowed 
 to be valid in all laws, except such as should lay in- 
 ternal taxes : that it was never disputed in laying- 
 duties to regulate commerce : that the Americans 
 would never submit to the Stamp Act, or to any 
 other tax on the same principle : that North America 
 would contribute to the support of Great Britain, if 
 engaged in a war in Europe." 
 
 Washington wrote thus : u Although vou are 
 taught to believe that the people of Massachusetts 
 are rebellious, setting up for independency and what 
 not, give me leave, my good friend, to tell you that 
 you are abused, grossly abused. This I advance 
 with a degree of confidence and boldness which may 
 claim your belief, having better opportunities of 
 knowing the real sentiments of the people you are 
 among, from the leaders of them, in opposition to the 
 present measures of Administration, than you have 
 from those whose business it is not to disclose 
 truths, but to misrepresent facts, in order to justify 
 as much as possible to the world their own conduct. 
 Give me leave to add, and I think I can announce it 
 as a fact, that it is not the wish or interest of that 
 government, or any other upon this continent, 
 separately or collectively, to set up for indepen- 
 dence ; but this you may at the same time rely on, 
 that none of them will ever submit to the loss of 
 those valuable rights and privileges which are 
 essential to the happiness of every free state, and 
 
96 Dying Testimony of Lord Chatham. 
 
 without which life, liberty, and property are rendered 
 totally insecure." 1 
 
 In the last debate of the Lords attended by 
 Franklin, March 16th, 1775, he heard American 
 courage, American religion, American intellect, 
 branded as cowardice, hypocrisy, and dulness. " We 
 were treated," he says, " as the lowest of mankind, 
 and almost of a different species from the English, of 
 Great Britain ; but particularly American honesty 
 was abused by some of the Lords, who asserted that 
 we were all knaves, and wanted only by this dispute 
 to avoid paying our debts." 
 
 An eminent English writer says : "On this 
 occasion a few tongues helped to dismember an 
 empire. Chatham's prophetic eye had discerned, 
 months before this memorable debate, the issue of 
 such zealotry. And in the month of November, 
 1776, when America was ringing with the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and England was exasperated 
 by what it considered as the sin of witchcraft, the 
 Earl, being then very sick at Hayes, and not ex- 
 pecting to recover, solemnly charged his physician, 
 Dr. Addington, to bear testimony that he died with 
 his opinions respecting America unchanged. He 
 renewed a former prediction, that unless England 
 changed her policy, France would espouse the cause 
 of the Americans. France, he said, only waited till 
 England was more deeply engaged in this 1 ruining 
 
 1 Spark's Life of Washington, vol. i. p. 130. 
 
Taxation no Tyranny."' 
 
 07 
 
 war against herself in America, as well as to prove 
 how far the Americans, abetted by France indirectly 
 only, may be able to make a stand, before she takes 
 an open part by declaring war upon England.'" 1 
 
 Every one, to speak broadly, was against America ; 
 certainly those who defended her cause could be 
 easily counted ; but it was unfortunate that the 
 multitude were not a little more reserved in their 
 ( xpressions, that they so openly expressed their scorn 
 lor, and depreciation of an enemy who overcame 
 them so easily. 2 
 
 They forgot that contempt is not argument, and 
 they forgot also " what extraordinary obstacles a 
 small band of insurgents may surmount in the cause 
 of liberty." 3 
 
 1 George the Third and Lord North, vol. ii. p. 9. 
 
 2 Johnson, the lexicographer, had a share in exciting the popular 
 fouling also, lie wrote a pamphlet entitled " Taxation no Tyranny," 
 but he forgot to say anything about the necessity for justice in taxa- 
 tion. He said : " One of their complaints is not such as can claim 
 much commiseration from the softest bosom. They tell us that wo 
 have changed our conduct, and that a tax is now laid by Parliament 
 on those which [sic] were never taxed by Parliament before. To 
 this we think it may be easily answered that the longer they have 
 been spared, the better they can pay." " By a similar process of 
 arguing," observes Mr. Daunt, " Hampden might be shown to have 
 been in arrear for ship-money, and Prynne for ears." 
 
 All kinds of stories went the round in England on the subject of 
 American incompetence, moral and physical. Farces were enacted 
 in the theatres in which tailors and cobblers were described as 
 samples of American soldiers. A young American officer who was 
 present on one occasion, shouted out from his box, f* Hurrah ! but 
 Britain is beaten by tailors and cobblers." 
 
 3 Speech in the debates. 
 
 7 
 
93 
 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The American Congress held its first sittings at 
 Philadelphia on the 4th of September, 1774. The 
 members were willing to make peace, but they wisely 
 prepared for war. The result is too well known to 
 need further record. The "tea tax" was but the 
 last attempt to fetter a people who were determined 
 to be free, and who carried out their determination. 
 The Declaration of Independence was signed on the 
 4th July 1776, by Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson — 
 and America became a nation and the home of the 
 exiled Celt. To her and to them we s&y—Esto 
 jperpetua. 
 
 Thus we find America free at the birth of 
 O'Connell, and at the same time w T e find the first 
 indications of a union in feeling and principle 
 between Ireland and America. It is a subject which 
 ought to be of considerable interest to every English- 
 man — which is of the very deepest interest to every 
 Irishman. If another war should break out between 
 America and England — and with the pressure of the 
 Irish vote on American politics, such an event might 
 not require even the settlement of " Alabama," or any 
 other claims, to precipitate it — there can be no doubt 
 that millions of expatriated Irishmen would join in 
 the conflict with something more than ordinary 
 military ardour. 
 
 If, as we shall presently show, England was com- 
 pelled to grant some trifling instalments of justice to 
 Ireland, when threatened on all sides by peril at the 
 close of the last century, it would be but common 
 
America Appeals to Ireland. 
 
 99 
 
 prudence on her part to make Ireland forget her past 
 wrongs and her present sorrows. 
 
 One of the things not generally known, or, if 
 known, not generally considered, in connexion with 
 American independence, is the Address to the People 
 of Ireland which was issued by Congress. They 
 appeal to Ireland because they are " desirous of the 
 good opinion of the virtuous and humane." 
 
 " TVe are desirous of the good opinion of the 
 virtuous and humane. We are peculiarly desirous 
 of furnishing you with the true state of our motives 
 and objects, the better to enable you to judge of our 
 conduct with accuracy and determine the merits of 
 the controversy with impartiality and precision. — 
 Your Parliament had done us no wrong. You had 
 ever been friendly to the rights of mankind ; and we 
 acknowledge with pleasure and gratitude that your 
 nation has produced patriots who have nobly dis- 
 tinguished themselves in the cause of humanity and 
 America." 
 
 Another thing not generally known, or not suffi- 
 ciently considered, is, that some of the leading men 
 in the American revolt were Irish. Even then some 
 few celts had found their way to the land in which 
 they were to obtain such numerical strength at a 
 future day. 
 
 Thompson, the secretary of Congress, was Irish. 
 He had been agitating against England for ten years. 
 Franklin corresponded with him frequently, and 
 wrote to him from London, " The sun of liberty is 
 
100 
 
 The u Ostrich-Egg. 
 
 set ; we must now light up the candles of industry." 
 Thompson's reply was significant, " Be assured we 
 shall light up torches of a very different kind." 
 
 Montgomery was an Irishman. He captured 
 Montreal, and died before Quebec. 1 
 
 O'Brien was an Irishman, and commanded in the 
 first naval engagement with England. 
 
 On the 2nd February, Walpole writes to Mann : 
 " We have no news public or private ; but there is 
 an ostrich-egg laid in America, where the Bostonians 
 have canted three hundred chests of tea into the 
 ocean, for they will not drink tea with our Parlia- 
 ment. . . . Lord Chatham talked of conquering 
 America in Germany ; I believe England will be 
 conquered some day in New England or Bengal." 
 
 1 See Burns' spirited lines : 
 
 " And yet what reck ! he at Quehec, 
 Mont gomerrj -like did fa', man, 
 Wi' sword in hand before his hand, 
 Amang his enemies a', man." 
 
Chapter (Tbirb. 
 
 ENTRY ON PUBLIC LIFE— POLITICAL SITUA- 
 TION. 
 
 1775—1797. 
 
 Political Troubles in England: Attack on the King : 
 Fondness for Field Sports: Fever: First Visit to 
 Dublin: English Policy with Ireland: Forced 
 Attempt at Legislative Justice: Causes and 
 Character of the Irish Rebellion : G rattan : Lord 
 Charlemont : Ireland in Arms: Alarm in Eng- 
 land: Wants of Ireland: Mr. Fox: Repeal 
 of Act VI. Geo. I. : Causes of the Ruin of 
 Irish Independence: English Bribery: Grattan's 
 Letter. 
 
■ ■ ■ ' 
 
 troubles which were ex- 
 cited in England by the 
 American war continued for 
 several years. On the 23rd 
 of October, 1775, thousands of in- 
 cendiary papers were dispersed, 
 inciting the people to rise and 
 prevent the meeting of Parlia- 
 ment. On this the guard was trebled, and 
 their muskets loaded, and thirty-six rounds 
 of powder delivered to them. At the same 
 time papers, telling the people how well the 
 Court was prepared, signed by Sir John 
 Hawkins, Chairman of the Bench of West- 
 minster Justices, were spread abroad. 1 
 
 1 Walpole's Last Journals, vol. i. p. 510. 
 
104 
 
 Political Troubles in England. 
 
 The king was fully aware of the danger, and 
 wrote thus to Lord North : 
 
 Queen's House, October 25, 1775. 
 2 min. past 11 a.m. 
 
 "Lord North, — On the receipt of your letter I have 
 ordered Elliot's regiment to march from Henley to Houns- 
 low, and the Horse and Grenadier Guards to take up their 
 horses. These handbills are certainly spread to cause terror, 
 but they may in the timid duke I saw yesterday, but I thank 
 God I am not of that make. I know what my duty to my 
 country makes me undertake, and threats cannot prevent me 
 from doing that to the fullest extent." i 
 
 In 1779, the king seemed to be recovered 
 sufficiently to see the possible danger to English 
 interests in Ireland. In a letter dated Kew, June 
 11th, 1779, he says : " The present difficulties keep 
 my mind very far from a state of ease. ... I have 
 heard Lord North frequently drop that the ad- 
 vantages to be gained by this contest could never 
 repay the expence ; I owne that, let any war be ever 
 so successful, if persons will sit down and weigh the 
 expences, they will find, as in the last, that it has 
 impoverished the state, enriched individuals, and 
 perhaps raised the name only of the conquerors ; 
 
 1 Correspondence, vol. i. p. 20. — " Queen's House, afterwards 
 Buckingham House, was bought of Sir Charles Sheffield by George 
 the Third in 1761 for £21,000, and settled on Queen Charlotte, in 
 lieu of Somerset House, by an act passed in 1775. Here all the 
 King's children were born, George the Fourth alone excepted. The 
 Queen's House was taken clown in 1825 to make room for the 
 present Buckingham Palace." — Cunningham's Handbook of London, 
 p. 86. 2nd ed. 
 
Letter of George III 
 
 105 
 
 but this is only weighing such events in the scale of 
 a tradesman behind his counter j it is necessary for 
 those in the station it has pleased Divine Providence 
 to place me to weigh whether expences, though very 
 great, are not sometimes necessary to prevent what 
 might be more ruinous to a country than the loss of 
 money. The present contest with America, I cannot 
 help seeing, as the most serious in which any country 
 was ever eri^ao-ed ; it contains such a train of con- 
 sequences that they must be examined to feel its real 
 weight. Whether the laying a tax was deserving 
 all the evils that have arisen from it, I should suppose 
 no man could alledge [sic] that without being thought 
 more fit for Bedlam than a seat in the Senate ; but 
 step by step the demands of America have risen : 
 independence is their object ; that certainly is one 
 which every man not willing to sacrifice every object 
 to a momentary and inglorious peace must concurr 
 with me in thinking that this country can never 
 submit to : should America succeed in that, the 
 West Indies must follow them, not independence, 
 but must for its own interest be dependent on North 
 America. Ireland would soon follow the same plan 
 and be a separate state ; then this island would be 
 reduced to itself, and soon would be a poor island 
 indeed, for, reduced in her trade, merchants would 
 retire with their wealth to climates more to their 
 advantage, and shoals of manufacturers would leave 
 this country for the nevv r empire." 
 
 There was no question of Irish loss or gain, ex- 
 
106 
 
 The Gordon Riots. 
 
 cept in so far as Irish loss or gain affected English 
 interests, and it required a very much larger intellect 
 than that of George III. to see that these interests 
 were, or ought to be, identical. 
 
 About the same time the Duke of Richmond 
 made a motion in the House of Lords, in which lie 
 said : " That in a moment so critical, the most awful 
 this country had ever experienced, it would be 
 deceiving His Majesty and the nation if they were 
 not to represent that the only means of resisting the 
 powerful combination which threatened the country 
 would be by a total change of that system which 
 had involved us in our present difficulties in America, 
 in Ireland, and at home." 
 
 The Gordon riots took place in 1780, and lasted 
 from the 2nd of June until the 9th. Parliament was 
 unable to meet during this commotion. It was 
 suspected that the French were the instigators of it, 
 as at that time everything revolutionary was laid to 
 their charge. The king wanted to have " examples 
 made," and told Lord North he must "get to the 
 bottom of it." A difficult task for that easy-going- 
 minister, who was scarcely capable of getting to the 
 bottom of anything. 
 
 In 1783, (July 24), the king expressed a strong 
 opinion on the state of public affairs by no means 
 complimentary to himself or his ministers : 
 
 " Undoubtedly there is less regularity in the 
 modes of conducting business in this kingdom than 
 in any other European, or the mode of calling a new 
 
State of Public Affairs. 
 
 107 
 
 parliament in Ireland ought to have been so clearly 
 stated in the change of that constitution that no 
 room ought to have been left for doubts as to the 
 proper method of effecting it. But I fear folly, not 
 reason, dictated the measure, and therefore it is not 
 surprising every step has not been well "weighed." 
 
 In November he declared that " Ireland was in 
 fact dis-united from England," and certainly not 
 without cause. The volunteers had been organised, 
 and the volunteer were determined to have justice 
 done to their countrv, while England was unable to 
 deny it in consequence of her own personal 
 embarrassments. 
 
 There was war in India also, and though this did 
 not very much concern the nation at large, till some 
 few honourable men were roused by the recital of 
 the horrible cruelties practised on the unhappy 
 natives, it was not without its effect. 
 
 The king and the Prince of Wales quarrelled, 
 and the unhappy monarch exhibited the first 
 symptoms of that malady which clouded his latter 
 years. 
 
 In 1795 all England was excited, turbulent, and 
 violent. The war had necessitated increased taxa- 
 tion ; increased taxation involved distress, and dis- 
 tress fell grievously on those who were least able to 
 bear it. 
 
 Men who could lose thousands of pounds in a 
 game of chance, or who could spend hundreds of 
 pounds on mere luxuries, were not likely to under- 
 
108 
 
 Public Discontent. 
 
 stand the sharp sufferings of those who had not 
 sixpence to spare for a luxury — who had not at times 
 a penny to buy a loaf of bread. There were few 
 who could even comprehend the terrible misery of 
 starvation, and the terrible agony of seeing wife and 
 child pining away for want of common sustenance. 1 
 
 Those who suffered thus were not likely to make 
 nice distinctions as to the cause. The king as the 
 ruler of the nation was naturally credited with being 
 the origin of the national troubles. The king it was 
 supposed could remedy them, and did not do so, 
 
 1 Alison's " History of Europe," vol. iii. p. 20, thus describes 
 the state of England : The condition of Great Britain in the close 
 of 1795 and the beginning of 1798, was nearly as distracted, so far 
 as public opinion went, as that of France. So violent had party 
 spirit become, and so completely had it usurped the place of patriot- 
 ism or reason, that many of the popular leaders had come to wish 
 anxiously for the triumph of their enemies. It was no longer a 
 simple disapprobation of the war which they felt, but a fervent 
 desire that it might terminate to the disadvantage of their country, 
 arid that the Republican might triumph over the British arms. 
 They thought that there was no chance of parliamentary reform 
 being carried, or any considerable addition to democratic power ac- 
 quired, unless the ministry were deposed ; and to accomplish this 
 object they hesitated not to betray their wish for the success of the 
 inveterate enemies of their country. These ill humours which were 
 afloat during the whole of the summer of 1795, broke out into acts 
 of open violence in the autumn of that year. These causes of dis- 
 content were increased by the high price of provisions, the natural 
 consequence of the increased consumption and enlarged circulating 
 medium required in the war, but which the lower orders, under the 
 instigation of their demagogues, ascribed entirely to the ministry, 
 and the crusade which they had undertaken against the liberties of 
 mankind." 
 
Atidck on the Kiny. 
 
 109 
 
 and popular vengeance sought to make the king the 
 victim of its indignation. 
 
 O'Connell was an eve-witness of this scene, and 
 when he heard bitter reflections made, in later years, 
 on the poor Irish peasant who attempted the life of 
 a landlord who had deprived him of house, home, 
 and even of the very possibility of labouring for an 
 existence, it is little wonder that his honest heart 
 burned with indignation when men condemned this, 
 and lightly pawed over an attempt at regicide which 
 certainly had not the excuse of being excited by 
 actual starvation. 
 
 The attack on the king was made on the 29th of 
 October, 1795, as lie was returning from Parliament. 
 O'Connell went with a friend to St. James' Park, 
 little anticipating the extraordinary scene which he 
 was to witness, lie thus described it himself to Mr. 
 Daunt : " The carriage, surrounded by a noisy, 
 angry, and excited mob, came moving slowly along. 
 Suddenly the glass in the royal window was smashed 
 by some individual in the crowd, who, having read 
 the Bible, " rendered unto Caesar the things that are 
 Caesar's" by flinging a penny at His Majesty. The 
 flashing sabres of the dragoons were drawn im- 
 mediately — the loud voice of imperative command 
 was ringing above the tumultuous sounds, and the 
 dragoons, clearing their way through the huddled 
 and scrambling; multitude with brandished blades 
 and curveting horses, advanced in a gallop in front 
 of the king's carriage. As the procession approached 
 
110 Attack on the King. 
 
 the place where O'Connell stood he pressed forward 
 to get a sight of the king, when a dragoon made a 
 furious slash at him, which deeply notched the tree 
 an inch or two above his head. Groans, hootings, 
 and hisses filled the air, and the king's life seemed 
 in imminent danger ; however, he got rid of his 
 dutiful subjects, and entered St. James's Palace, 
 where he took off his robes in a wonderfully short 
 time. He then came out at the opposite side of the 
 palace, next Cleveland Row, and entered a coach 
 drawn by two large black Hanoverian horses. He 
 was subsequently driven towards Buckingham House, 
 and just as he was passing the bottom of the Green 
 Park, the mob tumultuousiy swarmed round the 
 carriage, seized the wheels, and, with united strength 
 and horrible vociferations, prevented their revolution, 
 though the postilions, with desperate cuts, rained 
 showers of blows on the straining and perspiring 
 horses. The mob seemed intent on tearing the king 
 to pieces. Two fellows at this moment approached 
 the carriage — the hand of one was on the door- 
 handle in the act of opening it. Had the door 
 opened they would doubtless have dragged the king 
 headlong out and murdered him on the spot. At 
 this critical juncture a tall determined-looking man 
 thrust a pistol through the opposite window at the 
 fellows who were going to open the door ; they 
 shrank back, the mob relaxed their grasp, on the 
 wheels, the postilions flogged their horses, and the 
 carriage went off at a gallop to Buckingham House. 
 
(yConnelVs Return to Ireland. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Never had king a more narrow escape. It was a 
 terrible scene." 
 
 O'Connell returned home soon after, and some 
 curious and characteristic anecdotes were told of his 
 family life. For himself it is said, he was passion- 
 ately fond of field sports, and took care to make up 
 now for lost time by double enjoyment. No doubt 
 that hardy constitution which made him bear up 
 under years of such mental and physical toil as few 
 men have ever endured, was braced and invigorated 
 by the fresh Atlantic breezes of his mountain home. 
 His son thus describes him at this period : 
 " Often has the writer of these pages heard him 
 describe, in his own graphic manner, his going out 
 before dawn, to ensure that his few hounds should 
 have the help of the scent still lying ; the feelings of 
 the party as they crouched amid the heather, waiting 
 for day ; the larks springing all around, and the 
 eager dogs struggling to get free from the arms that 
 restrained them. A wager — the only wager of Mr. 
 O'Connell's life — was successfully accomplished by 
 him with four of these hounds ; namely, the killing 
 of four hares in three successive days. The four 
 hounds, in fact, ran down and killed six hares in 
 those three days, and vaulted another — a feat which 
 he boasts no four hounds now living could accom- 
 plish." 
 
 The vice of hard drinking was not one in which 
 the future Liberator indulged. He was temperate j 
 either from inclination, or from beino; unable to im- 
 
 1 o 
 
112 
 
 bibe the copious potations which, his companions 
 considered almost a necessary of life. 
 
 It is said that he was one of the first to break 
 through the time-honoured rule that the door should 
 be locked after dinner, and the key thrown out of 
 the window until every guest had drunk to intoxica- 
 tion. 1 
 
 I This practice was by no means confined to the wilds of Kerry, 
 or indeed to Ireland. At Shane's Castle, where Mrs. Siddons often 
 took part in private theatricals, Lord Mountjoy drew up in joke a 
 set of rules for the company, which give an amusing idea of the state 
 of society even in the highest circles : 
 
 " Resolutions formed to promote regularity at Shane's Castle, at the 
 
 meeting for the representation of ' CymbelineJ Nov. 20, 1785. 
 
 " 1. That no noise be made daring the forenoon, for fear of 
 wakening the company. 
 
 " 2. That there, shall be no breakfast made after four o'clock in 
 the afternoon, nor tea after one in the morning. 
 
 "8. To inform any stranger who may come in at breakfast, that 
 we are not at dinner. 
 
 " 4. That no person be permitted to go out airing after breakfast 
 till the moon gets up, for fear of being overturned in the dark. 
 
 " 5. That the respective grooms may put up their horses after 
 four hours' parading before the hall-door of the Castle. 
 
 " 6. That there shall be one complete hour between each meal. 
 
 II 7. That all the company must assemble at dinner before the 
 cloth is removed. 
 
 " 8. That supper may not be called for till five minutes after the 
 last glass of claret. 
 
 " 9. That no gentleman be permitted to drink more than three 
 bottles of hock at or after supper. 
 
 " 10. That all M.P.'s shall assemble on post-days in the coffee- 
 room at four o'clock to frank letters."-— Cornivallis 1 Correspondence, 
 vol. ii. p. 349. The free and easy style of living is as manifest 
 from Rule 2, as the genial and general hospitality by Rule 5. 
 
Cousin Kane. 
 
 113 
 
 O'Connell's favourite place in Iris uncle's house 
 was the sideboard, where he found more freedom to 
 indulge his jokes, and more liberty to come and go 
 as he pleased. 
 
 A certain "Cousin Kane," who enjoyed "free 
 quarters" whenever he could get them — and when 
 was hospitality ever refused in the " Green Island ?" 
 — was one of the county characters. Cousin Kane 
 had that charming facility of accommodation which 
 satisfied itself everywhere, at least for a time ; and 
 with his two horses and his twelve dogs, he quar- 
 tered himself from week to week, now in one house 
 and now in another, where he could, or said he could 
 claim kin. Yet Cousin Kane's disposition does not 
 seem to have been improved by Iris travels, for it 
 is said that on one occasion there were seventy-six 
 actions for assault and battery pending against him 
 at the Tralee assizes. O'Connell offended him once 
 by giving him whiskey instead of sherry in mistake. 
 Kane drank the whiskey at a draught, and then com- 
 menced vituperating his young cousin, concluding 
 his harangue by roaring in a tone of thunder, " Fill 
 it again, sir !" 
 
 On the following morning, Kane got up at two 
 o'clock and wakened O'Connell by his noise. " What 
 are you about ?" said O'Connell, "the clock has only 
 struck two." " Do you think I am to be a slave to 
 that lying devil of a clock ye have there ?" raved 
 Kane. " Do you think a gentleman like me is to be 
 ruled and governed by a blackguard of a clock like 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 A ttach of Fever., 
 
 that— eh ? For what would I stay in bed if it struck 
 twenty-two when I cannot sleep ?" Manifestly 
 " Cousin Kane " would have been an ardent admirer 
 of rule number four of the Shane's Castle code. 
 
 In 1798, after O'Connell had been called to the 
 bar, and before he went his first circuit, his life was 
 despaired of, in consequence of his, having taken a 
 violent chill, which resulted in fever. His own 
 eagerness in the chase was the immediate cause of 
 this malady. His son thus records the circum- 
 stances, as related by his father : 
 
 " Eagerness in the pursuit of this amusement had 
 nearly cost him his life in the eventful year 1798 — 
 the same in which he was called to the bar. After 
 the latter occurrence, which took place May 19th, 
 and before his first circuit, he proceeded in August to 
 Darrynane ; and there, from a young man's im- 
 prudence in allowing wet clothes to dry on him 
 while he slept before a peasant's fire after a hard 
 morning's hunting, was, after the further imprudence 
 of attempting, during a fortnight, to fight off the 
 fierce assailant, prostrated by a most severe and 
 dangerous typhus fever. Early in the disorder, he 
 obtained a full consciousness of his danger, and 
 retained that consciousness in the intervals of the 
 fits of delirium, which came upon him violently and 
 frequently. Whenever the mind was able to assert 
 its self-control, his most constant and bitterest 
 thought was, that he was about to die without having 
 been able to gratify the instinctive and innate feeling 
 
Fa vo ura hie Crisis. 
 
 115 
 
 which from infancy had been uppermost in his 
 mind — the feeling of craving, that it might be his 
 lot to do something for Ireland ; and it is a curious 
 fact that in his ravings, he waa constantly heard 
 repeating the following lines from the tragedy of 
 Douglas : 
 
 1 Unknown, I die ; no tongue shall speak of me : 
 Some noble spirits, judging by themselves, 
 May yet conjecture what I might have proved, 
 And think life only wanting to my fame ! 1 
 
 " An affecting incident marked the turn of the 
 disorder. When, as he felt himself, and as he 
 appeared to others, he was falling into his agony, his 
 head had slipped from the pillow and death would 
 have been accelerated by the position, a cousin of 
 his, who was present, raised him and supported 
 him in her arms. While for a moment revived by 
 this, his father came to the bedside, and, after con- 
 templating him for a moment with agonised feelings, 
 addressed him with * Dan, don't you know me ?' 
 As with the last effort of nature, the son pressed the 
 father's hand, in token of affectionate recognition ; 
 and, with the effort, the fell disease that had so long 
 been triumphant, seemed to be for the first time 
 arrested — the crisis arrived, twenty-four hours' sleep 
 followed, and thenceforth began and steadily con- 
 tinued the restoration of health. 
 
 During the same illness, Xapoleon's successful 
 inarch to Alexandria was mentioned in his presence. 
 The acute mind, which at once grasped the im- 
 possibilities, as well as the possibilities of any plan, 
 
11G 
 
 First Visit to Dublin. 
 
 political or social, at once asserted itself. ' That is 
 impossible,' said the patient ; ' he cannot have done 
 so — they would have been starved.' ' Oh, no,' 
 replied the doctor ; ' they had a quantity of portable 
 soup, sufficient to feed the army for four days.' 
 4 Ay,' replied O'Connell, 1 but had they portable 
 water ? For their portable soup would be of little 
 use without the water to dissolve it.' The medical 
 gentleman, glancing hopefully at the mother, said, in 
 low and satisfied tone, c His intellect at any rate is 
 untouched.' " 
 
 O'Connell went to Dublin in the year 1797, 
 probably with a view to further preparation for 
 being called to the bar, possibly with the intention 
 of making friends who might serve him in his new 
 career. It would appear to have been his first visit 
 to the Irish metropolis ; under how many different 
 phases he must have seen it afterwards, under how 
 many different circumstances he must have entered 
 it ! He had witnessed the assembling of an English 
 parliament, he has now to witness the last debates of 
 the Irish house. In England he had heard Pitt, and 
 Fox, and Burke ;* in Dublin, he heard G rattan and 
 Flood. 
 
 1 He spoke for the last time on the 20th of June, 1794. His 
 brother Richard died during this year, and his death inflicted a deep 
 blow on the sensitive heart of the great Irishman. " Dick" was in- 
 deed a universal favourite. Every one loved him in the Ballitore 
 Quaker school, where he was educated ; and if he was " wished full 
 ten times a day at old Nick," not indeed by his friends, who would 
 
Causes of the Rebellion. 117 
 
 In England he had seen the king attacked in 
 open day by his own subjects, and only saved from 
 an instant and terrible death by a military escort. 
 In Ireland he was to be a witness to secret rebellion, 
 and even to be personally compromised in it. The 
 state of Ireland at that period was certainly alarming, 
 and has been unfortunately but too little understood. 
 
 The broad outlines of contemporary history are 
 indeed familiar to all educated persons. The manner 
 in which the Irish rebellion was — shall we say 
 encouraged, or excited by English statesmen ? — is 
 admitted because it cannot be denied by some 
 English historians ; the fraud and force by which 
 the Union was effected is known equally well, but 
 not, perhaps, generally believed. Nevertheless, the 
 real causes and the real effects of the rebellion and of 
 the Union have scarcely met with the consideration 
 they deserve, though the subject is one which de- 
 serves and would repay a careful study. 
 
 Lord Townsend's administration had thoroughly 
 debased the Irish parliament, It has been taken for 
 granted, because the Irish Parliament was composed 
 of persons who lived, at least, part of their lives in 
 
 scarcely pardon such profanity, but by the poet who sings his praise, 
 
 he was as surely wished back again. 
 
 " What spirits were his, what art and what whim, 
 Now breaking a jest and now breaking a limb ! 
 
 In short, so peculiar a devil was Dick, 
 
 That we wished him well ten times a day at old Nick, 
 
 But missing his mirth and agreeable vein, 
 
 As often we wished to have Dick back again." 
 
118 
 
 The Irish Parliament 
 
 Ireland, that it represented Irish feeling. It is true, 
 indeed, that there were a few men in it from time 
 to time who were incorruptible and independent, 
 who had Irish interests and who would make 
 sacrifices for them ; but the great majority had no 
 interest in Ireland. It was indeed the country from 
 whence they drew their rents, and which supplied 
 them with their income, but they were aliens from 
 the people in religion and in affection. 
 
 English interest was still the ruling motive of 
 every enactment of this so-called Irish Parliament ; 
 and yet, because the Parliament was Irish — because 
 it had an Irish element in it, Ireland prospered 
 during its later years, as Ireland had never pros- 
 pered before. 
 
 Still the one fatal policy prevailed, and the one 
 fatal principle was carried out. Ireland was not 
 treated as an integral part of the British Empire. 
 Her interests were not even considered for a moment, 
 and if they were considered, it was only that they 
 might be treated as something absolutely inimical to 
 English prosperity. It was a curious policy, it was 
 an unwise policy, it was a fatal policy. If one-half 
 the money which was spent in repressing Irish 
 rebellions had been spent in promoting Irish in- 
 dustry, there would have been no rebellions to 
 repress, and England might have enriched herself, 
 instead of adding a heavy item to her national debt, 
 and throwing an additional weight of obloquy on 
 her national character. 
 
Charles I. and his Irish Subjects. 119 
 
 But in considering this period of Irish history, 
 Irishmen have sometimes forgotten that the English 
 House of Commons was quite as venal as that which 
 sat in Dublin. The English nation had been for 
 years, indeed since the very first hour of its inter- 
 course with Ireland, educated and imbued with an 
 anti-Irish feeling. Even Charles L dared not repeal 
 Poyning's Act, though, by so doing, he had at least 
 a chance of saving himself from his English subjects 
 by conciliating his Irish subjects. He took in the 
 full extent of his position. The Irish were Irish 
 and nothing more. He may not, indeed, have 
 deliberately selected to be murdered by his English 
 subjects in preference to being defended by his 
 Irish subjects ; but undoubtedly he weighed the 
 matter carefully, and practically he concluded that, 
 though the Irish might be his faithful subjects, they 
 were very powerless to protect him against his 
 rebellious subjects, while there was not one but 
 thousands of Cromwells in England. Charles I. 
 was right ; he might be spared by these blood- 
 thirsty men, but if he sought protection from his 
 Irish subjects, these men would effect their end 
 sooner or later, and involve him and his defenders 
 in one common ruin. 
 
 The conditions of Irish political life before the 
 close of the last century were sufficiently ominous, 
 but the conditions at the close of that century are 
 without parallel in the annals of history. 
 
 The American war, or rather the evident pro- 
 
120 
 
 Government Men. 
 
 bability that the American war would be successful, 
 first roused up the English mind to the necessity, for 
 its own sake, of doing something for Ireland. The 
 problem then became how to do as little as possible ; 
 unwillingness to do that little made it be done as 
 ungraciously as possible. When you fling a trifling 
 alms to a relation whom you have systematically 
 defrauded, because you fear he may now have it in 
 his power to retaliate, you can scarcely expect him 
 to overwhelm you with gratitude, or to forget past 
 wrongs. Yet the Irish are constantly reproached 
 with being the most ungrateful people on the earth 
 because they do not go into ecstasies of thankfulness 
 for the smallest instalment of justice. Neither in- 
 dividuals nor nations are to be respected who 
 sacrifice their personal dignity. 
 
 The American war thus created a necessity for 
 justice, and on the 10th of November, 1773, leave 
 was given to bring in a bill to secure the repay- 
 ment of money that should be lent by Papists to 
 Protestants on mortgages of land, and to show the 
 extra condescension of this act of very accurate legal 
 justice,- of justice which one might suppose could 
 not be denied by one man to another, the bill was 
 brought in by Mr. Mason, Sir Lucius O'Brien, and 
 Mr. Langrishe, who were " government men." 
 
 It might be supposed that any body of educated 
 men would pass the bill, but it was not passed. 
 
 Leave was also given to brinff hi a bill to allow 
 Papists to take leases of houses and of lands. It 
 
Catholics British Subjects. 
 
 121 
 
 might be supposed that at the close of the eighteenth 
 century such a bill would certainly pass. It was 
 rejected also. 1 
 
 American affairs be^an to look still more threaten- 
 ing, and on the 5th of March, 1774, leave was given 
 to bring in a bill to permit Catholic subjects to testify 
 their allegiance to their sovereign. This bill was 
 passed, and the Irish historian Plowden says : " It 
 gratified the Catholics, inasmuch as it was a formal 
 recognition that they were subjects, and to this re- 
 cognition they looked up as to the corner-stone of 
 their future emancipation." 
 
 Emigration to America had already begun. Had 
 there been greater facilities, the emigration would 
 have been greater. AVhat indeed were men to do 
 who were neither allowed to live nor to labour, and 
 who were not recognised even as subjects until now ; 
 who were, even after this pitiful recognition, treated 
 virtually as rebels even in time of peace ? 2 
 
 1 The animus which existed in all classes of English is strongly 
 shown in some of George III.'s letters. He writes thus to Lord 
 North on March 29, 177G : "I have, both in the times of Lord 
 Hertford and of Lord Townshend, declined making Irish marquises, 
 and I have not in the least changed my opinion on that subject. I 
 am heartily sick of Lord Earcourt's mode of trying step by step to 
 draw me to fulfil his absurd requests. I desire I may hear no more 
 of Irish marquises ; I feel for the English earls, and do not choose 
 to disgust them." — Correspondence of George III., vol. ii. p. 16. It 
 was the same principle of making a distinction between English and 
 Irish subjects which made James I. cry out, " Spare my English 
 subjects," when the Irish were fighting for him to the death. 
 
 ' 2 We find George III. writing in a specially contemptuous style of 
 
122 The Rebellion a Protestant Movement 
 
 How completely the rebellion of 1798 was a Pro- 
 testant movement has never been clearly understood. 
 It is true, indeed, the great mass of those who rose 
 were Catholics, but that was simply because the 
 Catholics formed an overwhelming majority of the 
 population. The leaders were Protestants • and how 
 this came about we shall proceed to show.' 
 
 Trade was permitted spasmodically in the north 
 of Ireland, because the people in the north of Ireland 
 were principally Protestants, and were many of them 
 of Scotch and French descent. But this by no means 
 saved them from the ill-judged miserable policy of 
 their English rulers. The volunteer movement began 
 in Belfast, and Cork, which was then an ultra-Pro- 
 
 his American subjects, until they proclaimed their independence. In 
 a letter dated July 4, 1774, he writes very boldly of "compulsion;" 
 the English " lyons" however got the worst of it : " Since you left 
 me this day, I have seen Lieutenant- General Gage, who came to ex- 
 press his readiness, though so lately come from America, to return 
 at a day's notice, if the conduct of the Colonies should induce the 
 directing coercive measures. His language was very consonant to 
 his character of an honest, determined man. He says they will be 
 lyons whilst we are lambs ; but, if we take the resolute part, they 
 will undoubtedly prove very meek. He thinks the four regiments 
 intended to relieve as many regiments in America, if sent to Boston, 
 are sufficient to prevent any disturbance. I wish ( you would see him, 
 and hear his ideas as to the mode of compelling Boston to submit to 
 whatever may be thought necessary ; indeed, all men seem now to 
 feel that the fatal compliance in 1766 has encouraged the Americans 
 annually to increase in their pretensions to that thorough indepen- 
 dency which one state has of another, but which is quite subversive 
 of the obedience which a colony owes to its mother country." — Cor- 
 respondence, vol. i. p. 36. 
 
Jealousy of Irish Trade. 
 
 testant city, supplied two of the leading spirits of the 
 rebellion in the persons of the Shear ses. 
 
 Both Cork and Belfast suffered most severely 
 from English laws, made to restrain, or, to speak 
 more accurately, to ruin Irish trade. 1 
 
 1 Sir William Temple wrote thus, in' 1G78 : " Regard must be 
 Lad to those points wherein the trade of Ireland comes to interfere 
 with that of England, in which c:ise the Irish trade ought to be de- 
 clined, so as to give way to the trade of England." 
 
 A pamphlet on trade, published in London, 1727, apologises for 
 opposing what it stales as " the universally received opinion that it 
 were better for England if Ireland were no more !" And the writer 
 grouuds this opposition on his conviction that such are Ireland's 
 natural advantages for commerce, that her trade would increase 
 greatly if the restrictions then existing were taken oft'; and the 
 consequence would be, that 11 the drafts of En gland upon her would 
 he increased, and the greater part of Ireland's gains by trade would 
 centre in England !" 
 
 Anderson, in his " History of Commerce," openly declares the 
 English jealousy of Irish commercial enterprise. Coombe, who 
 continued Anderson's work, comments with rather too considerate, 
 but still a decided tone of censure on the oppressive and tyrannous 
 line of conduct adopted in consequence of that jealousy. 
 
 Arthur Young, in 1776, wrote thus : " British legislation, on all 
 occasions, controlled Irish commerce with a very high hand — uni- 
 versally on the principle of monopoly, as if the poverty of Ireland 
 were her wealth." 
 
 Pitt, in 1785 bore the same testimony ; and again in 1799. On 
 the latter occasion, he said : " Ireland long felt the narrow policy of 
 Great Britain, who, influenced by views of commercial advantage, 
 and stained with selfish motives, never looked on her prosperity as 
 -that of the empire at large." 
 
 Mr. Huskisson, in 1825, added his testimony to the same 
 effect : 
 
 " Till 1780 the agriculture, internal industry, manufactures, 
 commerce, and navigation of Ireland, were held in the most rigid 
 
124 
 
 The Volunteer Movement. 
 
 In 1759 the Belfast people were obliged to arm 
 themselves in self-defence, and the English Govern- 
 ment was obliged to permit, and even to encourage 
 this movement, to prevent the French landing in 
 Ireland. Three companies of volunteers were formed, 
 and the spirit of the Irish was roused for the first 
 time during the past half century. Volunteer com- 
 panies started up everywhere, but this arrangement 
 did not suit the English Government. It is true, 
 indeed, that these volunteers were all Protestants, 
 but Protestants were quite as likely to use their 
 arms against oppression as Catholics, and even more 
 so. The Lord Lieutenant was requested to put 
 down the movement, but it was not easy to do so. 
 
 In 1779, when Protestant discontent became still 
 more formidable, the Lord-Lieutenant wrote to Lord 
 Weymouth on this subject : 
 
 " The seizing their arms would, therefore, be a violent ex- 
 pedient; and the preventing them from assembling, without a 
 military force, impracticable ; for when the civil magistrate will 
 rarely attempt to seize an offender suspected of the most enor- 
 mous crimes, and when convicted, convey him to the place of 
 
 subserviency to the supposed interests of Great Britain. Iu 1778 
 there was a proposal to let her import sugar direct, and export all 
 but woollens, to pay for it ; and this proposal was almost made a 
 question of allegiance by the great towns of Great Britain, and so 
 lost ! Bat towards the close of that year the disasters in America, and 
 the state of things in Ireland, produced a different feeling in the British 
 Parliament. State necessities, acting under a sense of political danger, 
 yielded, without grace, that which good sense and good feeling had be- 
 fore recommended in vain /" 
 
Irish Grievances. 
 
 125 
 
 execution without soldiers — nay, when, in many instances, per- 
 sons cannot be put into possession of their property, nor, being 
 possessed, maintain it without such assistance, there is little 
 presumption in asserting that unless bodies of troops be univer- 
 sally dispersed, nothing can be done to effect." 
 
 Nevertheless the Irish Protestants were so in- 
 fatuated, or so ignorant, as not to see that their true 
 interest lay in union with the Catholics, that a nation 
 divided against itself could no more prosper than a 
 divided family. 
 
 In May, 1778, a bill was brought in to permit 
 Catholics to hold land, and was fiercely petitioned 
 against by the Protestant party. It was necessary, 
 however, for Government to conciliate the Catholics, 
 so the bill passed by a small majority. But nothing 
 was done for the benefit of trade. Poverty and 
 destitution reigned supreme. Ireland was forbidden 
 commerce, was obliged to pay tithes to a Church 
 which she abhorred, and to support the priests of 
 her own religion. She was compelled to pay taxes 
 for the maintenance of a military force to compel her 
 to remain silent under her cruel wrongs, and to 
 support an army for the subjugation of the only 
 country from which she had any hope of redress. 
 
 England began to be alarmed. There were cer- 
 tainly some few men of the realm with sufficient com- 
 mon sense to see the fatuity of the present course of 
 Irish government : amongst the number were Lord 
 Newhaven and the Marquis of Rockingham. 
 
 Lord Temple, who held the unenviable post of 
 
126 
 
 "Free Trade — or this" 
 
 Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland, proposed a committee to 
 inquire into the distress of the nation. But the 
 nation was tired of promises — and on the 4th of 
 November, 1778, the volunteers paraded Dublin. 
 They had two field-pieces with them, and bearing a 
 significant inscription— 
 
 " Free Trade— or this." 
 
 The result was, that an act allowing free trade 
 between Ireland and the British Colonies received 
 the royal asseDt on the 24th of July, 1780. This 
 concession was obtained merely by the physical 
 force argument of the volunteers. 
 
 On the 24th of November, 1779, Grattan moved 
 in the House of Commons that it was then inex- 
 pedient to grant new taxes. Ireland was plunged in 
 the deepest and most abject poverty through no fault 
 of her own, and England asked new subsidies from 
 this nation which she had herself deprived of all 
 means of enrichment ! 
 
 The motion was carried- by a majority of over 
 one hundred ; and on the following day the opposi- 
 tion resolved, by a majority of one hundred and 
 thirty-eight to one hundred, that the new duties 
 should be for six months only. During the debate, 
 when Mr. Brough the prime serjeant exclaimed, 
 u Talk not to me of peace. Ireland is not in a state 
 of peace — it is smothered over I" the house thrilled 
 to the core, rose in a body to cheer him. 1 Certainly 
 
 1 Life of Grattan, vol. i. ch. 17 ; Memoirs of the Court of 
 George III. 
 
Grattan. 
 
 127 
 
 there was some public spirit in Ireland then, and the 
 man who evoked that spirit, who gave it body and 
 active life, was Grattan. 
 
 His father had been recorder of Dublin for many 
 years, and he was therefore initiated into Irish 
 politics from his very childhood. He was endowed 
 by nature with great gifts of eloquence, and with 
 that noble spirit of justice without which eloquence 
 is a curse, for it only leads men, not indeed to 
 admire, but to practise tyranny. During his early 
 life he spent much of his time at Marley Abbey, the 
 residence of his uncle, where lie learned to admire 
 the writings of Swift, and in some degree imbibed 
 their spirit. 
 
 Grattan entered Parliament as member for Lord 
 Charlemont's borough of Charlemont, situated on the 
 borders of Armagh and Tyrone. He was then in 
 Uis thirtieth year. Whatever maybe said of electoral 
 intimidation in the present age, of close or open, of 
 rotten or honest, of saleable or unsaleable boroughs, 
 there is nothing even faintly approaching the state of 
 parliamentary representation at the close of the 
 eighteenth century. The process of election was 
 simple, and, after all, it had the merit of simplicity. 
 The lord of the soil was the lord of the tenant's 
 parliamentary conscience. There was no doubt 
 about the matter — no- question about the matter, 
 lie sent down the candidate of his choice ; whether 
 that choice was directed by political or pecuniary 
 motives, mattered little. It was nothing to the free 
 
128 
 
 11 Wo Irish need Apply." 
 
 and independent electors certainty. They knew 
 their duty, and they did it. If they failed, God 
 might help them ! but there was no help from man. 
 
 To have granted the lord of the soil the un- 
 limited right of returning a member for his borough, 
 would have saved a good deal of trouble, a good 
 deal of expense, and a good deal of bitterness ; but 
 the arrangement does not seem to have been thought 
 of, and certainly it would have looked unconstitu- 
 tional. After all, there is nothing like making a 
 sham look legal and respectable. Men like Grattan 
 got into parliament now and then, w T hen there were 
 men like Lord Charlemont to nominate them ; but 
 there were not many Lord Charlemonts in Ireland, 
 and certainly there were not many G rattans. 
 
 Lord Charlemont's conversion to Irish nationality, 
 such as it was, arose from an open expression of 
 English contempt for Irish peeresses. The whole 
 affair is curious and instructive. 
 
 A grand procession of peers and peeresses was 
 arranged to meet the unfortunate Princess Caroline, 
 but, before the princess landed, the Duchess of 
 Bedford was commanded to inform the Irish 
 peeresses that they were neither to walk nor take 
 any part in the procession. It was carrying out the 
 trite saying, " No Irish need apply," in high life. 
 
 This might be done with impunity and with 
 approbation where the lower classes of Irish were 
 concerned, but the peeresses resented it. Lord 
 Charlemont had spent seven years abroad, and was 
 
Lord Charlemont. 
 
 129 
 
 not accustomed to the unedifying spectacle of a 
 nation divided against itself— of one half of the bod}' 
 politic despising the other half. He warmly re- 
 sented the insult, and by his efforts obtained a 
 reversal of the order. But he did not forget it. 
 For a time at least he took part with the oppressed 
 nation to which he belonged, but it was only for a 
 time. The tide of public opinion in his own rank in 
 life set strongly against him. Neither Ireland nor 
 Irish politics were fashionable. It was well to be a 
 peer certainly, even though he might be an Irish 
 peer; but the less Irish he appeared, the more he 
 would be respected by his fellows. What indeed 
 were popular laudations in comparison with the 
 approbation of his own immediate circle ? 
 
 On the 27th of March, 1782, Charles Sheridan 
 wrote thus to his brother Richard : 
 
 " As to our politics here, I send 3-011 a newspaper ; read the 
 resolutions of the volunteers, and you will be enabled to form 
 some idea of the spirit which pervades the country. A declara- 
 tion of the dependency of our Parliament upon yours will cer- 
 tainly pass our House of Commons immediately after the recess. 
 Government here dare not, cannot oppose it : you will see the 
 volunteers have pledged their lives and fortunes in support of 
 the measure ; the grand juries of every count} 7 have followed 
 their example, and some of the staunchest friends of Govern- 
 ment have been, much against their inclination, compelled to 
 sign the most spirited resolutions." 1 
 
 The volunteer movement, as we have said, began 
 
 1 Life of Grattan, vol. ii. p. 214. 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 Spirit of the Volunteers. 
 
 in Belfast ; when the necessity was over, the corps 
 were disbanded ; but they refused in 1778, when 
 there were again reports and fears of a French 
 invasion. 
 
 In January, 1779, Lord Charlemont assumed the 
 command of the Armagh volunteers. The Govern- 
 ment did not like it. They had a choice of evils. 
 Protection against a foreign foe was needed, but 
 there were grave fears lest the protectors against a 
 foreign foe might turn out domestic enemies. The 
 English were thoroughly aware of the state of Irish 
 feeling, though they took no pains to reconcile it. 
 
 In May, 1779, Lord Eockingham wrote thus to 
 Lord Weymouth. 
 
 i( Upon receiving official intimation that the enemy medi- 
 tated an attack upon the northern parts of Ireland, the inhabi- 
 tants of Belfast and Carrickfergus, as Government could not 
 immediately afford a greater force for their protection than 
 about sixty troopers, armed themselves, and by degrees formed 
 themselves into two or three companies; the spirit diffused 
 itself into different parts of the kingdom, and the numbers be- 
 came considerable, but in no degree to the amount represented. 
 Discouragement has, however, been given on my part, as far 
 as might be without offence, at a crisis when the arm and good- 
 will of every individual might have been wanting for the defence 
 of the state." 
 
 The volunteers were in fact working up the 
 country with a steady energy, with a quiet determina- 
 tion, that must have been terribly embarrassing to 
 the Government. Those who thought at all, who 
 looked ever so little beyond the narrow sphere of 
 
Spirited Resolu turns. 
 
 131 
 
 their self-interest, asked themselves what would be 
 the end of all this ? 
 
 It was impossible to raise a " No Popery !" cry 
 against them, however desirable, for they were all 
 Protestants, and, being Protestants, though they 
 were Irish, they could scarcely be shot down like 
 dogs. Moreover, they were headed by men of high, 
 respectability, by men of rank and position. When 
 they met at Dungannon, on the loth of February, 
 1782, Colonel Irvine took the chair, and the following 
 are but a few of the names of those who signed the 
 resolutions : Viscount Enniskillen, Colonel Mervyn 
 Archdall, Colonel William Irvine, Colonel Robert 
 M'Clintock, Colonel John Ferguson, Colonel John 
 Montgomery, Colonel Charles Leslie, Colonel Francis 
 Lucas, Colonel Thomas M. Jones, Colonel James 
 Hamilton, Colonel Andrew Thomson, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel C. Nesbitt, Lieutenant-Colonel A. Stewart, 
 Major James Patterson, Major Francis Dobbs, Major 
 James M'Clintock. 
 
 The following are some of the resolutions ; we 
 do not give them all, because of their length, our 
 present object being merely to give a general outline 
 of the state of Ireland when O'Connell commenced 
 his public career : 
 
 " Whereas, it has been asserted that volunteers, as such, 
 cannot with propriety debate, or publish their opinions on poli- 
 tical subjects, or on the conduct of Parliament or political men : 
 
 " Resolved ,• unanimously, That a citizen by learning the 
 use of arms does not abandon any of his civil rights. 
 
132 
 
 A New Discovery. 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That a claim of any body of men, 
 other than the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, to make 
 laws to bind this kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a 
 grievance. 
 
 " Resolved, with one dissenting voice only, That the powers 
 exercised by the Privy Councils of both kingdoms, under, or 
 under colour or pretence of, the law of Poyning's, are uncon- 
 stitutional, and a grievance. 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the ports of this country are 
 by right open to all foreign countries not at war with the king ; 
 and that any burden thereupon, or obstruction thereto, save only 
 by the Parliament of Ireland, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a 
 grievance. 
 
 " Resolved, with two dissenting voices only to this and the 
 following resolution, That we hold the right of private judg- 
 ment, in matters of religion, to be equally sacred in others as 
 ourselves. 
 
 ''Resolved, therefore, That as men and as Irishmen, as 
 Christians and as Protestants, we rejoice in the relaxation of the 
 penal laws against our Koman Catholic fellow- subjects, and that 
 we conceive the measure to be fraught with the happiest conse- 
 quences to the union and prosperity of the inhabitants of 
 Ireland." 
 
 The two last resolutions are noteworthy. For 
 the first time Protestants seem to have obtained some 
 glimmering light on the subject of religious liberty. 
 It was a new discovery ; yet one should thing it 
 ought to have been an established axiom, that " the 
 right of private judgment in religious matters/' if it 
 existed at all, must exist equally for all. The relaxa- 
 tion of the penal code was but a necessary con- 
 sequence of this conclusion ; the entire removal of 
 
On Relaxing the Penal Code. 
 
 133 
 
 every disability — social, political, or domestic — would 
 be but the natural end. 
 
 Burke thus describes the pitiful concessions 
 which were the result. His observations might be 
 studied with advantage even at the present day. 
 Liberal-minded, or to speak more correctly, large- 
 minded Protestants need to be reminded of Ireland's 
 past grievances, of the terrible struggles which she 
 was obliged to make in order to obtain even the 
 most trifling act of justice. Those who are prejudiced 
 might perhaps lesson their prejudices, if they have 
 not sufficient intellect to discard them by studying 
 the argument of one of England's most famous 
 senators, though his birth was Irish : 
 
 " To look at the bill in the abstract, it is neither more nor 
 less than a renewed act of universal, unmitigated, indispensable, 
 exceptionless disqualification. One would imagine that a bill 
 inflicting such a multitude of incapacities, had followed on the 
 heels of a conquest made by a very fierce enemy, under the im- 
 pression of recent animosity and resentment. No man, on 
 reading that bill, could imagine that he was reading an act 
 of amnesty and indulgence. This I say on memory. It re- 
 cites the oath, and that Catholics ought to be considered as 
 good and loyal subjects to his majesty, his crown, and govern- 
 ment ; then follows a universal exclusion of those good and 
 loyal subjects from every, even the lowest office of trust and 
 profit, or from any vote at an election ; from any privilege in a 
 town corporate ; from being even a freeman of such corpora- 
 tions ; from serving on grand juries ; from a vote at a vestry ; 
 from having a gun in his house ; from being a barrister, attor- 
 ney, solicitor, &c. 
 
 " This has surely more of the air of a table of proscriptions 
 than an act of grace. What must we suppose the laws con- 
 
134 
 
 Grattan on the Penal Code, 
 
 eerning those good subjects to have been of which this is a 
 relaxation ? When a very great portion of the labour of indi- 
 viduals goes to the State, and is by the State again refunded to 
 individuals through the medium of offices, and in this circuitous 
 progress from the public to the private fund, indemnifies the 
 families from whom it is taken, an equitable balance between 
 the Government and the subject is established. But if a great 
 body of the people who contribute to this State lottery, are ex- 
 cluded from all the prizes, the stopping the circulation with 
 regard to them must be a most cruel hardship, amounting in 
 effect to being double and treble taxed, and will be felt as such 
 to the very quick by all the families, high and low, of those 
 hundreds of thousands who are denied* their chance in the 
 returned fruits of their own industry. This is the thing meant 
 by those who look on the public revenue only as a spoil ; and 
 will naturally wish to have as few as possible concerned in the 
 division of the booty. If a State should be so unhappy as to 
 think it cannot subsist without such a barbarous proscription, 
 the persons so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the re- 
 mission of a large part of their taxes, by an immunity from the 
 offices of public burden, and by an exemption from being 
 pressed into any military or naval service. Why are Catholics 
 excluded from the law ? Do not they expend money in their 
 suits ? Why may not they indemnify themselves by profiting 
 in the persons of some for the losses incurred by others ? Why 
 may they not have persons of confidence,, whom they may, if 
 they please, employ in the agency of their affairs ? The exclu- 
 sion from the law, from grand juries, from sheriffships, uncler- 
 sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any corporation, may 
 subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude them 
 wholly from all that is beneficial, and expose them to all that 
 is mischievous in a trial by jury." 
 
 Grattan exclaimed : 
 
 " So long as the penal code, remains we never can be a 
 great nation ; the penal code is the shell in which the Protes- 
 
Lord Charlemonfs Letter. 
 
 185 
 
 tant power lias been hatched, and now it is become a bird, it 
 must burst the shell asunder, or perish in it. I give my con- 
 sent to the clause in its principle, extent, and boldness, and 
 give my consent to it as the most likely means of obtaining a 
 victory over the prejudices of Catholics, and over our own. I 
 give my consent to it, because I would not keep two millions of 
 my fellow-subjects in a state of slavery ; and because, as the 
 mover of the Declaration of Rights, I should be ashamed of 
 giving freedom to but six hundred thousand of my countrymen, 
 when I could extend it to two millions more." 
 
 The state of Ireland was causing general alarm 
 in England. Lord Charleraont wrote to Mr. Fox 
 the bold words : u 1 am an Irishman; I pride myself 
 in the appellation"* The volunteers were feared 
 
 1 "We give a considerable portion of Lord Charlemont's letter. 
 The original may be found both in Hardy's " Life of Lord Charle- 
 mont," and in the Fox Correspondence : 
 
 Dublin, lltk April, 1782. 
 "No man can be more rejoiced that I am at this late happy, 
 though tardy, change. I rejoice in it as a friend to individuals, but 
 more especially as a member of the empire at large, which will 
 probably be indebted to it for its salvation. I hope also, and doubt 
 not, that I shall have reason to rejoice in it as an Irishman, for I 
 cannot conceive that they who are intent upon the great work of re- 
 storing the empire, should not be ardently attentive to the real 
 welfare of ail its parts ; or that true Whig*, genuine lovers of liberty, 
 whose principles I know, honour, and strive to imitate, should not 
 wish to diffuse this invaluable blessing through every part of those 
 dominions whose interests they are called upon to administer. The 
 appointment of the Duke of Portland and of his secretary is a good 
 presage. I know and respect their principles, and should be truly 
 unhappy if anything in their conduct respecting this country should 
 prevent my perfect co-operation with them. For, my dear sir, with 
 every degree of affection for our sister kingdom, with every regard 
 for the interests of the empire at large, I am an Irishman ; I pride 
 
186 
 
 Kindling of National Spirit, 
 
 certainly, but the spirit which the volunteers had 
 evoked was feared, and should have been feared a 
 great deal more. Irishmen had been so long treated 
 
 treatment, passively at least. 
 
 Their new assertion that they were men who had 
 rights, their new perception that it needed only a 
 little force, moral and physical, to obtain these rights, 
 roused the spirit of the nation. 
 
 myself in the appellation, and will in every particular act as such, at 
 the same time declaring that I most sincerely and heartily concur 
 with you in thinking that the interests of England and of Ireland 
 cannot be distinct ; and that, therefore, in acting as an Irishman, I 
 may always hope to perform the part of a true Englishman also. 
 
 " I have shown your letter to Grattan, and he is much gratified 
 by your friendly opinion of him. We are both of us precisely of the 
 same mind. We respect and honour the present administration. 
 We adore the principle on which it is founded. We look up to its 
 members with the utmost confidence for their assistance in the great 
 work of general freedom, and should be happy in our turn to have it 
 in our power to support them in Ireland in the manner which may 
 be most beneficial to them, and most honourable to us — consulted 
 but not considered. The people at large must indeed entertain a 
 partiality for the present ministers. True Whigs must rejoice at the 
 prevalence of Whiggish principles. The nation wishes to support 
 the favourers of American freedom, the men who opposed the de- 
 tested, the execrated American war. Let our rights be acknowledged 
 and secured to us — those rights which no man can controvert, but 
 which to a true Whig are self-evident — and that nation, those lives 
 and fortunes which are now universally pledged for the emancipation 
 of our country, will be as cheerfully, as universally pledged for the 
 defence of our sister kingdom, and for the support of an administra- 
 tion which will justly claim the gratitude of a spirited and grateful 
 people, by having contributed to the completion of all their wishes. — 
 
 I am, &C, " ClIARLEMONT." 
 
 acquiesce in this 
 
An Irresponsible Government. 
 
 137 
 
 Mr. Fox discovered very clearly some of the evils 
 of Irish administration. He wrote thus to Mr. 
 Fitzpatrick, who was chief secretary, on the 13th 
 April, 1782 : 
 
 " He [the Duke of Leiuster] describes the want of concert 
 and system which comes from the want of such a thing 
 [a cabinet] to be very detrimental in every respect, and parti- 
 cularly in parliamentary operations, where those who wish to 
 support Government often do not know till the moment what is 
 the plan proposed, and consequently are wholly unable to sup- 
 port it either systematically or effectually. Another great in- 
 convenience, which he attributes to this want, is that the Lord- 
 Lieutenant, not having any regular ministry to apply to, is 
 driven, or at least led, to consult Lees and such sort of inferior 
 people, and by that means the whole power is (as it was here) 
 centered in the Jenkinsons and the Robinsons, &c, of that 
 country. Nobody is responsible but the Lord-Lieutenant and 
 his secretary ; they know they are to go away, and consequently 
 all the mischiefs ensue that belong to a government without 
 responsibility. I have not talked with anybody upon this, nor 
 indeed had time to think it over myself, but it really strikes me 
 as a matter very well worth weighing, and I wish the Duke of 
 Portland and you would turn your minds to it, especially if, as 
 I take for granted, this idea was suggested to the Duke of 
 Leinster by other considerable men on your side of the water. 
 I have only stated it to you as it strikes me, upon first hearing 
 the thing broached." 1 
 
 It was an old story. The Lord-Lieutenant merely 
 
 1 Correspondence of Charles James Fox, vol. i. p. 387. — The 
 editor of that work observes : " It is curious to see the question of 
 1 responsible government ' started in Ireland more than half a cen- 
 tury before it was a watchword in Canada." 
 
138 
 
 A Warning. 
 
 looked on his post as a place of emolument or a 
 dignity. Ireland was nothing to him. How should 
 it be, when his residence in that country might 
 terminate at any moment, when he had no power to 
 do good if he wished, and would have even scant 
 thanks from his masters for doing it had he been able ? 
 
 The position was anything but a pleasant one. 
 We shall see later on what another viceroy thought 
 on the subject. At this time there was undoubtedly 
 a system of espionage. Letters were opened, it was 
 said, by the creatures of the late administration. 
 
 Mr. Fitzpatrick wrote to Mr. Fox to warn him : 
 
 "Dublin Castle, April Mth, 1782. 
 
 " Dear Charles, — I shall begin my letter with giving you 
 a caution concerning the communication of its contents too 
 generally on your side of the water, and with another, respect- 
 ing the confidential letters you write me, which you had better 
 never trust to the post, as we have the misfortune of being here 
 in the hands of the tools of the last Government, and there is 
 every reason to suspect that our letters may be opened before 
 they reach us. I wish you, therefore, to trust them only in the 
 hands of messengers." 1 
 
 1 There are some amusing remarks about Grattan in this letter : 
 " But what appears to me the worst of all is, that unless the heat 
 of the volunteers subsides, I dread Grattan's. For though everybody 
 seems to agree that he is honest, I am sure he is an enthusiast, and 
 impracticable as the most impracticable of our friends in the West- 
 minster Committee. His situation is enough to turn the head of any 
 man fond of popular applause, but the brilliancy of it can only sub- 
 sist by carrying points in opposition to Government ; and though he 
 chose to make a comparison yesterday between Ireland and America, 
 giving the preference to his own country, I confess I think the wise, 
 
Post- Office Esp ion age. 
 
 139 
 
 On the 19th of July, 1783, Lord Temple wrote 
 a similar complaint to Mr. Beresford : 
 
 "It is probable that this letter will share the fate which 
 many others have experienced, and as I do not mean to write 
 for the information of the post-office, I will only say that I still 
 take that eager interest in the government of Ireland which will 
 make me cordially rejoice in the success of a wise and tem- 
 perate government ; but I have not the smallest objection to 
 the publication of my opinion, that as far as your administration 
 depends upon English ministers, it will not be wise, temperate, 
 or consistent, and that every scene to which I have been a wit- 
 ness since my arrival in England has confirmed me in my 
 opinions, under which I resigned the government which I 
 could not hold with advantage to the empire and honour to 
 myself." 
 
 On the 13th of October, 1783, he wrote : 
 " The shameful liberties taken with my letters, both sent 
 and received (for even the Speaker's letter to me had been 
 opened), make me cautious on politics ; but you, who know me, 
 will believe that I am most deeply anxious for the events of 
 this Irish session, and with every disposition to loathe and 
 execrate our English ministry, even with the certainty that 
 their measures, their abilities, and their intentions are little 
 proportioned to the exigencies of the State, I am still too 
 
 toniperate, systematic conduct of the other, if adopted by Ireland, 
 would bring all these difficulties to a very short and happy conclu- 
 sion, to the satisfaction and advantage of both parties. Lord Shel- 
 burne's speech gives great satisfaction here, and probably if there 
 had been any chance of soothing this country into moderation, would 
 have done infinite mischief. It is curious enough that while he is 
 recommending us to support the authority of England more than we 
 either can or, I think, ought to do, he should be declaring in the 
 House of Lords that the claims of Ireland must be acceded to." 
 
140 
 
 Irish Grievances. 
 
 warmly anxious for the peace and unity of the empire not to 
 wish to Government in Ireland every success in the arduous 
 task of this winter." 
 
 It was no wonder that Ireland was discontented. 
 The private correspondence of the times between 
 those who profess to govern her, afford ample 
 evidence that while they disagree totally as to how 
 she should be governed, they agree thoroughly that 
 she should not be allowed a voice in her own govern- 
 ment ; above all, that she should not be allowed 
 prosperity, commercial or otherwise. 
 
 Men asked in one breath, " What did Ireland 
 want ? and what were her grievances ?" but when 
 she told them, they were flung aside with contempt, 
 or silenced by force. 
 
 If any man dared to speak for her, and boldly 
 proclaim her wrongs, he was a malcontent ; if any 
 man ventured to suggest physical force, he was a 
 rebel. America was quoted to her quite as a model 
 theoretically, but practically we all know the result 
 when she attempted to follow this example. 
 
 The truth was England did not choose to listen. 
 What were the most cogent arguments to her, when 
 she had formed her resolve, and did not intend to 
 alter it? Grattan told her in plain, clear, unmis- 
 xepresentable language what Ireland did not want, 
 and what she did want. She did not want " a 
 foreign judicature f English rule in Ireland was no 
 better. The Englishmen who ruled Ireland did not 
 consider it their home, much less did they consider 
 
Scorn of Irish Demands. 
 
 141 
 
 it their fatherland, which they should honour, for 
 whose prosperity they should work, heart and soul. 
 The one question with them was, not what will 
 benefit Ireland, but what will benefit England. 
 When an act of the commonest justice was proposed 
 for Ireland, the first observation was not, We must 
 grant it — it is justice ; but, Will it ever in the least 
 interfere with English interests ? This is no mere 
 assertion. There is ample proof of it. 
 
 Ireland was told to be "reasonable," which meant 
 that she was to be thankful for such little permission 
 to trade as certainly could not divert a ship-load of 
 any manufacture from England, even by the remotest 
 possibility. 
 
 If concessions were asked, the petition was 
 quietly shelved. If they were demanded it was con- 
 sidered an insult, and an ample reason for refusing 
 them. 
 
 If the interests of a great realm were not con- 
 cerned, if the interests of men who were equals were 
 not concerned, one could afford to smile at such 
 folly. It was a schoolboy axiom carried out by great 
 men in political life. If you will not ask, how can 
 we know what you want ? if you do ask, be assured 
 you shall not get what you ask. There was ever- 
 more something wrong in that which was asked for, 
 or in the manner of the asking. Practically it 
 mattered little, for the result was just the same. 1 
 
 1 Sir Richard Heron wrote thus to Mr/ Robinson from Dublin 
 
142 
 
 A Puzzle past comprehension. 
 
 Meanwhile the state of the country was becoming 
 daily worse. Ireland was to be allowed only the 
 " gleanings" 1 of commerce, though her worst enemies 
 admitted she could not live on them ; she was to be 
 " reasonable/' 2 though the same persons declare the 
 kingdom was in such a distress, it " puzzled 3 all 
 [English] comprehension" what it might do. 
 
 Castle on the 20th August, 1779: "The unusual sum of money 
 now wanted, the low state of the revenue, and the general distress 
 of the kingdom, considered together, give great reason to apprehend 
 a very difficult session, It will, however, be my Lord-Lieutenant's 
 utmost endeavour that the affairs of this kingdom may embarrass 
 his Majesty and his British servants as little as possible." — Beresford 
 Correspondence, vol. i. p. 47. 
 
 1 " Ireland is certainly a great kingdom ; but the idea of its sup- 
 porting, upon the gleanings of commerce (for such only it can carry 
 on during a war), its continual drains to Great Britain, and a 
 military establishment sufficient to defend itself, is certainly ill- 
 founded. Prepare, therefore, to give handsomely, but upon proper 
 terms, some material extension of their commerce. Whatever com- 
 merce this kingdom carries on legally will prejudice yours less than 
 their carrying it on, as they have hitherto done, illicitly." — Letter of 
 Sir Richard Heron to Mr. Robinson, August 20, 1779. 
 
 2 " That no extension (by trade) of any value can be given with- 
 out the exertion of Government, nor without occasioning great 
 discontent in many parts of England; and, therefore, unless Ireland 
 is likely to be satisfied with reasonable extensions, they may be 
 assured his Majesty's servants will preserve good-humour at home 
 by not giving their support to any, and that the gentlemen of this 
 country will have the ill humours they excite to pacify, or the king- 
 dom will go into a state of confusion, which cannot but have very 
 serious consequences to all gentlemen who possess property here." — 
 Beresford Correspondence, vol. i. p. '50. 
 
 3 "This kingdom is in such a state as puzzles all comprehension 
 as to what it may do : a multitude of idlers miserably poor ; a debt, 
 
What Ireland did not want. 
 
 143 
 
 Ireland did not want a " foreign judicature." She 
 wanted an impartial administration, and that could 
 not be given to her by men whose one idea was not 
 
 small as it is, without a shilling to pay interest ; the skeleton of a 
 force not in his Majesty's service, which it may be difficult to deal, 
 or madness to meddle with ; taxes to be imposed, and no material 
 for imposition; a great deal of ignorance ; a great deal of prejudice ; 
 
 a most overgrown hierarchy, and a most oppressed peasantry ; 
 
 property by some late determinations of the Lords upon covenants for 
 perpetual renewals of leases very much set at sea, and no means to 
 a multitude of families to supply its place; rents fallen, and a 
 general disposition to riot and mischief." — Litter from the Attorney- 
 General to Mr. Robinson, dated Harcourt- street, Dublin, April 13, 
 1779. The Attorney-General was created Earl of Clonmel in 1703. 
 He was a clever but utterly unscrupulous politician, and by no means 
 choice in his language, He certainly had little respect for the Pro- 
 testant Church, of which he was a member. 
 
 Rowan's " Autobiography " records a strange dialogue between 
 Lord Clonmel and a bookseller named Byrne, whose shop he visited 
 on seeing Rowan's trial advertised. One sentence will convey an 
 idea of the colloquy, as well as of the times in which such language 
 could be hazarded by a judge. u Take care, sir, what you do ; I 
 give you this caution ; for if there are any reflections on the judges 
 of the land — by the eternal G — I will lay you by the heels." 
 
 Lord Clonmel's health and spirits gradually broke down, and 
 accounts of his death were daily circulated. On one of these occa- 
 sions, when he was really very ill, a friend said to Curran, 11 Well, 
 they say Clonmel is going to die at last. Do you believe it ?" "I 
 believe," said Curran, "he is scoundrel enough to live or die, just 
 as it suit* his own convenience!" Shortly before the death of Lord 
 Clonmel, Mr. Lawless, afterwards Lord Cloncurry, had an interview 
 with him ; when the chief exclaimed, " My dear Val, I have been a 
 fortunate man through life ; I am a chief-justice and an earl : but 
 were I to begin the world again, I would rather be a chimney- 
 sweeper than connected with the Irish Government." 
 
 His family published his diary for private circulation. It is an 
 
144 
 
 The Wants of Ireland. 
 
 justice, but English interests. She did not want a 
 " legislative Privy Council," nor a " perpetual army." 
 The " perpetual army" for which she was compelled 
 
 amusing and not very edifying production. For fuller accounts of 
 him, see 44 The Sham Squire, or the Reformers of '98, "■ — a most 
 curious and interesting work, giving details never before published 
 of the state of Ireland at this eventful period. Lord Clonmel, it is 
 stated, enriched himself by a gross breach of trust, which, however, 
 was then perfectly legal. It would appear that the lady whom he 
 defended was his own stepdaughter. 
 
 The author of 44 The Sham Squire " was informed by a very re- 
 spectable solicitor, Mr. H , that in looking over Lord Clomnel's 
 
 rentals, he was struck by the following note written by his lordship's 
 agent, in reference to the property Brolnaduff. 44 Lord Clonmel 
 when Mr. Scott, held this in trust for a Roman Catholic, who owing 
 to the operation of the Popery laws was incapacitated from keeping 
 it in his own hands. When reminded of the trust, Mr. Scott refused 
 to acknowledge it, and thus the property fell into the Clonmel 
 family." The key to this is found in a paragraph in Walker's 
 Hibernian Magazine for July, 1797. We read, p. 97— 4 1 Edward 
 Byrne of Mullinahack, Esq., to Miss Roe, step-daughter to the Earl 
 of Clonmel, and niece to Lord Viscount Llandaff." Hereby hangs a 
 tale. Miss Roe was understood to have a large fortune, and when 
 Mr. Byrne applied to Lord Clonmel for it, his lordship shuffled, say- 
 ing, 4 4 Miss Roe is a lapsed Papist, and I avail myself of the laws 
 which I administer, to withhold the money." Mr. Byrne filed a bill, 
 in which he recited the evasive reply of Lord Clonmel. The chief- 
 justice never answered the bill, and treated Mr. Byrne's remon- 
 strances with contempt. These facts transpire in the legal docu- 
 ments held by Mr. H . Too often the treachery manifested by 
 
 the rich in position of trust, at the calamitous period in question, 
 contrasted curiously with the tried fidelity observed by some needy 
 persons in a similar capacity. Moore, in his 44 Memoirs of Captain 
 Rock," mentions the case of a poor Protestant barber, who, though 
 his own property did not exceed a few pounds in value, actually held 
 in fee the estates of most of the Catholic gentry of the county. He 
 adds, that this estimable man was never known to betray his trust." 
 
I Unconditional C 'on cessions. 
 
 145 
 
 to pay was a necessary consequence of the " foreign 
 judicature." 1 She asked " nothing but what was 
 essential to her liberty," and she heard this powerful 
 argument enforced by one of the best and ablest of 
 her sons. She only asked what Englishmen con- 
 sidered indispensable for themselves. The burden 
 of proof lay on them. They were bound to show, 
 if they could, why they denied Ireland that justice 
 which was the pride and boast of their own country. 
 
 Mr. Fox wrote a politely evasive reply. He 
 assured Mr. Grattan that he considered Irish affairs 
 " very important," but that it would be " imprudent" 
 to meddle with them. He wrote the usual platitudes 
 about ardent wishes to satisfy both countries. He 
 probably knew as well, or better than any living 
 man that he could not satisfy both countries so long 
 as justice to Ireland was considered injustice to 
 England. 
 
 Mr. Fox wrote a private letter at the same time 
 to Mr. Fitzpatrick, in which he said that his answer 
 to Grattan's letter was "perfectly general," 2 which 
 was perfectly true. 
 
 The result, however, was favourable. Grattan's 
 appeal was considered and accepted. The Act of 
 the 6th George L, entitled, "An Act for the Better 
 Securing the Dependency of Ireland upon the Crown 
 of Great Britain," was repealed. 
 
 1 See Grattan's Letter, at the end of this chapter. 
 * " Correspondence of Charles James ^ox." 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 Irish Gratitude. 
 
 On the 27th of May, 1782, when the Irish Houses 
 met, after an adjournment of three weeks, the Duke 
 of Portland announced the unconditional concessions 
 which had been made to Ireland by the English 
 Parliament. Mr. Grattan interpreted the concession 
 in the fullest sense, and moved an address "breathing 
 the generous sentiments of his noble and confiding 
 nature." Mr. Flood and a few other members took 
 a different and more cautions view of the case. They 
 wished for something more than a simple repeal of 
 the Act of the 6th George I., arid they demanded an 
 express declaration that England would not interfere 
 with Irish affairs. But the address was carried by a 
 division of 211 to 2 ; and the House to show its 
 gratitude, voted that 20,000 Irish seamen should be 
 raised for the British navy at a cost of £100,000, 
 and that £50,000 should be given to purchase an 
 estate and build a house for Mr. Grattan, whose 
 eloquence had contributed so powerfully to obtain 
 what they hoped would prove justice to Ireland. 
 
 If even a small majority of the Irish Parliament 
 had been men whose interests were Irish, there is no 
 doubt that Ireland would have prospered. Even as 
 it was, the last years of her nominal independence 
 were her best years. 
 
 There were three causes which proved the ruin 
 of Irish independence. First, the volunteers were 
 quietly and cleverly suppressed. 1 There was no 
 
 1 How terribly afraid Government was of the volunteers is evident 
 
Dread of the Volunteers. 
 
 147 
 
 noise, no commotion ; it was a simple extinction. 
 ?*Ien might talk as they pleased, but without an 
 
 from the following documents. On the 31st October, 1783, General 
 Burgoyne wrote to Mr. Fox : 
 
 "Add to this the apprehensions that timid and melancholy 
 speculators entertain upon the meeting of the Convention oi Dele- 
 gates the 10th of next month. I have not myself any idea of serious 
 commotion, but we have strengthened the garrison of Dublin, and it 
 might be thought wrong in the commander-in-chief to be absent. 
 You have, doubtless, the fullest information of the proceedings and 
 language of the Bishop of Derry, and of the mode in which the 
 friends of Government mean to meet the question of Parliamentary 
 Reform, if urged otherwise than by application to Parliament." — 
 Fox's Correspondence i vol. ii. p. 189. 
 
 Lord Worthington wrote from Dublin Castle on November 30, 
 suggesting that they should be got rid of politely : 
 
 "If this business goes off, as I sanguinely hope it may, and the 
 address should go to the king, an answer of temper and firmness at 
 the same time would highly suit the present state of things ; such as 
 a retrospective compliment to the conduct of the volunteers, and 
 disapprobation of their present meeting — a hope, expectation, or 
 advice of their disbanding themselves." 
 
 On the 17th November, General Burgoyne wrote again : 
 
 "A greater embarrassment yet has arisen in the Convention, 
 which you will see in print — viz., the interference (but upon dif- 
 ferent principles) of the Catholics. By the mouth of Lord Kenmare, 
 they relinquish their pretensions to suffrages at elections ; by the 
 mouth of Sir Patrick Bellew, they assert them. I wish they did so 
 more soundly, for I am clearly of opinion that every alarm of the 
 increase of Catholic interest and prevalence beyond the present 
 limits — which give them in the general opinion all the share of 
 rights necessary for their happiness, and consistent with the safety 
 of their Protestant fellow-subjects — every idea, I think, of an exten- 
 sion of their claims, excites new jealousy and dread of the volun- 
 teers, and cements and animates the real friends of the constitution, 
 and surely with reason; for, upon the very principle of free and 
 
us 
 
 Bribery of the Press. 
 
 armed force to give at least a physical impression to 
 their words, the talk was a breath, and nothing more. 
 Secondly, individual members of Parliament were 
 bribed, sometimes with place, sometimes with pension, 
 sometimes with rank. It was quite the same in 
 which form the bribe was given or taken, the work 
 was done. 
 
 And, thirdly, the press was bribed ; and, more- 
 over, this was done more or less openly. On the 
 23rd of January, 1789, Mr. Griffith complained in 
 his place in Parliament that the " newspapers seemed 
 under some very improper influence. In one paper 
 the country was described as one scene of riot and 
 confusion — in another all is peace ! By the procla- 
 mations that are published in them, and which are 
 kept in for years, in order to make the fortunes of 
 some individuals, the kingdom is scandalised and 
 disgraced through all the nations of the world where 
 our newspapers are read. The proclamations are a 
 libel on the country. Was any offender ever taken 
 up in consequence of such publications ? And are 
 they not rather a hint to offenders to change their 
 situation and appearance ? He did hope, from what 
 a right honorable gentleman had said last year, that 
 this abuse would have been redressed, but ministers 
 
 conscientious suffrage, nothing can be more impossible than a Pro- 
 testant representative chosen by Catholic electors." 
 
 The last clause is amusing. "Free and conscientious suffrage 1 
 would have allowed Catholic electors to elect Catholic representa- 
 tive?. 
 
Appeals for Secret Service Money. 
 
 have not deigned to give any answer on the sub- 
 ject." 
 
 Proclamations were actually kept up when the 
 country was at peace, so that strangers would 
 suppose that Ireland was a " savage .nation" — not the 
 last time by any means that it was similarly mis- 
 represented. Newspapers were also distributed 
 gratuitously through the country. 
 
 On the 27th August, 1781, Mr. Eden wrote to 
 Lord North, complaining of the " sickening circum- 
 stances" of an Irish secretaryship, and concluded his 
 letter thus : 
 
 "My Lord-Lieutenant lias repeatedly written to your lord- 
 ship, both through me and through Lord Hillsborough, on the 
 essential importance of obtaining from you some small help of 
 secret service money. We have hitherto, by the force of good 
 words, and with some degree of private expense, preserved an 
 ascendancy over the press, not hitherto known here, and it is of 
 an importance equal to ten thousand times its cost ; but we are 
 without the means of continuing it, nor have we any fund to 
 resist the factious attempts among the populace, which may 
 occasionally be serious. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Lord, ever respectfully and affection- 
 ately yours, "Wm. Eden." 
 
 On the 13th September, he wrote again on the 
 same subject : 
 
 " Our session is drawing desperately near, and all prepara- 
 tions for it are much interrupted by this alarm of an invasion. 
 We much regret that your lordship has not found any means to 
 assist us in the article of secret service. The press is the 
 principle operative power in the government of this kingdom ; 
 and we are utterly without means to influence that power. We 
 are equally without means to counteract the wicked attempts 
 
150 
 
 Address to Prince of Wales. 
 
 occasionally made in the idle and populous part of this town to 
 raise mobs, and to turn the rabble against ministers ; having, 
 however, repeatedly represented these points, i which nobody 
 can deny,' we have done all that we can do, and must continue 
 to steer through the various difficulties of this government as 
 well as we can, without troops and without money, in the face 
 of an armed people and general poverty." 
 
 In 1789, Irish politics were complicated by the 
 regency question. Mr. Pitt opposed, and Mr. Fox 1 
 supported the unrestricted regency of the Prince of 
 Wales. The Irish Parliament issued an address 
 
 1 Mr. Fox was then at Bath to recruit his health. He had suf- 
 fered severely from his hurried journey home from Boulogne on 
 hearing of the king's illness. He wrote on Irish affairs to Mr. 
 Fitzpatrick on the 17th February, 1789, from Bath : 
 
 " Deak Dick, — You have heard before this of our triumphant 
 majority in the House of Lords in Ireland, but I think one of the 
 best parts of the news is the address having been put off till yester- 
 day, which seems to remove all apprehension of the difficulty which 
 you mention in your letter, and which in effect appears to me to be 
 a very serious one. The delegation cannot leave Dublin till to- 
 morrow ; and as probably it will not be composed of persons who 
 travel like couriers, the Prince will not be able to make an answer 
 till he is actually Regent here. I think this object so material that 
 our friends ought more than ever to avoid anything that tends to 
 delay here. 
 
 " If the bill is passed there can be no difficulty in the Prince's 
 answer, which must be acceptance, with expression of sensibility to 
 the confidence in him. If, in spite of my calculations, he should be 
 obliged to make his answer before the bill has passed — which, by 
 the way, I hardly think possible — it must be couched in some 
 general terms to which the acts he will do in a few days after must 
 give the construction of acceptance. The fact is, our friends have 
 gone too fast in Dublin ; but how could they conceive our extreme 
 slowness here?" — Correspondence of Charles James Fox, vol. ii. 
 p. 801. Ireland, loyal or disloyal, was sure to be in the wrong. 
 
Patriotism versus Pay. 
 
 151 
 
 "requesting that his Royal Highness would take 
 upon himself the government of Ireland during the 
 continuation of the king's indisposition." Grattan 
 1 leaded the independent party. Some curious par- 
 ticulars of the fashion in which Ireland was governed 
 came out. The Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Rockingham, 
 positively refused to forward the address, and Parlia- 
 ment was obliged to send delegates. Previous to 
 their departure, the following resolution was carried 
 by 115 to 83: "That his Excellency's answer to 
 both Houses of Parliament, requesting him to 
 transmit their address to his Royal Highness, is ill- 
 advised, contains an unwarrantable and unconsti- 
 tutional censure on the proceedings of both Houses, 
 and attempts to question the undoubted rights and 
 privileges of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and of 
 the Commons of Ireland." 
 
 A desperate struggle now commenced between 
 the viceroy and the Parliament. It resolved itself 
 into patriotism versus pay. Men who had no personal 
 interest in the country could not be expected to be 
 very patriotic — and pay carried the day. 
 
 Peerages were sold openly and shamelessly, and 
 the money thus obtained was spent in bribing those 
 to whom money was more necessary, or more 
 gratifying than rank. Mr. Fitzgibbon gave it to be 
 understood that half a million of money was placed 
 in his hands for this purpose, and he casually con- 
 fessed that one address of thanks to Lord Townsend 
 had cost the nation £o00,000 a few years before ! 
 
r>2 
 
 Parliamentary Corruption. 
 
 Grattan, Curran, and Ponsonby offered to prove 
 this bribery at the time, but they were not allowed. 
 G rattan's voice, however, could not be easily 
 silenced ; and he observed at a later period : 
 
 " The threat was put into its fullest execution ; the canvass 
 of the minister was everywhere — in the House of Commons, in 
 the lobby, in the street, at the door of the parliamentary under- 
 takers, rapped at and worn by the little caitiffs of Government, 
 who offered amnesty to some, honours to others, and corruption 
 to all ; and where the word of the viceroy was doubted, they 
 offered their own. Accordingly, we 'find a number of parlia- 
 mentary provisions were created, and divers peerages sold, with 
 such effect, that the same. Parliament which had voted the chief 
 governor a criminal, did immediately after give that very gover- 
 nor implicit support." 1 
 
 " They began," said Curran, " with the sale of the honour 
 of the peerage— the open and avowed sale for money of the 
 peerage to any man who was rich and shameless enough to be 
 the purchaser." 2 
 
 In 1790, one hundred and ten placemen sat in 
 the House of Commons ; and on the 11th of July, 
 Mr. Forbes declared that the pensions had been 
 recently increased by upwards of £100,000. 
 
 It was little wonder that \\ hen O'Connell arrived 
 in Dublin in 1797, he found the country on the eve 
 of a rebellion, and the so-called Irish Parliament 
 about to extinguish itself under a weight of infamy, 
 none the less contemptible because it was heavily 
 gilded over by pecuniary greed. 
 
 1 Life arid Times of Grattan, vol. iii. p. 338. 
 ? Life of Curran, vol. i. p. 240. 
 
Qrattan on Irish Affairs. 
 
 158 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 "April 18, 1782. 
 '•Sir, — I shall make no apology for writing; in the present 
 posture of things I should rather deem it necessary to make an 
 apology for not writing. Ireland has sent an Address, stating the 
 causes of her discontents and jealousies ; thus the question between 
 the two nations becomes capable of a specific final settlement. Wo 
 are acquitted of being indefinite in discontents and jealousies ; we 
 Lave stated the grounds of them, and they are those particulars in 
 which the practical constitution of Ireland is diametrically opposite 
 to the principles of British liberty. A foreign legislation t a foreign 
 judicature, a legislative Privy Council, and a perpetual arnnj. It is 
 impossible for any Irishman to be reconciled to any part of such a 
 constitution, and not to hold in the mo^t profound contempt the 
 constitution of England. Thus you cannot reconcile us to your 
 claim of power, without making us dangerous to your liberty ; and 
 you also will, I am confident, allow that in stating such enormities 
 as just, causes of discontent and jealousy, we have asked nothing 
 uhicli is not essential to our liberty. Thus we have gained another 
 step in the way to a settlement. We have defined our desires and 
 limited them, and committed ourselves only to what is indispensable 
 to our freedom ; and have this further argument, that you have 
 thought it indispensable to yours. One question then only remains — 
 whether what is necessary for us to have, is safe and honourable to 
 Great Britain ? 
 
 " The perpetual Mutiny Law, and the legislative power exercised 
 by the councils of loth kingdoms, it is scarcely necessary to dwell 
 upon, inasmuch as I make no doubt you hold them to be mischievous 
 or useless to England. The legislative power of the Council can't be 
 material to the connexion, though the necessity of passing bills 
 under the seal of Great Britain may be so. The power of suppress- 
 ing in the Irish, and of altering in the English Council, never has 
 been useful to England ; on the contrary, frequently the cause of 
 embarrassment to British government. I have known Privy Coun- 
 cillors agree to bills in Parliament, and in Council alter them 
 materially by some strong clause inserted to show their zeal to the 
 King, at the expense of the popularity of Government. In England, 
 an Attorney-General, or his clerk, from ignorance, or corruption, or 
 contempt, may, and often has, inserted clauses in Irish bills which 
 
154 
 
 Grattan on Irish Affairs. 
 
 have involved Irish Governments in lasting consequences with the 
 people ; for you must see that a servant of Government in Great 
 Britain, uninformed of the passions of Ireland, may, in the full 
 exercise of legislative power, do irreparable mischief to his king and 
 country, without being responsible to either. 
 
 " I could mention several instances, but a Mutiny Bill rendered 
 perpetual is a sufficient one, to show how impolitic that law, which 
 commits the machine of the constitution and the passions of the 
 human mind to the hand of one man. The negativing our bills is a 
 right never disputed ; the poisoning them is a practice we do most 
 ardently deprecate, from sound reason and sad experience. I 
 brought to Parliament a list of the alterations made, for the last ten 
 years, in Irish bills by the Privy Council or Attorney- General, and 
 there was not a single alteration made upon a sound legislative 
 motive ; sometimes an alteration to vex the Presbyterians, made by 
 the bishops ; sometimes an alteration made by an over zealous 
 courtier, to make Government obnoxious and to render himself at 
 the same time peculiarly acceptable to the king; sometimes an 
 alteration from ignorance, and not seldom for money. 
 
 " I shall, therefore, suppose the power of the Council no object 
 to a principled Administration, and no vital question between the 
 two kingdoms. We shall have then cleared the way to the great 
 question of supremacy ; for I conceive the legislative and judicative 
 supremacy to be one question. If you retain the legislative power, 
 you must reserve the final determination of law, because you alone 
 will determine the law, in support of your claim ; whereas, if you 
 cede the claim, the question of judicature is one of private property, 
 not national ascendancy, and becomes as useless to you as it is 
 opprobrious to us. Besides, there are circumstances which render 
 the appellant judicature to you the most precarious thing imagin- 
 able. The Lords of Ireland have on their journals a resolution, that 
 they are ready to receive appeals ; so that, after the final settlement 
 with England, if the judicature was not included, any attorney might 
 renew the contest. The decrees of the Lords of England, and of 
 the King's Bench likewise, affecting Ireland, are executed by the 
 officers of the Courts of Justice of Ireland. The judges of Ireland are 
 now independent. Two of the barons, or judges, may put a total 
 stop to the judicature of the Lords of England, by refusing to lend 
 the process of their Courts ; so that, in order to determine your final 
 
G rattan on Irish Affairs. 
 
 155 
 
 judicature, it would be unnecessary to go further than the authority 
 of a few judges, independent of England by their tenure, dependent 
 on Ireland by their residence, and perhaps influenced by conscience 
 and by oath. Besides, the Gth of George I. is enacting as to the 
 appealing, as well as the judicative power. If the former part stands 
 we are divested of our supreme judicature by an actual exercise of 
 your supreme legislative power, and then a partial repeal would be 
 defective upon principles legislative, as well as jurisdictive. You 
 can't cede your legislative claim, and enjoy your jurisdictive under 
 its authority and exercise ; and the whole law must (if the claim of 
 legislature is ceded) fall totally. The question then between the two 
 nations is thus reduced to one point — Will England cede the. claim 
 of supremacy ? You seem willing to cede it. Your arguments have 
 led to it. AVhen I say your arguments, I mean the liberal and en- 
 lightened part of England. Both nations, by what they have said — 
 one by what it has admitted, and the other by what it has as- 
 serted — have made the claim of England impracticable. The reserve 
 of that claim, of course, becomes unprofitable odium, and the relin- 
 quishment is an acquisition of affection without a loss of power. 
 Thus the question between the two nations is brought to a mere 
 punctilio— Can England cede with dignity ? I submit she can; for 
 if she has consented to enable his Majesty to repeal all the laws re- 
 specting America, nmong which the Declaratory Act is one, she can 
 with more majesty repeal the Declaratory Act against Ireland, who 
 has declared her resolution to stand and fall with the British nation, 
 and has stated her own rights by appealing not to your fears, but 
 your magnanimity. You will please to observe in our Address a 
 veneration for the pride, as well as a love for the liberty of England. 
 You will see in our manner of transmitting the Address, we have 
 not gone to Castle with volunteers as iu 1779. It was expedient to 
 resort to such a measure with your predecessors in office. In short, 
 sir, you will see in our requisition nothing but what is essential to 
 the liberty and composure of our country, and consistent with the 
 dignity and interest of the other. These things granted, your Ad- 
 ministration in Ireland will certainly meet with great support : I 
 mean national as well as parliamentary. In consequence of these 
 things, some laws will be necessary— an act to quiet property held 
 under former judgments or decrees in England ; a Mutiny Bill ; a 
 Bill to modify Poyning's Law. Possibly it might be judicious that 
 
156 
 
 Grattan on Irish A fairs. 
 
 some of these should be moved by the Secretary here — it would con- 
 tribute to his popularity. It will be perhaps prudent to adjourn to 
 some further day, until the present administration have formed. 
 
 4 4 Before I conclude I will take the liberty to guard you against 
 a vulgar artifice, which the old Court (by that I mean the Carlisle 
 faction) will incline to adopt. They will perhaps write to England 
 false suggestions, that Ireland will be satisfied with less, and that 
 the Irish Administration are sacrificing to Irish popularity British 
 rights ; and then they will instigate Ireland to stand upon her ulti- 
 matum, and thus embarrass Government and betray the people. I 
 know this practice was adopted in Lord Buckingham's Administra- 
 ticnby men mortified by his frugality. 
 
 " Might I suggest, if you mean (as I am well inclined to believe, 
 and shall be convinced by the success of our application) a Govern- 
 ment by privilege, that it would be very beneficial to the character 
 of your government in Ireland, to dismiss from their official con- 
 nexions with Government some notorious consciences, to give a visible, 
 as well as real, integrity to his Majesty's Councils in Ireland, and to 
 relieve them from a certain treachery in men, who will obey you and 
 betray you. 
 
 " It w r ould be prudent to exhibit to the public eye a visible con- 
 stitutional Administration. The people here have a personal anti- 
 pathy to some men here who were the agents of former corruption, 
 and would feel a vindictive delight in the justice of discarding them. 
 "When I say this, I speak of a measure not necessary absolutely, if 
 the requisitions are complied with, but very proper and very neces- 
 sary to elevate the character of your government, and to protect 
 from treachery your consultations ; and when I say this, it is without 
 any view to myself, who under the constitutional terms set forth, am 
 willing to take any part in the Administration, provided it is not 
 emolumentary. Your minister here will find very great opportunities 
 for vigorous retrenchment, such as will not hazard him in the House 
 of Commons, and may create an enthusiasm in his favour without 
 doors. 
 
 " I am running into immoderate length, and beg to conclude 
 with assurances of great constitutional hopes, and personal admira- 
 tion, and am with great respect, 
 
 " Your most humble and obedient servant, 
 
 " H. Grattan." 
 
Chapter /ourtb. 
 
 CAUSES OF THE IRISH REBELLION. 
 1790— ISOO. 
 
 The Northern Whig Club: The United Irishmen 
 Club: Catholic Address to the King: Political 
 Commotions: Treachery of Pitt: Lord Fitz- 
 william, the Catholic Question, and the Beres- 
 fords : Maynooth Established : The Orange 
 Society: Catholic Clergy: Overzeal of O'Con- 
 nell : Arrests : List of Suspected Persons : 
 Lord Cornwallis' Administration : The Cromwell 
 Policy: State of the Peasantry: Testimony of 
 Mary Leadbetter. 
 
IV, 
 
 T the period when O'Con- 
 
 nell arrived in Dublin in 
 
 the year 1707, he had heard 
 
 'enough of the state of public 
 
 affairs to be fully aware that a 
 
 dark, deep, and deadly struggle 
 
 was at hand. It had, in fact, already 
 
 commenced. 
 
 1 In 171)0, the Northern Whig Club 
 
 ft\ was established in Belfast, at the sugges- 
 ts 
 
 b\ tion of Lord Charlemont. Reform and par- 
 liamentary independence were its avowed 
 and probably its real objects. 
 
 But neither Irish nor English Protes- 
 tants were as yet free from the illogical 
 bigotry of prejudice, and they declared that 
 "no person ought to suffer civil hardships for his 
 religious persuasion, unless the tenets of his reli- 
 
160 
 
 The Eating and Drinking Chub. 
 
 gion lead him to endeavour at the subversion of the 
 State." x 
 
 There was a gleam of intelligence in the implied 
 possibility that it might not be right, under some 
 certain circumstances to persecute a man for 
 following the dictates of his conscience ; there was 
 an alloy of prejudice in the suggestion that Catholics, 
 who were alluded to, would, or did attempt to 
 subvert the State. Possibly, however, and we think 
 probably, it was a sop to the Cerberus of Protestant 
 ascendancy, a declaration that, though they were 
 liberal, they would, under certain circumstances be 
 willing to act illiberally. It was something certainly 
 to the credit of humanity that a time had arrived 
 when Catholics were not avowedly persecuted with- 
 out the ready excuse of disloyalty. 
 
 A banquet followed, and the toast of " the 
 glorious and immortal memory" was duly honoured, 
 though probably nine-tenths of those who quaffed 
 the libation to the shades of the departed hero, 
 would have been sorely puzzled to tell why he was 
 styled "glorious," and, having serious doubts as to 
 the immortality of the human race, would hardly 
 have believed in his. 
 
 Lord Clare termed it an "eating and drinking 
 club," and no doubt it was. There was certainly a 
 good deal of drinking. On the 14th July, 1791, the 
 anniversary of the French Revolution was celebrated 
 by the Protestant patriots, and they drank to the 
 memory of "Thomas Paine," "and the rights of man," 
 
Died of Respectability. 
 
 161 
 
 to "the glorious memory," and to "the majesty of 
 the people." Notwithstanding all this drinking, or 
 perhaps because of it — the club died out. 
 
 Bat the principles which animated the club did 
 not die out. It died of respectability. When some 
 of the men who had helped to inaugurate it found 
 that the club meant something more than talking and 
 drinking, they gradually withdrew. Lord Charle- 
 111 on t had been a member, and Lord de Clifford, and 
 the Earl of Moira, and the Hon. Robert Stewart, 
 afterwards Lord Castlerea^h. But the men who 
 really instituted it were there still. Henry Joy, 
 M'Cracken, Russell, and, above all, Samuel Neilson, 
 set themselves at once to form another club, a 
 political club. Mr. Xeilson went further than his 
 friends ; he suggested that Catholics should be per- 
 mitted to join it. 
 
 Perhaps he saw that such a movement as he con- 
 templated could not be effected without the co- 
 operation of his Catholic fellow-subjects. 1 It was 
 
 1 The following extracts from the u Lives and Times of the 
 United Irishmen," second series, vol. i. p. 70, will show how the 
 blameless and exemplary life of a poor Catholic servant was the 
 means of removing prejudice. After all, personal knowledge of 
 Catholics in private life seldom failed to do so. 
 
 " Neilson on this occasion said, 1 Our efforts for reform hitherto 
 have been ineffectual, and they deserved to be so, for they have been 
 selfish and unjust, as not including the rights of the Catholics in 
 the claims we put forward for ourselves.' The evening of that day, 
 when the subject was first mooted, M Cracken, on his return home, 
 mentioned the circumstance to a member of his family, who, in re- 
 
 11 
 
Dm igt mnon Co ) i ca dim . 
 
 very well to talk of public action, but public action 
 required men to act, and the handful of Protestants, 
 however important they might be in the eyes of 
 Government, had not material strength for any 
 movement requiring physical force. Whether the 
 United Irishmen looked to physical force at the com- 
 mencement of their career or not, we cannot say, but 
 there are many reasons for supposing that they did, 
 In the first place, they were ardent admirers of the 
 French Revolution—in the second place, they had a 
 good many years' experience of the uselessness of 
 addresses and petitions. 
 
 The famous Dungannon convention was held on 
 the 26th of December, 1792 ; Neilson acted as 
 
 ference to the proposed club, expressed some doubts of Roman 
 Catholics being sufficiently enlightened to co-operate with them, or 
 to be trusted by their party. M'Cracken, with great earnestness, 
 endeavoured to show the groundlessness of the prejudices that were 
 entertained against the Catholics. His opinions were shared by one 
 of his sisters (to whom I am indebted for these particulars), a person 
 even then in advance of public opinion on the subject in question, 
 and whose noble sentiments on most matters were above the level of 
 those of ordinary minds. Her brother, she informs me, asked the 
 relative who had expressed the apprehensions referred to, if there 
 was not a poor old blind woman under their roof, who had spent the 
 best part of her life in their family, and although she was a Roman 
 Catholic, was there anything in this world they would not trust to 
 her fidelity ? and if they put their whole confidence in her because 
 they happened to be acquainted with her, why should they think so 
 ill of those of the same creed whom they did not know ? These 
 details, trivial as they may seem, are calculated to throw some light 
 on the original views and principles of those persons who were the 
 founders of the Northern Society of United Irishmen." 
 
Emancipation <i nec&sity. 
 
 163 
 
 secretary. A Protestant clergyman, the Rev. Mr. 
 Kelburne, used some strong lancruao-e about "our 
 boasted constitution." and some language which must 
 have then sounded rather treasonable about " heredi- 
 tary legislation" not being desirable — because lords 
 did not always inherit wisdom with their rank. 
 
 On the loth of July, 179o. however, the delegates 
 had a meeting, and expressed themselves a little more 
 cautiously. They passed resolutions disapproving of 
 a republican form of government for their own 
 country, and expressed their belief that Catholic 
 Emancipation was necessary for the safety of the 
 country. 1 
 
 1 At a public meeting' held in Belfast, on the 19th of January, 
 1793, an address to his Majesty was determined on, signed, by 
 order of the meeting, and in their name, by Charles Ranken, chair 
 man, and Samuel Xeilson, secretary ; expressive of their gratitude 
 for his Majesty's " recommendation of the situation of their Catholic 
 brethren and fellow- subjects to the attention of the Irish Parlia- 
 ment ;" and conveying the warmest sentiments of loyalty and attach- 
 ment to his Majesty's person. 
 
 At another meeting held in Belfast, on the 28th of January, 
 1792, the particulars of which will be found in the appendix, Neil- 
 s-on took an active part. In reply to an opinion expressed by Mr. 
 Henry Joy, M That neither the Protestant mind was sufficiently pre- 
 pared to grant, nor the Catholic one universally prepared to receive, 
 a plenary and immediate exercise of every right which members of a 
 State can possibly possess ;" — Xeilson expressed his "astonishment 
 at hearing that, or any part of the address, called a Catholic ques- 
 tion ! " To his understanding, il it no more presented a Roman 
 Catholic question than a Church question, a Presbyterian, a Quaker, 
 an Anabaptist, or a mountain question. The trus question was — 
 whether Irishmen sliould be free." 
 
164 
 
 Riots in England. 
 
 The Catholics came forward now, but not without 
 considerable trepidation. Accustomed to centuries 
 of persecution, they had hitherto only bowed to the 
 tempest as it passed over them, except in some rare 
 instances when war seemed the only hope of 
 obtaining liberty to worship God as their conscience 
 bade them. The plan was prepared by Theobald 
 Wolfe Tone, a Protestant. The Catholics were to 
 meet openly, and proceed openly. Five gentlemen 
 were chosen to bear their address to the kin^— 
 These gentlemen were Sir Thomas French, Mr. 
 Byrne, Mr. Keogh, Mr. Devereaux, and Mr. Belle w. 
 They went through Belfast on their way to London. 
 It was not their direct road certainly, but the Protes- 
 tant leaders of the United Irishmen received them in 
 triumph, and the northern Presbyterians showed 
 their advancement in political enlightenment by re- 
 moving the horses from their carriage, and dragging 
 them in triumph through the town. 
 
 The delegates had chosen an opportune moment 
 for their visit to royalty. There were fears both 
 within and without ; war imminent in Europe ; and 
 in England there were terrible apprehensions of 
 domestic riot. Several associations had been formed 
 in England demanding Parliamentary Reform, or 
 seeking to obtain it ; hence it was necessary that war 
 in Ireland should be averted, even at the cost of a 
 few concessions. 1 
 
 1 On the 13th Dccemhcr, 1792, at the opening of the session, 
 the king addressed Parliament thus, on the state of England : " The 
 
Something must be done. 
 
 105 
 
 Several acts were passed to avert the danger, but 
 Irishmen had begun to know their power, the power 
 of united Irishmen ; and when the Portland ministry 
 
 seditious practices which had been in a great measure checked by 
 your firm and explicit declaration in the last session, and by the 
 general concurrence of my people in the same sentiments, have of 
 late been more openly renewed, and with increased activity. A spirit 
 of tumult and disorder (the natural consequence of such practices) 
 has shown itself in acts of riot and insurrection, which required the 
 interposition of a military force in support of the civil magistrate. 
 The industry employed to excite discontent on various pretexts, and 
 in different parts of the kingdom, has appeared to proceed from a 
 design to attempt the destruction of our happy constitution, and the 
 subversion of all order and government ; and this design has evi- 
 dently been pursued in connexion and concert with persons in foreign 
 countries." 
 
 Lord John Russell observes, in his " Correspondence of Fox," 
 vol. iii. p. 33: " England, Prussia, and Austria, with lofty preten- 
 sions of fighting for the eause of religion and order, had each 
 separate and selfish objects, while the French, united and enthusi- 
 astic, fought for a mock liberty — but a real independence. With the 
 Allies it was a war sometimes of principles ; sometimes of provinces ; 
 sometimes to restore a monarchy, sometimes to acquire Martinique. 
 With the French, the most horrible tyranny, the most systematic 
 murder and plunder at home, were accompanied by the most bril- 
 liant courage, the most scientific plans of campaign, and the most 
 entire devotion to the glory of their country." 
 
 Mr. Fox wrote thus to Lord Holland, June 14, 1793 : " I believe 
 the love of political liberty is not an error ; but, if it is one, I am 
 sure I never shall be converted fioin it — and I hope you never will. 
 1 f it be an illusion, it is one that has brought forth more of the best 
 qualities and exertions of the human mind than all other causes put 
 together ; and it serves to give an interest in the affairs of the world 
 which, without it, would be insipid ; but it is unnecessary to preach 
 to you upon this subject. It was only when political liberty was 
 asked for in Ireland that it ceased to meet with the admiration of 
 Fnglish statesmen." 
 
166 
 
 The Nation duped agam. 
 
 was formed in 1794, it was found that something 
 more substantial was necessary. Lord Fitzwilliam 
 was appointed Lord-Lieutenant, and for the first 
 time Grattan was taken into the councils of the so- 
 called Irish Government. On the 12th of July, he 
 obtained leave to bring in a bill for the relief of 
 Catholics, three members only dissenting. 
 
 But once more the nation was duped; Lord 
 Fitzwilliam was recalled on the 24th of March. 
 Whether the English Government really intended to 
 do anything for Ireland or not, can never now be 
 known. If they intended justice, it was a pity the 
 intention should not have been carried out ; if they 
 played a deceitful game, they might have learned by 
 the result that honesty even in political matters is 
 the best, because it is the wisest policy. Lord 
 Fitzwilliam indeed declared that he would never 
 have undertaken the government, if Catholic Eman- 
 cipation had not been included in the ministerial 
 programme. Possibly Mr. Pitt expected to find him 
 a more pliant tool, and recalled him when he found 
 the metal not malleable. 1 
 
 1 " There were some members of the Irish Parliament certainly 
 not disposed to favour the Catholic claims, who saw the folly of this 
 kind of government. Sir Lawrence Parsons said : ' That the grant 
 of supplies and the redress of grievances should go hand in hand. 
 The only security the country had was a short Money Bill ; it had 
 been tried in 1779 ; it had been tried in 1789 ; and, in both instances, 
 had been of utility. The people had been led to expect great mea- 
 sures ; their hopes had been raised, and now were about to be 
 blasted. If the Cabinet of Great Britain had held out an assent to 
 
Conduct of Mr. Pi it. 
 
 107 
 
 But the English Government were perfectly well 
 aware of the certain result of this treachery. It lias 
 been said again and again, that Mr. Pitt wished to 
 drive the Irish into rebellion in order to effect the 
 Union. Whether lie deliberately took measures to 
 that effect or not, cannot now be discovered, but his 
 public acts sufficiently show that if he had not that 
 intention, he was at least fully aware that what he 
 did, and what lie omitted to do, would alike lead to 
 that result. His conduct was mean and dastardly ; 
 no noble-minded man would have deceived a helpless 
 and confident people as he deceived the Irish nation. 
 
 M It was not until the Irish Parliament had sub- 
 mitted to heavy burdens, not only by providing for 
 
 the Catholic question, and had afterwards retracted, it was an insult 
 to the nation which the House should resent. There had heen no 
 meetings ; no petitions of the Protestants against the claims of the 
 Catholics. It would thence he inferred that their sentiments were 
 not adverse to the emancipation ; this was held out as the leading 
 measure of administration ; the Responsibility Bill was another ; the 
 Reform Bill was another. In consideration of these measures ad- 
 ditional taxes had been voted to the amount of £250,000 ; but now 
 it appeared that the country had been duped — that nothing was to 
 be done for the people. If the British minister persisted in such 
 infatuation, discontent would be at its height, the army must be in- 
 creased, and every man must have dragoons in his house.' The 
 motion was rejected by 14G to 24. Mr. Conolly then proposed three 
 resolutions : ' That Lord Fitzwilliam by his public conduct since his 
 arrival in Ireland deserved the thanks of the House, and the confi- 
 dence of the people.' Never in the history of any nation can there 
 be found such duplicity, such treachery, and such meanness as was 
 practised towards the people of Ireland." — Life of Grattau, vol. iv. 
 p. 188. 
 
168 
 
 The Catholic Question, 
 
 the security of the kingdom by great military 
 establishments, but likewise by assisting the empire 
 at large -in the moment of its greatest distress, by 
 aids great and unparalleled beyond all example ; it 
 was not till Lord Fitzwilliam's popularity had 
 induced the House of Commons, on the faith of 
 popular questions, to grant the largest supply ever 
 demanded, and a larger army than had ever before 
 been voted in Ireland ; it was not till he had Jaid a 
 foundation for increasing the established force of the 
 country, and procured a vote of £200,000 for the 
 general defence of the empire, and 20,000 men for 
 the navy, and a supply to the amount of £1,800,000, 
 that the British Cabinet proceeded to notice and 
 reply to Lord Fitzwilliam's letters. Then, for the 
 first time, the dismissal of Mr. Cooke and Mr. 
 Beresford w 7 as complained of, and made a charge 
 against Lord Fitzwilliam ; then, and not till then, 
 commenced the accusations against him as to the 
 Catholic question, and his imputed design to over- 
 turn the constitution in Church and State. But a 
 reference to the proceedings on this subject will 
 show the futility of this charge, and that it was a 
 mere pretext. Let it be recollected that this ques- 
 tion, though opposed in 1793 by Lord Westmoreland 
 and his friends, had been supported by Mr. Hobart • 
 (the Irish Secretary) and the British Cabinet ; that 
 Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas (Lord Melville), had given 
 it their support ; that they had communicated their 
 intentions to the Catholic agents in London, and 
 
L o i *d Fitz w il Ita m. 
 
 169 
 
 their expressions (well remembered and often quoted) 
 were, that "they would not risk a rebellion in 
 Ireland on such a question yet the very man who 
 had actually agreed to it, in conference with Mr. 
 Grattan and Lord Fitzwilliam, and to the former of 
 whom he had used these very remarkable words, " I 
 have taken office, and I have done so because I 
 knew there was to be an entire change of system," 
 this Duke of Portland, in his letter to Lord Fitz- 
 william, says that " to defer the Catholic question 
 was not only a thing to be desired for the present, 
 but the means of doing a greater service to the 
 British empire than it has been capable of receiving 
 since the revolution, or at least since the Union." 
 
 On the receipt of this letter, Lord Fitzwilliam 
 immediately acted with a spirit and resolution worthy 
 of him. He wrote to Mr. Pitt, defended the dis- 
 missal of Mr. Beresford, as necessary to the efficacy 
 of his government, and left the minister to choose 
 between him and Mr. Beresford. He wrote the 
 same night to the Duke of Portland, stating his 
 surprise at their resisting a question that had been 
 long since agreed upon, and this at the expiration of 
 such an interval of time — namely, from the 8th of 
 January, when he first wrote about the Catholic 
 . question, to the 8th of February, when it was first 
 objected to by the English ministers. 
 
 He stated the danger of hesitation or resistance, 
 ^nd he refused to be the person to raise a flame in 
 the country, that nothing short of arms could keep 
 
170 
 
 Mr. Forbes' Letter. 
 
 down ; and left liim to determine whether, if he was 
 not to be supported, he ought not to be removed. 1 ■ 
 
 On the 25th of February, 1795, Mr. Forbes 
 wrote to Mr. Sergeant Adair. He concluded his 
 letter thus : "It is reported that Pitt intends to 
 overturn the Irish Cabinet by rejecting Catholic 
 claims. Should he pursue that line, England will be 
 involved in inextricable confusion, and it will end in 
 the total alienation of Ireland/ 7 
 
 Burke wrote to Mr. Grattan, expressing his 
 indignation at the way in which he had been treated. 
 In the English Parliament, there was a scene of 
 mutual recrimination concerning the recall of Lord 
 
 1 Life of Grattan, vol. iv. p. 193. — The Beresfords knew their 
 power well. They knew also, though they raised a "No Popery" cry, 
 that the leaders and first movers of the United Irishmen, whom they 
 styled " devils," were Protestants. It mattered little to them how 
 Ireland suffered, so they held place and pension. On the 4th Sept. 
 1796, Mr. Beresford wrote to his friend Lord Auckland : 
 
 " The United Irishmen of the north, alias the Dissenters and 
 the Defenders, and the Papists would join them ; these two classes 
 are hound hy oath, &c, whilst the mob and common people, not 
 sworn, would take advantage and plunder everybody, and commit 
 murders and such extravagances as are always the consequences of 
 letting loose the rabble. The utmost pains have been taken by 
 these devils, the United Irishmen, to prepare the minds of the dif- 
 ferent classes of the people for mischief. The public prints are of 
 the most seditious and inflammatory species. They have a vast 
 number of emissaries constantly going through the country, to seduce 
 every person they can, and swear them ; they have songs, and pro- 
 phecies just written, stating all late events and what is to happen, 
 as if made several years ago, in order to persuade the people that, 
 as a great part of them has already come to pass, so the remainder 
 will certainly happen." 
 
College of Maynooth. 
 
 171 
 
 Fitz william, but no one concerned himself much 
 about the effect that this would have in Ireland. 
 
 The truth was that the Beresfords had determined 
 from the first to ^et rid of the Lord-Lieutenant, and 
 they succeeded. 1 Lord Fitzwilliam was perfectly 
 aware of the cause of his dismissal, but he seems to 
 have felt the deception which had been practised on 
 the Irish nation, far more than the injury done to 
 himself. 
 
 Lord Camden succeeded, and as the Government 
 had some apprehensions lest the Catholics should 
 avenge themselves in any way for the duplicity with 
 which they had been treated, it was proposed to 
 establish the College of Maynooth. The excuse to 
 those who objected to granting even the least favour 
 to Catholics, had the advantage of being a plausible 
 one. It was evident that no amount of penal laws 
 would prevent Catholics from becoming priests ; it 
 was evident, it was indeed a matter of fact, that if 
 they were not allowed to be educated in Ireland, 
 
 1 Lord Auckland worked up the Beresford interest in London 
 quietly, and with the steady determination which generally insures 
 success. The Beresfords held their power solely on a "No Popery" 
 cry. Any liberality — or, to speak more correctly, justice to Catho- 
 lics — was fatal to their continuance in power, because they had 
 made their political success depend on their religious bigotry. Mr. 
 Beresford, of course, denied his great political power, but even in 
 the letter which he wrote himself to Lord Auckland, who acted as 
 his ambassador in the affair, he wrote so strongly of his " power of 
 embarrassing Government," that Lord Auckland thought it best to 
 keep back that part of his letter even froni his patron, Mr. Pitt. — 
 Beresfor*} Corrrspntulence, vol. ii. pp. 50-84. 
 
172 Condition of the People. 
 
 they would be educated abroad. It was said that 
 being educated abroad tendered to render them 
 disloyal ; and certainly to deny a man education in 
 his own country, and oblige him to endure the 
 labour and expense of expatriation in order to obtain 
 it, was not naturally the best method of inducing 
 affection for the power which compelled this course. 
 It was, moreover, believed that if Government en- 
 dowed Maynooth the Irish hierarchy would feel 
 bound in return to support Government. It was at 
 least certain to all but the most obtuse, that a 
 rebellion was imminent in Ireland, and this seemed 
 a probable means of enlisting the Catholic clergy on 
 the side of England. 
 
 The times were becoming daily more and more 
 troubled, principally because the condition of the 
 people was becoming daily worse. When men are 
 starving — when they know that their starvation is 
 caused by injustice, they are seldom slow to redress 
 their wrongs. How patiently the Irish can suffer 
 when famine comes to them as a direct visitation 
 from Gocl, has been proved in later years. It is 
 probable the poor Irish Catholics of the south would 
 have suffered as patiently if they had not been roused 
 to resistance by the stern Presbyterians of the north, 
 and if the newly-formed Orange Society had not 
 been allowed to attack them with impunity. 
 
 The state of Ireland at this period was certainly 
 fearful, and an eternal disgrace to those by whom it 
 was governed. A Protestant writer says : 
 
Oran</< j UiUrniji's. 
 
 173 
 
 " The Government thought, at least to retain the Church 
 of England faction by uniting the interests of the ' Peep-of-Day 
 boys' with that of the Church of England gentry, from which 
 curious union sprung, in 1790, the Orange Society, swore to 
 maintain the Protestant ascendency of 16S8. But the Orange- 
 men were as lawless as the Defenders. Lord Gosford, who 
 had been appointed joint lord-lieutenant of the county of 
 Armagh with the Earl of Charlemont, in 1791, to counterpoise 
 the AVhiggism of the latter, found it necessary in December, 
 1795, to convene a meeting of the magistrates of that county, 
 and call on them to put a stop to the barbarous practices of 
 the Orange Society. It sufficed for a man to profess the 
 Roman Catholic religion to have his dwelling burnt over bis 
 head, and himself, with his family banished out of the county. 
 Nearly half the inhabitants of the county of Armagh had been 
 thus expatriated. To check these outbreaks of Defenders and 
 Orangemen, Parliament, early in 179G, passed an insurrection 
 Act. Persons administering unlawful oaths were to suffer 
 death, and those who took them transportation. But in the 
 terrible times which ensued, this evil was allowed to work only 
 one way. The Orangemen, and other Protestant insur- 
 rectionists, were allowed to bear arms, and to use them as they 
 pleased. The penalties all fell upon the unhappy Catholics, 
 and on such Protestants as had joined the United Irishmen, a 
 numerous and powerful body." 
 
 The high sheriff of Galway, Charles Blake, 
 addessed Grattan on the alarming state of affairs, in 
 the name and by the desire of the gentlemen and 
 freeholders of the county. They declared it "highly 
 honourable" to him, though not to the a^e, that his 
 dismissal from office was considered " a necessary 
 and previous stnge to the return of some that are not 
 reported to love the people." The letter was short, 
 manly, intelligent, and worthy of the men of Galway. 
 
171 
 
 The Catholic Clergy. 
 
 The students of Dublin University addressed 
 him, and, with a liberality quite beyond the age, 
 declared most truly " that the harmony and strength 
 of Ireland will be founded on the solid basis of 
 Catholic Emancipation, and the reform of those 
 grievances which have inflamed public indignation." 1 
 
 Even at that moment, if the least effort had been 
 made in the direction of justice to Catholics, and if 
 even a trifling instalment of the justice which has 
 since been done to them had been attempted, the 
 rebellion of 1798 might never have been, and 
 a legacy of hatred to England might have been 
 averted. 
 
 The Catholic clergy were wholly on the side of 
 order ; but what could they do with a starving 
 people ? England had destroyed Irish trade ; they 
 could not excuse this ; they could not say it is your 
 own fault that you are starving, bear it as a calamity 
 which you have brought on yourselves. England 
 still persecuted their religion, and what was worse, 
 permitted, if she did not actually encourage, Irish 
 Protestants to massacre their fellow-subjects because 
 they were Irish Catholics. Could this be defended ? 
 Yet they did what they could ; the}^ practised 
 patience, they practised submission, they preached 
 practical Christianity ; and if their lessons had no 
 effect, it was not because Irish Catholics were less 
 faithful to the teaching of their holy faith than they 
 
 1 " Life of Gratlan," by Lis Hon, vol. iv. pp. 222, 228. 
 
Dr. Lmiiyan's .Letter. 
 
 175 
 
 had been in former ages, but because they believed 
 that their cause was a just one. 1 
 
 Negotiations were opened with the French 
 Government by the United Irishmen in 1796. 
 
 1 On the 10th March, 1798, Dr. Lanigan, the Catholic Dishop 
 of Ossory, wrote thus to Dr. Troy, the Catholic Archbishop of 
 Dublin : 
 
 *' Dally rag get, March 10, 1 70S. 
 "Most Rev. Sir, — I was absent from Kilkenny these eight 
 days, and was a great part of that time occupied with the priests 
 that border on the Queen's County, in consulting them, and concert- 
 ing measures with them in order to prevent, if possible, the intro- 
 duction of United Irishmen and their principles into this county. 
 The letter you honoured me with was sent after me, and I received 
 it there. I could make this short but true answer to it, that the 
 charges mentioned there against the priests and me are false, mali- 
 cious, and groundless. It is necessary, perhaps, to prove this more 
 at large. I beg your patience, then, while I state the facts as they 
 happened. 
 
 "A sermon was preached in St. James's chapel, about a month 
 ago, on faith — its necessity, its utility, and the conditions required 
 for true faith. The preacher had in view only to confute the lax 
 principles of the richer Roman Catholics, vho, under pretext of 
 liberality of sentiment, wished to establish an indifference about all 
 religion and all religious modes of worship." — Memoirs of Viscoimt 
 Castlereagk, vol. i. p. 161. 
 
 The upper classes of Catholics were sorely tempted to apostatise. 
 The cause of this temptation has been already fully explained. The 
 consecpuence was, that the} 7 kept very much aloof from their former 
 Catholic brethren. Mr. Grattan says, in his "Life of his Father," 
 vol. iv. p. 50 : "In late as well as in early times the Irish aristo- 
 cracy have attached themselves too much to party in England, and 
 have forgotten the real interests of their own nation. The wise 
 policy would have been to have attended exclusively to their own 
 country — a course more politic, though less profitable." The treat- 
 ment which the upper classes had received during the Trish revolu- 
 tion tended to strcnghten this feeling still greater. 
 
170 
 
 O'Connell ® United Irishman. 
 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Arthur O'Connor a gentle- 
 man of property in the county of Cork, and Theobald 
 Wolfe Tone a barrister, were the persons selected 
 for this undertaking. 
 
 O'Connell's son, in writing his father's Memoir, 
 was naturally anxious to screen his father from the 
 discredit of being a United Irishman. That he was, 
 there is not the slightest doubt for he has left the 
 fact on record himself. His naturally enthusiastic 
 temperament led him to throw himself eagerly into 
 any scheme likely to benefit his country. He joined 
 the artillery corps on his arrival in Dublin ; and the 
 division to which he belonged, known as the 
 " Lawyers' Artillery," was said to have been the best 
 got up, and best equipped in Dublin. 1 
 
 He also joined a debating society which met in 
 Eustace Street, where the stirring events of the times 
 were freely canvassed. Here he says : 
 
 " I had many good opportunities of acquiring valuable in- 
 formation, upon which I very soon formed my own judgment. 
 Tt was a terrible time. The political leaders of the period 
 could not conceive such a thing as a perfectly open and above- 
 board political machinery. My friend, Richard Newton Ben- 
 
 1 The uniform of the lawyers' corps was scarlet and blue, their 
 motto, Pro avis etfocis ; the attorney's regiment of Volunteers was 
 scarlet and Pomona green ; a corps called the Irish Brigade, and 
 composed principally of Catholics (after the increasing liberality of 
 the day had permitted them to become Volunteers) wore scarlet and 
 white ; other regiments of Irish brigades wore scarlet faced with 
 green, and their motto was Vox populi suprema lex est; the gold- 
 smiths' corps, commanded by the Duke of Leinster, wore blue, faced 
 with scarlet and a professional profusion of gold lace. 
 
(/Connell in uangi r. 177 
 
 nctt, was an adjunct to the Directory of United Irishmen. I 
 was myself a United Irishman. As I saw how matters worked, 
 I soon learned to have no secrets in politics." 1 
 
 O'Connell lodged in Trinity Place. A gentleman 
 who knew Dublin well at that period describes it as 
 " an almost unexplored nook." He was very intimate 
 with Mr. Murray, a respectable grocer who resided 
 at Xo. 3 South Great George's Street, and who, like 
 most Irishmen of the period, was in heart a rebel. 
 That O'Connell was then in favour of physical force 
 there can be no doubt, however he may have wished 
 in later years to throw a veil of oblivion over his 
 boyish ardour. A rising was expected literally every 
 night, and Major Sirr was patrolling Dublin eager to 
 exercise his bloody mission on the suspected. 
 
 On one memorable evening O'Connell, excited 
 partly by drink and partly by patriotism, and always 
 readv to be first in the frav, was eager to join a 
 meeting of United Irishmen that very night, and to 
 swear in new members ; but his host, more prudent 
 though by no means less patriotic, 2 induced the 
 
 1 i; Personal Recollections," by O'Neill Daunt. 
 
 * Mr. Murray's son, who must have been thoroughly well- 
 informed on the subject, has left the following account of the affair 
 on record, which I quote from the M Sham Squire," with the author's 
 permission : M We are indebted to the late Mr. Peter Murray, of the 
 Registry of Deeds Office, Dublin, a man of scrupulous veracity, for 
 the following curious reminiscence of O'Connell in 1798 : 1 My father, 
 a respectable cheesemonger and grocer, residing at 3 South Great 
 George's Street, was exceedingly intimate with O'Connell, when a law 
 student, and during his earlier career at the bar. Mr. O'Connell, at 
 the period of which I speak, lodged in Trinity Place adjacent, an 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 A Narrow Escape. 
 
 enthusiastic, youth to accompany him to the canal 
 bridge at Leeson Street, where he saw him safely on 
 board a turf boat and out of harm's way. It was well 
 that this had been accomplished, for Mr. Murray's 
 house was searched that night by Major Sirr. 
 
 In one of O'Connell's communications to Mr. 
 O'Neill Daunt, he mentions leaving Dublin in June 
 1798, in a boat, and having paid the pilot half a 
 guinea to put him on shore at Cork. Indeed, it was 
 impossible at that time to travel in any other way. 
 
 almost unexplored nook, and to many of our citizens a terra incognita. 
 I well remember O'Connell, one night at my father's house during 
 the spring of 1798, so carried away by the political excitement of the 
 day, and by the ardour of his innate patriotism, calling for a prayer- 
 book to swear in some zealous young men as United Irishmen at a 
 
 meeting of the body in a neighbouring street. Counsellor ■ was 
 
 there, and offered to accompany O'Connell on his perilous mission. 
 My father, although an Irishman of advanced liberal views and 
 strong patriotism, was not a United Irishman, and endeavoured, but 
 without effect, to deter his young and gifted friend from the rash 
 course in which he seemed embarked. Dublin was in an extremely 
 disturbed state, and the outburst of a bloody insurrection seemed 
 hourly imminent. My father resolved to exert to the uttermost the 
 influence which it was well known he possessed over his young 
 friend. He made him accompany him to the canal bridge at Leeson 
 Street, and after an earnest conversation, succeeded in persuading the 
 future Liberator to step into a turf boat which was then leaving 
 Dublin. That night my father's house was searched by Major Sirr, 
 accompanied by the attorneys' corps of yeomanry, who pillaged it to 
 their hearts' content. There can be no doubt that private informa- 
 tion of O'Connell's tendencies and haunts had been communicated 
 to the government.' " — The Sham Squire; or, The Rebellion in Ire- 
 land, page 305. Dublin : Kelly. 
 
 Mr. John O'Connell gives an account of the affair which was 
 evidently " revised." He says : "On one occasion, however (per- 
 
Out of Harm's Way. 
 
 170 
 
 Bands of armed men were marching in every direc- 
 tion through the country, and as neither party was 
 very particular as to identity, the most peaceful 
 traveller was not free from danger. It would appear 
 probable that O'Connell remained in the peaceful 
 wilds of Kerry during the most eventful period of 
 the Rebellion. It was at that time that he contracted 
 the fever previously mentioned. But even then news 
 travelled to that remote locality, and the terrible 
 
 haps the only one of his life), at the table of Mr. Murray, already 
 mentioned, about the month of March, of the year 1798, he was be- 
 trayed, by the heat of a political discussion, into some forgctfulness 
 of his constant habit of temperance ; and took what to him was in- 
 convenient, although to the well-soaked brains of most of his com- 
 peers it would have been of no consequence. Returning that night 
 full of self-reproach and annoyance at the unaccustomed sensations 
 he had subjected himself to, his interposition to save a wretched 
 female from the blows of some cowardly ruflians in the garb of 
 gentlemen, drew upon him the attack of the whole party ; but for a 
 while (owing to his great strength and activity) with signal discom- 
 fiture to themselves, three being knocked down by him in succession. 
 However, one of the latter, on getting up, came behind and pinioned 
 him, and so he was overpowered — receiving, while in this defenceless 
 position, and ere he could free himself, several blows on the face, by 
 which it was so disfigured as to render a few days' confinement to 
 the house advisable. While under this irksome restraint, his land- 
 lord, a most respectable tradesman (well known long afterwards to 
 the theatre-going folk as Regan the fruiterer), then purveyor to the 
 Castle of Dublin, took the liberty of his years, and permitted but 
 respectful familiarity, to warn his young lodger from committing 
 himself politically —detailing the dark hints rife in the purlieus of 
 the Castle, of the deep and fearful game the government were play- 
 ing in allowing the insurrection to mature, while they kept them- 
 selves ready, and had it in their power to lay hands upon its leaders 
 at any moment." — Memoirs of O'Connell, by bis Son, vol. i. p. 15. 
 
160 
 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 
 
 Eevolution of '98 was read, not as we read it now, as 
 a tale of horrors long past, but as a terrible tragedy 
 then being enacted hour by hour, and of which the 
 end was not known yet. 
 
 Grattan withdrew from politics, hopeless of in- 
 ducing the Government to do justice — or the peo- 
 ple to bear injustice. The United Irishmen only 
 numbered two men of rank amongst their leaders, 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Arthur O'Connor. 
 Lord Edward belonged to the noble house of 
 Leinster, and had learned to desire liberty, not for a 
 class but for all — first in America, 1 where he had 
 served under Lord Cornwallis, and then in France, 
 
 1 Lord Edward Fitzgerald's letters to bis mother from America 
 show the singular tenderness of his nature, and his delicate thought- 
 fulness for others, and especially for his good mother. He wrote, 
 " She has a rope about my neck that gives bard tugs at it, and it is 
 all I can do not to give way." How terrible was the last " giving 
 way" of that fond heart, can only be realised by natures as sensitive 
 as his. Writing about some business, he says : "I believe there is 
 un bien clique of fellows in that country. Pray do not let any of 
 them into Kilrush, for they will only distress and domineer over the 
 poor tenants." — Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, vol. i. p. 124. 
 Lord Edward was treated most cruelly after his capture, notwith- 
 standing his high rank. It is said that Lord Clare urged him to 
 escape, and said every port in the country would be left open to 
 him, but his nature was far too chivalrous to seek his own safety 
 while others were in danger. 
 
 The late Lord Holland furnishes, in his " Memoirs," many in- 
 teresting illustrations of Lord Edward's sweet and gentle disposition : 
 "With the most unaffected simplicity and good nature he would 
 palliate, from the force of circumstances or the accident of situation, 
 the perpetrators of the very enormities which had raised his high 
 spirit and compassionate nature to conspire and resist. It was this 
 
Arrest of Fifteen Leaders. 
 
 181 
 
 where he had attended a political dinner at which 
 lie accepted the title of " Citizen." O'Connor was 
 nephew and heir to Lord Longueville, by whom he 
 was brought into Parliament in 1790. 
 
 Fifteen leaders of the United Irishmen were 
 seized in Belfast on the 14th of April, 1797. They 
 were all Protestants, and of the number there were 
 seven Presbyterian ministers and three Covenanters. 
 Their papers were examined, and afForded an excuse 
 for fresh cruelties. In the very lace of the fact, that 
 these men, who were the real originators of the re- 
 volt, were Protestants, the fiercest punishments were 
 inflicted on the Catholics. When Lord Cornwallis 
 arrived in Ireland, he found his difficulty was not so 
 much to repress the rebellion as to quiet those who 
 were exciting and increasing it by their blood-thirsty 
 rage. Everyone who had a grudge against a neigh- 
 bour denounced him as a rebel ! Every one who 
 wanted to gain favour with government sent in a list 
 of suspected persons ! This was often done secretly ; 
 
 kindness of heart that led him, on his deathbed, to acquit the officer 
 who inflicted his wounds of all malice, and even to commend him 
 for an honest discharge of his duty. It was this sweetness of dis- 
 position that enabled him to dismiss with good humour one of his 
 bitterest persecutors, who had visited him in his mangled condition, 
 if not to insult his misfortunes, with the idle hope of extorting his 
 secret. 'I would shake hands willingly with you,' said he, 'but 
 mine are cut to pieces. However, I'll shake a toe, and wish you 
 good-bye.' " His family felt his treatment bitterly. His brother, 
 Lord Henry Fitzgerald, wrote to Lord Camden reproaching him with 
 his cruelty ; but it was useless — cruelty was the order of the day. 
 See Memoirs of G rattan, vol. iv. p. 387. 
 
182 
 
 List of those suspected. 
 
 no name was given, and yet government, or those 
 who were acting in the name of government, pro- 
 ceeded at once to hang, shoot, or torture the un- 
 happy victims. 1 
 
 1 Mr. Dundas forwarded one of these lists from a man " who 
 
 would not come forward," to Sir Ralph Abercrombie. The list is a 
 
 curiosity, and shows how such matters were arranged. 
 
 Return of Suspected Persons, 
 
 Stephen Garry, Kildare ; Treasurer to the County meeting. 
 
 Waller Mooney, Friarstown; representative to Surgeon Cummings. 
 
 Michael Lee, Kildare ; deeply engaged, and a Captain. 
 
 James Kelly, Kildare ; a Committee-man, and knows much. 
 
 Patrick Byrne, Ballysax ; a Captain, much with Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald. 
 
 Hugh Toole, Conlanstown ; Treasurer Kildare Meeting. 
 Patrick Conlan, Conlanstown ; a supposed assassin. 
 John Conlan, Conlanstown. 
 Dominick Conlan, Brownstown. 
 Maurice Conlan, Brownstown. 
 Matthew Conlan, Ballysax. 
 
 — Conlan, his son, Ballysax. 
 
 Thomas Gannon, Ballyfair ; deep in the secret. 
 
 Michael Barnes, Ballyfair ; used to be much with Lord Edward 
 
 Fitzgerald. 
 Edward Burne, Landcroft. 
 Christopher Flood, Cut Bush. 
 
 — Deering, Maddenstown ; his son a Captain, and now in jail. 
 Edmund Bell, Hond Home, on the Curragh ; has a meeting every 
 
 Sunday at his home at 10 o'clock. 
 Thomas Kelly, Postmaster of Kilcullen ; a Captain, and swears in 
 many. 
 
 Patrick Doyle, Kilcullen ; a Captain, and deeply concerned. 
 
 — Flood, Kilcullen. 
 
 — Daly, son to Edward Daly, Kilcullen ; a Captain of the half- 
 barony of Kilcullen. 
 
 Lawrence Byrne, Ballysax ; a blacksmith, and supposed to have 
 made most of the pikes. 
 
 It will be seen that whole families were marked out for slaughter 
 
Excesses of the Military. 
 
 183 
 
 The excesses committed by the army were so 
 horrible that we cannot defile these pages with them. 
 On the 31st of August, 1798, Lord Cornwallis issued 
 general orders in the vain hope of improving their 
 conduct : he might as well have tried to control the 
 west wind. 
 
 Ballinamore, 31a7 August 1798. 
 
 u It is with very great concern that Lord Cornwallis finds 
 himself obliged to call on the General Officers and the Com- 
 manding Officers of regiments in particular, and in general on 
 
 — that in many cases no reason whale ver is given for the accusation, 
 and that in many more the unhappy men were only " supposed" to 
 be guilty. Mr. Dundas concludes this letter by saying : " Every- 
 thing goes on quietly, but we have been obliged to destroy a large 
 quantity of whiskey, without which the troops would have got drunk, 
 and done much mischief." The yeomen and military were drunk 
 h:df their time, and those wretches were the men to whom full 
 liberty was granted to kill and torture any one on mere suspicion, 
 or even without that excuse. 
 
 Sir Ralph Abcrcrombie was too gallant an officer to encourage, 
 or if he could help it, to practise such atrocities, but no one had 
 control over the army, which he declared " was formidable to every 
 one but the enemy." Lord Castlereagh wrote to General Lake, 
 who succeeded Sir Ralph on the same subject. 
 
 " Dublin Castle, April 25th, 1798. 
 
 " Sir, — It having been represented to his Excellency the Lord- 
 Lieutenant, that much evil may arise to the discipline of the troops 
 from their being permitted for any length of time to live at free 
 quarters, that the loyal and well- affected have in many instances 
 suffered in common with the disaffected, from a measure which does 
 not admit in its execution of sufficient discrimination of persons, I 
 am directed by his Excellency to request that you will advert to 
 these inconveniences, and adopt such other vigorous and effectual 
 measure* for enforcing the speedy surrender of arms as in your dis- 
 cretion you shall think fit, and which shall appear to you not liable 
 to these objections." — Memoirs of Viscount Castlereagh, vol. i. p. 187. 
 
184 
 
 A Vain Appeal. 
 
 • the officers of the army, to assist him in putting a stop to the 
 licentious conduct of the troops, and in saving the wretched 
 inhabitants from being robbed, and in the most shocking 
 manner ill-treated, by those to whom they had a right to look 
 for safety and protection. 
 
 " Lord Cornwallis declares, that if he finds that the soldiers 
 of any regiment have had opportunities of committing these 
 excesses from the negligence of their officers, he will make 
 those officers answerable for their conduct ; and that if any 
 soldiers are caught either in the act of robbery, or with the 
 articles of plunder in their possession, they shall be instantly 
 tried, and immediate execution shall follow their conviction. 
 
 " A Provost-Marshal will be appointed, who will, with his 
 guard, march in the rear of the army, and who will patrol about 
 the villages and houses in the neighbourhood of the camp." 
 
 Lord Cornwallis has been accused of partiality to 
 Ireland because he would not countenance cruelty, 
 though he could not prevent it. We therefore give 
 other testimony — Captain Taylor wrote from Balli- 
 namore on the 31st of August, 1798 : 
 
 " We halt here this day to give the Queen's and 29th time 
 to join us : they have made a most expeditious inarch from 
 Wexford, and will be at Ballinasloe this day. We shall pro- 
 ceed towards Tuam to-morrow, and they will march in the 
 same direction. As far as we can learn as yet, the French are 
 still at Castlebar, entrenching themselves, and drilling those of 
 the inhabitants who have joined. Among the latter I fear there 
 are some of the Longford and Kilkenny : those regiments 
 marched to this place yesterday, and upon our arrival were 
 immediately ordered on towards Athlone. Their conduct, and 
 that of the Carabineers and Frazers, in action on the retreat 
 from Castlebar and Tuam, and the depredations the}' com- 
 
Lord ComtcaUis. 
 
 185 
 
 nutted on the road, exceed, I am told, all description. Indeed, 
 they have, I believe, raised a spirit of discontent and disaffec- 
 tion which did not before exist in this part of the country. 
 Every endeavour has been used to prevent plunder in our 
 corps, but it really is impossible to stop it in some of the 
 regiments of militia with us, particularly the light battalions." 
 
 With the intelligence of a master mind, and the 
 clearness of an unprejudiced mind, Lord Cornwallis 
 studied and fathomed the " Irish difficulty." It 
 would have been well for both countries if counsels 
 like his had prevailed, lie saw that the system 
 hitherto pursued was bad ; l certainly it had been 
 
 I The following letter deserves consideration even at the present 
 day: 
 
 11 Marquis Cornwallis to the Duke of Portland. 
 [Secret and Confidential,] 
 
 " Dublin Castle, Sept. 16, 1798. 
 " My dear Lord, — If I have not appeared to give my senti- 
 ments to your Grace with the utmost freedom, and to speak with 
 the most perfect openness of heart on the subject both of men and 
 measures in this country, I most earnestly request that you will 
 believe that such apparent reserve has not proceeded from a want of 
 the most affectionate regard personally to yourself, or the most entire 
 confidence in your uprightness and honour, but in truth from my 
 not being able to give you opinions which I had not formed, or to 
 explain things which I was not sure that I understood. 
 
 II The quick succession of important events during the short 
 period of my Lieutenancy has frequently diverted my attention 
 from the pursuit of that great question — How this country can be 
 governed and preserved, and rendered a source of strength and 
 power, instead of remaining a useless and almost intolerable burthen 
 to Great Britain. 
 
 " Your Grace will not be so sanguine as to expect that I am now 
 going to tell you that I have succeeded in making this discovery. 
 
Failure of English Policy. 
 
 thoroughly tested, and as certainly it had entirely 
 failed. Protestant ascendancy had been allowed full 
 swing, yet Ireland was not prosperous. Trade had 
 been suppressed vigorously, yet England was not 
 benefited. A few individuals certainly gained by 
 the public loss, and these individuals contrived to 
 impress the English nation with a terrible fear of 
 losing Ireland if they were not permitted to carry 
 out their selfish policy. Unfortunately, the great 
 mass of Englishmen were utterly ignorant of the 
 true state of Ireland, and had a traditional belief, not 
 easily shaken, that the worst which could be said of 
 her was probably far short of the truth. 
 
 There were men, even of rank and station, whom 
 nothing could satisfy except a universal massacre of 
 
 Sorry am I to say, that I have made no further progress than to 
 satisfy myself that, a perseverance in the system which has hitherto 
 been pursued, can only lead us from bad to worse, and after exhaust- 
 ing the resources of Britain, must end in the total separation of the 
 two countries. 
 
 " The principal personages here who have long been in the habit 
 of directing the counsels of the Lords-Lieutenant are perfectly 
 well-intentioned, and entirely attached and devoted to the British 
 connexion ; but they are blinded by their passions and prejudices, 
 talk of nothing but strong measures, and arrogate to themselves the 
 exclusive knowledge of a country, of which, from their mode of 
 governing it, they have, in my opinion, proved themselves totally 
 ignorant. 
 
 " To these men I have shown all civility and kindness in my 
 power, and have done for them all ordinary favours which they have 
 asked, but I am afraid that they are not satisfied with me, because . 
 I have not thrown myself blindly into their hands. With the 
 Chancellor, who can with patience listen to the words Papist and 
 
The Cromwell Policy* 
 
 1S7 
 
 the Irish — who prayed for a second Cromwell ; men 
 who were too completely blinded by prejudice to be 
 capable of reasoning either on the past or the present, 
 men who could not see, or who would not see, that 
 Cromwell's policy was being enacted not in one part 
 of Ireland alone, but from the east to the west, 
 wherever English soldiers could be sent. And what 
 had Cromwell's policy done — we will not say for 
 Ireland, because Ireland was not for a moment con- 
 sidered by such persons — but what had his policy 
 effected in Ireland for English interests ? Had it 
 decreased the population of Ireland ? For a time, 
 certainly ; while the land ran rivers of blood, and 
 women and children lay writhing in death-throes of 
 agony beneath the sword of men who took on them 
 
 Moderation, I have invariably talked on all public points which 
 have occurred, and I have shown no marks of confidence to any 
 other set of men, and have particularly given no countenance what- 
 ever to those who opposed the former government. I have at 
 all times received the greatest assistance from Lord Castlereagh, 
 whose prudence, talents, and temper, I cannot sufficiently com- 
 mend. 
 
