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IRELAND AND HER AGITATORS. 
 
IRELAND 
 
 AND 
 
 HER AGITATORS 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM J. O'NEILL DAUNT, ESQ. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "SAINTS AND SINNERS." 
 
 "We know oitr duty to our Sovereign, and are loj-al. We know also our duty 
 to oiu'selves, and are resolved to be free." 
 
 Declaration of Dungannon Volunteers, 1779. 
 
 "Sir, I believe that the Irish confederacy cannot be put down by 
 
 FORCE." 
 
 Speech of Sir Robert Peel, 18th April, 184->. 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGK LIBRARY 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 JOHN BROWNE, 21, NASSAU-STREET. 
 
 1845. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND 
 
 Fellow-countrymen, 
 
 I dedicate to you the following 
 pages, which may help, it is hoped, to exem- 
 plify the causes of Irish dissatisfaction with 
 the Union ; to show how impossible it is that 
 the Irish people should regard the extinction 
 of their Parliament otherwise than as a na- 
 tional curse and a national degradation. 
 
 I have not sought to make my book an 
 elaborated treatise on Repeal. I have done little 
 more than to collect — not very methodically — - 
 a few of the more salient characteristics of Eng- 
 lish influence in Ireland for the last sixty years, 
 and to chronicle a few of the events connected 
 with our efforts to resist that influence. 
 
 i I- 
 
 a 
 
VI DEDICATION. 
 
 The temporalities of the Established Church 
 are the only mainstay of the Union. They fur- 
 nish to the large and intelligent body who 
 directly enjoy them, a powerful pecuniary in- 
 ducement to sustain the Union ; and also to 
 enlist their flocks in its support, by stimulating 
 their fears of a Catholic ascendancy in the event 
 of Eepeal. If it were not for the temporal 
 possessions of the Established Church, there 
 would not be a dozen Unionists in Ireland. 
 
 The instinct of every Irishman — unless he 
 is influenced by sectarian animosities and fears 
 — will impel him not only to abhor the des- 
 truction of his country's legislature, but to hate 
 the destroyer also. There never was a greater 
 blunder than to call the Union a bond of inter- 
 national affection. 
 
 When I was a boy of ten years old, I 
 was told by my seniors that we once had a 
 Parliament in Ireland, and that English influ- 
 ence extinguished it. Thenceforth I regarded 
 England with an abhorrence, which reflection 
 may possibly have mitigated, but which Eepeal 
 
DEDICATION. Vll 
 
 alone can fully eradicate. Religious prejudices 
 had nothing to do with the matter, for I was 
 born of a Protestant family. 
 
 I do not state this from the absurd notion 
 that any importance attaches to myself or my 
 sentiments. I make the avowal because it re- 
 cords my individual participation in a sentiment 
 which equally actuates millions ; and which, by 
 its general diffusion, assumes an aspect that is 
 anything but contemptible. Ireland can only 
 be conciliated by the Eepeal. 
 
 I am, Fellow-Countrymen, 
 
 Your most devoted servant, 
 
 W. J. O'NEILL DAUNT." 
 
 Kilcascau, Co. Cork, 
 
 December, 1844. 
 
EERATA. 
 
 Page 69, line 24 — For very read when. 
 
 Page 1 18, line 5 — Before two rival creeds, read the professors of. 
 Page 191, line 2 from bottom — dele that before lost. 
 Page 192 (note)— For 16 read 67. 
 Page 197, last line — For from read for. 
 Page 223, line 11 — For friends read fiends. 
 Page 283, line 18 — For counli/ read country. 
 
 Page 336, line 1 — Before by the First James, read and encroached 
 upon. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 CASTLEREAGII AND MR. CAREW.— POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DIVISION 
 OF PROTESTANTS AND CATHOLICS. —PROTESTANT PATRIOTS OF 
 1782.— MANNERS OF THE PERIOD.— A BACCHANALIAN DUELLIST. 
 
 When Lord Castlereagh visited Mr. Shapland 
 Carew, the member for the county of Wexford, in 
 order to offer him a peerage and some other more 
 substantial advantages, as inducements to vote 
 for the Legislative Union, Mr. Carew indignantly 
 exclaimed, 
 
 " I will expose your insolent offer in the House 
 of Commons to-night ! I will get up in my place 
 and charge you with the barefaced attempt to 
 corrupt a legislator !" 
 
 Castlereagh coolly replied, 
 
 " Do so, if you will. But if you do, /will im- 
 mediately get up and contradict you in presence 
 of the house ; I will declare, upon my honour, 
 that you have uttered a falsehood ; and I shall 
 follow up that declaration by demanding satisfac- 
 tion as soon as we are beyond the reach of the 
 Serjeant-at-arms." 
 
 B 
 
2 THE PROTESTANT ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Mr. Carew desired the noble Secretary of State 
 to get out of his house with all possible expedi- 
 tion, on pain of being kicked down the hall-door 
 steps by his footman. Castlereagh accordingly 
 withdrew, but Carew did not execute his threat 
 of exposing the transaction to the House. It were 
 idle to speculate on the motives which induced 
 him to practise that forbearance. The incident 
 vividly illustrates the desperate and unprincipled 
 determination with which the government and 
 its tool pursued their object. 
 
 The Irish aristocracy and gentry of that period 
 were a race of men who lived high, drank hard, 
 gamed deeply, fought duels, and often pursued a 
 career of reckless extravagance. These habits 
 were generated by their situation, which rendered 
 them, to a very considerable extent, the irrespon- 
 sible monopolists of local power. They largely 
 partook of the national taste for splendor and 
 magnificence ; a taste which, duly regulated, 
 tends to adorn the land, and to refine and civi- 
 lize the people ; but which, in the circumstances 
 then affecting the upper classes in Ireland, en- 
 snared its votaries into that wasteful and ruinous 
 expenditure which threw so many of their num- 
 ber upon the worst expedients of political corrup- 
 tion to retrieve their shattered fortunes. 
 
 The penal laws had worked a most disastrous 
 
EFFECTS OF THE PENAL LAWS. 3 
 
 separation of the people from the gentry. The 
 dominant Protestant party — the jovial, fox-hunt- 
 ing, claret-drinking squirearchy — all looked down 
 on the great mass of their Catholic countrymen 
 as a totally inferior race of beings, intended by 
 God Almighty for the inheritance of serfdom, 
 and with whom it would be a degradation to sup- 
 pose they could have the least community of 
 interest. They were trained from the cradle to 
 look thus scornfully on the Catholics. Contempt 
 was a doctrine of their political bible. 
 
 On the part of the Catholics, the moral conse- 
 quences of the penal gulph that divided them 
 from their more favored countrymen, were va- 
 rious, according to the varying dispositions of 
 men. There was, amongst some, the re-action of 
 deep and deadly hate. Others were awed into a 
 social idolatry of Protestants. I know one most 
 respectable and very wealthy Catholic merchant, 
 who declares, that when a boy at school, about the 
 year 1780, he felt overwhelmed and bewildered 
 at the honor of being permitted to play marbles 
 with a Protestant school-fellow ! Every Protes- 
 tant cobbler and tinker conceived himself supe- 
 rior to the Catholic of ancient lineage and ample 
 inheritance. No wonder that there should have 
 been offensive assumption on the one side, and 
 rankling animosity as well as degrading servility 
 
 B 2 
 
4 POLITICAL NON-ENTITY OF CATHOLICS. 
 
 on the other, when the law placed all the good 
 things of the state in the hands of the few, and 
 excluded the many from all participation in place, 
 power, and emolument. 
 
 The Protestant aristocracy of Ireland wanted 
 that wholesome check, that strong guarantee of 
 political honesty, which would have arisen from 
 contact with, and representative dependence on, 
 the people. A whole people never can be bribed. 
 But the people — the Catholic masses of Ireland — 
 were a political nonentity for nearly the entire 
 century. They formed no element of power ; no 
 ingredient in the speculating politician's calcula- 
 tions ; the statute law had absolutely assumed 
 their non-existence ! And even after some of the 
 restrictions on Catholics had been removed, the 
 sentiment of Protestant contempt for Papists sur- 
 vived in full force ; preventing that cordial coali- 
 tion, that thorough mutual understanding between 
 the two classes, which alone could have availed 
 to defeat the ministerial assault on Irish legisla- 
 tive independence. 
 
 The Protestant nobility and squirearchy, half 
 fearing, and entirely despising, their disfranchised 
 countrymen, had for a long time looked upon 
 themselves rather in the light of an English gar- 
 rison occupying Ireland, than as the legitimate 
 aristocracy of the country. Yet, despite the 
 colossal power of corruption, and the pernicious 
 
PROTESTANT PATRIOTISM. 5 
 
 influence of religious bigotry, the very circum- 
 stance of their residing in, and making laws for 
 Ireland, began to produce its natural results on 
 the minds of her domestic rulers about the time 
 of the American war ; the spark of patriotism 
 had ignited the Protestant heart, and blazed up 
 with dazzling brilliancy in the memorable and 
 successful struggle of the Irish Volunteers for free 
 trade and constitutional independence in 1782. 
 
 But — fatal error ! — the Catholics were not in- 
 corporated into the constitution. Glorious and 
 imposing was the superstructure, but it was fated 
 to perish, because its foundations were too narrow 
 to sustain its weight. It did not rest on the 
 broad basis of the people. 
 
 The Protestant patriotism of 1782 was a gallant 
 and goodly display ; yet it presented some anoma- 
 lous features. There was in it a great deal real, 
 and something illusory. It was a curious sight, 
 that of men in arms to enfranchise their country, 
 yet resolved to perpetuate the ^/z^franchisement 
 of the great body of its inhabitants ! — men in arms 
 to assert the dignity and honour of Ireland, yet 
 entertaining a cordial contempt for five out of 
 every six of its people ! In truth, the Protes- 
 tants had been so long accustomed to omit the 
 Catholics from all their political arithmetic, that 
 they had learned to look upon themselves — being 
 then about one-sixth — as forming the sum-total 
 
6 ANTI-CATHOLIO PATRIOTISM. 
 
 of the Irish nation. The thunder of Grattan liad 
 not yet shaken the strongholds of their bigotry. 
 They thought it a mighty fine thing to establish 
 a free constitution of whose benefits they were to 
 be the monopolists. 
 
 Another anomaly was to be found in the fact, 
 that the bitterest enemies of Catholic emancipa- 
 tion were sometimes the most strenuous cham- 
 pions of theoretic Irish independence. At a 
 meeting of some of the friends of the Volunteer 
 movement, held in the house in Grafton-street 
 now used as the Royal Hibernian Academy, at 
 which Flood, Grattan, and Bartholomew Hoare 
 attended. Flood, whose hostility to the Catholic 
 claims was inflexible, actually proposed to his 
 confreres a plan of total separation from England ! 
 Grattan said, " If you persevere in your proposi- 
 tion, I certainly shall not oppose it here ; but I 
 shall quit this room, and proceed at once to the 
 castle — to my Sovereign's castle — and there dis- 
 close the treason — and denounce the traitor." 
 
 Yet Flood — the separatist — could not tolerate 
 the notion of emancipating the Catholics ; while 
 Grattan, the zealous friend of the Catholics, and 
 the champion of a free Irish Parliament in con- 
 nexion with the British crown, denounced the 
 ultra-patriotism of the " Protestant ascendancy" 
 statesman as treason ! Flood, I need not add, 
 withdrew his proposition. 
 
 /^ 
 
CORRUPTING INFLUENCES. 7 
 
 Emancipation, under an Irish Parliament, 
 would have speedily blended all classes of reli- 
 gionists into one political mass. But the Catho- 
 lics continued unemancipated ; the Protestants 
 remained a separate and exclusive band, distinct 
 from, and rarely sympathising with, their fellow- 
 countrymen. Thus placed far aloof from the 
 people, there was little to countervail the corrupt- 
 ing influence of a profligate court with which 
 they were brought into close contact, and which 
 derived immense facilities of corruption from 
 the number of pocket-boroughs in the Irish House 
 of Commons. With an unreformed parliament, 
 and an unemancipated people, the distributors of 
 place and pension enjoyed an easy sway. The 
 pension list was swollen to an enormous magni- 
 tude; the number of sinecures incessantly aug- 
 mented; and parliamentary profligacy came at 
 last to be so general, that men lost all sense of 
 its shame through the force of its prevalence. 
 
 Whilst the Government thus practised cor- 
 ruption on the largest scale, there were social 
 vices peculiar to the period, which extensively 
 prevailed amongst the upper ranks. Of these 
 practices the principal were duelling and drink- 
 ing, which were carried to an excess, happily 
 now almost incredible. There was something 
 exceedingly bizarre in the notions and habits of 
 
 
8 BAGENAL OF DUNLECKNY. 
 
 a first-rate bacchanalian duellist. Take, for a 
 specimen, Mr. l^agenal, of Dunleckny, in the 
 county Carlo w — King Bagenal, as he was called 
 throughout his extensive territories ; and within 
 their bounds no monarch was ever more abso- 
 lute ! Of high Norman lineage — of manners 
 elegant, fascinating, polished by extensive inter- 
 course with the great world — of princely income, 
 and of boundless hospitality, Mr. Bagenal pos- 
 sessed all the qualities and attributes calculated 
 to procure for him popularity with every class. 
 A terrestrial paradise was Dunleckny for all 
 lovers of good wine, good horses, good dogs, and 
 good society. 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 hunt, and drink, and solve points of 
 honour at twelve paces. His politics were po- 
 pular ; he was the mover of the grant of £50,000 
 to Grattan in 1782 ; he was at that time member 
 for the county of Carlo w. 
 
 Enthroned 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," loaded, were often laid before 
 him on the dinner-table. After dinner, the claret 
 
PUGNACIOUS PRACTICES. . 9 
 
 was produced in an unbroached cask ; Bagenal's 
 practice was to tap the cask with a bullet from 
 one of his pistols, whilst he kept the other in 
 terrorem for any of the convives who should 
 fail in doing ample justice to the wine. 
 
 Nothing could be more inimitable than the 
 bland, fatherly, affectionate air, with which the 
 old gentleman used to impart to his junior guests 
 the results of his own experience, and the moral 
 lessons which should regulate their conduct 
 through life. 
 
 "In truth, my young friends, it behoves a 
 youth entering the Avorld to make a character 
 for himself Eespect will only be accorded to 
 character. A young man must show his proofs. 
 I am not a quarrelsome person — I never was — I 
 hate your mere duellist — but experience of the 
 world tells me that there are knotty points in 
 life of which the only solution is the saw-handle. 
 Eest upon your pistols, my boys ! Occasions 
 will arise in which the use of them is absolutely 
 indispensable to character. A man, I repeat, 
 must show his proofs — in this world courage 
 never will be taken upon trust ! I protest to 
 Heaven, my dear young friends, that I advise 
 you exactly as J should advise my own son !" 
 
 And having thus discharged his conscience, he 
 would look blandly round upon his guests with 
 the most patriarchal air imaginable. 
 
10 KING BAGENAL's DUEL. 
 
 His practice accorded with his precept. Some 
 pigs, the property of a gentleman who had re- 
 cently settled near Dunleckny, strayed into an 
 enclosure of King Bagenal's, and rooted up a 
 flower-knot. The incensed monarch ordered that 
 the porcine trespassers should be shorn of their 
 ears and tails ; and he transmitted the severed 
 appendages to the owner of the swine, with an in- 
 timation, that he^ too, deserved to have his ears 
 docked ; and that only he had not got a tail, he 
 (King Bagenal) would sever the caudal member 
 from his dorsal extremity. " Now," quoth Bagenal, 
 " if he's a gentleman, he must burn powder after 
 such a message as that." Nor was he disap- 
 pointed. A challenge was given by the owner 
 of the pigs ; Bagenal accepted it with ready 
 alacrity ; only stipulating, that as he was old and 
 feeble, being then in his seventy-ninth year, 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 
 sunrise — but we can't do these things at seventy- 
 eight. Well, Heaven's will be done !" 
 
 They fought at twelve paces — Bagenal wound- 
 ed his antagonist severely ; the arm of the chair 
 in which he sat was shattered, but he escaped 
 
A TRADITION OF DUNLEOKNY. 11 
 
 unhurt ; and lie ended the day with a glorious 
 carouse, tapping the claret as usual, by firing a 
 pistol at the cask. 
 
 The traditions of Dunleckny allege, that when 
 Bagenal, in the course of his tour through Eu- 
 rope, visited the petty court of Mecklenburgh- 
 Strelitz, the Grand Duke, charmed with his 
 magnificence and the reputation of his wealth, 
 made him an offer of the hand of the fair Char- 
 lotte — who, being politely rejected by King Ba- 
 genal, was afterwards accepted by King George 
 the Third. 
 
 Such was the lord of Dunleckny ; and such 
 was many an Irish squire of the day. Eeckless- 
 ness characterised the time. And yet there Avas 
 a polished courtesy, a high-bred grace in the 
 manners of men who imagined that to shoot, or 
 to be shot at on " the sod," was a perfectly 
 indispensable ingredient in the character of a 
 gentleman. Look at Bagenal, nearly four-score, 
 seated at the head of his table. You observe 
 the refined urbanity of his manner, and the 
 dignified air which is enhanced, not impaired, 
 by the weight of years. You perceive that the 
 patriarchal Mentor, whose milk-white tresses 
 evidence his venerable age, is mildly and cour- 
 teously pouring forth his lore for the edification 
 of his audience. You draw near, to participate 
 
12 " FIGHTING COUNSEL." 
 
 in the instructions of the ancient moralist. — 
 What a shock — half ludicrous, half horrible — to 
 find that he inculcates the necessity of practice 
 with the " saw-handles," as the grand, primary 
 virtue which forms the gentleman ! 
 
 At a somewhat later period, the same extra- 
 vagant ideas were still prevalent. At a contested 
 election for the county of Cork, the notorious 
 " Bully Egan" fought fourteen duels. Pugna- 
 cious barristers, whose knowledge of law was not 
 very profound, often made large sums of money 
 at elections where "fighting counsel" were re- 
 quired. Elections in those days often lasted a 
 fortnight or three weeks, and sometimes averaged 
 from one to two duels a day. It accordingly 
 was the policy of the candidates to select good 
 shots for their counsel. 
 
 Within the present century, Mr. Thomas 
 CM* * * * was counsel at a Clare election, where 
 he conducted the business of his client in a style 
 so pacific as to excite the astonishment of a 
 friend, who was well aware of his fire-eating 
 propensities. " Why, Tom," said his friend, " you 
 are marvellously quiet ! How does it happen 
 that you haven't got into any rumpus ?" 
 
 " Because my client does not pay me fighting 
 price^^ replied Tom, with the most business-like 
 air in the world. 
 
ELECTION TARIFF. 13 
 
 The tariff included two scales of payment for 
 election counsel — the talking price, and the 
 fighting price."* 
 
 These delirious notions were, undoubtedly, 
 the indirect results of the anomalous position of 
 the "Protestant garrison" of Ireland; of their 
 immense and irresponsible social power ; and of 
 the lax, devil-may-care morality systematically 
 acted on in the government of the country, by 
 successive viceroys. 
 
 * At an election for the county of Wexford in 1810, when Mes- 
 sieurs Alcock and Colclough were rival candidates, some tenants 
 of a friend of Alcock declared their intention of voting for Colclough. 
 " Receive their votes at your peril!" exclaimed Alcock. Colclough 
 replied 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 as- 
 sembled 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 county. He was tried at the next assizes 
 for the murder of Colclough. Baron Smith publicly protested 
 against finding him guilty, and the jury unanimously acquitted him. 
 
14 now THE WAY FOR THE UNION 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE PEOPLE.— WORDS OF EDMUND BURKE.— EVI- 
 DENCE OF LORD GOSFORD AND LORD MOIRA— EXPLOIT OF THE 
 FRAZER FENCIBLES.— LORD NORBURY. 
 
 It is sometimes weakly urged that the venality 
 of the last Irish parliament is a perpetual dis- 
 qualifier of the Irish people from the right of 
 self-legislation. It might as well be said, that 
 the owner of an estate was disqualified from the 
 rights of possession by the rascality of his agent. 
 The Irish people had nothing to do with the 
 venality of their legislators. The sin was not 
 theirs, nor should its punishment be visited on 
 them. And in the last grand struggle, the men 
 Avho really were their representatives — the men 
 who w^ere returned for open, popular constitu- 
 encies — nearly all voted against the ministerial 
 project, and for the preservation of the Irish 
 Parliament. 
 
 In glancing, however rapidly, at the present 
 agitation in Ireland, we should not lose sight of 
 that which ever is uppermost in the mind of 
 every Irish Eepealer — namely, that the Union is 
 the offspring of conjoined fraud and force ; that 
 the means by which it was achieved wer€ such 
 
WAS rREPARED. 15 
 
 as would inevitably vitiate any private transac- 
 tion between two individuls. That Lord Castle- 
 reagli found many nominees for pocket borouglis 
 who were not quite so impracticable as Mr. 
 Shapland Carew, was by no means the worst 
 feature in the case. The machinery which was 
 to effectuate the Union, had been long in prepa- 
 ration. So far back as 1792, Edmund Burke 
 had used these remarkable words : " By what I 
 learn, the Castle considers the outlawry (or at 
 least what I look on as such) of the great mass 
 of the people of Ireland, as an unalterable maxim 
 in the government of Ireland." 
 
 With respect to the turbulent condition of 
 Ireland some years prior to the Union ; with 
 respect to the share the ^' authorities" had in 
 producing that turbulence, I do not mean to 
 enter into lengthened details : the following brief 
 statements must suffice. 
 
 In 1795 the hopes of the Catholics for imme- 
 diate and full emancipation, were encouraged by 
 the English Government, who sent over Earl 
 Fitzwilliam in that year as viceroy ; authorised 
 to acquiesce in the liberal measures of the friends 
 of the Catholics. In the previous year, Henry 
 Grattan had an interview with Pitt, in which he 
 was requested by the premier to draw up a list 
 of his demands on behalf of Ireland. Grattan 
 
16 LORD GOSFORD's EVIDENCE. 
 
 complied, and included Catholic Emancipation in 
 his catalogue. Pitt in reply, observed, that 
 Emancipation should not be brought forward as 
 a cabinet measure ; but that the Government, if 
 pressed, would yield it. 
 
 The hopes of the Catholics thus excited to 
 the utmost pitch, were damped by the sudden 
 removal of Lord Fitzwilliam from Ireland, and 
 the appointment of a successor of adverse po- 
 litics. 
 
 This, in itself, was necessarily productive of 
 great popular dissatisfaction ; but discontent was 
 frightfully increased by the system of torture 
 put in practice against the people in various 
 districts. 
 
 The following evidence, given by Lord Gosford, 
 is descriptive of that system as it existed in 1795 
 and 1796:— 
 
 "A persecution," says his lordship,* "accom- 
 panied with all the circumstances of ferocious 
 cruelty, is now raging in this country. Neither 
 age nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence, 
 can excite mercy. The only crime which the 
 wretched objects are charged with is, the pro- 
 fession of the Koman Catholic faith. A lawless 
 banditti have constituted themselves judges of 
 
 * Address of Lord Gosford to the magistracy of Armagh, printed 
 in the Dublin Journal, 5th Jan. 1796. 
 
LORD MOIRA'S evidence. 17 
 
 this new delinquency, and the sentence they de- 
 nounce is equally concise and terrible. It is 
 nothing less than confiscation of property and 
 immediate banishment. It would be painful to 
 detail the horrors of this proscription — a pro- 
 scription that exceeds, in the number of its vic- 
 tims, every example of ancient and modern 
 history. For, when have we heard or read of 
 more than half the inhabitants of a populous 
 country being deprived of the fruits of their 
 industry, and driven to seek shelter for them- 
 selves and their families where chance may guide 
 them ? These horrors are now acting with 
 impunity. The spirit of justice, without which 
 law is tyranny, has disappeared in this country." 
 
 Forcible words, yet not more forcible than 
 true. The persecution Lord Gosford describes 
 took place in 1795. As to particular cruelties 
 committed on the people by the armed agents of 
 power, the following quotation from Lord Moira, 
 will furnish illustrative specimens : — 
 
 "I have," says Lord Moira, "known a man, in 
 order to extort confession of a supposed crime, 
 or of that of some neighbour, picketted till he 
 actually fainted — picketted a second time, till 
 he fainted again ; and when he came to himself, 
 picketted a third time, till he once more fainted; 
 and all this upon mere suspicion. Men had been 
 
 G 
 
18 TORTURE SYSTEMATIZED. 
 
 taken and hung up till they were half dead, and 
 afterwards threatened with a repetition of this 
 treatment, unless they made a confession of their 
 imputed guilt."* 
 
 Lord Moira added this very remarkable state- 
 ment : — 
 
 '' These," said he, " were not 'particular acts of 
 cruelty^ hut formed part of the new systemr 
 
 The object of that system was to carry the 
 Union. 
 
 As to the administration of the law, it was 
 not very easy for the people to repose their 
 unlimited confidence in its justice, when such an 
 incident as the following could occur : 
 
 In the spring of 1797, Solicitor-General Toler, 
 afterwards Lord Norbury, presided, during the 
 illness of one of the judges, in the criminal court 
 at the assizes for the county Kildare. Captain 
 Frazer, a Scotchman, was prosecuted for the 
 murder of an aged peasant named Christopher 
 Dixon, under the following circumstances : — 
 
 Part of the county of Kildare near Carbery 
 was at that time proclaimed. Other parts were 
 exempt from proclamation. There was a flying- 
 camp in the proclaimed part, consisting of the 
 
 * Speech of Lord Moira in the British House of Lords, 22nd 
 November, 1797. 
 
MURDER OF DIXON. 19 
 
 Frazer fencibles, under the command of Captain 
 Frazer. 
 
 One night on his return, through Cloncurry, 
 to the camp, from a very jovial dinner party at 
 Maynooth, Frazer saw an old man (Dixon), then 
 past eighty, repairing a cart by the road side. — 
 Thinking that he was in his own proclaimed dis- 
 trict, he seized Dixon for being out after sunset, 
 and made him mount behind the orderly dragoon 
 in attendance, with the purpose of taking him to 
 the camp to flog. Passing a turnpike gate, the 
 old man asserted that the proclamation did not 
 extend to the district in which he had been 
 found ; at the same time appealing to the gate- 
 keeper to confirm his assertion. The gate-keeper 
 said that the district in question had not been 
 proclaimed ; upon which the old man descended 
 from the crupper of the orderly's horse and went 
 towards home. Frazer and the dragoon furiously 
 pursued him, and gave him sixteen wounds, of 
 which seven or eight were mortal. A coroner's 
 jury returned a verdict of "wilful murder" against 
 the homicides. A neighbouring magistrate, Mr. 
 Thomas Eyan, endeavoured to take Frazer, but 
 his soldiers resisted. Mr. Ryan reported the 
 facts to Lord Cloncurry, who was then in 
 Dublin, and who directed his son, the Hon. Mr. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 frazer's ovation. 
 
 Lawless,* to visit the Commander of the Forces, 
 Lord Carhampton, in order to demand the body 
 of Frazer in pursuance of the provisions of the 
 mutiny act. 
 
 Mr. Lawless made the demand in presence of 
 Mr. Eyan, and of Colonel (now General Sir 
 George) Cockbnrn. Lord Carhampton refused 
 to give up Frazer. Mr. Lawless thereupon told 
 his lordship that Frazer was ipso facto cashiered. 
 
 At the assizes Frazer went voluntarily to be 
 tried. His approach to the court-house was a 
 sort of ovation ; for he was attended by a mili- 
 tary band playing " Croppies lie down !" 
 
 Mr. Toler presided. On the bench beside him 
 sat the late Duke of Leinster, the unfortunate 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and Mr. Lawless. ' 
 
 The facts of the case were distinctly proved 
 by unexceptionaHe witnesses. There were many 
 persons examined, who deposed to the good and 
 peaceable character of the deceased ; his exemp- 
 tion from all " treasonable" machinations ; and 
 his general habits of morality and industry. 
 There were also witnesses upon the other side 
 who gave a character for all the virtues under 
 heaven, especially the military virtues, to Cap- 
 tain Frazer and the orderly dragoon. 
 
 Mr. Toler charged homxC for an acquittal. 
 
 * The present Lord Cloncurry. 
 
toler's charge to the jury. 21 
 
 He regretted the homicide — it was very unfor- 
 tunate — good, respectable old man — worthy cha- 
 racter, and so forth — witnesses of unimpeachable 
 credit had said so. There had, however, also 
 been witnesses who gave a most admirable cha- 
 racter to the gallant captain in the dock, which 
 the jury would by no means overlook — he was 
 a brave and faithful soldier to his king — loyal — 
 devoted — in a word, the sort of person needed in 
 this unhappy country at the present time. The 
 occurrence for which he was tried was most 
 deeply to be deplored ; he would not disparage 
 the deceased — he would only say that if he had 
 been as good as the witnesses for the prosecu- 
 tion had represented him^ he was well out of 
 A wicked world ! If on the contrary^ he were 
 a firehand — [here Toler looked significantly at 
 Mr. Lawless] — the world was well rid of him I 
 
 A judicial dilemma well worthy of record! 
 
 The jury acquitted Captain Frazer. 
 
 Those who brand with every epithet of igno- 
 miny the names and principles of the insurgents 
 of 1798, should ask themselves whether such 
 elaborate pains had ever been taken in any other 
 country to drive a reluctant people into insur- 
 rection ? With the cup of political hope held 
 brimful to the lips, to be rudely dashed aside next 
 moment; with a regularly organized system of 
 
22 > CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 torture ; with a social condition of frightful in- 
 security ; without any protection from the estab- 
 lished tribunals of law — whither were the people 
 to turn for succour ? — To the so-called tribunals 
 of justice ? — A sanguinary buffoon upon the bench 
 might openly recommend the impunity of their 
 murderers, in a harangue of solemn banter. Should 
 they turn to the government for help ? — The 
 government had a direct interest in their suffer- 
 ings and turbulence. Whither, then, were the 
 people to look for the removal of their grievances ? 
 They were absolutely driven to their own rude, 
 undisciplined, and inefficient warfare. The bla- 
 zing cottage — the tortured peasant* — the viola- 
 ted wife or daughter — the familiar outrages on 
 property and life — the demoniac license of which 
 they were the victims, literally left them no 
 alternative but the pike. Instead of their out- 
 break in 1798 being a topic for modern astonish- 
 ment, the real wonder would hav^e been, if, with 
 such intolerable provocation, they had not re- 
 sorted to arms. Good men may now regard their 
 
 * There were several descriptions of torture familiarly used. 
 There was picketting, half-hanging ; there was the torture of the 
 pitch-cap — i. e. a cap smeared with hot pitch, applied to the shorn 
 head of the victim, and dragged off when cold, tearing the scalp 
 along with it. Another torture consisted in cutting tlie hair close 
 to the roots in the form of a cross on the crown of the head, and 
 then setting fire to gunpowder strown in the furrows thus formed. 
 
GUILT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 23 
 
 struggle with the feeling expressed in the cele- 
 brated lines of a Protestant student of Trinity 
 College — * 
 
 *' Who fears to speak of Ninety-eight? 
 
 Who blushes at the name ? 
 When cowards mock the patriot's fate. 
 
 Who hangs his head for shame ?" 
 
 1^0. The true shame and sin were with the 
 government, whose oppressive crimes compelled 
 a peace-loving people to take the field in their 
 own defence. 
 
 The country soon became embroiled enough to 
 satisfy the most sanguine aspirations of the 
 Unionists. Troops were poured in, to the num- 
 ber of 137,000. It should not be forgotten that 
 the government might have prevented the out- 
 break of the rebellion by arresting its leaders ; as 
 the Castle had a spy, named M'Guane, in the 
 rebel camp for ten months prior to the explosion ; 
 and by this spy our rulers were furnished with 
 constant and minute intelligence of every ma- 
 chination of the rebel directory. But the go- 
 vernment had not the slightest desire to suppress 
 the insurrection thus quietly. Their plan was 
 to convulse the whole framework of society to its 
 very centre ; to create mutual and thorough 
 hatred and terror beween the Protestant and 
 Catholic inhabitants of the land ; to paralyze 
 
 * Spirit of the Nation. 
 
24 LORD CLARE : 
 
 both into a total incapacity to resist the Union ; 
 to coerce both with an irresistible army of occu- 
 pation ; and then, by means of unprecedented 
 bribery, to corrupt the Parliament (which had 
 already been dexterously packed) to vote its 
 own extinction. 
 
 They must indeed have been short-sighted 
 statesmen who calculated that a union thus pro- 
 duced by force and bribery could ever be main- 
 tained by any other means than force and bribery. 
 They must have known but little of human na- 
 ture, if they imagined that a people whose le- 
 gislature had been made the subject of a regular 
 bargain and sale, could ever acquiesce in that 
 traffic. 
 
 Amongst the Irish parliamentary Unionists, 
 the most prominent leader was Lord Chan- 
 cellor Clare. His only motive was the hope 
 of personal aggrandizement. He had, by his 
 commanding talents and great strength of cha- 
 racter, acquired a dictatorship in the Irish House 
 of Lords. Over the imbecile puppets who formed 
 the majority of that assembly, he domineered 
 with the most insolent tyranny ; and he in- 
 dulged in visions of the vastly enlarged power 
 with which a dictatorship in the British parlia- 
 ment would invest him. It never occurred to 
 him that he should not be equally as dominant 
 
HIS ATTACK OX LORD CHARLEMONT. 25 
 
 there as he was in the Upper House of the Irish 
 Legislature. 
 
 Clare had a species of intellect not uncommon 
 amongst the leaders of the French revolution, of 
 which the leading trait was its strong but ill- 
 directed energy. His bigotry against the Catho- 
 lics was intense. In private society he seldom 
 named them without some contemptuous epithet. 
 
 He threw all his abilities into the struggle for 
 the Union ; and in order to give the reader some 
 idea of the habitual insolence with which he 
 bullied the Irish peers, I shall quote the follow- 
 ing audacious attack made by him on the present 
 Lord Charlemont, the Marquis of Downshire, 
 and some other lords, who ventured to oppose the 
 Union : — 
 
 " If loud and confident report," said Lord Clare, 
 " is to have credit, a consular exchequer has been 
 opened for foul and undisguised bribery. I know 
 that subscriptions are openly solicited in the 
 streets of the metropolis, to a fund for defeating 
 the measure of Union. I will not believe that the 
 persons to whom I have been obliged to allude, 
 can be privy to it. One of them, a noble earl," 
 (Charlemont,) " I see in his place ; he is a very 
 young man ; and I call upon him as he fears to 
 have his entry into public life marked with dis- 
 honour ; I call upon him as he fears to live with 
 
26 CLARE IN THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 
 
 the broad mark of infamy on his forehead, and 
 to transmit it indelibly to his posterity — to stand 
 up in his place, and acquit himself before his 
 peers of this foul imputation. I call upon him 
 publicly to disavow all knowledge of the exis- 
 tence of such a fund ; or, if he cannot disavow it, 
 to state explicitly any honest purpose to which 
 it can be applied. If it can exist, I trust there 
 are sufficient remains of sense and honour in 
 the Irish nation to cut off the corrupted sources 
 of these vile abominations." 
 
 In order properly to appreciate the brazen 
 audacity of that insolent attack, it must be re- 
 membered that he who thus denounced the im- 
 puted iniquities of the patriotic party, was the 
 champion of a government who were openly and 
 shamelessly practising every art of corruption in 
 favour of their measure. 
 
 The Union being carried, Lord Clare, who was 
 inflated with arrogance and success, soon tried 
 the experiment of insulting the peers of England. 
 He called the Whig lords " Jacobins !" 
 
 The Duke of Bedford flung back the insult 
 with the spirit that beseemed a British peer. 
 " We would not," said he, " bear such language 
 from our equals; far less will we endure it from 
 the upstart pride of chance nobility." The feel- 
 ing of the entire House was with the duke. 
 
HIS REMORSE AND DEATH. 27 
 
 Clare had not tlie poor consolation of sympathy 
 or pity from a single man of even his own poli- 
 tical party. His influence, once almost omnipo- 
 tent, was now extinct. He returned, mortified 
 and broken-hearted, to the country he had be- 
 trayed and ruined ; cursing himself for the part 
 he had taken in promoting the Union. 
 
 " There was a time," he said with great bit- 
 terness, " when no appointment could be made 
 without my sanction. Now I am unable to 
 make so much as a clerk in the excise." 
 
 He tried to dissipate his chagrin by violent 
 equestrian exercise. His death was hastened by 
 a severe hurt he received whilst riding in the 
 Phoenix Park. He died in 1803, expressing in 
 his last hours his deep though unavailing remorse 
 for his criminal co-operation with Pitt against 
 the Irish constitution. His fall may be regarded 
 as a signal instance of the retributive justice of 
 Providence. 
 
28 THE IRISH HOUSE OF LORDS. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 How did they win this Union ? 
 
 By perjury aud fraud ; 
 By slaves who sold for place or gold, 
 
 Their country and their God. 
 
 Spirit of the Nation. 
 
 A Scotch essayist on Irish politics once ex- 
 pressed his curiosity to know by what magic 
 William Pitt induced the minor members of the 
 Irish peerage to consent to the Union. The great 
 lords who had influence in the House of Com- 
 mons were brought over on intelligible princi- 
 ples. The Earl of Shannon, for example, was 
 paid £45,000 for his adhesion. Besides, the 
 chiefs of the peerage could look forward to seats 
 in the imperial parliament as Irish representative 
 peers, whereas the smaller lords in losing their 
 Irish privilege of hereditary legislation, lost all 
 that made their titles anything better than nick- 
 names ; whilst they had little or no chance of elec- 
 tion to the central legislature. 
 
 It certainly does at first sight seem surpri- 
 sing that a considerable body of legislators should 
 have quietly and courteously surrendered the 
 proudest privilege of the citizen, and received for 
 it no equivalent whatever. Our surprise how- 
 ever is diminished when we analyse the composi- 
 tion of the peers, and examine their habits. 
 
ITS COMPOSITION. 29 
 
 Let us first do all honour to the gallant band 
 "who, headed by the Duke of Leinster and the 
 Earl of Charlemont, resisted the Union to the 
 last. The Lords' protest against the Union is a 
 a noble document, full of sagacity and patriotism. 
 Alas ! those who signed it were comparatively 
 fcAV indeed. 
 
 With respect to the rest of the peers : if we 
 look into the Irish peerage list, we shall find 
 that more than half of those existing in 1800 had 
 received their creations from the then reigning 
 monarch, George the Third. Of these men, thus 
 personally bound to the Court, a considerable 
 number were indebted for their elevation to the 
 grossest political dishonesty. They cared nothing 
 for their country, except for the purpose of traf- 
 ficking upon it. Corruption had been carried to 
 such an extent as to justify Grattan's indignant 
 complaint, that the Minister's familiar practice 
 was to purchase the members of one house with 
 the money obtained by selling seats in the other. 
 
 Again, a great portion of the Irish peers had 
 nothing Irish about them but their titles. They 
 had not a foot of property in the kingdom. They 
 never entered it. They had no more compunc- 
 tion in voting for the extinction of the Irish par- 
 liament, than they would have had in voting away 
 an Otaheitan legislature. Take up a Dublin 
 
30 ANGLO-IRTSII PEERS. 
 
 Almanack for the year 1800, and run your eye 
 over the peerage list. You will find many of 
 the peers possessing also English titles and Eng- 
 lish residences. Exclusively of these, you will 
 find that out of fifty-seven viscounts, there were 
 no less than eighteen who had got no Irish resi- 
 dence at all. Run your eye over the barons, and 
 you will find that out of sixty-five, there were in 
 that year no less than thirty-four whose connex- 
 ions, residences, and property, were altogether 
 English. 
 
 Again, some of the most bustling and promi- 
 nent peers then residing in Ireland, were either 
 English lawyers, or the sons of Englishmen who 
 had been thrust upon the Irish bench, and thence 
 into the Irish peerage. These men had not yet 
 acquired Irish sentiments or feelings; they re- 
 joiced in an opportunity to strike a blow at Ire- 
 land. 
 
 Amongst those whom a descent of some half- 
 dozen generations entitled to call themselves 
 Irish, the greater number had so habitually 
 looked on politics as a game to be played for the 
 purpose of personal aggrandizement, that they 
 had no conception at all of anything like political 
 principle. There was a thorough moral reckless- 
 ness about them, which rendered them quite ready 
 for any act of political desperation, provided it 
 
RAISING THE WIND. 31 
 
 did not tend to enlarge the power of the people. 
 Their personal habits necessarily fostered this 
 recklessness. Their profusion and extravagance 
 were boundless ; and some of them — not a few — 
 resorted to modes of " raising the wind," which 
 showed that they mingled but few scruples with 
 their system of financial pneumatics ! There 
 was withal a strong dash of odd drollery in the 
 brazen shamelessness of their expedients. 
 
 A curious specimen of this order of men was 
 Lord M******y. His title was the result of some 
 dexterous trafiic in parliamentary votes. His 
 manners were eminently fascinating, and his ha- 
 bits social. He had a favourite saying " that a 
 gentleman could never live upon his rents : a man 
 who depended on his rents had money upon only 
 tu)0 days in the year, the 25th of March and the 
 29th of September." He accordingly left no ex- 
 pedient untried to furnish himself with money 
 on every other day too. 
 
 It chanced that when Lord Kerry's house in 
 Stephen's-green was for sale, a lady named 
 Keating was desirous to purchase a pew in 
 Saint Anne's church, appertaining to that man- 
 sion. Mrs. Keating erroneously took it into her 
 head that the pew belonged to Lord M******y ; 
 she accordingly visited his lordship to propose 
 herself as a purchaser. 
 
32 MRS. keating's bargain. 
 
 " My dear madam," quoth lie, " I have not 
 got any pew that I know of in Saint Anne's 
 Church." 
 
 " Oh, my lord, I assure you that you have ; and 
 if you have got no objection, I am desirous to 
 purchase it." 
 
 Lord M******y started no further difficulty. 
 A large sum was accordingly fixed on, and in 
 order to make her bargain as secure as possible, 
 Mrs. Keating got the agreement of sale drawn 
 out in the most stringent form by an attorney. 
 She paid the money to Lord M******y ; and on 
 the following Sunday she marched up to the pew 
 to take possession, rustling in the stateliness of 
 brocades and silks. The beadle refused to admit 
 her into the pew. — " Sir," said the lady, " this pew 
 is mine." — " Your's^ madam ?" — " Yes ; I have 
 bought it from Lord M******y." — " Madam, this 
 is the Kerry pew ; I do assure you Lord M******y 
 never had a pew in this church." Mrs. Keating 
 saw at once she had been cheated, and on the fol- 
 lowing day she went to his lordship to try if she 
 could get back her money. 
 
 " My lord, I have come to you to say that the 
 pew in Saint Anne's " 
 
 " My dear madam," interrupted his lordship, 
 " 111 sell you twenty more pews if you've any 
 fancy for them." 
 
A COLONEL OF MILITIA. 33 
 
 '' Oh, my lord, you are facetious ! I have come 
 to acquaint you it was all a mistake ; you never 
 had a pew in that church." 
 
 " Hah ! so I think I told you at first." 
 
 " And I trust, my lord," pursued Mrs. Keating, 
 "you will refund me the money I paid you for it." 
 
 " The money ! E,eally, my dear madam, I am 
 sorry to say that's quite impossible — the money's 
 gone long ago." 
 
 " But — my lord — your lordship's character — " 
 
 " That's gone too P said Lord M******y, 
 laughing with good humoured nonchalance. 
 Mrs. Keating had no remedy. 
 
 I have already said, that this worthy noble- 
 man's financial operations were systematically 
 extended to every opportunity of gain that could 
 possibly be grasped at. He was colonel of a 
 militia regiment; and — contrary to all prece- 
 dent — he regularly sold the commissions, and 
 pocketed the money. The Lord Lieutenant re- 
 solved to call him to an account for his malprac- 
 tices ; and for that purpose invited him to dine 
 at the Castle, where all the other colonels of 
 militia regiments then in Dublin, had also been 
 invited to meet him. After dinner, the Viceroy 
 stated that he had heard with great pain an 
 accusation made — indeed he could hardly believe 
 it ! — but it had been positively said that the 
 
 D 
 
34 A CHEAP CORONET. 
 
 colonel of a militia regiment actnally sold the 
 commissions ! The company looked aghast at 
 this atrocity, and the innocent colonels forthwith 
 began to exculpate themselves. " / have never 
 done so." — " I have never sold any." — " Nor /." 
 — " Nor J." The disclaimers were general. Lord 
 M******y resolved to put a bold face on the 
 matter. " / always sell the commissions in my 
 regiment," said he, with the air of a man who 
 announced a practice rather meritorious. All 
 present seemed astonished at this frank avowal. 
 " How can you defend such a practice T asked 
 the Lord Lieutenant. " Very easily, my lord. 
 Has not your Excellency always told us to assi- 
 milate our regiments as much as possible to the 
 troops of the line?" "Yes, undoubtedly." "Well 
 — they sell the commissions in the line ; and I 
 thought that the best point at which to begin 
 the assimilation." 
 
 We may well suppose that such a personage 
 would have readily voted for the Union, or for 
 anything else. 
 
 Mr. ******^ a wealthy merchant, had aristo- 
 cratic aspirings. Having amassed great wealth 
 in trade, as well by lucky hits as by persevering 
 industry, he resolved to add a peerage to his 
 acquisitions. A bargain was made with the 
 Irish minister; the ambitious merchant was to 
 be created a baron for the stipulated payment of 
 
INDIGNANT VIRTUE. 35 
 
 £20,000. The patent was forthwith made out, 
 and the new peer took his seat in due form. 
 The government never entertained a doubt that 
 his lordship would faithfully pay them the price 
 of his new honours; and in this happy con- 
 fidence they gave him his coronet without 
 first securing the money for it. Six months 
 passed, during which the good folk at the Castle 
 took it for granted that the new baron would 
 fulfil his engagement at his earliest convenience. 
 At length, however, the secretary wrote a "pri- 
 vate and confidential " epistle, to give his lord- 
 ship's memory a gentle refresher. 
 
 The noble lord made short work of the matter. 
 He wrote back, denying all recollection of the 
 engagement referred to ; expressing great in- 
 dignation that anybody should presume to accuse 
 him of being a party to the sale or purchase of a 
 peerage ; and threatening, should the claim be 
 renewed, to impeach the minister in parliament 
 for so grossly unconstitutional a proceeding. 
 The government were outwitted, and the ex- 
 merchant got his coronet — as he probably had 
 got many a commodity besides — without paying 
 for it. 
 
 Many such scamps were to be found in the 
 Irish house of Lords ; and English lucubrators 
 upon Irish affairs triumphantly point to their 
 unprincipled conduct, and ask — as if the ques- 
 
 D 2 
 
36 CORRUPTION OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT 
 
 tion were perfectly conclusive against Eepeal — 
 " Would you revive such a parliament ?"* 
 
 No, certainly. We seek not to revive cor- 
 ruption. We desire to restore tlie Irish parlia- 
 ment, cleansed, purified, and placed beyond the 
 reach of all corrupt influences. The unprinci- 
 pled class, moreover, to whom Lord M*^****y 
 
 and Lord belonged, cannot in any fairness 
 
 be quoted against Irish claims or Irish rights. 
 That class was manufactured by England in this 
 country. It was prevented by English power and 
 English artifice from becoming identified with 
 Irish interests. It was corrupted for English 
 purposes, and hj English influence. When 
 England, therefore, upbraids us with its moral 
 rottenness, we retort that she was the instigator 
 to its political crimes — that those crimes were 
 disastrous to the great mass of the Irish people, 
 who had no participation whatsoever in them ; 
 and that the disgrace, consequently, rests not on 
 us ; but on England herself, and on the indi- 
 vidual criminals who yielded to her seductions 
 in this country. 
 
 * Amongst the aristocratic eccentricities of the day, was the 
 Earl of Belvedere's penchant for people who had hideous noses. 
 He used to give an annual entertainment called the "Nosey Din- 
 ner;" the guests being all persons remarkable for having large red 
 noses. His lordship's great delight was to invite two opposite pro- 
 prietors of outlandish noses to take wine with each other, and to 
 watch the converging inclination of their hideous profiles. 
 
NO ARGUMENT AGAINST REPEAL. 37 
 
 It cannot be too often repeated, that if the 
 Union struggle in the Irish parliament developed, 
 on the one hand, the political depravity which 
 England had laboured so hard to produce, it also 
 disj)layed on the other hand many brilliant ex- 
 amples of the most stainless and unpurchaseable 
 honesty. Every effort to debauch the legislature 
 had for a series of years been systematically 
 made by the government ; and yet in 1799 the 
 first attempt to carry the Union was defeated by 
 men who might have made for themselves what- 
 ever terms they pleased with the minister. And 
 in 1800, after every possible exertion to pack 
 the parliament had been resorted to, there yet 
 remained a tried and trusty band, who, although 
 in a minority, were yet miraculously numerous, 
 when we remember the enormous powers of 
 corruption which the government derived from 
 the number of close boroughs and their other 
 resources. The men Avho were returned by the 
 people nearly all stood firm to their trust. The 
 traitors were chiefly found amongst those whom 
 private influence had introduced into the legis- 
 lature. Out of doors there was a perfectly uni- 
 versal opposition to the Union, which would 
 have been effectual if it were not for the over- 
 powering military force in the hands of the 
 government. 
 
38 OPPOSITION TO THE UNION. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 As we are men and Irishmen, 
 
 Scorn for his curst alliance ! 
 
 As we are men and Irishmen, 
 
 Unto his throat defiance ! 
 
 Banim. 
 
 The Union having been accomplished, the pre- 
 valent desire amongst the Irish people was, of 
 course, to obtain its repeal. 
 
 For some years no great public effort was made 
 for this purpose. The army of occupation, under 
 the terror of which it had been forced upon Ire- 
 land, was still continued in the country. 
 
 But the national desire to obtain Eepeal is 
 coeval with the Union itself It was not possi- 
 ble that a nation should sit quietly down in con- 
 tented acquiescence in its own servitude. A 
 sullen sentiment of enmity to England smouldered 
 in the public mind. Men brooded angrily over 
 the enormous crime the English Government had 
 committed against their country ; and they felt, 
 (to use the language of Saurin, an Orange op- 
 ponent of the Union,) " that the exhibition of 
 
CATHOLIC ANTI-UNION MEETING. 39 
 
 resistance to the measure became merely a ques- 
 tion of prudence." 
 
 Ere I pass to later periods, let me pause for 
 one moment to notice a modern misrepresentation. 
 It is frequently said that "the Catholics supported 
 the Union." 
 