 " No man will, I believe, be so sanguine as to think that any 
 measures which government can adopt would have an immediate 
 effect on the minds of the people, and I am by no means prepared 
 to say what those should be, which slowly and progressively tend to 
 that most desirable object. 
 
 ' 1 1 have hitherto been chiefly occupied in checking the growing 
 evil, but so perverse and ungovernable are the tempers here, that I 
 cannot flatter myself that I have been very successful. 
 
 " "With regard to future plans, I can only say that some mode 
 must be adopted to soften the hatred of the Catholics to our govern- 
 ment." 
 
188 
 
 The Curse of Cromwell. 
 
 to commit the deadliest crimes in the name of the 
 God of mercy. 
 
 Was Ireland more contented, more easily satisfied 
 with injustice ? Had the great end been gained of 
 making her submit in silence to her oppressor ? By 
 no means. All history refutes the supposition. 
 What, then, did Cromwell's policy do for English 
 interests in Ireland ? It simply made them a 
 thousand times more precarious than ever, it simply 
 left a legacy of undying hatred to those who assisted 
 him in doing his evil will. " The curse of Cromwell 
 on you," is to the present day the bitterest impre- 
 cation that one Irish peasant can use to another — 
 and the curse of that man's evil deeds will never 
 cease to lie dark and heavy between the English and 
 Irish shores. A. century of honest, manly justice to 
 Ireland might indeed help to repair it, might blot 
 out the darker shades of its iniquity, but it would 
 need some such remedy. If Irish rebels burned and 
 pillaged English yeomen, they had learned the lesson 
 from Cromwell. He massacred the defenceless from 
 the pure love of blood and cruelty ; they did but 
 strive to defend the defenceless in such fashion as 
 they could. 1 
 
 1 We happen to know that the Cromwell theory has not died out 
 yet. It has, at least, the merit of simplicity, but it would be a little 
 difficult of execution in this nineteenth century, when there would 
 be some millions of Irish in America, 
 
 " To know the reason why." 
 
 On the 27th July, 1798, Lord Clifden wrote from Dublin to the 
 Speaker of the English House of Commons : 
 
The Uhfiappy Peasantry. 
 
 How defenceless the unhappy Irish peasantry were 
 at this period, is evident from a letter of the Marquis 
 of Cornwallis to the Duke of Portland, dated Dublin 
 Castle, June 28th, 1798, in which he says : 
 
 " The accounts that you see of the numbers of the enemy 
 destroyed in every action, are, I conclude, greatly exaggerated, 
 from my own knowledge of military affairs, I am sure that a 
 very small proportion of them only could be killed in battle ; 
 and I am much afraid that any man in a brown coat who is 
 found within several miles of the field of action, is butchered 
 without discrimination. 
 
 " It shall be one of my first objects to soften the ferocity of 
 our troops, which I am afraid, in the Irish corps at least, is 
 not confined to the private soldiers. 
 
 M There certainly is a great want of discipline, and the strongest 
 spirit of plunder, in the troops. The north is quiet, and will, from 
 all I hear, remain so. The}' don't like to have their throats cut by 
 the southern Catholics. Some good priests there are, and many 
 loyal Catholics, but the mass of them are rebels, and the priests who 
 are infected with this villany excite them to massacre the Protes- 
 tants as a means, together with the hope of plunder, to drive them 
 on in the rebellion. It is a miserable thing to say, but, from all I 
 have seen and know, I am perfectly convinced that while everything 
 round them has improved, the minds and feelings of the lower class 
 of the Catholics of Ireland are exactly what they were in 1641. 
 This is possible, and what I could not have believed four months 
 ago, nor at all, had I not seen the proof with my own eyes. They 
 arc, however, to be brought to reason, as Cromwell brought them 
 then, and by no other means, as the event will prove. In my 
 opinion, a union would be the salvation of both islands." — Diary of 
 Lord Colchester, vol. i. p. 160. 
 
 It is dilHcult to understand how the Irish peasantry could have 
 improved, when they were neither allowed education nor commerce. 
 
100 
 
 Violence — Civil and Military. 
 
 " I shall use my utmost exertions to suppress the folly 
 which has been too prevalent in this quarter, of substituting 
 the word Catholicism instead of Jacobinism, as the foundation 
 of the present rebellion." 
 
 On the 1st of July lie wrote : 
 
 " The violence of our friends, and their folly in endeavouring 
 to make it a religious war, added to the ferocity of our troops 
 who delight in murder, most powerfully counteract all plans of 
 conciliation. 
 
 "The Irish militia are totally without discipline, con- 
 temptible before the enemy when any serious resistance is 
 made to them, but ferocious and cruel in the extreme when 
 any poor wretches, either with or without arms, come within 
 their power ; in short, murder appears to be their favourite 
 pastime. 
 
 " The principal persons of this country, and the members 
 of both Houses of Parliament, are, in general, averse to all 
 acts of clemency, and although they do not express, and 
 perhaps are too much heated to see the ultimate effects which 
 their violence must produce, would pursue measures that could 
 only terminate in the extirpation of the greater number of the 
 inhabitants, and in the utter destruction of the country. The 
 words Papists and Priests are for ever in their mouths, and by 
 their unaccountable policy they would drive four-fifths of the 
 community into irreconcilable rebellion ; and in their warmth 
 they lose sight of the real cause of the present mischief, of that 
 deep-laid conspiracy to revolutionise Ireland on the principles 
 of France, which was originally formed, and by wonderful 
 assiduity brought nearly to maturity by men who had no 
 thought of religion but to destroy it, and who knew how to turn 
 the passions and prejudices of the different sects to the advance- 
 
The Skackleions. 
 
 191 
 
 ment of their horrible plot for the introduction of that most 
 dreadful of all evils, a Jacobin revolution." 
 
 We have given sufficient English authority to 
 show the state of Ireland at the period of O'ConnelTs 
 entrance into public life. Many Irish authorities 
 might have been quoted, but we are so fully aware 
 of English misconception of the whole subject, and 
 of the prejudice which exists against the accounts 
 even of Irish Protestants, who have given truthful 
 narratives of the times, that wc do not introduce 
 their authority here. But there is one authority 
 little known, and seldom, as far as wc are aware, 
 quoted, to which few can object, as likely to be 
 prejudiced unduly on either side — it is that of the 
 gentle and gifted Mary Leadbetter, a member of the 
 Society of Friends. 
 
 Mr. Shackleton, Mrs. Leadbetter's father, kept a 
 famous school at Ballitore, in the county Kildare. 
 The village lies on the high road to Cork, about 
 twenty miles from Dublin. It was almost a Quaker 
 settlement, but many Irish gentlemen were glad to 
 confide the education of their sons to the con- 
 scientious and able schoolmaster. Mrs. Leadbetter 
 wrote, amongst other works, " The Annals of 
 Ballitore," in which she gives a charming description 
 of her home. Edmund Burke was educated there, 
 and kept up a life-long correspondence with the 
 Shackletons, honorable alike to master and pupil. 
 His correspondence forms a considerable and most 
 interesting portion of the volume. All was happy in 
 
192 
 
 Mrs. Leadbetter s Testimony. 
 
 that happy home till the dread hour when the " Irish 
 rising" was put down with merciless cruelty. With 
 a few extracts from Mrs. Leadbetter's narrative, we 
 conclude this painful subject. 
 
 The Shackleton family were treated by both 
 sides with consideration, though they had a a green 1 
 cloth" on their table which they did not remove. 
 We suspect the sympathies of the gentle Friends 
 were rather with the people ; but how could it be 
 otherwise, when the people were always eager to 
 serve them in any way ? Their house was visited 
 frequently both by the insurgents and the military. 
 The following are some of the many scenes of horror 
 which Mrs. Leadbetter records : 
 
 " Every one seemed to think that safety and security were 
 to be found in my brother's house. Thither the insurgents 
 brought their prisoners, and thither also their own wounded 
 comrades. It was an awful sight to behold in that large 
 parlour such a mingled assembly of throbbing, anxious hearts — 
 my brother's own family, silent tears rolling clown their faces ; 
 the wives of the loyal officers, the wives of the soldiers, the 
 wives and daughters of the insurgents, the numerous guests, 
 
 1 The writer knew a lady, since dead, who was unhappy enough 
 to have seen a young man taken up, and hanged without any trial, 
 or even attempt at a trial, simply because he wore a necktie which 
 was partly green. One of the favourite ballads of the period, and 
 which indeed is still sung by the peasants, alludes to this as a com- 
 mon practice. " The Wearing of the Green" is perhaps one of the 
 most soul-stirring of all the Irish rebel-songs — 
 
 " Oh ! such a wretched country, 
 As this was never seen, 
 For they're hanging men and women, 
 For the wearing of the green." 
 
Mrs. Leadbetters Testimony. 
 
 198 
 
 the prisoners, the trembling women — all dreading to see the 
 door open, lest some new distress, some fresh announcement 
 of horrors should enter. It was awful ; but every scene was 
 now awful, and we knew not what a day might bring forth. 
 
 " Young girls dressed in white, with green ribbons, and 
 carrying pikes, accompanied the insurgents. They had patrols 
 and a countersign, but it was long before they could decide 
 upon the password. 
 
 " At length they fixed upon the word 1 scourges.' Sen- 
 tinels were placed in various parts of the village. One day 
 as L went to my brothers, a sentinel called to a man who 
 walked with me not to advance on pain of being shot. The 
 sentinel was my former friend ' the Canny.' I approached 
 him, and asked, would he shoot me if I proceeded ? 1 Shoot 
 yom !' exclaimed he, taking my hand and kissing it, adding a 
 eulogium on the Quakers. 
 
 1 ' I told him it would be well if they were all of our way of 
 thinking, for then there would be no such work as the present. 
 I thought I could comprehend 1 the Camay's' incoherent 
 answer, * Ay ! but you know our Saviour — the scourges, oh ! 
 the scourges !' 
 
 Then raising himself in his stirrups, he revoked the orders 
 given to his men to fire upon every man in coloured clothes. 
 Oh, rash and cruel orders, which exposed to such danger lives 
 of such value, which if thus sacrificed no regrets could have 
 restored ! Nothing can justify such commands. 
 
 " Soldiers came in for milk ; some of their countenances 
 were pale with anger, and they grinned at me, calling me 
 names which I had never heard before. They said I had 
 poisoned the milk which I gave them, and desired me to drink 
 some, which I did with much indignation. Others were civil, 
 and one inquired if we had had any United Irishmen in the 
 house. I told them we had. In that fearful time the least 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 Mrs. Lead-better's Testimony. 
 
 equivocation, the least deception, appeared to me to be fraught 
 with danger. The soldier continued his inquiry — ' Had they 
 plundered us ?' ' No, except of eating and drinking.' ' Oh, 
 free quarters/ he replied, smiled and went away. A fine 
 looking man, a soldier, came in in an extravagant passion ; 
 neither his rage nor my terror could prevent me from observing . 
 that this man was strikingly handsome ; he asked me the 
 same questions in the same terms, and I made the same 
 answer. He cursed me with great bitterness, and raising his 
 musket, presented it to my breast. I desired him not to shoot 
 me. It seemed as if he had the will but not the power to do 
 so. He turned from me, dashed pans and jugs off the kitchen 
 table with his musket, and shattered the kitchen window. 
 Terrified almost out of my wits, I ran out of the house, followed 
 by several women almost as much frightened as myself. When 
 I fled my fears gained strength, and I believed my enemy was 
 pursuing ; I thought of throwing myself into the river at the 
 foot of the garden, thinking the bullet could not hurt me in the 
 water. One of our servants ran into the street to call for help. 
 William Kichardson and Charles Coote, who kindly sat on 
 their horses outside our windows, came in and turned the 
 ruffian out of the house. That danger passed, I beheld from 
 the back window of our parlour the dark-red flames of Gavin's 
 house, and others, rising above the green of the trees. At the 
 same time a fat tobacconist from Carlow lolled upon one of our 
 chairs, and talked boastingly of the exploits performed by the 
 military whom he had accompanied ; how they had shot several, 
 adding, ' We burned one fellow in a barrel.' I never in my 
 life felt disgusted so strongly ; it even overpowered the horror 
 due to the deed which had been actually committed." 
 
(Chapter g\ftk 
 
 THE BAR AND POLITICS. 
 1798— ISO I. 
 
 First Circuit: At the Bar: Jerry Keller: Bar 
 Stories: Promise of Success: Clear Ideas of Fox: 
 The Irish Parliament: The Union: Policy of 
 Pitt : Bribery : The Priests : Concussion in 
 Voting : Letter of Mr. Luke Fox: The Bar and 
 the Union: (( The Anti-Union :" First Speech: 
 Anti-Union Resolutions: Personal Appearance: 
 Grattan and Pitt : Personal Danger. 
 
I 
 
B'CONNELL went his first 
 circuit in 1798. He had 
 only just recovered from 
 the fever already men- 
 tioned, which was so 
 nearly fatal, but his vigo- 
 & rous constitution enabled him to bear both 
 f// then and in later life what might have 
 proved beyond the strength of others less 
 favoured in that way. We give here his 
 own account of this illness : 
 
 " It was occasioned," said he, " by sleeping in 
 wet clothes. I had dried them upon me at a 
 peasant's fire, and drank three glasses of whiskey, 
 after which I fell asleep. The next day I hunted, 
 was soon weary, and fell asleep in a ditch under 
 sunshine. I became much worse ; I spent a fortnight in great 
 discomfort, wandering about and unable to eat. At last, when 
 
198 
 
 The Intellect Untouched, 
 
 I could no longer battle it out, I gave up and went to bed. 
 Old Doctor Moriarty was sent for ; he pronounced me in a high 
 fever. I was in such pain that I wished to die. In my 
 ravings I fancied that I was in the middle of a wood, and that 
 the branches were on fire around me. I felt my backbone 
 stiffening for death, and I positively declare that I think what 
 saved me was the effort I made to rise up, and show my father, 
 who was at my bedside, that I knew him. I verily believe 
 that effort of nature averted death. During my illness I used 
 to quote from the tragedy of Douglas these lines : 
 
 ' Unknown I die ; no tongue shall speak of me ; 
 Some noble spirits, judging by themselves, 
 May yet conjecture what I might have proved ; 
 And think life only wanting to my fame.' 
 
 I used to quote those lines under the full belief that my illness 
 would end fatally. Indeed, long before that period— when I 
 was seven years old — yes, indeed, as long as ever I can recollect, 
 I always felt a presentiment that I should write my name on 
 the page of history. I hated Saxon domination. I detested 
 the tyrants of Ireland. During the latter part of my illness, 
 Doctor Moriarty told me that Buonaparte had got his whole 
 army to Alexandria, across the desert. ' That is impossible,' 
 said I, 1 he cannot have done so; they would have starved.' 
 ' Oh, no,' replied the doctor, 'they had a quantity of portable 
 soup with them, sufficient to feed the whole army for four days.' 
 ' Ay,' rejoined I, ' but had they portable water ? For their 
 portable soup would have been of little use if they had not 
 water to dissolve it in.' My father looked at the attendants 
 with an air of hope. Doctor Moriarty said to my mother, 'His 
 intellect, at any rate, is untouched.' " 
 
 This illness occurred in August, 1798, and 
 immediately after his recovery he went on circuit. 
 Of this event he has also left a record, or rather the 
 
Leavhuj Hume. 
 
 109 
 
 record as given by himself has been preserved by his 
 faithful friend Mr. Daunt. 
 
 Travelling then in Kerry, 1 or indeed in any part 
 of the world, was by no means the easy and rapid 
 affair it is now. O'Connell left home at four o'clock 
 in the morning on horseback, accompanied by his 
 brother John, who was bound for the more congenial 
 occupation of hunting. O'Connell was passionately 
 fond of sport, and tenderly attached to his whole 
 family, so that the parting had a double pang. We 
 give the remainder of the narrative in O'Connell's 
 own words : 
 
 " I looked after him, from time to time, until he was out 
 of sight, and then I cheered up my spirits as well as I could ; 
 I had left home at such an early hour, that I was in Tralee at 
 half-past twelve. I got my horse fed, and, thinking it was as 
 
 1 Until the year 1825, when the Limerick mail-coach was estab- 
 lished, post-chaises, sometimes of the rudest construction, were the 
 only means of conveyance. Two well-known Tralee characters, 
 Davy Dog and Jack Hackney, kept these coaches, and with rope 
 shrouds rigged under the bodies of them to assist or preserve the 
 springs. They took six or seven hours going from Tralee to Lis- 
 towel — a distance of eighteen miles — stopped there that night, the 
 next day journeying as far as Newbridge, where another night was 
 spent, and the third day they reached Limerick. The journey be- 
 tween Tralee and Limerick is performed at present by rail in about 
 five hours. 
 
 The first four-horse mail was driven into Kerry from Cork on the 
 11th of August, 1810, by old Mich Daly, a famous Jehu, whose 
 chirrup was the delight of his horses, and who made the noble and 
 creditable boast that " a ha'porth of whipcord" would last a twelve- 
 month. He had a theory, rather old-fashioned, we must fear, that 
 M beating horses was not driving them." He proved his theory by 
 
200 " You'll do, Young Gentleman, 
 
 well to push on, I remounted him, and took the road to Tarbert 
 by Listowel. A few miles further on, a shower of rain drove 
 me under a bridge for shelter. While I stayed there, the rain 
 sent Robert Hickson also under the bridge. He saluted me, 
 and asked me where I was going ? I answered, ' To Tarbert.' 
 ' Why so late ?' said Hickson. ' 1 am not late,' said I. ' I 
 have been up since four o'clock this morning.' ' Why where 
 have you come from ?' ' From Carhen.' Hickson looked 
 astonished, for the distance was near fifty Irish miles. But 
 he expressed his warm approval of my activity. ' You'll do, 
 young gentleman,' said he ; \ I see you'll do.' I then rode on, 
 and got to Tarbert about five in the afternoon — full sixty miles 
 
 practice, and we sincerely wish we had a few more imitators. But 
 good driving requires some intellectual effort ; and brute force, which 
 the prosecutions of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
 Animals shows to be very much in vogue at the other side of the 
 Channel, is within the reach of every man, however degraded, who 
 has a strong arm. 
 
 The judges in the eighteenth century at least, travelled direct 
 from Limerick to Tralee, and were particular about the state of the 
 roads, for they fined the county Kerry one hundred pounds for not 
 keeping the " great circuit road " in proper repair. 
 
 The first hotel of any importance in Tralee was set up by Dick 
 Thornton, and was styled the Denny Arms. Dick, as usual in such 
 cases, was a retired servant. He had been coachman to Sir Barry 
 Denny, but having become incapacitated for that position by a fall 
 from his seat of authority, the coach-box — he was set up as hotel- 
 keeper, and provided with a wooden leg. 
 
 The Blennerhassets, too, had their hotel, conducted by Sam 
 Benner, who was also a post-master, and is said to have advanced 
 the art of locomotion by his strenuous efforts to keep up and im- 
 prove his business. Paddy Devine represented the Crosbie interest. 
 His hotel, as in duty bound, was called the Crosbie Arms. He is 
 reported to have been an extensive farmer, and, moreover, kept 
 race-horses. 
 
O'ConneWs Forte. 
 
 201 
 
 Irish from Carhen. There wasn't one hook to he had at the 
 inn. I had no acquaintance in the town ; and I felt my spirits 
 low enough at the prospect of a long, stupid evening. But I 
 was relieved by the sudden appearance of Ralph Marshall, an 
 old friend of mine, who came to the inn to dress for a hall that 
 took place in Tarbert that night. He asked me to accompany 
 him to the ball. 1 Why, 1 said I, ' 1 have ridden sixty miles.' 
 1 Oh, you don't seem in the least tired,' said he, 1 so come 
 along.' Accordingly I went, and remained up until two o'clock 
 in the morning, dancing." 
 
 A few hours' sleep was sufficient to refresh the 
 hardy youth, and he rode off to the Limerick assizes 
 to make his first public appearance as a barrister. 
 How little he could have anticipated, as he rode 
 quietly and unnoticed into the grand old city of the 
 Violated Treaty, 1 and glanced at the stone which 
 commemorates Irish bravery and English bad faith, 
 how triumphantly he should one day be received 
 there himself ! 
 
 He at once distinguished himself as a cross- 
 examiner, which was undoubtedly his great forte at 
 the bar. This department of the legal profession re- 
 quires a tact and talent peculiar to itself, and which 
 is often wanting in those who were gifted in other 
 ways with the highest forensic ability. Woe to the 
 unhappy man who gets into the witness box with a 
 secret ; he might make a thousand resolutions to 
 keep it to himself, he might succeed with some cross- 
 
 1 The particulars of the Violated Treaty are too well-known to 
 need more than a passing allusion. It is certainly one of the worst 
 breaches of faith on record. 
 
202 
 
 Examining a Witness. 
 
 examiners but certainly not when O'Connell was 
 counsel. 
 
 He laughed, he cajoled, he rarely threatened, he 
 began a cheerful conversation in most confidential 
 terms. The half-pleased, half-bewildered witness 
 "did not know where he was." This agreeable 
 gentleman surely could have no , ulterior designs in 
 all this. Precisely when the unhappy man was 
 thoroughly off his guard, out came the question. It 
 was generally answered with a second's hesitation, 
 and O'Connell sat down triumphant. 
 
 He had a singular facility, a gift which cannot be 
 acquired by any amount of practice, of seizing the 
 salient points of a subject at one glance. He not 
 only asked well, but he knew exactly what to ask. 
 In ten # minutes he would extract as much informa- 
 tion from a witness, as a more practised but less 
 gifted barrister would attain in half an hour. 
 
 At the Tralee assizes he held a brief from Jerry 
 Keller, a noted attorney. O'Connell had to examine 
 a witness about whose sobriety there was some 
 question. The witness would not convict himself. 
 He declared he had his " share of a pint of whiskey." 
 His sobriety depended on the amount of the " share." 
 O'Connell asked him by virtue of his oath, was not 
 Ids share all but the pewter ; and amid a roar of 
 laughter the unhappy victim of forensic dexterity 
 was obliged to admit that it was. O'Connell, in 
 relating the story afterwards, said, " The oddity of 
 my mode of putting the question was very successful, 
 
"A Clever Rogue." 
 
 203 
 
 and created a general and hearty laugh. Jerry 
 Keller repeated the encouragement Robert Hickson 
 had already bestowed upon my activity, in the very 
 same words, 1 You'll efo, young gentleman ! you'll 
 
 Mr, Hickson's history was a curious exemplifica- 
 tion of the state of the times. He turned Protestant 
 to save his property, and was twice High Sheriff of 
 Kerry. When the penal code was relaxed, he went 
 back to his old faith to save his conscience, having, 
 however, first made very sure that this proceeding 
 would not injure his temporal prosperity. 
 
 O'Connell used to tell some capital bar stories. 
 
 " The cleverest rogue in the profession that ever I heard 
 of," he said, on one occasion, " was one Checkley, familiarlv 
 known by tfce name of ' Checkley-be-d — d.' Checkley was 
 agent once at the Cork assizes for a fellow accused of burglary 
 and aggravated assault committed at Bantry. The noted Jerry 
 Keller was counsel for the prisoner, against whom the charge 
 was made out by the clearest circumstantial evidence ; so 
 clearly, that it seemed quite impossible to doubt his guilt. 
 When the case for the prosecution closed, the judge asked if 
 there were any witnesses for the defence. ' Yes, my lord,' 
 said Jerry Keller, ' I have three briefed to me.' £ Call them,' 
 said the judge. Checkley immediately bustled out of court, 
 and returned, at once, leading in a very respectable-looking, 
 farmer-like man, with a blue coat and gilt buttons, scratch wig, 
 corduroy tights, and gaiters. ' This is a witness to character, 
 my lord,' said Checkley. Jerry Keller (the counsel) forthwith 
 began to examine the witness. After asking him his name 
 and residence. ' You know the prisoner in the dock ?' said 
 Keller. 1 Yes, your honour, ever since he was a gorsoon !* 
 
204 
 
 Proving an Alibi 
 
 i And what is his general character ?' said Keller. ' Ogh, the 
 devil a worse !' 'Why, what sort of a witness is this you've 
 brought ?' cried Keller, passionately, flinging down his brief, 
 and looking furiously at Checkley ; ' he has ruined us !' ' He 
 may prove an alibi, however,' returned Checkley ; i examine 
 him to alibi as instructed in your brief.' Keller accordingly 
 resumed his examination. ' Where was the prisoner on the 
 10th instant ?' said he. ' He was near Castlemartyr,' answered 
 the witness. ' Are you sure of that ?' i Quite sure, counsellor V 
 ' How do you know with such certainty ?' ' Because upon 
 that very night I was returning from the fair, and when I got 
 near my own house, I saw the prisoner a little way on before 
 me — I'd swear to him anywhere. He was dodging about, and 
 I knew it could be for no good end. So I slipped into the 
 field and turned off my horse to grass ; and while I was 
 watching the lad from behind the ditch, I saw him pop across 
 the wall into my garden and steal a lot of parsnips and carrots ; 
 and, what I thought a great dale worse of, he stole a bran-new 
 English spade I had got from my landlord, Lord Shannon. 
 So, faix ! I cut away after him, but as I was tired from the 
 day's labour, and he being fresh and nimble, I wasn't able to 
 ketch him. But next day my spade was seen surely in his 
 house, and that's the same rogue in the dock ! I wish I had 
 a hoult of him.' ' It is quite evident,' said the judge, that we 
 must acquit the prisoner ; the witness has clearly established 
 an alibi for him ; Castlemartyr is nearly sixty miles from 
 Bantry; and he certainly is anything but a partisan of his. 
 Pray, friend,' addressing the witness, 'will you swear informa- 
 tions against the prisoner for his robbery of your property?' 
 ' Troth I will, my lord ! with all the pleasure in life, if your 
 lordship thinks I can get any satisfaction out of him. I'm 
 tould I can for the spade, but not for the carrots and parsnips.' 
 ' Go to the Crown Office and swear informations,' said the 
 judge. 
 
• ; Take away thit OwL" 
 
 205 
 
 u The prisoner was of course discharged, the alibi having 
 clearly been established ; in an hour's time some inquiry was 
 made as to whether Checkley's rural witness had sworn informa- 
 tions in the Crown Office. That gentleman was not to be 
 heard of ; the prisoner also had vanished immediately on being 
 discharged— and of course resumed his mal-practices forthwith. 
 It needs hardly be told, that Lord Shannon's soi-disant tenant 
 dealt a little in fiction, and that the whole story of his farm 
 from that nobleman, and of the prisoner's thefts of the spade 
 and the vegetables, was a pleasant device of Mr. Checkley's. 
 I told this story," continued O'Connell, "to a coterie of 
 English barristers with whom I dined ; and it was most 
 diverting to witness their astonishment at Mr. Checkley's un- 
 principled ingenuity. Stephen Rice, the assistant barrister, 
 had so high an admiration of this clever rogue, that he declared 
 lie would readily walk fifty miles to see Checkley !" 
 
 The Tralee court-house was the scene of some 
 curious episodes. One of these was thus related by 
 O'Connell : 
 
 " O'Grady was on one occasion annoyed at the disorderly 
 noise in the court-house at Tralee. He bore it quietly for 
 some time, expecting that Denny (the High Sheriff) would 
 interfere to restore order. Findiug, however, that Denny, who 
 was reading in his box, took no notice of the riot, O'Grady 
 rose from the bench, and called out to the studious High Sheriff, 
 ' Mr. Denny, I just got up to hint that I'm afraid the noise in 
 the court will prevent you from reading your novel in quiet.* 
 
 " After O'Grady had retired from the bench, some person 
 placed a large stuffed owl on the sofa beside him. The bird 
 # was of enormous size, and had been brought as a great curiosity 
 from the tropics. O'Grady looked at the owl for a moment, and 
 then said with a jesture of peevish impatience, ' Take away 
 that owl ! take away that owl ! If you don't, I shall fancy I 
 
206 Tried for Melodious Practices. 
 
 am seated again on the Exchequer Bench beside Baron 
 Foster !' Those who have seen Baron Foster on the bench, can 
 best appreciate the felicitous resemblance traced by his venerable 
 brother judge between his lordship and an old stuffed owl.' 
 
 ' 'Judge 0' Grady was by no means deficient in wit. Mr. 
 Purcell 0' Gorman, previously to emancipation, was one of the 
 most violent out-and-out partisans of the Catholic party. He 
 often declared that I did not go far enough. We were once 
 standing together in the inn at Ennis, and I took up a prayer 
 book which lay in the window, and said, kissing it, 1 By virtue 
 of this book, I will not take place or office from the Govern- 
 ment until Emancipation is carried. Now, Purcell, my man ! 
 will you do as much ?' Purcell 0' Gorman put the book to his 
 lips, but immediately put it away, saying, ' I won't swear; I 
 needn't ! my word is as good as my oath — I am sure of my 
 own fidelity !' When Chief Baron 0' Grady heard this story, 
 he remarked, ' They were both quite right. Government has 
 nothing worth O'Connell's while to take until Emancipation 
 be carried ; but anything at all would 'be good enough for 
 Purcell O'Gorman.' " 
 
 Some waggish barrister having accused Nicholas 
 Purcell O'Gorman of being a musician, the charge 
 was stoutly denied by the accused person. 
 
 " A jury," said O'Connell, " was thereupon impannelled to 
 try the defendant, who persisted in pleading ' Not guilty' to 
 the indictment for melodious practices. The jury consisted of 
 Con Lyne, under twelve different aliases — such as ' Con of the 
 Seven Bottles/ ' Con of the Seven Throttles,' ' Crim-Con,' and 
 so forth. The prosecutor then proceeded to interrogate the 
 defendant : ' By virtue of your oath, Mr. O'Gorman, did you^ 
 never play on any musical instrument ?' ' Never, on my 
 honour !' replied Purcell. ' Come, sir, recollect yourself. By 
 virtue of your oath, did you never play second fiddle to 
 
Lesson in Cow-stealing Gratis. 
 
 207 
 
 O'Connell ?' The fact was too notorious to admit of any 
 tlefeuce, and the unanimous jury accordingly returned a verdict 
 of guilty." 
 
 O'Connell once received a singular compliment 
 from one of his clients whom he had unsuccessfully 
 defended for cow-stealing : 
 
 11 1 was once," said he, "counsel for a cow- stealer, who was 
 clearly convicted — the sentence was transportation for fourteen 
 years. At the end of that time he returned, and happening to 
 meet me, he began to talk about the trial. I asked him how 
 he had always managed to steal the fat cows; to which he 
 gravely answered : £< Why, then, I'll tell your honour the whole 
 secret of that, sir. Whenever your honour goes to steal a coir, 
 always go on the worst night you can, for if the weather is 
 very bad, the chances are that nobody will be up to see your 
 honour. The way you'll always know the fat cattle in the 
 dark is by this token —that the fat cows always stand out in 
 the more exposed places, but the lean ones always go into the 
 ditch for shelter.' So," continued O'Connell, "I got that 
 lesson in cow-stealing gratis froin my worthy client." 
 
 O'Connell visited Limerick, Cork, and Tralee in 
 this circuit. He then posted to Dublin with Harry 
 Deane Grady. The journey was long and dangerous. 1 
 
 1 O'Connell often contrasted the rapid mode of modern travel- 
 ling with the slower movements of past days. " I remember," said 
 he, "when I left Darrynane for London in 1795, my first day's 
 journey was to Carhen — my second to Killorglin — my third to 
 Tralee — my fourth to Limerick — two days thence to Dublin. I 
 sailed from Dublin in the evening— my passage to Holyhead was 
 performed in twenty- four hours ; from Holyhead to Chester, took 
 six-and-thirty horns ; from Chester to London, three days. My 
 uncle kept a diary of a tour he made in England between the years 
 70 and '80, and' one of his memorabilia was 1 This day we have 
 
208 
 
 Jack of the Roads. 
 
 The rebellion had been crushed by brute force, but 
 the fire was still smouldering, and bands of hunted 
 men, who were unable to work because there was 
 no work for them to do, and who could at best sell 
 their lives dearly, haunted the mountains in different 
 parts of Ireland. Every man's hand was against 
 them, and their hand was against every man. 
 
 A party had taken up their abode in the Kilworth 
 mountains through which O'Connell and his com- 
 panion were obliged to pass. In the evening, while 
 resting at the Fermoy inn, four dragoons came in, 
 one of whom was a corporal. O'Connell and his 
 companion were anxious to provide themselves with 
 
 travelled thirty-six miles, and passed through part of five counties.' 
 In 1780, the two members for the county of Kerry sent to Dublin 
 for a noddy, and travelled together in it from Kerry to Dublin. The 
 journey occupied seventeen days ; and each night the two members 
 quartered themselves at the house of some friend ; and on the seven- 
 teenth day they reached Dublin, just in time for the commencement 
 of the session. I remember in 1817 dodging for eight hours about 
 Caernarvon Harbour before we could land. When on shore, I pro- 
 ceeded to Capelcarrig, . where I was taken very ill ; and I was not 
 consoled by reflecting that should my illness threaten life, there was 
 no Catholic priest within forty miles of me." Among other illustra- 
 tions of the state of things in the good old days of Tory rule, ho 
 recorded the fate of a poor half-witted creature called " Jack of the 
 roads," who, in the earlier part of the century, used to run along- 
 side the Limerick coaches : "He once made a bet of fourpence and 
 a pot of porter that he would run to Dublin from Limerick, keeping 
 pace with the mail. He did so, and when he was passing through 
 Mountrath on his return, on the 12th of July, 1807 or 1808, he 
 flourished a green bough at a party of Orangemen who were holding 
 their orgies. One of them fired at his face ; his eyes were de- 
 stroyed — he lingered and died — and there was an end of Poor 
 Jack." 
 
A Man to Succeed. 
 
 200 
 
 ammunition, but this was by no means easy to ob- 
 tain. Mr. Grady opened negotiations with the cor- 
 poral : 
 
 " Soldier, will you sell me some powder and ball ?" 
 
 u . Sir, I don't sell powder,'' replied the corporal, who in his 
 own opinion was no soldier. 
 
 " Will you then have the goodness to buy me some ?" said 
 Grady; "in these unsettled times the dealers in the article 
 are reluctant to sell it to strangers like us." 
 
 " Sir," replied the corporal, u I am no man's messenger 
 but the king's — go yourself." 
 
 " Grady," said O'Connell in a low tone, " you have made 
 a great mistake. Did you not see by the mark on his sleeve 
 that the man is a corporal ? You mortified his pride in calling 
 him a soldier, especially before his own men, amongst whom 
 he doubtless plays the officer." 
 
 Having suffered a few minutes to elapse, O'Connell entered 
 into conversation with the dragoon : 
 
 " Did you ever see such rain as we had to-day, sergeant ? 
 I was very glad to find that the regulars had not the trouble of 
 escorting the judges. It was very suitable work for those 
 awkward yeomen." 
 
 u Yes, indeed, sir," returned the corporal, evidently 
 flattered at being mistaken for a sergeant, 1 ' we were very 
 lucky in escaping those torrents of rain." 
 
 " Perhaps, sergeant, you will have the kindness," continued 
 O'Connell, " to buy me some powder and ball in town. We 
 are to pass the Kilworth mountains, and shall want ammuni- 
 tion. You can, of course, find no difficulty in buying it ; but 
 it is not to every one they sell these matters." 
 
 Sir," said the corporal, "I shall have great pleasure in 
 requesting your acceptance of a small supply of powder and 
 ball. My balls will, I think, just fit your pistols. You'll 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 A Losing Game to Play. 
 
 stand in need of ammunition, for there are some of those out- 
 lying rebelly rascals on the mountains." 
 
 " Dan/' said Grady, in a low tone, "you'll go through the 
 world successfully ; that I can easily foresee." 1 
 
 And Dan did go through the world successfully. 
 
 O'Connell's first speech was made in opposition 
 to the Union. Fortunately a copy of this most im- 
 portant document has been preserved. It was the 
 key-note to O'Connell's political life, and from this 
 first declaration of his principles he never departed 
 or swerved for a second. His family were against 
 him, and especially his uncle Maurice, to whom he 
 owed his education. Political life was a dangerous 
 game, and a losing one, and old "Hunting-cap," 
 though he lived all his life in the wilds of Kerry, 
 knew quite enough of public affairs to make him 
 
 1 The last remaining robber was shot about the year 1810, by 
 the postmaster of Fermoy. Several persons had been robbed a short 
 time previously ; whereupon the postmaster and another inhabitant 
 of Fermoy hired a chaise and drove to the mountains of Kilworth. 
 The robber spied the chaise, came to rob, upon which the post- 
 master shot him dead. 
 
 '•'There was," said O'Connell, "a narrow causeway thrown 
 across a glen, which formed a peculiarly dangerous part of the old 
 road ; it was undefended by guard- walls, and too narrow for two 
 carriages to pass abreast. The post-boys used to call it ' the de- 
 licate bit and a ticklish spot it surely was on a dark night, 
 approached at one end from a steep declivity. 
 
 O'Connell used to tell a good story of his friend Harry Grady : 
 " I remember a good specimen of his skill in cross-examination at 
 an assizes at Tralee, where he defended some still-owners who had 
 recently had a scuffle with five soldiers. The soldiers were witnesses 
 against the still-owners. Harry Grady cross-examined each soldier 
 
Want of Unity. 
 
 211 
 
 anxious to keep Darrynane in the family, and to 
 keep young Dan's head on his shoulders. But young- 
 Dan was thoroughly capable of taking care of himself, 
 and he continued to steer through the difficult period 
 of the Union without any personal inconvenience. 
 
 The Union was formally brought before the 
 English Houses of Parliament by message a from the 
 Crown on the 22nd of January, 1799, but Mr. Pitt 
 had laid his plans for it as far back as 1784. when he 
 came into office. He set himself to work with that 
 steady determination which is the best promise of suc- 
 cess, and with that unscrupulous disregard of justice 
 which generally serves for a time. The difficulties 
 lie met with, and probably the steady opposition of 
 his powerful rival, Fox. were a further incentive. 
 
 Fox had very clear ideas of Irish policy for an 
 English statesman. He saw that the divisions of the 
 
 ill the following manner out of hearing of bis brethren, who were 
 kept out of court : " Well, soldier, it was a murderous scuffle, wasn't 
 it I ' — 1 Yes.' — ' But you weren't afraid '? ' — 1 No.' — 1 Of course you 
 weren't. It is part of your sworn duty to die in the king's service 
 if needs must. But, if you were not afraid, maybe others were not 
 quite so brave ? Were any of your comrades frightened ? Tell the* 
 truth now.' — 1 Why, indeed, sir, I can't say but they were.' — 1 Ah, I 
 thought so. Come, now, name the men who were frightened — on 
 your oath, now.' 
 
 " The soldier then named every one of his four comrades. Ho 
 was then sent down, and another soldier called upon the table, to 
 whom Grady addressed precisely the same set of queries, receiving 
 precisely the same answers ; until at last he got each of the five 
 soldiers to swear, that he alone had fought the still-owners bravely, 
 and that all his four comrades were cowards. Thus Harry succeeded 
 in utterly discrediting the soldiers' evidence against his clients." 
 
212 
 
 Nominally Free and Independent. 
 
 Irish themselves — those divisions with which they 
 have been so frequently taunted, and which are so 
 little understood — were the principal cause of the 
 misfortunes of this unhappy country. He could not 
 understand why Irish politicians would not work 
 together, 1 and forget that English politicians were 
 equally, though not so disastrously divided. He did 
 not understand, what we fear has never yet been 
 thoroughly understood — the state of government in 
 Ireland, and w r hy Irishmen were disunited, or only 
 united in parties to oppose each other. 
 
 The only attempt at a Republican government in 
 Ireland had been the Parliament of Kilkenny, held 
 by the Confederates in 1645. It was certainly some 
 sort of satisfaction to the nation at large to feel that 
 they had any kind of national representation ; the 
 meeting of a parliament in Dublin gave a certain 
 appearance of status to the country, but it was only 
 an appearance. The members of both Houses were, 
 with a very few exceptions, members of the English 
 Government ; the nation was not represented. Ireland 
 
 " February 8th, 1799. 
 1 "If the Irish would stick to one another, they might play a 
 game that would have more chance of doing good than any that has 
 been in question for a long time. They might win the battle that 
 we lost in 1784, and which after all is the pivot upon which every- 
 thing turns. They ought to be very careful to confine themselves, 
 however, to Irish ministers, and great officers in Ireland, and they 
 would be in no danger (unless I am very much deceived indeed) 
 of being deserted by the people, as we were." — Fox's Letters, vol. iv. 
 p. 157. 
 
The National Representation. 
 
 was a Catholic nation, yet not one single Catholic 
 could raise his voice in that assembly. Irishmen 
 were allowed to vote, and after a time Catholics 
 were allowed to vote nominally ; but the vote was 
 only nominal — it was little more than a badge of 
 slavery ; for woe to the freeholder who dared to 
 have an opinion of his own ! woe to the u inde- 
 pendent elector'' who availed himself of his supposed 
 independence. 
 
 The majority, the vast majority, of those who sat 
 in the Irish House of Lords, and the Irish House of 
 Commons, were men who had no Irish interests 
 whatever ; who, far from having such interests, 
 actually hated and scorned the men whom they were 
 supposed to represent. They had one god, and they 
 worshipped him with unfailing devotion — for him 
 they were ready to sacrifice honour, principle, and 
 self-respect ; for him they were willing to imbrue 
 their hands in the very life-blood of the unhappy 
 men whose interests they were supposed to re- 
 present. 1 
 
 1 Fox wrote to Lord Holland on the 19th of January, 1799 : 
 M I own I think, according to the plan with which you have set 
 out, that you ought to attend the Union ; nor do I feel much any of 
 your objections, I mean to attendance, for in all those to the Union 
 I agree with you entirely. If it were only for the state of represen- 
 tation in their House of Commons, I should object to it ; but when 
 you add the state of the country, it is the most monstrous proposi- 
 tion that ever was made. What has given rise to the report of my 
 being for it I cannot guess, as exclusive of temporary objections I 
 never had the least liking to the measure, though I confess I have 
 
214 
 
 Cost of a State Policy. 
 
 Pitt knew perfectly well the difficulties he would 
 have to meet in effecting his purpose. He had four 
 classes to deal with, and he dealt with them one by 
 one with a masterly ability worthy of a better 
 cause. 
 
 He had to deal with the people of Ireland, with 
 those units who are considered so insignificant when 
 counted by ones- — who are so terribly formidable 
 when you come to add the ones, and discover that 
 they amount to millions. A multitude is terribly 
 formidable even without leaders, even when they are 
 held in chains. The English minister knew this, and 
 crushed the multitude. If it did cost some millions 
 of money, what matter ! his was an extravagant ad- 
 ministration, and he hoped to revenge himself after 
 the Union. As to the lives, the agony, the legacy of 
 hatred, all that " went without saying." Perhaps he 
 deplored the blood and crime a little, not having the 
 brutal nature of Cromwell, who delighted in it, but 
 he consoled himself with the reflection that state 
 policy requires sacrifice. . 
 
 less attended to the arguments pro and con than perhaps I otherwise 
 should have done, from a full conviction that it was completely im- 
 possible. You know, I dare say, that my general principle in 
 politics is very much against the one and indivisible, and if I were to 
 allow myself a leaning to any extreme it would be to that of Federal- 
 ism. Pray, therefore, whenever you hear my opinion mentioned, 
 declare for me my decided disapprobation ; not that I would have 
 my wish to have this known a reason for your attendance, however, 
 if otherwise you wish to stay away." — Fox's Correspondence, vol. iv. 
 p. 150. 
 
Ireland Q Dependency. 
 
 215 
 
 The benefit of England was the one grand object. 1 
 1 1 was right, it was more than justifiable that English- 
 men should seek the advancement of their own 
 nation above all things, but they were equally bound 
 in common honesty either to treat Irish interests as 
 synonymous with their own, or to leave Ireland 
 
 I This was do secret. In 1699, Sir Richard Cox wrote a work, 
 entitled " The English Interest in Ireland," proposing a Union in 
 the following words : 
 
 II It is your interest to unite and incorporate us with England ; 
 far b that means the English interest will always be prevalent here, 
 and the kingdom as secure to you as Wales, or any county in Eng- 
 land, four team will be lessened when we bear part of the burden. 
 
 . . All our money will still centre at London ; and our trade 
 and communication with England will be so considerable, that we 
 shall think ourselves at home when there ; and where one goes 
 thither now, then ten wid go when all our business is transacted in 
 your Parliament, to which, if we send sixty-four knights for our 
 thirty-two counties, ten lords, and six bishops, they may spend our 
 money, hut cannot influence your councils to your disadvantage. . . . 
 By the Union, Engl Did will get much of our money, and abundance 
 of our trade." 
 
 This man was a specimen of the class of men who carried the 
 Union or who represented Ireland. Though Irish by birth, his in- 
 terests were wholly English. 
 
 In 1751, Sir Matthew Dicker wrote "Essays on Trade," in 
 which he said : 
 
 M By a Union with Ireland the taxes of Great Britain will be les- 
 sened." In 1767, Postlethwayte wrote a work, entitled ''Britain's 
 Commercial Interest," in which he said : "By the Union, Ireland 
 would soon be enabled to pay a million a-year towards the taxes of 
 Great Britain ; the riches of Ireland would chiefly return to Eng- 
 land, she containing the seat of empire ; the Irish lairds would be 
 little better than tenants to her, for allowing them the privilege of 
 making the best of their relations," — p. 203. 
 
216 
 
 Fox on the Union. 
 
 perfectly free to look after her own interests. It 
 was not just to treat her as a dependency, or rather 
 as a country which was to be used solely for the 
 interests of those who had made themselves her 
 masters by force of arms. 
 
 Fox was probably the only English statesman of 
 his time who had thoroughly clear ideas as to the 
 duty and the good policy of making English and 
 Irish interests coincide. He held and expressed 
 strong views as to the power of the people, and was 
 decidedly of opinion that Parliament could not make 
 a Union between the two countries either with legal 
 or moral right, unless Parliament had the sanction of 
 the people. 
 
 " Supposing the Stamp act were beneficial to 
 America, Parliament was not competent in any sense 
 of the word to enact it. Supposing a Union would 
 be beneficial to Ireland, Parliament again is not com- 
 petent to enact it, because it is not within its com- 
 mission to destroy the constitution which it is 
 instituted to support, even though it should place a 
 better in its stead ; and here comes in with propriety 
 what Locke says- — that Parliament is to make laws 
 and not legislatures. I cannot think, for instance, that 
 Parliament is competent to declare Great Britain an 
 absolute monarchy, or a republic, though it should 
 be of opinion that the change would be for the 
 better. For such revolutions there must be a known 
 opinion of the people, and though such opinion be 
 difficult to collect legally, yet for practical purposes 
 
Landlord and Tenant. 
 
 217 
 
 it may be collected in a practical way, as I contend 
 that it was, or at least that it was pretended to be, in 
 1688 and 1706. It is said that this reasoning goes 
 to say, that Parliament, which is instituted to improve, 
 cannot be competent to impair the Constitution ; the 
 answer is, that whether a projected alteration be an 
 improvement or an injury, is a question upon which 
 Parliament is commissioned to judge, but annihilation 
 (which Union must be allowed to be) is not within 
 their commission. That it is annihilation, I, of course, 
 suppose proved, before I deny the competence." 
 
 We have seen how Mr. Pitt dealt with the people. 
 His mode of dealing with the upper classes was far 
 more simple and effective. They wanted money, 
 and lie flung it about with reckless prodigality. The 
 sale of boroughs was always a profitable source of 
 income to Anglo-Irish noblemen. They were a 
 needy race, and bv no means satisfied with their 
 poverty. In their folly and infatuation they en- 
 couraged the rebellion, forgetting that they were but 
 impoverishing themselves. They soon learned their 
 fatal mistake, but they had not the wisdom to discern 
 the remedy. 
 
 It was always hard for the Irish tenant to pay his 
 rent, because he was not allowed a straw for his 
 bricks, though the bricks were required all the same ; 
 but after the rebellion there was a deficiency of 
 tenants, and no amount of torture could wring money 
 from the hapless few who remained to till the im- 
 poverished soil. The circulation of the Bank of 
 
218 
 
 Bribery and Incapability. 
 
 Ireland also was discredited, and, of course, the poor 
 were the sufferers. The tenants were obliged to pay 
 in gold when they could be made pay at all, but the 
 scarcity was so great, that the tradesmen were paid 
 in paper money, thus throwing the burden still on 
 the people. 1 
 
 The bribery system was not made any secret. 
 Gentlemen knew their worth, and were by no means 
 modest in proclaiming it. If they were to sell 
 
 1 On the 8th June, 1799, Lord Devonshire wrote to Lord Castle- 
 reagh: " Whilst I have the pen in my hand, I beg leave to trespass 
 upon your Lordship a little longer, to state a great grievance that 
 this part of the world labours under, which, if possible, ought to be 
 stopped — that is, the sale of the gold coin. When Government 
 thought fit, two or three years ago, to encourage the circulation of 
 bank paper, that traffic began. I gave all the assistance I could to 
 Government in their object, and took bank paper in my office for 
 rent, which I still continue to do, which, I believe, none of my 
 neighbours do. I understand Lord Hertford, Lord Donegal, Lord 
 Londonderry, &c, never have and do not take any paper for their 
 rents ; but now I cannot pay a bill to any tradesman in Belfast or 
 the country in bank notes, without allowing from threepence to 
 eightpence in every guinea. I understand it is the same in the 
 pay of the army. The conduct of the bank of Ireland is so illiberal, 
 if not illegal, and, besides, take so little pains to stop forgeries upon 
 them, that I shall no longer take their paper as rent in my office. 
 There is scarce a remittance made to Dublin but two or three notes 
 are returned as forged. They have left off defacing the note, indeed, 
 as they used to do, by which a poor honest man lost eight five- 
 pound notes that my agent recovered for him ; but he had not taken 
 the same precaution my agent did, as the notes were so defaced by 
 an oiled red stamp that he could not swear to the paper, and those 
 that he thought had paid them to him denied that these notes were 
 those they paid him. I have ordered no notes to be taken, till some 
 means are devised to prevent the gross imposition of paying for gold." 
 
Picture of the State of Ireland. 
 
 219 
 
 honour and conscience, at least they meant to have 
 the full value of both. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis wrote to Major-General Ross on 
 23rd November 1798, and gave some charmingly 
 naive descriptions of how affairs were being managed. 
 He was obliged to talk a great deal, and found it a 
 bore. He thought the Catholics might as well have 
 got the benefit of what was going, they at the very 
 time, being kept under the delusion that they were 
 to be included. He declared the Lords-Lieutenant 
 had been idle and incapable, yet Irishmen were 
 wildly blamed if they were not loyal to them ; and 
 lie declared the whole manner of governing Ireland 
 was founded on the " grossest corruption." 
 
 On the 27th of April 1799 Lord Cornwallis 
 wrote to the Bishop of Lichfield, giving a wretched 
 picture of the state of Ireland : 
 
 " This wretched country remains much in the same state, 
 the seeds of disaffection, of hatred of England, and in particular 
 (and, I am sorry to say, in general with more reason) of their 
 own landlords, are as deeply rooted as ever, and frequently 
 hreak out in various shapes, such as the murder of magistrates, 
 or the houghing of cattle : our politicians of the old leaven are 
 as much occupied with their dirty jobs as ever. Those who 
 think at all of the great question of the Union, confine their 
 speculation to the simple question of its either promoting or 
 counteracting their own private views, and the great mass of 
 the people neither think or care about the matter. Under 
 these circumstances, you will easily conceive how unpleasant 
 my situation must be, and how little I can flatter myself with 
 the hopes of obtaining any credit for myself, or of rendering 
 
220 Borough -Mongering and Cajoling. 
 
 any essential service to my country. Sincerely do I repent 
 that I did not return to Bengal." 1 
 
 The interested parties were soon satisfied. A 
 sum of £1,260,000 was expended in buying up the 
 boroughs, and with the addition of a few peerages 
 and pensions, the work was done. Lord Devonshire 
 got £52,500, and Lord Ely £45,000. Three or 
 four powerful families had the representation of 
 Ireland completely in their power, either by the 
 possession of large property, or by intermarriages. 
 The Ponsonbys had no less than twenty-two seats 
 under their complete control. The Devonshire and 
 Beresford families had almost the same number. 
 Lord Longueville ruled Cork and Mallow with six 
 other places. 
 
 The principal difficulty was with the Catholic 
 clergy, who could not be bribed, but whom it was 
 
 1 Cornwallis' Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 93. 
 
 " My time has lately been much taken up with seeing, and 
 breaking to the principle persons here, the projected Union, and 
 when you send for a man on such business, he must stay with you 
 and talk to you as long as he likes. I have no great doubts of being 
 able to carry the measure here, but I have great apprehensions of 
 the inefficacy of it after it is carried, and I do not think it would 
 have been much more difficult to have included the Catholics. 
 
 " Those who are called principle persons here, are men who 
 have been raised into consequence, only by having the entire dis- 
 posal of the patronage of the Crown in return for their undertaking 
 the management of the country, because the Lords-Lieutenant 
 were too idle or too incapable to manage it themselves. They are 
 detested by everybody but their immediate followers, and have no 
 influence but what is founded on the grossest corruption." — Corn- 
 wallis' Correspond en ce, vol. iii. p. 445. 
 
Earl Atiamoni and his Associates 
 
 221 
 
 quite possible to deceive. The managers of the 
 Union were not particular how the work was effected, 
 with perhaps the exception of Lord Cornwallis, who 
 had some idea of honour even w r here Papists were 
 concerned. It is to be regretted that the Catholic 
 Bishops, who worked for the Union, did not see 
 some of the private correspondence in which they 
 were mentioned, and did not hear some of the private 
 conversations which have been recorded, and sent 
 down to posterity. 
 
 Sir J. Hippisley, who was specially employed to 
 cajole the Catholics, wrote to Lord Castlereagh ! 
 
 "The Speaker told ine, some time before, that Mr. Pitt 
 had much approved the suggestions I had offered, with respect 
 to the distinctions and checks on the Monastic Clergy. Your 
 Lordship will permit me to quote a vulgar Italian proverb, 
 which is this : 1 One must be aware of a bull be fore, of an ass 
 at his lie els, and of a friar on all sides." Seven years' ex- 
 perience on Catholic ground convinced me that this adage was 
 well imagined." 
 
 On the 5th of June, 1799, the Earl of Altamont 
 wrote from Westpqrt House : " The priests have all 
 appeared to sign, and though I am not proud of 
 many of them as associates, I will take their 
 signatures to prevent a possibility of a counter 
 declaration." 1 
 
 1 M If the Roman Catholics stand forward, it will be unwillingly ; 
 they are keeping back decidedly, but many will be influenced, and 
 some few who connected themselves with the Protestants during the 
 disturbance will be zealously forward on the present occasion. The 
 priests have all offered to sign ; and, though I am not proud of many 
 
222 
 
 The Clergy and the Union. 
 
 On the 3rd of June, 1799, Lord Castlereagli 
 wrote to the Duke of Portland that the rebellion 
 " was managed by the inferior priests." There were 
 certainly some of the Catholic Clergy who united 
 with the rebels in self-defence, but a careful examina- 
 tion of the correspondence of the times will show at 
 once that they were few in number, and that the 
 Government relied much on the co-operation of the 
 priests, even at the very time that many of them were 
 being treated with inhuman cruelty. 
 
 On the 20th of July, 1799, Lord Cornwallis wrote 
 to the Duke of Portland, that the " clergy of the 
 Church, particularly the superior, countenance the 
 measure," and that the linen merchants of the North 
 
 of thern as associates, I will take their signatures, to prevent a pos- 
 sibility of a counter- declaration. I hear the titular Archbishop has 
 expressed himself inclined to the measure. This day, I have sent 
 round to all the Catholics of property in the country : I may be 
 mistaken, but, in my judgment, the wish of the most of them would 
 be to stand neuter ; or, perhaps, if they had any countenance, to 
 oppose it — that is the fact. Several will sign from influence, some 
 from fear ; but the majority, I believe, will pretend that they have 
 given opinions already, and can't decently retract them. You shall 
 know exactly when I get to Dublin. Every man applied to, of all 
 persuasions, wants to make it personal compliment." — Memoir of 
 Viscount Castlereagli, vol. ii. p. 328. 
 
 Mr. Cook wrote to Lord Castlereagli at the close of 1798 to in- 
 form him of public opinion in Dublin : 
 
 11 The Dublin argument is this : — Absenteeism will increase — ■ 
 interest of the debt to England will increase — and we cannot bear 
 the drain. Our manufactures will be ruined by putting an end 
 to duties between the two countries. All the proprietors in Dublin 
 must be injured. We shall be liable to British debts," &c. 
 
An Unconstitutional Practice. 
 
 223 
 
 were much too busy with their trade to think much 
 on the subject. 1 If the Catholic South had been 
 allowed to trade as well as the Protestant North, and 
 permitted the same liberty of conscience. England 
 might have saved herself some millions of money. 
 
 There was some difficulty in Tipperary. and Lord 
 Castlereagh wrote to the Duke of Portland com- 
 plaining that the county members had voted against 
 the Government, which he declared to be " a very 
 unconstitutional practice," and but too prevalent in 
 Ireland. Thus, while the tenant was compelled to 
 vote as his landlord pleased, his representative was 
 to vote as the Government pleased. This, of course, 
 was only in the Irish Parliament, where tenants and 
 
 1 These letters are so important an illustration of the state of 
 Ireland at this period that we give further extracts : 
 
 <; Within these few days, the Catholics have shown a disposition 
 to depart from their line of neutrality, and to support the measure 
 Those of the city of Waterford have sent up a very strong declara- 
 tion in favour of Union, at the same time expressing a hope that it 
 will lead to the accomplishment of their emancipation, as they term 
 it, but not looking to it as a preliminary. The Catholics of Kilkenny 
 have agreed to a similar declaration ; and, as the clergy of that 
 Church, particularly the superiors, countenance the measure, it is 
 likely to extend itself. 
 
 " In the North, the public opinion is much divided on the ques- 
 tion. In Derry and Donegal, the gentry are in general well-disposed. 
 The linen merchants are too busily employed in their trade to think 
 much on the subject, or to take an active part on either side ; but I 
 understand they are, on the whole, rather favourable, wishing to 
 have their trade secured, which they do not feel, notwithstanding 
 the Speaker's argument, to be independent of Great Britain.'' — . 
 Memoirs of Viscount Castlereagh, vol. ii. p. 351. 
 
224 
 
 Mr. Lake Fox. 
 
 members should alike be deeply grately for the 
 privilege of being allowed to vote at all, and were 
 bound, according to English views of Irish con- 
 stitutional liberty, to vote as their masters ordered 
 them. Certainly, under the circumstances, it ought 
 not to have been so difficult to carry the Union. 
 Neither would it have been difficult, had not a 
 number of the members discovered that a good deal 
 of capital could be made of their votes.' 7 1 
 
 One of the most remarkable and able letters of 
 the whole series was written by Mr. Luke Fox, after- 
 wards a judge of Common Pleas, to Lord Castle- 
 reagh. He grasped the whole subject with resolute 
 precision. 2 The population of Ireland he estimated 
 
 1 Lord de Clifford wrote an elaborate letter to Mr. Townsend, 
 23rd July, 1799, in which he puts forward very strong objections to 
 the Union, manifestly for the purpose of enhancing his price. With 
 a candour almost too transparent for laughter, he concludes by say- 
 ing that, if he believed the measure for the public good, he would 
 sacrifice his boroughs ; but as he does not, he cannot be unmindful of 
 his private interests. One can scarcely believe it possible that any 
 educated man could coolly write his own shame so openly. 
 
 2 The following extracts from his letter will prove that he did 
 this : " With regard to the measure itself, supposing the nation, or 
 even the Parliament, should be induced to adopt it, I much fear that 
 the great number of absentees which would immediately follow its 
 being carried into execution would be much more likely to occasion 
 the rebellion's breaking out afresh, than it would tend to restoring 
 peace and quietness^ even were the majority of the well-affected in 
 favour of it. It is a well-known fact to those that are at all ac- 
 quainted with the interior of Ireland, that a very great majority of 
 the people look upon the proprietors of the land of the country as a 
 set of usurpers, and have been ready (time immemorial) to rise and 
 
Letter of Mr. Lake Fox. 
 
 225 
 
 at more than five millions five hundred thousand. 
 Of these only 500,000 were Protestants. This 
 population was again divided into three classes, who 
 K composed three distinct nations, as different in 
 
 wrest their property from them on the first opportunity. 1 ani per- 
 fectly convinced that we owe the salvation of the country during the 
 late rebellion (which, by the by, I fear is not suppressed, but barely 
 smothered) more to the personal exertions of the country gentlemen 
 in devoting their whole time, their lives, and their properties to 
 keeping their tenantry and neighbours in order, than we do to the 
 great military force that was brought into the kingdom. If, by 
 forcing a Union upon this country, you disgust one-half of these 
 gentlemen and convert the other half into absentees, you will leave 
 the country a prey to the machinations of the disaffected ; and the 
 consequence I fear would be fatal." 
 
 He then alludes to the Scotch Union, and says Scotland would 
 have improved just as fast if left independent : 
 
 " The very reverse appears to me to be the best policy for Ire- 
 land. The landed interest you have already attached to you, both 
 from principle and interest. The great body of the people are 
 against you, and I should therefore think that, instead of holding 
 out inducements to them to leave it, you ought rather to give them 
 every encouragement to reside upon their estates, and guard the 
 mutual interests and connexion of the two kingdoms, where they 
 have most power to do it with effect. 
 
 " Lord Castlereagh informs me that 1 it is intended that the 
 counties should return two members, as at present ; that the popu- 
 lous cities and towns should return one member each, and the rest 
 of the boroughs be classed as in Scotland, making a proportionate 
 compensation to the proprietors.' Though I solemnly declare I 
 would not hesitate a moment sacrificing my borough interest if I was 
 convinced the measure was for the public good, I cannot be ex- 
 pected (entertaining the doubts that I do respecting it), to be wholly 
 unmindful of my private interests, and I should wish much to know 
 in what light my boroughs would be looked upon according to this 
 plan." 
 
 15 
 
226 
 
 Letter of Mr. Luke Fox. 
 
 character and principles and habits of life as the 
 antipodes.'' 
 
 ci The object is to form them into one united people under 
 the rule of the British constitution, and to unite, by sentiment 
 and interest, that people to Great Britain. Our fleets may 
 display their triumphant flags in every quarter of the globe ; 
 our troops may conquer, but barren are their laurels and futile 
 their triumphs, when compared to the advantages likely to 
 result to Great Britain and Ireland from this measure in a 
 military, commercial, and financial point of view. But, to 
 proceed to delineate the mode—it is material to observe how 
 these three distinct bodies, the Protestants, the Presbyterians, 
 and the Catholics, stand affected to the question of Union. 
 
 u The Protestants, composing about 50,000 souls, the 
 descendants of English colonists, possess the whole power and 
 patronage, and almost the whole landed property of the 
 country. 
 
 " They are, of course, political monopolists, and can only 
 be gained by influence. 
 
 " The Catholics, composing the mass *of the population, 
 amounting at least to three millions— four would have been 
 more correct — of souls, descendants of the original inhabitants, 
 or of colonists who degenerated, and, in the language of the 
 historian, not very classical but strong, became Hibernicis 
 ipsis Hiberniores, are, for the most part, poor, uneducated, 
 and ignorant, deriving weight almost solely from their numbers, 
 adding to a natural vigour of body and astuteness of mind, 
 capable, under a proper regimen, of being modelled to the most 
 beneficial ends, both civil and military. They are at present 
 in the lowest state of political depression, in a semi-barbarous 
 state (as has been truly observed), and thereby eminently 
 qualified to answer the continual drains on a great commercial 
 empire to supply her fleets and armies in every accessible 
 quarter of the globe. These are to be gained by concession. 
 
 " The Protestants are, from every motive of a monopolising 
 interest, determined opponents to the scheme of Union, by 
 
The Bar and the Union. 
 
 227 
 
 which they must lose that monopoly of power and profit which 
 it is not in human nature voluntarily to resign when once 
 possessed. Does any man think that Mr. Foster and Mr. 
 Ponsonhy are actuated by such motives ? Religion is a mere 
 pretence — the true bone of contention is the monopoly of Irish 
 power and patronage." 
 
 Never was a truer word said. Not only did these 
 monopolists sell "power and patronage," but they 
 actually made every effort to depress Irish industry, 
 because, if the Irish once began to be an independent 
 nation, their gain was gone. 1 
 
 Such was the state of public affairs when 
 O'Connell made his first speech. The bar were 
 nearly all against the Union, and even Mr. Saurin, 
 who was the father of the bar, and a conscientious 
 hater of Catholics, was warmly opposed to it. The 
 bar held their first meeting on the 9th of Dee., 
 1798. Mr. Saurin had been elected some years 
 before to the command of the Lawyers' Volunteer 
 Corps, and now issued the following order : 
 
 " Lawyers' Infantry. — The corps is ordered to parade at 
 twelve at noon at the new court in the new regimentals. A 
 punctual attendance is requested, as business of the utmost im- 
 portance is to be transacted. 
 
 " (Signed) Stewart King, Adjutant." 
 
 1 The Beresford family were amongst the most rapacious and 
 unscrupulous of this class. Lord Auckland wrote to Mr. Beresford, 
 that England " ought to check that system of liberality and foster- 
 ing protection which tended to increase Irish capital and prosperity, 
 and give extended means of mischief." So that all that has been 
 done to ruin Ireland was not considered sufficient by those men who 
 wished to build their fortunes on her misery. 
 
2'28 
 
 The majority of the bar, 1 however, suggested that a 
 discussion in an armed assembly was unsuitable, and 
 the result was a meeting of civilians. At this meeting 
 Mr. Saurin moved : 
 
 " That the measure of a legislative union of Great Britain, 
 is an innovation which it would be highly dangerous and im- 
 proper to propose at the present juncture of affairs in this 
 country." 
 
 Mr. Plunket said : 
 
 " Should the administration propose that measure now, it 
 will be carried. For animosity and want of time to consider 
 coolly its consequences, and forty thousand British troops in 
 Ireland, will carry the measure. But in a little time the 
 people will awaken as from a dream, and what consequences 
 will follow I tremble to think. For myself, I declare that I 
 oppose a union principally because I am convinced that it will 
 accelerate a total separation of the two countries." 
 
 The determined conduct of the bar was certainly 
 annoying to the Government, and on the 15th 
 December Lord Cornwallis wrote to the Duke of 
 Portland : 
 
 [" Secret and confidential.] 
 
 " Dublin Castle, Dec. Uth, 1798. 
 " My Lokd, — Your Grace will probably have seen in the 
 papers an account of the violence which disgraced the meeting 
 
 1 Lord Cornwallis wrote to the Duke of Portland : " The bar 
 have been most forward in their opposition, and have been this day 
 assembled as a corps, it is understood, with an intention of taking 
 up the question. Should that learned body be so intemperate as to 
 set an example to the yeomanry at large, unconstitutional in the ex- 
 treme, and dangerous to the public safety, I shall feel myself called 
 on, in the outset, to meet this attempt to overawe the King's 
 Government and the legislature with decision." — Cornwallis Coires- 
 ponclence, vol. iii. p. 5. 
 
The Anti-Union, Xo. I. 
 
 229 
 
 of the banisters, and of the miserable figure which the friends 
 of the Union made on a division of 32 against 162. 
 
 " The bankers and merchants are to meet on Tuesday next, 
 and I do not expect a more favourable division on that occasion. 
 In point of indecency of manners and language, they cannot 
 surpass the gentlemen of the learned profession. 
 
 u Our reports of the reception of the measure in the North 
 are not favourable, especially about Belfast, and the principal 
 Catholics about Dublin begin to hold a much less sanguine 
 language about the probable conduct of their brethren, and are 
 disposed to think that, in this part of the kingdom at least, 
 the greater number of them will join in the opposition to the 
 Union." 
 
 In a confidential and friendly letter to Major- 
 General Ross, he said : 
 
 " The opposition to the Union increases daily in and about 
 Dublin, and I am afraid, from conversations which I have held 
 with persons much connected with them, that I was too 
 sanguine when I hoped for the good inclinations of the Catho- 
 lics. Their disposition is so completely alienated from the 
 British Government, that I believe they would even be tempted 
 to join with their bitterest enemies the Protestants of Ireland, 
 if they thought that measure would lead to a total separation of 
 the two countries. My thoughts may be more gloomy, as a 
 black north-east wind is blowing with great violence, and 
 darkening the hemisphere ; but I think, from the folly, 
 obstinacy, and gross corruption which pervade every corner of 
 this island, that it is impossible that it can be saved from 
 destruction. I tremble likewise for the spirit of enterprise 
 which prevails on your side of the water, without troops, and in 
 defiance of the seasons." 1 
 
 1 The fact seems to be that the Government either deceived 
 themselves or were thoroughly deceived about the Irish Catholics. 
 The latter suggestion seems to be the more correct, though the 
 deceit was the result of their opposition and not of guile. The 
 
230 
 
 O'Connell* s First Speech. 
 
 On the 27tli December, 1798, the first number of 
 the Anti-Union newspaper was published. Plunket, 
 Grattan, and Burke were the chief contributors ; 
 they were the men of the day. How little did any- 
 one anticipate that the young barrister, whose maiden 
 speech is recorded in one of its earliest numbers, 
 would at a future time wield a power and possess 
 an influence far superior to theirs— that this youth 
 would obtain the justice so long asked for by 
 Catholics, and which was denied even to their 
 eloquence and patriotism. 
 
 These meetings were carefully watched, and 
 
 Major Sirr, but too well known for undertaking any 
 
 mean office required by Government, clattered into 
 
 the Royal Exchange Hall when Mr. Moore had taken 
 
 the chair, and O'Connell was preparing to speak. 
 
 He had a look at the resolutions, which were drawn 
 
 up by O'Connell himself, probably his first effort in 
 
 that direction, but he could not find anything in them 
 
 to condemn. He dashed out as he had dashed in, 
 
 and O'Connell spoke : 
 
 £< Counsellor O'Connell rose, and in a short speech prefaced 
 the resolutions. He said that the question of Union was con- 
 fessedly one of the first importance and magnitude. Sunk, 
 indeed, in more than criminal apathy must that Irishman be, 
 who could feel indifferent on the subject. It was a measure, 
 to the consideration of which we were called by every illumina- 
 
 upper classes of Catholics took on themselves to be spokesmen for 
 the rest. They expected Emancipation, and believed the promises 
 of Government. The middle classes were by no means so sanguine, 
 and judged far more correctly. 
 
Approbation. 
 
 231 
 
 tion of the understanding and every feeling of the heart. 
 There was, therefore, no necessity to apologise for the intro- 
 ducing the discussion of the question amongst Irishmen. But 
 before he brought forward any resolution, he craved permission 
 to make a few observations on the causes which produced the 
 necessity of meeting as Catholics— as a separate and distinct 
 body. In doing so, he thought, he would clearly show that 
 they were justifiable in at length deviating from a resolution 
 which they had heretofore formed. The enlightened mind of 
 the Catholics had taught them the impolicy, the illiberality, and 
 the injustice of separating themselves on any occasion from the 
 rest of the people of Ireland. The Catholics had therefore 
 resolved, and they had wisely resolved, never more to appear 
 before the public as a distinct and separate body ; but they did 
 not — they could not then foresee the unfortunately existing 
 circumstances -of this moment. They could not then foresee 
 that they would be reduced to the necessity, either of submitting 
 to the disgraceful imputation of approving of a measure, as de- 
 testible to them as it was ruinous to their country, or once 
 again, and he trusted for the last time, of coming forward as a 
 distinct body. 
 
 " There was no man present but was acquainted with the 
 industry with which it was circulated, that the Catholics were 
 favourable to the Union. In vain did multitudes of that body, 
 in different capacities, express their disapprobation of the 
 measure ; in vain did they concur with others of their fellow- 
 subjects in expressing then* abhorrence of it — as freemen or 
 freeholders, electors of counties or inhabitants of cities — still 
 the calumny was repeated ; it was printed in journal after 
 journal ; it was published in pamphlet after pamphlet ; it was 
 circulated with activity in private companies ; it was boldly 
 and loudly proclaimed in public assemblies. How this clamour 
 was raised, and how it was supported, was manifest ; the 
 motives of it were apparent. 
 
 "In vain had the Catholics (individually) endeavoured to 
 resist the torrent. Their future efforts, as individuals, would 
 
282 
 
 Ma rked Appi v ba tio 1 1 . 
 
 be equally vain and fruitless ; they must then oppose it 
 collectively. 
 
 " There was another reason why they should come forward 
 as a distinct class— a reason which he confessed had made the 
 greatest impression upon his feelings. Not content with 
 falsely asserting that the Catholics favoured the extinction of 
 Ireland, this, their supposed inclination, was attributed to the 
 foulest motives — motives which were most repugnant to their 
 judgments, and most abhorrent to their hearts ; it was said 
 that the Catholics were ready to sell their country for a price, 
 or what was still more depraved, to abandon it on account of 
 the unfortunate animosities which the wretched temper of the 
 times had produced ; can they remain silent under so horrible 
 a calumny ? This calumny was flung on the whole body ; it 
 was incumbent on the whole body to come forward and con- 
 tradict it. Yes, they will show every friend of Ireland that 
 the Catholics are incapable of selling their country ; they will 
 loudly declare that if their emancipation was offered for their 
 consent to the measure, even were emancipation after the 
 Union a benefit, they would reject it with prompt indignation. 
 [This sentiment met with approbation.) Let us," said he, 
 i( show to Ireland that we have nothing in view but her good , 
 nothing in our hearts but the desire of mutual forgiveness, 
 mutual toleration, and mutual affection ; in fine, let every man 
 who feels with me proclaim, that if the alternative were offered 
 him of Union, or the re-enactment of the Penal Code in all its 
 pristine horrors, that he would prefer without hesitation the 
 latter, as the lesser and more sufferable evil ; that he would 
 rather confide in the justice of his brethren the Protestants of 
 Ireland, who have already liberated him, than lay his country 
 at the feet of foreigners. [This sentiment met with much and 
 marked approbation.] With regard to the Union, so much 
 had been said — so much had been written on the subject, that 
 it was impossible that any man should not before now have 
 formed an opinion on it. , He would not trespass on their 
 attention in repeating' arguments which they had already heard, 
 
Resolution*. 
 
 233 
 
 and topics which they had already considered. But if there 
 was any man present who could be so far mentally degraded as 
 to consent to the extinction of the liberty, the constitution, and 
 even the name of Ireland, he would call on him not to leave the 
 direction and management of his commerce and property to 
 strangers, over whom he could have no control." 
 
 The following resolutions were then proposed 
 and passed unanimously : 
 
 " Royal Excfiaxge, Dublin, January 13//*, 1800. 
 
 " At a numerous and respectable meeting of the Roman 
 Catholics of the city of Dublin, convened pursuant to public 
 notice, Ambrose Moore, Esq., in the chair : 
 
 " Resolved— 1 That we are of opinion that the proposed 
 incorporate union of the legislature of Great Britain and Ireland 
 is, in fact, an extinction of the liberty of this country, which 
 would be reduced to the abject condition of a province, sur- 
 rendered to the mercy of the minister and legislature of another 
 country, to be bound by their absolute will, and taxed at their 
 pleasure by laws, in the making of which this country would 
 have no efficient participation whatsoever.' 
 
 4 'Resolved — 'That we are of opinion that the improve- 
 ment of Ireland for the last twenty years, so rapid beyond 
 example, is to be ascribed wholly to the independency of our 
 legislature, so gloriously asserted in the year 1782, by virtue 
 of our Parliament co-operating with the generous recommenda- 
 tion of our most gracious and benevolent sovereign, and backed 
 by the spirit of our people, and so solemnly ratified by both 
 kingdoms as the only true and permanent foundation of Irish 
 prosperity and British connexion.' 
 
 "Resolved — 'That Ave are of opinion, that if that inde- 
 pendency should ever be surrendered, we must as rapidly 
 relapse into our former depression and misery ; and that 
 Ireland must inevitably lose, with her liberty, all that she has 
 acquired in wealth, and industry, and civilisation.' 
 
 " Resolved — ' That we are firmly convinced, that the 
 
234 
 
 Liberality beyond the Age. 
 
 supposed advantages of such a surrender are unreal and 
 delusive, and can never arise in fact ; and that even if they 
 should arise, they would be only the bounty of the master to 
 the slave, held by his courtesy, and resumable at his pleasure.' 
 
 "Resolved — 'That, having heretofore determined not to 
 come forward any more in the distinct character of Catholics*, 
 but to consider our claims and our cause not as those of a sect, 
 but as involved in the general fate of our country — we now 
 think it right, notwithstanding such determination, to publish 
 the present resolutions, in order to undeceive our fellow- subjects 
 who may have been led to believe, by a false representation, 
 that we are capable of giving any concurrence whatsoever to so 
 foul and fatal a project ; to assure them we are incapable of 
 sacrificing our common country to either pique or pretension ; 
 and that we are of opinion, that this deadly attack upon the 
 nation is the great call of nature, of country, and posterity 
 upon Irishmen of all descriptions and persuasions, to every con- 
 stitutional and legal resistance; and that we sacredly pledge 
 ourselves to persevere in obedience to that call as long as we 
 have life.' 
 
 " Signed, by order, James Ryan. Sec." 
 
 How little O'Connell could have anticipated his 
 future when lie expressed so ardent a hope that this 
 occasion might be the last, as well as the first, on 
 which Catholics should come forward publicly as a 
 body ! How little he anticipated the thousand times 
 on which his thrillino; words should arouse the 
 slumbering soul of the Irish celt, and animate him to 
 new efforts for his religion and his nationality ! How 
 little he anticipated that his voice should one day 
 rouse British statesmen to consider the past and 
 present wrongs of Ireland, and obtain from the manly 
 justice of the noble-minded amongst them, or from 
 
Bitter Memories, 
 
 285 
 
 the cringing fear of the base, the rights which had 
 been so long asked and so long denied. 
 
 With a liberality beyond the age, he declared 
 liiinself ready to confide in the justice of Irish 
 Protestants rather than in the doubtful mercies of 
 English rulers. 
 
 It would be well, indeed, that those who accuse 
 O'Connell of exceptional bitterness in his way of 
 speaking when English rule was in question, should 
 romember 1 lis early life — should remember that lie 
 witnessed all the horrors of the rebellion, that he had 
 personal experience of all the treachery of Govern- 
 ment. 1 He was precisely at the age when such im- 
 
 1 An important instance of how the memory or tradition of past 
 wrongs excites men to seize the first opportunity of revenge, if no^ 
 of redress, has occurred in our own times. It is a circumstance 
 which should be very carefully pondered by statesmen who have the 
 real interest of the whole nation at heart. It is a circumstance, as 
 a sample of many other similar cases, which should be known to 
 every Englishman who wishes to understand the causes of "Irish 
 disturbances.' ' "One of the men who was shot by the police 
 during the late Fenian outbreak in Ireland, was a respectable 
 farmer named Peter Crowley. His history tells the motive for 
 which he risked and lost his life. His grandfather had been out- 
 lawed in the rebellion of '98. His uncle, Father Peter O'Neill, had 
 been imprisoned and flogged vi<?st barbarously with circumHtances of 
 peculiar cruelty, in Cork, in the year 1798. The memory of the in- 
 sult and injury done to a priest, who was entirely guiltless of the 
 crimes with which he was charged, left a legacy of bitterness and 
 hatred of Saxon rule in the whole family, which, unhappily, religion 
 failed to eradiate. Peter Crowley was a sober, industrious, steady 
 man, and his parish priest, who attended his deathbed, pronounced 
 his end ' most happy and edifying.' Three clergymen and a pro- 
 <; fusion of young men, women, and children, scattering flowers before 
 the coffin, and bearing green boughs, attended his remains to the 
 
Personal Appearance. 
 
 pressions would be taken most vividly — would be 
 stereotyped upon the memory most indelibly. If he 
 spoke at times in rude language, and told plain truths 
 in the plainest words, it was because he had witnessed 
 cruel deeds, for which no apology was or could be 
 made. 
 
 O'Connell's personal appearance at this time has 
 been described somewhat invidiously by Sir Jonah 
 Barrington, but the likeness given of him at the head 
 of the following chapter shows that his appearance 
 must have been singularly pleasing. 
 
 The bright kindly blue eyes flashed with intelli- 
 gence and that dash of humour which seems iDherent 
 to the Irish character. His action was gentle, but 
 sufficiently marked. His form was strong and 
 
 grave. He was mourned as a patriot, who had loved his country, 
 not wisely but too well ; and it was believed that his motive for 
 joining the Fenian ranks was less from a desire of revenge, which 
 would have been sinful, than from a mistaken idea of freeing his 
 country from a repetition of the cruelties of '98, and from her 
 present grievances." 
 
 Arthur Young had, several years previously, made the following 
 sensible observations on the probable effects of the Union : 
 
 " In conversation upon the subject of a Union with Great Britain, 
 I was informed that nothing was so unpopular in Ireland as such an 
 idea, and that the great objection to it was increasing the number of 
 absentees. When it was in agitation, twenty peers and sixty com- 
 moners were talked of to sit in the British Parliament, which would 
 be the residence of eighty of the best estates in England. Going 
 every year to England would by degrees make them residents ; they 
 would educate their children there, and in time would become mere 
 absentees ; becoming so, they would be unpopular ; and others would 
 be elected who, treading in the same steps, would yield the places 
 still to others." 
 
•■.I very strange being " -37 
 
 muscular, but devoid of that portliness which gave 
 dignity to his later years. The features were clearlv 
 cut and tolerably regular. It was not a handsome 
 face, but it was a kindly one, and scarcely told all 
 the power of mind that lay hidden within. 
 
 However lie may have disliked Pitt as a politi- 
 cian, he admired him as an elocutionist. Already 
 O'Connell had so far anticipated his future career, as 
 to take special pains with his address in public, but 
 only with a view to success at the bar. He did not, 
 he could not, have anticipated how his voice would 
 roll thunder tones at historic Tara and Mullaghmast. 
 
 O'Connell spoke thus of G rattan to Mr. Daunt : 
 
 " Pitt," he said, <; had a grand majestic march of language, 
 and a full melodious voice. Grattan's eloquence was full of 
 lire, but had not the melody or dignity of Pitt's ; yet nobody 
 quoted Pitt's sayings, whereas, Grattan was always saying 
 things that everybody quoted and remembered. I did not,'' 
 said Mr. O'Connell, '" hear Grattan make any of his famous 
 speeches ; but I have heard him in public. He had great 
 power, and great oddity— he almost swept the ground with his 
 odd action. His conversation contained much humour of a dry 
 antithetical kind ; and he never relaxed a muscle, whilst his 
 hearers were convulsed with laughter. He abounded with 
 auecdotes of the men with whom he politically acted, and told 
 them very well. I met him at dinner at the house of an uncle 
 of O'Conor Don, and the conversation turned on Lord Kings- 
 borough, grandfather to the present Earl of Kingston, a very 
 strange being, who married at sixteen a cousin of his own, aged 
 fifteen — used to dress like a roundhead of Cromwell's time, 
 kept his hair close shorn, and wore a plain coat without a 
 collar. Grattan said of this oddity, 1 He was the strangest 
 compound of incongruities I ever knew ; he combined the 
 
238 
 
 Reminiscence of Pitt and Fox. 
 
 greatest personal independence with the most crouching political 
 servility to ministers ; he was the most religious man, and the 
 most profligate ; he systematically read every day a portion of 
 the Bible, and marked his place in the sacred volume with an 
 obscene ballad.' 
 
 "I dare say/ said" Mr. O'Connell, after a pause, "that 
 Grattan told 0' Conor to ask me to dinner. I was then 
 beginning to be talked of, and people like to see a young person 
 who acquires notoriety." 
 
 O'Connell had a very high opinion of Grattans 
 
 son. One day, in pointing him out to an English 
 
 friend, he said : 
 
 " That is Henry Grattan, son of the great Irish patriot. 
 He inherits all his father's devotion to Ireland. If you pre- 
 sented a pistol at his head, and if he were persuaded his own 
 immediate death would secure the Repeal of the Union, he 
 would say, ' In the name of heaven, fire away !' " 
 
 The speech was certainly characteristic of the man 
 who made it. 
 
 Speaking of Pitt, O'Connell observed : 
 
 " He struck me as having the most majestic flow of 
 language and the finest voice imaginable. He managed his 
 voice admirably. It was from him I learned to throw out the 
 lower tones at the close of my sentences. Most men either let 
 their voice fall at the end of their sentences, or else force it 
 into a shout or screech. This is because they end with the 
 upper instead of the lower notes. Pitt knew better. He threw 
 his voice so completely round the House, that every syllable he 
 uttered was distinctly heard by every man in the House." 
 
 Mr. Daunt inquired if he had heard Fox in the 
 
 same debate. He replied : 
 
 " Yes, and he spoke delightfully ; his speech was better 
 than Pitt's. The forte of Pitt as an orator was majestic deck- 
 
After Record of Impressions, 
 
 239 
 
 mation, and an inimitable felicity of praise. The word he used 
 was always the very best word that could be got to express his 
 idea. The only man I ever knew who approached Pitt in this 
 particular excellence, was Charles Kendal Bushe, whose phrases 
 were always admirably happy." 1 
 
 O'Connell expressed himself very strongly on the 
 subject of the Union in the Report of the Repeal 
 Association, April 1840. This record of his im- 
 pressions after the lapse of forty years is valuable and 
 important : 
 
 "The second means for carrying the Union were— 'the 
 deprivation of all legal protection to liberty or life — the familiar 
 u e of torture — the trials by courts-martial— the forcible sup- 
 pression of public meetings— the total stilling of public 
 opinion — and the use of armed violence.' 
 
 u All the time the Union was under discussion, the Habeas 
 Corpus Act was susi'LNdld — nu man could call one hour's 
 liberty his own. 
 
 All the time the Union was under discussion, courts- 
 martial had power unlimited over life and limb. Bound by 
 no definite form or charge, nor by any rule of evidence, the 
 courts- alartt al threatened with death those who should dare 
 to resist the spoliation of their birthrights. 
 
 " There was no redress for the most cruel and tyrannical 
 
 1 O'Counell had a great dislike to being showu as a " lion " at 
 public plicate dinners. On such occasions he rarely spoke. Mr. 
 Daunt says : "I was once at a dinner party in Dublin, when our 
 host proposed O'Connell's health in a complimentary speech, which 
 he ended by saying that he abstained from warmer eulogy through 
 .''ear of wounding the modesty of his distinguished guest. O'Connell 
 rose to return thanks, and commenced his speech by saying : ' My 
 friend has alluded to my modesty. Whatever my original amount 
 of that quality may have been, I certainly have never worn any of it 
 out by too frequent use ; so that I have the whole original stock 
 quite ready for service on the present occasion.' " 
 
no 
 
 O'Connell in Personal Danger. 
 
 imprisonment. The persons of the king's Irish subjects were 
 at the caprice of the king's ministers. The lives of the kings 
 Irish subjects were at the sport and whim of the boys, young 
 and old, of the motley corps of English militia, Welsh 
 mountaineers, Scotch fencibles, and Irish yeomanry. At 
 such a moment as that, when the gaols icere crammed with 
 unaccused victims, and the scaffolds ivere reeking with the 
 blood of untried wretches — at such a moment as that, was it 
 that the British minister committed this act of spoliation and 
 robbery, which enriched England but little, and made Ireland 
 poor indeed. 
 
 " Besides the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and 
 the consequent insecurity to personal liberty — besides the ex- 
 istence of courts-martial, and the consequent insecurity of 
 human life ; besides all these, actual force was used — meetings 
 of counties, duly convened to deliberate on the measure, were 
 dispersed by military force. It was not at Maryborough or 
 Clonmel alone that the military were called out— horse, foot, 
 and artillery — to scatter, and they did scatter, meetings con- 
 vened by the legal authorities to expostulate, to petition against 
 the Union. Force was a peculiar instrument to suppress all 
 constitutional opposition. 
 
 " Why should we dwell longer on this part of the subject 
 when in a single paragraph we have, in eloquent language, a 
 masterly description, which easily supersedes any attempt of 
 ours ? Here are the words of Plunket — ' I will be bold to 
 say, that licentious and impious France, in all the unrestrained 
 excesses that anarchy and atheism have given birth to, has not 
 committed a more insidious act against her enemy, than is now 
 attempted by the professed champion of civilised Europe against 
 Ireland — a friend and ally — in the hour of her calamity and 
 distress. At a moment when our country is filled with British 
 troops — whilst the Habeas Corpus Act is suspended — whilst 
 trials by courts-martial are carrying on in many parts of the 
 kingdom — while the people are made to believe that they have 
 no right to meet and deliberate, and whilst the people are 
 
( 'kiralrous Conduct. 
 
 241 
 
 palsied by their fears — at the moment when we are distracted 
 by internal dissentions, dissentions kept alive as the pretext of 
 our present subjugation, and the instrument of our future 
 thraldom— such is the time in which the Union is proposed." 
 
 O'Connell was in great personal danger at this 
 period on more than one occasion. While doing 
 duty in the Volunteer corps, he was posted as a 
 sentry near one of the canal bridges, and was ordered 
 by his officer to fire on some unarmed country people 
 who were passing at the other side of the canal, after 
 the hour at which martial law permitted persons to 
 be about. He positively refused to perform this act 
 of wanton cruelty, and in consequence was in danger 
 of beinor himself the victim. On another occasion he 
 was one of a party who had orders to search a hotel 
 in James's Street, for suspected parties who were 
 thought to have arrived there by the canal boat ; he 
 had singly to oppose the wanton and licentious 
 violence of his comrades, who sought to drag an in- 
 offensive stranger and his wife from their beds. His 
 son observes : 
 
 u His experience in these sad times has left an indelible im- 
 pression upon him of the danger of entrusting civilians with 
 arms ; the tendency, in his own words, that a man has, £ when 
 he has arms in his hands, to be a ruffian,' being uncontrolled 
 by that custom of bearing them under strict restraints and 
 practices of long discipline, which makes the soldier patient 
 and forbearing. The 1 lawyers' infantry' were of course, com- 
 posed of gentlemen. The education for the arduous profession 
 of the bar should, one would have thought, have tended to re- 
 fine the mind, and teach restraint over the brute impulses : 
 and yet, among some, there was a spirit of licence and outrage 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 Appeal for Emancipation* 
 
 pervailing, that the most reckless and disorderly soldiery could 
 scarcely equal." 
 
 He was in danger again in trying to save the life 
 of a defenceless man from a member of the attorneys' 
 corps, who was trying to cut him down simply 
 because he was alone and helpless. O'Connell re- 
 ceived the sword cut on the barrel of his musket, 
 and the deep indentation which it made proved how 
 fatal the blow would have been if it had been re- 
 ceived by the person for whom it was intended. 
 
 Mr. Wagget, afterwards Recorder of Cork, was 
 O'Connell's sergeant, and, happily for him, happened 
 to come up at the moment. A few words explained 
 matters, and he at once took O'Connell's part, but he 
 only got rid of the attorney by charging him with 
 his halbert. 
 
 The Union passed, and the Catholics were not 
 
 emancipated. The state of the country was alarming. 
 
 The harvest had failed in the autumn of 1799, yet 
 
 Mr. Pitt would not allow any corn to be exported to 
 
 Ireland, until Lord Cornwallis had made the most 
 
 urgent representations on the subject. He wrote to 
 
 Major-General Ross, stating, " that every Catholic of 
 
 influence was in danger." On the 22nd of November, 
 
 1799, he wrote to the Duke of Portland : 
 
 " I most earnestly hope that your Grace and His Majesty's 
 other confidential servants will see this matter in the same 
 light with me, and that you will allow the Roman Catholic 
 peers to vote for the representatives of the peerage, on their 
 taking the same oaths that are required from the electors of 
 their communion when they give their votes for members of 
 
Min isterial Duplicity. 
 
 243 
 
 the House of Commons. I have had a most difficult line to 
 pursue, but amidst the violence of factions and religious 
 prejudices, I have gone steadily to my point, and I think I 
 may now venture to say that I have, in a great measure, gained 
 the confidence and good-will of the Catholics without losing 
 the Protestants. But if the former see cause to believe that I 
 am disposed to adopt the ancient system, or that I am a man 
 of straw, without weight or consideration, things will soon re- 
 vert to their former course, and I shall, \ orhaps, be the most 
 improper man to hold my present station." 
 
 On the 28th November. Lord Castlereagh wrote 
 to the Duke of Portland : 
 
 " Your Grace and Mr. Pitt will, I trust, both have an 
 opportunity of satisfying Lord Clare's feelings in respect to the 
 line hereafter to be pursued towards the Catholics before he 
 leaves London. Of course, no further hopes will be held forth 
 to that body by the Irish Government without specific directions 
 from your Grace, and I fairly confess I entertain very great 
 doubts whether any more distinct explanation than has already 
 been given would at present be politically advantageous ; it is 
 enough to feel assured that we are not suffering them to form 
 expectations which must afterwards be disappointed, under the 
 disadvantage of having dexterity, if not duplicity, imputed to 
 Government in the conduct of the measure." 
 
 No " further hopes" were held out because the 
 work was done ; but, undoubtedly, both " dexterity" 
 and " duplicity" were attributed with every reason to 
 the English Government. Ministers w r ere perfectly 
 well aware that they had acted with " duplicity," but, 
 they found a convenient excuse— the king, they said 
 would not hear of Emancipation. This was quite 
 true ; but the king was honest as well as obstructive, 
 
Systematic Deception. 
 
 and at least spoke out, and declared that he had not 
 been a party to the promise. 1 
 
 Lord Castlereagh wrote a " most private" letter 
 to the Eight Honourable William Pitt, on the 1st of 
 January, 1801, in which he puts the whole state of 
 the case into the plainest possible language, in which 
 he showed how absolutely necessary the assistance of the 
 Catholic body was in order to carry the Union, and how 
 he had been ordered to draw the Catholics on. The 
 object was gained, and if there was not another 
 document in existence besides this letter to show 
 how shamefully the Catholics were duped, it would 
 be more than sufficient. 
 
 At last, and with considerable difficulty, the 
 upper class of Catholics were made to understand 
 
 1 " The King to the Eight Hon. Henry Dundas. 
 
 " Windsor, February 7th, 1801. 
 "I cannot but regret that on the late unhappy occasion I had 
 not been treated with more confidence previous to forming an 
 opinion, which, to my greatest surprise, I learnt on Thursday from 
 Earl Spencer, has been in agitation ever since Lord Castlereagh came 
 over in August, yet of which I never had the smallest suspicion till 
 within these very weeks ; but so desirous was I to avoid the present 
 conclusion, that, except what passed with Earl Spencer and Lord 
 Grenville, about three weeks past, and a hint I gave to Mr. Secre- 
 tary Dundas on Wednesday sevennight, I have been silent on the 
 subject, and, indeed, hoping that Mr. Pitt had not pledged himself 
 on what I cannot with my sentiments of religious and political duty 
 think myself at liberty to concur. Mr. Secretary Dundas has known 
 my opinions when he corresponded with the Earl of Westmoreland, 
 then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and at least will do me the justice 
 to recollect that both then, and when afterwards brought forward by 
 the Earl Fitzwilliam, my language perfectly coincided with my 
 present conduct. " George R." 
 
Present Policy. 
 
 245 
 
 how they had been treated. It might have been 
 supposed that they had learned a life-long lesson, but 
 there are persons on whom experience is wasted. 
 
 Mr. Pitt tried to save his character by resigning ; 
 being fully aware that he would be at once recalled 
 to office, having already intimated that he would not 
 " press the measure" under the present circum- 
 stances. 1 The Catholics were to be " made to feel" 
 
 1 Lord Castlereagh sent the following letter of instruction from 
 London, July 9, 1801, to Lord Cornwallis : 
 
 " Mr. Pitt will take the first opportunity of the question being 
 regularly before the House to state his opinion at length upon it, but 
 he does not think that it will be expedient either with reference to 
 the success of the question itself, or the predicament in which the 
 King stands, for him to press the measure under the present circum- 
 stances. The inclination of his mind, after having argued the ques- 
 tion, is not to vote at all. He is of opinion that to try the question 
 now, would only pledge people against it ; that we should have no 
 chance of success in the Lords, and that if we earned it through 
 both Houses, the King would at all risks refuse his assent. But a 
 still stronger reason operates in his mind for not so pressing it, 
 which he particularly desires that I may represent to your Excel- 
 lency — namely, the conviction that were the question so earned it 
 would be deprived of all its benefits. Under these considerations, it 
 is his wish that your Excellency, without bringing forward the King's 
 name, should make the Catholics feel that an obstacle which the 
 King's ministers could not surmount, precluded them from bringing 
 forward the measure whilst in office ; that their attachment to the 
 question was such that they felt it impossible to continue in admini- 
 stration under the impossibility of proposing it with the necessary 
 concurrence, and that they retired from the King's service, consider- 
 ing this line of conduct as most likely to contribute to the ultimate 
 success of the measure ; to represent to them how much their future 
 hopes must depend upon strengthening their cause by good conduct ; 
 in the meantime, that they ought to weigh their prospects as arising 
 from the persons who now espouse their interests, and compare them 
 with those which they could look to from any other quarter. . . . 
 
246 
 
 O'Connell a Freemason. 
 
 that there were obstacles, or rather that there was 
 one obstacle which the King's ministers could not 
 surmount, and the King's ministers supposed, or 
 believed, or hoped, that the Catholics would have 
 the good sense to " see that it was their duty to be 
 thankful for what was intended to be done for them ; 
 and also, and beyond all, that they would not be so 
 inconsiderate as to annoy or embarrass Government 
 in any way under the circumstances. " 
 
 O'Connell joined the Freemasons in 1779. He 
 was not aware that it was against Catholic principles 
 for him to do so, and has given the following account 
 of the matter himself : 
 
 " I was a Freemason and master of a Lodge : it was at a 
 very early period of my life, and either before an ecclesiastical 
 
 They must distinctly understand that he could not concur in a hope- 
 less attempt at this moment to force it, and that he must at all times 
 repress, with the same decision as if he held an adverse opinion, any 
 unconstitutional conduct in the Catholic body. This will give your 
 Excellency the outline of that communication which he thinks him- 
 self alone authorised to make to them. To look to any specific time 
 to which they might attach their hopes, is so indefinite and so 
 delicate a consideration as your Excellency will feel is scarcely to be 
 touched upon. From what has already passed, the prospect of a 
 change of sentiment on the part of the King seems too hopeless to 
 be held out in promise to the Catholics as any ground of hope, and 
 his death is that solution of the difficulty which all parties must 
 equally deprecate. The prospect is, therefore, not very encouraging 
 in itself, yet, unpromising as it is, we must endeavour to make them 
 feel that their particular interests, as well as their duty, will be best 
 consulted rather by a temperate and loyal conduct than by giving 
 way to those feelings connected with disappointment and despair. 
 Such are the principles we must practise, and I wish it were reason- 
 able to expect that they would be implicitly acted upon." — Com- 
 wallis' Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 83d. 
 
Lesson in Prudence. 
 
 247 
 
 censure Lad beeu published in the Catholic Church in Ireland 
 prohibiting the taking of the Masonic oaths, or at least before 
 I was aware of that censure. Freemasonry in Ireland," adds 
 O'Connell, " may be said to have (apart from its oaths) no evil 
 tendency, save as far as it may counteract the exertions of 
 those most laudable and useful institutions, the temperance 
 societies. The important objection is the profane taking in 
 vain the awful name of the Deity in the wanton and multiplied 
 oaths — oaths administered on the book of God — without any 
 adequate motive." 
 
 lt O'ConnelTs movements have not been very 
 accurately recorded during the early part of his life, 
 but it would appear that lie visited Darrynane im- 
 mediately after the passing of the Union, as he has 
 recorded his impressions while travelling among the 
 wild mountainous districts between Kenmare and 
 Killarney : 
 
 The year of the Union I was travelling through the 
 mountain district from Killarney to Kenmare— my heart was 
 heavy at the loss that Ireland had sustained, and the day was 
 wild and gloomy. That desert district, too, was congenial to 
 impressions of solemnity and sadness. There was not a 
 human habitation to be seen for many miles ; black, giant 
 clouds sailed slowly through the sky, and rested on the tops of 
 the hugh mountains ; my soul felt dreary, and I had many wild 
 and Ossianic inspirations as I traversed the bleak solitudes. 
 
 " It was the Union that first stirred me up to come forward 
 in politics. My uncle Maurice was scarcely pleased at my 
 taking a public part ; not that he approved of the Union, but 
 politics appeared to him to be fraught with great peril." 
 
 O'Connell got some lessons in prudence during 
 this eventful period which served him well in his 
 after life. Young men, who only knew traditionally 
 
248 
 
 A Pointed Argument. 
 
 of the terrible scenes in which he had been a personal 
 actor, reproached him with cowardice, but a coward 
 he never was. His friend Mr. Daunt, has faithfully 
 recorded his own reasons for prudence : 
 
 " I learned from the example of the United Irishmen the 
 lesson, that in order to succeed for Ireland, it was strictly 
 necessary to work within the limits of the law and constitution. 
 I say/ that fraternities, -banded illegally, never could be safe ; 
 that invariably some person without principle would be sure to 
 gain admission into such societies ; and either for ordinary 
 bribes, or else in times of danger for their own preservation, 
 would betray their associates. Yes ; the United Irishmen 
 taught me that all work for Ireland must be done openly and 
 above-board." 
 
 We find O'Connell in Dublin again in the winter 
 of 1801, and dining with a party of Freemasons at 
 their tavern in Golden Lane. As he returned home 
 there was a cry of fire, then a cry for water to stop 
 the devouring flames. O'Connell seized a pick-axe 
 from an incompetent labourer, and continued working 
 with a will. The excitement and the potations in 
 which he had indulged at the Freemasons' banquet 
 were too much for his head. He worked on, regard- 
 less of threats or entreaties, and would soon have 
 had the whole pavement ripped up, had a soldier not 
 run a bayonet at him. This pointed argument had 
 its effect, but it would have terminated O'Connell's 
 career abruptly, only for the cover of his hunting- 
 watch which he happened to wear. " If it had not 
 been for the watch," O'Connell used to say when 
 relating this adventure, " there would have been an 
 end of the agitator." 
 
Life was in him." 
 
 249 
 
 O'Conuell's extraordinary talents were soon re- 
 cognised, and, though the pitiful illiberality of the 
 times would not allow a Catholic a silk gown, he 
 could not complain of public neglect. One or two 
 of his amusing and successful cross-examinations got 
 talked about, and his professional fortune was made. 
 
 u 0' Council's cross examination consisted of a series of 
 attacks and retreats, which gradually clouded the minds of the 
 judge and jury with serious doubts as to the witness's 
 credibility, and this even when the witness was veracious. As 
 a necessary consequence, he became the favourite lawyer in 
 the criminal court of the Munster circuit, and often rescued the 
 victim of agrarian oppression from the fangs of law and the 
 ignominy of the gallows. 
 
 " O'Connell, on one occasion, was engaged in a will case. 
 It was the allegation of the plaintiffs that the will, by which 
 considerable property had been devised, was a forgery. The 
 subscribing witnesses swore that the will had been signed by 
 the deceased while ' life was in him' — a mode of expression 
 derived from the Irish language, and which peasants who have 
 ceased to speak Irish still retain. The evidence was altogether 
 in favour of the will, and the defendants had every reason to 
 calculate on success, when O'Connell undertook to cross- 
 examine one of the witnesses. He was struck by the per- 
 sistency of this man, who, in reply to his question, never 
 deviated from the formula, ' the life was in him.' 
 
 " ' On the virtue of your oath, was he alive ?' 
 
 " 1 By the virtue of my oath, the life was in him,' repeated 
 the witness. 
 
 '* ' Now I call on you in the presence of your Maker, who 
 will one day pass sentence on you for this evidence ; I solemnly 
 ask — and answer me at your peril — was there not a live fly in 
 the dead man's mouth when his hand was placed on the will.' 
 
 " The witness was palsied by this question; he trembled, 
 shivered, and turned pale, and faltered out an abject confession 
 
250 
 
 Proving an Alibi. 
 
 that the counsellor was right — a fly had been introduced into 
 the mouth of the deceased to enable the witnesses to swear that 
 life was in him !" 1 
 
 There were some curious scenes in the law courts 
 at the commencement of the present century. Men 
 were not unfrequently sentenced to death with a 
 joke, 1 and were hung for the merest suspicion. It 
 was little wonder that O'Connell's skill in cross- 
 examination made him the favourite of the multitude. 
 To have O'Connell for counsel was, in the majority 
 of cases, to secure a verdict for his client. 
 
 Lord Norbury threw aside every attempt at 
 decency in his j udicial career. lie was the descendant 
 of a Cromwellian soldier, and had managed, by con- 
 siderable talent not of the highest order, to seat 
 himself on the bench. 
 
 O'Connell has described him thus : 
 
 " He had a considerable parrot-sort of knowledge of law — 
 he had upon his memory an enormous number of cases, but he 
 did not understand, nor was he capable of understanding, a 
 
 1 Fagan's Life of O'Connell. 
 
 2 " What is your calling or occupation, my honest man ? " said 
 Lord Norbury to a witness. " Please your lordship, I keep a racket 
 court." " So do 7," rejoined Lord Norbury, chuckling in exulting 
 allusion to the noise, uproar, and racket which his witticisms con- 
 stantly awakened in court. 
 
 "When they were burying Norbury," added O'Connell, "the 
 grave was so deep that the ropes by which they were letting down 
 the coffin did not reach to the bottom. The coffin remained hang- 
 ing at mid-depth while somebody was sent for more rope. 1 Ay,' 
 cried a butcher's apprentice, ' give him rope enough. It would 
 be a pity to stint him. It's himself never grudged a poor man the 
 rope!'" 
 
Bearding a Judge. 
 
 251 
 
 a single principle of law. To be sure, his charges were the 
 strangest effusions. When charging the jury in the action 
 brought by Guthrie versus Sterne, to recover damages for 
 criminal conversation with the plaintiff's wife, Norbury said — - 
 ' Gentlemen of the jury, The defendant in this case is Henry 
 William Godfrey Baker Sterne — and there, gentlemen, you 
 have him from stem to Sterne. I am free to observe, gentle- 
 men, that if this Mr. Henry William Godfrey Baker Sterne 
 had as many Christian virtues as he has Christian names, we 
 never should see the honest gentleman figuring here as 
 defendant in an action for crim con.' " 
 
 O'Connell was always ready to help his legal 
 brethren. For the judges, he cared very little. His 
 popularity was already established on the permanent 
 basis of success, and they could do him little harm. 
 On one occasion when a young barrister, named 
 Martley, rose to make his first motion, he was con- 
 stantly and rudely interrupted by Judge Johnson, 
 his learned brother, Lord Norbury, joining in the ill- 
 natured interruptions with his usual zest. 
 
 The young barrister at last became hopelessly 
 confused. At this moment O'Connell entered the 
 court, ascertained what was going on, urgently 
 entreated some of the older members of the bar to 
 interfere, but they were all unwilling. Lord Norbury 
 was not a person to be bearded with impunity. 
 O'Connell no longer hesitated ; whether in a war of 
 words or swords he was equally ready to throw him- 
 self between the oppressor and the oppressed, with- 
 out a thought of self. He addressed the bench 
 fearlessly : 
 
 "My lords, I respectfully submit that Mr. Martley has a 
 
252 
 
 A Confirmed Offender. 
 
 perfect title to a fall hearing. He has a duty to discharge to 
 his client, and should not, I submit, be impeded in the dis- 
 charge of that duty. Mr. Martley is not personally known to 
 me, but I cannot sit here in silence while a brother-barrister is 
 treated so discourteously." " Oh ! Mr. O'Connell, we have 
 heard Mr. Martley," said Lord Norbury, " and we cannot 
 allow the time of the court to be further wasted." " Pardon 
 me, my lord, you have not heard him. The young gentleman 
 has not been allowed to explain his case — an explanation which, 
 I am quite sure, he is capable of giving if your lordships will 
 afford him the opportunity." " Mr. O'Connell," said Judge 
 Johnson, with an air of great pomposity, " are you engaged in 
 this case that you thus presume to interfere?" " My lord, I 
 am not ; I merely rise to defend the privileges of the bar, and 
 I will not permit them to be violated either in my own, or the 
 person of any other member of the profession." " Well, well ; 
 well, well," interposed Lord Norbury, " we'll hear Mr. 
 Martley— we'll hear Mr. Martley. Sit down, Mr. O'Connell ; 
 sit down." 
 
 Having thus carried his point, Mr. O'Connell, in 
 obedience to the bench, sat down ; and Mr. Martley, 
 whose gratitude to O'Connell was sincere and lasting, 
 stated his case so satisfactorily as to obtain his 
 motion. 
 
 O'Connell on one occasion was engaged to defend 
 a highwayman, who had committed robbery on the 
 public road in the vicinity of Cork ; and, owing to 
 the masterly manner in which O'Connell sifted the 
 evidence and cross-examined the witnesses, the 
 robber was acquitted. The following year on re- 
 turning to Cork, O'Connell saw the same hardened 
 face resting on the same well-worn dock, grim and 
 ruffianly, and accused of very nearly the same 
 
Gratitude of the Prisoner. 
 
 258 
 
 crime — burglary, accompanied by an aggravated 
 assault, which was proximate to murder. The 
 culprit, as in the former case, was fortunate enough 
 to secure the services of O'Connell, who puzzled the 
 witnesses, perplexed the judge, and bewildered the 
 jury — owing to whose hopeless disagreement the 
 prisoner was discharged. His industrious client, 
 when restored to liberty, had no notion of sitting 
 down in sluggish idleness : he stole a collier-brig, 
 sold the cargo, purchased arms with the price, and 
 cruised along the coast in quest of booty ; and when 
 O'Connell returned to Cork he was once more in the 
 dock charged with piracy. His defence was under- 
 taken by O'Connell for the third time. O'Connell 
 showed that the crime did not come under the 
 cognizance of the court, as it had been perpetrated 
 ♦ on the high seas ; it came under the cognizance only 
 of the Admiralty. The gratitude of the prisoner 
 was warmly expressed — raising his hands and eyes to 
 heaven, he exclaimed, " Oh ! may the Lord spare you 
 to me r 
 
 O'Connell was counsel before Judge Day on 
 another occasion, for a man who stole some goats. 
 The fact was proved, whereupon O'Connell produced 
 to Judge Day an old Act of Parliament, empowering 
 the owners of corn-fields, gardens, or plantations, to 
 kill and destroy all hares, rabbits, and goats tres- 
 passing thereon. O'Connell contended that this legal 
 power of destruction clearly demonstrated that goats 
 were not property, and thence inferred that the 
 
254 
 
 "A Poor Slovenly Blockhead 11 
 
 stealer of goats was not legally a thief, or punishable 
 as such. Judge Day, was so unacquainted with the 
 law that he charged the jury accordingly, and the 
 prisoner was acquitted. 1 
 
 But O'Connell's practice was not confined to 
 criminal cases. The following case which he has 
 left on record shows how singularly clear his mind 
 was, and how he grasped a subject at once in all its 
 bearings : 
 
 " I recollect I once had a client, an unlucky fellow, against 
 whom a verdict had been given for a balance of ^61100. We 
 were trying to set aside that verdict. I was young at the bar 
 at that time ; my senior counsel contented themselves with 
 abusing the adverse witnesses, detecting flaws in their evidence, 
 and making sparkling points ; in short they made very flou- 
 rishing, eloquent, but rather ineffective speeches. While they 
 flourished away I got our client's book, and taking my place 
 immediately under the judge's bench, I opened the accounts 
 and went through them all from beginning to end. I got the 
 whole drawn out by double entry, and got numbers for every 
 voucher. The result plainly was, that so far from their being 
 a just balance of d£1100 against our poor devil, there actually 
 was a balance of ,6700 in his favour, although the poor 
 slovenly blockhead did not know it himself. When my turn 
 came, I made the facts as clear as possible to the judge and 
 jury ; and the jury inquired if they could not find a verdict of 
 £700 in his favour. I just tell you the circumstance," con- 
 tinued O'Connell, "to show you that I keep an eye on that 
 important branch of my profession." 
 
 1 However deficient Judge Day may have been in forensic 
 ability, he was an excellent shot — and he lmew it. O'Connell used 
 to call Lord Norbury " one of Castlereagh's unprincipled janissaries." 
 
Chapter J$i*% 
 
 PUBLIC SPIRIT AND POPULARITY. 
 1802—1810. 
 
 On Circuit: In Court: Bar Anecdotes: Marriage: 
 On Guard : Fresh Risings and Revenges : 
 Catholic Church: Catholic Priests and Protes- 
 tant Clergy : Maynooth : The Veto : Pole : 
 Wellesley : Castlereagh: Plain Speaking: Love 
 of Justice: Resolution to Petition: Effects of 
 the Union: Demand for its Repeal: Speech: 
 Petition : The Hierarchy : The Protestant Bishop 
 of Meath : The Edinburgh Review : Cobbett : 
 Lift into Popularity. 
 
WRITER of the day 
 has left a most graphic 
 account of O'Connell on 
 circuit, from which we 
 the following extracts. 
 He describes himself as : 
 
 " Sitting at the window of a vil- 
 lage inn one evening, when he was suddenly aroused 
 by the thundering of five horses and a chariot, which 
 soon appeared in sight. The moment they arrived at 
 the inn the animals were sharply checked, the door 
 was flung open, and the occupier hurriedly threw him- 
 self out. 
 
 " * Bring out four horses, instantly ! ' was the com- 
 mand he uttered in the loud voice of haste and 
 authority. 
 
 " The inmate of the carriage was about five feet eleven 
 and a half inches high, and wore a portly, stout, hale, and 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 O'Connell on Circuit. 
 
 agreeable appearance. His shoulders were broad, and his legs 
 stoutly built ; and as he at that moment stood, one arm in his 
 side pocket, the other thrust into a waistcoat, which was almost 
 completely unbuttoned from the heat of the day, he would have 
 made a good figure for the rapid but fine-finishing touch of 
 Harlowe. His head was covered with a light fur cap, which, 
 partly thrown back, displayed that breadth of forehead which I 
 have never yet seen absent from real talent. His eyes appeared 
 to me, at that instant, to be between a light bine and a grey 
 colour. His face was pale and sallow, as if the turmoil of 
 business, the shade of care, or the study of midnight, had 
 chased away the glow of health and youth. Around his mouth 
 played a cast of sarcasm, which, to a quick eye, at once be- 
 trayed satire ; and it appeared as if the lips could be easily 
 resolved into risus sardonicus. His head was somewhat 
 larger than that which a modern doctrine denominates the 
 'medium size and it was well supported by a stout and well- 
 foundationed pedestal, which was based on a breast— full, round, 
 prominent, and capacious. 
 
 " He was dressed in an olive-brown surtout, black trousers, 
 and black waistcoat. His cravat was carelessly tied — the knot 
 almost undone from the heat of the day ; and as he stood with 
 his hand across his bosom, and his eyes bent on the ground, he 
 was the very picture of a public character hurrying away on 
 some important matter which required all of personal exertion 
 and mental energy. Often as I have seen him since, I have 
 never beheld him in so striking or pictorial an attitude. 
 
 " ' Quick with the horses !' was his hurried ejaculation, as 
 he recovered himself from his reverie and flung himself into his 
 carriage. The whip was cracked, and away went the chariot 
 with the same cloud of dust and the same tremendous pace. 
 
 " I did not see him pay any money. He did not enter the 
 inn. He called for no refreshment, nor did he utter a word to 
 any person around him ; he seemed to be obeyed by instinct. 
 And while I marked the chariot thundering along the street, 
 
O'Connell and Sergeant Lefroy. 
 
 which had all its then spectators turned on the cloud-enveloped 
 vehicle, my curiosity was intensely excited, and I instantly 
 descended to learn the name of this extraordinary stranger. 
 
 " Most malapropos, however, were my inquiries. Unfor- 
 tunately the landlord was out, the waiter could not tell his 
 name, and the hostler ' knew nothing whatsomdever of him, 
 oney he was in the most oncommonest hurry.' A short time, 
 however, satisfied my curiosity. The next day brought me to 
 the capital of the county. It was the assize time. Very fond 
 of oratory, I went to the court-house to hear the forensic 
 eloquence of the 1 home circuit.' I had scarcely seated myse'.f 
 when the same greyish eye, broad forehead, portly figure, and 
 strong tone of voice arrested my attention. He was just on 
 the moment of addressing the jury, and I anxiously waited to 
 hear the speech of a man who had already so strongly interested 
 me. After looking at the judge steadily for a moment, he 
 began his speech exactly in the following pronunciation — ' My 
 Lurrd — Gentlemen of the jury. 1 
 
 M ' Who speaks ?' instantly whispered I.' 
 
 " ' Counsellor O'Connell,' was the reply. 
 
 " Counsel in a case in which his client was capitally 
 charged, O'Connell undertook the defence, although the 
 attorney considered the chances as utterly hopeless. O'Connell 
 knew it was useless to attempt a defence in the ordinary way, 
 the evidence being more than sufficient to insure a conviction. 
 Serjeant Lefroy, then very young, happened to preside, in the 
 absence of one of the judges who had fallen ill. Knowing the 
 character of the judge, O'Connell put a number of illegal ques- 
 tions to the witness, which the crown prosecutor immediately 
 objected to. The learned sergeant decided rather peremptorily 
 that he could not allow Mr. O'Connell to proceed with his line 
 of examination. 'As you refuse me permission to defend my 
 client, I leave his fate in your hands,' said O'Connell — ' his 
 blood will be on your head if he be condemned." O'Connell 
 Hung out of the court in apparent displeasure, and paced up and 
 down on the flagway outside for half-an-hour. At the end of 
 
260 
 
 The Hope of Clients. 
 
 this time he saw the attorney for the defence rushing out in a 
 great hurry without his hat. ' He's acquitted! he's acquitted ! ' 
 exclaimed the attorney, in breathless haste and joyous exulta- 
 tion. O'Connell smiled with a peculiar expression at the 
 success of his stratagem — for such it was. He knew that a 
 judge so young as Lefroy must naturally shrink in horror from 
 the terrible responsibility of destroying human life. He there- 
 fore flung the onus upon the judge, who, in the absence of 
 O'Connell, took up the case, and became unconsciously the 
 advocate of the prisoner. He conceived a prejudice in favour 
 of the accused, cross-examined the witnesses, and finally 
 charged the jury in the prisoner's favour. The consequence 
 was the complete and unexpected accquittal of the accused. 
 ' My only chance,' said O'Connell, ' was to throw the responsi- 
 bility on the judge, who had a natural timidity of incurring a 
 responsibility so serious.'" 
 
 If O'Connell was the hope of clients, he was 
 certainly the terror of judges. It was useless to 
 attempt to put a man down who, in nine cases out 
 of ten, knew more law than they did, and whose 
 assurance, right or wrong, was illimitable. It was 
 scarcely wise to provoke an encounter. He was 
 fond of relating anecdotes of his bar life, and as they 
 were all full of interest, and generally full of wit and 
 humour, his friends were never weary of listening to 
 him. Fortunately their authenticity, even in detail, 
 has been secured by the faithful record made of 
 them from day to day, by the gentleman who for 
 many years accompanied him in his journeys. 
 
 Before referring to O'ConneH's political life, we 
 give a few more of these reminiscences : 
 
 " On one occasion, O'Connell was asked by Mr. Daunt, if 
 the Irish bar had not a higher reputation for wit in the last 
 
Bar Anecdotes. 
 
 261 
 
 century than the present ? He said they had now no such wit 
 as Curran ; but that other members of the bar participated in 
 a great degree in the laughter- stirring quality. 'Holmes,' said 
 
 he, ' has a great share of very clever sarcasm Plunket 
 
 had great wit ; he was a creature of exquisite genius. Nothing 
 could be happier than his hit in reply to Lord Kedesdale about 
 the kites. In a speech before Piedesdale, Plunket had occasion 
 to use the phrase kites very frequently, as designating fraudulent 
 bills and promissory notes. Lord RedescLle, to whom the 
 phrase was quite new, at length interrupted him, saying : ' I 
 don't quite understand your meaning, Mr. Plunket. In 
 England, kites are paper playthings used by boys ; in Ireland 
 they seem to mean some species of monetary transaction.' 
 ' There is another difference, my lord,' said Plunket. 1 In 
 England, the wind raises the kites ; in Ireland, the kites raise 
 the wind.* 
 
 i 'Curran was once defending an attorney's bill of costs 
 before Lord Clare. 1 Here now,' said Clare, ' is a flagitious 
 imposition ; how can you defend this item, Mr. Cumin? " To 
 writing innumerable letters, £100." ' 'Why, my lord,' said 
 Curran, ' nothing can be more reasonable. It is not a ytnny 
 a letter.' And Curran's reply to Judge Robinson is exquisite 
 in its way. ' I'll commit you, sir,' said the judge. 1 1 hope 
 you'll never commit a worse thing, my lord !' retorted Curran. 
 
 " ' Wilson Croker, too,' said Mr. O'Connell, ' had humour. 
 When the crier wanted to expel the dwarf O'Leary, who was 
 about three feet four inches high, from the jury-box in Tralee, 
 Croker said, ' Let him stay where he is — De minimis non curat 
 lex* (Law cares not for small things). And when Tom Goold 
 got retainers from both sides, ' Keep them both,' said Croker ; 
 ' you may conscientiously do so. You can be counsel for one 
 side, and of use to the other.' 
 
 u Speaking of Judge Day while he was yet alive, O'Connell 
 said : ' No man would take more pains to serve a friend ; but 
 as a judge they could scarcely have placed a less efficient man 
 upon the bench He once said to me at the Cork 
 
262 
 
 Bar Anecdotes. 
 
 assizes, ' Mr. O'Connell, I must not allow you to make a 
 speech ; the fact is, I am always of opinion with the last 
 speaker, and therefore I will not let you say one word.' ' My 
 lord,' said I, ' that is precisely the reason why I'll let nohody 
 have the last word hut myself, if I can help it.' I had the 
 last word, and Day charged in favour of my client. Day was 
 made judge in 1798. He had been chairman of Kilmainham, 
 with a salary of £1,200 a-year. When he got on the bench, 
 Bully Egan got the chairmanship. 
 
 " ' Was Bully Egan a good lawyer ?' 
 
 " ' He was a successful one; his bullying helped him 
 through. He was a desperate duellist. One of his duels was 
 fought with a Mr. O'Reilly, who fired before the word was 
 given ; the shot did not take effect. e Well, at any rate, my 
 honour is safe,' said O'Reilly. ' Is it so ?' said Egan ; ' egad, 
 I'll take a slap at your honour for all that;' and Egan de- 
 liberately held his pistol pointed for full five minutes at 
 O'Reilly, whom he kept for that period in the agonies of mortal 
 suspense. 
 
 " < Did he kill him ?' 
 
 " ' Not he,' replied O'Connell; 'he couldn't hit a hay- 
 stack. If courage appertained to duelling, he certainly 
 possessed it. But in everything else he was the most timid 
 man alive. Once I stated, in the Court of Exchequer, that I 
 had, three days before, been in the room with a man in fever 
 120 miles off. The instant I said so, Egan shuffled away to 
 the opposite side of the court through pure fear of infection. 
 
 " Judge Day was a simpleton, but Judge Boyd was worse — 
 he was a drunkard. ' He was so fond of brandy,' said 
 O'Connell, ' that he always kept a supply of it in court, upon 
 the desk before him, in an ink-stand of peculiar make. His 
 lordship used to lean his arm upon the desk, bob down his 
 head and steal a hurried sip from time to time through a quill 
 that lay among the pens ; which manoeuvre he flattered himself 
 escaped observation. 
 
 " One day it was sought by counsel to convict a witness of 
 
Bar Anecdotes. 
 
 263 
 
 having been intoxicated at the period to which his evidencj 
 referred. Mr. Harry Deane Grady laboured hard upon the 
 other hand to show that the man had been sober. ' Come now, 
 my good man,' said Judge Boyd, ' it is a very important con- 
 sideration ; tell the court truly, were you drunk or were yon 
 sober upon that occasion ?' 
 
 " ' Oh, quite sober, my lord,' broke in Grady, with a very 
 significant look at the ink-stand — ' as sober as a judge.' " 
 
 If O'Connell was addicted to cajoling witnesses, 
 he seems to have been equally happy in protecting 
 unfledged professionals. We have already given 
 one instance of his interference on their behalf. He 
 happened to be in court when a young attorney was 
 called upon to make an admission which might have 
 been injurious to his client. O'Connell at once stood 
 up and told him to make no admission. Baron 
 M'Cleland, who was trying the case, asked if Mr. 
 O'Connell had a brief in the case. Mr. O'Connell 
 had no brief, except the very general one, of an 
 ardent desire to benefit the whole human race as far 
 as it was possible for him to do so. He replied : 
 
 " I have not, my lord ; but I shall have, one when the case 
 goes down to the assizes." 
 
 " When I was at the bar, it was not my habit to anticipate 
 briefs." 
 
 ' ' When you were at the bar, I never chose you for a 
 model ; and now that you are on the bench, I shall not submit 
 to your dictation." 
 
 " There was a barrister of the name of Parsons at the bar 
 in my earlier practice," said O'Connell, " who had a good deal 
 of humour. Parsons hated the whole tribe of attorneys ; 
 perhaps they had not treated him very well — but his prejudice 
 against them was eternally exhibiting itself. One day, in the 
 
264 
 
 Bar Anecdotes 
 
 hall of the Four Courts, an attorney came up to him to beg his 
 subscription towards burying a brother attorney, who had died 
 in distressed circumstances. Parsons took out a pound note. 
 ' Oh, Mr. Parsons,' said the applicant, ' I do not want so much ; 
 I only ask a shilling from each contributor.' ( Oh, take it — 
 take it,' replied Parsons ; ' I would most willingly subscribe 
 money any day to put an attorney under ground.' { But really, 
 Mr. Parsons, I have limited myself to a shilling from each 
 person.' i For pity's sake, my good sir, take the pound— and 
 bury twenty of them.' 
 
 " One of the most curious things I remember in my bar 
 experience," said O'Connell, " is Judge Foster's charging for 
 the acquittal of a homicide named Denis Halligan, who was 
 tried, with four others, at the Limerick assizes many years ago. 
 Foster totally mistook the evidence of the principal witness for 
 the prosecution. The offence charged was aggravated man- 
 slaughter, committed on some poor wretch, whose name I 
 forget. The first four prisoners were shown to be criminally 
 abetting ; but the fifth, Denis Halligan, was proved to have 
 inflicted the fatal blow. The evidence of the principal witness 
 against him was given in these words : ' I saw Denis Halligan, 
 my lord (he that's in the dock there), take a vacancy 1 at the 
 poor soul that's kilt, and give him a wipe with a cleh-alpeen, 2 
 and lay him down as quiet as a child.' The judge charged 
 against the first four prisoners, and sentenced them to seven 
 years' imprisonment each ; then proceeding to the fifth, the 
 rascal who really committed the homicide, he addressed hiiu 
 thus : ' Denis Halligan, I have purposely reserved the con- 
 sideration of your case for the last. Your crime, as being a 
 participator in the affray, is doubtless of a grievous nature ; yet 
 I cannot avoid taking into consideration the mitigating circum- 
 stances that attend it. By the evidence of the witness it 
 clearly appears that you were the only one of the party who 
 showed any mercy to the unfortunate deceased. You took 
 
 1 Vacancy, an aim at an unguarded part. 2 Cleh-alpeen, a bludgeon. 
 
Choice of a Wife. 
 
 265 
 
 him to a vacant seat, and you wiped him with a clean napkin, 
 and (to use the affecting and poetic language of the witness) 
 you laid him down with the gentleness one shows to a little 
 child. In consideration of these circumstances, which con- 
 siderably mitigate your offence, the only punishment I shall 
 inflict on you is an imprisonment of three weeks' duration.' 
 So Denis Halligan got off by Foster's mistaking a vacancy for 
 a vacant seat, and a cleh-alpecn for a clean napkin." 
 
 O'Connell married in the summer of the year 
 1802. His early life had not been in all respects a 
 model of virtue, but from this period his habits were 
 exemplary. In later years, he was not only attached 
 to his religion theoretically, as he had always been, 
 but he was also a most edifying and practical 
 Catholic. 
 
 His bride was a namesake and cousin of his own ; 
 and as she was destitute of worldly goods, his uncle 
 Maurice, with characteristic prudence, objected to 
 the match ; but O'Connell took his own way in this 
 as in other matters, and he never regretted his choice, 
 lie used to speak of her affectionately, and perhaps 
 with a little of the garrulousness of age in later years. 
 It would appear to have been entirely a love-match ; 
 and the old man used to say, his Mary "gave him 
 thirty-five years of the purest happiness that man 
 ever enjoyed." 
 
 His profession made him independent. During 
 the first year he was at the bar, he made £58 ; the 
 second year, £150 ; the 3rd year, £200 ; and the 
 fourth, about £300. From which time he advanced 
 rapidly, and made as much as £9.000 in one year. 
 
266 
 
 Fondness for Children. 
 
 Mrs. O'Connell had been educated in Tralee, and he 
 
 used to tell the following anecdote of her childhood : 
 
 <£ When my wife was a little girl, she was obliged to pass, 
 on her way to school, every clay, under the arch of the gaol ; 
 and Hands, the gaoler of Tralee, a most gruff, uncooth-looking 
 fellow, always made her stop and curtsey to him. She des- 
 patched the curtsey with all imaginable expedition, and ran 
 away to school, to get out of his sight as fast as possible." 
 
 O'Connell took great delight in relating the 
 following of his wife's grandmother : 
 
 " It was my delight to quiz the old lady, by pretending to 
 complain of her grand- daughter's want of temper. ' Madam/ 
 said I, ' Mary would do very well, only she is so cross.' 
 ' Cross, sir ? My Mary cross ? Sir, you must have provoked 
 her very much ! Sir, you must yourself be quite in fault ! 
 Sir, my little girl was always the gentlest, sweetest creature 
 born.' " l 
 
 O'Connell was very fond of children, and used 
 not unfrequently to commence a conversation with 
 them by asking them, if they knew that it was he 
 who obtained Emancipation for them ? A friend 
 once spoke to him about sending his little girl to 
 school ; he replied with some warmth : 
 
 " Oh, no ! never take the child from her mother, 
 never !" 
 
 The same friend made an apology for bringing in 
 his children. 
 
 "'Your time is so limited,' said he; ' and I fear they 
 must tease you.' 
 
 " ' Your apology,' returned O'Connell, 'reminds me of my 
 friend Peter Hussey, who was not remarkable for suavity. 
 
 1 " Personal Recollections," by Mr. Daunt, vol. ii. p. 185. 
 
Marriage. 
 
 267 
 
 * Dan,' said Peter to me, you should not bring in your children 
 after dinner, it is a heavy tax upon the admiration of the 
 company.' * Never mind, Peter,' said I ; * I admire them so 
 much myself, that I don't require any one to help me.' " 
 
 O'Connell's marriage took place on the 23rd of 
 June, 1802. The ceremony was strictly private, but 
 two of his brothers were present. It took place in 
 Dame Street, Dublin, at the house of Miss O'Connell's 
 brother-in-law, Mr. James Connor. The ceremony 
 was performed by the Rev. Mr. Finn, then parish 
 priest of Irishtown. 
 
 O'Connell still continued a member of the 
 Lawyers' Corps, and his life must have been con- 
 stantly in danger. When passing St. James Street, 
 Dublin, he used to point out a house which he had 
 searched in 1803. It was then the Grand Canal 
 Hotel. The canals w^ere then to Ireland what the 
 railways are now, and at that period travelling by 
 water was preferred for many reasons. 
 
 After O'Connell had stood sentry for three suc- 
 cessive nights, Mr. Purcell O'Gorman's turn came. 
 O'Connell observed that he had been recently ill, 
 and saw that exposure to the night air would proba- 
 bly kill him : 
 
 " 'I shall he in a sad predicament,' he said, 1 unless yon 
 take my turn of duty for me. If I refuse they'll accuse me of 
 cowardice or croppyism ; if I mount guard, it will he the death 
 of me !' So I took his place, and thus stood guard for six con- 
 secutive nights. One night a poor hoy was taken up in Dame 
 Street after midnight ; he said in his defence that he was 
 going on a message from his master, a notary-public, to give 
 
268 
 
 The Reign of Terror. 
 
 notice for protest of a bill. The hour seemed a very unlikely 
 one for such a purpose, and we searched his person for 
 treasonable documents. We found in his waistcoat pocket a 
 sheet of paper, on which were rudely scrawled several drawings 
 of pikes. He turned pale with fright and trembled all over, 
 but persisted in the account he had given us of himself. It 
 was easily tested, and a party immediately went to his master's 
 house to make inquiry. His master confirmed his statement, 
 but the visitors, whose suspicions were excited by the drawing, 
 rigidly searched the whole house for pikes — prodded the beds 
 to try if there were any concealed in them — found all right, and 
 returned to our guard-house about three in the morning." 
 
 The reign of terror in Ireland by no means con- 
 cluded with the Rebellion of 1798. Indeed, recent 
 risings, or attempts at rising, which took place soon 
 after, was a sufficient evidence that no amount of 
 severity could put down such attempts, however 
 hopeless. Another reminiscence of this period was 
 given thus by the Liberator. The subject was a 
 schoolmaster, named O'Connor, who was hanged in 
 1797, and whose head was left for many years over 
 the gaol at Naas : 
 
 " He made, said O'Connell, " a wicked speech in the dock. 
 He complained of taxes, and oppressions of various descrip- 
 tions, and then said, ' Before the flesh decays from my bones — 
 nay, before my body is laid in the earth, the avenger of tyranny 
 will come. The French are on the sea while I utter these 
 words ; they will soon effect their short and easy voyage, and 
 strike terror and dismay into the cruel oppressors of the Irish 
 people.' When the prisoner concluded, Judge Finucane com- 
 menced his charge, in the course of which he thus attacked 
 the politics, predictions, and arguments of the unhappy prisoner : 
 ' O'Connor, you're a great blockhead for your pains. What 
 you say of the French is all nonsense. Don't you know, you 
 
A Characteristic Reply. 
 
 269 
 
 fool, that Lord Howe knocked their ships to smithereens last 
 year ? And therefore, O'Connor, you shall return to the place 
 from whence you came, and you shall he delivered into the 
 hands of the common executioner, and you shall be hanged by 
 
 the Oh ! I must not forget, there was another point of 
 
 nonsense in your speech. You talked about the tax on leather, 
 and said it would make us all go barefoot. Now, O'Connor, 
 I've the pleasure to inform you that I have got a large estate in 
 Clare, and there is not a tenant upon it that hasn't got as good 
 boots and shoes as myself. And, therefore, O'Connor, you 
 shall return to the place from whence you came, and you shall 
 be delivered into the hands of the common executioner, and 
 you shall be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and your 
 body shall be divided into quarters ; and may the Lord have 
 mercy on your soul.' But O'Connor's reply was characteristic 
 — ' If you are kind to your tenants, my lord, may God bless 
 you.' " 
 
 Few Irishmen, indeed, except the unhappy infidel 
 leaders of the Rebellion, had died with words of 
 anger or revenge upon their lips. Their own lives 
 they were willing to sacrifice ; they only asked in 
 return some little amelioration of the misery of those 
 whom they left after them. But these men were 
 driven to deeds of desperation " by a tyranny worse 
 than that of Robespierre." 1 
 
 1 " The greatest difficulty ^Yhich I experience is to control the 
 violence of our loyal friends, who would, if I did not keep the 
 strictest hand upon them, convert the system of martial law (which, 
 God knows, is of itself bad enough) into a more violent and intoler- 
 able tyranny than that of Robespierre. The vilest informers are 
 haunted out from the prisons to attack, by the most barefaced per- 
 jury, the lives of all who are suspected of being, or of having been, 
 disaflected ; and, indeed, every Roman Catholic of influence is in 
 great danger. You will have seen by the addresses, both in the 
 
270 
 
 Servility and Timidity. 
 
 The most important political work of O'Connell's 
 early life was his connexion with the Catholic 
 Association. His earliest, and some of his most 
 brilliant speeches were made in connexion with that 
 movement. He was a leader without the name of a 
 leader, and with the serious disadvantage of acting 
 under men who had neither his disinterestedness, his 
 intellect, nor his patriotism. 
 
 In 1793 the forty-shilling freeholders were per- 
 mitted to vote, simply because they could swell the 
 number of slaves who enhanced the value of the 
 borough held by their masters. The few Irish 
 Catholic peers were neither allowed voice nor vote 
 in electing their representatives. They were still 
 timid, hesitating, cautious, thankful for the little they 
 had, and terribly afraid of losing it by the least effort 
 to obtain more. 
 
 The subjects in dispute between the Catholic 
 party and the Government were, with some few 
 modifications of circumstances, very much what they 
 are now. The Government, having permitted the 
 Catholic to educate his children, wished to have the 
 control of that education. The same battle is being 
 continued, under more liberal destinies, at the present 
 day and hour. Protestant statesmen have yet to 
 
 North and South, that my attempt to moderate that violence and 
 cruelty which has once driven, and which, if tolerated, must again 
 soon drive, this wretched country into rebellion, is not reprobated by 
 the voice of the country, although it has appeared so culpable in the 
 eyes of the absentees."— Cornivallis' Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 145. 
 
Learning and the Church. 
 
 271 
 
 learn that the Catholic Church does not change — 
 that the principles which she held in the first century 
 are precisely the same as those which she holds in 
 the nineteenth. Circumstances, of which she alone 
 is the judge, may require some alteration in the 
 application of these principles, but circumstances do 
 not alter the principles themselves. The Church is 
 divinely appointed to " teach all nations," and she 
 cannot permit her children to receive secular instruc- 
 tion if that instruction is given in such a way as to 
 interfere with the Divine teaching which belongs 
 exclusively to her. She does not indeed depreciate 
 or undervalue human learning ; on the contrary, 
 even in religious orders, if special gifts are de- 
 veloped, these gifts are encouraged and cultivated 
 with a care and assiduity of which the world knows 
 but little, even while it obtains the benefit of its 
 results. 1 
 
 1 We give one or two instances. In science, we would mention 
 Father Secchi, the eminent Jesuit, whose fame as an astronomer is 
 more than European, whose life is devoted to the science for which 
 he has such manifest talent. In the early part of the seventeenth 
 century, the " Annals of the Four Masters " were compiled by a 
 Franciscan friar ; and this work has been republished, and translated 
 in eight octavo volumes, by a Protestant historian, within the last 
 few years. His religious superiors, so far from preventing or depre- 
 ciating his labours, were the first to forward them. Out of their 
 poverty they supplied sufficient funds for his journeys and the 
 purchaso of old manuscripts ; while his monastic brothers waited on 
 him and aided him in all possible ways, so as to forward and lighten 
 his labour. 
 
 Nor has the Church failed to encourage even cloistered nuns in 
 literary labour, where there has been a manifest talent for such 
 
272 
 
 Secularising the Priesthood. 
 
 The Government, or should we not rather say 
 the world, has been always desirous of secularising 
 the priesthood. Practically, the attempt seems 
 abandoned in our own times, because the attempt 
 has been found simply hopeless. The priesthood 
 are not intended to be secularised, they are intended 
 to be a distinct class, they are not intended to ex- 
 hibit the manners, or habits, or customs of the world. 
 Yet how many, and what futile efforts have been 
 made by Government to have seculars and aspirants 
 to the priesthood educated together, for the avowed 
 purpose of accomplishing the very end which the 
 Church does not desire to accomplish. 
 
 All this arises from one simple cause. Protes- 
 tants do not believe in a divinely-instituted priest- 
 hood, they do not like to see a class of men set apart 
 from their fellows, in profession, in habits of life, and 
 in exterior being. But such a class has existed since 
 the foundation of Christianity, and will exist to the 
 end of time. To fight against it, or against the cir- 
 cumstances of its being, is hopeless, and being hope- 
 less is unwise. 
 
 work. A glance at M. Dupanloup's " Studious Women" will give 
 ample evidence of this. Of St. Lisba he writes that St. Boniface 
 admired her on account of her solid learning — " ernditionis sapiential 
 and that "he took time, which he did not consider lost, from his 
 apostolic labours to correct her Latin verses." In the twelfth 
 century, St. Hildegarde, a cloistered nun, and a canonised saint, 
 astonished her contemporaries by her learned cosmological works ; 
 and in the sixteenth century, Eleanore Cornaro was admitted doctor 
 at Milan, and died in the odour of sanctity. 
 
Protestant and Catholic tZfergy. 
 
 273 
 
 Amongst liberal Protestants, who are not irre- 
 concilably prejudiced, there is, if I may use the ex- 
 pression, a good-natured desire that priests should be 
 " more like other people."' But this is precisely 
 what priests are not intended to be. Such Protestants 
 naturally point to their own clergy, to that inde- 
 finable, and therefore indescribable polish which is 
 given to them by a university education, to that 
 fashionable manner which makes them undistin- 
 guishable from other gentlemen, so that their pro- 
 fession is only indicated by some trifling difference 
 of dress, not sufficient to mark them as a distinct 
 class, just sufficient to give a little appearance of dis- 
 tinction in position. This they accept as a badge of 
 office, in the same way as a lawyer accepts his wig 
 or gown ; and they ask, often with the most kindly 
 feeling, why Catholic priests cannot play the role of 
 fashionable gentlemen also ? The answer is simple ; 
 it is because Catholic priests are not intended to be 
 in the world, or to be of the world, as Protestant 
 clergymen must necessarily be. 
 
 They are men who are to live alone and apart 
 from their fellows. They are men vowed neither to 
 possess houses nor lands, wife nor child. They are 
 men who have solemnly and permanently sacrificed 
 all the pleasures of life. Blame them for this if you 
 will, but do not blame them for being faithful to 
 what they have vowed. 
 
 O'Connell set himself steadfastly against every 
 attempt to secularise the Catholic clergy ; and how 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 O'Connell and the Hierarchy. 
 
 frequent and how persistent these attempts were, 
 history has recorded. He had, as we have said 
 before, a peculiar aptitude for taking in the whole 
 bearings of a case. He had a rapid power of com- 
 prehension. Had he been a soldier, we suspect his 
 army would not have been very easily defeated ; for 
 he saw in a moment what was weak and required 
 strengthening, what was threatened by the enemy, 
 no matter how insidiously it might be disguised. 
 O' Conn ell had to deal with men whose preceptions 
 were by no means so clear as his own, and who were 
 incapacitated, to a certain extent, either by posi- 
 tion or education, from seeing the dangers which 
 threatened them. 
 
 The Catholic laity of the upper classes were only 
 anxious to obtain any concession that might be 
 offered, and were seldom able to understand that a 
 concession might be a disadvantage. The Govern- 
 ment, while willing to render certain concessions, 
 was unwilling to render them generously. Securities 
 were demanded of such a nature as to make the con- 
 cession either positively injurious or simply useless. 
 The majority of Catholics looked only at the con- 
 cession which was good in itself. O'Connell looked 
 at the concomitant circumstances, which were some- 
 times evil. To the upper classes, who were unable 
 to take his large vieiv of public affairs, he opposed 
 himself with an energy which sometimes bordered 
 on contempt ; but he rarely allowed himself to pass 
 the line of decorum. 
 
The College of Maynooth. 
 
 275 
 
 His position with the Catholic hierarchy was un- 
 fortunately very difficult ; but he conducted himself 
 in their regard with a tact and respectful delicacy, 
 which was so perfect, as to warrant the conclusion 
 that it arose more from his deep sense of religion, 
 and his firm faith in the hierarchy of the Church, 
 than from any worldly policy. 
 
 The two great subjects of discussion were the 
 Veto, and the arrangements to be made for the 
 College of Maynooth. 
 
 The College of Maynooth was founded originally 
 for the priesthood ; but as the English Government 
 were extremely anxious that lay students should be 
 admitted also, some lay students were admitted. No 
 sooner was this accomplished than a dispute arose ; 
 one party of Protestants wishing that the number of 
 lay students should be increased, and every facility 
 afforded for their accommodation, the other party 
 declaring that the laity should not be admitted at all. 
 With these disputes O'Connell had little connexion. 
 We shall, therefore, pass to the consideration of the 
 Veto question, after giving a few extracts from the 
 private correspondence of the time on the subject 
 of Maynooth College. 1 
 
 1 The Earl of Hardwick wrote thus to the Right Hon. Henry 
 Addington on the 21st December, 1801 : "It would be very curious 
 if, after all that has passed, Lord Clare should be attempting to 
 acquire popularity with the Catholics at the expense of the Govern- 
 ment. He seems to me, with a great share of cleverness and viva- 
 city, to be very deficient in consistency and precision in his ideas ; 
 
276 
 
 The College of Maynooth. 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever that the object 
 of Government in pressing the Veto was to obtain a 
 complete control over the Catholic clergy. The 
 advance was made with the utmost caution, and the 
 attempt was continued from time to time with rare 
 prudence. It seems little short of miraculous that 
 
 for at the very moment that he is contending for the policy of a 
 mixed education of lay boys with those intended for the priesthood, 
 he asserts that it is the fixed system of the priests not to suffer such 
 mixed education, and, moreover, cannot deny the greater probability 
 of the lay scholars, under priestly discipline and with priestly asso- 
 ciates, becoming monastic, than of the clerical pupils acquiring from 
 their lay schoolfellows the more liberal habits of those who are not 
 secluded from the world. In considering the policy of this measure, 
 it may be worthy of observation, that any such establishment neces- 
 sarily tends to perpetuate the distinction, which, so far as education 
 is concerned, was intended to be done away, by giving an equal 
 admission to Catholic and Protestant pupils at Trinity College, 
 Dublin." 
 