 They did no such thing. At a Catholic aggre- 
 gate meeting held in Dublin in 1795, the Ca- 
 tholic leaders unanimously passed a resolution 
 that they would not accept Emancipation on the 
 terms of consenting to a Union. Imbued with 
 this sentiment, O'Connell, in his maiden speech, 
 delivered in 1800, declared that he would prefer 
 the re-enactment of the whole penal code to the 
 destruction of the Irish parliament. So notorious 
 was the hatred of the Catholic body to the mea- 
 sure, that secretary Cooke, in a pamphlet recom- 
 mendatory of the Union, consoled himself for 
 their hostility by predicting that " the Catholics' 
 dissatisfaction would sink into acquiescence, and 
 acquiescence soften into content." 
 
 Nor were the Protestants more favourable to 
 the Union than their Catholic brethren. There 
 were numberless resolutions of grand juries, 
 Orange guilds, and Orange lodges, denouncing 
 the project in the strongest language. Saurin 
 emphatically declared, " that although the Union 
 might be made binding as a law, it could never 
 
40 PROTESTANT OPPOSITION TO THE UNION, 
 
 become obligatory upon conscience ; and that 
 resistance to it would be in the abstract a dutyT 
 Numbers of the Protestant-ascendancy party were 
 inaccessible to the bribes of the minister. Sir 
 Frederick Falkiner had four executions in his 
 house at Abbotstown, on the very day on which 
 he rejected with scorn a large offer of money 
 from Lord Castlereagh — an instance of political 
 virtue which deserves to be recorded to the ho- 
 nour of the high Tory baronet. There were 
 numerous other instances of equally noble and 
 disinterested patriotism amongst the leaders of 
 Orangeism. 
 
 In truth, no Irishman supported the Union, 
 unless he were actually bribed to do so. 
 
 The government had tried to delude both par- 
 ties ; the Catholics, by holding out hopes of their 
 emancipation from the imperial parliament ; the 
 Protestants, by instilling into their minds a be- 
 lief that the Union would render emancipation 
 impossible. George the Third adopted this latter 
 notion. In his published correspondence with 
 Pitt, he tells that minister that he had consented 
 to the Union in the full belief that it would 
 "shut the door" for ever against tlie Catholic 
 claims. 
 
 The Protestants, as being then the stronger 
 party in Ireland, were deemed by the govern- 
 
GRATTAN AT ST. STEPHEN'S. 41 
 
 meiit the best worth conciliating. Accordingly 
 they were allowed to monopolize the control of 
 the country, as the most effectual means of recon- 
 ciling them to the Union. They had the castle, 
 the courts, the public offices. They had every- 
 thing. Yet this golden monopoly did not avail 
 to extinguish altogether the national sentiment 
 which had grown up under the influence of home- 
 legislation. 
 
 Grattan — the illustrious leader of the Volun- 
 teer movement in 1782 — retired on the enact- 
 ment of the Union into private life, from which 
 he did not emerge until 1805, when he was 
 returned to the imperial parliament for the 
 borough of Malton. On the first appearance of 
 so distinguished an orator on the boards of St. 
 Stephen's, there was necessarily great curiosity 
 excited. There were, in his style of speaking, 
 some marked peculiarities, and also in his voice 
 some Hibernian inflections, which called forth 
 an incipient titter of derision from certain of 
 his Cockney auditors. These symptoms, how- 
 ever, were checked by Pitt, who nodded his 
 approval of the style and manner of the speaker. 
 
 What a type of Ireland's degradation ! Her 
 most honoured and venerable patriot exposed to 
 the sneers of a brainless rabble ; and indebted for 
 his exemption from gross insult, to the patroni- 
 
42 THE OLD DUBLIN CORPORATION. 
 
 zing approbation of the bitter and triumphant 
 enemy of his country ! 
 
 It was in the speech he then delivered that 
 Grattan, in alluding to the fallen fortunes of Ire- 
 land, used the touching words, "I sat by her 
 cradle ; I follow her hearse." 
 
 The Orange Corporation of Dublin were the 
 first public body who bestirred themselves to pro- 
 cure a Eepeal of the Union. They did so in 
 1810, and confided their petition to Grattan and 
 Sir Eobert Shaw, the father of the present Ke- 
 corder of Dublin. Both these gentlemen pro- 
 mised to support the Eepeal ; and Grattan em- 
 phatically said, that whenever the question should 
 come before parliament " he would prove himself 
 an Irishman ; and that Irishman whose first and 
 last passion was his native country." 
 
 It is curious enough to hear modern Orange- 
 men and Tories denouncing Eepeal as being ac- 
 tual treason, when we remember that Eepeal 
 was first publicly mooted by the most ultra- 
 Orange municipality in the kingdom. The ex- 
 ample of Eepeal agitation was first publicly given 
 by that body whose anti-Catholic prejudices were 
 so violent and inflexible, that it admitted only 
 ^Ye Catholics to be freemen of the city of Dub- 
 lin during the entire period of forty-eight years 
 from 1793, when the Catholics became legally 
 
ORANGE REPEALERS. 43 
 
 admissible; to 1841, when the Orange corpora- 
 tion was dissolved by the Municipal Reform Act.* 
 Mr. Butt, a Dublin barrister, who is by no means 
 destitute of talent, and who has obtained perhaps 
 more than his due share of celebrity from the con- 
 trast he forms with his talentless political associ- 
 ates, once arraigned the Eepealers as traitors, in a 
 speech at the Rotunda. He apparently forgot 
 that his ancient friends and clients, the Orange 
 Corporation, should necessarily be involved in 
 this censure. The " treason'' of Repeal was long 
 enshrined in the Orange sanctuary in William- 
 street ; and many a true Orange knee was bent 
 in that temple before the altar of the national 
 divinity. Were Mr. Butt's worthy clients all 
 traitors ? 
 
 In 1810 public meetings were held in sustain- 
 ment of the Repeal, and in order to cheer on the 
 corporation. George the Third became ill prior 
 to his madness, and the loyal corporators aban- 
 doned their agitation, lest they should embarrass 
 the royal invalid. In 1813 the Repeal cry was 
 renewed in Dublin, and the Repealers of all creeds 
 
 * To those who impute intolerance to the Catholics, the contrast 
 between the old and the new corporations of Dublin will aiford an 
 instructive lesson. The Protestant corporation, for 48 years, would 
 admit but 5 Catholic freemen; whereas the Catholic corporation, 
 during the 3 years of its existence, has twice elected a Protestant to 
 the office of Lord Mayor. 
 
44 MR. concannon's motion. 
 
 held a meeting to promote their object. O'Con- 
 nell, who had joined the movement in 1810, now 
 again came forward, and exerted himself in con- 
 formity with the earliest declaration he ever had 
 made of his political faith. In 1822, a Mr. 
 Lucius Concannon gave notice in the House of 
 Commons of a motion for the Repeal of the Union. 
 Sir Robert (then Mr.) Peel inquired, "If the 
 hon. gentleman could seriously ask the house to 
 violate that solemn compact ?" Just as if a mea- 
 sure which was literally forced upon Ireland at 
 the point of the bayonet, could be rationally called 
 a compact ! From that period forward, the Re- 
 peal was constantly mooted in private society. 
 In 1824, Lord Cloncurry wrote a letter, which 
 was read by O'Connell at the Catholic Associa- 
 tion, recommending the Catholics to abandon the 
 struggle for emancipation, and to coalesce with 
 the Protestants in a struggle for Repeal. But this 
 advice was premature at that time. The Protest- 
 ants of Ireland could not just then have been in- 
 duced to combine with the Catholics for that or 
 any other purpose. The demon of religious hatred 
 was in the ascendant. Catholicity was familiarly 
 designated "the beast," and "the accursed thing," 
 from the Protestant pulpits ; and the more bigoted 
 Protestant preachers inculcated envenomed hos- 
 tility to the creed of the Catholics as a christian 
 
BIBLICAL EXCITEMENT. 45 
 
 duty paramount to all others. When sectarian 
 hate is incessantly enforced, it speedily is trans- 
 ferred from the creed of misbelievers to their per- 
 sons. Those who recollect the exertions of the 
 biblical party in 1824, 1825, and 1826, have 
 reason to rejoice that their pernicious activity 
 has been to a considerable extent relaxed.* The 
 controversial excitement through the country 
 was actually frightful. The Protestants were 
 taught to look upon the religion of the Catholics 
 
 * Lord Farnhani was a leading patron of these biblical exploits. 
 One cannot help regarding with a feeling of melancholy interest, the 
 curious scenes to which the system of patronizing proselytes from 
 Popery gave rise. I knew more than one Protestant clergyman, 
 remote from the head-quarters of religious excitement, who had 
 been asked by distressed wretches, ^^ How much will I get from yowr 
 reverence if I turn Protestant?" The universal conviction on the 
 minds of the lower order of Catholics, was, that nobody "turned" 
 (as they called it) except for lucre ; and that an enormous fund ex- 
 isted, under the control of the Protestant leaders, for buying up the 
 religious belief of all Papists who were willing to conform. Weekly- 
 bulletins of the number of new converts from Popery, were placarded 
 on the walls, and suspended round the necks of persons hired to 
 perambulate the public streets. Fourteen hundred and eighty-three 
 converts were at one period announced as the fruit of Lord Farn- 
 ham's exertions in Cavan: but when Archbishop Magee went down 
 to confirm them, their numbers had shrunk to forty-two. Lord 
 Farnham was doubtless a sincere enthusiast ; but his fanatical folly 
 was excessive, and he was greatly imposed on. He kept open house 
 for the crowds of proselytes, who were furnished with soup, potatoes, 
 and in some instances with clothes. Pauper Protestants sometimes 
 enjoyed his hospitality under the pretext of being " converts" from 
 Popery ; and such Catholics as thought they could escape recog- 
 nition among the multitude of strange faces, contrived to be "con- 
 
46 RELIGIOUS RANCOUR. 
 
 as a grand magazine of immorality, infidelity, and 
 rebellion ; whilst the Catholics in their turn re- 
 garded their enthusiastic assailants as the victims 
 of a spiritual insanity, derived from an infernal 
 source, and as disastrous in its social results as it 
 was bizarre in its exhibition. The kindly chari- 
 ties of friendshiiD were annihilated : ancient inti- 
 macies were broken up. Hatred was mitigated 
 only by a sentiment of scornful compassion. 
 
 Such were the mutual feelings of the two great 
 sections of the Irish community ; the one party 
 having the immense preponderance in numbers ; 
 the other in landed wealth. Plunket, the Attor- 
 ney-General, had declared that " the cauldron was 
 already boiling over in Ireland ; and that it was 
 not requisite that the additional ingredient of a 
 polemic contest should be thrown into it." 
 
 The advice was wasted. Many motives im- 
 pelled the biblical party to persevere. First of 
 all, to do them every justice, there were some 
 
 verted" three or four times over, in order to prolong the substantial 
 advantage of being fed in a dear season at the noble lord's cost. 
 When the supply of food, &c., was discontinued, they returned to 
 their former church. 
 
 This Lord Farnham had been a determined opponent of the 
 Union in 1800; and not long before his death, he publicly de- 
 clared at a Conservative meeting, that his hostility to Repeal arose 
 from a religious, and not at all from a political motive. Alas ! 
 Lord Farnham was not the only man in whom sectarian fanaticism 
 spoiled a good patriot ! 
 
ITS SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES. 47 
 
 amongst their number who conscientiously be- 
 lieved that they were divinely commissioned to 
 dispel the gross darkness of Popery. They were, 
 as they conceived, authorised to walk forth, 
 wielding " the sword of the spirit, which is the 
 word of God," and with which they were destined 
 to encounter and overcome their enemies. Then 
 there were the political speculators, who looked 
 on the strong theological excitement as affording 
 a useful diversion of men's minds from the grie- 
 vances of tithes and penal disqualifications, to the 
 abstract topics of purgatory, transubstantiation, 
 et cetera. Again, it was hoped and expected 
 by others that the ceaseless abuse launched at 
 Popery would disincline Protestants to become 
 emancipators; and possibly withdraw from the 
 Papists the political support of many who already 
 had joined them. 
 
 It is probable that some of the liberal mem- 
 bers of parliament, at that period, had but little 
 sincerity in their emancipating zeal. The pro- 
 fession of liberal politics effected two things for 
 them : it obtained for them an agreeable popula- 
 rity, and also the honour of seats in parliament. 
 Many of them voted for the Catholics year after 
 year, entertaining (I verily believe) a ftiU con- 
 viction that Emancipation never would be con- 
 ceded. They thus enjoyed the cheap distinction 
 of being senators on the easy terms of supporting 
 
48 EASY POPULARITY. 
 
 a measure for which they cherished no affection, 
 but of whose defeat they indulged in a comforting 
 certainty. How ludicrously disappointed must 
 such men have been when Peel and Wellington 
 wheeled round in 1829 ! 
 
 Eeligious jealousy and sectarian distrust, like 
 the poisonous exhalations of the Upas tree, 
 blighted and withered the natural, the inborn 
 sentiment of nationality in many a well-meaning 
 man. When Lord Cloncurry, in the letter al- 
 ready alluded to, publicly advocated Eepeal, 
 a worthy Protestant country gentleman of my 
 acquaintance, exclaimed that it would be an 
 excellent thing if we had a Parliament of 
 our own in Ireland. " But then," he added, 
 " the Papists are so numerous they would soon 
 get the upper hand." '' I suppose," said I, " you 
 mean the Catholics would be emancipated. Pray, 
 what harm would their emancipation do you or 
 me ?" " We should have them for rivals in 
 every thing," he immediately answered. " If a 
 Papist was more eloquent, or a better lawyer 
 than a Protestant, he might get the start of the 
 Protestant in parliament, or he might be pro- 
 moted to the bench, while the Protestant of 
 inferior talent lost the race. Now^ the Protest- 
 ant cannot be beaten in the race, for the Papist 
 cannot run. And that is an advantage we should 
 not surrender on any account." 
 
 ~i 
 
POLITICO-RELIGIOUS JEALOUSY. 49 
 
 I mention this trifling incident because it 
 illustrates the sort of jealous feeling which ope- 
 rated, not only to enlist Protestants against the 
 Catholic claims, but also to smother their national 
 spirit as Irishmen. The mischievous efficacy of 
 this jealous terror will be more apparent when 
 I add, that the gentleman in question had been a 
 United Irishman in 1797. The early impression 
 of even ultra-nationality was obliterated by 
 the malign influence of sectarian partizanship. 
 And yet there was no great bitterness, nor was 
 there any personal hostility in his politics. He 
 did not hate Catholics ; he was kind to them in 
 his landlord-capacity ; but he had taken up the 
 notion that their doctrine of " absolution" autho- 
 rized crime. He had accurately expressed the 
 sentiment that actuated thousands — a sturdy re- 
 solve to sustain the monopoly the Protestants 
 had got ; not only to preserve a party-advantage, 
 but from a belief that the spiritual merits of 
 Protestantism entitled its possessors to that mo- 
 nopoly. 
 
 Meanwhile, O'Connell worked the Catholic 
 question indefatigably. He was an inexhaustible 
 declaimer, and astonishingly fertile in argument, 
 in expedient, and in topics of excitement. There 
 had been from the commencement of his career, 
 this novel feature in his agitation — there was 
 
 E 
 
oO o'connell's open policy. 
 
 nothing secret in it. No locked doors — no secret 
 committees — no hidden springs — no machinery 
 whatsoever to which he would not any moment 
 have admitted the whole corps of government 
 inspectors. Former political leaders had con- 
 ceived that secrecy was indispensably necessary 
 as a part of their system. But O'Connell early 
 saw the perils of every scheme of which conceal- 
 ment formed a part. The very fact of supposing 
 the proceedings of a junto secret, would neces- 
 sarily operate as an inducement to ill-regulated 
 spirits to give utterance to illegal or treasonable 
 sentiments. There was the presumed protection 
 of silence. Then there instantly arose the dan- 
 ger of treachery : any rascal who was sufficiently 
 base to betray his associates — any Reynolds or 
 Newell — might instantly compromise the safety 
 of the entire association by revealing the indis- 
 cretion, or the illegality, or the treason, of a 
 single member. 
 
 O'Conn ell's sagacity swept away all such danger 
 at once. By resolving to hide nothing, his asso- 
 ciates were sure to say and do nothing that 
 required to be hidden. 
 
 His immediate predecessor as a Catholic leader 
 was John Keogh, a Dublin merchant. Keogh 
 was far advanced in years at the time when 
 O'Connell first became very celebrated ; and it is 
 
JOHN KEOGH. 51 
 
 generally believed that the old leader felt jealous 
 of the popular talents as well as of the influence 
 acquired by the younger one. It is quite certain 
 that he sought to persuade O'Connell that the 
 Catholics, instead of continuing their agitation, 
 should relapse into silence and inertion ; and try 
 the effect of regarding the Government with a 
 surly, awe-inspiring frown, indicative of hostility 
 too deeply rooted to petition or negotiate. Keogh, 
 in fact, proposed and carried a resolution to that 
 effect at a public meeting at which his rival 
 attended. O'Connell proposed and carried a 
 counter-resolution at the same meeting, which 
 pledged the Catholics to unremitting activity. 
 
 Nothing could have gratified the Government 
 more than the adoption by the Catholics of 
 Keogh's advice. It would have released them 
 from the annual parliamentary bore of the Ca- 
 tholic question. It would have retarded the 
 success of that question incalculably. The notion 
 of a whole people endeavouring to scare a hostile 
 government by a grim and silent scowl, was rather 
 too melo-dramatic to avail on the political stage ! 
 
 O'Connell, of course, persevered. In 1813 he 
 was called "an agitator with ulterior views." 
 He immediately accepted the designation, and 
 declared that the ulterior object he had in view 
 was the Eepeal of the Union. When urged at a 
 
 E 2 
 
52 ORANGE BIGOTRY. 
 
 much later period to postpone the agitation 
 of the Catholic claims to that of Repeal, he 
 refused to comply ; assigning as his reason, that 
 Emancipation, by removing one great subject of 
 national difference, would facilitate the junction 
 of all Irishmen to regain their legislative inde- 
 pendence. O'Connell undoubtedly entertained at 
 that time too favourable a notion of the patriot- 
 ism of the Orange party. He did not anticipate 
 the stubborn, inflexible, enduring Orange bigotry 
 which has survived the emancipation of the Ca- 
 tholics, and thus outlived the chief pretext for 
 its exercise. No doubt there were other pretexts 
 too : there were the corporations and the church 
 establishment ; the former have been taken from 
 the Orangemen ; but the church remains ; and 
 so long as a profitable and exclusive institution 
 exists in Ireland, so long will the party who gain 
 by its existence withhold their co-operation from 
 the general mass of their countrymen. 
 
 John Keogh's belief of the utter inutility of 
 agitation is instructive. Lord Fingal was lat- 
 terly impressed with that belief, and alleged it 
 as his reason for declining to preside at a Catholic 
 meeting in Dublin. How often have I — how 
 often have all whose memory extends back to the 
 later years of the Catholic struggle — heard from 
 iill sides the exclamation — " Oh ! they never will 
 
VALUE OF PERSEVERANCE. 53 
 
 get Emancipation ! the government never will 
 grant it ! How are the Catholics to frighten 
 the government into concession? O'Connell is 
 wasting his time ! He has been haranguing for 
 nearly thirty years, and has brought his dupes 
 no nearer to it yet !" and soforth. 
 
 Thus do we hear the Eepeal agitation at the 
 present day denounced as a delusion, and in pre- 
 cisely similar language. 
 
 But, in truth, perseverance will secure success. 
 How is it possible for any government finally to 
 resist a measure which the full third part of the 
 empire have resolved to obtain; and which its 
 advocates have an infinitely greater interest in 
 obtaining, than any other party in the state can 
 possibly have in withholding? It is vitally im- 
 portant to the integrity of the empire in the 
 event of foreign war, that Ireland should be the 
 fast and firm friend of England. There is but 
 one way of making her so ; and that is by the 
 restoration of her stolen property ; her power of 
 self-legislation ; in a word — by repealing the 
 Union. 
 
 At the time when O'Connell became a member 
 of the Catholic Committee, John Keogh, who had 
 once been an active agitator, was past the prime 
 of his energies ; and the natural jealousies inci- 
 dent to a rivalry for leadership produced their 
 
54^ O'CONNELL VERSUS GRATTAN. 
 
 necessary results in disorganization and weak- 
 ness. O'Connell has been bitterly censured for 
 having at that period quarreled with the Whig 
 leaders ; and a recent clever writer upbraids him 
 with having in particular "laboured to make 
 the venerable Grattan as unpopular as possible." 
 This accusation, when translated into the lan- 
 guage of simple truth, merely means that Mr. 
 O'Connell, with his characteristic sagacity, vigor- 
 ously opposed every scheme of accompanying 
 emancipation with measures in the slightest 
 degree calculated to secularize the Catholic 
 church, or to bind up the priests in the trammels 
 of the state. Grattan would have taken eman- 
 cipation though encumbered with the " veto f 
 and although a Roman Catholic may condemn 
 such a policy, yet he scarcely can blame Grattan 
 for adopting it. Grattan was a Protestant, and 
 of course could not fairly be expected to possess 
 the watchful solicitude for the purity and inde- 
 pendence of Catholic spiritualities which should 
 animate an ardent Catholic, burning at once with 
 zeal for the religious interests of his church, and 
 ardour for the political freedom of his countrymen. 
 That O'Connell should, with true moral courage, 
 have opposed himself on such a question to a 
 man so deservedly revered and loved by Irish- 
 men as Henry Grattan, does in fact invest him 
 
O'CONNELL VERSUS WOLFE. 55 
 
 with an additional claim to the gratitude and 
 admiration of every Catholic in the empire. In 
 truth, the on!?/ point on which O'Connell differed 
 from Grattan was the question of the veto. 
 
 Amongst the Catholic leaders who conceived 
 that emancipation should be purchased at the 
 expense of handing over to the government the 
 appointment of the Catholic bishops under tlie 
 name of a veto, was the late Chief Baron Wolfe, 
 then a very rising barrister on the Munster 
 circuit. He came into collision on this sub- 
 ject with O'Connell at a public meeting held in 
 a chapel in Limerick, and made a powerful and 
 effective speech from the front of the gallery 
 in favour of the veto. O'Connell, in reply, 
 told the story of the sheep who were thriving 
 under the protection of their dogs, when an ad- 
 dress, recommending them to get rid of their dogs, 
 was presented by the wolves. He said that the 
 leading Wolfe came forward to the front of the 
 gallery, and persuaded the sheep to give up their 
 dogs ; that they obeyed him, and were instantly 
 devoured ; and he then expressed a hope that the 
 Catholics of Ireland would be warned by so im- 
 pressive an example against the insidious advice 
 of any Wolfe who might try to seduce them to 
 give up their proved and faithful guides and 
 protectors. The hit was received with roars 
 of applause, and the vetoists were routed. 
 
56 DEFEAT OF THE VETOISTS. 
 
 That enslavement of the Irish Catholic Church 
 to the state which the veto would have accom- 
 plished, has at a recent period been eagerly 
 sought through the medium of state-payment 
 for the priesthood. The Irish hierarchy rejected, 
 unanimously and indignantly, the insidious pen- 
 sioning scheme ; conscious that the smallest ces- 
 sion of their present independence on the state 
 would fatally compromise the purity of their 
 religion, and the public morality and peace. 
 
 If the clergy of the Irish people became the 
 paid officers of the Englsih government, they 
 would utterly and finally forfeit the confidence of 
 their flocks. One shudders to contemplate the 
 scenes of anarchy and irreligion which would 
 follow from such a loosing of the bands which 
 now unite the people and their pastors. In the 
 sound sense, the honesty, and the Christian faith- 
 fulness of the priesthood, we have happily a full 
 security against such a terrible result. They 
 cannot be bribed away from Irish interests. 
 
HUMILIATING PATRONAGE. I 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 " I think the character of the Irish Protestants not radically bad; 
 on the contrary they have a reasonable share of good nature. If 
 they could be once got to think the Catholics were human creatures, 
 and that they lost no job by thinking them such, I am convinced 
 they would soon, very soon indeed, be led to show some regard for 
 their country." — Edmond Burke. 
 
 It must often have sorely galled the Catholic 
 leaders to encounter the patronizing condescen- 
 sion of self-important Protestant nobodies, who 
 took airs of protection and arrogated high consi- 
 deration in virtue of being emancipators. Prompt 
 payment in servility was expected for the assua- 
 sive courtesies which seemed to claim a mea- 
 sureless superiority over the Catholic proteges 
 on whom they were bestowed. " We have 
 now shaken off our chains," said Shell, after 
 emancipation ; " and one of the chief blessings 
 of freedom is our release from petty and con- 
 temptible political patronage. If a Protestant 
 vouchsafed to be present at any of our meetings, 
 it was, ' Hurrah for the Protestant gentleman ! 
 three cheers for the frotestant gentleman! a 
 
58 MR. PERCEVAL. 
 
 chair for the Protestant gentleman!' And this 
 subserviency, readily tendered by some, was, 
 perhaps, the most provoking small nuisance of 
 our grievances." 
 
 A species of humiliating advocacy consisted 
 in alleging that although the religion of the 
 Papists was damnable, idolatrous, diabolical, de- 
 grading, et cetera ; yet its wretched votaries 
 might be safely admitted to political equality ; in- 
 asmuch as the preponderating Protestant strength 
 of the empire would always avail to counteract 
 any mischief that might be devised by the Pa- 
 pists. Nay, emancipation might possibly be in- 
 strumental in converting the Papists to a purer 
 faith ; inasmuch as their penal disqualifications 
 rendered perseverance in Popery a point of honour 
 with its professors ; whereas admission to equality 
 of privilege would remove the suspicion which 
 might otherwise attach to their motives in con- 
 forming to Protestantism. 
 
 Amongst the parliamentary advocates of eman- 
 cipation who took the occasion of supporting the 
 Catholic claims to vituperate Popery, was Mr. 
 Perceval. He delivered a speech in which the 
 ultra-virulent abuse of Catholicity was only to 
 be equalled by the language of some spouter of 
 Exeter Hall on an anti-Popery field-day ; at the 
 same time recommending the repeal of all dis- 
 
" NICHOLAS RIGBY." 59 
 
 qualifying laws, as conducive to the religious 
 enlightenment of the Catholics. 
 
 Another of the politicians who combined pa- 
 tronage with insult, was the statesman immorta- 
 lized in D'Israeli's Coningsby under the pseu- 
 donym of "Nicholas Eigby;" a dexterous and 
 lucky adventurer, of whose career a few brief 
 incidents may not be uninteresting. 
 
 Kigby's father resided in the neighbourhood 
 of Dublin for the purpose of giving his son a 
 college education. The young gentleman, whose 
 critical taste was early on the outlook for subjects 
 to dissect, published a metrical satire on the 
 corps dramatique of the Theatre Eoyal, as it 
 existed under the management of Mr. Frederick 
 Jones. This production saw the light in 1804, 
 and was entitled, " Familiar Epistles to Frederick 
 Jones, Esq." The authorship was not avowed 
 until after the work had passed through two 
 editions. The Versification was easy and cor- 
 rect ; the personal sketches flippant and piquant ; 
 the text^ in short, was good of its kind, but the 
 notes which encumbered every page were of 
 leaden dulness ; which quality was rendered the 
 more striking by the perpetual and clumsy at- 
 tempts of the author to be pointed and brilliant. 
 In truth, the dreary and ponderous pleasan- 
 tries of Eigby's notes, irresistibly reminded the 
 
60 THEATRICAL CRITICISM. 
 
 reader of the stupid German commemorated by 
 Boswell, who, being charmed by the exuberant 
 animal spirits of some humourist, endeavoured 
 when alone to emulate his friend's vivacity by 
 jumping over the tables and chairs ; explaining 
 the purpose of this saltatory exercise to an ac- 
 quaintance who surprised him in the midst of 
 his antics, by saying, " / 'apprends d' etre nif'' 
 Eigby's prosaic efforts to be xnf were desperately 
 hopeless and clumsy. But there was really a 
 great deal of pungent sarcasm in his verses.* 
 
 * e. g The sketch of Richard Jones : — 
 
 *' But who is this, all boots and breeches, 
 Cravat and cape, and spurs and switches, 
 Grin and grimace, and shrugs and capers, 
 And affectation, spleen, and vapours? 
 Oh, Mr. Richard Jones, your humble ! 
 Prithee give o'er to mouth and mumble ; 
 Stand still — speak plain ! and let us hear 
 What was intended for the ear : 
 For, faith ! without the timely aid 
 Of bills, no parts you've ever play'd." 
 
 Another sketch : — 
 
 "Next Williams comes, the rude and rough, 
 
 With face most whimsically gruff, 
 
 Aping the careless sons of ocean. 
 
 He scorns each fine and easy motion, 
 
 Tight to his sides his elbows pins, 
 
 And dabbles with his hands like fins; 
 
 Would he display the greatest woe, 
 
 He slaps his breast and points his toe ; 
 
 Is merriment to be expressed ? 
 
 He points his toe and slaps his breast ! 
 
THE CRITIC BECOMES A LION. 61 
 
 The amusing personalities of the " Familiar 
 Epistles" rendered the book exceedingly popular 
 in Dublin, and a good deal of interest was ex- 
 cited to discover the writer. So long as the 
 epistles were anonymous, several of the small 
 literati acquired a transient importance from 
 imputations of the authorship ; imputations which 
 most of them encouraged. But at length the 
 real poet came forth to claim his laurels; and 
 Mr. Nicholas Eigby immediately began to lionize 
 on the strength of his epistolary glories. 
 
 Literary countesses asked him to their assem- 
 blies — dinner-giving dilettanti invited to their 
 tables the young satirist whose opening rhymes 
 had exhibited so just an appreciation of the sci- 
 entific gourmandise of Frederick Jones. The 
 " Familiar Epistles" soon rendered their author 
 more familiar with champagne and turtle-soup 
 than he ever had been. 
 
 One of the personages who bestowed their at- 
 tentions on young Rigby, was the late eccentric 
 
 His turns are swings, his step a jump, 
 His feelings fits, — his touch a thump ; 
 And violent in all his parts. 
 He speaks by gusts, and moves by starts," 
 There was a great deal in the book equally good with the above 
 extracts. It is matter of surprise that he who could write such pi- 
 quant rhymes, should have failed so grievously in the prose notes ! 
 
6? AN ECCENTRIC HOST. 
 
 Baron Smith, father to the present Attorney- 
 General for Ireland. The learned Baron declared 
 that Eigby's sportive rhymes possessed Horatian 
 vigour and brilliancy; he eagerly procured an 
 introduction to the writer, and affectionately 
 invited him to his country-seat. 
 
 The Baron was proverbial for his oddity. Pos- 
 sessed of one of the most acute and metaphysical 
 minds of the period,* his great intellectual 
 powers were often distorted by unaccountable 
 caprice. One of his "amiable weaknesses" ap- 
 peared in his sudden attachments and dislikes ; 
 the lightning rapidity with which he could adopt 
 and discard an acquaintance. He would ask you 
 to spend a month at his house with the most 
 earnest and even affectionate cordiality. If you 
 accepted the invitation and seemed disposed to 
 take your host at his word, — lo ! ere the third 
 day ended you would probably receive a very 
 unequivocal hint that the sooner you levanted 
 the better ! 
 
 He tried the experiment on Eigby. He asked 
 
 * The Baron was a zealous and very able Unionist. When I was 
 a boy of twelve or thirteen years old, I have often spent hours 
 over his dexterous and plausible defence of the Union ; lost in as- 
 tonishment at the ingenuity which could set up so imposing a case 
 for so totally indefensible a measure. As a judge he was humane, 
 considerate, and patient ; rare virtues on the bench at that time 1 
 
AN INTREPID GUEST. QS 
 
 him to stay for a month. Eigby accepted the 
 Baron's hospitality, and was received with the 
 blandest courtesy. For the first two days every- 
 thing was couleur de rose. The Baron was 
 enchanting — his guest was delighted with his 
 condescension ; Rigby was introduced to the 
 company who filled the house, as a young gentle- 
 man of extraordinary genius, and his host's most 
 particular friend. 
 
 On the third day things were changed. The 
 Baron scarcely deigned to glance in the direc- 
 tion of Eigby. Or, if he did look towards the 
 place where he sat, it was with that wandering 
 gaze that seems totally unconscious of the pre- 
 sence of its object. Eigby stood his ground 
 unmoved. He, on his part, seemed totally un- 
 conscious of any alteration in the manner of the 
 Baron! He rattled away, apparently quite at 
 his ease ; lavished all his stores of small-talk on 
 the company, who declared that his spirits were 
 delightful ! exhilarating ! At dinner the Baron 
 did not address a sentence to him ; treated him 
 with marked and supercilious coldness ; and in- 
 dicated by the mute eloquence of maimer that 
 Eigby had exhausted his welcome. 
 
 Next day Eigby took his usual place at the 
 breakfast table ; conversed with charming ani- 
 mation ; and wore the appearance of a man so 
 
04 rigby's sang-froid. 
 
 well satisfied with his quarters that he had not 
 the least notion of changing them. 
 
 The Baron, finding that silence had no effect 
 in dislodging his pertinacious guest, resolved at 
 last to speak out. Meeting him alone in some 
 part of the domain soon after breakfast, he thus 
 addressed him : — 
 
 " I had hoped, Mr. Eigby, that you would have 
 spared me the pain of telling you what I think 
 my manner sufficiently indicated — that your 
 visit is no longer agreeable. Is it possible you 
 cannot have discovered this ?" 
 
 " Of course I did discover it !" returned Kigby. 
 *' You do not suppose me such a fool as not to 
 have perceived that you became capriciously rude 
 — from what cause I am totally unable to guess. 
 I>ut this I know — that you invited me to stay 
 for a month, and for a month I will stay. Your 
 station in the world is fixed, but mine is not. 
 Before I quitted Dublin I boasted among all my 
 acquaintance of the flattering invitation you gave 
 me. I told them I was going to spend a month 
 with you. If I returned at the end of a few 
 days I should be their laugliing-stock ; my social 
 position would be seriously damaged, and my 
 j)rospects would l)e more or less injured. No, 
 no. You certainly cannot be serious, Baron, in 
 the intention of converting your kindness into a 
 source of mischief to me." 
 
RIGBY ON THE HUSTINGS. 65 
 
 These words, spoken in a tone of civil, but 
 resolute impudence, tickled the Baron's fancy ; 
 he saw that his guest was no e very-day charac- 
 ter ; and being an admirer of originality, he broke 
 into a good-humoured fit of laughter, and per- 
 mitted KiGBY to remain until the month was 
 expired. 
 
 The anecdote is exceedingly characteristic of 
 the energetic perseverance which has marked 
 through life the indefatigable politician deser- 
 vedly celebrated in DTsraeli's novel as " the 
 Right Honourable Nicholas Eigby." 
 
 Rigby's next adventure of importance was 
 his return to Parliament. There was an election 
 for the borough of Downpatrick. The contest 
 was expected to be very close. One of the can- 
 didates was detained by an accident ; and his 
 friends, in order to prevent his rival from get- 
 ting a-head of him, set up Eigby (who happened 
 to be in the town) as a stalking-horse. Eigby 
 was proposed and seconded — harangued the elec- 
 tors against time — a poll was demanded, and one 
 vote was given ; which , with the votes of his 
 proposer and seconder, gave him tlwee of the 
 sweet voices of the electors of Downpatrick. 
 Just at this stage of the proceedings, the bond 
 fide candidate arrived. Eigby retired from the 
 hustings, but made no formal resignation of 
 
 F 
 
6H RIGBY AN M.P. 
 
 liis claims. Fierce waged the contest ! there was 
 on both sides a tremendous expenditure of bri- 
 bery. The election ended in the triumph of the 
 man who bribed the highest ; and in due course 
 of time his antagonist petitioned against his re- 
 turn. The sitting member was unseated for 
 gross and corrupt bribery ; but the petitioner 
 was not seated ; for bribery to a great extent was 
 clearly proved to have been committed by him 
 also. 
 
 There had been, however, a third candidate, 
 who had committed no bribery ; a candidate who 
 had got three votes. The committee accordingly 
 reported that "Nicholas Rigby, Esquire," had 
 been duly returned for the borough of Down- 
 patrick ! 
 
 This decision astonished the public, who had 
 looked on Eigby's standing for the borough as a 
 mere electioneering ruse ; and who in fact had 
 quite forgotten the circumstance in the interest 
 excited by the more important candidates. 
 
 Here was a frolic of fortune ! It is not every 
 day that senatorial honours are flung at men's 
 heads, and Rigby determined on making the 
 most of his sudden and unlooked-for elevation. 
 The gentleman as whose locum tenens he had 
 been originally proposed to the electors, wrote 
 him a very friendly letter, requesting he would 
 
RIGBY AN EMANCIPATOR. 67 
 
 resign his seat, as the writer wished to offer 
 himself again for the borough. But Rigby re- 
 solved upon keeping what he had got, and assured 
 his friend that he could not, in justice to his 
 constituents, or consistently with his sacred duty 
 to the country, resign the important trust which 
 the electors had kindly confided to his hands ! 
 
 Our hero, in the year 1808, published a pamph- 
 let entitled " A Sketch of the state of Ireland, 
 past and present," in which he bestowed a des- 
 cription of contemptuous advocacy on the Ca- 
 tholic claims. His arguments went to support 
 emancipation on the ground of its being too 
 insignificant a boon to be worth refusing. He 
 styled it " an almost empty privilege." He held 
 the opinion that emancipation would facilitate 
 conversions to Protestantism : 
 
 "Trade, when free, finds its level. So will 
 religion. The majority will no more persist — 
 when it is not a point of honour to do so — in the 
 worse faith, than it would in the worse trade. 
 Councils decide that the confession of Augsburg 
 is heresy, and parliaments vote that Popery is 
 superstition, and both impotently. No man will 
 ever be converted, when his religion is also his 
 party. But expedient as Catholic emancipation 
 is, / think it only expedient^ and concede it not 
 without the following conditions." 
 
 F 2 
 
()8 DRUMMOND ANTICIPATED. 
 
 He then enumerated four conditions, of which 
 the most important were the payment of the 
 priesthood by the state ; tlie approval of the 
 prelates by the crown ; and the disfranchisement 
 of the forty shilling freeholders. Curious timi- 
 dity, that sought these protective conditions in 
 return for conceding " an almost empty privi- 
 l€s:e r 
 
 It is creditable to our hero that in his ^' Sketch 
 of the state of Ireland" he has anticipated the 
 aphorism which acquired for the late Under- 
 Secretary Drummond such extensive popularity. 
 
 " A landlord," said Eigby, '' is not a mere land 
 merchant ; he has duties to perform as well as 
 rents to receive; and from his neglect of the 
 former spring his difficulty in the latter, and the 
 general misery and distraction of the countiy. 
 The combinations of the peasantry against this 
 short-sighted monopoly, are natural and fatal." 
 
 Candidly and boldly expressed. This evi- 
 dence, from such a quarter, is worth something. 
 RiGBY had previously given an accurate descrip- 
 tion of the rack-rent system. 
 
 He, however, took care to insult the objects of 
 liis advocacy : 
 
 '^ The peasantry of Ireland are generally of 
 the Eoman Catholic religion, but utterly and 
 diserracefullv ionorant ; few anions them can 
 
UXCIVIL ADVOCACY. 69 
 
 read, fewer write." (Thanks to the Protestant 
 code that had made their education penal — but 
 our author does not tell us so. He goes on:) 
 " The Irish language, a barbarous jargon, is 
 generally, and in some districts exclasively 
 spoken ; and with it are retained customs and 
 superstitions as barbarous. Popish legends and 
 Pagan tradition are confounded and revered." 
 He elsewhere calls the people " utterly dark and 
 blind." 
 
 Such advocacy as Rigby's was rather too un- 
 civil to be very acceptable to the Catholics. But 
 this sort of insolent patronage was merely symp- 
 tomatic of the general Protestant feeling of con- 
 tempt for Papists which has already been no- 
 ticed.* In truth, this was to some extent the 
 fault of the Catholics themselves. I have seen 
 a Catholic family of highly respectable station, 
 seize with a servile alacrity the proffered ac- 
 quaintance of Protestant neighbours who were in 
 no respect their superiors. Various similar in- 
 stances have been consistent with my knowledge. 
 I have known a Protestant lady of fashion — 
 very angry with a female friend for introducing 
 
 * I once asked a noble lord, (the son of a union peer,) whether 
 any of his relations were Catholics ? * ' Oh, none, " he replied, 
 " except Oie bagtardx /" 
 
70 PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MANNERS. 
 
 her to some ineligible acquaintance — exclaim 
 that she would avenge the affront by inviting the 
 parish priest to meet the offending fair one at her 
 house ! This mode of punishing an affront by 
 inflicting the parish priest on the offender, was 
 thoroughly expressive of the Protestant estimate 
 of Catholic society. 
 
 Without disparaging the Catholic gentry, it 
 must be owned that as a class they were greatly 
 inferior to the Protestants in all the refinements 
 of polished life. Exceptions, no doubt, there 
 were ; but such was the general fact. The penal 
 laws were the cause of this inferiority. It is ut- 
 tering an obvious truism to say that the exclusive 
 possession of power, official dignity, and political 
 station, must necessarily have imparted to the 
 habits and manners of the favoured class all the 
 social ease which results from the consciousness 
 of command. Their peculiar advantages placed 
 within their reach every facility of refinement. 
 Their monopoly of so many other valuable things 
 gave them almost a monopoly of civilization. It 
 was a proverb, even so late as the first quarter 
 of the present century, " that you might know a 
 Catholic in the street by his crouching appear- 
 ance." The iron of the penal laws had entered 
 into the souls of the people, and branded their 
 manners with the strong marks of their inferi- 
 ority. The subservient spirit has long since 
 
GREAT AND LITTLE BIGOTS. 71 
 
 passed away ; but I am not quite sure that in 
 other respects Catholic society has yet fully ac- 
 quired the polish which, from the causes already 
 specified, is to be found amongst the upper classes 
 of Protestants. 
 
 On the other hand, there is no vulgarity so 
 odious, so offensive, so pestilent, as that of the 
 Orange squireen. It is the ingrained vulgarity 
 of mind, of soul, of sentiment. It is the loath- 
 some emanation of " malice, hatred, all unchari- 
 tableness," in all its coarseness and deformity, 
 unchecked and unconcealed by the conventional 
 amenities of civilized life. 
 
 ** Desipit exemplar imitabile vitiis." 
 
 The squireen class could imitate the bigotry of 
 their betters, but they could not imitate the 
 graces of manner which occasionally invested the 
 aristocratic bigot with something of a chivalrous 
 and dignified air. 
 
 The Irish noblesse and leading gentry of the 
 last century lived magnificently. The edifices 
 they erected both in town and country — the scale 
 of their household establishments — their equi- 
 pages — were magnificent. In their manners 
 there was Vair grand; their very rascality was 
 of magnificent dimensions. There was no pal- 
 try peddling about them. You could hardly have 
 found one of them capable of selling himself, like 
 
72 SQUIREEN JUSTICES. 
 
 the Scotch Lord Bamf, for the petty trifle of 
 eleven guineas. The abandon — the laissez aller 
 principle was carried amongst them to the great- 
 est extent compatible with social politeness. 
 
 Whatever was bad, bigoted, or unnational in 
 the aristocracy, was duly adopted and improved 
 upon by their industrious imitators, the small 
 squires. Whatever tended to mitigate the evils 
 of bigotry was beyond the imitation of the squi- 
 reen class, because it was beyond their compre- 
 hension. How deeply are the Catholics of Ireland 
 indebted to O'Connell, for removing all the gall- 
 ing indignities entailed on them by their political 
 inferiority to such a thoroughly contemptible 
 class ! 
 
 An amusing volume might be written on the 
 exploits of the Orange squires of Ireland. 
 
 Vulgarity of soul was of course often found 
 among the possessors of thousands a year, as well 
 as of hundreds. The squireen magistracy were 
 a curious generation. While the smaller sort of 
 justices occasionally rendered their judicial de- 
 cisions auxiliary to the replenishing of their 
 poultry yards, those whose wealth gave them 
 greater weight, were in frequent communication 
 with the Castle, recommending "strong measures" 
 to keep down the people ; such as the increase of 
 the constabulary or military force ; the proclaim- 
 
A MAGISTERIAL QUARREL. 73 
 
 ing of disturbed districts; the enforcement of 
 the insurrection act ; or the suspension of the 
 habeas corpus. 
 
 Complaints against obnoxious individuals were 
 frequently made in these communications. The 
 government were ear-wigged by the " loyalists," 
 as the oppressors of the people thought proper to 
 term themselves ; and many a poor devil who 
 never dreamt of plots or conspiracies, has been 
 indicated to the executive as the secret contriver 
 of a revolution ! 
 
 One ludicrous instance of this species of volun- 
 teer espionage is deserving of record. The offi- 
 cious informant of the government flew at higher 
 game than ordinary. He was a magistrate, a 
 grand-juror, a man of family and fortune. The 
 object of his attack was also a magistrate and 
 grand-juror, and of lineage and station at least 
 equal to his own. They were both "good loyal- 
 ists ;" the former gentleman amused his leisure 
 hours with a corps of cavalry-yeomanry, of which 
 he was the captain, and which he proclaimed was 
 perfectly indispensable to the stability of Bri- 
 tish connexion. 
 
 These dignitaries quarreled with each other. 
 It was a private dispute — I forget its nature; 
 perhaps it concerned the comparative merits of 
 their fox hounds. The " accusing angel" (whom 
 
74 CORRESPONDENCE WITH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 I shall call Mr. A.) conceived that the most ex- 
 quisite revenge he could take would be to procure 
 the dismissal of his foe (Mr. B.) from the com- 
 mission of the peace. 
 
 Mr. A. was in constant communication with 
 the government. Every week he wrote a vo- 
 luminous letter to the viceroy or his secretary 
 expatiating on the demoniac disposition of the 
 people; on the perpetual perils besetting the 
 well-affected ; and in especial on his own trans- 
 cendant and incalculable merits. The literary 
 qualities of his correspondence must have as- 
 tonished the official critics at Dublin Castle, for 
 his orthography was perfectly original, and he 
 occasionally introduced a colloquial oath, by way 
 of giving additional emphasis to his assertions. 
 
 His despatches, announcing to the govern- 
 ment, that "by * * * the country was in a truely 
 aweful situation" — that "they ought to look sharpe 
 after Mr. Murtogh O'Guggerty," &c. &c., had so 
 invariably been attended to and acted upon, that 
 at last he had very naturally learned to consider 
 himself all-powerful with the Irish administration. 
 His correspondence had been always "private 
 and confidential;" so that he reveled in the 
 double confidence of power and secresy. 
 
 He accordingly wrote to apprize the Lord 
 Lieutenant that Mr. B. was a political hypocrite, 
 
A SLY MAN(EUVRE. 75 
 
 who, while wearing the outward marks and 
 tokens of loyalty, was destitute of its inward 
 and spiritual graces ; that, in fact, he was se- 
 cretly a Captain of Whitehoys ; a most danger- 
 ous character; and one who ought promptly 
 be struck off the list of magistrates. Mr. A. did 
 not entertain a doubt that the return of the 
 post would bring with it a supersedeas for his 
 enemy from the Lord Chancellor ; and he chuck- 
 led with anticipated ecstacy over B.'s mortifica- 
 tion, and his ignorance of the quarter whence 
 the arrow was aimed. 
 
 Although they had quarreled, yet they had 
 not quite discontinued their acquaintance. Mr. 
 A., therefore, was not very much astonished when 
 he saw Mr. B. one fine morning approaching his 
 house on horseback. "Perhaps," thought he, 
 " B. is coming here to make up matters if he 
 can — I wonder has he heard of his dismissal 
 yet r 
 
 The visitor, seeing the man of the house on 
 his hall-door steps, struck spurs in his horse, 
 reached the mansion in a few moments, sprung 
 from the saddle, and ferociously shaking a horse- 
 whip in one hand, presented with the other a 
 written paper, saying : 
 
 " There, Sir, is the copy of a document signed 
 with your name, which I have received from 
 
76 AWKWARD DENOUEMENT ! 
 
 Diibiin Castle by this morning's post. It foully 
 and falsely accuses me of being a Captain of 
 Whiteboys, and demands my dismissal from the 
 magistracy. I have come to know whether you 
 are the author of this rascally document T 
 
 Mr. A. was so thunder-stricken at the sud- 
 denness, the total unexpectedness of such an 
 accusation, that he was perfectly at a loss what 
 to answer. He stammered out an admission 
 that he had written the letter. 
 
 "Then," said B., "walk into the house this 
 instant, and write a contradiction of it, which / 
 shall dictate." 
 
 "Certainly, certainly," said A. mechanically 
 obeying ; "by * * *^ my dear fellow, I always 
 like to do what's honest and fair — fair and ho- 
 nest, my dear fellow ! Come in, come in ! Sit 
 down, sit down ! I am always ready to oblige a 
 friend !" 
 
 B. immediately dictated a very full and un- 
 qualified contradiction, which A. duly wrote; 
 and of which, the instant it was written, B. took 
 possession. He then quitted the house without 
 the ceremony of taking leave, despite the pres- 
 sing reclamations of its master, who kept shout- 
 ing after him to come back and take a hit at 
 backgammon, until he was almost out of hearing ! 
 What a character to be entrusted with the dis- 
 
AN INACCURATE VERDICT. 77 
 
 tribiition of justice from the magisterial bench, 
 and with the preservation of the peace of the 
 country ! 
 
 The incident is not forgotten of the juror 
 who, at the Cork assizes, presented to the court in 
 the character of foreman, the verdict of " guilty," 
 which he had spelt " gilty !" 
 
 " That's badly spelt," said the counsel for the 
 defence, who was near the box, and seized the 
 paper in transitu. 
 
 " How shall I mend it ?" enquired the worthy 
 foreman, abashed and confused at this public 
 censure. 
 
 " Put 72, 0, ^, before it," returned the counsel, 
 handing back the paper for the amendment, which 
 the foreman immediately made in bewildered 
 unconsciousness of the important nature of the 
 change. 
 
 " There, that'll do !" said the counsel, taking 
 the amended document, and handing up ''''not 
 gilty^^ to the court. A fortunate interposition ! 
 The juror in question had a mania for hanging 
 everybody. He had, in his impetuous haste, 
 handed in the issue paper without consulting his 
 brethren of the jury box. But if the prisoner, in 
 that instance, was preserved from death, in how 
 many instances were the miserable victims sacri- 
 ficed ? A verdict of " guilty" was a very easy affair 
 
78 MODE OF PACIFICATION. 
 
 with jurors taken from a class who deemed accu- 
 sation sufficient to establish criminality; and 
 with whom the received policy was that of hang- 
 ing the accused " to make an example^ and to 
 preserve the quiet of the country. 
 
AN ENTHUSUSTIC "LOYALIST." 79 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 ** A man he was to all the country dear.'^ 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 There occurred, in 1816, an incident strikingly 
 illustrative of the Protestant-ascendancy policy 
 of "making examples to preserve the quiet of 
 the country." 
 