 Minutes of Conversation between the Right Hon. Charles Abbot 
 and Lord Kil warden at Cork Abbey, Dec. 25, 1801. 
 In the course of this conversation, which lasted above an hour, 
 the following points were distinctly stated and re- stated by Lord 
 Kilwarden : 
 
 1. The original purpose of the College of Maynooth was to edu- 
 cate only priests. The proofs of it are — 1. That it originated in the 
 circumstances of the times which had revolutionised the Continent, 
 and rendered the former places of educating the Irish priests (viz., 
 St. Omer, Paris, &c.) unfit and unsafe, and rendered it desirable to 
 educate them at home. 
 
 2. The speech of the Minister (Mr. Pelham), in opening the 
 measure to Parliament, pointed only at that object. 
 
 3. Lord K., who was then Attorney-General, and commissioned 
 by Mr. Pelham to confer with the Catholics, had no conference but 
 with Dr. Troy (titular Archbishop of Dublin) and another priest ; 
 
The Catholic Church and the Veto. 
 
 217 
 
 the Catholic Church should not have yielded to an 
 offer which looked so fair, which was made with 
 such an appearance of good will and generosity. 
 
 Undoubtedly, a few of the Irish Catholic bishops 
 were deceived for a time — probably, from not seeing 
 the real drift of the matter. The English Catholics, 
 
 and when, under Lis general instructions to talk with them, he 
 wished them to make the College a joint school for the laity and 
 clergy, they would not hear of it, and stated it to be prohibited by 
 their own rules. 
 
 [Notes then follow of some remarks made on the manners of the 
 students, which were not very complimentary to them.] 
 
 4. As to the abstract policy, Lord K. would advise the Crown 
 and Parliament, with a view only to the present rac#, to govern by a 
 strong military force, and keep down the Catholics by the bayonet ; 
 but with a view to posterity he should wish to educate the Protes- 
 tants and Catholics together : and such was the object of opening 
 Trinity College to the Catholics. 
 
 5. I told him that now at Trinity College the Provost informed 
 me there were many sons of opulent Catholics, and that their num- 
 bers of this class increased. 
 
 On the 28th December, 1801, the Earl of Clare wrote a Memo- 
 randum on the original institution of Maynooth, from which we give 
 the following extract. It shows that the Catholic hierarchy were as 
 thoroughly opposed to uniting lay and secular education then as they 
 are now : " After a pretty long negotiation with Dr. Troy, to which 
 I submitted very reluctantly by Lord Cornwallis's desire, he con- 
 sented to receive lay pupils for education according to the original 
 intention of the institution, and he consented also to oblige the 
 ecclesiastical pupils to contribute in part towards the expense of 
 their maintenance and education whilst at college. Both points I 
 consider to be essential to palliate the mischiefs of this institution. 
 For I fear that the utmost we can do will be to palliate its mischiefs, 
 after the strange precipitance and want of forethought which has 
 
278 
 
 O'Connell on the Veto. 
 
 with, the exception of Dr. Milner, did their best to 
 
 place this chain on the necks of their clergy. 
 
 In the year 1799, the Irish Catholic hierarchy 
 
 passed the following resolution : 
 
 " That, in the appointment of the prelates of the Roman 
 Catholic religion to vacant sees within the kingdom, such in- 
 terference of Government as may enable it to be satisfied with 
 the loyalty of the person appointed, is just, and ought to be 
 agreed to." 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1812, O'Connell thus alludes 
 
 to the Veto in one of his most masterly speeches : 
 
 " The opposition to Catholic Emancipation has assumed a 
 new shape ; bigotry and intolerance have been put to the blush, 
 or covered with ridicule ; everybody laughs at J ack Giffard and 
 Paddy Duignan ; and their worthy compeer and colleague in 
 England, Sir»William Scott, does no longer venture to meet 
 with adverse front the justice of our cause. He may, indeed, 
 talk of setting our question at rest ; he may declaim upon the 
 moral inferiority of the Irish Catholics ; but let him rest assured 
 that, so long as his children — if he has any — so long as the 
 swarthy race of his Scotts are placed, by law, on any superiority 
 to the Irish Catholics, so long will it be impossible to put the 
 question to rest. It never can — it never shall — rest, save in 
 
 hitherto marked every stage of its progress. If the Irish priesthood 
 is to be educated at a monastery at Maynooth, secluded from all 
 intercourse with laymen, I cannot see what will be gained by re- 
 claiming them from the foreign Popish universities. And if none 
 but the lowest ranks in the community, who are unable to contribute 
 to the expense of their maintenance and education, are received into 
 the Irish College, I cannot see any one advantage which can result 
 from it. And I can see that it will give a weight of patronage to 
 some few Popish ecclesiastics, which they may use as a powerful 
 engine to annoy the State." — Grenvilles Correspondence, vol. iii. pp. 
 368-372. 
 
0' Con rt ell on the Veto* 
 
 279 
 
 unqualified, unconditional Emancipation. As to the moral in- 
 feriority, I shall not dispute the point with him ; but I trust no 
 Catholic judge will ever be found in this country with such an 
 accommodating disposition as to decide the precise same ques- 
 tion in two different ways, as we are told that learned gentleman 
 has done, with the question of 1 paper blockades.' Let him, I 
 am sure I consent, direct his sapient opposition, in his present 
 prudent course of retarding the discussion of the right and 
 justice of our claims, by introducing other topics. The points 
 of delay — the resting-places — are obvious; and when the pre- 
 sent are exhausted, I rely on the malignity of our oppressors to 
 invent new terms for this purpose. 
 
 4 ' First, there was the Veto. That, indeed, was soon put 
 down by the imanimous voice of the Catholic people, who, be- 
 sides other reasons, really could not see, in the actual selection 
 made by the Irish Government of persons to fill the offices 
 belonging of right to them, anything to tempt them to confer 
 on that Government the nomination of upwards of thirty other 
 offices of emolument and honour. If hostility to the Irish 
 people be a recognised recommendation to all other employ- 
 ments, is it likely that, in one alone, virtue and moral fitness 
 should obtain the appointment ? It was too gross and glaring 
 ■ presumption in an administration, avowing its abhorrence for 
 everything Irish, to expect to be allowed to interfere with the 
 religious discipline of the Irish Catholic Church. 
 
 ; * Driven from any chance of the Veto, our enemies next 
 suggested ' the arrangement,' as it was called ; but this half 
 measure had but few supporters. It was not sufficiently strong 
 for the zealous intolerants ; its advantages were not so obvious 
 to the profligate ; it was met by this plain reply — that we knew 
 of no real inconvenience that could possibly arise froni the pre- 
 sent system of the government of our Church; but if any 
 existed, it were fitter to be treated of by the venerable prelates 
 of that Church, who understood the subject best, than by 
 ministers who wish to turn everything into an engine of state 
 policy. 
 
280 
 
 "Sanctions and Securities" 
 
 "'The arrangement' was then soon forgotten, and now, 
 my lord, we have new terms stated — those are ' sanctions and 
 securities.' We are now told we cannot be Emancipated with- 
 out ' sanctions and securities.' What are ' sanctions ? ' They 
 are calculated, I presume, to do a great deal of mischief, be- 
 cause they are quite unintelligible. As to ' securities,' indeed 
 I can understand that word ; and I am quite ready to admit 
 that securities are necessary ; they are necessary against the 
 effects upon a passive, but high-minded people — of continued 
 insult and prolonged oppression. They are necessary in a 
 sinking state against the domestic disturbances and organised 
 disaffection which prevail in England— against the enormous 
 and increasing power of the enemy — against dilapidated re- 
 sources, expiring commerce, depreciated currency, and accumu- 
 lating expenditure— against the folly, the incapacity, the want 
 of character of the administration — against all those evils of 
 which there is courage to speak — against that domestic insult, 
 respecting which it is prudent to be silent— against all these, 
 ' securities ' are necessary, and they are easy to be found ; they 
 are to be found in conciliation and emancipation, their rectitude 
 and justice. The brave, the generous, the enthusiastic people 
 of Ireland are ready to place themselves in the breach that has 
 been made in their country ; they claim the post of honour, 
 that is, the post of utmost danger ; they are ready to secure 
 the throne and the constitution, and all they require in return 
 is, to be recognised as men and human beings in this their 
 native land. 
 
 (( Do not, then, I would say to any minister — do not pre- 
 sume to insult them, by attempting to treat them as maniacs, 
 to be secured only by ropes and chains. Alas ! their only in- 
 sanity is their devotion to you. Tell them not that the more 
 they are free, the less will they be grateful ; tell them not that 
 the less you have to fear from their discontent, the more strictly 
 will you bind them. Oppress them if you please ; but hesitate 
 before you deem it prudent thus to insult their first, their finest 
 feelings." 
 
Mr. \V. WeUedey Pole. 
 
 281 
 
 With that withering sarcasm of which lie was 
 especially a master, he attacked Mr. Wellesley Pole, 
 and the " classic" Castlereagh : 
 
 "Haying disposed of ' Veto, arrangement, sanctions, and 
 securities,' there remains but one resource for intolerance : the 
 classic Castlereagh has struck it out. In consists in — what do 
 you think ? Why in 1 hitches.' Yes, k hitches ' is the elegant 
 word which is now destined to protract our degradation. It is 
 in vain that our advocates have increased ; in vain have our foes 
 been converted ; in vain has William Wellesley Pole become 
 our warm admirer. Oh, how beautiful he must have looked ad- 
 vocating the Catholic cause ! and his conversion, too, has been 
 so satisfactory — he has accounted for it upon such philosophic 
 principles. Yes, he has gravely informed us that he was all his 
 life a man detesting committees ; you might see by him that 
 the name of a committee discomposed his nerves, and excited 
 his most irritable feelings ; at the sound of a committee he was 
 roused to madness. Now, the Catholics had insisted upon 
 acting b}' a committee ; the naughty Papists had used nothing 
 but profane committees, and, of course, he proclaimed his hos- 
 tility. But in proportion as he disliked committees, so did he 
 love and approve of aggregate meetings — respectable aggregate 
 meetings ! Had there been a chamber at the Castle large 
 enough for an aggregate meeting, he would have given it. Who 
 does not see that it is quite right to doat upon aggregate meet- 
 ings and detest committees by law, logic, philosophy, and 
 science of legislation ? All recommend the one and condemn 
 the other ; and, at length, the Catholics have had the good 
 sense to call their committee a board, to make their aggregate 
 meetings more frequent. They, therefore, deserve Emancipa- 
 tion ; and, with the blessing of God, he (Mr. Pole) would con- 
 fer it on them ! (Laughter and cheers.) 
 
 " But, seriously, let us recollect that Wellesley Pole is the 
 brother of one of our most excellent friends — of Marquis 
 Wellesley, who had so gloriously exerted himself in our cause — 
 
282 
 
 The "Hitches." 
 
 who had manfully abandoned one administration because he 
 could not procure our liberty, and rejected power under any 
 other, unless formed on the basis of Emancipation ; and who 
 had, before this hour in which I speak, earned another unfading 
 laurel, and the eternal affection of the Irish people, by his 
 motion in the House of Lords. The eloquence and zeal and 
 high character of that noble marquis, seemed all that Y\ 7 as 
 wanting to ensure, at no remote period, our success. He 
 knows little of the Irish heart who imagines that his disin- 
 terested services will ever be forgotten ; no, they are grayed on 
 the soul of Irish gratitude, and will ever live in the memory of 
 the finest people on the earth. Lord Castlereagh, too, has 
 declared in our favour, with the prudent reserve of ' the 
 hitches ;' he is our friend, and has been so these last twenty 
 years — our secret friend ; as he says so, upon his honour as a 
 gentleman, we are bound to believe him. If it be a merit in 
 the minister of a great nation to possess profound discretion, 
 this merit Lord Castlereagh possesses in a supereminent degree. 
 Why, . he has preserved this secret with the utmost success. 
 Who ever suspected that he had such a secret in his keeping ? 
 The whole tenor of his life, every action of his, negatived the 
 idea of his being our friend ; he spoke against us— he voted 
 against us — he wrote and he published against us ; and it 
 turns out now that he did all this merely to show how well he 
 could keep a secret. Oh, admirable contriver ! oh, most suc- 
 cessful placeman ! most discreet and confidential of ministers !" 
 
 He then proceeded to show what the "hitches" 
 were : 
 
 " Our legal persecutors, who hunt us with a keenness only 
 increased by their disappointment, and rendered more rancorous 
 by our prospect of success — good and godly men — are at this 
 moment employed in projecting fresh scenes of prosecution. 
 Every part of the press that has dared to be free will surely be 
 punished, and public spirit and liberality will, in every case that 
 can be reached by the arts of state persecution, expiate its 
 
The Agitators. 
 
 283 
 
 offence in a prison. Believe me, my prophetic fears are not 
 vain : I know the managers well, and place no confidence in 
 their holy seeming. Again England affords another opportunity 
 of extending the 'hitches,' under the pretence of making laws 
 to prevent rebellion there ; the administration will suspend the 
 1 habeas corpus,' for the purpose of crushing Emancipation here ; 
 and thus will illustrate the contrast between the very words 
 which it would require twelve simpletons to swear meant the 
 same thing. The new laws occasioned by English rioters will 
 pass harmless over their heads, and fall only upon you. It 
 would be inconsistent if Castlereagh, the worthy successor of 
 Clare and John Foster, used any other plan towards Ireland. 
 The ' hitches,' the 1 hitches, 1 plainly mean all that can be 
 raised of venal outcry against us, and all that can be enacted of 
 arbitrary law, to prevent our discussions. 
 
 " Still, still we have resources— we have rich resources in 
 those affectionate sentiments of toleration which our Irish 
 Protestant brethren have proudly exhibited during the present 
 year. The Irish Protestants will not abandon or neglect their 
 own work ; it is they who have placed us on our present eleva- 
 tion — their support has rendered the common cause of our 
 common country triumphant. Our oppressors, yielding an 
 unwilling assent to the request of the Protestants of Ireland, 
 may compensate themselves by abusing us in common ; they 
 may style us agitators — Mr. Canning calls us agitators icith 
 ulterior views — but those Protestant agitators are the best 
 friends to the security and peace of the country ; and to us, 
 Popish agitators, for I own it, my lord, I am an agitator, and 
 we solemnly promise to continue so until the period of un- 
 qualified Emancipation— until ' the simple repeal ;' as to us, 
 agitators amongst the Catholics, we are become too much 
 accustomed to calumny to be terrified at it ; but how have we 
 deserved reproach and obloquy? How have we merited 
 calumny ? Of myself, my lord, I shall say nothing — I possess 
 no talents for the office ; but no man shall prevent the assertion 
 of my rigid honesty. I am, it is true, the lowliest of the 
 
284 
 
 The Agitators. 
 
 agitators, but there are, amongst them, men of first-rate talents, 
 and of ample fortunes, men of the most ancient families and of 
 hereditary worth, men of public spirit and of private virtue, and, 
 above all, men of persevering, undaunted, and unextinguishable 
 love of their country, of their poor, degraded, insulted country — 
 to that country, will I say of all the agitators, with the excep- 
 tion of my humble self : 
 
 " ' Boast, Erin, boast them tameless, frank, and free.' 
 
 " Out of the hands of those agitators, however, the Govern- 
 ment is desirable to take the people, and the Government is 
 right. Out of the sphere of your influence, my lord, the people 
 can never be taken, for reasons which, because you are present, 
 I shall not mention, but which are recognised by the hearts of 
 the Irish nation. (Loud cheering.) But out of our hands the 
 people may easily be taken. They are bound to us only by the 
 ties of mutual sympathies. We are the mere straws which are 
 borne upon the torrent of public wrongs and public griefs. 
 Restore their rights to the people, conciliate the Irish nation — 
 which is ready to meet you more than halfway — and the power 
 of the agitators is gone in an instant. I do certainly feel the 
 alarm expressed at the agitation of the question of Catholic 
 rights as a high compliment ; it clearly points out the course 
 we ought to pursue. Let us rouse the Irish people, from one 
 extreme to the other of the island, in this constitutional cause. 
 Let the Catholic combine with the Protestant, and the Protes- 
 tant with the Catholic, and one generous exertion sets every 
 angry feeling at rest, and banishes for ever dissension and 
 division. The temptation to invasion will be taken away from 
 the foreign enemy ; the pretext and the means of internal com- 
 motion will be snatched from the domestic foe ; our country, 
 combined in one great phalanx, will defy every assault ; and we 
 shall have the happiness of obtaining real security by that 
 course of conciliation which deserves the approbation of every 
 sound judgment, and must ensure the applause of every feeling- 
 heart — we shall confer an honour on ourselves and ensure the 
 safety of our country." 
 
-1 Cure for Agitation. 
 
 285 
 
 O'Connell has been called an M Agitator" in re- 
 proach ; we see here why he was an agitator on 
 principle. Long before he began his career of public 
 agitation, he showed the English Government how it 
 could be prevented, or rather how it could be 
 rendered unnecessary. " Restore their rights to the 
 people, conciliate the Irish nation, which is ready to 
 meet you more than half-way, and the power of the 
 agitator is gone in an instant." Had O'Connell's 
 advice been taken in the year IN 12, we should not 
 have heard of Fenianism in the year 1868. If 
 England would not oblige the Irish nation to agitate, 
 by making agitation virtually a necessary preliminary 
 to any instalment of justice, there would be more 
 peace at this side of the Channel, and not less pros- 
 perity at the other. 
 
 In 180-4 the Catholics met in Dublin to concert 
 measures for obtaining the long-promised justice of 
 Emancipation. They met in private at the house of 
 Mr. Ryan, and their proceedings were not made 
 public, as the Habeas Corpus Act was in force. 
 Another meeting was held in 1805, when Lord Fitz- 
 william, Sir Thomas French, Sir Edward Belle w, 
 Denis Scully, and R. R. Ryan, were appointed to 
 present to Mr. Pitt the petition to Parliament which 
 they had agreed on. 
 
 The petition was cautiously worded, with a 
 terrible fear of giving offence, since the Catholics 
 were long accustomed to the assurance that either 
 the matter or the manner was in fault, if they desired 
 
286 
 
 Give me Justice. 
 
 to express their ' claims. It was O'Connell who first 
 taught them a wiser and more manly way. He bid 
 them ask for justice as justice. Until now, justice to 
 a Catholic was taken to be a favour which might or 
 might not be granted, or for which, if granted, the 
 recipient should be perfectly grateful ; for which, if 
 refused, he should meekly acquiesce. To refuse 
 justice might seem unjust ; the refusal of a favour 
 could not be looked on in the same light. 
 
 Until now the Catholics had said, in trembling 
 accents, I pray of you to grant me this favour, permit 
 me to worship my God according to the dictates of 
 my conscience, allow me to educate my children, 
 grant me the ordinary rights of a citizen. 
 
 But O'Connell thundered out, Give me justice, I 
 ask no more — I shall not be satisfied with less. No 
 wonder that those who were unwilling to do justice 
 hated the man who demanded it. 
 
 The Catholic .had hitherto spoken in cautious 
 language, with measured accent, in humble tones, 
 and with words of deprecation. 
 
 O'Connell flung his words hither and thither like 
 a Norse giant playing with Scandinavian rocks. If 
 they hit hard sometimes, it was because his aim was 
 true. If the blows were rude, it was because he did 
 not stop to select his missiles very carefully. If 
 O'Connell had not been an Irishman, and had not 
 been a Catholic — if instead of a little coarseness he 
 had possessed a little Cromwellian brutality — men 
 like Carlyle would have flung him up into a nitch of 
 
A Hero of the True Type. 
 
 287 
 
 fame, would have honoured him as a hero, who not 
 only hated shams but demolished them. 
 
 His was no one-sided love of justice. His was 
 no affected cry to humour men who persecuted one 
 class of their fellow-creatures, while they cried out 
 for justice to another ; his justice was universal. No 
 man has ever dared accuse O'Connell of intolerance, 
 except to intolerant individuals. No class was ever 
 insulted by his eloquence ; no creed was ever vexed. 
 He cried out alike for the slave in America, and the 
 yet more cruelly treated serf in British India. If he 
 demanded justice to Ireland, lie also demanded 
 justice for all other peoples ; and one of his most 
 thrilling appeals to man to exercise, in his measure, 
 this great attribute of God, was made at a meeting of 
 the British India Society, where Lord Brougham 
 took the chair, and where O'Connell commenced his 
 speech by exclaiming, U I am here to claim justice 
 for India." 
 
 The meetings of the Catholics in Dublin began to 
 be regularly reported from the year 1808. On the 
 19th of January, they held a meeting for the purpose 
 of submitting certain resolutions, as well as to con- 
 sider the propriety of presenting a petition to the 
 Imperial Parliament, praying the removal of the dis- 
 abilities under which the body had so long and so 
 patiently laboured. 
 
 The Earl of Fingal was in the chair, and the pr< >- 
 ceedings were opened by Count Dalton, who, after 
 alluding to the accidental absence of Lord Gormans- 
 
288 
 
 Movement among the Catholics. 
 
 town, moved a resolution, expressing anxiety to 
 petition Parliament for a repeal of the Penal Laws, 
 and declaring that to be the " critical juncture when 
 such a petition ought, without delay, to be trans- 
 mitted." 
 
 John Byrne, Esq., of Mullinahack, seconded the 
 motion, and deprecated divisions amongst Catholics. 
 
 An amusing instance of the way in which Catholic 
 divisions arose occurred now. Mr. O'Connor, though 
 u forcibly impressed" with the " propriety and neces- 
 sity for petitioning," was nevertheless terribly afraid 
 of doing it, and begged the meeting to wait until 
 Providence should interfere in their behalf. He 
 forgot that Providence helps those who help them- 
 selves. 
 
 O'Connell replied : 
 
 "Nothing but disunion among themselves could ever re- 
 tard the Catholic cause. Division, while it rendered them the 
 object of disgust to their friends, would make them the scorn 
 and ridicule of their enemies. He was ready to admit that the 
 present administration were personal enemies of the Catholic 
 cause ; yet if the Catholics continue loyal, firm, and undivided, 
 they had little to fear from the barren petulence of the ex- 
 advocate, Perceval, or the frothy declamation of the poetaster, 
 Canning. They might meet with equal contempt the upstart 
 pride of Jenkinson, and with more than contempt the pompous 
 inanity of that Lord Castlereagh who might well be permitted 
 to hate the country that gave him birth, to her own annihila- 
 tion. He was also free to confess that he knew of no statute 
 passed since the Union which had for its object to increase the 
 trade or advance the liberties of Ireland ; but he thought it im- 
 possible, if the Catholics persevered, with undivided efforts, in 
 their loyal and dutiful pursuit of Emancipation, that any admini- 
 
Resolution to Petition. 
 
 260 
 
 stration could be found sufficiently daring in guilt to stand 
 between them and the throne of their father and sovereign, and 
 most calumniously and falsely use his name to raise obstacles 
 in the way of good subjects seeking to become free citizens. 
 He did, therefore, conjure the gentlemen to give up their 
 opposition ; he respected their talents, and however convinced 
 of their mistake, could not doubt the purity of their motives. 
 They must see that their arguments against the resolution 
 were confined to the ridiculous opposition, in fact, against the 
 noble lord for his haying condescended to ask advice before he 
 acted ; and to the equally frivolous difficulty objected to, the 
 form of the notice for calling the meeting. Was it possible 
 that rational beings should govern their conduct by such argu- 
 ments in the serious pursuit of freedom ? They were sons, 
 and might dearly love the parents who gave them birth — let 
 them recollect that it was fur their rights that the petition was 
 framed ; they were brothers, and should, if they felt the 
 endearing impulses of fraternal affection, sacrifice party, and of 
 course mere forms and ceremonies, in a struggle for obtaining 
 the rights of their brethren : they were parents, and all the 
 sweet charities of life combined in favour of the children who 
 looked up to them for protection. It was the liberties of those 
 children the present petition sought — would they postpone for 
 an hour that sacred blessing ? Could they, from any motive, 
 thwart the progress of those who sought it ? He knew that 
 was impossible, and he hoped, therefore, there would be no 
 division." 
 
 The result was the withdrawal of the amend- 
 ment, and the unanimous carrying of a resolution 
 to petition. 
 
 On the 23rd February 1810, the following letter 
 appeared in the Freeman s Journal : 
 
 " To the Editor of the 1 Freeman's Journal.' 
 " Sir — I am directed by the Catholic Committee to inform 
 you that the statement contained in a morning paper of this 
 
 19 
 
290 
 
 Social Effects of the Union. 
 
 day, respecting their proceedings, is extremely inaccurate and 
 erroneous in many important particulars, more especially as far 
 as relates to the Veto. That question was not fixed for dis- 
 cussion, nor was there any determination whatsoever on the 
 subject. 
 
 "I am also directed to request that you will publish this 
 letter, as the committee consider that such statement, if uncon- 
 tradicted, may be productive of mischief. I am, Sir, your 
 obedient servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell, Acting Sec. 
 
 "Crow Street, 22nd February, 1810." 
 
 On the 4th May, 1810, there was a meeting of the 
 Dublin Corporation to arrange for a general meeting 
 on a large scale, the object being to petition for the 
 Repeal of the Union. 
 
 The social effects of that measure were beginning 
 to be deeply felt. Trade was failing, shops were 
 closing, the once busy streets were almost deserted. 
 There was no business done in Westmoreland Street, 
 and there were no " fashionables" promenading in 
 Grafton Street. How could there be, when fashion 
 had fled to the seat of fashion, and trade had failed 
 because there was no capital to support it, and no 
 aristocracy to encourage it ? 1 
 
 1 The following extract from the speech made by Mr. Willis fills 
 up the melancholy details: 11 Mr. Willis said he rose under much 
 difficult}'', from the irisiduous and malignant attacks on his character 
 which the House had just listened to. He hoped it would not pre- 
 judice them against the motion he would now submit to them on 
 the measure of the Union — a motion so interesting to every Irish- 
 man, that it stood in need of little apology. He had no doubt but 
 Dr. Whitelaw's pamphlet would be again introduced, to show the 
 prosperity of this city ; but he would oppose to that the general and 
 
Social Effects of the Union. 
 
 291 
 
 The statement that " four-fifths of the legislature 
 knew very little of the country except by misrepre- 
 sentation," was only too true ; and, unfortunately 
 any attempt to remove this ignorance was useless. 
 
 The Common Council resolved on a petition, in 
 which they declared that the Union " had not in- 
 creased their prosperity, comfort, or happiness," and 
 stated, which could not be contradicted, that Ireland 
 had " suffered extremely in trade and commerce," 
 which was patent to all ; and, moreover, that Ireland 
 had not improved in u civilisation" or u manners" 
 from intercourse with England, neither had the 
 u discord of religious sects been extinguished." 
 
 The petitioners asked, as Irishmen will ask and 
 continue to ask, for equal laws, for the administration 
 of justice which should be justice. They might as 
 well have addressed themselves to the North Wind. 
 
 overwhelming bankruptcy with which this unfortunate country was 
 inundated. He asked why Westmorelaud Street, Grafton Street, 
 and every other trading part of this city, exhibited such distress — 
 why so many houses and shops were shut ? It is because the men 
 of property, the fashion of the country, were inveigled away by this 
 measure to spend their property in another land. He considered a 
 union of the Government absolutely necessary to support our 
 glorious constitution, and the connexion between the sister islands 
 to render the executive strong and powerful, to enable it to bring 
 into action the whole strength of the empire ; but a union of legis- 
 latures he considered in a very different point of view. A non- 
 resident legislature, four-fifths of which knew little of this ill-fated 
 country but by misrepresentation, be they ever so well inclined to 
 serve us, are liable to imposition, practised by interested or design- 
 ing men. This had been the case in the Coal Act, the Paving Act, 
 the Insurrection Act, and many others." 
 
292 
 
 Mr. M'Kenzie said he was obliged, being instructed by his 
 corporation, to vote for a petition. He conceived his instruc- 
 tions did not go to support such a petition as the one now read ; 
 the language was improper — it could not be otherwise, coming 
 as it did." 
 
 Mr. Paterson thought the petition "presumptuous," 
 and Mr. Craven said the Catholics, without whom 
 the Union would never have been carried, were 
 " duped." There is not the slightest doubt that the 
 Union would have been carried without the Catholics, 
 at the cost of another rebellion ; but the promoters 
 of the plan of Union preferred carrying it quietly — 
 so they duped the Catholics, which was easier if less 
 honourable. 
 
 On the 8th August 1810, 1 the grand jurors of the 
 city, " viewing the distressed and deplorable state" of 
 the Dublin manufactures, and the "great gloom and 
 misery" of their "unfortunate" country, requested the 
 high sheriffs to call a meeting to petition for a Repeal 
 of the Union. This requisition was signed by 150 
 jurymen. A meeting was held at the Royal Ex- 
 change on the 18th September 1810, and Sir James 
 Riddell, the High Sheriff, took the chair. The 
 middle upper class were all eager for Repeal of the 
 Union ; the upper class lived principally in England, 
 and so that they got their rents did not trouble them- 
 selves about the state of the country. If an agitation 
 was threatened, or a tithe-proctor carded, they called 
 out for martial law; they knew nothing of, and cared 
 
 1 See files of the Freeman* Journal for the year 1810. 
 
The Xaiion and Repeal. 
 
 293 
 
 nothing for the unhappy people whose hist farthing 
 was wrung from them before they attempted to 
 avenge themselves. 
 
 It has been generally believed, or taken as an 
 accepted fact, that Irishmen acquiesced generally in 
 the Union, that the agitation in O'Connell's later 
 years, and at the present day, for repeal, or a federal 
 government, is the work of a few designing politicians. 
 This opinion or belief is one of the many evil results 
 of English ignorance of Irish history. It is true 
 that, for a year or so after the passing of the Union, 
 Ireland lay as one stunned by a heavy and unex- 
 pected blow ; but she soon recovered herself, and 
 her first act was to protest both against the blow and 
 the manner in which the blow was given. A glance 
 over the files of Irish newspapers, from the year 1808 
 to the present day. will give ample evidence of the 
 truth of this assertion. 1 
 
 1 The following extract from the Dublin Evening Post of 2Cth 
 March 1808, is an evidence of the opinion advanced above : 
 
 " Repeal of the Union. — The corporation of skinners and 
 glovers have the honour of being the first to come forward to express 
 their sentiments on the policy and necessity which exists for a 
 Repeal of the Act of Union. These worthy and spirited citizens 
 met yesterday, when they entered into resolutions which will be 
 found in another column. Other corporations are preparing to 
 follow up with spirit the example of the skinners and glovers. They 
 will not be deterred by the assertion that the effort is useless. They 
 recollect, that although it was proposed in the Irish House of Com- 
 mons, that the petition from Belfast for the repeal of Poyning's law 
 should be burned by the hangman in College Green, yet, in less than 
 seven years after, the law was repealed : they will also recollect that 
 Lucas was exiled for supporting those principles, which afterwards 
 procured G rattan the thanks of his country and a vote of £50,000." 
 
294 
 
 " The Experience of Ten Years." 
 
 We shall give a few extracts from the speeches at 
 this aggregate meeting as an evidence of the public 
 opinion of the day. 
 
 Mr. Hutton, who moved the first motion, said : 
 
 " Sir, We have now had the experience of ten years since 
 the passing of the Act of Union, and let me ask had the Irish 
 manufactures had a fair competition in the British markets ? 
 Have the manufactures of Ireland been protected and en- 
 couraged, or have those of Dublin flourished, as we were 
 promised ? Let me ask, have the poor of the land had their 
 education properly attended to ? Every man that is a well- 
 wisher to the prosperity of Ireland will answer me in the 
 negative. Have the Roman Catholics met with any acknowledg- 
 ment of the justice of their claims ? If they have, let any man 
 who now hears me stand forward and avow it. On the contrary, 
 the Catholics, in their rights, ever since the passing of the Act 
 of Union, have stood, and do stand at present, just where they 
 began. They have endeavoured to get their claims acknow- 
 ledged and acquiesced in ; but are they not at this instant pre- 
 cluded from holding any superior rank in the army ? I do not, 
 sir, speak of administration, but I contend that the welfare and 
 prosperity of Ireland depend upon the Eepeal of the Act of 
 Union." 
 
 Mr. O'Connell said : 
 The Union was, therefore, a manifest injustice — and it 
 continues to be unjust to this day ; it was a crime, and must 
 be still criminal, unless it shall be ludicrously pretended that 
 crime, like wine, improves by old age, and that time mollifies 
 injustice into innocence. 
 
 Alas ! England, that ought to have been to us as a sister 
 and a friend — England, whom we had loved, and fought and 
 bled for — England, whom we have protected, and whom we do 
 protect — England, at a period, when out of 100,000 of the 
 seamen in her service, 70,000 were Irish— -England stole upon 
 
How the Union was carried. 
 
 295 
 
 us like a thief in the night, and robbed us of the precious gem 
 of oar Liberty ; she stole from us ' that in which nought en- 
 riched her, but made us poor indeed.' Reflect, then, my fiiends, 
 on the means employed to accomplish this disastrous measure. 
 I do not speak of the meaner instruments of bribery and corrup- 
 tion—we all know that everything was put to sale — nothing 
 profane or sacred was omitted in the Union mart— offices in 
 the revenue, commands in the army and navy, the sacred 
 ermine of justice, and the holy altars of God were all profaned 
 and polluted as the rewards of Union services. By a vote in 
 favour of the Union, ignorance, incapacity, and profligacy 
 obtained certain promotion— and our ill-fated but beloved 
 country was degraded to her utmost limits, before she was 
 transfixed in slavery. But I do not intend to detain you in 
 the contemplation of those vulgar means of parliamentary 
 success — they are within the daily routine of onicial mundr/c- 
 ment: neither will I direct your attention to the frightful 
 recollection of that avowed fact, which is now part of history, 
 that the Rebellion itself was fomented and encouraged in order 
 to facilitate the Union. Even the Rebellion was an accidental 
 and a secondary cause — the real cause of the Union lay deeper, 
 but it was quite obvious. It is to be found at once in the 
 religions dissentions which the enemies of Ireland have created 
 and continued, and seek to perpetuate amongst ourselves by 
 telling us of, and separating us into wretched sections and 
 miserable subdivisions ; they separated the Protestant from the 
 Catholic, and the Presbyterian from both ; they revived every 
 antiquated cause of domestic animosity, and they invented new 
 pretexts of rancour ; but above all, my countrymen, they belied 
 and calumniated us to each other — they falsely declared that 
 we hated each other, and they continued to repeat the assertion, 
 until we came to believe it ; they succeeded in producing all 
 the madness of party and religious distinctions ; and whilst we 
 were lost in the stupor of insanity, they plundered us of our 
 country, and left us to recover at our leisure from the horrid 
 delusion into which we had been so artfully conducted. 
 
296 
 
 " The Thing is a Mockery: 1 
 
 " Such, then, were the means by which the Union was effec- 
 tuated. It has stript us of commerce and wealth ; it has de- 
 graded us, and deprived us not only of our station as a nation 
 but even of the name of our country : we are governed by 
 foreigners — foreigners make our laws. Were the one hundred 
 members who nominally represent Ireland in what is called 
 the Imperial Parliament — were they really our representatives, 
 what influence could they, although unbonght and unanimous, 
 have over the five hundred and fifty-eight English and Scotch 
 members ? But what is the fact ? Why, that out of the one 
 hundred, such as they are, that sit for this country, more than 
 one-fifth know nothing of us, and are unknown to us. What, 
 for example, do we know about Andrew Strahan, printer to the 
 king ? What can Henry Martin, barrister-at-law, care for the 
 rights or liberties of Irishmen ? Some of us may, perhaps, for 
 our misfortunes, have been compelled to read a verbose pamphlet 
 of James Stephens ; but who knows anything of one Crile, one 
 Hughan, one Cackin, or of a dozen more whose names I could 
 mention only because I have discovered them for the purpose 
 of speaking to you about them ; what sympathy can we, in our 
 sufferings, expect from those men ? What solicitude for our 
 interests ? What are they to Ireland, or Ireland to them ? 
 No, Mr. Sheriff, we are not represented — we have no effectual 
 share in the legislation — the thing is a mere mockery ; neither 
 is the Imperial Parliament competent to legislate for us — it is 
 too unwieldy a machine to legislate with discernment for 
 England alone ; but with respect to Ireland, it has all the 
 additional inconvenience that arises from want of interest and 
 total ignorance. Sir, when I talk of the utter ignorance, in 
 Irish affairs, of the members of the Imperial Parliament, I do 
 not exaggerate or mistake ; the ministers themselves are in 
 absolute darkness with respect to this country. I undertake to 
 demonstrate it. Sir, they have presumed to speak of the 
 growing prosperity of Ireland. I know them to be vile and 
 profligate — I cannot be suspected of flattering them — yet, vile 
 as they are, I do not believe they could have had the audacity 
 
'"Old Ireland" for ever! 
 
 297 
 
 to insert in the speech, supposed to be spoken by his Majesty, 
 that expression, had they known that, in fact, Ireland was in 
 abject and increasing poverty." 
 
 Then lie appealed to his audience on the subject 
 
 of religious intolerance, a subject which he lost no 
 
 opportunity of bringing forward : 
 
 " Who, in 1795, thought a Union possible ? Pitt dared to 
 attempt it, and he succeeded ; it only requires the resolution to 
 attempt its repeal ; in fact, it requires only to entertain the 
 hope of repealing it, to make it impossible that the Union should 
 continue ; but that pleasing hope could never exist whilst the 
 infernal dissensions on the score of religion were kept up. The 
 Protestant alone could not expect to liberate his country, the 
 Roman Catholic alone could not do it, neither could the Presby- 
 terian ; but amalgamate the three into the Irishman — and the 
 Union is repealed. Learn discretion from your enemies ; they 
 have crushed your country by fomenting religious discord ; serve 
 her — by abandoning it for ever. Let each man give up his 
 share of the mischief, let each man forsake every feeling of 
 rancour. But, I say not this to barter with you, my country- 
 men ; I require no equivalent from you ; whatever course you 
 shall take, my mind is fixed ; I trample underfoot the Catholic 
 claims if they can interfere with the Piepeal ; I abandon all wish 
 for Emancipation, if it delays that Repeal. Nay ; were Mr. 
 Perceval, to-morrow, to offer me the Piepeal of the Union upon 
 the terms of re-enacting the entire penal code, I declare it from 
 my heart, and in the presence of my God, that I would most 
 cheerfully embrace his offer. Let us then, my beloved country- 
 men, sacrifice our wicked and groundless animosities on the 
 altar of our country ; let that spirit which, heretofore emanating 
 from Dungannon, spread all over the island and gave light and 
 liberty to the land, be again cherished amongst us ; let us rally 
 round the standard of Old Ireland, and we shall easily procure 
 that greatest of political blessings — an Irish King, an Irish 
 House of Lords, and an Irish House of Commons." 
 
298 
 
 Petition for Repeal. 
 
 The close of O'Connell's speech was greeted by 
 long and continued applause, but the High Sheriff 
 was nervous. O'Connell had used the words " Irish 
 King, 77 and no one could tell what construction might 
 be put on the expression ; therefore, O'Connell was 
 obliged to explain himself, and to make a special 
 declaration of loyalty. 
 
 A declaration and a petition were drawn up this 
 year. The declaration was on the vexed subject of 
 the Veto, the petition was for Repeal. 
 
 O'Connell drew up the petition, which ran thus : 
 
 " To THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KING- 
 DOM of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament 
 
 ASSEMBLED, 
 
 "We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, on behalf of 
 ourselves and of others, his Majesty's subjects professing the 
 .Roman Catholic religion in Ireland, humbly beg leave to repre- 
 sent to this honourable House : 
 
 " That we, your petitioners, did, in the years 1805 and 1808, 
 humbly petition this honourable House, praying the total aboli- 
 tion of the penal laws, which aggrieve the Catholics of Ireland. 
 
 " We now feel ourselves obliged, in justice to ourselves, our 
 families, and our country, once more to solicit the attention of 
 this honourable House to the subject of our said petition* 
 
 "We state, that the Eoman Catholics constitute the most 
 numerous and increasing portion of the inhabitants of Ireland, 
 comprising an immense majority of the manufacturing, trading, 
 and agricultural interests, and amounting to, at least, four-fifths 
 of the Irish population ; that they contribute largely to the exi- 
 gencies of their country, civil and military ; that they pay the 
 far greater part of the public and local taxes ; that they supply 
 the armies and navies of this empire with upwards of one-third 
 
Petition for Repeal. 
 
 299 
 
 part in number of the soldiers and sailors employed in the public 
 service ; and that, notwithstanding heavy discouragements, they 
 form the principal constituent part of the strength, wealth, and 
 industry of Ireland. 
 
 " Yet such is the grievous operation of the penal laws of 
 which we complain, that the lloman Catholics are thereby not 
 only set apart from their fellow-subjects as aliens in their native 
 land, but are ignominiously and rigorously proscribed from 
 almost all situations of public trust, honour, or emolument, in- 
 cluding every public function and department, from the Houses 
 of legislature down to the most petty corporations. 
 
 " We state, that whenever the labour of public duty is to be 
 exacted and enforced, the Catholic is sought out and selected ; 
 where honours or rewards are to be dispensed— he is neglected 
 and contemned. 
 
 " Where the military and naval strength of the empire is to 
 bo recruited, the Catholics are eagerly solicited, nay compelled, 
 to bear at least their full share in the perils of warfare, and in 
 the lowest ranks ; bat when preferment or promotion (the dear 
 and legitimate prize of successful valour) are to be distributed 
 as rewards of merit, no laurels are destined to grace a Catholic's 
 brow, or fit the wearer for command. 
 
 " We state, thus generally, the grievous condition of the 
 Roman Catholics of Ireland, occasioned solely hy the fatal in- 
 fluence and operation of the penal laws ; and though we forbear 
 to enter into greater detail, yet we do not the less trust to the 
 influence of reason and justice (which eventually must prevail) 
 for effecting a full and deliberate inquiry into our grievances, 
 and accomplishing our effectual relief. 
 
 " We do beg leave, however, most solemnly, to press upon 
 the attention of this honourable House, the imminent public 
 dangers which necessarily result from so inverted an order of 
 things, and so vicious and unnatural a system of legislation — a 
 system which has long been the reproach of this nation, and is 
 unparalleled throughout modern Christendom. 
 
 " And we state it as our fixed opinion, that, to restore to 
 
300 
 
 Resolutions of Catholic Bishops. 
 
 the Catholics of Ireland a fall, equal, and unqualified participa- 
 tion of the benefits of the laws and constitution of England, and 
 to withdraw all the privations, restrictions, and vexatious dis- 
 tinctions which oppress, injure, and afflict them in their country, 
 is now become a measure not merely expedient, but absolutely 
 necessary — not only a debt of right due to a complaining peo- 
 ple, but perhaps the last remaining resource of this empire, in 
 the preservation of which we take so deep an interest. 
 
 " We therefore pray this honourable House to take into 
 their most serious consideration the nature, extent, and opera- 
 tion of the aforesaid penal laws, and, by repealing the same 
 altogether, to restore to the Roman Catholics of Ireland those 
 liberties so long withheld, and their due share in that Constitu- 
 tion, which they, in common with their fellow- subjects of every 
 other description, contribute by taxes, arms, and industry to 
 sustain and defend. 
 
 " And your petitioners will ever pray." 
 
 On the 24th of February, 1810, the Catholic 
 bishops met in Dublin, and drew up the following 
 resolutions : 
 
 " Resolved — 1 That it is the undoubted and exclusive right 
 of Roman Catholic bishops to discuss and decide on all matters 
 appertaining to the doctrine and discipline of the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church.' 
 
 "Resolved — 'That we. do hereby confirm and declare our 
 unaltered adherence to the resolutions unanimously entered into 
 at our last general meeting, on the 14th September, 1806.' 
 
 " Resolved — ' That we are convinced that the oath of alle- 
 giance framed and proposed by the legislature itself, and taken 
 by us, is not only adequate security for our loyalty, but that we 
 know of no stronger pledge that we can possibly give.' 
 
 " Resolved — ' That having disclaimed upon oath all right in 
 the Pope, or any other foreign potentate, to interfere in the 
 temporal concerns of the kingdom, an adherence to the practice 
 observed in the appointment of Irish Roman Catholic bishops 
 
The Irish CatJiolic Hierarchy. 
 
 001 
 
 cannot tend to produce an undue or mischievous exercise of any 
 foreign influence whatsoever.' 
 
 "Resolved — 'That we neither seek nor desire any other 
 earthly consideration for our spiritual ministry to our respective 
 llocks, save what they may, from a sense of religion and duty 
 voluntarily afford us.' 
 
 "Resolved — 'That an address, explanatory of these our 
 sentiments, be prepared and directed to the Roman Catholic 
 clergy and laity of Ireland, and conveying such further instruc- 
 tions as existing circumstances may seem to require.' " 1 
 
 The Irish Catholic hierarchy, with a trusting con- 
 fidence which was honourable to them, however 
 misplaced, had long believed that to protest and 
 solemnly declare their loyalty would insure a belief 
 in it. They had at last begun to learn that men who 
 did not believe their word would be equally un- 
 willing to believe their oath. They had learned that 
 a dignified statement of loyalty, or of their inten- 
 tions, was the best policy. They began to see that all 
 these demands for securities were mere excuses — 
 the excuses of those who wished to evade granting 
 justice ; first by asking securities against dangers 
 
 1 As the Veto question is only mentioned incidentally in O'Con- 
 nell's history, we shall not enter into this subject. It is one which 
 would merit careful consideration, but such consideration would 
 require more space than can be given to it in the present work. 
 
 It is sufficient to observe that, though a few of the Irish bishops 
 were at first disposed to favour it, they opposed it eventually with a 
 steady resolution, which saved the Catholic Church in this country, 
 and in Great Britain, from a danger which was not the less to be 
 apprehended because it was deeply insiduous. Dr. Lanigan, the 
 great Irish ecclesiastical historian, was one of the most energetic and 
 successful oppo.sers of this scheme, 
 
802 
 
 Letter of the Bishop of Meath. 
 
 which existed only in their own imagination; then by 
 refusing the securities, no matter what solemn pledges 
 might be made of their authenticity. 
 
 That the one object of the Veto was to wean the 
 Catholic clergy from the Holy See, is plainly evident 
 from the private correspondence of the time. The 
 great complaint against the Irish priesthood was its 
 devotion to Rome. The Yeto was to undermine 
 their loyalty, and was to secure devotion to English 
 interests as a substitution for devotion to the Chair of 
 Peter. Of course, something should be offered in 
 return, and Emancipation was proposed. It is to be 
 feared that, if the Yeto had been agreed upon, 
 Emancipation would have been refused. 1 
 
 The Protestant Bishop of Meath wrote on this 
 subject to Lord Castlereagh in November, 1800. A 
 few extracts from this letter will show the objects 
 avowedly contemplated : 
 
 " First, The Catholic clergy were to be made more inde- 
 pendent of the people, and the bishops were to be brought into 
 contact with the Government. — • So early as the year 1782, I 
 entertained the idea of the policy and necessity of making an 
 established provision for the Roman Catholic clergy, that would 
 make them independent of their people. I necessarily connected 
 this measure with that of bringing their bishops more in contact 
 with the Government, and giving the Castle an interference and 
 influence in their appointment.' 
 
 " Secondly, Care was to be taken, and a plan arranged, with 
 
 1 The English Government, who had the nomination of the 
 bishops for the Protestant Church in Ireland, took care that their 
 nominees should be all English. 
 
Letter of the Bishop of Meath 
 
 what would have been called Jesuitical skill and duplicity, and 
 the plan emanated from a Catholic bishop, that the priest should 
 be so educated as to be made as English as possible not only 
 in politics but in religion. — 'In France. Spain, and the Low 
 Countries, the superiors of the different seminaries for the Eng- 
 lish, Scotch, and Irish Missions, as they expressed it, were 
 always natives of those kingdoms ; but they were persons ex- 
 actly of the description which Government must ever consider 
 as disqualified for such situations — persons exclusively devoted 
 to the See of Rome, educated in all the principles, and therefore 
 certain to inculcate and teach all the principles, that militate 
 most against the civil authority in every country, and parti- 
 cularly tainted with all the prejudices against our establishment 
 and our constitution, which an education in countries hostile to 
 both cannot fail to inspire.' 
 
 u Thirdly, No priest was to be allowed to officiate in Ireland 
 unless he was educated at Maynooth under Government control 
 and supervision ; for those educated in foreign seminaries would 
 be more Roman, and the * foreign priest would not fail to re- 
 proach the Maynooth priest as half a heretic, as a Government 
 instead of a Roman priest ! ' 1 
 
 "Fourthly, The doctrines taught at Maynooth were to be 
 such as the English Government shall approve. The legislators 
 of the day were quite indifferent to points of doctrine ; the Pro- 
 testant parson or the Catholic priest might teach what they 
 pleased on such subjects ; but Caesar's interests were to bo 
 looked after very carefully. They were ordered to be the first 
 object; for the rest it mattered little." 
 
 The Protestant Bishop of Meatli had very distinct 
 and very practical ideas on this subject. He was by- 
 no means unjust or unfair to the Catholic clergy ; 
 he would allow them to teach what they pleased, so 
 long as they taught submission to the Government. 
 
 1 Castlereagh Correspondence , vol. iii. 
 
394 
 
 A Significant Parallel. 
 
 He seems to have been an honest, honourable man 
 with one idea. Why could not these men do as he 
 did ? why could not these men teach as he taught ? 
 The king or Government, as the case might be, was 
 the head of his Church, and the ultimate source of 
 his doctrine. Those men who would not act as he 
 did, were either stupid or perverse, in which case he 
 pitied them ; but he was beyond his age in liberality, 
 and he would not persecute or suggest persecution. 1 
 
 On the 5th January, 1811, a meeting was held for 
 the purpose of " appointing proper persons in aid of 
 the Earl of Fingal, for the charge of the petition to 
 England." 
 
 O'Connell, practical as usual, informed the com- 
 mittee that considerable progress had been made in 
 the investigation of the existing penal laws, and the 
 oppressive consequences resulting therefrom. As 
 
 1 " Great precautions should be taken against any doctrines 
 being taught in the College that might militate against or under- 
 mine the establishment, or the constitution and government of the 
 country." 
 
 The doctrine taught by the Catholic clergy did not concern the 
 Protestant bishop, except in so far as it interfered with what he con- 
 sidered " loyalty." The whole letter, mutatis mutandis, is curiously 
 like a charge given by the Bishop of Ely on the 20th July, 1872, on 
 the Bennet judgment, in which he says, " that the (Protestant) 
 Church allows a fair liberty of prophesying, but that ritual and cere- 
 monial must be 1 somewhat exact.' " In fact, so long as there was 
 an attempt at exterior conformity, their interior conformity mattered 
 very little. It is curious to observe the similarity of opinion, or 
 shall we say indifference to " doctrine," between the bishop of 1£00 
 and the bishop of 1872. 
 
O'ConnelVa Anxiety fur Publicity. 305 
 
 the statement occupied nearly three hundred folio 
 pages, it would not, from its voluminous nature, be 
 perfectly ready for their inspection before Saturday 
 next. Notice would then be given to have it printed, 
 in order to place it in the hands of the members of 
 both Houses ; and it would be a subject of conside- 
 ration with the committee, whether the statement 
 should be confined to the members of Parliament 
 alone or obtain a more general publicity. He had 
 no hesitation in saying that, in his opinion, the 
 preferable mode would be to have it published in 
 the usual manner, in order that the people of the 
 United Kingdom might be enabled to entertain no 
 doubt whatever on the subject ; for it has been said 
 tli at the people suffer not from any actual or positive 
 oppression, but because they are told so. He had 
 no difficulty in saying that this was an evil they 
 ought to encounter, and the importance of informing 
 every person in England of the real condition of the 
 Catholics, should supersede any fastidious notions of 
 delicacy or forbearance. 
 
 O'Connell was always anxious for publicity ; he 
 had no idea of concealment, and certainly was far 
 beyond his age in his policy. Hitherto concealment 
 had been necessary, and cautious language had been 
 advisable. It needed a man like the Liberator to 
 break down the barriers which were no longer 
 necessary, but which were preserved, or attempted to 
 be preserved by those who thought more of their 
 own safety than the public good. 
 
80b* 
 
 The Edinburgh Reviewers. 
 
 It was at this period that O'Connell made a speech 
 in which he spoke freely of English ignorance of 
 Irish affairs. Speaking of the writers in the Edinburgh 
 Review, he said : 
 
 "I differ from them on the subject of the Veto, and would 
 undertake to convince any of them that I am right. I also easily 
 see myself amongst those whom they style ' bombastic coun- 
 sellors/ and I smile to see how happily they have described that 
 fustian and rant which I am in the habit, as at present, of ob- 
 truding upon your meetings. But, notwithstanding this attack, 
 which I admit to be personal, I do most sincerely and cordially 
 thank them for their exertions. It is not in the nature of popular 
 feeling to continue long its gratitude ; but I have no hesitation 
 in saying, that the Catholics of Ireland deserve to be slaves, 
 if they ever forget what they owe to the writers of that article. 
 Let me, however, repeat my regret, that its effects should have 
 been weakened by the erroneous view which those writers took 
 of our situation. It is strange enough, that when they contri- 
 buted so considerably to the repeal of the slave trade, they were 
 found to be perfectly conversant with the savage tribes of Raarta 
 and Bambana ; and that they were able to give dissertations on 
 the police of the barbaric cities of Sego and Timbuctoo, and yet 
 are so deplorably ignorant of the condition of the white slaves 
 of Ireland. 
 
 "We have another excellent advocate in England — an ad- 
 vocate whom we could bribe only one way : with the justice of 
 our cause — I mean William Cobbett. It is truly important to 
 us that his exertion should not be paralysed by ignorance of our 
 wants. The moment we can show him the extent of our op- 
 pressions, we furnish him with materials to ensure our triumph— 
 and it must be admitted that we could not have a more useful 
 advocate. When he is right, he is irresistible ; there is a 
 strength and clearness in the way he puts every topic ; he is at 
 
307 
 
 once so convincing, and yet so familiar, that the dullest can 
 understand, and even the higot must he convinced. But what 
 has deservedly raised him high in public estimation is the manly 
 candour with which he avows and retracts any opinion that he 
 discovers to be erroneous." 
 
 Perhaps the characteristic we should most admire 
 at this period of O'Connelfs career, was his uncom- 
 promising honesty. He knew the faults of his 
 countrymen, he was far too keen-sighted not to see 
 them ; but many a man, both before his time and 
 since, has seen them and has not dared to denounce 
 them. Disunion, the curse of Ireland and of Irish 
 politics, threatened the extinction of the Catholic 
 body, when it was working successfully ; and 
 ? Connell, at the risk of his rising prosperity, set 
 himself not only to make peace, but to denounce this 
 fatal error. 
 
 " The old curse of the Catholics is, I fear, about to be re- 
 newed ; division, that made us what we are and keeps us so, is 
 again to rear its standard amongst us ; but it was thus always 
 with the Irish Catholics. I recollect that in reading the life of 
 the great Duke of Ormond, as he is called, I was forcibly struck 
 with a despatch of his, transmitted about the year 1661, when 
 he was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. It was written to vindicate 
 himself from a charge of having favoured the Papists, and 
 having given them permission to hold a public meeting in 
 Dublin. His answer is remarkable. He rejects with disdain the 
 foul calumny of being a favourer of Papists, though he admits 
 he gave them leave to meet : ' because,' said he, ' I know by 
 experience, that the Irish Papists never meet without dividing 
 and degrading themselves.' I quote the words of the official 
 
308 
 
 "My great lift into popularity " 
 
 despatch ; I can lay my finger on the very spot in ' Carte's 
 Life of OrmoncL' 
 
 " One hundred and fifty years have since elapsed, and we 
 are still in thraldom, because no experince can, I fear, cure us 
 of this wretched disposition to divide. . He entreated of the re- 
 spectable gentlemen who that day attended the committee, to 
 consider that their mistakes, if they had made any, ought not to 
 be visited with so grievous a calamity as that of creating dissen- 
 sion amongst them." 
 
 The truth was, that the Government were be- 
 ginning to bribe the upper class of Catholics who 
 were members of the Association, and it is said that 
 some of those gentlemen had been tampered with 
 seriously. 
 
 O'Connell himself dated his position as leader of 
 the Catholic party from the year 1810. When 
 speaking of this subject to Mr. Daunt, he said : 
 
 " In 1810, the corporation of Dublin met at the Koyal Ex- 
 change to petition for the Repeal of the Union. John Keogh 
 attended the meeting and made a speech. I also spoke in sup- 
 port of the Repeal, and thenceforth do I date my great lift in 
 popularity. Keogh saw that I was calculated to become a 
 leader. He subsequently tried to impress me with his own 
 policy respecting Catholic affairs. The course he then recom- 
 mended was a sullen quiescence ; he urged that the Catholics 
 should abstain altogether from agitation, and he laboured hard 
 to bring me to adopt his views. But I saw that agitation was 
 our only available weapon ; I saw that incessantly keeping our 
 demands and our grievances before the public and the Govern- 
 ment, we must sooner or later succeed. Moreover, that period 
 above all others was not one at which our legitimate weapon, 
 agitation, could have prudently been let to rust. It was during 
 
John Keogli. 
 
 809 
 
 the war, and while Napoleon — that splendid madman — made the 
 Catholics of Ireland so essential to the military defence of the 
 empire ; the time seemed peculiarly appropriate to press our 
 claims. About that period a great Catholic meeting was held. 
 John Keogh was then old and infirm ; but his presence was 
 eagerly desired, and the meeting awaited his arrival with patient 
 good humour. I and another were deputed to request his 
 attendance. John Keogh had this peculiarity— that when he 
 was waited on about matters of business, he would talk away 
 on all sorts of subjects except the business which had brought 
 his visitors ; accordingly, he talked a great deal about every- 
 thing but Catholic politics for the greater portion of our visit ; 
 and when at length we pressed him to accompany us to the 
 meeting, the worthy old man harangued us for a quarter of an 
 hour to demonstrate the impolicy of public ly assembling at all, 
 and ended by coming to the meeting. He drew up a resolution 
 which denounced the continued agitation of the Catholic ques- 
 tion at that time. This resolution, proceeding as it did from 
 a tried old leader, was carried. I then rose and proposed a 
 counter resolution, pledging us all to incessant, unrelaxing 
 agitation ; and such were the wiseacres with whom I had to 
 deal, that they passed my resolution in the midst of enthusiastic 
 acclamations, without once dreaming that it ran directly counter 
 to John Keogk's ! Thenceforward, I may say, I was the leader. 
 Keogh called at my house some short time after ; he paid me 
 many compliments, and repeated his importunities that I might 
 alter my policy. But I was inexorable ; my course was re- 
 solved upon and taken. I refused to yield. He departed in 
 bad humour, and I never saw him afterwards. 
 
 " Keogh was undoubtedly useful in his day. But he was 
 one who would rather that the cause should fail, than that any- 
 body but himself should have the honour of carrying it. 
 
 " He and his coadjutors made a mistake in 1793. He was 
 
BIO 
 
 Three "Great Boons" 
 
 a member of a deputation, consisting altogether of five persons, 
 who had an interview with Pitt and Dundas, on the subject of 
 the Catholic claims. Pitt asked, ' What would satisfy the 
 Catholics ?' Keogh replied, ' Equality.' Pitt seemed inclined 
 to comply with the wishes of the deputation, but Dundas started 
 several objections. Pitt then said, ■ Would you be satisfied 
 with the bar, the elective franchise, and eligibility to the 
 municipalities ?' Keogh replied, ' They would be great boons.' 
 Pitt immediately pinned him to that, and would concede no 
 more." 
 
(Chapter .^cbcntb. 
 
 PROFESSIONAL AND POLITICAL SUCCESSES. 
 1808—1812. 
 
 Orange Outrages: Religious Persecution: Into- 
 lerance in the Army : Adventures on Circuit : 
 Another Affair of Honour: Professional Suc- 
 cesses: Speech at Limerick: Happy Allusions: 
 Address from Dingle and Reply: Catholics 
 Entertaining Protestants at the Festive Board: 
 The Government and the Catholic Association : 
 Mr. Wellesley Pole: Addressing the Prince of 
 Wales: Speeches on the Address and Conduct 
 of Pole: Mr. Perceval: Political Dissension 
 among Catholics: Right of Assembly: Arrest 
 of Lord Fingal : Shelley : English Injustice : 
 Father Dan : At Limerick and Cork. 
 
HE Orange Lodges had never 
 ceased their activity since 
 the Rebellion of 1798, and 
 some members of these lodges were 
 guilty of acts of singular cruelty. 
 O'Connell took care to make 
 those outrages public, and certainly the 
 conduct of some individuals connected with 
 that body was a disgrace to humanity. — 
 Harmless and innocent children, helpless 
 and infirm women, were but too frequently 
 the objects of their wicked vengeance. On 
 
 < sj> tf ie !- lh of Jul y 1808 > tlie y sll0t down a 
 
 poor idiot, known as Jack of the Roads, 
 who had made a bet that he would run from Dublin 
 to Limerick, keeping pace with the mail. The bet 
 
814 
 
 Orange Outrages. 
 
 was fourpence and a pint of porter. As lie passed 
 through Mountrath on his return, he was foolish 
 enough to flourish a green bough at a party of 
 Orangemen. One of them fired at his face ; his eyes 
 were destroyed — and they left him to die in torment 
 by the road side ! 
 
 In Dublin they attacked some poor people, who 
 had made a bonfire and danced round St. Kevin's 
 fountain with garlands, and shot them down like dogs. 
 At Newry, eighteen men crept round a party who 
 were enjoying themselves on the eve of St. John the 
 Baptist by lighting bonfires, and shot them down in 
 cold blood. All this passed unpunished ; but if 
 Catholics had been the guilty individuals, there 
 would have been a cry from one end of England to 
 the other for vengeance. 
 
 But this was not all. At the very time when Irish 
 soldiers were dying by hundreds for the defence of 
 England — when the peninsula of Spain was reeking 
 with their life-blood, they were not only refused the 
 consolations of their religion, but were cruelly pun- 
 ished if they even dared to ask for them. It was no 
 wonder that they should have little love for the upper 
 classes of their Catholic fellow-countrymen, who, 
 content with their own spiritual advantages, troubled 
 themselves but little for those whose souls were 
 equally precious in the sight of their Creator. It was 
 no wonder that these poor men looked up with all 
 the reverence of their being to the man who stood 
 up boldly to proclaim their rights — to ask why they 
 
Intolerance in the Army. 
 
 315 
 
 should be excepted from the benefits of such religious 
 liberty as the Government of the day permitted. 1 
 
 On the 1st December 1810, O'Connell brought 
 this subject before the Catholic Committee. We 
 quote his speech from the files of the Dublin Evening 
 Post of that date : 
 
 ' 1 Sir, I rise in pursuance of the notice which I gave at our 
 last meeting, for the purpose of stating such information as I 
 have received, respecting the illegal persecution of an Irish 
 Catholic soldier of the militia. And, sir, in my humble judg- 
 ment, we should be guilty of a dereliction of duty to our fellow- 
 countrymen if we suffered the perpetrators of the offence, which 
 I am about to state, to go unpunished. 
 
 1 1 1 conceive we are called on by every social feeling as 
 Catholics and as Irishmen, to drag the bigoted delinquents, 
 whatever may be their exalted rank in life, not only before an 
 enlightened public, but before a court of criminal jurisdiction. 
 
 " The facts, as reported to me, are shortly these : A 
 Roman Catholic private soldier, belonging to a certain regiment 
 of militia, for no other offence than for attending at chapel to 
 discharge those religious duties which he, in common with all 
 mankind, owed to his God, has been sentenced to be trans- 
 ported for life ! — and had actually, like a common convict, 
 proceeded so far on his passage into exile as the Isle of Wight. 
 
 " Sir, there are two courses left for us to adopt in this case ; 
 the first, is to bring the facts, in whatever shape may be thought 
 
 1 Patrick Spence, a Catholic private in the Dublin militia, was 
 required to attend the Protestant service. He refused, and was at 
 once conveyed to the black hole. He then wrote a respectful ex- 
 postulation to his commanding officer ; for this he was tried by court 
 martial, and sentenced to receive 999 lashes. The barbarous sen- 
 tence was in the act of execution when he was offered the choice of 
 an exchange into a condemned regiment, which he accepted. 
 
316 
 
 A Most Cruel Injustice. 
 
 advisable, before tlie House ot Commons ; the second, to have 
 the business investigated in a court of law, and disposed of by 
 the verdict of a jury. That the law, as it now exists, is suffi- 
 ciently strong to punish the persons guilty of the crime, there 
 can be no doubt. I shall therefore move that our secretary, 
 Mr. E. Hay, do open a subscription for the purpose of defray- 
 ing the expense of having the matter fully investigated ; and 
 that a sub-committee, consisting of five, be appointed to inquire 
 into the truth of the facts, and to report to the general com- 
 mittee." 
 
 The motion was seconded by Mr. Hussey, and 
 Mr. Coyle called the attention of the meeting to the 
 injustice done to the Catholics in Roscommon and 
 Fermanagh, where a Catholic was not even allowed 
 to hold the situation of a non-commissioned officer. 
 The Colonel' of the Fermanagh Regiment obliged 
 every officer to take the Orange oath —a most cruel 
 injustice. 
 
 A great deal has been said and written by Pro- 
 testants about the persecuting spirit of the Catholic 
 Church, yet they have curiously overlooked the 
 bitter and relentless persecutions of their own 
 Church. At this very period a Catholic Church 
 was robbed by Orangemen, and though the robbery 
 was clearly proved, the jury, being also Orangemen, 
 refused to convict ; more than probably because they 
 considered robbery under such circumstances as no 
 sin. 1 Well might Mr. O'Connell say, when speaking 
 
 1 Counsellor Kernan, a Fermanagh gentleman, was appealed to 
 at this meeting to give information on the subject ; he said : 
 
 " Sir, I am not competent to say (because I am ignorant of the 
 
Temper of the Times. 
 
 317 
 
 of the necessity for proposing a compilation of the 
 penal laws, that Englishmen might know the griev- 
 ances from which Ireland had long suffered, that 
 "from the unfortunate temper of the times, and the 
 unhappy code of laws which prevailed on these sub- 
 jects, a jury might possibly be found to strain the 
 law to the worst purposes." 1 
 
 O'Connell visited Limerick on circuit during the 
 summer of the year 1 SI 0. The admirable sketch 
 taken of him in the Court-house on this occasion will 
 be found at the head of this chapter. It is the 
 only early likeness of O'Connell in existence. The 
 features express more intelligence than power, yet we 
 
 fact) whether the private soldiers of the Fermanagh regiment, pro- 
 fessing the Catholic religion, are prevented by the Earl of Ennis- 
 killen from exercising their religious duties — I should hope the fact 
 is otherwise. 
 
 14 With respect to the circumstance of the scandalous outrage 
 committed in the Chapel of Enniskillcn, the trial had been published 
 in all the newspapers of this city ; and, to such persons as had read 
 I he report, it is unnecessary for me to state more than this fact ; 
 namely, that at the trial there was sufficient evidence produced on 
 the part of the Crown to convict the traverser, and that the verdict 
 of acquittal was, therefore, not only contrary to evidence, but to the 
 charge of Mr. Justice Fletcher, the learned judge who presided. 
 
 " It was not singular in that county, that the jury who tried the 
 officer consisted of Protestants — there being but two instances, as I 
 am informed, since the Revolution, of Catholics serving as jurors at 
 the assizes of Enniskillen." — Dublin Morning Post, 15th December, 
 1810. 
 
 1 From his speech at the Catholic Committee, 15th December, 
 1810.— Dublin Evening Post. 
 
 All the extracts from newspapers given in this work arc taken 
 from the original source, a very large collection having been placed 
 in my hands through the kindness of friends. 
 
318 
 
 u Tke Good Old Times:' 
 
 can trace indications of the more massive expression 
 which developed itself in after life. 1 
 
 O'Connell was fond of relating his adventures 
 when on circuit ; and as he seldom lost sight of a 
 joke, or failed to see one, his repertory of stories was 
 sufficiently amusing. He would tell in after life of 
 the "good old times" — good as far as the comfort of 
 easy travelling was concerned, when a journey was 
 to a great extent a pleasure. At such times, too, he 
 could unburden himself of professional cares; and 
 for a man who worked as he did, such relaxation 
 must have been both necessary and enjoyable. 
 
 " ( In 1780/ he used to say, ' the two members for the 
 county Kerry, when preparing to visit Dublin, sent to the 
 metropolis for a noddy. The noddy took eight days to get to 
 Kerry, and they, when seated in it, took seventeen days to get 
 to Dublin ! Each night the two members, owing to the absence 
 of inns, quartered themselves at the house of some friend ; and 
 on the seventeeth day they reached Dublin, just in time for the 
 opening of the session.' 
 
 " Speaking of the inn at Mill-street, he said : ' The im- 
 proved roads have injured that inn. I well remember when it 
 was the regular end of the first day's journey from Tralee. It 
 was a comfortable thing for a social pair of fellow-travellers to 
 get out of their chaise at night-fall, and to find at the inn (it 
 was then kept by a cousin of mine, a Mrs. Cotter) a roaring fire 
 in a clean, well-furnished parlour, the whitest table-linen, the 
 best beef, the sweetest and tenderest mutton, the fattest fowl, 
 the most excellent wines (claret and Madeira were the high 
 
 1 This likeness was taken by Mr. Gubbins an artist still living, 
 at the advanced age of 85. I am indebted to Mr. Lenihan, author 
 of the " History of Limerick," for the original, which is in his pos- 
 session. 
 
" A Right Good House" 
 
 319 
 
 wines there — they knew nothing about champagne), and the 
 most comfortable beds. In my early days it was by far the 
 best inn in Minister. But the new roads enabled travellers to 
 get far beyond Mill-street in a day ; and the inn, being there- 
 fore less frequented than of old, is, of course, not so well looked 
 after by its present proprietor. 
 
 1 1 ' There was the Coach-and-Horses Inn at Assolas, in the 
 county Clare, close to the bridge,' said O'Connell. 1 What 
 delicious claret they had there ! It is levelled with the ground 
 these many years. Then, there was that inn at Maryborough ; 
 how often have I seen the old trooper who kept it smoking his 
 pipe on the stone bench at the door, and his fat old wife sitting- 
 opposite him. ' They kept a right good house. She inherited 
 the inn from her father and mother, and was early trained up to 
 the business. She was an only child, and had displeased her 
 parents by a runaway match with a private dragoon. However, 
 they soon relented and received her and her husband into 
 favour. The worthy trooper took charge of the stable depart- 
 ment, for which his habits well adapted him ; and the in-door 
 business was admirably managed by his wife. Then, there was 
 that inn at Naas, most comfortably kept — and excellent wine. I 
 remember stopping to dine there one day, posting up from the 
 Limerick assizes. There were three of us in the chaise, and 
 one was tipsy ; his eyes were bloodshot and his features swollen 
 from hard drinking on the previous night, besides which he 
 had tippled a little in the morning. As he got out of the 
 chaise, I called him "Parson!" to the evident delight of a 
 Methodist preacher, who was haranguing a crowd in the street, 
 and who deemed his own merits enhanced by the contrast with 
 a sottish minister of the Establishment.' " 
 
 On one occasion as he travelled from Ashbourne 
 
 to Dublin, some objects of antiquity which Grose 1 
 
 1 This is the Captain Grose of whom Burns wrote : 
 " A chieFs amang you takin' notes, 
 And, faith, he'll prent 'em." 
 
Captain Grose and the Butcher. 
 
 had illustrated, recalled that antiquary to the Libera- 
 tor's mind : 
 
 " ■ Grose,' said lie, ' came to Ireland full of strong pre- 
 judices against the people, but they gave way beneath the in- 
 fluence of Irish drollery. He was very much teazed, when 
 walking through the Dublin markets, by the butchers besetting 
 him for his custom. At last he got angry, and told them a 1 ! 
 to go about their business ; when a sly, waggish butcher, de- 
 liberately surveying Grose's fat, ruddy face and corpulent person, 
 said to him, ' Well, plaze your honour, I won't ask you to buy 
 since it puts your honour in a passion. But I'll tell you how 
 you'll sarve me.' ' How ?' inquired Grose in a gruff growl. 
 ' Just tell all your friends that its Larry HefYernan that supplies 
 your honour with mate, and never fear I'll have custom 
 enough.' ■■ 
 
 Passing through jSTenaodi, he said : 
 
 " Some years ago, when this neighbourhood was much in- 
 fested with robbers, I was travelling on circuit. My horses 
 were not very good, and just at this spot I saw a man whose 
 movements excited my suspicions. He slowly crossed the 
 road, about twenty yards in advance of my carriage, and awaited 
 my approach with his back against the wall, and his hand in 
 the breast of his coat, as if ready to draw a pistol. I felt 
 certain I should be attacked, so I held my pistol ready to fire, 
 its barrel resting on the carriage door. The man did not stir, 
 and so escaped. Had he but raised his hand, I should have 
 fired. Good God ! what a miserable guilty wretch I should 
 have been ! How sincerely I thank God for my escape from 
 such guilt !" 
 
 We find O'Connell in Limerick again in August 
 1813, and engaged in " an affair of honour." While 
 occupied in professional business, he got into an 
 altercation with Counsellor Magrath, which, according 
 to the custom of the day, should be settled by pistols. 
 
An Affair of Honour. 
 
 821 
 
 The combatants met in the old court-mill field, the 
 usual resort in such cases. Mr. O'Gorman was 
 O'Connell's second, and Mr. Bennett was second to 
 Mr. Magrath. Mr. Bennett stepped the ground by 
 mutual consent ; but at the last moment a party of 
 gentlemen came on the ground to make peace ; or, if 
 peace could not be made, to see the fight out. Peace 
 was made eventually. Magrath declared himself 
 sorry for what had occurred, and O'Connell declared 
 lie bore no enmity to Magrath. The two gentlemen 
 then shook hands, and drove back to the city in the 
 siime carriage, conversing. 
 
 Possibly it never occurred to any of the party 
 how very different the end might have been. 
 
 O'Connell's fame as a barrister was now increas- 
 ing daily. 1 In the autumn assizes of 1813, twenty- 
 six cases were tried in Limerick Court-house, and he 
 held a brief in each case. His professional career was 
 a series of successes ; and it is no wonder that it 
 was considered a favour when he accepted a retainer. 
 
 One case in which he was engaged at this period 
 was painfully characteristic of the time. O'Connell's 
 address to the judge, when moving for a conditional 
 
 1 Sir Joshua Barrington thus describes 0'ComieH*s appearance 
 at this period, in his not very veracious " Personal Sketches," vol. 
 ii. p. 452. " O'Connell at that day was a large, ruddy, young man, 
 with a most savage dialect, an imperturbable countenance, intrepid 
 address, et pmterea nihih" Sir Joshua was not gifted with much 
 discrimination of character, or he would not have written the last 
 sentence. 
 
 21 
 
322; Carrying " Egyis to- a Bad Market" 
 
 order against the magistrates concerned in the affair, 
 will sufficiently explain the circumstances : 
 
 " The facts of the case," he said, " are really curious, and 
 would be merely ludicrous but for the sufferings inflicted on my 
 client. The affidavits stated that a peasant girl named 
 Hennessey had a hen which laid — not golden eggs, but eggs 
 strangely marked with red lines and figures. She on the 21st 
 April, 1813, brought her hen and eggs to the town of Roscrea, 
 near which she lived, and of which the defendant was the 
 Protestant curate. It appeared by the result that she brought 
 her eggs to a bad market, though at first she had some reason 
 to think differently ; for the curiosity excited by those eggs 
 attracted some attention to the owner ; and as she was the 
 child of parents who were miserably poor, her wardrobe was in 
 such a state that she might almost literally be said to be 
 clothed in nakedness. My lord, a small subscription to buy 
 her a petticoat was suggested by the person who makes the 
 present affidavit, himself a working weaver of the town, James 
 Murphy, and the sum of fifteen shillings was speedily collected. 
 It was a little fortune to the poor creature ; she kissed her hen, 
 thanked her benefactors, and with a light heart started on her 
 return home. But diis aliter visum; at that moment two 
 constables arrived with a warrant signed by the Rev. William 
 Hamilton. This warrant charged her with the strange offence 
 of a foul imposition. It would appear as if it were issued in 
 some wretched jest arising from the sound, not the sense. But 
 it proved no joke to the girl, for she was arrested. Her hen, 
 her eggs, and her fifteen shillings were taken into custody, and 
 carried before his Worship. He was not at leisure to try the 
 case that day. The girl was committed to Bridewell, where 
 she lay a close prisoner for twenty-four hours, when his Rev. 
 Worship was pleased to dispose of the matter. Without the 
 mockery of any trial, he proceeded at once to sentence. He 
 sentenced the girl to perpetual banishment from Roscrea. He 
 sent her out of the town guarded by three constables, and with 
 positive injunctions never to set foot in it again. He decapi- 
 
l< Contrary to Good Manners" 
 
 828 
 
 tated her hen with his own sacred hands. He broke the eggs 
 and confiscated the fifteen shillings. When the girl returned 
 to her home — the fowl dead, the eggs broken, and the fifteen 
 shillings in his reverence's pocket, one would suppose justice 
 quite satisfied. But no ! his Worship discovered that Murphy 
 had collected the offending money ; he was therefore to be 
 punished. He was, indeed, first tried — but under what law, 
 think you *? Why, literally, my lords, under the statute of 
 good manners. Yes, under that act, wherever i. is to be found, 
 was Murphy tried, convicted, and sentenced. He was com- 
 mitted to Bridewell, where he lay for three days. The com- 
 mittal states ' that he was charged on oath with having assisted 
 in a foul imposition on public credulity— contrary to good 
 manners.' These are the words of the committal ; and he was 
 ordered to be detained until he should give security — 1 for his 
 good behaviour.' Such is the ridiculous warrant on which an 
 humble man has been deprived of his liberty for three days. 
 Such are the details given of the vexatious proceedings of the 
 reverend magistrate. It was to be hoped that those details 
 would turn out to be imaginary, but they are sworn to — 
 positively sworn to — and require investigation, the more 
 especially as motives of a highly culpable nature were attri- 
 buted — he (O'Connell) hoped unduly attributed — to the gentle- 
 man. He was charged on oath with having been actuated by 
 malice towards this wretched girl because she was a Catholit . 
 It was sworn that his object was to establish some charge of 
 superstition against her, upon no better ground than this — 
 that one of those eggs had a mark on it nearly resembling a 
 cross." 
 
 The rule was granted ; but Mr. Hamilton com- 
 promised the case, in consequence of the public 
 exposure of his conduct. 
 
 One of O'Connell's best reported and most bril- 
 liant speeches was made at Limerick, while he was 
 on circuit in 1812. The meeting was held at the 
 
324 
 
 Protestant Co-operation. 
 
 Commercial Buildings, George's Street. T. K. Ryan, 
 of Scarteen, Esq., was in the chair, and the meeting 
 was opened with a speech from Mr. William Roche, 
 the same gentleman who represented the city of 
 Limerick, on Repeal principles, from the passing of 
 the Reform Bill until 1841. After expressing general 
 concurrence with the proceedings of the Catholic 
 Board in Dublin, confident hope of the success of the 
 cause in the next session of Parliament, gratitude to 
 its friends in that body, and aversion to the idea of 
 what were called " securities " being given in return 
 for Catholic Emancipation, he read the resolutions 
 that had been prepared, and moved their adoption. 
 
 O'Connell then rose amid thunders of applause, 
 and spoke for more than an hour. The following are 
 some of the most striking passages in his address : 
 
 " We owe it to the liberality of the Irish Protestants, to 
 the zeal of the Irish Presbyterians, to the friendly exertion of 
 the Irish Quakers ; we owe, to the cordial re-union of every 
 sect and denomination of Irish Christians, the progress of our 
 cause. They have procured for us the solemn and distinct 
 promise and pledge of the House of Commons — they almost 
 obtained for us a similar declaration from the House of Lords. 
 It was lost by the petty majority of one; it was lost by a 
 majority, not of those who listened to the absurd prosings of 
 Lord Eldon, to the bigoted and turbid declamation of that 
 English Chief-Justice, whose sentiments so forcibly recall the 
 memory of the Star Chamber ; not of those who were able to 
 compare the vapid or violent folly of the one party with the 
 statesman-like sentiments, the profound arguments, the splendid 
 eloquence of the Marquis Wellesley." 
 
 He then denounced, in scathing and indignant 
 
Representation of Limerick. 
 
 325 
 
 language, the deliberate lie which Lord Castlereagh 
 had uttered in the House of Commons, that no torture 
 had been used in Ireland in the years 1797 and 1798. 
 His hearers knew but too well how utterly false this 
 statement was, but it answered the purpose for which 
 it was uttered; it silenced or satisfied the indignation 
 of such Englishmen as were sufficiently humane to 
 dislike this mode of government. Who, indeed, 
 would believe any assertion made to the contrary, 
 even by the nation, when a noble lord had spoken on 
 the subject ? And in our own time, the bold asser- 
 tion of an unscrupulous politician is not unfrequently 
 taken in evidence by those who prefer to believe a 
 lie. 
 
 In conclusion, O'Connell spoke on the all-impor- 
 tant subject of the representation of the city ; and 
 for the first time we find the idea thrown out openly 
 of offering himself as a parliamentary representative : 
 
 i 1 You deserve not freedom — you, citizens of Limerick, with 
 the monuments of the valour of your ancestors around you — 
 you are less than men, if my feeble tongue be requisite to rouse 
 you into activity. Your city is, at present, nearly a close 
 borough ; do but will it, and you make it free ! 
 
 " I know legal obstacles have been thrown in your way. I 
 know that, for months past, the Kecorder has sat alone at the 
 sessions — that he has not only tried cases, in the absence of 
 any other magistrate, which he is authorised by law to do, but 
 that he has solely opened and adjourned the sessions, which in 
 my opinion he is clearly unwarranted in doing ; he has, by this 
 means, I know, delayed the registry of your freeholds, because 
 two magistrates are necessary for that purpose : I have, how- 
 ever, the satisfaction to tell you, that the Court of King's 
 
326 
 
 Bidding for Parliamentary Honours, 
 
 Bench will, in the next term, have to determine on the legality 
 of his conduct, and of that of the other charter magistrates 
 who have banished themselves, I understand, from the Sessions' 
 Court since the registry has been spoken of ! They shall be 
 served with the regular notices : and, depend upon it, this 
 scheme cannot long retard you. 
 
 " I speak to you on this subject as a lawyer — you can best 
 judge in what estimation my opinion is amongst you : but such 
 as it is, I pledge it to you, that you can easily obviate the 
 present obstacles to the registry of your freeholds. I can only 
 assure you that the constitution of your city is perfectly free — 
 that the sons of freemen, and all those who have served an ap- 
 prenticeship to a freeman, are all entitled to their freedom and 
 to vote for the representation of your city. 
 
 " I can tell you more : that if you bring your candidate to 
 a poll, your adversary will be deprived of any aid from non- 
 resident or occasional freemen. We will strike orT his list the 
 freemen from Grort and from Galway, the freemen from the 
 band, and many from the battalion of the city of Limerick 
 militia. 
 
 " In short, the opening of the borough is a matter of little 
 difficulty. If you will but form a committee, and collect funds, 
 in your opulent city, you will soon have a representative ready 
 to obey your voice — you cannot want a candidate. If the 
 Emancipation Bill passes next session, as it is so likely to do, 
 and that no other candidate oifers, I myself will bring your 
 present number to the poll. I, probably, will have little chance 
 of success — but I will have the satisfaction of showing this city 
 and the country what the free-born mind might achieve if it 
 were properly seconded." 
 
 O'Connell was always singularly hippy in his 
 allusions to public events and circumstances. There 
 are many men who can allude to the passing topics 
 of the day in their public speeches, but there are few 
 who can point their allusions like Q'Connell. We 
 
Pel ieitous Expression . 
 
 S27 
 
 find a remarkable instance of this felicity of expres- 
 sion and of application at the conclusion of this 
 eloquent address. 
 
 Irish soldiers were at that time protecting the 
 liberty of England, and but for Irish soldiers England 
 would have been for a time certainly, if not perma- 
 nently, conquered by French valour. O'Connell 
 said, " I wish to see the strength of this island — this 
 unconquered, this unconquerable island — combined 
 to resist the mighty foe of freedom, the extinguisher 
 of civil liberty, who rules the Continent from St. 
 Petersburg to the verge of the Irish bayonets in Spain " 
 
 Those who know Dublin need not be reminded 
 that Merrion Square was, and is, one of its most 
 fashionable residences. O'Connell's professional ad- 
 vancement had already justified him in establishing 
 himself there ; and in June 1811, we find him re- 
 plying from thence to an address which was sent to 
 him from Dingle. As it was one of the earliest, if 
 not the very first of the addresses ever presented to 
 him, we insert it here. 
 
 The address was adopted at a meeting described 
 as of " the clergy, gentlemen, magistrates, and free- 
 holders of the town and vicinity of Dingle, held in 
 that town on the loth day of June 1811, in pur- 
 suance of public requisition, Matthew Moriarty, Esq., 
 in the chair," and was as follows : 
 
 H To Daniel O'Connell, Esq. 
 
 " Srn — "We, the gentlemen, clergy, magistrates, and free- 
 holders of the town and vicinity of Dingle, assembled pursuant 
 
328 
 
 Address from Dingle. 
 
 to a public requisition, desire to express to you our sense of 
 your unwearied exertions in advocating the cause of our Catholic 
 countrymen. 
 
 " We are particularly anxious to convey to you our decided 
 approbation of the manliness, candour, and perspicuity with 
 which you have, at the aggregate meeting of the Catholics of 
 Ireland, held in Dublin on the 28th ultimo, developed the 
 tendency of the intended transfer of our militia, and displayed 
 the machinations of those deluded men who style themselves 
 Orangemen and Purplemen. 
 
 ' ' We anticipate from your exertion of talent and con- 
 stitutional firmness the most beneficial consequences ; as that 
 exertion has, we trust, roused to the consideration of these 
 subjects every individual who feels interested in the welfare of 
 the country, from the prince to the freeholder. 
 
 " Your object is the same as ours ; to prevent internal 
 feuds and animosities, which have been hitherto so injurious to 
 our unfortunate country ; and to promote that unanimity which 
 can alone save and exalt those realms. 
 
 " We request of you to accept our most cordial thanks as a 
 small tribute of merit pre-eminently resplendent on every 
 occasion. 
 
 "And be assured that it has made an indelible impression 
 on us ; who repose a pleasing confidence in your exertions, dis- 
 regarding and despising party feeling, and looking to the cause 
 of our native country, equally dear to us all. 
 
 " Signed, by order, 
 
 "Edward Fitzgerald, Secretary. 
 
 "Dingle, 15th June, 1811" 
 
 Mr. O'ConneLVs reply was in the following terms: 
 <c Gentlemen — Your address has surprised me almost as 
 
 much as it has pleased me. I cannot but owe it to your 
 
 friendship, that you have noticed so humble an individual. I 
 
 am proud of your approbation. 
 
 " The principle on which I have been, and am an advocate 
 
 of Catholic Emancipation, is not confined to Ireland. It 
 
O'ConneU's Reply. 
 
 329 
 
 embraces the cause of the Dissenters in England, and of the 
 Protestants in the Spanish and Portuguese territories. I need 
 extend it no further. The crime of intolerance is now confined 
 among Christian nations— almost exclusively to England and 
 her allies. Arbitrary as the military ruler of the French may 
 be, and enemy as he is of civil and religious liberty, he has had 
 too much common sense to commit the useless and absurd in- 
 justice of violating conscience. 
 
 " For my part, I hate the Inquisition as much as I do the 
 Orange and Purple system, and for the same reason. The 
 man who attempts to interfere between his fellow-man and his 
 Deity is, to my mind, the most guilty of criminals. 
 
 " You call our country unfortunate. She is unfortunate 
 through the dissension of her children ; dissension has degraded 
 her character, and annihilated her constitution. 
 
 " In the name of religion, of charity — hate and rancour have 
 been disseminated ; but a brighter era, I trust, approaches. 
 And now it is the sacred duty of every man, who is faithful to 
 his king and attached to the independence of his native land to 
 contribute his best exertions to extinguish every cause of 
 animosity and pretence for disunion. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with great respect, your deeply 
 indebted and faithful servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 "Merrion Square, 17th June, 1811." 
 
 On the 7th of May 1811, a dinner was given by 
 the leading Catholics to some of their Protestant 
 friends. The short speech made by O'Connell on 
 that occasion was fully reported, and we give it un- 
 abridged. At a time when a Catholic Archbishop 1 
 
 1 In the Standard for July we find a report of a meeting of the 
 International Union Congress, in the Middle Temple Hall, at which 
 Archbishop Manning took the chair. There were some remarks 
 made by his Grace on this occasion which singularly resemble the 
 
830 
 
 Catholics Entertaining Protestants. 
 
 not ^infrequently presides, and very frequently assists 
 at Protestant meetings, we may well recall with regret 
 the statement of O'Connell, that this was " the first- 
 time when Catholics and Protestants publicly as- 
 sembled at the festive board." 
 
 " Major Bryan proposed the health of Sir James Riddall, 
 whose absence, he regretted was from indisposition. To this 
 toast was added, at Counsellor O'Connell's suggestion, 'The 
 Repeal of the Union.' Counsellor O'Connell — ' Gentlemen, 
 when I proposed that a Repeal of the Union should he coupled 
 with the name of that virtuous patriot and friend to his country, 
 Sir James Riddali, I was fully impressed that it is the only 
 real Irish question ; and, allow me to say, that every Catholic 
 in this meeting must regret the absence of that worthy Irish- 
 man, and the more so, as I understand it is occasioned by 
 severe illness. If in this assembly any Irishman hears me who 
 has mistaken the true interests of his country (as we all are 
 liable to err), and approved of that fatal law, the act of Legis- 
 lative Union, this is a glorious opportunity for us to speak our 
 sentiments, and, by deprecating so disastrous a measure, cou- 
 
 tone and spirit of O'Connell's speech at the first public dinner of 
 Catholics and Protestants. The Archbishop said : 
 
 " Before we thank Dr. Bellows for the fertile, eloquent, and con- 
 densed address which he has delivered, I will ask you to bear with 
 me for a moment, as I am irresistibly impelled to make one or two 
 remarks. In mentioning those who have exercised an apostleship 
 of charity in the work of mitigating prison discipline, it would not be 
 right to forget the name of Elizabeth Fry. Our lecturer has given 
 us examples of two of those great energies, those masculine activi- 
 ties (Howard and Wesley) who laboured to reform and purify the 
 morals of men in the last century ; but the action of Mrs. Fry was 
 like the light of heaven and the dew fertilizing the earth — silent, 
 irresistible, penetrating, and efficacious, even beyond the power of 
 energy." 
 
881 
 
 vince him that there is but one opinion on the subject in Ireland. 
 This, I believe, is the first time Catholics and Protestants have 
 publicly assembled at the festive board— alas ! the first time 
 we have sought access to each other's hearts. If such meetings 
 shall frequently take place, and I trust in God they will, it is 
 impossible that your great and ancient nation — your nation 
 famed for every physical good which can make existence 
 valuable, and which has given birth to the best and bravest of 
 the human race— it is impossible, I say, that any minister can 
 tyrannise over you, or any foe effect your subjugation. If the 
 spirit shall go abroad which pervades this meeting, is it too 
 much to expect that your enfranchisement is at hand, that your 
 parliament must be restored'? As it is the habit of men who 
 follow my trade to talk much, you may, perhaps, fear that I 
 trespass on your attention ; but I shall be brief. A bigot — be 
 he of what profession he may, whether Catholic or Protestant : 
 of what rank soever, whether monarch, peer, or peasant : 
 whether his brow is encircled with a diadem, or his body en- 
 veloped with rags — is a bigot to me. Louis XIV. disgracefully 
 treated a brave and skilful warrior. Admiral Duchene, because 
 he was a Protestant ; and Louis XIV. was, therefore, an out- 
 rageous bigot. Our gracious prince, who is the parent of his 
 Irish people, has given an earnest of what we may expect from 
 him, by refusing to comply with the corrupt rerpiisition of a 
 minister ; he will unite us, and thereby have, instead of one 
 regiment of his own Irish, an entire nation.' 99 
 
 Vigorous efforts were made by Government to 
 suppress the Catholic Association at the close of the 
 year 1811 ; but O'Connell had inspired a spirit and 
 vigour into the nation which was not easily repressed. 
 
 On the 12th February 1811, the signal of attack 
 was sounded by Mr. Wellesley Pole, who issued a 
 circular letter to the sheriffs and chief magistrates, 
 in which the Catholic Committee was denounced as 
 
332 
 
 The First Collision. 
 
 "an unlawful, assembly sitting in Dublin." They 
 were required : 
 
 " In pursuance of the provisions of an Act of the 33rd of 
 George IV., c. 29, to cause to he arrested and commit to 
 prison (unless hail shall he given) all persons within your juris- 
 diction who shall be guilty of giving, or having given or pub- 
 lished, any written or other notice of the election or appointment 
 in any manner of such representative, delegate, or manager as 
 aforesaid; or of attending, voting, or acting, or of having 
 attended, voted, or acted in any manner in the choice or ap- 
 pointment of such representative, delegate, or manager; and 
 you are to communicate these directions, as far as lies in your 
 power, forthwith to the several magistrates of the said county." 
 
 The Lord Chancellor said " the language was 
 put together in a slovenly manner," but Government 
 proclamations do not always bear literary criticism. 
 Mr. Pole — or, to speak more correctly his master, 
 Mr. Perceval — meant action, and gave a very signifi- 
 cant hint to that effect by sending a paper to each 
 person to whom this letter was forwarded, entitled, 
 " Some Observations and Extracts concerning Arrests 
 of Criminals." The " Observations, Extracts," &c, 
 concluded with this passage : 
 
 " As at this time the attention of magistrates must naturally 
 be chiefly turned to cases of a seditious nature, some extracts 
 from the several Acts of Parliament made, relative to such 
 offences, are herewith sent." 
 
 The first collision took place on the 23rd of 
 February, when Alderman Darley and Mr. Babington 
 presented themselves at the meeting. 
 
 Lord Ffrench was called to the chair, and Alder- 
 man Darley at once announced his purpose : 
 
Acting under Orders. 
 
 333 
 
 "My lord, we are come as magistrates of the 
 district to inquire whether the persons present com- 
 pose the Catholic Committee ? " 
 
 A long discussion ensued. Lord Ffrench would 
 not commit himself, and demanded Alderman 
 Darley's authority. Alderman Darley fell back on 
 Government, and hoped the meeting " would be so 
 good " as to disperse quietly. 
 
 Mr. Lidwell, a Protestant gentleman, declared he 
 would not leave the room unless removed by the 
 strong hand of power. 
 
 Lord Ffrench bossed to be allowed the honour 
 of being the last man to leave the room, and declared 
 lie u had his night-cap in his pocket, and did not 
 care where he went." 
 
 After much discussion, Mr. Darley was de- 
 spatched to Mr. Pole for positive instructions, and 
 Mr. Babington remained in custody of the meeting, 
 and the meeting in custody of Mr. Babington. 
 
 Mr. Pole performed a series of legal somersaults, 
 lie sent back his unhappy deputy with a polite 
 message, saying that he would be happy to see Lord 
 Ffrench, but Lord Ffrench refused to visit him alone. 
 Mr. Darley then, acting on orders, deliberately denied 
 any intention of dispersing the meeting if they had 
 only assembled to petition Parliament ; although he 
 had stated, on his first appearance, and in pursuance 
 of his first orders, that he " had been ordered and 
 directed by Government to request them to disperse, 
 be their business what it may." 
 
334 
 
 Address to the Prince of Wales. 
 
 Mr. Wellesley Pole then endeavoured, with more 
 tact than honesty, to make it appear that the Catholic 
 Committee had asked for an interview with him, the 
 reverse being the fact. 
 
 On the 8th of March, the Catholics went to offer 
 an address to the Prince of Wales, now Regent ; but 
 in this address they took care to express their disap- 
 probation of the policy of Mr. Perceval, who was the 
 unvarying enemy of Catholics. The following gentle- 
 men were to present the address : — Earls Shrews- 
 bury, Fingal, and Kenmare ; Viscounts Gormanstown, 
 Netterville, and Southwell ; Lords Trimleston and 
 Ffrench ; Sirs Thomas Esmond, Edward Bellew, 
 Hugh O'Reilly, Thomas Burke, and Francis Goold, 
 Barts. ; Major-General O'Farrell ; Colonel Burke ; 
 Messrs. G. Bryan, R. M'Donnell, Di O'Connell, J. 
 Keogh, Owen O'Connor, M. Donnellau, Edward 
 Corbally, T. Wynne, J. Burke, Wm. Coppinger, 
 Ambrose J. Roche, Edward Murphy, D. W. O'Reilly, 
 George Browne, E. Taaffe, D. Caulfield. 
 
 O'Connell made two speeches at this meeting, 
 from which we give the following extracts : 
 
 " I shall not consume the time of this meeting by entering 
 into an explanation of our motives for presenting the address ; 
 and I feel it would be a reproach to adduce any argument to 
 justify a measure so anxiously wished for by the Catholics of 
 Ireland. We owe it to his Royal Highness to express, with 
 heartfelt gratitude, our unfeigned thanks for the many favours 
 and benefits conferred on us by his revered father, to whom we 
 are perhaps indebted for the privilege of meeting here this day. 
 Here Mr. O'Connell took a summary view of the political stale 
 
0' Conn ell \s Speech . 
 
 335 
 
 and incapacities of the Catholics at the accession of his Majesty 
 to the throne, when, he said, they were excluded from every 
 situation of trust, honour, an ! emolument— when the then ex- 
 isting laws sanctioned the breach of every honourable principle- - 
 when there was hardly a grievance or degradation that man 
 could be subject to, that the laws did not inflict on the Oath •>- 
 lies of Ireland. Thus stood the abominable code at the period 
 of his Majesty's accession, and such hardships and slavery did 
 it impose, that the mind cannot contemplate it without recoil- 
 ing with horror and disgust. By adverting to this period of our 
 history, he did not wish to excite religious distinctions ; he did 
 not wish to rekindle hatred and animosity among his country- 
 men ; his motives were widely different : they were to lay 
 before the meeting the obligations we owed to his Majesty for 
 the many privileges which the Catholics at present enjoy. . . . 
 He lamented that, through the misguided folly of our rulers, 
 the country had already suffered too niueh. It had been in- 
 volved in deep calamity ever since the baneful measure of Union 
 had been forced upon distracted Ireland. At that calamitous 
 period the argument made use of by the Parliament of England, 
 for withholding from the Prince his undoubted right, was, that 
 by appointing him Regent, they preferred him to William Pitt. 
 The offence given to the Ministry of the present time seems to 
 be, that the people prefer his Royal Highness to the usurper, 
 Perceval. It is observable that the moment the Regent was 
 appointed, W. W. Pole set off for Ireland, to misrepresent the 
 Catholics and excite discord. He (Mr. Pole) seemed to fear 
 that in the liberal mind of the Prince something would be found 
 that would drive faction out of its fastness. He took the most 
 decisive measures that his Utile mind could suggest. Although 
 a general committee of the Catholics of Ireland had been estab- 
 lished for almost eighty years, he had the audacity to issue his 
 proclamation, declaring that it was an illegal assembly, and 
 that the meeting was guilty of a high misdemeanor. He thus 
 thought proper to pronounce sentence without going to trial ; 
 without the interposition of any judge. He said he acted under 
 
830 
 
 ' Connell 's Speech . 
 
 the advice of a judge, ?t?7io is naf a native of this country, and 
 who is, therefore, ignorant of the Irish character. He admitted 
 that the judge was an accomplished gentleman and an able 
 lawyer — but Irishmen would not submit to be ruled by special 
 pleadings and English technicality. But to return to the sub- 
 ject of the letter. It appears that it was the first act of his 
 Koyal Highness's government in Ireland. It was the ill-advised 
 measure of William Wellesley Pole — the secretary of all ages. 
 We know it could not have emanated from his Koyal Highness. 
 As for Wellesley Pole, he was first secretary to the King, then 
 to the usurping protector, and then to the Kegent ; but mVfirst 
 act was for the purpose of putting up the Orange party, and 
 dividing Irishmen ; but this was not the act of the Prince ; his 
 confidential friends' conduct, in both Houses of Parliament, is 
 a sure pledge that what appeared as the first act of his regency 
 was unknown to him. The Earl of Moira had disavowed the 
 act, and he was not only a friend to his country, but he was the 
 friend of his Prince. He could not speak in terms strong 
 enough of the noble exertions of that great man in behalf of his 
 country ; he was the true patriot, not like the men who might 
 vote for the Catholic petition. He would disavow them, as they 
 voted at the side of Perceval against their Prince. One member 
 for the county he had belonged to had done so, and hoped yet 
 to meet him on the hustings to express the contempt he felt for 
 such conduct. How different was the conduct of the other 
 member of that county ; he would not mention him by name, 
 but his grateful country felt his worth — the Knight of Kerry." 1 
 
 O'Connell's second speech was called forth by a 
 declaration which arose relative to an amendment 
 
 1 What Mr. Perceval's opinion and policy was, is sufficiently 
 evident from the not very elegantly-expressed epistle addressed to 
 Lord Eldon, 25th July, 1811 : "I should be prepared to advise a 
 prosecution against such an illegal assembly, even if I had more 
 doubts as to its illegality, because I feel assured that if the Irish 
 Government is to be upheld at all, such an assembly nosing it in its 
 
A Bold Step. 
 
 837 
 
 condemnatory of the Duke of Richmond, then Lord- 
 Lieutenant. It was proposed by Major Bryan, and 
 was opposed on the ground of inexpediency. After 
 some discussion the motion was carried in a modified 
 form. It prayed for inquiry into the circumstances 
 connected with Mr. Pole's circular letter, and prayed 
 that Mr. Pole might be dismissed, if no justification 
 could be found — as well as the Duke of Richmond. 
 It was certainly a bold step ; the boldest ever yet 
 taken by Irish Catholics. Hitherto they had sub- 
 mitted in silence to every oppression, to every 
 attempt made to forbid their calling for justice ; for 
 such was the mode of government in Ireland, that it 
 was forbidden even to petition against a grievance, 
 or for the removal of a disability. It was no wonder 
 that the growing independence of the nation startled 
 narrow-minded statesmen, who were enthusiastic 
 admirers of liberty everywhere except at home ! 
 
 Mr. Perceval's line of argument was curious, but 
 not altogether without precedent in modern times. 
 First, he said he would be prepared to advise a pro- 
 secution, because the assembly was illegal ; then he 
 said he would equally order it, even if he had only 
 " doubts " as to its illegality ; and then he declared 
 
 metropolis cannot be endured ; and that the prosecution will bring 
 the question to a fair issue ; for, if the law is not at present strong 
 enough to prevent it, it must be made so. And I have no doubt that 
 if we take our measures wisely (that is, upon full proof that the 
 assembly is truly revolutionary, however its title may be disguised), 
 Parliament will see the necessity of putting it down." — Twiss's Life 
 of Lord El don. 
 
 22 
 
338 
 
 Convenient, if not strictly just. 
 
 he would not have these men — men who were many 
 of them of the first families in Ireland — "nosing it," 
 whatever that might mean, in the Dublin metropolis ; 
 then he said that the prosecution would bring the 
 question to a M fair issue" — and what a fair issue 
 means when Government is on one side and the Irish 
 people on the other, is tolerably well known even at 
 the present day ; finally, by way of exordium, he 
 came to the real pith and marrow of the matter, and 
 declared that, if the affair was not illegal, which he 
 manifestly doubted, then it must be made illegal. 
 This plan of making a law to make an act illegal, 
 after the act had been accomplished, was exceedingly 
 convenient, if it was not strictly just. Mr. Perceval's 
 politics being such, it would scarcely be expected 
 that the Irish Catholic nobility and gentlemen, who 
 were the objects of his peculiar mode of legislation, 
 should be very ardent admirers of his policy. 
 In his second speech O'Connell said : 
 
 " I declare, most unaffectedly, that my feelings are much 
 interested in the fate of this question. On the one hand, if the 
 motion shall pass, it is to be feared that some of our best 
 friends may take offence at it ; on the other, should it not be 
 acceeded to, it may encourage a supposition that we are pre- 
 pared to submit to every species of insult without expressing 
 our just indignation. A noble lord and two other gentlemen 
 have spoken against it, whose hostility to any measure, in a 
 Catholic meeting, must be considered as almost fatal to that 
 measure ; but in this case it will be forgotten, at a future day, 
 what course of argument they pursued when their opposition to 
 the measure will be remembered. No gentleman has, however 
 thought of praising Mr. Pole, although some eulogised the 
 
O'Connell on Wellington. 
 
 839 
 
 Lord-Lieutenant ; none has been so bold as to attempt that 
 which would rack and exhaust invention to make it pala- 
 table. No, sir ; it has been found necessary to squander the 
 public money in purchasing the labours of hireling- prints, and 
 their depraved parasities, to bestow diplomatic wisdom on Mr. 
 Pole, and military skill on the redoubtable Lord Wellington. 1 
 . . . . Any man who could accept office under a Perceval 
 Ministry cannot be friendly to your Emancipation. The Duke 
 of Richmond came here as a military Lord- Lieutenant, and I 
 suppose Mr. Pole as a military secretary, expecting, in all pro- 
 bability, that a display of their talents might at some time 
 be essential, and particularly amongst the Catholics, as if we 
 could be hostile to an army composed entirely of such. The 
 
 1 O'Connell was no great admirer of the Iron Duke. In the first 
 place, he believed that he encouraged the Orange faction for political 
 purposes ; in the second place, he despised him for his declaration, 
 that the only misfortune of his life was his being an Irishman ; and 
 he deserved to be despised for it. O'Connell spoke thus of him to 
 Mr. Daunt: "I have two faults to find with him — one is, that I 
 never yet heard of his promoting any person in the army from mere 
 merit, unless backed by some interest ; the second fault is, that he 
 has declared that the only misfortune of his life is his being an 
 Irishman. There is a meanness, a paltriness in this, incompatible 
 with greatness of soul. But abstractedly from sentiment, he may be 
 right enough ; for, great as his popularity and power have been in 
 England, I have no doubt they would have been infinitely greater if 
 ho had been an Englishman. John Bull's adoration would have 
 been even more intense and devoted if the idol had not been a 
 Baddy." 
 
 On another occasion O'Connell said that he had in his possession 
 an original letter of the Duke of Wellington's eldest brother, Marquis 
 Wellesley, addressed to Mr. Mockler of Trim, in reply to an applica- 
 tion which Mockler had made to the writer (who was then Earl of 
 Mornington) to procure a commission in the army for his son. The 
 brother of the future victor of Waterloo apologises to Mockler for his 
 inability to assist him, saying, " that commissions were so hard to 
 be got, that his brother Arthur's name had been two years upon the 
 list, and he had not yet got an appointment." 
 
340 
 
 Two Evils to be Deprecated. 
 
 career of his Excellency's life has been a harmless one ; he is 
 fond of amusement and the convivial circle ; but I am not sure 
 that the qualities are such as the government of Ireland needs 
 at this moment, and I defy his panegyrists to produce any 
 others. It has been said that the Orangemen are put down, 
 but what proof have we for it ? I have been informed that 
 a new Orange constitution has been framed within the last 
 eighteen months ; if this be true, to what a state will not this 
 country be again reduced. Nothing can be more deplorable 
 than any association which has a tendency to divide Irishmen. 
 Yes, there is to us one thing more deplorable ; and that is any 
 measure which may create division among Catholics." 
 
 He concluded by an earnest appeal to Catholics 
 not to divide on matters of little importance. " Sir," 
 he exclaimed, "what a victory it will be to your 
 enemies to put one Catholic name against another 
 when you divide." To promote union amongst all 
 classes of Irishmen was one of the great objects of 
 O'Connell's life ; but he desired, above all, to pro- 
 mote union between Catholics. His mind was 
 sufficiently large to grasp the difficulties and misap- 
 prehensions of others. He knew perhaps better than 
 any man living then, and perhaps better than any man 
 who has lived since, how fatally Catholic principles, 
 both religious and political, are compromised by 
 dissensions. 
 
 Those who are without the pale of the Church 
 cannot understand the political divisions of those 
 who are one in faith. A little more consideration, or 
 a little less prejudice, might show how these divisions, 
 so far from derogating from unity of faith on religious 
 subjects, rather enhance it ; but it is difficult to find 
 
Freedom of Worship Demanded. 341 
 
 men entirely free from prejudice, or of sufficiently 
 comprehensive intellect to understand the intellectual 
 peculiarities of others. Men who would have gone 
 to the stake or the scaffold together joyfully for the 
 faith, because it was one — would not perhaps salute 
 each other on the street becauso they had political 
 differences. 
 
 This explains what appears phenomenal to Pro- 
 testants ; and it explains why, when the faith is 
 attacked, men who have been hitherto disunited, 
 unite at once in its defence. 
 
 The Catholics were left unmolested for a time ; 
 but another attempt was made to dissolve the 
 Catholic Committee at the close of the year. It was, 
 as we have said, the great effort of Government. A 
 meeting was held on the 9th of July in Fishamble 
 Street Theatre, at which Lord Fingal took the chair. 
 
 The following were some of the resolutions then 
 proposed : 
 
 11 That being impressed with an unalterable conviction of its 
 being the undoubted right of every man to worship his Creator 
 according to the genuine dictates of his own conscience, we 
 deem it our duty, publicly and solemnly, to declare our decided 
 opinion and principle, that no Government can, with justice, in- 
 flict any pains, penalty, or privation upon any man for profess- 
 ing that form of Christian faith which he, in his conscience 
 believes. 
 
 " That we shall, therefore, persevere in petitioning the 
 Legislature for a total and unqualified repeal of the penal laws, 
 which aggrieve and degrade the Catholics of Ireland. 
 
 " That in exercising this undoubted right by petitioning, we 
 shall continue to adhere to the ancient principles of the consti- 
 
312 
 
 A Triumph to the Catholics. 
 
 tution, and to conform also to the peculiar restrictions which, 
 hy modern statutes, are imposed on the people of Ireland." 
 
 It was but the echo of the cry which had been 
 uttered for so many hundred years in Ireland — 
 " Freedom to worship God." When the demand 
 was pealed forth in the harmonious numbers of a 
 poet's verse, it called forth tears of sympathy. It 
 was very much admired when chanted by the ' 4 Pil- 
 grim Fathers," but when it was uttered across the 
 channel, it was sternly silenced. 
 
 Proceedings w r ere commenced against several of 
 the gentlemen who had attended the meeting ; but 
 the meeting was perfectly legal, and after a trial, 
 which lasted two days, Dr. Sheridan, who was first 
 arraigned, was acquitted. This was a triumph to the 
 Catholic party, who were long accustomed to verdicts 
 which were certainly not founded on evidence. 
 
 An attempt was then made to bring an action 
 against Chief- Justice Downes, who had signed the 
 warrant for the arrest of this gentleman, but it was 
 wisely permitted to drop. The whole question had 
 turned on a word in the Convention Act. Catholics 
 were forbidden to assemble " under pretence of peti- 
 tioning;" the real object being to prevent Catholics 
 from meeting in public as a body for any purpose 
 whatsoever. The Catholic Committee were meeting 
 for the purpose of petitioning, as every one knew — 
 none better than their enemy, Mr. Perceval — but it 
 answered the purpose of the prosecution to declare 
 that they did not mean what they said. And then 
 
Government Interference, 
 
 343 
 
 he asserted that a purpose, as well as a pretence was 
 implied by the Act, though the Act did not say so ; 
 and the Crown counsel was not a little disappointed 
 when the traverser was acquitted. 1 
 
 But the Government were not satisfied, and at a 
 meeting held immediately after the acquittal of Dr. 
 Sheridan, Lord Fingal was forcibly ejected from the 
 chair. The proceedings were thus reported in the 
 Freeman's Journal. 
 
 " A few liiiiiutes before twelve o'clock yesterday, Counsellor 
 Hare, a police magistrate, entered the theatre, Fishamble 
 Street, where the Catholic Committee were assembled, and 
 took his station beside the chair which was prepared for the re- 
 ception of Lord Fingal. 
 
 ' 'At two minutes after twelve his lordship arrived; and, 
 upon the motion of Counsellor Hussey, seconded by Counsellor 
 O'Connell, he was called to the chair. 
 
 4 4 Mr. Hare was about to address Lord Fingal, when Lord 
 Xetteiville stood up, and moved that the Catholic petition be 
 now read, which was seconded by Counsellor O'Gorman. 
 
 " Mr. Hare now addressed himself to Lord Fingal, evidently 
 with a determination to prevent the reading of the petition, 
 and persevered until he had accomplished this object. 
 
 11 Mr. Hare. — My Lord Fingal, I beg to state what my 
 object is in coming to this meeting. As chairman of this 
 meeting, I have to inform you, that I come here, as a magis- 
 trate of the city of Dublin, by directions of the Lord-Lieutenant 
 (his Excellency having been informed that this is a meeting of 
 the Catholic Committee, composed of the peers, prelates, 
 country gentlemen, and the persons chosen in the different 
 
 1 " The law pronounces every Catholic to be faithless, disloyal, 
 unprincipled, and disposed to equivocate upon his oath until he shall 
 have repelled this presumption by his sworn evidence [and even then 
 he was seldom believed] in public court." — Penal Laus, p. 326. 
 
344 
 
 Mr. Hare and Lord FingaL 
 
 parishes of Dublin). I beg to ask you, as chairman of this 
 meeting, if that be the case, and what is your object ? 
 
 " Lord Fingal. — Sir, we have met here for a legal and con- 
 stitutional purpose. 
 
 "Mr. Hare. — Allow me to observe, that that is not an 
 answer to my question ;— perhaps you did not distinctly hear 
 me. I ask, is it a meeting of the Catholic Committee, com- 
 posed of the peers, prelates, country gentlemen, and others in 
 the city of Dublin ? 
 
 " Lord FingaL— I. certainly do not feel myself bound to give 
 you any other answer. We are met for the sole legal and con- 
 stitutional purpose of petitioning. 
 
 "Mr. Hare. — -My Lord, I ask you, as chairman of this 
 meeting, in what capacity are you met ? 
 
 " Lord Fingal.— We are met for the purpose of petitioning 
 Parliament. 
 
 " Mr. Hare. — My Lord, that is not an answer to my ques- 
 tion. I speak deliberately and distinctly, in order that every 
 person may hear and understand me. (Here some little con- 
 fusion occurred, owing to several persons speaking together.) 
 Mr. Hare. — I hope I have leave to speak. (' Hear the magis- 
 trate,' from several persons.) I beg leave to ask your lordship 
 again, is it a meeting of the Catholic Committee, constituted 
 by the Catholic peers, prelates, country gentlemen, and the 
 persons appointed in the different parishes of Dublin ? 
 
 " Lord Fingal.— I am not aware that I can give you any 
 other answer than that which I have already given. 
 
 " Mr. Hare. — Then, my Lord, your answer is, that you are 
 a meeting of Catholics, assembled for a legal and constitutional 
 purpose ? 
 
 " From several voices. — No, no ; there was no answer given 
 in such terms. 
 
 "Counsellor O'Connell.— It is a most unusual thing for 
 any magistrate to come into a public meeting to catechise, ask 
 questions, and put his own construction upon the answers. 
 
 "Mr. Hare.— My Lord, am I to understand that you de- 
 
Mr. Hare and Lord FingaL 
 
 345 
 
 cline answering me fully what meeting you are, and the purpose 
 of your meeting ? 
 
 " Lord Fiugal. — "We are met for a legal and constitutional 
 purpose. 
 
 "Mr. Hare. — I wish to be distinctly understood: I have 
 addressed your lordship explicitly two or three times. Am I to 
 understand that you will give no other answer to my question ? 
 Do you give no other answer ? (Here some confusion arose, in 
 consequence of several persons speaking together — some crying 
 out to have the petition read, others calling on Mr. Hay, and 
 others requiring silence for the purpose of hearing Counsellor 
 Hare.) 
 
 " Mr. Hare. — My Lord Fingal, I addressed myself to you 
 so distinctly, that I thought my question could not be mistaken. 
 I consider your declining to give me a direct answer, as an 
 admission that this is the committee of the Catholics of 
 Ireland. 
 
 " Counsellor O'Connell. — I beg leave to say, that as what 
 passes here may be given in evidence, the magistrate has re- 
 ceived a distinct answer to his question ; and it is not for him 
 to distort any answer he has received into a meaning of his 
 own — he is to take words in their literal signification. 
 
 "Mr. Hare. — My Lord, I consider your refusing to give 
 any other answer as an admission of the fact of this being a 
 Catholic Committee. 
 
 "Counsellor O'Connell. — Sir, if you please to tell gentle- 
 men such is your belief, it is of no consequence to us : we are 
 not to be bound by your opinion. 
 
 "Mr. Hare. — This is an admission of the fact that this is the 
 Catholic Committee ; and I consider your lordship's refusal 
 
 " (Here the meeting was interrupted by the confusion in- 
 cidental to a number of persons speaking together.) 
 
 " Mr. Hare. — Does yottr lordship deny that this is the 
 Catholic Committee ? 
 
 " Counsellor Finn.— No, no : my Lord Fingal has not given 
 you either admission or denial. 
 
846 
 
 Arrest of Lord Fingal. 
 
 " Counsellor O'Connell. — We do not want the gentleman's 
 assistance to make out meanings for us. Let him not imagine 
 that the character of this meeting can be affected, or that 
 he can bind this meeting by any assertion he thinks proper to 
 make. 
 
 " Mr. Hare. — Then I repeat that your lordship's refusal to 
 give me a direct answer is an admission that this meeting is 
 the Catholic Committee, and, as such, it is an unlawful 
 
 assembly. 
 
 " Counsellor O'Connell. — Mr. Hare is now speaking in his 
 magisterial capacity, therefore, whatever he says give it atten- 
 tion. 
 
 "Mr. Hare. — My Lord, I say that this is an unlawful 
 assembly, and, as such, I require it to disperse. I beg leave to 
 say, that it is my wish to discharge my duty in as mild a 
 manner as possible. I hope that no resistance will be offered, 
 and that I need not have recourse to those means with which I 
 am entrusted for the purpose of causing the meeting to disperse. 
 
 " Lord Fingal. — It is not our intention to do anything im- 
 proper, or to act in resistance to the laws of the land ; but it is 
 my determination not to leave the chair until I am obliged by 
 some person to do so, in order that I may bring my legal action 
 against the person who shall remove me. 
 
 " Mr. Hare. — My lord, I shall remove you out of the chair ; 
 and in doing so, it will be an actual arrest. 
 
 " Here, as might be naturally expected, some confusion 
 arose, in consequence of a noise in the gallery, which, we are 
 informed, was occasioned by police constables. 
 
 " Mr. Hare.— My Lord, if you'll have the goodness to leave 
 the chair, that is a legal arrest. 
 
 " He then took Lord Fingal by the arm and gently pushed 
 him from the chair. 
 
 " On the motion of Counsellor 0' Gorman, seconded, by Dr. 
 Luby, Lord Netterville was immediately called to the chair, 
 from which he was removed by Counsellor Hare, in the same 
 way that he had put Lord Fingal out of it. 
 
An Aggregate Meeting Proposed. 
 
 347 
 
 " There was then a universal cry for Lord Ffrench to take 
 the chair. His Lordship, who was in a had state of health, 
 either had not arrived, or was not within hearing of those who 
 called him to the chair. 
 
 " The Hon. Mr. Barnwall was then called to the chair ; 
 hut hefore he had taken it, Lord Ffrench had arrived, and was 
 proceeding to his post, when, at the recommendation of Sir 
 Edward Bellew, and at half-past twelve o'clock, the meeting 
 dispersed. 
 
 " After the Catholic meeting had heen dispersed in Fish- 
 amhle Street, a number of gentlemen repaired to Mr. D'Arcy's, 
 the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Earl Street, for the purpose of 
 signing a requisition to call an aggregate meeting of the 
 Catholics of Ireland. While the requisition was preparing, 
 Counsellor Hare, accompanied by Alderman Darley, went into 
 the room where they were assembled, and asked whether that 
 meeting was a meeting of individual gentlemen. Being 
 answered in the affirmative, and being about to make a speech, 
 Lord Ffrench told him they did not want to hear any of his 
 speeches, nor would they listen to them ; if lie came there for 
 the purpose of acting, that he must proceed without delay. 
 
 " Mr. Hare said that he merely wished to say, that as they 
 had acknowledged themselves to be a meeting of individual 
 gentlemen, he would not molest them." 
 
 " A Catholic requisition, for an aggregate meeting, to be 
 held on Thursday next, at the Theatre, Fishamble Street, has 
 been drawn up and signed by upwards of three hundred 
 persons. 
 
 " We have just learned that Lord Fingal interrogated the 
 police magistrates after the dispersion of the committee, if he 
 was to procure bail to their arrest, and that they deny having 
 arrested him /" 
 
 Although news did not travel with telegraphic 
 speed at that period, the dispersion of the meeting 
 and Lord Fingal's arrest was soon known through the 
 
Shelley and Emancipation. 
 
 country. It was known also in many English cities, 
 where the truth was told by the poet Shelley, who 
 was present at the meeting. There were Englishmen 
 even then, 1 as there are thank God still, and happily 
 their number is increasing, who are capable of view- 
 ing Irish subjects from a just stand-point, who do not 
 form their opinions on the illogical basis that every- 
 thing English must be right and everything Irish 
 wrong. 
 
 When Grattan presented the Catholic petition on 
 the 31st of May 1811, he did his best, in one of his 
 noblest and ablest speeches, to convince English 
 senators that it was possible for them to err. He 
 told them that they expected "the Author of the 
 
 1 Shelley wrote ''Proposals for an Association of Philanthro- 
 pists," for the amelioration of Ireland. He said : "It is my opinion 
 that the claims of the Catholic inhabitants of Ireland, if gained to- 
 morrow, would in a very small degree aggrandise their liberty or 
 happiness. The disqualifications principally affect the higher orders 
 of the Catholic persuasion ; these would chiefly be benefited by their 
 removal. Power and wealth do not benefit, but injure the cause of 
 freedom and virtue. I am happy, however, at the near approach of 
 this emancipation, because I am inimical to all disqualifications for 
 opinion. It will not add one comfort to the cottager — will snatch 
 not one from the dark dungeon — will root out not one vice — alleviate 
 not one pang. Yet it is a foreground of a picture in the dimness of 
 whose distance I behold the lion lie down with the lamb, and the 
 infant play with the basilisk ; for it supposes the extermination of 
 the eyeless monster — bigotry, whose throne has tottered for 200 
 years. I hear the teeth of the palsied beldam Superstition chatter, 
 and I see her descending to the grave. Reason points to the open 
 gates of the temple of religious freedom ; philanthropy kneels at the 
 altar of the common God. I regard the admission of the Catholic 
 claims, and the Repeal of the Union Act as blossoms of that fruit, 
 
The Irishman and English Laic. 
 
 340 
 
 universe to subvert His laws, to ratify their sta- 
 tutes ;" God had commanded us to revere our parents, 
 English law commanded and encouraged the Irish 
 son to claim his father's estate. u The decalogue 
 said, ' Do not steal,' the law, as made for Ireland, 
 proclaimed full permission to rob a Catholic." 
 
 English law cruelly oppressed the Irish nation, yet 
 English law continued to oppress it " under the vain 
 assurance that Providence would work a miracle in 
 the constitution of human nature, and dispose it to 
 repay injustice with affection, and oppression with 
 cordial support." 
 
 The Irishman was to be eminently loyal, but he 
 was not to have the benefit of law ; lie was to be an 
 
 which the summer sun of improved intellect and progressive virtue 
 are destined to mature. I will not pass without reflection the Legis- 
 lative Union between Great Britain and Ireland ; nor will I speak of 
 it as a grievance so tolerable or unimportant in its nature as that of 
 Catholic disqualification. The latter affects few, the Union affects 
 thousands ; the one disqualifies the rich from power, the other im- 
 poverishes the peasant, adds beggary to the city, famine to the 
 country, multiplies abjectness, whilst misery and crime play into 
 each other's hands under its withering auspices. I esteem, then, the 
 annihilation of this second grievance as something more than a mere 
 sign of good. I esteem it to be in itself a substantial benefit. The 
 aristocracy of Ireland (much as I disapprove of other distinctions 
 than those of virtue and talent, I consider it useless, hasty, and 
 violent not for the present to acquiesce in their continuance) — the 
 aristocracy of Ireland suck the veins of its inhabitants, and consume 
 that blood in England." 
 
 If we did not kuow the power of prejudice in transmuting ideas, 
 it would seem wonderful, and almost incomprehensible, how persons 
 with ordinary common sense could fail to see the real cause of Irish 
 poverty and Irish discontent. 
 
350 
 
 Father Dan Hogan. 
 
 ardent upholder of the constitution, but he was not to 
 be upheld by it ; he was to rally round the throne 
 when it was in danger, but he was never to see the 
 face of the sovereign. A tithe of justice was flung to 
 him now and then, political or religious, as might be 
 most convenient or least inconvenient to those who 
 made the laws which they expect him to revere ; and 
 when he got this tithe, pitiful as it was, he was ex- 
 pected to break forth into paeans of praise and thanks- 
 giving for the generosity of his master. If those 
 thanksgivings are not uttered, he is pointed out as a 
 monster of ingratitude ; if he suggests that he has 
 only obtained a small instalment of justice, that jus- 
 tice is justice, and that he would like to have a little 
 more of it, he is told that, as he is not thankful for 
 what has been given to him, he does not deserve 
 more. 
 
 When O'Connell went on circuit in January 1812, 
 he tried to rouse up the spirit of the country. His 
 presence was, indeed, looked for in each of the 
 southern towns which he visited as a signal for 
 public action. He was always specially welcomed 
 in Limerick. On his first professional visit to that 
 city in 1798, the late Mr. James Blackwell, then 
 gaoler of the city prison, retained his services for 
 some of the criminals, and it is said his first actual 
 practice at the bar was there. 
 
 During his visit to Limerick, O'Connell made the 
 acquaintance of a well-known Franciscan friar, Father 
 Pan Hogan. The Franciscans had been always re- 
 
The First Catholic Bell. 
 
 351 
 
 markable for erecting bell-towers, and the good friar 
 was no exception to the general devotion of his order 
 in Ireland. But at this time the penal laws forbade 
 Catholics even the use of an ordinary bell. 1 Father 
 Dan, however, was determined to have a bell, and 
 consulted O'Connell as to how the matter could be 
 arranged without violating the law. It was precisely 
 the kind of subject in which O'Connell took the 
 warmest interest. He told Father Ilogan that he 
 
 1 " Limerick : its History and Antiquities," by Maurice Lenihan, 
 Esq., J.P., M.R.I. A., page 420, Tbis is a work of great value and 
 importance, ami should be in every library. We give some extracts 
 from a letter written by Sir Arthur "Wellesley to Brigadier-General 
 Lee, on the state of Limerick in 1808. This shows how thoroughly 
 he understood the country. The letter is dated Cork, 7th July, 
 1808. It commences by explaining the duties of a general officer 
 commanding a district in Ireland, and shows how entirely the 
 country was under military government. "In the first place, the 
 situation of a general officer commanding a district in Ireland is very 
 much of the nature of a deputy-governor of a county or a province. 
 , . . The Government must depend in his reports and opinions 
 for the adoption of many measures relating solely to the civil admini- 
 stration of the country. It is the duty of every government officer 
 to make himself acquainted with the local circumstances of his dis- 
 trict, and with the characters of the different individuals residing 
 within it." He then proceeds to warn his correspondent of "certain 
 circumstances which exist in nearly all parts of Ireland." These 
 "certain circumstances" were, that Government was constantly 
 deceived by representations about the state of the country, which 
 were partially or wholly false ; that the desire to "let a building for 
 a barrack," the " desire to have troops in the country," the " desire 
 to have the yeomen called out frequently," occasioned representa- 
 tions of disturbances which did not exist, or which only existed in a 
 very slight degree. Upon these occasions " letter after letter " was 
 written to the Government demanding troops. He had recommended 
 examining witnesses on oath, but admitted that this remedy was not 
 always effectual, " for it frequently happened that the information on 
 
352 « God help the Poor." 
 
 might erect a cupola at the gable of his own house 
 and have a bell there ; and the friar was not long in 
 carrying out the plan. On the 1st of June 1809, the 
 citizens of Limerick heard a bell calling them to 
 mass for the first time within the memory of that 
 generation ; yet so great was the fear of Catholics 
 lest they should bring down vengeance on their 
 heads, that a second bell was not erected until 1814, 
 when one was put up in the then parochial chapel of 
 St. John. 
 
 On the 6th of July 1812, there was an enthu- 
 siastic meeting of Catholics in the Commercial Build- 
 ings, Limerick, at which O'Connell spoke : 
 
 " The occurrences of the present day strongly recall to my 
 mind a former period of Ireland's misfortune ; and that grave 
 
 oath was equally false with the original representations." All this 
 was pleasant for Brigadier- General Lee. There was, however, one 
 satisfactory conclusion. His duty was plain. The poor people, 
 " who committed outrages and disturbances, might have reason to 
 complain," but this was not a subject of consideration for the general 
 officer ; he must " support the law, and whoever broke the law must 
 be considered in the wrong." This line of action was simple, and 
 saved a good deal of trouble. He adds, " Whatever may have been 
 the nature of the provocation he may have received" — a man might 
 be shot down like a dog by an Orangeman, his family might consider 
 that as the law would not punish the Orangemen they might them- 
 selves do so ; but no, they were to submit, and be thankful that they 
 were not all shot. " Provisions," continues Sir Arthur, " might be 
 too dear, rent too high, and the magistrates might not do their duty 
 as they ought to the poor ;" no matter, the landlords were to go free, 
 the magistrates were to pass uncensured, but the poor, God help 
 them ! " were to be brought to justice." This was the advice given 
 on mature deliberation by the future Duke of Wellington, as he was 
 about to set forth on an expedition to free the continent of Europe 
 from the " iron rule" of Napoleon. 
 
Thanks to O'Connell. 
 
 353 
 
 of Irish prosperity, the Legislative Union gapes before my 
 eyes with all its sepulchral horrors ! 
 
 4 4 It is a circumstance, well known to every reflecting mind, 
 that the unhappy dissentions, which rent the country asunder, 
 might have been suppressed at the beginning, did not that 
 statesman called * the great man now no more,' think them 
 essentially necessary to bring about his favourite political pro- 
 ject, the union of both countries. 
 
 1 1 He watched the evil in its progress and maturity, and 
 when the malignant poison of disaffection had mixed with the 
 blood of the people, he awoke, as it were from a dream, and 
 was alive to all the horrors of the disease. It then became 
 necessary to have resort to strong and desperate measures ; and 
 before the country had recovered from the shock of civil 
 animosities, while the sorrows of the past had fixed the mind, 
 and rendered it careless for the future, the Union was proposed, 
 and the Union was carried !" 
 
 These observations were received with unbounded 
 applause. In Cork he also addressed a meeting. Mr. 
 Eneas M'Donnel moved a vote of thanks to him in 
 these words : 
 
 " That the thanks of the Catholics of the county and city of 
 Cork are most eminently due, and most gratefully given, to the 
 independent and indefatigable advocate of Irish rights — Daniel 
 O'Connell, Esq. — as well for the brilliant exertions he has 
 uniformly made in support and advancement of the Catholic 
 cause, as for the undaunted and patriotic spirit with which he 
 has defended, at all times and in all places, the Catholic 
 character against its calumniators, high and low." 
 
 It might be supposed that such a resolution would 
 be passed by acclamation : yet such was the state of 
 
 23 
 
354 
 
 Thanks to O'ConnelL 
 
 the Catholic body, such the fears of exciting the 
 jealousy of those who were its least useful though 
 most obstructive members, that it was considered 
 wise to let the resolution drop. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 Mullany's Steam Printing Works, 47 Fleet-street, Dublin. 
 
ALPHABETICAL INDEX, 
 
 Abbey, Mount Melleray, and its monks, 629 ; receives O'Connell, 
 632. 
 
 Act, the, of the 6th George L, repeal of, 145, 146. 
 Agitators, the, and the Government, 283. 
 Altamont, Earl of, and his associates, 212. 
 Alvanlev, Lord, and O'Connell, 612, 613. 
 
 America, English contempt for, 95, 97 ; Chatham on, 96 ; Johnson 
 on, 97 ; first Congress, 97 ; Declaration of Independence, 98 ; 
 and Ireland, 98 ; appeals to Ireland, 99 ; Irishmen in, 99, 100. 
 
 Anecdotes, Maurice O'Connell and the unshaven soldier, 30 ; Dr. 
 Smith and O'Connell's grandfather, 31 ; the 11 Crelagh" receiving 
 sentence of death, 39 ; Denis O'Brien and the judge, 40 ; O'Con- 
 nell and the Tralee ballad-singers, 41 ; Father O'Grady and 
 Denis Mahony, 43 ; Father O'Grady charged with being a 
 M Popish priest," 44 ; O'Connell and his sensitiveness to dis- 
 grace, 46 ; O'Connell mistaken for an Englishman, 48 ; Louis 
 XVI., 68; schoolboy quarrel at St. Omer, 70 ; John Sheares 
 and the hangman, 70 ; O'Connells and the tricolour cockades, 84 ; 
 Britain beaten by tailors and cobblers, 97 ; Thompson, the Irish 
 Secretary of Congress, and Franklin, 99 ; O'Connell and Cousin 
 Kane, 113; "had they portable water?" 116; Lord Clonmel 
 and bookseller Byrne, 143; "scoundrel enough to die or not, 
 as it suits him," 143; " would rather be a chimney-sweeper," 
 143 ; Lord Clonmel and the Brolnaduff property, 144 ; the 
 honest Protestant barber, 144 ; "the Canny" and the scourges, 
 193; Mrs. Leadbetter and the soldiers, 193, 194 ; the "share 
 of a pint of whiskey," 202 ; Checkley and the witness to an 
 alibi, 203, 204; O'Grady and the noisy court-house, 205; 
 O'Grady and the stuffed owl, 205 ; O'Grady and Purcell O'Gor- 
 man, 206; O'Gorman convicted of melodious practices, 206; 
 lesson in cow-stealing, gratis, 207 ; Jack of the Roads, 208 ; 
 O'Connell, Grady, and the corporal, 208, 209 ; Grady and tie 
 five soldiers, 210 ; O'Connell and the will case, 249 ; Lord Nor- 
 bury and his "racket court," 249 ; his lordship and the case 
 
( i 
 f 
 
 against Sterne, 250; "Ay, give him rope enough," 250; Lord 
 Norbury bearded by O'Connell, 251, 252 ; O'Connell and the 
 grateful highwayman, 253; O'Connell and the blockhead bank- 
 rupt, 254 ; O'Connell and Sergeant Lefroy, 259, 260 ; Lord 
 Plunket and the kites, 261 ; Curt ail and Lord Clare, 261 ; Cur- 
 ran and Judge Eobinson, 261 ; Croker and the dwarf O'Leary, 
 261 ; Croker and Tom Goold, 261 ; O'Connell and Judge Day 
 262; Bully Egan, 262; Judge Boyd and Grady, 263; O'Con- 
 nell and Baron M'Cleland, 263 ; Parsons and his hatred of 
 attorneys, 263, 264 ; Judge Foster and Denis Halligan, 264 ; 
 Mrs. O'Connell when a girl, and Hands the jailer, 266 ; " My 
 Mary cross ?" 266 ; O'Connell's fondness for his children, 266, 
 267; Judge Finucane and the schoolmaster O'Connor, 268, 
 269 ; John Keogh and Pitt, 308, 309 ; Captain Grose and the 
 butcher, 320 ; Jerry Keller and Baron Smith, 390 ; Jerry and 
 Norcott, 390 ; Lord Clare and suicide of Baron Power, 391 ; suicide 
 ofCrosbie Morgan, 392; Barnewell and the lottery ticket, 393 ; 
 O'Connell and the bank notes, 393, 394 ; O'Grady at the play, 394; 
 Parson Hawkesworth and his lady, 395 ; the two brothers and 
 Judge Day, 396 ; the eldest brother and the jailer, 397 ; the old 
 Dublin Evening Post and the Kerry lad, 398, 399 ; O'Connell's 
 power of attention, 404 ; O'Connell and Mr. Hedges Eyre, 404, 
 405 ; the physician and his expenses as a witness, 405 ; the 
 Duke of Norfolk and Dr. Milner, 425, 426 ; theDukeof Leinster 
 and the Jesuits, 429 ; Peel and Dr. Kenny, 429, 430 ; Lord 
 Chatham and the English funds, 430 ; Bagenal at seventy-eight, 
 433 ; Bagenal and Queen Charlotte, 434 ; D'Esterre with the 
 rope round his neck, 436 ; Judge Day and Barney Coile, 440, 
 441 ; O'Connell and Major M'Namara, 441, 442 ; O'Connell 
 and Jerry MacCarthy, 442 ; O'Connell and George IV., 475; 
 Mr. Fox, Mrs. Fitzherbert, and George IV., 476 ; the Duke of 
 Wellington and the Beefsteak Club, 479 ; O'Connell and Flood, 
 487, 488 ; " very sore at heart," 489 ; Dr. Doyle examining the 
 Lord's Committee, 528 ; Lord Anglesea and his life-preserver, 
 563, 564; O'Connell and Doherty, 578; O'Connell and the soul 
 of Henry VII. , 606 ; O'Connell and the guide at Canterbury 
 Cathedral, 607, 608 ; O'Connell and Mr. Kaphael, 616 ; O'Con- 
 nell and Sergeant Byan, 631 ; O'Connell and the Ptepealers at 
 
Index. 
 
 Cork,*681 ; and the Repealers at Limerick, G81 ; M'Nally ami 
 Parsons, G82 ; the Irish priest and the peer, G86 ; O'Conncll 
 and Joseph Pease, GOG ; O'Connell and the rising of the nation, 
 72G ; O'Connell in prison and the noble lord, 730. 
 Anglesea, Marquis of, and Dr Doyle, 527 ; and the monster meeting 
 at Ennis, 548; advice to the Catholics, and recall, 5G3 ; his 
 unpopularity, 5G3 ; and his stick, 5G4 ; proclamations against 
 repeal, 595 ; and the old ascendancv, 595 ; tranquilising Ireland. 
 59G. 
 
 Ant i- Union, the, its chief contributors, 229. 
 
 Aristocracy, the Irish Catholic, moral cowardice, in connexion will; 
 the Catholic claims, 434, 435 ; and O'Connell, 4G9. 
 
 Association, the Catholic (the first)* action of Government to suppress, 
 331, 332 ; first interference with, 332, 333 ; and Mr. Pole, 33;'-. 
 334 ; second attempt to dissolve, 341 ; object of, 342 ; further 
 interference with, 343-347 ; (the second) projected, 490 ; its 
 organisation, 491 ; first meeting, 492, 493 ; difficulties at first 
 in mustering a quorum, 493 ; anecdote of O'Conncll, 494 ; 
 budget, 494 ; the principal difficulty connected with it, 495; grand 
 aggregate meeting, 497, 498 ; King's speech on, 500 ; bill 
 brought in to suppress, 501 ; alarm as to supposed diabolical 
 aim of, 501, 502 ; accused of levying an unauthorised tax, 503 : 
 Lord Brougham on, 504 ; Edinburgh He view on itfl deputation to 
 London, 504 ; a new, formed, 508 ; its programme, 508, 509 ; 
 committee of deliberation, 512 ; first great meeting, 513. 
 
 Bagenal, King, his duelling propensities and devotion to good cheer, 
 
 433, 434. 
 Bar, the, and the Union, 226-228. 
 Barnewell, and the lottery ticket, 393. 
 Barrett, Mr., 533, 713. 
 Bathurst, Archdeacon, and Repeal, 709. 
 Bavaria, King of, letter on O'Connell, G94. 
 Beauforts, the, of Waterford, and O'Connell.. 581, 582. 
 Bentinck, Lord George, Bill of, 751. 
 Beresfords, the, 169, 171, 22G. 
 Berkeley on the Irish aristocracy, 384. 
 
 Bill, the coercion, passed, G03 ; Palmerston on, 603 ; compensation 
 for, G05. 
 
 3 
 
Index. 
 
 Bismarck, and his politics, xxvii. 
 Borough-niongering, 219, 220. 
 Boyd, Judge, and Grady, 262, 263. 
 
 Bribery, parliamentary, 147 ; of the press, 148, 149 ; by granting 
 peerages and money, 151, 152; Grattanon system of, 151, 152, 
 218. 
 
 Brigade, the Irish, thanks of Louis XVIII. to, 53 ; Duke of Fitz- 
 
 James on, 53 ; and Lord Castlereagh, 53. 
 Brunswickers, the, and the Lord Lieutenant, 560, 
 Burgoyne, General, letters of, 146, 147. 
 
 Burke, on the state of France, 67 ; at' the debate on the Stamp- 
 duties, 91 ; on the Americans, 92, 93; his brother Dick, 116, 
 117 ; on relaxing the penal code, 133, 134. 
 
 Burke, William, the Doneraile courier, 576. 
 
 Burton, Judge, 712, 718. 
 
 Bute, Earl of, and George III., 89 ; his administration, 90, 
 Butt, Isaac, note by, 701, 702. 
 
 Byron, Lord, on George IV. and his welcome in Ireland, 477. 
 
 Cambkidge, Duke of, on the Irish, 749. 
 Camden, " the cold and cruel," 415, 416. 
 Canning in power, 514 ; death of, 519. 
 Capel, Lord, Viceroy ship, 21. 
 
 Capes, Mr., his article in the Contemporary Review, xvii. ; his preface 
 to the life of St. Frances, xviii. 
 
 Caroline, Princess, and the Peeresses, 128 ; as Queen, refused coro- 
 nation, 469 ; death and burial, 470, 471. 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord, on the unconstitutional practice of independent 
 voting, 223 ; on tenderness towards the Catholics, 243 ; " most 
 •private," letter, on the necessity of Catholic support towards 
 carrying the Union, 244 ; O'Connell on, 285, 288 ; deliberate 
 lie, 325. 
 
 Catholics and their religious rights, xxvi. ; loyalty of, 79 ; the Eng- 
 lish Conservative, 80, 81 ; the Irish not Conservative, 81, 82 ; 
 the English and O'Connell, 83 ; recognition of, as British sub- 
 jects, 121 ; conciliation of, by Government, 125 ; deputation of, 
 with address to the King, 164 ; upper classes of, 175 ; and the 
 Union, 222 ; resolutions of a meeting of, in Dublin, 232, 233 ; 
 systematically deceived, 244 ; and the Government, 270 ; the 
 4 
 
Index. 
 
 upper class, laity, 274 ; O'Connell on the emancipation of, 278 : 
 taught by O'Connell to change petition into demand, 285 ; 
 meeting of, in Dublin, to petition, 287 ; of the upper class 
 bribed, 307 ; lower and upper classes of, 314, 315 ; persecuted. 
 314-31G ; entertaining Protestants, 330, 331 ; addressing the 
 Prince of Wales, 334 ; petition for dismissal of Pole, 337 ; dis- 
 astrous political divisions among, 340, 341; a triumph, 342 ; 
 worldliness among the English, 424, 425 ; and their uncompro- 
 mising fidelity to the Church, 4G1 ; their jealousy of concessions. 
 4G1 ; fidelity to their oaths, J 05 ; and Government dictation, 
 4G8 ; and the English Radicate, 477 ; of the upper class and 
 O'Connell, 085 ; English, and O'Connell in prison, 731. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr., on O'Connell, G95, 
 
 Charles I. and his Irish subjects, 119. 
 
 Charlemont, Lord, his conversion, 128, 129 ; his patriotic zeal, 130 ; 
 his letter on the Whigs, 135, 186 ; and Northern Whig Club, 
 159. 
 
 Chatham, 93 ; dying testimony, 96; and the English funds, 430. 
 Checkley, the rogue, 203-205. 
 
 Church, Orders of, and the charge of intellectual inactivity, xxxviii. ; 
 the Catholic, Conservative, 77, 79 ; Alison on, 77, 78 ; Guizot, 
 on, 78 ; clergy of, in France, 80 ; and her teaching, 270, 271 ; 
 learning in. 271 ; her priesthood, 272, 273 ; granting of facul- 
 ties in, 460. 
 
 Claddagh fishermen, the, xii. 
 
 Clancarty, Lord, and the "miserable" Irish, 540, 547. 
 
 Clare County, O'Connell stands for, 542, 54G ; election agents, 540 ; 
 
 consternation in England, 540 ; Palmerston on the occasion, 
 
 548 ; scene at the hustings, 549, 550; the polling, 551, 552 ; 
 
 return of O'Connell, 552 ; effect of the news in England, 550 ; 
 
 558 ; O'Connell unseated ..nd re-elected, 509, 575. 
 Clare, Lord, his views on mixed education at Maynooth, 275, 277 ; 
 
 and Baron Power, 391 ; character, 392 ; opinion of the Catholics, 
 
 393. 
 
 Clergy, the Protestant, 272, 273. 
 
 Clergy, the Catholic, and order, 174; and the Union, 220, 222 ; 
 the Protestant Bishop of Meath, on, 302, 303 ; soldiers under 
 orders, 400, 407 : and the right of administering the last sacra- 
 ment, 407; and the Catholic Association, 491, 519. 
 
Index. 
 
 Clifford, Lord de, on the Union, 223. 
 
 Clonmel, the Earl of, notices and anecdotes of, 143, 144. 
 
 Club, the Northern Whig, its establishment and political prejudices, 
 
 159, 160 ; Lord Clare's nickname for, 160 ; demise of, 160. 
 Club, the Beefsteak, unheard of interference with, 479 ; their 
 
 revenge, 480. 
 Cobbett, "William, O'Connell on, 305, 306. 
 Coile, Barney, and Judge Day, 440, 441. 
 Colchester, Lord, on O'Connell, 505, 548. 
 
 College, Trinity, 33, 34 ; address of students to Grattan, 173, 
 174. 
 
 Colleges, Irish, on the Continent, 71, 72; at Douay, 72. 
 Convention, the Dungannon, 162, 163. 
 Commission, the Devon, 741. 
 
 Controversy, the Pope and Maguire, 497 ; O'Connell's remarks at 
 
 the discussion, 497, 498. 
 Conway, the traitor, 69, 70. 
 Cooke, Dr., challenge to O'Connell, 684. 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, and state of Ireland, 181 ; and excesses of the 
 military, 183, 184 ; accusation against, 184 ; letter of, on Eng- 
 lish misrule, to Duke of Portland, 185, 186 ; on government of 
 Ireland, 218, 219 ; letter to Bishop of Lichfield on the state of 
 Ireland, 219 ; on the agitation against the Union, 228, 229 ; 
 letter on behalf of the Catholic peers, 242. 
 
 Council, the common, timidly petitioning for justice, 291. 
 
 Crampton, Judge, 712, 715, 718. 
 
 Crelaghs, the, of Glencarra, and Morgan O'Connell, 38, 39; one of 
 
 at Tralee assizes, 39. 
 Crime in England and Ireland, comparative summary of a week's 
 
 397, 398. 
 
 Cromwell, his Irish policy, and its effects, 187, 188. 
 Crowley, Peter, the case of, 234, 235. 
 
 Croker, J. Wilson, anecdotes of, 261 ; on government in Ireland, 
 358. 
 
 Cumberland, Duke of, and Catholic Emancipation, 566. 
 Curran, anecdotes of, 261. 
 
 Daly, Old Jehu, 199. 
 
 Darrynane Abbey of, 27, 28 ; House, and its environs, 399, 400. 
 6 
 
Index. 
 
 Day, Judge, and O'Connell, 253 ; as judge, 2G1, 2G2 ; and Barney 
 Coile, 440, 441. 
 
 D'Esterre, bis antecedents, 430 ; quarrel with O'Connell and its 
 motive, 43G, 437 ; parading Dublin with a whip, 437 ; letter to 
 O'Connell and reply, 438, 439; duel with O'Connell, and death, 
 411, 443 ; bis widow, 443. 
 
 Dinglo, address from, and O'Connell's reply, 327-329. 
 
 D'Isracli, and O'Connell, 013; O'Connell on, 013. 014; and 
 Morgan O'Connell, 014 ; and bis inextinguishable hatred to the 
 O'Connells, 615. 
 
 Doherty, Solicitor-General, threatens to wash his hands of it, 500 ; 
 and the Doneniile conspiracy, 57G, 577 ; his conduct brought by 
 O'Connell before Parliament, 580 ; appointed Chief Justice, 590, 
 597. 
 
 Domville, Sir Compton, defeat of, 481, 482. 
 
 Doneraile, alleged conspiracy of the Catholics of, 576 ; O'Connell at 
 
 the trial, 577 ; acquittal of the prisoners, 578. 
 Douay, colleges at, 72. 
 
 DoyIp, Dr., sketch of his life and character, 524; extract from 
 " Vindication of Catholics," 525, 526 ; examined by a parlia- 
 mentary committee, 520-528 ; and his starving countrymen, 597. 
 
 Dublin Evening Post, the old, and the Kerry lad, 398, 399. 
 
 Duel between Alcock and Colclough, 433 ; between O'Connell and 
 D'Esterre, 441, 413; between Sir Charles Paxton and Mr. 
 Sidwell, 447-449; threatened, between O'Connell and Peel, 447, 
 448. 
 
 Duelling, the order of the day, 433. 
 Daffy, Mr., 713, 728, 729, 738, 749. ■ 
 
 Duggan, John, notice of, and his notes of O'Connell's last illness, 
 
 750-762. 
 Dyer, the villain, 445-447. 
 
 Education, unequal advantages of Catholic and Protestant Irish, as 
 regards, 33. 
 
 Eldon, Lord, O'Connell on, 278, 324 ; on O'Connell, 500 ; on the 
 election of O'Connell, 501 ; on the admission of Catholics to 
 Parliament, 5G5, 5G6. 
 
 Ely, charge of the present Bishop of, 303. 
 
 Emancipation declared necessary, 1G3 ; O'Connell on, 278; Shellcv 
 
 7 
 
Index. 
 
 on, 048, 349 ; George IV. and, 566, 591 ; Sir Lytton Bulwer 
 on the Act, 592 ; insufficient, 593 ; only one act of justice, 594, 
 595 ; imminent, 561 ; achieved, 566 ; clause to prevent 
 O'Connell taking his seat, 566; the Act disappointing, 587; 
 Palmerston and Wellington on, 587 ; reasons why it should 
 turn out disappointing, 589, 590. 
 
 England, Church of, in Ireland, 83 ; and her American colonies, 91, 
 92; troubles in 1775, 103, 104 ; troubles in 1795-96, 107; 
 prestige declining, 538, 539 ; political discontent in 1831, 598. 
 
 Eunis, peaceful gathering at, 548, 549. 
 
 Espionage, Government post-office, 138, 139. 
 
 Eyre, Mr. Hedges, and the Papist rascal, 404, 405. 
 
 FingaLj Lord, and Mr. Hare, 343-346; arrest of, 346, 347. 
 Fitzgerald, Bayard, 63. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, his character and politics, 180. 
 Fitzgerald, Mr. Vesey, 542, 550, 552, 553. 
 Fitzpatrick, Mr. Hugh, Irial of, 406-408. 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Lord, appointment as Lord Lieutenant, and recall, 165, 
 166; and Government, 167-169; and the Beresfords. 170. 
 
 Flood, John, his accomplishments and suspicious doings, 486 ; cap- 
 tures a smuggler, but contradicts his own evidence in court, 486- 
 488. 
 
 Foster, Judge, and Denis Halligan, 264, 265. 
 
 Fox, Charles James, on English foreign policy, 64 ; on trial of 
 Hardy, &c, 86 ; letter on the evils of Irish administration, 137 ; 
 answer to Grattan's letter, 145 ; on the Regency question, 150 ; 
 on political liberty, 165; clear ideas of Irish policy, 211, 212, 
 215; on the Union, 216; O'Connell's reminiscences of, 238; 
 and Prince of Wales, 363 ; Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV., 
 476. 
 
 Fox, Mr. Luke, admirable letter of, 224-226. 
 
 France and its leaders during the Revolution, 62, 63 ; described 
 
 socially by Burke, 67. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, sketch of his life, 94 ; on a debate in the Lords, 
 
 95, 96. 
 
 Frazer's Magazine on populating Ireland, xiv., on governing Ireland, 
 xv. 
 
 Freeholders, the forty-shilling, 270. 
 
 8 
 
Index. 
 
 Friends, Society of, and O'Connell, 695, 696 ; and the Irish famine, 
 748. 
 
 Fry, Mrs., Archbishop Manning on, 330. 
 
 G.\LWAY,*address to Grattan of the men of, 173. 
 
 Georges, the, 87, 88 ; Ireland under the first two, 373. 
 
 George II. and the sermons at court, 89 ; Ireland under, 373. 
 
 George III., Mr. Harwood's observations on, 15 ; compared with 
 Louis XVIII., 65 ; reign, 87 ; his advantages, 88; his Toryism. 
 89 ; his first speech and Frederick the Great, 89 ; letter to North, 
 104 ; on the demands of America, 105 ; on public business, 
 107 ; on Ireland, 107 ; attack on, 109, 110 ; on Irish marquises, 
 121 ; on his American subjects, 122 ; speech of, on state of Eng- 
 land, in 1792, 164 ; washes his hands, 243. 
 
 George IV., riotous meetings to address, on his accession, 454-456 ; 
 pails for Ireland, and dissipation on the voyage, 470 ; his pro- 
 gress through Dublin and reception, 471-473 ; end of visit, 474 ; 
 and O'Connell, 474, 475 ; and Mr. Fox, 476; fit of spleen, 49Q ; 
 and Catholic Emancipation, 566, 591 ; and his revenge on O'Con- 
 nell, 591. (See Prince of Wales.) 
 
 Gladstone, Mr., and his newspaper oracles, xx.; and his alleged 
 political motives, xxviii. 
 
 Glascock, Toby, and O'Connell, 575. 
 
 Gower, Lord Leveson, O'Connell on, 586, 587. 
 
 Grady, Harry, and the'sragoon, 208 ; cross-examining the five sol- 
 diers, 210. 
 
 Grattan, his patriotism, 126 ; early career, 127 ; election to Parlia- 
 ment, 127 ; on penal code, 134, 135 ; Fitzpatrick on, 138 ; 
 success of his appeal, 145; his address on repeal of the Act of 
 6 Geo. I., 146 ; rewarded for his services, 146 ; letter on Irish 
 affairs, 152-156 ; on bribery in the Government, 165, 166 ; 
 retirement of, 180; O'Connell's opinion of, 236, 237 : on Eng- 
 lish legislation versus divine, 348, 349 ; panegyric on, by O'Con- 
 nell, 453, 454. 
 
 Grattan, Henry, son of the preceding, 531. 
 
 Gray, Sir John, 713, 714 ; his narrative, 720-724. 
 
 Grenville, his administration, 90 ; and unfortunate resolution, 91. 
 
 Grievances, Irish, English disregard and treatment of, 140, 141. 
 
 Grose, Captain, and the butcher, 319, 320. 
 
 9 
 
Index. 
 
 Hamilton, Rev. John, his schemes and accomplices, 444-447. 
 Hamilton, Mr. Hans, Jesuitaphobia of, 502. 
 Hamilton, Rev. W., case of, and the poor hen-girl, 322, 323. 
 Hardy, trial of, 84, 85. 
 
 Hare, Mr., and O'Connell, 344, 345; and Lord Ffrench, 347. 
 Hart, Sir Anthony, installation as Lord Chancellor, 489. 
 Hawkesworth, Parson, and his lady, 395. 
 Henry, Mr. Mitchell, on Justice Keogh, xl., xli. 
 Hickson, Mr., 203. 
 
 Hierarchy, the Irish Catholic, loyalty of, 301. 
 
 History, its repetitions of ifrself, 4, 588. 
 
 Hogan, Father Dan, the Franciscan, and his bell, 350, 352. 
 
 Hussey, Mr., on English hostility to the Catholic petition, 364. 
 
 Ignorance, English, of Irish affairs, vii., xxi. 
 Independence, Irish, causes of the ruin of, 146-148. 
 Infallibility, Protestant, 463, 468. 
 Inns in the good old times, 318, 319. 
 Intolerance, religious, in Ireland, 44, 45. 
 
 Ireland, Fraser's Magazine on the depopulation and government of, 
 xiv., xv. ; under British rule, 64-66, 82, 83 ; effects on policy 
 towards, of American War, 120 ; state of, a puzzle to English 
 understandings, 142 ; letters on, 142, 143 ; her real and sham 
 wants, 143, 144 ; state of, in 1795-96, 172, 173; on the arrival 
 of Lord Cornwallis, 181, 186, 187; an appanage of England, 
 214, 215 ; the upper classes in, 217; ignorance of its state, 
 290 ; division, the curse of, 306, 307 ; a party battle-ground, 
 357, 358 ; J. Wilson Croker on government in, 358 ; party 
 government in, 358-361 ; under the first two Georges, 373 ; 
 under George II., 373 ; under George III., 374, 375; debt to 
 O'Connell, 383 ; periodic attempts to convert, 496 ; new era in 
 history of, 520 ; the four wants of, 655 ; famine blight, 747, 748. 
 
 Irelanders, the Young, 736, 738, 739, 751. 
 
 Irish, the Protestant, charge against, xxviii., xxix. ; effect of trade 
 restrictions on, 19 ; loyalty of, 34 ; and the King of England, 
 64 ; the awaking of their national spirit, 136 ; and their 
 grievances, 140 ; their political mercies and duties, 349, 350 ; 
 driven desperate, 369 ; Mr. Kohl on, 370 ; brutal treatment of 
 by the English, 538 ; services of, necessary to Britain, 539 ; 
 10 
 
Index. 
 
 ingenuous susceptibility, 474 ; unjustly blamed, 476 ; their 
 fidelity to the Holy See, 740. 
 Irishmen, the United, origin of the society, 161, 162 ; original 
 principles, 162 ; Protestant leaders of, and Catholic deputation, 
 164 ; Mr. Beresford on, 170 ; and the French Government, 175 ; 
 its early leaders, 180 ; fifteen leaders arrested, 181 ; lesson they 
 read O'Connell, 247. 
 
 Jack of the Roads, 208, 313, 314. 
 
 Jesuits, the, their distinction among the orders of the Church, 427 ; 
 
 at Castle Browne, and the panic their presence created, 427, 428 ; 
 
 the Duke of Leicester on, 429 ; Peel and, 430 ; the present Sir 
 
 Robert and, 431. 
 Johnson, on taxing the Americans, 97. 
 
 Jones, Paul, his capture of the Drake sloop of war, 14, 15; his 
 fleet and crew, 15 ; on the coast of Kerry, 15, 16 ; treachery to 
 two of his crew, 16; off Flamborough Head, 17; the Irish, 
 father and son, 17. 
 
 Judgment, private, right of, English theory and practice, 20. 
 
 Justice, administration of, in Kerry, 40 ; in Ireland, in the end of 
 last century, 395-397. 
 
 Kane, Cousin, 113, 114. 
 
 Kelburne, Rev. Mr., his strong language, 162, 163. 
 
 Keller, Jerry, his encouragement of the young O'Connell, 203 ; and 
 
 the burglar, 203, 204 ; and Baron Smith, 890 ; and Norcott, 
 
 the pretender, 390, 391 ; in poverty, 391. 
 Kenyon, Lord, 376. 
 Keogh, John, O'Connell on, 308, 310. 
 
 Keogh, Mr. Justice, xxx.-xxxv. ; Mr. Mitchell Henry on his Gal way 
 
 judgment, xl., xli. 
 Kerry, wrecking and smuggling in, 18; ethics, 19; justice in, 40; 
 
 early enlightenment of, 49 ; travelling in, 199, 200, 207 ; roads 
 
 and hotels, 200. 
 
 Kilmainham, meeting at, 454 ; military called in, 456 ; counter 
 
 meeting, 456, 457. 
 Kingsborough, Lord, the eccentric, 237. 
 
 Ladies, the, who locked up their husbands, 506. 
 LmdBill, the recent, xxiii. 
 
 11 
 
Index. 
 
 Landlords, the absentee, xxiii. 
 
 Landor, Walter Savage, letter from O'Connell, 403. 
 
 Lanigan, Dr., letter on the United Irishmen, 175 ; and the Veto, 
 
 300 ; on Quarantotti's rescript, 426. 
 Lawless, Honest Jack, 531 ; and the priest, 559. 
 Laws, penal, against Catholics, brief account of, 22-24 ; as regards 
 
 right of tutorship, 35; Burke on relaxing, 133; Grattan on, 
 
 134, 135 ; relaxations under George III., 335. 
 Leadbetter, Mrs., testimony of, 192-194. 
 Lecky, Mr., essay on O'Connell, viii.-x. 
 Lees, Sir Harcourt, the absent-present, 457. 
 Legion, the thundering, 34. 
 Leinster, Duke of, his declaration, 562. 
 L'Estrange, Rev. Mr., on the Catholic regiments, 513. 
 Letters of O'Connell to Dr. MacHale, 517, 518, 599-561, 609-611, 
 
 613, 616, 622, 628, 635-639, 642-644, 646, 648, 649, 651-655, 
 
 658-662, 665, 666, 670, 672, 673, 674, 678, 699-701, 741-746 ; 
 
 from Dr. MacHale, 633, 634, 644-646, 650, 651, 662-665, 
 
 673. 
 
 Lieutenant, the Lord, of Ireland, 137, 138. 
 Londonderry, Lord, on O'Connell and his crew, 612, 616. 
 Louis XVI., his heroic demeanour under insult, 68. 
 Louvain, college at, 71. 
 
 Lowe, Mr., on the Irish fisheries, x.; a poor Irish fisherman, xi., 
 
 xii. ; speech at Glasgow, xiii. 
 Lynch, John, and Usher, 35, 36. 
 Lyndhurst, Lord, on the Irish, 617 ; his descent, 617. 
 
 Macaulay on O'ConnelPs trial, 718. 
 
 MacCarthy, poem on the incarceration of O'Connell and the Traver- 
 sers, 727-729 ; poem on the death of O'Connell, 772-774. 
 • MacCracken, brother and sister, and the faithful Catholic domestic, 
 161, 162. 
 
 MacHale, Dr., first letter from O'Connell, 518 ; his family, 520 ; 
 professor of dogmatics at Maynooth, 521 ; appointed coadjutor 
 Bishop of Killala, his letters, lectures, and learning, 522; still 
 a tower of strength to Ireland, 523 ; his health proposed by 
 O'Connell, 618; speech on the occasion, 618-622. 
 
 Magee, John, trial of, 408-419. 
 12 
 
Index. 
 
 Magna Charta, the boast of England, 537. 
 
 Mahon, O'Gorman, 531 ; in tbe House, 532 ; and tbe Sheriff of 
 
 Clare, 549, 550. 
 Mahony, Denis, and Father O'Grady, 43. 
 
 Manning, Archbishop, speech of, at International Union Congress, 
 330. 
 
 Martley, Mr., protected by O'Connell, 251, 252. 
 Mary, Black, 91. 
 
 Matbew, Father, and Repeal, 680. 
 
 Maynootb, proposal to establisb, 171, 172 ; question of admitting 
 
 lay students, 275 ; minutes of conversation regarding, between 
 
 Abbot and Kilwarden, 270, 277. 
 Meath, the Protestant Bishop of, letter on the Catholic clergy and 
 
 Government, 302, 303. 
 Melbourne Cabinet, the, and O'Connell, 012. 
 Memory, the glorious and immortal, toast in honour of, 100, 481. 
 Miley, Dr., on O'Connell's last forty hours, 704 ; in Rome, with his 
 
 heart, 707 ; on public sympathy in Rome, 768. 
 Military, the excesses of, 182-184, 189. 
 Mirabeau, propbetic utterance of, 62. 
 
 Mitchel, John, 736, 737 ; on the Liberator after his release, 737. 
 Moira, Lord, O'Connell on, 368. 
 
 Montalembert, Count de, and O'Connell, 583, 584 ; Mrs. Olipbant's 
 
 Life of, 584, 594; and O'Connell in his last days, 703. 
 Montrose, Duke of, on Ireland, 478. 
 Moore, on the Prince of Wales, 363. 
 Morgan, Crosbie, expensiveness and death, 392. 
 Murders, agrarian, 369, 370. 
 
 Myers, Mr., of Roscommon, his conversion, and the grounds of it, 
 24, 25. 
 
 Napier, Colonel, on O'Connell, 628, 629. 
 Napoleon I. and English smugglers, 19 ; O'Connell on, 327. 
 Neilson, liberal proposal of, 161 ; on the state of the Catholic 
 question, 163. 
 
 Nichol, Mrs. Professor, her recollections of O'Connell, 696, 697; 
 
 her collection of O'Connell's autographs, 697. 
 North, Lord, 87. 
 
 Norbury, Lord, and his racket-court, 249 ; and the butcher's boy, 
 
 13 
 
Index. 
 
 250; O'Connell's description of, 250; bearded by O'Connell, 
 251, 252 ; and Barry's trial, 407. 
 Norbury, Lord, the murder of, 655, 656. 
 
 Norfolk, the Duke of, the renegade Catholics and Dr. Milner, 425, 
 426. 
 
 No-Popery cry, the, 360, 361. 
 O'Bkien, Denis, and the judge, 40, 41. 
 
 O'Brien, W. Smith, his first appearance, 573, 574 ; and Steele, 574 ; 
 
 and O'Gorman Mahon, 575. 
 O'Conal, John, at Aughrim, 29, 30. 
 O'Connell, clan, annals of, 31, 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, his pedigree, 6-8 ; his father's family, 8, 9 ; his 
 uncle Maurice, 9; grandfather, 13, 31; father, 13, 14, 18; 
 childish memories, 18, 21 ; affection for his mother, 26 ; pride 
 of family, 27-29 ; anecdotes of his ancestors, 29, 30 ; date of his 
 birth, 32 ; natural character, 36 ; learning the alphabet, 37 ; 
 his first schoolmaster, 37 ; fondness for ballads, 41 ; early studies 
 and ambition, 42 ; a boyish dream realised, 42 ; thoughts when 
 a boy of nine, 43 ; at school, 44, 45 ; recollections of school and 
 childhood, 46 ; sent to Liege, 46 ; first acquaintance with Eng- 
 land, 46 ; at Louvain, 47 ; at St. Omer's, 47, 49 ; early hatred 
 of England, 48, 49 ; opinion of Dr. Stapylton, 51 ; insulted at 
 Douay, 51, 52 ; effect on, of what he saw under Beign of Terror, 
 52 ; departure from France, 68 ; early companions, 69, 70 ; 
 schoolboy quarrel, 70, 71 ; and the Church, 72 ; on the French 
 Revolution, 73 ; interview with Owen, 74 ; at Lincoln's Inn, 75 ; 
 in Chiswick, 75, 76 ; originally Tory, 77, 83, 84 ; conversion to 
 Liberal opinions, 85 ; time of birth, 98 ; witnesses the attack on 
 George III., 109, 110 ; fondness for the chase, 111 ; his tem- 
 perate habits, 111, 112 ; and Cousin Kane, 113 ; attack of fever, 
 114-116 ; first visit to Dublin, 116, 152, 159; a United Irish- 
 man, 176 ; joins the Lawyers' Artillery, 176 ; early patriotism 
 in 1798, 177-179 ; his account of his illness, 197, 198 ; narra- 
 tive of his start on his first circuit, 199-201 ; first visit to 
 Limerick, 201 ; his forte, 201 ; cross-examining a witness, 201, 
 202 ; quality of his intellect, 202 ; and the pint of whiskey, 202 ; 
 and Jerry Keller, 203 ; his lesson in cow-stealing, 207 ; travel- 
 ling to London, 207 s ing to Dublin, 207, 208 ; Grady and 
 14 
 
Index* 
 
 the dragoon, 208, 209 ; first speech, 210, 229-232, 231 ; liberality, 
 231 ; extenuation of his rough outspokenness, 231, 236 ; early 
 personal appearance, 236 ; on Grattan and his son, 236, 237 ; on 
 Pitt and Fox, 238; modesty, 238; on the Union, 289; chival- 
 rous conduct on duty, 211 ; a freemason, 215, 216 ; gloomy 
 mood, which proved electric, 217 ; lesson in prudence, 217 ; 
 saved by his watch, 218 ; the ground of his success at the bar, 
 218, 250 ; and the will -case, 219 ; bearding Lord Norbury, 251, 
 252 ; and the confirmed offender, 252, 253 ; and the goat- 
 stealer, 253 ; and the alleged bankrupt, 251 ; on circuit, 257- 
 259 ; and Sergeant Lefroy, 259, 260 ; his bar-anecdotes, 260- 
 261 ; professional success, 265 ; fond of children, 266 ; mar- 
 riage, 267 ; his search for pikes, 267, 268 ; his chief political 
 work, 270 ; comprehensive intellect, 273, 271 ; and the hierarchy, 
 274 ; on emancipation, 278 ; on the Veto, 278 ; on W. Pole, 
 280, 281 ; on Marquis of Wellesley, 281 ; on Castleroagh, 281, 
 282; on the " hitches," 282; and the agitators, 283, 284; 
 strikes a new key-note, 285 ; rugged energy, directness, and 
 breadth, 286, '287 ; exhorts to united effort, 288, 289 ; speech 
 on the Union, 291-297 ; uses the words " Irish King," 297 ; 
 recommends publicity, 301 ; on the Edinburgh Review and Wil- 
 liam Cobbett, 305,306; honest denunciation, 306; on the 
 curse of Ireland, 306, 307 ; attains to leadership, 307 ; on John 
 Keogh, 307, 308 ; on the case of Spence, 315, 316 ; in Limerick, 
 317, 318, 359 ; his fun, 318 ; affair of honour with Magrath, 
 320, 321 ; appearance, 321 ; fame as a barrister, 321 ; and case 
 of the poor hen-girl, 322, 323 ; speech at Limerick, in 1812, 
 334-336 ; felicity of expression, 326, 327 ; on Irish soldiers and 
 Napoleon, 327; address from Dingle, 327, 328; reply, 328, 
 329 ; speech at the Catholic-Protestant banquet, 330, 331 ; 
 first speech at meeting to propose an address to Prince of Wales, 
 334-336 ; second speech, 338-340 ; on Wellington, 339 ; a 
 main object with, 340 ; and Father Hogan, 350, 352 ; on the 
 Union, 353 ; vote of thanks in Cork, 353 ; on Catholic and Pro- 
 testant pledges, 365, 366 ; on the assassination of Mr. Perceval, 
 366, 367 ; and the Irish widow, 367 ; congratulations on the 
 spread of liberal ideas, 371 ; onihe Veto, 371, 372 ; on securities, 
 372 ; on the Orange Society,375-381 ; affection for his wife, 382 ; 
 devotion to Ireland, 383 ; and the English Catholics, 383, 384 ; 
 
 15 
 
Index. 
 
 style of his speeches, 384 ; Shiel's sketch of, 385, 389; in his study, 
 385-386 ; about court, 386-387 ; appearance, 388 ; his demo- 
 cratic roll, 388, 389 ; as a raconteur, 389, 390; and the bank- 
 clerk, 393, 394 ; at Darrynane — out on hunt, at the table, 400- 
 402 ; letter to Landor, 403 ; power of apprehension, story illus- 
 trative of, 404 ; and his Orange client, 404, 405 ; and Mr. Lees, 
 405 ; examination of Burrows Campbell, and defence of Fitz- 
 patrick, 407, 408 ; defence of Magee, 409-419 ; on the panic 
 ngainst the Jesuits of Castle Browne, 427-429 ; public thanks 
 and presentations, 432 ; offends D'Esterre, 436 ; a man of peace, 
 437 ; correspondence with D'Esterre, 438, 439 ; duel with 
 D'Esterre, 441-443 ; quarrel with Peel, 447, 448 ; panegyric on 
 Grattan, 453, 454; at Kilmainham, 455-457 ; pastoral letter 
 for 1821, 458, 459 ; and Shiel, 459, 460 ; and Catholic rights, 
 461 ; his letters, 462 ; analysis of Mr. Plunkett's bills, 462, 
 465 ; presents George IV. with a laurel crown, 474 ; cursed by 
 the King, 475 ; opinion of George IV., 475 ; and John Flood, 
 488 ; joke at Plunkett's expense about Hart, 489 ; forms the 
 Catholic Association, 490 ; secret of his success, 492 ; dexterous 
 and desperate effort to make up a quorum, 493 ; attempt to 
 prosecute, 498 ; home joys and sorrows, 499 ; in London, 504 ; 
 under examination, 505 ; returns to Ireland, 507 ; increasing 
 popularity, 507, 508 ; attack on, for his conduct towards the 
 forty-shilling freeholders, 509 ; his good-humoured defence, 510 ; 
 going special, 511 ; at Wexford, 511 ; and Mr. Leyne, 511 ; 
 and the formation of the new Association, 512 ; commencement 
 of correspondence with Dr. MacHale, first letter, 517, 518 ; and 
 the Waterford election, 540, 541; address to the electors of 
 Clare county, 542-546 ; on the hustings, 550 ; at the poll, 551 ; 
 return, 552 ; chaired at Ennis, 555 ; an irritation to the 
 authorities, 560 ; king to four millions, 561 ; refused a seat, 
 in the House, 567 ; pleads his right to sit, 568; refuses to take 
 the oath of supremacy, 569 ; writes a second address to the 
 electors, 569 ; the Times on his exclusion, 570 ; high spring of 
 action, 571 ; reception in Clare, 572; his tact, 573; and the 
 forty-shilling freeholders, 573 ; and Toby Glascock, 575 ; re- 
 election for Clare, 475 ; seeks rest, but cannot find it, 576 ; and 
 nccused Catholics of Doneraile, 576-578 ; a voracious eater, 577 ; 
 and the Beauforts of Waterford, 581, 582; letters to the people 
 
Index. 
 
 of Ireland, 583-585 ; nominated King of Belgium, 583 ; and 
 Montalembert, 583, 584 ; bis motto, 585 ; a power in the Eng- 
 lish Parliament, 585 ; O'Doherty and Lord Leveson Gower, 586 ; 
 587; and George IV. again, 591, and the Whigs, 592; arrest 
 of, 598 ; and the Hervey rioter, 602 ; his parliamentary arrivals, 
 603 ; his household brigade, 604 ; on the Whigs, 604 ; and the re- 
 porters, 605 ; moves for repeal, 606 ; at Westminster Abbey, 606, 
 607 ; at Canterbury, 607 ; on Westminster and St. Paul's, 608 ; 
 influence in the House, 611, 612 ; and the Melbourne Cabinet, 
 612 ; and Disraeli, 613-615 ; and Mr. Raphael, 616 ; at a banquet 
 at Tuam, 618 ; returned for Kilkenny, 628 ; makes a retreat, 629 ; 
 reception at Mount Melleray Abbey, 632 ;~and Mr. Villiers Stuart, 
 633 ; entertained in London, 639 ; speech on the occasion, 640 ; 
 refuses the Chief Baron's seat, 641 ; on the four wrongs of Ire- 
 land, 655 ; and the Tories, 656 ; proposes repeal, 660 ; founds 
 the Repeal Association, 678 ; in 1840 and 1843, 680 ; and his 
 beagles, 681 ; at Cork and Limerick, 681 ; his travelling com- 
 panions on Repeal, 682 ; at Ennis and Kilkenny, 682, 683; a 
 month's Repeal engagements, 683; at Mullingar, 683; might 
 have been king, 684 ; on the franchise in Ireland, 684 ; in Bel- 
 fast, 685 ; unseated at Dublin, 686 ; and steam, 687 ; elected 
 Lord Mayor, 687 ; first day in court, 688 ; and his official 
 chain, 688 ; defence against Lord Shrewsbury, 688-690 ; on the 
 threat of Peel, 692; at Tara, 693 ; at Mullaghmast, 694 ; fame 
 on the Continent, 694, 695 ; in Flugel's Dictionary, 695 ; and 
 the money market, 695 ; and the Society of Friends, 695, 696 ; 
 daily habits, 697 ; at Coventry, 698 ; member of the Order of 
 St. Joseph and Mary, 698 ; mysterious proclamation and coun- 
 ter-proclamation of a meeting at Clontarf, 705, 706 ; rumours 
 of an indictment — shows signs of fear, 760 ; dread of imprison- 
 ment, 707 ; indictment served, 707; address to the people of 
 Ireland, 708 ; and Joseph Sturge, 709 ; goes down to Darry- 
 nane, 709 ; returns to Dublin, 710 ; is escorted to the trial, 711 ; 
 at the bar, 715 ; in the House, 716 ; escorted to prison, 720 ; 
 in prison, 720-724 ; gives and refuses audiences, 729-731 ; 
 receives addresses, 731, 732 ; free, 733 ; concludes a novena, 
 737; ovation and rejoicings on his release, 735, 736; first 
 troubles of his old age, 736; and Mr. Porter, 739; and the 
 Papal brief, 740 ; grief for death of Davis, 747 ; at Cashel, 747 ; 
 
 17 
 
Index. 
 
 on the scientific famine commission, 747, 748 ; attacked in the 
 Times, 748 ; and the Duke of Cambridge's suggestion, 749 ; 
 leaves Ireland, 750 ; hears bad news from home, 750 ; seriously 
 ill, 751 ; in England, 752 ; goes through France, 753 ; his 
 appearance and condition at this period, 753, 754 ; public 
 sympathy, 754, 755 ; at Genoa, 755 ; his attendant, 756 ; last 
 days, 756-762 ; Montalembert's condolencies, 763 ; Dr. Miley's 
 account of, 763, 764 ; account of Times' correspondent, 764 ; 
 death, 765 ; the faithful round his bier, 766 ; his heart, 767 ; 
 funeral obsequies, 767, 768; funeral eloge, 769-771; remains 
 sent home, 771 ; MacCarthy's poem, 772-774. 
 
 O'Connell, Maurice, 47 ; at school, 51. 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, Count, 10-13, 54-58. 
 
 O'Connell, John, of Ashtown, 30. 
 
 O'Connell, John, son of the Liberator, 707, 712, 727, 751. 
 O'Connell, Morgan, family of, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18 ; and the Crelaghs, 
 38, 39, 
 
 O'Connell, Morgan, son of the Liberator, and D'Israeli, 614, 615. 
 O'Connell, uncle Maurice, 9 ; and his nephew's education, 50, 51 ; 
 
 and politics, 247. 
 O'Connell, Mrs., 265, 266, 382, 383. 
 O'Connor, Mr. Fergus, and the piper to pay, 604. 
 O'Connor, the schoolmaster, and Judge Finucane, 268, 269. 
 O'Gorman, Mr. Purcell, anecdotes of, 205, 206. 
 O'Grady, Father, anecdotes of, 43 ; capital charge against, 44. 
 O'Grady, Judge, anecdotes of, 205, 206. 
 O'Grady, Standish, at the play, 394. 
 O'Hagan, Mr. (now Lord), 713. 
 
 Orangemen, the origin, principles, and early outrages of, 172, 173, 
 313, 314, 316 ; the merely political existence of, 369 ; increase 
 and intolerance, 370, 371 ; O'Connell on the system, 375 ; on 
 the origin of the system, 376, 377 ; original oath, 378 ; charac- 
 ter of the Association, 379-381 ; came off with the lion's share, 
 478 ; patronised by Wellesley, 478 ; favourite toast, 478 ; denun- 
 ciation of the Pope and O'Connell, 479 ; and Wellesley, 479 ; 
 intimidation of Government, 480 ; intolerance of, 481 ; their 
 political ascendancy shaken, 541 ; impossible to tranquilize, 
 595. 
 
 Ostrich egg, the, laid in America, 100. 
 18 
 
Index. 
 
 Outrages, agrarian, the priests to blame, 444. 
 Owen, Robert, interview with O'Connell, 74. 
 
 Paine, Thomas, to the memory of, 160. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, on O'Connell, 505 ; on the Ennis gathering, 548 ; 
 on granting Emancipation, 587 ; on Wellington and the Catholic 
 question, 590. 
 
 Parliament, the Irish, its composition and interests, 117, 118 ; 
 
 address of, to the Prince of Wales, 150, 151 ; in articulo mortis, 
 
 152 ; a simulacrum merely, 212, 213. 
 Parsons and old Leonard, G82. 
 Parsons, Mr., his dislike to attorneys, 263, 2G4. 
 Peasantry, the, and the landlords, 370. 
 Pease, Joseph, and O'Connell, G96. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, Dr. Kenny, and the Jesuits, 429, 430, 432 ; 
 threatened duel with O'Connell, 447, 448; and his armed con- 
 stabulary, 449 ; on the Irish, G03 ; in office, G80 ; and Repeal, 
 692 ; fear of insurrection, 740, 741. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert (the present baronet), the Communists and the 
 Jesuits, 431. 
 
 Peers, the Irish Catholic, 270. 
 
 Pennefather, Baron, 576, 578. 
 
 Pennefather, Chief-Justice, 711, 712, 715, 718. 
 
 Perceval, Mr., and Catholic Association, 332, 342 ; O'Connell on, 
 335 ; policy, 336, 337 ; his curious line of argument, 337, 338 ; 
 assassination, 361, 362 ; O'Connell on the event, 366, 3G7. 
 
 Perrin, Judge, 712, 715, 718. 
 
 Philpotts, Henry, on the Clare election, 557, 558 ; suggests a wily 
 plan, 558. 
 
 Physician, the, and his unfortunate patients, 405. 
 
 Pitt, Mr., his Irish policy, 166, 167, 170; and the Union, 211 ; 
 and parties in Ireland, 213; and the masses in Ireland, 214; 
 one object of his policy, 214 ; and the upper classes in Ireland, 
 217 ; O'Connell's reminiscences of, 238 ; duplicity, 244. 
 
 Plunkett, Lord, and the kites, 261. 
 
 Plunkett, Mr., and the Union, 227, 228 ; and the Catholics, 460, 
 461 ; his bills criticized, 462-465 ; looking sore at heart, 
 489. 
 
 Pole, Wellesley, O'Connell on, 280, 281 ; attack on the Catholic 
 
 19 
 
Index. 
 
 Association, 331, 332 ; interference, 333 ; O'Connell on, 335, 
 336, 339. 
 Politicians, 589. 
 
 Politics and religion, xxvii., xxviii. 
 Pope, the authority of, xxviii. 
 Popery, official account of its main tenets, 428. 
 Portland, Duke of, his administration, 135 ; his concessions, 145, 
 146. 
 
 Power, Baron, suicide of, 392. 
 Press, the bribery of, 148, 149. 
 Protestants, the, and religious liberty, 132. 
 Purcell, the inexorable, 493. 
 
 Quarantotti's rescript, 426. 
 
 Question, the Education, xxx. ; the Regency, 149, 150. 
 Ray, Mr., 534. 
 
 Rebellion, the Irish, its nature and causes, 61-67; and the revolu- 
 tionary spirit, 69; a Protestant movement, 122 ; the embers of, 
 208. 
 
 Rent, the collecting, 495. 
 
 Repeal, movement for, 289 ; first agitation for, 592 ; and the upper 
 classes, 292; a national movement, 292, 293; and the trades' 
 corporation, 293 ; one bar to, 296, 297 ; petition for, 297, 299. 
 
 Repeal Association founded, first meeting, 678 ; discouraging com- 
 mencement, 679 ; success afterwards, 680 ; membership and 
 Volunteer card, 690, 691. 
 
 Representation, parliamentary, in Ireland, 127 ; in theory and in 
 fact, 540. 
 
 Rescript, the Papal and the Irish, 740. 
 
 Resolutions, the " witchery," 364 ; O'Connell's speech on the, 366- 
 368. 
 
 Review, Edinburgh, on the Catholic religion, 74 ; O'Connell on, 305 ; 
 
 on the Association, 504. 
 Review, Dublin, 641, 642, 646-648. 
 
 Revolution, the French and the Irish Rebellion, compared and con- 
 trasted, 61-67; O'Connell on, 73; anniversary of, 1791, 160. 
 Rinuccini, MS., the, on Kerry, 49. 
 Riots, the Gordon, 106. 
 20 
 
Index. 
 
 Riots, Anti-Tithe, and the military, 601 ; trial of rioters at Hervey, 
 602. 
 
 Rockingham, his administration, 91 ; and address to Prince of 
 
 Wales, 150, 151. 
 Roden, Lord, moves for a select committee, 657. 
 Rosse, Earl of, of the one idea, 362. 
 
 Russell, Lord, John, on the Western Powers, in 1703, 165 ; on the 
 
 trial of O'Connell, 717. 
 Ryan, the sergeant, and O'Connell, 631. 
 
 Sandwich, Lord, on the Americans, 93. 
 
 Saurin, Mr., and the Union, 227; and Mr. Scully, 406, 107; his 
 
 prosecution of Magee, and O'Connell's reply, 408-419. 
 Schools, Charter, their establishment and character, 33-35. 
 Schoolmasters, the hedge and itinerant, 35. 
 Scully, Mr., 406. 
 
 Shackleton, Mr., and his establishment, 191, 192. 
 Shane's Castle regulations, 112. 
 
 Sheares, the two, and their republican fervour, 68, 69 ; their 
 
 patriotism, 69 ; fatuity, 70. 
 Shelley on Emancipation, 348, 349. 
 Sheridan, C, letter of, 129. 
 Sheridan, Dr., 342, 343. 
 
 Shiel, attack on O'Connell, 459, 460; co-operation with O'Connell 
 in projecting the Catholic Association, 490; his caution, 492; 
 speech, 513, 514; his physique, eloquence, and appearance, 
 529 ; treasonable speech, 530 ; under a cloud for a time, 530 ; 
 a repealer, 530 ; at the Clare election, 553-555 ; and Lord 
 Althorpe, 606 ; "Richard's himself again," 710. 
 
 Shrewsbury, Lord, attack on O'Connell, 688. 
 
 Sidmouth, Lord, on O'Connell, 507. 
 
 Sirr, Major, and O'Connell, 177, 178 ; and anti-Union meeting in 
 
 the Dublin Exchange, 229, 230. 
 Society, the Precursor, 648. 
 
 Speech, the King's, for 1825, 499, 500 ; for 1829, and the sensation 
 
 it produced, 564, 565, 
 Spence, Patrick, case of, 315, 316. 
 " Squire, the Sham," 143, 144. 
 
 Standard, the, on the Pope, and his resort to prayer, 431. 
 
 21 
 
Index. 
 
 Stapylton, Dr., and the young O'Connells, 51. 
 Star, Brunswick, and O'Connell, 571. 
 Steam, and the Irish question, 687. 
 
 Steele, the head pacificator, 532, 533 ; goes down to Limerick with 
 
 white flag, 683 ; courts prosecution, 707. 
 Sfcurge, Joseph, approval of O'Connell, at the time of his indictment, 
 
 709. 
 
 Sully, maxim of, on national revolts, 67. 
 Suspected, list of the, 182. 
 
 Taea, Eepeal meeting at, 693. 
 Tenants, the Irish, xxiv., 217. 
 Thiers, M., O'Connell on, 73. 
 
 Times, the, on O'ConnelPs exclusion from the House, 570 ; and 
 
 O'Connell in 1829, 581, 582; attacks O'Connell, 748. 
 Tone, Wolfe, Shiel on, 530. 
 Took'e, J. Horne, 85. 
 
 Trade, Irish, jealousy of, 122, 123, 125 ; " Free or this," 126 ; with 
 colonies declared free, 126. 
 
 Travelling, in 1780, between Kerry and Dublin, 318. 
 
 Traversers, the indictment of, 709 ; sketches of, 712, 715 ; escorted 
 to prison, 719 ; in prison, 720-724, 726, 728. 
 
 Trials, the monster, special jury at, 709, 710 ; commencement, 710 ; 
 the judges, the Traversers, and the counsel, 711-715 ; conclusion 
 and verdict, 715, 716; sensation at the result, 716; the sentence, 
 718, 719; judgment reversed, 733; the arrival of the news in 
 Dublin, 733. 
 
 Union, the, formally declared, 211 ; supposed advantages of, 214, 
 215 ; and the clergy, 220 ; facilities for effecting, 223 ; Lord de 
 Clifford on, 223 ; and the bar, 226, 228; A. Young on its pro- 
 bable effects, 235 ; O'Connell on, 239, 294-297, 353 ; social 
 effects of, 289-291 ; how secured, 291, 294 ; after ten years, 
 293 ; its real cause, 295 ; deceitful nature, 295, 296. 
 
 Vandaleuk, Mr., and his tenants, 552. 
 Vendee, La, during the Kevolution, 65, 66. 
 Ventura, Father, eloge on O'Connell, 769-771. 
 Veto, the object in pressing, 276 ; the Irish bishops, and, 277 ; 
 22 
 
Index. 
 
 English Catholics and, 277, 278 ; O'Connell on, 278-280, 371, 
 372 ; resolutions of the bishops on, 299, 300 ; its one object, 
 301. 
 
 Volunteers, the, in Belfast and the Government, 124, 129, 130 ; 
 spirited resolutions of, 131, 132 ; feared by Government, 146, 
 147; suppressed, 147; uniforms of, 176. 
 
 Wales, Prince of, address to, of Irish Parliament, 150 ; of the 
 Catholics, 334 ; supplanted by Pitt, 335 ; Catholic faith in, 362 ; 
 O'Connell's opinion of, 362 ; Fox and, 363 ; Moore on, 363. 
 (See George IV.) 
 
 Warren, Sir Peter, on the Americans, 93. 
 
 Washington, on the colonists, 95. 
 
 Waterford, the election, and its effects, 510, 541 ; Lord and his 
 
 huntsman, 541. 
 Watson trial, the, and tbe English jury, 449, 450. 
 Wedderburn, 93. 
 
 Wellesley, Marquis, O'Connell on, 281, 324 ; appointed Viceroy, 
 477 ; professed friend of the Catholics, patron of the Orangemen, 
 478 ; his marriage, 478 ; and the Beefsteak Club, 479, 480 ; 
 his life threatened, 480. (See Wellington). 
 
 Wellington, regulations for general officers in Ireland. 351, 352; 
 and Dr. Doyle, 528 ; on the Catholic troops, 556, 557 ; his letter 
 to Dr. Curtis, 562, 563, 564 ; alleged policy, 564 ; on Catholic 
 Emancipation, 587, 588. 
 
 Westminster, Canterbury, and St. Paul's, 606-608. 
 
 Westmoreland, 11 the profligate and unprincipled," 414, 415. 
 
 William III. and his milliner, 369. 
 
 William IV. and his anti-Irish fervour, 604. 
 
 Wilson, Professor, charge against O'Connell, 629. 
 
 York, Duke of, his " so-help-me-God" speech, 499, 500. 
 
 THE END. 
 
THE LIBERATOR: 
 
 j"flS j^lFE AND "J^ I yVl 
 
 E3 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 LIBERATOR: 
 
 HIS 
 
 Ai\ T D T IMES, 
 
 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL. 
 
 BY 
 
 M. F. CUSACK, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE 81 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF IRELAND," BTC. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 KENMAKE PUBLICATIONS. 
 
KENMARE PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 APPROBATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE RIGHT REV. DR. MORI ARTY, BISHOP OF KERRY. 
 
 " THK l\\LACE, K.ILLARXEY. 
 
 u My Dear Sister in* Cimisr — I learn that you are issuing 
 some ue\v works, and some new editions of those already published : 
 your literary labours reflect honour on your Convent, on your Order, 
 and on this Diocese. 
 
 i( But I rejoice much more in this, that you are contributing to 
 snpply one of our greatest needs — a Catholic Literature. I know, 
 too, that the funds realised by the sale of your works are exclusively 
 devoted to the service of religion. 
 
 •'Praying God to bless you, and to preserve your health and 
 strength, yours sincerely in Christ, 
 
 " * D. MORIARTY. 
 
 " To Sister If. Francis Clare, 
 
 11 Convent of Poor Clares, Kenmare, Co. Kerry." 
 
 THE AGGREGATE SALE OF THE KENMARE PUBLICATIONS 
 
 WITHIN THE LAST TEN YEARS HAS BEEN OVER 
 
 TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND. 
 
 A Complete Catalogue of the Kenmare Publications can be had from the 
 Clerk, Kenmare Publication Office, Kenmare, Co Kerry, Ireland, from 
 u-hom also any of the above works can be ordered. 
 
TRANSLATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE APOSTOLIC LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS 
 PIUS IX. TO SISTER M. FRANCIS CLARE. 
 
 " To our Beloved Daughter, in Christ, Mary Francis Clare, 
 of the Sisters of Saint Clare, Kenmare. 
 
 " Beloved Daughter in Christ, Health and Apostolic Bene- 
 diction. — We congratulate you, beloved daughter in Christ, on 
 having completed a long and difficult work which seemed to be 
 above woman's strength, with a success that has justly earned 
 the applause of the pious and the learned. We rejoice, not 
 only because you have promoted by this learned and eloquent 
 volume the glory of the illustrious Apostle of Ireland, St. 
 Patrick, but also because you have deserved well of the whole 
 Church ; for in recording the actions of so great a man you 
 have placed before the eyes of the world the benefits received 
 through the Catholic religion so clearly, that they can no longer 
 be questioned. For not only did he bring the light of faith to 
 a people that sat in darkness and the shadow of death, but he 
 reclaimed and civilised their wild and barbarous customs, so 
 that the island became entirely changed, and was justly styled 
 the Island of Saints. The clergy appointed by him throughout 
 the land, together with being remarkable for faith and piety, 
 devoted themselves also to the study and advancement of 
 science. And when the rest of Europe was wasted by bar- 
 barous hordes, and overpowered with ignorance and darkness, 
 your country was the sure refuge of literature and scholarship, 
 and received with welcome the youth that crowded to her 
 shores, and sent out very many men, most distinguished for 
 learning and piety, to be the apostles of various nations. Now, 
 for so great a gift, Ireland was indebted to this Apostolic See, 
 
because St. Patrick taught no other faith except that which 
 was handed down here ; and which, from the very beginning of 
 Christianity, having raised up the nations that were enslaved 
 by superstitions and error, and sunk down in the foul mire of 
 sensual indulgence, bound them together in love, and reduced 
 them to those habits of life which are worthy of man's dignity. 
 While these facts refute most clearly the false charges of 
 ignorance, darkness, and opposition to progress which are not 
 unfrequently brought against the Church and this Holy See, 
 the 'Life of St. Patrick,' as written so carefully by you, has 
 the further merit of pointing out this benefit to every one, and 
 the more forcibly and effectively because this result flows 
 naturally from the narrative. But as we look with wonder at 
 the abiding fruits of this most holy prelate's mission, evidenced 
 by the constancy of your nation in the faith, never shaken by 
 persecution, violence, fraud, or affliction, for so many ages, we 
 have every ground to trust that this most pious people will be 
 still more encouraged to tread in the footsteps of their ancestors, 
 by having placed before them anew the memory of former 
 glorious deeds. We certainly augur this successful issue from 
 your labour ; and at the same time we impart to you and to 
 your Sisters, most lovingly, the Apostolic Benediction, as an 
 earnest of God's favour and a p'edge of Our good will. 
 
 " Given at Rome, at St. Peter's the 6th October, 1870,. 
 the Twenty-Fifth year of Our Pontificate. 
 
 "PIUS P.P. IX." 
 
 The Latin original of this letter can be seen at the Convent of Poor Clares, 
 Kenmare, Co. Ktrri/, Ireland. 
 
J^ist of Jllustf\ations 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 Frontispiece— O'Connell's last look at the Irish Shore, 750 
 o'connell at tara, ....... 357 
 
 O'Connell's Address from the balcony in Merrion-square, 423 
 
 Duel between D'Esterre and O'Connell, . . . 441 
 
 O'Connell's Statue in Limerick, . . . . . 453 
 
 O'Connell leaving Kingstown . . . . .486 
 
 Portrait of Dr. MacHale, . . . . . .518 
 
 The Triumphal Car, . - . . . . . .538 
 
 O'Connell in Henry VII.'s Chapel, . . . . 582 
 
 Mount Melleray Abbey, ....... 632 
 
 O'Connell at St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, . . . 669 
 
 State Trials — The Lord Chancellor giving Judgment, . 717 
 
 Dinner Party in Jail — " The Rising of the Nation." . 726 
 
 O'Connell's Release from Jail — Triumphal Car passing 
 
 the Bank, . . . . . . . . 735 
 
 Monument to O'Connell in Rome, ..... 772 
 
 Memorial Tower in Glasneyin Cemetery, . . . 774 
 
PONTENTS, 
 
 J 
 
 vol. n. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXPOSURES OF PUBLIC MEASURES AND PUBLIC MEN. 1812-1818. 
 
 English Administration of Irish affairs — Party Rule — pages. 
 No-Popery cry — Assassination of Mr. Perceval — The 
 Prince of Wales — The Witchery Resolutions — Speech 
 — The Orange Faction — The Landlords and the 
 Tenantry — Effective Speech — Denunciation of Orange - 
 ism— A National Debt — Style of Speech — At his 
 Zenith — As a Raconteur — Anecdotes of Jerry Keller 
 and Lord Clare — Parson Hawkesworth — Administra- 
 tion of Justice — The Dublin Eveniny Post — At Home 
 — Letter to Landor — Trial of John Magee — The Pro- 
 secution and Prosecutor — The Reply, . . 357-419 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COURAGE AND PATRIOTISM. 1813-1819. 
 
 The English Catholics— The Duke of Norfolk and Dr. 
 Milner — Castle Browne and the Jesuits — Peel and Dr. 
 Kenny — Public Honours — Duelling and Duellists — 
 The Irish Catholic Aristocracy — D'Esterre, his Chal- 
 lenge and Fatal Duel — Agrarian Outrages — Rev. John 
 Hamilton, his Plots and Tools — Affair of Honour with 
 Peel— Peel's Gift to Ireland, . . . 423^450 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LOYALTY TO GOD AND THE KING. 1820-1822. 
 
 Panegyric on Grattan — Outrage at Kilmainham — Harcourt 
 Lees — "Pastoral Letter" for 1821 — First Appear- 
 
vi 
 
 Contents. 
 
 ance of Shiel — Mr. Plunket — Analysis of Mr. Plunket's 
 Bills — Spiritual Functions and Freedom of the Clergy 
 — Protestant Bigotry — George IV. and Queen Caro- 
 line — Royal Visit to Ireland — Loyal Reception at 
 Dublin — The Irish People — Presentation of O'Connell 
 at Court — Irony of Lord Byron — Wellesley and his 
 Irish Policy — Orange Orgies — The Beefsteak Club in- 
 terfered with, and its Revenge — Wellesley and the 
 Orangemen — A Catholic Triumph, . . . 453-482 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION ITS FORMATION AND DEFENCE.' 1822-1827. 
 
 Flood and Connor — Cross-examination of Flood — Plunket 
 and Hart — Formation of Catholic Association — 
 Priests and People brought into Action — First Meet- 
 ing — The Inexorable Parcell — The Penny-a-month 
 Scheme for Liberating Ireland — Grand Aggregate 
 Meeting — The Conversion Mania— The Pope and 
 Maguire Controversy — Abortive Prosecution of O'Con- 
 nell— The Duke of York's " So-help-me-God " 
 Speech — The King's Speech and the Association — 
 Lords Liverpool and Brougham — O'Connell in Lon- 
 don — Lords Palmerston and 'Eldon — The Ladies — 
 O'Connell's Popularity — Aims of the Association — 
 Another Challenge — Shiel — Canning, . . 485-514 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 O'CONNELL AND THE CATHOLIC HIERARCHY. 1827-1835. 
 
 Commencement of Correspondence with Dr. MacHale — 
 Priestly Co-operation — A New Era — Sketch of Dr. 
 MacHale's Life— Sketch of Dr. Doyle's Life— His 
 "Vindication of Catholics" — Dr. Doyle and the 
 Lord's Committee — Honest Jack Lawless — Henry 
 Grattan — Mr. 'Gorman Mahon — Scene in the 
 " House "—Steele— Mr. Barrett— Mr, Ray, . . 517-534 
 
Contents. 
 
 vii 
 
 CHAPTER XIH. 
 
 KING DAN. 1825-1829. 
 
 England's answer to Ireland's Cry for Justice — Decline 
 since the days of Henry YIH. — Ireland a Necessity 
 for England — A Catholic Triumph — Address to the 
 Catholics of Clare — Excitement and Agitation — Con- 
 sternation in England — Monster Meeting at Ennis — 
 Scene at the Hustings, the Sheriff and O'Gorman 
 Mahon — The Voting Day — Mr. Vandaleur and his 
 Tenants — Return of O'Connell — Speech of Shiel — 
 The Chairing — Excitement in England — The Bishops 
 and Priests — Official Irritation — King Dan — The 
 Leinster Declaration — Letter of Wellington — The 
 Emancipation Bill Passed — O'Connell's Right to a 
 Seat Disputed — At the Bar of the House — Re-Elec- 
 tion—Smith O'Brien— Enthusiasm, . . . 537-578 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 1829-1889. 
 
 The Waterford Election — Montalembert and O'Connell — 
 Letters to the People of Ireland — Lord Leveson 
 Gower — Palmerston and Wellington — History and 
 Politics — The Emancipation Act not followed by the 
 Millennium — Exasperation of the Orangemen and 
 Distress among the Peasantry — Temporary Arrest of 
 O'Connell— Letter to Dr. MacHale— Anti-Tithe Riots 
 — In Parliament — Lord Althorpe and Shiel — O'Con- 
 nell's Motion for Repeal — Cathedrals — Letter — Mel- 
 bourne and O'Connell — Disraeli and the O'Connells — - 
 Letter — Lyndhurst's Attack on the Irish — Banquets — 
 Speech of Dr. MacHale — Letter — O'Connell under- 
 takes a Retreat — Reception at the Abbey — Letters — 
 Entertained in London — Defies the House — Letters, . 581-666 
 
viii 
 
 Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 AGITATION FOE REPEAL. 1839-1843. 
 
 The Repeal Movement Projected — Correspondence, ex- 
 plaining Ideas and Plans with Dr. MacHale — Repeal 
 Association formed — Discouraging Start — Repeal 
 Meetings in the South and North — General Election, 
 O'Connell Unseated — Elected Lord Mayor of Dublin 
 ■ — Attacked by Shrewsbury — The Repeal Year, par 
 excellence — The Association, Terms of Membership 
 and Card — Peel and Repeal — Monster Meetings at 
 Ennis and Mullaghmast — European Fame— O'Connell 
 and the Society of Friends— Letters to Dr. MacHale, 669-702 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE CLOSING SHADOWS AND THE END. 1843-1817. 
 
 Clontarf — Excitement in Dublin — Indictment of O'Con- 
 nell — Sensation — Forebodings — Address to the 
 People — Condolences — Joseph Sturge — The Trial — 
 Notices of the Judges, the Traversers, and the counsel 
 in the Case — Charge of the Chief-Justice — The Ver- 
 dict — O'Connell in the House — Excitement over the 
 Country — The Sentence — Incarceration — First Day of 
 Imprisonment — Respect shown the Prisoners — Dinner 
 Parties and Bon-Mots — MacCarthy's Poem — Gives 
 and Refuses Audiences — Reversal of Judgment and 
 Liberation — Ovation — Home- Shadows — The Young 
 Irelanders — Rescript from Rome — The Famine — Bids 
 Farewell to Ireland — Hopes to Die at Rome — Diary 
 of his Servant — Montalembert's Condolence — Last 
 Hours — Death in Peace — The Faithful round the Bier 
 — Funeral Obsequies and Eloge — " The Dead Tri- 
 bune," .... . 705-774 
 
EXPOSURES OF PUBLIC MEASURES AND 
 PUBLIC MEN. 
 
 1812—1815. 
 
 English Administration of Irish Affairs: Party 
 Rule: No-Popery Cry: Assassination of Mr, 
 Perceval: The Prince of Wales: The Witchery 
 Resolutions: Speech: The Orange Faction: The 
 Landlords and the Tenantry: Effective Speech: 
 Denunciation of Orangeism: A National Debt: 
 Style of Speech: At his Zenith: As a Racon- 
 teur: Anecdotes of Jerry Keller and Lord 
 Clare: Parson Hawkesworth : Administration of 
 Justice: The Dublin Evening Post: At Home: 
 Letter to Landor: Trial of John Magee : The 
 Prosecution and the Prosecutor: The Reply. 
 
 vol. n. 
 
 1 
 
REL A N D always was, 
 and we suppose always 
 will be the grand battle- 
 ground of English admi- 
 nistrations. If Ireland 
 shall ever become politically an 
 integral portion of the British Empire, if a 
 time shall ever arrive when there will be 
 no Irish question, honourable members in 
 Opposition would be surely at a loss to 
 find another happy hunting-ground for poli- 
 tical grievances. Such a state of things 
 would be only regretted by those who, 
 consciously or unconsciously bring forward 
 Irish grievances for political purposes. In 
 England a change of Ministry makes but little diffe- 
 rence to the vast multitude of the population. Now 
 
358 
 
 Political Anomalies. 
 
 and then a great national interest stirs up the sluggish 
 blood of the miner or the farm labourer, the comfort- 
 able husbandman, or the thriving village shopkeeper ; 
 but unless some such question as war or Corn-laws 
 arises, the classes who form the mass of the people 
 trouble themselves very little about political changes. 
 
 John Wilson Croker, who wrote of the state of 
 Ireland in 1807, said " that Ireland had a quicksand 
 Government, which swallowed in its fluctuations 
 every venture at reform. In seven years we have 
 had five chief governors and eight chief secretaries 
 of different principles and parties, each shifting the 
 abortive system of his predecessor by a system 
 equally abortive. " 
 
 It is only in politics that such anomalies exist. If 
 they were attempted in physical science, the common 
 sense of mankind would rise up and denounce the 
 absurdity, and the victims of it would receive the 
 sincerest commiseration. But the absurdity of this 
 mode of government seems not to have been recog- 
 nised, at least it has not been recognised practically. 
 The process is, however, going on even at the present 
 day with every appearance of being a perennial in- 
 stitution. The Whig and the Tory, the Liberal and 
 the Conservative, has each his own theory of govern- 
 ment. In England there is no opportunity for 
 exceptional practice or for interesting experiments. 
 Ireland affords ample subject for any amount of 
 political diagnosis. The patient may struggle now 
 and then to free himself from the hands of his wise 
 
Talking and Acting. 
 
 859 
 
 physicians, but his struggles are not rewarded with 
 success ; expatriation is his only remedy, and that 
 remedy is sought with an avidity which shows the 
 terrible nature of the disease. 
 
 In England when a Whig Prime Minister goes 
 out and a Tory comes in, there is a good deal of 
 what the Yankee would denominate " tall talk ;" in 
 in Ireland, there is a good deal of unpleasant action. 
 
 As long as men confine themselves to talking 
 politics, very little harm is done ; when they come 
 to act them, the results are very different. In Ireland 
 the Whig going out means Orange ascendency ; the 
 Whig coming in means that the new Prime Minister 
 will, as far as he dare, or as far as he is disposed, do 
 some justice to the vast majority of the nation. The 
 Orangeman who curses the Pope in Belfast will be 
 fined a little more rigorously, and some popular 
 Catholic lawyer will get a seat on the bench ; some 
 respectable Catholic country gentleman will have the 
 honour of adding J. P. to his name. Once in a 
 century some real justice will be done to Catholics. 
 There will be Emancipation, or there will be the re- 
 moval of a Church, which few Irishmen believe to be 
 divine, and for which few, indeed, would care to sacri- 
 fice a year's income, much less their lives. The in- 
 terests of the Whig minister are not Irish ; he does 
 just as much as is necessary to satisfy his conscience, 
 if he has one ; or to promote his interests, if he has 
 not one. It is dangerous ground. He has, above 
 all things, to fear opposition — opposition needs a 
 
3(30 
 
 Ignorance of Irish Affairs. 
 
 fulcrum for its lever— Irish politics. The Tory ap- 
 peals to the "sense of the country," the unhappy 
 minister is described as a Jesuit in disguise or at 
 least having Papistical tendencies. The general body 
 of English statesmen do not understand Irish politics, 
 and know as much about the state of Ireland as they 
 do about Timbuctoo ; but they do understand, or 
 which is quite the same thing, they fancy they under- 
 stand a No -Popery cry. 
 
 Formerly the No-Popery cry was got up violent^. 
 The Irish were all Papists, or nearly all, and their 
 one object in life was to massacre the heretic; to kill 
 the poor, innocent, inoffensive Orangemen, who only 
 banded together for their own support. The English- 
 men who knew nothing of Irish history, and who 
 believed the Irish to be a nation of barbarians, quite 
 believed this. They never heard of any Orange cruel- 
 ties, of any Protestant massacres ; they knew nothing 
 of violated treaties, or the details of penal laws. 
 
 By-and-by the tradition became weakened. 
 Englishmen had more intercourse with Ireland and 
 with those Papists. They came to know that they 
 were not quite so bad as they had traditionally be- 
 lieved for so many centuries. Still the old prejudice 
 remained. There is nothing more difficult to eradi- 
 cate than prejudice. There were, there is, a certain 
 class always ready to take up a No-Popery cry, but 
 now it must be put in rather a different form. It 
 answers the purpose, however, equally well. The 
 Opposition who wish to get in are not very scrupulous 
 
Assassination of Mr. Perceval. 
 
 301 
 
 about the means. They do get in, and, behold, a 
 new policy for Ireland. 
 
 The Orangemen who have supported them must 
 be rewarded ; the Papist must be " put down." He 
 has been endured too long, pampered and petted by 
 the infatuated policy of the last party in office, and 
 lie will now be made to feel that he is an inferior 
 being ; one who is only tolerated, and who should 
 be extremely thankful for toleration. What right 
 has he, indeed, to expect favours ? And with this 
 class of politicians, justice, where a Catholic is con- 
 cerned, is believed to be a favour. 
 
 Thus, by this perpetual change of policy a con- 
 tinual bitterness is kept up ; each party expects his 
 turn, when he hopes to triumph over the opposite 
 party. It would be better, and more worthy of the 
 so-called enlightened nineteenth century, if the 
 balance of government was so equal, that whoever 
 might predominate for the moment might feel it more 
 than unwise to make that predominance an excuse 
 for tyranny. 
 
 On the 11th of May, 1812, Mr. Perceval was 
 assassinated by Bellingham in the lobby of the House 
 of Commons. The blow was so sudden, so unex- 
 pected, so entirely unlooked for, and apart from any 
 kind of probability, that the nation was stunned with 
 horror. There were, indeed, some who thought that 
 England had been "cursed by his sway," but they 
 were few. Ireland, certainly, had no reason to bless 
 his memory. 
 
302 
 
 The Prince of Wales. 
 
 There was consternation in political circles, and 
 there was confusion also. One brilliant statesman, 
 haunted by the pre-Newdegate phantom of an ima- 
 ginary Popish plot, declared that it was all the fault 
 of the Catholics. "You see, my lords," exclaimed 
 the sapient Earl of Eosse — " you see, my lords, the 
 consequences of agitating the question of Catholic 
 Emancipation." A man with one idea is generally a 
 fool. If there had been an exceptionally high tide, 
 he would have attributed any damage it might have 
 done to the Papists also. 
 
 The Irish Catholics had lon^ trusted the Prince 
 of Wales. They believed the solemn promises he 
 had made that he would at least consider their claims 
 when he came into power. Even when he did obtain 
 all but the name of king, when the poor old monarch 
 was wandering dreamily through his palaces in hope- 
 less idiotcy, and the young prince ruled ; they be- 
 lieved with the utter trustingness of their Celtic 
 nature, that he was only kept from fulfilling his 
 promises by evil counsellors — by this Perceval 
 especially, who was now gone to his account. They 
 were soon undeceived. O'Connell may have had 
 some hope, but he was one of the first to discover his 
 real character. 
 
 " I believe," said O'Connell, i( there never was a greater 
 scoundrel than that prince. To his other evil qualities, he 
 added a perfect disregard for truth. During his connexion with 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert, Charles James Fox dined with him one day 
 in that lady's company. After dinner, Mrs. Fitzherbert said, 
 ' By-the-by, Mr. Fox, I had almost forgotten to ask you what 
 
The Greatest Liar in England. 
 
 CC3 
 
 you did say about me iu the House of Couimous the other 
 night? The newspapers misrepresent so very strangely that 
 one cannot depend on them. You were made to say that the 
 prince authorised you to deny his marriage with me.' The 
 prince made monitory grimaces at Fox, and immediately said, 
 * Upon my honour, my dear, I never authorised him to deny it.' 
 ' Upon my honour, sir, you did,' said Fox, rising from the 
 table. ' I had always thought your father the greatest liar in 
 England — but now see that you are.' " 
 
 Moore said of him, " I am sure the powder in his 
 Koval Highness' hair is much more settled than anv- 
 thing in his head or in his heart." 
 
 It was of him also that Moore wrote one of his 
 touching melodies, a melody which is sung by many 
 who have little idea of its political origin : 
 
 41 1 saw thee change — yet still relied ; 
 Still clung with hope the fonder ; 
 And thought, though false to all heside, 
 From me thou wouldst not wander. 
 But go, deceiver! go— 
 
 The heart whose hope could make it 
 Trust one so false, so low, 
 
 Deserves that thou shouldst hreak it." 
 
 A meeting was held on the 18th June, 1812, at 
 Fishamble Street Theatre — Lord Fingal in the chair — 
 at which Mr. Hussey gave an account of the pro- 
 ceedings of the gentlemen who had been sent to 
 London on the part of the Catholics. 
 
 " He stated, that on applying for a personal interview with 
 his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, they received a blunt 
 refusal, and were informed by Mr. Secretary Ryder, that the 
 address to his Highness, with which they were charged, should 
 be presented at one of his public levees 1 in the usual way.' 
 
364 
 
 The " Witchery" Resolutions. 
 
 " Every artifice," continued Mr. Hussey, "every hostility 
 was used by the administration and its adherents against the 
 Catholic petition to Parliament. The same cry was raised 
 which gave them in England the value of popxdarity at their 
 outset; and in every street ive ivere met by placards from 
 various debating societies, that the question to be argued was, 
 would not the emancipating of the Catholics be attended with 
 worse consequences than the naturalisation of the Jews ? 
 Publications, ivhich had laid dormant for hundreds of years, 
 w ere dragged from their obscurity, and circulated with an 
 anxiety and industry heretofore unknown ; every calumny 
 that coidd be thrown against our tenets, everything against 
 our priesthood, every libel, and every lie, were marshalled 
 against us /" 
 
 The famous " witchery" resolutions were passed 
 at this meeting. The resolutions obtained this name 
 from the very plain allusion contained in the first 
 resolution to the witchery which was exercised by 
 Lady Hertford in her guilty intrigues with the Prince 
 Eegent. 
 
 The 4th, 5th, and 6th resolutions were the most 
 important : 
 
 " 4. That from authentic documents now before us, we 
 learn, with deep disappointment and anguish, how cruelly the 
 promised boon of Catholic freedom has been intercepted by the 
 fatal tvitchery of an unworthy secret influence, hostile to our 
 fairest hopes, spurning alike the sanctions of public and private 
 virtue, the demands of personal gratitude, and the sacred 
 obligations of plighted honour. 
 
 "5. That to this impure source we trace, but too distinctly, 
 our afflicted hopes and protracted servitude, the arrogant in- 
 vasion of the undoubted right of petitioning, the acrimony of 
 illegal state prosecutions, the surrender of Ireland to prolonged 
 oppression and insult, and the many experiments, equally pitiful 
 
The Irish Papists Oath. 
 
 365 
 
 and perilous, recently practised upon the habitual passiveness 
 of an ill-treated, but high-spirited people. 
 
 " 6. That cheerless, indeed, would be our prospects, and 
 faint our hopes of success, were they to rest upon the constancy 
 of courtiers, or the pompous patronage of men, who can coldly 
 sacrifice the feelings and interest of millions at the shrine of 
 perishable power ; or, deluded by the blandishments of too 
 luxurious a court, can hazard the safety of a people for ill-timed 
 courtly compliment. The pageants of a court command not 
 our respect ; out great cause rests upon the immutable founda- 
 tions of truth, and justice, and reason. Equal constitutional 
 rights, unconditional, unstipulated, unpurchased by dishonour, 
 are objects dear to our hearts. They consist with wisdom, 
 virtue, humanity, true religion, and unaffected honour; and 
 can never be abandoned by men who deserve to be free." 
 
 O'Connell surpassed himself in eloquence when 
 passing these resolutions. He commenced by a clear 
 statement of the various pledges which had been 
 made by the Prince Regent at different times to assist 
 the Catholics. There was no need to show that 
 those pledges had been recklessly violated one and 
 all. The Irish Papist would not be believed even 
 on his oath. If he was permitted to take an oath, he 
 was generally obliged to swear that what he swore 
 was true. There are some phases in the English 
 political government of Ireland which might reconcile 
 the Irishman to this insult to his faith and his 
 honesty. Perhaps those Englishmen who found it 
 so difficult to believe an Irish oath were little in- 
 fluenced by the knowledge of their own reckless dis- 
 regard of their solemn pledges. After all, they could 
 only be expected to judge others by themselves. 
 
806 
 
 Murder no crime. 
 
 Of the pledges made to Lord Kenmare, Lord 
 Petre, and Lord Clifden, through the Duke of 
 Bedford and Mr. Ponsonby, we need not speak. 
 These pledges were left in the pawn-office of English 
 honour, and men of principle were found at last to 
 redeem them. 
 
 The conclusion of O'Conneli's speech is more im- 
 portant, for it might have been made in our own day 
 with painful justice : 
 
 " We may still hope. Hope, the last refuge of the wretched, 
 is left us ; and we lately indulged it almost with the pleasures 
 of certainty. A crime, the horrid crime of causeless assassina- 
 tion, had deprived England of her Prime Minister — for, my 
 Lord, everywhere but in Ireland assassination is admitted to be 
 a crime. Here, also, it depends on circumstances ; you have 
 but to combine these circumstances. Let the victim be an 
 Irish Papist, let the murderer be an Orangeman, and let a legal 
 junta administer the government in the name of the Duke of 
 Eichmond ; it requires no more to turn murder into merit ! 
 
 " The process in England is different. There they hanged 
 and dissected the murderer, and transferred the advantages of 
 the crime, if I may so express myself, to the victim ; it really 
 and truly has been considered a merit in Mr. Perceval to have 
 been murdered. The public men in England seem to think 
 his death constituted not only an expiation for all his political 
 sins, but turned his offences against his country into virtues. 
 
 " For my part, I feel unaffected horror at his fate, and all 
 trace of resentment for his crimes is obliterated. But I do not 
 forget that he was a narrow-minded bigot, a paltry statesman, 
 and a bad minister — that every species of public corruption and 
 profligacy had in him a flippant and pert advocate — that every 
 advance towards reform or economy had in him a decided 
 enemy — and that the liberties of the people were an object of 
 his derision. 
 
3G7 
 
 " All this has not been changed by the hand of this assassin ; 
 yet I do, from my heart, participate in the grief and anguish 
 which his premature fall must have excited within his domestic 
 circle. The sorrows of his family have been obtruded on the 
 public by ill-judging party writers, with something like osten- 
 tatious affection ; but I do not love the man — nay, I hate the 
 man — who could contemplate, coldly and unmoved, the affecting 
 spectacle of the wife and children standing in speechless agony 
 round the lifeless body of the murdered husband and father ; it 
 was a scene to make a stoic weep. 
 
 ; " But are all our feelings to be exhausted by the great ? Is 
 there no compassion for the wretched Irish widow, who lost her 
 boy — her hope, her support ? I shall never forget the pathetic 
 and Irish simplicity with which she told her tale of woe — ' My 
 child was but seventeen ; he left me on Sunday morning quite 
 well, and very merry, and he came home a corpse.' Are her 
 feelings to be despised and trampled on ? Is the murderer of 
 her son to remain unpunished, perhaps to be rewarded ? Oh 
 yes ; for Etyrne was a Papist, and the assassin, Hall, was an 
 Orangeman, nay, a purple marksman ; and recollect, that his 
 Grace the Duke of Eichmond did not pardon him until after a 
 most fair and patient trial. Hall was defended by his counsel 
 and attorney ; he was tried by a jury of his own selection ; I 
 say of his own selection — because he exhausted but few of 
 his peremptory challenges ; nobody, indeed, would think of 
 accusing honest Sheriff James of packing a jury against an 
 Orangeman. Even had the list been previously submitted to 
 the Secretary at the Castle, he would not have altered a single 
 . name ; Sir Charles Saxton might have reviewed it with perfect 
 safety to the prisoner. 
 
 " After a patient trial, and a full defence, Hall was con- 
 victed; he was convicted before a judge certainly not un- 
 favourable to the prisoner ; he was convicted of having murdered, 
 with the arms entrusted to him for the defence of the public 
 peace, and in the public streets of your city, and in the open day, 
 an innocent and unoffending youth. He has been pardoned 
 
368 
 
 An "Indifferent" Betrayer. 
 
 and set at large—perhaps he has been rewarded : but can this 
 be done with impunity ? Is there no vengeance for the blood 
 of the widow's son? Alas! I am not, I trust, inclined to 
 superstition, yet it obtruded itself on my mind, that the head 
 of the Government which had allowed the blood of Byrne to 
 flow unrequited, might have vindicated the notion of a provi- 
 dential visitation for the unpunished crime." 1 
 
 O'Connell then spoke, " not in anger, but in the 
 deepest sorrow," of Lord Moira. He, too, was one 
 of the many whom the Irish had trusted, and by 
 whom they were betrayed. It is true, indeed, that 
 his betrayal was not a betrayal of treachery, it was a 
 betrayal of indifference, but the effect was much the 
 same. 
 
 There was little to hope for from the new minis- 
 try, especially as Lord Wellesley had refused office 
 because it was distinctly avowed that nothing would 
 be done for Catholics. The Orange faction were 
 now ascendent and triumphant, and as they never 
 " bore their honours meekly," the worst results en- 
 sued for the peace of unhappy Ireland. 
 
 O'Connell declared again and again, his desire to 
 work cordially with Irish Protestants. He was the 
 first to make public acknowledgment, in the very 
 warmest language, for any assistance he might obtain 
 
 1 In a letter from the Princess Elizabeth to the Hon. Mrs. Scott, 
 speaking of the murder of Mr. Perceval, she says — "It is impossible 
 not to shrink with horror when one thinks of an Englishman com- 
 mitting murder." Poor Princess ! how little she knew of the real 
 history of her own time ! — Life of Lord Eldon, vol. ii. p. 204. 
 
Crime Exaggerated. 
 
 3G9 
 
 from them, and lie had good reason to do so. There 
 were many Irish Protestants who worked with him 
 cordially ; and if he denounced the Orange faction in 
 no measured words, it was because they were a 
 faction — not because they were Protestants. 
 
 If religion had not been used as a political engine 
 by English statesmen, their factious bitterness would 
 soon have died out/' 1 
 
 It was necessary also at this time to get up a 
 strong anti-Irish feeling in England, and the task was 
 by no means difficult. Men were driven to the verge 
 of desperation — in truth to desperation — by being de- 
 prived of the most ordinary means of procuring the 
 necessaries of life. These men did commit outrages, 
 did commit murder ; and every outrage was magni- 
 fied, as it passed through the manipulation of those 
 who were interested in manipulating it ; and every 
 murder was represented as the most deadly, the most 
 treacherous, and the most diabolical of crimes. From 
 the way in which Irish agrarian murders were — shall 
 we say are ? — spoken of, it might be supposed that 
 the landlords were the most benevolent of human 
 beings, who overwhelmed these wretches with a 
 weight of mercy and kindness. How entirely the 
 reverse of this practice was true, may be found in 
 
 1 The Orangemen -were very active this year. King William's 
 statue in Dublin was adorned with extra ornaments. The custom 
 of adorning this statue began in 1795, and was originated by a half- 
 crazy bookseller named Mackenzie, who got the nickname of King 
 William's milliner. 
 
870 
 
 Times of Distress. 
 
 the sworn evidence of men of whose veracity there 
 cannot be a question. 1 
 
 Orange Lodges were then being established in 
 England, where, unhappily, there is every effort being 
 made at present to increase them. Their one cry 
 now, as then, is for their own ascendency ; and some 
 of our readers will remember the treasonable language 
 which they used at the period immediately previous 
 
 1 In the report of the Select Committee, 1824, we find the follow- 
 ing questions and answers : " Mr. Beecher said : 4 1 think they (the 
 lower classes) have been unused to fair dealing from the upper 
 classes ; if they get it, they seem gratified beyond measure.' Major 
 Warburton declared that many of the people would willingly give a 
 day's labour in times of distress for one meal. John Duncan, Esq., 
 said : * To the want of employment I attribute much of our unhappy 
 state.' John Wiggins, Esq., an English merchant, said ' The efforts 
 I have witnessed are really extraordinary. People bringing manure 
 from the sea up extraordinary cliffs. I give them infinite credit for 
 perseverance in this way.' Francis Blackburne, K.C., said : 1 On 
 the property of Lord Stradbroke, in the county Limerick, there were 
 forty or fifty families. The whole of that numerous body were dis- 
 persed, and their houses prostrated ; they were, generally speaking, 
 destitute of the means of support. That circumstance created a 
 good deal of irritation in the county. [It will be remembered that the 
 Duke of Wellington said such * irritation' must be put down.] This 
 is not a singular case. The same thing is generally prevalent in the 
 whole of the country.' He further said, { The mass of the popula- 
 tion were destitute of what in England 1 would be considered the 
 necessaries of life.' Mr. Kemmis, Crown Solicitor, gave an account 
 of eleven murders which occurred from 1816 to 1838, all arising 
 from evictions." 
 
 Mr. Kohl, in his well-known Irish " Tour," said: " When he 
 saw the poor settlers of Livonia, he used to pity them ; but when 
 he came to Ireland, he found that the poorest of them lead a life of 
 luxury compared with that of the Irish nation." 
 
u Protesting Catholic Dissenters" 
 
 to the disestablishment of the Irish Protestant Church, 
 and the declaration made by many of them that their 
 loyalty would last as long as their principles were 
 carried out, and no longer. 
 
 On the 15th of June, 1813, there was a meeting 
 at Fishamble Street Theatre, at which over 4,000 
 persons were present. After reading the resolutions, 
 O'Connell made a singularly effective speech, from 
 which we can only give a few extracts : 
 
 " Let me, in the first place, congratulate you on the 
 progress which the principle of religious liberty has made since 
 you last met. It has been greatly advanced by a magnificent 
 discovery lately made by the English in ethics, and upon which 
 I also beg leave to congratulate you. It is this : several 
 Englishmen have discovered, in the nineteenth century, and 
 more than four huudred years after the propagation of science 
 was facilitated by the art of printing — several sagacious English- 
 men have made this wonderful discovery in moral philosophy, 
 that a man is not necessarily a worse citizen for having a 
 conscience, and that a conscientious adherence to a Christian 
 religion is not an offence deserving of degradation or punish- 
 ment." 
 
 He then alluded to the Veto question. 
 
 " They offer you Emancipation, as Catholics, if you will 
 kindly consent, in return, to become schismatics. 1 They offer 
 you liberty, as men, if you agree to become slaves after a new 
 fashion — that is, your friends and your enemies have declared 
 that you are entitled to Catholic Emancipation and freedom, 
 upon the trifling terms of schism and servitude ! 
 
 " Generous enemies ! bountiful friends ! Yes, in their 
 
 1 This was probably an allusion to Mr. Butler's efforts to get a 
 body of English Catholics together who would agree to the Veto, and 
 call themselves, " Protesting Catholic Dissenters." 
 
 VOL. II. 2 
 
372 
 
 Modern Cant. 
 
 bounty, they resemble the debtor who should address his 
 creditor thus : ' It is true, I owe you £100 ; I am perfectly 
 well able to pay you : but what will you give me, if I hand you 
 6s. 8d. in the pound of your just debt as a final adjustment ? 
 Let us allay all jealousies,' continues the debtor, 'let us put 
 an end to all animosities — I will give you one-third of what I 
 owe you, if you will give me forty shillings in the pound of addi- 
 tional value, and a receipt in full, duly stamped, into the bar- 
 gain.' But why do I treat this serious and melancholy subject 
 with levity ? "Why do I jest, when my heart is sore and sad ? 
 Because I have not patience with this modern cant of securities, 
 and vetos, and arrangements, and clauses, and commissions. 
 Securities against what ? Not against the irritation and dis- 
 like which may and naturally ought to result from prolonged 
 oppression and insult. Securities — not against the conse- 
 quences of dissensions, distrusts, and animosities. Securities — 
 not against foreign adversaries. The securities that are required 
 from us are against the effects of conciliation and kindness — 
 against the dangers to be apprehended from domestic union, 
 peace, and cordiality. If they do not emancipate us ; if they 
 leave us aliens and outlaws in our native land ; if they continue 
 our degradation, and all those grievances that, at present, set 
 our passions at war with our duty, then they have no pretext 
 for asking, nor do they require any securities ; but should they 
 raise us to the rank of Irishmen, should they give us an im- 
 mediate and personal interest in our native land, should they 
 share with us the blessings of the constitution, should they add 
 to our duty the full tide of our interests and affection ; then — 
 then, say they, securities will be necessary. Securities and 
 guards must be adopted. State bridles must be invented, and 
 shackles and manacles must be forged, lest, in the intoxica- 
 tion of new liberty, we should destroy, only because we have 
 a greater interest to preserve." 
 
 The great orator then turned to historical facts, 
 which were incontrovertible, for a proof of his asser- 
 tions. 
 
A New Era. 
 
 373 
 
 "But to return to our own history. The reigns of the 
 First and of the Second George passed away ; England con- 
 tinued strong ; she persevered in oppression and injustice ; 
 she was powerful and respected ; she, therefore, disregarded ( 
 the sufferings of the Irish, and increased their chains. The 
 Catholics once had the presumption to draw up a petition ; it 
 was presented to Primate Boulter, then governing Ireland. He 
 not only rejected it with scorn and without a reply, hut treated 
 the insolence of daring to complain as a crime and punished it 
 as an offence, by recommending and procuring still more severe 
 laws against the Papists, and the more active execution of the 
 former statutes. 
 
 "But a new era advanced; the war which George the 
 Second waged on account of Hanover and America exhausted 
 the resources, and lessened, while it displayed, the strength of 
 England. In the meantime, the Duke of Bedford was Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Ireland. The ascendency mob of Dublin, headed 
 by a Lucas, insulted the Lord Lieutenant with impunity, and 
 threatened the Parliament. All was riot and confusion within, 
 whilst France had prepared an army and a fleet for the invasion 
 of Ireland. Serious danger menaced England. The very con- 
 nexion between the countries was in danger. The Catholics 
 were, for the first time thought of with favour. They were 
 encouraged to address the Lord Lieutenant, and for the first 
 time then- address received the courtesy of a reply. 
 
 " By this slight civility (the more welcome for its novelty) 
 the warm hearts and ready hands of the Irish Catholics were 
 purchased. The foreign foe was deterred from attempting to 
 invade a country where he could no longer have found a friend ; 
 the domestic insurgents were awed into silence ; the Catholics 
 and the Government, simply by their combination, saved the 
 state from its perils ; and thus did the Catholics, in a period of 
 danger, and upon the very first application, and in return for 
 no more than kind words, give, what we want to give— security 
 to the empire." 
 
 O'Connell then referred with singular power and 
 
374 
 
 Change of Fortune. 
 
 felicity, and with convincing truth, to the various 
 periods of Irish history at which some justice was 
 done to Catholics because England was in peril, and 
 found it best to avoid domestic dissension when she t 
 had to contend with foreigners. 
 
 Then he reverted to the occasions in which 
 Catholic claims were treated with contempt because 
 England was prosperous : 
 
 " In 1792, the Catholics urged their claims, as they had 
 more than once done before. But the era was inauspicious to 
 them, for England was in prosperity. On the Continent, the 
 confederation of German princes and the assemblage of the 
 French princes, with their royalist followers, the treaty of 
 Pilnitz, and the army of the King of Prussia, gave hope of 
 crushing and extinguishing France and her liberties for ever. 
 At that moment the Catholic petition was brought before 
 Parliament ; it was not even suffered, according to the course 
 of ordinary courtesy, to lie on the table ; it was rejected with 
 indignation and with contempt. The head of the La Touche 
 family, which has since produced so many first-rate Irishmen, 
 then retained that Huguenot hatred for Catholics which is still 
 cherished by Saurin, the Attorney- General for Ireland. La 
 Touche proposed that the petition should be rejected, and it 
 was rejected by a majority of 200 to only 13. 
 
 " Fortune, however, changed. The invasion of the Prussians 
 was unsuccessful ; the French people, worshiping the name as 
 if it were the reality of liberty, chased the Duke of Brunswick 
 from their soil ; the King of Prussia, in the Luttrel style, sold 
 the pass ; the German princes were confounded, and the French V 
 princes scattered ; Dumourier gained the battle of Jemappes, 
 and conquered the Austrian Netherlands ; the old governments 
 of Europe were struck with consternation and dismay, and we 
 arrived at the fourth, and hitherto the last stage of Emancipa- 
 tion ; for after those events in 1793, was passed that Act which 
 
The Plain Path to Safety. 
 
 375 
 
 gave us many valuable political rights — many important 
 privileges. 
 
 " The Parliament — the same men who, in 1792, would not 
 suffer our petition to lie on the table — the men who, iu 179*2, 
 treated us with contempt, in the short space of a few months 
 granted us the elective franchise. In 1792, we were despised 
 and rejected ; in 1793, we were flattered and favoured. The 
 reason was obvious ; in the year 1792, England was safe ; in 
 1793, she wanted security — and security she found in the 
 emancipation of the Catholics, partial though it was and limited. 
 The spirit of republican phrenzy was abroad ; the enthusiasm 
 for liberty, even to madness, pervaded the public mind." 
 
 He followed up this exposure of English vacilla- 
 tion by showing the true path to security : 
 
 " The plain path to safety — to security— lies before her. 
 Let Irishmen be restored to their inherent rights, and she may 
 laugh to scorn the shock of every tempest. The arrangements 
 which the abolition of the national debt may require will then 
 be effectuated, without convulsion or disturbance ; and no 
 foreign foe will dare to pollute the land of freemen and of 
 brothers. 
 
 " They have, however, struck out another resource in 
 England : they have resolved, it is said, to resort to the pro- 
 tection of Orange Lodges. That system which has been de- 
 clared by judges from the bench to be illegal and criminal, and 
 found by the experience of the people to be bigoted and bloody — 
 the Orange system, which has marked its progress in blood, in 
 murder, and in massacre — the Orange system, which has deso- 
 late J Ireland, and would have converted her into a solitude but 
 for the interposing hand of Cornwallis — the Orange system, 
 with all its sanguinary horrors, is, they say, to be adopted in 
 England ! 
 
 "Its prominent patron, we are told, is Lord Kenyon or 
 Lord Yarmouth ; the first an insane religionist of the Welsh 
 Jumper sect, who, bounding in the air, imagines he can lay 
 
876 
 
 Denunciation oj Orangeism. 
 
 hold of a limb of the Deity, like Macbeth snatching at the air- 
 drawn dagger of his fancy ! He would be simply ridiculous, 
 but for the mischievous malignity of his holy piety, which 
 desires to convert Papists from their errors through the instru- 
 mentality of daggers of steel. Lord Kenyon may enjoy his 
 ample sinecures as he pleases, but his folly should not goad to 
 madness the people of Ireland. 
 
 " You know full well that I do not exaggerate the horrors 
 which the Orange system has produced, and must produce, if 
 revived by authority in this country. I have in some of the 
 hireling prints of London, read, under the guise of opposing 
 the adoption of the Orange system, the most unfounded praises 
 of the conduct of the Irish Orangemen. They were called 
 loyal and worthy and constitutional. Let me hold them up in 
 their true light. The first authentic fact in their history occurs 
 in 1795. It is to be found in the address of Lord Gosford, to 
 a meeting of the magistrates of the county of Armagh, convened 
 by his lordship, as governor of that county, on the 28th of 
 December, 1795. Allow me to read the following passage 
 from that address : 
 
 " ' Gentlemen, Having requested your attendance here this 
 day, it becomes my duty to state the grounds upon which I 
 thought it advisable to propose this meeting ; and at the same 
 time to submit to your consideration a plan which occurs to me 
 as most likely to check the enormities that have already brought 
 disgrace upon this country, and may soon reduce it into deep 
 distress. 
 
 " ' It is no secret that a persecution, accompanied with all 
 the circumstances of ferocious cruelty, which have in all ages 
 distinguished that dreadful calamity, is now raging in this 
 country. Neither age nor sex, nor even acknowledged 
 innocence, as to any guilt in the late disturbances, is sufficient 
 to excite mercy, much less to afford protection. 
 
 " ' The only crime which the wretched objects of this ruth- 
 less persecution are charged with, is a crime, indeed, of easy 
 
Cruelty of Orangemen. 
 
 877 
 
 proof; it is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic faith, or 
 an intimate connexion with a person professing this faith. A 
 lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges of this new 
 species of delinquency, and the sentence they have denounced 
 is equally concise and terrible. It is nothing less than a con- 
 fiscation of all property, and an immediate banishment. It 
 would be extremely painful, and surely unnecessary, to detail 
 the horrors that are attendant on the execution of so rude and 
 tremendous a proscription — one that certainly exceeds, in the 
 comparative number of those it consigns to ruin and misery, 
 ever}* example that ancient and modern history can supply ; for 
 where have we heard, or in what story of human cruelties have 
 we read, of half the inhabitants of a populous country deprived, 
 at one blow, of the means as well as the fruits of then industry, 
 and driven, in the midst of an inclement season, to seek a shelter 
 for themselves and then helpless families, where chance may 
 guide them ? 
 
 " ' This is no exaggerated picture of the horrid scenes that 
 are now acting in this country.' 
 
 " ' Here is the first fact in the history of the Orangemen. 
 They commenced their course by a persecution, with every 
 circumstance of ferocious cruelty. These lawless banditti, as 
 Lord Gosford called them, showed no mercy to age, nor sex, 
 nor acknowledged innocence. And this is not the testimony of 
 a man favourable to the rights of those persecuted Catholics ; 
 he avows his intolerance in the very address of which I have 
 read you a part; and though shocked at these Orange enormities, 
 he still exults in his hostility to emancipation. 
 
 " After this damning fact from the early history of the 
 Orangeinen, who can think with patience on the revival or ex- 
 tension of this murderous association ? It is not, it ought not, 
 it cannot be endured, that such an association should be re- 
 stored to its power of mischief by abandoned and unprincipled 
 courtiers. But I have got in my possession a document which 
 demonstrates the vulgar and lowly origin, a3 well as the 
 traitorous and profligate purpose of this Orange society. It 
 
378 
 
 Orange Associations. 
 
 has been repeatedly sworn to in judicial proceedings, that the 
 original oath of an Orangeman was an oath to exterminate the 
 Catholics." 1 
 
 He then proceeded to read some extracts from a 
 book printed, for the use of the Orange Lodges, by 
 William M'Kenzie in 1810. He continued : 
 
 "I can demonstrate from this document that the Orange is 
 a vulgar, a profligate and a treasonable association. To prove 
 it treasonable, I read the following, which is given as the first 
 of their secret articles : ' That we will bear true allegiance to 
 his Majesty, his heirs and successors, so long as he or they 
 support the Protestant ascendency.' The meaning is obvious, 
 
 1 At a time when vigorous efforts are being made to extend the 
 Orange associations both in England and Ireland, it would be well 
 that Protestants as well as Catholics learned more of their true 
 principles. At the Orange demonstration in Manchester on the 
 12th of July, 1872, as reported by the Standard, the following 
 resolution was moved and seconded with acclamation : 
 
 " That the admission of Roman Catholics to Parliament by the 
 Act of 1829 has led to the corruption of political parties, by inducing 
 political leaders to sacrifice the safeguards of Protestantism for the 
 support of Roman Catholics, whose one great purpose is the 
 supremacy of their own Church — a course which, if permitted to 
 continue, must be destructive of that civil and religious liberty 
 which has so long been the glory of England. "We protest against 
 such conduct, and we pledge ourselves to oppose by every means in 
 our power all such concessions." 
 
 From this it is evident that, however these persons may have 
 advanced in general civilisation, they have yet to learn that religious 
 liberty means liberty to all. The liberty they demand is the liberty 
 to exercise intolerance. In the north of Ireland, on the same day, 
 a gallant colonel made an exhibition of his wife's Orange gown 
 before an amused, if not an appreciative audience. He said, " He 
 was true to his colours ; and when evil times came on Ireland he 
 was turned out of the magistracy of the county because his wife wore 
 
Concealment of Crime. 
 
 379 
 
 the Orangeman will be loyal just so long as he pleases. The 
 traitor puts a limit to his allegiance, suited to what he shall 
 fancy to be meant by the words 1 Protestant Ascendency.' If 
 the legislature presumes to alter the law for the Irish Catholics, 
 as it did for the Hanoverian Catholics, then is the Orangeman 
 clearly discharged from his allegiance, and allowed, at the first 
 convenient opportunity, to raise a civil war ; and this is what 
 is called a loyal association. Oh ! how different from the un- 
 conditional, the ample, the conscientious oath of allegiance of 
 the Irish Catholic !" 
 
 O'Connell then read some of the other M secret 
 resolutions," which we omit, and pass to the 
 
 " 1 8th Secret Article. An Orangeman is to keep a brother's 
 secrets as his own, unless in case of murder, treason, and 
 perjury, and of his own free will.' See what an abundant crop 
 of crimes the Orangeman is bound to conceal for his brother 
 Orangeman. Killing a Papist may, in his eyes, be no murder, 
 and he might be bound to conceal that; but he is certainly 
 bound to conceal all cases of riot, maiming, wounding, stabbing, 
 theft, robbing, rape, house-breaking, house -burning, and every 
 other human villany, save murder, treason, and perjury. These 
 are the good, the faithful, the loyal subjects. They may, with- 
 out provocation or excuse, attack and assault — give the first 
 assault, mind, when they are certain no brother can be brought 
 
 an Orange gown. As there were ladies present, they might be 
 curious to see the Orange gown, and he would have no objection to 
 produce it." [The chairman, amid laughter and cheers, produced 
 from a leather bag some square yards of silk — a tolerably well- 
 preserved relic of the lady to whom he referred.] After all, it was 
 a harmless exhibition of partisan feeling. Of course, it passed un- 
 noticed by the English press ; but if a Catholic had made a similar 
 exhibition, 6ome very strong language would have been used to 
 describe his idiotcy, and the affair would have been reported from 
 John O'Groat's House to Land's End. 
 
380 
 
 Criminal Principles. 
 
 to trouble. They may feloniously and burglariously break into 
 dwellings, and steal, take, and carry away whatever they will 
 please to call arms and ammunition. And, if the loyalty of a 
 brother tempts him to go a little further, and to plunder any 
 other articles, or to burn the house, or to violate female honour, 
 his brother spectators of his crime a T, e bound by their oaths to 
 screen it for ever from detection and justice. I know some 
 men of better minds have been, in their horror of revolutionary 
 fury, seduced into these Lodges, or have unthinkingly become 
 members of them; but the spirit, the object, and the con- 
 sequences of this murderous and plundering association, are 
 not the less manifest. 
 
 "I do not calumniate them ; for I prove the history of 
 their foundation and origin by the unimpeachable testimony of 
 Yiscount Gosford, and I prove their principles by their own 
 secret articles, the genuineness of which no Orangeman can or 
 will deny. If it were denied, I have the means of proving it 
 beyond a doubt. And when such principles are avowed, when 
 so much is acknowledged and printed, oh, it requires but little 
 knowledge of human nature to ascertain the enormities which 
 must appear in the practice of those who have confessed so 
 much of the criminal nature of their principles. 
 
 " There is, however, one consolation. It is to be found in 
 their ninth secret article : ' No Roman Catholic can be admitted 
 on any account.' I thank them for it, I rejoice at it ; no 
 Roman Catholic deserves to be admitted ; no Roman Catholic 
 would desire to belong to a society permitting aggression and 
 violence, when safe and prudent, permitting robbery to a certain 
 extent, and authorising treason upon a given contingency. 
 
 " And now let me ask, What safety, w 7 hat security can 
 the minions of the court promise to themselves from the en- 
 couragement of this association ? They do want security, and 
 from the Catholics they can readily have it ; and you, my 
 friends, may want security, not from the open attacks of the 
 Orangeman, for against those the law and your own courage 
 will protect you, but of their secret machinations you ought to 
 
Beware of Orangemen. 
 
 331 
 
 be warned. They will endeavour, nay, I am most credibly 
 assured, that at this moment their secret emissaries are en- 
 deavouring to seduce you into acts of sedition and treason, that 
 they may betray and destroy you. Recollect what happened 
 little more than twelve months ago, when the board detected 
 and exposed a similar delusion in Dublin. Recollect the un- 
 punished conspiracy which was discovered at Limerick ; un- 
 punished and unprosecuted was the author. Recollect the 
 Mayor's Constable of Kilkenny, and he is still in office, though 
 he administered an oath of secrecy, and gave money to his spy 
 to treat the country people to liquor and seduce them to treason. 
 I do most earnestly conjure you to be on your guard, no matter 
 in what shape any man may approach who suggests disloyalty 
 to you, no matter of what religion he may affect to be, no 
 matter what compassion he may express for your sufferings, or 
 what promises he may make ; believe me that any man who 
 may attempt to seduce you into any secret association or com- 
 bination whatsoever, that suggests to you any violation of the 
 law whatsoever, that dares to utter in your presence the 
 language of sedition or of treason, depend upon it — take my 
 word for it, and I am your sincere friend — that every such man 
 is the hired emissary and the spy of your Orange enemies — that 
 his real object is to betray you, to murder you under the forms 
 of a judicial trial, and to ruin your country for your guilt. If, 
 on the contrary, you continue at this trying moment peaceful, 
 obedient, and loyal ; if you avoid every secret association, and 
 every incitement to turbulence ; if you persevere in your 
 obedience to the laws, and in fidelity to the Crown and Con- 
 stitution, your emancipation is certain and not distant, and 
 your country will be restored to you ; your natural friends and 
 protectors will seek the redress of your grievances in and from 
 Parliament, and Ireland will be again free and happy. If you 
 suffer yourself to be seduced by these Orange betrayers, the 
 members of the board will be bound to resist your crimes with 
 their lives ; you will bring disgrace and ruin on our cause ; 
 you will destroy yourselves and your families, and perpetuate 
 
382 
 
 O'ConnelVs Love of Justice. 
 
 the degradation and disgrace of your native land. But my fears 
 are vain. I know your good sense ; I rely on your fidelity ; 
 you will continue to baffle your enemies; you will continue 
 faithful and peaceable ; and thus shall you preserve yourselves, 
 promote your cause, and give security to the empire." 
 
 Two points should be specially noted in the con- 
 clusion of this masterly address : O'Connell's love of 
 justice, which impelled him to admit that there were 
 members, even of Orange lodges, who were of better 
 minds than their associates, and his determined out- 
 spoken abhorrence of anything even approaching to 
 secret combinations, however speciously such com- 
 binations might be framed or excused. 
 
 With some few and not very honourable excep- 
 tions, those men who have distinguished themselves 
 most in public life have been remarkable for the 
 practice of domestic virtue. O'Connell's attachment 
 to his wife has already been mentioned. She was 
 certainly not a woman of any remarkable intellec- 
 tual calibre, but she had sufficient appreciation of 
 her husband's value to give him the just award of 
 her affectionate approbation of his career. When 
 separated, as they were frequently, they kept up an 
 affectionate correspondence, and Mrs. O'Connell 
 helped the Liberator by her earnest sympathy in his 
 pursuits when she could not help him by any personal 
 co-operation. As his sons grew up, they too, took 
 their share in his work with more or less ability. 
 
 But O'Connell belonged to the public. He gave 
 his life to Ireland. Unhappy, indeed, will Ireland 
 ever be if she forgets the debt of gratitude which she 
 
Prejudice against O'Connell 
 
 833 
 
 owes to her most illustrious son! Other men have 
 fought for her, or died for her. Let her honour 
 them. Those who are faithful to unfortunate Ireland 
 deserve the praise which men receive who lead a 
 forlorn hope. O'Connell led Ireland on until she 
 won the noblest victory on record — because it was 
 the victory of mental power over brute force. When 
 the memory of O'Connell grows dim in Irish hearts — 
 but I may not pen the words ; bis memory never will 
 grow dim while there is an Irishman with heart to 
 love or intellect to cherish it. 
 
 It is to be regretted, however, that some of those 
 very persons who are most sensibly benefited by 
 O'Connell are not grateful to him for the concessions 
 lie obtained for them. Their ingratitude arises prin- 
 cipally from ignorance and partly from prejudice. 
 From ignorance, because those English Catholics, 
 who look with something like contempt on O'Connell's 
 career, are seldom well informed, or fully informed 
 as to his history ; from prejudice, because we believe 
 that where this dislike exists, and where we know 
 it now to exist, it arises from a prejudice against 
 O'Connell, because at times neither his words nor 
 his manner were exactly in accordance with con- 
 ventional rules of etiquette. The very position of 
 English Catholics of the upper class has made them 
 tenaciously touchy on those subjects. It would seem 
 as if they forgot that some of those who have done 
 the noblest work for God on earth have not been 
 what the world calls gentlemen. 
 
334 
 
 His Style of Speech. 
 
 Yet after a careful perusal of all O'Connell's 
 speeches, it is difficult to find more than a few words 
 here and there, which, in a fastidious audience would 
 have been better unsaid ; and if those words or ex- 
 pressions were compared with others which have 
 been uttered from the bench and in the senate at 
 the present day, we think that a jury would award a 
 verdict of not guilty by comparison to O'Connell. It 
 should be remembered also that Berkeley described 
 the Irish aristocracy of the day as " Goths in igno- 
 rance, spendthrifts, drunkards, and debauchees." It 
 was evidently not from such persons that O'Connell 
 could learn courtly manners. 
 
 A rough and ready style was best suited to 
 O'Connell's work, and we suspect he cultivated it 
 purposely. Roche 1 gives an account, which, he says, 
 he received from the Liberator himself, of the care 
 with which he prepared some of his speeches, and 
 undoubtedly there are passages in many of them 
 which are of the very highest order of rhetorical 
 composition. 
 
 Sheil, in his " Sketches of the Irish Bar," has given 
 
 1 Roclie's Essays, vol. ii. p. 103. He says : <£ His earliest ex- 
 hibition as an orator at Cork was on the 2nd September, 1811, at 
 the first great Catholic meeting held there, and of which he was 
 chairman. He made a splendid speech of two hours' duration, 
 which he passed the night in preparing for the press, and which I 
 saw the next morning fairly written in his bold flowing hand, 
 exactly as he had pronounced it, though he certainly could not have 
 gotten it entirely by heart, for he adverted in its course to various 
 matters of the discussion." 
 
Early Rising. 
 
 385 
 
 an admirable sketch of (XConnelTs daily life when in 
 the zenith of his fame. 
 He says : 
 
 " If any of you, my English readers, being a stranger in 
 Dublin, should chance on your return on a winter's morning 
 from one of the small and early parties of that raking metro- 
 polis — that is to say, between the hours of five and six o'clock — 
 to pass along the south side of Merrion Square, you will not 
 fail to observe that, among those splendid mansions, iher3 is 
 one evidently tenanted by a person whose habits differ materially 
 from those of his fashionable neighbours. The half-oponed 
 parlour shutter, and the light within, announce that some one 
 dwells there whose time is too precious to permit him to 
 regulate his rising with the sun's. Should your curiosity tempt 
 you to ascend the steps, and, under cover of the dark, to recon- 
 noitre the interior, you will see a tall, able-bodied man standing 
 at a desk, and immersed in solitary occupation. Upon the 
 wall in front of him there hangs a crucifix. From this, and 
 from the calm attitude of the person within, and from a certain 
 monastic rotundity about his neck and shoulders, your first im- 
 pression will be that he must be some pious dignitary of the 
 Church of Rome absorbed in his matin devotions. But this 
 conjecture will be rejected almost as soon as formed. No 
 sooner can the eye take in the other furniture of the apart- 
 ment—the bookcases clogged with tomes in plain calf- skin 
 binding, and blue-covered octavos that lie about on the tables 
 and the floor, the reams of manuscript in oblong folds and 
 begirt with crimson tape — than it becomes evident that the 
 party meditating amidst such objects must be thinking far 
 more of the law than of the prophets. 
 
 " He is, unequivocally, a barrister, but apparently of that 
 homely, chamber-keeping, plodding cast who labour hard to 
 make up by assiduity what they want in wit — who are up and 
 
386 
 
 A Plodding Barrister. 
 
 stirring before the bird of the morning has sounded the retreat 
 to the wandering spectre, and are already brain-deep in the 
 dizzying vortex of mortgages, and cross-remainders, and 
 mergers, and remitters, while his clients, still lapped in sweet 
 oblivion of the law's delay, are fondly dreaming that their 
 cause is peremptorily set down for a final hearing. Having 
 come to this conclusion, you push on for home, blessing your 
 stars on the way that you are not a lawyer, and sincerely com- 
 passionating the sedentary drudge whom you have just detected 
 in the performance of his cheerless toil. But should you 
 happen, in the course of the same day, to stroll down to the 
 Four Courts, you will be not a little surprised to find the object 
 of your pity miraculously transferred from the severe recluse of 
 the morning into one of the most bustling, important, and 
 joyous personages in that busy scene. There you will be sure 
 to see him, his countenance braced up and glistened with 
 health and spirits, with a huge, plethoric bag, which his robust 
 arms can scarcely contain, clasped with paternal fondness to 
 his breast, and environed by a living palisade of clients and 
 attorneys, with outstretched necks, and mouths and ears agape 
 to catch up any chance opinion that may be coaxed out of him 
 in a colloquial way ; or listening to what the client relishes 
 still better — for in no event can they be slided to a bill of 
 costs — the counsellor's burst of jovial and familiar humour ; or 
 when he touches on the sadder strain, his prophetic assurances 
 that the hour of Ireland's redemption is at hand. You perceive 
 at once that you have lighted upon a great popular advocate ; 
 and, if you take the trouble to follow his movements for a 
 couple of hours through the several courts, you will not fail to 
 discover the qualities that have made him so — his legal compe- 
 tency, his business-like habits, his sanguine temperament — 
 which renders him not merely the advocate, but the partisan of 
 his client — his acuteness, his fluency of thought and language, 
 his unconquerable good humour, and above all, his versatility. 
 
w Kerry's Pride and Munsiers Glory." 3S7 
 
 By the hour of three, when the judges usually rise, you will have 
 seen him go through a quantity of business, the preparation for 
 and performance of which would he sufficient to wear down an 
 ordinary constitution ; and you naturally suppose that the re- 
 maining portion of the day must, of necessity, be devoted to 
 recreation or repose. But here again you will be mistaken ; 
 for should you feel disposed, as you return from the courts, I I 
 drop into any of the public meetings that are almost daily 
 held — for some purpose, or to no purpose — in Dublin, to a 
 certainty you will find the counsellor there before you, the pre- 
 siding spirit of the scene ; riding in the whirlwind and directing 
 the storm of popular debate with a strength of lungs and a re- 
 dundancy of animation as if he had that moment started fresh 
 for the labours of the day. There he remains until, by dint of 
 strength or dexterity, he has carried every point ; and from 
 thence, if you would see him to the close of the day's eventful 
 history, you will, in all likelihood, have to follow him to a 
 public dinner ; from which after having acted a conspicuous 
 part in the turbulent festivity of the evening, and thrown off 
 half-a-dozen speeches in praise of Ireland, he retires at a late 
 hour, to repair the wear and tear of the day by a short interval 
 of repose, and is sure to be found, before dawn -break next 
 morning, at his solitary post, recommencing the routine of his 
 restless existence. Now, any one who has once seen in the 
 preceding situation the able-bodied, able-minded, acting, talking, 
 multifarious person I have just been describing, has no occasion 
 to inquire his name— he may be assured that he is and can be 
 no other than £ Kerry's pride and Minister's glory' — the far- 
 famed and indefatigable Daniel O'Connell. His frame is tall, 
 expanded, and muscular — precisely such as befits a man of the 
 people ; for the physical classes ever look with double con- 
 fidence and affection upon a leader who represents in his own 
 person the qualities upon which they rely. In his face he has 
 been equally fortunate — it is extremely comely. The features 
 vol. n. 3 
 
888 
 
 A TiioroiKjli Patriot. 
 
 are at once soft and manly; the florid glow of health and a 
 sanguine temperament are diffused over the whole countenance, 
 which is national in the outline, and beaming with national 
 emotion ; the expression is open and confiding, and inviting 
 confidence ; there is not a trace of malignity or wile — if there 
 were, the bright and sweet blue eyes, the most kindly and 
 honest-looking that can be conceived, would repel the im- 
 putation. These popular gifts of nature O'Connell has not 
 neglected to set off by his external carriage and deportment — 
 or, perhaps, I should rather say, that the same hand which 
 has moulded the exterior, has supersaturated the inner man 
 with a fund of restless propensity which it is quite beyond 
 his power, as it is certainly beside his inclination to control. 
 A large portion of this is necessarily expended upon his 
 legal avocations ; but the labours of the most laborious of 
 professions cannot tame him to repose. After deducting the 
 daily drains of the study and the courts, there remains an 
 ample residuum of animal spirits and ardour for occupation, 
 which go to form a distinct and, I might say, a predominant 
 character — the political chieftain. The existence of this over- 
 weening vivacity is conspicuous in O'Connell's manners and 
 movements; and being a popular, and more particularly a 
 national quality, greatly recommends him to the Irish people — 
 onobilitate viget; body and soul are in a state of permanent in- 
 surrection. See him in the streets, and you perceive at once 
 that he is a man who has sworn that his country's wrongs shall 
 be avenged. A Dublin jury (if judiciously selected) would find 
 his very gait and gestures to be high treason by construction, 
 so explicitly do they enforce the national sentiment of ' Ireland 
 her own — or the world in a blaze !' As he marches to court, 
 he shoulders his umbrella as if it were a pike. He flings out 
 one factious foot before the other as if he had already burst his 
 bonds, and was kicking the Protestant ascendency before him ; 
 while ever and anon, a democratic, broad-shouldered roll of the 
 
Sacrifice of Pleasure. 
 
 3S0 
 
 upper man is manifestly an indignant effort to shuffle off the 
 oppression of seven hundred years.' This intensely national 
 sensibility is the prevailing peculiarity in 0' Connellys character ; 
 for it is not only when abroad and in the popular gaze that Irish 
 affairs seem to press upon his heart — the same Erin-go-bra git 
 feeling follows him into the most technical details of his forensic 
 occupations. Give him the most dry and abstract position of 
 law to support — the most remote that imagination can conce ive 
 from the violation of the Irish Parliament, and ten to one hut 
 lie will contrive to interweave a patriotic episode upon those 
 examples of British domination. The people are never absent 
 from his thoughts. lie tosses up a bill of exceptions to a 
 judge's charge in the name of Ireland, and pockets a special 
 retainer with the air of a man that doats upon his country. 
 There is, perhaps, some share of exaggeration in all this ; but 
 much less, I do believe, than is generally suspected, and I 
 apprehend that he would scarcely pass for a patriot without it ; 
 for, in fact, he has been so successful, and looks so contented, 
 and his elastic, unbroken spirits are so disposed to bound and 
 frisk for very joy — in a word, he has naturally so bad a face for 
 a grievance, that his political sincerity might appear equivocal, 
 were there not some clouds of patriotic grief or indignation to 
 temper the sunshine that is for ever bursting through them." 
 
 It must have been no small sacrifice to a man who 
 enjoyed society as O'Connell did, to absent himself 
 from social circles. The resolution of the man's 
 character was as unselfish in this as his in life-long 
 devotion to the one pursuit. It was, indeed, a part 
 of his pursuit. 
 
 As a raconteur he was probably unequalled. With 
 the best of memories, with a quick wit to seize the 
 point of any incident, and with an admirable manner 
 
Jerry Keller. 
 
 of relating it, he could not fail to take pleasure in 
 the exercise of his gift, as well as to give pleasure to 
 others. Let Ireland remember, when she counts up 
 her debt of gratitude to O'Connell, how many nights 
 he deprived himself of necessary rest, and how many 
 days he deprived himself of that relaxation, which, 
 for most men in his position, and undertaking his 
 labours, would have been considered a necessity 
 rather than an indulgence. 
 
 His bar anecdotes were amongst the most 
 amusing. Several are recorded which relate to the 
 well-known Jerry Keller : 
 
 " Jerry," said O'Connell, was an instance of great waste 
 of talent. He was the son of a poor farmer near Kanturk, 
 named Keleher, which Jerry anglicised into Keller when he 
 went to the bar. He was an excellent classical scholar, and 
 had very considerable natural capacity ; but although he had a 
 good deal of business at the bar, his success was far from being 
 what he might have attained had he given his whole soul to his 
 profession. His readiness of retort was great. Baron Smith 
 once tried to annoy him on his change of name at a bar dinner. 
 They were talking of the Irish language. ' Your Irish name, 
 Mr. Keller,' said the baron, e is Diarmuid ua Cealleachair. 
 ' It is,' answered Jerry, nothing daunted, ' and yours is Laimh 
 Gabha. 1 There was a great laugh at the baron's expense— a 
 sort of thing that nobody likes." 
 
 " Another time," said O'Connell, " when the bar were dining 
 together on a Friday, a blustering young barrister named 
 Norcott, of great pretension with but slender materials to 
 support it, observed that J erry was eating fish instead of meat, 
 and by way of jeering Jerry (who had been originally a Catholic), 
 said to him : ' So you won't eat meat ? Why I did not think, 
 
Lord Clare. 
 
 mi 
 
 Jerrv, you had so much of the Pope iu your helly.' * For all 
 the meat iu the market,' said Jerry, ' I would not have as much 
 of the Pretender in my head as you have.' " 
 
 Jerry was a member of a famous convivial society 
 who denominated themselves, the " Monks of the 
 Screw." Lord Avonmore was a " monk" also, and 
 as long as he lived Jerry's bag was full. After the 
 death of this nobleman he sank into poverty, yet he 
 still went circuit, and held his place as senior at the 
 mess, where his humour never deserted him, though 
 it became somewhat embittered by his misfortunes. 
 
 Of Lord Clare, O'Connell used to tell the follow- 
 ing anecdote : 
 
 "Lord Clare's enmity to Ireland," said O'Connell, "was 
 once nearly ended by an assassin. In 17^4, he was carrying a 
 bill through the Irish Parliament for compelling the accountant 
 of the Court of Exchequer to return his accounts whenever 
 called upon by the court. These summary accounts would 
 have been very inconvenient to Baron Power, who, as junior 
 baron, filled the office of accountant. He lived extravagantly — 
 making use of the money of the public that came into his 
 hands, and looking to future good luck to enable him to reckon 
 with the owners. The bill would have been his ruin ; and 
 after many ineffectual efforts to dissuade Lord Clare from 
 pressing it, he at last resolved in a fit of desperation to assas- 
 sinate him. So he drove to Ely Place with a brace of loaded 
 pistols in his pocket, and asked to see Lord Clare, who provi- 
 dentially was from home. Baron Power then resolved on 
 suicide, and ordered his coachman to drive him along the South 
 Wall. When he had got to a considerable distance out of 
 town he quitted the carriage, desired the coachman to await his 
 return, and walked on alone towards the Pigeon House. He 
 
892 
 
 Crosbie Morgan. 
 
 tied his hands together in order to deprive himself of the power 
 of swimming, and jumped into the sea from the pier. It was 
 afterwards remarked as curious that he walked off to drown 
 himself using an umbrella, as the clay was wet. One would 
 think the sprinkling of a shower would not much incommode a 
 fellow who was resolved on a watery death. Think of a man 
 going to drown himself with an umbrella to keep out the wet . 
 
 " Shortly after, Crosbie Morgan, one of the oddest of odd 
 attorneys, also drowned himself. The ballad-mongers shouted 
 their accounts of these events through Dublin, crying out : 
 ' G reat times for Ireland ! One judge drowned ! One attorney 
 drowned!' They had also : 'Last speech and dying words of 
 Crosbie Morgan !' which instead of ending with the approved 
 finish of the penitent declaration of Catholic criminals — namely, 
 ' I die an unworthy member of the Church of Kome,' ended 
 thus : ' I die an unworthy mongrel of neither church.' 
 
 " ' Crosbie Morgan,' said O'Connell, ' was a very eccentric 
 fellow. He probably made more money than any other attorney 
 of his time. He had eleven clerks in his office, and every 
 clerk was an attorney. Great as were his gains, his expen- 
 diture was greater. Whenever he travelled to Dublin he used 
 to engage all the post-chases at every inn w T here he slept, along 
 the road ; and if he found any gentlemen of his acquaintance 
 going to town, he invariably gave them seats gratis. His own 
 personal suit always filled two or three of the carriages.' 
 
 " ' Had Baron Power,' continued O'Connell, reverting to 
 Lord Clare, ' murdered Fitzgibbon, Pitt would have found 
 much more difficulty in carrying the Union. Castlereagh, 
 although as vile, shameless, and indefatigable a tool as ever 
 corruption had, could not, unaided by the commanding energy 
 of Clare, have succeeded so well in the dirty work. Clare had 
 great intellectual powers. He lived at a period fertile in 
 monsters — Clare was a monster. He was a kind of petticoat 
 Robespierre. His father was a barrister of considerable 
 
Honesty. 
 
 393 
 
 eminence. Old Fitzgibbon and bis brother were the first 
 persons who introduced the system of reporting the proceedings 
 of the English law courts in the public newspapers without the 
 authority of the presiding judge. They were students in the 
 Temple at the time, and Lord Mansfield tried to put a stop to 
 the practice, but the Fitzgibbons persevered and succeeded. 
 Clare was atrociously bigoted against the Catholics. A Protes- 
 tant friend of mine, who often met him at the whist parties of 
 an old dowager, told mo nothing could possible exceed the 
 contemptuous acerbity with which on these occasions he spoke 
 of the Catholics. ' The scum of the earth,' and such like 
 phrases, were the epithets, he habitually applied to them.' " 
 
 Some one having alluded to the temptation to amass large 
 sums afforded by facility and security from detection, O'Connell 
 told the following anecdote : " I knew a person named Barnewell, 
 who, while staying in Dublin, was commissioned by a friend in 
 the country to purchase a lottery-ticket. The choice of the 
 number was left to Barnewell, who accordingly selected and 
 paid for a ticket. It turned up a prize of £10,000. He had 
 the most thorough facility for retaining the amount. All he 
 need do was to buy his friend some other ticket. No one could 
 say that he had not duly executed his commission. But 
 Barnewell reasoned thus with himself: 1 If,' said he, 'my 
 friend had not commissioned me to buy the ticket for him, I 
 never would have bought it for myself. It therefore is rightly 
 his ; and to put myself beyond the reach of casuistry, I'll lodge 
 the amount to his credit immediately, and apprise him that I 
 have clone so by this night's post;' which honest Barnewell 
 accordingly did. I recollect when I was a younker, my uncle 
 gage me £300 in gold, to get changed into notes at Cotter & 
 Kellett's bank. The clerk, through stupidity, gave me £400, 
 of which £300 were in small notes, and the rest in a £100 note. 
 I pointed out his blunder ; and he, in a very surly manner, and 
 without looking at the heap of notes, insisted that I must be 
 
394 
 
 A Vigorous Measure. 
 
 wrong, for that he never mistook. I persisted ; he was sulky 
 and obstinate. At last our altercation attracted the notice of 
 Cotter, who came over and asked what was the matter. I told 
 him I had got £100 too much. He reckoned the money, and 
 then took off the £100, saying, ' Now it is all right.' I begged 
 he would let me retain that note, as my uncle was desirous to 
 get the largest note he could ; and, I assure you, it was with 
 no trifling difficulty I could prevail on the old gentleman to 
 take his £100 in small notes !" 
 
 When O'Connell was at the Limerick assizes in 
 1812, Standish O'Grady asked O'Connell to go with 
 him to the play : 
 
 " O'Connell declined, observing that the Limerick grand 
 jurors were not the pleasantest folk in the world to meet after 
 dinner. O'Grady went, but soon returned. 'Dan/ said he, 
 ' you were quite right. I had not been five minutes in the box, 
 when some ten or a dozen noisy gentlemen came into it. It 
 was small and crowded ; and, as I observed that one of the 
 party had his head quite close to a peg on which I had hung 
 my hat, I said very politely, " I hope, sir, my hat does not 
 incommode you; if it does, pray allow me to remove it." 
 "Faith," said he, " you may be sure it does not incommode 
 me ; for if it did, d— n me, but I'd have kicked it out of the 
 box, and yourself after it !" So, lest the worthy juror should 
 change his mind as to the necessity of such a vigorous measure, 
 I quietly put my hat on, and took myself off.' " 
 
 It will scarcely be expected that the Liberator 
 would be an admirer of Irish parsons, however 
 friendly he might be with Irish Protestants. Nor 
 can it be said that their character at that period was 
 such as to command respect even from their own 
 flocks. To read prayers once on Sunday, if they 
 
A Crack Preacher. 
 
 395 
 
 had a congregation, was the extent of the ecclesiastical 
 administration of their parishes, if, indeed, we except 
 the time spent in tithe-hunting. And this occupa- 
 tion, of which we shall say more hereafter, certainly 
 did not tend to increase respect for their office. 
 
 O'Connell used to relate an amusing case in which 
 he was engaged against a parson for a breach of 
 promise of marriage. The lady was a Miss Fitzgerald ; 
 the gentleman, Parson Hawkesworth : 
 
 " Hawkesworth," said he, "Lad certainly engaged the lad\ 'a 
 affections very much. He had acquired fame enough to engage 
 her ambition. He was a crack preacher — had been selected 
 to preach before the Lord-Lieutenant ; his name occasionally 
 got into the papers, which then was not often the case with 
 private persons ; and, no doubt, this notoriety had its weight in 
 the lady's calculations. The correspondence read upon the 
 trial was comical enough. The lady, it appeared, had at one 
 period doubted his fidelity, whereupon the parson writes to re- 
 assure her in these words : ' Don't believe any one who says 
 111 jilt you ! They lie, who say so ; and I pray that all such 
 liars may be condemned to an eternity of itching without the 
 benefit of scratching !' £3000 damages were given against 
 him. He was unable to pay, and decamped to America upon 
 a preaching speculation, which proved unsuccessful. He came 
 back to Ireland, and married the prosecutrix /" 
 
 Whatever may have been O'Connell's capabilities 
 in the way of using language which was more forcible 
 than elegant, there is no doubt that he found example 
 in Parson Hawkesworth. 
 
 The following anecdote is a specimen of the fashion 
 in which justice was administered at the close of the 
 lust century : 
 
890 
 
 Satisfaction. 
 
 " In the year 1798, said OConnell, " my friend , and 
 
 his two brothers, were taken prisoners by a magistrate who 
 owed their mother £2000. The worthy justice went to that 
 lady and said, ' If you don't release my bond, I'll have your 
 sons flogged and hanged.' ' Sir,' answered she, ' if you were 
 to treat me in that manner, you could not extort the bond from 
 me ; and I am much mistaken if my sons have not at least as 
 much firmness as their mother.' Fortunately, Judge Day, who 
 was a very humane man, went the circuit ; and as no witnesses 
 
 appeared against the , he discharged them by proclamation. 
 
 In pronouncing their discharge, Day gave the young men a 
 sort of moral and political lecture, in which he congratulated 
 them on their escape, and advised loyal conduct for the future. 
 
 ' You have no business to lecture us, my lord,' said , ' as 
 
 if we were guilty of disloyalty. We are perfectly innocent, and 
 are quite as loyal as your lordship. Had our enemies been 
 able to establish any sort of case against us, they would not 
 have failed to produce their witnesses. It is too bad then, my 
 lord, to lecture us as if our conduct had in any respect been 
 censurable.' Day, who was a thorough gentleman, bowed and 
 
 said : f You are quite right, Mr. , and I was quite wrong. 
 
 I beg your pardon.' Next morning the eldest brother was 
 again seized and thrown into jail by the machinations of the 
 worthy magistrate who owed his mother money. The jailer 
 was a savage brute, and took every opportunity of tormenting 
 him. One day he came to his cell, and said, with a diabolical 
 grin, ' I've news that is bitter to you and pleasant to me — your 
 two brothers have been hanged, and you are to be strung up 
 
 to-morrow !' Mr. was well enough aware of the frightful 
 
 character of the times to know that this was at least possible. 
 'Is what you have told me really true ?' he asked of the jailer.. 
 ' Upon my oath, it is,' returned the jailer. ' Then, my man,' 
 
 cried Mr. , ' before I leave this world, I shall have the 
 
 satisfaction of giving you as good a licking as ever man got.' 
 So saying, he pounced upon the jailer and wallopped him 
 awfully. The jailer screamed, and his screams attracted per- 
 
Retaliation. 
 
 8 >7 
 
 sons without, who would have fired at Mr. through the 
 
 grating in the door, only that he constantly kept the jailer 
 
 between himself and the door. Mr. continued to thrash 
 
 the jailer until he was unable, from exhaustion, to thrash 
 him any longer. The jailer then went off, and soon returned 
 with G8 lbs. of irons, with which he and his assistants 
 loaded their prisoner. When ironed, he was laid on a bed 
 and the jailer beat him with a loaded blackthorn stick as long 
 as he was able to stand over him. He then kept him forty- 
 eight hours without food ; and when the commanding-officer 
 who inspected the prison arrived, he was utterly astonished how 
 
 Mr. survived the treatment he had received. Finding 
 
 that there was not the shadow of any accusation against him, 
 that officer set him free upon his own responsibility. What 
 times !" exclaimed O'Connell after he had narrated this inci- 
 dent. "What a scene! The prisoner thrashing the jailer, 
 and the jailer thrashing his prisoner ! What a country in which 
 such things could be enacted I" 1 
 
 1 We may be - thankful that there is no parallel for such circum- 
 stances in Ireland at the present day ; but we cannot forget that 
 equal, if not greater, atrocities have been committed recently under 
 British rule in Jamaica and in India ; yet the Irish are spoken and 
 written of as if they were still a nation of savages, and as if Eng- 
 land should be their model. AVe quote the following from tbe 
 Nation, 20th July, 1872. While England gives no better example, 
 it can scarcely expect the Irish peasant to believe it a safe guide. 
 
 " One of our weekly London contemporaries took genial occasion 
 to speak of the Irish people — it was only last Saturday — as ' one of 
 the inferior races for whom we' — bold Britons — 1 are morally bound 
 to have all compassion and commiseration.' Side by side with this 
 paternal outburst of sympathy for our inferiority, the same journal 
 condenses the list of the criminal calendar for the previous seven 
 days, which is well worth pondering. The list comprises the 
 murder of a woman at Dartford ; a case of murder at Norfolk (sen- 
 tence of death passed) ; a trigamy at Durham ; a manslaughter at 
 Warwick ; an attempt at murder at the same place ; a murder at 
 
898 
 
 A Sharp Youth. 
 
 The Dublin Evening Post was then the liberal 
 paper of the day. During the war the latest news, 
 old as it might be, was as eagerly sought for as the 
 last telegram at the present time. The celebrated 
 John Magee, of whom more hereafter, was the pro- 
 prietor. In connexion with this paper O'Connell 
 used to tell an amusing anecdote : 
 
 " One day during the war James Connor and I dined at 
 Mr. Mahony's, in Dublin, and after dinner we heard the news- 
 vendors, as usual, calling out, ' The Post! The Dublin Eve- 
 ning Post! Three packets in to -night' s Post /' The arrival 
 of the packets was at that time irregular, and eagerly looked 
 for. We all were impatient for the paper, and Mahony gave a 
 fivepenny piece to his servant, a Kerry lad, and told him to 
 go clown and buy the Post. The boy returned in a minute 
 with a Dublin Evening Post, a fortnight old. The roguish 
 
 Soutksea ; a suicide in Dorsetshire; a murder at Chorley; an in- 
 fanticide in Shropshire ; a stabbing case in Yorkshire ; a murder 
 and suicide at Wakefield ; assaults by drunken boys in Clerkenwell ; 
 4 disgusting assaults by a Scripture reader' in Southwark, and a host 
 of robberies which we have not time to particularise ; a manslaugh- 
 ter in Smithfield ; a murder at Uxbridge ; a double murder in 
 Hoxton ; a murder in Marylebone ; a manslaughter at Willenhall ; 
 the discovery of three dead bodies in Kentish-town ; a murder at 
 Leeds ; an attempted murder in Clerkenwell ; a suicide at Dover ; 
 and, finally, an atrocious case of murder in Carmarthenshire ! In 
 the Irish news of the same journal the week's chronicle of Irish 
 crime cuts a poor figure by the side of its English and more enter- 
 prising relative. It sets forth with deadly precision the report of an 
 attempted agrarian outrage in Meath, and the sending of a threaten- 
 ing letter to Sir Arthur Guinness, and there it ends. On the whole, 
 we are not ashamed of the comparison, and we cheerfully acknow- 
 ledge our inferiority — in crime only — to a people whose unbridled 
 passions and murderous instincts have penned this blood-red chro- 
 nicle of atrocities within the brief space of one week !" 
 
Darrynane House. 
 
 309 
 
 news-vendor bad palmed off an old newspaper on the unsus- 
 pecting Kerry tiger. Mr. Mahony stormed, Connor and I 
 laughed, and Connor said, ' I wonder, gossoon, how you let 
 the fellow cheat you ? Has not your master a hundred times 
 told you that the dry papers are always old and good for 
 nothing, and that new papers are always wet from the printing- 
 office ? Here's another fivepenny. Be off, now, and take 
 take care to bring us in a wet Post.' 1 Oh, never you mind 
 the fi'peimy, sir,' said the boy, Til get the paper without it;' 
 and he darted out of the room, while Mahony cried out, 'Hang 
 that young blockhead, he'll blunder the business again.' But 
 in less than five minutes the lad re-entered with a fresh, wet 
 paper. We were all surprised, and asked him how he managed 
 to get it without money. ' Oh, the aisiest way in life, your 
 honour, said the urchin ; ' I just took the dry old Post, and 
 cried it down the street a bit — Dublin "Evening Post! Dub- 
 lin Evening Post! and a fool of a gentleman meets me at the 
 corner, and buys my ould dry paper. So I whips across to a 
 newsman I sees over the way, and buys this fine, fresh new 
 Post for your honour with the money I got for the ould one.' " 
 
 But, however O'Connell may have enjoyed bar- 
 society and bar-jokes, there can be no question that 
 home, as he considered Darrynane Abbey, was the 
 place lie loved best. We do not like to think how 
 sorrowful his heart must have been when lie looked 
 at it for the last time. 
 
 Darrynane House is situated close to a little bay, 
 which is separated from the harbour of Ballinskilligs 
 by a rocky promontory called the Abbey Island. 
 Here are the ruins already described, and of which 
 we have given an illustration. Many of the O'Connell 
 family lie here, taking their long rest after the trou- 
 bled life of the good old times. 
 
4C0 
 
 'Conndl at Home. 
 
 The coast is wild and grand ; for the Atlantic 
 waves dash in summer and winter in great waves on 
 the rock-bound shore. Until the year 1839, when 
 the new road from Cahirciveen was completed, men 
 were employed with ropes to drag the carriages along 
 some four or five miles of road, which was too preci- 
 pitous for any other mode of transit. 
 
 " The house is sheltered to the north and west by moun- 
 tains, ranging from 1500 to 2000 feet in height. On the east, 
 the view is bounded by a chain of high rocks, that divide the 
 bay of Darrynane from that of Kenmare. Close to the house 
 is a thriving plantation called the shrubbery, covering some ten 
 or twelve acres of a most rocky and irregular tract, through the 
 irregularities of which there are many very pretty winding- 
 walks. In the midst of this shrubbery, perched high aloft upon 
 an ivied rock, is a small circular turret, commanding, over the 
 tops of the young trees, a view of the ocean and of the neigh- 
 bouring hills. To this turret, Mr. O'Connell frequently retired, 
 to cogitate in solitude over his future political movements. He 
 had also a favourite walk in the garden, which is picturesquely 
 situated amongst rocks, and contains some of the finest old 
 hollies I have ever seen. 
 
 "Darrynane House possesses tolerable accommodation, 
 although it often proved scarcely sufficient for the numbers 
 attracted by the hospitable habits and political celebrity of the 
 owner. It was built at different periods, and without the 
 slightest regard to any uniform plan of architecture ; a room 
 was added whenever there arose a demand for increased accom- 
 modation ; so that the whole mass presents a curious cluster of 
 small buildings of different dates, heights, and sizes." 
 
 We shall let O'Neill Daunt describe O'Connell at 
 
 home : 
 
 " On the third or fourth morning after my arrival at Darry- 
 nane, I was summoned by Mr. O'Connell to accompany the 
 
A Luxurious Feast. 
 
 hunting party. It was not quite six o'clock— the morning was 
 clear and bright, and gave promise of a beautiful day. We 
 followed a winding path called ' The Meadow Walk,' which 
 crosses and recrosses a merry mountain brook ; we ascended 
 the hill of Coomakista, crossed the line of the new road, and 
 ere half an hour had elapsed, a hare was started. It was a 
 glorious run ; the hare was in view for half a mile or more ; 
 and as the dogs ran the scent they kept so close together that 
 a sheet might have covered the pack. O'Connell, who enjoyed 
 the hunt with infinite glee, walked and ran from rock to rock, 
 to keep the doga in view. The mountain air had already 
 sharpened my appetite, and I inquired rather anxiously when 
 we should have breakfast. 
 
 " 1 Not until we kill two hares,' replied O'Connell; ' we must 
 earn our breakfast.' He then engaged in busy speculations on 
 the course of the hare — she had doubled, and thrown out the 
 dogs — the pack were at fault ; they had scattered, and were 
 trying in ditferent directions to recover the scent. Ah ! Drum- 
 mer hit the scent again, and now they were all once more in 
 full pursuit. 
 
 u * It was a glorious scene. Overhead was a cloudless sky; 
 around us, on every side, was the most magnificent scenery, 
 lighted up with brilliant sunshine. There was that finest of 
 all music, the loud, full cry of the beagles returned by a thou- 
 sand echoes ; the shouts of men and boys ringing sharp and 
 cheerily along the hills ; and there was Daniel O'Connell him- 
 self, equalling in agility men not half his age, pouring forth an 
 exhaustless stream of jest and anecdote, and entering with 
 joyous zeal into the fullest spirit of the noble sport. 
 
 " Two hares were killed within an hour and a-half ; and we 
 then sat down to breakfast in a small sheltered nook. It was a 
 green hollow in the hill-side, about 900 feet above the level of 
 the sea. Immediately over us projected a grey rock, which 
 formed a sort of rude ceiling to the inner part of our mountain 
 parlour. Breakfast in such a spot, and with such appetites, was 
 truly a luxurious feast. A fragment of rock was our table ; some 
 
402 
 
 Life at Darrynane. 
 
 of the party sat on stones, whilst others reclined in primitive 
 fashion on the grass. The huntsmen, in their gay red jackets, 
 and several of the peasantry, formed an irregular line upon the 
 outskirts. The noble clogs sat around with an air of quiet 
 dignity, that seemed indicative of conscious merit. Far be- 
 neath us was the Atlantic, sparkling in the morning sun ; to 
 the right were the mountain isles of Scarriff and the bold rocks 
 of Skellig. 
 
 " The post-boy arrived with the letter-bag while we were at 
 breakfast. Mr. O'Connell read his letters on the mountain ; 
 the hunt was then resumed, and with such success, that, if I 
 mistake not, we brought home seven hares at sunset. 
 
 " On days when he did not hunt, the mode in which he 
 usually disposed of his time at Darrynane was as follows : 
 After breakfast the newspapers and letters occupied, in general, 
 from one to two hours ; he would then, if the clay was fine, 
 stroll out for a while to the beach, the garden, or to his turret 
 in the shrubbery. Whenever I accompanied him on any of 
 these walks, he invariably pointed out among the surrounding 
 rocks the course of some hunt, and detailed with a minuteness 
 that evinced the interest he took in the subject, the various 
 turns of the hare, and the exploits of the dogs. He would then 
 return to the house, and spend the rest of the day till dinner in 
 his study. One day I found him reading the ' Collegians,' 
 which he told me was his favourite work of fiction. ' I have 
 been reading it over again,' said he, ' with a melancholy interest. 
 Scanlan was the real name of the man who is called Hardress 
 Cregan in the novel. I was Scanlan's counsel at the trial, and 
 I knocked up the principal witness against him. But all would 
 not do ; there were proofs enough besides, that were quite 
 sufficient to convict him.' 
 
 " He always occupied the head of his table at dinner, and, 
 with rare exceptions, was talkative aud jocular during that meal. 
 He generally sat about an hour after it, and then returned to 
 the study, where he remained until bed- time." 
 
 A letter which O'Connell wrote from Danynane 
 
Boyhood Dreams. 
 
 403 
 
 to Walter Savage Lander, in October, 1838, shows 
 how he loved his mountain home. He says : 
 
 "I could show you at noontide, when the stem south- 
 wester had blown long and rudely, the mountain waves coming 
 in from the illimitable ocean, in majestic succession, expending 
 their gigantic force, and throwing up stupendous masses of foam 
 against the more gigantic and more stupendous mountain cliffs 
 that fence not only this my native spot, but form that eternal 
 barrier which prevents the wild Atlantic from submerging the 
 cultivated plains and high-steepled villages of proud Britain 
 herself. Or, were you with me amidst the Alpine scenery that 
 surrounds my humble abode, listening to the eternal roar of the 
 mountain torrent, as it bounds through the rocky defiles of my 
 native glens, I would venture to tell you how I was born within 
 the sound of the everlasting wave, and how my dreamy boy- 
 hood dwelt upon imaginary intercourse with those who are 
 dead of yore, and fed its fond fancies upon the ancient and long- 
 faded glories of that land which preserved literature and Chris- 
 tianity, when the rest of the now civilised Europe was shrouded 
 in the darkness of godless ignorance. Yes ; my expanding 
 spirit delighted in these dreams, till catching from them an en- 
 thusiasm which no disappointment can embitter, nor accumu- 
 lating years diminish, I formed the high resolve — to leave my 
 native land better after my death than I found her at my birth ; 
 and, if possible, to make her what she ought to be, 
 
 ' Great, glorious, and free, 
 First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea.' 
 
 " Perhaps, if I could show you the calm and exquisite 
 beauty of these capacious bays and mountain promontories, 
 softened in the pale moonlight which shines this lovely evening, 
 till all, which during the day was grand and terrific, has become 
 calm and serene in the silent tranquillity of the clear night, 
 perhaps you would readily admit that the man who has been so 
 
 VOL. II. 4 
 
404 
 
 Power of Ajyirehension. 
 
 often called a ferocious demagogue, is, in truth, a gentle lover 
 of Nature, an enthusiast of all her beauties : 
 
 ' Fond of each gentle and each dreary scene,' 
 
 and catching, from the loveliness as well as the dreariness of 
 the ocean and Alpine scenes with which it is surrounded, a 
 greater ardour to promote the good of man, in his overwhelm- 
 ing admiration of the mighty works of God." 
 
 O'Connell's power of apprehension was remark- 
 able. While apparently absorbed in letters or papers 
 of the greatest importance, lie would often hear and 
 answer some observation, which might be made in 
 the lowest tone, and at the far end of a large room. 
 He once gave considerable annoyance to a legal 
 friend, who was consulting him about an act of 
 Parliament. 
 
 " The lawyer was reading aloud the disputable parts of the 
 act, when he suddenly stopped short, exclaming : ' Oh ! Mr. 
 O'Connell, I see you are reading something else; I'll wait till 
 you have done.' * Go on ! go on, man !' said O'Connell, with- 
 out raising his eyes from the document with which he was en- 
 gaged, ' I hear you quite distinctly. If you had as much to do 
 as I have, you would long ago have been trained into the 
 knack of devoting the one moment to two occupations.' The 
 other obeyed, and when he had concluded his queries, O'Con- 
 nell put aside the second subject of his thoughts, and delivered 
 a detailed reply to all the questions of his visitor." 
 
 O'Connell's clients were not always of his own 
 way of thinking, either in religion or politics. 
 
 " Mr. Hedges Eyre, a gentleman of Orange notoriety, had 
 invariably engaged O'Connell as his counsel. On one occasion 
 a brother Orangeman severely censured Hedges Eyre for em- 
 ploying the Catholic leader. ' You've got seven counsel without 
 
The Doctor s Patient 
 
 him,' quoth this sage adviser, 'and why should you give your 
 mouey to that Papist rascal ?' 
 
 " Hedges did not make any immediate reply; hut they hoth 
 remained in court, watching the progress of the trial. The 
 counsel on the opposite side pressed a point for non-suit, and 
 carried the judge (Johnson) along with them. O'Connell re- 
 monstrated against the non-suit, protesting against so great an 
 injustice. The judge seemed obdurate. ' "Well, hear me at 
 all events !' said O'Connell. ' Xo, I won't !' replied the judge ; 
 1 I've already heard the leading counsel.' 1 But I am conduct- 
 ing counsel, my lord,' rejoined O'Connell, 'and more intimately 
 aware of the details of the case than my brethren. I entreat, 
 therefore, you will hear me.' The judge ungraciously con- 
 sented, and in five minutes O'Connell had argued him out of 
 the non-suit. ' Now,' said Hedges Eyre, in triumph, to his 
 Orange confrere — ' now do you see why I gave my money to 
 that Papist rascal ?' " 
 
 In 1800, O'Connell was indebted to Edmund 
 Lees, then Secretary to the General Post- Office, for 
 the establishment of a post-office at Caherciveen. 
 He gained a law-suit for Mr. Lees, who evinced his 
 gratitude in this practical manner. 
 