 The gentleman who officiated as peace-pre- 
 server on the occasion to which I now allude, 
 was the Eeverend John Hamilton, Protestant 
 Curate of Roscrea, in the King's County, and a 
 magistrate. The reverend gentleman had been 
 transplanted to Roscrea from the county Fer- 
 managh. In politics he was an enthusiastic 
 Orangeman. His personal disposition appears 
 to have been somewhat romantic and adven- 
 turous. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton, on receiving his appointment 
 to the magistracy, promised (as he afterwards 
 boasted) to distinguish himself by his zeal in dis- 
 charging the duties of his office. He speedily 
 
80 MAGISTERIAL ZEAL. 
 
 set about redeeming his promise. The Monaghan 
 militia, commanded by Colonel Kerr, were at that 
 time quartered in Eoscrea. They were all of red 
 hot Orange principles ; and it was the familiar 
 practice of the reverend gentleman to obtain from 
 the commanding officer parties of the men, who 
 scoured the country, firing shots, playing party 
 tunes, and thus exhibiting their ardent loyalty 
 in a sort of irregular ovation of perpetual recur- 
 rence. 
 
 But these triumphant feux de joie, and the 
 accompanying martial music, however agreeable 
 as a pastime, could not long furnish serious occu- 
 pation to so adventurous a spirit as that of the 
 Reverend John Hamilton. 
 
 There resided at Eoscrea two highly respecta- 
 ble Catholic distillers, the Messieurs Daniel and 
 Stephen Egan. 
 
 There was also in Eoscrea a rival distiller 
 named Birch, a wealthy Protestant, in whose 
 family the reverend gentleman had officiated as 
 tutor for some time after his advent to the town. 
 
 It occurred to Mr. Hamilton, J.P., to evince 
 his magisterial " zeal" by implicating the Mes- 
 sieurs Egan in a criminal conspiracy to murder 
 the Protestant gentry of the neighbourhood. 
 He was bustling, active, and artful ; and finding 
 in many of his neighbours the ready credulity of 
 
A PROFESSIONAL INFORMER. 81 
 
 prejudice, he soon succeeded in creating a serious 
 alarm in their minds. He procured the aid of a 
 confederate, named Dyer, who was stable-man to 
 Mr. Birch, (the reverend gentleman's patron) ; and 
 Dyer, being duly drilled by Mr. Hamilton, swore 
 informations bearing that several persons en- 
 gaged in the murderous conspiracy aforesaid, oc- 
 casionally rendezvoused in a valley called " the 
 cockpit," situated in the domain of the Hon. 
 Francis Aldborough Prittie, M.P., for the pur- 
 pose of concocting their organization, and also of 
 practising the manoeuvres of military exercise. 
 
 Matters were not yet quite ripe enough to ex- 
 plode the plot against the Egan family. An 
 assistant for Dyer was procured from Dublin, a 
 dexterous practitioner in " informations," named 
 Halfpenny, alias Halpin. He was then in the 
 police, an attache of Major Sirr's office. He had 
 in 1798 displayed great activity as an informer. 
 
 On this man's arrival at Eoscrea, he was forth- 
 with taken into the councils of the Eeverend Mr. 
 Hamilton. 
 
 That reverend gentleman, his wife, and Halpin, 
 dressed up a straw figure in a suit of Mr. Hamil- 
 ton's clothes. They placed this figure in a sitting 
 attitude at a table in a parlour, on the ground 
 floor of Mr. Hamilton's house; its back was turned 
 towards the window ; on the table before it was 
 
 G 
 
82 FIRST ACT OF THE DRAMA. 
 
 expanded a large bible ; a pair of candles stood 
 upon the table. From without, the appearance 
 of this pantomime was precisely that of the rever- 
 end pastor of Eoscrea, deeply immersed in the 
 study of the word of God. The scenic illusion 
 in the parlour being thus prepared, the reverend 
 gentleman furnished a pistol to Halpin, who, with 
 Dyer, had received his instructions to fire through 
 the window at the stuffed figure. A man named 
 Quinlan was inveigled to join the shooting-party. 
 Dyer and Halpin, obedient to Mr. Hamilton's in- 
 junctions, fired through the sash at the reverend 
 gentleman's straw representative; the window 
 shutters having been left open for the purpose. 
 The figure was hit in the back with a bullet ; the 
 bible was dislodged ; two bullets struck the op- 
 posite wall. 
 
 Dire was the commotion that forthwith pre- 
 vailed through the town! In an instant the 
 shout rang from mouth to mouth that the excel- 
 lent pastor had been fired at while studying the 
 bible ! He had escaped — hurrah ! — by the spe- 
 cial interposition of Providence. His preserva- 
 tion was doubtless miraculous; but who could 
 say that the same overruling care would be 
 vouchsafed to the other Protestant inhabitants, 
 whose lives were all equally menaced by the 
 Popish conspiracy which had thus been merci- 
 
PANIC OF THE "LOYALISTS. 83 
 
 fully baulked of its first intended victim ? The 
 Protestants clearly must defend themselves. 
 
 The drums beat to arms. Parties of the 
 Monaghan militia paraded the streets. In half 
 an hour the Messieurs Egan, who were quietly 
 sitting with some friends, were arrested by a 
 picquet, and conveyed to the guard-house, where 
 they were detained for the whole night on a 
 charge of conspiring to murder the Reverend Mr. 
 Hamilton. These events all took place on the 
 night of the 28th of December, 1815. 
 
 Next morning the two Egans were bailed out 
 with great difficulty by the strenuous exertions of 
 their friends. For some days a calm succeeded, 
 interrupted only by the occasional nocturnal 
 visits of Mr. Hamilton and the police to Mr. 
 Egan's house, under pretext of searching for 
 arms. 
 
 It was surmised — I pretend not to say with what 
 truth — that the government felt rather disin- 
 clined to follow up the prosecution, in consequence 
 of the excellent character always borne by the 
 parties accused. But Lord Norbury and the 
 Earl of Rosse so vehemently urged the prosecu- 
 tion, that the scruples — if any — of the govern- 
 ment, were overruled. A fresh witness to sustain 
 the accusation was procured in the person of one 
 Hickey, brother-in-law of the first witness. Dyer. 
 
 g2 
 
84 FALSEHOOD OF THE FtEY. MR. HAMILTON. 
 
 Meanwhile, the rampant delight of the Orange 
 inhabitants of Roscrea was evinced in the most 
 noisy and extravagant manner. Colonel Kerr 
 was an active partizan of the Reverend Mr, 
 Hamilton. He permitted the tattoo to be beaten 
 through the town every evening, the drums being 
 followed by a large military escort, at whose head 
 the reverend gentleman ostentatiously strutted, 
 arrayed in an orange cloak, and wearing round 
 his waist a belt studded with pistols. This melo- 
 dramatic exhibition was enlivened with such 
 tunes as " Boyne Water," and " Protestant 
 Boys," played on the military fifes. 
 
 On the morning following the attack on the 
 stuffed figure, the Hon. Mr. Prittie visited the Rev. 
 Mr. Hamilton to inquire the particulars, and asked 
 him whether his (Mr. H's) son had not had a great 
 escape? "Yes, Sir," replied Mr. Hamilton. 
 " Where were you sitting^' demanded Mr. Prittie, 
 " wheii the shot was fired at you T " There^ 
 Sir^^ answered Mr. Hamilton, pointing to a table 
 in the room. Mr. Hamilton thus sought to con- 
 firm Mr. Prittie in the belief which Mr. P. had, 
 in common with the public, then adopted, that 
 the shot had been actually fired at himself! 
 This attempt at deception should be carefully 
 borne in mind, inasmuch as it neutralizes the de- 
 fence which the reverend gentleman set up for 
 his conduct at a subsequent stage of the affair. 
 
THE EGANS IN CUSTODY. 85 
 
 On the 11th of January, 1816, the Messieurs 
 Egan were arrested under a warrant of the Rev. 
 Mr. Hamilton's. They were placed in the cus- 
 tody of a party of soldiers, and marched to the 
 inn, where they found some eight or ten persons in 
 custody, on the charge of being also involved in 
 the murderous " conspiracy." The last named 
 parties were confined for the night in the guard- 
 room. 
 
 At ten o'clock on the following forenoon, all the 
 prisoners set out to Clonmel, which was forty 
 miles distant, escorted by a large body of military 
 and police. The Egans travelled in a chaise 
 which proceeded at a foot pace ; the other pri- 
 vsoners walked hand-cuffed after the carriage. 
 The first day's journey was to Templemore. It 
 was rendered extremely fatiguing by the slowness 
 of the pace and the inclemency of the weather. 
 The rain poured down in torrents, and the pri- 
 soners on arriving at Templemore were conducted 
 to a miserable den without a fire-place, appropri- 
 ately named "the black-hole," in which they 
 would have spent the night but for the humane 
 interposition of Sir John Garden, Avho obtained 
 for them the accommodation of the inn. 
 
 Next day they proceeded to Cashel, where they 
 were consigned to a small, damp, dreary apart- 
 ment, without any sort of furniture. They ap- 
 
86 INCIDENT ON THE ROAD. 
 
 plied for permission to occupy the inn, but met 
 a refusal on the plea that " the disturbed state 
 of the country" would render compliance danger- 
 ous. It was, however, resolved to forward them 
 at once to Clonmel. 
 
 A curious incident occurred within a few miles 
 of the latter town. Two of the escort appeared 
 to quarrel with each other, and in the course of 
 the dispute, they fell from their horses. The 
 steeds, released from their riders, ran away, and 
 the whole escort, with the exception of a single 
 policeman, made off in pursuit of them. The 
 solitary guard approached the Egans, and stre- 
 nuously urged them to escape. " I will follow 
 my comrades," said he, " in pursuit of the run- 
 away horses, and you can then act as you please." 
 But the prisoners, apprehensive of some trick, 
 rejected the advice thus urgently offered, and 
 quietly awaited the return of the party of police. 
 
 Arrived at Clonmel, they were met in the jail 
 by the Eev. Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Corker 
 Wright,'^ a magistrate, who had zealously inter- 
 
 * This Mr. Corker Wright's house, near Shinrone, was the scene 
 of a bloody tragedy in 1815. A party had been got up to attack the 
 house ; it is supposed with his knowledge, and arranged by his stew- 
 ard, Hoey. At all events the plan was fully known before it was 
 acted upon, for a party of soldiers were in the house awaiting the 
 assailants, in company with whom it is alleged that they marched for 
 
ATTEMPT TO TERRIFY THE EGANS. 87 
 
 ested himself in the prosecution. Mr. Wright, 
 on the following morning, visited the prisoners, 
 affected great friendliness, and strongly advised 
 them to confess all they knew of the " conspi- 
 racy," promising to exert his influence to procure 
 their pardon. Of course an indignant disclaimer 
 of all knowledge whatsoever of any conspiracy, 
 was the only reply elicited by this treacherous 
 suggestion. The Egans were then invited to see 
 the various apartments of the jail. In one room 
 they were shown the hangman busily employed 
 preparing ropes for the next execution. But this 
 sight failed to scare them into the false and fool- 
 ish act of self-crimination. 
 
 In a few days the Special Commission was 
 opened by Lord Norbury and Baron George. 
 The crown prosecutor was Charles Kendal Bushe, 
 then Solicitor-G-eneral. The public augured very 
 gloomily for the prisoners as soon as it was 
 known that Lord Norbury was to try the case. 
 Norbury had a terrible reputation for judicial se- 
 
 a part of the way. Arriving before the assailants, the military were 
 stationed on the stair-head. The aggressors entered without any 
 opposition. One of them, lighting a candle, exposed the whole party 
 to the soldiers, who immediately fired and killed them all ! Not a 
 man was left to disclose the acrency by which the attack was con- 
 certed. The bodies were paraded on cars through the neighbouring 
 villages on the following day, as trophies of the victory obtained by 
 Mr. Corker Wright. 
 
88 norbury's judicial reputation. 
 
 verity. " We'll have great hanging next assizes — 
 Lord Norbury's to come !" was a phrase which 
 familiarly heralded his lordship's approach to as- 
 size towns on the circuit. 
 
 Two witnesses came from Eoscrea to bear tes- 
 timony to the excellent character of the Egans. 
 One of these was the Rev. Mr. L'Estrange, Pro- 
 testant Rector of Roscrea. The other was a Pro- 
 testant layman, Mr. William Smith, who informed 
 the prisoners that shortly previous to the firing 
 at the straw parson through the window, he had 
 been present at a dinner party given by Mr. 
 Birch, of Roscrea, at the Reverend Mr. Hamilton's 
 instance. It was there stated that the Egans were 
 accused, on Dyer's sworn informations, of drilling 
 men in the domain of Mr. Prittie for treasonable 
 purposes ; and Mr. Smith was then told that he 
 should be apprized of the mode in which it was 
 intended to proceed against them, provided that 
 he took an oath to keep secret the particulars. 
 Mr. Smith rejected this condition, stating his 
 conviction that the Egans were perfectly incapa- 
 ble of the imputed criminal acts ; and that to his 
 own personal knowledge. Dyer had sworn falsely, 
 inasmuch as the Egans were in another place at 
 the very time when they were sworn by that per- 
 son to have been employed in drilling men in Mr. 
 Prittie's grounds. 
 
CHARACTER OF TEE WITNESS DYER. 89 
 
 Dyer was of course the principal witness. He 
 gave his evidence with great self-possession and 
 dexterity. He deposed to several meetings for 
 military exercise in Mr. Prittie's domain. He 
 was obliged to confess, on cross-examination, that 
 he was in receipt of five shillings a week for sup- 
 pressing his evidence against one Francis Cotton, 
 on a trial in which the said Cotton* had been 
 charged with the murder of a man named Quig- 
 ley. The admission of his own infamy in thus 
 compounding the felony of murder, necessarily 
 deprived his evidence against the Egans of weight 
 with the jury. Contradictions in his testimony 
 were also elicited on cross-examination. 
 
 The Reverend John Hamilton was the next 
 witness. The trick of the stuffed figure had 
 transpired ; and as he knew a cross-examination 
 on the subject awaited him, he resolved to put a 
 bold face on the matter. Accordingly, in his di- 
 rect evidence, he spoke of the effigy as a strata- 
 gem resorted to in order to ascertain if Dyer's 
 previous informations were true ; but on his 
 cross-examination he was constrained to admit 
 that he had left the government, as well as seve- 
 
 * This Cotton, and also Dyer, were subsequently in the employ- 
 ment of Mr. Birch the distiller, at Roscrea. 
 
90 THE PLOT BLOWN UP. 
 
 ral of his brother magistrates, under the impres- 
 sion that the firing at the e^gj was an actual 
 firing at his person. 
 
 At the close of the reverend gentleman's testi- 
 mony the court-house rang with execrations, 
 and the judges had some difficulty in restoring 
 order. 
 
 Halpin, and Dyer's brother-in-law, Hickey, 
 were next examined. Halpin gave his evidence 
 with the composure and readiness of an expert 
 " informer." He inculpated Quinlan in the guilt 
 of firing at Mr. Hamilton's e^gj under the be- 
 lief that it was that reverend gentleman himself. 
 Hickey's evidence tended to exonerate Quinlan 
 from having fired ; but he swore that Mr. Stephen 
 Egan had administered to him an oath to assist 
 any one who should take Mr. Hamilton's life ! 
 
 The infamous nature of the prosecution being 
 perfectly manifest, the jury, without the least 
 hesitation, unanimously acquitted the prisoners. 
 Lord Norbury escaped from the court under the 
 pretext of sudden indisposition, leaving Baron 
 George alone upon the bench. 
 
 Dyer, with the concurrence of the learned 
 Baron, was placed in the dock by order of the 
 Solicitor-General, and indicted for wilful and 
 corrupt perjury. But the grand jury probably 
 thought he might be useful on some future oc- 
 
ORANGE COMMOTION IN ROSCREA. 91 
 
 casion; and — to their deep disgrace — they ig- 
 nored the bill.* 
 
 The liberated prisoners were warmly congra- 
 tulated by their numerous friends. They had 
 rather a narrow escape. Had the Kev. Mr. Ha- 
 milton's dexterity of execution been equal to the 
 ingenuity of his invention, it would indeed have 
 fared hardly with them ! It was doubtless a ro- 
 mantic experiment — that of the Orange divine, 
 who 
 
 " Stuffed a figure of himself, 
 
 Delicious thought ! and had it shot at. 
 To bring some Papists to the shelf, 
 Who could not otherwise be got at !"f 
 
 The Egans on their return were obliged to 
 enter Eoscrea by a back lane, in order to avoid 
 the sanguinary ferocity of about one hundred of 
 the Monaghan militia, who had turned out, half 
 intoxicated, ready for a desperate riot. There 
 were also a large number of Orangemen armed 
 and prepared for mischief, who excited alarm by 
 firing squibs through the town. Colonel Kerr 
 was with some difficulty induced, by the strong 
 
 * Dyer still lives (1844) at Roscrea ; he is now advanced in years, 
 and exhibits penitence for his former awful crimes. The witness 
 Hickey was sent out of the country on the failure of Hamilton's 
 plot, by the parties who employed him, and is supposed to have gone 
 to America. 
 
 f Fudge Family in Paris. 
 
^2 A VEKY ILL-USED PAESON ! 
 
 remonstmnce of a military gentleman, to draw 
 the soldiers into the barracks. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton published a pamphlet in his own 
 vindication. He expatiated on his magisterial 
 " zeal ;" on the innocent nature of the exploit of 
 getting men to fire at his e^gj ; which exploit, he 
 loudly protested, was merely an ingenious device, 
 resorted to with the view of ascertaining whether 
 designs against his life were really harboured by 
 the parties whom Dyer had accused. He dis- 
 claimed having represented to the government 
 that the firing at the e^gj was a firing at his own 
 person ; he alleged that he had made Major Sirr 
 privy to the trick, and that he had requested the 
 Major to convey that information to the Castle 
 authorities. If he did so at all, it was somewhat 
 of the latest ! 
 
 The most amusing part of Mr. Hamilton's pro- 
 duction is his solemn complaint that the Mes- 
 sieurs Egan showed no gratitude to Colonel 
 Kerr ! He also is dissatisfied with Peel, who was 
 then Irish Secretary : 
 
 " It is evident," says the ill-used clergyman, 
 " that Mr. Peel's sole object was to vindicate the 
 Lord Chancellor for not superseding me, and 
 that he had no wish to defend me on my own 
 account." 
 
 One would think Peel, in all conscience, had 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY IN THOSE DAYS. 93 
 
 quite enougli to do to palliate the retention of 
 such a person in the magistracy, without enter- 
 ing on a defence of his exploits against the Egan 
 family ! 
 
 When we look back upon those dreary times ; 
 when we contemplate the social and political de- 
 pression of the Catholics, and the supremacy of 
 their enemies in all the departments of the state ; 
 when we think of the enormous influence pos- 
 sessed by a virulent faction ; the vast array of 
 selfish interest, deeply rooted prejudice, and im- 
 penetrable ignorance, vv^hich had to be encountered 
 and overcome ; it is really difficult to form an 
 adequate estimate of the merits of that leader 
 whose voice inspired the timid and the spiritless ; 
 whose judgment directed the intelligent ; whose 
 sagacity restrained the intemperate and rash ; and 
 whose influence combined together the millions in 
 that memorable organization which wrung from 
 reluctant bigotry, the concession of the Catholic 
 rights. The veteran Chief is destined, under God, 
 to be the victor in a yet more glorious contest. 
 
 Apropos of " reluctant bigotry." It is mani- 
 fest from Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon, lately pub- 
 lished, that George the Fourth's civil speeches to 
 the Irish, and Viscount Sidmouth's parting mis- 
 sive, written in 1821 by his Majesty's authority, 
 were gross delusions, if intended — as they cer- 
 tainly were calculated — to lead the Catholics to 
 
94 ROYAL CHAGRIN. 
 
 suppose the king not hostile to their claims. 
 Lord Eldon has affectingly pourtrayed the agonies 
 of the " regal reptile" on being compelled to give 
 the royal assent to the Eelief Bill. " What can 
 I do ?" exclaimed his Majesty ; " what can I 
 now fall back upon ? I am miserable — wretched ; 
 my situation is dreadful; nobody about me to 
 advise with. If I do give my assent, I'll go to the 
 baths abroad, and from thence to Hanover ; I'll 
 return no more to England ; I'll make no Eoman 
 Catholic peers — I will not do what this bill will 
 enable me to do — I'll return no more — let them 
 get a Catholic King in Clarence — ^the people 
 will see that I did not wish this !" 
 
 I hope that our present gracious Sovereign 
 will concede Kepeal with a better grace than 
 that with which her uncle yielded emancipation ! 
 
 " The people will see that I did not wish this !" 
 Strange, the intense force of bigotry in a mind 
 so thoroughly saturated, so perfectly imbruted 
 with the foulest sensuality ! But, after all, vices 
 are gregarious. The profligate and the bigot 
 have met in other rulers. 
 
THE REPEAL AGITATION OF 1830 — 1834. 95 
 
 CHAPTEE VIL 
 
 " He vowed before the captive's God, to break the captive's chain. 
 To bind the broken heart, and set the bondman free again." 
 
 Anon. 
 
 O^Connell's transition from the lawyer to the 
 statesman was a change for which his long course 
 of political agitation had prepared him. He in- 
 timately knew the people whom he was now to 
 combine for the revival of their national legis- 
 ture; whose scattered strength he was to con- 
 solidate in a manner and to an extent alto- 
 gether unparalleled. The Catholic Association 
 was pronounced to be an imperium in imperio of 
 unprecedented magnitude and influence. And so 
 it truly was. But it is equally true that the 
 Repeal Association of the present day far sur- 
 passes it in the number of its members ; in the 
 extent of its funds ; in the steady enthusiasm of 
 its friends to effectuate their object ; and in the 
 exquisite perfection of detail with which its orga- 
 
96 o'connell's early declaration. 
 
 nization is carried into every nook and corner of 
 the country. 
 
 The sentiment of nationality has manifestly 
 been the ruling idea of O'Connell's whole career. 
 It broke forth at first in his memorable declara- 
 tion prior to the passing of the Union, " that he 
 would rather behold the re-enactment of the penal 
 code, than consent to the destruction of the Irish 
 Parliament." With that declaration every sub- 
 sequent act of his life has been consistent. That 
 he who fleshed his maiden sword in opposi- 
 tion to the Union, should devote his matured 
 abilities to the Repeal of that measure, was na- 
 turally to be expected. He struck the right 
 chord; the sympathies of his countrymen res- 
 ponded. In September and October, 1830, he 
 addressed four letters to the Irish public on the 
 subject of Repeal. Those letters produced a deep 
 and general sensation ; and if the public adhesion 
 to the cause was not then as universally declared 
 as it has since become, it was because of the 
 great magnitude of the measure, which led even 
 those who were the most friendly to it, to fear 
 that it was impracticable. 
 
 O'Connell's appeal to his countrymen was rea- 
 dily responded to. But it is a total mistake to 
 suppose that such response originated solely in 
 the leader's influence. It originated in the 
 
 1 
 
A REFRACTORY PARISHIONER. 97 
 
 deeply-rooted conviction of men's minds that they 
 were the worse for the extinction of their native 
 legislature, and would be the better for its res- 
 toration. What O'Connell openly uttered, every 
 man had felt before. The leader did no more 
 than rehearse the popular sentiment. 
 
 By-and-by public meetings began to spring 
 up in different quarters ; the opposition to the 
 tithe-impost at that time convulsed every parish 
 in the land ; and the congenial questions of the 
 extinction of tithes and the Eepeal of the Union 
 soon were agitated together upon every rural 
 platform, 
 
 - The landlords in great numbers espoused the 
 anti-tithe cause. Protestantism they affection- 
 ately loved; but the cheaper they could have 
 it, the better ; and if they could enjoy it 
 gratis, so best ! I knew in 1823 a Tory landlord 
 in collusion with his own Catholic tenant; the 
 parson claimed his tithe, but the landlord, by 
 collusive distresses and sales, manoeuvred for 
 some time to outwit the parson. I have known 
 that same landlord lie in ambush with a gun to 
 shoot the parson's proctor, who presumed to enter 
 on his Protestant premises in order to make a 
 valuation of the growing crops ; and the bellicose 
 gentleman was only restrained from some deed 
 of violence by the strong remonstrance of a 
 
 H 
 
98 ^' DOWN WITH TITHES !" 
 
 friend on the terrible consequences which the 
 act must have entailed on the perpetrator ! 
 
 In fact, a great portion of the Protestant pro- 
 prietary hated the tithes as intensely as the 
 Catholics did; as intensely as they had been 
 hated by their own Protestant ancestors — the 
 members of the Irish House of Commons, who 
 in 1735 passed the memorable agistment act 
 that exempted all pasture lands from the claims 
 of the clergy, and threw the burden of tithe 
 exclusively on tillage.* 
 
 " Down with the tithes," then, was the cry of 
 many a Protestant landlord in 1831 and 1832. 
 But it was purely a selfish cry with a considera- 
 ble number ; a cry of men who simply preferred 
 not paying money to paying it ; and who digni- 
 fied their conduct with the sounding phrases of 
 " indignant resistance to an unjust and abomi- 
 xiable impost" — " sympathy in the sufierings of a 
 Catholic people compelled to pay a Protestant 
 
 * This act is generally described as having thrown the burden of 
 tithes from the Protestant aristocracy, upon the Catholic tenantry. 
 This is true to some extent ; but not to the extent generally supposed. 
 Tillage in the early portion of the last century was so little practised 
 in Ireland, that the legislature, not twenty years prior to the agist- 
 ment act, had passed a law to compel every man who occupied 100 
 acres to keep at least 5 acres tilled. Grazing was generally prac- 
 tised ; and the Catholic tenant who grazed his land partook of course 
 of the exemption secured to pasture by the act of 1735. 
 
STATE-CHURCH ARGUMENTS. 99 
 
 priesthood" — and mucli more to the same effect. 
 Unjust and abominable is the impost, doubtless ; 
 and a gross spoliation of the Catholics, upon 
 whom the support of tico churches is hereby 
 thrown ; but the animus of many of the anti- 
 tithe landlords of 1832 was selfish, not national. 
 They only desired to keep the money in their 
 own pockets ; but many had, no doubt, a 
 purer motive. 
 
 There was another section of the Protestant 
 landlords, more important in respect of their 
 numbers and their station, and including many 
 of the nobility, who rallied round the parsons at 
 their utmost need ; paid their own tithes ; com 
 pelled (where they could) their tenants to pay 
 up theirs, and entered into large subscriptions to 
 enable the parsons to recover all arrears by legal 
 process. 
 
 The anti-national church establishment, thus 
 supported at home, and backed by the power of 
 England, outlived a storm of popular vengeance 
 that shook every stone and timber in the edifice. 
 
 Let me here briefly notice a few of the chief 
 pretexts put forward on behalf of the Irish church. 
 Some of them are diverting from their reckless 
 absurdity and impudence. 
 
 1. It is urged by the transcendental pietists 
 of the Protestant party, '' that the State is bound 
 
 H 2 
 
100 IMPUDENT FALLACIES. 
 
 to provide for the dissemination of true chris- 
 tian knowledge amongst the community T 
 
 Why, gentlemen, I thought you had been al- 
 ways vociferating that " the Bible alone'' was the 
 sole arbiter of controversy ; but here you make 
 the State, and not the Bible, the arbiter of what 
 is, and what is not, true christian knowledge ! 
 
 2. " TJie Papists have no right to complain: 
 the burden of the tithes does not fall on them at 
 a//, inasmuch as if tithes were extinguished to- 
 morrow^ the Protestant landlords would screw 
 up fJte rents to an amount equal to both tlie 
 present rent and tithe r 
 
 A palpable fallacy. Whether the tithes be 
 appropriated by Protestant parsons or by Protes- 
 tant landlords, the transference of tithe-property 
 from the Catholic priests in the 16th century 
 did^ then throw upon the Catholics, and has ever 
 since thrown upon them, the burden of supporting 
 by voluntary offerings their own pastors, who had 
 previously been supported by the tithes. It is 
 perfectly plain, then, that the present appropria- 
 tion of church property is a direct tax on the 
 Catholics to the full extent of the payments they 
 contribute to the support of their own priest- 
 hood.* 
 
 * Let it not be hence supposed that I desire to see the Catholic 
 priesthood again in possession of the ecclesiastical state revenues. 
 
SAINT PATRICK A PROTESTANT. 101 
 
 3. " The earliest christians of Ireland were 
 Protestants^ ic ho fraternized in their belief ivitli 
 the modern Anglican parsons. The parsons 
 of the Anglo-Irish churchy therefore^ are enti- 
 tled^ in virtue of their spiritual descent from the 
 Irish Protestant christians aforesaid^ to enjoi/ 
 the church temporalities of Irelandr 
 
 I am not going to disturb the pleasing visions 
 of Protestant antiquity in Ireland. Let those 
 who can discover in Saint Palladius or Saint 
 Patrick a sturdy champion of the thirty-nine 
 articles, enjoy their discovery with all my heart. 
 Admitting, then, for argument's sake, that Saint 
 Palladius was the prototype of the Eev. Tresham 
 Gregg, and Saint Patrick a fac-simile of the rev. 
 hero of Kathcormac, I utterly deny that this 
 admission will sustain the claim of the modern 
 parsons to the Irish church property. On the 
 direct contrary, the fact — if it he a fact — only 
 
 I think no heavier evil could fall on Catholicity in Ireland than the 
 state endowment of the priesthood. Nor let it be supposed that I 
 desire to see an unconditional abolition of the tithes, which would 
 result in a mere augmentation of the rents. But I ilo desire a new 
 appropriation of the church property to purposes of general benefit ; 
 such as public works, public charities, schools, hospitals, roads, 
 bridges, &c. Common honesty requires such a change, in order 
 that the revenues paid by all religionists alike should be appropriated 
 so as to benefit all religionists alike. Now, though a burden on o//, 
 those revenues are grasped by the pastors of one-tenth of the people- 
 
102 ABORIGINAL IRISH PARSONS. 
 
 shows what an exquisitely good-for-nothing set 
 of gentlemen the aboriginal Irish Protestant par- 
 sons must have been, since it is quite manifest 
 that they suffered the whole nation to slip through 
 their fingers into the hands of Popish priests. 
 On the modern evangelical hypothesis, those early 
 pastors must have been given the tithes as the 
 salary for teaching Protestantism to the Irish 
 people. But they did not keep their part of the 
 bargain, for they suffered all their flocks to lapse 
 into Catholicity. They did not give value for 
 the money, and they consequently disentitled 
 themselves altogether to claim it. 
 
 How preposterous, then, to assert for the par- 
 sons of the present day, a right as derived from 
 a long extinct generation of parsons, who, if they 
 ever existed at all, manifestly forfeited all title 
 to the tithes some thousand or twelve hundred 
 years ago ? Were such a plea valid, it would 
 follow by parity of reasoning, that if the original 
 tithe-holders in Ireland had been Mahometans, 
 then a corps of Turkish Muftis would, at the 
 present day, enjoy the right to church property 
 in Ireland ! 
 
 These evangelic claims to the tithes, in virtue 
 of the alleged identity in creed of the parsons of 
 the nineteenth century with the Irish christians 
 of the fifth, are usually combined, moreover, with 
 
ANTICHRIST. 103 
 
 some gross insult offered to the " slaves of the 
 papal apostacy." 
 
 As to the miserable wrangling of adverse 
 religionists, let it pass for what it is worth. I bear 
 no enmity to any man for calling me a Hmb of 
 Antichrist, and telling me I must necessarily go 
 to the devil as a follower of the Pope. Certainly 
 such language is not civil, and I am convinced it 
 is not true. But there is little wisdom in quar- 
 relling with men for mere incivility, or for a 
 mistaken view of my chances of salvation. " Anti- 
 christ," shouted at a Catholic by some delirious 
 enthusiast of Exeter Hall, should no more excite 
 his wrath than " Gr — d — n your blood !" from a 
 drunken trooper. It is sheer spiritual Billingsgate. 
 But if the abuse of our faith becomes the watch- 
 word of a powerful party ; if it become the rally- 
 ing cry of men who avail themselves of the spirit 
 it excites to assail our pockets or abridge our 
 liberties ; then indeed we are called on to resent 
 it ; to resist the party who use their fanaticism as 
 an engine wherewith to work out our oppression. 
 
 If the inhabitants of the kingdom all professed 
 the same religion, there might be a plausible ex- 
 cuse set up for giving the tithes to their pastors, 
 although, even then, I should on principle prefer 
 the voluntary system. But broken up into va- 
 rious forms of belief as the Irish population are, 
 
104 THE STATE CONSIDERED 
 
 the case becomes totally altered. If the state' 
 has a right to give one tenth of the produce of 
 the soil to the Anglican parsons, it has just as 
 good a right to give another tenth to the Pres^ 
 byterian clergy ; another tenth again to the 
 Catholic priests; another to the Methodist 
 preachers, and so on to the end of the chapter, 
 until the entire produce of the land became ex- 
 hausted in supplying payment to the pastors of 
 the different sects. There can be no reason 
 shown why the state should allot tithes to Par- 
 son Martin of Killeshandra, and why at the 
 same time it should not allot tithes to Dr. Cooke 
 of Belfast, or Father Maguire of Ballinamore* 
 Each of those gentlemen stoutly claims posses- 
 sion of the truth. It is worse than ludicrous 
 to leave their theologic claims to the decision of 
 the state I 
 
 The state, truly! And who compose the 
 state ? There are Peel and Stanley, the Estab- 
 lished Churchmen. There are Gladstone and 
 Milnes, the Puseyites. There are Agnew and 
 Plumptre, the Puritans — Shell and OTerrall, the 
 Papists — Joe Hume, the Anythingarian — Water-- 
 ford Wyse, the Everythingarian* — Ellenborough, 
 
 * " We are all of the same religion." — Speech of Mr. Wyse at 
 the Cork Meeting to promote the establishment of Provincial CoUege&.'' 
 
IN ITS THEOLOGICAL CAPACITY 105 
 
 the volunteer pontiff of Somnaiitli* — those men, 
 and others of an endless diversity of religious 
 sentiments, constitute the state ! 
 
 Could the force of absurdity go farther than to 
 erect such a junto into a tribunal to pronounce 
 definitively where religious truth resides ; and 
 what community of spiritual teachers is entitled, 
 in virtue of possessing such truth, to possess also 
 the ecclesiastical revenues of the kingdom ! 
 
 * Vide his lordship's sublime proclamation about the gates of the 
 Idols Temple at Somnauth. 
 
 w: 
 
106 REAL USE OF THE STATE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTEE YIIL 
 
 Then who's the wretch that basely spurns 
 
 The ties of country, kindred, friends, 
 That barters every nobler aim 
 
 For sordid views — for private ends ? 
 One slave alone on earth you'll find, 
 
 Thro' nature's universal span. 
 So lost to virtue — dead to shame, 
 
 The anti- Irish Irishman. 
 
 Spirit of the Nation. 
 
 I have said that " Eepeal" and " No Tithes" 
 were associated on the platforms. So they ought. 
 For the Union and the Church Establishment 
 have a mutual efficacy in each other's sustenta- 
 tion. If it were not for the Union, the Esta- 
 blishment would long since have been extinct. 
 An Irish Parliament would have long since made 
 a life-provision for existing incumbents, and ap- 
 propriated the reversion of the ecclesiastical reve- 
 nues to secular purposes of public utility, availa- 
 ble to a//, without distinction of creed. 
 
 On the other hand, the existence of the Irish 
 state-church affords a most effective nucleus for 
 the " English interest" in Ireland ; a most power- 
 ful stimulant to expectant dignitaries and their 
 friends to maintain the Union, as they know that 
 their golden Israel would not long survive the 
 Repeal. 
 
MUTUAL REACTION OF GRIEVANCES. 107 
 
 It it a curious mutual reaction. Two huge 
 grievances sustaining each other. " Don't touch 
 the Union, or the Church Establishment will 
 fall !" exclaim the Irish parsons. " Don't extin- 
 guish the Church Establishment, or the Union 
 will infallibly go next," exclaims Lord Stanley; 
 and undoubtedly both are quite right. And be- 
 tween both, Ireland pays dearly enough ! The 
 church revenues are about £600,000 per an- 
 num, in their present reduced state. The money 
 drain out of Ireland resulting from the Union 
 is generally estimated by the Repealers at 
 about £8,000,000 per annum. Translated into 
 vulgar arithmetic, the cry for the Church and 
 for the Union means this : " Let the parsons 
 plunder Ireland of £600,000 a year," exclaims 
 the English statesman, " for thereby they have 
 an interest in assisting us to plunder Ireland of 
 eight millions !" — " Plunder away !" respond the 
 parsons : " crush manufactures — take absentee 
 rents — drain surplus taxes ; take your eight mil- 
 lions a year so long as you help us to enjoy our 
 good snug pickings of six hundred thousand." 
 
 Of the two inflictions. Church and Union, the 
 Union is beyond comparison the more intolerable. 
 The tithes are an unjust tax ; the ecclesiastical 
 revenues are unfairly appropriated; but still 
 they are spent within the country. No doubt it 
 
108 THE CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT 
 
 is not very agreeable to pay money to a set of 
 men for the pleasure of seeing them spend it ; 
 but, bad as it is, it becomes almost tolerable by 
 comparison with a system that exhausts, with 
 sponge-like efficacy, the wealth and resources of 
 the land. 
 
 It is utterly preposterous to talk of the Irish 
 Church Establishment as a religious institution. 
 It is as purely political as the Chartist conven- 
 tion. Religious! What act has it performed, 
 what ends has it achieved, to answer the purpose 
 of a religious institution ? Has it converted the 
 Catholics of Ireland to the Protestant creed ? 
 They were but as three to one a century ago ; 
 now they are as eight to one — strong evidence 
 this of its missionary efficacy ! Has it diffused 
 through the length and breadth of the land the 
 christian blessings of peace, fraternal love, good 
 will, and mutual tolerance ? There it stands — 
 hating and hated — exacting and execrated ! — 
 prolific in outrage, tears, and wailings — a monu- 
 ment of English power and Irish degradation. 
 
 It is this last named quality that constitutes 
 its political usefulness in the estimation of our 
 rulers. It keeps up an English party in this 
 country. It holds out rich rewards and induce- 
 ments to a very large class, to sustain, in every 
 possible mode, the (so-called) interests of impe- 
 
A MERE POLITICAL MACHINE. 109 
 
 rial England, as opposed to those of provincial 
 Ireland. The injury of being thus rendered sub- 
 servient to the powerful rivalry of another land, 
 becomes the more galling when (as in the case 
 of Ireland) the depressed nation is compelled to 
 be the paymaster of those officers who enforce and 
 perpetuate its own servitude. A man who thinks 
 he can smooth his path to station and salary by 
 crying, " Up with England ! Down with Ire- 
 land 1" finds the natural inducement to anti- 
 national politics immensely augmented, when to 
 the motive of self-interest is added the powerful 
 stimulant of religious partizanship. 
 
 That such a wealthy exclusive institution as 
 the Church Establishment should have kept a 
 large portion of the Protestant body from merg- 
 ing into the great national mass, is not very 
 much to be marvelled at. Sectarian bigotry, 
 combined with pecuniary profit, has availed to 
 perpetuate the original hostility to Ireland of the 
 Elizabethan, Cromwellian, and Wiiliamite ad- 
 venturers, in the breasts of their descendants of 
 the present day. This long-cherished hatred of 
 a domestic faction to their countrymen has no 
 parallel in any other country. You will find all 
 Frenchmen, of whatever party in the state, zealous 
 for the glory of France ; all Germans ardent for the 
 honour of Germany ; Spaniards for Spain, and so 
 
110 ANTI-IRISH SWAGGER. 
 
 on. It is in Ireland only that you will hear 
 from the lips of her own unnatural children the 
 frequent expressions, " this odious land !" " this 
 detestable people !" " England will drag her tri- 
 umphant cannon over your prostrate carcasses if 
 you dare to resist !"* with innumerable similar 
 ebullitions of a deadly and venemous hatred to 
 the unoifending millions amongst whom their lot 
 is cast, and whose only crime is a peaceful strug- 
 gle for the common liberties of their revilers as 
 well as of themselves. 
 
 What, I ask, is the inexhaustible fountain of 
 this deep and pestilent hatred of Ireland by Irish- 
 men ? What feeds the stream of ceaseless 
 calumny, insult, and political enmity ? Again 
 I answer — the Church Establishment, acting 
 through the interests it affects. 
 
 Despite the lapse of ages — despite even the 
 
 * Emerson Tennent was the utterer of this anti-national braor. 
 Apropos of that gentleman ; his eulogists praise his indefatigable 
 industry. Industrious he is, no doubt ; but his industry is of a spe- 
 cies which calls to mind that of the industrious fleas. To fire off 
 a Lilliputian cannon — to draw a microscopic coach, are not 
 in themselves exploits to call forth admiration or wonder; but they 
 become miraculous when performed by the active and indefatigable 
 little insects alluded to. Mr. Tennent's unwearied accumulation of 
 little facts and little fictions, excites praise, I presume, on the ana- 
 logous principle, that the performer of the feat is a person of the 
 mental calibre of — Mr. Tennent ! 
 
IMMORTALITY OF HATE. Ill 
 
 connexions formed by marriage with many of the 
 native families, the hostile spirit of the invader 
 is as fresh, as vivid, in the modern descendants 
 of the ruthless soldiery of Essex or St. Leger, of 
 the sanguinary fanatics of the commonwealth, or 
 of the military settlers of the Williamite era, as 
 it was some centuries since in the breasts of their 
 forefathers. They have never become blended 
 with the people. I have heard language redolent 
 of the most contemptuous and envenomed hosti- 
 lity to the national population of Ireland, pro- 
 ceeding from tongues whose rich Hibernian 
 brogue contrasted ludicrously with the anti-Hi- 
 bernian sentiments they uttered. Even the ig- 
 norant Orange tradesman still feels himself a 
 sort of Englishman in virtue of his English 
 creed, and the long habits (not yet extinguished 
 by emancipation) of regarding its profession as 
 a badge of social superiority. 
 
 The most zealous Protestant, if sincerely de- 
 sirous for the propagation of his religion, must 
 desire the removal of a church establishment 
 which has rendered that religion more unpopular 
 in Ireland than ten thousand Bellarmines or 
 Bossuets could possibly have done. 
 
 The Catholic desires the removal of a system 
 which takes the tenth of the profits of his indus- 
 try ; (whether in kind, as formerly, or in the form 
 of composition, as now, it matters not !) 
 
112 OUR PRINCIPAL DOMESTIC DIFFICULTY. 
 
 The Irish nationalist, whether Catholic or 
 Protestant, desires to get rid of an establishment 
 in which he can only recognize an instrument of 
 imperialization, effectual in creating mutual dis- 
 trust and hatred ; an instrument which debases 
 and degrades the Protestant mind by rendering 
 it un-Irish ; which trains it to crouch to England 
 in return for the protection afforded to domestic 
 plunder. 
 
 I have thus minutely examined the political 
 results of the institution entitled " the church as 
 by law established," in order that the English 
 reader might be fully aware of the principal do- 
 mestic difficulty we have had to contend with in 
 our agitation for Kepeal. A dispassionate ob- 
 server at a distance might well be at a loss to 
 account for the totally unprecedented anti-na- 
 tional virulence which in Ireland obstructs the 
 thorough combination of all parties for objects of 
 national benefit. 
 
 Some gentle-souled Whig-liberals have said, 
 '' Oh, get your rulers to look to the un-Irish vi- 
 rulence in question, with a view to counteract 
 its mischiefs." Idle talk ! Our rulers are per- 
 fectly aware of its existence, and they use it as 
 an engine to work out their system of imperial- 
 ization. They cherish — they foment it ; they 
 regard it as a valuable instrument to prevent 
 Ireland from becoming too strong. 
 
DOMESTIC VITUPERATORS. 113 
 
 To a person unaware of the true source of the 
 foul and unnatural hostility of Ireland's domestic 
 enemies to their country, how strange, how un- 
 accountable, must that hostility appear ! How 
 strange that no national yearnings should be 
 excited in their minds by the hallowed associa- 
 tions of home, the ties of kindred, the " casting 
 of their lot" in the old land of their birth ! — that 
 the blending of their forefathers' dust for many a 
 generation with Irish earth, should yet leave the 
 living descendant as alien in feeling, nay as hos- 
 tile, as if no such associations existed to bind his 
 heart to his fatherland ! Strange that the mystic 
 voices of the breeze that stirs the ancient syca- 
 mores over his ancestors' graves, should not 
 whisper to his spirit to love Ireland — to strive 
 for her liberties ! Strange that he should have 
 no pride of country ; that not only is he destitute 
 of the ordinary sentiment of patriotism indige- 
 nous to every other land on earth, but that from 
 his tongue should emanate the bitterest insults 
 to Ireland and her sons ; from Jm brain should 
 proceed the wickedest devices to enthral his own 
 countrymen ! I once heard a jolly Irish squire 
 of English descent, whose estate lay in as peace- 
 able a district as any in the world, exclaim that 
 if it were not for the personal supervision his 
 property required from him, he would quit " this 
 
 I 
 
114 " DOINGS IN DINGLE." 
 
 d — d abominable country and go live in Eng- 
 land." An orator named Harte proclaimed in 
 a speech at the Dublin Conservative Society 
 some years ago, that " it was perfectly notorious 
 to every man who heard him, that to be a Pro- 
 testant in Ireland was sufficient to render life 
 insecure !" These instances are not isolated. 
 The party who exhibit this astounding hatred 
 to their country are indefatigable in their calum- 
 nies. The inspiring source of that hatred is 
 clearly discernible in the pseudo-religious cha- 
 racter of their attacks. Take two recent in- 
 stances, which accidentally meet my eye as I 
 write; the first is an extract from the Cork 
 Constitution newspaper of the 27th July, 1844 ; 
 it is headed 
 
 "DOINGS IN DINGLE. 
 
 "On Sunday last, the Rev. Mr. Brasbie read 
 his public recantation from the errors of Popery 
 in Dingle church. The fact of a priest abjuring 
 Popery caused great excitement, and the magis- 
 trates, having got full notice that the mob were 
 determined to execute Lynch law on the priest 
 on his road to the church, took full precau- 
 tions to preserve the peace. Before service com- 
 menced, the townspeople were astonished to see 
 the Hon. Captain Plunkett, of H. M. steamer 
 
THE STROMBOLI AND THE LYNX. 115 
 
 Stromboli, march into the town from Ventry, 
 with a force of about 100 men including the 
 Marine Artillery and marines, with drums and 
 colours. This fine body of men, armed to the 
 teeth^ having joined the seamen and marines of 
 H. M. brigantine Lynx under the command of 
 Captain Nott, presented such an imposing ap- 
 pearance, that, we need scarcely say, everything 
 passed off very quietly. The coast guards from 
 the surrounding stations were marched to church, 
 fully armedj and conveyed the rev. gentleman to 
 the house of the Eev. Mr. Gayer, where he at 
 present remains. Mr. Gillman, our active sub- 
 inspector, had all his police ready to turn out at 
 a 7nomenfs notice. Dingle for the last twenty 
 years never presented such a force F 
 
 Lord Aberdeen lately apologized in Parliament 
 for the non-transmission of a marine force to 
 Morocco, as H. M. war- vessels were on duty on 
 the coast of Ireland. We now see the awful 
 nature of the " duty " which deprived the Medi- 
 terranean of the presence of the British flag. 
 The Stromboli and the Lynx were required to 
 assist the " Missionary Church" (as the Evening 
 Mail delights to term the establishment) in the 
 acquisition of the Kev. Mr. Brasbie to her fold ! 
 
 The whole paragraph is richly redolent of 
 Irish- State-Churchism ! The transition from Po- 
 
 1 2 
 
116 MILITARY PARADE OF A CONVERT. 
 
 pish error to Protestant truth is performed by 
 the beat of drum and with the flourish of mili- 
 tary colours. The triumph of having caught a 
 priest who will renounce holy water and purga- 
 tory, is combined with the congenial triumph of 
 saying to the mob, " Ha ! my fine fellows ! we've 
 100 marines armed to the teeth^ ready to cut 
 you down if you dare to wag a finger !" The 
 orthodox parade of " such a force as Dingle 
 had not seen for twenty years^'' is requisite to 
 give due eclat to the Kev. Mr. Brasbie's exchange 
 of Pope Gregory XYI. for Pope Victoria as the 
 head of his church ; and moreover to protect the 
 sacred person of the convert from the truculence 
 of the " mob," who in all probability did not care 
 three straws for the exploits of the Eev. Mr. 
 Brasbie ! 
 
 The other instance is the renewed prosecution 
 by the Rev. Mr. Nangle of Achill, of eleven 
 Achillonians at the Mayo assizes of July, 1844, 
 for an alleged attempt to induce one Francis 
 M'Hugh to enter into a conspiracy to burn the 
 rev. gentleman's house. The rev. gentleman had 
 previously printed in The Achill Herald (of 
 which he is the editor) a statement that the Ca- 
 tholics of the island had conspired to break into 
 his dwelling and strangle the inhabitants. 
 
 No rational person imagines that the Eev. Mr. 
 
MR. NANGLE'S ACHILL CONSPIRACY. 117 
 
 Nangle believed that these serious accusations 
 were true. They were interspersed with a good 
 deal of pious phraseology about the spiritual blind- 
 ness of the people. The charge of attempting 
 to involve M'Hugh in the conspiracy to burn the 
 house was sworn to at the assizes by that person 
 himself, who appears to be a convert, probably of 
 Mr. Nangle's manufacture. His sworn testimony 
 was rejected by Judge Jackson as totally incre- 
 dible. 
 
 I have instanced these public and private 
 attempts to blacken the character of the Irish 
 people, as vivid illustrations of the moral poison 
 which taints a considerable section of Irish Pro- 
 testant society. The imputed "Lynch law" of 
 the Dingle mob; the imputed conspiracies to 
 commit murder and arson at Achill, are, it is 
 true, very recent cases ; but so extensively pre- 
 valent and so continuous has been the system of 
 foul and bitter calumny, that they will answer as 
 characteristics of twenty years back quite as well 
 as of the present day. 
 
 Let me here parenthetically observe, that great 
 as has been the evil resulting from religious bi- 
 gotry, yet the presence of two hostile creeds 
 within the land has not been totally without its 
 good. I have heretofore spoken of the Protestant 
 church exclusively with reference to its temporal 
 
118 IMPROVEMENT OF PROTESTANT MORALS. 
 
 establishment. I now speak of it as a religious 
 system ; and, as such, it has derived much spiri- 
 tual advantage from the presence of antagonist 
 Catholicity. The advantage has been mutual. 
 Two rival creeds will watch and purify each 
 other. Not that this is any justification of reli- 
 gious differences ; not that such differences are 
 necessary to preserve religion pure ; but simply 
 that where they do exist, God can make use of 
 them for that purpose. 
 
 Contrast the morals of the Protestants of the 
 present day with those of their fathers in the 
 hey-day of the penal laws, when Catholics were 
 too insignificant to be their rivals ; when Pro- 
 testantism had everything its own way. Then 
 were the golden days of duelling ; of drunken- 
 ness ; of profligate clubs in the metropolis, " the 
 Cherokee," "the Hellfire," "the Pinkers and 
 Sweaters," whose orgies are still preserved in the 
 local traditions of Dublin. Then were the days 
 of gallant, jovial, hard-drinking parsons ; men 
 who were paid by the state for talking every 
 Sunday about religion, and who accordingly did 
 pronounce some cold and formal sentences to 
 congregations who, on their parts, conceived that 
 they performed a very meritorious duty in lis- 
 tening with grave faces to the solemn twaddle. 
 Catholicity, however, rose up in renovated 
 
TRUE USES OF RELIGIOUS RIVALRY. 119 
 
 strength ; shook off its penal bondages, and as- 
 sumed the attitude of spiritual rivalry. The 
 established church was alarmed. If the Protes- 
 testant clergy and their flocks became more 
 bigoted, they certainly became more virtuous. 
 The parsons of to-day are a moral and a pious 
 body of men. Apart from the drawbacks of 
 anti-Irish and anti-Catholic slander (in which 
 not one twentieth part of them actively partici- 
 pate) the parsons are in general personally vir- 
 tuous and exemplary. 
 
 Would to God that Irishmen of all creeds could 
 recognize and rejoice in each other's good quali- 
 ties ; that they could turn the rivalship of anta- 
 gonist creeds to its legitimate account — ^the pro- 
 motion of religion and morality; discard all 
 unchristian acerbity, and unite with cordial, 
 mutual trustfulness in the national cause ! 
 
120 DEBASING EFFECTS OF THE UNION. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 'Tis only to gather 
 
 Our strength and be ready. 
 The son with the father — 
 
 The wild with the steady — 
 In front of the danger 
 
 To tramp all together 
 Defying the stranger 
 
 In hall or in heather ! J. De Jean. 
 
 We have seen, in the preceding chapter, the 
 chief influence which antagonised Repeal. 
 
 The continued existence of the Union for 
 thirty years had also a powerful effect in be- 
 numbing nationality. Those whose creed in- 
 spired them with a suspicion of their countrymen, 
 had moreover become accustomed to be legislated 
 for in England ; and use had rendered them in- 
 sensible to the degradation which had roused up 
 in 1800 the Irish spirit of the very Orangemen 
 to oppose the provincialising of their country. 
 The Union had debased and degraded many of 
 the generation who had grown up since its enact- 
 ment. They sneered at the Repealers as vision- 
 liries, and — prejudging the whole matter in 
 dispute — they flippantly asserted that there was 
 
ASPIRING AGITATORS. 121 
 
 nothing 'Ireland could gain from native legisla- 
 lation, that she could not also obtain from the 
 imperial parliament. 
 
 The Eeform Bill caused great excitement in 
 England. The Irish were busy with their own 
 agitation; and when Eeform had been carried, 
 and some enlargement of the constituencies tem- 
 porarily effected, the Kepealers mustered their 
 strength to send members to St. Stephen's who 
 should represent their principles. 
 
 Many Irish agitators, elate with the prospect 
 of Parliamentary distinction, were speedily in 
 the field. Ere the senatorial vision had crossed 
 their aspiring thoughts, some three or four had 
 acquired more than ordinary notoriety by their 
 agitation. 
 
 Of these, one of the most conspicuous was 
 Feargus O'Connor. 
 
 ^ Feargus is the son of Koger O'Connor, who 
 rtrlTOS resided at Connor ville near Dunman- 
 way in the county of Cork. 
 
 Eoger O'Connor was involved in the rebellion 
 of which his brother Arthur was one of the prin- 
 cipal leaders ; but his politics did not on all 
 points assimilate with his brother's. Arthur 
 wished to make Ireland a republic on the French 
 model of 1 7 9 2. Arthur was a thoroughly honest 
 politician. Of his perfect disinterestedness there 
 
122 ARTHUR O'CONNOR. 
 
 is conclusive proof in the fact that he deliberately 
 forfeited the splendid inheritance of his maternal 
 uncle, Lord Longueville, who was childless, and 
 who would have made him his heir if his politics 
 had been similar to his own. The venerable 
 exile — now in his 79th year — is deservedly ho- 
 noured by men of all parties. 
 
 Eoger's views were monarchical ; I believe he 
 intended to exercise the sovereign authority 
 himself. 
 
 Koger employed his military skill in fortifying 
 Connorville to sustain an attack from the king's 
 troops. He planned a trap for them, also, of 
 which I had a detailed description from a gentle- 
 man who was personally cognizant of the device. 
 
 There were two fronts to Connorville house. 
 From the front that faced the public road the 
 hall-door steps were removed ; and the windows 
 of the basement story on that side of the house 
 were strongly built up. No hostile entry could 
 have been effected upon that front. 
 
 The other front opened on a large courtyard, 
 nearly surrounded with high buildings. From 
 the eastern side of this courtyard ran a broad, 
 straight avenue about six hundred yards in 
 length, between two very lofty walls overgrown 
 with ivy of extraordinary luxuriance. At the 
 extremity of this avenue farthest from the house 
 
TRAP TO CATCH THE RED COATS. 123 
 
 was a high and massive iron gate. The whole 
 length of the avenue was commanded by cannon 
 which were placed in a shed in the courtyard, 
 and managed by French artillery-men. 
 
 The massive gate at the eastern end of the 
 avenue was left constantly open, to invite the 
 entrance of his majesty's troops in the event of 
 a hostile descent upon Connorville. There were 
 men always stationed perdu in the huge ivy 
 bushes at the top of the piers, to lock the gates 
 the instant the military force should have passed 
 through. The soldiers would thus be caught in 
 a complete trap ; hemmed in by the lofty walls 
 that flanked the avenue ; their retreat cut off by 
 the iron gate behind them, and their position 
 fully raked by the cannon in the courtyard. 
 
 The scheme was feasible enough, but it never 
 was realized. The soldiery made the expected 
 descent — they entered the avenue and courtyard, 
 but, whether the artillerymen had deserted their 
 post, or had forgotten to blow the enemy to 
 pieces, or whether Roger relented from his ori- 
 ginal design, certain it is that the red coats 
 scoured the premises without molestation, and 
 Roger surveyed them from the friendly shade of 
 a holly tree in which he was ensconced, on a 
 rocky eminence that overlooked the courtyard 
 from the north. He escaped on that occasion — 
 
124 BUONxiPARTE^S EXPECTED VISIT. 
 
 his capture did not occur for some months after. 
 
 His subsequent imprisonment at Fort George 
 in Scotland is well known. When the perils in 
 which he was involved had blown over, he re- 
 turned to Ireland, and took a lease of the mag- 
 nificent castle of Dangan in the county of Meath, 
 the birth-place of the Duke of Wellington and 
 the family seat of the Wellesleys. Eoger's de- 
 clared object in becoming the occupant of Dan- 
 gan, was, that he might possess a house fit for 
 the reception of Buonaparte ; as he professed a 
 firm faith in the advent of the emperor to Ireland. 
 Wellington, however, was less hospitable, and 
 effectually prevented the visit of Napoleon to 
 his hereditary residence. 
 
 Feargus was born at Connorville, about 1796 
 or 1797 ; he resided with his father at Dangan 
 until the castle was unfortunately consumed by 
 an accidental fire. Koger was eccentric and 
 imaginative ; Feargus early acquired a taste for 
 an adventurous life, and politics naturally enough 
 had a place in his ruminations. In 1822 he 
 published a pamphlet fiercely denouncing the lo- 
 cal oppressors of the peasantry — parsons, tithe- 
 proctors, grinding middlemen, jobbing grand- 
 jurors — with especial censure of all magistrates 
 trafficking in "justice." 
 
 As yet, Feargus had not tried his rhetorical 
 
WHIG MEETING IN CORK. 125 
 
 powers in public. But the exciting political 
 transactions of 1831 and 1832, of necessity 
 called forth so active and ardent a spirit. He 
 first appeared at a Whig meeting held in Cork 
 in December 1831, for the purpose of forward- 
 ing reform. Messieurs Jephson of Mallow ; N. P. 
 Leader, then member for Kilkenny; Delacour 
 (the banker); Stawell, of Kilbrittain ; Baldwin, of 
 Cork ; with some youthful scions of the Shannon 
 and Kingston families, and several other Whig 
 notables of the county, were mustered in the old 
 Court-house on the Grand Parade at an early 
 hour. They all rehearsed the usual humdrum 
 whiggifications on the subject of reform ; talked 
 in a tone of aristocratic condescension about the 
 claims of the democracy; announced that in 
 order to establish a right to full citizenship it 
 was not requisite that men should exhibit rent- 
 rolls and pedigrees ; with a great deal of equally 
 respectable axiomatic twaddle. Up to four o'clock 
 the most amusing speaker was Leader, the mem- 
 ber for Kilkenny : he was a stout, thickset man, 
 with a wild ferocious eye : he shouted and bel- 
 loAved, gesticulated like a harlequin, slapped his 
 thighs, spun nearly round on tiptoe, emphasized 
 remarkable hits by bobbing down his head within 
 a couple of feet of the floor, roared, stamped, rant- 
 ed, blustered, and perforce of a thundering expen- 
 
126 DEBUT OP FEARGUS. 
 
 diture of personal energy elicited vociferous 
 applause. 
 
 Late in the day Feargus came forward to the 
 front of one of the galleries ; distanced all the 
 Whigs and Eeformers by exclaiming that Repeal 
 alone could save Ireland from ruin ; and certainly 
 so far as concerned the external matters of voice, 
 action, and delivery, he made beyond all com- 
 parison the best speech of the day. 
 
 Feargus now set himself to work in earnest, 
 to attain political leadership. He had not yet 
 contemplated an attack on the representation of 
 the county, for he had not yet seen to what ex- 
 tent the Reform bill would popularize the con- 
 stituency ; but he dearly loved the greeting 
 cheers of the multitude ; he reveled in the con- 
 sciousness of possessing unusual volubility, and 
 he had a strong conviction that his popular 
 talents would soon exalt him into a position of 
 political command. 
 
 '^ In the summer of 1832 the anti-tithe agitation 
 extended itself all over the county of Cork. — 
 Feargus was ubiquitous ! Macroom, Dunman- 
 way, Enniskean, and several other places were 
 visited in rapid succession. " Fargus," as the 
 country folk familiarly termed him, soon ingra- 
 tiated himself into every one's favour ; and by 
 the frankness and ease of his address, and his 
 
THE MACROOM DINNER. 127 
 
 great colloquial powers, disarmed the suspicious 
 enmity of many in the middle ranks, who had 
 previously anathematized both himself and his 
 cause. 
 
 He soon received the distinction of two or 
 three public entertainments. At Macroom he 
 got a dinner from about three hundred farmers 
 and shopkeepers, at which he, for the first time, 
 publicly announced himself a candidate for the 
 representation. He declared, in accents of the 
 utmost pathos, that his advocacy of the people's 
 rights had weaned from him the affections of his 
 nearest relatives. 
 
 " Since I last," said he, " met my friends of 
 Macroom, there has been no smile on my cheek, 
 no comfort in my breast. My nearest relations 
 have turned from me; it is true they recog- 
 nize me privately, but in public they have 
 wounded my feelings. I leave them to that 
 awful moment when the sacred Monitor shall 
 arouse them to reflection — when he shall tap 
 here (pointing to his breast), and cry. Awake I 
 Be judged !" 
 
 It behoved the people upon whose behalf the 
 sufferings in question were incurred, to apply 
 the salve to the patriotic victim. The electors 
 in the liberal interest had been urged by the 
 Catholic clergy to register their votes, and the 
 
128 PREPARATIONS FOR THE CONTEST. 
 
 shrewd ones began with confidence to augur a 
 very large liberal majority at the next general 
 election. At the Macroom dinner, as we learn 
 from the Cork Southern Reporter of that date, 
 "the subject of the representation was freely 
 discussed. Mr. O'Connor announced his inten- 
 tion of becoming a candidate for the county of 
 Cork at the approaching election. He was re- 
 ceived with great enthusiasm, and all present 
 confirmed his pretensions by the highest eulogy 
 of his claims and character. A general pledge 
 was made by the company of their support and 
 influence. At the suggestion of the chairman, a 
 resolution was entered into for the formation of 
 an independent club to organize the representa- 
 tive franchise in the county, the better to secure 
 the return of Mr. O'Connor, in conjunction with 
 any other popular candidate who should present 
 himself The conditions laid down for the future 
 candidates, were a full support of the Eepeal of 
 the Union — total abolition of tithes, vote by bal- 
 lot, and universal sufirage." 
 
 It was late at night when Feargus rose to 
 announce his resolution to become a candidate 
 for the county. The candles had nearly burned 
 down to their sockets, and threw a dim and 
 doubtful gleam upon the large apartment. The 
 crowd had drawn close to the small dais, or plat- 
 
AN ENTHUSIAST. 129 
 
 form, on which were assembled the chairman, the 
 guest, and two or three other country gentlemen. 
 There was great exultation at the hope of seeing 
 the popular favourite returned to Parliament. 
 A rapturous hurrah ! testified the general delight 
 at Feargus's announcement. The candidate re- 
 sumed his seat, much pleased at the sympathy 
 of his friends ; when a movement was discerned 
 in the midst of the throng, as of some stalwart 
 fellow elbowing his way to the front; Feargus 
 rose, and recognized the person who was forcing 
 himself forward ; he was a broad shouldered, red- 
 haired, athletic Protestant farmer named Whi- 
 ting, who bore a strong personal resemblance to 
 the burly candidate himself. 
 
 " Make room for Mr. Whiting," said Feargus 
 in his blandest accents. Eoom was immediately 
 made for his passage. " How are you, my worthy 
 friend ?" continued Feargus, courteously shaking 
 hands with Whiting. " Would you wish to get 
 on the platform ? We've plenty of room for 
 you." 
 
 Whiting accepted the invitation, and was 
 given a chair, on which he seated himself He 
 gazed for some moments at Feargus in mute 
 ecstacy, and then broke forth — 
 
 " Fargus ! Fargus ! is it not the murdher 
 of the world to see you looking after the repre- 
 
 K 
 
130 A LOFTY ASPIRATION. 
 
 sentation of a county in their English Parlia- 
 ment, instead of enjoying (as by right you ought) 
 the royal crown of Ireland upon that honest red 
 head, as was worn by your ancesthors in the an- 
 cient times of ould ?" 
 
 Feargus, however, limited his ambition to a 
 seat for the county, despite this stimulating burst 
 of post-prandial enthusiasm. He smiled assua- 
 sively in return for Mr. Whiting's complimentary 
 allusion to his ancestral honours : the scene was 
 amusing, and its effect was heightened by the 
 personal resemblance of the sturdy yeoman and 
 the patriotic orator who exchanged the most af- 
 fectionate glances with each other. 
 
 Feargus lashed all jobbers — particularly job- 
 ing magistrates who made a profitable traffic of 
 their justiceship — " they eat justice, drank jus- 
 tice, lay upon justice, rode justice, wore justice 
 — aye, threadbare !" 
 
 He complimented the tradesmen of Macroom, 
 by whom he was surrounded : 
 
 " Tradesmen we are all, in fact, from the mo- 
 narch who fills the throne and whose trade is 
 that of cabinet-makings to the humble chimney- 
 sweeper who loudly proclaims his calling from 
 the house-tops. 7 am a tradesman of Macroom ; 
 I was bound apprentice in the great square on 
 the 10th of June last" (alluding to the anti-tithe 
 
DEFIANCE TO WELLINGTON. 131 
 
 meeting held on that day) ; " and on my show- 
 board shall be Peace, Industry, Union, and Free- 
 dom." 
 
 At the Enniskean anti-tithe meeting, Feargus 
 gallantly defied the Duke of Wellington. " I did 
 hear that a military force was to have attended. 
 If I saw that force under the command of the 
 Great Captain of the age, I would tell him he 
 was in his dotage, and that the power of know- 
 ledge was greater than the power of cannon." 
 
 He defended himself from calumnious imputa- 
 tions : 
 
 " Here I stand in the midst of thousands and 
 tens of thousands to whom I have been known 
 from my birth, and I fearlessly ask them if the 
 breath of slander has here ever dared to assail 
 my character ?" (" No! no!" and cheers.) "Have 
 I ever oppressed the meanest individual among 
 you ?" (" No ! no ! hurrah !") " Have I not ever 
 been your adviser and director ?" (" Yes ! yes ! 
 yes !") 
 
 He announced the religious object of his agi- 
 tation at a dinner given him in Enniskean: 
 " My object is to purify the religion I profess by 
 lopping off its rotten and redundant temporali- 
 ties ;" and he fiercely inquired " whether the 
 religion of the Almighty was to be set in blood ?'' 
 alluding to the fatal tithe affrays. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 TERROR SMILED OUT OF COUNTENANCE. 
 
 At a dinner given in Cork to the late Bishop 
 England, Feargus concluded a vehement speech 
 in these words : 
 
 " No I though our sea-bound dungeon were 
 encompassed by the wooden walls of old England 
 — though the 300,000 promised Cossacks march- 
 ed through the land with all the emblems of 
 death, the rack, the scaffold, and the axe, yet I 
 would suffer martyrdom ere I would throw up 
 my hat, and cry ' All hail !' to him* who dragged 
 my country's Liberator like a common felon cap- 
 tive through the streets of the metropolis to 
 answer a charge made crime by proclamation. 
 No ! though stretched upon the rack I would 
 smile terror out of countenance, and die as I have 
 lived — a pure lover of liberty !" 
 
 The comment of the reporter for the Cork 
 Mercantile Chronicle ran thus : — 
 
 " This splendid effusion of masculine eloquence 
 created a most extraordinary sensation, coming 
 as it did, like a thunder-clap, on all. The ta- 
 lented speaker was long and loudly cheered on 
 resuming his seat ; and we will augur that it 
 will be long before he is forgotten by the people 
 of this city." 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesea. 
 
FEARGUS AS A PUBLIC SPEAKER. 133 
 
 Feargus had now established his fame through 
 the county as "a fine speaker." In the city 
 of Cork he was generally called "the Eattler!" 
 Those who have not heard him in public, and 
 who have only judged of his abilities from his 
 printed effusions, have invariably done great 
 injustice to his powers. He was remarkably 
 ready and self-possessed. He was capable of 
 producing extraordinary popular effect. He had 
 very great declamatory talent ; he had also great 
 defects. As a stimulating orator in a popular 
 assembly he was unexcelled. It is true he 
 dealt largely in bombast, broken metaphor, and 
 inflated language ; but while you listened, these 
 blemishes were altogether lost in the infectious 
 vehemence of his spirited manner; you were 
 charmed with the melodious voice, the musical 
 cadences, the astonishing volubility, the imposing 
 self-confidence of the man ; and the gallant air of 
 bold defiance with which he assailed all oppression 
 and tyranny The difference between his spoken 
 and printed harangues was surprisingly great. 
 
 He mingled the exciting qualities I have enu- 
 merated, with a very sparing amount of argu- 
 mentative power. He blended the facility of at 
 first acquiring popular influence, with a sad 
 incapacity to retain it. He displayed an ex- 
 haustless fund of vituperative vigour in lashing 
 
134 PICTURESQUE CHARACTER 
 
 all the parties obnoxious to the people ; but lie 
 was sometimes betrayed by want of reflection 
 into receiving and announcing as truths the 
 most incredible exaggerations : for instance, he 
 proclaimed to a numerous meeting in Bandon 
 that certain portions of the parish of Timoleague 
 paid tithe at the rate of ninety pounds per acre; 
 and that the fact of the extravagant tithe-charge 
 in question had been confirmed upon oath before 
 two magistrates ! 
 
 During the entire of the " agitating" summer 
 and autumn of 1832, scenes of a highly exciting 
 and picturesque character were constantly exhi- 
 bited. The meetings for " Repeal" and " no 
 Tithes" were usually held on Sundays after mass. 
 It was an interesting sight to behold the rustic 
 worshippers wending along the glen and down 
 the hill side — sauntering through " the lone vale 
 of green bracken" beneath the brilliant morning 
 sunshine ; crowding to the parish chapel at the 
 call of the bell — stragglers from the outskirts of 
 the parish endeavouring to recover lost time by 
 short cuts and increased speed, as they sprang 
 with agility over the ditches. Then there was 
 the muster of the hardy peasants in the chapel- 
 yard — the more thoughtless occupying the short 
 interval before mass in enquiring the news of 
 the day ; the more devout kneeling apart before 
 
OF THE ANTI-TITHE AGITATION. 135 
 
 the altar rails, or under the rude pictures called 
 "the stations of the cross" which sometimes 
 adorn the chapel walls ; or in some shaded spot 
 without the sacred edifice, where, unmolested, 
 they might recite the Litany of Jesus or one of 
 the Penitential Psalms beneath the shadow of an 
 old hawthorn. Then came the last quick toll of 
 the bell, announcing that divine service was just 
 going to commence ; then the hurried gathering 
 into the chapel ; the mass, the homely discourse 
 in Gaelic ; and after the " Ite ! missa est !" an 
 announcement of the meeting of the day. 
 
 The meeting frequently comprised the inhabi- 
 tants of many parishes. The dark multitudes 
 streamed from the hills to the common centre ; 
 many on horseback, but the greater number on 
 foot. There was a proud thrill in every man's 
 breast ; all felt the exalting consciousness that a 
 nation were mustering and banding together to 
 assert their rights. The Irish peasantry are not 
 mere clodpoles. They are an imaginative and 
 intellectual race ; they love their native land and 
 they are proud of it. They are highly susceptible 
 of every external impression that can tend to 
 heighten the sentiment of patriotism; and as 
 the multitudes traversed the grand scenery of 
 the parishes on the sea coast, many a foot was 
 arrested on the heights which commanded a view 
 
136 CATCHING A RELUCTANT CHAIRMAN. 
 
 of the bold mountain peaks, the magnificent 
 expanse of ocean, the steep cliffs, the rich green 
 glens often winding from the shore among the 
 hills ; and many a heart felt to its inmost core 
 that the freedom of such a glorious land was 
 worth any struggle men could make — any peril 
 that men could encounter! 
 
 The meeting usually mustered in full strength 
 at the appointed place about three o'clock in the 
 afternoon. The chairman was often a Protest- 
 ant, whose hatred of tithes was not less intense 
 than that felt by the Catholic concourse around 
 him. I only knew of one Protestant chairman 
 who would rather have been absent from his 
 post. The worthy gentleman was deemed a prize 
 by his anti-titheist neighbours ; they made many 
 attempts to catch him for their chairman, but he 
 always coquettishly evaded the point, until it 
 was delicately hinted that in the event of his 
 persisting in refusal, the requisitionists would 
 develop to the board of excise certain smug- 
 gling transactions in which he was engaged. 
 The hint was sufficient. Mr. *****^ whose 
 conscience had rather strained at the sacrilegious 
 assault upon tithes although it could swa^ow 
 whole cargoes of contraband goods withfcut 
 scruple, at last consented to preside; and he 
 delivered a philippic against the church tem- 
 
A WELL RULED PARISH ! 137 
 
 poralities, of which the poignant bitterness am- 
 ply redeemed his previous apathy ! 
 
 Feargus was of course quite in his element at 
 all these public meetings. He hated the union 
 with cordial bitterness ; he hated the tithes with 
 equal intensity; and he had numerous stories 
 of ecclesiastical delinquency at his fingers' ends, 
 much better authenticated than the startling 
 legend of the "ninety pounds per acre." He 
 spoke of the parish in which his own residence, 
 Fort Eobert, was situated ; told how the rector, 
 Mr. Hamilton, had never set his foot within 
 the parish for five-and-thirty years ; exposed the 
 vestry that had enlarged the clerk's salary, be- 
 cause he resided at a distance from the parish ! 
 and denounced the jolly sexton who kept a house 
 of ill-fame at the church-gate ! 
 
 The people were enchanted with his scathing 
 exposures of clerical, magisterial, and legislative 
 iniquity ; and " Fargus" was unanimously pro- 
 nounced to be " the devil of a fellow." His man- 
 ners were excessively conciliating; in private 
 they were courteous and refined ; in public they 
 were hearty, rattling, and impulsive. He had 
 frolicsome touches of mimicry, nickname, and clap- 
 trap ; he now and then let off a telling pun. His 
 courteous demeanour alternated with a certain 
 indescribable swagger, which, however, was not 
 
138 SOCIAL ABILITIES OF FEARGUS. 
 
 in the least degree offensive, and merely indica- 
 ted the right good opinion which he entertained 
 of himself without disparagement to any one 
 else. He was a capital raconteur. His talents 
 as a mimic were first-rate. His was not that 
 mere parrot-mimicry that imitates sounds only ; 
 he was a mimic of sentiment and feeling; he 
 could take up the whole train of thought as well 
 as the voice, and present you with a faithful and 
 exquisitely ludicrous resemblance of mental as 
 well as vocal characteristics. 
 
 Feargus also excelled in repartee. He had 
 strong satirical powers, a formidable readiness in 
 retort, and could pounce with caustic and merci- 
 less sarcasm on the weak or ludicrous points of an 
 antagonist ; so that whenever any incivility was 
 attempted at his expense, he retaliated with 
 a pungency that made his opponent repent his 
 rashness in assailing him. Woe to the wight 
 who attempted to " take down" O'Connor ! He 
 was sure to be shown up — the victim of prompt, 
 stinging, shattering ridicule ; although Feargus, 
 when not attacked, was remarkable for suavity 
 and excellent temper. 
 
 He was fond of puns, and generally made 
 them tell. At a meeting which he attended, 
 after having been for some time absent from 
 the country, it chanced that there stood at his 
 
FEARGUS UNCHANGED. 139 
 
 right hand on the platform, a patriotic paper- 
 manufacturer named Kidney, Feargus assured 
 his audience that his absence from home had not 
 altered his politics : 
 
 " Here I am," quoth he, " unchanged ! the 
 same pure lover of liberty you have ever known 
 me ; with the same honest heart, and the same 
 stout Kidney too !" (patting his worthy and 
 stalwart neighbour on the shoulder, amidst shouts 
 of laughter.) 
 
 Feargus's strongest point was his great phy- 
 sical energy. He was perfectly indefatigable in 
 his agitation. In all the quarters of the compass 
 — wherever a popular muster of sufficient mag- 
 nitude was announced — there was invariably to 
 be seen the popular agitator with the brawny 
 muscular figure, the big round shoulders, the red 
 curly tresses overhanging the collar of his coat, 
 the cajoling smirk, the insinuating manners, and 
 the fluent tongue. His taste in eloquence was 
 not at that time particularly rigorous ; his lan- 
 guage was such as, in Homeric phrase, might be 
 termed " poluphlosboios ;" he was fond of sound- 
 ing and redundant sentences ; he often declared, 
 for example, that the people were " wrecked hy 
 disunion^ torn hy discord^ revolutionized hy fac- 
 tion ;" this description of talk rolled off his 
 tongue in continuous torrents. 
 
140 ARISTOCRATIC PREPOSSESSIONS 
 
 The Whig and Tory squirearchy laughed to 
 derision Feargus's prospects of success. They 
 affected a total incapacity to conceive how Fear- 
 gus could succeed. They sneered at the rustic 
 meetings, the public dinners got up among the 
 village shopkeepers and farmers. " He had a 
 genteel day of it 1" writes one of them ; " not a 
 coat there but freize, except on the platform." 
 Meanwhile, Feargus persevered with continually 
 increasing activity ; some of the advertisements 
 of his movements were headed with the appro- 
 priate words in huge types, " Up and doing." 
 
 Whatever were the merits or defects of his 
 public speaking, he had this advantage — that his 
 manner and delivery were perfectly gentleman- 
 like. He was thoroughly free from the odious 
 and execrable slang which the blackguard taste 
 of some public spouters impels them to substitute 
 for the wit which they have not ; all cant phrases 
 he discarded ; the entire slang vocabulary he ut- 
 terly rejected. 
 
 The people appreciated the aristocratic de- 
 meanour of Feargus ; for the Irish democracy — 
 (and this is a feature in the national character 
 well worthy the attention of all politicians) — 
 are eminently aristocratic in their prepossessions. 
 They love ancient lineage; they can quickly 
 discern and they ardently relish the demeanour 
 
OF THE IRISH PEOPLE. 141 
 
 that should mark the far-descended gentleman. 
 Those who fear that the Kepeal of the Union 
 would result in democratic anarchy, evince by 
 their fears their total ignorance of the feelings, 
 dispositions, and prejudices of the Irish nation. 
 There is not in the empire a people more desirous 
 to give practical efficacy to the theory of the 
 British constitution. The theoretic equipoise of 
 Crown, Lords, and Commons, their principles 
 would carry into practice. Loving liberty as 
 their dearest birthright, they rejoice to be led in 
 the pursuit of it by men of high station and old 
 lineage. Loyal to the crown, they honour the 
 coronet — these Irish worshippers of freedom ! 
 They merely desire to convert the aristocracy 
 from oppressors into protectors. 
 
142 REPEAL FAIRLY AFLOAT. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 My inmost heart is in your cause. I pray 
 
 God speed your quarrel ! Yet my hands are bound ; 
 
 There is a golden fetter that restrains 
 
 The energies that should, of right, be yours. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 Repeal was now a topic of universal interest. 
 The Reverend Charles Boyton, a Fellow of Tri- 
 nity College, made several speeches at the Dublin 
 Conservative Society, strongly impregnated with 
 Irish nationality. In one of those speeches he 
 ably dissected and exposed the fallacies which 
 even then Spring Rice had begun to set up, about 
 " the Union being productive of incalculable be- 
 nefit to Ireland." Rice had been triumphant in 
 the English House of Commons ; that is to say, 
 he had the votes, the majorities, the cheers, 
 which invariably await in that assembly the ex- 
 ploits of an Irishman who does the dirty work of 
 England. It was easy to prove to the perfect 
 satisfaction of an English audience that the sub- 
 jugation of Ireland to England was an overflow- 
 ing source of prosperity to the former country. 
 
SPRING bice's statistical JUGGLERY. 143 
 
 His miles of figures — his tables of statistics, 
 his carefully contrived arithmetical legerdemain, 
 made an imposing show in an assembly whose 
 members cared nothing for the merits of the 
 case, and cared everything for the preservation 
 of their own iron grasp upon Irish resources. 
 
 But Eice's statistical jugglery did not prove 
 thus convincing to the Irish people. He did not 
 find it quite so easy to persuade them that their 
 starving population were comfortably fed; that 
 their unemployed, half-naked tradesmen were 
 warmly clothed ; that the manufactories crumb- 
 ling into ruins over the face of the land were 
 hives of happy, thriving industry ; that the 
 14,000 silk weavers just then stalking unem- 
 ployed through Dublin were models of prosperity 
 and comfort ; that the crowded metropolitan 
 mendicity demonstrated the brisk state of trade 
 in the capital ; that the insolvency of an entire 
 fourth of the number of houses in Dublin was 
 strongly indicative of the increasing opulence of 
 the metropolis ; that the Dublin people were ex- 
 ceedingly enriched by the removal to London of 
 all the public boards ; and that the drain of four 
 millions per annum in absentee rents out of Ire- 
 land, was a source of remunerative employment 
 and national wealth to the Irish people. 
 
 All these brilliant paradoxes might easily be 
 
144 THE REVEREND " BULLY BOYTON." 
 
 received as gospel-truths by a set of Englishmen 
 interested only in keeping down Ireland. But 
 the suffering people themselves felt the poignant 
 addition of insult to injury when they saw the 
 great cause of their sorrows held forth to the 
 world as the fountain of blessings to their coun- 
 try. 
 
 Boyton, despite his conservatism, felt as an in- 
 dignant Irishman would naturally feel ; and, in a 
 speech which displayed full knowledge of the 
 subject, he refuted with contemptuous sarcasm 
 the fallacies of Eice. Boyton's mind and body 
 were both of athletic powers and proportions. 
 He had the reputation of being an able pugilist ; 
 and no doubt in his reasoning there was many 
 a knock-down blow. The man was in spirit and 
 feeling an Irish nationalist, but he was bound 
 up in the chains of the Church Establishment ; 
 his national vigour was therefore necessarily 
 paralysed. 
 
 A gentleman on terms of intimacy with the 
 leading members of the Eepeal movement, made 
 private overtures to Boyton for a junction be- 
 tween his party and the Eepeal ers. Boyton's 
 reply was in substance, and nearly in terms, as 
 follows : 
 
 " I would gladly acquiesce in your proposal, 
 if I thought there existed the slightest proba- 
 
BOYTON ON ANGLESEA's THREAT. 145 
 
 bility of its being effectual. But were / pub- 
 licly to unite myself with the llepealers, I should 
 only separate myself from my own party ; I could 
 not possibly carry them along with me. Sir, 
 they hate ijou\ their enmity is bitter, and it 
 cannot be mitigated. I trust I need not say that 
 / do not participate in it ; but I know that any 
 overtures to unite them with the O'Connellites 
 would be perfectly fruitless, from the personal 
 hatred they bear to your leader, and their bi- 
 goted horror of the great body of his followers." 
 
 The negotiation of course fell to the ground ; 
 but Boyton now and then continued to make 
 speeches savouring strongly of Kepeal. 
 
 One of his best was on the celebrated inter- 
 view which took place in Cork between the Lord 
 Lieutenant* and Doctor Baldwin, a highly res- 
 pected advocate of nationality. The Doctor beat 
 the Viceroy hollow in the controversy ; and the 
 Viceroy threatened to blockade the Irish ports 
 with four English gun-brigs, and to effect a total 
 suspension of intercourse between England and 
 Ireland. 
 
 " A total suspension of intercourse !" exclaimed 
 the Rev. Charles Boyton ; " and supposing the 
 
 The Marquis of Anglesea. 
 
146 SUSPENSION or international intercourse. 
 
 intercourse was suspended, pray which of the 
 parties would be the worse for it ? England, 
 whose exports are articles which derive their 
 value from the great manufacturing ingenuity 
 exerted on materials of small intrinsic worth ; or 
 Ireland, whose exports chiefly consist of articles 
 of food — the staff of human life ? If the gallant 
 Viceroy could suspend the intercourse between 
 the countries, and prevent our exporting Irish 
 beef, butter, and corn to England, why I really 
 think that in so awfal an extremity we could 
 manage to eat those commodities ourselves ! 
 Whereas it would task the powers of even John 
 Bull to masticate and digest a Sheffield whittle, 
 a Worcester tea-cup, or a Kidderminster carpet !" 
 Meanwhile, Feargus undertook to enlighten 
 the Viceroy upon Irish affairs in a " Letter, from 
 Feargus O'Connor, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, to his 
 Excellency the Marquis of Anglesea." Feargus 
 had been threatened with a prosecution for his 
 political misdeeds; and in the indictment were 
 included James Ludlow Stawell, of Kilbrittain,* 
 
 * I cannot thus cursorily mention James Ludlow Stawell, without 
 a passing tribute to his memory. He was a sincere Protestant ; he 
 was also a warm-hearted and enlightened Irishman. Descended 
 from an ancient house, and possessed of an ample estate, he felt that 
 he owed an account of his stewardship to the Providence who had 
 bestowed on him the gifts of high birth and large fortune. He ho- 
 
^ 
 
 A USEFUL MANCEUYRE. 147 
 
 Francis Bernard McCarthy, of Laurel Hill, with 
 some others who had made themselves conspi- 
 cuous by agitation. 
 
 The principal subject of Feargus's Letter to 
 Lord Anglesea was Feargus himself. He ap- 
 prized the Viceroy that he (Feargus) was a bar- 
 rister ; a member of one of the most respectable 
 families in the kingdom; that he possessed an 
 unincumbered property beyond his wants ; that 
 on one occasion when Lord Anglesea had been 
 mobbed in Dublin, he (Feargus) followed him 
 into Parliament-street and raised his arm in his 
 Excellency's defence. 
 
 He also boasted — and with good reason — of 
 an exploit he had performed in 1822, w^hich in 
 truth was creditable to his dexterity. The inci- 
 dent also exemplifies forcibly the amount of 
 reliance which ought to be placed on the asser- 
 tions of " State of the country" libellers of Ire- 
 land. 
 
 nestly and zealously laboured to render his own personal advantages 
 auxiliary to the freedom of his countrymen. He threw himself into 
 their struggle. They revered and loved him. His useful and ho- 
 nourable career was cut short by sudden death. A feverish cold, of 
 which the inflammatory symptoms were increased by the patient's 
 anxiety about the prosecution, terminated fatally on the third or 
 fourth day. He was deeply regretted by all parties, — Requiescat in 
 pace ! 
 
 -^ L 2 
 
148 FEARGUS AND THE RECTORS. 
 
 *' The parsons," said Feargus, " were then with 
 the people, proclaiming that tithes had nothing 
 to do with the disturbance ; that its cause was 
 to be found in exorbitant rents. I convened a 
 meeting of the neighbouring parishes in the 
 Koman Catholic Chapel of Enniskean, at which 
 nine or ten Protestant clergymen attended ; they 
 were principally rectors. They all spoke of the 
 perfect tranquillity their respective parishes en- 
 joyed, and unanimously signed the resolutions 
 which strongly expressed that tranquillity, under 
 the belief that they would not go farther. 
 
 " I, however, had a duty to perform. I pub- 
 lished them in two of our provincial journals ; 
 and what will be your lordship's astonishment 
 when 1 tell you that this publication was deemed 
 by the clergy who attended the meeting, a crime 
 for which my head would scarcely have atoned ! 
 Because the declarations made by some of those 
 reverend gentlemen at the meeting, were diame- 
 trically opposite to those made bi^ the same 
 persons with respect to the state of their parish- 
 es, but a day or two previously !" 
 
 Feargus demanded from Lord Anglesea the 
 publication of the informations on which he and 
 his confederates had been charged as conspirators 
 and dangerous persons. 
 
 The prosecutions were abandoned by the go- 
 
COUNTY CORK ELECTION OF 1832. 149 
 
 vernment. Stawell had died after a few days' 
 illness ; and as his death was generally believed 
 to have been accelerated by the harassing an- 
 noyance of the threatened proceedings, it is not 
 improbable that the government regarded it 
 as a sufficient expiation of the political sins of 
 the whole batch of offenders. But the fact of 
 having been indicted was an additional feather 
 in Feargus's cap : his having incurred the peril 
 of martyrdom increased his popularity. 
 
 The summer and autumn passed away. The 
 registries had been well worked, and towards the 
 end of December the general election took place. 
 The second popular candidate for the county was 
 Mr. Garrett Standish Barry of Lemlara, a Catho- 
 lic gentleman of great private worth, but not 
 adapted for public business. He was brought in 
 for the county under Feargus's wing ; being in 
 truth indebted for his success to the stirring agi- 
 tation got up by his active and adventurous col- 
 league. 
 
 The electors from the rural districts now pour- 
 ed into the city. Parties of the freize-coats, each 
 detachment headed by the parish priest, came 
 in for four successive days. On the first day of 
 the election the rival candidates met upon the 
 hustings ; Lord Bernard and the Hon. Eobert 
 Boyle appeared on the Conservative side. The 
 
150 FEARGUS TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 Hon. Eobert King was a candidate upon the 
 Whig interest. Lord Bernard read a short 
 speech from a paper which lay perdu in the 
 bottom of his hat, all about keeping up the tithes 
 and the Union. Happy dexterity in a public 
 speaker, thus to make his hat supply the defici- 
 encies of his head ! Mr. Boyle — I really forget 
 whether he uttered anything at all ; he wrote an 
 address to the electors which promised nothing 
 — a promise which there is no doubt of his abi- 
 lity to redeem ! Mr. King said that if returned 
 he would vote for the discussion of Repeal. Gar- 
 rett Standish Barry said that if the reformed Par- 
 liament in their first session should not do " jus- 
 tice to Ireland," he would vote for Repeal. Fear- 
 gus made an extremely eloquent speech for " full, 
 unqualified, unconditional, immediate Repeal." 
 
 The election terminated on the fifth day, in 
 the return of Feargus and Mr. Barry. Out of 
 the eight seats for the city, the county, and its 
 boroughs, the Tories only obtained one, namely 
 Bandon, for which the Hon. William Bernard 
 was returned. The Tories were infuriate at the 
 success of their opponents. Speaking of Fear- 
 gus's triumph, the well-known Hedges Eyre of 
 Macroom swore deep and awful oaths as he 
 paced the Conservative club-room, " that the 
 county was lost ! destroyed ! disgraced for ever !" 
 
FEARGUS'S PUBLIC DEMEANOUR. 151 
 
 Whatever may be Feargus's subsequent career, 
 we must do justice to his really gallant achieve- 
 ment of wresting the county Cork from the fami- 
 lies who had monopolized the representation prior 
 to 1832. The task required indefatigable energy, 
 a thorough contempt of all difficulties, a faculty 
 of rousing the despondent and nearly torpid po- 
 pulation with fiery harangues, an undaunted 
 audacity, and a superlative self-confidence. All 
 these qualities Feargus enjoyed in perfection, and 
 without them he never could have succeeded in 
 displacing the old parliamentary families. The 
 people were fascinated, too, at seeing the marked 
 and respectful deference with which the Protes- 
 tant agitator invariably treated the Catholic 
 priesthood, to whom he never omitted an occa- 
 sion of paying a well-turned compliment. He 
 bragged loudly and constantly of his own abori- 
 ginal extraction; adverted frequently to the 
 losses his family had sustained in the people's 
 cause; and succeeded in producing a general 
 conviction that the dashing, voluble, swaggering 
 champion of the people rights, was the very beau 
 ideal of a popular member of parliament. Fear- 
 gus's services were on that occasion very great. 
 The truth is, that no other man in Corkshire pos- 
 sessed the combination of qualities requisite to 
 open the county at that period. 
 
152 CONTRAST BETWEEN 
 
 Since the year 1832, the popular franchise in 
 Ireland has shrunk into very small dimensions. 
 In some places it is nearly annihilated. This 
 result has been produced by the strenuous efforts 
 of Conservative landlords to recover their lost 
 political ground, and the coldness and apathy 
 with which Whig-liberal proprietors often suffer 
 the franchise to die out. The Tories expel re- 
 fractory tenants in large batches, wherever the 
 termination of leases affords them the power of 
 clearance.* 
 
 The conduct of the humble electors of Ireland 
 contrasts most remarkably with that of the same 
 class of persons in England. The contrast ap- 
 pears to me demonstrative of the superior fitness 
 of the Irish people to exercise the franchise. 
 
 In England, as Lord Stanley has boasted in 
 the house of commons, the tenantry follow their 
 landlords with implicit submission. They in- 
 quire for "my lord's man," or "the squire's man," 
 and they vote as their masters direct. In the 
 towns venality is the dominant influence. Be- 
 tween town and country there never existed a 
 parliament returned by so enormous, so unblush- 
 
 * This practice is general, but not universal. Some Tory pro- 
 prietors are amongst the best and most humane landlords in Ireland. 
 Whigs too often patronize the " clearance system." 
 
THE ENGLISH AND IRISH ELECTORS. 153 
 
 ing a use of bribery and all corrupt influence as 
 the present English House of Commons. 
 
 In Ireland, neither landlord-influence nor 
 bribes can accomplish much. The electors are 
 not driven like swine to the market. They have 
 got a political conscience, and by that they are 
 guided in the use of the franchise. Whether 
 their political preferences are right or wrong, 
 they honestly vote according to those preferences. 
 Year after year they see before their eyes the 
 bitter penalty of being politically honest; they 
 see the old homesteads of their neighbours level- 
 ed to the earth, and the miserable inmates turned 
 adrift, to wander in cold, nakedness, and hunger 
 over the land — they see that the crime of which 
 this is the punishment, is the honest discharge of 
 a trust committed to them by the constitution — 
 and yet they persevere ! 
 
 There is in this gallant defiance of local ty- 
 ranny, something grand and high-souled. It 
 stamps the Irish peasants with the ineffaceable 
 character of political integrity. They are willing 
 martyrs for their country's freedom. A nation 
 who can thus perseveringly and readily incur 
 the bitterest persecution for the sake of principle, 
 stand infinitely higher in the moral and intel- 
 lectual scale, and are infinitely fitter for the 
 duties of self-government, than a people who 
 
154 SUPERIOR FITNESS OF THE IRISH 
 
 discharge the constitutional trust of the fran- 
 chise at the dictation of another's will, or for 
 the sordid and dishonest consideration of pelf. 
 
 Apart from bribery, and with reference solely 
 to the landlord-influence over electors in Eng- 
 land, it must, however, be admitted that the 
 English voters have not the same reason for 
 opposing their landlords that the Irish voters 
 too often have. 
 
 Whatever be the political party of the English 
 candidate, the elector may be perfectly certain 
 that he is zealous for the honour and power of 
 England. Whig, Tory, or Kadical, he will equally 
 desire to uphold the glory of the British lion. 
 
 But in Ireland, the nationalist elector is fre- 
 quently called on to vote for a candidate zealous 
 only for the servitude and subjugation of his 
 country ; eager to revile and disparage her 
 creed and her people ; flippant to announce (as 
 Lord Wicklow did the other day) that there is 
 not in Ireland the material for self-legislation. 
 He'' is called on to vote for some person whose 
 entire political convictions originate in the false, 
 degrading, calumnious, self- stultifying principle, 
 that the land of Swift, and Grattan, and Flood, 
 and Hussey Burgh, and O'Connell, and Plun- 
 kett, and Bushe, and a host of names which shed 
 lustre upon human intellect, is inhabited by a 
 
FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT. 155 
 
 race incapable of making laws to govern them- 
 selves ! 
 
 The soul of the Irish peasant instinctively 
 spurns the impudent libel on his country. There 
 cannot be a cordial community of feeling between 
 the peasantry and the landlord-class, until the 
 owners of the soil learn to regard their native 
 land with sentiments of just respect; until they 
 learn to rejoice in Ireland's honour — to take pride 
 in Ireland's fame ; and to feel every insult to 
 their country as a foul indignity inflicted on 
 themselves. 
 
 Vicious and deeply-rooted prejudices require 
 time to eradicate ; but there is a generation 
 springing rapidly up into maturity who, under 
 God, are destined to behold this change. 
 
156 MEETING OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL. 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 Each voice should resound through our island, 
 
 ** You're my neighbour; but, Bull, this is my land, 
 
 Nature's favorite spot, 
 
 And I'd rather be shot, 
 Than surrender the rights of our island." 
 
 Lysaght's anti- Union Song. 
 
 O'Connell suggested in December, 1832, to 
 the members who were pledged to the Eepeal of 
 the Union, the expediency of meeting in Dublin 
 to discuss various matters connected with Irish 
 legislation. Between thirty and forty of them 
 accordingly assembled in January, 1833, under 
 the denomination of the National Council. Their 
 first meeting took place at Home's Hotel in Col- 
 lege-Green, directly facing the principal front of 
 the Irish House of Commons. The proximity 
 was suggestive of some mournful recollections, 
 associated however with proud resolves and hopes. 
 The forms of a legislative assembly were strictly 
 observed by the National Council. The first day 
 was chiefly occupied in the examination of Mi- 
 chael Staunton, the very able editor of the 
 Dublin Register^ on matters concerning the 
 
ITS OBJECTS. 157 
 
 financial concerns of Ireland. On the subse- 
 quent days the members met in the Great Eoom 
 of the Corn Exchange ; there was a " stranger's 
 gallery," and a "bar;" admission to which was 
 charged the parliamentary price of two-and-six- 
 pence. O'Connell's object in bringing together 
 this embryo parliament, was partly to present 
 to the people of Ireland the spectacle of their own 
 legislators deliberating on Irish affairs in the 
 capital of their native land; to habituate the 
 members to home service ; and thereby to excite 
 both the representatives and the represented to 
 continuous energy in the great national enter- 
 prise. 
 
 " The cork" (said the Dublin Evening Post) 
 "was flying out of Feargus's high-bottled elo- 
 quence;" and at the National Council, as also 
 upon some other public occasions in the capital, 
 Feargus well sustained the reputation he had 
 acquired in the south, of a ready, rattling speaker. 
 
 In parliament he was not so successful. True, 
 he talked away in "the house" with his custo. 
 mary fluency, but he failed in impressing the 
 public with any strong faith in his senatorial 
 wisdom. He amused the legislature with local 
 anecdotes, sometimes extremely weU told. He 
 amused them also with occasional outbursts of ex- 
 aggerated energy ; as, for example, when in the 
 
158 PARLIAMENTARY BLUSTER. 
 
 debate on the Coercion Bill some foolish English 
 member had blustered about opposing the Repeal 
 vi et armis, Feargus resolved to outbluster him ; 
 which he did after the following fashion : 
 
 " The honourable gentleman," said the member 
 for Cork county, " had declared that rather than 
 consent to the Repeal of the Union he would 
 submit to be pistoled and bayoneted. But he 
 (Mr. Feargus O'Connor) would reply, that rather 
 than submit to the oppression of Ireland, he 
 would readily encounter swords, bayonets, guns, 
 pistols, blunderbusses, muskets, and fire-arms of 
 all sorts." 
 
 But to do Feargus justice, he often uttered 
 very good liberal principles, and he gave occa- 
 sional expression to bold and spirited sentiments 
 of liberty. He was deficient in argument. His 
 speeches were what the French expressively term 
 inconsequent. 
 
 In 1833 he made an effort to force forward 
 the discussion of Repeal prematurely in the 
 House of Commons. O'Connell was desirous to 
 keep back the question until the organization of 
 the Irish repealers should have become more 
 effective and general. There had been undoubt- 
 edly a great deal of popular noise and excitement ; 
 but O'Connell did not deem that the people had 
 yet been sufficiently organized to enable them to 
 
FEARGUS AND THE REPEAL QUESTION. 159 
 
 give to their representatives that steady and sus- 
 tained support out of doors which was absolutely 
 necessary to the success of the question in Par- 
 liament. O'Connell, in this cautious policy, could 
 appeal to the authority of the venerable Henry 
 Grattan; who, when in 1810 announcing to the 
 people of Dublin his readiness to advocate Eepeal, 
 at the same time explicitly stated that " it would 
 be neither prudent nor possible to bring Repeal 
 into the House of Commons, until the question 
 should be backed by the whole Irish nation." 
 Feargus, however, overlooked all such considera- 
 tions, and announced to the Repealers that if 
 O'Connell should decline to lead them, he would 
 himself become their leader ! 
 
 Notwithstanding this intrepid announcement, 
 he was fortunatelv induced to withdraw the notice 
 he had given upon the subject. He, however, 
 had succeeded in exciting the popular impatience 
 for a parliamentary discussion ; so that O'Con- 
 nell found it requisite to bring forward the ques- 
 tion in the following session.* Feargus made a 
 very long speech about Repeal, in the debate, 
 but it did not touch the marrow of the subject. 
 
 Parliament being dissolved in December, 1834, 
 
 O'Connell's motion was made 22nd April, 1834. 
 