 " One of O'Connell's stories was about a physician who was 
 detained for many days at the Limerick assizes, to which he 
 had been subpoenaed as a witness. He pressed the judge to 
 order him his expenses. ' On what plea do you claim your ex- 
 penses ? ' demanded the judge. t On the plea of my heavy 
 personal loss and inconvenience, my lord,' replied the simple 
 applicant ; I have been kept away from my patients these five 
 days, and if I am kept here much longer, how clo I know but 
 they'll get well*'" 
 
 From the year 1813 to the year 1815 O'Connell 
 was occupied, or rather overwhelmed with occupa- 
 
406 
 
 Trial of Fitzpatrick. 
 
 tion, by his efforts to keep the Catholic party together, 
 and his own constantly increasing business. 
 
 The celebrated trial of John Magee took place in 
 1813. He was the proprietor of the Dublin Evening 
 Post ; and a review of the careers of the various Irish 
 viceroys who had preceded the Duke of Richmond, 
 was inserted in this paper when the duke retired. 
 The article was written by Mr. Scully, the author of 
 a well-known and most important work upon the 
 penal laws. In early life he did not appear as a 
 patriot ; but a careful consideration of the state of 
 the country could not fail to arouse any honest man 
 to do his best to advocate her cause. His bookseller 
 was imprisoned for publishing his book, and his 
 editor was imprisoned for publishing his article. 
 Altogether Mr. Scully was not pleasant as a literary 
 friend. The trial of the publisher arose thus : — In 
 the year 1809, a Catholic farmer named Barry, a 
 native of the county Wexford, was sentenced to 
 death, and hanged, although there was complete 
 evidence after his unjust conviction to prove his in- 
 nocence. Mr. Scully mentioned this fact, for it was 
 a fact, in his Statement of the Penal Laws ; and as 
 Mr. Hugh Fitzpatrick was the publisher, he was pro- 
 secuted. 
 
 The Attorney-General Saurin said there was in- 
 ternal evidence that the Statement of the Penal Laws 
 was compiled by a lawyer, and that, though he was 
 safe from punishment because he was anonymous, he 
 ought not to be so from remorse for his conduct. 
 
Trial of FiUpatnck. 
 
 407 
 
 Mr. Scully at once rose in court, and said lie would 
 give the author's name, if he would be guaranteed an 
 impartial trial of the facts. The Attorney-General 
 - knew the facts as well as any one, and how terribly 
 damaging they were to the Government. He said he 
 'stood there to prosecute a libeller, not to defend 
 the Government;" a very sensible reply. So the 
 affair ended — not, however, without another appeal 
 from Scully, to whom Saurin observed a discreet 
 silence. 
 
 The case went on. O'Connell examined Mr. 
 Burrows Campbell, who had been counsel for the 
 murdered man. It was proved thereby that counsel 
 had applied to postpone the trial ; that witnesses 
 could not be procured, the notice was so short; that 
 Norbury, of sanguinary memory, refused the applica- 
 tion ; that counsel thereupon threw up his brief ; that 
 counsel, after the conviction of the murdered man, 
 wrote to Lord Norbury concerning the voluntary 
 affidavits of those persons who were to have been 
 Barry's witnesses, in which they swore that he was in 
 their company at a distance of forty-five miles from 
 the place where the murder was committed ; that 
 counsel only received a verbal reply ; that he applied 
 then to the Attorney-General ; that the Attorney- 
 General took no notice whatever of the matter ; that 
 l.e did not believe it was because the man was a 
 Catholic, that he was hanged being innocent ; that 
 Catholics were not so badly treated as that — to which 
 Mr. O'Connell replied, " No, they are not all hanged ;" 
 
408 
 
 Trial of Magee. 
 
 that he spoke of the circumstances to every one ; and 
 that he considered them " very shocking." 
 
 O'Connell made an admirable defence. He 
 showed that Mr. Pole and Sir Charles Saxton were 
 the persons in office when the book was published, 
 and that two other persons held their situation when 
 the information was filed. The verdict was, of 
 course, against Mr. Fitzpatrick. O'Connell then 
 made an application, to have the verdict set aside on 
 ground of a misdirection " on the part of the judge 
 who had charged the jury. Id his long and eloquent 
 address we find the following sentence • 
 
 " It was matter of Irish history, that when these State 
 prosecutions were carrying on against a Catholic of this country, 
 not one man of his own religion was suffered to remain upon 
 the panel." 
 
 The trial of Magee created immense sensation — 
 none the less that the Attorney-General was legally 
 dissected by O'Connell, in a fashion which it has not 
 often fallen to the lot of an Attorney-General to bear. 
 O'Connell, certainly, only stated facts, but he had a 
 very clear way of putting facts. He opened his ad- 
 dress by expressing " his inability to discover what 
 he had to reply to." He then proceeded to reason in 
 anticipation of a conviction, and showed the hopeless 
 manner in which that gentleman had involved himself 
 in stating the subjects of the indictment. He had 
 declared that Mr. Magee was indicted as the proprie- 
 tor of a newspaper, or the printer of a newspaper, 
 and as having charged the Duke of Richmond with 
 
Trial of Mage e. 
 
 409 
 
 being a murderer, yet none of these counts were 
 found in the indictment. O'Connell then took up the 
 precedent on which Mr. Saurin acted, and showed, to 
 the satisfaction of the audience, if not to the satisfac- 
 tion of the counsel, that the case proved precisely the 
 reverse of that for which it was quoted. 
 
 The twice-postponed trial was commenced on the 
 2Gth of June 1813. The Attorney-General opened 
 the case, and witnesses were called to prove publica- 
 tion. There was a full bar on either side, the Attor- 
 ney-General and the Solicitor-General being for the 
 prosecution, with Sergeants Moore, Ball, and M'Mahon. 
 The counsels for the defendant were O'Connell, 
 Wallace, Hamilton, Finlay, and Philips. The matter 
 was one of very grave importance, both for the Crown 
 and for the people. It involved the question of the 
 liberty of the press, and each side came to the forensic 
 battle with the full knowledge of what was involved. 
 
 The Attorney-General imperilled his reputation, 
 if he did not injure his cause, by using bad language, 
 by descending to personal abuse of the man he 
 was prosecuting. He called him a " malefactor' 7 a 
 "ruffian," and other names, with which we do not 
 choose to defile these pages. 
 
 O'Connell's defence of Magee was his master effort 
 at the bar. The concentrated yet galling scorn with 
 which he treated both the manner and the matter of 
 his opponent was something which could never have 
 been forgotten by those who listened to it. The 
 apparent compassion which he manifested when he 
 
410 
 
 Trial of Magee. 
 
 knew that he had driven him to desperation was in- 
 imitably conveyed. He "pitied" him — he "forgave" 
 him, he declared him an object of compassion; he 
 selected carefully each vulgar epithet, and repeated 
 them for the consideration of the jury, while he took 
 care to expose the low origin of the unfortunate 
 lawyer, by expressing his wonder how he could have 
 recollected the forms of speech which must have been 
 familiar to him in early life, " after having mixed for 
 thirty years in polished society." And then, having 
 briefly alluded to his " well-pensioned but ill-read 
 newspaper," and its imitation of Saurin's bad lan- 
 guage, and denouncing " the style and manner of the 
 Attorney-General's discussion," he proceeded to the 
 matter. 
 
 O'Connell was well aware that his speech would 
 be read in England by most of the leading politicians 
 of the day, and he took the opportunity of giving 
 them a condensed history of Ireland, seasoned by a 
 pungent commentary on British misrule. It was in 
 vain that the Chief Justice meekly said, "What, Mr. 
 O'Connell, can this have to do with the question the 
 jury have to try?" Mr. O'Connell certainly did not 
 snub him because he was meek, but he took excellent 
 care to continue his defence precisely as he had begun 
 it. He declared that he was "compelled" by the 
 Attorney-General to be political, though he had 
 hitherto made it a " rigid rule of his professional con- 
 duct" not to mingle politics with his forensic duties. 
 
 This was true, but we suspect, if an equally good 
 
Trial of Magee 
 
 411 
 
 opportunity had offered, that the " rigid rule " would 
 have been relaxed. It was true, also, that the 
 unfortunate Attorney-General had given him an 
 opportunity, which that individual must have deeply 
 regretted to the end of his life. 
 
 The Attorney-General said that Catholics were 
 seditious, treasonable, and revolutionary ; it was an 
 old story that, but the same charge, though still older 
 in the present day, answers political purposes too well 
 to be abandoned easily. O'Connell said that the 
 Catholics only asked to participate in the advantages 
 of the constitution : 
 
 " Strange inconsistent voice of calumny," he exclaimed. 
 "You charge us with intemperance in our exertions for a par- 
 ticipation in the constitution, and you charge us, at the same 
 time, almost in the same sentence, with a design to overturn 
 that constitution. The dupes of your hypocrisy may believe 
 you ; but, base calumniators, you do not, you cannot believe 
 yourselves !" 
 
 The Attorney-General had bosted of his triumph 
 over the Pope and Popery. " I have put down," he 
 said, " the Catholic Committee ; I will put down at 
 my good time the Catholic Board." He was unwise 
 as well as ungentlemanly to taunt O'Connell thus : it 
 was the low boast of that ascendency which had kept 
 Ireland disunited for centuries. O'Connell replied : 
 
 " This boast is partly historical, partly prophetical. He 
 was wrong in his history — he is quite mistaken in his projmecy. 
 He did not put down the Catholic Committee ; we gave up that 
 name the moment that it was confessedly avowed, that this 
 sapient Attorney- General's polemico-legal controversy dwindled 
 
412 
 
 Trial of Magee. 
 
 into a mere dispute about words. He told us that in the 
 English language ' pretence ' means ' purpose.' Had it been 
 French, and not English, we might have been inclined to 
 respect his judgment, but in point of English we venture to 
 differ with him ; we told him ' purpose/ good Mr. Attorney- 
 General, is just the reverse of ' pretence.' The quarrel grew 
 warm and animated; we appealed to common sense, to the 
 grammar, and to the dictionary : common sense, grammar, and 
 the dictionary decided in our favour. He brought his appeal to 
 this Court. Your lordship and your brethren unanimously de- 
 cided that, in point of law — mark, gentlemen of the jury, the 
 sublime wisdom of law — the court decided that, in point of law, 
 'pretence' does mean 'purpose/' 
 
 " Fully contented with this very reasonable and more satis- 
 factory decision, there still remained a matter of fact between 
 us : the Attorney-General charged us with being representa- 
 tives ; we denied all representation. He had two witnesses to 
 prove the fact for him — they swore to it one way at one trial, 
 and directly the other way at the next. An honourable, 
 intelligent, and enlightened jury disbelieved those witnesses at 
 the first trial ; matters were better managed at the second 
 trial — the jury were better arranged; I speak delicately, 
 gentlemen; the jury were better arranged, as the witnesses 
 were better informed ; and, accordingly, there was one verdict 
 for us on the representative question, and one verdict against 
 us. 
 
 " He concluded this part of his subject by exclaiming : ' Oh ! 
 the Attorney- General ! the best and wisest of men !' O'Connell's 
 defence of the Press was masterly ; and he showed how, when 
 it first came into existence, it was stifled and trammelled by the 
 Star Chamber. When do the people want protection ? — when 
 the Government is engaged in delinquencies, oppression, and 
 crimes. It is against these that the people want the protection 
 of the Press. Now, I put it to your plain sense, whether the 
 Press can afford such protection, if it be punished for treating 
 of these crimes ? 
 
Trial of Magee. 
 
 413 
 
 " Still more, can a shadow of protection be given by a Press 
 that is not permitted to mention the errors, the talents, and the 
 striking features of an administration ? Here is a watchman 
 admitted by the Attorney-General to be at his post to warn the 
 people of their danger, and the first thing that is done to this 
 watchman is to knock him down and bring him to a dungeon, 
 for announcing the danger he is bound to disclose. I agree 
 with the Attorney-General, the Press is a protection, but it is 
 not in its silence or in its voice of flattery; It can protect only 
 by speaking out when there is danger, or error, or want of 
 ability. 
 
 " The Attorney- General told us, rather ludicrously, that 
 they, meaning the duke's predecessors, included, of course, him- 
 self. How a man could be included amongst his predecessors, 
 it would be difficult to discover. It seems to be that mode of 
 expression which would indicate, that the Attorney-General, 
 notwithstanding his foreign descent, has imbibed some of the 
 language of the native Irish. But our blunders arise, not like 
 this, from a confusion of idea; they are generally caused by too 
 great condensation of thought ; they are, indeed, frequently of 
 the head, but never — never of the heart. Would I could say 
 so much for the Attorney- General ; his blunder is not to be 
 attributed to his cool and cautious head ; it sprung, I much 
 fear, from the misguided bitterness of the bigotry of his heart ! 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, this sentence does, in broad and distinct 
 terms, charge the predecessors of the duke, but not the duke 
 himself, with insult, oppression, murder, and deceit. But it is 
 history, gentlemen : are you prepared to silence the voice of 
 history ? Are you disposed to suppress the recital of facts — 
 the story of the events of former days ? Is the historian, and 
 the publisher of history, to be exposed to indictment and 
 punishment?" 
 
 A resume of Irish history followed, and as 
 O'Connell related each act of English cruelty, perfidy, 
 and illegality, he asked, " In what ladylike language 
 
414 
 
 Trial of Magee. 
 
 shall these things be recorded ?" He showed that, 
 up to this period, trial by jury in Ireland had been 
 "a mockery of law and justice." It was then in- 
 sinuated that it was very far from being otherwise at 
 that very time. 
 
 He flun^ scorn on those who countenanced and 
 encouraged legal dishonesty, while they distributed 
 Bibles, and called themselves suppressors of vice. 
 
 In the article for which Magee was indicted, the 
 expression, " the profligate, unprincipled Westmore- 
 land" was especially noted. On this O'Connell 
 related some of the shameless and almost nameless 
 crimes of this wretched man, and observed : 
 
 " What if these scenes were enacted in the open day- 
 would you call that profligacy, sweet distributors of Bibles? 
 The women of Ireland have always been beauteous to a pro- 
 verb; they were, without an exception, chaste beyond the 
 terseness of a proverb to express ; they are still as chaste as in 
 former days ; but the depraved example of a depraved court- 
 has furnished some exceptions, and the action of criminal con- 
 versation, before the time of Westmoreland unknown, has since 
 become more familiar to our courts of justice. 
 
 " Call you the sad example which produced those excep- 
 tions — call you that profligacy, suppressors of vice and Bible 
 distributors ? The vices of the poor are within the reach of 
 control; to suppress them, you can call in aid the church- 
 warden and the constable ; the justice of the peace will readily 
 aid you, for he is a gentleman; the Court of Sessions will 
 punish those vices for you by fine, by imprisonment, and, if 
 you are urgent, by whipping. But, suppressors of vice, who 
 shall aid you to suppress the vices of the great? Are you 
 sincere, or are you, to use your own phraseology, whitewashed 
 tombs — painted charnel-houses ? Be ye hypocrites ? If you 
 
Trial of Ma gee. 
 
 415 
 
 are not— if 3-011 be sincere— (and oh! Low I wish that 3*011 
 were) — if you be sincere, I will steadily require to know of you, 
 what aid you expect to suppress the vices of the rich and great ? 
 Who will assist you to suppress those vices ? The churchwar- 
 den ! why, he, I believe, handed them into the best pew in one 
 of your cathedrals, that they might lovingly hear divine service 
 together. The constable ! — absurd. The justice of the peace ! — 
 no, upon his honour. As to the Court of Sessions you cannot 
 expect it to interfere ; and, my lords, the judges are really so 
 busy at the assizes, in hurrying the grand juries through the 
 presentments, that there is no leisure to look after the scan- 
 dalous faults of the great. Who, then, sincere and candid sup- 
 pressors of vice, can aid you? — The Press; the Press alone 
 talks of the profligacy of the great ; and, at least, shames into 
 decency those whom it may fail to correct. The Press is your 
 assistant, but your only one. Go, then, men of conscience, 
 men of religion — go, then, and convict John Magee, because 
 he published that Westmoreland was profligate and unprincipled 
 as a lord-lieutenant — do convict, and then return to your dis- 
 tribution of Bibles and to your attacks upon the recreations of 
 the poor, under the name of vices ! 
 
 " Do convict the only aid which virtue has, and distribute 
 your Bibles, that you may have the name of being religious ; 
 upon your sincerity depends my client's prospect of a verdict. 
 Does he lean upon a broken reed ?" 
 
 Camden had been called "the cold-hearted and 
 cruel Camden." O'Connell pleaded justification of 
 the libel, and re-asserted it : 
 
 "I pass on from the sanctified portion of the jury which I 
 have latterly addressed, and I call the attention of you all to 
 the next member of the sentence : 
 
 " ' The cold-hearted and cruel Camden.' 
 
 " Here I have your prejudices all armed against me. In 
 the administration of Camden, your faction was cherished and 
 triumphant. Will 3*ou prevent him from being called cold and 
 
416 
 
 Trial of Magee. 
 
 cruel ? Alas ! to-day, why have I not men to address who 
 would listen to me for the sake of impartial justice ? But even 
 with you the case is too powerful to allow me to despair. 
 
 "Well, I do say, the cold and cruel Camden. Why, on 
 one circuit, during his administration, there were one h-un- 
 
 DEED INDIVIDUALS TRIED BEFORE ONE JUDGE ; OF THESE 
 NINETY-EIGHT WERE CAPITALLY CONVICTED, AND NINETY- SEVEN 
 
 hanged ! I understand one escaped ; hut he was a soldier 
 who murdered a peasant, or something of that trivial nature — 
 NINETY-SEVEN victims in one circuit ! ! ! 
 
 " In the meantime it was necessary, for the purposes of 
 the Union, that the flame of rebellion should he fed. The 
 meetings of the rebel colonels in the north were, for a length 
 of time, regularly reported to Government; but the rebellion 
 was not then ripe enough ; and whilst the fruit was coming to 
 maturity, under the fostering hand of the administration, the 
 wretched dupes atoned on the gallows for allowing themselves 
 to be deceived." 
 
 He spoke then In glowing language of the sol- 
 dierly Abercromby and the heroic Moore, men whom 
 England delighted to honour, whose names will ever 
 be enshrined in history as amongst the bravest and 
 best of her soldiers ; and he showed how they had 
 characterised the administration of Camden, and the 
 fashion in which. Ireland was governed during the 
 Kebellion. 
 
 But perhaps what told most on the Attorney- 
 General's case, after the allusions to his own origin, 
 was the allusion to his own politics. In Ireland at 
 least, men should be cautious in early life ; for when 
 some unhappy judge or Queen's Counsel comes for- 
 ward to denounce in scathing and vengeful language 
 the delinquencies of his victims, it will perhaps be 
 
Trial of Magee. 
 
 417 
 
 found that they have only followed in his footsteps 
 at an humble distance ; and for one unwise expression 
 on their part, half a dozen criminal suggestions may 
 be on record against the judge or the counsel. 
 
 "In humble and obscure distance I followed the footsteps 
 of my present adversaries. What their sentiments were then 
 of the authors of the Union I beg to read to you ; I will read 
 them from a newspaper set up for the mere purpose of opposing 
 the Union, and conducted under the control of these gentlemen. 
 If their editor should be gravely denied, I shall only reply — 
 * Oh ! cease your Funning.' 1 
 
 " The charge of being a Jacobin was at that time made 
 against the present Attorney-General — him, plain William 
 Saurin— in the very terms, and with just as much truth as ho 
 now applies it to my clients. His reply shall serve for that of 
 Mr. Magee. I take it from the Anti-Union of 22nd March, 
 1800. 
 
 "'To the charge of Jacobin, Mr. Saurin said he knew not 
 what it meant, as applied to him, except it ivas an opposition 
 to the will of the British minister.' 
 
 " So says Mr. Magee ; but, gentlemen, my eye lights upon 
 another passage of Mr. Saurin's, in the same speech from which 
 X have quoted the above. It was in these words : 
 
 " 1 Mr. Saurin admitted that debates might sometimes pro- 
 duce agitations, but that was the price necessarily paid for 
 liberty.' 
 
 " Oh, how I thank this good Jew for the word. Yes, 
 agitation is, as Mr. Saurin well remarked, the price necessarily 
 paid for liberty. We have paid the price, gentlemen, and the 
 honest man refuses to give us the goods. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, of this Mr. Saurin, then an agitator, I 
 beg leave to read the opinion upon this Union, the author of 
 
 1 A pamphlet under this title was published by the Solicitor- 
 General ; it was full of wit and talent. 
 
418 
 
 Trial of Magee. 
 
 which we have only called artful and treacherous. From his 
 speech of the 13th of March, 1800, I select those passages : 
 
 " Mr. Saurin said he felt it his duty to the crown, to the 
 country, and to his family, to warn the minister of the dreadful 
 consequences of persevering in a measure which the people of 
 Ireland almost unanimously disliked.' 
 
 " And again : 
 
 " ( He, for one, would assert the principles of the glorious 
 revolution, and boldly declare, in the face of the nation, that 
 when the sovereign power dissolved the compact that existed 
 between the Government and the people, that moment the 
 right of resistance accrues. 
 
 " i Whether it would be prudent in the people to avail them- 
 selves of that right, would be another question. But if a 
 legislative union were forced on the country, against the will of 
 its inhabitants, it would be a nullity, and resistance to it would 
 be a struggle against usurpation, and not a resistance against 
 law.' 
 
 "May I be permitted just to observe, how much more 
 violent this agitator of the year 1800, than we poor and timid 
 agitators of the year 1813. When did we talk of resistance 
 being a question of prudence ? Shame upon the men who call 
 us intemperate, and yet remember their own violence. 
 
 " But, gentlemen, is the Attorney- General at liberty to 
 change the nature of things with his own official and professional 
 prospects ? I am ready to admit that he receives thousands 
 of pounds by the year of the public moneys, in his office of 
 Attorney- General — thousands from the Crown- Solicitor — thou- 
 sands, for doing little work, from the Custom-house ; but does 
 all this public booty with which he is loaded alter the nature of 
 things, or prevent that from being a deceitful measure, brought 
 about by artful and treacherous means, against which Mr. 
 Saurin, in 1800, preached the holy doctrine of insurrection, 
 sounded the tocsin of resistance, and summoned the people of 
 the land to battle against it as against usurpation ? 
 
 <( In 1800, he absolves the subjects from their allegiance, if 
 
The Jury brought to the Bar. 
 
 419 
 
 the usurpation, styled the Union, will be carried ; and he, this 
 identical agitator, in 1813 indicts a man, and calls him a 
 ruffian, for speaking of the contrivers of the Union, not as 
 usurpers, but as artful, treacherous men. Gentlemen, pity the 
 situation in which he has placed himself — and pray, do not 
 think of inflicting punishment upon my client for his extreme 
 moderation." 
 
 At the conclusion of this wonderful speech, 
 O'Connell proved that the Attorney-General had 
 been asked to prosecute a paper which had con- 
 tained gross libels upon Catholics, and that he 
 had refused. O'Connell concluded thus : 
 
 " There are amongst you men of great religious zeal, of 
 much public piety : Are you sincere '? Do you believe what 
 you profess ? With all this zeal, with all this piety, if there 
 any conscience amongst you ? Is there any terror of violating 
 your oaths '? Be ye hypocrites, or does genuine religion in- 
 spire ye ? If you be sincere, if you have conscience, if your 
 oaths can control your interests — then Mr. Magee confidently 
 expects an acquittal. 
 
 " If amongst you there be cherished one ray of pure re- 
 ligion, if amongst you there glow a single spark of liberty, if I 
 have alarmed religion or roused the spirit of freedom in one 
 breast amongst you, Mr. Magee is safe — and his country is 
 served ; but if there be none — if you be slaves and hypocrites, 
 he will await your verdict, and despise it." 
 
 The verdict, of course, was for the Crown. 
 
 V9L. II. 
 
 5 
 
(Lbaptcr Hintlj. 
 
 COURAGE AND PATRIOTISM. 
 1813—1819. 
 
 The English Catholics: The Duke of Norfolk and 
 Dr. Milncr : Castle-Browne and the Jesuits: 
 Peel and Dr. Kenny : Public Honours : Duel- 
 ling and Duellists: The Irish Catholic Aris- 
 tocracy : D'Esterre, his Challenge and Fatal 
 Duel: Agrarian Outrages: Rev. John Hamil- 
 ton, his Plots and Tools: Affair of Honour 
 with Peel: PeeVs Gift to Ireland. 
 
BXTTgOWEVER much O'Connell's 
 memory is revered in Ireland, 
 feS^ssa it ought to be revered through- 
 out the whole Catholic, or we 
 should rather say, Christian 
 world, since by far the greater 
 number of Christians are Ca- 
 tholics. It certainly requires a very 
 careful study of his life to know the 
 obstacles with which he had to con- 
 tend, and which he overcame. 
 
 It is not, we think, saying too much 
 /> \\ to assert that O'Connell was mainly instru- 
 mental in saving the Catholic Church from 
 the terrible consequences which would have fol- 
 lowed the acceptance of the Veto. It required an 
 
424 
 
 English Catholics. 
 
 intelligence and a mind like his to grasp the bearings 
 of the whole case, and to sacrifice the present apparent 
 good in order to avert the future corresponding evil. 
 
 We have already said something of the political 
 opinions of English Catholics. They made then, we 
 much fear that some few make still, the fatal mistake 
 of dissociating themselves from their Irish brethren. 
 We have seen how some of them were even willing 
 to forego the name of Catholic, and their self-respect 
 along with it, for the miserable imaginary advantage 
 of a higher social respectability. It is a matter of 
 nistory, that the great majority — that, m fact, an over- 
 whelming majority— of English Catholics apostatised 
 from their religion to preserve their worldly goods. 
 A noble few remained faithful, but the leaven of 
 worldliness was at work even amongst these few, and 
 they readily listened to any specious plea which 
 would tend to lessen that isolation from their Pro- 
 testant fellow-countrymen which they felt to be, and 
 which was, a social bar sinister. They seemed to 
 have forgotten that the religion to which they belong- 
 ed did not promise them either temporal prosperity 
 or worldly honour, and that it might demand the 
 sacrifice of both. 
 
 There were, even then, men in England who had 
 renounced their religion, because they had clear views 
 of what it demanded. They were men who had 
 quietly counted the cost. They knew very well what 
 their religion required, but they had made up their 
 minds not to submit to its requirements. They were, 
 
A Doubtful Triumph. 
 
 if I may say so, honest apostates. There was yet 
 another class who also knew what their religion re- 
 quired, but who were always trying to make the 
 requirements of their religion square in with the 
 requirements of the world. They might as well have 
 tried to square the circle. They failed miserably. 
 They lost their own self-respect, and they lost the 
 respect of others. They gained nothing- in this 
 world ; as for the next, there are some words on 
 record, uttered by Eternal Truth, about the folly of 
 being ashamed of Him here, and the certainty of 
 eternal shame for those who yield to this temptation. 
 
 O 'Council hated humbug. He believed in an 
 honest Protestant, he respected an honest Catholic, 
 but he could not endure one who professed to believe 
 a certain creed, and was nevertheless ashamed of it. 
 
 O'Connell was not singular in his opinions. 
 
 The Evening Pod of the 10th June 1813, contains 
 the following : 
 
 " Extract of a private letter received at our office this 
 morning, dated 
 
 " 1 London, Monday ^ 1th June. 
 
 " ' Two English Catholics of rank waited upon his grace 
 the Duke of Norfolk, on Saturday last, to inform him of the 
 valorous exploit of their hoard, at its meeting of the 29th ult., 
 in expelling the venerable Milner from their room, with shouts 
 of indignity and wrath. 
 
 " ' The duke, who was bred a Catholic, retains his ancient 
 habits of intimacy with the bishop, and although he renounced 
 Popery for political pursuits, yet he has not, like vulgar rene- 
 gades, withdrawn his support from the Catholic cause. Hia 
 two noble visitors having detailed to him their honourable 
 
426 
 
 A Stinging Rebuke. 
 
 triumph of the 29th May: " Aye, you have done well," ob- 
 served his grace, with the keenest irony, "I applaud you for 
 this; it is just what I ought to wish. You are following my 
 example. You will soon become good Protestants. I have 
 been only thirty-five years beforehand with you. But, after 
 all, let me tell you, that Doctor Milner is only defending the 
 true old Catholic religion." 
 
 " ' The visitors felt the sting, took their leave, and returned 
 to Stanhope Street.' " 
 
 We have not space, and we candidly admit that 
 we have not inclination, to enter into a detail of the 
 pitiful squabbles connected with this subject. The 
 Irish episcopacy and the Irish people were firm, as 
 they have ever been, in the cause of truth and justice, 
 and the cause of truth and justice triumphed. 1 
 
 In 1813, Castle Browne, in the county Kildare, 
 was purchased by the Jesuits. This proceeding, of 
 
 1 When Quarantotti's rescript arrived in Ireland in 1814, Dr. 
 Lanigan, the eminent Irish ecclesiastical historian, opposed it most 
 -vigorously. He showed that to decide such a point would have re- 
 quired the deliberation of the whole congregation of Propaganda, 
 and even of an (Ecumenical Courcil. In a letter which he wrote to 
 the Dublin Evening Post, he said ; " The document is not from his 
 
 Holiness Pius VII nor is there a word to indicate any sort 
 
 of consent or approbation from the Sovereign Pontiff or any one of 
 his cardinals. Quarantotti refers to no authority but his own." 
 
 In an admirable little work, " Notices of the Life and Character 
 of the Most Rev. Dr. Murray," by the Kev. William Meagher, now 
 Monseigneur Meagher — Dublin, 1853— the" whole subject is fully 
 and ably treated. This work would be well worth republishing for 
 many reasons. On Good Friday, 1816, Dr. Murray delivered a 
 most powerful sermon against the Veto. " He implored the mis- 
 guided advocates of vetoism not to impose new and disgraceful 
 bands on the mystical body of the Redeemer." 
 
Jesuits at Cattle Browne. 
 
 127 
 
 course excited the wrath of the Orange party. The 
 Jesuits have had the singular honour of being noted 
 and persecuted more than the other religious orders 
 in the Church. The very name is made a by-word 
 and reproach : and men who ought to know better, 
 and whose understanding we shall not insult by sup- 
 posing them in the state of gross ignorance which 
 their words would seem to indicate, find a singular 
 pleasure in misrepresenting the Society for any 
 excuse, or for none. 
 
 The name has done service as a watchword of 
 bigotry, and a has les Jesuites has been a party cry of 
 intolerance for several centuries. There will probably 
 always be a certain class of men who will find the cry 
 too convenient to abandon it, 
 
 O'Connell at once came to the rescue. He intro- 
 duced the subject at a meeting of the Catholic Board 
 on the 24th December, 1813 : 
 
 " Under date of the 18th of last November, a newspaper 
 in the pay of the Castle has the following tirade, upon the 
 occasion of the seat called Castle Browne in Kildare, having 
 been, as it asserts, purchased by Jesuits : 'Ireland stands in 
 imminent danger. If Popery succeeds, her fairest plains will 
 once more witness days worthy of Bloody Mary ; and the walls 
 of Deny shall again become the lamentable bulwarks against 
 Popish treachery and massacre !' Well, this from men who 
 hate the expression of any kind of bigotry — who are in a rage 
 at Dr. Dromgoole for using the word ' novelty' in a disrespectful 
 sense ! It is, one would think, rather uncivil. ' Papist 
 treachery and massacre ' are perhaps nearly as bad as ' Pro- 
 testant novelty.' But this is a mere jest compared with a 
 paragraph which I found in a Government paper of the 2nd of 
 
428 Catholics Officially Traduced. 
 
 this present December. Hear it with patience : ' The letter of 
 Cranmer (alluding to a letter inserted in that paper) shows the 
 times respectively when each of the fundamental tenets of 
 Popery was invented- — viz., the power of the Pope to dispense 
 with oaths, and depose sovereign princes by absolving subjects 
 from their oaths of allegiance, the nullity of oaths to heretics, 
 their extirpation as a religious duty ! ' 
 
 " Kecollect that it is not a mere isolated individual ; it is a 
 man patronised and salaried by the administration — a man paid 
 with our money — that has the efirontry to traduce us thus ; to 
 attribute to us, as fundamental tenets, doctrines of perjury, 
 murder, and treason — doctrines which, if they were those of 
 the Church of Rome, I would not belong to her communion for 
 an hour — doctrines which shock humanity, and would make 
 religion the most cruel and the most absurd mockery ! 
 
 " Where is now that fever of zeal and fever of liberality that 
 induced the public press to strain all its energies on the attack 
 of Dr. Dromgoole ? Whom did his published speech- accuse of 
 perjury, of murder, and treason ? What ! shall it be said that, 
 like the eels in the story, we Catholics are so accustomed to be 
 skinned alive that we do not feel it, but that the sensibility of 
 every other sect deserves the highest protection — that of the 
 Catholic people none ? Are, then, the Catholics, in the opinion 
 of their friends, in such a state of moral degradation, that it is 
 quite unimportant how they are treated ? Alas ! I much fear 
 there are too many who think so ; and, miserable slaves that we 
 are, our own dissensions encourage and justify the opinion. 
 
 " But that opinion has a higher source still. The law — 
 the barbarous and calumniating spirit of legislation — has con- 
 secrated the contempt in which we are held. No Protestant 
 can hold office in Ireland without being obliged to swear : 
 
 " ' That the invocation of the saints, and the sacrifice of the 
 Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are super- 
 stitious and idolatrous ! ' 
 
 " Take notice, it is not any abstract notion that may be 
 
•120 
 
 formed of these practices, but the practices themselves, ' as they 
 are actually used ,' are idolatrous. 
 
 (t Thus our Protestant relatives, kinsmen, friends, are to 
 swear solemnly, to attest to the Eternal Being, that we arc 
 Idolaters ! Hence, then, with the partial and corrupt irrita- 
 bility that seeks for causes of censure in the language of an 
 unavowed individual Catholic, and forgets the paid, the salaried, 
 the authorised, alas ! the sworn calumnies, the bigotry of our 
 adversaries." 
 
 O'Connell's strongest arguments were simply 
 wasted on men blinded by intolerance. 1 
 
 Peel was then secretary for Ireland. He sent 
 for Dr. Kenny, the president of the college, to in- 
 terrogate him. Dr. Kenny was perfectly aware that 
 Peel had no authority whatever for this proceeding, 
 yet he went, lie proved more than a match for the 
 English statesman, and at the close of the interview, 
 he said to Mr. Peel, u I understand that you have a 
 son?" Mr. Peel said he had. Dr. Kenny replied, 
 
 1 When tho Duke of Leinstcr was examined before Parliament 
 about his neighbours the Jesuits, he spoke of them most fairly, and 
 said, not without some surprise, that he had found them able to 
 bring up boys well. He said their answers were " wonderful." So 
 far he was sufficiently above prejudice to be able to comprehend to 
 a certain extent, and to witness fairly to a state of life which he had 
 hitherto believed to be very different. But an amusing instance of 
 Protestant ignorance followed : 
 
 14 Is it not professedly an establishment for Jesuits?" he was 
 asked. 
 
 " Yes, they are Jesuits," answered the duke, " for I met them 
 in Italy." 
 
 AVe have ourselves known many educated people who imagined 
 any priest of ordinary intelligence must be a Jesuit. 
 
480 
 
 Security of the English Funds. 
 
 " I can assure you with the veracity of one whose 
 duty it is to be truthful, that if you send him to our 
 college, we shall make him a sound scholar." Peel 
 laughed heartily, but declined the favour. In the 
 course of this important interview, Peel had more than 
 suggested that the property of the Jesuits could and 
 would be confiscated : 
 
 " Mr. Peel," replied Dr. Kenny, with great calmness and 
 good-humour, " it may be so : your Government may attempt, 
 and have the power to effect such a violation of the rights of 
 property, but in doing so they will also violate the maxim of 
 Lord Chatham, whose statesmanship you profess to hold in 
 reverence. As you may not recollect the circumstance at this 
 moment, suffer me to recall it to you. It having been suggested 
 to him to lay hold of the moneys lying in the English funds, in 
 the names of natives of France, with whom war was then 
 waging: 'No, no,' said he; 'if the devil had money in the 
 English funds, it should be held safe for him ! ' " 
 
 Either Mr. Peel thought that the Jesuits had as 
 much right to fair play as the devil, or, what is more 
 probable, he did not consider it expedient to interfere 
 with them — for they were left in peace. Wisdom is 
 not hereditary, but undoubtedly prejudice is — and 
 were not the subject of such grave importance — it 
 would be amusing to find the son following in the 
 footsteps of the father at the present day. 1 
 
 1 We refer to the following report of some observations made by 
 the present baronet, as given in the Standard of July 24, 1872 : 
 
 " Sir R. Peel — I wish to ask the Prime Minister a question 
 springing out of that which has just been answered by the noble lord. 
 It will be in the recollection of the house, that during the course of 
 the present session many questions have been asked respecting the 
 
The Jesuits and Communists. 
 
 431 
 
 With amusing servility to English opinion the 
 X> w York Times followed suit, and on the 30th of 
 July declared that : 
 
 " The Jesuits and the International Society may now rank 
 as the two bugbears of the Courts of Europe." 
 
 There were Whalleys and Newdegates in the 
 House in those days, and there probably will be 
 
 influx of Communists into this country, and we understand that the 
 Government have instructed Lord Lyons to use his best exertions to 
 prevent this influx. No doubt the Communists are a very criminal 
 class, but in many cases they are misguided, and the victims of cir- 
 cumstances. The question I have to put refers to an equally dan- 
 gerous and obnoxious class. I refer to the order of the Jesuits. 
 My question has reference to recent acts of spiritual power exercised 
 in Ireland." 
 
 We hope the right hon. member for Tamworth will not be obliged 
 to put his partiality for the Communists to a practical test. We 
 should like to know very much the " circumstances " to which they 
 have been victims. In default of all evidence we must believe that 
 the Jesuits who have been expelled from Germany, without one single 
 accusation being proved against them — the real victims. The allusion 
 to the Galway trial is curious. Even Judge Keogh himself would be 
 puzzled to make out any " Jesuit influence " in that affair. The 
 next thing, we suppose, will be to indict the order for it. It is 
 straDge how an English gentleman of ordinary education could be so 
 hopelessly ignorant of cotemporary history. 
 
 We find in the same number of the Standard the following civil 
 remarks about eminent Catholics : 
 
 " The Pope tells us that now he has nothing to look to but the 
 divine assistance. Prayer is the instrument which he depends on 
 his followers to employ. How delightful a prospect this seems to 
 promise for sober, order-loving citizens ; if the Pope and Cardinal 
 Anton elli, the Von Krements and Von Kettelers, the Cullens and 
 M'Hales, could only devote themselves to prayer, we should be rid 
 of the scandal of a number of men, clothed with the highest functions 
 
432 
 
 Increasing Popularity. 
 
 until the advent of Macaulay's New Zealander. Mr. 
 Peel tried to calm their perturbed spirits by giving , 
 them some information concerning his interview with 
 Dr. Kenny ; but he was neither sufficiently honour- 
 able nor sufficiently large-minded to give full details. 
 
 O'Connell's popularity was now rapidly approach- 
 ing its highest point. At a meeting in Louth, 7th 
 August 1813, a vote of thanks was proposed to him, 
 James Kieran, Esq., being in the chair ; at Kilkenny 
 the same compliment was paid to him, Captain Bryan 
 in the chair ; at Tralee, Dominick Rice, Esq., pre- 
 sided ; at Wexford, Harry Lambert, Esq. ; at Galway, 
 Lord Ffrench ; at Cork, John Galway, Esq. At the 
 latter place O'Connell was chaired home after a 
 public meeting, and addressed the people " from the 
 windows of Laffin's, the hatter." 
 
 On the 14th January, 1815, the manufacturers of 
 the Liberty of Dublin presented him with a silver 
 cup, richly carved. 
 
 Faction has been the curse of Ireland, and it 
 might be expected that O'Connell's popularity would 
 procure him many enemies. The class of men who 
 now try to hunt down a Catholic justice of the peace, 
 or custos rotulorum, by swearing informations, if he 
 gives them even the excuse of an indiscretion of 
 
 of religion, only opening their mouths to calumniate their neigh- 
 bours, and picture their eternal damnation. Let them retire into 
 their closets, and we should escape the pernicious influence which 
 these men, by their influence over the ignorant masses, add to the 
 other elements of disorganisation which now abound in the world." 
 
The Order of the Bay. 
 
 433 
 
 language or action, were then ready and eager to 
 shoot him down. It need not be said that duelling 
 was the order of the day, and it was too often made 
 an excuse for getting rid of a political opponent. 
 
 Even in elections, an attorney was selected quite 
 as often with a view to his skill with pistols as to his 
 skill with his tongue. 1 
 
 1 At an election for the County Wexford in 1810, when Messrs. 
 Alcock and Colclongh were rival candidates, some tenants of a friend 
 of Alcock declared their intention of voting for Colclongb. " Re- 
 ceive their votes at your peril I" exclaimed Alcock. Colclough re- 
 plied that he had not asked their votes, and that he certainly would 
 not be bullied into rejecting them. Alcock thereupon challenged 
 Colclough to fight ; they met on the next day ; the crowd who 
 assembled on the ground included many magistrates; Colclough 
 was shot through the heart — and Alcock, having thus got rid of his 
 opponent, was duly returned for the count}\ He was tried at the 
 next assizes for the murder of Colclough. Baron Smith publicly 
 protested against finding him guilty, and the jury unanimously ac- 
 quitted him. 
 
 " King Bagenal" was one of the most noted duellists of the day. 
 He earned his sobriquet of king, from the extent of property which 
 he possessed, and over which he ruled in most despotic fashion. 
 
 It is said that Bagenal accepted a challenge in his seventy-ninth 
 year, only stipulating that he should fight sitting in his arm-chair ; 
 and that, as his infirmities prevented early rising, the meeting should 
 take place in the afternoon. " Time was," said the old man with 
 a sigh, " that I would have risen before daybreak to fight at sun- 
 rise — but we cannot do these things at seventy- eight. Well, 
 Heaven's will be done !" 
 
 They fought at twelve paces. Bagenal wounded his antagonist 
 severely ; the aim of the chair in which he sat was shattered, but 
 he escaped unhurt ; and he ended the day with a glorious carouse, 
 tapping the claret, we may presume as usual, by firing a pistol at 
 the cask. 
 
 The traditions of Dunieckny allege that when Bagenal, in the 
 
434 
 
 King Bagenal. 
 
 O'Conneirs duel witli D'Esterre was one of the 
 most noted incidents in his eventful life ; but it was 
 the fact of O'Connell's having fought the duel, and 
 the consequences that ensued, which has made the 
 event so famous, rather than any circumstances con- 
 nected with its origin. 
 
 The Catholic Board had been suppressed, and 
 those members of the aristocracy who had sanctioned 
 or supported it hitherto, were at least very willing 
 to withdraw from a position which promised them no 
 immediate advantage, and which compromised them 
 in the opinions of the Protestant nobility. Their 
 conduct was natural, if it was not national. They 
 could not be expected to understand sufferings which 
 they did not feel, nor to resent slights that were not 
 
 course of his tour through Europe, visited the petty court of Meck- 
 lenburgh-Strelitz, the Grand Duke, charmed with his magnificence 
 and the reputation of his wealth, made him an offer of the hand of 
 the fair Charlotte, who, being politely rejected by King Bagenal, was 
 afterwards accepted by King George III. 
 
 For all lovers of good horses, good dogs, and good wines, Dun- 
 leckny was a terrestrial paradise. His stud was magnificent, and 
 he had a large number of capital hunters at the service of visitors 
 who were not provided with steeds of their own. He derived great 
 delight from encouraging the young men who frequented his house 
 to drink, hunt, and solve points of honour at twelve paces.* En- 
 throned at Dunleckny, he gathered around him a host of spirits 
 congenial to his own. He had a tender affection for pistols ; a brace 
 of saw-handles were often laid before him on the dinner-table. 
 After dinner, the claret was produced in an unbroached cask. 
 Bagenal's practice was to tap the cask with a bullet from one of his 
 own pistols, whilst he kept the other in terror em for any of th# 
 convives who should fail in doing ample justice to the wine. 
 * " Ireland and her Agitators/' p. G. 
 
Want of Moral Courage. 
 
 435 
 
 offered to them. Their religion, indeed, taught them 
 the duty of a deep, personal interest in the poor, and 
 in all human suffering ; but there are not many who 
 carry out practically to the fullest extent what they 
 know in theory. They were, perhaps, unduly blamed 
 by the leading agitators of the time ; at least, there 
 was scarcely sufficient allowance made for the-ir 
 position. 
 
 Agitation, unless it is successful, is seldom con- 
 sidered respectable. Those men who had found 
 their way to court, and who were now received on 
 friendly terms by their equals in rank, did not care to 
 have the contempt of failure thrown on them, or to 
 mix themselves up with what was considered dis- 
 creditable by those whose opinions they valued most. 
 It was enough for them to bear the brand of a reli- 
 gion which they would not forsake, though they were 
 fain to keep it out of sight. If to this stigma they 
 added that of political discontent, and, above all, of 
 any sympathy with their Irish fellow-subjects, if they 
 were agitators, or their Catholic co-religionists if 
 they were English, it would be an additional stigma 
 which they did not feel disposed to bear. There are 
 few things which men feel more than social discredit. 
 Men who would die martyrs at the stake for their 
 religion if they were compelled to choose between 
 apostacy and God, would be guilty of pitiful moral 
 cowardice when some sneer or taunt was flung at 
 them for it, or at those who were more faithful to it 
 than themselves, and who belonged to a race which 
 
 VOL. II. 6 
 
436 
 
 D'Esterre and O'Connell 
 
 the great ones of the world hold in undisguised 
 contempt. 
 
 In consequence of these difficulties O'Connell 
 held a meeting in Capel Street in January, 1815. 
 The proceedings were conducted without any for- 
 mality, the gentlemen merely entering their names in 
 a book which was opened for the purpose. At 
 another meeting held during the same month, and at 
 the same place, O'Connell used these words : 
 
 "I am convinced that the Catholic cause has suffered by 
 neglect of discussion. Had the petition been last year the 
 subject of debate, we should not now see the beggarly Corpora- 
 tion of Dublin anticipating our efforts by a petition of an opposite 
 tendency. The Duke of Sussex in the Lords, and Mr. Whit- 
 bred in the Commons, appear to me persons worthy to be en- 
 trusted with our petition." 
 
 Mr. D'Esterre belonged to the Guild of Merchants. 
 He had been at sea in his early life, and did not 
 bear a very high character. During the mutiny of 
 the Nore, he was tried by the sailors, and sentenced 
 to be hanged. At the last moment they offered him 
 his life if he would join them. The rope was then 
 round his neck. With coarse courage he exclaimed, 
 
 "Hang away, and be d -d." They spared him, 
 
 nevertheless ; he little thought, for what other death. 
 
 The words used by O'Connell were scarcely 
 sufficient even in those days for an affair of honour ; 
 very much stronger language was used with impunity 
 by public men to each other, and condoned by 
 public opinion, but Mr. D'Esterre had "method in his 
 
D'Esterre and O'ConneU. 
 
 437 
 
 rudeness." He hoped for place and pension, and he 
 was sure of his reward, if he obliged the Government 
 by getting rid of their most formidable opponent; 
 probably, too, his petty vanity was gratified at the 
 prospect of publicity, and as he was a first-rate shot, he 
 had little apprehension as to the result. O'Connell 
 was not a duellist ; he was eminently a man of peace. 
 It has been the fashion with English writers to talk 
 of him as a swaggering bravado — his conduct proved 
 hi m precisely the reverse. He was then pre-eminently 
 the peacemaker of the Catholic party in their early 
 struggles, as he was pre-eminently the peacemaker in 
 Ireland's most trying days. We are not about to 
 justify O'Connell for fighting a duel, but if ever a 
 duel could be justifiable, it was so in the circum-" 
 stances in which he was placed. 
 
 D'Esterre did his pitiful best to make O'Connell 
 the aggresor. He paraded Dublin day after day with 
 a horsewhip in his hand, and coarse language in his 
 tongue ; but O'Connell was too prudent to be caught 
 by the wily Orangeman. Every gentleman was ask- 
 ing his friend significantly had " they " met yet? The 
 streets were thronged; business was almost sus- 
 pended ; the yelping cur was snapping at the heels 
 of the lordly lion, but the lion kept his distance. 
 
 The civic authorities were gratified, though they 
 dared not openly applaud just yet. D'Esterre's 
 friends hired the window of a house in Grafton 
 Street, the fashionable and in some degree also the 
 business resort of the day. They hoped to see 
 
438 
 
 D'Esterre and O'Connell. 
 
 D'Esterre horsewhip O'Connell ; it does not seem to 
 have occurred to them that there would be two actors 
 in the performance — that, before the miserable ag- 
 gressor could have lifted his whip, he would probably 
 have found himself flung into the highway with one 
 little effort of O'Connell's powerful arm. 
 
 As D'Esterre could not provoke an assault, he 
 was obliged to send a challenge. On the 26th 
 February, 1815, he addressed O'Connell thus : 
 
 "11 Bacheloes' Walk, 26th January, 1815. 
 " Sir — Carrick's paper of the 23rd instant (in its report of 
 the debates of a meeting of Catholic gentlemen, on the subject 
 of a petition) states, that you have applied the appellation of 
 beggarly to the corporation of this city, calling it a beggarly 
 corporation — and therefore, as a member of that body, and 
 feeling how painful such is, I beg leave to inquire whether you 
 really used or expressed yourself in any such language ? I 
 feel the more justified in calling on you on this occasion, as such 
 language was not warranted or provoked by anything on the 
 part of the corporation ; neither was it consistent with the sub- 
 ject of your debate, or the deportment of the other Catholic 
 gentlemen who were present ; and though I view it so incon- 
 sistent in every respect, I am in hopes the editor is under error, 
 and not you. I have further to request your reply in the course 
 of the evening, and remain, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 " J. N. D'ESTERRE. 
 
 " To Counsellor O'Connell, Merrion Square." 
 
 Mr. O'Connell's answer was as follows : 
 
 " Merrion Square, 21th January, 1815. 
 " Sir — In reply to your letter of yesterday, and without 
 either admitting or disclaiming the expression respecting the 
 
D'Esterre and 0' Council. 
 
 439 
 
 Corporation of Dublin in the print to which you allude, I deem 
 it right to inform you that, from the calumnious manner in 
 which the religion and character of the Catholics of Ireland are 
 treated in that body, no terms attributed to me, however re- 
 proachful, can exceed the contemptuous feelings I entertain for 
 that body in its corporate capacity ; although doubtless it con- 
 tains many valuable persons, whose conduct as individuals (I 
 lament) must necessarily be confounded in the acts of a general 
 body. I have only to add that tltis letter must close our cor- 
 respondence on this subject. — I am, &c. &c., 
 
 u Daniel O'Connell. 
 " To J. N. D'Esterre, Esq., 11 Bachelors' Walk." 
 
 For some reason, by no means apparent, D'Esterre 
 wished to continue the correspondence. He sent 
 another letter to O'Connell, but though the hand- 
 writing was disguised, the author was suspected and 
 it was returned unread, by Mr. James O'Connell. 
 
 " On Sunday, Mr. D'Esterre sent a note to Mr. James 
 O'Connell, containing ' disrespectful observations ' on himself 
 and his brother, and he sent his friend Captain O'Mullane to 
 Mr. D'Esterre to say, that after he adjusted his affair with his 
 brother, he would briug him to account for his conduct to him- 
 self peculiarly. 
 
 " Captain O'Mullane at the same time intimated, that 
 Counsellor O'Connell was astonished at his not healing in what 
 he conceived the proper way from Mr. D'Esterre. 
 
 " Nothing further happened on Sunday, and on Monday 
 morning, Mr. Lidwell, who remained here several days to be 
 the friend of Mr. O'Connell, though some members of his 
 family were seriously indisposed, left town for home, despairing 
 of any issue being put to the controversy. 
 
 " Monday passed on, and on Tuesday considerable sensa- 
 tion was created by a rumour, that Mr. D'Esterre was advised 
 
440 Judge Day and Barney Code. 
 
 to go to the Four Courts, to offer Mr. O'Connell personal 
 violence. Neither of the parties came in contact, but it seems 
 that Mr. D'Esterre was met on one of the quays by Mr. Richard 
 0' Gorman, who remonstrated with him by stating, that he 
 conceived he was pursuing a very unusual sort of conduct. 
 • You conceive,' said he, * that you received an offence from 
 Mr. O'Connell ; if so, your course is to demand satisfaction. 
 This, I understand, you have not as yet done, but if you are 
 now resolved to do it, I undertake, on forfeiture of having a 
 riddle made of my body, to have Mr. O'Connell on his ground 
 in half an hour.' This occurred about three o'clock, but no 
 challenge followed." 1 
 
 The excitement increased every moment. O'Con- 
 nell paraded the streets at four o'clock with a few 
 friends, but such crowds surrounded him that he was 
 obliged to retire into a private house. 
 
 Judge Day now came to place him under arrest ; 
 at the same time, he said he would be satisfied if Mr. 
 O'Connell would pledge his honour to proceed no 
 further in the business, which, considering that 
 O'Connell was not the aggressor, was extremely 
 considerate. 
 
 O'Connell said what was true, that he was not the 
 aggressor, and did not intend to be the aggressor. 
 One of O'Connell's friends who was present, the 
 famous Barney Coile, said : 
 
 " ' That it was very insulting that a ruffian should be al- 
 lowed to parade the streets of Dublin during two days, in order 
 to assault a worthy man who is the father of six children — 
 and this without any hindrance or interruption from the magis- 
 trates.' 
 
 1 Dublin Evening Post. Full reports of each day's proceedings 
 was given in this paper. 
 
A Meeting Arranged. 
 
 " *I hope, sir, you are satisfied,' said Judge Day, 'that the 
 laws are competent to reach all such offenders.' 
 
 " ' By my soul,' replied Barney Coile, ' I am very well satis- 
 fied the laws can reach us if we transgress ; hut during the two 
 days he has heen seeking to effect a breach of the peace, the 
 laws have not reached that fellow." 
 
 At nine o'clock on Wednesday evening, Sir E. 
 Stanley waited on O'Connell at his house in Mer- 
 rion Square, and a hostile meeting was arranged — 
 O'Connell having secured the services of Major 
 MacXamara. The place selected was Lord Pon- 
 sonby's demesne, about thirteen miles from Dublin, 
 the time three o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 O'Connell was on the spot punctually, attended 
 by his brother James, and some other friends. He 
 was as cool and collected as if he were about to 
 address a jury, instead of entering on a deadly con- 
 flict. As his carriage passed over a broken-down 
 bridge, he turned to his brother James and said, 
 " See, James, how little care they take of the lives of 
 his Majesty's subjects." 
 
 D'Esterre was later on the ground, which was 
 white with snow. The seconds took some time 
 making arrangements, and Sir Edward Stanley was 
 in considerable perturbation as to the result if 
 O'Connell should fall, a consummation of which we 
 may presume he had not the slightest doubt. Major 
 MacXamara occupied himself giving O'Connell a 
 number of directions. The Liberator could stand it 
 no longer. " My dear fellow, I have one earnest request 
 to make you," he said, addressing his second with 
 
Last Act of the Tragedy. 
 
 that impressive solemnity which no man could better 
 assume. The major listened for his friend's last 
 words with evident anxiety. " Let me beg of you"— 
 he paused — " let me beg of you," he reiterated, " not 
 to say another word to me until the duel is over." 
 
 O'Connell's keen eye took in all around. He saw 
 his tailor, Jerry MacCarthy, on the ground, and ex- 
 claimed, " Well, J erry ; I never missed you at an 
 aggregate meeting.' 7 
 
 The Dublin Evening Post of the day thus describes 
 the last act of the tragedy : 
 
 " The friends of both parties retired, and the combatants, 
 haying a pistol in each hand, with directions to discharge them 
 at their discretion, prepared to tire. They levelled, and before 
 the lapse of a second both shots were heard. Mr. D'Esterre 
 tired first, and missed. Mr. O'Connell's shot followed instan- 
 taneously, and took effect in the groin of his antagonist, about 
 an inch below the hip. Mr. D'Esterre, of course, fell, and 
 both the surgeons hastened to him. They found that the ball 
 had traversed the hip, passed through the bladder, and possibly 
 touched the spine. It could not be found. There was an im- 
 mense effusion of blood. All parties prepared to move towards 
 aome, and arrived in town before eight o'clock. "We were ex- 
 tremely glad to perceive that Major MacNamara and many 
 respectable gentlemen assisted in procuring the best accommo- 
 dation for the wounded man. They sympathised in his suffer- 
 ings, and expressed themselves to Sir Edward Stanley as ex- 
 tremely well pleased that a transaction which they considered 
 most uncalled for, had not terminated in the death of D'Esterre. 
 We need not describe the emotions which burst forth along the 
 road and through the town when it was ascertained that Mr. 
 O'Connell was safe." 
 
 A body of cavalry was despatched to the scene of 
 
" God be Praised, Ireland is safe!" 
 
 443 
 
 conflict, but, either by accident or design, they 
 arrived too late for active interference. It was 
 generally believed at the time that they were sent for 
 the purpose of protecting Mr. D'Esterre in case he 
 should have shot O'Connell. They met O'Conneli's 
 carriage returning, but did not recognise the occu- 
 pants, and inquired if Mr. O'Connell had been shot. 
 Mr. James O'Connell replied, "No; Mr. D'Esterre 
 has unfortunately fallen." 
 
 D'Esterre only lived a few days ; and to his 
 latest breath O'Connell never forgave himself for the 
 fatality. He pensioned the widow and daughter, 
 and on one occasion conducted a case for Mrs. 
 D'Esterre in the law courts, at serious loss and in- 
 convenience to himself. In after life, also, it was 
 observed that he never passed the house once 
 occupied by that gentleman, without raising his hat, 
 and breathing a prayer for his eternal welfare. 
 
 O'Connell was at first apprehensive of legal pro- 
 ceedings, but he received an early and polite assu- 
 rance from Sir Edward Stanley that no such thing 
 was contemplated. When the intelligence was 
 brought to Archbishop Murray by Mr. James 
 O'Connell, he exclaimed, " God be praised ; Ireland 
 is safe." Yet, much as Ireland would have mourned 
 O'Conneli's death even then, how little could even 
 the most prescient have anticipated what he would 
 yet do for her. 1 
 
 1 As the party travelled back to Dublin they were all silent 
 nntil near the city, when O'Connell said, "I fear he must be dead, 
 
444 
 
 Agrarian Outrages. 
 
 In the year 1816 some agrarian outrages oc- 
 curred, for which, of course, blame was laid on every- 
 one except those who were really guilty. The 
 people, already crushed down to the lowest depths 
 of poverty, were compelled to pay tithes, not, indeed, 
 of what they had, but of what they had not. 
 
 The unhappy peasantry were denounced, guilty 
 or not guilty, and, of course, " the priests' 7 were to 
 blame. The " No-Popery' 7 cry was always service- 
 able, and it was easily echoed. A Dublin Govern- 
 ment paper had the following paragraph, which 
 O'Connell quoted at a public meeting : 
 
 "I will lay before the reader such specimens of the popish 
 superstition as will convince him that the treasonable com- 
 binations cemented by oaths, and the nocturnal robbery and 
 assassination which have prevailed for many years past in 
 Ireland and still exist in many parts of it, are produced as a 
 necessary consequence by its intolerant and sanguinary prin- 
 ciples." 
 
 It was necessary to have something like a fact, 
 to prove the assertion, and the fact was forthcoming 
 in due time. 
 
 The Eev. John Hamilton, an Orangeman, and a 
 magistrate, was Protestant curate of Eoscrea. The 
 
 he fell so suddenly ; where do you think he was hit ? The doctor 
 replied, "In the head." "That cannot he," replied O'Connell; 
 "I aimed low; it must have entered near the thigh." Mrs. 
 D'Esterre went to England with her daughter, and married a brother 
 of Mr. Guinness', the celebrated brewer, and founder of the fortunes 
 of the Guinness family. Miss D'Esterre, who was an accomplished 
 musician, married a son of her step-father, by his first wife. 
 
Ham Stan and A is A ccofnpUces. 
 
 Monaghan Militia, all Orangemen, were quartered 
 there, and he devoted himself to superintending them 
 as they scoured the country, playing party tunes and 
 doing their best to exasperate the people. But the 
 people would not be exasperated ; and then a scheme 
 of so diabolical a character was planned, that if there 
 were not the evidence of a court of law to prove the 
 facts, we might pardon any reader, Catholic or Pro- 
 testant, for discrediting the whole narrative. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton deliberately set himself to get up a 
 plot. He obtained the services of a villian named 
 Dyer, who was only less contemptible than himself, 
 because he only carried out what his master planned. 
 First, he swore that the Catholics had made a plot to 
 murder all the Protestants, and that they held secret 
 meetings for this purpose. A lie or two, more or 
 less, did not matter, so he swore to time and place. 
 These " startling disclosures" excited much alarm, 
 but this was not sufficient. Dyer, or rather Mr. 
 Hamilton, wanted a victim. He had his eye on one, 
 a respectable Catholic distiller ; so he next proceeded 
 to get a regular spy from Dublin. It was not difficult, 
 for the Rebellion had provided a crop of infamous 
 characters who lived on falsehood. 
 
 The three worthies then arranged their plan. 
 Evidently it was not the first plot of the kind which 
 the " detective" had carried out. A straw figure was 
 attired in a suit of Mr. Hamilton's clothes, and placed 
 sitting at the table on the ground-floor. The back 
 was turned to the window ; the figure faced the table, 
 
44G 
 
 The Villainous Plot Detected. 
 
 on which lay an open Bible. Two candles were 
 lighted, for as the deed required darkness outside, it 
 was done at night. Dyer and Halpin, the spy, fired 
 at the figure through the window. The commotion 
 was terrible ; it was soon known through the town 
 that the rev. magistrate had been shot at while read- 
 ing the Sacred Scriptures, and that he had made a 
 most miraculous escape. 
 
 As Mr. Hamilton was a magistrate, he could act 
 as he pleased, and he at once called out the militia, 
 and had the Egans arrested. They were bailed out 
 next morning with great difficulty ; but on the 11th 
 July, 1816, he arrested them again, and actually suc- 
 ceeded in having them brought to trial. A special 
 commission was held in Clonmel. Lord Norbury 
 and Baron George presided. Charles Kendal Bushe, 
 the Solicitor-General, was crown prosecutor. 
 
 Dyer told his story admirably, and gave detailed 
 evidence of the midnight meetings, the military ex- 
 ercises, and all the incidents necessary to complete 
 the accusation. Some glimpses of light, however, 
 were obtained in cross-examination. It was proved 
 that Dyer was in receipt of five shillings a week for 
 suppressing evidence against Francis Cotton, who 
 was tried for murder. The Eev. John Hamilton 
 was the next witness. He had employed too many 
 to help him in his villainous plot, and something of 
 the truth was ascertained. On cross-examination lie 
 was obliged to admit the truth. He tried to excuse 
 himself by adding subterfuge to falsehood, but it was 
 
Peel and OConnell. 
 
 417 
 
 useless. No attempt was made to punish him ; but 
 Dyer was indicted for wilful and corrupt perjury. 
 The grand jury, however, ignored the bill, and Dyer 
 went forth on the world to plot new schemes for the 
 destruction of innocent men. 
 
 We do not hear, however, in those times, evil as 
 they were, that the most holy rites of religion were 
 profaned for such purposes ; that method of treachery 
 was reserved for our own time. 
 
 In 1815, O'Connell was engaged in another 
 u affair of honour," the circumstances of which were 
 " singularly complicated," according to the public re- 
 ports of the proceedings. 
 
 O'Connell " dared " Mr. Peel to attack him in his 
 presence, as he had attacked him behind his back. 
 Sir Charles Saxton thereupon waited on O'Connell 
 for his friend, Mr. Peel. After a war of words, both 
 colloquially and on paper, in which both parties 
 seemed willing to avoid a hostile meeting, the hostile 
 meeting was arranged by " friends," who were then 
 unnecessarily obliging on such occasions. 
 
 Sir Charles Saxton and Mr. Lidwell, O'Connell's 
 friends, contrived to get into a cross quarrel on their 
 own account. In the meantime, the families of 
 O'Connell and Lidwell became greatly alarmed. 
 Mrs. O'Connell gave information to the sheriff 
 privately, and had her husband arrested. Miss 
 Lidwell protected her father in the same way. 
 
 The following squib on the subject was attributed 
 to C. J. Burke, Esq. : 
 
448 
 
 Peel and 0' Council. 
 
 " Our heroes of Erin escape from the slaughter, 
 By reversing the Hebrew command, 
 One honours his wife, and the other his daughter, 
 That their days may be long in the land." 
 
 Meanwhile Sir Charles Sax ton and Mr. Peel had 
 left the country. O'Connell was bound to keep the 
 peace, under a penalty of £10,000. O'Connell, how- 
 ever, procured another friend, Mr. Bennet, and they 
 arranged to have a meeting at Ostend. Peel was 
 mortally afraid of the result. It was known now 
 that O'Connell was one of the best shots in Ireland, 
 and the fate of D'Esterre was already fresh in the 
 public mind. 
 
 O'Connell reached London safely, but every 
 effort was being made to capture him. A Mr. Lid- 
 will, who was singularly like him, was seized. This 
 gentleman was a provision merchant, and occupied 
 the house which had belonged to D'Esterre. In 
 Calais, another unfortunate gentleman was seized 
 also. 
 
 Mr. Peel's father, however, had sharpened the 
 wits of the London police by an offer of fifty guineas 
 each to those who would succeed in capturing 
 O'Connell ; and on the morning of the 19th Sep- 
 tember they broke into the hotel in the Strand at 
 four o'clock, and captured him as he was preparing 
 to start for Dover. O'Connell was again bound over 
 to keep the peace, and returned at once to Ireland. 
 
 Mr. Lidwell and Sir Charles Saxton had a meet- 
 ing at Calais, where Mr. Lidwell, who had been the 
 
PeeVs Remedy for Ireland. 
 
 410 
 
 challenger, received Sir Charles Saxton's fire, and 
 then discharged his own pistol in the air. 
 
 In 1819, O'Connell wrote his first public letter to 
 the people of Ireland. During the preceding year, 
 the country had been in a fearful state of distress and 
 excitement. When the war ceased, the high prices 
 obtained for provisions fell at once, but the Irish 
 landlords still insisted on obtaining the high rents. 
 The result was necessarily disturbance ; but Mr. Peel 
 projected and perfected a plan by which the cries of 
 the people might be stifled, no matter how great the 
 cause which drew them forth. " In Ireland," said 
 Mr. Peel, when he proposed his measure to the Eng- 
 lish house, "in Ireland, they do not possess the 
 greatest of all blessings — a resident gentry having a 
 community of interest with the cultivators of the 
 soil. ,, So, as they had not this blessing, he deter- 
 mined to give one of his own fashioning, and he 
 sent them 25,000 armed constables. In consequence 
 of this singular method of supplying an acknowledged 
 want, and in memory of the originator of the scheme, 
 these men obtained the sobriquet of u Peelers." 
 
 There was a trial about the same period in Eng- 
 land, at which eminent counsel were engaged on both 
 sides. Discontent was general in that country also, 
 though there was infinitely less cause for it than in 
 Ireland. A Dr. Watson excited a riot for which he 
 was tried. The Attorney-General and the Solicitor- 
 General were counsel for the Crown ; the latter, Sir 
 Robert Gifford, was held in very high esteem by the 
 
450 
 
 Justice in England. 
 
 legal gentlemen of the period. Watson was de- 
 fended by Sir Charles Wetherell, an ultra Tory, but 
 he had been disappointed by the Government, and, 
 for the nonce, was prepared to defend his client con 
 amove, and with an energy beyond what mere pro- 
 fessional duty required. He was assisted by Mr. 
 Sergeant Copley, better known as Lord Lyndhurst. 
 
 A spy had been employed in the case, but it was 
 proved at the trial that he was a man of infamous 
 character, as such men always are. Sir Charles 
 Wetherell, asked the jury : 
 
 "Will, you suffer the purity of British jurisprudence to 
 depend upon the credit of that indescribable villain? Will 
 you add to the bloody memory he has already earned ? Will 
 you encourage the trade and merchandise of a man who lives 
 on blood ? Will you — the guardians and protectors of British 
 law — will you suffer death to be dealt out by him as he 
 pleases ?" 
 
 The jury gave evidence of their opinion by ac- 
 quitting the man whose life had been so cruelly 
 sworn away. It was only in Ireland that men like 
 Mr. Hamilton, who were at once perjurers and spies, 
 were allowed to " deal out death " as they pleased, 
 and where villains like Dyer and his companions 
 were acquitted by Orange juries. 
 
(Lbaptcr (Tcntk 
 
 LOYALTY TO GOD AND THE KING. 
 1S20—1S22. 
 
 Panegyric on Grattan : Outrage at Kilmainham : 
 Harcourt Lees : "Pastoral Letter" for 1821: 
 First Appearance of Shiel : Mr. Plunket: 
 Analysis of Mr. PlunkeVs Bills: Spiritual 
 Functions and Freedom of the Clergy : Pro- 
 testant Bigotry : George IV. and Queen Caro- 
 line: Royal Visit to Ireland: Loyal Reception 
 at Dublin: The Irish People: Presentation of 
 O'Connell at Court: Irony of Lord Byron: 
 Wellesley and his Irish Policy: Orange Orgies: 
 The Beefsteak Club interfered with, and its 
 Revenge: Wellesley and the Orangemen: A 
 Catholic Triumph. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 7 
 
Wp RATTAN died in 1820, 
 XX and O'Connell took the 
 opportunity of a public 
 meeting for promoting the 
 election of his son, as mem- 
 ber for Dublin, to pronounce a magni- 
 ficent panegyric on his virtue and 
 devotion to Ireland. He quoted on 
 this occasion Grattan's own memorable 
 expression, u He watched by the cradle of 
 his country's greatness, and he followed 
 jjOj her hearse and then reverting to his fa- 
 vourite subject, the assistance given by Pro- 
 testants, be added, " Who shall now speak to me of 
 religious animosity ? To any such I will answer, by 
 pointing to the honoured tomb of Grattan — and I will 
 
454 
 
 Meeting at Kilmainliam. 
 
 say, There sleeps a man, a member of the Protestant 
 community, who died in the cause of his Catholic 
 fellow-countrymen ! " 
 
 In the conclusion of his speech, he adverted to 
 the effort to excite dissension which was made by 
 some of the opposite candidate's party, who boasted 
 of wearing Orange favours, and asked, Who was the 
 most loyal man, the one who would unite the people 
 round the throne in peace and harmony, or the one 
 who would weaken the resources of the constitution 
 by excluding their fellow-subjects from its advan- 
 tages ? He concluded by begging the people to do 
 their duty, and to let their motto be, " Grattan and 
 Ireland." 
 
 George IV. had succeeded to the throne in this 
 year, and was actively employed in the prosecution 
 of his unhappy Queen. His accession was made the 
 occasion for a " loyal address'' from the Government 
 party in Ireland, and a public assembly was convened 
 for the purpose of adopting it. The Court-house at 
 Kilmainliam, near Dublin, was selected as the place 
 of meeting, and a guard of fifty policemen was sta- 
 tioned at the door. As Lord Howth and the other 
 promoters of the proceedings approached the spot, 
 they were more alarmed than gratified to see crowds 
 hastening along the roads — but even then they were 
 not prepared for what followed. The moment the 
 doors were opened the people crushed in, bearing 
 all before them like a raging sea ; the police were 
 too few for resistance ; and in the end, Lord Howth, 
 
The Military called in. 
 
 455 
 
 Lord Frankford, the Sheriff, the county members, 
 and Judge Day, Were lifted in through the open 
 windows on chairs by the police. 
 
 This proceeding did not tend to quiet the assem- 
 bly, and the speeches could not be heard for shouts, 
 and groans, and cat-calls, and hurricanes of ironical 
 applause. 
 
 O'Connell and his friends had placed themselves 
 in the centre of the hall. He rose up in his giant 
 strength, both physical and moral, and declared his 
 dissent. The Sheriff asked, was he a freeholder ? 
 He replied : 
 
 "I am a freeholder of this county. I have a hereditary 
 property which, probably, may stand a comparison with the 
 person's who interrogates me ; and I have a profession which 
 gives me an annual income greater than any of the personages 
 who surround the chair are able to wring from the taxes." 
 
 A fierce dispute followed ; the aristocratic party 
 contrived to nominate their own chairman. Lord 
 Cloncurry now joined the people, for reasons of his 
 own, and he was nominated by them. In the height 
 of the dispute the Sheriff contrived to slip out of the 
 court-house and to call in the military, whom he had 
 stationed outside without the knowledge of the 
 people. Their indignation, when they found them- 
 selves treated in this fashion, may well be imagined. 
 It was, indeed, a sharp, practical commentary on the 
 " liberty of the subject" in Ireland. The subject ab- 
 horred the conduct of the king, and was only desi- 
 rous of expressing his abhorrence if he were obliged 
 
45G 
 
 Not Easily Baffled. 
 
 to speak at all. The rulers of the subject were de- 
 termined to send up a congratulatory address in the 
 name of the subject, and were naturally very indig- 
 nant that he should dare to thwart their plans. 
 
 The court was soon cleared. Lord Cloncurry 
 remained on the bench where the people had placed 
 him. The soldiers, obeying orders, drew their swords 
 at him, and pressing forward, forced him from his 
 place. Lord Cloncurry having determined that he 
 would yeild only to compulsion. 
 
 But O'Connell was not so easily baffled. It was, 
 indeed, illegal to hold an open-air meeting, but there 
 was a tavern opposite the court-house. O'Connell 
 placed the chairman under cover, and the meeting 
 proceeded. Mr. Burne, a king's counsel, took a pro- 
 minent part in the affair on the popular side. He 
 now addressed the multitude, and proposed an 
 address. But he looked for it in vain. He plunged 
 his hands into one pocket and then into another ; he 
 looked hither and thither. His address was gone, 
 lost in the fray, or dexterously filched from him. 
 O'Connell asked what he was looking for. " The 
 address," he stated. " What has become of the 
 address?" "Oh! here it is," replied O'Connell, 
 quietly putting a paper in his hands which he had, 
 and which was adopted, and which was written by 
 O'Connell himself. There were some strong expres- 
 sions in it which had not been in Burne's copy ; for 
 instance, the prosecution of the Queen was de- 
 nounced as " unconstitutional and dangerous." 
 
Sir Har court Lees. 
 
 457 
 
 History does not say if O'Connell had anything 
 to do with the abstraction of the original address, so 
 we may leave him the benefit of the doubt. On the 
 2nd of July 1821, O'Connell held another meeting, 
 11 to consider the best steps to be taken as to the 
 outrage on Saturday, at Kilniainham." 
 
 The Protestant and aristocratic party convened 
 another assembly of their own. An eccentric Pro- 
 testant clergyman, Sir Harcourt Lees, wrote a letter 
 to the public papers, in which he said : 
 
 u I have just returned from one of the most numerous and 
 respectable meetings of Protestant noblemen and gentlemen of 
 the county of Dublin ever assembled together, for the purpose 
 of assuring a deeply-injured sovereign of their inviolable attach- 
 ment to his august person and the constitution of the British 
 empire." 
 
 But Sir Harcourt was not at the meeting. His 
 appearance was remarkable, and he had been ac- 
 tually seen by a considerable number of persons in a 
 different place. He took the accusation of falsehood 
 very coolly, and only advised his censor u to pur- 
 chase a telescope, and watch his movements with 
 more attention in future." 
 
 O'Connell's " pastoral" letter for the year of grace 
 1821, excited an immense commotion. Mr. Shielwas 
 just then making his appearance in public life, and 
 either from personal vanity, or a desire to break a 
 lance with a man so famous as the Liberator, he ven- 
 tured the dangerous experiment of attacking him. 
 The result was not encouraging for a second attempt. 
 
458 
 
 Letter to the Irish Catholics. 
 
 Few men have been possessed of O'Connell's power 
 of dissecting an adversary, and then holding up to 
 public ridicule on his scalpel, the choicest morsels of 
 his opponent's slaughtered eloquence. 
 O'Connell's letter commenced thus : 
 " To the Catholics of Ireland. 
 
 "Merbion Square, Dublin, 1st January, 1821. 
 
 " Fellow- Countrymen— After another year of unjust de- 
 gradation and oppression, I again address you. We have 
 lived another year, the victims of causeless injustice. Our 
 lives wear away, and we still continue aliens in our native 
 land. Everything changes around us. Our servitude alone is 
 unaltered and permanent. 
 
 " The blood runs cold, and the heart withers, when we re- 
 flect on the wanton prolongation of our sufferings. The iron 
 sinks into our very souls at the helpless and hopeless nature of 
 our lot. To the severest of injuries is added the most cruel of 
 insults, and we are deprived of the miserable consolation of 
 thinking that our enemies deem themselves justified by any 
 necessity or any excuse for continuing our degradation. 
 
 " No, my fellow-countrymen, no; there is no excuse for the 
 injustice that is done us. There is no palliation for tbe ini- 
 quitous system under which we suffer. It contradicts the first 
 right of men and Christians — the right of worshipping our God 
 according to the dictates of our conscience. Nay, this odious 
 system goes farther; it converts the exercise of that right into 
 a crime, and it inflicts punishment for that which is our first 
 and most sacred duty — to worship our Creator in the sincerity 
 of conscience. 
 
 "For this crime, and for this crime alone, we are punished 
 and degraded — converted into an inferior class in our native 
 land, and doomed to perpetual exclusion. Our enemies cannot 
 accuse us of any other offence — other crime we have committed 
 
0' Conn ell's Object. 
 
 459 
 
 none. Even the foolish charge of intemperance — a charge 
 which was only a symptom of that contempt in which our 
 enemies hold us — even the absurd accusation of intemperance 
 is now abandoned, and our degradation continues without 
 necessity, without excuse, without pretence, without palliation." 
 
 He then showed them how some " honest men " 
 might be deluded into the belief that the profession 
 of the Catholic religion was inconsistent with civil or 
 religious liberty. He showed from the history of the 
 past and the annals of the present, how utterly un- 
 founded this theory was. He stated that France had 
 a Protestant prime minister, who, if he were in Eng- 
 land, could not fill the office of a parish constable 
 without swearing — that the Mass was impious and he 
 who heard it, an idolater. 
 
 O'Connell's object was simply to keep his country- 
 men from sinking into the apathy of indifference or 
 despair, an apathy which would have been hopelessly- 
 fatal to a people who had not yet obtained more than 
 a modicum of freedom. His reply to Shiel must 
 have produced laughter even while it reiterated the 
 arguments of the letter which that gentleman had so 
 unwisely attacked. " Truly, I am at a loss," replied 
 O'Connell, " to know how I could have provoked the 
 tragic wrath and noble ire of this iambic rhapsodise" 
 
 However O'Connell may have been at a loss on 
 this subject, he certainly was never at a loss for a 
 stinging epithet, and Mr. Shiel's rhapsody had de- 
 served one. 1 He called O'Connell - a fl a mi ng fra^- 
 
 o o 
 
 1 Shiel's famous speech in reply to Lord Lyndhurst's statement 
 
460 
 
 Mr. Plunket. 
 
 merit," " lava," " a straw in ambre," " a rushlight 
 with a fitful fire," " a sophist drowning in confuta- 
 tion," " a column of fiery vapour and heterogeneous 
 materials." Mr. Shields appellations were certainly 
 ** heterogeneous," and it is difficult to understand how 
 a man who has left so much eloquence on record, 
 could have written such rubbish. O'Connell's shrewd 
 conjecture that " he was not half so mad as he pre- 
 tended to be," is probably the key to the enigma. 
 
 The whole controversy arose out of O'Connell's 
 objection to Mr. Plunket's policy. After Grattan's 
 death, and indeed for some time previous, Mr. Plun- 
 ket was looked upon as the leader of the Liberal 
 party in the House of Commons, or rather of such 
 members of the Liberal party as were disposed to 
 grant any measure of relief to Ireland. Mr. Plunket 
 was, on the whole, a disinterested patriot, but he 
 could not understand the position or the necessities 
 of those he desired to benefit, as O'Connell did. He 
 was anxious to obtain some measures of relief for 
 Irish Catholics, or, to speak more correctly, for the 
 Irish nation, for the nation was Catholic ; but he 
 could not understand, and probably no Protestant 
 could understand, that the Irish nation would accept 
 no temporal relief, however desirable, however neces- 
 sary, at the expense of their spiritual interests. Mat- 
 ters, which to him were trifles, or at best mere ques- 
 tions of opinion, were to them of vital importance. 
 
 that "the Irish were aliens in blood, in birth, and in religion," was 
 one of those chosen for recitation at Harrow on the last speech day. 
 
The Catholic and His Religion. 461 
 
 He forgot, or he could not be made to understand, 
 that every detail of their religion was all important, 
 because with them religion was not a matter of 
 opinion, but an object of faith. 
 
 They believed that the Pope was the divinely- 
 appointed Vicar of Christ upon earth, that to his 
 authority they were obliged to submit in all things 
 spiritual ; not because he happened to be good or 
 wise, gifted or powerful, but because of an immutable 
 decree which they read in Holy Writ, " Thou art 
 Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church." 
 For every article of their faith they had been perse- 
 cuted to death for years ; they were still persecuted, 
 not, indeed, to death, but in every position and action 
 of life. It was natural, then, they should look with 
 no little suspicion on any concession, however desi- 
 rable, to which conditions were attached, which, if 
 they did not actually compromise articles of faith, 
 had at least the appearance of doing so. 
 
 But there were few men who grasped the bear- 
 ings of the whole subject with O'Connelfs precision. 
 He saw the insidious nature of the concession, which 
 required that the appointment of Catholic prelates 
 should be placed in Protestant hands, and he set 
 himself to oppose it with a vigour which was 
 strengthened and inspired by his perfect know- 
 ledge of the danger. 
 
 O'Connell's letters on this subject are not less 
 remarkable for legal acumen than for theological 
 learning. He knew his religion with that intelligent 
 
463 
 
 Relief, but no Repeal 
 
 knowledge which is at once the support and the 
 source of faith. It has been, indeed, objected to 
 him that he was too fond of theological discussions, 
 but the objection was rarely made save by those who 
 were unable to meet his argument* 3 . 
 
 These letters of O'Conn ell's were written on cir- 
 cuit, and forwarded to the Evening Herald in small 
 portions as they were written. 
 
 In his first letter he says : u Mr. Plunket's two 
 bills are at length before you." He then proceeds to 
 analyse the bills with a master hand. The first Act, 
 he said, was certainly a relief bill ; " if it stood alone 
 it would be received with delight by every rational 
 Catholic.' 7 Yet he showed that the Act was liable 
 to misconstruction, and hence to failure. It did not 
 repeal the penal laws, although it was proposed with 
 a view to destroying the effects of these statutes. 
 The simpler method undoubtedly would have been 
 to repeal them, but parliamentary legislation is seldom 
 characterised by simplicity. Besides, there would 
 have been infinite difficulty in effecting such a mea- 
 sure. The "moral consciousness" of that class of 
 men who erect themselves into personal sources 
 of infallibility in religious belief would have been 
 shocked. The bigots of the day were numerous 
 and powerful. They complained, indeed, bitterly of 
 the arrogant claims of the Papacy. But they were 
 hopelessly ignorant ; for there is no ignorance so 
 hopeless as that which has its source in prejudice. 
 Their own infallibility was to them so certain, that it 
 
Protest' in t In/all ib il it y. 
 
 463 
 
 was, indeed, the only part of their creed in which 
 they believed as of Divine right. Yet if you asked 
 these men to tell you the grounds on which they 
 asserted their infallibility, they could not do so. If 
 you asked them why, in the name of common sense, 
 they would not permit the right of private judgment 
 to their Catholic fellow-creatures, why they would 
 not allow them the same liberty of belief which they 
 took care to secure for themselves — they could give 
 no rational answer. 
 
 To say that Popery was false because they thought 
 it false, was no argument. Where or from whom did 
 they get the right to decide so momentous a position ? 
 and where and from whom did they get the right to 
 subject a fellow-creature to any persecution — social, 
 moral, or physical, because he did not believe in their 
 opinions ? 
 
 It would seem, indeed, as if persecution were the 
 only proof they had to offer of the truth of their 
 doctrine, and the very power to persecute supported 
 them in their self-righteous delusion. 
 
 But if Mr. Plunket's first Act promised relief, his 
 second Act was such as to prevent any Catholic from 
 accepting it. 
 
 O'Connell analysed it thus : 
 
 " Before I proceed to speak of this second Act in the terms 
 it merits, I will give a brief and accurate statement of its 
 contents ; and I begin with the title. It is called an Act 1 To 
 regulate the intercourse between persons in holy orders pro- 
 fessing the Roman Catholic religion with the see of Rome.* 
 
" Suppressio veri, Suggestio falsi" 
 
 This title is broken English and had grammar. But it is 
 infinitely worse. It has all the characteristics of complete 
 falsehood — the 'suppressio veri,' the 'suggestio falsi.' Truth 
 is suppressed, because the principal object of the bill does not 
 relate to such intercourse at all ; but is to give to the secretary 
 of the Lord Lieutenant the absolute appointment of all the 
 bishops and all the deans of the Catholic Church in Ireland. 
 Falsehood is suggested — because this is not a bill to regulate 
 the intercourse (for regulate means ' to order by rule '), but it 
 is a bill to control, according to caprice, that intercourse, and 
 to control it according to the caprice of a Protestant Secretary 
 of State. It is in this respect a bill to suppress the necessary 
 intercourse upon matters of faith and discipline between that 
 part of the Catholic or universal Church of Christ which is in 
 Ireland, and the Pope or visible head upon earth of that 
 Church." 
 
 It was no matter of surprise that O'Connell 
 should write strongly upon this subject, for, from the 
 time of Patrick, when Ireland had been converted by 
 him to the Faith, intercourse with, the Holy See had 
 been kept up with unvarying affection. If the inter- 
 course of discipline had ceased, the intercourse of 
 communion would have ceased, and Ireland would 
 have been no longer Catholic. To effect this was 
 undoubtedly the object of many of the promoters of 
 the bill. 
 
 But the oath which was required from the Catho- 
 lic clergy in connexion with this bill was not its least 
 objectionable feature. The language used was ambi- 
 guous ; but O'Connell showed that whatever might 
 be said of Catholics by their enemies, they at least 
 
The Oath of a Catholic. 
 
 465 
 
 must keep an oath sacredly. There could be no 
 mental reservations, no evasions, no non-natural inter- 
 pretation ; the oath must be taken in the sense in 
 which the framers intended it to be taken. No Ca- 
 tholic could take an oath as many Protestants signed 
 the thirty-nine articles of their Church ; and if a 
 Catholic were guilty of such evasion, the Protestant 
 who practised it himself would be the very first to 
 denounce him for it. 
 
 In his third letter, O'Connell shows that if this 
 bill passed, the Catholic clergy would be actually 
 obliged to derive their faculties from the Govern- 
 ment. He does not use the word, probably because 
 he knew that it would not be understood in its tech- 
 nical sense by those whom he addressed, but his 
 argument goes to show this. 
 
 The sixteenth section of the Act required : 
 
 "That every person who shall hereafter be noyni- 
 nated to the office of bishop or dean, in the Catholic 
 Church in Ireland, shall, before, his consecration or acting 
 as such, give notice to the Secretary of the Lord-Lieutenant, 
 and that he shall not be consecrated, or exercise any functions 
 of bishop or dean if the Secretary of the Lord-Lieutenant, 
 
 SHALL INFORM HIM IN WRITING THAT HE IS CONSIDERED BY HIS 
 MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT TO BE, FOR SOME REASON OF A CIVIL 
 NATURE, A PERSON IMPROPER FOR SUCH OFFICE." 
 
 The eighteenth section made it an indictable 
 offence to exercise any part of the functions of a 
 dean or bishop, without having on his nomination 
 signified the same to the Castle, or after he has been 
 disapproved of by the Secretary. 
 
466 
 
 Episcopal Rights Threatened. 
 
 Many members of the Protestant Established 
 Church complained even then of their bondage to 
 the State, but it was a trifle to the bondage which 
 the State sought to exercise towards the Catholics. 
 
 According to the divinely-appointed discipline of 
 the Catholic Church, no man can exercise the sub- 
 lime functions of his office, even after his ordination, 
 without receiving an express permission to do so 
 from the bishop of the diocese in which he wishes 
 to exercise these functions. The granting of this 
 permission is technically called giving faculties. A 
 priest, by virtue of his ordination, has always the 
 power to celebrate Mass ; an apostate priest has still 
 this power, even as the apostate Judas was permitted 
 to be the means of sacrificing his Master ; but no 
 priest can celebrate Mass unless he has permission 
 cr faculties from his bishop, without being guilty of 
 canonical irregularity. And, further, so strict are 
 the regulations of the Church in all that relates to 
 her divine functions, that no priest can say Mass in 
 any other diocese than his own, without permission 
 from the bishop of the diocese, or in any parish but 
 
 his own without the further permission of the parish 
 priest. 
 
 The Government now desired to usurp this right, 
 and inflict pains and penalties on those who dared to 
 resist its usurpation. 
 
 But there was a yet further, and a yet more 
 grievous injustice. 
 
 The Catholic priest cannot administer the sacra- 
 
The Priestly Office Threatened. 467 
 
 ments, cannot hear a confession or give an absolution 
 without faculties from his ecclesiastical superiors. 
 He has the power, by virtue of his ordination, but 
 he has not the right to exercise the power. 
 
 The life of the Catholic priest is one long war- 
 fare with the world, the flesh, and the devil. He is 
 enlisted a soldier of the Church militant by his ordina- 
 tion, but as a good soldier he must act under orders. 
 There can be no confusion in the great camp of God's 
 army, and he who introduces confusion does the 
 sinner's work. 
 
 There is one exception, and one only, in which 
 the Catholic priest may exercise his divinely-given 
 power without special permission from his divinely- 
 appointed rulers. It is in the case of danger of 
 death. When the enemy of souls is making his 
 supreme effort to snatch his prey, the soldier needs 
 no longer wait for permission to act. On the way- 
 side, in the crowded mart, on the trackless ocean, 
 wherever there is a human soul to save, or help in its 
 awful passage from time to eternity, there and then 
 the Catholic priest must do his office, must give the 
 parting soul all the help the Church provides for his 
 perilous journey. This is one of the most sacred 
 privileges of the priest, and of this privilege — nay, 
 rather of this divine right — the new act not only de- 
 prived him, but threatened him with cruel penalties 
 if he exercised it. 
 
 The bill began with the higher clergy ; had it 
 been passed, the history of English persecution of 
 vol. n. 8 
 
468 
 
 Irish Catholics leaves no doubt that its restraints 
 would soon have descended to the lower. The 
 original Veto resolution referred only to bishops. 
 Mr. Plunket's bill had descended to deans. 
 
 It was idle to say that the Catholic sacraments 
 were superstitious, that a Catholic dean who had not 
 " faculties " from Government, might let the poor sin- 
 ner who needed his services die unshrived and 
 unannealed ; the whole question resolved itself for 
 the Catholic into one single point ; he could not 
 sacrifice that which he believed to be of divine right 
 for any human consideration whatsoever. 
 
 With regard to those who attempted to enforce 
 on others that which they would not have submitted 
 to themselves for a single moment, it was merely a 
 a matter of intellectual obtuseness or unphilosophical 
 bigotry. F or a man to stand before his fellow-men 
 with the Bible in his hand, and proclaim liberty of 
 conscience to his fellow-men, to accept his interpreta- 
 tion of the Bible and no other, is to place himself on 
 a throne of individual infallibility ; for if he be not 
 individually infallible, by what right does he require 
 others to submit to his opinions ? For a man to en- 
 force these opinions by any penal law, however trifling, 
 is an act of the grossest injustice. 
 
 Mr. Plunket's bills passed the Lower House, but, 
 happily, for Ireland, they were thrown out in the 
 Upper House upon the second reading. 
 
 Early in July, 1821, it was publicly announced 
 that the king would visit Ireland, and O'Connell 
 
The Queen refused Coronation. 
 
 drew up a form of requisition for a Catholic meet- 
 ing, to consider an address. But the Catholic 
 nobility were entirely opposed to O'Connell's plans. 
 They were fearful of compromising their position in 
 any way ; they had little to gain by an amelioration 
 of the general position of their religious brethren, 
 and were naturally anxious to identify themselves as 
 little as possible with a proscribed creed. 
 
 George IV. was crowned on the 19th of July, 
 1821. On the 10th of July, the Privy Council had 
 refused the appeal of the Queen to be crowned with 
 him. "With that stubborn resolution which she dis- 
 played invariably at the wrong time, and in the wrong 
 fashion, she did her pitiful best to obtain access to 
 Westminster Abbey. On the 16th, she informed the 
 Duke of Norfolk, as earl-marshal, that she intended 
 to take her place, and requested that persons should 
 be in attendance to conduct her to her seat. She 
 sent a further message to say that she would be at 
 the Abbey by eight o'clock ; but she was there at 
 six, the most forlorn and wretched woman in all that 
 great city. Lord Hood was with her, and a faithful 
 friend, but she was repulsed at every door. One or 
 two kindly voices exclaimed, " The Queen for ever !" 
 but the multitude hissed and cried, " Shame, shame ! 
 go to Bergamo ! " 1 It was the last blow, and the 
 death-blow. She knew not what her few friends had 
 known for long enough, that she would never be 
 crowned Queen of England. 
 
 1 Twiss's "Life of Lord Eldon," vol. ii. p. 48. 
 
470 
 
 The King sets out for Ireland. 
 
 She entered the carriage weeping bitterly, and 
 she went home to die. 
 
 The King, in the meantime, had set out for Ire- 
 land. It is difficult to see what could have been his 
 object in this visit. It may have been personal popu- 
 larity, but it is doubtful if George IV. had sufficient 
 intellect to act on any preconcerted plan, even to attain 
 that end. He heard of the Queen's danger with the 
 utmost unconcern ; only he had the decency to delay 
 his voyage to Ireland, and to arrange that if he 
 should arrive there before her death his entry should 
 be private. 1 
 
 The King landed at Howth on the 12th of August. 
 He occupied himself during the passage eating goose- 
 pie, drinking whiskey, and singing songs, and on his 
 arrival he was in the last stage of intoxication. 2 Such 
 delinquencies were, however, easily condoned in 
 royalty. He was driven to the Viceregal Lodge in 
 the Phoenix Park, and the city gave way to exu- 
 berant loyalty. It was something to have a king in 
 
 1 Knighton's Memoirs, p. 91. — "The King was nearly lost off 
 the Land's End, in one of the yatching expeditions in which he 
 whiled away the time. He thus described his danger : — * the oldest 
 and most experienced sailors were petrified and paralysed.' " 
 
 2 " The passage to Dublin was occupied in eating goose-pie and 
 drinking whiskey, in which his Majesty partook most abundantly, 
 singing many joyous songs, and being in a state, on his arrival, to 
 double in sight even the numbers of his gracious subjects assembled 
 on the pier to receive him. The fact is, he was in the last stage of 
 intoxication ; however, they got him to the park." — Letter from Mr. 
 Freemantle to the Marquis of Buckingham — Memoirs of the Court of 
 George IV., vol. i. p. 194. 
 
The Royal Procession. 
 
 471 
 
 Ireland once more, and a king who had come with 
 liberal promises. 
 
 In the meantime, while all this demonstrative 
 loyalty was being rendered in Ireland, some of the 
 King's English subjects were showing their dislike of 
 his neglect of the decencies of life in allowing his 
 Queen to be buried in contempt. Sir Robert Wilson 
 was made the scapegoat, and on the king's return he 
 was dismissed from the army. 
 
 The king remained in retirement a few days, and 
 then presented himself in state to his Irish subjects. 
 The pageant was arranged for the 17th of August, 
 and such a pageant, viewed from point of numbers 
 and enthusiasm, was probably never witnessed — Ire- 
 land had certainly never seen its like. 
 
 The King went in royal procession from one of 
 the finest parks in the world to the finest street in 
 the world. He passed through Phibsborough, then 
 a part of Xhe country, now a continuation of Dublin, 
 through Eccles-street, and into Cavendish-row, skirt- 
 ing Rutland-square, and entering at the Rotundo. 
 Here, at the head of Sackville-street, a pleasant 
 fiction was enacted. A barrier of evergreens was 
 attached to a wooden frame, so as to shut out the 
 view of that noble street, and a gate was left in the 
 barrier or verdant wall, where further progress was 
 denied his Majesty, until he had obtained the free- 
 dom of the city from the Mayor. After the usual 
 ceremonies, carried out with the utmost punctilio 
 and with the most magnificent decorations, the 
 
472 
 
 A Boar of Welcome. 
 
 gates were thrown open, and the King permitted to 
 enter. 
 
 The sight he witnessed was such as had seldom 
 gladdened monarch's heart before. A roar of triumph 
 and welcome rose up to the blue heaven above from 
 thousands and tens of thousands of people. All the 
 chivalry, all the passionate loyalty, all the delicate 
 courtesy which ever welcomed a stranger — and which 
 can scarcely refuse that welcome even to an enemy — 
 had found at last an outlet. They had heard, indeed, 
 of kings who ruled over them, of Williams and 
 Georges, who were said to govern by the grace of 
 God, but who were only known to them by acts 
 which seemed to savour a good deal more of the 
 malignity of the devil. Here was the King ; in 
 person noble, in manner gracious, with just that 
 happy blending of conscious royalty with what 
 passed current for the tim« as affectionate con- 
 descension. 
 
 The air was rent with acclamations, and the 
 monarch enhanced the favour of his kingly presence 
 a thousand fold by clasping to his heart the large 
 bunch of shamrocks which he wore. For the time, 
 probably, he was moved ; he could not but be moved 
 by their demonstration of loyalty. How were this 
 trusting people to know that the shamrocks would be 
 flung aside in a few brief hours for a carouse with 
 the mistress who accompanied him, and with whom 
 he scandalously kept company at the Viceregal 
 Lodge. 
 
Scene in SackviUe-street. 
 
 473 
 
 Sackville-street is, as we have said, the finest 
 street in the world. Its length, three-eighths of a 
 mile, and its breadth of 120 feet, is only broken by 
 Nelson's pillar, which faces the Post-Office, a noble 
 building. Its houses are fairly regular, and of con- 
 siderable height. Now the multitudes who thronged 
 the streets left only space for the passage of the royal 
 equipage, in which the King continued standing as it 
 passed along, bowing, with a grace peculiarly his 
 own, and pointing histrionically to his heart and to 
 his shamrock. Every u coin of vantage" was literally 
 occupied. Even the very capital which supported 
 the statue of Nelson on his pillar, which shoots up 
 134 feet into the air, had its occupants. The front- 
 age of the Post-Office was crowded, and gaily-dressed 
 ladies thought themselves happy to find a place on 
 the architrave above. The procession passed over 
 Carlisle Bridge, and then wended its way through 
 College-green and Dame-street to the Castle. 
 
 Even the higher classes were affected by the 
 general outburst of loyalty, and very large sums of 
 money were subscribed (on paper) to build a royal 
 residence. It was agreed that a million of money 
 should be raised through the country for the same 
 purpose from the unhappy peasantry. Fortunately 
 for them, the scheme fell through when the king left 
 Ireland, and when it was found that the noblemen 
 who had been so liberal of their promises were by 
 no means willing to carry them into execution. 
 
 O'Connell promised to contribute twenty guineas 
 
474 
 
 A People Easily Deceived. 
 
 a-year to the fund, but his subscription was never re- 
 quired. On the King's departure he presented him 
 with a laurel crown. It was reported in the English 
 papers that the King had given O'Connell his cap 
 in return, a statement which O'Connell indignantly 
 denied. 
 
 The King sailed away from the Irish shores, 
 leaving after him a loyal and contented, because im- 
 pressionable nation. There is not on the earth a 
 people so easily deceived as the Irish, because their 
 natural bonhommie leads them to trust, and their 
 natural buoyancy of character leads them to hope. 
 
 How their trust was betrayed, and their hopes 
 shattered, are too well known to need record here. 
 The King left the country a lecture on unity, and a 
 compliment on their loyalty, in the shape of a letter 
 from Lord Sidmouth to the Lord Lieutenant ; and so 
 the royal visit ended. He embarked at Dunleary, a 
 village then, a town now, and so called from Laog- 
 hair e j a famous Irish monarch. It has since been 
 called Kingstown. 
 
 But though the King was obliged to receive the 
 laurel crown from O'Connell, his hatred of the bold 
 advocate of Irish rights was unabated. After the 
 Emancipation Act had passed, O'Connell presented 
 himself at a levee in London. He approached the 
 royal presence with the usual ceremonies, but as 
 he saw " the royal lips moving," he advanced, be- 
 lieving that he was addressed. Whatever the King 
 had said was inaudible, so O'Connell kissed hands 
 
O'Connell Cursed by the King. 
 
 475 
 
 and passed on. In a few days some curious reports 
 appeared in the papers. It was said the King had 
 used some strong language, which was not unusual ; 
 it was said also that he cursed some one at the levee, 
 which was unusual ; and more, that the individual 
 favoured by the royal anathema was Irish. O'Connell 
 met the Duke of Norfolk soon after, and asked if he 
 could explain the newspaper reports. " Yes," he 
 replied, "you are the person alluded to. The day 
 you were at the levee, his Majesty said, as you were 
 approaching, c There is O'Connell. G — d — the 
 scoundrel ! ' " 1 
 
 When speaking of George IV. 's visit to Ireland, 
 O'Connell's opinion of the royal visitor was by no 
 means complimentary. He described him then " as 
 being a most hideous object;" though in 1794 "he 
 was a remarkably handsome, fine man," and " a very 
 fine-looking fellow." O'Connell's opinion of his 
 appearance in 1820 may have been influenced by 
 the fact that he was humbugged by royalty, although 
 he stoutly declared the contrary. If O'Connell sof- 
 tened a little in the presence of royalty, it was be- 
 cause he was Irish, and had imbibed the trusting 
 nature of the Celt with his mother's milk. It was 
 not to his discredit that he should have believed 
 " the greatest liar in England" for a time, when more 
 experienced men were equally deceived. 2 
 
 1 " Personal Recollections of O'Connell." By O'Neil Daunt. 
 
 2 O'Connell used often to relate the well-known anecdote of Fox 
 and Mrs. Fiztherbert. "I believe," he used to say, "that there 
 
476 
 
 " The Greatest Liar in England," 
 
 There is no doubt that the King was carried 
 away either by the enthusiasm of the people or by 
 his copious libations of whiskey during his Irish 
 visit. 1 He found himself in an uncomfortable posi- 
 tion on his return from Germany, whither he had 
 proceeded after his visit to Ireland ; but the dis- 
 comfort was of short continuance, Irish opinion was 
 of too little consequence to disturb the royal mind. 
 
 Yet there were noble-hearted men in England 
 even then who pitied Irish degradation, and, not 
 altogether understanding the Irish character, blamed 
 the effervescent loyalty of the people. One of the 
 most powerful and stinging political ballads of that 
 or any other age was written on this subject by Lord 
 
 never was a greater scoundrel than George the Fourth. To his 
 other evil qualities he added a perfect disregard of truth. During 
 his connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert, Charles James Fox dined with 
 him one day in that lady's company. After dinner, Mrs. Fitzherbert 
 said, ' By the by, Mr. Fox, I had almost forgotten to ask you, what 
 you did say about me in the House of Commons the other night ? 
 The newspapers misrepresent so very strangely, that one cannot de- 
 pend on them. You were made to say, that the Prince authorised 
 you to deny his marriage with me !' — The Prince made monitory 
 grimaces at Fox and immediately said, 1 Upon my honour, my dear, 
 I never authorised him to deny it.' — ' Upon my honour, sir, you 
 did,'' said Fox, rising from the table ; 1 1 had always thought your 
 father the greatest liar in England, but now I see that you are.' " 
 
 1 " The Duchess of Gloucester went to see him [the King] 
 yesterday. . . . He is not so much enraptured with Ireland as she 
 expected to see him. I believe he is a little alarmed at the ad- 
 vances and favour he has shown to the Catholics." — Mr. H. W. 
 Freemantle to the Marquis of Buckingham — Memoirs of the Court of 
 George IV., vol. i. p. 201. 
 
Lord Byron s "Avatar." 
 
 477 
 
 Byron. He had defended "hereditary bondsmen" 
 not only in the heroic metre but in the grander epic 
 of action. In his Avatar the keenest irony of all 
 was, perhaps, that contained in the opening verse : 
 
 " Ere the daughter of Brunswick is cold in her grave, 
 And her ashes still float to their home o'er the tide, 
 Lo ! George the Triumphant speeds over the wave 
 
 To the long-cherished isle which he loved — like his bride." 
 
 Even O'Connell did not escape his scathing de- 
 nunciation, while he certainly did not spare those of 
 his own rank. He taunts O'Connell with proclaim- 
 ing the accomplishments of the monarch, and asks 
 Lord Fingal, in allusion to his being made a Knight 
 o £ St. Patrick : 
 
 " Will thy yard of blue ribbon, poor Fingal, recall 
 The fetters from millions of Catholic limbs? 
 Or has it not bound thee the fastest of all 
 
 The slaves who now hail their betrayer with hymns?" 
 
 As grave fears were now felt in England of a coali- 
 tion between the English Kadicals and the Irish 
 Catholics, the Marquis of Wellesley was sent to Ire- 
 land as Viceroy to raise the hopes of the latter party. 
 But there was just this difference between the policy 
 adopted towards the vast majority of the Irish nation 
 and the few Orangemen who sought to govern it : 
 from time to time, it was whispered to the nation that 
 some measure of justice was to be dealt out to it, 
 but when the time came for doing the justice, it was 
 generally found inexpedient. With the Orange 
 
478 
 
 The Marquis of Wellesley. 
 
 party there was less talk, and a great many grants of 
 even unpromised favours. 1 
 
 The Marquis of Wellesley, in pursuance of an 
 occasional policy, professed to come as the friend of 
 the Catholics ; but, in pursuance of the usual policy, 
 acted as the patron of the Orangemen. He got 
 scant thanks for his pains, even from them. His 
 marriage with a Catholic lady did not improve his 
 position in their eyes, and the u Exports of Ireland," 
 at public dinners, became a favourite toast, the pro- 
 posers having scarcely the decency to wait until his 
 Excellency had left the banquet-table. 2 
 
 At the drunken orgies usually held at the decora- 
 
 1 On the 10th March, 1822, Mr. Freemantle wrote thus to the 
 Duke of Buckingham from the Board of Control : " With regard to 
 Ireland, I am quite satisfied the great man is holding the most 
 conciliatory language to all parties ; holding out success to the 
 Catholics, and a determination to resist them to the Protestants." — 
 Memoirs of the Court of George IV., vol. i. p. 295. 
 
 It was no wonder O'Connell worked hard for Repeal of the Union. 
 
 The Duke of Montrose, in writing to Lord Eldon during the 
 King's visit to Dublin, spoke of Ireland and its inhabitants in a 
 fashion which showed the utter ignorance of English statesmen on 
 such subjects. He was "surprised with the city and its superior 
 inhabitants," no doubt having always believed the traditional Irish 
 barbarian theory; but he was shrewd enough to see, and honest 
 enough to express an opinion on, the misfortunes of the country 
 also. " It certainly wants capital and the residence of its nobility 
 and gentry ; the latter will secure the increase of the former, and 
 must, in my opinion, precede the former. The land appears to be 
 let too high, and to be very little manured." — Life of Lord Chan- 
 cellor Eldon, vol. ii. p. 433. 
 
 2 The Marquis married Mrs. Patterson, an American lady, 
 remarkable for her beauty, which was enhanced by her fortune of 
 
An Unheard-of Outrage. 
 
 479 
 
 tion of King William's statue, the 12th. Lancers 
 shouted - To hell with the Pope," a miserably party 
 cry not yet extinct, and they supplemented their 
 ignorant blasphemy with a curse on O'Connell, " the 
 Pope in the pillory in hell, and the devil pelting 
 O'Connell at him." Probably there were not ten men 
 in the whole rabble rout who had the very least idea 
 what the Pope believed or taught. 
 
 The Beeksteak Club held its revels safe under the 
 shadow of respectability. It was originally a musical 
 society, but had long ceased to promote harmony of 
 any kind. At one of the carousals the obnoxious 
 toast was quaffed. Three officers of the Castle were 
 present, and all Dublin was electrified at hearing 
 next morning that they were dismissed. The rage 
 of the Orange party w r as unbounded. They had not 
 been accustomed to interference in their exhibitions 
 of disloyalty. They determined to have their re- 
 venge, and they had it. The Marquis was alarmed 
 at his own boldness. To interfere with the Orange, 
 or Protestant ascendency party, was an unheard-of 
 • ; outrage" on the part of the Government. He had 
 to compromise matters by going to dine with the 
 club uninvited. Lord Manners, the Chancellor, pre- 
 sided. All was conducted with due decorum, until 
 his Excellency rose to take his leave. He walked 
 through files of Orangemen to the door, but he had 
 
 £100,000. This lady was the widow of Jerome Bonaparte, Napo- 
 leon's brother. She was a descendant of Carroll of Carrolton, one 
 of the Irish signers of the American Declaration of Independence. 
 
480 
 
 Orangeism Rampant. 
 
 scarcely reached it ere every glass was filled, and 
 before he had left, the toast of the " Exports of Ire- 
 land" was given and drunk with shouts of triumph. 
 It was a lesson to the Marquis not to interfere with 
 Orangemen again. 
 
 English statesmen wrote to each other confiden- 
 tially for the hundredth time, that they were assured 
 " by very intelligent" friends that " Ireland was in a 
 worse state than ever," and that nothing but " vigo- 
 rous measures" would save it. The vigorous mea- 
 sures were entirely limited to one side — to the side 
 that could be coerced with impunity ; consequent^, 
 the " worse state than ever" seemed likely to be still 
 a normal condition of Irish affairs. 1 What could be 
 done with those who would not be put down, who 
 would rule the Government, and who had the hearty 
 sympathy of the whole English nation in all their 
 misdeeds. If the Maquis of Wellesley had dared to 
 proceed against these men, they would have brought 
 a storm about his ears which would have resulted in 
 his recall. As it was, because he made some little 
 show of justice to the Catholic party, he was grossly 
 insulted in the theatre, and his life threatened on the 
 occasion of the famous " Bottle riot," at the close of 
 the year 1822. The offenders were brought to the 
 bar — their guilt was clearly proved. It was one of 
 the fiercest and most unprovoked attacks ever made 
 on Government. It was the result of a deep-laid plot 
 
 1 Letter from the Right Honourable T. Grenville to the Marquis 
 of Buckingham — Memoirs of George IV.," vol. ii. p. 215. 
 
A Great Catholic Triumph 
 
 against the Lord-Lieutenant. He narrowly escaped 
 with his life; but the offenders were Orangemen, and 
 they escaped, because no jury could be found to 
 bring them in guilty. 
 
 At the commencement of that year, a corporation 
 dinner was given at Morrison's Hotel, at which the 
 glorious memory was drunk, and the proposer, Sir 
 Thomas Whelan, hoped that the corporation u would 
 never forget that great, that brave man who had 
 made them what they were." 
 
 The compliment to the royal memory was a doubt- 
 ful one. If William tyrannised, he tyrannised to win 
 or keep a kingdom ; but those men were, each in 
 their way, petty tyrants, tyrants who boasted of their 
 pitiful illiberality, and gloried in their ignorant 
 bigotry. Even at this very dinner, they declared 
 that the kingdom would not be " safe for six months," 
 because some little grace was shown to their Catholic 
 fellow-subjects. For them, indeed, there was but 
 one kingdom, their own little body corporate, and but 
 one freedom, liberty to insult those who dared to 
 differ from them. 
 
 The Catholics obtained a great triumph, however, 
 at this period, by the return of Mr. White for the 
 county of Dublin. He was opposed by Sir Compton 
 Domville, a violent Orange partisan. Both parties 
 were lavish in their bribes, but O'Connell's eloquence 
 and nerve carried the day for White. He went from 
 chapel to chapel along the Dublin coast, and spoke to 
 the freeholders in small parties with that persuasive 
 
482 
 
 Independent Electors, 
 
 eloquence which rarely failed of its effect. The 
 priests were, as they have always been, most ear- 
 nest in supporting the unhappy victims of landlord 
 tyranny, and Sir Compton learned for the first time, 
 with equal annoyance and indignation, that his 
 tenants dared to call their votes their own. 
 
Cbaptcr (blcbeittlj. 
 
 CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION — ITS FORMATION 
 AND DEFENCE. 
 
 1S22-IS27. 
 
 Flood and Connor: Cross-examination of Flood: 
 Plunket and Hart: Formation of Catholic As- 
 sociation: Priests and People brought into 
 Action: First Meeting : The Inexorable Purcell : 
 The Penny -a-month Scheme for Liberating 
 Ireland: Grand Aggregate Meeting: The Con- 
 version Mania : The Pope and Maguire Con- 
 troversy : Abortive Prosecution of O'Connell: 
 The Duke of York's (e So-help-me-God" Speech: 
 The King's Speech and the Association: Lords 
 Liverpool and Brougham : O'Connell in London : 
 Lords Palmerston and Eldon: The Ladies: 
 O'ConnelVs Popularity: Aims of the Associa- 
 tion: Another Challenge: Shiel: Canning. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 9 
 
XT HEN O'Connell was on 
 circuit in the spring of 
 1822, a most amusing 
 trial took place at the Tralce 
 assizes. The account, which 
 has never before been published, ex- 
 & cept in a local paper, was supplied to 
 the present writer by a gentleman 
 who was present on the occasion and 
 thoroughly conversant with all the cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 About this time the Government began 
 to take active measures for the suppression 
 of illegal trade. New laws were made, 
 heavy penalties inflicted, and, above all, an 
 active officer was sent down to assist, and 
 look after the justices of the peace, some of whom 
 were more than suspected of complicity and conni- 
 
486 
 
 An Actor SjmlecL 
 
 vance. The man's name was Flood. He commenced 
 life as a lamplighter in the Crow-street Theatre, in 
 Dublin. He was a notability there, and used to keep 
 the green-room in roars with his recitations, obtain- 
 ing more money in this way than many legitimate 
 wearers of the buskin, "To his other accomplish- 
 ments he added, that of being a most expert swimmer i 
 and he was given a fine appointment in the revenue 
 as a reward for saving the life of some nobleman's 
 son. 
 
 He was active and energetic, and we now find 
 him as John Flood, Esq., settled in Dingle. 
 
 But the man was an actor spoiled. Dingle, to 
 use a local expression, was " at the back of God- 
 speed f and instead of getting up a cutter, he got up 
 a theatre. Flood became at once the most popular 
 man in Dingle. Every house was open to him, and 
 every party. Plays led to supper-parties, and Flood, 
 who was supposed to hunt piracy by sea, turned 
 pirate on land, if tradition does not belie him ; and 
 was more than once had up before the "justices" for 
 raids on neighbouring farms, to obtain geese and 
 turkeys for his convivial meetings. Ugly reports 
 went up to Dublin, and Flood felt assured that he 
 must capture something more important than fowl, if 
 he wished to retain his situation. 
 
 Fortune favoured him. He seized a Dingle shop- 
 keeper named Connor, who had long engaged un- 
 molested in illicit trade. He seized him at midnight, 
 at the head of forty horses, each bearing three large 
 
"Come hack, Alonzo!" 
 
 4 37 
 
 sacks of tobacco. Information was given, and spe- 
 cial counsel sent down to the Tralee assizes to pro- 
 secute. 
 
 But Connor, who held a very respectable position, 
 had a great number of friends in Tralee. They 
 wisely retained O'Conneil for Ids counsel. His case 
 certainly could not have looked worse. The man 
 was caught in the act, and fourteen years was the 
 lightest sentence he could expect. 
 
 Connor's friends employed the shop boys and 
 others to watch Flood for the three or four days 
 preceding the trial. They made him declaim for 
 them, and act for them, and they supplied him abun- 
 dantly with drink. They kept him in a state of semi- 
 intoxication ; and when he came to give his evidence 
 at the trial, he was, to use the vernacular, more than 
 half-seas over. 
 
 The evidence was simple enough. lie had lain 
 in ambush for Connor, had seen him approaching 
 with his forty horses, had sprung out upon him and 
 seized him, but the horses had escaped. 
 
 He was just going down from the witness-box 
 when he was recalled by O'Conneil for cross-exami- 
 nation. 
 
 u Come back, Alonzo !" roared O'Conneil. 
 
 O'Conneil knew Alonzo well ; every one did in 
 Dublin, and was well informed of his former career 
 by Connor's friends. 
 
 The right chord was touched. Flood turned 
 round to the place from whence the rolling tones 
 
488 
 
 The Bight Chord Touched. 
 
 nad proceeded, exclaiming, u Alonzo the brave, and 
 the fair Imogene !" in his best theatrical style. 
 
 O'Connell opened fire. There was no fear of his 
 client now. 
 
 He began, " And who was your Imogene in 
 Dingle?" 
 
 Flood shook his head and made imploring ges- 
 tures. It was no use. When O'Connell had a victim 
 in the witness-box, he might resign himself ; it was 
 useless to struggle. Flood was obliged to answer. 
 He was obliged to tell how many Imogenes he had 
 in Dingle, how many supper-parties he had given, 
 how many parts he had played, and then — how many 
 famous hen-roosts he had robbed. At last Flood 
 got into a towering passion, and abused O'Connell 
 bitterly. So much the better for his client. He 
 puzzled, bewildered, cajoled, and enraged Flood, 
 until he made him contradict his own sworn evidence 
 twenty times over. He plied him with quotations 
 from Shakespeare in one breath, and then most 
 adroitly insinuated a leading question. At last Flood 
 became so excited that he made a spring towards 
 O'Connell, exclaiming, " My love, my life, my Belvi- 
 dera !" Unhappy man ! amidst the roaring laughter 
 of jury, counsel, and judge, he fell between the wit- 
 ness-box and the bench, and was taken up half- 
 unconscious, yet muttering threats of deadly ven- 
 geance against his tormentor. 
 
 Connor was acquitted by the jury after a quarter 
 of an hour's " deliberation." 
 
" Very sore at Heart." 
 
 When my informant reminded O'Connell of the 
 circumstance some years later, at Darrynane, he 
 said lie had completely forgotten it. The next day, 
 however, he said that " Alonzo" and " Belvidera" had 
 been haunting his memory since the previous day, 
 that he distinctly remembered the whole case, and 
 that it was the greatest triumph he had ever had in a 
 court of justice, not even excepting that which he had 
 gained in the Doneraile conspiracy. 
 
 I am indebted for the following anecdote to a 
 legal friend who is a distinguished member of the 
 Irish bar 1 : 
 
 " When Lord Manners retired from the Chancellorship, a 
 great part of the public looked to Plunket, the Attorney- 
 General, then in the zenith of his fame as an orator and a 
 statesman, as the successor to the high place. The news- 
 papers announced and the people received it as a fact, and the 
 known object of his ambition seemed already in the possession 
 of the pre-eminent labourer. English policy, however, or it 
 may be the inability to spare such an ally from the House of 
 Commons, stopped his promotion for the time, and Sir Anthony 
 Hart, of the English bar, sat as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. 
 A brilliant gathering of the ' Long Robe' received the stranger 
 on his first sitting with the customary obeisance. The dis- 
 appointed, if not insulted, Attorney-General was there, and 
 Saurin and Goold, and Bush, and Wallace and Joy ; and 
 amongst the juniors, Blackburne and Shiel ; but, greatest 
 amongst the great, ' the observed of all observers,' the future 
 Liberator. * How does Plunket look this morning, Dan ? ' 
 cries Shiel in a shrill whisper. * Very sore at Heart,' responded 
 Dan, rolling his large grey eye towards the bench ; and the 
 timely hit ran round the gay circle, and soon the buzzing and 
 
 1 Sergeant Armstrong. 
 
490 Catholic Association formed. 
 
 crowded hall — adding to the long roll of the great Dan's hard 
 yet pleasant sayings." 
 
 One of the most important undertakings of 
 O'Connell's life was the formation of the Catholic 
 Association. He had formed the Catholic Com- 
 mittee, which was abolished by Government ; he 
 had formed the Board, which was also abolished by 
 Government ; but as they could not abolish O^Con- 
 nell, he next formed the Catholic Association. The 
 circular letter which preceded the first meeting was 
 the joint composition of O'Connell and Shiel. The 
 first meeting was held at a tavern in Sackville-street, 
 on the 28th of April, 1823. Lord Killeenwas voted 
 to the chair, and O'Connell made the opening speech ; 
 in which he observed with great truth and shrewd- 
 ness that " some persons should take upon themselves 
 the trouble of managing the affairs of the Catholics." 
 Never had Catholics a more competent leader than 
 the man who enunciated this truth. 
 
 But there was yet more to be done. A plan had 
 to be formed which could not be interfered with by 
 Government. Such an undertaking was one into 
 which the Liberator could enter with a special zest. 
 O'Connell's plan was an open club. Members were 
 admitted on payment of one guinea per annum with- 
 out canvass or ballot, on the viva voce proposal of a 
 friend. But O'Connell saw now that it was time to 
 bring two powerful bodies into action, the priests 
 and the people. Hitherto, all Catholic movements 
 had been led and carried out by the upper classes, 
 
Priests and People Organised. 
 
 491 
 
 and with fitful and intermitting help from the aristo- 
 cracy. 
 
 The people wild were to become members of this 
 Association were to pay one shilling a-year. Poor 
 as the Irish peasant was, there were few indeed who 
 could not give this trifling sum, and fewer still who 
 would refuse it. The very fact of contributing to 
 and being a member of such an association was an 
 incalculable benefit. lie hoped for the first time to 
 give the lower class of Irish a sense of power, in- 
 dividual responsibility, and of independence. They 
 had now a personal interest in every debate of the 
 Association, they now felt that something was being 
 done for them, and that they need not seek redress 
 in the wild justice of revenge. 
 
 The connexion of the Catholic clergy with the 
 Association was an arrangement of still greater im- 
 portance. In order to rule the people, it was neces- 
 sary that they should have leaders. The landlords, 
 with whom they were continually at feud, who hated 
 their religion, and too often opposed them in tem- 
 poral affairs, were not to be thought of. Who, then, 
 could be chosen but the priest ? And the priest 
 did his work wisely and well. He kept the people 
 united, he made them strong, he gave them hope, 
 they learned from him, from time to time, how the 
 great work was progressing. Each individual knew 
 that his penny went safely to the general fund, and 
 contributed its share to the common object. True, 
 it was but a drop in the ocean, but the ocean is 
 
492 
 
 Secret of O'ConnelVs Success. 
 
 formed of drops ; and the Catholic rent, made up of 
 pennies, became a power in Ireland before which 
 English statesmen and cabinets learned to trim the 
 sails of their barque with cautious fear. i 
 
 Shiel, always cautious, doubted if the plan would 
 succeed. 1 O'Connell, always bold, said it would, for 
 lie would make it. This was, indeed, the secret of 
 O'Connell's success, as it must ever be the secret of 
 all success. Yet, when we look at O'Connell, in the 
 zenith of his power and his popularity, we are too 
 apt to forget the difficulties he encountered in arriv- 
 ing at this consummation. It is a common saying 
 that " nothing succeeds like success but it should 
 be remembered that success takes a good deal of dis- 
 appointment as well as a great deal of labour — a 
 good deal of discouragement as well as a great deal 
 of indomitable courage. 
 
 On the 13th of May 1823, The Irish Catholic 
 Association, as it was now styled, met at Coyne's, a 
 Catholic bookseller, who lived at No. 4 Capel Street, 
 and here its future meetings were held. A few gen- 
 tlemen talked and doubted. O'Connell talked too, 
 but he worked. The gentlemen were for petition- 
 ing Parliament in well-considered and courteous lan- 
 guage. O'Connell came out with statements of facts 
 as to the oppression exercised on Catholics which no 
 one could deny. 
 
 At the meeting he showed how the poor Catho- 
 
 1 " Memoir of O'Connell," by his Son, vol. ii. p. 409. 
 
" The Inexorable Purcell" 
 
 493 
 
 lies in jail were deprived of the services of a chaplain 
 even in their last moments, in consequence of the 
 bigotry of the Dublin Grand Jury. They first ap- 
 pointed Dr. Murphy because they knew he could not 
 attend ; they next appointed a Spanish priest because 
 he neither knew English nor Irish ; they then selected 
 a gentleman whose intellect was astray ; and they at 
 last chose a parish priest in Limerick, who was " to 
 come up by the mail" when a convict was to be ex- 
 ecuted. 
 
 The following anecdote is an evidence of O'Con- 
 nell's difficulties, and of his energy in overcoming 
 them. It was a rule of the Association that, if the 
 members were not present at half-past three o'clock, 
 that being the time of meeting, an adjournment should 
 take place. Purcell O'Gorman, the secretary, notified 
 the time with rigorous punctuality. O'Connell was 
 harassed by the irregularity of the members. They 
 would all promise to be present, but when the time 
 came the promise would be broken or forgotten. On 
 the 4th July 1824, says Mr. O'Connell's son, "the 
 spell was broken 
 
 4 'At twenty-three minutes past three, on that afternoon, 
 there were but seven persons present, including Mr. O'Connell 
 himself and the inexorable Purcell! the latter, as usual, watch 
 in hand, not in the least moved by the anxiety so plainly de- 
 picted in Mr. O'Connell's face. Another minute, and Mr. 
 O'Connell could remain in the room no longer. He ran to- 
 wards Coyne's shop, down-stairs, in the faint hope of finding 
 somebody. On the stairs the eighth man passed him going 
 up. In the shop itself were fortunately two young Maynooth 
 
494 
 
 The Budget, 
 
 priests making some purchases. The rules of the Association 
 admitting all clergymen as honorary members without special 
 motion, he eagerly addressed and implored them to come up 
 but for one moment, and help to make the required quorum. 
 A.t first they refused, there being a good deal of hesitation 
 generally on the part of the clergy to put themselves at all 
 forward in politics, and these young men in particular having 
 all the timidity of their secluded education about them. But 
 there was no withstanding him ; partly by still more earnest 
 solicitations, and partly by actual p u slung, he got them towards 
 the staircase, and upon it, and finally into the meeting-room, 
 exactly a second or two before the half-hour, and so stopped 
 Mr. O'Gorman's mouth ; and the required number being thus 
 made up, the chair wasHaken." 1 
 
 O'Connell's master-mind had grasped not only 
 the intellectual but even the financial arrangements 
 of his new plan. He calculated that by his penny-a- 
 month subscriptions £50,000 per annum would be 
 raised. It was a goodly sum, but not more than 
 sufficient for the purpose. He proposed the follow- 
 ing division of the amount : 
 
 For parliamentary expenses . . £ 5,000 
 
 For the services of the Press . . . 15,000 
 For law proceedings, in preserving the legal 
 privileges of the Catholics, and prosecuting 
 Orange aggressors ..... 15,000 
 
 For the purpose of education for the Catholic 
 
 poor . . . . . . . 5,000 
 
 For educating Catholic priests for the service 
 
 of America ...... 5,000 
 
 £45,000 
 
 The parliamentary expenses included, or rather 
 
 1 " Memoir of O'Connell," by his Son, vol. ii. p. 478. 
 
O'Connell in Difficulty. 
 
 495 
 
 involved, the residence of an agent in London, who 
 would see to the presentation of petitions and other 
 matters of equal importance. For the services of 
 the press the sum was absolutely necessary, since 
 the press was then hostile to Catholics with the 
 rarest exceptions, and it was of vital importance that 
 they should have an organ of their own. O'Connell 
 had already been asked to assist in the providing 
 funds for the education of priests in America, where 
 the Irish were already emigrating in numbers, and 
 laying the foundation of a mighty empire, where they 
 might have ruled and reigned if there had been an 
 O'Connell to govern them. 
 
 The principal difficulty was to collect this Catho- 
 lic rent ; but the word difficulty was not in O'Con- 
 nell's dictionary. He said he would collect in his 
 own parish himself : there were few gentlemen 
 likely to follow his example, but the priests came to 
 the rescue, and with their assistance the work was 
 done. O'Connell's plan was, of course, scouted at 
 first ; and even his sons were taunted at their school 
 with their father's u penny-a-month plan for libe- 
 rating Ireland." 
 
 A grand aggregate meeting was held on the 27th 
 of July 1824, in Old Townsend Street Chapel, Sir 
 Thomas Esmonde in the chair. O'Connell's speech 
 was received with even more than usual applause, 
 and with a good deal of laughter. He had been 
 sent an enormous package of books, pamphlets, and 
 private letters relating to the Orangemen, of which 
 
496 An Occasional Phenomenon. 
 
 he made effective and unsparing use. He read ex- 
 tracts from these documents, which proved that the 
 Society was a secret and deadly engine of tyranny, 
 yet the Grown Solicitor for the county Donegal was 
 Grand Master of a Lodge. One of the resolutions 
 was this : 
 
 "Resolved — 'That any Orangeman, who ever has, or may 
 hereafter, sign any petition in favour of the Roman Catholics, 
 and for their emancipation, be expelled from all Orange 
 Lodges, and his name posted.'" 
 
 From time to time a curious phenomenon occurs 
 in Ireland. Some few individuals, with more zeal 
 than discretion, and more bigotry than intellect, 
 make a desperate attempt to " convert " the people 
 from the religion to which they have adhered with 
 unfailing fidelity for centuries. 1 The result is always 
 failure, except in " famine years," when the unhappy 
 peasantry are sometimes induced to barter their faith 
 for bread. Such attempts are now, happily, com- 
 paratively rare. Englishmen are too practical where 
 
 1 On the 21st October 1826, Lord Palmerston wrote thus to the 
 Honourable W. Temple : < 'The Catholic and anti-Catholic war is, 
 however, carried on more vigorously than ever, and the whole 
 people are by their race like a disciplined pack of hounds." He 
 forgot, however, that he actually had a share in the hunt himself, 
 for he says in an earlier part of the letter he had "a great mind" 
 to send some "zealous" evangelical from Cambridge, then full of 
 Simeon's great " revival," to work on his estates in Ireland. It 
 does not seem to have ever occured to this intelligent statesmen that 
 he was anxious himself to do the very thing which he blamed others 
 for doing, and that he was accusing the Irish of a quarrel which 
 had actually been forced on them. He did not consider at all what 
 
Misdirected Pli Man tit rop y. 
 
 money is concerned to expend it without a corres- 
 ponding return, and have at last discovered that the 
 speculation in Irish fidelity to religion is more loss 
 than profit. 
 
 O'Connell, as might be expected, was a fierce 
 opponent of all such attempts, and not without cause. 
 The conversion mania was rampant in the year 1824, 
 and the famous Tope and Maguire controversy agi- 
 tated all Ireland. Each party, of course, claimed 
 the victory after the public discussion, at which 
 O'Connell assisted ; but it was said that Mr. Pope 
 was more than convinced by Maguire's arguments 
 though he continued to oppose them to the last. 
 
 He sank into a state of melancholy, from which 
 neither the vivacity of his Welsh wife, nor the 
 benefit of her fortune, could rouse him. lie limited 
 his theological efforts to giving lectures in private 
 houses. 
 
 O'Connell's speech at the public discussion was 
 lon^ and telling. At the conclusion he sucr^ested 
 
 DO CO 
 
 the result would be if he had been an Irish Catholic, possessin" 
 some English estates tenanted by Protestants, and if he had selected 
 some zealous Jesuit from Stoneyhurst College to go and convert 
 them. In the conclusion of his letter, he blames the Orangemen 
 sharply, and spoke of their "orgies" in this town [Londonderry] 
 and Armagh; and concluded, "It is strange, in this enlightened 
 age and enlightened country, people should be still debating whether 
 it is wise to convert four or five millions of men from enemies to 
 friends, and whether it is safe to give peace to Ireland." — Life 
 of Lord Palmer ston, vol. i. pp. 178, 179. Yet he was not "en- 
 lightened" enough himself to see that he was doing the very thing 
 to a certain degree that he condemned in others. 
 
408 
 
 An Abortive Prosecution. 
 
 that thegentlemen who were supporting the " Second 
 Keformation," as the} 7 were pleased to call this move- 
 ment, should turn their attention to the Orangemen 
 in the North, though he was not aware that even 
 Lord Palmerston deemed them in need of reforma- 
 tion. Be made the pertinent observation that the 
 Catholics were charged with altering Scripture, 
 while, in point of fact, it was altered by Protestants ; 
 and he showed that the divisions of Protestants 
 themselves on the most vital questions of doctrine 
 was an evidence that some authoritative source for 
 definition was needed. 
 
 Either O'Connell's boldness or the general hatred 
 of the Government towards him brought on a prose- 
 cution. On the 20th of December he made a speech 
 in which he said : 
 
 "He hoped that Ireland would never be driven to the 
 system pursued by the Greeks. He trusted in God they would 
 never be so driven. He hoped Ireland would be restored to 
 her rights ; but if that day should arrive — if she were driven 
 mad by persecution, he wished that a new Bolivar might 
 arise — that the spirit of the Greeks and of the South Ameri- 
 cans might animate the people of Ireland I " 
 
 For this O'Connell was indicted, but the grand 
 jury threw out the bill. The Dublin reporters be- 
 haved nobly, one and all refusing to give up their 
 notes, or to give information. The reporter of Saun- 
 ders' News Letter was the only exception. This 
 gentleman, however, was obliged to admit on exami- 
 nation that he was asleep when the seditious words 
 were said, and the case broke down for want of 
 
The " So-help-me-God" Speech. 
 
 499 
 
 proper evidence. It was said that Mr. Plunket, the 
 Attorney General, was the originator of the prosecu- 
 tion, and that he was also the suggester or the active 
 promoter of the " Second Reformation f and it was 
 also said that the bill was thrown out to u spite " Mr. 
 Plunket. 1 
 
 O'Connell's uncle, old u Hunting-Cap," died this 
 year, and the Liberator succeeded to his property, 
 which proved an important addition to his profes- 
 sional income. He was not, however, free from 
 domestic care. Mrs. O'Connell's health was failing, 
 and she was taken to the south of France. 
 
 When the king's speech was preparing in the 
 opening of 182<5, the "Irish difficulty," as usual, 
 proved an obstacle. The king was ill, 2 at least he 
 said so ; he was out of temper, at least his mistress 
 said so. The cabinet was engaged on the Irish 
 portion of the speech daily for hours. The anti- 
 Catholics, with the Duke of York at their head, were 
 crying out in the " so-help-me-God " style, which has 
 been renewed in our own days. 3 The Burlington 
 
 1 " There is much idea that the grand jury threw out the bill to 
 spite Plunket." — Wynn to the Duke of Buckingham, Memoirs of 
 George IV., vol. ii. p. 193. It certainly was not done to favour 
 O'Connell, and it is an edifying specimen of the way "law" was 
 carried out in Ireland. 
 
 2 "The king is still in his bed, sulky and "out of humour, and, 
 therefore, venting his spleen when and where he can. It all, how- 
 ever, originates in the domestic concerns. Lady is not gone 
 
 back," &C. — Memoirs of the Court of George IV., vol. ii. p. 217. 
 
 3 The Duke of York's famous " so-help-me-God " speech was 
 made on the 25th of April 1825, in the House of Lords. The anti- 
 
 vol. ii. 10 
 
500 
 
 The Kings Speech. 
 
 faction were for masterly inactivity. The Irish Ex- 
 ecutive would not urge the necessity of a bill to put 
 down the Catholic Association, much as they desired 
 to do it, but they were quite willing to support one 
 if Government would take the odium of it. 1 
 
 There were " innuendoes" and " whispers/' and 
 "looks;" and the Opposition sincerely hoped, and 
 had some ground for suspecting, that it would all 
 end in a dislocation." The Irish Attorney-General 
 Plunket was got over to assist in the deliberation, 
 and at last the speech was written. 2 Lord Eldon 
 said, indeed, that he " did not admire the composi- 
 tion, or the matter of the speech," 3 though he had to 
 read it (and submit to it). 
 
 The king's speech first asserted that Ireland was 
 
 prosperous, and then opened out on the Catholic 
 
 Association : 
 
 " It is to be regretted that Associations should exist in 
 Ireland which have adopted proceedings irreconcilable with the 
 
 Catholic party were so charmed with it, that it was printed in gold 
 letters like the famous Durham letter. The whole speech was 
 intended to tell, as it did, with a certain class, against even the 
 smallest concession to the Catholics. He said in conclusion : " I 
 ever have, and ever shall, in any situation in which I may be 
 placed, oppose these claims of the Roman Catholics. So-help-me- 
 Gocl." The Duke was certainly sincere. 
 
 1 " How they will arrange the speech with regard to Ireland is 
 the real difficulty; the Cabinet, depend upon it, is engaged in this 
 question daily for hours . . . Your benches are loud for doing 
 nothing." — Letter from the Hon. W. Freem anile to the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham, Memoirs of George IV., vol. ii p. 202. 
 
 2 " Memoirs of George IV.," vol. ii. p. 201. 
 
 3 "Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon," vol. ii. p. 531. 
 
.1 Massacre in Perspective. 
 
 501 
 
 spirit of the constitution, and calculated, by exciting alarm and 
 by exasperating animosity, to endanger the peace of society 
 and to retard the course of national improvement. His Ma- 
 jesty relies upon your wisdom to consider without delay the 
 means of applying a remedy to this evil." 
 
 The result was a bill for the suppression of the 
 Catholic Association, which was brought in by Mr. 
 Goulbourn on the 10th of February, 182o. The 
 Catholics petitioned against the bill ; they explained 
 the working of the Association j but what was the 
 use of explanation to those who were determined not 
 to believe them. There were men both in and 
 out of Parliament who knew the whole thing was a 
 M Popish plot," the constitution to be subverted by 
 it, the Protestants to be massacred. 1 Reasoning with 
 men of this class was simply useless, because they 
 were incapable of reasoning. If they asserted any- 
 thing, that was in itself a sufficient proof of its truth. 
 So, having asserted a falsehood, they reasoned on 
 the falsehood, and might as well be left to the en- 
 
 1 Mr. Wynn wrote to the Duke of Buckingham: " Mr. Lewis 
 describes the local alarm as very great ; numbers of persons having 
 sat up on Christmas Eve in Dublin in expectation of waking dead 
 corpses if they allowed themselves to go to sleep. This I heard 
 also from Peel, who describes the alarmists as doing incalculable 
 mischief by talking before Catholic servants of the massacre," 
 Sec. — Memoirs of the Court of George IV., vol. ii. p. 193. This was 
 an old trick of the Protestant ascendancy party. They chose to 
 suppose or invent a massacre in perspective ; thus they excited the 
 unhappy people by denouncing them to Government, by arrests on 
 suspicion, and by using the most violent language before them, and 
 at last they exasperated them into some outrage which seemed to 
 give a colour of truth to the prediction. 
 
502 
 
 A J/Ucied with Jesuitaphobia. 
 
 joy men t of their own delusion. When they con- 
 descended to give any reason except their own 
 assertion, it was generally original, and of about as 
 much value as the assertion. They had "heard" 
 that one or two Italian Jesuits 1 had been seen in 
 Dublin, therefore, of course, there was a Jesuit plot ; 
 and the priests had preached on the last judgment, 
 as they had always done in Advent for centuries 
 before Orangemen or Protestants were heard of, and, 
 of course, they meant, not what they said, but that a 
 judgment in the form of a massacre was to come on 
 the Protestants. 
 
 It is scarcely credible that rational beings could 
 be so credulous, and it would be incredible if they 
 had not left their own credulity and folly on record. 
 
 These were the class of men with whom O'Con- 
 n ell had to deal. In England, men like the Duke of 
 York, who called God to witness that they would 
 
 1 "I am confident, as I have long since been, that the priests 
 have laid a deep plot, and are daily preparing the minds of the 
 people for the execution of it, which is no less than the exter- 
 mination of the Protestants, and they have said as much." — LclL r 
 from Mr. Hans Hamilton to Lord Colchester, Diary of Lord Colc/us- 
 ter, vol. iii. p. 450. Poor Mr. Hamilton suffered from Jesuita- 
 phobia. The unhappy man believed that every parish priest was 
 a Jesuit, but he does not tell us how he came to be so intimately 
 acquainted with the councils of the Societ}\ His own letters are a 
 sufficient evidence of his folly. If the priests had laid a plot to 
 massacre the Protestants, it is not likely they would ''have said as 
 much" to him at any time. Persons affected with Jesuitaphobia 
 arc generally terribly inaccurate in their statements. They re- 
 present the Jesuits at one time as the most wise and crafty of 
 mortals, and at others as fearful fools. 
 
The Old Story. 
 
 503 
 
 persevere in bigotry to the death ; in Ireland, men 
 like Mr. Hans Hamilton, who imagined they knew 
 everything about a religion which they despised, and 
 whose only idea of making converts was by physical 
 force. 1 
 
 Lord (then Mr.) Brougham undertook the defence 
 of the Association in the House of Commons. The 
 bill for its suppression was brought in on the night of 
 the 18th February, 182 o. The House was crowded 
 to excess. O'Connell and his companions, noble 
 specimens of the Irish race, sat below the bar of the 
 House. They had hoped they might be called on to 
 plead, and O'Connell had prepared a speech for the 
 purpose, which he delivered afterwards at a public 
 meeting. 
 
 Lord Liverpool opened the charge as Prime 
 Minister. He accused the Association of " evading 
 and nullifying the law of the land," by levying an 
 unauthorised tax upon the Catholic population of 
 Ireland. He said, ' : If Catholic claims were to be 
 granted, they ought to be granted on their own 
 merits, and not to the demand of such associations, 
 acting in such a manner." 2 
 
 It was the old story. Catholics had put forward 
 
 1 At the close of the year 1824, Mr. Hamilton wrote again : 
 " Your Lordship has no doubt heard of the arrival of some Italian 
 priests in Dublin a short time ago." In the same letter, he says, in 
 one place, that he had discovered and disclosed all the plans of the 
 Jesuits, and in another, that the Jesuits acted in such a way as to 
 <s evade discovery.'" — Diary of Lord Colchester, vol. iii. p. 350. 
 
 "Life and Admiuistration of Lord Liverpool," vol. iii. p. 320. 
 
504 Prejudices Removed on Both Sides. 
 
 their claims very often quietly ; they were not listened 
 to. Now they united to demand them, they were not 
 to be granted, because they did not act submissively, 
 as usual, and own they were wrong. They should 
 not have acted at all ; the matter and the manner 
 were sure to offend. Some few Irish peers spoke out 
 nobly for fair play. Lord Brougham said the Asso- 
 ciation was not seditious, and that "the Catholic 
 clergy had been most active, and more than usually 
 successful, in discouraging sedition and tumult.' 7 
 Lord Clifden said that he was himself a subscriber 
 to the Association. 
 
 A month later, when Lord Liverpool moved the 
 second reading of the bill, he poured forth a torrent 
 of platitudes as to what had been already done for 
 Ireland. According to his view of the case, the Irish 
 had been overwhelmed with benefits, .and were the 
 most ungrateful people in existence. 
 
 O'Conneirs visit to London brought him in con- 
 tact with many of the Catholic nobility, and helped 
 to remove some prejudices on both sides. The Eng- 
 lish Catholics found that O'Connell did not belong 
 to the class of individuals who were then agitating in 
 England ; and the Irish deputation received so much 
 unexpected courtjesy, that they could not fail to take 
 kindly recollections back with them to Ireland. 
 Even the Edinburgh Review paid a tribute to the 
 deputation, probably because that periodical was 
 under the influence of Brougham. It admitted that 
 "no men in circumstances so delicate had ever be- 
 
0' Council under Exanrinatwn. 
 
 505 
 
 haved with greater temper and moderation;" and 
 more than hinted that they had been deceived as to 
 the subject of Catholic Emancipation. 
 
 O'Connell "was examined before the Committee 
 on the 9th of March, and again on the 11th. Lord 
 Colchester has left an interesting note on this subject 
 in his diary, though his description of O'Connell is 
 not very complimentary. 1 
 
 lie was an object of universal attraction, and 
 made favourable impressions on some of the leading 
 politicians of the day. 
 
 Shortly before leaving London, he attended a 
 public meeting at which the Duke of Norfolk pre- 
 sided, where he spoke out in very plain language. 
 Lord Colchester describes his speech as M long and 
 furious," and complains he called Lord Liverpool a 
 u driveller." Lord Palmerston had called him a 
 " spoony," which was equally offensive ; but as the 
 opinion was given in private correspondence, it only 
 proves that noble English lords could use such ex- 
 
 1 Extract from Diary " 9th Irish Committee. — O'Connell ex- 
 amined for four hours ; confined himself to the state of the admi- 
 nistration of justice, how far satisfactory or unsatisfactory, from the 
 highest to the lowest jurisdiction, police included. O'Connell 
 appears to be about fifty-three or fifty-four years of age, a stout- 
 built man, with a black wig, and thin light-coloured eyebrows, 
 about the middle stature, pale countenance and grave features, blue 
 eyes, reflecting expression of countenance [sic], his whole deport- 
 ment affected respectful and gentle, except in a few answers, when 
 he displayed a fierceness of tone and aspect. He went to the 
 Munster Circuit twenty-three or twenty-four years, but now only on 
 special occasions." — Diary of Lord Colchester, vol. ill. p. 372. 
 