160 SECOND ELECTION OF FEARGUS. 
 
 Feargus again was returned for the county of 
 Cork. In his address to the electors he declared 
 his intention of excluding for the future the new 
 families {videlicet the Shannons, Kingstons, and 
 Bandons) from the representation; and on the 
 hustings he told Lord Bernard that the best 
 blood in his lordship's veins was derived from 
 an ancient Kerry strain, a connexion with the 
 O'Connor family. 
 
 Feargus's majority was on this occasion large ; 
 but not so overwhelming as it had been at the 
 previous election. The landlord-persecution had 
 already begun to work upon the county-franchise. 
 A petition against his return was briskly under- 
 taken ; he was unseated in June, 1835, and Mr. 
 Longfield of Longueville near Mallow, slipped 
 into the representation. 
 
 Feargus had evidently conceived the idea of 
 supplanting O'Connell in the leadership of the 
 Irish people ; and in furtherance of this project 
 he now published a pamphlet containing nume- 
 rous allegations of political dishonesty against 
 the Liberator. The pamphlet sold well among 
 the Conservative party ; but it alienated the 
 Re}>ealers of Ireland from its writer. 
 
 Before long he formed a connexion with a po- 
 litical society in London, of AYhom the Eev. Dr. 
 Wade was a member. The principles of this 
 
" MORE YOUNG PATRIOTS." 161 
 
 society were those now known as the " &Ye points 
 of the charter." He soon established in Leeds 
 the Northern Star, a weekly newspaper, which, 
 being cleverly edited, at one period reached an 
 enormous circulation, and still circulates very 
 extensively, although it has declined from the 
 culminating point. He became a leading apos- 
 tle of "Chartism," of which his newspaper was 
 the official gazette; and many of the traits of 
 the proprietor are amusingly chronicled in its 
 columns ; they are worth preserving from their 
 racy peculiarity. 
 
 One curious mode of extending his influence 
 was, by having the infant children of his follow- 
 ers christened after his name. A string of such 
 baptisms was for a long time to be found in each 
 successive Star; as, for example — "On Monday, 
 the 8th instant, the wife of Ichabod Jenkins 
 nailor, was delivered of a fine thriving boy, who 
 was christened Feargus O'Connor Ichabod," and 
 so on for the best part of a column. Girls were 
 also often christened after Feargus. A whole 
 population of Feargus O'Connors, male and fe- 
 male, seemed rapidly springing up ; and the lists 
 of these baptisms were invariably headed with 
 the words, " More Young Patriots." 
 
 There was also a religious institution got 
 up, under the name of the "Chartist Christian 
 
 M 
 
162 "the chartist christian church." 
 
 Church;" and I presume that the Mr. Cooper 
 who combines, in the following extract, the cele- 
 bration of Feargus's humility with the baptism 
 of one of the young patriots, was a minister of 
 that society : 
 
 " We learn from the Leicester Mercury^ that 
 Mr. Thomas Cooper, the leader of the O'Connor- 
 ites in that borough, preached a sermon in the 
 Amphitheatre on Sunday week, from Daniel, ii. 
 34, 35. In the course of his address he said — 
 ' The disciples of truth, and all great men, were 
 humble, and did not like to have others depre- 
 ciated for the purpose of exalting themselves ;' 
 and, as instances, he noticed Sir Isaac Newton, 
 Haydn, Mozart, and Feargus O'Connor. After 
 the sermon, he announced that the Tragedy of 
 Douglas would be performed on the following 
 Tuesday, and that Hamlet was in preparation. 
 He then baptized a child ' Feargus O'Connor 
 Cooper Beedham.' "* 
 
 Ordinary agitators had for a long time adopt- 
 ed the system of banners at their public proces- 
 sions. The original genius of Chartism, however, 
 for once discarded such ensigns as stale, flat, 
 and commonplace, and in lieu thereof, startled 
 
 Dublin Evening Post, 3rd January, 1843. 
 
ASCENT OF A CHARTIST BALLOON ! 163 
 
 the crowd at a meeting in Burnley, with an 
 infinitely grander conception ; 
 
 " The attention of the multitude was arrested 
 hy the ascent of a large balloon^ with the words 
 ^ Feargus O'Connor,' inscribed in large charac- 
 ters." 
 
 Banners, however, were admitted in other lo- 
 calites. On a banner of stupendous dimensions 
 at one of O'Connor's processions, were inscribed 
 the following stanzas : 
 
 *' Lo ! he comes ! he comes ! 
 
 Garlands for every shrine ; 
 Sound trumpets ! strike the drums, 
 
 Strew roses — pour the wine ! 
 
 ** Swell — swell the Dorian flute, 
 
 Triumphal to the sky ; 
 Let the millions' shout salute. 
 
 For The Patriot passes by." 
 
 Feargus now seemed to sweep through the 
 world in the midst of a continuous triumph. 
 Garlands, libations, lo Poeans ! It was like the 
 majestic advance of one of Homer's demigods. 
 But Feargus was not exalted by these celestial 
 honours above the old terrestrial mode of deal- 
 ing with political questions par voie du fait ; 
 and accordingly, when confined at a subsequent 
 period in York Castle for certain alleged mis- 
 demeanours, he published "An appeal to the 
 
 M 2 
 
164 HOW TO CANCEL A DEBT. 
 
 working men of Yorkshire" to obstruct by vio- 
 lence the proceedings of a meeting at which 
 O'Connell was expected to be present at Leeds. 
 The appeal was exceedingly vehement, and much 
 of it was eloquently written. He inquired whe- 
 ther if he were at large, would O'Connell dare 
 to come to Leeds to meet him ? And to this 
 query he replied in the negative — " No ! a mil- 
 lion times no !" He then urged the great 
 debt the Yorkshire Chartists owed to himself, 
 and declared that all would be cancelled, nay, 
 infinitely overpaid, if " they gave 0^ Connor his 
 day^ and Dan his welcome F The conclusion 
 of this eloquent incitement to a row, is ex- 
 tremely characteristic ; 
 
 "I live and reign," says Feargus, "in the 
 hearts of millions, who pant for an opportunity 
 to prove their love, and who will embrace that 
 which is now presented, to convince me of their 
 approbation of my honest endeavours to serve 
 the cause of universal freedom. 
 
 "I am, my friends and brothers, the Tyranfs 
 Captive, the Oppressor's Dread ! the Poor Man's 
 Priend, and the people's Accepted Present^ 
 
 " Feargus O'Connor." 
 
 The people, however, did not respond to any 
 great extent to the belligerent call of their Ac- 
 cepted Present. It was supposed or promised, 
 
YORK CASTLE. 165 
 
 that 100,000 Chartists would assemble to oppose 
 O'Connell ; but the contemporary journals state 
 that from two to three thousand at the utmost, 
 gathered upon Holbeck Moor. 
 
 Feargus's imprisonment in York Castle was 
 not only unmerited, but his treatment at first 
 was atrociously severe. He published in the 
 newspapers statements of the barbarous indig- 
 nities inflicted upon him. In a letter to the 
 TijneSj he expressed a fear that the prison dis- 
 cipline would shorten his existence ; and desired, 
 should such be the case, that his body, after 
 death, should be opened by three surgeons whom 
 he named; one residing at York, another at 
 Hammersmith, and the third in London. Ere 
 the end of the epistle, however, Feargus evidently 
 thought that it would be better to live for future 
 political squalls than to die in jail for a post 
 mortem examination; 
 
 "Adieu, world !" he concludes, "for seventeen 
 months ; but, by heaven ! I'll make a storm in 
 you yet 1" 
 
 Feargus early acquired a decided supremacy 
 amongst the apostles of Chartism. Joining the 
 body as a volunteer, he speedily worked himself 
 into the supreme command, although he had 
 several competitors of by no means contemptible 
 ability. 
 
166 A DESCENDANT OF THE DEVIL. 
 
 A Chartist gentleman once said to me, "He 
 began with us as a disciple ; but, egad ! sir, he 
 soon distanced all of us !^' 
 
 His sway seems, however, at present, to be 
 rendered uneasy by the encroachments of his 
 mutinous subjects. 
 
 In the Evening Star — a sort of adjunct to 
 the Northern Star^ and, like it, edited for a 
 time by Feargus — an amusing writer published 
 a series of sketches of the Chartist leaders, com- 
 mencing with a portrait of the Chartist chief. 
 This writer, describing an interview with Fear- 
 o^us and a Scotch Chartist leader named Mac- 
 Douall, acquaints us that the latter gentleman 
 claimed a diabolical pedigree. " ' Son of the 
 devil,' said the gallant little doctor, *is the 
 meaning of my surname.'" " 'And I am a lineal 
 descendant from Eoderick O'Connor, the last 
 king of all Ireland !' said Feargus, kindled into 
 a momentary pride of ancestry by this flash of 
 the untameable spirit in the brave Scot ; ' there 
 were five kings of Ireland, all O'Connors, at the 
 same time, but I am lineally descended from 
 Roderick the Ardrigh, or high king. You see 
 in me a specimen of what my countrymen of the 
 true Milesian descent would all have been, had 
 it not been for the dwarfing eifects of bad living 
 and ill-treatment.'" 
 
CHARTISM IN DUBLIN. 167 
 
 It would seem that in thus offering himself as 
 a specimen of the splendid proportions to which 
 his countrymen might, if unpersecuted, have ar- 
 rived, Feargus produced on the narrator an 
 impression that he was, in truth, a being of 
 mysterious and undefinable greatness : 
 
 " From that period," continues the writer, " I 
 have never seen O'Connor without regarding 
 myself as in the presence of a true representative 
 of the ancient Celtic chieftains; beings who 
 depicture themselves to us out of the mist of 
 time, as characterized by simple and unaffected 
 majesty of form and deportment, without the 
 adornments of civilization, the frippery of jewels, 
 crowns, and sceptres." The writer ends by re- 
 marking that the "reality of O'Connor's great- 
 ness, as a devotee of principle," overawed his 
 enemies. 
 
 The above is doubtless very complimentary ; 
 not more so, however, than Feargus himself could 
 be on appropriate occasions. There is in Dub- 
 lin a Mr. Patrick O'Higgins who got up a nib- 
 bling opposition to O'Connell, and devoted a 
 room at the back of his house to the reception of 
 a few discontented deserters from O'Connellism. 
 Mr. O'Higgins professed himself an ally of 
 Feargus, and promised to do wonders for Char- 
 tism in Dublin. Feargus acknowledged his me- 
 
1-68 MR. BRUTUS O'HIGGINS. 
 
 rits in the Star^ and ended an eloquent eulogium 
 by exclaiming — " Rome had her Brutus — Ireland 
 has her O'Higgins !" 
 
 The parallel is exquisite ! 
 
 When Joseph Sturge was candidate for Not- 
 tingham on the principles of moral force Chart- 
 ism, Feargus gave him active assistance in the 
 preliminary agitation. An affray took place in 
 the market-square of Nottingham, in which 
 Feargus displayed strength and valour truly 
 worthy of the descendant of the Ardrigh Ro- 
 derick; for although beset by numbers upon 
 every side, he knocked all down right and left. 
 Next day twenty-one men swore that Feargus 
 had severally knocked each of them down in the 
 riot. The Univers translated the English ac- 
 counts of the transaction into French, heading 
 the narrative, "Moeurs Electorales Anglaises." 
 
 At one of the meetings for the Nottingham 
 election, Feargus exclaimed, " Hurrah for Sturge 
 and Nottingham ! or for the Devil, if he supports 
 the charter !" I should like to have seen the 
 quiet quaker-face of honest Joseph Sturge, on 
 being thus hypothetically coupled with the prince 
 of darkness. Perhaps the "hurrah for the devil" 
 was intended as a compliment to his infernal 
 majesty's relative Dr. M'Douall. 
 
 The reports of O'Connor's meetings and speech- 
 
POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 169 
 
 es in the Star are full of traits illustrating that 
 wild energy which forms so marked a feature in 
 his character. We are told how he sat down 
 after a two hours' speech so exhausted that the 
 perspiration oozed through his dress ! — how he 
 said " he would work the flesh off his bones, or 
 have the Charter !" — how he cheered his follow- 
 ers by declaring that " he was as strong as ten 
 bulls !" — how he described Lane-End as the 
 place where the lads "beat the cavalry and made 
 them retreat ;" adding, " in this town all the 
 people are born marksmen. I learn that a lad 
 of fourteen or fifteen could kill a crow flying, 
 with a stone." 
 
 I have not deemed this digression — for it is 
 one — altogether uninteresting; relating, as it 
 does, to the personal characteristics of a man 
 who was at one time a useful auxiliary to the 
 popular cause in Ireland, and who certainly pos- 
 sesses a large share of talent of a not very com- 
 mon description. 
 
 With respect to Chartism, the political changes 
 it professes to seek are just and necessary on the 
 whole, although some of their details might be 
 advantageously modified. The Eepeal of the 
 Union is one of the " five points." 
 
 That the Chartist movement has not been 
 favourably looked on by the Irish people, arises 
 
170 OBSTRUCTIVE POLICY OF CHARTISTS. 
 
 from the distrust with which some of the leaders 
 are regarded in this country, and from the 
 unfair and intolerant policy repeatedly pursued 
 by the party, of violently obstructing all meet- 
 ings held for any other political object than the 
 attainment of the Charter. 
 
POLICY OF ENGLISH REFORMERS. 171 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Justice hath done her unrelenting part, 
 If she indeed be justice, who drives on. 
 Bloody and blind, the chariot wheels of death. 
 
 Southey. 
 
 The proceedings of " The First Reformed Par- 
 liament" furnished a conclusive answer to those 
 Irish Whig-liberals who opposed Repeal upon the 
 plea that Reform in the English Parliament 
 would supersede the necessity for domestic legis- 
 lation for Ireland. 
 
 The Irish agitation in 1831-2 was not op- 
 posed by the Whig government so long as it 
 could be considered a useful adjunct to the En- 
 glish agitation for Reform. But as soon as the 
 triumph of Reform was certain, and the Irish 
 agitators were no longer required to subserve 
 English purposes, prosecutions were threatened 
 — Lord Anglesea proclaimed down meetings; 
 the " Sailor-King," whose impatience to achieve 
 Reform in 1831 was so great that he wanted to 
 drive down to the house in a " jarvey" to dissolve 
 the refractory Parliament — ^this same democratic 
 
172 COERCION BILL BROUGHT IN. 
 
 monarch in 1833 expressed from the throne his 
 " surprise" and " indignation" at the efforts of 
 the Irish to obtain a restoration of their own 
 legislature. 
 
 O'Connell denounced the King's speech as a 
 brutal and bloody speech; as a declaration of 
 war against Ireland. The address, echoing the 
 speech, was however carried by an enormous ma- 
 jority. The Coercion Bill for restricting the 
 people of Ireland from meeting to petition 
 the legislature was shortly afterwards intro- 
 duced. There was a very full muster of Irish 
 and English members on the night of its intro- 
 duction. Expectation was on tiptoe — it had 
 been rumoured that disclosures of an appalling 
 nature would be made to justify its enactment. 
 Lord Althorp (now Lord Spencer) opened the 
 case for the Government. His delivery was 
 heavy, hesitating, and unimpressive. He la- 
 boured under a disadvantage which in an impar- 
 tial assembly would have been fatal; namely 
 that of requiring implicit belief in a tale of Irish 
 outrages and horrors, in which the names of the 
 informers were to a great extent suppressed. 
 The house was called upon to ground coercive 
 legislation upon unauthenticated charges; and 
 the pretext for withholding the authentication 
 was, that to publish the names of the informers 
 
LORD ALTHORP'S SPEECH. 173 
 
 would expose them to personal outrage from their 
 lawless neighbours. 
 
 The house was perfectly ready to ground coer- 
 cive legislation for Ireland upon anonymous in- 
 formation. It was not nice as to pretexts. It 
 was boldly alleged that praedial outrages were 
 closely allied with political agitation, and that in 
 order to put down the former the latter should 
 be suppressed. 
 
 Lord Althorp's speech was a failure. O'Con- 
 nell left the house immediately on its conclusion, 
 and remained for some minutes in the lobby, of- 
 fering triumphant congratulations to all the anti- 
 coercion members whom he met, on the wretched 
 exhibition of his lordship. " Did you ever hear 
 anything more miserable ? Why, the govern- 
 ment have literally got no case at all ! Bad as 
 the house is, it will be impossible to get them to 
 pass the bill on such statements! Hurrah!" 
 Thus did the Great Dan cheer the members of 
 the Tail and his friends in general ; expressing 
 in the most sanguine terms his conviction of the 
 ultimate defeat of the government. 
 
 By-and-bye Mr. (now Lord) Stanley rose. 
 He enjoyed one great advantage; namely that 
 of having an audience strongly predisposed in 
 his favour. But in other respects he laboured 
 under difficulties. He had, in fact, to repair 
 
174 MR. Stanley's speech. 
 
 Lord Althorp's failure. He had to re-state a 
 series of allegations which had fallen, feeble and 
 dull, from the incompetent lips of the blundering 
 leader. And well did he perform his task ! Ere 
 he had spoken for five minutes, the attention of 
 friend and foe alike was riveted in admiration of 
 the orator's abilities. Clear, rapid, and animated, 
 he scathed the Liberals with the fire of his sar- 
 casm, and combated their arguments with his 
 showy and plausible parliamentary logic. The 
 natural graces of his unconstrained and easy 
 action, the vivid glances of his eagle eye, the air 
 of bold and well sustained defiance which no one 
 could better assume, greatly enhanced the effect 
 of his oratory. He had gathered up some of the 
 unconsidered sayings of his Irish antagonists, and 
 paraded them before the house with wicked in- 
 genuity as indicative of seditious intentions. 
 He closed with a ferocious invective against 
 O'Connell personally, and sat down amidst thun- 
 ders of Whig and Tory plaudits. 
 
 Well did he merit the cheers of his party. 
 The rickety misshapen bantling of Lord Althorp 
 was moulded by the plastic powers of Mr. Stanley 
 into showy proportions and apparent strength. 
 
 The bill was obstinately contested. Mr. O'Con- 
 nell led the opposition to it, and displayed all the 
 qualities of a great parliamentary debater. An 
 
O'CONNELL S OPPOSITION. 175 
 
 Irish Conservative exclaimed with astonishment 
 to the present writer as the house adjourned one 
 night, " How stoutly Dan battles it out amongst 
 these English !" O'Connell had, in the course of 
 the evening, thus concluded a fiery invective 
 against the Whigs : " You have brains of lead, 
 and hearts of stone, and fangs of iron !" He 
 displayed inimitable tact and dexterity in de- 
 fence — ^promptitude and vigour in assault — and 
 knocked about Whigs and Tories with an easy 
 exercise of strength which utterly astonished the 
 house, who had not previously witnessed such a 
 brilliant display of his abilities. 
 
 Despite the opposition of the friends of Ireland, 
 the bill finally passed, and the constitutional pri- 
 vileges of the Irish people were temporarily in- 
 vaded ; ostensibly to check prsedial disturbance, 
 but in reality to thwart the agitation for Repeal. 
 Mr. Stanley had boasted that he would make 
 his government feared before it should be loved. 
 He did not make it either feared or loved : 
 he only succeeded in making it hated. 
 
 The crime thus committed against Ireland was 
 aggravated by the fact that it emanated from the 
 English Reformers in the fuU flush and heyday 
 of their triumph. The first use the friends of 
 English liberty made of their great victory, was 
 to crush the constitutional freedom of their Irish 
 
176 COERCION POWERLESS AGAINST REPEAL. 
 
 fellow-subjects ! What a pregnant lesson to Irish- 
 men! What a practical commentary on the 
 doctrine of imperial identification ! 
 
 The Eepealers were angry, but not depressed. 
 If agitation was suspended for a season, its ob- 
 jects and purposes "survived with undiminished 
 vitality and vigour in the affections of the 
 people. 
 
 Affairs, however, wore a very dreary aspect. 
 There was a cessation of the cheering, spirit- 
 stirring, political activity which had enlivened 
 the preceding year ; whilst the Catholic tenantry 
 were in many districts mercilessly scourged for 
 their anti-tithe and anti-Union offences. 
 
EVANGELICAL LANDLORDISM. 177 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 They came in the morning, scoffing and scorning, 
 
 Saying, *' Were you harassed ? were you sore abused?" 
 
 Oh, Orange haters, ye beat the traitors 
 
 That betrayed our Saviour to the wicked Jews. 
 
 Rockite Song, from Westminster Review. 
 
 The exertions made by the rural voters to re- 
 turn members of their own political principles at 
 the general election in 1832, drew down upon 
 their heads terrible vengeance from the anti- 
 Repeal landlord party. I have two "cleared" 
 districts at this moment before me ; that is, dis- 
 tricts from which the Catholic tenantry have 
 been swept out to make room for a docile Pro- 
 testant colony. The townlands — respectively 
 named Castletown and Shanavagh — are situated 
 in the county Cork, and are part of the estate of 
 a noble Earl of high Tory politics and warm 
 evangelic zeal. 
 
 It is right to premise that the landlord, in the 
 present instance, appears to have acted from re- 
 ligious enthusiasm — not from political resent- 
 
 N 
 
178 PARISH OF KIXXEIGH. 
 
 ment ; for the ejected occupiers liad not registered 
 their votes. But expulsion is the same — whether 
 proceeding from fanatical ai'dour or political ven- 
 geance. I have selected the townlands in ques- 
 tion, because, from their proximity to my resi- 
 dence, I have had access to the best information 
 respecting them. 
 
 It may not be amiss to devote a few sentences 
 to the past and present memoranda of these dis- 
 tricts ; the rather, as the tale, with a few slight 
 changes, is that of many a spot in Ireland. In- 
 struction sometimes lurks in the simple records 
 of the poor. 
 
 Kinneigh, the parish in which Castletown is 
 situated, is a wild upland tract, rising into abrupt 
 and rocky eminences abounding in fiirze and 
 coarse herbage. The hills are savage without 
 grandeur ; there is nothing picturesque in their 
 outlines, and none of them ascend to any consi- 
 derable elevation. There is a barn-like church ; 
 and in its immediate vicinity stands one of the 
 inexplicable round towers, seventy feet high : 
 this tower is the only thing in the parish worth 
 looking at. A strange, stem old monument it 
 is, of days so long gone by that man's memory 
 retains no trace of their annals. 
 
 Having mentioned the church, I may as well 
 waste a few words in commemoration of an an- 
 
A MYSTERIOUS PARSOX. 179 
 
 €ient parson, about ten years deceased, by whom 
 the church-goers of Kinneigh were for a long 
 time illuminated. 
 
 This gentleman — the Rev. Gilbert Laird — 
 dropped into the parish, no one could tell whence, 
 some forty or fifty years ago. All that the Pro- 
 testant parishioners knew about the matter vras, 
 that a queer-looking little brown bunch of a man 
 whose appearance bore some resemblance to that 
 minute variety of the porcine species, a hedge- 
 hog, suddenly appeared in the pulpit one day, 
 and delivered a discourse containing nothing very 
 good ; nothing very bad ; nothing, in short, about 
 which anybody who heard it could predicate any 
 quality in particular. The slight curiosity which 
 was excited by the first appearance of the new 
 parson soon died away, when it was found that 
 all inquiry as to his origin, birth-place, former 
 associates or habits, was perfectly fruitless. On 
 all these matters he preserved to the end of his 
 days an impenetrable silence. He bore with him 
 due credentials from the absentee rector, so that 
 his title to the curacy was undoubted and un- 
 questionable ; and that^ he conceived, was all 
 that his flock were entitled to know. He conti- 
 nued to officiate and to preach : the only effusion 
 of his pulpit eloquence which yet survives in the 
 parochial memory, is a discourse from the nursery 
 
 N 2 
 
180 A SINGULAR ANNUITANT. 
 
 fable of the Industrious Ant and Idle Grass- 
 hopper, with appropriate amplifications from the 
 preacher himself. The Eeverend Gilbert be- 
 came a favourite with one or two squires who 
 played backgammon and lived loose, roUicking 
 lives ; he rattled the dice with more sociability 
 than he had displayed in any other occupation ; 
 and (although perfectly free from vice himself) 
 he did not annoy his patrons with many trouble- 
 some moral remonstrances. By-and-bye the queer 
 little man became a sort of favourite. Whim- 
 sical stories were told of him ; people were amu- 
 sed with his odd habits ; such as getting his bed 
 thrashed with short flails every morning by the 
 housemaids, and his sleeping with a bolster at 
 the bed-foot in order to accommodate himself in 
 the event of his choosing to reverse the relative 
 positions of his head and feet during the night. 
 His penurious style of living also furnished mat- 
 ter for irreverent jests. He existed on the small- 
 est possible modicum of his salary as curate ; and 
 the residue he regularly invested in the purchase 
 of a life annuity. The entire income arising 
 from these investments, he invested again ; so 
 that if the insurance offices had given him ten 
 thousand per cent., they would have still been 
 clear gainers by their singular annuitant. Thus 
 he went on, investing and re-investing ; and he 
 
gilbert's nuptials. 181 
 
 flattered himself with the agreeable notion of 
 enjoying the income thus created by the time it 
 should reach £500 per annum. 
 
 He continued unmarried until the age of 
 eighty-seven. He then united himself with a 
 lady who was about fifty years his junior. The 
 union was not happy, for he bitterly reproached 
 the bride with her deception in concealing the 
 mal-formation of her left foot ; which deformity 
 he had not discovered until after the matrimonial 
 knot was irrevocably fastened. He did not long 
 survive the discovery; and he now reposes in 
 one of the graveyards of the city of Cork. 
 
 The old gentleman, although far from being a 
 model clergyman, yet possessed the negative 
 merit of doing no mischief. 
 
 Such was the pastor to whose care the souls of 
 the Protestants of Kinneigh were for many years 
 committed. Whilst the spiritual interests of his 
 small flock flourished under his tutelage, the tem- 
 poral concerns of the Catholics were not in a very 
 prosperous condition. They held the land from a 
 middleman who was the immediate tenant of the 
 noble Earl already alluded to. Some of them paid 
 their rents from the proceeds of illicit distilla- 
 tion ; and the necessary consequence of such a 
 system was the demoralizing of the parish to a 
 considerable extent. The trick and chicane in- 
 
182 ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 
 
 dispensable to those who carry on a cont;^abantI 
 trade are not its worst moral results. Men v»^h(> 
 live in habitual defiance of the law become des- 
 perate, and blood has been shed in that unhappy 
 district in defence of the pottheen stills. Un- 
 doubtedly the whole blame of these evils should 
 not be cast upon the people. Those squires and 
 squireens who encouraged their traffic by be- 
 coming their customers are to a great extent 
 culpable.* 
 
 Let it not however be supposed that Castle- 
 town was an unmitigated pandemonium of pot- 
 theen desperadoes. There were many of the 
 inhabitants who had nothing to do with the 
 stills, and who were in truth of very fair average 
 characters. 
 
 * The manoeuvres of distillers to smuggle their whiskey have often 
 displayed much inventive genius. A celebrated Dublin distiller 
 continued for a long time to baffle the officers of excise, by sending 
 out large quantities of spirits " that had never seen a guager's face" 
 in tin cases which were made to resemble in shape the natural pro- 
 tuberance of a pregnant woman, and which were worn by accommo- 
 dating damsels under their clothes. At last, the distiller, growing 
 bold from the frequent success of the experiment, tried his device 
 on too extensive a scale. The suspicions of a knowing guager were 
 excited on seeing thirty-six women, all enceinte, in Mr» * * * *'s 
 premises. The guager poked their persons with his wand! and 
 speedily ascertained that the apparent fecundity of the fair pha- 
 lanx was in truth derived from thirty-six tin vessels cunningly fitted 
 to their persons, the contents of which were speedily seized in hia 
 Majesty's name ! 
 
THE EARL OF BANDON'S COLONY. 183 
 
 The middleman from whom the people held 
 their farms died; and their leases all expired 
 with him. His term was for his own life ; the 
 townland at his death reverted to the Earl of 
 Bandon. Here was a glorious opportunity to 
 plant a Protestant colony ! The noble earl re- 
 joiced with exceeding great joy at the facilities 
 now presented of serving an ejectment on Ido- 
 latry and Wafer-worship, and inducting a colony 
 of True Believers into the evacuated district. 
 The expulsion of so many families excited public 
 interest; the Earl of Mulgrave mentioned the 
 circumstance in the House of Lords, and was 
 coolly informed by the noble perpetrator, that his 
 (Lord Mulgrave's) sympathy was quite thrown 
 away, inasmuch as all the old occupants of the 
 townland were at that moment snugly enjoying 
 their ancient homes unmolested: the real fact 
 being, that they had all received notice to quit, 
 but the notices had not then yet taken effect! 
 The time of ejectment soon arrived ; and speedily 
 afterwards the aboriginal " Brallaghans and Cal- 
 laghans" gave way to the new tribes of Hosfords, 
 Applebys, Swantons, Dawleys, Burchells, et ce- 
 tera. Three of the former occupants were per- 
 mitted to retain a portion of their holdings : of 
 these, a man named Hurly sought favour with 
 the noble proprietor by promising to abjure Po- 
 
184 PROTESTANT SCHOOLS. 
 
 peiy, and to astound the Castletownians with the 
 vigour and purity of his Protestantism. The man 
 accordingly went to the Protestant church, pur- 
 suant to his bargain ; but conceiving that a do- 
 mestic affliction — ^the idiocy of his son — ^was a 
 mark of the divine vengeance at his change, 
 he has, I am informed, threatened to return to 
 his former creed. 
 
 The whole machinery of proselytism was soon 
 set to work at Castletown and Shanavagh. Ee- 
 verend personages exhorted — readers and teachers 
 besieged the Catholics on highways and by-ways 
 — schools were erected, to which some of the not 
 yet extirpated Papists gave their trembling and 
 reluctant attendance. The noble EarFs family 
 occasionally visited these schools to watch the 
 expansion of the nascent gospel seed, and to ac- 
 celerate the process of its ripening by the warmth 
 and light of their countenances. They are, I 
 have no doubt, sincere enthusiasts ; and when we 
 consider the vast influence their station and for- 
 tune if properly used might invest them with, it 
 is truly deplorable to witness the direction their 
 zeal has taken ; to contrast what they are with 
 what they might he ; to see them take their stand 
 in the front ranks of the anti-national interest, 
 instead of being the honoured, cherished leaders 
 of their countrymen to national independence ! 
 
A SHANAVAGH CONVERT. 185 
 
 At Shanavagh the politico-religious movement 
 produced its natural results. A man named 
 Hurly, (a suspicious patronymic, it would seem, 
 in these districts,) attended the school with great 
 assiduity, and after a due course of instruction, 
 professed his willingness to attend the Protestant 
 church. 
 
 He accordingly became an established church- 
 going Protestant. His new confreres were im- 
 mensely edified by his adhesion; they thought 
 that a valuable fish had been hooked. 
 
 One day a farmer, well known to me for many 
 years, met this convert on the road, and asked 
 him wherefore he had quitted his earlier faith to 
 adopt Protestantism ? 
 
 " Musha, God help us !" responded the convert, 
 " I have got a small family to support, and I 
 thought by turning I could maybe get a lase of 
 the ould ground from Lord Bandon." 
 
 " But you'd lose your poor soul ?" remonstrated 
 the other. 
 
 " Och, maybe not — may be not. I expect God 
 won't take me so short entirely but that I may 
 quit them all and go back to mass once more 
 afore I die.'^ 
 
 "Anyhow," resumed Mr. Hurly's monitor? 
 " you commit a great sin by going every Sunday 
 to their church and passing yourself off as a 
 Protestant." 
 
186 A PIOUS FRAUD. 
 
 " Not as great as you think," replied the con- 
 vert. " Whisper ! — I don't mind their prayers a 
 pinch of snuff! and while the clargyman is 
 preaching, I don't hearken to his talk at all at 
 all, but I keep praying to God Almighty as hard 
 as I can all the time, to pardon my poor sinful 
 sowl for going among such a set !" 
 
 Some time subsequently to the above conver- 
 sation (which I took down from the lips of one 
 of the parties), Mr. Hurly's duplex policy was 
 curiously exhibited. He fell ill, and being afraid 
 of death, despatched a messenger to bring the 
 parish priest to administer the last rites of the 
 Catholic church. " But, hark ye !" added the 
 politic invalid, " tell his reverence not to come 
 up here till after dark for fear any of the Protes- 
 tants should see him and tell the parson." 
 
 Mr. Hurly had considered his alternative — 
 death — then popery and Father O'Sullivan — but 
 if he should recover, then Protestantism and 
 another attempt to conciliate his landlord's pa- 
 tronage. The priest informed me that he refused 
 to attend him ; stating that his pertinacious dupli- 
 city at that awful period totally disqualified him 
 from the profitable reception of the rites of the 
 church. He recovered, and has since then at- 
 tended the Protestant place of worship ; but 
 although he is still permitted to occupy his farm, 
 
MORAL RESULTS OE PROSELYTISM. 187 
 
 he has not yet, as I can learn, obtained a lease 
 of it. Within the last few months he sent an 
 infant child to the priest to be christened ; the 
 child was smuggled in a covered basket to escape 
 the observation of the Protestants.* 
 
 * Whilst these sheets are passing through the press, jjublic atten- 
 tion has become excited by the case, tried at the Tralee assizes, of 
 the Rev. Charles Gayer, one of the leaders of a proselyting esta- 
 blishment at Dingle, versus Patrick Robert Byrne, proprietor of the 
 Kerry Examiner newspaper. The defendant was convicted of what, 
 in the rigid acceptation of the law, was deemed libel ; but the orga- 
 nized system of rank bribery to proselyte the Catholics which the 
 evidence disclosed, has, I trust, received a salutary check from the 
 publicity thus entailed upon it. Timothy Lynch, a witness, and 
 ci-devant convert, deposed that he got from Gayer the sum of 
 £12 : 10s. " and two half crowns," as the price of his adhesion. Ed- 
 ward HussEY, another witness, also deposed to having received 
 money from Gayer in consideration of his becoming a Protestant ! 
 John Powek, a fish-jolter, deposed to having received from Gayer 
 "about £5 or £6" for a similar consideration. Thomas Hogan 
 deposed that he had got from Gayer seventeen shillings in two dif- 
 ferent sums, and two pecks of potatoes ; and a house rent free from 
 another proselyter named Moriarty ; in consideration of which bene- 
 fits he became a Protestant. James Kearney, another convert, 
 deposed that the considerations for which he conformed, were plen- 
 tiful employment and good wages from Gayer, and a house and 
 garden rent free ; "he never paid a farthing rent ; taxes and all are 
 paid for him ; has a garden behind the house the same way, and every- 
 one else has the same ; none of them pay any rent." Maurice 
 Power, a second fish-jolter, deposed to having bargained with 
 Gayer to become a Protestant for the price of a horse to carry his 
 fish. These statements were uncontradicted by Gayer, who was in 
 court during the trial ; and some of them (such as that of the houses 
 being rent free for converts) were of such a nature as from the 
 public notoriety of the facts, rendered denial in Kerry impossible* 
 
188 CHAUACTER OF THE PARSONS — THEIR FEARS. 
 
 It is but justice to say that the Protestant 
 clergy of the district are men of exemplary 
 purity. They — in common with their brethren 
 all over the kingdom — are startled at the 
 march of nationality ; they tremble for the sta- 
 bility of their Zion ; at least for the stability of 
 its temporalities. Hence their itching and un- 
 easy zeal to make an inroad on the enemy's 
 territories. I suppose Mr. Hurly's conversion 
 has long since formed an item in some exulting 
 
 It is difficult to resist a smile at the exquisitely ludicrous character 
 of the proselyting system, thus exhibited on the uncontradicted oaths 
 of competent witnesses. But the horrible moral results of that sys- 
 tem — the spiritual recklessness which it necessarily engenders — 
 suggest solemn and mournful reflections. The total insensibility 
 to real religious conviction of what nature soever; the organized 
 hypocrisy superinduced by the traffick of the people with the " Din- 
 gle Mission," appears in the following extremely grotesque but 
 characteristic incident : A batch of fifteen of Gayer 's proselytes, 
 finding their adhesion to church Protestantism less profitable than 
 they had expected, turned off en masse to the Rev. Mr. M'Manus, 
 Presbyterian Minister at Milltown, and inquired what terms he would 
 give them for becoming Presbyterians ! 
 
 In Moliere's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Coviel denies that Mons. 
 Joukdain's father was a linen-draper ; he had, indeed, from disin- 
 terested benevolence, accommodated the public with linens ; and the 
 public, from their grateful sense of his kindness, had gracefully and 
 delicately presented him with certain moneys. On both sides it was 
 an elevated interchange of practical philanthropy ; there was nothing 
 of traffic in the transaction ! 
 
 Precisely thus do Messieurs Gayer and Company deny that they 
 ever bribed " converts." True, some pauperized papists from the 
 force of sudden and simultaneous conviction, came rushing headlong 
 
CASTLETOWN COLONIZED. 189 
 
 report of the progress of the gospel. He is cer- 
 tainly entitled to some notice if it were only for 
 his bizarre expedient of neutralizing the iniquity 
 of his conversion, by praying, while in church, to 
 be forgiven for the sin of going there 1 
 
 Well, Castletown was now peopled with a Pro- 
 testant yeomanry. Shanavagh also was pretty 
 well dotted with the new settlers. A sort of 
 miniature millenium was to be exhibited amidst 
 the Kinneigh fiirze-brakes for the edification of 
 the surrounding community. The noble land- 
 lord doubtless regarded the work of his hands 
 with benign and soothing sentiments of self- 
 applause. But the tenants ere long disturbed 
 his pious complacency by falling into arrears. 
 Why should they live on potatoes and sour milk, 
 as if they were no better than papists ? They 
 occupied the same religious level with his lord- 
 ship, and he should be made to know it too. 
 They accordingly lived well ; some of them 
 showed their own sense of their gospel-dignity by 
 actually following the hounds on good stout 
 
 into Protestantism ; true, also, that the Protestant ministers gave 
 money, and free houses, and employment to the converts. But 
 there was nothing of a quid pro quo in the transaction ! On the one 
 side it was conscientious adoption of religious truth ; on the other 
 it was the most exalted benevolence and " mercy to the household 
 of faith." 
 
190 EVANGELICAL FOX-HUNTERS. 
 
 hunters : one peculiarly enthusiastic gentleman 
 shone forth in the glory of top-boots and a red- 
 coat ; the earl distrained his stock and crops, and 
 set keepers to watch them ; the tenant grumbled, 
 and muttered somewhat about becoming a Ee- 
 pealer ! Another Protestant Nimrod — Dawley — 
 was menaced with expulsion from his farm ; 
 whereupon, as the best revenge he could take on 
 his lordship, he actually turned papist, and has 
 ever since attended mass ! 
 
 In sober truth, the people feel the paramount 
 necessity of some efficient protection from the 
 irritating persecution of which I have given a 
 specimen. The best protection would be found 
 in the principle of nationality. Were that hal- 
 lowed principle well developed in Ireland, it 
 would speedily absorb all wretched sectarian 
 contentions. It would extinguish the pernicious 
 desire to exalt any one sect at the expense of any 
 other sect. The doings I have briefly recorded 
 are the exploits of "the English interest" in 
 Ireland. The people can never be prosperous or 
 happy until the great landed proprietors cherish 
 the Irish interest as paramount to every other. 
 
 Every unprejudiced person will concede that 
 the interests of real religion cannot be advanced 
 by the system of evangelical buUyism. 
 
 That much of the crime and insubordination 
 
HORRORS OF " THE CLEARANCE SYSTEM." 191 
 
 ill Ireland has arisen from the extermination — 
 whether pious or profane — of the inhabitants, 
 will be readily admitted, when it is remembered 
 that in the five years from 1838 to 1842 inclu- 
 sive, no less than 356,985 persons have been 
 turned out of their holdings by legal process, as 
 appears from a parliamentary paper to which 
 Mr. Sharman Crawford has called the public 
 notice ; and further, that the ^' clearance" of the 
 people goes on in an increasing ratio ! 
 
 It seems a very curious and perverse fatality 
 that the possession of the elective franchise, and 
 also the ivant of it, have alike been fraught with 
 bitter evils to the Irish peasantry. The exercise 
 of the franchise in opposition to the landlord-will, 
 has drawn down extermination upon tens of 
 thousands. That the want of the franchise in 
 former days also caused the expulsion of the 
 people from the soil, appears from a statement of 
 John Keogh's in the recently published corres- 
 pondence of Burke ; 
 
 " It is a known fact," says Keogli in 1792, the 
 year before the concession of the forty-shilling 
 franchise, " that the Roman Catholics have been, 
 and are, every day, turned out of very beneficial 
 farms, deprived of the maintenance of themselves 
 and their families, that lost their honest occupa- 
 tions, and the exercise (the most beneficial to the 
 
192 MISUSE OF THE ERAXCHISE. 
 
 state) of their industry and capitals, because 
 they could not vote at an election, and to make 
 room for those that could. A fortiori they have 
 in multitudes of instances, failed to obtain leases, 
 nor can they ever obtain them on equal terms.^* 
 It was very natural that a peasantry thus 
 trained to look upon the franchise as conducive 
 to their livelihood, should, on first acquiring it, 
 have used it for several years with greater sub- 
 serviency to landlord-dictation than they have 
 done in more recent times. When political 
 corruption was at its greatest height, the land- 
 lords occasionally disposed of their electioneering 
 interests to the highest bidding candidate. The 
 people saw their votes were a mere matter of 
 traffic with their landlords. One exquisite in- 
 
 * Burke's correspondence, iv. 16. 
 
 The expedients used to manufacture voters in an emergency were 
 iometimes very curious. The well known Mac Coghlan of the 
 King's County, when hard pressed for a batch of electors to turn 
 the scale in an approaching contest, granted freeholds to the requisite 
 number of voters ; the term of the leases being for the life of one 
 Jack Murphj. The voters were put in possession — the election 
 came on — and Mac Coghlan 's friend, with the aid of the newly made 
 freeholders, carried the day. Mac Coghlan, however, had not the 
 least notion of allowing the new corps of voters to occupy his ground, 
 now that their services were no longer necessary. He accordingly 
 ended all their leases by shooting Jack Murphy, the common life in 
 all. Be not horrified, good reader — Jack Murphy was an old spa- 
 vined horse ! 
 
AN ACCOMMODATIN'G LANDLORD. 193 
 
 stance of impartial rascality was afforded by- 
 Mr. Blake F . He sold the votes of all 
 
 his tenants to two rival candidates, and pocketed 
 the monev of both. As he did not indicate to 
 his tenantry the particular gentleman for whose 
 success he was desirous, one of the tenants, as 
 spokesman for the rest, inquired of " his honour'' 
 for which of the candidates they should vote ? 
 
 " Faith, boys,'' answered Mr. F , " you 
 
 may take your choice. / have knocked the 
 highest penny I could out of your votes already, 
 so it would be unhandsome of me to hinder you 
 from selling yourselves now to whoever will bid 
 the best !" The tenants thanked his honour, 
 and proceeded as fast as they could to take his 
 advice. — Mais on a change (out cela. 
 
 
 
194 THE REPEAL DEBATE IX 1834. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 In public life severe, 
 To virtue still inexorably firm ; 
 But when, beneath his low illustrious roof. 
 Sweet peace and happy wisdom smoothed his brow, 
 Not friendship softer was, nor love more kind. 
 
 Thompson. 
 
 O'Connell was at last obliged, by the pressure 
 of some members of " the Tail," as well as by the 
 objurgations of the Eepeal newspapers, to bring 
 the question of Eepeal before the House on the 
 22n(i of April, 1834. 
 
 For some days previously, Mr. Spring Eice, 
 who was pitched on as the special champion of 
 the Union, was observed to frisk about the pur- 
 lieus of St. Stephen's with the smirking self- 
 complacency of anticipated triumph. He, indeed, 
 looked forward to a two-fold victory ; he knew 
 he should have an overwhelming majority against 
 O'Conn ell's motion ; and he had availed himself 
 of his peculiar facilities of reference to official 
 documents, to prepare lengthy tabular statements 
 illustrative of the " giant-stride prosperity" of 
 Ireland under the Union. With these he ex- 
 
o'conxell's motion. 195 
 
 pected to demolish O'Connell's allegations of 
 Irish decay. 
 
 The 22nd arrived; the House was crowded 
 with members — the gallery with strangers. 
 
 O'Connell's opening speech rehearsed the out- 
 rageous crimes committed by England against 
 Ireland from the earliest date of their connexion. 
 Having, by this historical retrospect, demonstra- 
 ted the systematic enmity of England to this 
 country, the speaker thence passed to the measure 
 of the Union, dilated upon the means by which 
 it was carried, exhibited the falling off in natio- 
 nal prosperity which had been its consequence, 
 and concluded by moving ^' for a select committee 
 to inquire and report on the means by which the 
 destruction of the Irish parliament was effected ; 
 on the effects of that measure upon Ireland, and 
 upon the labourers in husbandry, and operatives 
 in manufactures in England, and on the proba- 
 ble consequences of continuing the legislative 
 Union between both countries." 
 
 O'Connell's able and comprehensive speech oc- 
 cupied five houi^s. 
 
 On the next day (the 23rd) Mr. Rice deliver- 
 ed his reply. He deprecated Mr. O'Connell's 
 references to the English atrocities of former 
 times, as irritating in their natui-e, and irrele- 
 vant to the question before the house. 
 
 o2 
 
196 CORRUPTION OF THE IRISH PARLUMENT. 
 
 He alleged the danger of two independent 
 parliaments in one empire; and inferred the 
 likelihood of separation under such a system, 
 from the differences on the Kegency question in 
 1789. I shall not recapitulate his arguments 
 here, as the subject is carefully examined in the 
 appendix to this work. 
 
 He alleged that the Irish Volunteers had tried 
 to intimidate the Irish parliament subsequently 
 to 1782. Well had it been for Ireland, if their 
 influence had been potential ! What they sought 
 was to procure a reform of the Irish House of 
 Commons ; of which measure the principle has 
 been since recognized, and incorporated with the 
 British constitution by the English legislature ! 
 
 He alleged that the Irish parliament had been 
 notorious for jobs. Not more so, certainly, than 
 the English legislature! But this only proves 
 that it needed the reform which the volunteers 
 sought ; not that it ought to be extinguished. 
 To urge the corruption of the unreformed Irish 
 parliament as a reason for putting an end to it, 
 is extremely like saying that as death puts an 
 end to disease, the best mode of treating a sick 
 man is to kill him outright. 
 
 He next quoted Grattan, to show that the 
 achievements of the Irish parliament had not 
 realized his expectations; but he omitted to 
 
ALLEGED MERITS OF THE UNION. 197 
 
 quote Grattan's declaration that the Irish par- 
 liament, with all its faults, had done more for 
 Ireland in fourteen years than the English par- 
 liament had done for England in a century. 
 
 He denied that the rebellion had been fo- 
 mented to carry the Union ! 
 
 He alleged the parental care of Ireland evinced 
 by the united parliament: stating that no less 
 than 175 committees on Irish affairs had been 
 appointed by the house since the Union. He 
 forgot, however, to state that the immense ma- 
 jority of those committees had ended abortively ; 
 and that the committee of 1825, (for which he 
 claimed the merit of carrying Emancipation,) 
 was in fact the product of O'Connell's Irish agi- 
 tation. 
 
 He claimed merit for England in admitting 
 Irish corn and butter duty free ; as if it were a 
 boon to Ireland to increase the supply of food to 
 English consumers and to cheapen its price for 
 them! 
 
 He inferred the " vast prosperity" of Ireland 
 from her largely increased exports of corn and 
 cattle ; omitting to notice that the producers of 
 the corn and cattle were unable from penury to 
 consume the food of their own raising ; and that 
 much of the price received from the exports, was 
 
198 "diproyed condition" of ikeland. 
 
 again exported to England in the shape of ab- 
 sentee rents.* 
 
 He stated a few acts of beneficial tendency 
 which the united parliament had passed for Ire- 
 land ; but in claiming credit for the Union on 
 this score, he omitted to show that a reformed 
 Irish legislature would not have passed every 
 one of the good laws in question, and many more 
 into the bargain. 
 
 He produced multitudinous tables to demon- 
 strate the improved condition and increased 
 comforts of the Irish people generally, after the 
 Union. Cruel mockery ! In the teeth of all his 
 
 * In truth, a Table of Exports and Imports may afford no test at 
 all of a nation's prosperity. Let me borrow the following illustration 
 from my able friend Mr. Staunton. Fifty years ago we manu- 
 factured our own cloth ; at present we get cloth from England. 
 Fifty years ago, one hundred pounds worth of corn sent from Tip- 
 perary to Dublin, was consumed in Dublin, and paid for with one 
 hundred pounds' worth of cloth made in Dublin. Here was a trans- 
 action which occasioned no exports or imports. Contrast this 
 transaction with the present condition of affairs. The hundred 
 pounds' worth of corn goes from Tipperary — not to Dublin, but to 
 England. It is paid for with one hundred pounds' worth of cloth 
 made in England. An item is furnished to Spring Rice's table of 
 exports and imports, and he cries out, " Hurrah ! I have got a tri- 
 umphant proof of Irish prosperity I" But how stands the fact ? In 
 the former transaction which exhibited no imports nor exports, the 
 Irish corn fed the Irishman, and paid for Irish manufactures. In 
 the latter transaction which exhibits both an import and an export, the 
 Irish corn feeds the Englishman, and is paid for in English manu- 
 factures, whilst the Irish operative perishes for want of employment. 
 
WHY THE EXCHEQUERS WERE CONSOLIDATED. 199 
 
 tables, there is the evidence of the Eailway Com- 
 missioners, that 2,385,000 of the Irish people — 
 being more than one-fourth of the whole popula- 
 tion — are destitute paupers for thirty weeks of 
 every year. 
 
 He stated many grants made by the imperial 
 parliament to Ireland from 1800 to 1834. But 
 he did not state that far the greater part of those 
 grants were made prior to 1821, in virtue of an 
 express stipulation at the time of the Union for 
 their continuance for 21 years ; nor did he state 
 that the imperial parliament commenced the 
 work of reduction so soon as the stipulated pe- 
 riod had expired. And he did not state that the 
 aggregate of the absentee rents and surplus taxes 
 remitted from Ireland, infinitely exceeded the 
 entire of his boasted grants. 
 
 He stated that the consolidation of the exche- 
 quers had been precipitated in 1817 by the 
 bankruptcy of Ireland. But he did not tell the 
 house that Ireland had been made banki'upt by 
 the financial terms of the Union, which had 
 forced her to contract for an expenditure she 
 was totally unable to meet. 
 
 He quoted the amount of tonnage of the ves- 
 sels clearing out from Irish ports, in proof of 
 augmented commercial wealth; relying on his 
 hearers' ignorance of the fact that tonnage was, 
 in truth, no criterion at all ! 
 
200 EMERSON TENNENT'S 
 
 He repeated the old claptrap of Irish agitation 
 preventing the influx of English capital ; but he 
 did not state that English capitalists had in- 
 vested capital in France and in America ; to the 
 amount, in the latter country, of £55,000,000; 
 although a single hostile shot between the coun- 
 tries would destroy the security for re-payment. 
 
 His oration lasted for six hours and a half; 
 at its close he was unable to find the amendment 
 amongst his papers, to which his long speech was 
 the prelude. Some merriment was excited by 
 the hon. gentleman's perplexity. The amend- 
 ment was found on the following day, read by 
 the Speaker, and seconded by Mr. Emerson Ten- 
 nent, in a speech which, pursuant to his invari- 
 able and necessary habit, he had carefully written 
 out and got by heart. The only part of it worth 
 extracting is the following ludicrous and very 
 characteristic specimen of flippant nonsense : 
 
 " Ireland was, we are told, annihilated and 
 extinguished by the Union, inasmuch as it then 
 ceased to be a distinct kingdom. But on the 
 same principle, Scotland must likewise have been 
 annihilated, when she, in 1707, ceased to be a dis- 
 tinct kingdom on being incorporated with Eng- 
 land ; and by a parity of reasoning, if the mere fact 
 of incorporation, by destroying distinctness, in- 
 volves extinction, England herself must have 
 
PARLIAMENTASY CLAPTRAP. 201 
 
 been annihilated when she became incorporated 
 with the other two. (loud cheers.) So that, 
 according to the doctrine of the Eepealers, the 
 whole empire must at this moment be ideal, and 
 exist, like the universe of Berkeley, only in the 
 imagination of its inhabitants ! (Eenewed cheer- 
 
 ing.)" 
 
 What an index to the discerning sagacity of 
 
 the house is afforded by the plaudits which Mr. 
 
 Tennenf s bit of claptrap elicited ! Here now 
 
 are the facts : 
 
 Ireland lost two-thirds of her representation 
 by the Union ; 
 
 England preserved her representation, entire 
 and intact. 
 
 Ireland lost the power of legislating for her- 
 self ; 
 
 England retained, unimpaired, the full power 
 of self-legislation ; and acquired, in addition, the 
 power of legislating for Ireland. 
 
 Ireland lost the advantage of a resident legis- 
 lature, and its consequent expenditure ; 
 
 England lost nothing, and acquired the resi- 
 dence not only of the Irish delegates, but of the 
 largely augmented crop of Irish absentees, whom 
 the transfer to London of the legislative power 
 necessarily magnetized. 
 
 And yet a parrot-statesman is cheered by the 
 
202 sheil's speech. 
 
 collective wisdom, when he glibly rehearses the 
 flashy absurdity he had duly committed to me- 
 mory, that if the Union politically annihilated 
 Ireland, it necessarily annihilated England also ! 
 
 Kichard Shell made a brilliant speech in the 
 debate. He had, for some time after 1830, been 
 coquetting with Repeal. The Great Agitator 
 had made many public appeals to him to join the 
 movement ; but vainly, until the general election 
 of 1832 necessitated a decisive declaration on the 
 subject. Shell then announced himself a deter- 
 mined and unqualified Repealer; his accession 
 was hailed with delight by O'Connell, who trium- 
 phantly exclaimed "Richard's himself again." 
 The important recruit proved a useful and pow- 
 erful ally in the parliamentary debate. Of his 
 speech I shall quote one or two passages : 
 
 " At the time of the Union, Ireland was charged 
 with the contribution of two-seventeenths. Was 
 that fair ? Sir John Newport and Lord Plunkett 
 both asserted that it was most unfair; but the 
 fact was far better than the authority of either 
 of them ; for it turned out that Ireland was un- 
 able to pay it. It was necessary to make up her 
 deficiency by a loan. Where was that loan bor- 
 rowed ? In England ; and the revenue of Ireland 
 was devoted to paying the interest on that loan 
 to British capitalists. How many millions were 
 paid by Ireland in consequence of that injustice? 
 
BELGIUM VERSUS HOLLAND. 203 
 
 Nearly 4 or 5 millions. That was an additional 
 injustice inflicted upon Ireland. The interest on 
 the loan that was borrowed in England was also 
 paid in England, and thus more of the perishing 
 capital of Ireland was extracted from her for the 
 advancement of English interests. Was that an 
 unfair argument? But they would tell him, per- 
 haps, that they had cured all this by consolidating 
 the exchequers of the two countries ; but to that 
 he said No! for at the Union they had agreed 
 that the surplus revenue of Ireland should be 
 spent in Ireland. If he could show that by their 
 injustice they had taken that surplus revenue 
 from Ireland, then had they been guilty of a 
 violation of the articles of the Union. Now, the 
 surplus was not applied according to the terms of 
 the compact; for it was sent to England and 
 expended here." 
 
 Shell produced great effect by his aUusion to 
 the case of Belgium versus Holland. 
 
 " Now turn to Belgium. Does not the exam- 
 ple bear us out? Hear an extract from the 
 Declaration of Belgian Independence. After 
 stating that the union was obtained by fraud, the 
 document goes on and states that ' an enormous 
 debt and expenditure — the only dowry that Hol- 
 land brought us at the time of our deplorable 
 union; taxes overwhelming by their amount; 
 
204 sheil's political prophecy. 
 
 laws always voted by the Dutch for Holland 
 only, and always against Belgium, represented so 
 unequally in the States-General ; the seat of all 
 important establishments fixed in Holland ; the 
 most ojBfensive partialities in the distribution of 
 civil and military employments ; in a word, 
 Belgium treated as a conquered province^ as a 
 colony ; everything rendered a revolution inevi- 
 table.* (Loud cheers from the Repealers.) You 
 fear, continued Mr. Shell, separation may be the 
 result of Eepeal. What may not be the result of 
 maintaining the Union ? Let a few years go by ; 
 Catholic and Protestant will become reconciled 
 (their divisions cannot last for ever) — the popular 
 power will augment — the feelings of the people 
 will be extended to their representatives — the 
 absentee drain will continue — the church system 
 will be still maintained — the national mind will 
 become one mass of heated and fiery emotion — 
 the same disregard for the interests and feelings 
 of Ireland will be displayed ; and then (may God 
 forefend that the event should befal !) if there be 
 an outbreak of popular commotion here ; if the 
 prediction of the Conservatives should be fulfilled, 
 and if your alliance with France, which is as un- 
 stable as its dynasty, should give way — then you 
 may have cause to lament, but lament when it 
 will be too late, that you did not give back her 
 Parliament to Ireland.'* 
 
CANNING VERSUS REPEAL. 205 
 
 Much of this prophecy is in course of realiza- 
 tion. The Prince de Joinville would have no 
 objection to assist in the accomplishment of the 
 remainder. 
 
 Pity that "fiery little Shell" — the vehement 
 patriot of 1834 — should have been subsequently 
 be-Whig'd and be-Saxon'd by the atmosphere of 
 Downing-street. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel followed Shell in a speech of 
 great ability and eloquence ; but which partook 
 of the fallacious character necessarily attaching 
 to all that was urged in defence of the Union. 
 
 He quoted Canning's smart saying, "Eepeal the 
 Union ! re-enact the Heptarchy !" but he omitted 
 to state that both the Eepeal of the Union and 
 the re-enactment of the Heptarchy had been in- 
 stanced by Canning as absurdities illustrative of 
 the Eeform in Parliament. What Canning had 
 said, was, " Eeform the Parliament ! repeal the 
 Union ! restore the Heptarchy !" Canning, in a 
 debate in the British House of Commons on the 
 Union in 1799, termed Catholic Emancipation 
 "a wild and impracticable measure." These 
 random, extempore expressions of statesmen are 
 worth little or nothing. The supposition that 
 the man who would give Ireland a parliament, is 
 also bound by his own principles to give parlia- 
 ments to Essex and Kent, was utterly unworthy 
 of the intellect of Canning. 
 
206 peel's union principles. 
 
 Sir Robert next urged that Eepeal would be a 
 dismemberment of the empire. 
 
 He said that absenteeism was caused — not by 
 the Union — but by " the cursed system of agita- 
 tion." 
 
 He tried to terrify the Irish Protestants by 
 predicting that they would have real dangers to 
 encounter, should Repeal be successful. 
 
 He manfully avowed the spirit of British domi- 
 nation by declaring that '' he, for one, would 
 never consent that to an Irish Parliament should 
 be left the determination of the proportion of the 
 amount that country should contribute in future 
 to defray the general expenses of the state, and 
 contribute to the diminution of the general pub- 
 lic debt." 
 
 A more barefaced and impudent avowal than 
 this of the robber-principle, " We will put our 
 hands in your pockets whether you like it or not," 
 it would be impossible to make. It told very 
 well, however, with an English audience ; being 
 quite in the spirit of the Union. 
 
 He denied — in defiance of O'Connell's proofs — 
 that Pitt and Castlereagh had fomented the re- 
 bellion ; on the ground that those statesmen could 
 not have afforded a rebellion at a period of foreign 
 war, and when a mutiny broke out at the Nore. 
 They could, however, afford to pour 137,000 
 
PEEL QUIZZES FEAEGUS. 207 
 
 troops into Ireland ; and the forces thus left at 
 their disposal well enabled them to " afford" a 
 rebellion. 
 
 He defended the application to Ireland of the 
 ruinous principle of Divide et impera ; alleging 
 that this principle had protected the two par- 
 ties from each other ; and that he regarded it 
 as the mediator by which, in all domestic quar- 
 rels, the fury of both sides had been allayed. 
 
 He quizzed Mr. Feargus O'Connor about the 
 Irish King Roderick ; quoting some ancient ac- 
 count of a barbarous ceremonial at the coronation 
 of the kings of Ireland. Mucli laughter was ex- 
 cited by this sally. 
 
 He then wound up by a very eloquent allusion 
 to the tremendous conflict which agitated Europe 
 from 1803 to 1814; calling the attention of the 
 house to the fact that among the bravest military 
 leaders were the Irish generals Ponsonby and 
 Packenham; that the British army had been 
 commanded by the Irish Wellington, " who, stand- 
 ing with his back to the sea on the rock of Lis- 
 bon, saw all Europe in dismay and her liberties 
 jeopardized, but who never ceased from his glo- 
 rious labours till he saw the whole continent 
 emancipated." 
 
 What the Union had to do with the glories of 
 Wellington, it were difficult to tell! I presume 
 
208 peel's peroration. 
 
 that, even had the Irish Parliament continued to 
 sit in College-green, England would have been 
 but too glad to grasp at the advantage of Irish 
 valour and Irish military genius. 
 
 " During that period," quoth Sir Eobert, [viz. 
 from 1803 to 1814] "the reins of government 
 were placed in the hands of a Castlereagh and a 
 Pitt ; and a Grattan was seen to join with a Fox 
 in the deliberations of the legislature of the 
 country." It is rank political blasphemy thus to 
 class the illustrious Grattan in the same category 
 with the despised and execrable miscreant Cas- 
 tlereagh. 
 
 The wind-up was eloquent enough — 
 " With the return of a separate Parliament, 
 after the Catholic disabilities had been removed, 
 what might not be expected from the triumphant 
 rancour of religious hatred ? It would amount 
 to a complete disbanding of society. Who could 
 set bounds — ^who could regulate the force of those 
 antagonist powers — ^who could so adjust the cen- 
 trifugal force, if he might so term it, which ought 
 to keep Ireland within her proper orbit in the 
 system of the empire, as to prevent her flying 
 away into the chaos of lawless agitation, or a 
 boundless sea of revolution? (Continued cheers.) 
 To set such boundaries was beyond any power 
 that man could possibly employ. To effect such 
 
peel's libel on the catholics. 209 
 
 a state of things required the might of that om- 
 niscient and omnipotent power which, in the 
 material world had separated the light from the 
 darkness (loud cheers) and prescribed the eternal 
 laws by which the magnificent harmony of the 
 planetary system was arranged and sustained." 
 
 Sir Eobert sat down in the midst of a perfect 
 tempest of applause. 
 
 What a libel upon Catholic Ireland was con- 
 tained in his concluding sentences ! " Trium- 
 phant rancour of religious hatred!" So far is 
 any feeling of sectarian animosity from pervading 
 the Irish Catholics, that all who know them know 
 the nationalist is a thousand-fold dearer to their 
 hearts than the mere Catholic ; they worship the 
 Protestant Bepealer ; they despise and loathe the 
 anti-national Catholic. It was stated in the de- 
 bate of 1834 by Mr. Lambert of Wexford (an 
 anti-Repealer) that the Catholic Bishop of Water- 
 ford was pelted with mud in the streets of that city 
 because he was not a Eepealer. This fact shows, 
 that even in the estimation of the lowest and 
 most violent of the populace, the Eepealer was a 
 character more sacred than the non-repealing 
 prelate. "Triumphant rancour of religious ha- 
 tred," truly ! Why, even the mitre was unable 
 to protect its venerable wearer from the indigna- 
 tion of those who deemed their nationality out- 
 
 P 
 
210 oVjonnell^s reply. 
 
 raged by tlic non-adhesion of tlioir aged pastor ! 
 
 After some further skirmishing among the 
 smaller fry, the debate was elosed by Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, whose si)eeeh in reply was remarkable for 
 its vigour and vivacity. 1 extract from it the 
 following passages : 
 
 " I have insisted on the incompetence of the 
 Irish ParliarrKjnt to create a new legislature, and 
 I am convinccid 1 was right in that part of my 
 argument. There was nothing to authorize the 
 Tarliament of Ireland to dis})ose of the Irish 
 nation, any more than there was anything to 
 authorize the British Parliament to dispose of 
 the ]>ritish nation to any other on the face of the 
 globe. 
 
 " As to the fomenting of the re])ellion in order 
 to bring about the Union — upon that point I 
 have been j)erf(;ctly triumphant. ' i)Ut why,' 
 said the Right Hon. ]>aronet, * should Mr. Pitt 
 and Lord Castlerejigh excitci a relxillion in Ire- 
 land at a tim(i wlicm there was a mutiny at the 
 Nore?' That mutiny had broken out suddenly 
 and unexpectedly. What, therefore, had its ex- 
 istence to do wit) I the fomentation of the rebel- 
 lion? The English ministry did not foresee the 
 mutiny, thougli tliey might have conje(^tured the 
 outbreak of the njbellion. Could the Union have 
 ^ver been carrie<l but f(^r the rebellion? What 
 
THE GOVERNMENT SPY IN 1797-8. 211 
 
 answer could be given to tlie Eeport of the Secret 
 Committee of the Irisli House of Commons, from 
 which it appeared that a person, hokling the 
 rank of Colonel of the United Irislimen, had 
 given to the government monthly reports of their 
 secret meetings from March, 1797? It was clear 
 from this that the government were C(^irnizant of 
 the plot and had it in their power to put it down. 
 But the right hon. gentleman said there were 
 traitorous materials in Ireland ; undoubtedly 
 there were, otherwise there could not have been 
 a rebellion ; but those materiids were not of a 
 formidable nature. They existed to a certain 
 extent in Leinster and Ulster, and produced two 
 skirmishes, in one of which Lord O'Neill was 
 killed, but the only really formidable occurrence 
 took place in Wexford. These matters were en- 
 couraged; not repressed; and the Union was 
 brought about by fomenting the rebellion till it 
 exploded." 
 
 Mr. O'Connell continued in a strain of great 
 animation to reply to the arguments of several of 
 his opponents seriatim. He pronounced a wi- 
 thering phillippic on Mr. Emerson Tennent ; 
 who, as he writhed beneath the overwhelming 
 sarcasm of his assailant, bitterly lamented his 
 own temerity in provoking the assault. 
 
 The motion for the Kepeal Committee was 
 
 1. ^) 
 
212 DEFEAT OF O'CONNELL'S MOTION. 
 
 negatived by an enormous majority ; the numbers 
 being 525 against 40, including the tellers. 
 
 Mr. Stanley took no part in the debate. He 
 was probably muzzled by Sir Eobert Peel, who, 
 with characteristic policy and caution, contrived 
 that the debate should sustain as little interrup- 
 tion as possible from the indecent shoutings and 
 ferocious yells with which the Irish members had 
 been greeted during the discussion on the Coer- 
 cion Bill in the previous year. Stanley's silence 
 was a remarkable circumstance. His feelings 
 against the Eepeal were very strong ; he had in 
 1833 declared " he would resist it to the death." 
 That he did not now avail himself of the oppor- 
 tunity of renewing his chivalrous threat, is in 
 all probability to be ascribed to the management 
 of his more cautious leader who naturally doubted 
 his discretion. 
 
 The ministerial and English journals generally 
 were loud in their glorifications. " Spring Eice's 
 speech was an unanswerable manual ! No Eepealer 
 for the future could dare to raise his voice against 
 the demonstr^itions, clear as light, of the infinite 
 benefits the Union had conferred upon Ireland. 
 The question was finally set at rest" — and a great 
 deal more of similar purport. 
 
 Meanwhile, the result of the debate upon the 
 Irish people was precisely what any man who 
 
EFFECTS OF THAT DEFEAT IN IRELAND. 213 
 
 knew the country and its inhabitants must have 
 expected. They saw in the division fresh proofs 
 of English indifference to their grievances and of 
 English hostility to their rights. Spring Kice's 
 tabular dexterities — his " giant-stride prosperity'^ 
 on paper, seemed a heartless and insolent mock- 
 ery to a people of whom every fourth individual 
 was a destitute pauper. The zealous alacrity 
 with which the House applauded the most hollow 
 fallacies, afforded, to the minds of the Irish na- 
 tion, fresh evidence of its total ignorance of their 
 condition and its consequent incapacity to legis- 
 late for them. Their resolve to struggle for the 
 Repeal — to seize whatever opportunities God 
 might send for its achievement — was thenceforth 
 more firmly fixed than ever. 
 
 Both Houses had addressed the King, who re- 
 plied in an echo of their joint address. The ad- 
 dress and reply contained pledges to uphold the 
 Union ; but at the same time " to remove all just 
 causes of complaint, and to sanction all well-con- 
 sidered measures of improvement." 
 
 The Irish people were not quite such fools as 
 to place the least faith in these pledges of King, 
 Lords, and Commons; but they acquiesced in 
 O'ConnelFs policy of testing their truth by the 
 celebrated six years' experiment ; at the end of 
 which, as the pledges were demonstratively proved 
 
214 WHIG MERITS. 
 
 to have been mere delusions, the Eepeal Associa- 
 tion was established and the agitation directed 
 once more into its natural and legitimate chan- 
 nel. I shall pass over the six years of Whig ascen- 
 dancy and the fruitless struggles for that chimera 
 — "Equality with England under the Union." 
 There was, to do the Whigs justice, a fair ad- 
 ministration of the law, and their legal appoint- 
 ments were excellent. 
 
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION FOUNDED. 215 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 Resolve ! Resolve ! and to be Men aspire ; 
 Let God-like Reason from her sovereign throne 
 Speak the commanding word, I wiLii, and it is done. 
 
 Thompson. 
 
 The time was now come when O'Connell 
 deemed it right to abandon for ever all attempts 
 to obtain " Justice for Ireland" from the English 
 Parliament. He accordingly embarked in his 
 final effort — to procure a Kepeal of the Union. 
 
 On the 15th of April, 1840, he founded the 
 Eepeal Association. Its first meeting was held 
 in the Great Koom of the Corn Exchange, which 
 is capable of accommodating about five hundred 
 persons. The room was not one-fifth part filled 
 — there was a discouraging display of empty 
 benches — a commencement sufficient to dishearf- 
 en a leader less sanguine than O'Connell. But 
 he was not disheartened. He remembered the 
 commencement of the Catholic Association — the 
 seven men who congregated in Coyne's back par- 
 lour in Capel-street, and the magnificent result 
 
216 o'coxnell's confidence. 
 
 of that small beginning — and he confidently 
 looked fonvard to a yet more brilliant termina- 
 tion of his new enterprise. 
 
 Still the meeting had a yery discouraging ap- 
 pearance to those Trho had not the sagacious 
 forecast of the leader. It seemed as though the 
 word " Eepeal" had lost its potent magic. But 
 the fact was far otherwise. The thinness of the 
 attendance arose from no apathy as to the national 
 cause. It arose from a strong fear on the part of 
 the Eepeal public that the new experiment was 
 not made honcl fide, Eepeal had been tempora- 
 rily abandoned before. Such might be again its 
 fate. Men dreaded lest O'Connell merely meant 
 to rattle it about the ears of the Government in 
 ierrorem^ as a means of compelling them to make 
 minor concessions to Ireland. 
 
 " As soon," said O'Connell, " as they begin to 
 find out that I am thoroughly in earnest, they 
 will come flocking in to the Association." 
 
 The chair was taken by Mr. John O'Neill of 
 Fitzwilliam-square — a Protestant merchant of 
 great wealth and sterling patriotism. He had 
 been, in early youth, a member of the Volunteer 
 army of 1782. " I was then^^^ said he to me, 
 " too young to be of much use to Ireland, and 
 now I am too old. But — young or old — my 
 country has always commanded and shall always 
 
FIRST day's meeting. 217 
 
 command my best services." This good old 
 Protestant patriot has since died ; full of years, 
 and deeply honoured by his fellow countrymen. 
 
 For more than half an hour the few who had 
 congregated at the Corn Exchange anxiously 
 awaited the opening address of the Liberator ; 
 but he still lingered, apparently unwilling to 
 commence, in the hope of a more numerous at- 
 tendance. But no reinforcement came; there 
 were manifestations of impatience amongst those 
 who were assembled. 
 
 O'Connell at length rose, and with the air of 
 one deeply impressed with the high and solemn 
 responsibility which he incurred, spoke as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " My fellow-countrymen, I rise with the deep 
 sense of the awful importance of the step I am 
 about to propose to the Irish people, and a full 
 knowledge of the difficulties by which we are 
 surrounded, and the obstacles we have to con- 
 tend with. I trust that my heart is pure, and 
 my judgment on the present occasion unclouded ; 
 and I declare, in the presence of that God who is 
 to judge me for an eternity of weal or of wo, that 
 I have no object in view but the good of my 
 native land, and that I feel in the deepest sense 
 the responsibility I am about to incur. We are 
 about to ent^r on a struggle that will terminate 
 
218 PLEDGE OF PERSEVERANCE. 
 
 only in having the most ample justice done to 
 Ireland, by placing her upon an equality with 
 the sister country, or in the establishment of 
 our legislative independence. The struggle com- 
 mences now ; it will end only then. We com- 
 mence under auspices that may afford little 
 prospect of ultimate success to some ; but those 
 who know the character of the brave, moral, 
 religious, and patient Irish people, cannot be of 
 that opinion. We will, no doubt, be laughed at 
 and derided on all sides, and sneered at by 
 friends, who believe every thing impracticable, 
 and opposed by those malignant enemies who 
 will be delighted to find any opportunity of 
 manifesting their hostility. But no matter. We 
 were derided and laughed at before by persons of 
 this description, when we set about the accom- 
 plishment of that great moral revolution which 
 won religious freedom for ourselves and others." 
 
 He then referred to the small origin of the 
 Catholic Association, its progress and triumph ; 
 exposed the delusive nature of the Union, and 
 repeated his proofs of the anti-Irish spirit in 
 which laws were made for Ireland by the imperial 
 legislature. He promised perseverance ; 
 
 " We have assembled to take part in proceed- 
 ings that will be yet memorable in the history of 
 our country. Yes, this 15th of April will be 
 
"help yourselves, and god will help you." 219 
 
 yet memorable in the annals of Ireland. It shall 
 be referred to as the dav on which the flap: of 
 Eepeal was unfurled; and I shall fearlessly, 
 legally, and constitutionally keep it unfurled 
 until the day of success shall have arrived, or 
 the grave shall close over me, and on my tomb 
 shall be inscribed ' He died a Repealer !' * * * 
 "We must be up, I say, and stirring. We can do 
 no good by quiescence ; it may do us evil, but it 
 can do us no service. We must take counsel 
 from the French proverb which says, 'Help 
 yourselves, and God will help you ;' we must not 
 forget the story of the fellow who, when the 
 wheel of his cart stuck in the mud, prayed to 
 Jupiter to help him. ' You lazy rascal,' said his 
 godship, ' put your shoulder to the wheel, and 
 get along out of that.' I tell you there is nothing 
 else for us but to help ourselves ; and help our- 
 selves with the aid of heaven, we shall." 
 
 Having quoted the well known denunciations 
 of the Union pronounced in 1799 and 1800 by 
 Bushe (the chief justice,) and Plunket, (the 
 chancellor,) he continued, 
 
 "These are 
 
 ' Thoughts that breathe, and words that bum ;' 
 
 I have them here. They shall spread through 
 the land in the course of the next week for 
 the perusal of the youth of Ireland: not one 
 
220 o'conxell's sentiments 
 
 of whom, I trust, will be found, whose eye will 
 not glisten with fire — whose young heart will 
 not burn with indignation at the spoliation re- 
 sorted to by our enemies. There was a bargain 
 forsooth ! — Why, is not the Chief Justice still 
 li\in2r? and is he not a witness for me ? Is not 
 the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, with all his As- 
 drubals or Hannibals, living also to bear his 
 testimony ? "What care I whether he has changed 
 his opinion or no ? He was honest then^ because 
 he had no sons to quarter on the state. Let him 
 change now if he wish. In his day of virtue he 
 felt and spoke those sentiments which I have 
 read for you. Let him now change them in the 
 day of his power and authority." 
 
 In the opening passage of O'Connell's speech, 
 he had mentioned "justice to Ireland" as an 
 alternative. But how perfectly visionary he 
 deemed the prospect of obtaining that justice, is 
 evident from the following passage : — 
 
 "K we get the justice we desire, then our 
 Repeal Association is at an end ; hut I know we 
 will not get that justice^ and that there is no- 
 thing left for us but to pursue vigorously the 
 course we have commenced this day. * * * 
 Why should we for a moment deceive ourselves ? 
 This justice will not he done to Ireland^ and we 
 '%vill at once set ourselves right by declaring that 
 
ABOUT "justice TO IKELAXD." 221 
 
 there is a Kepeal Association, and that unless the 
 moral miracle be performed of having justice 
 done to us by England, we will never cease until 
 we have a parliament established in College- 
 green.* 
 
 "Xot one sinde benefit has the Union con- 
 ferred upon Ireland, but on the contrary, it has 
 brought in its train poverty, degradation, and 
 sorrow. When once the public mind is aroused, 
 and the evils which we have suffered pointed out 
 to the people, the Union cannot continue. It is 
 not the writing of a single letter, nor the delivery 
 of a single speech, that can effect the Eepeal ; it 
 
 * As this passage appeared to contain an admission, even although 
 a hv'pothetical one, that "justice from England" could supersede 
 the necessity of Repeal, O'Connell guarded himself against such aa 
 objection in a subsequent speech, delivered on the 1st of May, 1840. 
 He explained his meaning, in still retaining the semblance of an 
 alternative, to be this, ^' I have declared for the Bepeal, and from thi-i 
 declaration nothing ever shall take me. It has been said that even in 
 the formation of this society, I held out the alternative of justice. 
 Let them do us justice ; let them increase our representatives to 
 150 in number — let them remove the church grievances — let them 
 increase the franchise — let them do all this, and though they will not 
 have convinced me that Repeal is unnecessary, they will deprive me of 
 
 the forces by which I hope to succeed But who supposes that 
 
 they ever will be brought to do us justice ? Not even a dreamer 
 who dreamed soundly in his sleep ; no one short of an idiot could 
 be brought to believe it. Why, it is as absurd as the vulgar saving, 
 • to stop the tide with a pitchfork.' I hold out the alternative, to be 
 sure, but it is to the English members of parliament ; the altebna- 
 
 TIVT. IS NOT FOR ME, IT IS JOB THEM." 
 
222 THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 is the concentration of public opinion, directed 
 as a galvanic battery, that will have that effect. 
 That opinion will then become powerful as the 
 lightnings of heaven, destroying everything that 
 may impede its course." 
 
 He concluded by moving the adoption of a 
 set of rules ; the seconder of the motion being 
 Mr. John Eedmond, a patriotic citizen. 
 
 So ended the first day's meeting. The Whig- 
 liberals did their best to throw contempt and 
 ridicule on the proceedings. The paucity of the 
 attendance was pointed out with scorn. Those 
 gentlemen said to their acquaintance as they 
 met in the streets, " Dan will never work this 
 question — he is not in earnest — the people don't 
 care about it" — (this was a very favourite alle- 
 gation) — "he won't be able to get over the priests 
 to help him." The word " Kepealer" was pro- 
 nounced with a derisive curl of the lip by the 
 " genteel " liberals, who religiously abhorred all 
 treason against Whiggism. More sagacious men, 
 however, knew the question was workable. They 
 remembered the popular enthusiasm of 1832 ; 
 and they did not believe that enthusiasm to be a 
 mere fever fit. 
 
 For a good while after the establishment of 
 the Repeal Association, the English press was 
 wholly, or nearly silent on the subject. By-and- 
 
ABUSED AND DERIDED. 223 
 
 bye, the English journalists condescended to 
 laugh at the Eepealers. After their wit was 
 exhausted at our expense, they began to wax 
 abusive. The Repealers were denounced as po- 
 litical criminals of the worst description, and 
 floods of coarse vituperation were poured upon 
 them from the copious reservoirs of the Times 
 newspaper. O'Connell returned the compliments 
 of the Times in these verses — 
 
 ** Vile press without a parallel, 
 Organ meet for friends of hell ! 
 Lies thy trade ; thy master-sense, 
 Bribed and brutal insolence. 
 From Puddledock to either sea, 
 Toryism stinks of thee." 
 
 Not too virulent, considering that the great 
 organ of John Bullism had termed the Irish 
 nation " a filthy and felonious multitude," and 
 the Catholic clergy a tribe of "surpliced ruf- 
 fians." 
 
224 THE ASSOCIATION EXPANDS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 Such men as these 
 Give grace to holy mysteries, 
 And make the pure oblation rise, 
 A God-accepted sacrifice. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 The Eepeal Association gradually expanded 
 itself. Every week brought with it fresh re- 
 cruits. Of these, some few were the ancient 
 relics of a former age ; old men who in early 
 youth had stood in the ranks of the Volunteers ; 
 and who now, ere they sunk into the grave, were 
 dad to enrol themselves once more in the service 
 of their country. I have already named my old 
 Protestant friend, John O'Neill. Another of our 
 patriarchal adjuncts was Robert M'Clelland, a 
 northern Presbyterian, who, although then past 
 eighty, was a regular attendant at the weekly 
 meetings at the Corn Exchange as long as his 
 health permitted him. It would be unjust and 
 ungrateful to omit this mention of those ve- 
 nerable Protestant patriots, whose aid was ever 
 heartily rendered to every movement having for 
 its object the enlargement of the liberties of Ire- 
 land. Requiescant in pace! 
 
LEINSTER PROVINCIAL MEETING, 1840. 225 
 
 Eepeal progressed ; the Catholic clergy sent in 
 their adhesions pretty numerously ; on one occa- 
 sion a bishop* and eighty-three of his clergy were 
 enrolled together. There were three great pro- 
 vincial meetings for Leinster, Connaught, and 
 Munster; at the Leinster meeting which was 
 held near Kilkenny in October, 1840, a quarter 
 of a million of persons were computed to be pre- 
 sent. John O'Connell occupied the chair. It 
 was a grave autumnal day; there was a quiet 
 beauty in the fertile, undulating landscape, with 
 the city in the middle distance, the proud towers 
 of the Ormonds rising high above the mass of city 
 buildings, and the hills of Mount Leinster and 
 Blackstairs in the far horizon. The muster was 
 a noble display ; and was distinguished, like all 
 the other meetings for Eepeal, by that rigid ob- 
 servance of decorum, preservation of the peace, 
 and perfect sobriety, which no great popular ga- 
 therings of similar extent in any other nation 
 could exhibit. 
 
 Father Mathew's movement was essentially 
 useful to Eepeal. By withdrawing the people 
 from the odious and irrational vice of inebriety, 
 it raised them in the intellectual scale. Freed 
 
 * Dr. Foran, the Bishop of Watcrfi)rd. 
 
 Q 
 
226 POLITICAL USES OF TEETOTALISM. 
 
 from the deleterious influences of intoxication, 
 they were the better enabled to think and to 
 reason. A reasoning, thinking people are not 
 destined to slavery. Every argument in favour 
 of Repeal comes so home to the common sense 
 of Irishmen, that it needed only to rescue the 
 people from habits of intemperance to convert 
 the impulsive and unreasoning shout for liberty 
 into a calculating, sagacious, and well-sustained 
 struggle for national independence. The enemies 
 of Ireland, both domestic and English, saw this ; 
 and accordingly the Temperance Movement was 
 immediately made the object of ferocious vitupe- 
 ration. It is amusing to look back at some few 
 of the exploits of the anti-teetotallers. Eeligious 
 fanaticism was of course pressed into the service 
 of drunkenness. A parson named Whitty refused 
 to grant to Father Mathew the use of the Eock 
 of Cashel to accommodate his postulants, alleging 
 that " temperance was of the Devil."* Another 
 parson named Edgar, residing in the diocese of 
 Derry, declared in a letter to Mr. Buckingham 
 the ex-member for Sheffield, that " teetotalism 
 was highly insulting to the majesty of God ;" at 
 the same time expressing his fears that Mr. Buck- 
 
 Morning Chronicle, 27th April, 1841. 
 
PIOUS ADVOCATES OF INEBRIETY. 227 
 
 ingham was infected with the disease " in its worst 
 form."* The Rev. Mr. Sewell of Oxford wrote 
 an article in the Quarterli/ Review entitled 
 "Romanism in Ireland," asserting therein that 
 superstition was the chief agency of the temper- 
 ance movement, and murder its ultimate object. 
 
 Passing from the High Priests of Inebriety to 
 its profaner organs, the Protestant Magazine for 
 June 1841, complacently quotes from the conge- 
 nial Times the following awful passage : 
 
 " We cannot but suspect that this temperance 
 movement is, substantially, a sort of Trojan 
 horse, within whose ribs there lurks an over- 
 whelming phalanx, which, some of these nights, 
 will sally on the sleeping sentinels of Ireland, and 
 make it an easy prey." 
 
 The Ulster Orangemen were at all events re- 
 solved that they should not be caught napping. 
 At Loughgall, a number of Orange farmers en- 
 tered into a resolution that they would not em- 
 ploy any labourers who had taken the temperance 
 pledge. In other places there were anti-temper- 
 ance riots, especially at Newtownhamilton and 
 Lurgan. The Cootehill Orangemen published a 
 manifesto, redolent of the choicest inspirations of 
 
 Morniny Chronicle, 27th April, 1841. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 AN ORANGE BACCHANALIAN HYMN. 
 
 the Orange divinity, exhorting the Protestants 
 to oppose the entrance of Father Mathew into 
 their district, where he purposed to administer 
 the pledge. The document, having first adverted 
 to the priest's threatened advent, proceeded 
 thus : 
 
 " Insulted Protestants ! will ye, can ye, bear 
 it any longer ? Has the spirit of your fathers, 
 and immortal William, died within you ? * * 
 Arouse ! be steady and courageous ! Let not 
 the religion^ of your fathers be trampled upon 
 by idolaters ! Let the spirit of William, that 
 whispers to you at this moment, animate your 
 hearts and souls, and let not the anti-christian 
 apostle depart from Cootehill in boasted tri- 
 umph. 
 
 " Arise, I say, arise, ray boys ! and raise your standard high ! 
 The man that will not join you now, treat as an enemy; 
 Fear not O'Connell — Mathew — Devil ! — but let your motto be. 
 To put your trust in God, my boys, aud keep your powder dry. 
 
 Remember Gideon's chosen few : 
 
 The arm that guarded thevi guards you." 
 
 This delirious melange of politics, bigotry, and 
 triiculence, demonstrates the fatal success with 
 which the Whittys and Edgars had instilled into 
 their followers a virulent hostility to national 
 
 Query, the whiskey bottle ? 
 
TEMPERANCE FAVOURABLE TO REPEAL. 229 
 
 amelioration. I am happy to add, that since the 
 time of which I speak, the spirit of the north 
 has been greatly improved. Leading men of all 
 political shades have looked with favour upon 
 temperance ; and as virtues are gregarious, the 
 same result which attended the success of the 
 Mathewite movement in the south also marked 
 its progress in the north. As morality and so- 
 briety advanced, nationality kept pace with them. 
 Let the mere enthusiast, whether Orangeman 
 or Kepealer, be induced to forswear his drunken 
 orgies; the latter will become a more zealous, 
 because a more enlightened and intelligent sup- 
 porter of national liberty ; the former will be led 
 to enquire whether that which is manifestly good 
 for Ireland can be bad for himself. The result 
 of this inquiry will make him a Kepealer. 
 
 The agitation for Repeal went on, sometimes 
 in places which conjured up interesting historical 
 associations. A Repeal meeting was held at 
 Carrick-on-suir, which was followed by a public 
 dinner in the evening. The dinner took place 
 in an apartment at the top of the principal 
 inn ; I was told that many persons had wished 
 to obtain a room in the castle of Carrick-on-suir 
 for the festivity ; but a fear lest Lord Ormond, 
 the proprietor of the castle, might visit with his 
 vengeance the gentleman who rented the old 
 
230 CARRICK-ON-SUIR CASTLE. 
 
 building as tenant-at-will, induced the managers 
 of the dinner to select the less commodious apart- 
 ment in the hotel. 
 
 I chanced on that day to be at Carrick, and I 
 walked to see the old castle. It is beautifully 
 situated in a secluded lawn overhanging the 
 Suir, at the distance of a few hundred yards from 
 the eastern end of the town. I could not ascer- 
 tain the date of the older, or castellated portion 
 of the edifice; the more modern part was 
 erected by Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, in 
 1565, which date is displayed on the wall of the 
 hall ; on which, likewise, there is a rude fresco 
 representing Queen Elizabeth, with the initials 
 " E. E.^' On the opposite wall there is another 
 fresco representing the founder, who is said by 
 the tradition of the castle to have found favour 
 as a lover with that princess. 
 
 This curious old mansion of the Butlers is still 
 habitable. Its front exhibits a long row of gables, 
 in the fashion of Elizabethan manor-houses, with 
 a large oriel window in the centre over the porch. 
 Its large deserted chambers are just such as 
 spectral personages might readily honour with 
 their visits ; I accordingly asked if the house 
 was haunted? and was told by the person who 
 showed it, that in the days of the Ormonds a 
 ghost had been constantly there — a utilitarian 
 
OLD TOM BUTLER. 231 
 
 ghost, as it would seem — for he used to officiate 
 as volunteer shoe-black, and to discharge other 
 duties of domestic labour. 
 
 The largest apartments are on the upper story. 
 There is a noble drawing-room about sixty feet 
 long, which contains two decorated chimneys. 
 Old " Tom Butler," as the guide familiarly called 
 him, has left a record of his devotion to Eliza- 
 beth, in the frequent repetition of her majesty's 
 initials and arms in the quaint stucco ornaments 
 of the ceiling. There is another spacious room 
 on the same floor, with an oriel overlooking the 
 river. 
 
 I was inclined to regret that Mr. O'Connell 
 was not entertained in this old stronghold of the 
 Butlers. The old walls speak eloquently to the 
 imagination — there would have been a romantic 
 interest in beholding the great advocate of Irish 
 independence working out his mighty task in the 
 deserted residence of one of the most powerful of 
 the Norman-Irish families — enforcing the right of 
 Ireland to self-government in the ancient halls of 
 Elizabeth's favourite, who performed his share of 
 the duty of riveting the English chain upon his 
 country ;* — in those halls which, at a later period, 
 
 * Thomas Butler, the founder of the Elizabethan part of Carrick- 
 on-Suir Castle, was the tenth Earl of Ormond, and died there in his 
 
232 ABODE OF JAMES, DUKE OF ORMOND. 
 
 were the habitation of James, Duke of Ormond, 
 who exercised such a potent influence — partly 
 for good, but more for evil, on the destinies of 
 Ireland. 
 
 I lingered until twilight in the castle. The 
 echo of the closing doors sounded weirdly and 
 solemn through the dusky chambers; it came 
 upon the ear like the voice of ages past. The 
 guide bore in his hand the ponderous old keys, 
 which, to judge from their great size and rude 
 workmanship, might have been coeval with the 
 edifice itself. When I reached the lawn, I turned 
 to look once more on the venerable pile, reposing 
 in its solitude and silence, and then retraced my 
 steps to the town. 
 
 88th year, in 1614. He was great uncle to James, the celebrated 
 Duke of Ormond, who often mentioned his recollection of his aged 
 relative, as " a blind old man, having a long beard and wearing his 
 George about his neck whether he sat up in his chair or lay down in 
 his bed." In 1632 James made a journey from London to Carrick, 
 which, even according to modern ideas, seems a rapid one. On a 
 Saturday morning in September he left London, and rode post to 
 Acton, within eight miles of Bristol. At eight next morning he 
 sailed trom Bristol to Waterford in a vessel called *' The Ninth 
 Whelp," and at nine o'clock, a. m. on Monday they ran up to Wa- 
 terford, whence his lordship immediately took horse for Carrick, 
 which is distant from Waterford only sixteen miles. 
 
 Henry Hyde, second Earl of Clarendon, in a letter to Lord 
 Rochester, dated in 1686, says of this old seat, " Carrick, an ancient 
 seat belonging to the Duke of Ormond, is, I think, one of the pret- 
 tiest places I ever saw in my life." — Clarendon & Letters, London^ 1828. 
 
DECAY OF CARRICK SINCE THE UNION. 233 
 
 At the Eepeal dinner, O'Connell said, " I am 
 often asked how I can expect to obtain the Re- 
 peal from the imperial parliament, when I have 
 not been able to obtain minor benefits ? I an- 
 swer this question by reminding the querists 
 that upon the minor advantages I sought, I have 
 not been supported by the whole Irish people ; 
 whereas the Eepeal agitation accumulates around 
 me their entire strength. Minor objects were 
 not of sufficient importance to enlist their full 
 energies. The eagle does not catch flies. The 
 eagle spirit of Ireland soars above these indivi- 
 dual advantages, and perches on the lofty pedestal 
 of national independence." He proceeded to pre- 
 dict the certain attainment of Eepeal, so soon as 
 universal Ireland should be actively aroused in 
 its behalf; and he then, in a strain of fervid 
 eloquence, described the long perspective of Irish 
 prosperity which he expected to result from that 
 measure. 
 
 Carrick had its own sad experience of decay 
 since the Union, there having been prior to that 
 measure a thriving woollen-trade in the town and 
 its immediate vicinity, giving bread to about 5000 
 persons; whereas now there is but partial em- 
 ployment for about 100 persons there. 
 
 Go where they would, the Eepeal agitators 
 had the dismal and terrible advantage of being 
 
234 LORD ebrington's 
 
 able to point to the surrounding crowds, instances 
 of similar decay with which their own experience 
 was familiar ; practical fulfilments of John Fos- 
 ter's memorable words, " Where the parliament 
 is, there will the manufacturer be also." In 
 Limerick there had been before the Union over 
 a thousand woollen- weavers ; the number had 
 shrunk into less than seventy! In Bandon — 
 Protestant Bandon — there had been before the 
 Union a flourishing manufacture of camlets, 
 cords, and stuffs. That trade had all but vanished ; 
 the only branch of woollen manufacture now 
 remaining, being that of frieze for the peasantry.* 
 And similar decay had widely overspread the 
 land on all sides. 
 
 The viceroy — Lord Ebrington — now made an 
 effort to arrest the progress of Eepeal, by an- 
 nouncing that no member of the Eepeal Associa- 
 tion should be appointed to any office in the gift 
 of the government. This declaration necessarily 
 scared all the place-hunters from joining the 
 movement, and thus preserved it from the adhe- 
 sion of a good deal of rascality. Lord Ebrington's 
 threat was undignified, but not unnatural. He 
 
 * For copious details on this subject, see the admirable report on 
 '* The disastrous eifects of the Union on the Woollen, Silk, and 
 Cotton Manufacture," drawn up by Mr. Secretary Ray. 
 
DENUNCIATION OF KEPEAL. 235 
 
 probably thought that as the Union was origi- 
 nally carried through bribery, Eepeal could best 
 be averted by bribing men through their hopes 
 of office to refrain from junction with the agita- 
 tors. 
 
236 THE REPEAL MISSIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Arouse thee, youth ! it is no idle call — 
 Our rights are leaguer'd — haste to man the wall: 
 Haste where the old green banner waves on high, 
 Signal of honoured death, or victory. 
 
 Hitherto the agitation, although occupying the 
 minds of the people, and engaging much of their 
 support, had not been efficiently organized. To 
 supply this defect, and at the same time to circu- 
 late the principles of nationality in the various 
 rural districts, it was now deemed advisable to 
 send missionaries through the land. The persons 
 selected by the committee of the Association to 
 discharge this arduous duty, were Mr. John 
 O'Connell, third son of the Liberator ; Mr. Ray, 
 the Secretary of the Repeal Association; and 
 myself. 
 
 On the 12th of September, 1842, we left Dub- 
 lin for our several routes. Mr. Ray proceeded 
 to Limerick, Munster having been assigned as 
 the district of his labours. Leinster was com- 
 
THE BISHOPS OF MEATH AND ARDAGH. 237 
 
 mitted to me. Mr. John O'Coniiell was tlie Ke- 
 peal missionary for Connaught ; and as our route 
 for the first and second day lay in the same di- 
 rection, we travelled together in the canal boat 
 to Mullingar. At that town we waited on the 
 Catholic Bishop of the diocese who promised his 
 cordial co-operation to the cause in which we were 
 engaged. 
 
 Next day we proceeded to Ballymahon, where 
 the Bishop of Ardagh had invited a large party 
 of the clergy to meet us. There was much grave 
 and earnest discussion on the suhject of the 
 movement. The prelate pledged himself that all 
 the influence he possessed should be placed at 
 the disposal of the Repeal Association. The 
 Bishop of Meath had given a similar pledge ; and 
 nobly have both promises been since redeemed 
 by those venerated men and by their clergy I 
 
 Without the active co-operation of the Irish 
 priesthood, the Repeal cause could never have 
 acquired the commanding position it now occu- 
 pies. It is not uninteresting to trace the grada- 
 tions of its progress in the rural districts. Three 
 men, animated with the most ardent desire to 
 promote national freedom, travelled from town to 
 town, from parish to parish. They solicited and 
 obtained the hearty and powerful support of the 
 priests. They assembled their countrymen in the 
 
238 PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONARIES. 
 
 market-place, in the chapel, on the bleak hill- 
 side ; they told in plain and energetic language 
 the tale of England's crime and Ireland's degra- 
 dation; they enumerated the grinding wrongs, 
 the oppressions and the robberies inflicted on the 
 ill-starred land, which in losing the power of self- 
 government had lost the power of self-defence; 
 they asked their countrymen whether this na- 
 tional dishonour should continue? whether the 
 Irish people should not stretch forth their hands 
 to seize and to fashion into strength the rich 
 elements of power and prosperity which every- 
 where lay scattered around? They made it a 
 personal question to each individual ; they charg- 
 ed it home upon the conscience of each, whether 
 he woidd be a guilty partaker, by his criminal 
 apathy, in the foul wrongs inflicted by England 
 on his native soil? They asked 
 
 " Could the injured realm no arms supply, 
 But the abject tear and the slavish sigh?" 
 
 They stirred up into energetic life the slumbering 
 spirit of old nationhood ; they awoke the political 
 sleeper from his trance ; " Eepeal" began to be a 
 gathering shout in many a district that had long 
 dozed on in torpid inactivity ; the connex- 
 ions of the central institute in Dublin were ex- 
 tended through the land; the pulsations of the 
 heart began to be felt at the extremities, and the 
 
DETAILS OF THEIR MOVEMEXT. 239 
 
 question soon exhibited in the different rural 
 districts a vitality and vigour which astonished 
 the whole tribe of anti-Irish gentlemen with 
 wooden heads and stony hearts ; men whose dis- 
 eased and stunted intellects were perfectly in- 
 capable of regarding any great public question 
 except through the medium of the narrowest, the 
 paltriest prejudice. 
 
 It was in the rural dwellings of the clergy 
 that the question was now efficiently worked. 
 In the priest's humble home a power was being 
 organized which was destined to make tyranny 
 reel in high places. And how simple the pro- 
 cess ! how easy the details ! Look at that anx- 
 ious, thoughtful group, gathered round the pastor's 
 table. The shutters are closed; the candles 
 lighted ; the faggot blazes brightly on the hearth ; 
 " the autumn breeze's bugle sound" is heard with- 
 out — it has swept from the hills, and its wild 
 voice awakens in the heart a mystic thrill for 
 freedom. The priest tells his guest the effective 
 strength of the district, availing himself, in the 
 detail, of the local information possessed by the 
 parishioners, or the neighbouring clergy, who 
 have assembled at his house. It is then ascer- 
 tained who will work ; who will undertake the 
 duty of Kepeal Warden ; who will collect the 
 Kepeal rent ; and who will assume the charge of 
 
240 ANTI-IRISH PAPISTS. 
 
 particular ploiighlands, if in the country, or wards, 
 if in a town. The obstacles are also canvassed ; 
 
 the hostility of Lord So-and-so, or of Captain 
 
 his agent, who swears he will eject every tenant 
 who gives sixpence to any of O'Connell's devices ! 
 Or perhaps there is the anti-Irish Catholic land- 
 lord — a greater scourge than the Orange propri- 
 etor — who since shuffling off his penal coil in 
 1829, has affected the courtier and fine gentle- 
 man, and conceives that he establishes his claim 
 to aristocratic distinction by mimicking the ty- 
 ranny of those by whom his creed is denounced 
 as Satanic ; the supple slave of Tory squires ; the 
 petty tyrant of his village, who redeems the vul- 
 garity of going to mass by the severity with 
 which he grinds the unfortunate tenantry who 
 go there along with him. To elude the spiteful 
 vigilance of persons of this most execrable class, 
 is a problem which engages the attention of our 
 coterie; the problem is speedily solved. What 
 needs squire A. or Lord B. know about the 
 tenants' contributions ? A discreet warden who 
 can be silent when occasion requires, is appointed 
 to receive their subscriptions — so that matter is 
 settled. Then speculations arise respecting the 
 possible adhesion of men whose countenance would 
 be advantageous ;. they are alleged to have ut- 
 tered very radical sentiments on certain occa- 
 
DECAY OF IRELAND SINCE 1800. 241 
 
 sions; could they now be got to realize their 
 patriotic declarations ? 
 