506 
 
 A New Private Toast. 
 
 pressions as well as Irish agitators. 1 Indeed, there 
 was a good deal of low language used in confidential 
 communications at that period. Party feeling ran 
 high, and some ladies even went so far as to keep 
 their husbands at home by force to prevent them 
 from voting on the Catholic question. As a reward 
 for their enterprise they were toasted daily, as " The 
 ladies who locked up their husbands." 2 
 
 Lord Eldon's opinion of O'Connell at this period 
 is also on record, as well as Lord Sidmouth's. The 
 observations of these men are of special interest. 
 Lord Eldon says : 
 
 " On May 21, 1825, Mr. O'Connell pleaded as a barrister 
 before me in the House of Lords on Thursday. His demea- 
 nour was very proper, but he did not strike me as shining so 
 much in argument as might be expected from a man who has 
 made so much noise in his harangues in a seditious Associa- 
 tion." 
 
 Lord Eldon evidently expected the "agitator" 
 
 1 " I can forgive old women like the Chancellor [Lord Eldon], 
 spoonies like Liverpool, ignoramuses like Westmoreland, stumped- 
 up old Tories like Bathurst ; but how such a man as Peel, liberal, 
 enlightened, and fresh-minded, should find himself running in such 
 a pack, is hardly intelligible." — Life of Lord Palmerston, vol. i. p. 
 178. It was precisely because Peel was neither liberal nor en- 
 lightened when Irish affairs were concerned that he did run with 
 the pack. 
 
 2 Possibly it was because Lord Eldon was " an old woman" that 
 he especially notes the proceedings of these ladies. He says : " I 
 forgot to tell you yesterday that we have got a new private toast. 
 Lady. Warrick and Lady Braybrooke (I think that is her name) 
 would not let their husbands go to the House to vote for the 
 Catholics, so we Protestants drink daily as our private toast, * The 
 ladies who locked up their husbands.' " — Twiss's Life of Lord 
 Eldon, vol. ii. p. 554. 
 
Pqpula r Enth usiasra. 
 
 507 
 
 would not conduct himself with propriety in a law 
 court, and was surprised to find him " proper." 
 O'Connell, who hated conventional propriety, was 
 out of his element, and therefore he did not shine ; 
 but notwithstanding Lord Eldon's prejudiced opinion, 
 there was not a man in England, or out of, who could 
 surpass O'Connell in arguing points of law. 
 
 In January, 1826, Lord Sidmouth wrote thus : 
 
 " Dr. Doyle and Mr, O'Connell have a lasting claim upon 
 the gratitude of all good Protestants. They have completely 
 dulcified my feelings towards them. Emancipation from 
 poverty, and idleness, and ignorance, and consequently froni 
 bigotry, is, I am satisfied, advancing rapidly in Leland." 1 
 
 O'Connell returned to Ireland on the 1st Juno, 
 1825, no doubt heartily dad to be freed from the 
 restraints of English society, where he could scarcely 
 move or speak without the utmost caution, so closely 
 was he watched on all sides. Mrs. O'Connell and 
 his daughters met him at Howth, which was then the 
 landing-place for English packets, and he was escorted 
 to his house in Merrion-square by an immense and 
 most enthusiastic multitude. On his arrival he was 
 obliged to address the people from the balcony be- 
 fore the could be induced to disperse. In sunshine 
 and storm, in summer and winter, by day, and even 
 at night, O'Connell stood on that balcony from time 
 to time, and, to the no small annoyance of his Protes- 
 tant neighbours, responded to the calls of a grateful 
 and faithful people. 
 
 1 ''Diary of Lord Colchester," vol. iii. p. 403. 
 
508 
 
 Popular Enthusiasm. 
 
 An aggregate meeting was held in a few days, 
 and so great were the crowds who flocked to it for 
 admission, that Anne-street Chapel, where it was 
 held, was filled to overflowing five hours before the 
 chair was taken. O'Connell was dressed in the 
 uniform of the Association, a blue frock with black 
 silk buttons, black velvet collar, and a gilt button on 
 the shoulder, white vest, and white trousers. 
 
 Mr. Coppinger spoke at the meeting, and made a 
 sharp hit at the Duke of York, who, he said, should 
 have had his " clerk " to say amen to his so-help-me- 
 God speech. The renowned Jack Lawless was also 
 present, and attempted to censure O'Connell for his 
 conduct towards the forty-shilling freeholders, whom 
 he had sacrificed for the Eelief Bill ; but he was 
 soon silenced. O'Connell took care to avoid the 
 subject. His popularity certainly was not lessened 
 by it in Dublin, for at the conclusion of the meeting, 
 the horses were taken from his carriage, and he was 
 drawn in triumph to his house. Such scenes, now 
 of frequent occurrence, must have been extremely 
 offensive to the Government, yet they might have 
 learned a lesson from them. It only needed a man 
 to show an honest interest in the poor and the op- 
 pressed to receive in return their life-long gratitude. 
 
 A new Catholic Association was now formed, 
 and in the formation, O'Connell contrived, with his 
 usual discretion, to keep himself within the bounds 
 of law. It was, indeed, no easy matter to suppress 
 a man, whose resources seemed to be infinite, and 
 
A Gratification o f Little Minds. 
 
 509 
 
 who, as soon as he was hunted from one form, 
 started up in another. 
 
 The first purpose of the new Catholic Association 
 was to promote public and private peace; the second, 
 to encourage education ; the third, to ascertain the 
 number of the Catholic population ; the fourth, to 
 erect Catholic churches and protect the poor ; the 
 fifth, to promote science and agriculture ; the sixth, 
 to encourage literature ; the seventh, to refute the 
 charges made against Catholics. It was indeed a 
 noble and exhaustive programme, and truly worthy 
 of the enlightened mind which originated it. 
 
 It has been one of the misfortunes of Ireland that 
 those who have worked for her most faithfully, most 
 earnestly, and from the very purest motives, have 
 been always thwarted in their plans by some of their 
 own nation. It is impossible to account for this 
 strange and sorrowful phase in the Irish character, 
 but it is none the less true. It may be, it probably 
 is, the remains of that evil spirit which was intro- 
 duced and fostered carefully by English statesmen, 
 who, acting on the divide et impera system, left no 
 effort unused to disunite Irishmen. Let us hope that 
 this national disgrace will pass away in time, and 
 that Irishmen will learn the folly and the reproach 
 of division. 
 
 O'Connell's conduct towards the forty-shilling 
 freeholders was made the ground for a dastardly 
 attack on his character, by men who were neither 
 able nor willing to do one tithe of what he had done 
 
510 
 
 Of Unfailing Good Humour. 
 
 for Ireland. It was just possible for them to snarl, 
 terrior-fashion, at the noble lion who defended the 
 sheep from the wolf. It is always a gratification to 
 little minds to throw contempt on those whose intel- 
 lect is far beyond their reach ; and they have not 
 sufficient intelligence to see that, though they may 
 have the gratification of annoying a nobler mind for 
 a time, the real disgrace is their own ; and their 
 names have only to be known that they may be held 
 up to posterity to meet the contempt they merit. 
 
 A " private public" meeting was held to denounce 
 O'Connell, and O'Connell, like a man, presented 
 himself at it, and defended his own policy as far as 
 it was defensible, while he was too much a man not 
 to admit that he might have been mistaken. One 
 tiling at least was certain ; through reproach, or con- 
 tempt, or the powerful opposition of men who should 
 have rallied round him, he was resolved to stand 
 up for Ireland. He could not but know that he had 
 served her as no man had ever served her yet. That 
 bon-liomme, which was his greatest charm, never for- 
 sook him, and he concluded his speech on this occa- 
 sion with that happy mixture of earnestness and fun 
 which never failed to tell with quick-witted Celtic 
 audiences : 
 
 " I now call upon and conjure gentlemen to bury animosity 
 and captious irascibility, and to join with me in fighting the 
 common enemy. I can only say that if the entire country were 
 to turn against me, I would not, like Scipio, go to lay my bones 
 in foreign earth, but I would go to the aggregate meeting on 
 Wednesday to reproach them by exerting myself to serve them, 
 
Reception at Wexford* 
 
 511 
 
 if possible, twenty times more. (Laughter and applause). I 
 am happy to be able to tell you that I have the report already 
 prepared ; it will probably pass in the committee to-day, and 
 will be presented at the aggregate meeting on Wednesday — 
 where we shall all meet, I hope, with no other object than the 
 success of our common cause— no other view than the interests 
 of the people." 
 
 When O'Connell went on circuit now, lie only 
 went " special." His dexterity in cross-examination 
 made him a forlorn hope, and it is to be feared that 
 his professional duty required him to shield the 
 guilty much more frequently than to defend the in- 
 nocent. One of these cases occurred in the county 
 Cork, where a father, brother, and son named Franks 
 were murdered for arms according to one account, 
 and to prevent the marriage of the latter, according 
 to another. A maid-servant had escaped by hiding 
 herself under a table, and one of the party turned in- 
 former ; but O'Connell so bewildered them in cross- 
 examination, that they contradicted themselves and 
 each other hopelessly, and the result was an acquittal 
 of the prisoners. 
 
 Wherever O'Connell went, he was received with 
 acclamation, surrounded by an exultant multitude. 
 At Wexford, when he went special, he was met by a 
 fleet of boats, and obliged to take his place in a 
 barge gaily decorated ; the rowers were dressed in 
 green and gold. After a short cruise, he was landed 
 at the bridge, and entertained in the evening at a 
 public dinner. 
 
 At the close of the year 1825, O'Connell was 
 
512 
 
 Fertile in Resources. 
 
 challenged by Mr. Leyne, a Kerry barrister. O'Con- 
 nell had forsworn duelling, and his son Maurice took 
 up the affair. Mr. Leyne, however, refused to meet 
 him, but John and Maurice O'Connell prosecuted 
 the affair with vigour. The result was, that O'Con- 
 nell had both his sons arrested and bound over to 
 keep the peace. 1 
 
 O'Connell acted with his usual prudence in the 
 formation of the new Catholic Association. He 
 passed by the " under growl" of Jack Lawless, 
 estimating it just for what it was worth ; but he 
 excluded the Honourable Mr. Bellew, because that 
 gentleman was known to receive a large pension from 
 Government, for which no reason could be assigned. 
 A committee of deliberation sat for fourteen da}~s, 
 and consisted of the following gentlemen : O'Con- 
 nell, Shiel, Sir Thomas Esmonde, Michael Bellew, 
 Hugh O'Connor, the Hon. Mr. Preston, the O'Con- 
 nor Don, Lord Gormanstown, Lord Killeen, Sir J. 
 Burke, Captain Bryan, N. Mahon, W. Murphy, H. 
 Lambert, S. Coppinger, C. M'Laughlin, M. O'Brien, 
 the Hon. G. Ffrench, J. Baggot, and P. Fogarty. 
 The Catholics under the new Act could onlv meet 
 for fourteen days at a time, but O'Connell's genius 
 
 1 Through the kindness of friends, we have been obliged by 
 some private correspondence on the subject. On the 8th December, 
 Mr. Leyne wrote, " The matter is now pretty well tranquillised, but 
 I understand it is positively rumoured amongst friends that Maurice 
 under no circumstances belonging to this transaction, was either to 
 receive from or send a message to any of his sons," The family 
 considered Mr. O'Connell had been " guilty of a gross insult." 
 
The Catholic Fifty-fourth. 
 
 513 
 
 made this a help rather than a hindrance. He made 
 a reason for encouraging larger assemblies, and for 
 convening assemblies in the different provinces and 
 counties of Ireland at which both Protestants and 
 Catholics assisted. 
 
 The first preat meeting was held on the 16th of 
 July, 182G. The deliberation continued for fourteen 
 days. In the course of proceedings, the Rev. Mr. 
 L'Estrange, O'Connell's chaplain, stated that when a 
 mutiny broke out in Gibraltar, only one regiment 
 out of seven remained faithful, and that was the 
 Catholic Fifty-fourth. The men saved the life of 
 the Governor, and preserved Gibraltar to England. 
 During the war, the 47th and 87th regiments, which 
 Were entirely Catholic, were opposed at one time to 
 ten thousand men and defeated them. 1 
 
 The year 1827 was remarkable for political 
 
 changes. Shiel made one of his telling speeches^at 
 
 an aggregate meeting, in which he said : 
 
 " Peel is out — Bathurst is out — Westmoreland is out — 
 Wellington, the bad Irishman (he was once a page in the 
 Castle, and acquired the habit of thinking as dependant as a 
 lady lieutenant's gown), is out— and, thanks be to God, the 
 hoary champion of every abuse — the venerable supporter of 
 corruption in all its forms, the pious antagonist of every 
 
 1 O'Connell had a quarrel with the Dublin papers about this 
 period, for not reporting him fully. The Morning Register very 
 quietly retorted, that as O'Connell uttered two hundred words in 
 one minute, and sometimes spoke three hours at a time, it was 
 scarcely possible. "We believe O'Connell's feats of language aro 
 exceeded by Mr. Butt, who is said to utter three hundred words in 
 a minute. 
 
514 
 
 Canning in Power. 
 
 generous sentiment — Eldon, procrastinating, canting, griping, 
 whining, weeping, ejaculating, protesting, money-getting and 
 money-keeping Eldon, is out. This, after all, is something. 
 We have got rid of that candid gentleman, who for an abridge- 
 ment of the decalogue would abridge Ireland of her liberties. 
 We have got rid of the gaoler who presided over the captivity 
 of Napoleon, and was so well qualified to design what Sir 
 Hudson Lowe was so eminently calculated to execute. We 
 have got rid of that authoritative soldier who has proved him- 
 self as thankless to his sovereign as he has been ungrateful to 
 his country, and who has been put to the right-about-left : 
 and better than all — better than the presumption of Welling- 
 ton, the narrow-heartedness of Bathurst, the arrogance of 
 Westmoreland, the ostentatious manliness and elaborate ho- 
 nesty of Mr. Peel— we have got rid of Lord Eldon's tears." 
 
 The reins of government were now in the hands 
 of Canning, a man of singular ability and power. 
 His party had held an important position under Lord 
 Liverpool's administration, and Lord Palmerston had 
 sided with this party, and, as far as he had political 
 power, he had resisted the illiberal faction headed by 
 Lord Eldon. 1 Lord Anglesea was sent to Ireland ; 
 for the king, who was by no means in a quiet frame 
 of mind, said, " he must have a Protestant Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Ireland." 2 
 
 1 Lord Palmerston said that George IV. " personally hated" 
 him. He certainly tried to get rid of him by offering him the 
 government of Jamaica. — Life of Lord Palmerston, vol. i. p. 183. 
 
 2 ''Diary of Lord Colchester," vol. iii. p. 487. In all the 
 political correspondence of this period, those who favoured the 
 Catholics were called Catholics, and the rest Protestants. It is at 
 first puzzling to read of men being called Catholics for such a 
 reason. 
 
Chapter (Ltocl% 
 
 0' CON NELL AND THE CA THOLLC HIERARCHY. 
 1S27-1S35. 
 
 Commencement of Correspondence with Dr. MacHale: 
 Priestly Co-operation : A New Era : Sketch of 
 Dr. MacHale's Life: Sketch of Dr. Doyle's 
 Life : His (S Vindication of Catholics :" Dr. 
 Doyle and the Lords' Committee: Honest Jack 
 Lawless : Henry Grattan : Mr. O'Gorman Mahon : 
 Scene in the "House:" Steele: Mr. Barrett: 
 Mr. Ray. 
 
 VOL. IT. 
 
 11 
 
HAP. Xil 
 
 @$\J T the close of the year 1827, 
 O'Connell made the most 
 energetic and active prepa- 
 liV ^ rations for mass meetings 
 
 of the entire people of Ire- 
 land, and at this period he com- 
 lenced the long and affectionate correspon- 
 dence -with the Right Rev. Dr. MacHale, 
 which ended only with his life. These 
 letters form a most important illustration 
 \) \i of the latter period of O'Connell's career, 
 as we have in his own words his own opi- 
 nions. He might be obliged at times to 
 conceal his real motives from the public, 
 but in reading his correspondence with his 
 chosen friend and his most valued adviser, 
 we have the very secrets of his heart. 
 The first letter of this important correspondence 
 is dated at the close of this vear : 
 
518 First Letter to Dr MacHale. 
 
 "Merrion Square, Zlst December, 1827. 
 
 u My Lord — The public papers will have already informed 
 your Lordship of the resolution to hold a meeting for petition 
 in every parish in Ireland, on Monday, 13th of January. 
 
 "I should not presume to call your Lordship's particular 
 attention to this measure, or respectfully to solicit your coun- 
 tenance and support in your diocese, if I was not most deeply 
 convinced of its extreme importance and utility. The combi- 
 nation of national action, all Catholic Ireland acting as one 
 man, must necessarily have a powerful effect on the minds of 
 the Ministry and of the entire British nation ; a people who 
 can be thus brought to act together, and by one impulse, are 
 too powerful to be neglected, and too formidable to be long 
 opposed. 
 
 " Convinced, deeply, firmly convinced of the importance of 
 this measure, I am equally so of the impossibility of succeed- 
 ing unless we obtain the countenance and support of the 
 Catholic prelates of Ireland. To you, my Lord, I very re- 
 spectfully appeal for that support. I hope and respectfully 
 trust that in your diocese no parish will be found deficient in 
 activity and zeal. 
 
 " I intend to publish in the papers the form of a petition 
 for Emancipation, which may be adopted in all places where, 
 no individual may be found able and willing to prepare a proper 
 draft. 
 
 "I am sorry to trespass thus on your Lordship's most 
 valuable time, but I am so entirely persuaded of the vital utility 
 of the measure of simultaneous meeting to petition, that I 
 venture, over again, but in the most respectful manner, to urge 
 on your kind and considerate attention the propriety of assisting 
 in such manner as you may deem best to attain our object. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with profound respect, my Lord 
 your Lordship's most obedient humble servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " To the Right Rev. Dr. MacHale." 
 
 O'Connell was well aware of the value of clerical 
 
The Clergy in Harness. 
 
 519 
 
 co-operation, and no man ever desired it more. His 
 plan succeeded to admiration; simultaneous meetings 
 were held in every part of Ireland at the same day 
 and hour ; and at the same time more effective 
 arrangements were made for Catholic association. 
 Churchwardens were appointed, one by the priest 
 and the other by the parishioners, to collect the rent, 
 to watch the landlords, to protect the tenants from 
 proselytism and from coercion in voting. Such 
 organisation . was never attempted before in any 
 nationality, and yet it was carried out to a degree of 
 perfection worthy of the master-mind which origi- 
 nated and worked it out. 
 
 Mr. Canning's unexpected death dissolved his 
 Cabinet. Lord Goderich came into office, and went 
 out of it, " nobody knew how and nobody knew 
 why." On the 22nd January, 1828, the Wellington 
 Ministry was formed. 1 In four months the Cabinet 
 was rearranged in consequence of the disfranchise- 
 ment of an English borough. The result was indeed 
 momentous for Ireland. Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald ob- 
 tained a place, and consequently was obliged to 
 vacate his seat for the county Clare. The omission 
 of one word in the Act of Parliament enabled a Ca- 
 tholic to be elected, though it did not permit him to 
 take his seat. We all know the result ; but before 
 we enter into details of that event, which an English 
 
 1 " Tlie king would not have Sir Robert Peel, to whose ' bowing 1 
 he had serious objections." — Diary of Lord Colchester, vol. iii. p. 
 539. 
 
520 
 
 Dr. MacIIale. 
 
 statesman, who even at the moment had resigned his 
 office, has described as " a new era in the history of 
 Ireland, " we shall say a few words of the men with 
 whom O'Connell worked, or, to put it more correctly, 
 who worked with O'Connell. 
 
 And first — because first in Irish affection, and 
 because the long and hitherto unknown correspon- 
 dence which we now publish shows that he was first 
 in O'ConneH's confidence — we must name the Eev. 
 Dr. MacHale, the present Archbishop of Tuam. 
 
 This distinguished prelate was born in 1791 at 
 Tubbernavine, a village in the county Mayo. He 
 belongs to an old and honourable family, who trace 
 their pedigree back for many generations ; but as 
 they preferred heavenly to earthly wealth, they sacri- 
 ficed their temporal possessions for conscience sake. 1 
 Even if his Grace were not distinguished as a theolo- 
 gian, a poet, and a man of letters, the Irish hearts of 
 his people would cling to him fondly because of his 
 fidelity. 
 
 His early education was given to him at Cas- 
 
 1 The Archbishop of Tuam is directly descended from Bishop 
 MacCaile, who received the profession of St. Bridget. His family 
 lived for centuries in the valley where Amalgaid, then king of that 
 country, met St. Patrick, and near the wood of Fochut. — (See Life 
 of St. Patrick, by the Author of the Illustrated History of Ireland, 
 p. 526.) 
 
 A considerable number of Dr. MacHale's relatives on both sides 
 of his family have been priests. The Yery Rev. U. Bourke, of St. 
 Jarlath's College, is his nephew, and is well-known as a scholar and 
 writer on Celtic literature. 
 
Dr. MacHalt. 
 
 521 
 
 debar, as best it could be when peual laws made 
 knowledge forbidden fruit. His vocation to the 
 service of God in the ecclesiastical state manifested 
 itself early, and he entered the College of Maynooth, 
 where, after his ordination, he held the professorial 
 chair of dogmatic theology for eleven years. The 
 importance of this office can only be fully under- 
 stood by Catholics, who know that their Church, 
 and their Church alone, has a creed which it is 
 heresy to deny, and which must be taught by all 
 its priests, wherever scattered throughout the world 
 with harmony of expression. Being divine, it cannot 
 vary, for with the Eternal Truth there is no change- 
 ableness. But as it must be taught by fallible mortals 
 to others equally fallible, it is necessary that there 
 should be an infallible authority to define even those 
 delicate lines of expression which divide truth from 
 error. Such is the province of the professor of dog- 
 matic theology. He teaches to his students what they 
 must teach to others in their turn, he having been 
 taught himself by that Church founded by Christ, 
 and taught not only what it should do, but what it 
 should believe. The Divine injunction was to go 
 forth and teach all nations, not to dispute which of 
 two opinions might be the more correct, but to teach 
 ;i whatsoever" they were " commanded." 1 
 
 1 As many educated Protestants are not only ignorant of Catho- 
 lic doctrine, but in many cases, from education or prejudice, are 
 grievously misinformed, it may be well to observe — First, That we 
 see in the Epistles how exactly the Apostles carried out the Divine 
 
522 
 
 Dr. MacHale. 
 
 While at Maynooth, Dr. MacHale was named 
 Coadjutor Bishop of his native diocese, Killala, cum 
 jure successions, and consecrated with the title of 
 Mononia in partibus. He published a series of letters 
 while at Maynooth on the Bible Societies, the Protes- 
 tant Church in Ireland, and Catholic Emancipation, 
 under the signature of Hierophilus. In 1827, he 
 published a work " On the Evidence and Doctrine 
 of the Catholic Church," which is so highly esteemed 
 that it has been translated into both French and 
 German. 
 
 During the Melbourne Administration, the well- 
 known series of his letters appeared signed John, 
 Archbishop of Tuam. Like many distinguished 
 Irish prelates, Dr. MacHale was selected to preach 
 the Lent at Eome during the spring of 1832. His 
 lectures attracted so much attention that they were 
 translated into Italian by the Abbate de Lucia, who 
 has since been raised to the purple. Nor has Dr. 
 
 instructions on this subject. They taught a certain definite doctrine, 
 and those who did not believe or accept that testimony were con- 
 sidered and treated as heretics. Obviously, if there were no definite 
 rule of faith there would be no harmony, and if variation of opinion 
 were allowed on any one point of doctrine the faith would be no 
 longer one. " Sects of perdition" are especially condemned in Holy 
 Writ (2 Peter ii. 1). Secondly, The Church has power to decide 
 controversies on matters of faith, and exercised this power from the 
 very commencement (Acts xv. 7). There may be " much disputing" 
 on any subject until the voice of Divine authority has spoken. 
 Once it has spoken — there can be none. Obviously, the Church 
 would be of no use as a teacher unless she had power to define 
 what should and what should not be believed. 
 
Dr. Doyle. 
 
 523 
 
 MacHale forgotten Lis native tongue. The melodies 
 of Moore have been translated into Irish by his facile 
 and gifted pen, and part of the Iliad of Homer ; but, 
 true to his exalted calling, he has not forgotten the 
 poetry of Truth, and he has commenced the transla- 
 tion of the Holy Scripture into his native tongue. 1 
 
 Dr. MacHale's work was done quietly. lie was 
 a tower of strength to O'Connell. His dignified cle- 
 fence when attacked by a petulant judge shows that 
 he is still a tower of strength to Ireland. He stands 
 yet, majestic and still as the grand old mountains of 
 his native Connemara, ruling his flock in wisdom and 
 power, and heeding but little the angry assaults of 
 those who cannot reach his altitude. 
 
 The Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, though less a personal 
 friend of O'Connell, devoted himself publicly to the 
 cause of Ireland and religion, and by his pen as well 
 
 1 In the year 1851, Mr. Keogh, in his speech at the banquet 
 given to him by his constituents in Athlone, spoke thus of Dr. 
 MacHale : 11 1 see here the venerable prelates of my Church, first 
 amongst them — * the observed of all observers ' — the illustrious 
 Archbishop of Tuam, who, like that lofty tower which rises upon the 
 banks of the yellow Tiber, the pride and protection of the city, is at 
 once the glory and the guardian, the decus et tutamen, of the Catho- 
 lic religion/' His reversal of this compliment in the year 1872 is 
 amusing, and, as a matter of contemporary history, deserves to be 
 placed on record: "His Lordship then dwelt on the meeting in 
 detail, observing with regard to the term ? Great Prelate of the 
 West,' applied to the Archbishop of Tuam, denouncing the epithet 
 as fulsome flattery. For his part, he had often considered whether 
 he would not rather prefer to be well abused than fulsomely flattered, 
 whether it would not be more offensive to have the slaver of the 
 tongue or the venom of the teeth." 
 
524 
 
 Dr. Doyle. 
 
 as by liis bearing when under cross-examination be- 
 fore parliamentary committees, did no little service. 
 He was born at New Koss, in the county Wexford, 
 in 1786, and was educated at Coimbra, in Portugal. 
 He was a man of more fervour than quickness of 
 thought, and of an ascetic habit of mind. The 
 terrible events of the rebellion of 1798 were vividly 
 impressed in his memory, as he was then for some 
 hours in personal danger. He was appointed Bishop 
 of Kildare and Leighlin at the early age of thirty- 
 two, and his devotion to the affairs of his diocese, 
 from the care of the very poorest of his people to 
 the supervision of his clergy, was beyond all praise. 
 He first appeared as a public writer when replying to 
 an offensive charge delivered by the Protestant Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin, Dr. Magee. His letter electrified 
 the Protestant party, and Catholics pointed to it with 
 no little pride, as one of many evidences of the ability 
 of their prelates. His style was singularly pure, and 
 while entirely free from anything like invective, was 
 none the less truculent. He has been paid the doubt- 
 ful compliment of late years of not bein g" Ultramon- 
 tane,' 1 yet there never was a man more deeply and 
 truly devoted to his Church. The following passage, 
 
 1 A writer in the Standard of 17th August, 1872, describing the 
 pictures in the Dublin Exhibition, says: — " Next hangs J. K. L." 
 [this was the nam de plume adopted by Dr. Doyle], " who was too 
 much of a scholar and a statesman to countenance, had he lived, 
 the Ultramontane tactics of the present day in Ireland. Many 
 thousand Roman Catholic Irishmen sigh for the days of the Dr. 
 Doyle whom this picture vividly recalls." The writer of this para- 
 
Dr. Doyle s " Vindication." 
 
 525 
 
 which we extract from his Vindication of Catholics, a 
 letter addressed to the Marquis of Wellesley, must 
 have made a deep impression on any mind not hope- 
 lessly prejudiced : 
 
 u It was the creed, my Lord, of a Charlemagne and of a St. 
 Louis, of an Alfred and an Edward, of the monarchs of the 
 feudal times, as well as of the emperors of Greece and Rome ; 
 it was believed at Venice and at Genoa, in Lucca, and the 
 Helvetic nations in the days of their freedom and greatness ; 
 all the barons of the Middle Ages, all the free cities of later 
 times, professed the religion we now profess. You well know, 
 my Lord, that the charter of British freedom and the common 
 law of England have their origin and source in Catholic times. 
 Who framed the free constitutions of the Spanish Goths ? 
 Who preserved science and literature during the long night 
 of the Middle Ages ? Who imported literature from Constan- 
 tinople, and opened for her an asylum at Rome, Florence, 
 Padua, Paris, and Oxford ? Who polished Europe by art, and 
 refined her by legislation ? Who discovered the New World, 
 and opened a passage to another ? Who were the masters of 
 architecture, of painting, and of music ? Who invented the com- 
 pass and the art of printing ? Who were the poets, the histo- 
 rians, the jurists, the men of deep research and profound litera- 
 ture ? Who have exalted human nature, and made man appear 
 again little less than the angels ? Were they not almost ex- 
 clusively the professors of our creed ? Were they, who created 
 and possessed freedom under every shape and form, unfit for 
 her enjoyment ? Were men, deemed even now the lights of 
 the world and the benefactors of the human race, the deluded 
 
 graph probably never read the " Life of Dr. Doyle." If he had 
 done so, he would never have committed himself to the absurd 
 assertion that any Irish Catholic " sighs " for the days of penal laws, 
 tithes, and Orange ascendancy. O'Connell's portrait in the same 
 Exhibition is amusingly described with a small sarcasm as " show- 
 ing him as he was, big, burly, theatrical, and overbearing." 
 
528 
 
 Dr. Doyle under Examination. 
 
 victims of a slavish superstition ? But what is there in our 
 creed which renders us unfit for freedom ? Is it the doctrine 
 of passive obedience ? No ; for the obedience we yield to 
 authority is not blind, but reasonable. Our religion does not 
 create despotism ; it supports every established constitution 
 which is not opposed to the laws of nature, unless it be altered 
 by those who are entitled to change it. In Poland it sup- 
 ported an elective monarch; in France, an hereditary sove- 
 reign; in Spain, an absolute or constitutional king, indifferently; 
 in England, when the houses of York and Lancaster contended, 
 it declared that he who was king cle facto, was entitled to the 
 obedience of the people. During the reign of the Tudors, 
 there was a faithful adherence of the Catholics to their prince, 
 under trials the most severe and galling, because the constitu- 
 tion required it. The same was exhibited by them to the un- 
 grateful race of Stuarts. But, since the expulsion of James 
 (foolishly called an abdication), have they not adopted, with 
 the nation at large, the doctrine of the Revolution — ' that the 
 crown is held in trust for the benefit of the people ; and that, 
 should the monarch violate his compact, the subject is freed 
 from the bond of his allegiance ?' Has there been any form of 
 government ever devised by man, to which the religion of 
 Catholics has not been accommodated ? Is there any obliga- 
 tion, either to a prince or to a constitution, which it does not 
 enforce ? " 
 
 Dr. Doyle was examined before a parliamentary 
 committee in 1825. His examiners were under the 
 impression that they knew far more about the Catho- 
 lic religion than lie did, and their principal object 
 was to try and entrap him into some admission 1 which 
 
 1 Dr. Doyle was asked the most absurd questions. If any of 
 his examiners had taken the trouble to procure a Catholic Catechism 
 from the poorest Irish girl in London, and had then studied it 
 honestly, they would have obtained all the information they desired. 
 
Dr. Doyle wfrder Examination. 
 
 527 
 
 would be hostile to the religion for which he would 
 have given his life. Such ignorance is pitiable, and, 
 unfortunately, even in the present day is not uncom- 
 mon. To the educated Catholic, prelate or gentle- 
 man, it would be simply amusing if it did not involve 
 such serious consequences. Dr. Doyle was very in- 
 dignant. When a statue of this prelate was exhibited 
 in Dublin, Lord Anglesea went to see it with a large 
 party of gentlemen. One of the number observed 
 that he had never seen Dr. Doyle in that remarkable 
 position. The Marquis replied, " I remember it well : 
 When he was giving evidence before a committee in 
 the Lords, a peer put a question to him about Ca- 
 tholic teaching. He flung up his arm just in that 
 
 The difficulty was simply this : These members of Parliament, 
 some of whom certainly were honest-hearted and honourable men, 
 had been educated in a system naturally and necessarily framed on 
 the belief that Popery was founded on lies and corruption, else 
 why would the "glorious Pieformation " have been necessary? 
 Men who did not believe in the 11 immortal memory " of the usurper 
 William, or who cared very little about it, believed this. Their 
 mothers had taught it to them, their fathers had acted upon it. 
 Why, then, should it not be true ? Catholics indignantly deny 
 their theory. They were too honest themselves to disbelieve their 
 Catholic fellow- subjects altogether, yet they were too prejudiced to 
 alter their own preconceived imaginary theory. The result was 
 hopeless confusion. They tried to get the Catholics to make ad- 
 missions which would fall in with their theory ; but the Catholics 
 would not make them, because their theory was false. They asked 
 a dozen questions on one subject, and got a dozen clear answers, 
 and yet they were not content, simply because they would not give 
 up their preconceived theory. Lord Carbery wrote in despair on 
 the subject to Lord Colchester. They had examined and re-ex- 
 
528 
 
 Mr. Shiel. 
 
 emphatic manner and exclaimed, 4 1 did not think 
 there was a Protestant peer so ignorant as to ask that 
 question/ " 
 
 During Dr. Doyle's examination, the Duke of 
 Wellington left the room for a few moments in order 
 to examine some parliamentary document. u Well, 
 Duke," exclaimed a peer, who happened to be en- 
 tering the committee room at the time, " are you 
 examining Dr. Doyle ?" " No," replied the Duke 
 drily, " but Doyle is examining us." 
 
 Shiel was O'Connell's most active coadjutor in 
 the early part of his career. He was born near 
 Waterford, on the 16th of August, 1791, and after 
 spending some years with the Jesuits at Stoneyhurst, 
 
 amined Dr. Doyle on the subject of Confession, the whole theology 
 of which, dogmatic and moral, was disposed of in half-a-dozen 
 questions and answers in the Catechism, which they had not read, 
 and which, if they had, they would not believe. Nothing could be 
 done with such men, either in the early or the latter part of the 
 19th century, except to leave them to their ignorance. Lord Car- 
 bery was sure that " the Confessional was the source of all the 
 barbarous and bloody scenes which disgraced Ireland." He had 
 indeed learned from Dr. Doyle that a Catholic could not receive ab- 
 solution unless he was truly penitent, that being all that God re- 
 quired ; but Lord Carbery and other Protestant noblemen required 
 a great deal more from the Irish peasant. The priest was to act as 
 spy, informer, policeman, and at least moral executioner. He was 
 not to give absolution to the penitent unless the penitent gave him- 
 self up to human justice. Lord Carbery knew very little of the 
 religion of the Bible, or he would have remembered the example of 
 him who said to the penitent, " Go, and sin no more," and who 
 did not require her or any of those whom He forgave to make 
 public confession of their crimes. 
 
Mr. Shiel 
 
 529 
 
 ended his academic career in Trinity College, Dublin, 
 a circumstance which may perhaps account for his op- 
 position to O'Connell on the Veto question. In 1823 
 he again joined with O'Connell, as already related. 
 Mr. North said of him, that he had erred in the choice 
 of a profession, and that if he had cultivated the 
 drama instead of law, he would have equalled Shakes- 
 peare. His physique was anything but attractive ; 
 he was small of stature, careless as to personal ap- 
 pearance ; his voice was shrill, but his bursts of elo- 
 quence thrilled to the very souls of his audience. 
 His complexion was dark, and his hair fair and 
 unkempt. Yet this man had a soul that poured 
 itself forth in such torrents of eloquence as are 
 rarely heard, and a magnetic power which kept his 
 hearers spell-bound and entranced. He generally 
 entered the Association when the business was nearly 
 ended, and while O'Connell was speaking. There 
 was not much difference in their age, yet the great 
 master spoke of him as " his eloquent young friend, 
 whose power and genius were unequalled by the 
 orators of Greece and Rome in the days of their 
 brightest glory." 
 
 He always dressed in black, with white neck- 
 cloth, and he always wore black kid gloves. When 
 at the close of some thrilling and truly terrible out- 
 burst, he would draw off one glove, and stretch forth 
 his white delicate hand to heaven, as if calling down 
 vengeance on the oppressors of his race. His finest 
 speech was that already mentioned, when he replied 
 
530 
 
 An " Enraged Prophet. 1 1 
 
 to Lord Lyndhurst's unwise onslaught on the Irish 
 nation, and asked, "Where was Arthur Duke of Wel- 
 lington when these words were uttered ? Breath- 
 lessly he should have started up to disclaim them : 
 
 ' The battles, sieges, fortunes, that he passed,' 
 ought to have come back upon him." 
 
 In 1825, he would certainly have become subject 
 to a Government prosecution only for the death of 
 Lord Liverpool. The memoirs of Wolfe Tone had 
 just been brought to Ireland. Shiel possessed him- 
 self of a copy, and made it the subject of comment 
 in a manner which could not fail to excite the anger 
 and the fury of England. He spoke like an " enraged 
 prophet :" 
 
 "Let England," he said " beware of another Wolfe Tone. 
 Let her not rely for safety on her old protectors, the ivinds! 
 She may call upon them in her hour of peril, but they may not 
 come, or should they volunteer their force, it will be subdued 
 by the power of steam. A vote of the Catholics of 1793 pro- 
 cured for Tone an introduction to the French Directory, and 
 the sympathy of its legions. Let England remember that 
 the Catholics of 1825 are more than double those of 1793. 
 The hair of Samson has grown again. Should oppression drive 
 the Catholics to the field, England will not find the Catholic 
 altars of the nineteenth century barriers to their impetuosity 
 and revenge !" 
 
 He lost his popularity, great as it was, for a time, by 
 accepting a retainer from Lord George Beresford in 
 his contest for Waterford ; and he did not improve 
 his position in a national point of view by siding with 
 the Government he had so often denounced, and 
 accepting a silk gown as his reward. 
 
La vcless — Gra itan — 1 G. Mali on. 
 
 531 
 
 He came forward again in 1832, when the Repeal 
 agitation , commenced ; was returned on Repeal prin- 
 ciples for Tipperary, and was the bitter opponent of 
 Sir Robert Peel as lon^ as he remained in the House 
 of Commons. He was counsel for Mr. John O'Con- 
 nell at the State Trials. He died in 1851, and, like 
 many a more consistent Irishman, is buried in a 
 foreign land. 
 
 "Honest Jack Lawless'' was a Belfast man, and 
 editor of the Irishman, then published in that city. 
 He was a powerful, earnest speaker. He was some- 
 thing of an original character also, and was generally 
 in opposition to O'Connell. He went to the bar late 
 in life, and died in 1840, a few months after receiv- 
 ing the appointment of assistant barrister. 
 
 Henry Grattan, the second son of the Grattan, 
 was the first member of Parliament who joined the 
 Repeal movement after the O'Connells. He did not 
 take a prominent part in public affairs until that 
 period when O'Connell was imprisoned, when ho 
 dared the Government in the most fearless language ; 
 but for some unknown reason he was not indicted. 
 
 O'Gorman Mahon was a prominent and most 
 active member of the Association. He was a clear 
 and effective speaker, and his personal appearance 
 was very much in his favour. He was one of those 
 who joined in putting down the disastrous attempts 
 made by English members of Parliament to prevent 
 the Irish Roman Catholic members from speaking in 
 the House. O'Connell styled these attacks "beastly 
 
 VOL. II. 12 
 
532 
 
 ) Gorman Mahon and Steele. 
 
 bellowing," and a ruffianly interruption/' The lan- 
 guage Vv r as strong, but lion, members did w bellow," 
 and some of the sounds they emitted very closely re- 
 sembled the inarticulate cries of the lower creation. 
 The word " ruffianly" was unparliamentary, but so 
 was the conduct of those gentlemen, although the 
 Irish members only were made the subjects of such 
 interruptions, 1 the object of which was to silence 
 them. O'Gorman Mahon, Q' Council's two sons. 
 John and Maurice, Mr. O'Dwyer, and a few others, 
 wished to put down these ungentlemanly inter- 
 ruptions in the only way in which they could be 
 put down. In the midst of cries of " Chair" and 
 " Order," the party walked across the floor of the 
 House of Commons, and politely presented their 
 cards to the Tory gentlemen who led the attack. 
 A scene followed of another and stormier kind, but 
 this interruption was not put down until O'Gorman 
 Mahon challenged Sir James Graham, and Morgan 
 O'Connell fought Lord Alvanley. 
 
 Steele was another of O'ConneH's enthusiastic 
 followers. He was a man of great energy and poetic 
 temperament, which led him to prefer "forlorn 
 
 1 The English House of Commons has not always been remark- 
 able for gravity and gentlemanly demeanour in debate, and even in 
 the Lords, propriety is not always observed. On the 22nd April, 
 1831, there was 11 a state of confusion almost unexampled since the 
 dispersion of the Long Parliament by Oliver Cromwell." The noise 
 was so great no one could hear what was said. The Duke of Rich- 
 mond was at last oblige 1 to move that the standing order against 
 the use of " offensive language" should be read.— Hansard, iii. 180G. 
 
Mr. Barrett 
 
 533 
 
 hopes " to more ordinary battlefields. He set off in 
 early life on a somewhat Quixotic expedition to 
 assist the overthrow of monarchy in Spain, and 
 proved his earnestness by mortgaging his property 
 for ten thousand pounds to purchase military stores. 
 On his return he joined O'Connell, and became Head 
 Pacificator. 
 
 Mr. Barrett was another very effective ally of 
 the Repeal party. As a journalist he did much and 
 effective service. He was frequently prosecuted by 
 Government, and was imprisoned three times. In 
 1827 he established the Pilot, which became O'Con- 
 nell's principal organ. This paper was printed in the 
 office of the Morning and Weekly Register, and when 
 it was suppressed by Government, Barrett easily con- 
 tinued it, evading the law by changing the title, 
 which he now made to run thus : " The Morning 
 Register — the Pilot having been suiyressed." Evi- 
 dently it was not easy to suppress Mr. Barrett. The 
 Pilot was an evening paper, and was kept up as such 
 with its new title, and, of course, increased largely in 
 circulation. 
 
 In 1833 he was prosecuted for publishing a letter 
 of O'Connell's which first appeared in the London 
 Morning Chronicle, and w r hich presumably became 
 treasonable by its transmission back across the 
 Channel. Shiel was engaged for the defence, but 
 on the very evening of the trial he became either ill, 
 or -unwilling to act, and returned his brief. O'Con- 
 nell was, therefore, obliged to lead himself. Barrett 
 
534 
 
 Mr. nay. 
 
 was found guilty, as lie expected, and sentenced to 
 six months' imprisonment. He might have saved 
 himself by giving up O'Connell's name as the author, 
 but he was far too true a patriot. 
 
 Mr. Ray, better known to O'Connellites as " My 
 dear Ray," belongs to later times. He entered 
 public life at the commencement of the Repeal agi- 
 tation about 1832. He was secretary to the great 
 Repeal Association throughout to its close. He had 
 also been secretary to the Precursor Society. 
 
Cbaptcr (Tbivtccntk 
 
 KING DAN. 
 1S25—1S29. 
 
 England's Answer to Ireland's Cry for Justice: 
 Decline since the Days of Henry VIII. : Ireland 
 a Necessity for England: A Catholic Triumph: 
 Address to the Catholics of Clare: Excitement 
 and Agitation: Consternation in England: 
 Monster Meeting at Ennis: Scene at the Hus- 
 tings, the Sheriff and O'Gorman Mahon : The 
 Voting Day: Mr. Vandeleur and his Tenants: 
 Return of O'Connell : Speech of Shiel : The 
 Chairing : Excitement in England: The Bishops 
 and Priests: Official Irritation: King Dan: 
 The Leinster Declaration: Letter of Welling- 
 ton: The Emancipation Bill Passed : O'ConnelUs 
 Plight to a Seat Disputed: At the Bar of the 
 House: Re- Election : Smith O'Brien: Enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
Clare election 
 
 n 
 
 3 point in Irish history. 
 
 stand- 
 Far 
 
 centuries no Irishman was al- 
 lowed a voice, or even the humblest 
 utterance of his opinion, in the govern- 
 ment of his native land. The English 
 Government boasted of its freedom — won- 
 derful things were said about Magna Charta, 
 the " palladium of the people's rights," for 
 which, be it noted, the people were indebted 
 to the Catholic clergy, as they are still in- 
 debted to the Catholic clergy in Ireland for 
 protection against landlord coercion at elec- 
 tions. But, however excellent the constitu- 
 tion of England may have been, the Irish were not 
 permitted to enjoy its benefits. 
 
538 
 
 Dogges" to be Shot Down. 
 
 When their own Brehon law, sacred to them by 
 its even-handed justice and its centuries of obser- 
 vance, was taken from them, they asked again and 
 again to be allowed the justice of English law. But 
 do ; for all reply they got — the sword, the triangle, 
 and the gallows. Their cries for justice were silenced 
 occasionally by brute force by men like Cole, Coote, 
 Bagnel, Cromwell, and Grey, 1 who did the devil's 
 work, and enjoyed it thoroughly, because, as yet, 
 they had not the devil's sufferings to bear as well. 
 The Irish were " dogges" to be shot down, and 
 hunted, and got rid of, if possible; but then it was 
 not always possible, and despite hunting, and shoot- 
 ing, and violent banishment to Conn aught and 
 Jamaica, and polite banishment to continental 
 countries, the Irish race grew and prospered nu- 
 merically. 
 
 From the time of Henry VIII., the prestige of 
 the English nation steadily declined. The decline 
 was slow, but it was none the less sure. All the 
 bright and fair chivalry which found its embodi- 
 ment in early ages in Arthur, and in mediaeval times 
 in the Black Prince, died out — died of inanition. 
 
 1 A cursory acquaintance with Irish history will supply details 
 of the bloody work done by these men. In the " Commons' Pro- 
 ceedings " of 1644, vol. iii. p. 517, it is recorded that Captain 
 Swanley, having captured a vessel at sea, and thrown seventy 
 persons overboard because they were Irish, was summoned to the bar 
 of the House, and had thanks there given him for his good service, 
 and a chain of gold." This was by no means an exceptional 
 case. — Sec Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 478. 
 
England on the Decline. 
 
 539 
 
 There can be no physical or spiritual beauty without 
 life. The life died out in England when it denied 
 the source of life. The foul filthy immorality of the 
 Court of Henry VIII., the first "head" of the Pro- 
 testant Church, was perpetuated in the reign of the 
 Virgin Queen, with this difference only, that it was a 
 little disguised. A very slight acquaintance with 
 history is sufficient to prove what the Courts of the 
 Georges and the Williams were. The vices of the 
 Courts descended to the people. What, indeed, was 
 there to prevent the descent ? And as corruption of 
 mind and morals became more and more prevalent, 
 so did hatred of that race become more and more 
 intense which had kept its morality because it kept 
 its faith practically. 1 
 
 At the commencement of the present century, it 
 was discovered that the services of Irishmen w r ere 
 necessary for the very existence of the British Em- 
 pire. She boasts of her victories, and with justice ; 
 but they were won for her by Irish soldiers. Irish- 
 men came at last to know their own value to Eno:- 
 land, to see that some price, however trifling, could 
 
 1 Protestants who cannot deny the morality and exceptional 
 freedom from crime in Ireland, point to continental countries also 
 Catholic, and ask why are these countries not equally moral ? 
 The answer is simple. We deny that Catholic countries are less 
 moral, using the word in a broad sense, than Protestant countries. 
 Protestant tourists admit this, with the exception of a few prejudiced 
 persons. If Ireland is exceptionally moral, it is because the Irish 
 practise their religion, as a people, and have always done so more, 
 faithfully than any other nation. 
 
540 
 
 Mere Voting Machines. 
 
 be put upon their services. England was not in a 
 position to deny the debt, but she paid by instal- 
 ments and as scantily as possible. It would have 
 been better to have made a virtue of necessity. So 
 it came to pass that, in the year 1829, an Irish Ca- 
 tholic freeholder was allowed to vote theoretically ; 
 practically, however, the vote was of little use ; he 
 dared not disobey his landlord, and, above all, he 
 dared not vote for any individual who could really 
 be his representative, since no Catholic could sit in 
 the Imperial Parliament. The whole system of par- 
 liamentary representation was an anomaly — it is an 
 anomaly even yet to a certain extent, and probably 
 will be to the end of time, since there will always be 
 a power to which the " free and independent elector" 
 must bow — or take the consequences. As a general 
 rule, electors do not see why they should take the 
 consequences. O'Connell taught them for the first 
 time to act as free men. 
 
 In the year 1825, there was an election in Water- 
 ford ; and then, for the first time, Irishmen knew that 
 it was possible for them to be free and independent 
 if they dared. The Beresfords were lords of the soil, 
 and expected their serfs to obey them. They had 
 been obeyed until now. A Catholic population was 
 compelled to vote for an Orange representative ; it 
 was that — or starvation. Mr. Stuart came forward 
 now to oppose Lord George Beresford, and engaged 
 O'Connell as counsel. He chose wisely. At the 
 hustings, O'Connell was proposed merely to give him 
 
Resolved t) be Fne. 
 
 511 
 
 the opportunity of speaking, for the idea of the 
 election of a Catholic does not seem to have occurred 
 to any of the national party. The indignation of the 
 Orange clique may be Letter imagined than described. 
 They were no longer the " recognized leaders" of the 
 people — their power had received a blow which it 
 never recovered. 
 
 O'Connell spoke for two hours, and then with- 
 drew the claim he had no intention of prosecuting ; 
 but his purpose was answered. Lord George with- 
 drew in a few days, when he perceived that there 
 was not the least hope of his return, and Mr. Stuart 
 was elected. 
 
 This success gave an impetus to the cause of 
 freedom. The people learned that it was possible 
 for them to exercise the power which they had 
 hitherto believed to be merely ideal. They began to 
 see that it was for them to decide whether they 
 would be " free and independent electors" or mere 
 voting machines. They saw the cost also ; but when 
 did an Irishman ever shrink from personal sacrifice 
 for the good of his country ? 1 
 
 Curiously enough, O'Connell's return for Clare 
 was suggested by a Tory. This gentleman, Sir David 
 Roose, was under considerable personal obligations to 
 O'Connell. He met Mr. Fitzpatrick, the son of the 
 
 1 Sbiel used to tell an anecdote of this j election, of which he 
 vouched for the accuracy. Lord "Waterford was dying at the time, 
 but the ruling passion was strong in death. He heard that his own 
 huntsman, Manton, was going to " vote against him." He sent for 
 
542 
 
 Time Seized by the Forelock. 
 
 well-known Catholic bookseller, in Nassau-street, who 
 informed him that Mr. Fitzgerald would be obliged 
 to seek re-election for Clare, and suggested that 
 O'Connell should oppose him. Mr. Fitzpatrick went 
 instantly to O'Connell, who was by no means dis- 
 posed to enter upon the contest. Mr. Vesey Fitz- 
 gerald was a Liberal, and had acted very fairly 
 towards the Catholics, but he was not a Catholic. 
 No Catholic had ever yet stood for Parliament since 
 the time when every member of Parliament was a 
 Catholic : it was time that something should be done 
 to assert their claims. O'Connell saw this, and he 
 saw also that such an opportunity might not occur 
 again for a considerable period. 
 
 With him to decide was to act. He went at once 
 to the office of the Evening Post and wrote his ad- 
 dress. This paper had now passed into the hands of 
 Mr. Conway, with whom O'Connell was not on 
 friendly terms ; but all discord was at an end when 
 the Liberator entered his office, declared his pur- 
 pose, and exclaimed, " Let us be friends ! " 
 
 The address was soon written, and that evening 
 all Dublin was in a state of wild excitement ; and in 
 a few days the flame had extended throughout Ire- 
 land and reached to England. 
 
 the old and faithful follower ; but though the poor man's heart was 
 sore, both from affection for his old master, and the knowledge of 
 the consequence of exercising his right, he refused to vote " against 
 his country and his religion." The dying peer bad his revenge. 
 Manton was dismissed, deprived of his farm, and driven out on the 
 world a beggar. 
 
To the Jl u etors of Clare. 
 
 The address was masterly, and worthy to be the 
 first appeal to Irish electors from one of their own 
 ancient faith : 
 
 " TO THE ELECT0K3 OF THE COUNTY OF CLABE. 
 
 44 Dublin. June. If 23. 
 
 "Fellow-Couxtbtmkn — Your county wants a representa- 
 tive. I respectfully solicit your suffrages to raise me to that 
 station. 
 
 " Of my qualifications to fill that station I leave you to 
 jinlge. The habits of public speaking, and many, many years 
 of public business, render me, perhaps, equally suited with most 
 men to attend to the interests of Ireland in Parliament. 
 
 "You will be told I am not qualified to be elected. The 
 assertion, my friends, is untrue. I am qualified to be elected, 
 and to be your representative. It is true that, as a Catholic, 
 I cannot, and of course never will, take the oaths at present 
 prescribed to members of Parliament ; but the authority which 
 created these oaths (:he Parliament) can abrogate them; and 
 I entertain a confident hope that, if you elect me, the most 
 bigoted of our enemies will see the necessity of removing from 
 the chosen representative of the people an obstacle which 
 would prevent him from doing his duty to his King and to his 
 country. 
 
 u The oath at present required by law is, ' that the sacrifice 
 of the Mass, and the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
 and other saints, as now practised in the Church of Poine, are 
 impious and idolatrous.' Of course I will never stain my soul 
 with such an oath. I leave that to my honourable opponent, 
 Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald. He has often taken that horrible oath. 
 He is ready to take it again, and asks your votes to enable him 
 so to swear. I would rather be torn limb from limb than take 
 it. Electors of the county of Clare! choose between me, who 
 abominate that oath, and Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald who has sworn 
 it full twenty times ! Pteturn me to Parliament, and it is pro- 
 bable that such a blasphemous oath will be abolished for ever. 
 
541 
 
 To the Electors of Clare. 
 
 As your representative, I will try the question with the friends 
 in Parliament of Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald. They may send me to 
 prison. I am ready to go there, to promote the cause of the 
 Catholics, and of universal liberty. The discussion which the 
 attempt to exclude yonr representative from the House of 
 Commons must excite, will create a sensation all over Europe, 
 and produce such a burst of contemptuous indignation against 
 British bigotry in every enlightened country in the world, that 
 the voice of all the great and good in England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, being joined to the universal shout of the nations of 
 the earth, will overpower every opposition, and render it im- 
 possible for Peel and Wellington any longer to close the doors 
 of the constitution against the Catholics of Ireland. 
 
 "Electors of the county of Clare! Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald 
 claims, as his only merit, that he is a friend to the Catholics. 
 Why, I am a Catholic myself ; and if he be sincerly our friend, 
 let him vote for me, and raise before the British Empire the 
 Catholic question in my humble person, in the way most pro- 
 pitious to my final success. But no, fellow-countrymen, no ; 
 he will make no sacrifice to that cause ; he will call himself 
 your friend, and act the part of your worst and most unrelent- 
 ing enemy. 
 
 " I do not like to give the epitome of his political life ; yet, 
 when the present occasion so loudly calls for it, I cannot re- 
 frain. He took office under Perceval — under that Perceval 
 who obtained power by raising the base, bloody and unchristian 
 cry of ' No Popery ' in England. 
 
 "He had the nomination of a member to serve for the 
 borough of Ennis. He nominated Mr. Spencer Perceval, then 
 a decided opponent of the Catholics. 
 
 "He voted on the East Ketford measure — for a measure 
 that would put two virulent enemies of the Catholics into 
 Parliament. 
 
 "In the case of the Protestant Dissenters in England, he 
 voted for their exclusion — that is, against the principle of the 
 freedom of conscience ; that sacred principle which the Catholics 
 
To the Electors of Clare. 
 
 545 
 
 of Ireland have ever cultivated and cherished, on which wo 
 framed our rights to Emancipation. 
 
 ' ' Finally, he voted for the suppression of the Catholic 
 Association of Ireland ! 
 
 "And, after this — sacred Heaven ! he calls himself a friend 
 to the Catholics. 
 
 "He is the ally and colleague of the Duke of Wellington 
 and Mr. Peel. He is their partner in power ; they are, you 
 know, the most hitter, persevering, and unmitigated enemies of 
 the Catholics ; and, after all this, he, the partner of our 
 bitterest and unrelenting enemies, calls himself the friend of 
 the Catholics of Ireland. 
 
 "Having thus traced a few of the demerits of my right 
 honourable opponent, what shall I say for myself"? 
 
 u I appeal to my past life for my unremitting and disin- 
 terested attachment to the religion and liberties of Catholic 
 Ireland. 
 
 "If you return me to Parliament, I pledge myself to vote 
 for every measure favourable to Radical Reform in the repre- 
 sentative system, so that the House of Commons may truly, as 
 our Catholic ancestors intended it should do, represent all the 
 people. 
 
 ki To vote for the repeal of the Vestry Bill, the Subletting 
 Act, and the Grand Jury Laws. 
 
 " To vote for the diminution and more equal distribution of 
 the overgrown wealth of the Established Church in Ireland, so 
 that the surplus may be restored to the sustentation of the 
 poor, the aged, and the infirm. 
 
 " To vote for every measure of retrenchment and reduc- 
 tion of the national expenditure, so as to relieve the people 
 from the burdens of taxation, and to bring the question of the 
 REPEAL OF THE UNION, at the earliest possible period, 
 before the consideration of the Legislature. 
 
 "Electors of the county of Clare ! choose between me and 
 Mr. Yesey Fitzgerald ; choose between him so who long culti- 
 tivatcd his own interest, and one who seeks only to advance 
 
510 
 
 Agitation in Ireland. 
 
 yours ; choose between the sworn libeller of the Catholic faith, 
 and one who has devoted his early life to your cause, who has 
 consumed his manhood in a struggle for your liberties, and who 
 has ever lived, and is ready to die for the integrity, the honour, 
 the purity, of the Catholic faith, and the promotion of Irish 
 freedom and happiness. Your faithful servant, 
 
 il Daniel O'Connell." 
 
 The next movement was to collect funds. In one 
 week fourteen thousand pounds were at his com- 
 mand. Cork, always liberal for country or religion, 
 helped considerably to swell the amount. Canvassers 
 were wanted, too, as O'Connell could not leave Dub- 
 lin until the last moment ; and they were found also. 
 Mr. Shiel, who arrived several days before O'Con- 
 nell, was Ms counsel. Father Tom, as the Rev. Dr. 
 Maguire was familiarly termed, .went also. Mr. 
 Eonayne, a Cork man — one of the famous Cork 
 Eonaynes — accompanied him. A host of lesser 
 Eepeal luminaries followed ; but Father Tom and 
 Mr. Eonayne were very towers of strength, for they 
 spoke to the people in their own old Celtic tongue, 
 and told them why the Liberator was the best man 
 for Ireland. 
 
 When all this was known in England, the con- 
 sternation was terrible. The old war-cries were 
 declaimed with double vigour. Lord Clancarty 
 wrote in a panic of alarm from the Under-Secretary's 
 Lodge in Dublin about u the state of the country" — 
 that unhappy country, which is always in a " state," 
 unpleasant, from one cause or another, to English 
 legislators. He uttered loud complaints of the 
 
Consternation in England. 
 
 547 
 
 " unalterable hostility" of the Roman Catholics " to 
 us ;" but he forgot to add, as he was too prejudiced 
 to see that their hostility was not to individuals, but 
 to a system. They would have been strange men 
 these Irish Catholics, and very unworthy of their 
 manhood, if they had not been hostile to a system 
 which did not permit them a voice in their own 
 government. They talked " loudly" about " Parlia- 
 mentary reform," that was another of their crimes ; 
 yet Parliament reformed itself soon after. Every 
 "rational man" — an expression which he glossed 
 every man agreeing with Lord Clancarty — was dis- 
 gusted with these miserable Irish. They would not 
 sit down and hug their chains — they would assist 
 themselves — they icould declare that they should have 
 the rights of men. If they had not been Irish, their 
 spirit and independence would have been highly 
 commendable ; if they had not been Catholics, they 
 would have been pronounced martyrs to their desire 
 for political and religious liberty, and would have 
 been extolled accordingly. But as they were Irish, 
 and also Catholic — as they could not alter their 
 nationality, and would not alter their religion, they 
 were denounced as traitors. Yet Lord Clancarty de- 
 clared that the English public " were as ignorant on 
 the whole subject as if no such island existed;" 1 
 
 1 " Diary of Lord Colchester," vol. iii. p. 575. Precisely similar 
 expressions are used in the present day by the anti- Catholic party 
 in the House of Commons, because the Government does not compel 
 submission to the ministrations of a suspended priest. 
 
 VOL. II. 13 
 
An Event u Dramatic and Sublime" 
 
 and concluded, and showed his own ignorance by 
 saying, that the Government of the day " had handed 
 over its administration to a Popish hierarchy and 
 Popish priests." 
 
 Lord Colchester has left it on record, that " every 
 one agreed that O'Conneli's present proceedings could 
 not be tolerated, and that the interference of the 
 priests must be put down." He adds, however, " The 
 question is : By what means ?" And that was the 
 question. They could not be hanged for voting, be- 
 cause they were allowed to vote ; they could not be 
 imprisoned for selecting a candidate, because the 
 object of a vote was supposed to be to allow a man 
 a choice ; they could not be transported beyond the 
 seas, for they had not committed any indictable 
 offence. But there were two or three English states- 
 men who took a broader view of the affair, like Lord 
 Palmerston, and saw that " the event was dramatic 
 and sublime ; m and so it was. Thirty thousand 
 Irishmen assembled in and about Ennis on a sultry 
 day in July, and yet not one of them touched a 
 mouthful of the ardent spirit which is the special 
 temptation of the Celt. There was indeed one 
 drunken man seen, but only one ; but he was an 
 Englishman and a Protestant, and strangely enough, 
 if one contemporary record is to be believed — 
 O'Connell's own coachman, whom he committed on 
 his own deposition for a breach of the peace. 2 
 
 1 "Life of Lord Palmerston," vol. i. p. 306. 
 
 5 So Lord Palmerston says ; but we doubt if O'Connell bad an 
 
Scene on the Hustings. 
 
 549 
 
 Lord Anglesea had seven thousand regulars in 
 reserve, but he prudently kept them a all out of 
 sight." He need not have troubled himself, for 
 there was not so much as a blackthorn stick to be 
 seen in the whole assembly. Bands of music en- 
 livened the scene, green flags and green banners 
 waved in all directions ; and some enterprising manu- 
 facturer had gone so far as to supply the women 
 with handkerchiefs on which the portrait of O'Con- 
 nell was printed. 
 
 A scene occurred on the hustings. Mr. Vesey 
 Fitzgerald and his party stood on one side of the 
 High Sheriff, and, unhappily, with him stood the 
 few Catholic aristocracy in the county. O'Connell 
 stood on the other side. He had only the aristo- 
 cracy of talent, and a few faithful friends ; but the 
 people were around him in their thousands, and the 
 priests in their hundreds. 
 
 The High Sheriff was in an uncomfortable posi- 
 tion. It can scarcely be pleasant to preside over a 
 contested election under any circumstances. His 
 sympathies were naturally with the aristocracy, and 
 he felt it incumbent on him to show his power, and 
 make an example (if he could) of some one on 
 the opposite side. He made an unhappy selection. 
 Just as the proceedings were about to commence, a 
 gentleman leaped over the gallery, and quietly sat 
 down on the side of it with his feet suspended over 
 
 Englishman in his service, though he may probably have had a Pro- 
 testant. 
 
550 
 
 (J Gorman Mahon. 
 
 the people. His dress was as remarkable as his 
 appearance. He wore a coat and trousers of Irish 
 tabinet ; he dispensed with a waistcoat, and wore a 
 blue shirt, open at the neck ; but his offence was 
 wearing an immense sash, scarf-fashion, across his 
 shoulder, with a medal of the " Order of Liberators" 
 on his breast. 
 
 Mr. Molloy, the High Sheriff, tried to put him 
 down. He had been accustomed for some years to 
 govern at Canton, and spoke with an air of authority. 
 " Who, sir, are you ?" he demanded, addressing the 
 offender. The offender replied in stentorian tones, 
 "My name is O'Gorman Mahon." "I tell that 
 gentleman to take off that badge" replied the 
 Sheriff. There was a moment's pause, and then 
 O'Gorman Mahon replied, in slow clear accents, and 
 with the utmost courtesy of demeanour, " This gen- 
 tleman (laying his hand on his breast) tells that 
 gentleman (pointing with the other to the Sheriff) 
 that if that gentleman presumes to touch this gen- 
 tleman, this gentleman will defend himself against 
 that gentleman, or any other gentleman, while he 
 has the arm of a gentleman to protect him." 
 
 The Sheriff sat down. 
 
 There was a shout of triumph in court, and then 
 Mr. Vesey was proposed, and made an extremely 
 telling speech. He was by no means unpopular, and 
 as loud applause followed, O'Connell found it neces- 
 sary to exert all his eloquence in reply. He began 
 by dissecting the political career of Mr. Fitzgerald's 
 
Terrifying the Voters. 
 
 551 
 
 supporters, and then by attacking Mr. Fitzgerald. 
 His great point here was that he had acted under 
 Mr. Perceval. " He is the friend of Peel," exclaimed 
 O'Connell, "the bloody Perceval, and the candid 
 and manly Peel ; and he is our friend, and every- 
 body's friend !" 
 
 This observation had a powerful effect on the 
 multitude. At the close of the poll on the first 
 clay, the two candidates were found nearly equal. 
 On the second day, O'Connell was considerably 
 ahead. But the county gentlemen were determined 
 not to give in to the last. It was all the fault of the 
 priests, they said ; if the priests could only be put 
 down or got rid of, they might easily frighten their 
 easily-terrified tenants. But, as Lord Colchester 
 said, "the question was the means." At last they 
 hoped for success. An attorney employed by Mr. 
 Fitzgerald dashed furiously into the court-house, and 
 declared that a priest was "terrifying the voters." 
 The counsel for O'Connell denied the charge ; the 
 assessor demanded the culprit. The High Sheriff 
 hoped for a bad case of "priestly intimidation." 
 The victim was caught flagrante delicto. It was 
 Father Murphy, of Corofin. He was brought before 
 his judges — a man of ghastly, almost spectral ap- 
 pearance, with heavy eyebrows overhanging his 
 piercing eyes. " You were looking at my voters," 
 roared the attorney. " But I said nothing," replied 
 the priest ; " and I suppose I may be allowed to 
 look at my parishioners." " Not with such a face as 
 
552 Mr, Vandaleur and Ids Tenants. 
 
 that !" exclaimed the irate functionary. There was a 
 shout of laughter ; the priest certainly could not alter 
 his natural appearance. One of O'Connelfs agents 
 rushed in now and appealed to the unhappy Sheriff. 
 " We have no fair play, Mr. Sheriff. Mr. Singleton 
 is frightening his tenants ; he caught hold of one just 
 now and threatened vengeance against him." 
 
 A priest, indeed, might not even "look" at a 
 voter or give him advice, but a landlord might drive 
 his unhappy serfs before him to the poll like sheep, 
 and, if they dared resist, threaten them with " incon- 
 venience " in the future. 
 
 Mr. Vandaleur, of Kilrush, drove into Ennis with 
 three hundred tenants behind him guarded by mili- 
 tary, a singular specimen of free voting, but one by 
 no means uncommon even at the present day. As 
 they approached the town, Mr. Vandaleur took the 
 footman's place behind his own carriage to watch 
 them. But in vain. As they passed O'ConneH's 
 hotel, he came on a stand from whence he and his 
 friends addressed the voters from time to time. The 
 air was rent with a shout for the Liberator; the 
 crowd dexterously shut in the voters from Mr. Van- 
 daleur's carriage, and he was obliged to pass on and 
 leave the tenants to vote as they pleased, or as they 
 dared, with the prospect of such " inconvenience " as 
 demands of rent they could not pay, of loss of custom, 
 or of wholesale ejectment. 
 
 O'Connell was returned triumphantly, and the 
 much-enduring Sheriff was obliged to announce the 
 
Shiel on the Irish Priesthood. 
 
 553 
 
 fact with such resignation as he could command. 
 The air was rent with acclamations, with such shouts 
 as only Irish lungs can give and Irish hearts can 
 suggest. O'Connell addressed the people in the in- 
 toxication of gladness, and, with his usual courtesy, 
 for he was never sarcastic without cause, he paid Mr. 
 Fitzgerald some well-merited compliments on the 
 manner in which he sustained his defeat, and asked 
 a hearty cheer for him. He apologised to him for 
 any hard things he had said in the heat of the can- 
 vass, and said Mr. Fitzgerald was in many ways 
 worthy of his Anglo-Irish patronymic. 
 
 Shiel came out in great force. He spoke strongly 
 of the absurd party-cry which was then beginning to 
 be raised, and which will probably increase more 
 every day in intensity. So long as the priests and 
 people were fettered by penal laws, there was no 
 complaint ; only Government was very willing to 
 pension the clergy if they would act as spies. But 
 the clergy would neither have the pension nor under- 
 take the duty. They were indeed at liberty to inter- 
 fere for the Government as much as they liked; but 
 if they dared speak their own minds, or advise the 
 people to give their votes according to their con- 
 sciences, no matter what the consequence might be — 
 if they told them that voting was a solemn and sacred 
 duty, for which they were individually responsible to 
 God and their country, then up rose a clamour 
 against u priestly interference," and a demon shout of 
 rage against " priestly dictation. " 
 
554 
 
 Speech of IShieL 
 
 Sliiel was a Catholic, but he was not ashamed of 
 his faith or of its priesthood : 
 
 ""Do not be surprised." he exclaimed, in those thrilling 
 tones he knew so well how to use — " do not he surprised that 
 the peasantry should thus at once throw off their allegiance to 
 you, when they are under the operation of emotions which it 
 would be wonderful if they could resist. The feeling by which 
 they are now actuated would make them not only vote against 
 their landlords, but would make them rush into the field, scale 
 the batteries of a fortress, and mount the breach. I hear it 
 said, that before many days go by there will be many tears 
 shed in the hovels of your slaves, and that you will take a 
 terrible vengeance of their treason. . . . But you will ask, 
 "Wherefore should they prefer their priests to their landlords, 
 and have purer reverence for the altars of their religion than 
 for the counter on which you calculate your rents ? Ah ! 
 gentlemen, consider a little the relation in which the priest 
 stands towards the peasant. Let us put the priest into one 
 scale, and the landlord into the other, and let us see which 
 should preponderate. I will take an excellent landlord and an 
 excellent priest. The landlord shall be Sir Edward O'Brien, 
 and the priest shall be Mr. Murphy, of Corofin. Who is Sir 
 Edward O'Brien ? A gentleman who has a great fortune, who 
 lives in a splendid mansion, and who, from the windows of a 
 palace, looks upon possessions almost as wide as those which 
 his ancestors beheld from the summit of their feudal towers. 
 His tenants pay him their rents twice a year, and they have 
 their land at a moderate rate. So much for the landlord. I 
 come now to Father Murphy, of Corofin. Where does he re- 
 side ? In a humble abode, situated at the foot of a mountain, 
 and in the midst of dreariness and waste. He dwells in the 
 "midst of his parishioners, and is their benefactor, their friend, 
 their father. It is not only in the actual ministry of the sacra- 
 ments of religion that he stands as an object of affectionate re- 
 verence among them. I saw him, indeed, at his altar, sur- 
 
O'ConnelVs Triumph Complete. 555 
 
 rounded by thousands, and felt myself the influence of his 
 contagious and enthusiastic devotion. He addressed the people 
 in the midst of a rude edifice, and in a language which I did 
 not understand (the old Irish) ; but I could perceive what a 
 command he has over the minds of his devoted followers. It 
 is not merely as the celebrator of the rites of divine worship 
 that he is dear to his flock : he is their companion, the miti- 
 gator of their calamities, the soother of their afflictions, the 
 trustee of their hearts, the repository of their secrets, the 
 guardian of their interests, and the sentinel of their death-beds. 
 A peasant is dying ; in the midst of the winter's night a knock 
 is heard at the door of the priest, and he is told that this 
 parishioner requires his spiritual assistance ; the wind is howl- 
 ing, the snow descends upon the hills, and the rain and storm 
 beat against his face ; yet he goes forth, hurries to the hovel 
 of the expiring wretch, and taking his station beside the mass 
 of pestilence of which the bed of straw is composed, bends to 
 receive the last whisper which unloads the heart of its guilt, 
 though the lips of the sinner should be tainted witli disease, 
 and lie should exhale mortality in his breath. Gentlemen, this 
 is not the language of artificial declamation ; this is not the 
 mere extravagance of rhetorical phrase, Every word of this is 
 the truth — the notorious, palpable, and unquestionable truth. 
 You know it ; every one of you knows it to be true ; and now 
 let me ask you : Can you wonder for a moment that the people 
 should be attached to their clergy, and should follow their 
 ordinances as if they were the injunctions of God ? Gentle- 
 men, forgive me if I venture to supplicate, on behalf of your 
 poor tenants, for mercy to them. Pardon them, in the 
 name of that God who will forgive you your offences in the 
 same measure of compassion which you will show to the tres- 
 passes of others. Do not, in the name of that Heaven before 
 whom every one of us, whether landlord, priest, or tenant, 
 must at last appear, do not persecute these poor people ; don't 
 throw their children out upon the public road ; don't send them 
 forth to shiver and to die." 
 
556 
 
 Excitement in Political Circles. 
 
 O'Connell's triumph was complete. The Catho- 
 lics at last had a representative. Pie was chaired in 
 Ennis, and he was followed by thousands on his 
 route home. Even the military could not restrain 
 their exultation. Why should they, since so many 
 of them were of his own nation and his own faith ? 
 They began to see that they might be something 
 more than mere fighting machines for a nation who 
 condescended to accept their sword and blood on the 
 field of battle, but who denied them the right to re- 
 ceive the consolation of their religion as they lay in 
 the agony of death. 1 
 
 1 The Duke of Wellington, in 1829, addressing the House of 
 Lords in favour of Catholic Emancipation, observed : ' ' It is already 
 well known to your Lordships, that of the troops which our gracious 
 sovereign did me the honour to entrust to my command at various 
 periods during the war — a war undertaken expressly for the purpose 
 of securing the happy institutions and independence of the country 
 — that at least one-half were Roman Catholics. My Lords, when I 
 call your recollection to this fact, I am sure all further eulogy is 
 unnecessary. . . . We must also confess that, without Catholic 
 blood and Catholic valour, no victory could ever have been obtained, 
 and the first military talents in Europe might have been exerted in 
 vain at the head of an army. My Lords, if on the eve of any of 
 those hard-fought days, on which I had the honour to command 
 them, I had thus addressed my Roman Catholic troops : ' You well 
 know that your country either so suspects your loyalty, or so dis- 
 likes your religion, that she has not thought proper to admit you 
 amonst the ranks of her citizens ; if on that account you deem it an 
 act of injustice on her part to require you to shed your blood in her 
 defence, you are at liberty to withdraw' — I am quite sure, my 
 Lords, that, however bitter the recollections which it awakened, 
 they would have spurned the alternative with indignation ; for the 
 hour of danger and glory is the hour in which the gallant, the 
 
A Protestant Club Established. 
 
 557 
 
 In England the news of O'Connell's election ex- 
 cited absolute consternation. The slaves of political 
 bondage had dared to assert themselves. Very 
 glorious, indeed, it would have been had such self- 
 assertion occurred in any other country, or had it 
 been made by any other people. A fight for liberty, 
 physically or morally, is seldom appreciated near 
 home. It was true, indeed, that the Irish had been 
 promised for a long time that " something, should be 
 done for them." They were to stay quiet, " perfectly 
 
 generous-hearted Irishman best knows his duty, and is most deter- 
 mined to perform it. But if, my Lords, it had been otherwise ; if 
 they had chosen to desert the cause, . . . the remainder of 
 the troops would undoubtedly have maintained the honour of the 
 British arms, yet, as I have just said, no efforts of theirs could ever 
 have crowned us with victory. Yes, my Lords, it is mainly to the 
 Irish Catholics that we all owe our proud pre-eminence in our 
 military career ; and that I, personally, am indebted for the laurels 
 with which you have been pleased to decorate my brow — for the 
 honours which you have so bountifully lavished on me, and for the 
 fair fame (I prize it above all other rewards) which my country, in 
 its generous kindness, bai bestowed upon me. I cannot but feel, 
 my Lords, that you yourselves have been chiefly instrumental in 
 placing this heavy debt of gratitude upon me — greater, perhaps, 
 than has ever fallen to the lot of any individual ; and, however 
 flattering the circumstance, it often places me in a very painful 
 position. Whenever I meet (and it is almost an everyday occur- 
 rence) with any of those brave men, who, in common with others, 
 are the object of this bill, and who have so often borne me on the 
 tide of victory ; when I see them still branded with the imputation 
 of a divided allegiance, still degraded beneath the lowest menial, 
 and still proclaimed unfit to enter within the pale of the constitu- 
 tion, I feel almost ashamed of the honours which have been lavished 
 upon me." 
 
Dr. Philpotts Proposes a Remedy. 
 
 quiet," for a few years, and then, if the whole affair 
 was not forgotten, perhaps " the claim might be con- 
 sidered." Even English statesmen could see the 
 absurdity of this. 
 
 The news of O'Connell's return for Clare was re- 
 ceived in London on the 3rd of July, 1828. The 
 indignation and excitement in political circles was 
 great. A Protestant Club was established imme- 
 diately in London, and Dr. Philpotts wrote to Lord 
 Colchester, that "stringent conditions" — whatever 
 that might mean — should be imposed on the Irish for 
 their " violence," — the " violence " having consisted 
 solely in the constitutional exercise of their rights 
 as electors. Parliament was accused of "shameful 
 neglect ;" but his Lordship, a sharp practical man, 
 had wit enough to see that if the " elective franchise " 
 could be restrained in Ireland, that this would be the 
 effective remedy for all future evils. The suggestion 
 had at least the merit of simplicity ; for clearly if the 
 Irish Catholics could be deprived of a voice in the 
 choice of their representatives, they would not have 
 selected one so obnoxious to the English Protestants. 
 He was not so much afraid of the upper classes. He 
 hoped they would fall into the standing course of 
 parliamentary ambition, and then would not trouble 
 themselves much about the interests of the Church. 1 
 Henry Philpotts was an acute man, he knew the 
 value of worldly advancement, none better ; and he 
 
 1 " Life of Lord Colchester," vol. iii. p. 577. 
 
Jack Lawless and the Priest. 
 
 559 
 
 knew how such advancement would prove a salve if 
 not a sedative to the conscience. 
 
 The bishops and the priests were the great diffi- 
 culty. They could not be bribed, so a wily plan was 
 suggested by this worldly prelate. He proposed that 
 an " influence might be acquired on the nomination 
 of priests at Rome by appointing a resident Minister 
 there to treat personally on political concerns." Few 
 people, indeed, have sufFered for their faith as the 
 Irish have done ; and had this scheme succeeded, it 
 would have been the last and the bitterest ingredient 
 in their cup of sorrow. It was the old battle between 
 God and Caesar; and had the Church been Caesar's 
 Church, she must surely have yielded. The protec- 
 tion of England would have been found a tempting 
 bait, the very prestige of England's name would 
 have influenced any merely Erastian establishment. 
 Ireland was despised by the world, England was 
 esteemed. There was even the further temptation 
 that a certain odour of respectability pervaded the 
 few English Catholics who had remained faithful to 
 their Church, because they were English— and, un- 
 happily then, as at a later period, a few were found 
 who thought first of their nationality, and last of their 
 religion. But the Catholic faith is the religion of all 
 peoples, because it is divine ; and even had Ireland 
 been less faithful to the Holy See, any attempt to sow 
 discord would have equally failed. 
 
 And yet the priests were really the " head pacifi- 
 cators " of Ireland. Jack Lawless went on a mission 
 
5G0 
 
 Official Irritation. 
 
 to the North, and, with his characteristic recklessness, 
 contrived to exasperate the Orangemen, and after- 
 wards escape from the scene of discord. Happily, a 
 priest was with him, and he remained behind, and, 
 by his wisdom and influence, saved the country from 
 fearful bloodshed. 1 
 
 O'Connell freely used his "frank" as a member 
 of Parliament, but he did not take his seat. It was a 
 time of intense agitation and anxiety to all parties. 
 The Brunswickers, as the Protestant Clubs now 
 called themselves, were acting with such gross 
 violence as to form an unpleasant contrast to the 
 well-ordered Catholic Association. The Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant declared that he could keep the country quite 
 quiet for one year and no longer. Pie complained 
 bitterly that the Duke of Wellington had only sent 
 him official letters, and that he was kept completely in 
 the dark as to the plans of Government. 
 
 The Solicitor-General, Doherty, said he could just 
 keep the country together till Parliament met, and he 
 would "hand it over to the table of the House." 2 
 A Protestant Archbishop of Dublin talked about the 
 "insane" declaration of the associate demagogues, 
 and the still more insane attempts of the leading de- 
 
 .* The Rev. Mr. M'Donough, who afterwards emigrated to 
 America. " Mooney's Lectures on Irish History," p. 1284 ; a most 
 valuable work, published by P. Donahoe, Franklin-street, Boston. 
 Lord Anglesea said to Sir John Byng that " the Protestants of the 
 North were much more violent, and likely to disturb the public 
 peace than the Catholics of the South." — Life of Lord Palmerston, 
 vol. i. p. 311. 
 
 f " Palmerston," vol. i. p. 312, 
 
King Dan. 
 
 561 
 
 inao-on-ue to thrust himself into Parliament. 1 The 
 "leading demagogue," meanwhile, went on the even 
 tenor of his way. Lord Arden said that no one 
 knew anything about the state of Ireland, even if they 
 lived in it like himself, but left it to be understood 
 that he was an exception ; and said also that O'Con- 
 nell kept up a " continual ferment." Lord Eldon 
 showed his hopeless ignorance of the Catholic reli- 
 gion, by saying that O'Connell would not be allowed 
 to take his seat in the House, unless he took the 
 oaths, and that he would not do unless he could get 
 absolution, obviously believing that it would be quite 
 possible for a man to get absolution for taking a 
 solemn oath that his own religion was blasphemous 
 and idolatrous. He declared that nothing was talked 
 of u which interested anybody the least in the world 
 except the election of Mr. O'Connell and the mischief 
 it must produce and he had just intelligence 
 enough to see, what most intelligent men saw very 
 plainly, that " the business must bring the Roman 
 Catholic question, which has been so often discussed, 
 to a crisis and conclusion." The crisis was the de- 
 bate on Emancipation, and the conclusion was the 
 granting of that act of common justice. 2 
 
 In October, 1828, Lord Anglesea issued a pro- 
 clamation to put down the disturbances in the North, 
 and at the same time O'Connell issued a proclamation 
 
 1 " Colchester," vol. iii. p. 582. 
 
 2 Twiss's " Life of Eldou," vol. iii. p. G3. 
 
562 
 
 A Settlement Demanded. 
 
 to put down faction fights in the South. He was, in- 
 deed, becoming the uncrowned king of Ireland. 
 Few crowned monarchs of that country had ever 
 held such sway. He was King Dan to million o 
 people, and his word was law. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington kept his opinions to 
 himself, but there is no doubt that he saw Catholic 
 Emancipation must be granted ; and once he made 
 up his mind, action soon followed. The Liberal 
 party, or, as they were then usually denominated, the 
 Whigs, were extremely angry to find that a Tory 
 Ministry was to have the credit of doing what they 
 should have done if they had had the Duke's 
 courage. 
 
 At the close of the year, a declaration was drawn 
 up by the Duke of Leinster, and signed by two 
 dukes, seven marquises, twenty-seven earls, seven 
 viscounts, twenty-two barons, fifty-two members of 
 the House of Commons, and upwards of two thou- 
 sand gentlemen. They asked for a settlement of the 
 Catholic Claims, proving that the astute Dr. Philpotts 
 was not far wrong when he said that fully one-half 
 the House of Commons was in favour of granting 
 justice to Catholics — though he did not call Emanci- 
 pation by that name — and that nearly half the Upper 
 House were of the same opinion. 
 
 In December, 1828, Dr. Curtis, the Catholic Pri- 
 mate of all Ireland, who was an old and valued friend 
 of the Duke of Wellington, wrote to him begging 
 that he would reconsider the state pf Ireland, which 
 
Wellington and Anglesea. 
 
 5G3 
 
 was certainly most alarming, and apply some remedy. 
 The Duke replied promptly : 
 
 "London, Wth December, 1S28. 
 
 u My dear Sir — I have received your letter of the 4th 
 instant ; and I assure you that you do me justice in believing 
 that I am sincerely anxious to witness the settlement of the 
 Roman Catholic question, which, by benefiting the State, 
 would confer a benefit on every individual belonging to it. 
 But I confess that I see no prospect of such a settlement. 
 Party has been mixed up with the consideration of the ques- 
 tion to such a degree, and such violence pervades every 
 discussion of it, that it is impossible to expect to prevail upon 
 men to consider it dispassionately. If we could bury it in 
 oblivion for a short time, and employ that time diligently in 
 the consideration of its difficulties on all sides (for they are very 
 great), I should not despair of seeing a satisfactory remedy. 
 
 "Believe me, my dear sir, ever your most faithful humble 
 servant, "Wellington." 
 
 One of the Archbishop's curates was with him at 
 breakfast ; he obtained a copy of the letter, and it 
 appeared at once in the papers. The sensation which 
 it created was immense. The Duke wrote an ex- 
 postulation to Dr. Curtis, but it was too late. Dr. 
 Curtis had enclosed the laconic epistle to Lord 
 Anglesea, and Lord Anglesea's reply soon found its 
 way to the papers also. He recommended the Catho- 
 lics to persevere in constitutional agitation ; and for 
 this letter he was at once recalled. On his depar- 
 ture, he received such an ovation from the Irish as 
 had never been granted to any other representative 
 of royalty. 1 
 
 1 Lord Anglesea was very unpopular during his second term of 
 office. Mr. O'Neill Daunt says : " During his second vice-royalty 
 
 VOL. II. l i 
 
StH Alleged Policy of the Duke. 
 
 The Duke's letter proved him to be a greater 
 adept at the sword than at the pen. The idea of 
 " burying a subject in oblivion" 1 while it was being 
 diligently discussed, could not fail to provoke a 
 laugh. It is said that the Duke had private know- 
 he became one day the subject of conversation in O'Connell's 
 house. ' Poor Anglesea !' said O'Connell ; ' the unfortunate man 
 was not wicked, but misguided.' ' That is exactly what he says of 
 you,' replied N. P. O'Gorman. 4 One day I visited him he said to 
 me: "That unfortunate O'Connell means well, but he is mis- 
 guided!"' O'Connell laughed heartily. 'Certainly,' said he, 
 ' Lord Anglesea was wonderfully weak and misinformed. Only 
 conceive his gravely assuring the British Government that I had 
 little or no influence in Ireland !" ' Though Lord Anglesea was so 
 popular once, he never travelled without a " life preserver." On 
 one occasion he went to dine with Lord Cloncurry, but would not 
 take an escort. The carriage was ordered early, as it was not con- 
 sidered prudent to be late on the road. At the last moment Lord 
 Anglesea's " stick " could not be found, and he positively refused to 
 leave without it. No one had noticed it positively, but it was at 
 last found in a summer-house where he had spent the afternoon. 
 When the carriage moved off Lord Anglesea touched a spring 
 and the slide flew open, showing a most formidable rapier. The 
 handle concealed a pocket-pistol, into which was inserted a dagger- 
 shaped blade covered with a guard. This formidable weapon was 
 given to him by the Duke of York, who had a number of them pre- 
 pared for himself and his friends after the discovery of the Thistle- 
 wood conspiracy." — Chiefs of Parties, Madd} T n, vol. i. pp. 160-8. 
 
 l The Times of the day had a good squib on the subject : 
 
 ' " To catch the banker all have sought 
 
 But still the rogue unhurt is ; 
 While t' other juggler — who'd have thought ? — 
 Though slippery long, has just been caught, 
 
 By old Archbishop Curtis. 
 And, such the power of Papal crook, 
 
 The crosier scarce had quivered 
 About his ears, when, lo ! the Duke 
 
 Was of a bull delivered." 
 
 —Life and Times of Dr. Voylc y vol. ii. p. 109. 
 
The Kings Speech. 
 
 505 
 
 ledge that George IV. was near his end ; that at his 
 
 death one great obstacle would be removed ; and 
 
 that he desired to keep matters quiet until that event 
 
 took place. Whatever his motive or intentions may 
 
 have been, the following sentences were inserted in 
 
 the king's speech on the 4th February, 1829 : 
 
 " His Majesty laments that in that part of the United 
 Kingdom (Ireland) an association still exists which is danger- 
 ous to the public peace. . . . His Majesty feels assured that 
 you will commit to him such powers as may enable him to 
 maintain his just authority. His Majesty recommends that, 
 when this essential object shall have been accomplished, you 
 should take into your deliberate consideration the whole con- 
 dition of Ireland, and that you should revise the laws which 
 impose disabilities on His Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects." 
 
 This startling announcement was followed by a 
 salve to the Protestant, as it had been preceded by a 
 threat to the Catholic. The Duke manifestly knew 
 how to make a royal speech better than how to word 
 a private epistle. 
 
 " You will consider whether the removal of these disabilities 
 can be effected consistently with the full and permanent 
 security of our Establishments in Church and State, with the 
 maintenance of the Reformed Religion established by law, and 
 of the rights and privileges of the bishops and of the clergy of 
 this nation, and of the churches committed to their charge." 
 
 The publication of this speech convulsed the 
 country from one end to the other. The " glorious 
 constitution' 7 was in danger, the Pope would be King 
 of Ireland, the Protestants would be massacred, the 
 Duke was in league with the priests. Nothing was 
 too absurd to be said, and nothing was too absurd to 
 
566 
 
 Emancipation A chievecl 
 
 be believed by men who had allowed their preju- 
 dices to run away with their common sense. 1 
 
 In the debate on the address, in answer to the 
 speech from the throne, Lord Eldon declared " that 
 if ever a Roman Catholic was permitted to form part 
 of the Legislature of this country, from that moment 
 the sun of Great Britain would set." 2 So tenacious 
 is prejudice, that if lie had lived to the present day, 
 facts to the contrary would not have changed his 
 opinion. 
 
 The Duke of Cumberland declared that if the 
 king gave his assent to Catholic Emancipation, he 
 would leave the country never to return to it again. 3 
 
 The bill passed through both Houses with ex- 
 tremely large majorities, that in the Upper House 
 beim? 213 against 109 ; but the kind's signature was 
 still necessary, and was not obtained without some 
 difficulty. The truth was, that he only yielded to 
 the pressure of circumstances, which he could not 
 withstand ; and exclaimed petulantly, "The Duke of 
 "Wellington is kins of England, O'Connell is king of 
 Ireland, and I suppose I am only Dean of Windsor." 
 The royal assent was given on the 13th April, 1821). 
 
 A clause was introduced into the Act, manifestly 
 
 1 " Life of the Duke of Wellington," by the Rev. J. R. Gleig, p. 
 4G0. Yonge's " Life of Wellington," vol." iii. pp. 171-180. 
 
 2 " Life of Lord Eldon," vol. iii. p. 63. 
 
 3 Letter from the Right Honourable T. Grenville to the Duke of 
 Buckingham. He adds, " A declaration to that effect may produce 
 a very general cheer even in the dignified assembly of the House of 
 Lords." — Memoirs of George IV. vol. ii. p. 393. 
 
Refused a Seat in the House. 
 
 5G7 
 
 to annoy O'Connell, that no Catholic could take his 
 scat unless lie should be elected " after the com- 
 mencement of the Act." O'Connell hoped to evade 
 the difficulty by offering Sir Edward Denny £3,000 
 for one of his boroughs, but the offer was refused. 
 O'Connell therefore determined to claim his own 
 seat, and presented himself for that purpose at the 
 bar of the House on the loth of May. His appear- 
 ance was expected, and made an immense sensation. 
 He was introduced by Lords Dungannon and Eb- 
 rington. 
 
 The following extract, from the next issue of the 
 Times, gives the best contemporary account of the 
 whole affair : 
 
 " The attempt was made by Mr. O'Connell last night to 
 take his seat in the house of Commons, and the narrative of 
 the proceeding will be read with interest in our parliamentary 
 report. Yet that can convey but an imperfect idea of the 
 silent, the almost breathless attention with which he was re- 
 ceived in the House, advancing to and retiring from the table. 
 The benches were filled in an unusual degree with members, 
 and tli ere is no recollection of so large a number of peers 
 brought by curiosity into the House of Commons. The hon. 
 gentleman was introduced by Lords Dungannon and Ebring- 
 ton ; a perfect stillness ensued. By his action he evidently 
 declined the first oath which was tendered to him — that of 
 supremacy and allegiance— and required the oath prescribed by 
 the late Act. The explanation by the Speaker to the House 
 of what had taken place was clear, his expression of counte- 
 nance and manner towards the hon. gentleman on whom he 
 fixed his regards extremely courteous, and his declaration that 
 'he must withdraw,' firm and authoritative. Mr. O'Connell 
 for a moment looked round, as one who had reason to expect 
 
A clch' ess at the Bar of the House. 
 
 support, and this failing, he Lowed most respectfully and with- 
 drew. After his departure, Mr. Brougham spoke, but in a 
 somewhat subdued tone ; some discussion followed, but the 
 debate on the subject is fixed for Monday next." 
 
 O'Connell expected to have been heard at the bar 
 of the House on this occasion, but he was refused. 
 
 On the 18th of May, Peel proposed that he should 
 be allowed that privilege, and on the following day 
 he appeared at the bar of the House, attended by Mr. 
 Pierce Mahony, his solicitor. The House was so 
 crowded that many peers were unable to obtain seats 
 in the space allotted to them under the gallery. The 
 Duke of Sussex was there listening with breathless 
 attention to every word which fell from the lips of 
 the u Irish agitator and when O'Connell returned 
 to his place, after a most masterly speech, he found 
 it occupied by the Duke of Orleans, who next year 
 ascended the French throne as Louis Philippe, Mr. 
 Mahony's seat being occupied by his son, the Due de 
 Chartres, both of whom congratulated O'Connell on 
 his position and his success. 
 
 As it was a question of law, Sir N. Tindal, the 
 Solicitor-General, rose to reply, and he opened his 
 speech by passing an evidently sincere compliment 
 to O'Connell. 1 His address, indeed, deserved all the 
 praise it received, but one part was especially telling, 
 and was cheered loudly by the Whig party, although 
 such manifestations of applause were not usual on 
 
 1 Tho Attorney- General, Sir C. Wetheral, had resigned his seat 
 on the first introduction of the Emancipation Bill. 
 
Declines to take the Oath. 
 
 CG9 
 
 such occasions. After he had presented all the argu- 
 ments in his favour, he said, "I cannot give any- 
 other construction to the enactments of this statute ; 
 for it is impossible to suppose that a great nation, 
 and the Government of a great nation, could combine 
 with a measure of national justice like this an act of 
 outlawry against an individual, solely because that 
 individual devoted himself heart and soul to the ob- 
 taining of this great measure of national justice for 
 himself and his fellow-countrymen." The dignity, 
 tact, and temper of this rebuke was admirable, and 
 was in perfect keeping with his manner and matter 
 throughout 
 
 On the following day O'Connell appeared at the 
 bar for the third time, and was told by the Speaker 
 that he could not take his sont unless he took the 
 oath of supremacy, 
 
 " * Are you willing to take the o.atb. of supremacy ? ' asked 
 the Speaker. 
 
 " ' Allow me to look at it/ replied O'Connell. 
 
 " The oath was handed to O'Connell, and he looked at it in 
 silence for a few seconds; then raising his head, he said, ' In 
 this oath I see one assertion as to a matter of fact, which I 
 know to be untrue. I see a second assertion as to a matter of 
 opinion, which I believe to be untrue. I therefore refuse to 
 take this oath.' " 
 
 O'Connell at once wrote his second address to 
 the electors of Clare, and boasted, as well he might, 
 that they had conquered the Government. He told 
 his constituents that they had " converted Peel and 
 conquered Wellington." It is no exaggeration to say 
 than no man ever achieved such a moral victory, and 
 
570 
 
 Another Election Necessary. 
 
 that the Catholics of the present day owe to his bold- 
 ness and courage the position they hold in the British 
 Legislature. If O'Connell had not risen in his might 
 to do as well as to dare, it is not improbable that 
 Catholics might still be timidly petitioning for relief, 
 instead of enjoying the liberty of free-born subjects. 
 
 The papers of the day were unusually full of the 
 event. The Times had a leader on the subject, 
 which was congratulatory. 1 
 
 It was perfectly well known in England that 
 O'Connell would be re-elected for Clare, and any- 
 thing almost was preferred to a second exhibition of 
 the national strength and national opinion. The 
 Times of the 18th May spoke severely of the wording 
 of the Act, and hinted that it was not creditable to 
 the " sincerity," and certainly not to the " sagacity " 
 of its author ; and concluded that " His Majesty's 
 Ministers must deeply regret the necessity they 
 caused for another Clare election." 
 
 Reports had already reached London that O'Con- 
 nell would be returned without opposition and with- 
 out expense. lie wrote himself to Mr. Roche, on 
 
 1 " It will bo a gratification to him, or at least an abatement of 
 his disappointment, to observe that bis exclusion does not arise 
 from private opposition, from personal pique, or petty spite (which 
 we dreaded), but is the result of a candid discussion of the question. 
 We should have been more contented if a case (and that thought by 
 some eminent authorities a doubtful one), which, by the nature of 
 things, could not be drawn into a precedent, had been slurred over, 
 and the honourable gentleman had been permitted to slip into the 
 House through the opening which was made between the old and 
 new law." 
 
Superiority to Abuse and Ridicule. $11 
 
 the 2 2nd of May, " I am determined to contest Clare, 
 which I will now, even if I was undetermined before I 
 got your kindest note. My accounts thence are most 
 favourable." 1 
 
 The Brunswick Clubs had their paper, called the 
 Brunswick Star, and it lavished abuse and ridicule, 
 both in prose and in execrable verse ; but the great 
 chieftain went on the even tenor of his way, taking it 
 all for what it was worth, vox et prceterea nihil. He 
 looked for fame in another place, and under other 
 circumstances. Even his own countrymen, and those 
 who honoured him most, had scarcely fathomed the 
 depths of this man's religious mind, or suspected the 
 source of his high principles of action. It is im- 
 possible in the present work to give details of his 
 inner life ; but no history of him, however brief, 
 would be complete without some allusion to this 
 subject. The following letter, which he addressed 
 to the Iiev. Father O'Meara, shows the source from 
 whence his strength was obtained, and the motives 
 which actuated him : 
 
 " Confidential. 
 
 «' 19 Bury Street, St. James', ISth March, 1829. 
 
 " Rev. and Dear Sir — I am standing counsel for the 
 friars, so that you owe me no apology nor any thanks for at- 
 tending to any affairs of yours. My fee is paid by one moment 
 of recollection of me occasionally in the pure and Holy 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 " I have the happiness to tell you the proposed law is one 
 which has been well described as a class by the celebrated 
 jurist Bentham in one word, unexecutable — that is, that can 
 
 Roche's Essays," vol. ii. p. 109. 
 
572 
 
 Received as a Conqueror. 
 
 never be executed. This is literally one of those laws. It is 
 insolent enough in its pretensions. It will be, and must be, 
 totally inefficient in practice, for these reasons — 1st, There is 
 no power at all given to magistrates to interfere in this subject, 
 nor any jurisdiction whatsoever given to magistrates in that 
 respect. 2ndly, No private person can prosecute any friar or 
 monk; nobody can do it but the Attorney- General, so that you 
 are thus free from private malice. 3rdly, The person prose- 
 cuted — that is, if any friar or monk be prosecuted, he is not 
 bound to disclose anything, or to say one word, but simply to 
 allow his attorney to plead nil debet to the information. Thus 
 you see nobody will be obliged to accuse himself. This will put 
 the prosecutor on his proofs. Now, 4thly, The prosecutor will 
 have nobody to prove his case, because, mark, there is a 
 penalty on all persons assisting at the taking of the vows ; 
 therefore if any of these persons be examined as witnesses, 
 they can with perfect safety object to give evidence, and totally 
 refuse lest they should convict themselves. 
 
 " Thus you see that it is almost impossible any prosecution 
 should be instituted at all ; and it is quite impossible that any 
 prosecution should be successful. Besides, the existing class 
 of friars are all legalised ; my advice, therefore, decidely is, that 
 the friars should keep quiet. Let this Act take its course, re- 
 collecting, also, that you will have Catholic members in Parlia- 
 ment before the time comes to give these laws any effect even 
 in point of form. 
 
 "Go on with your building and prosper. Be so good as to 
 put down my name for £50. I will give it to you when I arrive 
 in Cork. Regretting I cannot afford to give more, I have the 
 honour to be, with sincere respect, your faithful and obedient 
 servant, " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " To Eev. W. A. O'Meara, Franciscan Convent, Cork." 
 
 O'Connell was received in Ireland as conqueror. 
 As he passed down to Clare the people crowded 
 round him with shouts of triumph ; at night the town 
 was illuminated. He arrived in Limerick at eight 
 in the morning. The fatigue was too great even for 
 
William Smith O'Brien. 
 
 573 
 
 the herculean frame of the " Agitator," and he was 
 obliged to rest for a few hours. Then lie came out 
 to the people and began his address, as usual, with 
 the query, " How is Andy Watson ?* 1 The Lime- 
 rick tradesmen had assembled with flags and ban- 
 ners ; the Limerick people had assembled in their 
 thousands, and, with cheers and shouts, escorted 
 O'Connell out on the Ennis road. As he neared the 
 town of victory he was met by another multitude, 
 who brought a triumphal car with them, and on this 
 he was driven into the city. 
 
 The forty-shilling freeholders had ceased to vote, 
 and O'Connell had now to deal with a new class, the 
 ten-pound freeholders. But there was more, lie 
 had to console or satisfy those who lost their votes, 
 and he had to propitiate those who gained. But he 
 was equal to the occasion. 
 
 William Smith O'Brien now appeared in public 
 for the first time. He opposed O'Connell, and de- 
 clared that he had hindered instead of helping the 
 Catholic cause. He quoted the old arguments, which 
 are now and then adduced, even at the present day. 
 He had the temerity to declare that the English were 
 
 1 Andy Watson was the editor of the local Tory paper. See 
 " History of Limerick," by Maurice Lenihan, Esq., J.P., p. 482. 
 Undoubtedly one great element of O'Connell's success was his tact 
 in adapting himself to circumstances. When he visited a town or 
 village, a court-house or drawing-room, he at once made himself 
 perfectly au courant of what was going on, and then, with consum- 
 mate tact, he availed himself of his information. This gift of adapt- 
 ability is one which few public men possess, but those who do 
 possess it are generally masters of the situation. 
 
574 
 
 The Critic Fly. 
 
 disgusted by O'ConnelFs agitation, and that if he had 
 not agitated, Emancipation would have been granted 
 long before. He forgot, or he did not find it con- 
 venient to remember, that both the Duke of Welling- 
 ton and Mr. Peel had admitted that the consideration 
 of the Catholic claims was the result of fear. If 
 O'Connell had not roused up the spirit in Ireland 
 which had made them fear, and if he had not origi- 
 nated a clamour which English members of Parlia- 
 ment could not help hearing, it is impossible to say 
 how much longer justice would have been deferred. 
 There will always be a certain class of men who will 
 attack success. They cannot deny a fact, but they 
 at once pretend, with the most daring unconscious- 
 ness of their own pretensions, to show how that fact 
 could have happened without the intervention of the 
 person who accomplished it. They make a votive 
 offering to their own sagacity, and would have men 
 believe that they should have been the authors of the 
 success, only that they were not, from fault of cir- 
 cumstances with which they did not choose to con- 
 tend. They may find a few jealous individuals to 
 applaud them or rejoice in their theory, but the his- 
 torians of the future will give a very different verdict. 
 
 O'Connell proceeded at once to expose the origin 
 of this feeling, which was not very creditable. Steele 
 attacked O'Brien personally (in private). The result 
 was a hostile meeting at Kilburn in London. Shots 
 were exchanged, and Mr. O'Brien expressed him- 
 self satisfied through his second. But Steele had 
 
Outwitted^ but not Outvoted. 
 
 prepared himself for a campaign, and would have 
 gone on until one or both were on the ground, if 
 O'Gorman Mahon had not come forward and ex- 
 pressed a wish to have an " affair of honour" on his 
 account. They were both Clare men, and considered 
 that Smith O'Brien had cast an imputation upon them 
 by asserting that none of the Clare "gentlemen" had 
 supported O'Connell. Smith O'Brien seems to have 
 been satisfied with his escape, for he declared that 
 he had not included O'Gorman Mahon in the ob- 
 noxious expression. 
 
 O'Connell ran up from Ennis to Dublin, and 
 found himself in an unpleasant position. A pugi- 
 listic attorney, known as Toby Glascock, threatened 
 to fight O'Connell; and finding that O'Connell would 
 not fight, threatened to make his servant horsewhip 
 him. This man was generally supposed to be de- 
 ficient in intellect, and for this very reason O'Con- 
 nell thought it advisable to have him bound over to 
 keep the peace. He appeared in court for the pur- 
 pose. Mr. Glascock declared that his own size (he 
 was a small man) should have saved O'Connell from 
 any apprehension, and he ofFered to produce his ser- 
 vant. He dived under the attorney's table, lifted up 
 a large bag, untied the strings, shook out the corners, 
 and tumbled out a little black boy on the table, 
 clothed in green livery, and grinning from ear to 
 ear. The court was convulsed with laughter, and 
 for once in his long career O'Connell found the joke 
 against him. 
 
576 
 
 Rest henceforth denied him. 
 
 O'Connell was returned for Clare for the second 
 time on the 30th of July, 1829 ; and wherever he 
 went, he was again received by the people with the 
 wildest enthusiasm. He needed a time of rest after 
 this long period of excitement and heavy labour, and 
 repaired for this purpose to his ancestral home at 
 Darrynane. But rest was not for him in this world. 
 He was the defender of the people's rights, as well as 
 the king of the people's hearts ; and wherever those 
 rights were in danger, O'Connell was found at his post. 
 
 The Liberator was always an early riser, and as 
 he looked out of his bedroom window on a Sunday 
 morning in October, 1829, he saw a man on horse- 
 back approaching his house with a haste which in- 
 dicated business. O'Connell went to him at once. 
 His story was soon told. A conspiracy had been 
 got up against the Catholics of Doneraile, and a 
 number of men, some in the most respectable posi- 
 tions, were accused of an attempt to murder their 
 Protestant neighbours. Several men had already been 
 found guilty, and others were waiting their trial in 
 Cork. William Burke — his name deserves to be re- 
 corded — had set off the previous evening, and had 
 ridden without stopping a journey of twenty Irish 
 miles, to secure the services of O'Connell. " If you 
 don't undertake their defence," exclaimed the man, 
 "Pennefather and Doherfcy will hang every man of 
 them, though they are as innocent as the unborn." 
 
 O'Connell was soon in Cork. Burke rested only 
 for two hours, and then set off to let his friends 
 
The Prosecutor Panic-stricken. 
 
 know that the Liberator was on the way. Relays of 
 men were stationed all along the road, with fresh 
 ficet horses, to meet Burke on his return, so as to 
 fly at once with the news. At eight o'clock on the 
 following morning Burke arrived back in Cork, and 
 two hours later O'Connell was at the Court-house. 
 His appearance gave an electric shock to the Attor- 
 ney-General, who, it is said, turned white with anger 
 and apprehension. 
 
 O'Connell did not wait even to get food ; he 
 asked permission of the Court to have his breakfast 
 brought to him ; and while Mr. Dohcrty opened his 
 address, lie demolished a large bowl of milk and 
 some sandwiches. 1 From time to time, as the case 
 proceeded, he would start up and exclaim, "That's 
 not law, sir." As O'Connell never made an assertion 
 of this kind unless he was sure of its correctness, 
 the Court was with him, and the Attorney-General 
 was not a little discomposed. It was, however, by 
 his skill in cross-examination that O'Connell brought 
 out the truth. A man named Nowian was the prin- 
 cipal informer, and when he had been driven to con- 
 tradict himself again and again, he roared out, " It's 
 little I thought I'd have to meet you here, Mr. 
 O'Connell." 
 
 The informer's statement was that a certain num- 
 ber of men had met in a tent at the fair of Rath- 
 
 1 O'Connell was a voracious eater. Like most men who exer- 
 cise their brain much, he was obliged to proportion the supply of 
 physical material to the demand for mental effort- 
 
578 
 
 Acquittal of the Accused 
 
 clare, and that they had signed a paper declaring that 
 one of those gentlemen on whom they had designs 
 should be shot. A gentleman farmer named Leary 
 was sworn against as the principal promoter of this 
 diabolical scheme. He was tried with five other 
 men, who were all sentenced to be hanged in seven 
 days, though his own landlord, a gentleman of high 
 respectability, to whom he paid £250 per annum in 
 rent, declared his moral certainty of the man's inno- 
 cence. Baron Pennefather seems to have had his 
 doubts, for he ordered the information taken before 
 the magistrates to be sent for, and it was found that 
 not one word was said in them of the tent scene. 
 He called O'Connell to him, and showed him the 
 papers, pointing out the omission. O'Connell was 
 not slow to take the hint, and it soon became evident 
 how much false swearing there had been. The 
 Solicitor-General talked about " false facts ;" but 
 O'Connell detected the blunder. "False facts, Mr. 
 Solicitor ! How can facts be false ?" " I have 
 known false facts and false men," growled the repre- 
 sentative of royalty. Doherty had an English pro- 
 nunciation which was either natural or acquired. 
 " You may go down, sir," he said to a witness. "Naw, 
 daunt go down, sir," said O'Connell, and set the 
 Court in a roar. 
 
 The result was the acquittal of all the prisoners ; 
 but the unhappy men who had been sentenced to be 
 hanged on the informer's evidence were, as a great 
 favour, only transported for life. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY LIFE AND CORRESPON- 
 DENCE. 
 
 IS 29- IS 39. 
 
 The Waterford Election: Montalcmbert and O'Con- 
 nell : Letters to the People of Ireland: Lord 
 Leveson Gower : Palmerston and Wellington : 
 History and Politics: The Emancipation Act 
 not followed by the Millennium : Exasperation 
 of the Orangemen and Distress among the Pea- 
 santry : Temporary Arrest of O'Connell : Letter 
 to Dr. MacHale : Anti-Tithe Riots: In Parlia- 
 ment: Lord Althorpe and Shiel : O'ConnelVs 
 Motion for Repeal: Cathedrals: Letter: Mel- 
 bourne and O'Connell: DTsraeli and the O'Con- 
 nells: Letter: Lyndhurst's Attack on the Irish: 
 Banquets: Speech of Dr. MacHale: Letter: 
 O'Connell Undertakes a Retreat: Reception at 
 the Abbey: Letters: Entertained in London: 
 Defies the House: Letters. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 15 
 
elections 
 return of 
 
 gT the close of the year 1829, 
 O'Connell had considera 
 Lie annoyance from the 
 public journal?, and espe- 
 cially from the Times, which 
 he repaid with interest. — 
 The Beresford familv had always been 
 considered the hereditary foes of the Irish 
 people, and undoubtedly they made their 
 own interest the prominent object in their 
 Irish policy. The county of TTaterford 
 was vacant, and the family decided on 
 putting Lord George Beresford into the 
 vacant seat — if they could. But Irish 
 were not now what they used to be. The 
 O'Connell for Clare had given the people a 
 
A Retainer accepted and declined. 
 
 taste for independence, and there was at least an 
 apprehension they might begin to consider their 
 votes their own. The Beresford family were wise 
 in their generation. They secured the services of Mr. 
 Mahony as their counsel, and, through Mr. Mahony, 
 they thought to secure the services of 0' Council and 
 Shiel. To O'Connell they offered a fee of £600, 
 which was a good sum for him, and a small outlay 
 for them, the seat having cost the family £35,000 in 
 1826. O'Connell was in Clare when he received the 
 offer, and was at first disposed to accept it. 
 
 One of his first objects— an object which he kept 
 steadily and constantly before him — was to amal- 
 gamate all classes and creeds of Irishmen. This 
 seemed a favourable opportunity ; and in his reply 
 to Mr. Mahony, he said, " I am exceedingly de- 
 lighted at the offer made me, as it proves that the 
 memory of former dissensions is to be buried in 
 oblivion." He said, further, that he would accept 
 the retainer, if it was understood that his political 
 principles and opinions should not be compromised 
 in any way. The Beresford family were more 
 than satisfied ; it was something even not to have 
 O'Connell against them. On consideration, how- 
 ever, O'Connell wrote again to Mr. Mahony and de- 
 clined. In the meantime the Times had got hold of 
 the story, and renewed its previous opposition to 
 O'Connell by attacking him for what he had not 
 done. O'Connell's reply was marked by length of 
 invective rather than courteous denial. 
 
What nerd? 
 
 583 
 
 In the commencement of the year 1830 the Libe- 
 rator addressed a number of letters to the people of 
 Ireland, and opened a " Parliamentary office" for the 
 furtherance of petitions to the Legislature. 
 
 It was a most critical period of Irish history — a 
 supreme moment at which peace waited to spread 
 her wings over the two countries, and unite them, 
 not merely in name, but in fact After long delay, 
 which almost deprived it of its freshness, the olive- 
 branch was held out by England, but scarcely had 
 Ireland grasped the peaceful emblem ere it was fol- 
 lowed by a thunderbolt of impotent rage. 
 
 O'Connell's fame was now European. Whea the 
 King of Belgium was elected, three votes were given 
 for O'Connell. France was agitated to its very 
 centre, and some of its ablest men were asking them- 
 selves, What next ? and were looking to Ireland and 
 O'Connell, not indeed with the view of making him 
 monarch of their slippery throne, but of learning 
 froin him how he worked bloodless social revolu- 
 tions. The young Count de Montalembert was one 
 of the men who looked, and one of the men who 
 wished to learn. He had already planned a History 
 of Ireland, but Victor Cousin had prevailed upon 
 him to relinquish his plan. He was full of enthu- 
 siasm for this unknown land and this unknown man ; 
 and he set out for Ireland expecting to find his ima- 
 ginary ideal, and met with the disappointment inevi- 
 table under such circumstances. He expected to 
 meet the O'Connell of his imagination, he found 
 
534 
 
 Montalembert and O'Connell. 
 
 instead the O'Connell of fact. We doubt if his 
 ideal, had it been in existence, would ever have ob- 
 tained Catholic Emancipation. There was rough, 
 hard, stern work to do which never so much as 
 entered into the imagination of the French poet- 
 historian. It was charming, indeed, to meet a little 
 ragged boy on the mountain- side, who knew the Hail 
 Mary. Montalembert probably was not aware that 
 there are very few Catholic Irish boys, ragged or 
 otherwise, who do not know their prayers, and at 
 least the essentials of their Catechism. But it was 
 quite another affair to hear O'Connell address a 
 crowd of frieze-coated peasants in homely accents, 
 and to miss that peculiar polish of manner and 
 gesture which is natural to the Celtic Gaul. Mon- 
 talembert forgot the " three days of July," with its 
 brutal carnage ; he forgot that the very " agitation," 
 which seemed to his poetical fancy so commonplace 
 and so distasteful, was a safety-valve for passions 
 which might otherwise have found vent in deeds of 
 violence. But in truth the man who had been 
 courted by Felicite de Lamennais, and made the 
 companion of Henri Lacordaire, was scarcely capable 
 of understanding the stern and rugged grandeur of 
 O'ConneH's character. 1 
 
 1 An account of Montalembert's visit to Darrynane will be found 
 in Mrs. Oliphant's " Life of Montalembert," vol. i. p. 67. It is to 
 be regretted that this biography was not written by a Catholic. It 
 is full of mistakes and misapprehensions on the subject of religion, 
 and of prejudices against Ireland. The one weak point in Monta- 
 
A Power in Parliament. 
 
 585 
 
 In his first letter, written just before the opening 
 of Parliament, he said that his motto was " For God 
 and the people." He proved it by his fidelity to his 
 faith, not only in words, but in deeds. In the early 
 mornings, summer and winter, no matter how late 
 he might have been up on the previous night, he was 
 found one of the first at the nearest Catholic Church, 
 and at the Sacrifice there offered daily he obtained 
 the strength and courage for his great and noble 
 work. O'Connell was eminently a practical Catholic. 
 He was not deficient in that peculiar sense of percep- 
 tion which forms the practical mind ; but a man may 
 be a practical Catholic, and yet sadly want the nerve 
 needed for daily encounter with opposition from 
 without, and discouragement within. 
 
 The honest nature of the man came out most 
 amusingly in his fourth letter, in which he said that 
 he would apply for leave to bring in a bill " to de- 
 clare that truth was not a libel." In a few weeks' 
 time O'Connell became a power in the English Par- 
 liament, and both Hunt and Brougham were glad to 
 avail themselves of his services. When he was 
 attacked, as was frequently the case, he generally 
 managed to leave his opponent the doubtful triumph 
 ' of a name which clung to him for life. Lord Leve- 
 
 lembert's character is indeed fairly though tenderly indicated, but 
 the source of this weakness is not even hinted. His want of that 
 perfect, entire, child-like submission to the Holy See, the very per- 
 fection of faith, was the note wanting in the harmony of a mind 
 which would otherwise have been complete. 
 
586 
 
 Lord L'eveson Goiver. 
 
 son Gower was at this time Chief Secretary for Ire- 
 land. O'Connell had brought the conduct of Mr. 
 Doherty, in connexion with the Doneraile conspiracy, 
 before the House. Doherty could not deny the facts, 
 but he -tried to retaliate on O'Connell by accusing 
 him of speaking very differently in Ireland and in 
 Parliament. Lord Leveson Gower defended Doherty, 
 and thereupon brought forth from O'Connell one of 
 his often-quoted nicknames : 
 
 "He has ventured to censure my conduct out of this 
 House ; out of this House or in this House, I hold his censure 
 at nought — nor do I undervalue it. He has taken upon him- 
 self, forsooth, to pronounce on my conduct. I have a right to 
 retaliate upon him as a public man. For his taste, for his 
 judgment, I have no regard ; I rejoice that he disapproves of 
 my conduct — I should be sorry he approved of it. He is 
 mighty in his own conceit — he is little in mine. If he served 
 my country, I would value him. But what has he done ? 
 What one act of his official life has been useful to Ireland ? 
 Where shall I find his services ? He has condescended to 
 accept the salary of an officer amongst us. I take it for 
 granted that he has received the emoluments of that office — 
 I do not know how he has earned them. He has. ornamented 
 by his presence the apartments of Dublin Castle. But has he 
 done any act of liberality ? — has he promoted any one friend of 
 civil or religious liberty ? — has he, in short, raised himself into 
 importance or consideration by any one act of his administra- 
 tion ? I deny that he has. He is an apprentice in politics, 
 and he dares to censure me, a veteran in the warfare of my 
 country. His office is a mere apprenticeship. The present 
 Premier was Secretary in Ireland — the present Secretary of 
 Stale was Secretary in Ireland — so was the present Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer. Their juvenile statemanship was inflicted 
 upon my unhappy country. I have heard that barbers train 
 
Palmerslon and Wellington. 
 
 587 
 
 their apprentices by making them shave beggars. My wretched 
 country is the scene of his political education— he is the shave- 
 beggar of the day for Ireland ! I have now done with the 
 noble Lord, I disregard his praise — I court his censure. I 
 cannot express how strongly I repudiate his pretensions to im- 
 portance, and I defy him to point out any one act of his ad- 
 ministration to which my countrymen could look with admira- 
 tion or gratitude, or with any other feelings than those of total 
 disregard. His name will serve as a date in the margin of the 
 history of Dublin Castle— his memory will sink into con- 
 temptuous oblivion." 
 
 It was believed or hoped, after the passing of the 
 Emancipation Act, that Ireland would suddenly be- 
 come prosperous and content. The one, indeed, in- 
 ferred the other, for no country can prosper unless it 
 is content, neither can it be contented unless it is 
 prosperous. 
 
 Lord Palmerston, who had clearer ideas as to the 
 real state of Ireland than any English statesman then 
 living, broke forth into an eloquent prophecy of the 
 fate of Ireland, with an ardent generosity which did 
 infinite credit to his heart, though it showed that his 
 judgment allowed itself to be carried away by his 
 feelings. 1 
 
 The Duke of Wellington said, "The House well 
 knew that a great majority of its members, as well as 
 
 1 "I cannot sit down without expressing the satisfaction I feel, 
 in common with the nation at large, at the determination which the 
 Government has at last adopted to give peace to Ireland. The 
 measure now before us will open a career of happiness to that 
 country which for centuries it has been forbidden to taste, and to 
 England a prospect of commercial prosperity and national strength 
 
583 
 
 History repeals itself. 
 
 a greater majority of the other House, had been 
 generally desirous of effecting that object [Catholic 
 Emancipation]. It well knew that a great majority 
 of the young and growing intellect of the country 
 had ardently wished for the measure ; and would any 
 noble Lord now contend that the Government did 
 not stand on firmer and better ground with respect to 
 the Union than if the Catholic question had not been 
 carried T n 
 
 There was no mere boast, no attempt to prop up 
 a falling cause by party exaggeration in this state- 
 ment. It was a matter of fact that a great majority 
 of educated Englishmen, both peers and commoners, 
 were most anxious to give Ireland an instalment of 
 the justice long asked and long denied, but it was 
 equally true that the result disappointed or perplexed 
 them according to their various dispositions. i 
 
 It has been said, until one is almost weary of the 
 truism, that history repeats itself. It has been said 
 also that history is philosophy teaching by experience. 
 
 which has never yet been recorded in our annals. The labours of 
 the present session will link together two classes of the country 
 which have long been dissevered ; they will form in history the true 
 mark which is to divide the shadow of evening twilight from the 
 brilliant effulgence of the rising sun; they will form a memorial, not 
 of the crime or ambition of man, not of the misfortunes or revolu- 
 tions of society, but of the calm and deliberate justice of benevolent 
 wisdom watching the good of the human race ; and we ought to bo 
 proud to be employed on an act which will pass down to the latest 
 posterity as an object of the highest gratitude and admiration." — 
 Life of Lord Pahnerston, vol. i. p. 341. 
 
 1 " Courts of William IV. and Victoria," vol. i. p. 9-1. 
 
Emancipation not enough. 
 
 5S9 
 
 History does repeat itself. We find English states- 
 men who have disestablished the Irish Protestant 
 Church as perplexed now why that measure did not 
 produce tranquillity and prosperity in Ireland, as 
 English statesmen were why Catholic Emancipation 
 did not produce the same results in 18o0. History 
 may be philosophy teaching by experience, but the 
 science of political economy is a difficult philosophy, 
 because it is rarely studied apart from class prejudice. 
 No man takes to the study of the inductive sciences 
 the prejudice which hampers the politician at every 
 turn. 
 
 Men who think at all generally think out their 
 logic. Politicians for the most part are guided by 
 circumstances. There are not many men who change 
 their political creed except for personal advantage ; 
 and such being the fact, it follows that there are not 
 many men who have formed a political creed as the 
 result of careful and philosophic deduction. 
 
 There were many reasons why Catholic Emanci- 
 pation was not likely to make Ireland either pros- 
 perous or contented in a week, yet there were men 
 sanguine enough and unreasonable enough to expect 
 it. As well might it be expected that a man who 
 had been chained hand and foot for years, and fed 
 on such sustenance as would barely suffice to sustain 
 life, should become suddenly strong, vigorous, and 
 grateful the moment his chains were removed, the 
 moment he had received for the first time an ample 
 supply of food. 
 
5SQ 
 
 Enforced by .Necessity. 
 
 There were circumstances special to the time, 
 there were circumstances special to the passing of the 
 Act itself, which combined to frustrate the hopes of 
 those who, from the highest principles of states- 
 manship, wished to benefit Ireland. We shall first 
 briefly point out the circumstances special to the Act 
 itself. 
 
 First, eighteen months' delay in passing the Act 
 injured its value and efficacy when granted. The 
 reiterated asking and the reiterated refusal had 
 agitated the public mind. It could not be expected 
 after years of effort to obtain an act of justice, that 
 those who at last obtained it should be very grateful. 
 Furthermore, it was well known that this act of 
 justice was granted through fear. Under such cir- 
 cumstances it could not be received as a grace. That 
 there were men in both Houses who gave their vote 
 for Emancipation from the purest motives, no one 
 can doubt ; but the people of Ireland could not know 
 the opinions or motives of private individuals, and 
 they did know a good deal of the opinions and 
 motives of public characters. 1 It was. given grudg- 
 ingly, unwillingly, and ungraciously. The King was 
 not the only person who resolved that the Act should 
 
 2 Lord Palinerston wrote, *' The Duke is fully resolved to re- 
 main Minister. . . . He found he could not carry on the govern- 
 ment without yielding the Catholic question, and he wisely surren- 
 ders that point." In another place, he gives a curious illustration 
 of how Ireland was governed : " I heard by accident the other day 
 a strong proof how wholly the Duke's acquiesence to Catholic relief 
 
Paltry* but Serious. 
 
 be a dead letter as far as possible. 1 And When, at 
 last, some little sign was made to show that it pos- 
 sessed vitality, the same pitiful spirit which inserted 
 a clause in the Act to oblige O'Connell to contest 
 his seat a second time, provided for the appointment 
 of silk gowns. Six Catholic gentlemen were named 
 for this honour, but O'Connell's name was not 
 amongst the number. It was a paltry revenge, but 
 the consequences were serious. 
 
 The King slighted O'Connell at his levee more 
 or less openly, and there were but too many who 
 followed the royal example. The highest possible 
 commendations wore uttered in Parliament of " the 
 brave and learned youth of France," and " the brave 
 and honest working-men of Paris, who did not 
 hesitate to risk their lives when they saw that a 
 system of tyranny and taxes was about to be fixed 
 for ever on them and on their children." 2 Resistance 
 to tyranny in Ireland was described in a different 
 fashion. 
 
 Again, the English Government, having made an 
 act of concession to the Catholics, felt bound to 
 
 was a bending to necessity, and not a change of opinion ; but it 
 was told me in confidence, and do not repeat it. A Catholic 
 gentleman applied to hirn lately to be placed on tbe commission of 
 the Peace, but though the man was perfectly respectable and 
 eligible, and a landed proprietor, the Duke refused him because he 
 was a Catholic." — Life of Lord Pabnerston, vol. i. p. 337. 
 
 1 See note in previous page. 
 
 2 Speech of the Marquis of Blandford in moving an amendment 
 to the address 
 
502 
 
 The 1 1 li kjs a ) i d ' Co nnel I. 
 
 make it as little practical as possible, in order to 
 please the Orangemen. If the Liberal party had 
 been wise they would have coalesced with O'Con- 
 nell when the Tories went out, but they would not 
 coalesce with him — first, because they hated him for 
 obtaining Catholic Emancipation ; and secondly, 
 because he was Irish. Later, indeed, they were glad 
 to avail themselves of his splendid talents ; but, like 
 all gifts to Ireland, the delay proved dangerous. 1 
 Lord Grey and his party made an enemy of O'Con- 
 nell at the very moment when it was above ali 
 essential that he should be a friend. 
 
 O'Connell was human, a fact which is not unfre 
 quently overlooked when he is charged with faults 
 of policy or temperament. It was only natural that 
 he should feel the slights shown him so gratuitously, 
 and he was too keen an observer of the political 
 atmosphere not to discern the absurdity and to 
 despise the weakness which tried to revenge itself on 
 him, for being obliged to make this concession to 
 Ireland. O'Connell was a victim to his country in 
 more ways than one. 2 
 
 If the Irish were not satisfied with Emancipation, 
 
 i 1 " The old Tory principle of non-concession, till concession lost 
 all power and effect, was again persisted in." — Memoirs of Thomas 
 Drwnmond, p. 235. 
 
 2 Sir Lytton Bulwer has made some very sensible remarks on 
 Irish policy in his " Life of Lord Palmerston," vol. i. p. 304. He 
 says: "Although the Catholic disabilities were removed, the spirit 
 which had established them on the one side and rescinded them on 
 the other, still remained; and up to this day [1870] there seems a 
 difficulty in persuading those most interested in its welfare, that if 
 
Emancipation Insufficient* 
 
 598 
 
 nothing would satisfy them. A large party, always 
 ready to govern Ireland by force, a convenient 
 method, because it saved the trouble of argument, 
 cried out for martial law. A smaller party, who had 
 some good feeling and a little common sense, asked 
 why was Ireland always discontented, but did not 
 wait for a reply. Irish a flairs were treated very 
 much as a necessary nuisance, to be heard of as sel- 
 dom as possible, and when heard of, to be got rid of 
 as fast as possible. Every one hoped in his own 
 fashion that Ireland would " settle down " into pros- 
 perity. No one considered how much was yet 
 needed to make Ireland prosperous. 
 
 When Emancipation was granted, the English 
 Government assumed that Ireland wanted nothing 
 more ; the Irish had asked for Emancipation, and 
 nothing more, therefore they wanted nothing more. 
 It is difficult now to judge how far this was the real 
 sentiment of statesmen, or how far it was a convenient 
 excuse for crushing all attempts at further legislation 
 
 In the first place, no Act, however beneficial, 
 could be expected to operate instantaneously. In 
 the second place, no Act, however good in itself, can 
 supply the place of other Acts equally necessary. 1 
 
 ypn wish to govern Ireland as a statesman, you must not govern it 
 as a sectarian, nor debate any political question with the pre- 
 dominant idea that you are dealing with the Protestant, the Catholic, 
 or the dissenter. It is this external feeling which poisons the Irish 
 atmosphere, and until laws shall have changed manners, we must 
 not expect to see any practical benefit from laws. 
 
 1 We find a characteristic instance of the ignorance of Ireland, 
 
594: 
 
 One Serious Shortcoming. 
 
 If an Act could have been passed for the Diffu- 
 sion of Common Sense, and if its embodiments could 
 have been carried out, a good deal of trouble would 
 have been saved. The Eelief Bill gave relief to 
 Catholics, hitherto denied the rights of subjects, 
 but it required time before they could obtain the 
 benefit of that relief. But the bill did not provide 
 profitable employment for thousands who were nearly 
 starving, and who could not be expected to rejoice 
 very much in the future prospect of political relief 
 while they were suffering very hardly from the 
 present pressure of personal distress. It might be 
 convenient to embarrass a political opponent by 
 pointing to the distressed state of Ireland after the 
 
 which seems indigenous to some English minds, in Mrs. Oliphant's 
 "Life of Montalembert." She says, "It is sadly and curiously 
 characteristic of Ireland, that all the great reforms for which she 
 has agitated have been found, immediately after their attainment, 
 to be just what she did not want, and to have done little for her." 
 It is certainly wonderful, in this nineteenth century, to find a 
 highly- educated Englishwoman so lamentably ignorant of the true 
 state of Ireland. Because the Irish do not go into ecstasies of 
 gratitude for each separate act, not of mercy, but of simple justice, 
 a certain class of Englishmen consider them ungrateful and dis- 
 satisfied. If they are dissatisfied, it is not because one act of 
 justice which was done to them was granted, but because other acts 
 of justice required to bs clone, and were refused. 
 
 Montalembert himself was equally ignorant of the state of Ire- 
 land when he said "that this 1 immense event' [Emancipation] had, 
 after all, done but little for Ireland ; the truth being, that all the 
 ridiculous and monstrous penalties legally abrogated by that enact- 
 ment were already abrogated in fact." Such ignorance was how- 
 ever, pardonable in a foreigner. 
 
E vplosions Provoked. 
 
 595 
 
 passing of the Catholic Relief Bill, and saying that 
 the Irish were never satisfied, no matter what was 
 done for them, because they were not satisfied now ; 
 but such a line of argument showed a singular want 
 of comprehension. The Irish were satisfied that one 
 act of justice had been done for them, but they still 
 wanted a great deal more. 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesea succeeded the Duke of 
 Northumberland in 1830, and in one month issued 
 no less than four proclamations against public meet- 
 ings, and Repeal, and breakfasts. O'Connell was a 
 man who might be conciliated, but he was not a man 
 who could be put down. Better a thousand times to 
 have allowed him to agitate in his own fashion than 
 to exasperate him into open defiance of the Govern- 
 ment. His public meetings served as a safety-valve 
 for excitement, which, driven into other channels, 
 was apt to explode in acts of violence. 
 
 Lord Anglesea said he went to Ireland " deter- 
 mined to tranquillise the old ascendency.'" He could 
 not have gone with a worse principle. The " old 
 ascendency' were men who would not be tranquillised 
 while an Irish Catholic remained in the land. They 
 could not, indeed, exterminate four million and a-half 
 of people, but they could keep them in perpetual 
 agitation. The Government, having exasperated 
 them by granting Emancipation, now proceeded to 
 tranquillise them. Whenever an act of justice was 
 done to Catholics, it became necessary at once to 
 offer a hecatomb to the offended feelings of Orange 
 
 VOL. II. 16 
 
596 
 
 Mr. Doherty Chief- Justice. 
 
 ruen. Nothing could have been more absurd, and 
 nothing more unwise. The Orangemen took the 
 offering, but it never reconciled them to the justice 
 which their fellow-subjects had received, and it had 
 the injurious effect of showing that party their power, 
 and of arousing the evil spirit which a wise Govern- 
 ment should have done its utmost to extinguish. 1 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesea's first act certainly did 
 not " tranquillise " either party. He made Mr. 
 Doherty Chief-Justice. This gentleman and O'Con- 
 nell had had a standing feud from the time of the 
 Doneraile conspiracy, and he was universally hated 
 by the Catholic party. 
 
 ' There were also causes peculiar to the times 
 which kept up agitation in Ireland. The poverty of 
 the people was extreme, and that was a difficulty 
 which no amount of Acts of Parliament could remedy 
 at the moment. When English statesmen declared 
 that it was useless to be legislating for Ireland be- 
 cause she had obtained Emancipation and still re- 
 quired coercive Acts, they forgot that starving men, 
 in all times and places, had been guilty of deeds of 
 violence, and that Irishmen at that time were starving. 
 
 1 A writer, by no means partial to Ireland or the Catholics, says, 
 " It was not only the Catholics who were excited, the Protestant 
 fanaticism of Ireland was in a blaze. There was a hope of re- 
 establishing the ascendency. Earl Roden was rolling into the 
 presence of majesty a petition, on great wheels, 4,500 feet long, 
 signed by 286,000 men devoted to the constitution, and determined 
 to be free." — Life of Mr. Drummoml, p. 237. 
 
The Indignation of the South. 
 
 597 
 
 They forgot also that, even while they were in the 
 very direst distress, they were still obliged to pay 
 tithes to a Church which was to them only an engine 
 of oppression. 
 
 Disturbances in England were also general at the 
 very same period, and from the same cause. There 
 was, however, this difference : Irishmen could live 
 contentedly on what Englishmen considered barely 
 sufficient to support the necessaries of life. Many 
 English noblemen had great confidence in Dr. Doyle's 
 good sense, and hoped he might be able to suggest 
 some measure which might tranquillise his native 
 land. But what could he do with a starving people, 
 and with a Government which stultified itself by 
 offering an embrace with one hand and a blow with 
 the other ? He assured one of his noble correspon- 
 dents that the whole of the South of Ireland was in- 
 dignant at Mr. Doherty's appointment, as they well 
 might, when he had caused the punishment of so 
 many innocent men ; and he concluded, " I am tired, 
 my Lord, of appealing to the religious feelings of 
 men, who either have no employment, or labour 
 during six days for five shillings. Men cannot exist 
 in that state, and it rs almost a benefit that they follow 
 O'Connell. for, if they did not, they would rob and 
 plunder, or destroy property, preferring death by 
 the hands of the executioner to death by cold and 
 hunger/' 1 Such was the condition of the unhappy 
 
 1 " Life and Times of Dr. Doyle," vol. ii. p. 239. 
 
598 
 
 Patriotism and Prudence. 
 
 Irish when England expected them to be peaceful 
 and contented. 1 
 
 On the 19th of January, 1831, O'Connell was 
 arrested in his own house for holding illegal meet- 
 ings, but was bailed out. Evidently the Government 
 was glad to drop a prosecution which should never 
 have been instituted. Certainly if he had either in- 
 tended or wished to excite an insurrection, he could 
 easily have done it then, and he only saved the 
 country by his prudence. He had fixed the 31st of 
 
 1 On the 19th of January, 1881, the Duke of Wellington wrote 
 to the Duke of Buckingham on the state of public affairs, and said, 
 "There appears a sort of feverish anxiety in every man's mind 
 about public affairs. No man can satisfy himself of the safety either 
 of the country or of himself." — Courts of William and Victoria, vol. 
 i. p. 188. When such was the state of England, it cannot be 
 wondered that Ireland was disturbed also. Thousands of handbills 
 were circulated in London of a most inflammatory character, of which 
 we give specimens. An Irish " Rory of the hills" could scarcely 
 have framed more seditious documents. 
 
 " To arms ! to arms ! liberty or death/ London meets on Tuesday 
 next, an opportunity not to be lost for avenging the wrongs we have 
 suffered so long. Come armed, be firm, and victory will be ours ! ! ! 
 An Englishman." 
 Another ran thus : 
 
 " Libert]j or death! Englishmen, Britons, and honest men, the 
 time has at length arrived. All London meets on Tuesday. Comt 
 armed! We assure you, from ocular demonstration, that six 
 thousand cutlasses had been moved from the Tower for the im- 
 mediate use of Peel's bloody gang. Mark the cursed speech from tJie 
 j throne ! ! These damned police are now to be armed. Englishmen, 
 will you put up with this ?" 
 
 There were eight hundred convictions in England for riot and 
 agrarian outrages during this year. 
 
Letter to Dr. Mae Hale. 
 
 593 
 
 January as the day of his departure for England. 
 He was escorted to the pier at Kingstown by thou- 
 sands with bands and banners, but he took care not 
 to let them know that his departure was obliged to 
 be postponed, as he had that morning received a 
 summons to appear in court personally on the follow- 
 ing day. If his excited and devoted followers had 
 heard this, there would have been blood shed in 
 Dublin before night that would not have been easily 
 appeased. 
 
 The following letter, written to the Most Rev. 
 Dr. MacHale at the close of the year 1830, shows 
 how devoted O'Connell was to his parliamentary 
 duties, and how much his heart was in all that con- 
 cerned his native land : 
 
 "London*, 3rd December, 1830. 
 
 " My Lord — I had the honour of receiving your Lordship's 
 letter this day, and feel heartily obliged for its length. I will, 
 of course, present any petition you send me, and never think 
 of the trouble. In fact, it is none, as I attend the House 
 constantly from its sitting to its rising. But as you wish to 
 diversify your favours, I would suggest (and which I do only 
 because you require it) 0' Conor Don, Wise, O'Farrell, and 
 above all, Lord Killeen. Browne, also, would cheerfully pre- 
 sent some. I think you had better confine them to Catholic 
 members. Give me as many of them as you please. 
 
 " As to my obtaining co-operation or support from many of 
 my countrymen, I must not complain on those heads. I have 
 clone but little, however much I wish to do for Ireland. I 
 think I may venture to hope that wish is sincere. I also hope 
 that the time is arriving when more, much more, may be done 
 for our long-oppressed country. Your mind is too elevated 
 
600 
 
 Letter to Dr. MacTIale. 
 
 not to behold as from an eminence the events that are passing 
 beneath your view. The signs of the times indicate great and 
 mighty changes. The aristocracy of the feudal system has 
 been reduced by the superior strength and information of the 
 classes styled inferior. The silken and sordid aristocracy of 
 the present day are, in my opinion, arrived at their last term. 
 A change is taking place even while we write. Oh ! for 
 superior spirits to guide and direct its course, to steer the 
 mighty ark of human liberty through the boisterous waves of 
 passion and turbulence into a haven of calm enjoyment ! 
 
 "I hate this figurative language, and -yet I fall into it 
 because it is the only applicable phraseology. The moral and 
 political revolution is plainly on its march. It is, I may say, 
 self-moving, I am as convinced as I am of to-morrow's sun, 
 that within the space of probably less than two years, the mono- 
 polies of corporations, and the still more gigantic oppressions of 
 the Established Church, will have passed away for ever. ' The 
 Repeal of the Union' is good for everything. It is good as the 
 means of terrifying the enemies of the people into every con- 
 cession practicable under the present system. If I were to 
 relax the agitation of that measure, then the men in possession 
 of power would enjoy their state in repose, and adjourn to the 
 Greek calends all practical improvement. But after all, what 
 can they do ? Nothing, without restoring Ireland to herself. 
 The income accessory from the soil of Ireland and the labour 
 of the inhabitants must be spent in Ireland. Conquest and 
 confiscation had their function in the Union. They were made 
 complete by that measure, but they have exhausted the vitality 
 of the land, and it is no longer able to give sustenance of life 
 to its inhabitants. There must be a law to take off the Church 
 burthen. An Irish Parliament alone can do that. There must 
 be an end to absenteeism. An Irish Parliament alone can do 
 that. The crying wants of the poor, the increasing indigence 
 of the people, demand the restoration of a Parliament which 
 will not only keep at home ' the rents,' but diminish their 
 amount by the influence which tenants, voters, shares in a free 
 
Anti-Tithe Rioters. 
 
 COl 
 
 government, neighbours, friends from kindness received, enemies 
 from oppression practised, must necessarily have over the land- 
 lord who resides within their view, and can hear with his own 
 ears their curses on hardheartedness, or receive their blessings 
 for generosity. The machine of the state would break to pieces 
 unless we consolidate it by a domestic legislation, and thus 
 preserve the kingdom of Ireland for the king's crown, and the 
 connexion for the benefit of both countries. Let me then re- 
 spectfully urge the adding petitions for • the repeal' to those 
 your Lordship mentions. To you in fact, as well as in name, 
 they would be productive of some utility. I shall sirpport this 
 Administration as long as they observe their promise ; but, of 
 course, I scorn their offers of place or promotion for myself. 
 
 ''I fear I have taken unwarrantable revenge on your Lordship 
 in point of length of epistle, but no length of writing could 
 adequately express the sincerity of that respect and regard with 
 which I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's most 
 respectful and faithful servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Coxnell. 
 
 u Right Rev. Dr. MaeHale." 
 
 Daring the year 1832, O'Connell had a sharp 
 controversy with Dr. Doyle on the poor-laws. In 
 the same year the tithe agitation was at its height. 
 The people were shot down like dogs by the police, 
 often headed by a Protestant clergyman ; and the 
 people in return inflicted on the tithe collectors the 
 most horrible cruelties. Rathcormac was the scene 
 of one most horrible massacre of the unfortunate 
 peasantry. The military and police were headed by 
 the magistrates, one of them a clergyman. They 
 fired so close that the muzzles of their guns almost 
 touched their victims. At a place called Hervey, the 
 people assembled in thousands to resist the payment 
 
C02 
 
 Trial of the Rioters. 
 
 of tithes, and had a regular encounter with the mili- 
 tary, whom they overpowered by numbers. For 
 this resistance, twenty-five men were sent to Kil- 
 kenny for trial by special commission, and O'Connell 
 was retained for the defence. The principal evi- 
 dence against the first man who was put up for trial 
 was that of a policeman who had escaped from the 
 scene of slaughter. His testimony could not be 
 shaken, and O'Connell was about to send him clown 
 in despair, when his attorney handed him a piece of 
 paper. It contained these words : " The witness's 
 father was a sheep-stealer." 
 
 O'Connell went on with his cross- examination, 
 much to the surprise of the attorney, without taking 
 any notice of the circumstance. Just as the witness 
 was about to escape, as he hoped, finally, O'Connell 
 called him back. 
 
 " Are you fond of mutton ?" 
 
 " I like a good piece well enough," replied the 
 unsuspicious witness. 
 
 ! " Did you ever know any expert sheep-stealers ? " 
 i The witness coloured crimson, but rephed quietly, 
 "I have met with a few in the discharge of my duty 
 as a policeman." 
 
 " Just so ; only in the discharge of your duty ? 
 Did you ever know a sheep-stealer before you en- 
 tered the police ?" 
 
 " Never," replied the witness. 
 
 O'Connell put the question again mildly, and 
 received the same reply, and then, in tones of 
 
* Spa nirin g Ma jorities. ' ' 
 
 GOS 
 
 thunder, charged at the unhappy man, and obliged 
 him to admit the truth, and to admit himself a per- 
 jurer. An alibi was proved for the prisoner, and he 
 was acquitted. 
 