 Having arranged all these practical matters 
 and set the agitation in a working train, the 
 missionary next makes inquiry respecting the 
 past and present state of trade, and the social 
 condition of the people in the district. The in- 
 formation thus elicited is painful; it develops 
 the national decay and the popular destitution. 
 Nearly all over Leinster, the linen trade — once 
 the great staple — is now only a memory. The 
 inquirer finds that in the immediate vicinity of 
 Clara in the King's County, capital amounting to 
 at least £150,000, had been invested in that 
 trade, which is now extinct in that locality. The 
 old men who have joined the priest's party tell 
 the visitor that prior to the Union they remember 
 from forty to fifty head of cattle killed at Christ- 
 mas by the villagers and farmers who then could 
 afford to eat beef ; whereas now, instead of forty 
 or fifty, not half a dozen Christmas cows are con- 
 sumed by the impoverished people. At MuUin- 
 gar he hears there had been a flourishing linen 
 trade before the Union — that trade is now gone. 
 At Athlone that trade gave bread to from 4000 
 to 5000 persons prior to the Union. There is 
 now no linen-trade at Athlone — but there is a 
 large poorhouse there! The country around 
 
 E 
 
242 INTELLECTUAL ACUTENESS, 
 
 Banagher, Ferbane, Ballicumber, and Cloghan, 
 had once been covered over with the linen manu- 
 facture. It has there shared the same fate as at 
 Athlone and Mullingar ; it is extinguished. 
 
 The numerous deserted mansions, formerly the 
 seats of splendid hospitality, but now decaying 
 from the neglect of their absentee owners, also form 
 a painful item in the missionary's information. 
 
 On one point a great unanimity prevails ; 
 namely, that all these evils, and nearly all other 
 grievances affecting the country, have their 
 source either remotely or immediately in the 
 denial to Ireland of the power of making her own 
 laws; and in the anti-national, anti-Irish spirit 
 which the Union had infused into the aristocracy. 
 
 Such are the topics that occupy the group in 
 the priest's parlour. 
 
 At the Eepeal meeting next day, the thousands 
 who assemble round the missionary drink in his 
 words with an eagerness that evinces the depth 
 and fervour with which they are ready to fling 
 themselves into the constitutional strife; they 
 exhibit intellectual quickness in their just and 
 accurate perception of the points brought before 
 them by the speakers. Their appreciation of the 
 arguments addressed to them is clear and instan- 
 taneous. They evince this mental power by the 
 judicious mode in which they cheer or otherwise 
 
AND PIOUS DISPOSITIONS OF THE PEOPLE. 243 
 
 testify the impression made upon their minds. 
 A striking and honourable feature in the national 
 character is also developed at these gatherings ; 
 namely the profound reverence the Irish people 
 entertain for religion. If the name of the Deity 
 be pronounced, every hat is raised ; if the Divine 
 blessing be invoked on Ireland — if the speaker 
 expresses his reliance on the protection of Provi- 
 dence for the ultimate success of the movement 
 and the consequent greatness and happiness of 
 the land, there foUows a deep murmur of reve- 
 rential acquiescence from the multitude; there 
 is an earnestness of voice, gesture, and coun- 
 tenance, which demonstrates how intense is the 
 reliance of the Irish people on the overruling 
 care of their God. 
 
 There cannot be a more interesting occupation 
 than that of the Eepeal missionary. He pene- 
 trates into retired rural districts ; he mingles 
 with the people ; he learns from personal inquiry 
 and actual observation to know their condition 
 rather better than if he had trusted for his 
 knowledge to the monstrous fallacies of Spring 
 Rice and Montgomery Martin.* He finds that 
 
 * Mr. Staunton, the editor of the Dublin Register^ has produced 
 trenchant castigation of this impudent quack, in a pamphlet pub- 
 lished at the expense of the Repeal Association. 
 
 r2 
 
244 OLD AND NEW 
 
 condition grievously deteriorated since the time 
 when Arthur Young wrote his excellent and in- 
 structive Tour in Ireland. In enlarging his 
 acquaintance with his countrymen he augments 
 his indignant horror at their wrongs, and his 
 zealous devotion to their service. 
 
 The Catholic chapels and the abodes of the 
 priests often afford interesting mementos of the 
 penal days. In the more remote parishes, the 
 house of the pastor is sometimes a thatched cabin 
 adjoining the chapel which is also thatched ; both 
 nestling in the nook of a hill, or in some retired 
 situation which seems to evidence that conceal- 
 ment from observation was an object with the 
 founder. In the chapel is the old, rough, un- 
 painted wood-work ; there are the deal benches, 
 rails, and altar, clumsy in their construction, and 
 brown from age; the rude white-washed walls, 
 the decaying windows, the simple roof which has 
 sheltered the worshippers for four generations 
 from the inclemency of the weather. On the 
 altar is the tiny sacring bell which has tinkled, 
 perhaps for a century, to announce the " Canon," 
 the " Elevation," and the " Agnus Dei." Eelics 
 are these of the dark time of Catholic depression ; 
 relics which, notwithstanding their humble ap- 
 pearance in modern estimation, were doubtless 
 in their day the source of modest pride and tri- 
 
CATHOLIC CHURCHES. 245 
 
 umph to the priests and the flocks who had been 
 accustomed to celebrate their worship in the glen 
 or on the plain, beneath the chill blasts of win- 
 ter or the scorching sun of summer. To them^ a 
 roof, however rude, under which to adore their 
 Creator, was indeed a luxurious novelty ! Then 
 the priest's cabin! a tenement containing four 
 miserable closets, two bed-rooms, a parlour, and 
 a kitchen. 
 
 In wet weather the Eepeal missionaries some- 
 times got the use of the chapels for their meetings. 
 The rude old walls which had witnessed the 
 timid orisons of a persecuted flock in penal days, 
 now echoed to the proud and joyous voice of re- 
 viving nationality. 
 
 These remnants of a former period contrast 
 strongly with the spacious and substantial church- 
 es raised within the last few years by the volun- 
 tary subscriptions of the people. The Catholic 
 clergy in the wealthier parishes now reside in 
 excellent and comfortable houses. The traveller 
 is forcibly impressed with the contrast between 
 the past and the present. He sees in its obvious 
 moral a powerful evidence of the fidelity with 
 which the Irish people adhered under persecution 
 to the faith which they deemed the best, and of 
 the pious zeal with which, when disenthralled 
 from penal shackles, they have reared temples to 
 
246 MISERY OF THE POOR 
 
 the worship of the most High God. He sees in 
 it also an evidence of the perfect efficacy of the 
 voluntary system in support of religious estab- 
 lishments. 
 
 The missionaries forwarded to the Association 
 weekly reports of their progress. Mr. Eay es- 
 pecially turned his attention to the condition of 
 the peasantry, and from one of his reports I 
 extract the following passages descriptive of the 
 wretchedness endured by the poorer inhabitants 
 of Charleville, County Cork : 
 
 " At the meeting on Sunday," says Mr. Eay, 
 " the Eev. Mr. Meagher mentioned a most re- 
 volting case of destitution connected with this 
 subject, occasioned by the head of a family being 
 thrown out of employment. He was a check- 
 weaver, of sober, industrious habits, but reduced 
 to such a state, that after having parted with 
 every article to support nature, his wife actually 
 perished for want ! her helpless babes were lying 
 beside their dead mother, unconscious of their 
 loss — the unfortunate man himself in agonized 
 bewilderment! In this condition the Eev. Mr. 
 Meagher found them on Christmas-day! In- 
 numerable appalling cases here and elsewhere 
 might be added of the effects of that fatal act 
 which robbed Ireland of her industrial occupa- 
 tions, and her people of their spirit and nation- 
 ality. 
 
AT CHAELEYILLE, CO. CORK. 247 
 
 ^' Immediately adjoining Mr. Dudley's, in the 
 town, there is a row of wretched cabins ; these 
 were formerly the happy residences of busy in- 
 mates. They are erected on a plot of ground, 
 held originally by lease for lives under the Earl 
 of Cork, (an absentee nobleman.) I understand 
 the lessee, some years since, consigned the occu- 
 pying tenants to his lordship, the rents being 
 applotted on their respective holdings. One of 
 the cabins is held by a widow named Dalton ; 
 that and one adjoining were erected by her late 
 husband — the rent £2 a year. The roof was 
 blown off the latter cabin at the great storm 
 last January, and so it remains. The other is so 
 dilapidated that the rain pours all through. 
 Next to this, is one held by widow Meehan, at 
 7s. lOd. per year, almost roofless and utterly 
 untenantable ; her son-in-law died, leaving his 
 wife and an infant, now two years old, an incum- 
 brance upon the poor widow ; they are supported 
 chiefly by charity ; she told me that she had to 
 pawn her bed-clothes last year to pay the rent and 
 was never since able to release them, and that she 
 wished she had them now to pawn again, for the 
 present year's rent is due. A man named Clifden 
 held another of these cabins and a small plot at 
 £l 15s, Si year. He is a labourer at Qd. a day, 
 when he can get work. The surviving life in 
 
248 STATEMENTS IN THE REPORT 
 
 the original lease was supposed to have died a 
 couple of years since, and possession was taken 
 of the entire range under ejectment process. 
 The day this occurred, Clifden had the roof partly 
 stripped and was in the act of repairing it with 
 new thatch. They had, of course, to quit, and 
 this roof was also blown off by the wind. It was 
 presently discovered that the life in the lease 
 was in beings (as the respected lady is still,) 
 and the tenants were allowed to continue ; but 
 this man with a wife and a number of young 
 children had to hire a miserable cabin at the 
 outskirts of the town, and he is liable to the two 
 rents. The very next hut is still worse: the 
 roof of this was also blown down by the ' great 
 storm ;' it is held by John Molony, labourer, at 
 16s. a year; it is exactly twelve feet square; 
 the clay walls about six feet high ; the poor man 
 made a sort of covering from the old sticks and 
 thatch of the fallen roof, but from its flatness, 
 totally incapable of resisting the wet. I found 
 his wife and five of his children huddled together 
 in a corner of this hut, scarcely covered with a 
 few loathsome rags ; the youngest was in her 
 arms, the two next had only dirty coarse tattered 
 bibs, the others little better ; the two elder boys 
 were out helping their father to dig, &c. This 
 was on Tuesday last — the two preceding nights 
 
OF MR. SECRETARY RAY. 249 
 
 had been most wet and inclement, and this un- 
 happy family could get no rest, as there was not 
 a dry spot they could lie on. I observed the re- 
 mains of an old deal bedstead in a corner, with as 
 much broken straw and rags as would make a bed 
 for a dog ; the floor under it, and indeed through 
 the entire, in a complete bog with wet. I asked, 
 was that where they slept ? — The woman said — 
 *Aye, is it!' ^Have the entire family no other 
 sleeping place?' said I. — 'None other.' I could 
 ask no further questions. They were standing 
 round two or three sods of half burned turf, try- 
 ing to dry their rags ; it was so, in fact, with the 
 rest. I did not see in all those places together 
 as much as would equal one good fire. This poor 
 woman told me that up to two months ago the 
 elder children used to attend the school, but 
 were now too naked to go there. * * * 
 
 " I have given but a sample of what is preva- 
 lent everywhere about the towns and in the rural 
 districts. ' They starve themselves,' said an in- 
 telligent man to me, ' to feed the pigs for the 
 rents.' It is impossible to witness these things 
 without deep sensation." 
 
 What a picture of the desolating consequences 
 of absenteeism and of the destruction of Irish 
 manufactures! When some instances of Irish 
 poverty and suffering were once mentioned in the 
 
250 WELLINGTON'S ANTI-REPExlL FALLACY. 
 
 House of Lords, the Duke of Wellington observed 
 that it would not mend the matter to set up a 
 parliament in Ireland; because there was also 
 deep misery in England, which country did ac- 
 tually enjoy the residence of the legislature. 
 "There is a parliament in England — there is 
 also misery there ; therefore seek not for a Re- 
 peal of the Union." 
 
 To tell us Irish that imperial legislation has 
 not protected England from dire distress, is, at 
 least, a very whimsical method of inducing us to 
 confide in imperial legislation for Ireland! If 
 your English parliament has not kept the wolf 
 from your own doors, pray how are we to expect 
 it will keep him from ours ? Much of the misery 
 existing in England is directly traceable to the 
 Irish poverty caused by the Union. The poorer 
 Irish, having no manufactures to employ their 
 surplus hands at home, emigrate in shoals to Eng- 
 land, where they lower the wages of labour in 
 the market, and drag down the English opera- 
 tives to the level of their own wretchedness. 
 Had the Duke remembered this, he would per- 
 haps have doubted the soundness of his anti- 
 repeal inference from the distress existing in 
 certain English districts. 
 
 Every political quack will supply his own nos- 
 trum. The social diseases of Ireland are now 
 
ANOMALOUS CONDITION OF IRELAND. 251 
 
 admitted upon all hands. You scarcely find any 
 man of any party who does not laugh to scorn 
 Spring Eice's " giant-stride prosperity." It was 
 available for a parliamentary claptrap, and for a 
 parliamentary pretext for opposing Repeal ; but 
 it was the very hyperbole of audacious falsehood ; 
 it was too monstrous to endure in the real con- 
 victions of a single individual. The social dis- 
 eases, I repeat, are admitted on all hands. The 
 condition of Ireland is proverbially anomalous. 
 There are the startling incongruities of an anti- 
 Irish aristocracy enlisted against the just rights 
 of the masses of the people ; of a church-estab- 
 lishment paid by the many for the benefit of the 
 few ; of a rich proprietary hating the land whence 
 their wealth, their rank, their social respectability 
 are exclusively derived ; of a soil unexcelled in 
 its fertility, yet inhabited by a people whose 
 poverty is declared by tourists to exceed all they 
 ever had witnessed of human destitution else- 
 where. That all this leaven should not power- 
 fully work for evil, no rational man could expect. 
 Yet see what paltry nostrums are prescribed. 
 One set discovered a cure for all evils in the 
 introduction of a poor law. The poor law came ; 
 it furnished some good places and good jobs — it 
 also furnished an infinitude of popular discontent : 
 the people were obliged to pay a new tax, whilst 
 
252 FEEBLE AND INSUFFICIENT 
 
 there was no perceptible diminution in the num- 
 ber of wandering mendicants. Another set of 
 politicians prescribe "tranquillity," just as if 
 inaction could ever cure a grievance ! Other 
 enthusiasts prescribe an inundation of bibles and 
 increased " missionary vigour" on the part of the 
 established clergy. Others again recommend the 
 Whig emollients of enlarged franchises, and a 
 further reduction of the irritating and oppres- 
 sive nuisance called the Church Establishment. 
 
 It is not however the absentee legislator, nor 
 the cold, utilitarian political economist, nor the 
 clever political speculator who indites flippant 
 paragraphs at his desk, nor the Cockney tourist 
 who posts through Ireland to construct a market- 
 able book from the salient traits which appear on 
 the surface of society — it is not one of these who 
 can prescribe, or even comprehend, an adequate 
 remedy. They have not the requisite knowledge 
 of the people ; and if they had, they have not the 
 hearty sympathies which are indispensable to 
 render that knowledge available. Cold, self- 
 sufficient dogmatizers too many of them are, 
 viewing all they see (and how little is that all !) 
 through the medium of certain preconceived po- 
 litical theories, nine-tenths of which are perfectly 
 inapplicable to the condition of the country. 
 
 He whose intercourse with the people has been 
 
REMEDIES PRESCRIBED FOR IRELAND. 253 
 
 extensive and prolonged ; who has mingled with 
 his fellow-countrymen on terms of the most un- 
 reserved mutual confidence ; who has seen their 
 struggles against the tyranny that would grind 
 them into powder ; who has witnessed the anx- 
 ious heavings of a nation's breast; who tho- 
 roughly knows the intense sincerity and unalter- 
 able determination with which his compatriots are 
 actuated ; who witnesses the persevering efforts 
 of the anti-Irish class to prevent the disenthral- 
 ment of the people from their bondage ; — he who 
 has seen the pernicious and deadly antagonism of 
 the two great sections of the Irish nation, is 
 compelled to trace the origin of Irish evils to 
 English influence operating thro' an alien legis- 
 lature, and exclusive institutions ; and to recog- 
 nize in the Eepeal of the Union the only possible 
 cure for the social disease ; the only certain gua- 
 rantee against relapse. 
 
 It is perfectly manifest that exclusive institu- 
 tions could not, in the present day, survive the 
 restoration of the Irish Legislature. The class 
 who are now infected with a vicious hatred of 
 their native country, would then become nation- 
 alized in spite of themselves. They could not 
 help it. The preponderating pressure of the na- 
 tional sentiment, having a legislature for its organ, 
 Avould be too much for their puny resistance. 
 
254 UTTER FUTILITY OF ALL REMEDIES 
 
 Their prejudices would be swept away in the 
 national torrent. They would, despite their con- 
 tortions and grimaces, be made auxiliary to the 
 general prosperity and glory. They would be at 
 last merged in the great mass of Irishmen. 
 
 Nothing short of the Eepeal can fulfil the re- 
 quirements of Ireland. Imagine every minor 
 boon conceded that the most liberal Whig-Eadi- 
 cal could proffer; imagine tithes abolished, the 
 franchises enlarged, the representation extended, 
 the bench purified, the magistracy weeded — ^yet, 
 so long as Ireland possessed no Parliament, we 
 should still have England's robber-hand in our 
 pockets ; we should still be at England's mercy 
 or caprice respecting the control of our national 
 purse; we should still remain degraded by the 
 absence of that privilege without which man is a 
 despised slave — the uncontrolled management of 
 our own country for ourselves. Thus, if England 
 were to give us everything else, yet so long as 
 she withheld from us our Parliament, we should 
 be deprived of that which were far more va- 
 luable than all the rest put together. 
 
 John O'Connell achieved much good in Con- 
 naught. He received powerful assistance from 
 that distinguished ornament of the Irish church, 
 the Archbishop of Tuam. He held meetings at 
 Carrick-on- Shannon ; Carra Castle (co. Mayo) ; 
 
EXCEPT THE REPEAL. 255 
 
 the town of Eoscommon ; Castlerea (co. Koscom- 
 mon) ; Castlebar; Tuam; and Ballymoe (co. 
 Galway.) He also had the honour of partici- 
 pating in three or four clerical conferences ; and 
 during his tour contributed most efficiently to 
 place the Repeal movement on a firm and per- 
 manent footing in the west. 
 
 The result of the missions was increased per- 
 severance and activity on an organized plan. 
 Their immediate effect on the Repeal rent was 
 remarkable. The week before the missionaries 
 started, the rent was £45 14^. 80?. The week 
 after their return it reached £235. 
 
256 "the nation" started. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 True, my friend, as if an angel said it ; 
 
 Would an angel's pealing voice were thine, 
 'Till thy words were rooted and imbedded 
 
 Deep in every Irish heart as mine. 
 Battling for our isle's regeneration. 
 
 Still we know the future holds no chance, 
 Hope, or prospect for this Irish nation, 
 
 Save in trampling down intolerance — 
 Trampling down the bigot's broils that pandered 
 
 Through the past to England's foulest deeds, 
 Writing broadly on our souls and standard 
 
 This unchanging motto — Deeds not Creeds. 
 
 Poetry of the Nation. 
 
 A notable event in the year 1842 was the es- 
 tablishment of the Nation newspaper. 
 
 The proprietor and editor, Mr. Charles Gavan 
 Dufiy, had previously exhibited the self-reliance 
 of conscious talent in setting up the Belfast 
 Vindicator^ despite the discouraging predictions 
 of numerous friends well acquainted with the 
 North, who assured him that the failure of a Re- 
 peal journal in Saxonized Ulster was a matter of 
 certainty. Duffy, nothing daunted, persevered 
 in his experiment, and speedily reached a circu- 
 lation of thirteen hundred ; establishing a firm 
 
THE FREEMAN AND REGISTER. 257 
 
 footing in the heart of the enemy's quarters. 
 The ability with which the Vindicator was con- 
 ducted, soon acquired for its editor a high repu- 
 tation as a journalist. Mr. Duffy felt, before 
 long, that his talents required a wider scope for 
 their exercise than could be afforded by the con- 
 duct of a provincial journal, however respectable. 
 He resolved upon starting the Nation. 
 
 In this new undertaking he encountered dis- 
 couragement similar to that which had w^aited on 
 his northern experiment. Intelligent, observant 
 men, who wished him well, treated his hopes of 
 success as quite chimerical ; asserting with much 
 colour of probability that the entire ground 
 was preoccupied by the two respectable weekly 
 metropolitan journals which were already the 
 exponents and propagandists of Eepeal doc- 
 trines. 
 
 The Weekly Freeman! s Journal had been 
 edited in succession by several warm and able 
 advocates of Irish independence; the ^¥eekly 
 Register^ conducted by Michael Staunton, had 
 acquired great value from the extensive and ac- 
 curate financial and statistical knowledge pro- 
 fusely scattered through its leading articles. 
 Mr. Staunton has been truly called the father of 
 a distinct school — and a most useful one — of 
 
258 A " NEW mind" in IRELAND. 
 
 Irish politics. He has devoted his abilities to 
 the elucidation of the knotty question of interna- 
 tional finance; a question the most easily ob- 
 scured by the ingenuity of ofiicial chicane. 
 
 The Nation appeared contemporaneously with 
 the Eepeal missions. Its projectors little heeded 
 the vaticinations of timid prophets ; in the words 
 of their prospectus, " they were prepared, if they 
 did not find a way open, to try if they could not 
 make one." 
 
 And a way they did make, and that right 
 speedily. They were, in truth, encouraged to 
 their task by the conviction that since the success 
 of O'Connell's great struggle for civil and religious 
 liberty, a new mind had grown up in Ireland ; a 
 mind filled with new thoughts, new aspirations 
 — panting to achieve new victories. 
 
 The style of the Nation was eminently fer- 
 vid and earnest ; it told home upon the hearts 
 of the people. It spoke forth the singleness and 
 energy of purpose whereby its editor was cha- 
 racterised. At the present period, some of its 
 most exciting articles are the production of 
 Mr. Thomas MacNevin, a young barrister of 
 highly popular abilities, who has deservedly been 
 termed " the most eloquent member of the Young 
 Ireland party." 
 
POETRY OF THE NATION. 259 
 
 One very attractive feature in the Nation was 
 the poetry that enriched its columns. There 
 were many poetical contributors, of whom the 
 principal were Mr. Duify, and Mr. Thomas Os- 
 borne Davis, a Protestant barrister. Their minds 
 were stored with the annals of their country — 
 the feuds, the wrongs, the struggles of elder ages 
 — the gallant exhibitions of an often-foiled but 
 never vanquished spirit of national liberty. The 
 thoughts inspired by those annals — now flowing 
 in a dark and vengeful current — now rushing 
 along in impetuous tumult — now softening into 
 deep and solemn pathos — now concentrated in 
 stern defiance — now soaring aloft upon the buoy- 
 ant wings of lightsome hope — were thrown into 
 verses glowing with a passionate fervour that 
 awakened into life every slumbering pulse of 
 Irish patriotism. 
 
 Here is Young Ireland's tribute to her Libera- 
 tor: — 
 
 I. 
 
 I saw him at the hour of pray'r, when morning's earliest dawn 
 Was breaking o'er the mountain tops — o'er grassy dell and lawn ; 
 When the parting shades of night had fled — v/hen moon and stars 
 
 were gone. 
 Before a high and gorgeous shrine the chieftain kneel'd alone. 
 His hands were clasp'd upon his breast, his eye was raised above — 
 I heard those full and solemn tones in words of faith and love : 
 He pray'd that those who wrong'd him might for ever be forgiv'n ; 
 Oh ! who would say such prayers as these are not received in 
 
 heav'n ? 
 
 s2 
 
260 YOUNG IRELAND'S TRIBUTE TO O'CONNELL. 
 
 II. 
 
 I saw him next amid the best and noblest of our isle — 
 There was the same majestic form, the same heart-kindling smile ! 
 But grief was on that princely brow — for others still he mourn'd, 
 He gazed upon poor fetter'd slaves, and his heart within him 
 
 burn'd : 
 And he vowed before the captive's God to break the captive's 
 
 chain — 
 To bind the broken heart, and set the bondsman free again: 
 And fit was he our chief to be in triumph or in need, 
 Who never wrong'd his deadliest foe in thought, or word, or deed ! 
 
 III. 
 
 I saw him when the light of eve had faded from the West — 
 Beside the hearth that old man sat, by infant forms caress'd ; 
 One hand was gently laid upon his grandchild's clust'ring hair, 
 The other, raised to heav'n, invoked a blessing and a pray'r 1 
 And woman's lips were heard to breathe a high and glorious 
 
 strain — 
 Those songs of old that haunt us still, and ever will remain 
 Within the heart like treasured gems, that bring from mem'ry's cell 
 Thoughts of our youthful days, and friends that we have loved so 
 
 well! 
 
 IV. 
 
 I saw that eagle glance again — the brow was marked with care. 
 Though rich and regal are the robes the Nation's chief doth wear ;* 
 And many an eye now quailed with shame, and many a cheek now 
 
 glow'd, 
 As he paid them back with worda of love for ev'ry curse bestowed. 
 I thought of his unceasing care, his never-ending zeal ; 
 I heard the watchword burst from all — the gath'ring cry — Repeal; 
 And as his eyes were raised to heav'n — from whence his mission 
 
 came — 
 He stood amid the thousands there a monarch save in name ! 
 
 * Written when O'Coimell was Lord ilayov. 
 
Duffy's "lay sermon." 261 
 
 I select the following poems, not so much be- 
 cause they are specimens of poetical excellence, 
 as from the plain exposition they afford of the 
 policy, principles, and objects of their authors. 
 The first is entitled — 
 
 A LAY SERMON. 
 
 BY CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY, 
 X. 
 
 Brother, do you love your brother? 
 
 Brother, are you all you seem? 
 Do you live for more than living ? 
 
 Has your Life a law, and scheme ? 
 Are you prompt to bear its duties, 
 *_ As a brave man may beseem ? 
 
 II. 
 Brother, shun the mist exhaling 
 
 From the fen of pride and doubt ; 
 Neither seek the house of bondage 
 
 Walling straitened souls about ; 
 Bats! who, from their narrow spy-hole. 
 
 Cannot see a world without. 
 
 III. 
 
 Anchor in no stagnant shallow — 
 Trust the wide and wond'rous sea. 
 
 Where the tides are fresh for ever, 
 ' And the mighty currents free ; 
 
 There, perchance, oh! young Columbus, 
 Your New World of truth may be, 
 
 IV. 
 
 Favor will not make deserving — 
 (Can the sunshine brighten clay ?) 
 
 Slowly must it grow to blossom. 
 Fed by labour and delay, 
 
 And the fairest bud to promise 
 Bears the taint of quick decay. 
 
262 DUFFY'S "LAY SEJa3I0N.'* 
 
 You must strive for better guerdons. 
 Strive to he the thing you'd seem ; 
 
 Be the thing that God hath made you, 
 Channel for no borrowed stream ; 
 
 He hath lent you mind and conscience; 
 See you travel in their beam I 
 
 vr. 
 
 See you scale life's misty highland* 
 By this light of living truth ! 
 
 And with bosom braced for labour. 
 Breast them in your manly youth ; 
 
 So when age and care have found you. 
 Shall your downward path be smooth. 
 
 TII. 
 
 Fear not, on that rugged highway. 
 Life may want its lawful zest ; 
 
 Sunny glens are in the mountain. 
 Where the weary feet may rest, 
 
 Cooled ir> streams that gush for ever 
 From a loving mother'& breast. 
 
 Tin. 
 
 *' Simple heart and simple pleasures," 
 So they write life's golden rule ; 
 
 Honor won by supple baseness. 
 State that crowns a cankered fool. 
 
 Gleam as gleam the gold and purple 
 On a hot and rancid pool. 
 
 I2C. 
 
 Wear no show of wit or science. 
 But the gems you've won and weighed; 
 
 Thefts, like ivy on a ruin, 
 
 Make the rifts they seem to shade : 
 
 Are you not a thief and beggar 
 In the rarest spoib arrayed ? 
 
"orange and green." 263 
 
 X. 
 
 Shadows deck a sunny landscape. 
 
 Making brighter all the bright : 
 So, my brother ! care and danger 
 
 On a loving nature light. 
 Bringing all its latent beauties 
 
 Out upon the common sight. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Love the things that God created, 
 Make your brother's need your care ; 
 ! Scorn and hate repel God's blessings, 
 
 But where love is, they are there ; 
 
 As the moonbeams light the waters. 
 Leaving rock and sand-bank bare. 
 
 XII- 
 
 Thus, my brother, grow and flourish, 
 
 Fearing none, and loving all ; 
 For the true man needs no patron. 
 
 He shall climb, and never crawl ; 
 Two things fashion their own channel — 
 
 The strong man and the waterfall. 
 
 The next is a song of triumph at the union 
 of all Irishmen : 
 
 BY THOMAS DAVIS. 
 I. 
 
 Ireland ! rejoice, and England ! deplore — 
 
 Faction and feud are passing away ; 
 *Twas a low voice, but 'tis a loud roar, 
 " Orange and Green will carry the day." 
 
 Orange ! Orange 1 
 
 Green and Orange ! 
 Pitted together in many a fray — 
 
 Lions in fight ! 
 
 And link'd in their might, 
 Orange and Green will carry the day. 
 
264 "orange and green." 
 
 Orange ! Orange ! 
 
 Green and Orange ! 
 Wave them together o'er mountain and bay. 
 
 Orange and Green ! 
 
 Our King and our Queen ! 
 *' Orange and Green will carry the day !" 
 
 II. 
 
 Rusty the swords our fathers unsheath'd — 
 William and James are turn'd to clay — 
 Long did we till the wrath they bequeath'd; 
 Red was the crop, and bitter the pay ! 
 
 Freedom fled us ! 
 
 Knaves misled us ! 
 Under the feet of the foeraen we lay — 
 
 Riches and strength 
 
 We'll win them at length, 
 For Orange and Green will carry the day ! 
 
 Landlords fool'd us ; 
 
 England ruled us. 
 Hounding our passions to make us their prey ; 
 
 But, in their spite, 
 
 The Irish "Unite," 
 And Orange and Green will carry the day ! 
 
 III. 
 
 Fruitful our soil where honest men starve ; 
 
 Empty the mart, and shipless the bay ; 
 Out of our want the Oligarchs carve ; 
 Foreigners fatten on our decay ! 
 
 Disunited, 
 
 Therefore blighted, 
 Ruined and rent by the Englishman's sway ; 
 
 Party and creed 
 
 For once have agreed — 
 Orange and Green will carry the day ! 
 
 Boyne's old water. 
 
 Red with slaughter ! 
 Now is as pure as an infant at play ; 
 
 So, in our souls, 
 
 Its history rolls. 
 And Orange and Green will carry the day ! 
 
OLD AND YOUNG IRELAND. 265 
 
 IV. 
 
 English deceit can rule us no more, 
 
 Bigots and knaves are scattered like spray — 
 Deep was the oath the Orangeman swore, 
 " Orange and Green must carry the day !" 
 
 Orange ! Orange ! 
 
 Bless the Orange ! 
 Tories and Whigs grew pale with dismay, 
 
 When, from the North, 
 
 Burst the cry forth, 
 " Orange and Green will carry the day ;" 
 
 No surrender ! 
 
 No Pretender! 
 Never to falter and never betray — 
 
 With an Amen, 
 
 We swear it again. 
 Orange and Green shall carry the day ! 
 
 Such are the strains that arouse the spirit of 
 Young Ireland — aye, and of Old Ireland also. 
 Their moral is self-reliance and internal union. 
 
 Young Ireland is ardent and eager. Her fiery 
 
 vehemence is a useful ingredient in our great 
 
 constitutional warfare, when tempered by the 
 
 judgment and experience of her elder friend and 
 
 namesake. 
 
 Old Ireland has seen much and struggled 
 
 much. Old Ireland has been the victor in one 
 prolonged and hard-fought contest: a triumph 
 due to her virtue, her wisdom, and her perseve- 
 rance. 
 
 I bid them both God speed. The sagacity of 
 the one, restraining (but not extinguishing) the 
 impetuous ardour of the other, will produce a 
 combination of qualities resistless in their union. 
 
2Q6 THE CORPORATION DEBATE. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Acres — By my valour, then, Sir Lucius, forty yards is a good 
 distance * * * * j tell you, Sir Lucius, the farther off he is, the 
 cooler I shall take my aim. 
 
 Sir Lucius. — Faith, then, I suppose you would aim at him best of 
 all if he was out of sight ! 
 
 Acres — No, Sir Lucius — but I should think forty, or eight-and 
 thirty yards — Do, my dear Sir Lucius, let me bring him down at a 
 l°°Sshot! The Rivals. 
 
 O'Connell's next step was to bring the Eepeal 
 question into the Dublin Corporation. Early in 
 February, 1843, he gave notice that on Tuesday 
 the 2 1st of the month, he would move a resolu- 
 tion affirmatory of the right of Ireland to a resi- 
 dent parliament, and the necessity of repealing 
 the Union. 
 
 Shortly prior to the 21st, he suddenly an- 
 nounced the postponement of his motion for a 
 week. The Tory members of the corporation 
 complained of being unfairly treated. Alderman 
 Butt declared that he had remained in town at 
 much personal inconvenience in order to oppose 
 the motion, and strongly remonstrated against 
 the postponement. O'Connell, however, was in- 
 exorable ; whereupon there was a sort of trium- 
 
THE UNIONISTS BROUGHT TO THE SCRATCH. 267 
 
 phant growl amongst the oj^posite party, who 
 said that he only manoeuvred to get Butt out 
 of town, from a well-grounded fear of discussing 
 the merits of Repeal with so able an adversary. 
 
 The postponement was extremely useful. Had 
 the discussion taken place on the day originally 
 fixed, it would have passed off as a matter of 
 course without exciting half the interest it after- 
 wards created. But by putting it off, an additional 
 fillip was given to the public mind. The anti- 
 Repealers alleged that O'Connell was shrinking 
 from Butt; the Repealers indignantly denied 
 the accusation. People upon both sides were 
 thus set talking over the matter, and the public 
 curiosity was wound up to a pitch of intensity 
 when the day for the discussion arrived. 
 
 Perhaps O'Connell had planned this, in order 
 to give additional eclat to the discomfiture he 
 intended for Butt and his brethren. 
 
 And a signal triumph he achieved. The 
 Unionists had long been in the habit of saying, 
 " O'Connell and his party have always kept out 
 of the way of discussing this question — if we had 
 them face to face we could expose their delu- 
 sions." They had now got an opportunity of 
 realizing their boast. 
 
 The Assembly-House in William-street was 
 crowded to the utmost. A vast concourse of 
 
268 PUBLIC EXCITEMENT. 
 
 people thronged the streets without, unable to 
 obtain admittance, yet rooted to the spot by the 
 interest which the question awakened in all 
 breasts. Twice or thrice in the course of the 
 day I passed through the crowd, and the people 
 invariably asked me " how Eepeal was going 
 on ?" and " Who was speaking now ?" with as eager 
 an anxiety as if the success of the Repeal in the 
 Dublin Corporation would secure its final and 
 immediate triumph. 
 
 O'ConnelFs opening speech occupied four hours 
 and ten minutes. He had arranged the entire 
 subject under nine distinct propositions. These 
 were — 
 
 1. The capability and capacity of the Irish 
 nation for an independent legislature. 
 
 2. The perfect right of Ireland to have a 
 domestic parliament. 
 
 3. That that right was fully established by 
 the transactions of 1782. 
 
 4. That the most beneficial effects to Ireland 
 resulted from her parliamentary independence. 
 
 5. The utter incompetence of the Irish par- 
 liament to annihilate the Irish constitution by 
 the Union. 
 
 6. That the Union was no contract or bar- 
 gain ; that it was carried by the grossest corrup- 
 tion and bribery, added to force, fraud, and 
 terror. 
 
o'connell's speech in the corporation. 269 
 
 7. That the Union produced the most disas- 
 trous results to Ireland. 
 
 8. That the Union can be abolished by 
 peaceable and constitutional means, without the 
 violation of law, and without the destruction of 
 property or life. 
 
 9. That the most salutary results, and none 
 other, must arise from a Kepeal of the Union. 
 
 "These," said O'Connell, "are the nine propo- 
 sitions which I came here to day to demonstrate ; 
 I say to demonstrate, not as relying on any 
 intellectual powers of my own, or any force of 
 talent, but from the truth and plainness of the 
 propositions themselves." 
 
 His speech was luminous and masterly. Not- 
 withstanding its length, the physical vigour of 
 the orator continued unimpaired to the end. 
 
 The Nation's description of O'Connell's ha- 
 rangue is so accurate and so discriminating, that 
 I cannot do better than quote it : 
 
 "O'Connell," says that journal, "may have 
 made more eloquent speeches — speeches more 
 calculated to heat the blood and stir the passions, 
 but he never excelled this one, as an elaborate 
 and masterly statement of a great case. The 
 arrangement he adopted was remarkably skilful 
 and judicious. He threw down, as it were, a 
 single proof, and heaped others in succession 
 
270 butt's failure. 
 
 upon the top of it till they grew up to a gigantic 
 pyramid which all the world might recognize. 
 The effect of this process upon the audience was 
 magical. The truth seemed to dawn upon them 
 like the rising sun, growing plainer and plainer 
 by degrees, till at length as he drew near his 
 peroration, it admitted of neither question nor 
 dispute, and men seemed to say to each other 
 with exulting looks, ' this is unanswerable.'" 
 
 Such was the oration which Mr. Butt was 
 obliged to reply to. It is not the least dis- 
 paragement to his abilities to say that his reply 
 was a perfect failure. There was a case made 
 against him which could not be rebutted. In 
 the total absence of legitimate argument, he was 
 compelled to resort to small dexterities, such as 
 challenging — not the doctrine that the Irish 
 parliament was incompetent to effect its own 
 destruction ; but the alleged consequences of that 
 doctrine, which Mr. Butt asserted would invali- 
 date all the post-union acts of the imperial par- 
 liament. Mr. Butt also prophesied that as forty 
 years had now elapsed since the Union, we might 
 look forward to some future good results from that 
 measure ; a prediction which he tried to sustain 
 by alleging that after the lapse of forty years the 
 Scottish Union had begun to bear fruits of bene- 
 fit to Scotland. He defended the Irish Church 
 
HOW TO " consecrate" IRELAND TO GOD ! 271 
 
 Establishment on the ground that it was the 
 duty of every state "^o consecrate itself to God;^^ 
 just as if the mode of " consecrating" Ireland to 
 God, was to invest the pastors of a tenth part of 
 the population with a legal power to fleece the 
 entire people ! He strongly urged " repose" for 
 Ireland ; just as if a wronged and suffering nation 
 ever gained anything by silent acquiescence in 
 her injuries ! 
 
 Whilst Mr. Butt spoke, O'Connell repeatedly 
 exclaimed, " I never made so unanswered a 
 speech! Why, he doesn't even try to make a 
 case !" The simple solution of this was, that in 
 the midst of an Irish assembly, there was no case 
 to be made. Butt once or twice essayed Spring 
 Eice's expedient of alleging our " giant-stride 
 prosperity ;" but he speedily experienced that al- 
 though such assertions might call down vocife- 
 rous plaudits in an English House of Commons, 
 they could not elicit a single cheer even from his 
 own Conservative backers in the Irish Corpora- 
 tion ; for to all in that assembly the adverse 
 facts were too well and too painfully known. 
 
 It is not amiss to observe that the high Tory 
 Warder newspaper, the ablest organ of the anti- 
 Eepeal party, and to which Mr. Butt has often 
 been a literary contributor, furnishes us in its 
 number for the 5th Oct., 1844, with the follow- 
 
272 THE WARDER ON IRISH "PROSPERITY. 
 
 ing emphatic contradiction of Spring Rice's Irish- 
 prosperity-case : 
 
 " Squalid half starvation is the desperate lot 
 of the Irish peasant — destitution which no exer- 
 tion of his own can relieve ; there is no labour 
 too hard for him — he shrinks from no toil or 
 hardship — but employment there is none for him ; 
 privation and misery, which would not be borne 
 for two days by Englishmen without the riot of 
 insurrection, are here endured from weary month 
 to month with a stoical patience." 
 
 It may be easily supposed that the allegation 
 of" Irish Prosperity" did not meet an encouraging 
 reception from men, who, though holding various 
 politics, were yet perfectly cognizant of the dreary 
 facts thus announced on high Protestant autho- 
 rity. Mr. Butt was accordingly obliged to pass 
 on to some more available claptrap. 
 
 The debate was adjourned till the following 
 day, when it was resumed with much ability by 
 other members of the Corporation. Mr. Staun- 
 ton's speech was a first-rate financial statement. 
 The debate was a second time adjourned. 
 
 On the third day the public anxiety continued 
 unabated. The vicinity of the Assembly House 
 was again densely crowded. Several speakers pre- 
 ceded O'Connell, who rose to reply at two o'clock. 
 
 No report, no description, could possibly do 
 
TRIUMPH IN THE CORPORATION. 273 
 
 justice to that magnificent reply. O'Connell 
 took up in succession all the objections of all his 
 opponents and demolished them all one by one. 
 The whole phalanx of Unionists looked like pig- 
 mies in the grasp of a giant. The dexterities of 
 Butt — some of which had been plausibly man- 
 aged — shrank and withered into nothing when 
 touched by O'Connell. The consciousness of a 
 great moral triumph seemed to animate his voice 
 — his glance — his gestures. Never had I heard 
 him so eloquent ; never had I witnessed so noble 
 a display of his transcendent powers. 
 
 The " house" divided on the question ; forty- 
 one members to fifteen affirming the principle of 
 Kepeal by a majority of twenty-six. The deci- 
 sive blow thus struck in the metropolitan corpo- 
 ration was promptly followed up by all the re- 
 formed corporations in the kingdom. Nothing 
 could be more complete than the victory of the 
 Dublin Corporators. The Evening Mailj which 
 had long pufied and blustered on the side of the 
 Unionists, clearly saw that no rational case 
 could be made against Repeal ; and it therefore, 
 with becoming prudence, gravely advised the 
 enemies of Irish legislative independence in the 
 Cork town council not to argue the question at 
 all ; but simply to record their political servility 
 by silent votes. 
 
 T 
 
274 UTILITY OF THE DEBATE. 
 
 The impulse given to Repeal throughout the 
 kingdom appeared in a rapid augmentation of 
 the rent. The national question was now en- 
 throned, moreover, in the different municipalities ; 
 and the temper and ability with which it was 
 discussed in those assemblies, demonstrated the 
 powerful hold it had taken on the thinking and 
 intelligent mercantile classes of the kingdom. 
 
 It was a great stroke — that Dublin Corpora- 
 tion debate. 
 
THE MOXSTER MEETINGS. 275 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 O I come then, Erin, come away 
 
 O haste, my love, nor longer stay. 
 
 O haste ! thy cruel sister leave, 
 
 Her words are false, her smiles deceive ; 
 
 Union, she cries, with vip'rous breath — 
 
 Union with her — is Erin's death. 
 
 Beauties of the Press. 
 
 The ensuing summer and autumn were ren- 
 dered remarkable by the great gatherings called 
 " Monster Meetings." The utility of those meet- 
 ings lay in the evidence they afforded that the 
 voice of the nation was for Repeal. AYhig and 
 Tory alike had actively propagated the falsehood 
 that the people cared nothing for Repeal. The 
 people in 1843 turned out in their multitudinous 
 strength to give the lie to that laboriously reite- 
 rated calumny. 
 
 It is not my purpose to enter on any detail of 
 the monster meetings. The reader is already 
 familiar with their characteristics and their pur- 
 pose. They were all perfectly peaceful. The 
 resolutions passed at each of them expressed the 
 most fervid determination to persevere. 
 
 O'Connell sometimes alluded to the beauties of 
 
 T 2 
 
276 SCENERY OF CONNEMARA. 
 
 the natural scenery. At the Clifden meeting he 
 thus expressed himself : 
 
 " I love the wild and majestic scenes through 
 which I have this day passed in coming to your 
 meeting. Perhaps I might be justified in saying 
 that nature did not intend me for a politician ; 
 but that, judging from my feelings, I ought 
 rather to have spent my life in the quiet and 
 undisturbed admiration and enjoyment of na- 
 ture's beauty and magnificence. The scenery I 
 have this day passed has made me think so. It 
 filled my soul with a thrilling and indefinable 
 sensation to behold that wild and swelling morass 
 encompassed by cloud-capt and majestic moun- 
 tains — the regions of the storm and the mist — 
 and the quiet lake surrounded by high and 
 heath-covered banks, or sometimes embossed 
 amongst trees, its surface scarcely disturbed by 
 the soft and perfumed autumnal breeze ; whilst 
 the tiny waves with which it was rippled, seemed 
 to smile approbation upon us as our procession 
 passed along its banks. I love the music of the 
 running waters, the silvery echoes of the moun- 
 tain rill, and the sound of the torrent rushing 
 over the brow of the precipice. They seem to 
 whisper to my soul the joys of youth, to arouse 
 the energies of manhood, and to dictate to me a 
 command that I could not refuse to obey, to use 
 
ADHESION OF WILLIAM SMITH O'BRIEN. 277 
 
 every energy of my soul, every power of my 
 mind, every faculty of my being, to make our 
 majestic yet neglected country, the garden and 
 the paradise for which nature has so obviously 
 designed it." 
 
 There were altogether some forty-five monster 
 meetings, quite enough to develop the genuine 
 sentiments of Ireland upon the Union, were any 
 such evidence wanted. 
 
 An important accession to the cause this year 
 was that of William Smith O'Brien, member for 
 Limerick county: a gentleman who had long 
 tenaciously adhered to the delusive hope that 
 "justice to Ireland" might be obtained from the 
 united parliament; but who, on the failure of 
 his motion for a parliamentary inquiry into Irish 
 grievances, was compelled to despair of any good 
 from such a source. His motion was prefaced 
 with a speech of great ability, fraught with 
 extensive and accurate information as to the 
 wrongs sustained by Ireland. He sought in- 
 quiry. As a matter of course it was refused; 
 prosecution of the Irish leaders was resolved on ; 
 and WiUiam Smith O'Brien tendered his ad- 
 hesion to the National Association. 
 
 A slight outline of his career will interest the 
 Irish public. 
 
 /r-He was born in October, 1803. His remote 
 ancestors were the royal O'Briens, of whose 
 
278 CAREER OF MR. W. S. O'bRIEN. 
 
 family Brian Boroimhe was a member. He is 
 the second son of the late Sir Edward O'Brien, 
 bart., of Dromoland, County Clare, and heir to the 
 estates of his maternal grandfather, Mr. William 
 Smith. He spent three years at Harrow School, 
 and took his degree at Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge. In 1828 he was brought into parlia- 
 ment by his father for the borough of Ennis ; a 
 close borough to which the O'Brien family and 
 the late Lord Fitzgerald alternately possessed 
 the nomination. He ardently supported the 
 Catholic claims, and enrolled himself a member 
 of the Catholic Association in the year of his 
 return to parliament. He did not, in the House 
 of Commons, give a regular support to the Tory 
 ministry, although his father was a politician of 
 the class called " Liberal Conservatives ;" but 
 after the Duke of Wellington carried emancipa- 
 tion and lost the support of the ultra-Tories, Mr. 
 O'Brien became a supporter in general of his 
 government; voting, however, against it, upon 
 some questions involving constitutional princi- 
 ples. In 1831 he lost his seat on the dissolution 
 which followed the defeat of the Whigs on the 
 Eeform Bill. On that measure Mr. O'Brien did 
 not vote, being absent from London; but he 
 voted against General Gascoigne's motion decla- 
 ring that the number and proportion of English 
 
HIS MOTION FOR IRISH ENQUIRY. 279 
 
 representatives ought to continue undiminished. 
 In 1832 he was invited to stand for Ennis on 
 the liberal interest ; but having transferred his 
 residence from the County Clare to the County- 
 Limerick, he declined to stand. In 1834 he 
 re-entered parliament for the County of Limerick, 
 and from that year until 1843, he generally 
 acted with the liberal Whigs, giving them an 
 independent support, but opposing them when- 
 ever he deemed them in the wrong; as, for 
 instance, on the Jamaica question. During their 
 tenure of office he neither asked nor received 
 from the Whigs any favour for himself or his 
 family. 
 
 Such is the outline of Mr. Smith O'Brien's 
 political career prior to 1843. It displays a 
 single minded consistency in the pursuit of poli- 
 tical truth. His motion on behalf of Ireland 
 was couched in the following words : — 
 
 " That this House will resolve itself into a 
 committee, for the purpose of taking into consi- 
 deration the causes of discontent at present pre- 
 vailing in Ireland, with a view to the redress of 
 grievances, and to the establishment of a system 
 of just and impartial government in that part of 
 the united kingdom." 
 
 The rejection of that motion by the House 
 was of service to the cause of Eepeal, for it de- 
 
280 THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 
 
 cided the mover to join the Eepeal agitation. 
 He brought to the cause great practical ability ; 
 a complete mastery of the details of public busi- 
 ness, acquired from his long experience in par- 
 mentary committees ; and an honest zeal of which 
 the enthusiasm was tempered and regulated by a 
 calm and accurate judgment. His descent from 
 the proudest line in Irish history gratified the 
 Celtic prepossessions of the people; his social 
 position commanded respect, and his Protestant 
 creed afforded one more proof in addition to the 
 many already existing, that Irish nationality 
 is of no particular sect or persuasion ; and that 
 amongst those who own its sacred influence, the 
 most ardent, the most active, the most useful 
 may be, and have been, Protestants. 
 
 On his junction with the Repeal Association he 
 immediately founded the " Parliamentary Com- 
 mittee," whose occupation is to watch and report 
 upon all bills affecting Ireland in their progress 
 through parliament. 
 
 The British public have no knowledge what- 
 ever of the real nature of the committees of the 
 Repeal Association. They are practical schools 
 of legislation. The labours of the gentlemen 
 composing those committees are directed to 
 amass and disseminate information on matters 
 with which the Irish legislator ought to be fami- 
 
REPORTS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 281 
 
 liar. Of the extent and variety of their duties 
 some conception may be formed from the follow- 
 ing list of Eeports drawn up and circulated by 
 the Association : — 
 
 1. — Report on the number of Representatives to which Ireland is 
 entitled. 
 
 2. — ,, on Ecclesiastical Revenues. 
 
 3. ,, on the state of the Franchise in Ireland. 
 
 4 ,, on Corporate Reform. 
 
 5 ,, on the means by which the Union was carried. 
 
 6., ,, on the Re-construction of the Irish House of Com- 
 mons. 
 
 7 ,, on the Financial Injustice inflicted on Ireland. 
 
 8. ,, on the Resolutions of the Volunteers in 1782, 
 
 9, 10 — Two Reports on the Resolutions passed in Ireland against 
 the Union. 
 
 11 Report on the Fisheries of Ireland. 
 
 12, 13, 14— Three Reports on the Comparative State of Crime in 
 England and Ireland. 
 
 15 Report on the disastrous effects of the Union on the Woollen, 
 
 Silk, and Cotton Manufactures of Ireland. 
 
 16. „ on the Appointment and Duties of Repeal W^ardens. 
 
 17. — „ on Lord Stanley's Registration Bill. 
 
 18 ,, on the Remedies proposed for the Evils of the Poor 
 
 Law. 
 