 In the year 1833, O'Connell took his full share 
 in the debates on the Coercion Bill. Peel quoted 
 stock anecdotes about the barbarity of the Irish, and 
 the necessity for " putting them down." O'Connell 
 admitted that there had been outrages, but he showed 
 that the fault of these outrages lay at the door of 
 those " who gave the peasants stones for bread, and 
 martial law for justice/' 1 
 
 O'Connell had some of the greatest men of that 
 or any other day against him ; and even his worst 
 enemies were obliged to admit that the Irish agitator 
 was equal to most of them, and surpassed many. He 
 had to answer Stanley, Macaulay, Brougham, and 
 Peel. The bill passed, nevertheless, by a " spanking" 
 majority, to the great satisfaction of many members 
 of both Houses, some of whom at least believed 
 coercive Acts the best mode of governing Ireland 
 
 1 The first reading, March 5, was carried after a debate of five 
 nights, by 4G0 to 89 ; the third reading, on March 29th, by 345 to 
 S6. Lord Palmerston said, " You see by what spanking majorities 
 Lliia reformed House of Commons is passing the most violent bill 
 ever carried into law, which contains in one Act the Insurrection 
 Act, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, and martial law. It is \ 
 a real tour de force, but then it is to be followed by remedial mea- - 
 sures ; and there is this difference between us and Metternich or the 
 Pope, we coerce as they did, but we redress grievances, as they do 
 not." It does not seem to have occurred to Lord Palmerston that 
 it would have been wiser to have prevented the grievances. 
 
COi 
 
 Mr. Fergus O'Connor. 
 
 O'Connell had now the assistance of his " house- 
 hold brigade," his two sons-in-law and his three sons 
 having seats in the first reformed Parliament. 
 
 ''Even at this early stage of the session," observes Mr. 
 John O'Connell, "there was earnest given of the hostile spirit 
 towards Ireland which was to work its ruin. The only part of 
 the speeches of William IV. which his infirmities or his in- 
 clination allowed him to deliver with any distinctness was that 
 in which he threatened Ireland ; and even this agreeable topic 
 did not give more dignity to his demeanour that that of a good 
 scold." 1 
 
 O'Connell, certainly, did not scold — he thundered. 
 At the close of one of his speeches, during this ses- 
 sion, he exclaimed, addressing the Whigs, " You 
 have brains of lead, hearts of stone, and fangs of 
 iron." The famous Fergus O'Connor was in the 
 House at this time also. He got a seat in Cork, in 
 connexion with the obtaining of which some amusing 
 reminiscences are recorded by Mr. John O'Connell. 
 He was an impetuous man, without sufficient steadi- 
 ness of purpose or breadth of mind to carry out a 
 plan of parliamentary agitation. Nevertheless, he 
 was extremely desirous to be a leader, and gave 
 
 1 " Recollections of a Parliamentary Career," vol. i. p. 9. Fergus 
 O'Connor and O'Neil Daunt were elected about the same time ; the 
 former had no money, but he contrived to steal a march on the 
 opposing candidate. It was considered necessary he should be 
 " invited" to stand for the county, and he was invited. His sup- 
 porters gave him a dinner, but to his extreme dismay a bill waa 
 sent to him afterwards for the whole cost of the entertainment. 
 
Strangers in the Gallery" 
 
 005 
 
 O'Connell some trouble by trying to press on the 
 Repeal movement during tins session. 
 
 By way of compensation for the Coercion Bill, the 
 Church-cess imposition was taken off in Ireland, and 
 Irish Catholics were no longer compelled to pay for 
 the repairs and maintenance of Protestant Churches. 
 At the same time, ten Irish bishoprics were abolished 
 by the Church Temporalities Act. 
 
 It was during this year, also, that O'Connell had 
 his famous quarrel with the London reporters, and, 
 as usual, came out victor. He complained that they 
 inisreported his speeches. They retorted by refusing 
 to report them at all. O'Connell retaliated by calling 
 the attention of the Speaker to the " strangers" in 
 the gallery, and clearing them out of the House. 
 The reporters capitulated, and reported O'Connell 
 correctly to keep their places without molestation. 
 
 At the close of the year 1833, an attempt seems 
 to have been made to divide the Irish party by 
 calumny. It was announced by the member for 
 Hull that an Irish member had voted against the 
 Coercion Act, who strongly urged it in private, and 
 declared to the Ministry that "no man could live in 
 Ireland" unless it was passed. The question arose, 
 " Who was the traitor ?" The member for Hull, 
 being sorely pressed, agreed that he would say, Yes 
 or No, if asked privately by each of the suspected 
 persons. This was done, and it appeared that Shiel 
 was the guilty individual. O'Connell asked Lord 
 Althorpe in the House if the charge was true, and 
 
eoo 
 
 Lord Althorpe and Shiel. 
 
 to name the person. Lord Althorpe evaded the ques- 
 tion by saying that he believed more than one Irish 
 member who voted against the Coercion Act spoke 
 favourably of it in private. 
 
 There were cries of "Name," "Name." The 
 Irish members started to their feet, and demanded — 
 both individually and collectively — "Was it I?" 
 Shiel made a special inquiry, and Lord Althorpe ad- 
 mitted he was one of the persons. The result was a 
 hostile message, after Shiel had most solemnly denied 
 the imputation in the House. The House inter- 
 posed, and gave both parties into custody ; but 
 eventually a committee investigated the matter, and 
 it was proved that the whole affair was a fabrication. 
 
 On the 23rd of April, 1834, O'Connell brought 
 forward his motion for Repeal of the Union. He 
 was compelled to do this against his own judgment, 
 being fully aware that the time for passing so impor- 
 tant a measure had not yet come. As he walked 
 down to the House from his residence in Langham 
 Place, he paused a moment at a point where West- 
 minster Abbey became visible, and exclaimed, " The 
 Lord Almighty be merciful to your soul, Henry the 
 Seventh, who left us so magnificent a monument of 
 your piety. You left -provision at your decease to 
 have perpetual masses offered up for your soul ; but 
 from the time that ever-execrable brute, Henry the 
 Eighth seized on the revenues of the Church, and of 
 course laid hands on that endowment with the rest, 
 perhaps no human being recollected to aspirate the 
 
The Old Catholic Cathedrals, 
 
 007 
 
 words 1 The Lord have mercy on your soul,' until it 
 struck the humble person who now offers that prayer 
 with the utmost sincerity." 
 
 O'Connell frequently expressed a wish that he 
 might live to see mass offered up in Westminster 
 Abbey. The tide of conversions from Protestantism 
 which had then set in excited hopes which were not 
 realised. The earnestness of his own character, and 
 his deeply religious sentiments, gave him a deep 
 interest in the converts, whom he used to meet 
 frequently in London at a latter period. Having 
 suffered for the faith themselves, and knowing some- 
 thing of the reality of persecution, they sympathised 
 with Ireland more deeply than it could be sym- 
 pathised with by those who had no practical experi- 
 ence of such trials. 
 
 " O'Connell," observes Mr. Daunt, " was an enthusiastic 
 admirer of the ancient cathedrals of England. In that of 
 Canterbury he took a peculiar interest, as it was the scene of 
 the martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket; an occurrence which 
 he employed Mr. Alfred Elmore to commemorate in the spirited 
 picture which hangs in the church of St. Andrew, Westland 
 Row, Dublin. O'Connell said, 'I. have presented this picture 
 to the church, in the hope that the sight of it may put other 
 people in mind to follow my example.' 
 
 " There was a slight incident connected with his visit to 
 Canterbury Cathedral, which he took pleasure in frequently 
 recording. ' While walking through the noble old Catholic 
 pile,' said he, 1 1 chanced to remark to my daughter, who 
 accompanied me, that it was not a little singular that not one 
 Protestant prelate had ever been interred within its walls. 
 This remark was overheard by the female guide who shows the 
 Cathedral to visitors. She listened attentively, and after some 
 
608 
 
 Westminster and St. PauVs. 
 
 apparent hesitation, said, " May I take the liberty, sir, of 
 asking a question ?" " Certainly," said I. " Then may I 
 make so bold as to ask, if all those Archbishops were Papists?" 
 " Every one of them, madam," said I. "Bless me!" cried 
 the woman, in astonishment, " I never knew that before." I 
 then described the effect of the high altar lighted up for the 
 celebration of Mass in Catholic times : when the great aisle, 
 now boxed up into compartments by the organ loft, stretched 
 its venerable and unbroken length from the altar to the portal, 
 thronged with kneeling worshippers. The picture delighted the 
 woman. "Oh!" cried she, clapping her hands, "I should 
 like to see that " " God grant you may," returned I.' 
 
 " Then he would sometimes add — i And He may grant it — 
 England is steadily and gradually returning to the Catholic 
 faith.' 
 
 " Comparing the cathedrals of Catholic times with those 
 erected since the Keformation, he observed, ' Westminster 
 Abbey and St. Paul's afford us good specimens of this sort of 
 contrast : the very architecture of the former seems to breathe 
 the aspiring sentiment of Christianity ; but St. Paul's — it is a 
 noble temple, to be sure ; but as for any peculiarity of Christian 
 character about it, it might just as well be a temple to 
 Neptune !' " 
 
 O'Conneirs Kepeal motion was opposed by Mr. 
 Spring Rice, who was well supplied with facts and 
 fictions for the occasion. The motion, was of course, 
 lost ; and it is said that O'Connell's speech was by 
 no means equal to his usual efforts, because he did 
 not anticipate success. 1 Lord Grey's administration 
 
 1 Mr. Daunt says : " O'Connell told me he was forced to take 
 this step, bitterly against his will. ' I felt,' said he, ' like a man 
 who was going to jump into a cold bath, but I was obliged to take 
 the plunge,' His speech was certainly an able one, but very in- 
 
Letters to Br. MacHa'e. 
 
 was not of long continuance; lie was succeeded by 
 Lord Melbourne. O'Connell's private opinions will 
 be best seen in the following letter to his Grace the 
 Archbishop of Tuam : 
 
 "Londox, 22nd March, 1834. 
 
 " My eveb-KESPECTED Loud — I had the honour of re- 
 ceiving a letter from 3-011 some time ago promising a Repeal 
 petition, and I wish to say that the petition has not come to 
 hands. I regret to be obliged to add, that the number of 
 Repeal petitions does not at all correspond with my hopes and 
 expectations. I am the more sorry for this, because 1 have the 
 most intimate conviction that nothing of value can possibly 
 be done for Ireland until we have a domestic Parliament. 
 The faction, which in all its ramifications, bears so severely on 
 our people and our country can never be rendered innoxious 
 whilst they can cling, even in idea, to support from the Govern- 
 ment of this country. It is a subject of serious but melancholy 
 speculation to reflect upon, the innate spirit of hatred of every- 
 thing Irish which seems to be the animating principle of their 
 existence. You certainly have two distinct specimens of the 
 worthlessness of that existence in your county members. Two 
 such 'lubbers,' as the seamen would call them, two such 
 ' bustoons,' as we in Monster would denominate them, never 
 yet figured on any stage, public or private. One of the best of 
 your Lordship's good works will be assisting to muster such a 
 combination of electoral force in your county as will ensure the 
 rejection of both at the next practical opportunity. I should 
 be tempted to despair of Ireland if I could doubt of your 
 success. 
 
 ferior to the masterly oration in which he introduced the samo 
 question to the Dublin corporation in 1843. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the obstacles thrown by the Coercion Act in 
 the way of petitions to the Legislature, O'Connell was backed, on 
 this occasion, by more than half a million of signatures to petitions 
 in favour of Repeal." — Personal Recollections, vol. i. p. 18. 
 
610 
 
 Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 " I read with deep and painful interest your published letters 
 to Lord Grey. What a scene of tyranny and heartless oppres- 
 sion on the one hand ! what a frightful view of wretchedness 
 and misery on the other ! A man is neither a human being 
 nor a Christian who does not devote all his energies to find a 
 remedy for such grievances. But that remedy is not to be 
 found in a British Parliament, 
 
 " You will see by the papers that the Protestant Dissenters 
 in this country are storming that citadel of intolerance and 
 pride — the Established Church. The effect of such an attack 
 can operate only for good in Ireland. This was the stronghold 
 of the Irish Establishment ; as long as they had England at 
 their back, they could laugh to scorn all attempts in Ireland to 
 curb them ; but I believe, firmly believe, their clays are num- 
 bered, and hope that we shall see, but certainly not weep. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, my Lord, most respectfully, your 
 most obedient servant, " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Eight Rev. Dr. MacHale." 
 
 " Merrion SauARE, 10th December, 1834. 
 
 "My revered Lord — There have been many letters of 
 congratulation addressed to your Grace, but none, I will venture 
 to say, so cordial as mine ; because I not only congratulate you 
 as a gentleman whom even as a private individual I highly re- 
 spect, but congratulate you in the name of Ireland, and for her 
 sake ; and above all, for the sake of that faith whose sacred 
 deposit has been preserved by your predecessors, and will be 
 preserved unblemished, and indeed with increased lustre, by 
 your Grace. 
 
 " Indeed, I venture to hope that there are times coming 
 when the period of the oppression of the Church in Ireland, 
 destined by God in His adorable dispensations to arrive — will 
 have arrived. I do, I confess, venture to augur favourably 
 from your nomination by his Holiness the Pope — you who had 
 proved yourself too honest an Irishman not to be obnoxious to 
 the British Administration. It seems to me to be the brilliant 
 dawn of a noonday in which the light of Rome will no longer 
 
tyCojineWs Influence in the House. 
 
 (ill 
 
 be obscured by the clouds of English influence. I often sighed 
 at the delusion created in the political circles at Rome on the 
 subject of the English Government. They thought — good 
 souls — that England favoured the Catholics, when she only 
 yielded to our claims — not knowing that the secret animosity 
 to Catholicity was as envenomed as ever it was. 
 
 u The present Pope — may God protect his Holiness — has 
 seen through that delusion, and you are a proof that it will no 
 longer be a cause of misconception to be as true to the political 
 interests as to the spiritual wants of the people of Ireland. I 
 am delighted at this new era. Xo man can be more devoted 
 to the spiritual authority of his Holiness. I have always de- 
 tested what were called the liberties of the 1 Church in France.' 
 
 "I am convinced that the more direct and unequivocal is 
 that authority according to the canons, the more easy will it bo 
 to preserve the unity of the faith. 
 
 "1 need not add, that there does not live a human being 
 more submissive — in omnibus — to the Church than I am, from 
 the most unchangeable conviction. I have only to add that if 
 your Grace coull have any occasion for any exertions of mine 
 in support of any candidate in any county in Connaught, I 
 shall have the greatest pleasure in receiving your suggestions as 
 cherished commands. 
 
 I have the honour to be, with profound respect, my Lord, 
 of your Grace, the most obedient faithful servant, 
 
 " Daniel 0' Cornell. 
 
 " Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, &c." 
 
 The immense power which O'Connell wielded at 
 this period in the English Parliament, and how his 
 least word or act was carefully weighed by English 
 statesmen, is evident from the recently-published 
 Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Hatlierton. 
 Those persons who, from ignorance or educational 
 prejudices, have looked on O'Connell as a mere 
 
 VOL. II. 17 
 
612 
 
 Jealousy of 0' Council. 
 
 agitator, will clo well to peruse this work. No mere 
 agitator could have obtained such influence or exer- 
 cised such power ; no brawling demagogue could 
 oblige a powerful party in the State to consider his 
 influence first in almost every step they took. 1 
 
 In 1835. when Lord Melbourne, had formed a 
 Cabinet, Lord Alvanley asked if he had not the 
 " powerful aid " of O'Connell and his party ? Lord 
 Brougham interfered to put aside such an incon- 
 venient interrogatory ; but the Premier was obliged 
 to defend himself by a denial. An angry scene 
 ensued. Lord Londonderry congratulated Lord 
 Melbourne, and said he was glad to hear that he had 
 repudiated O'Connell and his Radical crew, as he 
 was sure that any ministerial connexion with him 
 or his tail would be the curse of the country. A 
 
 1 The following extracts from the correspondence will show this : 
 Lord Hatherton wrote to Lord Wellesley, "Under such circum- 
 stances, a complete union in the House of Commons between the 
 Government and the great mass of the Irish members is of the first 
 importance." In order to effect this union, O'Connell was courted 
 and deceived. Again he writes, " In the course of the day, O'Con- 
 nell came to the Irish office. I cautioned him against any unneces- 
 sary excitation of the people in Ireland until he should have seen 
 the new Coercion Bill, which would be renewed, but with certain 
 limitations. He thanked me, and promised to consider my com- 
 munication as strictly private and confidential. " And so he did, 
 until he found how he had been deceived ; perhaps not with full 
 intention, but certainly he was deceived. 
 
 O'Connell appears to have had his doubts, however ; for Lord 
 Hatherton, in writing to the Lord-Lieutenant, says, " On O'Connell 
 expressing some doubt whether others in the Cabinet would not 
 overrule the opinions of the Lord-Lieutenant and myself," 
 &c— p. 53. 
 
J) Israeli Courting 'Council. 
 
 613 
 
 few nights after Colonel Sibthorp hoped the House 
 would have a safe and speedy riddance of the band. 
 O'Connell replied with interest to each of his honour- 
 able opponents ; and as Colonel Sibthorp possessed 
 an extraordinary amount of hirsute appendages, he 
 said " he would not abate him a single hair in point 
 of trood humour." 
 
 O'Connell at times allowed him sell' to use unjus- 
 tifiable language in public. He stigmatised Lord 
 Alvanley as a " bloated buffoon." Lord Alvanley 
 challenged him first, and then tried to get him ex- 
 pelled from Brooke's Club. The Club refused to 
 expel O'Connell, and Mr. Morgan O'Connell took up 
 the challenge, and met Lord Alvanley in Regent's 
 Park, without any serious consequence to either. 
 Soon after this occurrence, Mr. Disraeli attacked 
 O'Connell at Taunton. This versatile statesman had 
 changed his politics rather suddenly. When the 
 borough of Wickham became vacant in 1831, he 
 wrote to O'Connell soliciting his interest, and a com- 
 mendatory letter from him. It certainly is a curious 
 phase of political history to know that the author of 
 "Lothair" courted the Irish Catholic agitator. Mr. 
 Disraeli had O'Connell's letter printed, and placarded 
 through the borough, and O'Connell not unnaturally 
 complained of this attack on him after he had done 
 Mr. Disraeli " a civility, if not a service." 1 
 
 1 O'Connell's attack on the great Conservative leader was 
 certainly very severe: "How is he now engaged? Why, in 
 abusing the Radicals and eulogising the King and the Church like 
 
Gil 
 
 O'ConnelVs Attack on Disraeli 
 
 Disraeli demanded satisfaction from Morgan 
 O'Connell, who 44 had taken on himself the vicarious 
 duty of yielding satisfaction for the insults which his 
 
 a true Conservative. At Taunton this miscreant had the audacity 
 to style me an incendiary. Why, I was a greater incendiary in 
 1831 than I am at present, if I ever were one ; and if I am, he is 
 doubly so for having employed me. Then he calls me a traitor. 
 My answer to that is — He is a liar ! He is a liar in action and in 
 w T ords. His life is a living lie. He is a disgrace to his species. What 
 state of society must that be that could tolerate such a creature — 
 having the audacity to come forward with one set of principles at one 
 time, arid obtain political assistance by reason of those principles, and 
 at another to profess directly the reverse? His life, I say, is a living 
 lie. He is the most degraded of his species and kind; and England 
 is degraded in tolerating or having upon the face of her society, a 
 miscreant of his abominable, foul, and atrocious nature. . . . Ho 
 is Conservatism personified. His name shows that he is by descent 
 a Jew. His father became a convert. Ho is the better for that in 
 this world, and I hope, of course, he will be the better for it in the 
 next. There is a habit of underrating that great and oppressed 
 nation — the Jews. They are cruelly persecuted by persons calling 
 themselves Christians — but no person ever yet was a Christian 
 who persecuted. The crudest persecution they suffer is upon their 
 character, by the foul names which their calumniators bestowed 
 upon them before they carried their atrocities into effect. They 
 feel the persecution of calumny severer upon them than the perse- 
 cution of actual force and the tyranny of actual torture. I have the 
 happiness to be acquainted with some Jewish families in London, 
 and amongst them more accomplished ladies, or more humane, 
 cordial, high-minded, or better educated gentlemen, I have never 
 met. It will not be supposed, therefore, that when I speak of 
 Disraeli as the descendant of a Jew, that I mean to tarnish him on 
 that account. They were once the chosen people of God. There 
 were miscreants amongst them, however, also; and it must have 
 certainly been from one of those that Disraeli descended. He 
 possesses just the qualities of the impenitent thief who died upon 
 the cross — whose name, I verily believe, must have been Disraeli. 
 For aught I know, the present Disraeli is descended from him, and 
 with the impression that he is, I now forgive the heir-at-law of the 
 blasphemous thief who died upon the cross! " 
 
4 4 Lie. vti \g 1 1 isha hie Hi 1 1 1 ed. ' ' 
 
 father had too long lavished on his political op- 
 ponents." Morgan O'Connell denied his right. Dis- 
 raeli wrote a public letter, which he hoped would 
 bring some one out ; and on the 6th of May, 1835, 
 he wrote again to Morgan O'Connell : " Now, sir, it is 
 my hope that I have insulted him ; assuredly it was 
 my intention to do so ; and I fervently pray that you 
 or some one of his blood may attempt to avenge the 
 inextinguishable hatred with which I shall pursue his 
 existence." Morgan O'Connell still declined to fight, 
 and the " inextinguishable hatred" though un- 
 avenged, did not do O'Connell any particular harm. 
 
 In the year 18oo, O'Connell was actively engaged 
 in superintending arrangements for Irish elections, 
 and succeeded in getting Carlow out of the hands of 
 the Bruen family, who had long believed in a heredi- 
 tary right to return whom they pleased. The fol- 
 lowing letters to Dr. MacIIale are evidences of his 
 energy and earnestness : 
 
 " Committee Room, \htft January, 1835. 
 
 "My ever dear Lord — We are now getting on well. I 
 begin to believe that I will beat them here. But Vigors loses 
 Carlow — honest, independent Vigors ! He has money enough 
 for your legitimate purposes, and I wrote to recommend him 
 as the second man for Mayo, should I not want it myself. I 
 will write to your Grace again to-morrow. I will then know the 
 best or the worst. Waterford city turns out the Conservative, 
 and returns Wise and Barron. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with profound respect of your 
 Grace, the devoted servant, " Daniel O'Coxsell. 
 
 u Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, 
 
 " Catholic Archbishop, Tuam." 
 
A Troublesome Gentleman. 
 
 "Merrion SauARE, Dublin, \7th January, 1835. 
 
 "My ever respected Lord — You will, I know, be glad 
 to see my frank. Blessed be God, all is at last well bere. I 
 find from tbe papers that Hume is in danger in Middlesex. 
 What a glorious opportunity if toe could return him for Mayo 
 with Brabazon. I would guarantee the payment of £1,000 if 
 he were certainly returned — that is, I have no more doubt of 
 that money than I have of my existence. Pardon me for ob- 
 truding on your Grace at this moment, but it would be a high 
 honour to Ireland to have such a representative. I write in 
 haste and some confusion, but the fact is that time presses. 
 
 " I am compelled to go to Meath to my son Morgan, and 
 thence unhappily to Kerry. 
 
 " Ever and always with the most profound respect and ad- 
 miration of your Grace, the most devoted faithful servant, 
 
 "Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Most Eev. Dr. MacHale. 
 
 " P.S. — I am sure Vigors would prefer your returning." 
 
 In May, Mr. Raphael, a Catholic gentleman, was 
 returned through O'ConneH's influence, for Carlow ; 
 but he refused to pay part of his election expenses, 
 and involved O'Connell in endless trouble ; indeed, 
 he said, "I had more trouble with him than I ever 
 had with any man. 77 A Parliamentary Committee, 
 however, decided that the Liberator was entirely 
 free from blame. 
 
 In January, 1836, O'Connell was entertained at 
 public banquets both in Liverpool and Brighton, 
 where the Irish element was beginning to feel its 
 power and assert itself. 
 
 During the years 1836 and 1837, the Irish Cor- 
 poration Reform Bill was a source of constant dispute 
 between the two Houses. Lord Londonderry de- 
 
Lord Lyndhursfs Attack. 
 
 617 
 
 dared that "O'Conncll was more dictatorial and 
 impudent than ever." Tie was no less complimen- 
 tary to his compeers, " whom he called a snivelling, 
 yelling part of a pack without a huntsman." 1 
 
 A good deal of recrimination went on in both 
 Houses, and English members proved themselves 
 quite as great adepts at conveying imputations, and 
 using unparliamentary, if not ungentlemanly, lan- 
 guage as any Irish member. 
 
 It was at this period, also, that Lord Lyndhurst's 
 celebrated attack on the Irish brought forth from 
 Shiel one of his finest speeches, already mentioned. 
 Lord Lyndhurst possibly scarcely meant all he said, 
 but he was embittered by party feeling, and the 
 words have remained ever since as a painful evidence 
 of unhappy and ignorant intolerance. " It seems, my 
 Lords," he exclaimed, " that we Protestant English- 
 men are to be governed by those who are aliens in 
 blood, in language, and in religion." This attack on 
 Ireland came with a singularly bad grace from a 
 man who was himself of Irish descent, and of very 
 humble parentage ; but such persons are generally 
 the first to vilify their country or their religion when 
 placed in a position of eminence. 2 
 
 1 " Courts of William TV. and Victoria," vol. ii. p. 229. 
 
 - Lord Campbell admits " that he could not trace the line of 
 the Copleys farther back than the Chancellor's grandfather," and 
 that he " married in Ireland." — Lives of Lord Lyndhurst and 
 Broiir/ham, p. 3. 
 
 Sir John Copley's grandfather rose to distinction through his 
 artistic skill. He was born in America immediately after the 
 
CIS 
 
 In January, 183G, O'Connell was entertained at a 
 banquet in Tuam. The speeches made on that 
 occasion are all before us, but it would be impossible 
 to give more than a few brief extracts. 
 
 The Liberator pronounced an enthusiastic pane- 
 gyric on Mr. Bodkin, and "hoped Gal way would 
 long be represented by so truly honourable a gentle- 
 man but he surpassed his usual warmth in pro- 
 posing the health of the illustrious Archbishop of 
 Tuam, a prelate who added lustre to the hierarchy, 
 not only by his piety but also by his learning. The 
 toast was received with enthusiastic applause, ami 
 the reply of the Archbishop w T as in itself a sufficient 
 proof of the correctness of O'Conneirs eulogium. 
 
 As for many reasons his speech cannot fail to be 
 perused with interest at the present day, we append 
 it with but few omissions : 
 
 "I accept of the compliment as a recognition of that apos- 
 tolical source from which my office is derived. Let others 
 enjoy the feathers of temporal titles, as well as the more weighty 
 and valuable considerations of temporal wealth, as long as they 
 are left them by the good-will of the power that gave them. 
 I, whether of Maronia or of Killala, or of Tuam, never set any 
 value on those names, but as far as they are authentic monu- 
 ments of spiritual and untitled inheritance, which it is not 
 within the compass of any power on earth to take away. Do 
 not imagine that I look upon the toast as a mere compliment, 
 suggested either by my. presence, or that of the venerable 
 
 arrival of bis Irish parents in that country. Lord Lyndlmrst is 
 not the only Irishman who has sought to be more English than the 
 English. 
 
Speech of Dr. Maeffale. - 619 
 
 bishop by my side. No; I regard it as a continuous evidence 
 of th-.it habitual, deep, and heartfelt reverence which the laity 
 cf Ireland uniformly exhibit towards their clergy, and which 
 it is unnecessary to assure them has a sincere reciprocal return 
 in the paternal attachment of their pastors. In this mutual 
 afTcetion have the faithful and the priesthood of Ireland found 
 the richest sources of their solace in the bitterest period of 
 their woe ; and from this continuance shall they draw their 
 sweetest consolation in the coming days of their prosperity. 
 Were it otherwise, it would be a fatal day for the happiness of 
 Iiclan 1. Then might our enemies with some reason raise the 
 shout of triumph. Then might they indulge the anticipation 
 that the series of our disasters was not closed— nay. that they 
 might upset, in a few years, that magnificent fabric of the 
 nation's freedom which it cost our illustrious guest such tolls 
 and perils and anxieties of six-and-thircy years to rear. Thank 
 God, however, that the merits and service of such a man are 
 not left for posthumous appreciation. It has been the reproach 
 of many countries and many periods not unfruitful in virtue, 
 that they abandoned their benefactors to the praises of pos- 
 terity. It is no unfavourable presumption in favour of our own 
 times, that we can estimate living worth ; and never was there 
 such evidence of talent and integrity, for, during a period un- 
 exampled in the annals of any powerful or popular man, his 
 fame, instead of suilering any eclipse, has brightened, day after 
 day, unto a fuller and more permanent effulgence. Witness 
 his triumphs. Shall I touch on the Catholic Association? 
 " No ; hindered as I am — the luminous records of his own pen, 
 1 like those who, when they attempt to pursue the conqueror of 
 Gaul through the career of his triumphs, are deterred from the 
 ta-k by the charm of his own commentaries. Ireland is too 
 mil of the recollection of his services to require their enumera- 
 tion, and the pillars of light he has left behind him sufficiently 
 point out to every eye the path which he has traversed. But I 
 
Speech of Dr. Mac Hate. 
 
 shall allude to his recent and triumphant career through the 
 sister country, as productive, I trust, of advantages as it has 
 been of universal admiration. What a singular spectacle, to 
 see the inhabitant of a land, whose lot was lately identified 
 with servitude, welcomed as the most efficient living champion 
 of freedom ! The professor of a religion that was hitherto 
 calumniated as persecuting hailed by those of another as the 
 unrivalled advocate of the most enlightened and Christian 
 toleration ! To see England forget its ancient hostility to our 
 country, and Scotland relaxing beneath his spell the puritanical 
 stiffness of its creed ! To see the generous people, wherever 
 he went, thronging round him, confessing their former errors, 
 and laying their bigotry and their prejudices as a homage at 
 his feet ! Behold, even this day, what a scene we witnessed, 
 surrounded by myriads who^j ranks were so compact and dense 
 (such was their affectionate rudeness), that it required almost 
 as much force to penetrate through them as if you were opening 
 a way through a solid mass. The Tories wonder how he 
 possesses the charm of stealing away the hearts of people. 
 You might as well expect that the trees of the forest should 
 not wave their heads when agitated by the wind of heaven, as 
 that any mass of human beings should not be stirred to homage 
 when touched by the soul-stirring breath of his eloquence. As 
 you have associated my name with the hierarchy, I think there 
 cannot be better proofs of the value and importance of that 
 body than the abuse that is heaped on them by a calumniating 
 press. Among the others, need I refer you to the unchristian 
 attacks upon our body, which were falsely attributed to a 
 certain dignitary of the Establishment. He disavowed to a 
 portion of those charges, and flung the rest to be indis- 
 criminately borne by three thousand of the Irish priesthood. 
 It was not to be repelled as when confined to twenty-seven 
 bishops. He, however, did not hesitate to own that some of 
 his allusions were so pointed as that the individual for whom 
 
Speech of Dr. MacHale. 
 
 621 
 
 they were meant could not possibly be mistaken. He disliked, 
 it seems, any polemical public correspondence. I have no 
 doubt of it— he himself best knows the reason. The individual 
 to whom he alluded— in order that I may avoid the repetition 
 of that letter ' 77 which must be offensive — has other occupa- 
 tions besides obtruding on his Lordship any unwelcome con- 
 troversy. But from what sources do these serious charges 
 against the Catholic clergy come ? Is it from a portion of the 
 press distinguished for the correctness of its moral sentiments 
 or the beauty of its language ? If the taste of any people be 
 estimated by the character of the literature which ministers to 
 their instruction and amusement, we may judge how exalted 
 is the standard of Tory refinement from the style and senti- 
 ments of the public journals which are devoted to their support. 
 Such language would be intolerable in any circle having the 
 least pretensions to decency, and some to the sentiments would 
 be deemed to be savage in a state of barbarism. As for our 
 calumnies, no character however blameless, or profession how- 
 ever sacred, are beyond the reach of their abuse. Need I 
 allude to the gross attacks upon our clergy and hierarchy. 
 And from that hierarchy they have singled out one whose re- 
 tiring habits should have protected him from their assaults. 
 Nay, they have assailed him with the same virulence as if 
 conscious that the meek disposition which kept him alo^f from 
 all political strife would render him more sensitive to the shafts 
 of their unprovoked and gratuitous rancour. And what was 
 his crime ? Merely that he did not submit to the calumnious 
 imputations of the horrid opinions that were falsely attributed 
 to his Church, and that, from the nobleness of soul which 
 shrinks from the imputation of guilt, he repelled the charge 
 and made it recoil upon his enemies. And for this, which 
 should have been an honour, they revile a man whose varied 
 acquirements could adorn a court, and whose unostentatious 
 evangelical virtues would not have been unworthy of the 
 
G22 
 
 brightest epoch of the cloisters. As to the attacks upon the 
 priesthood of Ireland, they are too well employed to return 
 railing for railing, or to waste their time with those Churchmen 
 who have nothing else to do, in repelling charges which would 
 be repeated the day after refutation. I tell those people, in 
 the name of the calumniated priesthood of Ireland, that, instead 
 of covering them with reproaches, they ought to be grateful for 
 their services. If they preach the doctrines that are imputed 
 to them, are there not hearers enough to bear testimony ? 
 
 The portals of our churches are open to the world ; the 
 public ways are filled on Sundays with the multitudes that go 
 forth after hearing the instructions of their pastors. We speak 
 publicly before the world, and in secret we say nothing; and 
 yet there is no evidence of those foul charges. The truth is, 
 those who advanced those charges know little of the nature of 
 our ministry. It is a ministry of peace, not of strife — of 
 charily, not of discord. The priest on the altar is fully im- 
 pressed with the awful nature of the mysteries he celebrates, 
 and feels that the accents of vengeance would be ill-suited to 
 the tongue that had just been purpled with the sacrifice of 
 reconciliation. Instead, then, of enmity, they preach forgive- 
 ness ; and the person who comes breathing the revenge to 
 which nature would prompt him, returns with far different 
 feelings ; and the widow who was left childless goes home, 
 invoking, like the first martyrs, the mercies of Heaven on the 
 heads of those who bereave her of that staff which was given 
 her to sustain the tottering footsteps of old age." 1 
 
 In the early part of the year 1836, we find 
 O'Connell again in active correspondence with the 
 
 1 This allusion to the cruelties consequent on the exaction of 
 tithes is one which can be verified by a reference to the evidence 
 given before Parliamentary Committees on this subject. 
 
Letters to Dr. Mac Hale. 
 
 Archbishop of Tuam on the subject of elections, as 
 the following letters will show : 
 
 " Darrynane Abbey, 7 th January, 1836. 
 
 " Z\1y ever-resfected Lord— I had the honour of re- 
 ceiving the letter of your Grace, dated the 4th this evening. 
 Yesterday I got the Gahvay invitation ; and, of course, accepted 
 it. Besides the flattering honour, I do think i a cheer' in the 
 right tone useful just now in Connaught. 
 
 " Unfortunately, I fixed the 18th for the dinner; had I got 
 your Grace's letter sooner, Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, I should 
 Lave stated to you the facts relative to my position, and have 
 left you to decide for me. As it is I have no remedy, as I 
 have to dine in Tralee on the 14th ; in Cork, I fear, on the 
 16th ; in Shadbally on the 20th ; and in Dublin on the 25th ; 
 and in Birmingham on the 28th — these are all public dinners. 
 
 " The dinner invitation is for Gahvay town. I had hoped 
 it would have been in Tuam. I also, in accepting the invita- 
 tion, had cherished the pleasing expectation of meeting your 
 Grace, and having the benefit of a detailed communication villi 
 you. It is indeed a bitter disappointment to me to find that 
 your unavoidable absence in Parliament precludes my having 
 the benefit of laying before you my views of the present 
 prospects of our country. There is much gloom, but I think I 
 perceive the comiug light behind the political passing cloud. I 
 must inflict a long and tedious letter on your Grace, as I am 
 deprived of the pleasing and more useful mode of personal com- 
 munication. 
 
 " I need not say with what pleasure I should have availed 
 myself of your Grace's kind hospitality if circumstances per- 
 mitted. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, my Lord, of your Grace the 
 most faithful devoted servant, " Daniel O'Connell." 
 
 " Tralee, loth January, 1836. 
 
 " My respected Lord —I had the honour to receive your 
 Grace's letter of the 13th, this morning. I have bo much to do 
 
624 
 
 Letters to Dr. Mac Rale. 
 
 here that I fear I will not be able to go farther than Limerick 
 on Sunday. I will, however, endeavour to meet at Ennis, 
 I mean to travel thence to Gort, where there are horses en- 
 gaged for me. I cannot, I presume, be dissappointed of horses 
 in Loughrea. I know not, but I believe that there is an inter- 
 medial stage between Loughrea and Tuam ; and I fear no 
 delay but that which may arise from the want of horses at that 
 intermediate stage. At all events, I will start so early on 
 Monday morning as to be certain of reaching Tuam in time for 
 the dinner. 
 
 "I will feel truly happy to find myself a guest in 'the 
 palace' of your Grace. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, my Lord, of your Grace the very 
 respectful most faithful servant, " Daniel O'Connell." 
 
 " London, 28th April, 183G. 
 
 " My ever-.ee spected Lord — I of course have felt a deep 
 interest in the fate of Mayo since it has been emancipated from 
 the ' Brownists;' but, at the same time, I entertain the confi- 
 dent expectation that all must be well when under the eye of 
 your Grace. The only reason I had to entertain the least 
 apprehension was from seeing the published proceedings of Mr. 
 O'Dowd and others, who, at this distance, appeared to me to 
 be placing themselves in the attitude to do mischief. I can- 
 didly confess that I had hoped that Lord Dillon's son had been 
 well advised to alter his address, and to pledge himself so 
 distinctly to popular principles. I had hoped he had been 
 thus advised by your Grace. If that were the case, I should 
 expect that he would not meet with any opposition from any of 
 the popular party. 
 
 " Indeed, if I had deemed it necessary, I should long since 
 have written to recommend them strongly to your Grace's con- 
 sideration. 
 
 " Of course, I need not add that I would not give the 
 slightest countenance to any person who had not your approba- 
 tion. I got a letter this day from R. 0. Brown, stating that 
 he was the candidate who had ' the support of Dr. Mac Hale /' 
 
Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 " If that be so, I most heartily wish him success. But if 
 it be not so, then I could wish it were in my power to do any 
 act to prevent a contest with whoever you, upon the whole, con- 
 sider the most fit person. You have been so instrumental in 
 'iberating the county last election, that you ought to have that 
 deference paid to your judgment independent of the many, 
 many other rights you have to public confidence. 
 
 <; If, therefore, my name can influence a single voter, you 
 may use it in the most absolute and unlimited manner for him 
 whom you deem the best man. I think, at this distance, that 
 Mr. Dillon is that man. But I repeat, shape a letter from me 
 to the electors in any form you please, deprecating and repro- 
 bating division, and putting forward any other topics you may 
 deem useful. That is, of course, if you think anything of the 
 kind useful. 
 
 Ci I will avow anything you do. I would write a letter my- 
 self if I knew what land of letter you wished. I still feel assured 
 that all will be well. The only thing I deem the occasion to 
 require is respectfully to implore of your Grace to take an 
 active share in the straggle to prevent mischief aud secure 
 good. I say this lest you should be disgusted with the faults 
 or follies of any of the partisans, and so shrink from the effort 
 to ensure for the county the best man in the best manner. 
 
 I have the honour to be, with profound respect and 
 veneration, of your Grace, the most faithful servant and 
 affectionate friend, " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, &e., &c." 
 
 In July we find a letter which shows the per- 
 sonal and active interest lie took in the National 
 Bank which he had established. 
 
 u National Bank of Ireland, 39 Old Broad-street, 
 London, 2nd July, 1836. 
 
 " My ever-respected Lord — I have brought your Grace's 
 letter here in order to have your recommendation complied 
 «rith. There could be no difficulty in making out the appoint- 
 
620 
 
 Letters to Dr. Mac Hale. 
 
 ment at once if you had been able to certify to Mr. Fitzgerald's 
 knowledge, of business. 
 
 " The situation of manager requires a familiar habit of 
 keeping accounts of a complicated nature. 
 
 "If Mr. Fitzgerald be such a clerk, his appointment as 
 manager is certain ; but if he be not, then we could and would 
 instantly appoint him as local director. The salary of a 
 manager would be about £200 a-year. The director's salary 
 .650 a-year. The manager must give his entire time to the 
 Bank. The director's attendance is not severe. It will be 
 now for your Grace to say which office Mr. Fitzgerald is suited 
 for, and will accept. I have only to add that his appointment 
 can be made out the moment you please to decide. 
 
 " For myself, I wish to tell you in strict confidence, that I 
 desire very ardently that all good men — all those we should 
 desire to see safe—- should as speedily as they can disembarrass 
 themselves- from the Agricultural Bank. I feel it a duty to 
 tell you this fact, that it is certain that until lately, if at all, 
 there was no partnership deed executed. I believe there is not 
 a real company formed. They cannot, as I conceive, endure 
 long. Their resources for capital must necessarily be small, 
 their expenses great. To me, who am become familiar with 
 banking operations, I cannot conceive how it is possible that 
 that bank should hold out. I say this, my Lord, for your own 
 guidance, if you should have to advise in confidence with any 
 person on the subject, or if you felt any duty to give a private 
 warning to any person. Of course, I should most anxiously 
 desire not to say anything to injure the establishment of that 
 bank. I speak merely in fear. I may, of course, be mistaken, 
 but my own opinion is, that the Agricultural Bank will bring 
 ruin on thousands. 
 
 " You are, my Lord, aware of the political state of this 
 country. I intend for Ireland to propose the revival of the 
 Catholic Association in a new name and somewhat broader 
 basis. It will bear the name of c The General Association 
 of Ireland ' — to be dissolved so soon as full corporate re- 
 
Utters to Dr. MacHale. 62 ? 
 
 form and a satisfactory adjustment of the tithe are obtained 
 by law. 
 
 " I intend to have the 1 Irish rent ' to replace the Catholic 
 rent, and to find a friend to idemnify tithe victims; but this 
 part of the arrangement will require discretion, tact, and some 
 cautious management. You will see my plans fully developed 
 in the Pilot of Wednesday. The state of parties here is 
 singular ; as yet undefined in object. 
 
 " The Tories have not as yet flattered themselves with 
 coming into power. The popular party have not as yet framed 
 any plan. There is much indignation, much discontent fomen- 
 ting. As far as the English and Scotch towns are concerned, 
 the public mind is decidedly favourable to Ireland. 
 
 " I, however, am upon the whole convinced that the rejec- 
 tion by the Lords of our bill will work for good. I will be 
 leaving London in a few weeks. The last debate this session 
 will take place on Monday, and after that I am determined to 
 go to Ireland to organise the agitation. 
 
 "I have the honour to be, my respected Lord, of your 
 Grace the most devoted faithful servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Most Rev. Dr. MacHale." 
 
 At the close of the year, he wrote the following 
 very interesting letter to Dr. MacHale. His wife 
 was dead, but Ireland still existed and he was not 
 wholly widowed : 
 
 M Merriok Square, 9th November, 1837. 
 
 " My ever-respected and dear Lord — I know you pity 
 me, and afford me the relief of your prayers. To-morrow I 
 begin to console my heart by agitation. I am now determined 
 to leave every other consideration aside, and to agitate really — 
 to agitate to the full extent the law sanctions. Command me 
 now in everything. 
 
 " I got this morning a blank cover, enclosing two letters 
 for your Grace. I enclose one in this, and another in a second 
 
 VOL. II. 18 
 
G23 
 
 Accession of Victoria. 
 
 frank ; they would be over weight if sent together. The 
 address has the name of Geo. Washington on the corner, 
 whether an assumed name or not I have no room to conjecture. 
 I mention these things merely to show your Grace that if these 
 letters be not genuine, I am unable to afford any clue to the 
 writer. They may, however, be perfectly correct in all par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 " I believe we are safe in all the counties and towns in 
 Connaught save Sligo and Athlone. I indeed believe the latter 
 tolerably secure. Every nerve must be strained to increase 
 the Irish majority in Parliament. My watchword is — * Irish 
 or Eepeal.' Indeed, I entertain strong hopes that we shall 
 live to see the latter — ' a consummation most devoutly to be 
 wished.' 
 
 " Dr. England was with me yesterday ; he gave me some 
 strong evidence of the hostility of the English Catholics to 
 those of Ireland. He has promised to give it to me in writing, 
 and I will send your Grace a copy. He goes off to ' Haite' 
 next week, but purposes to return next year, and then intends 
 to suggest a place for a Foreign Missionary Society in Ireland, 
 should it meet with the approbation of the Irish prelates. 
 
 Irish priests are abundantly abused, yet they are in demand 
 .by the religious and zealous Catholics all over the world. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with profound respect, my re- 
 vered Lord, of your Grace the devoted servant, 
 
 Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 "Most Eev. Dr. MacHale, &c." 
 
 William IV. died in 1837, and was succeeded by 
 Victoria. A general election was the immediate 
 result, and O'Connell again exerted himself with, 
 superhuman energy to obtain the return of Irish 
 members who should have a true interest in Ireland. 
 
 O'Connell was unseated on petition for Dublin, 
 but in a few days he was returned for Kilkenny. His 
 
Mount Melleray Abbey. 
 
 029 
 
 power in Parliament was more and more felt j 1 and 
 as his enemies could not get rid of him, they ca- 
 lumniated him. Professor Wilson attacked him in 
 Blackwood's Magazine, and declared that he had taken 
 a bribe of £1000 for proposing to have the Factory 
 Bill discussed in committee. O'Connell indignantly 
 denied this false charge ; but it shows how power- 
 ful was the influence of the Irish agitator. 
 
 At the close of the year 1837, O'Connell made a 
 retreat at Mount Melleray Abbey. This noble in- 
 stitution was founded in the year 1832 by the monks 
 of the Cistercian monastery of Melleray near Nantes. 
 The greater number of these monks were Irish, and 
 naturally looked to Ireland for a place of refuge 
 when driven from their home. After various wan- 
 derings, they settled in their present establishment ; 
 
 1 There were some public men in England then who were able 
 to form a fair, if not an altogether just opinion of O'Connell's 
 character and career. At the close of the year 1835, Colonel ' 
 Napier wrote: " O'Connell is not a great man, but I don't agree 
 with you that he gets his money wrongfully or meanly. He has 
 undertaken a great and excellent work, the freeing of his country 
 from the most diabolical and horribly various tyranny that ever 
 was endured ; and as he is unable to do it by war, he must do it by 
 art. Hence many things he must submit to — many mean acts 
 he must commit, because he has to deal with the meanest and 
 lowest of men. Yoa judge him harshly ; he does not do the thing 
 in the noblest way, but he does do it. If he did not take money, 
 he would have been driven from the field long ago. If he fought, 
 he would have been killed long ago. He is a general to be pro- 
 vided and paid, for the sake of his army and his cause. Don't run 
 him down, or you run down the only chance of poor starving 
 wretches here, whose fate depends upon his success." — Life of Sir 
 \V. Napier, vol. i. p. 458. 
 
O'Connell makes a Retreat. 
 
 and when O'Connell visited the place, the church 
 was nearly complete. The guest-house, however, 
 being unfinished, he was obliged to live in the lodge, 
 which will be seen on the view of the buildings 
 given in this work. 
 
 O'Connell's visit was a marked event in the 
 annals of this Order. It is probable that the death 
 of his wife had reminded him of his own end, and 
 given a holier, if not a more religious tone to his 
 thoughts. Besides his deep love for his own faith, 
 there was a certain vein of sympathetic devotion in 
 his character which led him to appreciate well the 
 aesthetic beauty of her services. For many years he 
 had been a practical Catholic ; he had not only pro- 
 fessed, but he also practised his religion. As time 
 passed on, and as domestic bereavements reminded 
 him that he must also be judged for the deeds done 
 in the flesh, he wished to think a little that he might 
 learn what had been amiss (for how can we repent 
 of sins of which we are ignorant ?), and to pray a 
 little more than usual for the mercy of which he 
 might so soon have need. 
 
 There are many gentlemen of all classes of society 
 who, both before O'Connell's time and since, have 
 visited and continue to visit the abbey of Mount 
 Melleray for the same purpose. 
 
 O'Connell travelled from Dublin with Mr. O'Neill 
 Daunt in his own carriage. On the journey, he not 
 unnaturally looked back upon his past, and talked of 
 his long struggles for Catholic Emancipation, far 
 
Reminiscences by the Way. 631 
 
 which lie was then enjoying a special reward. Had 
 he not obtained this act of justice from England, 
 Catholics would have been denied the assistance of 
 such holy retreats, and of such help as they give to 
 prepare for the unending life. He spoke of the 
 Clare election, and again asserted, what, indeed, no 
 one had attempted to deny, that the Duke of Welling- 
 ton granted Emancipation through fear, from the 
 knowledge that by far the greater part of the army 
 was Catholic. It was on this occasion that O'Con- 
 nell told the following ancedote : 
 
 " After the Clare election," said he, " there was a re- 
 markably fine young man named Ryan, as handsome a fellow 
 as ever I saw, who had been made a serjeant, although not 
 more than a year in the army. In one of our popular pro- 
 cessions we encounter a marching detachment ; and as my 
 carriage passed, this young Serjeant walked away from his men, 
 and asked me to shake hands with him. ' In acting as I now 
 do,' said he, 1 1 am guilty of infringing military discipline. 
 Perhaps I may be flogged for it— but I don't care— let them 
 punish me in any way they please ; let them flog me, and send 
 me back to the ranks ; I have had the satisfaction of shaking 
 the hand of the father of my country.' There were many un- 
 equivocal indications of a similar spirit in the army; and, 
 doubtless, such a spirit among the troops was not without its 
 due weight with the Duke. As to my enthusiastic friend, the 
 young seijeant, I afterwards learned that his little escapade 
 was overlooked ; and right glad I was to find that his devotion 
 to me entailed no punishment upon him." 
 
 In such talk the day passed, and the gentlemen 
 slept at the " Royal Oak." They resumed their 
 journey next morning at six o'clock, and breakfasted 
 at Kilkenny, where O'Connell was waited on by 
 
632 
 
 Reception at the Abbey. 
 
 many of the leading Repealers, and urged very 
 earnestly to agitate for Repeal. O'Connell replied 
 that he "was perfectly willing to do so, but that the 
 period had not yet expired which he had decided 
 upon allowing to the Imperial Legislature for the 
 fulfilment of the promise they made to him in 1834 
 to do justice to Ireland. 
 
 The ascent of the mountains which divide Tip- 
 perary from Waterford is as bleak and cold as the 
 southern descent is rich and beautiful. When pass- 
 ing the little village of Clogheen, in Tipperary, the 
 weather became wet and stormy, and at last blew a 
 tremendous gale. The drive from Lismore to Mount 
 Melleray is exquisitely beautiful ; but as the travellers 
 arrived at the abbey after dark, they could not see 
 its fine proportions until the following morning. 
 
 O'Connell was received at the outer gate by a 
 procession of monks, with the abbot at their head. 
 They had waited all the afternoon and evening for 
 his appearance, and had placed messengers on the 
 road to watch his approach. He was conducted to 
 the choir, where the monks sang one of their grand 
 anthems ; and when he knelt, the Te Deum Lauda- 
 mus was intoned. O'Connell had received many 
 ovations, but none had touched his heart like this. 
 It was an anticipation of the eternal welcome which 
 alone can reward any human labour. Amidst the 
 pealing of bells, the swaying of censers, and the grand 
 solemn voice of monks, he felt at home, for he had 
 come to prepare for Home. 
 
Adoption of Carthusian Rules. 
 
 083 
 
 An address was then presented to him, to which, 
 from excess of emotion, he seemed scarcely able to 
 reply ; and he afterwards retired into solitude, speak- 
 ing only to the abbot, and devoting his whole time 
 to prayer and recollection. " 1 
 
 While O'Connell was at Mount Melleray, Mr. 
 Villiers Stuart called on him. But the Liberator 
 had given orders that he was not to be disturbed in 
 his retreat, and Mr. Stuart was obliged to retire. A 
 few days after, he alluded to that circumstance at a 
 public meeting at Lismore, and said, " He was happy 
 to find that Mr. O'Connell's sojourn at Mount Mel- 
 eray had not infected him with the silence of its 
 inmates, as his adoption of the Carthusian rules 
 would seriously injure the interests of popular liberty 
 in Ireland." 
 
 The following letters refer to political events in 
 the vear 1837 : 
 
 m 
 
 " 26th May, 1837. 
 
 " My dear Mr. O'Connell — Iu accordance with the wishes 
 of the clergy of this diocese, as well as my own, I beg leave to 
 transmit to you their petition on the approaching Tithe Bill, 
 accompanied with their request that you will have the goodness 
 to present it, at your earliest convenience, in the House of 
 Commons. I cannot express to you how great the dissatisfac- 
 tion of the people is at the prospect of being obliged to pay the 
 
 1 The object of a retreat is to think of God, of heaven, and of 
 our own helps and hindrances on the road thither. We are in- 
 debted to the present abbot of Mount Melleray, the Right Rev. Dr. 
 Fitzpatrick, for a copy of the address presented to Mr. O'Connell, 
 and for a full account of his visit ; but having no space to insert it 
 here, we reserve it for another work. 
 
Letter from Dr. MacHale. 
 
 full amount of the tithes after the hopes so often held out to 
 them of being released from the odious impost. Paying it to 
 the landlord rather than the parson, they do not conceive to be 
 any benefit to them. Though it cannot be expected that they 
 should be all at once relieved from the incumbrance of the 
 Protestant Establishment, there should be at least a commence- 
 ment in reducing to practice the principle of justice by getting 
 rid of it in those districts in which the Protestant clergy have 
 no congregations. This was a feature in last year's bill, of 
 which the omission in that of the present session has rendered 
 very unpopular. The former gave a pledge, by this incipient 
 reduction of the Establishment, of its total legislative extinction 
 in due time. The present bill holds out no such encouraging 
 prospect. As for the £10 per cent, for education, the sum 
 could not by any means reconcile the people to an enactment 
 which would confirm the claims of the parsons to a large por- 
 tion of the tithes, of which they have so precarious a tenure, 
 without freeing them from any portion of the remainder. On 
 no other measure are the hearts of the people so much fixed as 
 on their release from contributing to the support of an Establish- 
 ment that is ever opposed to their best interests. The Tithe 
 Bill they look on as the test of the justice which has been so 
 long promised, but of which the performance is, they complain, 
 so long delayed. Such is the general feeling throughout this 
 extensive district, as I have learned from the assembled clergy, 
 and which we deemed it our duty to convey to the Legislature. 
 
 " Wishing you many happy years to aid in the consum- 
 mation of that justice which the country expects, I have the 
 honour to remain, " >J< John MacHale." 
 
 " [Confidential.] 
 
 *' London, Zlst May, 1837. 
 
 " My dear and revered Lord— I had the honour of re- 
 ceiving your Grace's letter, and the still more cherished honour 
 of your confiding to me the petition of the clergy of your arch- 
 diocese. It is a petition fraught with matter, and pregnant with 
 wants. The Ministry is tottering to its baseband the old op- 
 
Letter to Dr. Mac Hale. 
 
 635 
 
 pressors are ready again to pounce upon Ireland. I am, I own, 
 timid, and could have wished that this blow had not been given 
 to the falling fabric of ministerial power. I do believe it will 
 be decisive of their fate. But do not understand these as tones 
 of reproach. I may be sorrowful, but in plain truth I can have 
 no elements in my mind which could create anger, when, as in 
 this instance, the wise and the good adopt a course too bold 
 for my humbler temper. What I grieve at is simply that it 
 should have been necessary for your Grace to have adopted 
 that course at the moment of all others most critical to the 
 continuance of the only bearable Government Ireland ever ex- 
 perienced since the fatal day when the followers of the murderer 
 of Becket polluted our shores. 
 
 "Perhaps I would have been anxious to have canvassed 
 the present tithe measure with you had I been apprised of 
 your opinions upon it. It is now too late ; yet, in vindication 
 of myself, permit me to say — 1st, That this bill is not worse 
 than the bill of last year, for that kept a parson in every parish. 
 It was Lord Morpeth's first plan which excluded resident 
 parsons from totally Catholic parishes. Even that first plan 
 gave a species of missionary fund for every parish whatsoever. 
 2nd, That this bill gives no additional legal ' rivet' to our 
 chains. The Tithe Composition Acts gave legal rights to 
 every parson to the fullest extent the law could give them. 
 Stanley's bill riveted and completed the iron bond of law ; it is 
 not possible to go farther. 3rd, That this bill gives a new in- 
 vestigation in every case where the tithe composition is too 
 high— a matter of great importance, so long as the impost re- 
 mains in any shape. 4th. That this bill at one blow strikes off 
 £30 per cent, of the impost, affording a precedent for going 
 further ; and if such a bill passed, it would be the first law 
 directly depriving the parsons, in all cases, of any percentage. 
 5 th, That it appropriates <£10 per cent, in direct terms out of 
 the impost to other than parson purposes — namely, to educa- 
 tion. Thus the new bill would introduce a new legislation for 
 the first time, taking from the parsons £40 per cent.— £30 as 
 
086 
 
 Letter to Dr. MacUale. 
 
 reduction, sG10 as appropriation — operating upon both ends of 
 the scale. 
 
 " It is quite true that, although the parsons would lose by 
 this bill £i0 per cent., there is this difficulty, that the land- 
 lords would pocket, in many instances, part, at least, of the 
 £30 per cent, reduced. But that is a difficulty inherent in the 
 abolition of tithes. In spite of every precaution to the contrary, 
 there is that, in the present agrarian economy of Ireland, of a 
 mischievous tendency to throw into the pockets of the landlord 
 every sum of which the tenant is relieved. This, however, is 
 not to be attributed as a fault to Lord Morpeth's present 
 measure. It has that fault in common with every other plan 
 of partial or even total abolition. 
 
 <l l address these observations to your Grace, not only re- 
 spectfully, but, I will venture to say, in sentiments of affec- 
 tionate respect. Your character is indeed cherished by me in 
 a mode which makes it equally reverenced and loved. I 
 believe your Grace to be a great blessing, bestowed by a 
 merciful Providence on a long persecuted, and, I trust, now 
 rising and spreading religion. Judge then how poignant must 
 be the regret with which I differ from you and from your 
 eloquent and powerful resolutions. Perhaps, indeed, my more 
 feeble judgment is clouded by my apprehensions of, I fear, the 
 now certain advent of Orange restored rule in Ireland, aggra- 
 vated as that bitter misfortune will be by the fact that, in the 
 exercise of a conscientious and awful duty, the clergy of Tuam 
 have been under the necessity of accelerating that deplorable 
 restoration. But the motto of purer spirits has ever been, 
 ' Fiat justitia ruat coehim.* 
 
 " I do, however, my revered Lord, feel so deeply on this 
 subject that I write off for my son, who is, I trust, sufficiently 
 recovered for the journey to support the Ministers. But as the 
 majority of the Connaught members will, as they ought, take 
 their tone from your Grace, the consequence will be the Minis- 
 ters will be left in a minority ; and as they came into power on 
 the Irish Church Bill, so will they be compelled to go out upon 
 
Letter to Dr. MaaSale. 
 
 637 
 
 the same subject. The old Judges -will of course resign, and 
 for another generation justice ! ! ! will he administered to the 
 Irish people by the Wests, the Jacksons, the Brewsters, the 
 Lyttons, and the Blackburnes. 
 
 " It is almost in despair that I venture to suggest to your 
 Grace just this — for your consideration — whether, as it is in 
 committee of the House alterations may be made in the bill in 
 all its details, and as the committee comes after the first and 
 second reading, you would think it right to write to each of the 
 friendly Connaught members, counselling them to support the 
 bill into committee, and, when there, endeavouring to extend 
 its relief and lesson its mischief. That would probably prevent 
 any Catholic from being a party to the downfall of the Mulgrave 
 Administration in Ireland. But if this course does not appear 
 to your cool and deliberate judgment to be a right one, then, of 
 course, your Grace will treat my suggestion as one which ought 
 not to be acted upon, and, at all events, forgive me for making 
 it. You will easily estimate the deep, the absorbing anxiety 
 for the peace of Ireland, which alone stimulates me to make 
 this suggestion. If, however, it were to be acted upon, it ought 
 to be done without delay. This I submit to your Grace. 
 
 " I need not add, that although I myself deem Lord Mor- 
 peth's measure a valuable instalment, and as a politician know 
 how it would aid my next move, yet I will, as of course [sic], 
 do every justice in my power to the petition with which I feel 
 so highly, so truly honoured. But I will not present it until I 
 have an opportunity of learning whether the sentiments of this 
 letter render me in your Grace's eyes less fit to have tho 
 honour of presenting it to the House. The King, they say, is 
 recovering. I do believe that a sentiment not very respect- 
 ful to his Majesty made many choose to believe he was worse 
 than he really was ; at all events, he rubs over this bout. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with sentiments of the sincerest 
 respect, my Lord, of your Grace the devoted and affectionate 
 servant, " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Most Rev. Dr. MacHale." 
 
638 
 
 Letter from Dr. MacHale. 
 
 "Tuam, Ath June, 1837. 
 
 " Mr dear Mr. O'Connell— I have been favoured with 
 your much esteemed letter of the 31st ultimo. It is impossible 
 for me to make any adequate return for the kind feelings which 
 your valued favour conveys. It is not without the deepest 
 regret that I could be brought to differ with you on any ques- 
 tion regarding the interests of Ireland. Your indefatigable 
 exertions in its behalf, and the unparalleled services you have 
 already rendered, give you a title to the just confidence of all 
 your countrymen. Were the present Tithe Bill a matter of 
 mere difference of opinion between us, I should acquiesce in 
 your superior and experienced judgment. Coming in daily 
 contact with the clergy, and having a good deal of intercourse 
 with the people themselves, I can state that I never knew a 
 measure to which they are more opposed. Their aversion to 
 the bill is such as that I am convinced no influence that the 
 clergy could exercise would persuade them of its advantage. 
 The £30 per cent, to the landlord, so far from looking to it as 
 a boon, they really regard as an encouragement to that body to 
 unite with the Establishment in the wish to perpetuate the im- 
 post. What confirms the distrust of the people in the measure 
 is, that the bill is palatable to many of the parsons of the 
 country and to the Tory Landlords. It is a matter of notoriety 
 that some of the latter laboured to have public meetings to 
 petition the Legislature to pass the bill into law. We en- 
 deavoured to convey to them the impression of the people, thai 
 they considered the Tithe Bill anything but justice. Besides 
 our own opinions, we gave expression to the deep and general 
 discontent it excited. 
 
 ' 'Had the people any doubt of its tendency to fasten the 
 tithe system on them, they would be convinced of it by finding 
 the measure hailed by many of their old oppressors. Nothing 
 could have been further from our minds than a wish to em- 
 barrass the Government by unnecessary remonstrance. As 
 they professed an anxiety to do justice to the people, their tithe 
 measure was not regarded as any approximation to that justice, 
 
Entertained in London. c " 
 
 and that they mistake their silence for acquiescence. It would 
 not be just to the Government to let them imagine that they 
 would be conferring a favour by a measure which we knew 
 excited general discontent. We were, therefore, impelled by a 
 deep sense of duty to convey the seasonable petition to the 
 Legislature, in the hope that the Government might be induced 
 to make larger concessions to the just demands of the people. 
 Having embodied in our resolutions and petition the general 
 feelings and deliberate opinions of the assembled clergy, as 
 well as of their flocks, I could not without forfeiting their con- 
 fidence, take upon myself to control the effect which they might 
 have on their representatives. I regret much that the Govern- 
 ment has not taken a firmer Btand in endeavouring to realise 
 ita professions to do justice. By its frustrate attempts to con- 
 ciliate the Tories, its strength has been gradually impaired. 
 Hoping that by doing more justice to Ireland it may still 
 retrieve itself to its former vigour, I am, Sec. &c., 
 
 " * John MacIIale. 
 
 "To Mr. O'Connell." 
 
 In the early part of the year 1838, O'Connell was 
 actively engaged in promoting Catholic interests in 
 London. On the 21st of July he was publicly 
 entertained at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in 
 London. A number of members of Parliament were 
 present, and the chairman Sir De Lacy Evans, said 
 that O'Connell was " the object of the attention of 
 the whole Empire, and the admiration of the best 
 and most enlightened men, not only of England but 
 of the world." 
 
 This is yet another evidence of the incorrectness 
 of the idea, which has been so popular of late years, 
 that O'Connell was a mere demagogue, who kept the 
 
640 
 
 Speech on the Occasion. 
 
 English. Cabinet in fear, not by the power of his 
 mind but by the violence of his action. 
 
 At the conclusion of his speech, he said : 
 " A sensation of awe came over hini when he beheld such 
 an assemblage in any way connected with his humble name. 
 "What was it that had brought so many independent English- 
 men to pay a compliment to him ? He believed the compli- 
 ment was paid to the great principle on which he had always 
 acted — that of avoiding the prosecution of political advantages 
 by force, violence, or fraud. . . . The Irish Eeform Bill ought 
 to have been more extensive ; it was full of faults, and the 
 worst part of it was that it exposed Ireland to all the machina- 
 tions of the Spottiswoocle gang, to pecuniary corruption in its 
 worst form, and, above all, to the perjury of Tory committees. 
 He had said in the House of Commons, and he repeated it now, 
 that Ireland was not safe from the perjury of English and 
 Scotch gentlemen. They sacrificed their conscience to party — 
 it was horrible to think of it ; persons who were gentlemen in 
 rank and fortune, who ought by their conduct to preach morality 
 to others, and who dispensed justice from magisterial benches — 
 was it not horrible that they should be perjuring themselves 
 hourly as members of committees in the House of Commons ? 
 But the time was come when this should be proclaimed boldly. 
 He was ready to be the martyr to justice and truth, though not 
 to false swearing ; and therefore he repeated that there was 
 foul perjury in the Tory committees of the House of Commons. 
 He asked them, was it not their duty to assist him in putting 
 an end to this system ; to give him their assistance in rendering 
 the Irish Eeform Bill at least as perfect as theirs ; and to give 
 to Ireland the same measure of municipal reform England 
 already enjoyed ? He wanted all alike — for now they were all 
 unlike." 
 
 This was brought before the House, and O'Con- 
 nell was ordered to be reprimanded ; but, like Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, who only reasserted his original 
 
O'ConnelFs Disinterestedness. 
 
 641 
 
 assertion when desired to apologise in the Irish 
 Commons, he merely replied : u I express no regret — 
 I retract nothing — I repent nothing. I do not desire 
 unnecessarilv to use hard or offensive lan<niaore. I 
 wish I could find terms less objectionable and equally 
 significant ; but I cannot. I am bound to reassert 
 what I asserted." 
 
 O'Connell expected to be sent to the Tower, but 
 the Tories were afraid of him. Indeed, an effort was 
 made even during this year to conciliate him. He 
 was offered the Chief Baron's seat, but he refused. 
 Those who have ventured to assert that O'Connell 
 was not a disinterested lover of his people and his 
 native land, should ask themselves how many are 
 there who would have refused such an offer, above 
 all, when lie might have pleaded a need for rest in 
 old age, and that his work was done since Eman- 
 cipation had been obtained ? 1 
 
 During the year 1838, O'Connell kept up a con- 
 
 1 The following extract from Mr. Daunt's work shows that the 
 refusal cost O'Connell a good deal : " This is very kind — very kind 
 indeed," said O'Connell ; " hut I have not the least notion of taking 
 the offer. Ireland could not spare me now; not hut, if she could, 
 I don't at all deny that the office would have great attractions for 
 me. Let me see now. There would not he more than about eighty 
 days' duty in the year. I would take a country-house near Dublin, 
 and walk into town ; and during the intervals of judicial labour, I'd 
 go to Parrynane. I should be idle in the early part of April, just 
 when the jack-hares leave the most splendid trails upon the moun- 
 tains. In fact, I should enjoy the office exceedingly on every 
 account, if I could but except it consistently with the interests of 
 Ireland; but I cannot." 
 
642 
 
 The "Dublin Review." 
 
 stant correspondence with the Archbishop of Tuara. 
 In July he sent him the following circular letter on 
 the subject of the Dublin Review, which was then 
 conducted with remarkable ability. For some years 
 the articles contained in it were a credit to the 
 nationality, and to the faith of its principal contribu- 
 tors. The most important questions of the day were 
 taken up by men of remarkable ability, most of 
 whom were professors, some of whom were even 
 students, in Maynooth. O'Connell and Dr. Wiseman 
 were the guiding spirits. Subjects relating to Ire- 
 land naturally obtained a prominent place, for it was 
 well known that but for Ireland and Irish Catholics 
 the Review would probably never have existed, 
 and that the Irish Catholics were an overwhelming 
 majority. But polemics were not neglected, and 
 were handled with singular ability and trenchant 
 force. Many of the early converts to the Catholic 
 faith owe their conviction of Catholic truth to the 
 masterly refutations of errors contained in articles 
 penned in Ireland by an Irish priest. The truth was 
 put forth boldly and broadly, and the subtleties of 
 metaphysical theology were relegated to the schools.] 
 The original of the following letter is a litho- 
 graph, the word " Lordship " being crossed out by 
 O'Connell, and u Grace " substituted. It may be 
 only a little matter, but little matters are often 
 characteristic ; and, undoubtedly, one of O'Connell's 
 marked characteristics in minor affairs was his re- 
 markable and unvarying courtesy of manner and re- 
 
Letter to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 643 
 
 ppectfulness of tone in addressing the hierarchy or 
 the priesthood. 
 
 " 16 Pall Mall, London, ISth February, 1938. ( 
 
 " My Lord— I beg leave very respectfully to call your atten- 
 tion to the Dublin Review, of which I am one of the pro- 
 prietors. 
 
 " The object with which this publication was instituted was 
 and is to afford the Catholic literature of these countries a fair 
 and legitimate mode of exhibiting itself to the people of the 
 British Empire, and especially to the people of Ireland, in the 
 shape most likely to produce a permanent as well as useful 
 effect. The other quarterly publications are in the hands cither 
 of avowed and malignant enemies of Catholicity, or of what is 
 worse, insidious and pretended friends, who affect a false 
 liberality at the expense of Catholic doctrines. 
 
 " The Dublin Review, though not intended for purely 
 polemical discussion, contains many articles of the deepest 
 interest to the well-informed Catholic disputant. The name of 
 Dr. Wiseman, who is also a proprietor of the work, ensures the 
 orthodoxy of the opinions contained in it, and will be admitted 
 to be in itself a pledge of the extent, and depth, and variety of 
 its scientific, as well as theological information. 
 
 " The seventh number is just published. The former num- 
 bers can be had either bound, or any one of them separately. 
 Mr. Staunton of the Morning Register, is in Dublin the agent 
 for Ireland. He will transmit the last, or any other number 
 you please, to you free of carriage. 
 
 " To sustain this publication, which, while Catholicity is 
 assailed by so many virulent enemies, and has so few friends 
 among the periodical literature, appears to me to be an object 
 of considerable importance ; it will be necessary to increase its 
 circulation, and augment the number of purchasers. It is for 
 this purpose that I respectfully solicit your aid and friendly co- 
 operation. I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Grace's 
 most faithful servant, « Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, &c." 
 
 VOL. II. 19 
 
0-14 
 
 Letters from Dr. MacHale. 
 
 The following letter is written in 0' Conn ell's own 
 hand- writing, on the back of the lithographed letter : 
 
 "Private. 
 
 " P. S. — In calling the attention of your Grace to the en- 
 closed circular, I venture respectfully to direct your notice to 
 my opposition to the present scheme of poor-laws. It is a 
 subject on which I have dwelt long and painfully — on which, if 
 I be in error, I am exceedingly culpable, But my objections 
 depend much on the effects to be produced on the ratepayers. 
 An additional tax of one million at the least — affecting in the 
 first instance, and almost exclusively, the occupiers — fills me 
 with alarm ; especially as imprisonment in a workhouse is the 
 only relief to be given : that is, all relief is to be administered 
 solely to persons inhabiting the workhouse. 
 
 " Your Grace must have seen my plan for the abolition of 
 tithes. It would abolish them in toto, and throw the payment 
 of Protestant clergy on the Consolidated Fund, giving to Eng- 
 land and Scotland the same interest in abolishing sinecure 
 livings in Ireland as the Irish" have. 
 
 " I conclude with the expression of my most respectful and 
 affectionate regard, and sincere veneration." 
 
 Dr. MacHale's reply, of which Ins Grace has kept 
 a copy, will be read with interest : 
 
 " Tuam, 21th February, 1838. 
 
 (< My dear Mr. O'Connell — I have been favoured with 
 your esteemed letter regarding the Dublin Revieiv, and I en- 
 tirely concur in your views as to the benefits of such a periodical. 
 It has already been the medium of circulating many articles 
 calculated to place our religion in very favourable light before 
 its enemies. It is unnecessary to say that I have been from 
 the commencement a subscriber. It would, I think, command 
 greater circulation by having the booksellers in the local districts 
 engaged in its sale, and entitled to the centage they receive on 
 such periodicals. 
 
Letter f rom Dr. Mac Hale. 
 
 u So impressed have I been with the evils with which the 
 present Poor Provision Bill is fraught, that, before the receipt 
 of your respected letter, I published that I coincided in your 
 opposition to its details. I ventured, too, to express my sur- 
 prise at the perseverance of the Government in pressing such 
 a measure, with the consciousness of then dependence on the 
 support of the Irish representatives, and of the obnoxiousness 
 of the measure to the feelings and the interests of the Irish 
 people. They have not, it may be said, manifested this feel- 
 ing by a corresponding number of petitions. The fact is, they 
 tell us they are tired of petitioning, and though some should 
 send petitions, others, adopting the philosophy of what is is 
 best, required more than ordinary stimulants, as you know, to 
 rouse them to the least exertion in behalf of their country, nay, 
 of religion. Besides, they do not see among their representa- 
 tives themselves that arrayed and concentrated junction of the 
 strength once characteristic of them, and which alone can en- 
 sure justice to Ireland. 
 
 The result of the ballot has not escaped their notice, and 
 they deplore that place has had the effect of making some vote 
 against a measure essential to their protection. I wish I could 
 be able to have your views on the tithe system carried into 
 effect, so as to have the payment of Protestant clergy charged 
 on the Consolidated Fund. I should hail such a measure as an 
 excellent instalment, since then we could securely calculate on 
 the co-operation of England and Scotland in finally doing justice 
 as far as regarded the Protestant Establishment. 
 
 u There is another subject regarding the interests of our 
 religion on which you may do incalculable service. It is for 
 procuring a grant for the separate education of Catholic children. 
 Thi3 is the subject, and the only one, of which the CatLolic 
 bishops of Ireland have expressed their solemn and unanimous 
 approval. It must come to this at last. The lamented in- 
 disposition of Dr. Murray occasioned the adjournment of this 
 question at our last meeting, and prevented our adoption of any 
 resolution on the subject. The present system is far from being 
 
6 ±6 
 
 Letter to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 popular, nay, many of the bishops are conscious it is full of 
 clanger. I know that separate education would not be relished 
 at present by the Government ; I know, too, that many, with an 
 erroneous feeling of liberality, cherish the plan of mixed educa- 
 tion. I like religion to be as free as air, which is the only true 
 liberality, and the fate of the Archbishop of Cologne, the in- 
 justice of which you have so eloquently denounced, and which 
 is the fruit of a plausible system of mixed education, can attest 
 the benefits or evils of such a prospect. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, yours, _ T _ _ TT 
 
 ' J " John MacHale." 
 
 O'Connell replied: 
 
 " jMerrton Square, April, 1838. 
 
 "My very respected Lord — I need not tell you with 
 what a deep interest and profound respect I have followed your 
 Grace's exposition of the present system of national education. 
 I pretend not to decide ; but I do know that vigilance was never 
 misplaced whilst ' the wolf is on his walk.' 
 
 "I have now to implore of your Grace to read the Pilot of 
 Monday before you form your decided opinion on the new tithe 
 plan. You will find in it my view of Lord John Kussell's tithe 
 resolutions. They contain much I dislike, but also have a 
 smack of better principle, and of more easy application of future 
 remedy, than the present system. I certainly do not mean to 
 bestow anything like ungrateful praise upom them ; but you will 
 judge me and my opinions with impartiality, though, I know, 
 mixed with kindness. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with the most fervent wishes for 
 
 the health and long life of your Grace, your most devoted and 
 
 affectionate servant, £ ._ 
 
 Daniel Connell. 
 
 " Tuam, 26th April, 1838. 
 
 i( My dear Mr. O'Connell — I waited for the appearance 
 of your promised letter on the tithes before I should acknow- 
 ledge your favour of the 14th, directing my attention to that 
 exposition. 
 
 " It cannot be denied that the bill falls far short of what the 
 
LetU r from Dr. MacHale. 
 
 or 
 
 Ministry was pledged to, and the people of Ireland expected. 
 It lias no appropriation clause. It does not reduce one of the 
 supernumerary parsons, even where a single Protestant is not 
 found ; nor does it, out of the reduction of thirty per cent., if I 
 understand the resolutions correctly, give any advantage to the 
 occupying tenantry. As for the surplus to be applied to the 
 purposes of education, I must frankly own, that if he meant to 
 apply it as the funds in management of this education board, it 
 would be a curse rather than a blessing. I am delighted that 
 you have turned your attention to the bearings and workings of 
 the present plan. Nothing can be more interesting to a states- 
 man concerned than the moral improvement of a people, and 
 especially to a Catholic filled with zeal for the purity of his 
 religion. Now, one thing is certain, that an anti-Catholic 
 Government is labouring to upset an essential principle, and to 
 usurp the right of inculcating religious doctrine through books 
 and masters of their own exclusive selection. I could be silent 
 fb* ever on repeal, or even the tithe system, with all its baneful 
 appendages ; but when I see a Government requiring a compro- 
 mise and surrender of religion as the condition of its support, 
 so much so, that I have known high ecclesiastics, otherwise 
 pious, to own that they are silent from a fear of embarrassing 
 the Ministry, I cannot comprehend any reason for justifying 
 such expediency. Now, the Ministry, if anxious to lay the 
 foundations of concord as well as prosperty, must banish every- 
 thing vicious from the system of education. The greater 
 number of the present members of the board are rank infidels. 
 The books which they put into the hands of children are cal- 
 culated to unsettle their belief, or at least, to diminish their 
 reverence for the faith of their fathers ; and by the entire system 
 it is intended, as is acknowledged by a competent authority 
 (Mr. A. R. Blake) to place the religious education of the Ca- 
 tholics in the hands of the crown. Now, setting religion aside, 
 you can best estimate the consequence of such a prospect in 
 the abridgment of the liberties of the people. By a timely 
 interference, the Irish members may prevent much angry dis- 
 
G43 
 
 The Precursor Society. 
 
 cussicn, which must eventually terminate in the correction of 
 any plan by which the Government would attempt to interfere 
 with the legitimate authority of the pastors or the religious 
 liberty of the people. You know well the unconquerable attach- 
 ment of all classes to their faith. As I live, I shall not cease 
 to expose and denounce any attempt to interfere with that 
 faith ; and the more they try to silence me, the louder will be 
 my remonstrance; for we must have complete religious freedom. 
 
 " Wishing you every happiness and energy in effecting those 
 objects that are still wanting to religious freedom, I have the 
 
 honour. &c, u _ ' __. TT „ 
 
 ' " ^ John MacHale." 
 
 In August 1838, O'Connell commenced a vigorous 
 agitation in Ireland, and established what lie called 
 the " Precursor Society," as a last effort to obtain full 
 justice to Ireland from the British Legislature. His 
 earnest desire to have both the sanction and assist- 
 ance of Dr. Mac II ale is evident from the following 
 correspondence : 
 
 " Private. 
 
 I! Dkrrynank Abbey, Gth September, 1838. 
 
 "My venerated Lord — I feel the deepest anxiety that 
 my present plan of agitation should meet favour in your eyes, 
 because that would show that an intellect of the first order con- 
 curred with my humble judgment. That judgment induces me 
 to mark that we have arrived at a period in which we may attain 
 all we politically desire, or at least, much of it, if we take the 
 proper means of achieving our objects. 
 
 " The aspect of public affairs is such as seems propitious to 
 our pressing our claims. The unfortunate state of the crop will 
 produce a winter and spring in England in which the working 
 classes will suffer much ; and their political discontent already 
 exhibits itself in a shape which may become truly formidable 
 when aggravated by personal distress and individual misery 
 such as a scanty crop is sure to produce. There is also much 
 
Letter to Dr. Mactlale. 
 
 649 
 
 blooding discontent on the Continent, much more, I believe 
 than is usually suspected. Some Prussian regiments the other 
 day cried out for a constitution. It is true the soldiers were 
 drunk; but drunkenness is, to a proverb, sincere. But con- 
 fining myself to the British Empire, the poorer classes are all 
 disgusted and irritated at the limited franchise conceded by the 
 Reform Bill, and amidst their clamours is our time to press 
 claims founded on eternal justice. I may be greatly mistaken, 
 but I do think that an additional bonus of 15 or even 25 per 
 cent, to the landed interest would bring them over to separate 
 the 'rent-charge' from the Church, not of the people, and 
 have them easily to consent to appropriate the remaining 50 
 per cent, to purposes of real and public utility. I do believe 
 that steady and universal exertion would free us from the in- 
 cubus of the State-paid Church, and obtain for us all wo desire 
 besides. If, indeed, these things — I mean disconnexion of 
 the State from the Church, and real corporate reform — were 
 achieved, we should then have ninety-nine out of every hun- 
 dred of the Irish of every persuasion friendly to a domestic 
 Parliament. If Connanght aids us with the efficiency which 
 your Grace can put in motion if you deem it right, we will 
 have such an overwhelming majority of the Irish nation with 
 us that the Lord-Lieutenant may go on to preach patience to 
 the winds. The time for impatience is arrived. I think your 
 province has given strong symptoms of the prevalence of a 
 similar opinion much earlier, and, perhaps, more correctly 
 formed; but if you now, my Lord, think we ought to be aided, 
 I would venture to promise complete success to this agitation. 
 Perhaps the fate of Ireland depends on your decision. Thou- 
 sands of 'Precursors,' headed by the dreaded name of 'John 
 Tuain,' would make an impression just now beyond any ever 
 before made by a numerical force. 
 
 •'' I will await your Grace's reply with no small impatience. 
 You will have seen in the Pilot of Monday last my first letter, 
 with its objects in detail. How delighted I shall be if you 
 think it right to enrol yourself as a ' Precursor! ' But in every 
 
C50 
 
 case, and always, believe me to be, with profound respect, of 
 your Grace the most faithful servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 4 'Most Kev. Dr. MacIIale, &c." 
 
 " Tuam, 26th September, 1838. 
 
 "My dear Mr. O'Connell — After being absent for some 
 time, on my return I found here your much respected favour. 
 I fully agree with you that, to secure the rights that are so in- 
 sultingly denied them, the people must depend on their own 
 strenuous exertions. 
 
 " Indeed, they appear already to have been brought to that 
 conviction, and hence the activity with which they are be- 
 stirring themselves throughout all parts of the country. 
 
 "For a long time they felt but little confidence in the 
 present Ministry; the Tithe Bill, in which they abandoned the 
 principle on which they ousted their predecessors from office, 
 has filled up the measure of the public distrust. 
 
 " If the Ministers fancied that the Irish people could ac- 
 quiesce in so unjust a law, they must already be convinced of 
 their mistake, that all the united influence of the kingdom 
 could not reconcile the people to an impost which is growing 
 every day more odious ; and hence the Catholic clergy, in de- 
 nouncing the Tithe Bill, and urging the necessity of an imme- 
 diate resumption of the question in Parliament, are only ex- 
 pressing the opinion and seconding the views of the people. 
 
 "It is my sincere opinion that the people are justified in 
 their frequent and emphatic intensifications, What has been 
 done for them ? 
 
 " Nay, more, they have no reason to expect much since the 
 Ministers have declared against granting those measures on 
 which you are insisting. If they expressed an inclination to 
 extend the suffrage or to enlarge the number of our represen- 
 tatives, or to reduce the Established Church to the dimensions 
 required by justice, then indeed might there be reason for hope. 
 
 "But from our present rulers what hope can we entertain, 
 when, besides, with their inability, they proclaim their un- 
 
Letter to Br. Ma Hale. 
 
 C51 
 
 willingness to do us justice 1 y insisting on the finally of 
 it form. &c. ? 
 
 "It is my conviction that the unreserved confidence which 
 lias been hitherto placed in the Ministry has had a baneful in- 
 fluence on the interests of Ireland, and that, if they were 
 taught to feel that measures of general good, and not of indivi- 
 dual benefits, would be the test of the public confidence, some- 
 thing would have been done for the country. If the Ministers 
 recall their declarations that are on record, and which almost 
 preclude us from hope, then might all in their exertions for 
 the country identify their exertions with the support of our 
 present rulers. 
 
 M If they do not, I do not perceive that they have any 
 claims to gratitude, and the people must strive to force on 
 them by moral influence the necessity of doing justice to 
 Ireland, not in name, but in reality. 
 
 "Wishing you every happiness, I have the honour to 
 remain, my dear Mr. O'Connell, yours respectfully, 
 
 "* Johm MacHale." 
 
 " Datirynan e Ar.UEY, Ath October, 1328. 
 
 11 My respected Lord — I wish I could be as sanguine as 
 you are that the people will persevere in that course of agitation 
 with which there is no hope for Ireland. I know to a 
 certainty the Ministry are taking every means in their power to 
 oppose the organisation of the 1 Precursor Society.' I have 
 been written to menacingly — I may call it so ; but their 
 menaces, I need not tell your Grace, I despise. Let them 
 threaten away. There are indeed several of the Ministry ex- 
 ceedingly anxious to be out of office ; and I have reason to 
 believe that they are seriously thinking of resigning. All of 
 them do not concur in this view, but so many do as to make it 
 highly improbable they should face Parliament again. This, 
 of course, I say in the strictest confidence ; but it is right that 
 you should know the facts. The Tories, when they come in, 
 will do sad work in Ireland, but we must do all we can to 
 prevent them. 
 
G52 
 
 Letter to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 " The only comfort I have is, that we have assisted the 
 Whigs as long as there was any, even the slightest prospect of 
 their obtaining for Ireland any one advantage. Nor did we 
 desert them until their incompetency to do us good almost 
 equalled their unwillingness to exert themselves for us. It is, 
 indeed, a dismal prospect to have the insolent Tories again in 
 power; but the fault is not ours. My present anxiety is to 
 have our organisation completed during the reign of the present 
 Ministers. It is that which takes me up to Dublin in Novem- 
 ber. The four principles of our new agitation are — 1st, Com- 
 plete corporate reform ; 2nd, Extension of the suffrage ; 3rd 
 Total extension of compulsory Church support ; and 4th, Ade- 
 quate representation in Parliament. These seem to me to 
 constitute the proper basis of future agitation. On these I 
 think we should organise for that contest which is now inevi- 
 table. When the Tories return to power they of course will 
 again endeavour to establish the ascendency of the Protestant 
 clergy and aristocracy. It seems to me that it would be highly 
 useful, or, at least, that it is the prudent course, to have our 
 organisation as perfect as we well can before the enemy as- 
 sumes the reins of government. I entreat the consideration of 
 your Grace to these topics, as this is the best plan for future 
 agitation, or can you assist me with any other ? Connaught 
 will naturally go with your Grace. If you approve of my 
 project we shall have from the 'west "abundant" precursors.' 
 I fear much for the result unless I can procure your aid, de- 
 pending, as that aid must, on your deliberate and powerful 
 judgment. I see a mistake committed by several speakers at 
 the great tithe meetings. It is in seeking for the repeal of the 
 Tithe Bill of last session without repeating at the same time 
 Lord Stanley's Tithe Bill; the first which removed the pay- 
 ment of the tithe composition from the tenants to the landlords. 
 It is astonishing how rapidly Stanley's Act was prospering. 
 It had come into operation in no less than one-half of the tithe 
 compositions in Ireland. By a parliamentary return it appears 
 tli at more than one-half of the tithe composition had become 
 
Letter to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 658 
 
 payable by the landlords in the short time since Lord Stanley's 
 Act was passed — that is, in about four years. The transition 
 was going on rapidly, and one landlord after another was sub- 
 mitting. The new Act has completed the transition with a 
 loss to the parsons of one-fourth of the entire. 
 
 " Our business is to look to the appropriation of that which 
 remains — not the miserable appropriation which the Govern- 
 ment promised, and which would operate only after existing 
 leases had dropped, but an appropriation immediate and 
 universal. 
 
 u I have the honour to be, most respectfully, of your Grace 
 the most faithful servant, Daniel O'Coxxell. 
 
 " Most Roy. Dr. MacHale, &e." 
 
 "Darrvnane Abbey, 23rd October, 1833. 
 
 " My esteemed Lop.d — I am indeed anxious to accept the 
 honour intended me in Galway, but it is not at present in my 
 power to name the day. If my valued friends will allow me to 
 postpone the actual nomination of the day, I will then, with 
 mingled pride and pleasure, accept the invitation for some day 
 about the 12th, or from that to the 15th of November. The 
 precise day I will be able to appoint within a week, if I am per- 
 mitted to take this liberty. If any difficulty occurs, of course I 
 must, but with the deepest regret, decline an honour which I 
 appreciate more highly than I can describe. We are come to a 
 most important ciisis. Our friends are not powerful enough to 
 serve us effectually. Our enemies are so powerful as to be able 
 to stop all salutary legislation on our behalf. What are we 
 therefore to rely on ? Only on our own exertions. We con- 
 quered great difficulties already, and we will be able to conquer 
 those that remain. If the spirit of unanimous exertion be once 
 roused, we cannot fail. I have the happiness to know that the 
 North of Ireland will come forward in its strength and intelli- 
 gence, and I do hope that the other parts of Ireland will evince 
 that their former patriotic ardour is capable of being reanimated, 
 and of producing the most useful effects. Ireland, blessed by 
 Heaven, is able to work out her own destinies. She will not 
 
Col 
 
 Letter from Dr. Mac Hale. 
 
 allow herself any longer to be trampled ca by the fell demon of 
 Orange tyranny. That bigot faction seeks a restoration to 
 power which would fill the land with afflictions, and the people 
 with almost insufferable oppression. The Tory party in Eng- 
 land is identified with Orangeism in Ireland, and is ready to 
 indulge that hated and hateful faction in the renewal of all the 
 scenes of domination, peculation, and blood, in which that foul 
 faction so long indulged itself with impunity. 
 
 " We have, believe me, my respected Lord, but one way to 
 escape the renewal of Orange tyranny, and that is to organise 
 the people of Ireland into peaceable, legal, and constitutional 
 combination. 
 
 "It appears to me that the Precursor Society affords us the 
 best opportunity of forming that combination. If I can get — 
 and why should I not get ? — two millions of Precursors, I will 
 answer for complete success. 
 
 {i I have the honour to be, my dear Lord, your Lordship's 
 most faithful and grateful servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 *' Eight Kev. Dr. MacHale." 
 
 " Merhion Square, I5t7i December, 1838. 
 
 11 My ever-respected Lord— In the affair of the unfor- 
 tunate Captain Gleeson, I must, in parliamentary slang report 
 progress, and ask leave to write again. There is, however, no 
 pleasantry in my mind on the subject. The facts have occurred 
 in this order : The day after I arrived in town I had communi- 
 cated to the Lord-Lieutenant that my conviction was that he 
 (Captain Gleeson) was treated with great injustice. In conse- 
 quence, the documents in the matter were handed over to Mr. 
 Drummond to be prepared to meet me, and to justify the con- 
 duct of Government. I accordingly waited on that gentleman, 
 and found that, though he had the documents in his posses- 
 sion — they were lying on his desk — he had not read them. I, 
 however, availed myself of the opportunity to give him a 
 distinct view of the utter falsity of the principal ground of dis- 
 missal — that which alleged a false charge of drunkenness 
 
The Four Wants of Ireland. 
 
 against Mr. St. Clair O'Malley. I called, in the strongest 
 terms, for an investigation and trial of the truth or falsehood of 
 that allegation. I mentioned that Captain Gleeson stated that 
 he had more than ten witnesses to support his assertion. I 
 believe I made some impression. I certainly did all I could to 
 make it. I was promised a speedy communication. A great 
 deal was said of Lord Morpeth's being the patron of Mr. Glee- 
 son, and of his being satisfied with the decision ; but all this is 
 trash. I have since had no further communication from Mr. 
 Drummond, but immediately on receipt of your letter I wrote 
 to him again, pressing the case for investigation on trial. I 
 went again pretty fully into my views of it, and I deemed it 
 right to send him privately, and under another cover, your 
 letter to me in order to show him how deep an interest was 
 taken in the injustice done to poor Gleeson. I have had as 
 yet no answer, nor can I jwess for one before Wednesday next, 
 on which day I will see Lord Morpeth ; and I have a right to 
 a reply, which I will of course insist upon. I never felt a 
 deeper interest for any man than I do for him, independent of 
 my most unaffected anxiety to satisfy your Grace on the subject. 
 There is a strong rumour, or at least a suspicion, that the 
 Whigs are to get Tory accession — perhaps that of the Duke 
 of AYellington. At all events, Lord Fingal, who is in atten- 
 dance on the Queen, writes that Lord Melbourne is perfectly 
 satisfied that no change of Administration will take place 
 during the ensuing session. "We shall see. But in any event, 
 Ireland has no resource save in self- exertion. Three of the 
 provinces are showing their conviction of the truth. Ulster, I 
 think, is foremost. 
 
 "I have the honour to be, most respectfully, of your Grace 
 
 the most faithful, humble servant, si T , ^. ri 
 
 ' ' Daxiel Conxell. 
 
 " Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, &e. 
 
 In a letter written from Derrynane about tins 
 period CVConnell said, " Ireland wants four tilings — 
 corporate reform, an extension of franchise, a due 
 
G56 
 
 Serpents, but Innocuous. 
 
 proportion of representation, and freedom from the 
 burden of supporting the Protestant Church." He 
 further declared that, if these wrongs were not re- 
 dressed, he would devote the residue of his life to 
 obtain a repeal of the Union. 
 
 Lord Norbury was murdered on the 19th of Janu- 
 ary, 1839. He was fairly popular, had no known 
 enemy, and the murderer was never discovered. If 
 the crime had taken place in England, it would have 
 been a nine davs' wonder, and nothing more ; as it 
 happened in Ireland, it created a sensation, and Go- 
 vernment tried to find out a cause. No other cause 
 being apparent or known, it was at once credited to 
 O'Conneli's agitation. It did not in the least matter 
 that there was no connexion whatever between the 
 alleged cause and the supposed effect. 
 
 The English " Tory" members had at last found a 
 grave accusation against Irishmen, which they made 
 to react upon the Government in opposition. 
 
 O'Connell was justly indignant. Mr. Shaw, the 
 Recorder of Dublin, anxious to exalt himself at the 
 expense of his own nation, moved for a return of the 
 outrages committed in Ireland during the last four 
 years. O'Connell answered him in no measured 
 language. 
 
 " Speeches have been made by four gentlemen, natives of 
 Ireland, who, it would appear, come here for the sole purposes 
 of vilifying their native land, and endeavouring to prove that it 
 is the worst and most criminal country on the face of the earth. 
 (Loud cries of ' Oh ! ' from the Tories.) Yes ; you came here 
 to calumniate the country that gave you birth. It is said that 
 
Lord Roden. 
 
 C57 
 
 there are some soils which produce venemous and crawling 
 creatures— things odious and disgusting. (Loud cheers from 
 the Tories.) Yes; you who cheer— there you are — can you 
 deny it ? Are you not calumniators ? (Cries of ' Oh ! ' and 
 hisses.) Oh ! you hiss, but you cannot sting. I rejoice in my 
 native land ; I rejoice that I belong to it ; your calumnies 
 cannot diminish my regard for it ; your malevolence cannot 
 blacken it in my esteem ; and although your vices and crimes 
 have driven its people to outrage and murder — (order) — yes, I 
 say your vices and crimes. (Chair, chair.) Well, then, the 
 crimes of men like you have produced these results. . . . 
 Fourteen murders have occurred in Ireland since the lGth cf 
 November. England since that period has presented twenty- 
 five ; yet no English member has arisen to exclaim, 1 What an 
 abominable country is mine ! "What shocking people are the 
 people of England !' To these you may add two cases of sup- 
 posed murder, thirteen of personal violence, and not less than 
 twenty incendiary fires — one of which, by the way, was at 
 Shaw, in Berkshire." 
 
 On the 21st of March, Lord Roden, a violent 
 Orangeman, moved for a select committee to inquire 
 into the state of Ireland with regard to the commis- 
 sion of crime. 1 
 
 There was another cause besides " hunger" for 
 Irish discontent. It was the aggressions and violence 
 of Orangemen like Lord Eoden, who first, excited 
 party feeling, countenanced, if they did not sanction 
 Orange meetings — and then walked coolty into Par- 
 
 1 An English writer says, " The poor peasant, with his emaciated 
 features, hungry eyes, and murderous bludgeon, is, naturally enough, 
 ready to try the desperate chance of revolt. Till he is transformed 
 into a well-fed, and, as a consequence, gay and happy being, there 
 is no hope for Ireland." — Memoir of Thomas Drwnmond, vol. i., 
 p. 242. 
 
G53 
 
 Letters to Dr. MacHa r e. 
 
 liament, and asked for an inquiry into the cause of 
 Irish discontent. 
 
 Lord Eoden got his committee, but he did not get 
 much advantage thereby. Mr. Drummond was then 
 Chief-Secretary in Ireland, and his evidence went to 
 show that Orange Lodges were the fruitful sources 
 of evil and discord. 1 
 
 The following letters, which passed between his 
 Grace the Archbishop of Tuam and O'Connell during 
 the year 1839, are of the deepest interest : 
 
 " Merrion Scluare, 3rd January, 1839. 
 
 " My ever-respected Lord— I have read, and return 
 your Grace, the copy of Mr. Vigor's letter. I was aware that 
 the Liberals of the county Carlow had strongly testified to 
 Captain Gleeson's services. Nay, Mr. Drummond admitted 
 to me that they had certified that he— Captain Gleeson — had 
 prevented much bloodshed ; as far as Carlow is concerned, his 
 case cannot be made stronger. All I can do for him is to en- 
 deavour to prevail on the Government to give him some office 
 in substitution of that which he has been deprived of. I told 
 him the only plan which could assist me with that view — 
 namely, the procuring a memorial most numerously and re- 
 spectably signed in his favour. I do not know that such 
 memorial will have the desired effect, but I do know that with- 
 out it nothing can be done. 
 
 " I could obtain au investigation — that is, I believe I could 
 obtain an investigation — but that there is one decisive fact to 
 warrant the dismissal of this unfortunate gentleman, which 
 is admitted most distinctly by himself, and indeed, cannot 
 
 1 Mr. Drummond was, we behove, the first English official in Ire- 
 land who ever attempted to restrain Orange justices of the peace 
 from giving open offence to their Catholic fellow-subjects. — Life of 
 Drummond, p. 207. 
 
Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 659 
 
 possibly be denied ; namely, bis publication in the newspapers 
 of the most peremptory contradiction of O'Malley — a species of 
 publication most emphatically prohibited by the printed rules 
 of the service. How, then, can I talk of investigation, when I 
 am met by this plain proposition ? Suppose every other 
 charge disproved, here is one of the gravest admitted, and only 
 palliated by showing the truth of the matter published ; but 
 the publication itself, not its truth or falsehood is the oflence. 
 It seems to me that there is no reply. I wish I could prevail 
 on your Grace to believe me when I tell you the real situation 
 of the Ministry. In the hope that you will give proper weight 
 to my testimony, I repeat it. Some of the Ministry, including 
 Lord John Russell, are anxious to retire with honour — with 
 the exception of Lord Melbourne himself, perhaps there is not 
 one tenacious of office. 
 
 " There is lately another element. It is the fearful state 
 of England, wmich makes it impossible to change the Adminis- 
 tration. The Tories could not, and would not — that is, the 
 leading and national Tories, Wellington, Peel, &c. — would not 
 accept office at present. Even if Connaught, or all Ireland, 
 were to abandon the Ministry, neither the threat nor the fact 
 would have the least innuence on anv Government measure. 
 They are sure of gaining three Tories for every Irishman they 
 may lose. There never was anything more hopeless than to 
 attempt to bully them. I know it from experience. I have 
 tried it and totally failed. I never will try it again— at least, 
 until there is a change in our prospects. 
 
 " I do not, my respected Lord, presume to interfere with 
 Connaught politics. Connaught has been neglected and vilified 
 by the Railway Commissioners ; you have in your last letter 
 shown that it has been almost equally neglected by the Educa- 
 tion Commissioners. It was the province from which, in the 
 Emancipation struggle we received the least and the last as- 
 sistance ; and now that the rest of Ireland is engaged, more or 
 less in another movement, with the exception of Galway, 
 Connaught omits to join. This may be all quite right, but me 
 vol. n. 20 
 
600 
 
 Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 it afflicts with melancholy. That it should rise in an effort for 
 Captain Gleeson would give me great pleasure ; because, 
 although I think a struggle with and for Ireland would be more 
 useful as well as more dignified, yet any political exertion is 
 better than torpor or acquiescence. Ireland has never acted 
 together since the close of the Emancipation fight, and she 
 never again will combine in a simultaneous exertion until the 
 happy day shall, if ever it shall come, when we shall be on the 
 eve of another and a greater political victory. But it is vain 
 to hope for combination from Connaught until your judgment 
 goes with us in our struggles. It is not by mere neutrality, or 
 even passive countenance, that we can be aided by your Grace. 
 You do not think with us, or you would act with us. So far 
 from stating this as matter of complaint, I tender my respect- 
 ful approbation of the line of conduct you pursue, because I am 
 convinced it is the dictate of a mind of the highest order, and 
 of a heart full of the purest love of country and of religion. 
 
 " I trust your Grace will pardon me this lengthened tres- 
 pass. I will conclude by assuring you that I do not deprecate 
 any attack, however violent or powerful on the present Minis- 
 try. I love them not — I respect them little indeed — but I 
 support them to keep out the Tories ; and if it shall happen, 
 as events portend, that a coalition Ministry shall be formed, 
 you will probably have me in direct opposition before the end 
 of the ensuing session. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with profound veneration and 
 respect, my dear Lord, of your Grace the most faithful, 
 attached, and humble servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Most Kev. Dr. MacHale, &c." 
 
 "Merrion Square, 4th April, 1839. 
 
 "My dear and ever-respected Lord — May I congratu- 
 late your Grace that a term has arrived to the fiction of an 
 an ti- Catholic successor to the Catholic St. Jarlath, and that 
 even the name of Archbishop of Tuam is blotted from the voca- 
 bulary of heresy. 
 
 " I am tremblingly alive to the importance of the subject 
 on which I sit down to write to you — one effort more to pro- 
 
Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 CGI 
 
 cure your countenance to the junction of Connauglit to the 
 general exertions of the rest of Ireland. Hitherto that pro- 
 vince contented itself with great and striking, but only occa- 
 sional efforts to aid the great cause, and strike down the 
 common enemy ; and it was not until after we had sent G. 
 M'Donnell on a foreign mission that we obtained any substan- 
 tial assistance from that province. There were then, as there 
 are now, some excellent reasons for good men to differ ; but now 
 we want union and the assistance of each other more than we 
 did then when the English biogtry was not near as much 
 roused as it is now. 
 
 u There is at present one ingredient which seems to operate 
 against * Precursor' co-operation from Connauglit, and it is 
 this— the condemnation of the national education scheme by 
 your Grace, which would require parochial contributions for the 
 purposes of education, and, as an apparent consequence, the 
 prevention of any part of the funds of any parish being diverted 
 into the 1 Precursor ' treasury. On this subject, however, I 
 can say — 1 Experto crede Roberto.' I can give your Grace the 
 result of thirty years and more of experience, and it is this — 
 that once get a parish into a mood of contributing to public 
 purposes, the more such purposes are brought before them, the 
 more liberal will be each aggregate contribution. So many 
 persons will not give pounds or rive shillings, but many more 
 will give one shilling. It will and has uniformly become a 
 habit to contribute, and thus a Precursor subscription would, 
 according to my experience augment your school contributions. 
 
 "At least, results of this description have followed in 
 almost every other instance. The fact is, the great resource 
 even for collecting the revenues of the state is to be found in 
 the multiplication of small sums. 
 
 1 1 The contributors should individually be solicited to give 
 sums smaller than each could reasonably afford. 
 
 4 'The peril of a Tory restoration is very eminent, and 
 every one opinion is, that upon a new election the Liberal 
 members for Ireland would little exceed forty. 
 
 " The Tories in England would be greatly augmented. 
 The English people are essentially Tory, and nothing pre- 
 serves us from actual persecution but the numbers and the 
 
G02 
 
 Letters from Dr. MacHale. 
 
 moral energy of the Irish people. It is with this conviction I 
 venture once again to solicit, or at least to suggest your 
 leading Connaught into the controversy by joining the organi- 
 sation of our Precursors. 
 
 "We may, and I believe will, have a majority on Lord 
 John's motion, but he will infallibly break up the Administra- 
 tion within twelve months. He is tired and disgusted with 
 office, and would personally be glad we were defeated on the 
 ensuing debate. We are arrived at portentous times. We 
 are arrived at times in which persecution may again raise its 
 head ; and, at all events, there would appear to be no safety 
 save in perfect union amongst ourselves. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, very respectfully, of your Grace 
 the most faithful servant and affectionate friend, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " The Archbishop of Tuam, &c." 
 
 " Tuam, 16th April, 1839. 
 
 " My deae Me. O'Connell — I have been in receipt of your 
 last esteemed favour, and beg to return you my sincere thanks 
 for your very kind congratulations. However, it must be 
 owned,' though the name of Protestant Archbishop is abolished, 
 together with the bishoprics of the Establishment, much, if not 
 all, of that remains which has been the bitter source of the 
 misfortunes of Ireland. Not only are the temporalities of the 
 Establishment secured, but they are also so disposed of in send- 
 ing missionaries and Scripture-readers through the country, as 
 to give much annoyance to the Catholic people. In short, the 
 spirit of religious ascendency and intolerance still prevails, and 
 were it not under some check from the popular "influence, it 
 would manifest itself in a still more offensive manner. Nay, 
 in the provisions made for educating the people, the bigotry 
 that so long cursed Ireland is not at all concealed. It is 
 attempted to supersede the exercise of the most ordinary duties 
 of the pastors, and to hand over the education of the Catholics 
 of Ireland to a board composed of the ancient enemies of our 
 country and of our faith, and some Catholics, a portion of 
 whom care but very little for the practical observances of re- 
 ligion as connected with the education of Catholic children. 
 It is this state of things, as well as the marked insult and in- 
 
Letters from Dr. MacHale. 
 
 663 
 
 justice with which their province in particular is treated that 
 makes the people of Connaught so indifferent in joining the 
 Precursors' Society. There can be no hope of that justice for 
 which the people are straggling. While the ascendency of the 
 Protestant Establishment is left in full vigour, without active 
 strenuous exertions to abate all mischief, it is my sincere con- 
 viction that it will be difficult to concentrate the national 
 spirit, such as it was in the Catholic associations. The people 
 require progressive improvement in legislation, as well as a 
 fair administration of the laws. Without a sure prospect of 
 such improvement, and, above all, without a hope that the 
 religious ascendency which is still felt will be put an end to. 
 
 " Without this entire religious equality the foundations of 
 justice cannot be laid. If the people do not obtain an enlarge- 
 ment of their civil rights, they and their pastors should be left 
 the free enjoyment of their religious rights without an attempt 
 to subject them to an unhallowed combination of religious 
 bigotry and political despotism. It is not really the mode for 
 any Administration to secure the confidence and support of a 
 people who, much as they value their civil rights, value their 
 religion more. Still we have all done our duty during this 
 crisis, and raised our voice in protesting against the sanguinary 
 demonstrations of the Tories. Yet if the system of politics is 
 not changed you may rely on it the name of Whigs or Radi- 
 cals will have no charm, and the people, tired of promises not 
 fulfilled, will abandon them to their fate. Their only chance 
 of a permanent continuance in power is a firm determination to 
 do justice to Ireland, which is incompatible with its ecclesias- 
 tical establishments and the present religious inequality of its 
 people. I hope the Ministers will take a salutary lesson from 
 the difficulties into which their feeble policy has thrown them, 
 and that you will be enabled, if you hope for the free, generous, 
 and uncalculating aid of the nation, to enlarge your demands 
 upon the Government, and to insist on those rights respecting 
 religious equality of which every Administration appears equally 
 attentive, and which the great body of the people are most 
 anxious to obtain. I cannot omit this opportunity of thanking 
 you most sincerely for your zeal in behalf of Captain Gleeson. 
 which he hopes will be successful in doing him justice." 
 
664 
 
 Letters from Dr. MacHale. 
 
 " October 15, 1839. 
 
 " My deae Mr. O'Connell — I am just returned from the 
 Island of Achill, where I have been for some time, striving to 
 preserve a portion of my flock from some thieves who planted 
 themselves there, and are using every exertion to traffic by 
 bribing and working on the misery of the poor natives. The 
 mission was not calculated to make me feel any gratitude to 
 the Government, since I found that the coastguards were the 
 active agents of those impostors, notwithstanding that com- 
 plaints were made by some of the Catholic clergy there of such 
 influence. Nay, it appeared after a long investigation held 
 some time ago, that their officer took a most offensive and un- 
 warrantable part in their anti- Catholic proceedings. You per- 
 ceive, then, how active and untiring is the hostility of our 
 enemies to our religion, and how their enormous wealth is still 
 made the instrument by which the perversion of the people is 
 sought. On the strongest religious grounds, then, as well as 
 political, I am opposed to the tithes or rent charge, knowing 
 well, as long as those who are hostile to our faith can command 
 such a fund, they will strive to convert it to the injury of our 
 religion. 
 
 " You need not, therefore, fear any abatement of the agita- 
 tion on that subject. It is here deemed the sum of every 
 other grievance without the removal of which our agitation 
 would be of little avail. It is, therefore, put forth as the most 
 prominent of the evils of Ireland. I am delighted that the 
 gentry — the men who in general hitherto stood aloof from the 
 contest — have at length embarked in it, resolved to get rid of 
 an impost that involves so much their own reputation as well 
 as the interest of their own families. This spirit is progressing 
 fast, and has already spread through all parts of the province, 
 everywhere reprobating the injustice and cruelty of the tithes. 
 On other minor points, as well as the means of obtaining 
 justice, there is some discrepancy of opinion. This is owing 
 to the deep-seated conviction that the present Ministry have 
 not done what they were capable of doing for the country. 
 The people think it a matter of little importance what may be 
 the profession of their rulers, if they find those professions 
 realised in measures to which the people are opposed, such as 
 
Letter to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 665 
 
 the Tithe Act and poor-laws. I fear the Whigs calculate on a 
 full amnesty for all their bad acts, because the people hate the 
 Tories. The restoration of clerical magistrates, &c, is not 
 calculated to recall any of the confidence which they have for- 
 feited. They are expecting too much. They hope for the 
 unqualified support of the people without any pledge on their 
 specific measures, for which the people are contending. Even 
 now, at the last hour, were they to come forward, and throw 
 themselves generously on the people, and promise such an 
 extension of the franchise, an increase of representatives, but, 
 above all, such an immediate and universal appropriation of the 
 tithes as you mentioned in your letter, always respecting the 
 rights of the present incumbents, I am sure that all Ireland 
 would so rally round them as to bring dismay into the ranks of 
 the Tories. Without such declaration on their part, it is my 
 belief the agitation will not be so general or successful. Any 
 influence we command with the people is founded on the credit 
 they give us for seeing a fair prospect of improvement in their 
 condition. We cannot hold out this prospect to them unless it 
 is given by our rulers or extracted from their fears. I wish 
 you could induce them to give us more confidence. If they do 
 not, then the people, relying no longer on their vague promises, 
 will rely on their own exertions ; the present difference of 
 opinion will vanish, and you will find no difficulty in concen- 
 trating them against either Whigs or Tories. Whether they 
 accede to your request or not, you may calculate on general co- 
 operation." 
 
 " Merrion Square, 23rd December, 1839. 
 
 " My dear and most esteemed Lord — If the period we 
 have arrived at were not one of singular interest, I should not 
 obtrude on your Grace's time or attention. I, however, believe 
 that a crisis of deeper interest has not arisen for many years, 
 nor one which, in my humble judgment, could be more capable 
 of being converted into purposes of such great utility for Ire- 
 land. It is this conviction which emboldens me to ask your 
 Grace for advice and for co-operation. 
 
 " The time is come when all Catholic Ireland should 
 rally — should form a strong and universal combination. 
 
 " The Tories are united ; you perceive that they are daily 
 
666 
 
 Letter to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 becoming less careful to conceal their intentions. They avow 
 their bitter hostility to the religion and to the people of 
 Ireland. 
 
 " The furious and most sincere of the British Tories avow 
 their intention to re-enact the Penal Code, whilst the more 
 wily declare their designs not to go farther than to render the 
 Emancipation Act a mere dead letter — to leave it on the 
 statute book, but to render it totally inoperative in practice. I 
 care little for its not being repealed in point of law, if it be re- 
 pealed in fact and in operation. The mainspring of Tory 
 hostility to Ireland is hatred of the Catholic religion. This is 
 not to be endured. We cannot suffer ourselves to be trampled 
 under the hoofs of the brutal Orangemen of either countries. 
 We want protection for the Catholics against all parties, Minis- 
 terial as well as Tories. My object would be once again to 
 organise all Catholic Ireland in an effort of resistance to all 
 our enemies. 
 
 u It is proposed by some Catholics of the very moderate 
 party to make the basis of our new exertions a declaration that 
 the Catholics are now too numerous, possess too much property 
 and intelligence, and are too brave to submit to any inferiority 
 in their native land ; and, of course, that at the peril of life and 
 fortune they are ready to resist by all means within the law 
 and constitution all and every oppression. These general 
 principles will include all details, and, of course, involve the 
 application of the tithe rent- charge to public purposes. I 
 'know the education question creates a difficulty in the way of 
 general co-operation between the Catholics. But for that I 
 should expect the signatures of all the Catholics, prelates, 
 priests, and people, to an exceedingly strong declaration of de- 
 termined resistance to the threatened oppression. 
 
 Would to God I could interfere to have your Grace and 
 Dr. Murray understand each other-— I mean, agree together on 
 the proper securities against anti- Catholicism in the plan of 
 general education. This wish is, I fear, an idle one, but if your 
 Grace were in Dublin I do think something might be done to 
 satisfy your just apprehensions. The scheme of giving Govern- 
 ment dominion over Catholic education is failing on the Conti- 
 nent, as the Catholic people grow alarmed at its tendency,." 
 
Chapter c ififtccnth. 
 
 AGITATION FOR REPEAL. 
 1839-1843. 
 
 The Repeal Movement Projected: Correspondence, 
 Explaining Ideas and Plans with Dr. MacHale : 
 Repeal Association Formed: Discouraging Start: 
 Repeal Meetings in the South and North: 
 General Election, O'Connell Unseated: Elected 
 Lord Mayor of Dublin: Attacked by Shrews- 
 bury: The Repeal Year, " par excellence :" The 
 Association, Terms of Membership and Card: 
 Peel and Repeal: Monster Meetings at Ennis 
 and Mullaghmast : European Fame: O'Connell 
 and the Society of Friends: Letters to Dr. 
 Mac Hale. 
 
MAR XV 
 
 Christmas Eve 1839, 
 O'Connell wrote a 
 etter to the Arch- 
 3 of Tuam, of which 
 a fragment remains ; yet 
 fragment is all-impor- 
 ;elf almost an epitome of 
 the life of this illustrious Irishman, 
 now drawing to its close. In this frag- 
 ment we find the following words : 
 
 " We have ourselves to fight the battle of 
 Ireland and Catholicity against the Orange and 
 Tory faction. I am tremblingly alive to the part 
 von will take. Your co-operation would in my 
 mind, be quite decisive of success. Of course, I 
 will not take, or allow to be taken, any step in- 
 consistent with law ; nor would I ask that your Grace should 
 commit vourself one inch beyond your own inclination but I 
 
The Repeal Movement Projected. 
 
 do want your countenance — your something more than mere 
 acquiescence — the larger that more is the better. Indeed, I do 
 believe the fate of Catholic Ireland is now in your hands. If 
 we had you going with us in the strength of your judgment, 
 there would arise a combination more powerful than the old 
 Catholic Association." 
 
 O'Connell began life with a denunciation of the 
 Union ; he ended it with a cry for Repeal. He 
 could not know, indeed, that he had but a few years 
 to live, that his span of life was nearly over ; but he 
 must have felt it. He was a hale old man certainly, 
 but he was to die. He had one of those fine old- 
 fashioned constitutions which are extinct like the 
 dodo ; but the best constitution in the world will not 
 last for ever, because it is only created for time. 
 
 It was characteristic of the man that he should 
 have set to work at the Repeal movement when he 
 was near his threescore years of life, and at the end 
 of forty years of such incessant work as few men had 
 ever gone through. 
 
 On the 8th of April, 1840, he wrote to his friend 
 Dr. MacHale to explain his plans, and telling him all 
 his hopes and fears : 
 
 Private. 
 
 " London, 8th April, 1840. 
 
 " My evee-veneeated and deae Loed — Whenever I have 
 formed the intention of making a great popular movement, or 
 a movement which I hope to be great, I have in latter times 
 taken the liberty of announcing my intentions to your Grace in 
 the strong wish to obtain the aid of your giant mind and 
 national influence. In this I have not been very successful. I 
 got from you much excellent and very wise advice ; but active 
 
Explanation of Plans. 
 
 671 
 
 co-operation you thought it lit not to give me. I bow with sub- 
 missive respect to the judgment which induced you to decline — 
 I would not, and I could not, say to refuse me — that co-opera- 
 tion. I have neither the right nor the inclination to complain 
 of your decision. If you were not as free as air to act or not 
 to act, I would not be guilty of the great presumption of ad- 
 dressing your Grace on political subjects at all, or in any 
 contingency. 
 
 " With these sentiments, embodied, as they are with the 
 most profound respect, I now lay before your Grace my present 
 plan. It is this : 
 
 "To organise 'A Justice or Repeal' Association. The 
 justice I require branches itself into four different heads of 
 grievance. 
 
 u 1st, The payment and support by the State in Ireland of 
 the Church of the minority of the Irish people. This is the 
 first, the greatest of our grievances. 
 
 i: 2nd, The omission to give the Irish full corporate reform. 
 
 '''3rd, The omission to give the Irish people the same 
 political franchises which the people of England enjoy. 
 
 " 4th, The omission to give the people of Ireland an 
 adequate share of parliamentary representation. 
 
 u The association I propose will organise, I hope, the Irish 
 people to insist on the redress — the full redress — of these 
 grievances from the Imperial Parliament ; and if not speedily 
 and fully granted by that Parliament, then from a restored 
 domestic Legislature. 
 
 "I was to have a provincial meeting in Connaught, to 
 oppose Stanley's Bill, and to promote the association I have 
 above sketched. But I will not invade your province without 
 your previous sanction, or at least your previous assent. I 
 hope to find a letter from you before me on Monday next at 
 Men ion Square." 
 
 " You were, in your former letters, pleased to labour with 
 me to use my influence with the present Ministry to adopt a 
 more liberal course of legislation in Ireland, or I should say for 
 
G72 
 
 Explanation of Plans. 
 
 Ireland ; and you conveyed the idea to my mind that I ought 
 to obtain from the Government that adoption by menacing to 
 desert them at their need, and to allow the Tories to put them 
 out. It was in vain that I assured your Grace that the leading 
 men of the present Ministry, and especially Lord John Russell, 
 desire, anxiously desire, an honourable opportunity of giving 
 up power. They do not cling to it, believe me— I do beg of 
 you to believe me, for I know the fact — they do not cling to 
 office with any tenacity that would make such a menace of the 
 slightest avail. Now do, my dear and most revered Lord, 
 believe me, that this is the simple fact. Nay, they menace me 
 to resign unless I satisfy them in my conduct. Under these 
 circumstances, is it too much for me to ask your Grace to be- 
 lieve me that I am utterly unable to influence the Govern- 
 ment ? I implore of you to have this ingredient in your mind 
 in coming to any determination, that I cannot possibly per- 
 suade the Ministry to adopt or reject any particular measure, 
 or to take any particular course. It is true that I have already 
 written to this effect to your Grace, but alas ! you seemed not 
 to credit my assertion; and now I respectfully solicit an 
 answer, if you think fit to write to me at all. Do you believe 
 me when I say I am utterly powerless in respect to influencing, 
 persuading, or in any way affecting the acts of the Ministry ? 
 
 " My own private and confidential opinion is, that the 
 Tories will soon, very soon be in office. One reason why I 
 wish to organise Ireland is this conviction. 
 
 " Give me any, even the slightest hint, that you see any 
 inconvenience in my going into Connaught, and I will not ap- 
 proach its borders. One unhappy event, on the other hand, 
 has prevented the Irish people from having the ' power of the 
 West' with them. I blame nobody. If anybody be to blame, 
 I am probably the man. I certainly know no person in that 
 province who ought to share any such blame. Nor do I, nor 
 can I possibly, either directly or indirectly, allude to any other 
 circumstance, or to what may have happened in the unques- 
 tionably conscientious discharge of any duty. 
 
L :>./' from Dr. MacHaU. 
 
 678 
 
 " I do,, in conclusion, implore your Grace to forgive me for 
 this intrusion. It is indeed dictated by the most sincere re- 
 spect, the most unqualified veneration, and the not culpable 
 anxiety to stand well in your judgment as a public man and as 
 a Christian. 
 
 ** I have the honour to be, venerated Lord, of your Grace 
 the most faithful humble servant, 
 
 " Daniel 0' Con nell. 
 The Most Rev. the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 ■ April 1840. 
 
 '*My dear Mr. O'Connell— I have read with deep in- 
 terest the kind letter with which you have honoured me. I 
 am only surprised that you could for a moment imagine that I 
 would be indifferent to any communication from such a source. 
 I prize it the more on account of your continued personal 
 friendship, notwithstanding my apparent, for it is only appa- 
 rent, apathy in the political transactions of the country. If 
 you are not in sufficient possession already of the cause, I shall 
 more fully explain it in another letter. We have arrived at an 
 awful crisis. Never since you embarked in the cause of your 
 country and religion, were your exertions more required in vin- 
 dicatir.: ;he freedom of both. This last measure is the dead- 
 liest stroke yet aimed at our liberty. Whilst the franchise 
 remained, there was yet hope for a peaceful assertion of our 
 rights — take that away and the people are left without any 
 arms in their hands : and in this defencless posture again ready 
 for any experiment of slavery or despotism. The protection, 
 nay the extension of the franchise, is a common cause on 
 which there should be no controversy. All Ireland should 
 shout its reprobation of those who would thus attempt to take 
 from the honest man the shield and the sword of his freedom. 
 Already have there been meetings in this part of the country 
 denouncing this infamous measure, and not forgetting those 
 who were absent from the division. It is worthy of the hatred 
 of Stanley for Ireland. I shall cheerfully give you all the as- 
 sistance in my power ; and when you come to Connaught to 
 
674 
 
 Letter to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 hold your meeting, how delighted shall I be if you honour 
 again with your presence my humble mansion. 
 
 "You cannot 'invade' any part of Ireland. For you, at 
 least, the boundaries of dioceses and provinces should dis- 
 appear. It is only against the heretics and the Sassenachs, 
 for I really have no relish for the ascendency pretensions of 
 either, that I proclaim the inviolability of my spiritual territories. 
 But as you have never been the abettor of either, you have a 
 right to come as the conqueror of civil and religious liberty into 
 all parts of Ireland, and to receive the heartfelt homage of its 
 grateful people. Ireland must now be awakened to its duty, 
 and fully impressed with the conviction that it is not on Whig, 
 nor Tory, nor Kadical it is to rely, for they are all hostile to 
 our holy religion, but on our own concentrated efforts, which 
 alone can save us from the despotism to which we shall other- 
 wise be doomed. Come, then, among us as early as you can 
 find it convenient, and you will have a ceacl mille failthe. 
 
 " Wishing you renewed energies for the increased struggles 
 that shall await you, I have the honour, &c, 
 
 " * MacHale." 
 
 On the 16 tli of July 'Conn ell wrote again, and 
 more fully, on the subject so near his heart : 
 
 Private. 
 
 " Merrion Square, 16th July, 1840. 
 
 My dear and venerated Lord— You have probably been 
 witnessing, at least Occasionally, in the newspapers, my pro- 
 gress. If so, you will have seen that I have devoted myself to 
 the restoration of the Irish Parliament — a matter of difficulty, 
 but an impossibility only to those who will not take the proper 
 means to overcome the difficulty. 
 
 " I have placed, as the master grievance to be redressed by 
 the Kepeal of the Union, the payment by the nation of the 
 Church of the minority. 
 
 "I am convinced that there is no mode of attaining this 
 object but through the Repeal agitation. 
 
Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 675 
 
 <; Of course your Grace will not mistake me so far as to 
 suppose that I obtrude these opinions as presuming to call for 
 your assent. I simply state them to be understood as to the 
 principles on which I act, being (as I am) convinced that, if 
 there be not a combined effort made by the Irish people, 
 Stanley's bill will be carried into law in the next session. The 
 effect will be to repeal in substance the Reform and the Eman- 
 cipation Acts. 
 
 ''I propose to contribute to the development of the public 
 sentiment by attending provincial meetings during the vacation. 
 Of course I will not invade Connanght without the assent of 
 your Grace, and, indeed, I should say without your co-operation. 
 I propose Tuam as the place — the time I would leave to your 
 Grace, if you shall be so kind as to assist me ; and you must 
 perceive that I am incapable of fixing on Tuam without your 
 approbation. My object would be to forward the Repeal if that 
 were practicable, but, if not, to confine the object to these four : 
 
 " 1st, Petitions for the extinction or public appropriation 
 of the tithe rent-charge. 
 
 " 2nd, Petitions for the extension of the elective franchise 
 in Ireland. 
 
 " 3rd, Petitions against any bill on the principle of Lord 
 Stanley's bill. 
 
 "'4th, Petitions for full corporate reform. 
 
 " Those who choose to assist in the Repeal and to declare 
 themselves Repealers, would have an opportunity of doing so. 
 But I confess I should desire a Repeal resolution of the 
 provincial meeting, if attainable. 
 
 " An organisation by parishes for the purpose of carrying 
 the above objects into effect would be very desirable. 
 
 " In short, if we had the Repeal : 
 
 " Religion would be free. 
 " Education would be free. 
 u The press would be free. 
 
 '•'No sectarian control over Catholics; no Catholic control 
 over sectarians — that is. no species of political ascendency. 
 
 VOL. II. 21 
 
676 
 
 Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 " The law would, of course, sanction in the fullest measure 
 the spiritual authority of the Episcopal order over religious 
 discipline amongst Catholics, including Catholic education. 
 
 " These are plans of great importance. I think I could, 
 with support from a chosen few comparatively speaking, carry 
 them into full effect. 
 
 " I go specially to Mayo, I believe — certainly to Galway. 
 I have the honour to be, with profound respect, of your Grace 
 the obedient servant, Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 " Castlebar, 25th July, 1840. 
 
 " My deae and veneeated Loed — I received your admi- 
 rable letter with the greatest pleasure and gratitude ; all is safe 
 now ; we will work the great question of questions until it be- 
 comes too big for English opposition. I have the strongest 
 confidence in complete and not remote success. What I pro- 
 pose relative to the provincial meeting is founded on your letter, 
 and it is this — that it should be held at Tuam on the second 
 Monday in August, which will be the 10th. The Galway assizes 
 will be quite over, and the return from the assizes will enable 
 many without inconvenience to come to Tuam. I will prepare 
 a requisition here, and get it signed for that day. I, will send 
 a copy to your Grace, and if it meets your approval, we will 
 put our shoulders to the wheel for that day. 
 
 " It is vain to expect any relief from England. All parties 
 there concur in hatred to Ireland and Catholicity; and it is 
 also founded in human nature that they should, for they have 
 injured us too much ever to forgive us. 
 
 "I have the honour to be, my Lord, of your Grace the 
 most respectful, faithful servant, 
 
 "Daniel O'Connell. 
 " The Most Kev. the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 " Merrjon SauARE, 30tfi July, 1840. 
 
 " My veey deae and eespected Loed — We have launched 
 the Kepeal cause well in Connaught, ten thousand thousand 
 thanks to your Grace. But well begun will not alone do. We 
 
Letters to Dr. Mac Rale. 
 
 677 
 
 must follow it up well for the provincial meeting. More de- 
 pends on the success of that meeting than I can describe. If 
 we make an impression by the magnitude and respectability of 
 that meeting, the result will be most favourable on the other 
 provinces, and having the three provinces with us, we shall 
 easily procure a great portion of Ulster, perhaps more than 
 may be imagined by those who look only at the surface. 
 
 u That being the reverse of the case or your Grace, I look 
 with the utmost confidence to your decided and energetic 
 support at the approaching provincial meeting. 
 
 " The first thing — a most important thing it is — necessary, 
 is to have a requisition as numerously and as respectably 
 signed as possible. For this, I must depend mainly on your 
 Grace. It will, my Lord, require activity and energy which 
 you (blessed be God !) possess ; but it will require time which, 
 amidst your great and important duties, you cannot well spare, 
 and yet, I trust that tliis is one of those duties, or at all 
 events that its tendency is to promote the greatest and best of 
 them. I do, therefore, venture to solicit your active co- 
 operation. 
 
 '' You will at once get Lord Ffrench's signature and that 
 of his son's, perhaps, brother's. Blake, the member for Gal- 
 way, will, I know, be guided by you. He is at times sturdy, 
 but he is a truly honest man— honest to the heart's core, and a 
 faithful Catholic. In short, he will, if you deem it right to 
 ask or advise him, give his hearty co-operation. 
 
 " The Ulster meeting will take place the day after ours. 
 I should be so proud to beat them in everything. Copies of 
 the requisition should be sent round the counties to get addi- 
 tional names, and all may be collected at the close of the first 
 week of the Assizes of Galway. 
 
 " Excuse me for being thus tediously particular, but I am 
 most thoroughly convinced that the Repeal alone can keep 
 secure the religion and the liberties of the Irish people. 
 
 " The insidious machinations of the enemies of both can be 
 counteracted successfully only by an Irish legislation. 
 
678 
 
 Repeal Association Founded. 
 
 " I have determined not to go into Galway until Sunday 
 afternoon. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with profound respect, my dear 
 Lord, of your Grace the most faithful and devoted servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 " To the Most Kev. the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 O'Connell founded the Repeal Association on the 
 15th of April, 1840. The first meeting was held at 
 the Corn Exchange, and he thus explained his 
 reasons for selecting this place : 
 
 " At the outset of the old Catholic Association, I inspected 
 various places— amongst others, Holmes' Commercial Mart, on 
 Usher's Island — with a view to procure a suitable apartment. 
 I learned that if I should select any unprotected site, it was 
 the purpose of the anti- Catholic students of Trinity College to 
 muster in full force, and endeavour, at least, to expel the 
 Catholic associators by physical violence. I accordingly 
 looked out for a room in such a neighbourhood as might deter 
 the College lads from making their proposed attempt. Of 
 course they would, under any circumstances, have been 
 worsted ; but it might have in some measure injured our cause 
 had the meetings been liable to disturbance, and had any of 
 them broken up in a riot. The Corn Exchange possessed the 
 advantage of being in the close vicinity of at least 150 coal 
 porters every day in the week, who would have thrown the 
 College lads into the Liffey in case of any effort to disturb the 
 proceedings. This circumstance was known to the intending 
 aggressors, and the salutary knowledge effectually checked 
 their projects of intrusion." 
 
 The commencement was not very encouraging. 
 The chair was taken by John O'Neil of Fitzwilliam 
 Square, a steadfast patriot ; but O'Connell waited for 
 nearly an hour after the time named for the opening 
 of the meeting, and yet there was but a handful of 
 
Discouragements at First. 
 
 679 
 
 people in the room. There were several reasons for 
 this. O'Connell had been obliged, for many years of 
 Ids life, to devote himself to stirring up the spirit of 
 his compatriots, to exciting their hopes, to firing their 
 ambition, to rousing them from the torpor of despair, 
 into which they had been thrown by reiterated 
 failures. - He had roused them, and he had shown 
 them that some measure of justice could be attained 
 by perseverance, by energy, by reiterated demands. 
 It was but natural that the sons of those men whom 
 he had so aroused should look a little beyond their 
 father, should desire more, should be more eager to 
 attain it — and not having personal knowledge of an 
 unsuccessful rebellion, should be disposed to fight 
 for liberty, as apparently a quicker method of obtain- 
 ing it than by agitating. They had a good deal of 
 pluck, a good deal of daring, a good deal of hopeful- 
 ness, and a very limited supply of worldly wisdom. 
 They did not care to beg for Repeal. If O'Connell 
 had proposed fighting for it, they would have been 
 re ady. Again, there was a multitude who were in- 
 different, who could not see any immediate personal 
 benefit to accrue from Repeal ; and again there were 
 many who thought O'Connell was not in earnest. 
 
 But he was not a man to be daunted by difficul- 
 ties, and he opened his meeting as easily as if 
 thousands had been present. These words, he said, 
 shall be inscribed on my tomb, " He died a Re- 
 pealer." They have not been inscribed there ; yet, 
 lor all that, the Repeal movement prospered. 
 
630 Prosperity Notwithstanding. 
 
 There were several reasons for this. First, 
 O'Connell's name was sufficient to make any Irish 
 movement prosper ; and when it was known or 
 believed that he was in earnest, thousands enrolled 
 themselves under his banner. Second, England was 
 in a state of chronic disturbance, and O'Connell 
 believed that England's difficulty was Ireland's op- 
 portunity. English statesmen were too busy with 
 their own affairs, to do more than open and read the 
 private correspondence of O'Connell and his friends 
 as it passed through the post office. 1 Thirdly, the 
 Temperance movement, which had been inaugurated 
 by Father Mathew, was a most powerful auxiliary to 
 O'Connell's agitation, for the people had learned to 
 assemble in thousands, to enjoy themselves inno- 
 cently, and to separate without disturbance and 
 bloodshed. 2 
 
 Sir Kobert Peel came into office at the close of 
 the year 1841. O'Connell has often been accused of 
 coalescing with the Whigs. He may have done so ; 
 "but as he took neither place nor pension, his motives 
 must have been disinterested. During the years 
 1840 and 1843, O'Connell devoted himself to pro- 
 
 1 Lord Brougham spoke on the state of England, in Parliament, 
 as being full of discontent and afflicted with distresses." — Life of 
 Lord Brougham, p. 511. The Chartist agitation was then at its 
 height. 
 
 2 It need scarcely be observed that Father Mathew kept himself 
 sacredly aloof from politics ; and was rather displeased than gratified 
 when O'Connell insisted on joining one of his processions in Cork. — 
 Life of Father Mathew, by J. F. Maguire Esq., M.P., p. 436. 
 
Reception at Limerick 
 
 681 
 
 moting the Repeal Association by holding mass 
 meetings in various parts of Ireland. The London 
 Examiner had compared the Eepeal movement to the 
 cry of the Darrynane beagles. "Yes," observed 
 O'Connell, "but he made a better hit than he in- 
 tended, for my beagles never cease their cry until 
 they catch their game." 
 
 In the autumn of 1840, O'Connell held a repeal 
 meeting at Cork. He was met by thousands who 
 tried to take the horses from his carriage and draw 
 trim into the city in triumph, but he would not 
 permit it. 1 The meeting was held at Batty 's Circus, 
 and the utmost enthusiasm was displayed. The 
 Liberator next proceeded to Limerick, where it is 
 said that he was met by a multitude little short of 
 100,000 persons. The ship-carpenters had got up a 
 kind of pageant : they had a boat on wheels, in 
 which Xeptune sat with his trident, attired in a 
 sea-green costume. He rose when O'Connell ap- 
 proached, and made him a speech, to which O'Con- 
 nell replied with his usual quick wit, by saying, " he 
 felt quite refreshed by receiving an aquatic com- 
 pliment on the dusty high road." He addressed the 
 people in George's Street, opposite to Cruise's Hotel, 
 and from thence he proceeded to the Treaty Stone, 
 
 1 When they proceeded to undo the harness, O'Connell cried out 
 in great excitement, "Xo! no! no! I never will let men do the 
 business of horses if I can help it ! Don't touch that harness, you 
 vagabonds ! I am trying to elevate your position, and I will not per- 
 mit you to degrade yourselves V 1 — Personal Recollections, vol. i. p. 88. 
 
682 
 
 U A Fair of Rogues. 
 
 where Steele spoke in his usual vehement style. In 
 the evening the whole party were entertained at 
 dinner in the theatre. 1 
 
 At Ennis there was an assembly of fifty thousand 
 men. As the party returned to Dublin, O'Connell 
 pointed out the place where Mr. M'Nally, the son of 
 a barrister, had been robbed of a large sum. He 
 had to levy the amount off the county to indemnify 
 himself. 
 
 " ' A pair of greater rogues than father and son never lived,' 
 said O'Connell ; and the father was busily endeavouring to im- 
 press upon every person he knew a belief that his son had 
 been really robbed. Among others, he accosted Parsons, then 
 M.P. for the King's County, in the hall of the Four Courts. 
 'Parsons! Parsons, my dear fellow!' said old Leonard, 'did 
 you hear of my son's robbery?' — £ No,' answered Parsons, 
 quietly, 1 1 did not — whom did he rob ?' " 
 
 On the 14th of October a repeal meeting was 
 
 " O'Connell's usual travelling companions during the busiest 
 period of the agitation, were Dr. Gray, proprietor of the Freeman's 
 Journal ; Richard Barrett, proprietor of the Pilot ; Robert Dillon 
 Browne, M.P. for Mayo ; Mr. Steele, Mr. Ray (the secretary of the 
 Association), John O'Connell, and Charles O'Connell of Ennis. I 
 often formed one of the travelling party until 1843; but in that 
 year so many meetings sprang up, which I was deputed to attend 
 on the part of the Association, that I found it nearly impossible to 
 accompany O'Connell to any of the celebrated ' monster' assemblages. 
 For instance, on the very day of the enormous Tara meeting, at 
 which 1,200,000 were assembled, I attended a meeting at Clontibret, 
 in the county Monaghan, where an experienced reporter computed 
 that 300,000 persons were present. Such a gathering would at any 
 other time have excited a good deal of public notice ; but it was 
 quite thrown into the shade by the unprecedented muster which 
 O'Connell addressed on the same day at Tara." — Personal Eecollec- 
 tions, vol. i. p. 80. 
 
Pi i bl ic Ehgi igemen ts 
 
 (583 
 
 held at Kilkenny, at which it was calculated 200,000 
 persons were present, 20,000 of whom- were on 
 horseback. On this occasion, when speaking of the 
 Penal Code, O'Connell said : 
 
 " Your priesthood were hunted and put to death ; vet your 
 hierarchy has remained unbroken — a noble monument of your 
 faith and your piety. The traveller who wanders over Eastern 
 deserts, beholds the majestic temples of Baalbec or Palmyra, 
 which rear their proud columns to heaven in the midst of 
 solitude and desolation. Such is the church of Ireland. In 
 the midst of our political desolation, a sacred Palmyra has ever 
 remained to us." 
 
 O'Connell's history at this period is but a suc- 
 cessive record of attendance at public meetings. 
 His engagements are thus summed up : 
 
 " Mr. O'Connell stands pledged to the following engage- 
 ments. To attend the Piepeal Association on the 4th ; to 
 preside at an orphan charity dinner on the 5th ; to agitate for 
 Repeal in Mullingar on the 7th, in Cork on the 11th, and in 
 Dungarvan on the 13th ; to attend a Reform meeting in Dublin 
 on the 15th, and in Belfast on the 18th ; on the 19th to attend 
 a Repeal dinner in the same town ; on the 21st and 22nd a 
 Reform meeting and dinner at Leeds ; on the 23rd, a Reform 
 meeting at Leicester ; and on the 2Gth to take his seat in the 
 House of Commons, attired in his grey frieze Repeal coat." 
 
 At the Mullingar meeting he was met by fifty 
 thousand persons, and the Eight Rev. Dr. Cantwell 
 and the Right Rev. Dr. Higgins, the Bishops of 
 Meath and Ardagh, took prominent places in the 
 procession. 
 
 There were disturbances at this time in Limerick, 
 but the iC Head Pacificator," Tom Steele, was sent 
 down with a white flag, edged with green, to make 
 
084 
 
 Devotion to the Liberator. 
 
 peace. These words were inscribed on the flag, 
 " Whoever commits a crime adds strength to the 
 enemy." Had O'Connell chosen to proclaim himself 
 King or President of Ireland at this period, un- 
 doubtedly no power could have resisted him. The 
 Irish were then a sober nation, and they were united 
 in their devotion to the Liberator as they had never 
 been, and probably never again will be, to any of 
 their leaders. 
 
 In Cork, O'Connell was received with shouts of 
 " Hurrah for Repeal!" 
 
 In Parliament he opposed Mr. Stanley's Bill, to 
 amend the representation in Ireland, with singular 
 success: 
 
 " You would now/' said he, "refuse to Ireland equality of 
 franchises with England. What plea do you allege for this 
 refusal ? Why, the poverty of Ireland. But mark your in- 
 consistency. When I arraigned the Legislative Union as 
 having caused poverty in Ireland, how was I met ? Honour- 
 able gentlemen produced multitudinous statements and calcula- 
 tions to demonstrate that poverty was not general in Ireland, 
 that my statements were exaggerated, and that the Union had 
 created great general prosperity in that country ! You then 
 alleged the prosperity of Ireland as a reason why she should 
 not possess legislative independence ; you now allege her 
 poverty as a reason why she should not enjoy the franchise !" 
 
 In the early part of this year he visited Belfast, 
 and outwitted the Orangemen who had lain in wait 
 to kill him. He had been challenged to hold a dis- 
 cussion on Repeal with the well-known Presbyterian 
 minister, Dr. Cooke. "He was a fool to send the 
 challenge," said O'Connell, "and I would be a fool 
 
O'Connett in Belfast. 
 
 (385 
 
 to accept it." The Repealers of Belfast, however, 
 sent him an invitation, which he accepted. The 
 Eight Rev. Dr. Blake was then Bishop of Dromore, 
 and resident in Xewry. He knew the virulence of 
 the Orange party, and wrote to warn O'Connell. 
 O'Connell took the warning ; he ordered post-horses 
 all along the road from Dublin to Belfast, for 
 Monday the 18th of January, in his own name. He 
 got a friend to order post-horses for Saturday the 
 16th, in the name of C. A. Charles, a well-known 
 ventriloquist. O'Connell arrived that night safely in 
 Belfast, and no doubt enjoyed the joke thoroughly. 
 
 A soiree was given by nearly five hundred ladies 
 of different religious opinions, at which # the health of 
 O'Connell was proposed by the distinguished Bishop 
 of Dromore, Dr. Blake. The Orangemen, however, 
 would not allow the proceedings to escape without 
 molestation, and while O'Connell was speaking, they 
 flung in a volley of stones, smashing windows, and 
 broke chandeliers, though fortunately only one lady 
 was injured. 
 
 In May 1841, O'Connell attended a meeting of Re- 
 pealers in London, when he was attacked on the old 
 charge of using the "Rent" for his own purposes. 1 
 
 1 Many of the English Catholics of the upper class felt very 
 bitterly against O'Connell. However they may have condemned the 
 Repeal agitation, they should not have forgotten that they owed 
 Catholic Emancipation to O'Connell, and to O'Connell's persevering 
 agitation. At this period they knew very little of the real state of 
 Ireland, of the terrible poverty of the people consequent on high rents, 
 bad crops, and depression of trade. After all, the Repeal agitation 
 
' Conn ell Unsea ted. 
 
 A general election occured during this year, and 
 O'Connell lost his seat for Dublin. The exertions of 
 the Tory party, who returned West and Grogan, 
 were almost superhuman. Voters were taken almost 
 from their very death-beds to the polling. Neither 
 money, nor time, nor labour was spared. 1 
 
 The Tory party were triumphant, and did not use 
 their success very delicately. " Steam," they cried, 
 
 was directly beneficial to English Catholics. One of O'Connell's 
 great objects in it, and the one for which, in point of fact, he really 
 worked most earnestly, was to obtain the return of Liberal members 
 to Parliament. He broke through the iron ring of Tory and Orange 
 cxclusiveness which had fenced in Irish constituencies from all but 
 their own party* Even English Liberal Protestants owe a debt of 
 gratitude to O'Connell for this. 
 
 Mr. O'Neil Daunt relates the following anecdote : 
 
 ' 4 An Irish priest, who was collecting subscriptions for the erec- 
 tion of a Catholic church, applied for this purpose to Lord 
 
 " ' Sir,' replied his Lordship, 'I will never give a penny towards 
 any purpose for the use of the Irish.' Why so, my Lord ?' de- 
 manded the priest. 'Because,' replied the peer, 'they subscribe 
 £14,000 a-year to that O'Connell for coming over here to create 
 riot and disturbance.' 
 
 " 1 The ungrateful fellow !' exclaimed O'Connell, when the priest 
 
 repeated Lord 's words ; 1 but for me he would not have been 
 
 emancipated. And, moreover, I saved him £30,000 by insisting 
 that the committee for making the railroad through his property 
 should adhere to their original engagement with him, instead of 
 procuring a new act of Parliament to enable them to obtain his 
 ground for £30,000 less that the valuation first agreed upon."' 
 
 1 The events of this election are amongst the earliest recollec- 
 tions of the present writer. A very near relative was taken in his 
 carriage, though long an invalid, and carried to and from it by four 
 men to vote for Grogan. So strong were his feelings, that if he had 
 died in the effort he would have died content. 
 
" Whisper in your Ear. J aim Bull:' 
 
 687 
 
 has given us Ireland inextricably clutched within 
 our grip." O'Connell replied at a public meeting ; 
 
 " They threaten us with troops by steam. They say that a 
 few hours will land an army here. Steam is a powerful foe — 
 hut steam is an equally powerful friend. Whisper in your ear, 
 John Bull — steam has Drought America within ten days' sail 
 of Ireland." 
 
 Neither of the Kembles could have surpassed the 
 dramatic effect with which O'Connell uttered the 
 words, " Whisper in your ear, John Bull ; " and the 
 scene of wild exultation, of enthusiastic cheering 
 which followed cannot be described. 
 
 On the 1st of November, 1841, O'Connell was 
 elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. Ever since the 
 English nation had apostatised herself, and had 
 striven by fire and sword to compel Ireland to follow 
 her example, she had forced Protestant governors on 
 a Catholic people. O'Connell was indeed worthy to 
 be the first to take the civic chair after the Emanci- 
 pation Act had given it to those who held the same 
 religious belief as the great majority of freemen. 
 
 He announced before his election, that though as 
 an individual he was a Repealer to the death, yet as 
 the chief magistrate he would know no politics and 
 favour no religion. And he kept his word ; yet so 
 strong is the force of prejudice that thirty years 
 passed over before Ireland was allowed a Catholic 
 Lord-Chancellor. 1 
 
 1 The pettiness which manifested itself in obliging O'Connell to 
 be re-elected for Clare was also amusingly manifested in the legis- 
 
688 
 
 O'Connell as Lord Mayor. 
 
 Every one was anxious to see how O'Connell 
 would acquit himself on his first day in court, and 
 the place was crowded to excess. Curiously enough, 
 the first case that came before him was a Catholic 
 priest's, whose servant had summoned him for arrears 
 of wages. O'Connell gave judgment against the 
 priest. 
 
 A few days after O'Connell attended the dinner 
 of St. Malachi's Orphan Charity ; with his usual 
 felicity of expression, he referred to the splendid 
 gold chain of the corporation which he wore, saying : 
 
 " I am here, it is true, but an uncanonised Malachi; I re- 
 semble the old monarch of that name, of whom the poet sings 
 that 
 
 ' Malachi wore a collar of gold ! ' 
 He won it, we are told by the same authority, ' from the proud 
 invader' — whereas I won this from the old rotten corporation of 
 Dublin." 
 
 O'Connell was publicly attacked at this period by 
 Lord Shrewsbury, but he replied in a most spirited 
 letter. He showed, what could not have been 
 denied and what should not have been forgotten — 
 how he had sacrificed himself for Ireland : 
 
 "I flung away the profession — I gave its emoluments to 
 the winds — I closed the vista of its honours and dignities — I 
 embraced the cause of my country — and, come weal or come woe, 
 I have made a choice at which I have never repined, nor ever 
 
 lative regulations for the Lord Mayor. He could not attend Mass 
 in his robes, for as O'Connell observed, " The Mayor may be a 
 Catholic, but his robes must be Protestant." 
 
Letter to Lord Shrewsbury. 
 
 689 
 
 shall repent. An event occurred which I could not have fore- 
 seen. Once more high professional promotion was placed 
 within my reach. The office of Lord Chief Baron of the 
 Exchequer hecame vacant. I was offered it. Or, had I pre- 
 ferred the office of Master of the Rolls, the alternative was pro- 
 posed to me. It was a tempting offer. Its value was enhanced 
 by the manner in which it was made ; and pre-eminently so hy 
 the person through whom it was made — the best Englishman 
 that Ireland ever saw — the Marquis of Normanby. But I 
 dreamed again a day-dream — was it a dream ? and I refused 
 the offer. And here am I now taunted, even by you, with 
 mean and sordid motives. I do not think I am guilty of the 
 least vanity when I assert, that no man ever made greater 
 sacrifices to what he deemed the cause of his country than I 
 have done. I care not how I may be ridiculed or maligned. 
 I feel the proud consciousness that no public man has made 
 greater or more ready sacrifices. Still there lingers behind 
 one source of vexation and sorrow — one evil, perhaps greater 
 than all the rest — one claim, I believe, higher than any other, 
 upon the gratitude of my countrymen. It consists in the bitter, 
 the virulent, the mercenary, and therefore the more envenomed 
 hostility towards me which my love for Ireland and for liberty has 
 provoked. "What taunts, what reproaches, what calumnies have 
 I not sustained — what modes of abuse, what vituperation, what 
 slander have been exhausted against me — what vials of bitter- 
 ness have been poured on my head — what coarseness of language 
 has not been used, abused and worn out in assailing me — what 
 derogatory appellation has been spared — what treasures of 
 malevolence have been expended — what follies have not been 
 imputed — in fact, what crimes have I not been charged with ? 
 I do not believe that I ever had in private life an enemy. I 
 know that I had and have many, very many warm, cordial, 
 affectionate, attached friends. Yet here I stand, beyond con- 
 troversy the most and the best abused man in the universal 
 world ! And, to cap the climax of calumny, you come with a 
 lath at your side instead of the sword of a Talbot, and you 
 
690 
 
 The Repeal Association. 
 
 throw Peel's scurrility along with your own into my cup of 
 bitterness. All this have I done and suffered for Ireland. And 
 let her be grateful or ungrateful — solvent or insolvent — he who 
 insults me for taking her pay, wants the vulgar elements of 
 morality which teach that the labourer is worthy of his hire ; 
 he wants the higher sensations of the soul which enable one to 
 perceive that there are services which bear no comparison with 
 money, and can never be recompensed by pecuniary rewards. 
 Yes, I am — I say it proudly — I am the hired servant of 
 Ireland ; and I glory in my servitude." 
 
 O'Connell now published his "Memoir of Ire- 
 land," and concluded the duties of his mayoralty by 
 revising the burgess roll of Dublin. This obliged 
 him to examine and determine the claims of 18,000 
 persons. Wagers were laid that no human being 
 could perform the task in the time allotted, but 
 O'Connell accomplished it, though every obstacle 
 was placed in his way by the opposite party. 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1843, O'Con- 
 nell announced that it should be the repeal year, par 
 excellence. The Eepeal Association was already 
 formed, and consisted of three classes — members, 
 associates, and volunteers. The associates paid in 
 thirty shillings and received a small card as a token 
 of membership. The members paid one pound per 
 annum. The volunteer's card was given to any one 
 who paid ten pounds. The card was designed by 
 Mr. O'Callaghan, the author of the " Green Book." 
 The names of the four great battles in which the 
 Irish defeated the Danes or English were printed on 
 this card— viz., u Clontarf, 1014;" " Beal-an-atha- 
 
The Volunteers Card. 
 
 091 
 
 buidhe, 1598;" "Benburb, 1645;" "Limerick, 1690." 
 The card was adorned with pikes, banners, and 
 columns. On the shaft of the left column was this 
 inscription : " Ireland contains 32,201 geographical 
 square miles. It is larger than Portugal by 4649 
 miles ; larger than Bavaria and Saxony united by 
 4473 miles; larger than Naples and bicily by 409 
 miles ; larger than Hanover, the Papal States, and 
 Tuscany by 1285 miles; larger than Denmark, Hesse 
 Darmstadt, and the Electorate of Hesse by 9609 
 miles; larger than Greece and Switzerland by 5565 
 miles; larger than Holland and Belgium by 13,065 
 miles ; is in population superior to eighteen, and in ex- 
 tent of territory superior to fifteen European states — 
 and has not a Parliament! " On the shaft of the right 
 column was this inscription: "Ireland has 8,750,000 
 inhabitants; has a yearly revenue of £5,000,000; ex- 
 ports yearly £18,000,000 worth of produce; sends 
 yearly (after paying Government expenses) to 
 England £2,500,000; remits yearly to absentees, 
 £5,000,000; supplied, during the last great war 
 against France, the general and two-thirds of the 
 men and officers of the English army and navy; has 
 a military population of 2,000,000 — and has not a 
 Parliament ! " 
 
 Nothing could be less interesting than a registra- 
 tion of the history of Eepeal meetings. Each had its 
 own local interest, and its own local influence; but 
 as the whole affair came to a lame and impotent con- 
 clusion in consequence of O'ConnelPs imprisonment, 
 vol. ii. 22 
 
692 
 
 The Government and Repeal. 
 
 the record can be of little value. In May, 1843, the 
 Government testified the alarm which had been 
 previously felt. Sir Kobert Peel was asked by Lord 
 Jocelyn, whether the Government intended taking 
 any steps to suppress the Repeal agitation? Sir 
 Robert emphatically declared his resolution to sup- 
 press it if he could, but manifestly he had doubts — 
 O'Connell knew the law too well. If, however, the 
 law as it stood could not put down O'Connell, the 
 law should be amended, as had been done before, or 
 at least as had been suggested by Mr. Perceval. 
 
 O'Connell replied in one of his most enthusiastic 
 speeches— a speech which was printed as a broad- 
 side and placarded from one end of Ireland to the 
 other : 
 
 "We are told," said he, "that some desperate measures 
 are to be taken for the suppression of public opinion upon the 
 question of Repeal. I will tell Peel where he may find a 
 suggestion for his bill. In the American Congress for the 
 district of Columbia, they have passed a law that the House 
 shall not receive any petitions from, nor any petitions on behalf 
 of slaves, even though the petitioners be freemen ! I shall send 
 for a copy of that Act of the Columbian legislature, and send it 
 to Peel, that he may take it as his model when he is framing 
 his bill of coercion for the Irish people. He shall go the full 
 length of the Coercion Bill if he stirs at all." 
 
 The two most famous meetings, in point of num- 
 bers, enthusiasm, and hopes, too soon to be dashed to 
 the ground, were those held at Tara and Mullagh- 
 mast, the one place recalling those ancient glories 
 of Erin so dear to Irish hearts; the other a scene of 
 
The Tara Meeting. 
 
 693 
 
 one of the crudest outrages on justice ever perpe- 
 trated by England against the people of the so-called 
 sister country. The Tara meeting took place on the 
 loth of August, 1S43. The site being only fifty 
 miles from Dublin, was easily reached by cars, and 
 it was calculated that 1400 vehicles went thither 
 from Dublin alone. There was everything to inspire 
 and inspirit the multitude. Bands played along the 
 way, hopes and hearts beat high ; above all, it was a 
 holiday of the Church; and from early morning until 
 the canonical hour of twelve, masses were celebrated 
 at a temporary altar. The sacred ceremonies ended, 
 a short sermon was preached on temperance, and the 
 Liberator, surrounded by thousands and thousands 
 who looked to him as their father and their friend, 
 received a solemn benediction. Two bishops, three 
 vicar-generals, and thirty priests were on the plat- 
 form with O'Connell and his friends. The Times 
 said that a million of people were present. Yet it 
 was here that Ireland's best and noblest son forged* 
 the spear which pierced his own breast; it was here 
 that O'Connell uttered the words for which he w^as 
 afterwards prosecuted. 
 
 During this year, £48,421 were subscribed for 
 Kepeal. From the Tuam meeting in March to the 
 Tara meeting in August, thirty monster assemblies 
 had been held. O'Connell was certain — too certain 
 of success. He had arranged an admirable plan, but 
 it was illegal, and he vainly endeavoured to frame 
 one which should be legal. He proposed a " court 
 
European Fame. 
 
 of three hundred/ 7 which, he said, if once established, 
 could be easily converted into an Irish Paliament; 
 but the " if" was in the way. 
 
 The Mullaghmast meeting was held in October, 
 and on that occasion O'Connell was crowned by 
 Hogan the sculptor, in an assembly of 400,000 men. 
 Government certainly had reason to be alarmed. 
 Europe was ablaze with O'Connell's name and fame. 
 He refused his autograph to the King of all the 
 Eussias, and it was received as a favour by the King 
 of Bavaria. 1 A Repeal meeting was held in Paris • 
 at a dinner M. Arago took the chair, and Ledru 
 Rollin proposed a toast, which was received with 
 acclamation — " To Ireland, the oppressed, and to 
 France, the enemy of all oppression." 
 
 1 The autograph was transmitted through the Eev. W. O'Meara, 
 a Franciscan friar, and a great friend of the Liberator. The cor- 
 respondence, which we hope to publish in another work, has been 
 lent to us by M. Lenihan, Esq., J.P. He has also lent us the auto- 
 graph reply of the King of Bavaria, who prided himself with some 
 reason, on his knowledge of English. It was forwarded to Mr. 
 O'Meara by Baron de Cetto. 
 
 " Sir — I have received the letter of the 10th of Sept., with 
 which you had the complaicancy (sic) to send me an autograph of 
 Mr. D. O'Connell. 
 
 " These lines, written from the hand of that energetical cha- 
 racter, inseparable for ever from the history of our age, should not 
 fail in a collection of this kind. I request you to say my thanks 
 especially to Mr. D. O'Connell himself, for his kindness in fulfilling 
 my desire in such an obliging way. It affords me a pleasure to 
 assure you, sir, of the true esteem with which I am your affectionate 
 
 "Munich, Oct, 12, 1841. Lewis. 
 
 " To the Rev. William Aloysius O'Meara." 
 
 This letter was sealed with the royal arms, and addressed by 
 the King himself. 
 
Chalmers on O'Connell. 
 
 695 
 
 A French lady wrote to O'Connell thus: 
 " A Monsieur O'Connell. 
 
 " Envoi d'une dame Francaise pour obtenir de lui la faveur 
 d'un de ces autographes, qui ne sont refuses, dit on, qiCaux 
 Empereurs ! J. De la Porte. 
 
 11 30 Aout, 1741, Bourdeaux." 
 
 Mr. Daunt gives a curious illustration of his fame 
 at a yet earlier period. He says : 
 
 u One curious illustration of the extent of O'Connell's fame 
 is the following definition, in Flugel's ' German and English 
 Dictionary' (Leipsic, 1827): ' Agitator, n. an agitator — D. 
 O'Connell especially.' 
 
 " In Scotland he found many admirers. Among the most 
 distinguished of these was the celebrated Chalmers. Differing 
 widely in politics and in religion from O'Connell, Chalmers 
 yet cordially admitted his great qualities ; observing to a 
 foreigner — * He is a noble fellow, with the gallant and kindly 
 as well as the wily genius of Ireland.' 
 
 u On Mr. Fitzpatrick's visiting London in 1843, one of the 
 liabitucs of the Stock Exchange said to him — * Your Daniel 
 O'Connell, so far as the Money Market is concerned, is one of 
 the great powers of Europe. His movements have a sensible 
 effect upon the funds.' " 
 
 There was one class of O'Connell's admirers 
 whose approbation he valued very highly. His own 
 peace principles, from which he never swerved for 
 one moment during his long career, procured for him 
 the respect of the Society of Friends. Mr. Daunt 
 says : 
 
 " There was another description of Dissenters from Catho- 
 licity with whom O'Connell was on much better terms than 
 with the proselyting parsons. These were the Quakers. He 
 undoubtedly was not only attached to many of the Society of 
 
696 
 
 O'Connell and the Quakers. 
 
 Friends, but he also admired some of their principles. In 
 both Ireland and England he was in the habit of familiar inter- 
 course with certain leading members of their sect ; and he 
 referred with particular pleasure to the compliment paid him 
 by old Joseph Pease, who was uncle, I think, to the Quaker 
 member for Durham. That good old man had visited him 
 often in London, and one day he said at parting, ' Friend 
 O'Connell, I have for many years watched thine actions closely; 
 I have kept mine eye upon thee, and I have never seen thee 
 do aught that was not honest and useful.' ' Truly,' said 
 O'Connell, ' it was a satisfaction to my mind to be appreciated 
 by that good man. It is consoling that an impartial and in- 
 telligent observer should do me justice. It makes me amends, 
 if I needed any, for a life of labour, and for the vituperation of 
 my enemies.' " 
 
 O'Connell co-operated cordially with the Quakers 
 
 in their efforts for the amelioration of the condition 
 
 of the slaves in America, and the unhappy victims of 
 
 British misrule in India. He was also opposed to 
 
 the punishment of death, knowing, as he did, of so 
 
 many cases in Ireland where it had been unjustly 
 
 inflicted. In 1838 he spoke at a meeting at the 
 
 Town Hall in Birmingham, in celebration of negro 
 
 emancipation. He was received with enthusiastic 
 
 cheering by many of the leading men of the day, 
 
 who were present. O'Connell was much associated, 
 
 in the advancement of these objects, with the late 
 
 Joseph Pease of Darlington, above referred to. His 
 
 daughter, now the widow of Professor Nichol, has 
 
 kindly given the following recollections : 
 
 "In travelling from London that day (1st August, 1838, 
 my father and he had talked over the subject, and came to the 
 conclusion that an energetic agitation must be set on foot; and 
 
Daily Habits. 
 
 GOT 
 
 in a few months the British India Society was formed, meetings 
 held in various parts of the kingdom, and a journal devoted to 
 the advocacy of its objects established. 
 
 "He told me that for twenty-five years of his life he rose 
 soon after four, lighted his own fire, and was always seated to 
 business at five ; at half-past eight one of his little girls came 
 by turns to announce breakfast — gave an hour to that. At 
 half-past ten he set off to the courthouse — walked two miles 
 there in twenty-five minutes — always reached the court five 
 minutes before the judges arrived ; from eleven to half-past 
 three was not a minute unoccupied; at half-past three he re- 
 turned, taking the office of the Catholic Association in his way. 
 He always went in (the regular meetings were only once a 
 week), read the letters, wrote a sentence or two in reply, out of 
 which his secretary wrote a full letter. Returned home ; dined 
 at four ; with his family till half-past six ; then went to his 
 study ; went to bed a quarter before ten, his head on his pillow 
 always by ten." 
 
 This was indeed O'Conneli's day for many a year 
 of his long and useful life. 1 When at home he 
 
 1 Mrs. Xichol has kept copies of a number of autographs which 
 O'Connell wrote for her for the Boston Anti-Slavery Bazaar. Some 
 of these are characteristic, and new at least to the present writer: 
 " D. O'Connell, M.P. Principle — That conscience should be free, 
 education free, the press free, the people free." — " Daniel O'Connell, 
 M.P., the first emotions of whose heart beat for the legislative in- 
 dependence of Ireland." 
 
 In Miss Mitford's Life, published by Bentley (1870), there is a 
 letter from her to Miss Jephson, dated 30th August, 1S34, in which 
 she says : 11 Did I tell you that I had an autograph of 0' Council's — 
 most characteristic ? Here it is : 
 
 ' Still shall thou be my waking theme, 
 
 Thy glories still my midnight dream ; 
 
 And every thought and wish of mine, 
 
 Unconquered Erin ! shall be thine. 
 
 ' August 4, 1834.' ' Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " I was afraid that it was a regular circular autograph, but I 
 
098 
 
 O'Connell in Coventry. 
 
 always had Mass said by his own chaplain before 
 breakfast ; and when in London or Dublin, he rarely 
 omitted hearing Mass at the nearest church. 
 
 In March, 1844, a meeting was held in St. Mary's 
 Hall, Coventry, at which the Mayor presided. The 
 object was to consider the grievances of Ireland, and 
 O'Connell was the principal speaker. The quaint 
 old town was crowded to excess, and hundreds of 
 persons, who were unable to obtain admittance to the 
 hall, were fain to content themselves with a distant 
 view of O'Connell as he proceeded to the railway 
 station, en route for London. While in London he 
 was received into the Order of St. Joseph and Mary, 
 with considerable ceremony, and in the presence of a 
 great number of people. The Illustrated London 
 News, then recently established, gave not only a 
 good sketch of the ceremony, but also a spirited 
 drawing, and the card of the brotherhood or guild. 
 
 We shall conclude this chapter with the letters 
 which O'Connell wrote to the Archbishop of Tuam 
 from November, 1840 to July, 1844, and with an im- 
 
 heard of one different the other day, and have found out that this 
 was written for me expressly, which rejoices me much. I have just 
 been writing a sermon on Tolerance, the virtue most wanted in 
 Ireland, on both sides, I think ; you and yours, and Daniel O'Con- 
 nell himself, seeming to me the only tolerant persons of your 
 country, Protestant or Catholic." 
 
 Miss Mitford was mistaken about the autograph, for it was one 
 which O'Connell gave frequently. 
 
 On the 8th April, 1833, she wrote to Miss Jephson — " I shall 
 entirely be a convert to your countryman. I am turned O'Con- 
 nellite, partly from love of his speeches." 
 
Letter to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 699 
 
 portant document, which has been entrusted to us 
 for this work by Isaac Butt, Esq., Q.C. : 
 
 " Darrynaxe Abbey, 6th Xoveiyiber, 1810. 
 
 11 My ever dear Lord— I write merely to say, that if it 
 it strikes your Grace that I can do, or say, or write anything 
 to forward your views respecting the approaching election for 
 Mayo, you have only to intimate a wish, and it shall of course 
 be to me as a command. Sir T. O'Malley has written to me, 
 but I have replied in general terms, referring him to your 
 decision. It is, to be sure, very unlikely that I could in any 
 respect influence the Mayo election ; and I write to your Grace 
 on the subject only because others foolishly think that I could 
 be of use to them. But if there were any utility in me, it 
 should all be most cheerfully and readily at your Grace's com- 
 mand. 
 
 " I was glad to hear that O'Connor Blake is a candidate. 
 It will delight me to hear that he has your countenance and 
 support. I think it would be a happy device, but of that you 
 must be a better judge than I can be. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with veneration and regard, of 
 your Grace the most faithful affectionate servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Most Rev. Dr. MacHale." 
 
 " Darrvxaxe Abbey, 30M November, 1840. 
 
 "My dear and ever-respected Lord— I have felt great 
 anxiety as to the mode in which I should comply with your 
 Grace's command— for your request is justly a command — to 
 address the men of Mayo. There are so many local interests, 
 prejudices and passions to be consulted and avoided, so much 
 irritation to be soothed, and so much dormant rancour to be 
 allowed to remain in repose, that I have been exceedingly 
 uneasy, lest, whilst I sought to do good, I might be doing- 
 nothing but mischief. There is that fellow Cavendish ; treating 
 him as he ought to be treated might perhaps provoke him to 
 
700 
 
 Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 continue, or give him a plausible excuse for continuing his 
 canvass. 
 
 " Under these circumstances, I have resolved to draw up 
 an address in the form which appears to me, at this distance, 
 suitable. I make two copies of it. The one I send to your 
 Grace ; the other to Barrett of the Pilot. I am anxious that 
 your Grace should alter and amend the address in any manner 
 you think fit. I adopt beforehand all your alterations, and 
 make them my own. Barrett will not print the copy I send 
 him until he hears from your Grace. You can send him a 
 private letter telling him what to do ; but until he gets that 
 letter he will not print the address. If you alter it, send him 
 a fall copy of the altered address. This to prevent mistakes 
 in the printing. If you wished for my presence in Mayo, I 
 would go there at once ; or my son John would go agitating 
 there, if you thought that advisable. In short, my dear Lord, 
 command us all. 
 
 " I leave this at the close of next week for Dublin. I will 
 be there, please God, about the 16th of December. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, my ever dear Lord, of your 
 Grace the most faithful, affectionate, humble servant, 
 
 "Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " Most Rev. the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 " Merrion SauARE, August, 1843. 
 
 " My revered Lord —I take it for granted— I hope not 
 erroneously— that your Grace has been communicated with 
 from Loughrea and Connemara. As to the former, they sent 
 me Mr. Tully, with whom I arranged for the Loughrea meeting 
 on the 10th of September ; and I have just fixed the 17th for 
 Connemara. John O'Neil of Bunowen Castle travels down 
 with me to Connemara ; and I think it likely that we shall be 
 invited to Ballynahinch Castle for Saturday ; at least I have 
 reason to believe it from a letter I have received some time ago 
 from Miss Martin ; and I write to your Grace chiefly to know 
 whether you have any suggestion to give me upon these subjects. 
 You are quite aware that any suggestion of yours is a com- 
 
Note by Isaac Butt. 
 
 701 
 
 niand to ine. I think I may venture to wish you joy of what 
 is called the Queen's speech. It has already made a most 
 favourable sensation here, and is, I think, calculated to enliven 
 the Repeal zeal all over Ireland. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with the most profound respect, 
 of your Grace the most faithful, humble servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " To his Grace the Archbishop of Tuam. 
 
 Note Contributed by Isaac Butt, Esq., Q.C. 
 " A statement has been recently made, apparently on good 
 authority, which appears to throw some light on the transactions of 
 this period. 
 
 " It is to the effect that immediately after the reversal by the 
 House of Lord of the judgment against O'Connell, a meeting was 
 held in London of the leaders of the Whig party, then in opposition, 
 and that it was resolved at that meeting to propose to Mr. O'Connell 
 and the Irish nationalists an alliance on the basis of conceding to 
 Ireland a Parliament administering Irish affairs, under a system of 
 federal union with Great Britain. 
 
 " A vague and undefined belief to this effect has generally pre- 
 vailed in some political circles. It was noticed by Mr. Butt in the 
 introduction to the first edition of 1 Irish Federalism,' published in 
 the summer of 1870. It was not, however, until the end of last 
 year (1871) that the statement assumed a distinct and authentic 
 form. Mr. Cantwell, a Dublin solicitor of high eminence, who had 
 been attorney for O'Connell at the trial in the Queen's Bench, and 
 also in the writ of error in the House of Lords distinctly stated that 
 he knew of the meeting of the leaders of the Whig party, and of 
 their resolution to offer a Federal Parliament to Mr. O'Connell. 
 The statement attracted a great deal of attention. It was made the 
 sul ject of a resolution at a meeting of the Home Government 
 Association, and was commented on very generally in the press. 
 Not one of the survivors of the persons alleged to have joined in 
 the resolution have denied the truth of the statement. Lord Russell 
 has been silent on the subject, although his attention was pointedly 
 called to it by Mr. Cantwell, and he has since written public letters 
 adopting the principle of Home Rule for Ireland. Mr. Cantwell 
 
702 
 
 Note by Isaac Butt. 
 
 states that his information was derived from a person who was a 
 Cabinet Minister when the Whigs returned to power in 1846. 
 
 " Efforts were made to sound the opinions of some of the lead- 
 ing nationalists in Dublin by a gentleman who soon after filled the 
 office of Attorney- General. Mr. Cantwell does not consider himself 
 at liberty to disclose the name of his informant. But to many 
 persons it is no secret that the late Mr. Hatchell was the person 
 who endeavoured to obtain the opinions of many of the members of 
 the Kepeal Association. 
 
 " Time will probably throw more light upon this transaction. 
 At present it seems impossible to doubt that the Whig leaders were 
 in 1844 ready to form an alliance with Mr. O'Connell, as represent- 
 ing the Irish people, conceding a Federal Parliament as one of its 
 terms. Whether any negotiations were opened with Mr. O'Connell, 
 or if so, how or in what manner they were met, no information yet 
 before the public tells us." 
 
Chapter ^ittatb; 
 
 THE CLOSING SHADOWS AND THE END. 
 1S43—1847. 
 
 Clontarf: Excitement in Dublin: Indictment of 
 O'Connell : Sensation: Forebodings : Address to 
 the People: Condolences: Joseph Sturge : The 
 Trial: Notices of the Judges, the Traversers, 
 and the Counsel in the Case: Charge of the 
 Chief Justice : The Verdict: O'Connell in the 
 House: Excitement over the Country: The Sen- 
 tence: Incarceration: First Day of Imprison- 
 ment: Respect shown the Prisoners: Dinner- 
 parties and " Bon-mots :" MacCarthy's Poem: 
 Gives and Refuses Audiences: Reversal of 
 Judgment and Liberation: Ovation Home: 
 Shadows: The Young Irelanclers : Rescript from 
 Rome: The Famine: Bids Farewell to Ireland: 
 Hopes to Die at Rome: Diary of his Servant: 
 Death : Conclusion. 
 
rf " meeting, which was to be held at Clon- 
 ~pr' tarf on Sunday the 8th, and on the 7th a 
 proclamation suddenly appeared to forbid 
 
 the meeting. It is not too much to say 
 that O'Conneffa consummate prudence 
 and the power he held over the people 
 saved Ireland from scenes of blood, and 
 the English Government from obloquy. 
 The meeting should have been for- 
 bidden sooner, or not forbidden at all. To forbid it 
 at the very last moment was almost sufficient to pro- 
 
706 
 
 Rumours of an Indictment. 
 
 voke an insurrection, and undoubtedly Government 
 was prepared for such an extremity, if it did not 
 desire it, for guns were placed in readiness to mow 
 down the people, if they had assembled in defiance 
 of the order. O'Connell saved Ireland. Messengers 
 were dispatched on the fleetest horses with a counter- 
 proclamation from him, which was likely to have 
 far more weight than orders from any other source, 
 desiring the people to remain at home. The Rev. 
 W. Tyrrell was up all night for the same purpose ; 
 he was subsequently prosecuted, but died of fever, 
 brought on by exposure to cold in doing the work of 
 peace. 
 
 Dublin was rife with rumours. In a few days 
 there was more than rumour: O'Connell was in- 
 dicted. For the first time in his life he manifested 
 some signs of fear. He was an old man. Under 
 ordinary circumstances, his life could not be much 
 prolonged, and he had never spared himself. "I 
 scarcely think they will attempt a prosecution for 
 high treason," he said, "though, indeed, there is 
 hardly anything too desperate for them to attempt. 
 If they do, I shall make my confession and prepare 
 for death." 1 
 
 1 On the 11th of October the intention of the Government to 
 prosecute certain of the Repeal leaders for sedition was confidently 
 rumoured. I was on that day chairman of the Repeal Association. 
 After the meeting I asked O'Connell how a conviction would pro- 
 bably operate upon the cause ? 
 
 " ' What,' said I, ' will the Repealers do if you should be im- 
 
The Indictment Served. 
 
 707 
 
 He thought constantly of the future, and said one 
 day to his son John, his ever-faithful companion — 
 friend, child, and counsellor all in one — " I do not 
 think two years' imprisonment would kill me ; I 
 should continually keep walking about, and take a 
 bath every day." It was evident that he dreaded it. 
 
 At half-past nine o'clock on the morning of 
 Saturday, the 14th of October, 1843, Mr. Kemmis, 
 the crown-solicitor, waited on O'Connell and pre- 
 sented him with a paper, informing him that Govern- 
 ment had instituted proceedings against him and his 
 son, John O'Connell, for " conspiracy and other 
 misdemeanours." After all, the serious charge anti- 
 cipated was not preferred. Steele was in the house, 
 and walked up and down the room, asking what he 
 had done that he should not be included in the 
 indictment. He had not long to wait for the grati- 
 fication of his wish. 
 
 At three o'clock, O'Connell and his son went to 
 
 prisoned, and communication with their guide cut off? How shall 
 we act if the flock he scattered by striking the shepherd ?' 
 
 " 1 Oh, that cannot be,' he replied, ' till after the trial; and in 
 the meantime we will make arrangements to provide the best way 
 we can to meet such a contingency. As for the tyranny itself, why, 
 it's only to endure it ! It cannot in its own nature last very long.' 
 
 " Of the Repeal rent contributed that day, £80 were handed in 
 under the denomination of ' Proclamation Money,' to indicate 
 defiance of the Viceroy and the prosecution. 
 
 "On the following day, the 12th of October, a report was 
 spread that the Government would prosecute upon a charge of high 
 treason. O'Connell's spirits, which had previously been excellent, 
 seemed suddenly and greatly depressed by this information." — 
 Personal Recollections, vol. ii. p. 181. 
 
 vol. ii. £3 
 
708 
 
 Indictment of his Compatriots. 
 
 Judge Burton's house, in Stephen's Green, to perfect 
 his bail. Immediately after, he issued a short, 
 emphatic address " To the people of Ireland" in 
 which he implored them " to observe the strictest 
 and most perfect tranquillity;" and added, 14 Be not 
 tempted by anybody to break the peace, to violate 
 the law, or to be guilty of any outrage or disturb- 
 ance." In the end he promised them repeal and 
 triumph. 
 
 But Steele was not disappointed. He also was 
 summoned and held to bail. For speeches at Mul- 
 laghmast, O'Connell, Dr. Gray, Mr. Ray, and Tom 
 Steele were charged. For speeches at dinner, there 
 were O'Connell, Dr. Gray, Steele, John O'Connell, 
 Ray, and Barrett. For being members of the Repeal 
 Association, there were O'Connell, Rev. Mr. Tyrrell, 
 P.P., Rev. J. Tierney, P.P., Barrett, Ray, John 
 O'Connell, Gray, Steele, and Gavan Duffy. Saun- 
 ders' newspaper for the day announced that rumour 
 said Dr. Mactlale, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. 
 Higgins, Bishop of Ardagh, and Lord Ffrench, were 
 to be indicted also. The principal information was 
 given by Mr. Hughes, a shorthand writer, who had 
 been sent by Government to attend the Mullaghmast 
 meeting. Portions of O'Connell's speeches there were 
 set forth in the indictment, and there was a charge of 
 ''•physical force" — the employment of O'Connell's 
 " police," and the temperance bands forming the 
 ground for this. Dr. Gray was charged with holding 
 the Repeal Arbitration Court at Blackrock. Mr. 
 
Not without Consolaiion. 
 
 709 
 
 Duffy was charged with publishing seditious articles 
 in the Nation, which he had established. 1 
 
 O'ConneH was not without consolation and con- 
 dolence. Joseph Stu rgo, the well-known Quaker, 
 wrote to him from Birmingham, enclosing in his 
 letter a resolution expressive of the indignation of a 
 public assembly at the suppress! :i of the Clontarf 
 meeting. 9 
 
 O'Connell went down to Darrynane for the rest of 
 the winter, and enjoyed himself there as thoroughly 
 as usual. In January, he returned to Dublin, not 
 without a good-tempered growl at the Attorney- 
 General for taking him away from his beagles and 
 his hunting. The soft, mild, Kerry weather had 
 even brought out the thrushes. 
 
 The trials commenced on the loth of January, 
 1844. They were called the monster trials, partly 
 because of the distinguished persons indicted, partly 
 because of the size of the indictment, which was con- 
 tained on six rolls of parchment, ninety-seven feet 
 long. A special jury was empanelled, but there was 
 
 1 Nothing in the Nation, however, could have been stronger or 
 more earnest tlnn the following: "We have denounced the poor- 
 laws lustily, we have dwelt indignantly on their bad and brutal 
 principles, their total inapplicability to miserable and far-spent 
 Irish poverty, their stinging injustice, their wholesale social and 
 political injury." — Leader in Illustrated London News, May, 1844. 
 
 = Tha Quaker Sturge was not the only person who expressed 
 approval of O'Connell at this period. After O'Connell was held to 
 bail, he received a letter from Archdeacon Bathurst, son of the 
 Bishop of Norwich, in which he said that he would join the Asso- 
 ciation if they would first attempt a federal union. If that failed, he 
 would go in for Repeal. 
 
710 
 
 L ' Richard's himself again ! " 
 
 not one single Catholic on the roll ; and, what was 
 still worse, there was not a single liberal Protestant. 
 
 As O'Connell proceeded up to Dublin, he was 
 entertained at a banquet at Clonmel, by the Very 
 Rev. Dr. Burke. At Kilkenny he received an ad- 
 dress from the Corporation. All kinds of rumours 
 were flying in Dublin ; and, on the 9th of January 
 it was said that the trial would be abandoned, though 
 the summonses were served on witnesses the previous 
 day. Bets were made that no trial would be held 
 that term. The excitement became greater every 
 hour. An aggregate meeting was convened in the 
 Music Hall, Dublin, on Saturday, at which O'Connell 
 attended, and appeared in good health and spirits. 
 Sir John Power, Mr. Wise, and Mr. Thomas Esmonde 
 were present. The hall was lit with gas, and about 
 ten thousand people had assembled. The ground of 
 meeting wns the careful elimination of Catholics from 
 the jury panel. Forde, a solicitor for the traversers, 
 spoke at considerable length. Shiel spoke splendidly, 
 and brought the house down in a roar of applause, 
 while a boy cried out, " Richard's himself again." 
 O'Connell spoke, but he alas ! was not himself. lie 
 hesitated for words; his racy fun was gone, and he was 
 either unable or unwilling to use strong language. 
 
 On Monday, the loth January, the trial com- 
 menced. O'Connell literally went in state. Had lie 
 been the king of Ireland going to open Parliament, 
 the procession could scarcely have been more im- 
 pressive, or the ceremonial more imposing. He was 
 
Goes escorted (o the Trial. 
 
 King Dan, the king of the people's hearts, the un- 
 ci owned monarch of Ireland — of a people who never 
 loved a man less because of his misfortunes — of a 
 people notoriously devoted to a fallen cause. The 
 Lord Mayor took O'Connell to the Court in his 
 coach, followed by a procession of aldermen, all Re- 
 pealers to the heart's core, and all attired in their 
 official costume. 
 
 The judges were Pennefather, Chief-Justice ; 
 Burton, Crampton, and Perrin. The two former 
 were well known to have strong Tory proclivities. 
 Judge Crampton was remarkable for his interest in 
 the temperance movement, and Judge Perrin was a 
 AVhig. The Chief-Justice not only charged for the 
 Crown, but against the traversers so markedly as to 
 show his animus, had there been any doubt on the 
 subject. The Attorney-General lunched with him 
 every day during the trials. 1 No doubt the verdict 
 would have been the same had they been deadly 
 foes. But it is well, above all in State trials, to pre- 
 serve some appearance of impartiality. For the 
 Crown, there were the Attorney-General, Smith, 
 Warren, Brewster, Martley, Freeman, Holmes, Butler, 
 and Napier. For O'Connell, and the other eleven 
 traversers, there were Shied, AVhiteside, Macdonagh, 
 Moore, Fitzgibbon, Sir C. O'Loghlen, OTIagan, Henn, 
 Clements, MacCarthy, Moriarty, Close, and Perrin. 
 
 1 The close intimacy between the Attorney- General and the 
 Chief- Justice was noticed even in the English papers of the day, and 
 this circumstance made a matter of comment. 
 
712 
 
 The Judges. 
 
 Their solicitors were Messrs. Mahony, Cantwell, Gart- 
 land, and Forde. 
 
 Chief-Justice Pennefather had risen to eminence 
 by his own merit, and was a man of considerable 
 talent. He Avas called to the bar in 1796, and was 
 therefore contemporary with O'Connell. In addition 
 to his Tory politics, lie had evinced a strong pre- 
 ference for England and English society, and lived 
 as much as he could out of Ireland. Judge Burton- 
 was an Englishman. He was at one time a Liberal, 
 but in late years verged towards the Conservative 
 party. Judge Crampton had been a Liberal, and a 
 man of considerable literary ability, but no friend of 
 O'Conneirs. Before Father Mathew's advent he gave 
 proof of his devotion to temperance, by ordering the 
 contents of his wine-cellar to be emptied in a stream 
 which flowed through his property at Bray, in the 
 county of Wicklow. Judge Perrin was a steady 
 friend to whatever would advance the social state of 
 Ireland apart from politics. When in Parliament, he 
 was noted for his assiduous attention to Irish affairs. 
 Of the traversers a few words may be said. 
 
 O'Connell looms up first in importance. His 
 faithful son John was then a little past thirty, and 
 lately married. Mr. Bay had begun life in diffi- 
 culties, his father had failed in business when he was 
 a young lad, and he was obliged to make whatever 
 ability and industry he possessed available for sup- 
 port—his expert penmanship procured him employ- 
 ment. He was unmatched as an accountant. Of 
 
The Traversms. 
 
 713 
 
 Steele enough lias been said elsewhere. Mr. Barrett 
 had been a brewer in early life, w but gave up 
 the chemistry of malt and hops for political fermenta- 
 tion." He began life as a Conservative, and wrote 
 on that side. Eventually he commenced the Pilot 
 under O'Connell's auspices. He had already suf- 
 fered imprisonment for publishing one of O'Connell's 
 speeches. His leaders w ? ere remarkable for vigorous 
 denunciation and sharp sarcasm. In private life he 
 was gentle and gentlemanly. Mr. Duffy, who has so 
 lately been the head of Government in Australia, was 
 said by a wit of the day to have u pulled stroke- 
 oar" in Barrett's Pilot. He then set up the Belfast 
 Vindicator, and suffered a crown prosecution. Mr. 
 O'Hagan, now Lord O'Hagan, the present Lord- 
 Chancellor of Ireland, defended him with remarkable 
 ability. He was convicted, nevertheless, but he 
 escaped a sentence. He compensated himself by 
 establishing the Xation, which had a weekly circula- 
 tion at this period of from eight to ten thousand 
 copies. This paper was the organ of the " Young 
 Ireland" party, which had been brought to light, if 
 not to life, by the poet Thomas Davis and by 
 Gavan Duffy. Dr. Gray, now Sir John Gray, was 
 educated for the medical profession, but his talent for 
 political writing, and his nationality, which was none 
 the less appreciated because he did not profess the 
 national faith, led him to abandon the scalpel for 
 the pen. At this period he was a man of slight 
 figure and apparently delicate frame, yet lie lives and 
 
714 
 
 The Counsel on Both Sides: 
 
 works still ; possibly his ardent devotion to the tem- 
 perance cause has contributed to this result. He has 
 never compromised an opinion, never altered his 
 politics, he has never ceased to work for Ireland ; 
 through all the changes, troubles, and fluctuation of 
 thirty years, he remains at his post, the only one of 
 these traversers who has not been taken from Ireland 
 by death, or ceased to work for her. 
 
 In the year 1841 he invested his capital in the 
 Freeman's Journal, then the daily organ of the Repeal 
 party, and still, with equal ability and unchanging 
 fidelity, the daily organ of the Liberal party in 
 Ireland. 1 
 
 The counsel on both sides were distinguished 
 men ; and, as far as the intellect went, the forensic 
 encounter was equal. The pleadings were opened 
 by Mr. Napier, and the indictment was supported by 
 Smith, the Attorney-General. His speeches were 
 frequently interrupted, and from the first it seemed as 
 if there were a conspiracy to aggravate a temper 
 which was said to be rather too capable of aggrava- 
 tion. The principal witnesses were reporters and 
 policemen. The reporters were brought up to prove 
 the utterance of seditious speeches, but their evidence 
 was not as satisfactory to the Crown as might have 
 
 1 Dr. Gray did a signal service during this very year, 1844, to 
 the cause of religious liberty. A poor woman named Mary M'Keon 
 became a Catholic, and for doing this was dismissed from her situa- 
 tion by the Poor-Law Commissioners. Dr. Gray took up her cause 
 warmly, nnd snccreded in obtaining her res f oration to her post. 
 
Address to the Chief-Justice 
 
 715 
 
 been expected. It came out, also, that one of these 
 gentlemen had transgressed against the etiquette of his 
 position, and acted as an informer. It is to the credit 
 of the " fourth estate 99 that his conduct was denounced 
 indignantly by all the other reporters present. Shiel 
 and Whiteside made speeches which would have 
 made them famous if they had not already been 
 known to fame. O'Connell determined to be his own 
 counsel, and did not speak until the twentieth day of 
 the trial. His speech was one of great ability, but it 
 was not one of his most successful efforts. Mr. 
 Fitzgibbon had attacked the Attorney-General very 
 sharply in one of his speeches, and when the judges 
 left the court for a few minutes, the irate Attorney - 
 General flung a challenge across the court to Fitz- 
 gibbon. The bench was obliged to interfere to make 
 up the quarrel. The judges, too, had a little fracas 
 amongst themselves, Judge Crampton being guilty of 
 gross discourtesy to Judge Perrin. When the latter 
 was speaking he flung open his desk and made so 
 much noise with parchments and books as to render 
 the address almost inaudible. 
 
 On the 7th of February, the twenty-third day of 
 the trial, Chief-Justice Pennefather commenced his 
 charge. He announced at the beoinnim? that his 
 brother judges agreed witli him, and that his would 
 be the only address to the jury. Men looked at each 
 other in terrible anxiety, for so far there had been 
 some doubt how the verdict would be given, some 
 hope on the part of the thousands who waited for 
 
710 
 
 The Verdict 
 
 it so anxiously. The charge occupied two clays, but 
 the Chief- Justice had not spoken for half-an-hour 
 when the traversers knew their fate was sealed. 1 
 
 The verdict was Guilty, the Rev. Mr. Tierney 
 alone being excepted. It being Saturday, and past 
 twelve at night, the jury were placed in custody until 
 Monday morning. But, late as it was, there was a 
 tremendous rush of reporters to London. Some 
 even had come from France and Germany. A 
 Government steamer was waiting to take the news 
 to England, and the Times of Monday (February 12) 
 announced the fact almost at the same moment that 
 the verdict was officially delivered in the Queen's 
 Bench in Dublin. 
 
 O'Connell went to London at once. When he 
 entered the House of Commons, the Liberal party 
 received him with a burst of applause, so that the 
 gentleman who was speaking at the moment was 
 obliged to pause. Such a reception would undoubt- 
 edly have been very gratifying to the Liberator, if he 
 could only have believed it to be sincere. 
 
 There were, undoubtedly, many men in the Blouse 
 who admired and supported O'Connell, and there 
 were also some, like Lord John Bussell, 2 who 
 
 1 Lord Norrnanby said in the House of Lords that when he got 
 into the middle of it, and for a moment forgot the speaker, he 
 thought he was reading the Solicitor- General's speech for the Crown. 
 During the charge, the Chief- Justice generally spoke of the tra- 
 versers and their counsel as " the other side." 
 
 2 Lord John Russell used these remarkable words when speaking 
 of this trial in the House of Commons : " Nominally, indeed, the two 
 
Public Sympathy. 
 
 717 
 
 believed that he had been unfairly tried by a de- 
 liberately packed jury. But there were also men, 
 many men, whose sole reason for applauding O'Con- 
 nell was to embarrass the Government. 
 
 Public meetings were now held in different 
 parts of England. At the Covent Garden meeting, 
 O'Connell said himself that " the scene was never 
 exceeded, and perhaps never equalled in any other 
 country." At Birmingham, the English papers 
 declared that his presence evoked " thunders of 
 applause." 
 
 On the loth of April, judgment was to be pro- 
 nounced, but it was deferred on account of a motion 
 
 countries Lave the same laws. Trial by jury, for instance, exists in 
 both countries ; but is it administered alike in both ?" He then 
 proceeded to quote from a speech made by Brougham in 1823, in 
 uhich he said: "In Ireland, however, the law held a directly 
 opposite doctrine. The sect to which a man belonged, the cast of 
 his religious opinions, the form in which he worshipped his Creator, 
 were grounds on which the law separated him from his fellows, and 
 bound him to the endurance of a system of the most cruel in- 
 justice." He then gave instances in which liberal Protestants, as 
 well as Catholics, were excluded from juries, and he mentioned that 
 this was the rule in Ireland. " This practice is so well known, and 
 carried out so generally, . that men known to be Liberals, whether 
 Catholics or Protestants, have ceased to attend assizes, that they 
 might not be exposed to these public insults. Now, I would ask 
 ate these proofs of equal laws, or laws equally administered ? 
 Could the same, or similar cases, have happened in Yorkshire, or 
 Sussex, or Kent ? Are these the fulfilment of the promise made 
 and engagements entered into at the Union?" Such was Loid 
 John Russell's theory (when not in office). It is a noticeable 
 phenomenon of English political life that gentlemen out of office are 
 always liberal to Ireland, and blame the injustice of the Government 
 for the time being. Mr. Hacaulny expounded his theory. He 
 
718 
 
 The Sentence. 
 
 for a new trial, on the ground of misdirection on the 
 part of the judge. No one doubted the "misdirec- 
 tion," it was openly condemned by eminent lawyers 
 in England, but the rule was refused. 
 
 The sentence was pronounced on the 30th of 
 May, by Judge Burton, the duty falling to him as 
 senior judge. The four judges were divided as to its 
 severity. Pennefather and Crampton wished to give 
 O'Connell two years' imprisonment, Judge Burton 
 twelve months, and Judge Perrin six months. Judge 
 Burton's award was at last taken. When pronounc- 
 ing sentence Judge Burton was deeply affected, and 
 actually proclaimed O'Connell's innocence of the 
 charge made against him, as it had never been 
 proclaimed before : 
 
 " He was perfectly convinced that the principal traverser 
 
 said : " The affidavit which has been produced, and which has not 
 been contradicted, states that twenty-seven Catholics were excluded 
 from the jury list. I know that all the technicalities of the law 
 were on the side of the Crown, but my great charge against the 
 Government is, that they have merely regarded this question in a 
 technical point of view. We know what the principle of the law is, 
 in cases where prejudice is likely to arise against an alien, and who 
 is to be tried de medietate lingua. Is he to be tried by twelve 
 Englishmen ? No ; our ancestors knew that that was not the way 
 in which justice could be obtained, they knew that the only proper 
 way was to have one-half of the jurymen of the country in which 
 the crime was committed, and the other half of the country to which 
 the prisoner belonged. If any alien had been in the situation of 
 Mr. O'Connell, that law would have been observed. You are ready 
 enough to call the Catholics of Ireland 1 aliens ' when it suits your 
 purpose, but the first privilege, the only advantage of alienage, you 
 practically deny them." 
 
The Charge of Judge Barton. 
 
 719 
 
 did intend to cany his real object— the abolition of the Union — 
 without the infraction of the public peace, without (if it were 
 possible) the shedding of one drop of human blood ; he believed 
 that he had that design rooted in his mind ; that he desired to 
 act upon it ; and that it was by the great influence which he 
 possessed as a leader, he had been able to keep and preserve 
 the peace to the extent it had been kept and preserved. Let 
 it never be forgotten, that a man who felt all those motives 
 and desires as strongly as any human being could, who would 
 not, on any account, commit an act of violence or bloodshed, 
 and who possessed that unbounded authority and influence, 
 made no use of it for the purpose of producing bad effects. If 
 he did not misconceive several passages in the speeches of Mr. 
 O'Connell, they were used for the very purpose of keeping 
 down violence." 
 
 O'Connell's sentence was confinement for twelve 
 calendar months, with securities to keep the peace 
 for seven years, himself in £5000, and two securities 
 of £2000 each. Considering that no man had ever 
 kept the peace in Ireland as he had done, the 
 security demanded was unnecessary. John O'Con- 
 nell, Dr. Gray, Steele, Barrett, Duffy, and Ray were 
 to be imprisoned for nine calendar months, to pay" a 
 fine of fifty pounds, and to be bailed to keep the 
 peace also. 
 
 The traversers, however, were allowed to choose 
 their place of incarceration. O'Connell chose Rich- 
 mond Bridewell. At four o'clock in the afternoon 
 the traversers were escorted to prison by mounted 
 police. They were followed by thousands in death- 
 like silence ; only, when they reached the prison-gate, 
 some long, loud, ringing cheers were given for the 
 Libera Lor. He then addressed the people of Ireland 
 
720 
 
 In Prison. 
 
 in a short earnest letter, beseeching them, even ad- 
 juring them by the holy name of God, to remain 
 quiet. They obeyed him, but they did not forget 
 him. The Repeal rent rose up to near £2000 a-week. 
 
 However O'Connell may have dreaded imprison- 
 ment in perspective, he bore up cheerfully under the 
 actual infliction. Yet there is no doubt that it 
 injured his health seriously. He was too old, too 
 long accustomed to a free life, and to a peculiarly 
 active life, to bear being cooped up all the bright 
 summer months in one place. 
 
 At that time the law with regard to political 
 prisoners did not class them or treat them as felons. 
 They suffered incarceration, nothing more. O'Con- 
 n ell's friends crowded to see him. Every day 
 hampers of provisions of all kinds were sent to him. 
 The traversers had supplies for a siege. They held 
 levees every hour, they had dinner parties almost 
 every evening ; they had a fair space for exercise — 
 but a jail is not home. " Three times round the jail 
 garden is a mile," said O'Connell, " and I will walk 
 it three times a day and so he did ; but the jail 
 garden wanted the invigorating breezes of his ocean- 
 girt Darrynane. 
 
 NARRATIVE BY SIR JOHN GRAY, M.P. 
 
 <( THE FIRST DAY OF THE IMPPtlSONMENT. 
 
 " The 30th of May, 1844, was a remarkable day in the life 
 of O'Connell. On the morning of that day he and his co- 
 traversers appeared at the bar of the Queen's Bench by order 
 of the Court. The solicitors engaged thought the order might 
 be preparatory to their receiving judgment, and that it might 
 
First Day of the Imprisonment. 
 
 be to fix a clay for coming op to hear the judgment of the 
 Court ; but fearing that it might be with the former object, 
 they sent warning to each of the traversers to be in the Court 
 at the hour named. The Court was not crowded, though a 
 considerable number of leading men were present— for it was 
 not generally known that the sentence was to be pronounced 
 on that morning. A few there were who had positive informa- 
 tion that it was probable that the Repeal traversers would leave 
 the Court that morning for the prison, and they parted from 
 the immediate members of their families with doubts as to 
 when they would meet again, though with a faint hope that 
 incarceration would not commence for about a week, the ex- 
 pectation being that that time would be given for making the 
 requisite arrangements for a prolonged absence from family and 
 home. The leave-taking on the morning of the 30th was 
 often spoken of in prison, and made the topic of many a good- 
 humoured joke. The scenes were not lachrymose or heart- 
 rending, as the outer public might have expected, for each 
 man of the party, the oldest as well as the youngest, felt proud 
 of the distinction of being the companion of the Liberator in 
 his imprisonment, as he was of being reckoned among his 
 followers and co-liberators in the great work to which the great 
 tribune had devoted his life. It is hardly necessary to add 
 that arrangements were made to have the result of the meeting 
 in Court communicated at once to the several families, and 
 that duty being entrusted to Patrick Vincent Fitzpatrick, the 
 ever-active agent of the O'Connell rent, was carried out with 
 singular rapidity, and friendly care and consideration. At 
 length the hour arrived, and the judge (Burton) proceeded to 
 deliver judgment. Burton was for many years the circuit- 
 companion and personal friend of O'Connell. He was a man 
 of high principle, genial and true as a friend, and a great 
 admirer of O'Connell's for his forensic power and personal 
 qualities. He commenced with much calmness, but evidently 
 labouring under great emotion. As he proceeded his aged face 
 became suffused, his voice trembled, and, suddenly choaking with 
 emotion, his utterance failed, and, bursting into tears, he hid 
 his face in his hands. Every person in Court war moved, save 
 the traversers alone, who, fortified with the sense of the glory 
 
722 First Day of Imprisonment. 
 
 that awaited them in being identified with their chief, were as 
 impenetrable to sentiment as the nether mill- stone. In a few 
 minutes the kind-hearted judge recovered his self-possession, 
 and concluded the formal part of the judgment. The 
 judgment over, the traversers now became prisoners, and in 
 the formal custody of the sheriff they retired to one of the side 
 rooms of the Court, not at the moment knowing to what 
 prison they were to be assigned. The ever- vigilant and active 
 Fitzpatrick now entered on another of his self-imposed tasks. 
 He had, in preparation for all contingencies, taken advice as to 
 the healthiness of the local prisons, and elected Richmond — as 
 the Court privately intimated to the leading counsel that such 
 election would be accorded to the Emancipator of the Catholics 
 of the Empire. Then commenced the preparations for the 
 removal of ' the State prisoners.' A carriage was procured for 
 O'Connell, and covered vehicles for his fellow-prisoners. The 
 cavalcade took a circuitous route to Richmond Bridewell, and 
 so well had Mr. Fitzpatrick performed his friendly office of 
 advising the prisoners' families of the result and destination, 
 that the chief members had arrived at Richmond before the 
 prisoners. Woman's fond and generous nature here displayed 
 itself in all the beauty of loftiness and love. Tears and sobs 
 were however, soon converted into smiles, as one by one, the 
 prisoners met their friends with a joyous laugh of manly pride, 
 and asked for congratulations at their being deemed worthy of 
 the honours of that day. The Board of Superintendence was 
 hastily summoned to give directions to the governor (Mr. 
 Purdon) as to location and discipline of the prisoners. Fitz- 
 patrick had a long interview with the Board in their official 
 chamber. He had also discussed matters with the governor 
 and deputy-governor, which resulted in permission being given 
 to the officials to hire their private residences to the prisoners — 
 the prisoners giving their word of honour that they would not 
 violate the discipline to be settled for their guidance, or use 
 the privilege awarded to them to effect their escape. While 
 these arrangements were being made, and the Board were 
 engaged in fixing the rules and the leading details of the dis- 
 cipline applicable to the special persons they had to deal with, 
 the chief-warder was engaged in order and formal duties. 
 
First Day of the Imprisonment 
 
 723 
 
 O'Connell and his companions each entered the prison 1 office,' 
 which stands to the left of the entrance-hall, and the warder 
 duly entered the age, height, colour of hair and eve, and the 
 education of each of the prisoners, in the ordinary book and in 
 the ordinary red-tape style, and regular in succession to the 
 prisoners who had last previously entered within the prison 
 walls." 1 
 
 " The entries made, the prisoners still remained in the 
 outer hall, as do all prisoners, till each is assigned his future! 
 ' quarters.' At length O'Connell was ushered into the presence 
 of the Board of Superintendence. As he entered the room, 
 the Chairman of the Board at once stood erect, a movement 
 followed by every member present. The prisoner was re- 
 spectfully saluted by a bow, which he graciously returned. 
 He was then courteously informed that the Board were ready 
 to award him very large privileges if he would, on the part of 
 himself and fellow-prisoners, give a pledge not to use the 
 concessions to effect an escape from prison. With that 
 gentlemanly regard which O'Connell ever showed for the 
 feelings of the humblest of his followers in whom he confided, 
 the old Irish gentleman said he would consult his friends and 
 then swear for them. He came to the hall, repeated the words 
 of the Board, and was met by ' Your promise, sir, should be 
 law to us,' and immediately on his return the Board broke up ; 
 passing through the hall, several of them addressed a few 
 words of friendly condolence to him, and parted from their 
 chieftain, now that they were outside their official chamber and 
 off duty, with a cordial shake of hands. 
 
 " The Board having departed, the governor communicated 
 to the prisoners the arrangements made through the kind in- 
 tervention of Fitzpatrick, and the generous action of the Board, 
 especially the prison-governor, Joseph Boyce, who, though an 
 earnest Conservative, displayed a high-minded, gentlemanly, 
 
 1 I am indebted to Sir John Gray for the narrative given above. 
 It cannot fail to be of special interest, as being his own personal 
 recollections. The prisoners had given names to certain places 
 in the garden: a small mound was called " Tara," another place 
 " Mullaghmast." 
 
 vol. ii. 24 
 
724 First Day of the Imprisonment. 
 
 and sympathising feeling towards the Liberator, which never 
 ought to be forgotten to him or his, and who largely influenced 
 his friends in the Board in framing the mild rule under which 
 the prisoners lived in Richmond. As yet the arrangement 
 was one by which the governor's and deputy- governor's house 
 was placed at the disposal of the prisoners. O'Connell, of 
 course, had the first selection of rooms, and he fixed on a 
 second floor bed-room in the deputy-governor's house, as being 
 near the only room large enough for all the State prisoners to 
 dine in together. John O'Connell naturally selected a room 
 near his illustrious father. C. G. Duffy, lately Prime Minister 
 of Victoria, selected the dining-room and adjoining bed-room 
 in the governor's house. Dr. Gray, now Sir John Gray, M.P. 
 for Kilkenny, selected the drawing-room and adjoining bed- 
 room in the same department, and Steele and Ray made 
 choice of rooms over those of Duffy and Gray, while Barrett, 
 selected rooms between the governor's and deputy-governor's 
 chief apartments, but practically in the deputy-governor's, as 
 he said ' to be near O'Connell.' Mrs. John O'Connell, Mrs. 
 Gray, Mrs. Duffy, Mrs. Barrett, and Mrs. Ray were installed 
 as rulers in the respective ' cells' of their husbands, and great 
 was the confusion of bandboxes and parcels, great and small, 
 and trunks and bags, as they were tumbled into the hall of 
 Richmond Bridewell on that day. Each was, however, soon 
 restored to order under the gentle sway of the ladies, and as 
 dinner hour approached and the bell rang, the prisoners, each 
 with his wife or relative, might be seen assembling in the great 
 dining-room in the deputy-governor's house, not in full dress, 
 but in something nearly approaching to it. O'Connell on that 
 day led ' Mrs. John,' as he affectionately called her, to her 
 seat, and the first dinner in Richmond was partaken of by as 
 joyous a family party as ever assembled. Seated at a round 
 table, the property of the governor, now in the possession of 
 Lady Gray, the prisoners were, on that occasion, in allusion to 
 the great round table, called by the Liberator ' The Knights 
 of the Round Table,' a title they bore during their stay at 
 Richmond." 
 
 The following is an exact copy of the prison record, above 
 referred to, which has not been previously published : 
 
First Day of the Ivtprisonment 
 
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726 « The Rising of the Nation at Last." 
 
 While O'Connell was in prison the Catholic 
 hierarchy throughout Ireland vied with one another 
 who should have the honour of celebrating Mass for 
 him each day ; so numerous and pressing were the 
 requests of those who wished to pay him this mark of 
 respect, that it was actually necessary to secure a day 
 some time before. The following letter will show 
 that the great Archbishop of the west was as desirous 
 of paying this mark of respect to O'Connell as the 
 humblest curate : 
 
 "Richmond Prison, 2nd July, 1844. 
 
 i( My Lord — I have the honour to announce to your Grace 
 that my father will feel deeply indebted by the kind fulfilment 
 of your offer, to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass here 
 at eight o'clock to-morrow morning. 
 
 " I am, with most profound respect and veneration, of your 
 Grace the most obedient humble servant, 
 
 " John O'Connell. 
 
 " The Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 The prisoners gave dinner-parties several times in 
 each week, and it was on one of these occasions that 
 O'Connell uttered a bon mot which is illustrated in 
 the present work. Many of the staff of the Nation 
 were present ; and as he rose from the table, he 
 turned to Mr. Denis Florence MacCarthy, and said, 
 with a look of humour which he alone could give, 
 " See, MacCarthy, there's 4 the rising of the nation' 
 at last." 
 
 Mr. MacCarthy's poem on O'Connell's incarcera- 
 tion is inserted here, not only for its own merit, but 
 because O'Connell himself thought highly of it. 
 
MacCarthy's Poem. 727 
 
 " CEASE TO DO EVIL — LEARN TO DO WELL." 1 
 
 " thou, whom sacred duty hither calls, 
 
 Some glorious hours iu freedom's cause to dwell, 
 Read the mute lessou on the prison walls — 
 1 Cease to do evil — learn to do well ! ' 
 
 M If haply thou art one of genius vast, 
 
 Of generous heart, of mind suhlime and grand, 
 Who all the spring-time of thy life hast passed, 
 
 Battling with tyrants for thy native land ; 
 If thou hast spent thy summer as thy prime, 
 
 The serpent brood of bigotry to quell — 
 Repent, repent thee of thy hideous crime, 
 
 ' Cease to do evil — learn to do well.' 
 
 14 If thy great heart beat warmly in the cause 
 
 Of outraged man, whate'er his race might be ; 
 If thou hast preached the Christian's equal laws, 
 
 And stayed the lash beyond the Indian sea ; 
 If at thy call a nation rose sublime, 
 
 If at thy will seven million fetters fell — 
 Repent, repent thee of thy hideous crime, 
 
 1 Cease to do evil — learn to do well ! ' 
 
 11 If thou hast seen thy country's quick decay, 
 And, like a prophet, raised thy saving hand, 
 And pointed out the only certain way 
 
 To stop the plague that ravaged o'er the land ; 
 
 1 The admonition, " Cease to do evil — learn to do well" is cut in deep 
 letters on the front of the Richmond Penitentiary, South Circular Road, Duhlin, 
 the prison in which O'Connell and the other political prisoners were confined in 
 the year 1844. 
 
728 
 
 MacCarihy s Poem. 
 
 If thou, hast summoned from an alien clime 
 Her banished senate, here at home to dwell — 
 
 Repent, repent thee of thy hideous crime, 
 4 Cease to do evil — learn to do well ! ' , 
 
 " Or if, perchance, a younger man thou art, 
 
 Whose ardent soul in throbbings doth aspire, 
 Come weal, come woe, to play the patriot's part, 
 
 In the bright footsteps of thy glorious sire ; 
 If all the pleasures of life's youthful time 
 
 Thou hast abandoned for the martyr's cell — 
 Do thou repent thee of thy hideous crime, 
 
 ' Cease to do evil — learn to do well ! ' 
 
 " Or art thou one whom early science led 
 
 To walk with Newton through the immense of heaven ? 
 Who soared with Milton, and with Mina bled, 
 
 And all thou hadst in freedom's cause hast given? 
 Oh ! fond enthusiast, in the aftertime 
 
 Our children's children of thy w T orth shall tell, 
 England proclaims thy honesty a crime — 
 
 ' Cease to do evil — learn to do well ! ' 
 
 " Or art thou one whose strong and fearless pen 
 
 Roused the Young Isle, and bade it dry its tears, 
 And gathered round thee ardent, gifted men, 
 
 The hope of Ireland in the coming years ? 
 Who dares in prose and heart- awakening rhyme, 
 
 Bright hopes to breathe and bitter truths to tell ? — 
 Oh ! dangerous criminal, repent thy crime, 
 
 ' Cease to do evil — learn to do well ! ' 
 
 " ' Cease to do evil — ay ! ye madmen cease ! 
 
 Cease to love Ireland — cease to serve her well ; 
 Make with her foes a foul and fatal peace, 
 
 And quick will ope your darkest dreariest cell. 
 
Gives Audiences. 
 
 729 
 
 • Learn to do well 1 — ay ! learn to betray — 
 Learn to revile the land in which you dwell ; 
 
 England will bless you on your altered way — 
 1 Cease to do evil — learn to do well I*" 
 
 (It is scarcely necessary to say that the first three stanzas 
 refer to Council ; the fourth to his son, Mr. John O'Connell ; the 
 fifth to Thomas Steele, a graduate of Cambridge, and a man of 
 great scientific and literary acquirements ; and the sixth to 
 Charles Gavan Duffy, lately Prime Minister in Australia.'*) 
 
 The traversers also amused themselves b}- issuing 
 a paper every week, which they called the Prison 
 Gazette^ in which they quizzed each other unmerci- 
 fully. Gavan Duffy, Dr. Gray, and Barrett had, 
 however, ample occupation in writing for their own 
 papers. 
 
 14 During his imprisonment," observes Sir John Gray, in a 
 private letter to the present writer, H O'Connell was as ac- 
 cessible to visitors, and as informal in his mode of 1 giving 
 audiences' as the most junior of his companions. A ' friend of 
 the cause,' from the most distant village in Ireland, whether 
 lay or clerical, who desired to see 1 the Liberator,' was at once 
 presented by one of his fellow-prisoners, some member of the 
 family of a 1 fellow captive,' or some one of the faithfid body- 
 guard which was always in attendance on £ the Liberator' as he 
 took his walk in the prison-garden or sat in 1 Tara' or ' Mnllagh- 
 mast.' By a sort of instinct of what was universally felt to be 
 due as a matter of respect to the 1 uncrowned monarch' of the 
 Irish heart, no stranger was permitted to approach his person 
 unless presented by some Mend; but there was no rule, no 
 form, no specified observance, no ' hedging round' of the person; 
 yet, without any prescribed etiquette, 1 Steele, or Duffy, or Dr. 
 Gray, or Barrett, or John O'Connell, or my dear Ray,' was 
 always at hand, and the humblest friend, though personally 
 unknown, was certain of a c presentation' and a cordial greeting. 
 
730 
 
 An Audience Refused. 
 
 Not so with those who came from motives of prying curiosity 
 or in a worse spirit, to see how the great Irishman looked in 
 prison — how he bore himself — how he felt — whether buoyant 
 or cast down. Such men usually met with a rebuff which made 
 them feel that O'Connell in prison was still Ireland's Liberator, 
 and that, while the humblest visitor, who knew what was due 
 to true greatness, was welcome, whatever his politics or creed, 
 the insolent scoffer at the cause symbolised by O'Connell was 
 sure to return discomfited and abashed. On one occasion, a 
 noble lord from a midland county knocked at Kichmond gate, 
 sent his card by a turnkey to ' the governor' of the prison with 
 his compliments, ' that he wanted to see Mr. O'Connell.' 
 
 Lord marched into the oblong space between the prison 
 
 and the outer wall on which was placed the massive gate which 
 led to the interior. The governor read the card in due course, 
 
 but being at the time engaged officially, Lord was left for 
 
 some time alone. In about ten minutes 'the governor,' who did 
 not know the person of the ' Lord,' approached with the turn- 
 key and bowed. The Lord addressed him, 'Ah! Mr Governor, 
 I presume; I am very anxious to see Mr. O'Connell.' ' You 
 know him, I presume ? was the reply of the governor, who 
 was a thorough Irish gentleman of the old Conservative school. 
 ' Why I do not know him, but I should like to see him, if you 
 will arrange it for me.' ' My Lord, I will take your card to 
 the Liberator, who is in the garden.' ' I will go in with you,' 
 said the curious Lord. ' Yes, my Lord, if the Liberator 
 directs you to be admitted when he sees your card. I will 
 take it to him.' I was present when the above conversation 
 was reported to O'Connell by the fine old gentleman who then 
 held the office, one of the Purdons of Meath. O'Connell heard 
 the details in silence ; he looked at the card ; a curl of scorn 
 played upon his upper lip for a second ; the card fell to the 
 ground, rather it was thrown there, and rising from his seat, 
 O'Connell said, ' I'll not see him, Mr. Purdon,' turning at the 
 same time towards the garden gate. ' But, sir,' said Purdon, 
 ' he is at the garden gate.' Then,' replied O'Connell, ' I will 
 
Addresses. 
 
 781 
 
 walk past the fellow to my room, and let him see that I will 
 not see him.' O'Couuell walked towards the garden gate, but 
 whether the words of the Liberator were repeated by the 
 turnkey, who stood midway between the principal parties and 
 could have heard them, or the peculiar gait of the governor 
 told what passed, the noble Lord sneaked oft* by the outer gate, 
 and had got on the public road before O'Connell reached the 
 iron gate that led to 1 Mullaghmast.' " 
 
 Addresses were sent to O'Connell from all parts 
 of the world, even from the Catholic clergy of Wur- 
 temburg, who spoke touchingly of the benefits which 
 the Irish missionaries of the seventli century had 
 conferred on their nation. 
 
 The following address from English Catholics 
 must have been specially gratifying to O'Connell. 
 It is signed by some of the best as well as the noblest 
 of the Catholics of that country. It concluded thus: 
 
 (i Your whole life, sir, has been spent in the cause of your 
 country, and the advancement of civil and religious liberty ; 
 and we, who have benefited by the exertions of that life, now 
 conclude our address in terms of gratitude for the past and 
 of hope for the future — of hope that the day of your renewed 
 exertion in the cause of your unfortunate country is destined 
 again to arrive, and though now removed from the presence of 
 your countrymen, that you may have the uninterrupted conso- 
 lation of knowing that your precepts of order and peace are 
 scrupulously attended to. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Shrewsbury, Robert Berkeley, jun., 
 
 Camoys, of Spetchley Park, 
 
 Stourton, Worcester, 
 Dormer, Edward Clavering, 
 
 Stafford, Joseph Weld, Lulworth 
 
 New t burgh, Castle. 
 
732 
 
 His Friends not Idle. 
 
 Charles Stourton, 
 Charles T. Clifford, 
 Edward M. Vavasour, 
 
 Joseph T. Tempest, 
 Richard Huddlestone, 
 Edward Huddlestone, 
 Joseph Wood, 
 S. T. Scroope, 
 
 of Hazelwood, 
 William Wareing, 
 
 Thomas Browne, Bishop R. Baillie, of Tad- 
 of Appollonia, Y.A. caster, 
 
 The Mayors of Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kil- 
 kenny, and Clonmel, attended by numbers of the 
 aldermen and town-councillors of each place, waited 
 on O'Connell to present him addresses at the prison, 
 but they were refused admittance. In the mean- 
 time the Liberator's friends were not idle. An 
 appeal for reverse of judgment had been made to the 
 House of Lords. The Lords required the opinion 
 of the twelve judges. The twelve judges said, in 
 point of fact, that the indictment was illegal, but the 
 finding was right. The whole affair was a curious 
 evidence of how prejudice warps judgment. The 
 matter was eventually decided by the five law lords. 
 Lyndhurst was a personal enemy of O'Connell's. 
 Brougham always followed Lyndhurst ; it was said, 
 indeed, that if Lyndhurst had turned a somersault 
 upon the woolsack, Brougham would have flung his 
 
 Wales, 
 William Ridell, 
 Pyers Mostyn, 
 Charles K. Tempest, 
 Mar. C. Maxwell, 
 John F. Vaughan, 
 P. Constable Maxwell, 
 
 J. COLTANACH, LL.D., 
 
 J. Drysdale, York, 
 Richard Boyle, 
 J. Bird, 
 F. Jarrett, 
 G-. Speakman, 
 Thomas Ord, 
 James Smith." 
 
 Mayor of Richmond, 
 
The J ml (jut cut Reversed. 
 
 733 
 
 heels in the air incontinently. Three of the five 
 lords were for reversal of the judgment, and so it was 
 reversed. Lord Denman when giving judgment said, 
 " That if such practices, as had taken place in the 
 present instance in Ireland, should continue, the trial 
 by jury would become a mockery, a delusion, and a 
 snare." 
 
 O'Connell and his friends were at last free. On 
 the evening of Thursday, the 5th of September, 1844, 
 thousands were assembled on and about the pier at 
 Kingstown, watching anxiously for the arrival of the 
 Medusa, which was expected to bear the news either 
 of release or prolonged incarceration. The solici- 
 tors of the traversers, Messrs. Mahony, Forde, and 
 Cantwell, were on board. They had prepared flags, 
 witli the words, "Triumph of law and justice— the 
 judgment reversed — O'Connell is free." They were 
 accompanied by Mr. O'Hagan, the present Lord 
 Chancellor of Ireland, who had been one of the 
 counsel for the traversers. A scene of tumultuous 
 joy followed. There were cheers and shouts of 
 " Free !" " Free !" Even the engine-driver of the train 
 which brought the party to Dublin requested the flag 
 to ornament his engine, and to render it a means of 
 conveying the intelligence to the picturesque villages 
 which lie along the sea-girt road. The news was 
 received at the prison with feelings which will not 
 bear description. When order was restored the 
 party sat down to dinner ; but they were scarcely 
 seated, when the governor of the prison, Mr. Purdon, 
 
734 
 
 Finishes a Novena. 
 
 hurried into the room, exclaiming, " Good God! can 
 it be true?" — his emotion almost depriving him of the 
 power of congratulating O'Conn'ell, as he intended. 
 
 The gentlemen returned to their homes that even- 
 ing, but before they left the prison they were obliged 
 to write thousands of autographs for their friends. 
 It was, however, determined that a triumphal proces- 
 sion should be made from Richmond prison to 
 O'Connell's house, for the double purpose of testify- 
 ing the national joy at his release, and the national 
 indignation at his incarceration. The following day, 
 Saturday the 7th of September, was selected for this 
 purpose. At an early hour in the morning, when 
 thousands were looking for O'Connell in order to 
 escort him to the prison, preparatory to his triumphal 
 procession from it, he was found to have gone to 
 Kichmond at a very early hour for the purpose of 
 hearing Mass there, and concluding a Novena in 
 which all the Catholic prisoners had joined. The 
 eighth of September being the Feast of the Nativity 
 of our Lady, the nine previous days were devoted to 
 special exercises of prayer, and other religious duties, 
 to obtain, through her intercession with the King of 
 kings, the favour of a release from incarceration. 
 
 O'Connell did not forget others in his own joy, 
 for he paid their fines for all the prisoners who 
 had been previously of good character, so that they 
 might be released with him. The morning had been 
 extremely wet, but about eleven o'clock the sun 
 shone forth. All through the long route from 
 
Ovation on his Release, 
 
 735 
 
 O'Connell's house in Merrion Square to the prison, 
 thousands had assembled and kept perfect order. 
 At twelve, the first part of the procession reached the 
 penitentiary, but it was two o'clock before the tri- 
 umphal car reached the prison. Such a scene was 
 never witnessed in Dublin. It is true, indeed, that 
 George IV. went through the same parts of the city, 
 surrounded by thousands who still had faith in 
 English promises, but his procession, grand and at- 
 tractive as it was, fades into comparative obscurity 
 when compared with that of the uncrowned monarch 
 of Ireland. The trades were there with their bands 
 and banners. The Temperance Society was there, 
 headed by that great and good man the Very Rev. 
 Dr. Spratt, whose memory is held in eternal benedic- 
 tion. So many equipages were required that some 
 had been procured from distant parts of the country. 
 The Lord Mayor and others were there in their 
 robes, with many distinguished men, friends and 
 admirers of O'Connell. The city marshal, Tom 
 Reynolds, kept order, or to speak more correctly, 
 directed the procession, for the people kept order 
 themselves. There was not a single policeman seen 
 or needed in all that vast multitude. 
 
 O'Connell was conducted from the jail by Mr. 
 Smith O'Brien, and was received with a roar of wel- 
 come, which lasted several minutes. He ascended 
 the car, an imposing structure magnificently deco- 
 rated. His son John followed him, and then his 
 chaplain the Rev. Dr. Miley. Dr. Gray and his wife 
 
736 
 
 " The Shadow Feared of Man" 
 
 occupied the next carriage ; Barrett, Gavan Duffy, 
 and Ray followed, and then honest Tom Steele ; 
 the attorneys had the next carriage, and bore the 
 monster indictment. As O'Connell passed the old 
 Parliament House in College Green, his car was 
 stopped. He rose up and pointed significantly to the 
 building again and again. He had been put in jail 
 for demanding a parliament for Ireland ; he showed 
 by his action that he intended to continue commit- 
 ting the offence for which he had so recently suffered ; 
 and, to-day, an old English statesman, who has never 
 been accused of any partiality to Ireland, suggests 
 that same tiling in a modified form. 
 
 When O'Connell reached his house in Merrion 
 Square, he addressed the people. He vindicated 
 himself from having made any legal error, as the 
 reversal of the judgment proved that he had not 
 transgressed the law ; and he told the people that 
 u lie was still strong enough in law and in fact " for 
 his work. The rejoicings throughout the country 
 were on a gigantic scale, and in two days after his 
 release, an immense meeting was held in Conciliation 
 Hall. 
 
 But the dark shadow of the angel of death was 
 even then looming dimly, but none the less really, 
 over Ireland and O'Connell. The first troubles of 
 his old age arose from the impetuous ardour of the 
 men who came to be known later as the " Young 
 Irelanders." John Mitchel, a man whose political 
 honesty has never been questioned for one second, 
 
John Mitchell on O'Connell 
 
 737 
 
 even amidst all the turbulence of American politics, 
 and whose personal integrity is best known to his 
 private friends, writes thus grimly at the close of his 
 own work on Irish history : 
 
 " The state trials were at an end; and all the country, 
 friends and enemies, Ireland and England, were now looking 
 eagerly and earnestly for O'Connell's first movement, as an in- 
 dication of his future course. Never at any moment in liis life 
 did he hold the people so wholly in his hand. During the 
 imprisonment, both clergy and Repeal wardens had laboured 
 diligently in extending and confirming the organisation ; and 
 the poor people proved their faith and trust by sending greater 
 and greater contributions to the Repeal treasury. They kept 
 the ' peace 1 as their Liberator bade them ; and the land was 
 never so free from crime— lest they should give strength to 
 the enemy. 
 
 "It is impossible to record without profound admiration, 
 the steady faith, patient zeal, self-denial, and disciplined en- 
 thusiasm, which the Irish people displayed for these two years. 
 To many thousands of those peasants the struggle had been 
 more severe than any war ; for they were expected to set at 
 nought potent landlords, who had over them and their children 
 power of life and death — with troops of insolent bailiffs and 
 ejecting attorneys and the omnipresent police ; and they did 
 set them at nought. Every vote they gave at an election 
 might cost them house and home, land and life. They were 
 naturally ardent, impulsive, and impatient ; but their attitude 
 was now calm and steadfast. They were an essentially 
 military people ; but the great ' Liberator ' told them that ' no 
 political amelioration was worth one drop of human blood.' 
 
 " They did not believe the formula, and in assenting to it 
 often winked their eyes ; yet steadily and trustfully this one 
 good time they sought to liberate their country peacefully, 
 legally, under the advice of counsel. They loyally obeyed that 
 man, and would obey no other. And when he walked in 
 
738 
 
 Young Irelanders. 
 
 triumph out of his prison, at one word from his mouth they 
 would have marched upon Dublin from all the five ends of 
 Ireland, and made short work with police and military barracks. 
 
 e< But O'Connell was now old, approaching seventy ; and 
 the fatal disease of which he was then really dying, had eagerly 
 begun to work upon his iron energies. After his release he 
 did not propose to hold the Clontarf meeting, as many hoped. 
 He said nothing more about the ' Council of Three Hundred,' 
 which the extreme section of nationalists were very desirous to 
 see carried into effect ; and the more desirous because it would 
 be illegal, according to what passes for law in Ireland. Yet 
 the Association all this time was becoming more powerful for 
 good than ever. O'Brien had instituted a ' Parliamentary 
 Committee,' and worked on it continually himself ; which, at 
 all events, furnished the nation with careful and authentic 
 memoirs on all Irish questions and interests, filled with 
 accurate statistical details. Many Protestant gentlemen, also, 
 of high rank joined the Association in 1844 and 1845 — being 
 evidently unconscious how certainly and speedily that body was 
 going to destruction. 
 
 " In short, the history of Ireland must henceforth be 
 sought for elsewhere than in the Repeal Association," 
 
 Davis, who had set the Irish on fire by his poetry ; 
 Mangan, who helped him ; other men, now settled 
 down into sober citizens, and some of them in high 
 places — Gavan Duffy, in the Nation, and John 
 Mitchel, who never minced words — all these, and 
 many more, were eager for something more than 
 words. They knew nothing of the horrors of civil 
 war or rebellion, successful or otherwise, except by 
 tradition. The race of men were gone or fast going, 
 that suffered themselves, or rather had seen the death 
 throes of others, as they expired in the horrible 
 
Trials. 
 
 739 
 
 agonies of torture, or left their life-blood on green 
 Erin's fields. These young men, brave, chivalrous, 
 loving their country to a fault, because it is always a 
 fault to plunge recklessly into war, were a wear v of 
 O'ConnelTs peaceful agitation, and would fight with 
 his leave, if they could get it, if not, without. Some 
 of these men did attempt to fight later on, and we all 
 know how it ended. 
 
 If O'Connell had been twenty years younger 
 when he was released from Richmond Bridewell, he 
 might have obtained Repeal by some ten years' con- 
 tinuous agitation ; as it was, he probably knew better 
 than any man else that his days were numbered. 
 His position was indeed a painful one ; he had no 
 choice but to continue a^itatin^ to a certain decree, 
 or to give up agitation altogether, and to retire from 
 public life. 
 
 A Mr. Porter came forward now with a plan for 
 raising a national militia ; and then, when he did not 
 meet with much attention, he went to Conciliation 
 Hall, looked over the books, and tried to cast 
 obloquy on O'Connell's management of pecuniary 
 matters. O'Connell in vain implored " the charity 
 of Irishmen," until he worked out his plan of fede- 
 ration. He said to O'Xeill Daunt one day, "I am 
 quite well — that is to say, I am as well as a man can 
 be who is opposed by one-half of his friends, and 
 who is deserted by the other half." The English 
 comic papers attacked him also at the same time ; 
 and he was sorely tried by a brief which came from 
 
 VOIy. II. 25 
 
740 
 
 The Irish and the Holy See. 
 
 Home, and which, though it did not actually forbid 
 the clergy to join in the Eepeal agitation, at least 
 obliged them to refrain, to a certain degree, from 
 public expressions of opinion. 
 
 The rescript was believed to have been procured 
 by the English Government through an English 
 Catholic. It was sorely felt throughout the length 
 and breadth of Ireland ; yet the Irish, like the 
 Jesuits, have submitted, always most faithfully and 
 scrupulously, to enactments which they believed to 
 be procured by enemies of their own faith from the 
 basest motives. The prudence and wisdom of the 
 Holy See was pre-eminently shown in the moderate 
 tone of the brief ; but, while the people of Ireland 
 believed that there had been English interference, 
 they could not but feel it deeply. Their fidelity to 
 the Holy See had never wavered ; they had poured 
 out their life's blood again and again for the true 
 faith ; they had supported and propagated their 
 religion as no other people on earth have ever done, 
 and they looked for sympathy rather than repression. 
 They were jealous, and not for the first time, because 
 it seemed to them that Englaud was preferred, 
 notwithstanding her apostasy, because she was pros- 
 perous and wealthy, that Ireland was slighted because 
 she was poor and of no political esteem. Yet this 
 most faithful people submitted, as they have ever 
 done, to the chair of Peter. 
 
 The truth was, that Sir Robert Peel was in mortal 
 terror of an Irish insurrection. He said so plainly. 
 
A Cloud on the Western Horizon. 
 
 741 
 
 It was the same old story. It mattered little to him 
 how the country was made to suffer in silence ; if 
 silence could be procured and compelled, that was 
 enough. 
 
 " There rises in the far western horizon a cloud [Oregon], 
 small, indeed, but threatening future storms. It became my 
 duty, on the part of the Government, on that day, in temperate 
 but significant language, to depart so iar from the caution 
 which is usually observed by a Minister, as to declare publicly, 
 that, while we were most anxious for the amicable adjustment 
 of the differences — while we would leave nothing undone to 
 effect that amicable adjustment — yet, if our rights were in- 
 vaded, we were prepared and determined to maintain them. I 
 own to you, that when I was called upon to make that declara- 
 tion, I did recollect with satisfaction and consolation, that the 
 day before I had sent a message of peace to Ireland." — 
 Speech in Parliament, on the 2nd April, 1844. 
 
 It was no doubt very satisfactory to Sir Robert 
 Peel, but it would have been a good deal more 
 satisfactory to the people of Ireland, if " messages of 
 peace " were not always sent whenever England is 
 apprehensive of war. 
 
 The Landlord and Tenant Commission, better 
 known as the Devon Commission, was set to work. 
 It might have done some good, had it not been en- 
 tirely managed by landlords ; the tenants, the princi- 
 pal parties concerned, were left out. 
 
 The following letters conclude the series written 
 to Dr. MacHale : 
 
 (Strictly Confidential.) 
 
 " Merrion Square, 19th Feb., 1845. 
 
 "M* Revered Lord — I am exceedingly alarmed at the 
 coming prospect. I am truly afraid that the Ministerial plans 
 
742 
 
 Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 are about to throw more power into the hands of the supporters 
 of the Bequests' Bill. A fatal liberalism is but too prevalent, 
 and these pseudo-liberals are exceedingly anxious to have an 
 opportunity of assailing the party of the sincere and practical 
 Catholics as being supporters of narrow and bigoted doctrines. 
 I should not take the liberty of troubling your Grace with a 
 letter, if I were not deeply alarmed lest the friends of truly 
 Catholic education should be out-manoeuvred by their enemies. 
 What those enemies most desire is, that a premature movement 
 should be made on our part. They say — and I fear the public 
 would, and perhaps ought to go with them — that to attack 
 Peel's plan before that plan was announced and developed, 
 would be to show a disposition inimical to education, and a de- 
 termination not to be satisfied with any concession. I do not 
 wish to give our enemies any pretext for avoiding the real 
 question that may, and perhaps must arise by any by-battle as 
 to the time of commencing our attack — that is to say, if we 
 shall find it necessary to attack at all. I say this because 
 however strongly I believe that we shall have occasion to 
 attack, yet that occasion cannot arise legitimately until the plan 
 is known in all its details. It is possible, though not very 
 probable, that the appointment of professors to instruct the 
 Catholic youth may be given to the Catholic prelates ; and in 
 that case, though the principle of exclusive Catholic education 
 may not apply, yet I should think there could be no objection 
 to Protestants attending the classes, if all the professors were 
 nominated by the canonical authorities of the Catholic Church. 
 
 " Besides, by waiting until the plan is out, and known in 
 its details, we shall have an opportunity of attacking its defects 
 without leaving any room for a charge of hostility to education 
 generally. I do, therefore, most respectfully and with perfect 
 humility suggest to your Grace, whether it be not the wisest 
 course not to make any attack upon academical institutions 
 until we know what those institutions are to be. I need not 
 inform your Grace that my own opinion is decidedly favourable 
 to the education of Catholics being exclusively committed to 
 Catholic authority. 
 
Letters to Dr. MacHale, 
 
 743 
 
 " I hope and trust your Grace will have the goodness to 
 excuse this intrusion upon you. What I am anxious about is 
 to prevent our antagonists from having any advantage as to the 
 period of the discussion, or to any collateral circumstance 
 extrinsic of the real merits. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, revered Lord, of your Grace the 
 most faithful servant, Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " The Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 (Private.) 
 
 " London, 21*/ June, 1815. 
 
 " My ever-revered Lord — My heart is heaving and my 
 fears are great, lest seduction should accomplish what force 
 and fraud have failed to achieve. But my confidence is un- 
 shaken in the wisdom and virtue of our prelates. Wh}', then, 
 do I write ? Because I wish to disburthen myself of two facts. 
 The first, that Sir Francis Graham's amendments make 
 the bill worse, simply by increasing and extending the power 
 and dominion of the Government, or of persons appointed by 
 and also removeble at will by that Government, over a wider 
 space, and over more important and more delicate matters, 
 including perhaps all religious details. The second fact is, 
 that if the prelates take and continue in a high, firm, and 
 unanimous tone, the Ministry ivill yield. Believe me that 
 they are ready to yield. You have everything in your own 
 power. By your, of course, I mean the prelates, or the 
 majority of them. 
 
 "You will have from the Ministry abundance of words, 
 sweet words and solemn promises. If however, then, by just 
 caution on the part of the prelates, they can dictate their 
 own terms,' the danger is that the prelates, judging of others 
 by themselves, will disbelieve in designed deceit, and so yield 
 to empty promises that which could ensure, if withheld for a 
 while, substantial performance. 
 
 " My object is that your Grace should know to a certainty 
 that the game is in our hands if the prelates stand firm — as I 
 most respectfully believe they will — to all the Church sanctions 
 relative to Catholic education. 
 
744 
 
 Letters to Dr. MacHale. 
 
 " I mark this letter ' private,' merely because I do not 
 wish to have it appear in the newspapers. If the facts I 
 mention are of use, you can use them. 
 
 " Pray pardon my intrusion. 
 
 u I have the honour to be, with the most profound venera- 
 tion, my revered Lord, of your Grace the most devoted humble 
 servant, Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " The Most Rev. the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 " Darrynane Abbey, \2th August, 1345. 
 
 " My revered and loved Lord — Many and many hearty 
 thanks for your kind letter and the suggestions it contains. I 
 am preparing my answer to the Most Rev. Dr. Murray. It 
 ought to be considerate and most courteous, without betraying 
 any want of proper firmness. I do not know whether I shall 
 succeed in writing such a letter, and I anxiously hope that, at 
 all events, you will not be displeased with what I shall write. 
 It would be to me a cruel punishment to merit your disappro- 
 bation. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with profound veneration and 
 esteem, revered Lord, your most respectful attached servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 " The Most Rev. the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 " Killarney, 7th Octoher, 1845. 
 
 " My revered Lord— I had the honour to receive an 
 invitation from your Grace for Saturday, and have the greatest 
 pleasure in accepting. I will, I trust, wait on your Grace by 
 four in the afternoon of Saturday. It will, I know, be 
 necessary to leave Tuam very early on Sunday. I can olfer 
 your Grace two seats in my carriage to Castlebar. 
 
 " We have had a glorious meeting here. Meeting and 
 banquet were gloriously and most usefully carried out. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with profound respect, of your 
 Grace the most faithful, humble servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " The Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
Letters to Dr. Mac Hale. 
 
 745 
 
 " British Hotel, Jermyn* Street, London, 
 Friday, 21th February, 1846. 
 
 " My revered Lord — I have only time to acknowledge 
 the receipt of your Grace's letter, and to enclose you a cheque 
 for £'250. 1 Any one you give it to will get money for it at 
 the Tuam Bank. Will you be so good as to answer this 
 letter, acknowledging receipt with its contents, without further 
 specification. 
 
 M I have the honour to be, with profound respect, of your 
 Grace the most faithful servant, Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " To His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam, Ireland." 
 
 "30 Merrion Square, Dublin, loth April, 184G. 
 
 u My ever-revered Lord — Excuse me for giving you the 
 trouble of procuring the enclosed ,650 to be distributed among 
 the wretched tenants of Ballvnglass. 
 
 " I received the money in London in an anonymous letter 
 written to me to be applied to those evicted tenants — I mean 
 the Ballvnglass tenants, 207 in number ; a very small sum for 
 each ; but my mission will be fulfilled when I procure the 
 distribution. 
 
 " I know not how to do so, unless your Grace assist me. 
 It strikes me that your secretary can easily discover the parish 
 priest, and procure him to take charge of the distribution. 
 
 " In respect to the Mayo election, nothing can be more 
 satisfactory than your Grace's letter ; nothing but the strictest 
 economy could keep down the expenses to the sum which your 
 Grace mentions. It was indeed a great triumph, at very little 
 comparative cost. It was a bold undertaking, and would have 
 been fatal if unsuccessful. Your Grace's energy and all- 
 commanding influence, aided by the patriotic clergy, have 
 achieved the most valuable triumph for Ireland since the Clare 
 election. 
 
 " There will be some little delay in the payment of the 
 balance ; but it will be as short as possible. 
 
 ] Mr. O'Connell — £'250 Election Fund. 
 
746 
 
 Letters to Dr. Mac Hale. 
 
 " As your Grace is coming to town in a week, I will leave 
 with my daughter, Mrs. Ffrench, a cheque for your Grace for 
 £128. It will be in a sealed letter, and if you will take the 
 trouble of sending to P. V. Fitzpatrick to procure for you a 
 letter left by me with Mrs. Ffrench, he will take care to hand 
 your Grace the letter ; but, as it is no affair of his, he need 
 not know anything more about it than merely getting the letter 
 and handing it to your Lordship. 
 
 " With respect to the balance, you may rely upon its being 
 paid in three weeks. I hope the short delay will not prove 
 inconvenient. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with profound respect, my 
 revered Lord, of your Grace the most faithful servant, 
 
 " Daniel O'Connell. 
 " The Most Rev. the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 " Merrion Square, 2Uh December, 1846. 
 
 " My ever-revered Lord— I have not as yet had any 
 reply from Mr. Bedington. I write, however, to say, that as 
 far as my opinion goes, I should much approve of the idea 
 your Grace has thrown out, of writing yourself to that gentle- 
 man. It would be the mode most likely to contribute to 
 success. 
 
 "I have the honour to be, with profound veneration, of 
 your Grace the devoted servant, « Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " The Lord Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
 " Merrion Square, Dublin, 26M December, 1846. 
 
 "My revered Lord — I have this moment received the 
 enclosed private note from the Lord Lieutenant. I know that 
 no secrecy is violated in allowing you to read it ; besides, I 
 wish that you should have the satisfaction of knowing how 
 promptly his Excellency has taken up your complaint. I have 
 but one moment to write, and, therefore, only request of your 
 Grace to return me the enclosed as soon as you have read it. 
 
 "I have the honour to be, with profound respect, of your 
 Grace the devoted servant, Daniel O'Connell. 
 
 " His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam." 
 
The Famine of 1845. 
 
 747 
 
 Davis died in 1845, and O'Connell mourned for 
 him deeply, though they had been so opposed. In 
 writing of this event, he seemed to anticipate his 
 own speedy end, and even then, though he knew it 
 not, the softening of the brain, of which he died, had 
 already commenced. 1 
 
 In September, 1845, O'Connell visited Cashel, 
 where he received an extraordinary ovation, at 
 which it was estimated a hundred thousand persons 
 assisted. Fifteen thousand men were mustered in 
 one place alone, on horseback. 
 
 The famine blight fell on Ireland at the close of 
 this year. O'Connell at once saw what should be 
 done, not indeed to avert the calamity, it could not 
 be averted, but to meet it. At the very moment 
 when the Irish were starving by thousands, Irish 
 grain w T as being exported to England. Plans were 
 made and unmade, suggestions were made and ob- 
 jected to. As O'Connell said, and said truly : 
 
 ** So we have got scientific men from England ! It appears 
 that they would not answer unless they came from England ! — 
 just as if we had not men of science in abundance in Ireland, 
 ay, of a higher order and more fitted for the duties than any 
 Saxon they could send over. There must be something English 
 mixed up in the thing ; even in an inquiry, involving perhaps 
 the life and death of millions, anti-national prejudices must be 
 indulged in and the mixing-stick of English rule introduced. 
 Well, they have given us two reports — these scientific men 
 
 1 "I, of course," he wrote, " in the few years, if years they be, 
 still left to me, cannot expect to look upon his like again, or to see 
 the place he has left vacant adequately filled up." 
 
748 
 
 Attack of the "Times" 
 
 have ; and what is the value of them ? Of what practical use 
 will they be to the people ? I read them over and over again 
 in the hope of finding something suggestive of a remedy, and, 
 so help me heaven! — I dont mean to swear — if I could find 
 anything in the reports by these scientific men, unless that 
 they knew not what to say ! They suggest a thing, and then 
 show a difficulty ; again, a suggestion is made which comes 
 invested with another difficulty ; and then they are ' your very 
 humble servants ! ' Oh ! my Lord Mayor, one single peck of 
 oats — one bushel of wheat — ay, one boiled potato— would be 
 better than all their reports." 
 
 Terrible and horrible as the details of that famine 
 are, they would have been yet more terrible, yet 
 more horrible, but for the generosity and the good 
 common sense of some few private individuals, and, 
 above all, of the members of the Society of Friends. 
 While Government talked about plans, and sent out 
 commissions, they acted ; and if they could not stay 
 the famine plague, they alleviated it in some little 
 measure. The Times' commissioner, overlooking the 
 utter destitution of other parts of Ireland which 
 ought to have been prospering, attacked O'Connell 
 for not making his tenants prosperous. Hatred of 
 O'Connell, and the utter incompetence of such indi- 
 viduals to understand the country, however much 
 they may " interview " the people, proved the fertile 
 source of misrepresentation. O'Connell had done 
 much for his ancestral property ; to say that he 
 might have done more, was to forget that his public 
 occupations were such as had rarely fallen to the lot 
 of any other man. Undoubtedly, no amount of pub- 
 
Suggestion of the Duke of Cambridge. 
 
 719 
 
 lie occupation is an excuse for the neglect of home 
 duties, but it may be pleaded as an extenuating cir- 
 cumstance. 
 
 An article was written in the Nation at the close 
 of 184o, which was also the cause of much pain to 
 the a^ed Liberator. He was accused of being the 
 author by those who were probably well aware that 
 he had never written a line of it, or seen a line of it, 
 until it was given to the public. For this article 
 Gavan Duffy was tried and acquitted ; yet excited 
 by the wicked and cruel suggestion of the Duke of 
 Cambridge, O'Connell spoke boldly himself at the 
 Repeal Association, in his last speech in Ireland. 
 
 " ' Ireland,' said the Duke, 1 is not iu so bad a state as has 
 been represented. ... I understand,' continued his Highness, 
 ' that rotten potatoes and sea-weed, or even grass, properly 
 mixed, afford a very wholesome and nutritious food. We all 
 know that Irishmen can live upon anything, and there is plenty 
 of grass in the fields even if the potato crop should fail !' 
 'There,' said O'Connell, 'is the son of a king! — the brother 
 of a king !— the uncle of a monarch !— there is his description 
 of Ireland for you ! Oh, why does he think thus of the Irish 
 people ? Perhaps he has been reading Spenser, who wrote at 
 a time when Ireland was not put down by the strong arm of 
 force or defeated in battle— because she never was defeated — 
 but when the plan was laid down to starve the Irish nation. 
 For three years every portion of the crop was trampled down 
 by the hoofs of the horses of mounted soldiery ; for three years 
 the crops were destroyed, and human creatures were found 
 lying behind ditches, with their mouths green by eating sorrel 
 and the grass of the field ! The Duke of Cambridge, I suppose, 
 wishes that we should have such scenes again enacted in this 
 country. And is it possible that in the presence of some of 
 the most illustrious nobility of England, that royal personage 
 
750 
 
 Farewell to Ireland. 
 
 should be found to utter horrors of this description ? I will 
 go over to England to see what they intend to do for the 
 Irish — whether they are of opinion that the Irish are to feed 
 on grass or eat mangel-wurzel. If that should be attempted — 
 and may God avert the possibility of the occurrence — I do not 
 hesitate to say it would be the duty of every man to die with 
 arms in his hands.' " 
 
 As one man, the vast assembly rose and cheered 
 the suggestion to the echo. 
 
 O'Connell looked his last look at the Irish shore 
 on the 26th of January, 1846. By a most curious 
 coincidence he was accompaned by a parish priest 
 and a Protestant clergyman from the south of Ire- 
 land, who were going over together to collect or 
 rather to obtain food for their starving people. 
 These two devoted men worked together and lived 
 together in London for some days, and by their 
 united exertions obtained the despatch of several 
 shiploads of food for their dying parishioners. The 
 priest was a near relation of the Liberator, but the 
 circumstance of the sailing in the same ship was 
 accidental. It was indeed a fitting conclusion to 
 O'ConnelFs noble life, to his life spent in promoting 
 peace, in trying to unite the Irish people, in trying to 
 persuade them to bury their religious differences in 
 oblivion. 
 
 In all his sufferings O'Connell still worked for 
 Ireland ; but he was terribly distressed by the news 
 which came from his unhappy country. Death and 
 disease were doing their awful work, and mowing 
 down thousands and thousands of the brave and true 
 
The Last Blow. 
 
 Vol 
 
 men of the pure and good women, who had loved 
 O'Connell as a hero, and honoured him as a saint. 
 The Young Ireland party had openly separated from 
 O'Connell's followers. Mr. John O'Connell made a 
 fruitless effort to reconcile these differences, neverthe- 
 less Smith O'Brien and his part)' inarched out of 
 Conciliation Hall, and left him weeping bitterly. 
 
 The last blow which crushed O'Connell was the 
 rejection of Lord George Bentinck's bill to empower 
 Government to lend sixteen millions to the Irish 
 railway companies. This would at once have given 
 employment to the starving people, and would have 
 paved the way for the future development of the 
 industrial resources of Ireland. Two days after the 
 rejection of the bill, it was rumoured that O'Connell 
 was dead. He was not dead, but he was seriously 
 ill, and what was still more painful, he was terribly 
 dejected. Probably, the oppression on his brain, 
 which had already commenced, added its share to 
 the other causes which bowed down the giant in- 
 tellect, and depressed the once vigorous and hopeful 
 mind. 
 
 It was proposed, at first, that O'Connell should 
 return to Ireland, but a warmer climate was sug- 
 gested by his physicians, and he was himself most 
 anxious to take a pilgrimage to Rome, probably with 
 the hope of ending his life in the sacred city. 
 
 " His days," writes an intimate friend, "were evidently 
 drawing- to a close. His voice was broken, hollow, and 
 occasionally quite inaudible ; his person was debilitated ; the 
 
752 
 
 Sojourn in England. 
 
 vigour of his eloquence was gone, and his appearance was that 
 of one who, destined soon to descend into the grave, makes the 
 last feeble rally of his fainting powers in performance of a duty 
 to his country. 
 
 " His indisposition now daily increased. If his mind could 
 have been soothed by the attentions of the great, he possessed 
 that species of consolation ; nobles and ministers of State made 
 daily inquiry at his hotel. Nay, even royalty once or twice 
 paid him a similar compliment. 
 
 " His physicians advised him to try a milder climate. 
 
 " Prior to quitting England for the Continent, he sojourned 
 for several days at Hastings. While he stayed there he was 
 visited by three of the most distinguished of the Oxford con- 
 verts. Those gentlemen stated ' that their visit was not made 
 for the mere purpose of compliment or condolence ; but, in 
 order that they might have the pleasure of personally assuring 
 him that the religious change which they, and numerous others, 
 had made, was ascribable, under God, to his political labours, 
 which had in the first instance attracted their attention to 
 the momentous questions at issue between Protestants and 
 Catholics. The inquiry that originated thus, ended in a con- 
 viction of the truth of Catholicity.' He was pleased at this 
 intelligence ; his spirits rallied, and he conversed with his new 
 friends for nearly an hour with the point and vivacity that had 
 characterised him in the days of his vigour." 
 
 On Monday, the 21st of March, 1847, O'Connell 
 took a final farewell of his old and tried friends ; 
 and embarked for Boulogne, escorted to the pier by 
 gazing crowds, whose countenances were expressive 
 of a mixture of curiosity and sympathy. The pas- 
 sage to Boulogne was short, and the distinguished 
 invalid on his arrival was greeted with marks of 
 public courtesy similar to those which had attended 
 his departure from England. When he arrived at 
 
Entering the Dark Valley. 
 
 753 
 
 the Hotel de Bains, many persons left their cards ; 
 and a polite invitation to an entertainment, which 
 was given on that evening by the British residents in 
 Boulogne was forwarded to Mr. O'Connell and his 
 friends, but the state of the Liberator's health 
 rendered his acceptance of the compliment impos- 
 sible. On taking his departure the following morn- 
 ing, the court-yard of the hotel contained many 
 spectators, both French and English, who all un- 
 covered their heads as he passed to the carriage. 
 There was something very touching in this mute 
 homage. 
 
 At Paris he consulted Professor Chomel and Dr. 
 Oliffe, who considered that his weakness arose from 
 slow congestion of the brain. From Paris to Lyons, 
 the journey occupied twelve days, as the invalid was 
 obliged to stop at Xevers, Moulines, and Lapalisse. 
 When at Lyons, he called in Professor Bonnet, who 
 also expressed his opinion that congestion of the 
 brain had set in. Nevertheless, the professor pro- 
 nounced "that his patient's understanding was jwrfectly 
 clear ;" it was, however, "little active, and the mind 
 was a continual prey to sad reflections." M. Bonnet's 
 description of O'Connell's appearance and condition 
 at this period, as given by Dr. Lacour, is full of 
 melancholy interest : 
 
 "His weakness w r as so great, that he believed it 
 incompatible with life, and he constantly had the pre- 
 sentiment of approaching death. The arms were 
 slow in their movements ; the right trembled conti- 
 
754 
 
 Sympa thetic Sorro ws. 
 
 nually, and the right hand was cold, and could be 
 warmed with difficulty, although he wore very thick 
 gloves. The left foot was habitually colder than the 
 right. He walked without difficulty, but his step 
 was slow and faltering. His face had grown thin, and 
 his look proclaimed an inexpressible sadness ; the 
 head hung upon the breast, and the entire person of 
 the invalid, formerly so imposing, was greatly weighed 
 down. He said to M. Bonnet, who regarded him 
 with visible emotion, { I am but the shadow of what 
 I was, and I can scarcely recognise myself/ " 
 
 M. Bonnet recommended that the sorrowful ideas 
 which pre-occupied the mind of the invalid should 
 be removed by every possible means — -a recommen- 
 dation, alas ! more easily given than realised. 
 
 The severity of the weather at Lyons confined 
 O'Connell to the house, thereby depriving him of 
 whatever relief might have been afforded by out- 
 door exercise. 
 
 During the journey O'Connell had hitherto 
 evinced great listlessness and mental abstraction. 
 Crowds followed him everywhere, testifying their 
 reverence for his genius and his services, and their 
 sympathetic sorrow for his sufferings. He passed 
 along, heedless of their demonstrations, and scarcely 
 conscious of their presence. Distinguished person- 
 ages presented complimentary addresses, which at 
 another period would have gratified him ; but he 
 now received them with apathy, and almost in total 
 silence ; his thoughts, apparently, far away from all 
 
A Transient Light- Gleam. 
 
 755 
 
 such topics — preoccupied, doubtless, by the rapid 
 approach of his own dissolution. To a gentleman 
 who tried to cheer him by expressing a hope of his 
 recovery, he answered " Do not deceive yourself ; I 
 may not live three days," 
 
 On the 22nd of April O'Connell left Lyons at 
 noon, and reached Valence at five in the evening. 
 The comparative mildness of the temperature afforded 
 him some transient relief. On the 24th he left 
 Valence for Avignon, where his friends were led to 
 form fallacious hopes of his recovery by the rapid 
 improvement which took place. " The invalid," says 
 Dr. Lacour, " took an active part in all our conver- 
 sations." On the 3rd of May, at Marseilles, "he con- 
 versed in the evening with a vigour and gaiety that 
 he had not displayed since his' departure from Eng- 
 land." A delusive flash, alas ! to be speedily 
 followed by death. 
 
 On the 6th the illustrious traveller arrived at 
 Genoa, where for the first two days, his health still 
 presented an improved appearance. On the third 
 day he complained of a violent pain in the head. 
 Other symptoms of a very alarming nature dis- 
 pelled the hopes his friends had begun to cherish. 
 His physicians were embarrassed by his positive 
 refusal to swallow any medicine, "even the most 
 simple." 
 
 O'Connell was accompanied and attended by a 
 faithful servant, who, strange to say, died eventually 
 as porter in a workhouse. His narrative of O'Con- 
 vol. ii. 26 
 
756 
 
 His Attendant. 
 
 nell's last days 1 cannot fail to be read with singular 
 interest, and has never been published before : 
 
 " [Title on outside of manuscript] 'John Duggan's Notes relating 
 
 to the last illness of Daniel O'Connell, Esq., M.P., a.d. 1847. 
 
 Physicians' Presceiptions.' 
 u [Page 1 has the heading] ' John Duggan, Aries, 1st May, 1847' 
 
 [in his own hand, then follows by the Rev. J. O'Hanlon]. 
 " Daniel O'Connell's ' faithful Duggan,' at present porter in the 
 South Dublin Union Workhouse, presented me with the following 
 interesting Notes, compiled by him during the last days of the 
 illustrious Liberator. He told me he had a number of other notices 
 of O'Connell's sayings and doings taken at the time of their occur- 
 rence ; but that the latter loose memoranda, are now lost or de- 
 stroyed. He has various keepsakes, objects formerly belonging to 
 the greatest Irishmen our country ever produced. Duggan made 
 me a present also of the pencil used by O'Connell in taking notes 
 on the last occasion he ever sat in the British House of Commons, 
 and the steel pen and holder used by the great Tribune in London 
 before his last departure for the Continent. 
 
 " John O'Hanlon, C.C. 
 
 "Dublin-, SS. Michael and John's, \ith March, 1862." 
 
 " [Then follows in Duggan's writing] : 
 " March 1847. 
 
 " Monday 22nd — Sailed in Prince Ernest steamer, from Folke- 
 stone for Boulogne, at 11.48 a.m. ; twenty-nine miles, two and a- 
 
 1 The writer is indebted to the Rev. John O'Hanlon, a Catholic 
 priest, and a most accomplished writer, for this copy of Duggan's 
 narrative. The original is now placed in the archives of the Royal 
 Irish Academy. The copy, as given above, was made for this work 
 by the Rev. Maxwell Close, a Protestant clergyman, and member of 
 the Royal Irish Academy, to whom we are under many obligations. 
 There is no alteration either in the spelling or the mode of ex- 
 pression. The observations in brackets are by the Rev. M. Close, 
 as it is matter of interest to have such a MS. given to the public 
 literally. 
 
Last Days 
 
 757 
 
 half hours. One hour and a-half in the Custom House. Hotel des 
 Baines, four o'clock. Fares, 8s. and Gs. 
 
 " Tuesday 23. — Started at 12.15 a.m. Samer, Cormont, Mon- 
 trucil ; fifteen, nine, thirteen = thirty-seven kilometres. Dinner. 
 
 " Wednesday 24th. — Loft at 11.15 a.m. Nnmport, fourteen; 
 Bernay, nine; Nouvion, seven; Abbeville, thirteen = forty-three 
 kilometres. Arrived at three o'clock. 
 
 " Thursday 25th — Left by railway for Amiens. Forty-five kilo- 
 metres in two hours. 
 
 11 Friday 26.— Left Amiens by rail for Paris at 11.80 o'clock". 
 Seventy-eight miles in three and a-half hours. Arrived at the 
 Hotel Windsor at four o'clock. The luggage was not searched, 
 through compliment to Mr. O'Connoll. 
 
 " Saturday 27th.— Thomas Hall called on Mr. [O'Conncll 
 evidently omitted ; on second thoughts, Mr. may be me], 
 
 '* Sunday 28th. — Paris. Seen the two Miss Conyngham's in 
 the street. 
 
 " Monday 29th. — Paris. Mrs. Conyngham, at her own re- 
 quest, was introduced by me to Mr. O'Connell, as also Miss 
 Conyngham. Mrs. Conyngham saidj was the best nurse-tender in 
 the world, and that I had nurse-temled her father for years. Drs. 
 Cornel and Ollive are the physicians attending Mr. O'Connell, and 
 Mr. Stephens, Rue Neuve, Luxembourg, the dentist. 
 
 " Left Paris for Orleans, by rail, after dinner, at 4 o'clock p.m. 
 
 " Tuesday 30th.— To Port aux Moines, 13 ; Chateau Neuf, 13 ; 
 Auyoer [?], twenty-three. Gien ; slept. 
 
 " Wednesday 31. — Left Gien at 1.30 p.m. Briare, eighteen; 
 Newvy, 14. Slept, &c. 
 
 11 April. 
 
 " Thursday 1. — Three stages to-day. Cosne, fourteen ; Pouilly, 
 fifteen ; La Charite, thirteen — slept. 
 
 11 To Pogues, thirteen ; Nevers, twelve kilometres. 
 " Saturday 3. — Nevers. Snow the last three nights. 
 4i East. 4. — Never.-?. Mass in the hotel. 
 
758 
 
 Last Days. 
 
 " Monday 5. — Left for Magney, eleven ; St. Pierre, 8 ; St. Im- 
 bert, ten ; Valleneuve, twelve ; Moulins, fifteen — slept. The 
 peasantry have the most extraordinary bonnets I ever saw. 
 
 " Tuesday 6. — Bessay, fifteen ; Varennes, fifteen — slept. 
 
 " Wednesday 7. — To Gerand le Puy, eleven ; La Palisse, ten. 
 
 " Thursday 8. — La Palisse [one]. 
 
 " Friday 9.— Started for Droituriere, eight ; St. Martin, seven ; 
 La Pacandiere, eight; St. Germaine, twelve ; Roanne, twelve — slept. 
 Last year a great part of this town was destroyed by the overflow- 
 ing of the Loire, bridges and houses being swept away. 
 
 " Saturday 10. — Left for St. Symphorien, seventeen ; PainBou- 
 chain, fifteen ; Tarare, twelve — slept. 
 
 " Sunday 11. — Went to seven o'clock Mass. You are accom- 
 modated with a chair for five cents. Started for Arnas, eleven ; 
 Salvagny, nineteen ; Lyons, fourteen. The road 3 r esterday winding 
 through a mountainous district, the highest pass being 3000 feet 
 above the sea, being cultivated to the highest summit, vines and 
 fruit-trees. They are most careful of the water, stopping it in every 
 hollow for irrigating the grass lands. 
 
 " Lyons, Hotel de l'Univers, kept by Messrs. Glover and Yuffray. 
 They have been servants. Dr. Viricel and Surgeon Bonny, Mr. 
 O'Connell's medical attendants. Frost and snow for several days. 
 
 " 19. [No day of week] Mr. O'Connell made a promise to me 
 
 that, should he ever recover, he would mark his gratitude to me in 
 a way I little thought of or expected, and that I should be for ever 
 independent of servitude. He interrupted Dr. Miley, in conversa- 
 tion with Dr. Yericel, to repeat over again to him the same promise 
 a second time, and binding himself thereto. The above came 
 entirely from himself, without a'single observation from me. Such 
 promise signifies but little, for I have signed^ the will and codicils 
 which, of course, exclude me in participation of any benefit arising 
 from them. 
 
 " 21 — Give, as my decided opinion, Mr. O'Connell had passed 
 the crisis, and that he would be gaining ground every day, although 
 slowly he would still be gaining. 
 
Last D(iy.<. 
 
 759 
 
 " Thursday 22. — After a stay of eleven days, left Lyons at 10.11 
 a. m. by the Rhone to Valence, in five hours. Dr. Lacour came as 
 Mr. O'Connell's medical doctor attendant. 
 
 11 Friday 23.— Remained at Valence. 
 
 '* Saturday 24. — Left for Avignon by the steam boat — arrived in 
 six h^urs. 
 
 u 25. — Mass in the house. Hotel de l'Europe gooJ. Xt. from 
 Lyons, 135 miles, eleven hours in two days, [thus] 
 
 " 29.— After remaining five days at the city of the Popes, left 
 by the steamer for Aries ; thrt.e hours steaming, but detained for six 
 hours unloading and taking in merchandise. 
 
 •• Friday 30.— Remain at Aries, the ancient Rome of Gaul. I 
 seen the Roman amphitheatre to-day, which remains very perfect, 
 considering the length of time since its foundation, and the soft 
 stone it is constructed oft', and which is cut with hatchets and saws. 
 Also the remains of a svendid theatre, the pit and seats for the 
 audience being quite perfect. And the Necropolis with some 
 hundreds of stone coffins disinterred, with covers quite perfect. 
 They seem to be raising others, where they are piled in, thick as 
 paving-stones. Seen a great number of lizards amongst the stone 
 eoflins that are remaining in their original position. 
 
 " May. 
 
 " Saturday 1. — Aries. The wind too high to sail by the steamer. 
 
 "Sunday 2 Left Aries at 9.30 a.m. by steamer for Mar- 
 seilles — 5 hours ; went to the Hotel de l'Orient. 
 
 11 Wednesday 5. — Sailed at five o'clock p.m. in the Lombard, fci 
 Genoa, in 21.30 hours on Thursday. 
 
 " 6. — Went to the Hotel Feder. Snow on the mountains along 
 the Bay of Genoa ; remained 7th and 8th. Mr. O'Connell went 
 out in the carriage. 
 
 Sunday 9. — Mass in the hotel. Mr. O'Connell had a bad 
 night from the effects of an injection administered by Dr. Lacour 
 last night. 
 
 "Monday 10. — Xo better. Leeches applied; eat nothing to- 
 day nor yesterday. 
 
7G0 
 
 Last Days. 
 
 " Tuesday 11. — Worse to day. No food. 
 
 " Wednesday 11. — No better. No food. Leeches to back of 
 bis ears. 
 
 " Thursday 13. — Same. Same last— his voice almost gone — 
 delirious. 
 
 " Friday 14.— Blister to back of his head, 10.30 a.m. Delirious, 
 his voice scarcely audible. Bled in the arm, eight o'clock p.m. 
 
 " Saturday 15.— Extreme Unction, three a.m. Cataplasms on 
 his thighs and back, 9.30 a.m. Leeches on the temples at four 
 o'clock P.M. 
 
 [" On some letter paper inserted into the book — Duggan's hand- 
 writing.] 
 
 " Sunday, May 9 Repeatedly said he could not live after the 
 
 effects of the enema ; to be sure not to forget the message for Mr. 
 Morgan ; the Cyclopaedia Britannica ; and the teeth for Mr. Brophy , 
 &c. Had a bad night, and restless all the day. 
 
 " Monday 10. — Duggan, you are the only person I can depend 
 on, do not let me be buried until after I am dead ; has taken a dis- 
 like to the French doctor ; would not see the Italian ; quite soothed 
 in conversation with Dr. Duff. Leeches. No food to-day nor 
 yesterday. 
 
 " Tuesday 11. — At twelve o'clock asked me had Mr. Wise 
 brought forward his motion, and who seconded it. That Wise was 
 mad, and to call him should there be a division. No food ; worse 
 to-day. 
 
 " Wednesday 12. — Not better. Not to let the Frenchman come 
 near him, for that he gave him something that burned his mouth 
 and throat. Leeches to back of the ears. No food. 
 
 "Thursday 13 Voice scarcely audible. Took my hands and 
 
 bade me farewell several times ; do not let them bury me till after % 
 I am dead. Incoherent. No sustenance. 
 
 " Friday 14. — Worse. Blister back of the head. Bled. 
 
 " Saturday 15. — Voice almost gone ; called me by name 
 several times in course of the morning. The cataplasms made him 
 uncomfortable : he said I should take them off. [End of inserted 
 paper — the book proceeds.] 
 
Last Days. 
 
 701 
 
 " Saturday 15. — Died without a struggle at 9.30 p.m. He took 
 no food since Saturday last. I said nothiug to Dr. Miley of the 
 promises made to me, should Mr. 0*Connell return home. 
 
 " Sunday 16. — Mr. O'Connell's body taken to the hospital at 
 9.30 o'clock p.m. 
 
 ' ; Monday 17. — Left my measure for mourning; posted a letter 
 for Eliza, and one for J. Conlan — paid 2s. 8d. 
 
 " Tuesday 18. — Inactive — blue devils all day. 
 
 ' ; Wednesday 19. — The body laid out in the church, and High 
 Muss at twelve o'clock. Dr. Miley, Mr. Dean and I attended. [I 
 believe what I read as Mr. Dean is Mr. Dan — see below.] 
 
 " Saturday 22. — Sailed from Genoa in Lombard at eight o'clock 
 p.m., arrived at Leghorn in eight hours. Went on shore by seven 
 o'clock. D. Miley said Mass at one of the churches. Returned to 
 breakfast to the Hotel du Nord at nine o'clock ; started by the 
 eleven o'clock train for Pisa. 
 
 " Sunday 23. — Seen the Cathedral, Cemetery, Tower, and 
 Baptistery. Returned by the one o'clock train. Diued, and sailed 
 at six o'clock by the Lombard. Arrived at Civita^ Vecchia in ten 
 hours. 
 
 u Monday 24. — Breakfasted ; Mass in the church. Started for 
 Rome at a quarter to eleven a.m. Stopped two hours for dinner and 
 to refresh the horses. Seen a great many fire -flies for the first time. 
 Arrived at the Hotel Melouni at a quarter to eleven p.m. [Melouni 
 thus spelled here.] 
 
 " Tuesday 25. — Walked out for a short turn, but the heat being 
 so intense, was obliged to return. Mr. Meloni took me in his 
 carriage to St. Peter's at six o'clock. 
 
 " Wednesday 26. — Walked out after dinner; two o'clock found 
 out the amphitheatre, the Forum, and the Pantheon, without asking 
 a question. Went to an amphitheatre at six o'clock. Drama in the 
 open air in the same circular form as the Coliseum. 
 
 " June 28—Rome. 
 <; Grand Requiem Mass at St. Andrew's for Mr. O'Connell's 
 repose, with an oration by the Padre Ventura. 
 
762 
 
 Last Days. 
 
 " 30. — A second Mass, with the continuation of the oration. 
 
 " July. 
 
 " 1. — Left Eome at six o'clock p.m. — travelled all night. 
 11 2. — Mr. Dan, bilious attack at Rodificani. I slept in his 
 room. 
 
 " 3. — Able to go on at two p.m. Slept a [at ?] Sienne. 
 " Sunday 4. — Started from Sienne at twelve o'clock ; in Florence 
 at seven p.m. 
 
 " 6. — I left in the Diligence for Leghorn at seven a.m. — arrived 
 at one p.m. 
 
 " 7. — No boat for Genoa yesterday. Started at six o'clock by 
 the Nuova Columba (a dirty boat and a robbing crew) ; arrived at 
 five a.m. [Lnd of Duggan's writing.] 
 
 [" Written by Rev. J. O'H.] Duggan heard O'Connell state to 
 a gentleman on a certain occasion, that within O'Connell's memory, 
 whilst living at Darrynane, the sea-weeds thrown on the shore 
 differed iu character and species at different periods. This was 
 attributed by O'Connell to a change in the direction of the gulf 
 stream in the Atlantic. J. O'H. 
 
 [" Six prescriptions are pasted in the end of the book."] 
 
 O'Connell was accompanied on this last journey 
 by two of his sons and by his chaplain Dr. Miley. 
 During his short stay in Paris he was presented with 
 an address by the Count de Moritalembert, 'from 
 which it is evident that he learned to appreciate 
 O'Connell more as years advanced. He said : 
 
 " Your glory is not only Irish, it is Catholic. Wherever 
 Catholics begin anew to practise civic virtues and devote them- 
 selves to the conquest of their civic rights, it is your work. 
 Wherever religion tends to emancipate itself from the thraldom 
 in which several generations of sophists and logicians have 
 placed it, to you, after God, is religion indebted. May that 
 thought fortify you— revive you in your infirmities, and con- 
 
Montalembert comes to comfort. 
 
 763 
 
 sole you in the afflictions with which your patriotic heart is 
 now overwhelmed. The wishes of Catholic France will 
 accompany you in your pilgrimage to Rome. The day of your 
 meeting with Pius IX. — when the greatest and most illustrious 
 Christian of our age shall kneel at the feet of a Pontiff who 
 recalls to our recollections the most brilliant period of Church 
 history — a truly momentous event in the history of our time 
 will take place. If, in that instant of supreme emotion, your 
 heart should entertain a thought not absorbed hy Ireland and 
 Rome, rememher us ; the homage of the affection, respect, 
 and devotion of the Catholics of France for the chief of the 
 Church, could not he better placed than on the lips of the 
 Catholic Liberator of Ireland." 
 
 O'Connell's reply was necessarily brief : 
 
 " ' Gentlemen,' he said, ' sickness and emotion close my 
 lips. I should require the eloquence of your president (Mon- 
 talembert) to express to you all my gratitude. But it is 
 impossible for me to utter all I feel. Know, simply, that I 
 regard this demonstration on your part as one of the most 
 significant events of my life.' " 
 
 Thousands of persons called at his hotel, but he 
 was quite unable to receive visitors. M. Berry er was 
 one of the favoured few. At Lyons public services 
 were made in all the churches for his recovery. On 
 the loth of May, Dr. Miley wrote from Genoa : 
 
 ' £ The Liberator is not better; he is worse— ill as ill can 
 be. At two o'clock this morning I found it necessary to send 
 for the Viaticum and the holy oil. Though it was the dead of 
 night, the Cardinal Archbishop (he is eighty- eight years old), 
 amended by his clerics and several of the faithful, carried the 
 adorable Viaticum with the solemnities customary in Catholic 
 countries, and reposed it in the tabernacle which we had pre- 
 pared in the chamber of the illustrious sufferer. Though 
 
764 
 
 The Last Forty Hours. 
 
 prostrate to the last degree, he was perfectly in possession of 
 his mind whilst receiving the last rites. The adorable name 
 of Jesus, which he had been in the habit of invoking, was con- 
 stantly on his lips with trembling fervour. His thoughts have 
 been entirely absorbed by religion since his illness commenced. 
 For the last forty hours he will not open his lips to speak of 
 anything else. The doctors still say they have hope. I have 
 none. All Genoa is praying for him. I have written to 
 Rome. Be not surprised if I am totally silent as to our own 
 feelings. It is poor Daniel who is to be pitied more than all." 
 
 The Times' correspondent said in a letter, dated 
 Genoa, May 18 : Towards three, p. m. on Sunday, 
 Mr. O'Connell called his own man, and taking him 
 warmly by both hands, to acknowledge the rare 
 fidelity with which he had served him, he said, " As 
 yet I am — I am, not dying;" but two mornings later, 
 lie called for Dr. Miley, and said, " I am dying, my 
 dear friend." His fear of being buried alive was 
 singular and painful. More than once he earnestly 
 entreated those around him to beware lest such a 
 fearful catastrophe should occur. His serenity and 
 patience in agonising pain was remarked by all who 
 had the sad privilege of attending him. The holy 
 name of Jesus, the Memorare and verses from the 
 Psalms, were constantly on his lips. He had well 
 known, and loved, and practised his religion during 
 life ; it was now his consolation in death. " St. 
 Liguori's Preparation for Death," was found after his 
 decease with marks of long and constant use. He 
 was, indeed, too wise a man not to prepare himself 
 well for his emancipation from the death of human 
 
Peace at last. 
 
 705 
 
 life to the birth of unending existence. He who had 
 been the instrument in the hands of God to obtain 
 the liberation of millions of God's children from the 
 chains which held them from the free exercise of 
 their religion, as far as human chains could hold, lie 
 surely of all men could say with confidence — Libe- 
 ra vi animam meam. 
 
 His death was peace. How, indeed, could it be 
 otherwise ? Since he passed from the stormy life in 
 which it had been his duty to live and to work, with 
 the holy name of the Saviour upon his lips, and in- 
 voking, in that month dedicated to the Mother of 
 God, her protecting care. 
 
 But the Catholic Church does not leave her chil- 
 dren even when they cease to breathe on earth. She 
 passes with them through the dark portals of the 
 grave ; she waits by them in those regions of pain 
 where all human dross is purged and refined so as 
 by fire, where the awful justice of God lays its hand 
 upon the soul, not in anger, but in mercy, to purify 
 it for the Divine presence. 
 
 By night and by day the faithful watched by the 
 dead man's bier, some crying out, in the bitterness 
 of their hearts, because the light of their life was 
 quenched : 
 
 " Hen milii, quia incolutus mens j^'olongatus est;" 
 
 and others saying for him, and for their own poor 
 souls, in anticipation of that dread summons which 
 must come to them also : 
 
766 
 
 The Faithful by his Bier. 
 
 " Domine, secundum actum meum, noli me judicarc; 
 nihil dignum in conspectu tuo egi; ideo deprecor magistatcm 
 tuam; ut tu Deus deleas iniquitatem meam. 
 
 "Libera me, Domine, de morte seterna, in die ilia tre- 
 menda, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, dum veneris 
 judicare saeculum per ignem. Tremens factus sum ego, et 
 timeo dum discussio venerit atque ventura ira, quando coeli 
 movendi sunt et terra, dies ilia, dies irse, calamitas et miserise, 
 dies magna et amara valde, dum veneris judicare sseculum per 
 ignem." 1 
 
 Friar, and monk, and nun, surrounded him, and 
 prayed still for his eternal repose. Then they took 
 him to the Church of Our Lady Delle Vigne, for 
 she whom he had so honoured in life would have 
 him still in her keeping after death ; and they 
 offered for him that adorable Sacrifice at which in 
 life he assisted so fervently and so frequently ; and 
 they sang that grand old chaunt the Dies Ira?, the 
 wail of souls beseeching their God to remember that 
 He had died for them, and to pity and pardon them 
 even while He punished and purified. 2 
 
 The body had been embalmed previously, and 
 
 1 Office for the Dead at Matins. 
 
 2 " Dies irse, dies ilia, 
 
 Solvet sseclum in favilla ; 
 Teste David cum Sybilla. 
 
 Eecordare Jesu pie, 
 Quod sum causa tuae vias, 
 Ne me perdas ilia die, 
 Quserens me sedisti lassus : 
 Redimisti, crucem passus, 
 Tantus labor non sit cassus." 
 
Funeral Obsequies. 
 
 767 
 
 the causes of disease were verified by the physicians. 
 The heart was deposited in an urn, as O'Connell had 
 directed in his will, with this inscription: 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, natns Kerry, obiit G enure die 15 Maii, 
 1847, aitatissuae anno 72" — (Daniel O'Connell, born in Kerry, 
 died on the 15th May, 1817, in Genoa, in the 72nd year of 
 his age). 
 
 It was bequeathed to Home — a touching memento of 
 his life-long devotion to the See of Peter. This 
 treasure was conveyed to its destination by Dr. 
 Miley and Mr. D. O'Connell. When they arrived 
 in Rome, they were presented to His Holiness Pius 
 IX. by Monsignore Cullen. "Since I had not the 
 happiness of embracing the hero of Christianity," 
 exclaimed the Holy Father, "let me at least em- 
 brace his son. I have read," he continued, "with 
 extreme interest the accounts of his last moments : 
 his death was indeed blessed." 
 
 O'Connell's funeral obsequies were celebrated in 
 Rome with the greatest pomp and magnificence. 
 Artisans, sculptors, painters, and architects, were 
 employed for a week in making preparation for the 
 funeral ceremonies. 
 
 The students of the Irish College, with their 
 venerated President, occupied the foremost place, 
 and at the altar the Mass was said for the repose of 
 his soul. It was computed that from fourteen to 
 fifteen thousand persons visited the Basilica during 
 the two days. The walls were emblazoned with 
 texts of Scripture, which were an evidence of the 
 
768 
 
 Being dead, yet speaketh.. 
 
 honour in which O'Connell's memory was held by the 
 Holy See, as well as of her appreciation of his life. 
 These texts were indeed remarkably appropriate. 1 
 
 Well might Father Miley say when writing to 
 Ireland : 
 
 " You can have no notion of the spirit with which the 
 Roman people, properly so called, have combined to render 
 this magnificent compliment to the Liberator of Catholic 
 Ireland all that it should be. Nor is it alone that the mere 
 echoes of his renown have told on the ears of this posterity of 
 kings and martyrs ; they have become indoctrinated with the 
 great principles of our unequalled chief. If I may so express 
 myself, they have become thoroughly Irish. They now know 
 our position — the perils over which we have triumphed, the 
 perils still more menacing which we have yet to overcome." 
 
 Thus, even in death, did O'Connell serve the 
 land he loved so well. 
 
 His funeral sermon was preached by Father 
 
 1 " The cry of the children of Israel is come up unto me, and 
 I have seen their afflictions wherewith they are oppressed by the 
 Egyptians. But come and I will send thee, that thou mayest bring 
 forth thy people" (Exod. iii. 9-11). " And God gave him wisdom 
 and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart" (3 Kings 
 iv. 29). " I was clad with justice, and I clothed myself with judg- 
 ment as with a robe and a diadem. 1 was an eye to the blind and 
 a foot to the lame" (Job xxix. 14, 15). " He was directed by God 
 unto the repentance of the nation, and he took away the abomina- 
 tions of wickedness ; and he directed his heart towards the Lord, 
 and in the clays of sinners he strengthened godliness" (Eccles. xlix. 
 3, 4). " Where there is no governor the people shall fall" (Prov. 
 ix. 14). " In his life he propped up the house, and in his days he 
 fortified the temple" (Eccles. i. 1). " Greater love than this no 
 man hath, that a man lay down Lis life for bis friends" (John xv. 13). 
 
Funeral Eloge. 
 
 7G9 
 
 Ventura, who occupied four hours in delivering it. 
 He has been called the Bossuet of Italy, and cer- 
 tainly for this only he has merited the name. 
 
 " Never vet," lie said, in his grand and sonorous accents, 
 " felt a sovereign towards his people, or a general towards his 
 army, or ruler for his subjects, or pastor for his flock, nay, or 
 father for his children, more deeply solicitous, more tender, or 
 more generous, than O'Connell for his beloved countrymen. 
 He loved bat them. For them only he lived ; for them only 
 he breathed." 
 
 And then, with a singular knowledge of Ireland, 
 he added : 
 
 " Who is this, who, alternately blushing and trembling, 
 advances with a hesitating step to the electoral booth ? He is 
 an unfortunate tenant and the father of a family, who being 
 incarcerated for debt has, with a most cruel compassion, been 
 promised his liberty by his creditor, the landlord, on condition 
 that he should vote against O'Connell ; and now, affection for 
 his desolate family overcoming his feeling of duty towards his 
 country and its Liberator, he is ready to vote as he is required. 
 But what feminine voice is that he hears ? * Unhappy man ! 
 what are you about doing ? Remember your soul and liberty 1' 
 woman ! It was the voice of his wife — of that wife who 
 preferred the victory of O'Connell to the liberation of her 
 husband, or the comfort of her own children ! Its accents re- 
 called the unfortunate -man to Jiimself, and forgetting that he 
 was both husband and father, he remembered only that he was a 
 citizen. He recorded his vote for the Liberator, and tranquilly 
 returned to his prison. Rapidly was the sublime exclamation 
 of his magnanimous wife repeated from one end to the other of 
 the Island of Saints. It was engraven on bronze and inscribed 
 on the banners of the then existing National Association. And 
 well it deserved to be ; for it compendiously relates the whole 
 history of this heroic people, and expresses the feelings of the 
 
770 
 
 Funeral Eloge. 
 
 genuine Irish heart which, during three centuries, has sacrificed 
 all to God and to its country — to religion and liberty. 
 
 " Imagine, therefore, if such a people could consent that 
 their Liberator and the father of his country, who had sacrificed 
 to Ireland all his private resources, his professional emolu- 
 ments, and his repose, should not be supported by,his country. 
 Although the most Catholic, the most moral, courageous, and 
 noble people in existence, they are also the poorest and most 
 destitute ; and if by the most laborious toil, they can procure 
 a bare sufficiency of potatoes for the support of life, they are 
 more than satisfied— they are happy. Yet, nevertheless, 
 generous people ! how willingly have you deprived yourselves 
 of your last mouthful to add your mite to the tribute of your 
 Liberator — a tribute thus swollen annually to the sum even of 
 one hundred thousand crowns ! 
 
 " By reason of this voluntary national tribute, Protestant 
 insolence had assigned to him the title of 1 king of the beggars.' 
 Poor miserable, and most pitiful fatuity, which, while intending 
 to mock, actually did him honour. For what sovereignty is 
 more beautiful than that whose tribute is not wrung from un- 
 willing fear, but that is a voluntary, love-inspired offering ? 
 What sovereignty is more glorious than that whose sword is the 
 pen, and whose single artillery the tongue ; whose only courtiers 
 are the poor, and its sole body-guard the affections of the 
 people ? What sovereignty more beneficial than that which, 
 far from causing tears to flow dries them; which far from 
 shedding blood staunches it ; which far from immolating life 
 preserves it ; which far from pressing down upon the people 
 elevates them ; which far from forging chains breaks them ; 
 and which always maintains order, harmony, and peace with- 
 out ever inflicting the slightest aggression on liberty ? Where 
 is the monarch who would not esteem himself happy in reigning 
 thus ? Of such a sovereignty we may with truth say that 
 which was said of Solomon's — that none can equal its grandeur, 
 its splendour, its glory, and its magnificence : Rex pacifictts 
 magnificatus est super omnes reges term / (3 Reg. x. 23)." 
 
Return* to Best with his Fathers. 
 
 Ill 
 
 He concluded : 
 
 " It was in pronouncing the most sweet names of Jesus 
 and of Mary that at last was stilled and lost those powerful 
 accents which had moved and shaken the universe— and then 
 flew to heaven that grand and glorious spirit which had excited 
 the admiration of the world. It was not permitted to him 
 personally to appear at Rome. He came here, however, in 
 spirit, and by his affectionate attachment, here too he died ; 
 for his last dispositions were : 1 My body to Ireland, my heart 
 to Eome, my soul to heaven !' What bequests, what legacies 
 are these ! What can be imagined at the same time more sub- 
 lime and more pious than such a testament as this ? Ireland 
 is his country, Rome is his Church, heaven is his God. God, 
 the Church, and his country ; or, in other words, the glory of 
 God, the liberty of the Church, the happiness of his country, 
 such are the great ends of all his actions, such the noble 
 objects, the only objects of his charity ! He loves his country, 
 and therefore he leaves to it his body ; he loves still more the 
 Church, and hence he bequeaths to it his heart; and still more 
 than the Chinch he loves God, and therefore confides to Him 
 his soul." 
 
 O'Connell's remains were not removed to Ireland 
 until August. Wherever they rested on the mourn- 
 ful journey special respect was paid to them. They 
 arrived in Dublin in the Duchess of Kent steamer, 
 and were received with almost royal honours. A 
 sea-chapel had been erected on the deck, where 
 prayers were offered during the voyage. The fol- 
 lowing words were engraved on the coffin-plate : 
 
 DAN I E L O'CO N N E LL, 
 
 HIBERNI/E LIBERATOR, 
 AD LIMINA APOSTOLORUM PERGENS 
 DIE XV. MAN, ANNO MDCCCXLVII. 
 GENUA OBDORMIIT IN DOMINO: 
 VIXIT ANNOS LXXI, MENSES IX. DIES IX. 
 R. I. P. 
 
 27 
 
772 
 
 Lives in the Hearts of his People. 
 
 And so they bore him to his well-earned rest. 
 What was it to him, then, that he was followed to 
 his grave by thousands, that five prelates assisted at 
 his obsequies in the cathedral church in Marlborough 
 Street, Dublin, and that afterwards a magnificent 
 monument was erected by a grateful people to his 
 memory? The deeds that he did in life were of 
 more importance to him now than all the honour 
 that could be paid to him ; and though it was fitting 
 that a tower should be erected to his memory in 
 Ireland, and rarely carved marble should com- 
 memorate him in Rome, he has a better monument — 
 and one infinitely more durable — in the hearts of the 
 people for whom he lived, for whom he died, and 
 to whom he was truly the Liberator. 
 
 THE DEAD TRIBUNE. 
 
 BY DENIS FLORENCE MACCARTHY, ESQ. 
 
 " While the tree 
 Of freedom's withered trunk puts forth a leaf, 
 Even for thy tomb a garland let it he, 
 The forum's champion and the people's chief." — Bveon. 
 
 The awful shadow of a great man's death 
 
 Falls on this land, so sad and dark before — 
 Dark with the famine and the fever breath, 
 
 And mad dissensions graving at its core. 
 Oh ! let us hush foul discord's maniac roar, 
 
 And make a mournful truce, however brief, 
 Like hostile armies when the day is o'er! — 
 
 And thus devote the night-time of our grief 
 To tears and prayers for him, the great departed chief. 
 
MONUMENT TO O'CONNELL'S MEMORY IN THE IRISH COLLEGE, BO ME. 
 
« The Dead Tribune:' 
 
 In 1 Genoa the superb ' O'Connell dies — 
 
 That city of Columbus by the sea, 
 Beneath the canopy of azure skies, 
 
 As hmh and cloudless as his fame must be. 
 Is it mere chance or higher destiny 
 
 That brings these names together ? — One the bold 
 Wanderer in ways that none had trod but he — 
 
 The other, too, exploring paths untold — 
 One a new land would seek — and one would save the old 
 
 With child-like incredulity we cry — 
 
 It cannot be that great career is run ; 
 It cannot be but in the eastern sky 
 
 Again will blaze that mighty world- watched sun ! 
 Ah ! fond deceit ! The east is dark and dun, 
 
 Death's black impervious cloud is in the sides : — 
 Toll the deep bell, and fire the evening gun, 
 
 Let honest sorrow moisten manly eyes : — 
 A glorious sun has set that never more shall ri*e. 
 
 Brothers, who struggle yet in freedom's van, 
 
 Where'er your forces o'er the world are spread, 
 The last great champion of the rights of man — 
 
 The last great Tribune of the world is dead ! 
 Join in our grief, and let our tears be shed 
 
 Without reserve or coldness on his bier : 
 Look on his life as on a map outspread — 
 
 His fight for freedom — freedom far and near ; 
 And if a speck should rise, oh ! hide it with a tear ! 
 
 To speak his praises little need have we — 
 
 To tell the wonders wrought within those waves ; 
 
 Enough, so well he taught us to be free, 
 
 That even to him we could not kneel as slaves 
 
774 
 
 The Dead Tribune." 
 
 Oh ! let our tears be fast- destroying graves, 
 Where doubt and difference may for ever lie 
 
 Buried and hid as in sepulchral caves : — 
 And let love's fond and reverential eye 
 Alone behold the star new risen in the sky ! 
 
 But can it be that well-known form is stark ! 
 
 Can it be true that burning heart is chill ? 
 Oh ! can it be that twinkling eye is dark, 
 
 And that great thunder- voice is hushed and still ? 
 Never again upon the famous hill 1 
 
 Will he preside as monarch of the land, 
 With myriad myriads subject to his will — 
 
 Never again shall raise the powerful hand, 
 To rouse, to warm, to check, to kindle, and command ! 
 
 The twinkling eye, so full of changeful light, 
 
 Is dimmed and darkened in a dread eclipse ; 
 The withering scowl — the smile so sunny bright, 
 
 Alike have faded from his voiceless lips ; 
 The words of power, the mirthful merry quips, 
 
 The mighty onslaught, and the quick reply, 
 The biting taunts that cut like stinging whips, 
 
 The homely truth, the lessons grave and high, 
 All — all are with the past, but cannot — shall not die ! 
 
 1 The Hill of Tara, where the greatest of " the monster meetings " was 
 held. 
 
 THE END. 
 
2941 
 
3 
 
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