 19. — ,, on the Arbitration Committee. 
 
 20. „ First General Report of Parliamentary Committee. 
 
 21. ,, on the Borough Franchise. 
 
 22. — ,, on the Removal of Irish Poor from England. 
 
 23 ,, on Joint-stock Banking. 
 
 24 ,, on the Ordnance Memoir of Ireland. 
 
 25. — ,, on the Fiscal Relations between Great Britain and 
 Ireland. 
 26. — „ on the Irish Municipal Amendment Bill. 
 
 27 ,, on the County Franchise of Ireland and Lord Eliot's 
 
 Bill. 
 
 28 ,, on Commercial Tariffs. 
 
282 MR. SECRETARY RAY. 
 
 29 — Report on Arms' Returns (Ireland). 
 
 30 — ,, Second Report on Lord Eliot's Registration Bill. 
 
 31 — ,, on Glass Duties. 
 
 32. — ,, on the Estimates of 1844-5. 
 
 33 — ,, on the Industrial Resources of Ireland. 
 
 34 — ,, on Petit Juries. 
 
 35 — ,, on the Hurrying of Bills through Parliament. 
 36. — ,, on Opening Letters in the Post Office. 
 
 37. — ,, on the Attendance of Irish Members in Parliament. < 
 38. — ,, Second Report on Irish Fisheries. 
 
 From the above catalogue it will appear that 
 the Repeal leaders have devoted their labours 
 not merely to the organizing of the people, but 
 to the equally essential task of diffusing through 
 the land a body of information calculated to exalt 
 and fortify the movement, by enlisting the intel- 
 lect of Ireland as well as her feelings in favour 
 of home government. 
 
 The admirable regularity and effective working 
 of the Association are mainly due to the care and 
 ability of its Secretary, Mr. Ray. That gentle- 
 man conducts the multitudinous correspondence 
 of the Association, smooths difficulties, disen- 
 tangles and arranges the most complicated details 
 of public business, with a quiet, easy mastery, 
 resulting partly from long habit, but far more 
 fi'om natural sagacity. His acquaintance with 
 Irish political matters is accurate and extensive. 
 He has a singularly tabular mind, well stored 
 with information, historic and statistic ; and he 
 
THE REPEAL READING ROOMS. 283 
 
 can, at a moment's notice, produce to you any 
 fact or detail from his copious stores that you 
 wish to lay your hand on. Each item occupies 
 its place in his mental repositories, duly labeled 
 and ticketed. Few public societies have so able 
 and efficient an officer. He is popular, not only 
 from his official merits, but also from his great 
 and well-known private worth. 
 
 Mr. Kay is the originator of the Eepeal Kead- 
 ing Eooms. He established them in several 
 towns on his Eepeal mission at an early period of 
 the Repeal Association. The first of these rooms 
 opened, was at Newcastle, county Limerick. 
 
 The Eeading-Room system is of great practical 
 value; and although not yet fully extended, it 
 has already developed its utility in furnishing 
 local centres to combine and permanently orga- 
 nize the county patriots ; centres where political 
 information can be constantly acquired; social 
 rallying points for the provincial Eepealers, where 
 the intellect is exercised and improved; where 
 habits of morality are strengthened by the in- 
 ducement affi)rded to the people to employ their 
 leisure hours in mental recreation instead of sen- 
 sual indulgence. -i^ 
 
284 THE CLONTARF MEETING. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXL 
 
 The King of France with twenty thousand men, 
 March'd up the hill and then — march'd down again ! 
 
 The autumn of 1843 was advancing to its 
 close ; some three or four " monster meetings" 
 yet remained to be held. Of these the Clontarf 
 gathering was fixed for Sunday the 8th of Octo- 
 ber. The Executive had hitherto looked on at 
 the Repeal agitation in passive imbecility. They 
 now resolved on a sudden demonstration of vi- 
 gour. Late on the afternoon of, Saturday the 
 7th, a proclamation by the Viceroy, Lord De 
 Grey, was issued from the Castle, prohibiting 
 the intended meeting of the morrow at Clontarf. 
 O'Connell, apprehensive of a sanguinary attack 
 upon the people in case of their disregarding this 
 proclamation, issued a counter-proclamation from 
 the Corn Exchange, enjoining the Repealers to 
 abandon their purpose of assembling. Messen- 
 gers were despatched into the country in all di- 
 
DUBLIN IN A STATE OF SIEGE. 285 
 
 rections to meet the people on their way to the 
 metropolis, and to send them back to their res- 
 pective homes. 
 
 Meanwhile the government placed Dublin in a 
 state of siege. All the guards at the barracks 
 and at the Castle were doubled ; and for the es- 
 pecial protection of Earl De Grey from Eepeal 
 violence, a squadron of dragoons and two extra 
 companies of foot were quartered in the Lower 
 Castle Yard. Aldborough House was garrisoned 
 with a regiment of infantry ; at night there were 
 patrols established through the city — the roads 
 in the vicinity were patrolled by parties of mount- 
 ed police. Three vessels in the river had their 
 guns run out, commanding the spot where tlie 
 meeting was intended to have been held ; the 
 guns at the Pigeon House Fort were also run out 
 so as to command Clontarf, and prepared for im- 
 mediate action. The Rhadamanthus and Dee 
 war steamers brought the 87th Royal Irish Fu- 
 sileers to Dublin. The 34th regiment arrived in 
 Dublin on Sunday morning from Glasgow after a 
 stormy passage. As that regiment marched 
 through the city the multitude lustily cheered 
 them; the commanding officer mistaking the 
 cheer for a hostile indication, ordered the men 
 to halt and fix bayonets ! The crowd cheered 
 again — the officer was wiser the second time and 
 quietly marched his men to their barracks. 
 
286 PEEL AND PITT. 
 
 The 5th Dragoon Guards were stationed at 
 Clontarf. The men were accoutred for active 
 service ; each man and horse being provisioned 
 for four-and-twenty hours. The 60th Eifles were 
 stationed in their immediate vicinity ; each sol- 
 dier was served with sixty rounds of ball car- 
 tridge. A brigade of the Royal Horse Artillery 
 occupied a position near Clontarf Sheds, with four 
 six-pounders limbered and ready for immediate 
 action. There were also the 11th Hussars and 
 the 54th regiment of infantry stationed near the 
 Sheds. 
 
 We peruse this record of vigorous imbecility 
 with a feeling of surprise at the insensate folly of 
 the government. A " monster armament" is 
 brought against unarmed, peaceful multitudes, to 
 prevent their assembling to petition the legisla- 
 ture for the repeal of an unpopular statute ! It 
 is impossible not to be struck with the similarity 
 of the means whereby the Union was carried, and 
 those whereby it is sustained. Pitt and Castle- 
 reagh corrupted and coerced — Ebrington bribes 
 Unionists with the lure of Castle patronage — De 
 Grey brings down troops to overcome, if he can, 
 the Eepealers! Pitt poured 137,000 bayonets 
 into Ireland to carry the Union — Peel pours in 
 30,000 bayonets to preserve it ! 
 
 The whole exhibition excited no other feeling 
 
"consolidation!" 287 
 
 than that of contemptuous ridicule. The display 
 of military force could not disconcert men who 
 meditated no appeal to arms. The Tories how- 
 ever declared that the military occupation of 
 Ireland was indispensable to preserve the con- 
 nexion of the countries. What a pregnant com- 
 mentary on the Union ! The Union, which was 
 to have fused, consolidated, identified the nations, 
 so that they were no longer to have been " twain, 
 but one flesh" — this consolidating Union lasts for 
 three-and-forty years, at the end of which period 
 (on the Tory showing) it requires 30,000 troops 
 to restrain one of the " consolidated^^ parties from 
 breaking loose from the other ! I repeat — what 
 a pregnant commentary on the Union ! 
 
 Meanwhile the Kepealers displayed no relaxa- 
 tion of zeal or activity. The first weekly meet- 
 ing of the Association after the Clontarf affair 
 was so crowded that the Committee were obliged 
 to adjourn it from the Corn Exchange to the 
 Theatre in Abbey-street. Prosecutions were 
 threatened, and great excitement prevailed. On 
 that day, and on the two following Mondays, the 
 chair was successively occupied by John O'Con- 
 nell, by myself, and by Mr. O'Neill of Bunowen 
 Castle, who threw into his address a genuinely 
 Irish spirit of chivalrous devotion to the cause. 
 
 Then came the prosecutions, under the ma- 
 
288 THE MONSTER PROSECUTIONS. 
 
 nagement of the Attorney-General, Mr. T. B. C. 
 Smith. At first the proceedings excited curiosi- 
 ty, but their dull monotony soon palled upon the 
 public mind. The traversers kept up their spi- 
 rits despite this monster-nuisance. One of their 
 attorneys made a serio-comic complaint of the 
 Court, the agents, and the defendants, who all 
 seemed engaged in a conspiracy to deprive the 
 trial of becoming gravity and dignity. 
 
 " Heaven help me," quoth this worthy gentle- 
 man, " I have got no peace among 'em all ! 
 I want my clients to swear an affidavit — they've 
 levanted somewhere, and are n't to be found. 
 Well, there's a hurry-scurry after them, and at 
 last they're discovered, sitting for their pictures 
 to some vagabond coxcomb of an artist from 
 London. By-and-bye I want Mr. * * *" (a bro- 
 ther solicitor) " on a very pressing matter — he's 
 invisible — another hue-and-cry — at length he's 
 caught in a back parlour, with his thumbs in his 
 waistcoat pockets, strutting up and down in a 
 dignified attitude, and looking as majestic as he 
 can for some other grinning, picture-drawing 
 scamp. We go back to the court — the travers- 
 ers are cracking their jokes among themselves in 
 their box, and my lords are poking their necks 
 over the desk to find out if they can what the 
 devil the fun is all about ! Counsellor Fitzgib- 
 
FEATURES OF THE MONSTER TRIAL. 289 
 
 hon does his duty by his client, whereupon the 
 Attorney-General jumps up and sends him a 
 three-cocked invitation in open court to come and 
 be shot at twelve paces !" 
 
 The memorabilia of the trial are familiar to the 
 entire British public — the refusal of the caption 
 to the traversers — the defective jury-list — the 
 shameless packing of the jury — the admission of 
 a species of evidence against the traversers which 
 was actually condemned as inadmissible at the 
 very same period by the Court of Queen's Bench 
 at Westminster* — the charge by the Lord Chief 
 Justice against " the other side" — and finally the 
 wrongful imprisonment. 
 
 The imprisonment, however, was a great point 
 gained for the Orangemen. No matter by what 
 means accomplished, it was a subject for loud ex- 
 ultation. The traversers were at last in jail- — 
 convicted of a " conspiracy f which " conspiracy" 
 no ten rational men outside the court and juiy- 
 box believed to have any existence at all ! 
 
 The exclusion of Catholics from the jury-list, 
 because they were supposed to be Kepealers, was 
 defended by Sir James Graham in the following 
 very significant manner : 
 
 * Viz., the admission of newspaper articles in evidence against 
 raen who never saw them. 
 
 U 
 
290 SIR JAMES GRAHAM'S "IMPARTIALITY." 
 
 " We wanted," said the right honourable baro- 
 net, " to avoid the partiality necessarily arising 
 from preconceived opinions favourable to Kepeal 
 on the part of the jurors." 
 
 Did it occur to Sir James that there might 
 be just as strong a partiality on the opposite side, 
 arising from the preconceived opinions of jurors 
 adverse to Eepeal ? 
 
 When a man says, " Oh, don't put Eepealers 
 into the jury-box — they'll be sure to acquit!" 
 it certainly sounds extremely like saying, " Do 
 put anti-Repealers into the box — they'll be sure 
 to convict !" 
 
ORAXGE-TORY TRIUMPH. 291 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Who helpeth not himself, Fortune disowns ; 
 Who braves all obstacles will win i' th' end. 
 Success crowns perseverance — coward souls 
 Who shrink from work shall never wia work's guerdon. 
 
 Herbert Smith. 
 
 The Orange and Tory party now had their 
 triumph. Truly the government had deserved 
 success, if a reckless disregard of all decency in 
 their vindictive pursuit could entitle them to 
 victory ! 
 
 But the verdict was obtained, no matter how ! 
 and sentence was pronounced, and there was a 
 great and mighty glorifying in all Orangeland. 
 The Mail announced that the traversers had been 
 conveyed to their prison with less eclat than had 
 often attended a coal-porter's wedding. That 
 Repeal could survive the incarceration of seven 
 of its leaders, was deemed quite impossible. 
 The cause was extinct; that was loudly an- 
 nounced. The Repeal Rent would dwindle to 
 nothing. The "deluded people," having their 
 eyes opened to the wickedness, folly, and peril of 
 
 u2 
 
292 TORT YATICIXATIOXS. 
 
 their evil ways by the well-merited punishment 
 of their chiefs, would be scared from any further 
 connexion with the movement. They would no 
 longer fiirnish the sinews of war to a set of men 
 who could not keep their heads out of Sir Kobert 
 Peel's net. The leaders were seized — the flock 
 would scatter. And above all, the mischievous 
 magic of O'ConneU's legal infallibility, which so 
 long had kept the Repealers together, would now 
 be destroyed. The spell was dissolved — the ma- 
 gician would henceforth be powerless. 
 
 Such were the glorifications of the Tory party 
 on O'Conneirs imprisonment. Bets were laid as 
 to whether the Repealers would hold their usual 
 meeting on the following Monday. The conser- 
 vative party were firmly convinced that they 
 would not dare to assemble. 
 
 The committee met on the evening of the day 
 which saw O'Connell consigned to a prison. The 
 room was overflowing, and great excitement ne- 
 cessarily prevailed. It was surmised that the 
 government would proclaim down the association 
 on the Monday morning, and arrest the principal 
 Repealers who were still at large. On the ques- 
 tion being discussed as to who should occupy the 
 chair, a post of possible danger, numerous gentle- 
 men volunteered themselves ; but Mr. Smith 
 O'Brien said that as he conceived that the strug- 
 
THE REPEALERS NOT SCARED. 293 
 
 gle against despotic power coiild perhaps be most 
 effectively made in his person, he claimed the 
 chief post of peril as a particular fayoiir. It was, 
 however, deemed more advisable that Mr. O'Brien 
 should occupy the place usually filled by Mr. 
 O'Connell. 
 
 Monday arrived. It soon became manifest 
 that the Eepealers were not scared by the recent 
 prosecution. They mustered in such crowds that 
 the Conciliation Hall was filled long before the 
 hour announced for the commencement of the 
 day's business, and thousands who could not 
 obtain standing room were obliged to go away. 
 The Tory predictions did not seem likely to be 
 realized. " There was no shrinking," either 
 among the leaders or the people. 
 
 The chair was occupied on Monday by Mr. 
 Caleb Powell^ the Protestant representative of 
 the County Limerick ; and on Tuesday by 
 another Protestant gentleman. Captain Seaver 
 of Heath Hall, near ]S[ewry. There was a sus- 
 tained, yet quiet energy in the entire proceedings. 
 There was the most intense enthusiasm combined 
 with the most cautious discretion. Every face 
 expressed firm resolution to encounter all risks 
 that might beset the pursuit of Eepeal ; but at 
 the same time to play the game warily as well 
 as firmly. The minds of men were braced and 
 
294 THE REPEAL RENT INCREASED. 
 
 strung for a mighty effort. It was glorious to 
 behold the crowds that filled the national hall at 
 the moment when the thunders of the govern- 
 ment were directed against Ireland's nationality. 
 The people never assumed a loftier port or a 
 nobler attitude than when they calmly bade 
 defiance to tyrannic power, and opposed the sim- 
 ple might of popular opinion to the chicanery of 
 perverted law and the formidable array of British 
 bayonets. The troops that filled the land, and 
 the monster-indictment, alike were impotent to 
 scare them from a course recommended by its 
 own intrinsic justice and endeared to their hearts 
 by every sentiment of national pride. They 
 hailed with delight the entrance of the men who 
 were accustomed to take a prominent part in 
 their proceedings. The roof rang again with 
 the joyous acclamations that greeted their ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 The prosecution evidently had not paralyzed 
 the Eepeal Exchequer. There was actually an 
 inconvenient rivalry to hand in money. Each 
 man was eager to pour into the treasury the 
 contribution entrusted to his care, and thus were 
 several hours successively occupied. The first 
 week's receipts amounted to £2,593 18^. 2d. ; 
 which sum was considerably exceeded on several 
 subsequent occasions. 
 
DEPUTATIONS TO O'CONNELL IN JAIL. 295 
 
 Almost immediately on O'Connell's imprison- 
 ment, the several municipal corporations of Ire- 
 land sent deputies to the metropolis ; where, 
 having been refused admission to the prison for 
 the purpose of presenting addresses to the cap- 
 tives, they assembled at O'Connell's house in 
 Merrion-square, and there agreed on a solemn 
 declaration that Ireland required a Domestic 
 Parliament to develop her resources and secure 
 her prosperity. This declaration, emanating not 
 from noisy agitators, but from the very flower of 
 the trading and mercantile community of Ire- 
 land, was necessarily calculated to produce a 
 deep impression. 
 
 While these events occurred out of doors, let 
 us take a peep within the prison walls. 
 
 O'Connell, on the evening of his incarceration, 
 had exclaimed, " Thank God I am in jail for 
 Ireland !" He intuitively felt how much Peel's 
 false move tended to augment the strength of 
 the national cause. All the prisoners dined to- 
 gether, and the party most certainly wore any- 
 thing but a tragical air. They all enjoyed the 
 exhilaration of spirits arising from a conscious- 
 ness that whatever inconvenience they might 
 sustain, their imprisonment would accelerate the 
 triumph of the cause that was nearest to their 
 hearts. 
 
296 EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PRISONERS. 
 
 They were, for the first few days, occupied 
 with the bustle of fixing themselves in their new 
 quarters. At last they settled down into some- 
 thing like their usual habits. Charles Gavan 
 Duffy, the editor of the Nation; Dr. Gray, the 
 editor of the Freeman; and Richard Barrett, 
 the editor of the Pilcd^ found abundant employ- 
 ment in superintending their several journals. 
 The moments unoccupied by business they devo- 
 ted to study, or to taking exercise in the adjoin- 
 ing gardens. Mr. Duffy, under the impression 
 that the imprisonment would last a year, an- 
 nounced his purpose of reading through Carte's 
 Life of Ormond in three folio volum.es. Mr. Eay 
 still exercised his supervision of the affairs of 
 the association. John O'Connell wrote his amus- 
 ing and instructive " Eepeal Dictionary," which 
 appeared in the weekly press ; and which, when 
 finished, will deserve to be collected and published 
 in a volume."* Steele read Kane's " Industrial 
 Resources of Ireland," and defaced the fair pages 
 of the work with innumerable marks of admira- 
 
 * Since the above was written, the Association have resolved on 
 publishing in a collected form John O'Connell's very useful work, 
 which will lose none of its interest with the Irish people from the 
 circumstance of its being a monument of its writer's undiminished 
 devotion to their freedom whilst a prisoner for his labours in their 
 cause. 
 
ADDRESSES FROM THE COUNTRY. 297 
 
 tion. Barrett was ready for fun, frisk, joyous 
 frolic of every sort, and more tlian once kept the 
 incarcerated coterie in roars of laughter by atti- 
 tudinizing and grimacing in a style that might 
 have done honour to Liston. Nearly all the 
 prisoners contributed to the pages of a jeu d' 
 esprit called the Prison Gazette, which came 
 out on Fridays after dinner, and in which they 
 quizzed each other and their friends with merry 
 malice. In short, there never was a set of jail- 
 birds who bore so lightly and joyously the hours 
 of imprisonment, or whose deprivation of freedom 
 was more soothed by the kind and sympathetic 
 offices of friends. 
 
 They had access to two gardens. In one of 
 these was a mound with a summer-house on 
 the top. The mound they amused themselves 
 by calling " Tara Hill ;" the summer-house was 
 termed " Conciliation Hall." In the other gar- 
 den they erected a large marquee which they 
 styled " Mullaghmast," and in this marquee were 
 received the numerous deputations who bore 
 addresses to the "convicts" from the different 
 quarters of the kingdom. 
 
 I learned from a gentleman who was present 
 on one of these occasions that O'Connell replied 
 to the bearers of an address in the following 
 words : — 
 
298 o'connell's satisfaction 
 
 " Tell your friends that my heart is joyful, my 
 spirits are buoyant, my health is excellent, my 
 hopes are high. My imprisonment is not irksome 
 to me, for I feel and know that it will, under 
 Providence, be the means of making our country 
 a nation again. I am glad I am in prison. There 
 wanted but this to my career. I have laboured 
 for Ireland — refused office, honour, and emolu- 
 ment for Ireland — I have prayed and hoped 
 and watched for Ireland — there was yet one 
 thing wanted — that I should be in jail for Ire- 
 land. That has now been added to the rest, 
 thanks to our enemies ! and I cordially rejoice at 
 it." 
 
 O'Connell, in the course of that day, was waited 
 on by a party of American tourists. When they 
 arrived, he was standing on the top of "Tara 
 Hill." They doffed their hats and remained at 
 the foot of the mound until desired to walk up. 
 " You are probably more visited here," said one 
 of them, " than if you were at large." " Yes," re- 
 plied the Liberator, " and here I cannot use the 
 excuse of ^not at homeT" 
 
 The progress of Repeal during his imprison- 
 ment enchanted him. "The people," said he, 
 "are behaving nobly. I was at first a little 
 afraid, despite all my teaching, that at such a 
 trying crisis they would have done either too 
 
AT THE CONDUCT OF THE PEOPLE. 299 
 
 much or too little — either have been stung into 
 an outbreak, or else awed into apathy. Neither 
 has happened — blessed be God ! — the people are 
 acting nobly ! What it is to have such a people 
 to lead!" 
 
 He rejoiced especially over the excellent train- 
 ing of the Repeal Association ; praised the young 
 talent called forth by the movement, bestowing 
 particular eulogy on Mac Nevin and Barry. 
 
 "In the days of the Catholic Association," 
 said he, " I used to have more trouble than I can 
 express in keeping down mutiny. I always 
 arrived in town about the 25th of October, and 
 on my arrival I invariably found some jealousies, 
 some squabbles, some fellow trying to be leader, 
 which gave me infinite annoyance. But now all 
 goes right — no man is jealous of any other man ; 
 each does his best for the general cause." 
 
 Speaking of his own pacific policy, he remarked 
 it was a curious coincidence that the Conal of 
 Ossian should say, " My sword hangs at my side 
 — the blade longs to shine in my hand — but I 
 love the peace of green Erin of the streams." 
 
 The convicted patriots received numerous pre- 
 sents of fruit and flowers. A patriotic confec- 
 tioner presented them with two monster-cakes. 
 Mr. Scriber of Westmoreland-street sent them 
 seven musical boxes to cheer their imprisonment ; 
 
300 HOW THE PRISON HOURS PASSED. 
 
 and it is said that immediately on the arrival of 
 this harmonious cargo, the prisoners evinced 
 their satisfaction with more musical zeal than 
 taste — namely, by setting the seven boxes all 
 playing together ! 
 
 Mr. Steele one day placed a stone which he 
 dignified with the name of the Liach Fail, or 
 the Stone of Destiny, on the side of the mimic 
 Tara Hill in the garden, calling on Dufiy to 
 doff his hat in honour of the august ceremony. 
 
 With these and such like helps and devices 
 did the prisoners try to cheat the hours of that 
 bondage, which, under every circumstance of 
 mitigation, must ever be oppressive and weari- 
 some to men of ardent minds and active habits. 
 One day John O'Connell made some remark on 
 the high gloomy prison buildings, which excluded 
 the view of the country from the dining room : 
 
 " I am better pleased," said his father, " that 
 the view is excluded. To see the hills and fields 
 and sea coast, and to feel that you were debarred 
 from the freedom of walking among them, were 
 a worse affliction than to be deprived altogether 
 of the sight. It would tantalize too much." 
 
 But these little fits of gloom were merely 
 passing clouds. There was great and enduring 
 consolation in the steady progress the Kepeal 
 cause was making daily. The meetings of the 
 
ANTI-REPEAL PROPHECIES. 301 
 
 association wore an eminently practical and 
 bnsiness-like character. There was no wild, 
 driftless rhapsodizing. Men spoke to the pur- 
 pose, and not at immeasurable length. Their 
 eloquence — the more effective because compressed 
 within reasonable limits — was alternated with the 
 delivery of the vast remittances which showed 
 how stedfastly the nation backed the demand 
 for independence. The money was an index 
 that could not be mistaken of the people's re- 
 solve. When a poor and oppressed people give 
 their money, they are ready to give everything 
 else — life itself, if needed to achieve their object. 
 
 It excites a smile to reflect on the utter dis- 
 comfiture of the government in the result of 
 their monster-prosecution. I do - not merely 
 mean with regard to the final reversal of judg- 
 ment by the Lords ; but with reference to the 
 ludicrous failure of the verdict, sentence, and 
 imprisonment, in producing those results which 
 were so confidently prophesied by the anti-Irish 
 gang who hounded on Sir Eobert Peel to the 
 experiment. It was prophesied — 
 
 First, that a salutary terror would be struck 
 into the souls of the Repealers. When their 
 leader was made amenable for his crimes to the 
 outraged law, his followers would shrink from 
 exposing themselves to the like penalty. 
 
302 TOTAL MORAL FAILURE. 
 
 But the wicked Repealers were not quite so 
 easily terrified. They mustered at the Corn 
 Exchange in larger numbers and with greater 
 energy than ever. 
 
 Secondly, it was thought that if the people 
 could not be immediately scared, their indignation 
 at the legal outrage on their Liberator might 
 at least goad them into a useful emeute; for 
 which contingency a potent armament had been 
 prepared. Eepeal might be drowned in a river 
 of blood. 
 
 But again — the provoking people knew better 
 than to treat their kind friends to an emeute. 
 They were not quite so reckless and impulsive as 
 those sagacious speculators had deemed possible. 
 Instead of taking up pikes, they thronged to the 
 Conciliation Hall to supply themselves with Re- 
 peal cards ! 
 
 Thirdly, there were among the Tory editors and 
 politicians, good sympathising souls, who were 
 sorry to see the knowing managers at the Corn 
 Exchange gull their poor dupes out of the Repeal 
 Rent. They said " Shut up O'Connell, and the 
 rent will immediately dwindle down to nothing. 
 The Irish ' treason' will lose its supplies." 
 
 But, alack ! this benevolent hope was doomed 
 to be also disappointed. For the fourteen weeks 
 preceding the imprisonment, the Repeal rent had 
 
OF THE PROSECUTION. 303 
 
 amounted to £6679 12s, Qd; for the fourteen 
 weeks that O'Connell was in jail, the National 
 Treasury swelled up to £25,712 175. 2d, 
 
 Fourthly — It was said and sung in all moods, 
 tenses, and measures, that the imprisonment would 
 for ever deprive O'Connell of the prestige of legal 
 invulnerability. The people would fly from the 
 impostor, now unmasked by the searching opera- 
 tion of the law. 
 
 But the people were so wickedly obtuse that 
 they could not be made to understand how O'Con- 
 nell's reputation as a lawyer could suffer from a 
 notoriously vii-ulent and one-sided charge, and a 
 verdict so battered and shattered and damaged as 
 to lose all moral weight in the estimation of all 
 rational and unprejudiced men. They did not 
 require any experiments in the Court of Queen's 
 Bench to convince them that twelve hot Tories 
 could easily be got to seize with alacrity on an 
 opportunity of finding O'Connell guilty. The 
 Liberator's legal prestige accordingly remained 
 unscathed and unimpaired. 
 
 Fifthly — As the glorious result of all the 
 above sagacious speculations, Repeal would be 
 eoctinct. 
 
 But Kepeal turned out to possess an unexpected 
 vitality. To the utter dismay aad astonishment 
 of the prophets, instead of becoming extinct it 
 
304 RECOIL or THE PROSECUTION 
 
 towers aloft in new pride and strength; it ex- 
 pands and fortifies its influences ; it assumes an 
 attitude of majesty and power far greater than it 
 had previously exhibited ; it daily receives fresh 
 adhesions from important recruits ; it has taken 
 such a grasp of the national heart that a prudent 
 statesman may now not unreasonably ask him- 
 self, whether the refusal of a demand so just, so 
 righteous, so essential to Irish prosperity, and on 
 which the desire of Ireland is unalterably fixed, 
 can be persevered in without deeply imperiling 
 the integrity of the British empire ? 
 
 Thus, with retributive justice, did the means 
 employed to stifle the Eepeal, discomfit the men 
 who made nse of them, by imparting new force to 
 the movement; increasing the energy of its 
 former friends, and enlarging its ranks with new 
 and valuable auxiliaries. 
 
 The imprisonment further demonstrated to our 
 enemies that O'Connell had created machinery 
 which, even in his absence, could work the na- 
 tional question. It was manifest that Kepeal 
 could now go on without O'Connell. This was 
 an unwelcome discovery to those who had fondly 
 persuaded themselves that the agitation was the 
 breath of his nostrils, and could not survive his 
 removal from the scene. 
 
 Baflled, discomfited at all points, the anti-Irish 
 
ON THOSE WHO CONTRIVED IT. 305 
 
 party began to discover that it had been infinitely 
 wiser to have abstained altogether from meddling 
 with the nationalists. As Dr. Gray tersely re- 
 marked, "O'Connell could far better afford to 
 remain in prison than Peel could afford to keep 
 him there." 
 
 So much for the results of the imprisonment. 
 
 But the prisoners had appealed from the deci- 
 sion of the Court of Queen's Bench to the House 
 of Lords. Such an appeal seemed unpromising 
 enough ; but they felt it a duty, not less to their 
 country than to themselves, to try every chance, 
 however improbable, of procuring a reversal of 
 the unjust judgment under which they suffered. 
 The great majority of the English judges were 
 against them. Providentially the ultimate deci- 
 sion lay with five law-lords, Lyndhurst, Brough- 
 am, Cottenham, Denman, and Campbell, of whom 
 the last named three respected the constitutional 
 rights of the Queen's subjects ; detested jury- 
 packing and partizan charges ; did not compre- 
 hend how a sound and legal judgment could be 
 based upon an unsound and illegal indictment ; 
 and accordingly, both on the merits of the case 
 and on legal grounds, reversed the judgment of 
 the Irish Court of Queen's Bench. The words of 
 Lord Denman are too important to be omitted 
 from a record, however brief, of the transaction : 
 
 X 
 
30G LORD denman's judgment. 
 
 " If," said his lordship, " 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." 
 
 Three law lords versus two decided the matter 
 in favour of the prisoners. They had been thrust 
 into jail with vindictive haste. The ultimate 
 court of appeal now pronounced that they should 
 not have been in jail for an instant. The Times ^ 
 in its dismay, made a desperate effort to extract 
 an argument against Eepeal from the decision of 
 the Lords. Thus spoke the " leading journal" : 
 
 " It" (the decision) " will teach the most anti- 
 Saxon of the Irish people — the most vehement 
 instigators to Eepeal — the most violent denoun- 
 cers of England — that the only tribunal where the 
 strict and literal construction of the law is brought 
 to aid the impugners and the violators of law, is 
 the highest court of that nation from which Ire- 
 land prays to be divorced : that the only place 
 where those who have assailed England and her 
 peerage can have justice meted, is the House of 
 Peers in England." 
 
 The decision of the three honest law-lords will 
 teach the people of Ireland no such thing. That 
 there were three constitutional lords out of five 
 was sheer accident. But there was no accident 
 in the Saxon spirit which initiated the prosecu- 
 
THE MORAL OF THE PROSECUTION, ETC. 307 
 
 tion ; no accident in the anti-Irish tendencies of 
 the Coiu't of Queen's Bench ; no accident in the 
 Saxon hate of Ireland which denied to the ac- 
 cused thi'oughout the trial the ordinary privileges 
 dictated by common justice ; no accident in the 
 fiery speed with which the accused were hurried 
 from the courts to the jail ; no accident in the 
 decision of a large majority of the English judges, 
 who confirmed the judgment delivered by their 
 Irish brethren in a mode whereof the falsehood 
 and the foUy contended for predominance; no 
 accident in the indecency with which the lay-lords 
 were struggling to negative the reversal of judg- 
 ment pronounced by the law-lords, if they had 
 not been restrained for very shame's sake by Lord 
 Wharnclifie. 
 
 No. These things were not accidental; and 
 in them, each and all, do the Irish people recog- 
 nize the impression of English influence and the 
 paramount need for self-government. In them, 
 and not in the lucky accident of a favourable 
 majority (and it was the smallest possible majo- 
 rity) among the English law-lords, do the Irish 
 people find the motives rationally applicable to 
 their dealings with the Legislative Union Sta- 
 tute. 
 
 On the evening of the sixth of September, O'Con- 
 
 X "1 
 
308 WHAT THE PRISONERS EXPECTED. 
 
 nell and his fellow-prisoners were liberated.* 
 About ten days previous^, his intimate friend, 
 Mr. Patrick FitzPatrick of Eccles-street, had ex- 
 pressed to him his anticipation that the law-lords 
 would confirm the sentence, but that the prison- 
 ers would be liberated by the exercise of the 
 royal prerogative. " You must in that event," 
 continued Mr. FitzPatrick, "be prepared with 
 instant securities. How large is the amount of 
 bail required?" 
 
 O'Connell had forgotten the amount, and des- 
 cended to the governor's office to inspect the 
 book. Mr. FitzPatrick speedily followed, and 
 found O'Connell laughing heartily at the personal 
 description annexed to his name in the book — 
 " Daniel O'Connell — complexion good^ The 
 amount of bail was £5000 personally, and two 
 securities in £2500 each. 
 
 " But it is idle — quite idle to talk of it !" ex- 
 claimed O'Connell ; " there is not the least pro- 
 bability, not the smallest shadow of a chance of 
 our being set free. No, my good friend — we 
 shall suffer our full term," 
 
 In this conviction O'Connell continued, until 
 the evening of the sixth. Tv/o messengers from 
 
 * The particulars wluch follow were coraraunicated to rae by Mr. 
 FitzPatrick. 
 
FIRST NEWS OF THE DECISION. 309 
 
 the Corn Exchange rushed tumnltuously into 
 the prison with the news, vociferating in such 
 noisy rivalship that their tidings were for a long 
 time perfectly unintelligible. At length one of 
 them, per force of better wind, shouted his com- 
 rade out of breath, and having reached the cor- 
 ridor leading to O'Connell's apartments continued 
 to bellow, " I'm first ! I'm first ! I'm first !" 
 
 " What is it all about ?" demanded Mr. Bar- 
 rett, who was calmly perambulating the corridor. 
 
 " Only that you're free !" cried Edmond O'Ha- 
 garty (the messenger). " I'm first ! I'm first. 
 Hurrah! Where's the Liberator? I'm first!" 
 
 They rushed into a drawing-room where 
 O'Connell was seated between two ladies, O'Ha- 
 garty in his noisy delight still shouting out, " I'm 
 first ! I'm first ! You're free. Liberator ! thanks 
 be to God for that same! The judgment's re- 
 versed." 
 
 " Bah ! not true ! it canH be true !" replied 
 O'Connell coolly. 
 
 " But it is true, Liberator !" And the mes- 
 senger showed him the placard which had been 
 printed in London announcing the fact. He 
 examined it attentively, and said to FitzPatrick, 
 " After all, this may be true" — when doubt was 
 set at rest by the sudden appearance of the at- 
 torneys for the defence. " On the merits T were 
 
310 LIBERATION OF O'COXXELL 
 
 the first Tvords of Mr. Ford, who threw his arms 
 round O'Connell's neck and kissed him. O'Con- 
 nell wore his green yelvet Miillaghmast cap, and 
 Ford wore a broad-brimmed beaver hat, oblivious 
 in his ecstacy of the presence of the ladies. '* On 
 the merits!^' he triumphantly repeated; ''no 
 technicalities at all — nothing but the merits !" 
 
 The news had now spread through the prison, 
 and the other prisoners crowded to the drawing- 
 room to learn their fate. There was a quiet sort 
 of triumph ; no boisterous joy amongst the tra- 
 versers. In the course of the evening O'Connell 
 said to my informant in a tone of deep solem- 
 nity: 
 
 *' FitzPatrick. the hand of man is not in this. 
 It is the response given by Providence to the 
 prayers of the faithful, pious, stedfast people o^ 
 Ireland.'' 
 
 It was near twilight when O'Connell left the 
 prison to return to his home in Merrion-square. 
 As he walked along the streets, the people at first 
 crazed on him in bewildered astonishment — they 
 could not believe the evidence of their eyes ! 
 "Was O'Connell indeed free ? They crowded 
 around him to ascertain the fact — the crowds 
 augmented — and by the time he arrived at the 
 western end of Merrion-square his friends were 
 obliged to form a cordon round him to avert the 
 
AXD HIS PELLOW-PRISOXERS. 311 
 
 inconvenient pressure of the delighted multitude. 
 When he placed his foot on his own hall-door-step 
 to re-enter the home from which he had for three 
 months been inquitously exiled, the popular ec- 
 stacy became uncontrollable. Cheer after cheer 
 rose and swelled on the air — the people gave 
 vent to their wild delight in vociferous accla- 
 mations ; every heart beat high with pride and 
 triumph at the liberation of the venerated leader ; 
 not by ministerial grace or royal favour, but by 
 the strict and stern vindication of that law which 
 had been so grossly and nefariously outraged in 
 the trial and '* conviction." 
 
 O'Connell appeared on the balcony and ad- 
 dressed the people briefly. He exhorted them to 
 bear their victory with moderation. Let them, 
 he said, demonstrate their fitness to rule them- 
 selves, by the spirit of conciliation and friend- 
 liness with which they should enjoy their tri- 
 umph. 
 
 On the next day (Saturday, the 7th of Sep- 
 tember), the liberated patriots passed in proces- 
 sion through the leading streets of the metropolis. 
 It was a scene of indescribable excitement. When 
 opposite the door of the old Parliament House in 
 College-green, the cavalcade halted; O'Connell 
 rose in his triumphal car, uncovered his head, 
 and pointed with significant emphasis to the 
 
312 PUBUC PEOCESSIOX OF THE REPEALERS. 
 
 edifice. Then there arose a mighty shout from 
 the surrounding thousands : again and again did 
 O'Connell, looking proudly around him, repeat 
 his significant gesture — again and again did the 
 myriads who thronged the broad street upraise 
 their glad voices in deafening cheers — it was 
 like the roar of the ocean, that proud shout of a 
 nation s triumph and a nation's hope ! 
 
 On Monday the 9th of September the Associa- 
 tion met — the Lord Mayor of Dublin in the 
 chair. Thousands were obliged to return from 
 the door of the Conciliation Hall, from the in- 
 capacity of that building to contain them. Floor, 
 benches, galleries, all were full. The enthusiasm 
 of O'Connell's reception was beyond the power of 
 imagination to exaggerate. 
 
 His speech embraced many topics. He ex- 
 ulted in the vindication of the constitution and 
 of trial by jury. 
 
 He showed, in reply to the cavils of the en- 
 emy, that the favourable decision of the House 
 of Lords was a direct decision on the merits ; 
 inasmuch as the 6th and 7th counts of the mon- 
 ster-indictment, which expressly charged the 
 traversers with conspiracy to hold meetings to 
 intimidate; counts which contained the very 
 essence of the prosecution ; counts on which 
 judgment was directly and explicitly given 
 
OCOXXELL AT THE COXCHIATIOX HALL. 313 
 
 against the traversers by the Irish judges ; 
 counts upon which the conviction and sentence 
 were ostentatiously justified ; these 6th and 7th 
 counts were unanimously pronounced to be ut- 
 terly bad and invalid by the English judges and 
 the English House of Lords ; although the Eng- 
 lish judges, in condemning the counts, yet sanc- 
 tioned the sentence that had been based upon 
 them, by the preposterously foolish presumption 
 that it were not on those counts, but on some 
 others, that the Irish bench had rested their 
 judgment ; a presumption notoriously contra- 
 dicted by the fact, and by the charges of the 
 Irish judges themselves ! 
 
 O'ConneU next complimented the Whigs for 
 their felicitous judicial appointments. 
 
 He complimented Sheil, who had been harshly 
 censured for seeming to solicit, as a matter of 
 favour to the traversers, some concession from 
 the government. 
 
 " I was vexed and angry with Sheil at the 
 time, that he should have uttered any words to 
 which the meaning could be possibly attached of 
 soliciting a favour' on my part from Sir Eobert 
 Peel. Ah ! he ous:ht to have known me better ! 
 He ought to have known that I would rather 
 have rotted in jail than condescend to accept 
 a favour from Peel. I said from the commence- 
 
314 o'coxxell's eulogy of sheil. 
 
 • 
 
 ment — I announced it to the world — that, come 
 what might, there should be no compromise or 
 shrinking. There has been none, and there is 
 not a man of us who would not hare died in jail 
 rather than sully our hands by receiving the 
 slightest concession from our enemies. Sheil 
 was wrong in that instance ; but he is one of 
 those who can aflPord to be wrong once, for his 
 country owes him a deep debt of gratitude. 0, 
 I cannot forget his past career I his glorious 
 career ! I cannot forget how he ornamented and 
 made interesting our struggle for emancipation, 
 ^^en I was going on with my dull prosy speech? 
 wearying the public ear with the monotony of 
 my tones and accents, and by the continual repe- 
 tition of the same facts. Sheil used to burst forth 
 in the dazzling effulgence of intellectual glory, 
 irradiating our cause with the corruscations of 
 his genius and the illumination of his powerful 
 mind.'' 
 
 O'ConneU appealed with gi'eat force to his 
 Protestant fellow-countrymen, exhibiting the de- 
 lusive quality of the fears of those who were still 
 timid, by referring to his past pacific policy ; 
 
 " What are you afraid of? Did we threaten? 
 Did we menace? Did we overawe? We were 
 strong enough to commit violence : notMng 
 save the spirit of conciliation and love for each 
 
THE SECRET OF O'COXXELL'S SUCCESS. 31 
 
 other could have brought us together in such 
 multitudinous masses without violence. In the 
 midst of a people who love me and trust me ; 
 with more power in my hands than any monarch 
 in Europe enjoys — [here the speaker was inter- 
 nipted with vehement cheering and waving of 
 handkerchiefs] — so situated, how have I de- 
 meaned myself? But first — how did I acquire 
 that power ? — I acquired it because of the con- 
 viction which every man, woman, and child feels 
 that i would not abuse it. I have acquired it 
 and retained it because I was congenial in opinion 
 with the millions of my countrymen, and because 
 they were perfectly persuaded that in the exercise 
 of that [power with which by their confidence 
 they invested me, I would sedulously guard 
 against the commission of any crime whatsoever. 
 I have kept my compact, but I never coidd have 
 done this without the assistance and co-operation 
 of the Catholic Clergy. They saw the jealous 
 scrutiny with which our minutest movements 
 were watched by our Protestant brethren : they 
 entered unreservedlv into mv views, and here is 
 all the secret of my success. The knew me. they 
 appreciated me. They knew that I was the first 
 apostle and foimder of that sect of politicians 
 whose cardinal doctriae is this — that the greatest 
 and most desirable of political changes may be 
 
316 THE TRIUMPH TELEGRAPHED 
 
 achieved by moral means alone, and that no 
 human revolution is worth the effusion of one 
 single drop of human blood. Human blood is no 
 
 CE3IEXT FOR THE TEMPLE OF HUMAN LIBERTY." 
 
 Such were the leading topics of O'Connell's 
 address on that important day. His manner and 
 appearance corresponded well with the triumph- 
 ant style of his harangue. Never were his 
 spirits more elate, his step more elastic, his tone 
 more exulting. There was a fire in his eye, an 
 eager vivacity in his voice, a buoyancy of heart, 
 and a vigour of intellect that beseemed a nation's 
 chief disenthralled from unjust bondage, and 
 impatient to devote his unfettered energies to 
 the renewed battle for legislative freedom. 
 
 It needs not be told that the enthusiastic joy 
 which animated Dublin was diffused through the 
 whole kingdom. The glad news of the liberation 
 was immediately telegraphed all over the land 
 by signal fires. Cresset answered cresset ; moun- 
 tain and valley started into light! You gazed 
 into the dark distance, and blaze after blaze 
 sprang up. The red flame glowed in the shel- 
 tered hollow of the rock, and streamed in the 
 light breeze on the hill-top. The heart and soul 
 of the land rejoiced ; the exulting shouts of the 
 people were borne far on the night wind — glen, 
 river, plain, and mountain were vocal with their 
 triumph. Stirring sights — joyous sounds ! 
 
BY SIGNAL FIRES. 317 
 
 I was ill the country at the time — loO miles 
 from Dublin. From the roof of my house on 
 the banks of the Banclon river, I looked on the 
 national illumination. I omitted to reckon the 
 number of fires, but I think it probable that 
 from that one point not less than from sixty 
 to seventy midit have been counted. 
 
318 TOM Steele's lineage. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Bold and true, 
 In bonnet blue, 
 Who fear or falsehood never knew. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Mr. Steele has occupied so prominent a posi- 
 tion in Irish agitation that a short account of his 
 career may probably interest my readers. 
 [ " Honest Tom Steele," as he is usually called, 
 was born at Derrymore in the county Clare, in 
 the year 1788. His family came from Somerset- 
 shire in the reign of Charles the Second. Their 
 name was then Champion, which they changed 
 to that of Steele, for reasons now unknown. 
 William Champion, the lineal ancestor of the 
 Head Pacificator, was, I believe, an officer in 
 Monmouth's regiment. He established himself 
 near Nenagh in the county Tipperary. His first 
 experiment as a settler was inauspicious, inas- 
 much as the Tipperary folk three times burned 
 his house over his head — the proprietor on each 
 occasion narrowly escaping with his life ! Un- 
 
HIS CAREER. 319 
 
 willing to incur the perils of a fourth combustion, 
 he migrated to the more pacific county of Clare 
 where his posterity have ever since continued to 
 reside. 
 
 Steele received a University education at Cam- 
 bridge, where he obtained distinction for his sci- 
 entific acquirements. 
 
 The death of an uncle placed him in possession 
 of his family property in Clare, just at the time 
 when the Spanish nation rose in insurrection 
 against the tyrannical King Ferdinand the Se- 
 venth. 
 
 Steele, whose love of the cause of universal 
 liberty has ever been associated with that total 
 Torgetfulness of self which the world calls im- 
 prudence, immediately resolved to assist with his 
 hand and fortune the Spanish insurgents. Ke- 
 gardless of the results of his spirited enterprize 
 upon a county Clare property, he fitted out and 
 filled with arms a vessel which he brought to 
 Cadiz. He accepted a commission from the 
 Cortes, and distinguished himself by his valour 
 in several engagements against the French, who 
 had invaded the country as the allies of a despotic 
 monarch, in order to perpetuate the bondage of 
 the Spanish people. 
 
 When the struggle against despotism proved 
 vain, Steele quitted Spain and returned to Ire- 
 
320 STEELE XSD THE TERRY ALTS, &C. 
 
 land. He constantly attended tlie meetings of 
 the Catholic Association, and watched with anx- 
 ious scrutiny the words and actions of O'Connell. 
 So soon as his judgment convinced him that 
 O'Connell was a trustworthy leader, he imme- 
 diately proclaimed his adhesion to the cause, and 
 worked with zeal to remove those disabilities 
 from the Catholics which he, as a Protestant, 
 felt were disgraceful only to the party by whom 
 they were inflicted. 
 
 Notwithstanding the military bent of Steele's 
 ideas, and the constitutional bravery of the man, 
 he highly appreciated the value of O'ConnelFs 
 moral-force system of political warfare. Seeing 
 clearlv that the wild and illesfal combinations of 
 AVhitefeet, Eibbonmen, Terry Alts, and other 
 misguided parties assuming equally fantastic and 
 absurd denominations, could only tend to em- 
 barrass the friends and injure the cause of ra- 
 tional liberty, he applied himself to the task of 
 quelling disturbances in his native county, and 
 of getting up arms from the misguided pea- 
 .s an try. 
 
 There was in this occupation something pecu- 
 liarly congenial to the wild and Ossianic spirit of 
 Steele. He loved at night to traverse the moun- 
 tain fastnesses of Cratloe ; to watch the dark 
 low clouds slowly sailing over the heavens as he 
 
Steele's labours as pacificator. 321 
 
 wandered through the lonely ravine by the side 
 of the swoln brook, in whose midnight wave stars 
 shimmered as they broke through the mists. 
 These scenes had for Steele a charm of magical 
 potency, especially when associated with the 
 function of Head Pacificator which he discharged 
 in the midst of them. His soul thrilled with an 
 indefinable feeling, of which fancy, poetry, and 
 patriotism were constituent parts, as he paused 
 to hold communings with Nature in her sombre 
 moods — to listen to the voice of the night-wind 
 as it swept through the gloomy woods, and to 
 catch the inspiration of the hills in his solemn, 
 thoughtful and imaginative, yet energetic career. 
 He spent many a night in the cottages of the 
 insurgent peasantry, endeavouring to reclaim 
 them from their driftless and mischievous con- 
 spii'acies. In some of these nocturnal excursions. 
 O'Connell accompanied Steele. They got up a 
 large quantity of arms. Steele, by constant and 
 familiar association with his peasant-countrymen 
 convinced himself that their crimes were princi- 
 pally, if not wholly, the fruits of oppression : 
 whilst he proudly recognized the traits of high 
 and virtuous feeling which often appeared in 
 their conduct. One instance of self-devoted he- 
 roism in five poor Terry Alts he has often re- 
 corded. 
 
 Y 
 
322 ATTACK ON FORT FERGUS. 
 
 There was a Mr. Smith who resided at Fort 
 Fergus, and who, during the period when robbe- 
 ries of arms were frequent, habitually boasted 
 that his house was so well defended that no insur- 
 gents would dare to enter it. Accordingly, the 
 neighbouring gentry having confidence in Smith's 
 superior valour, entrusted the greater part of 
 their arms to his keeping. It so chanced, how- 
 ever, that five Terry Alts availed themselves one 
 day of Smith's absence from home ; entered the 
 house, and carried off all the arms, notwithstand- 
 ing that a party of constables had been left at 
 Fort Fergus to guard them. There was a man 
 prosecuted for the outrage on the evidence of 
 the constables, whose sworn testimony was so 
 contradictory that in any ordinary case the ac- 
 quittal of the accused would have been certain. 
 He was however tried by a " special commission ;" 
 and at special commissions jurymen have imme- 
 morially deemed it their duty to hang as many 
 men as possible. The prisoner was accordingly 
 found guilty. 
 
 On receiving the news of this verdict, the five 
 Terry Alts who had really taken the arms, came 
 to Steele, and said that if the innocent man who 
 had been falsely convicted could thereby be saved, 
 they would surrender the arms. They added that 
 if his life could be obtained on no other terms than 
 
NOBLE TRAIT IN TERRY ALTS. 323 
 
 those of their dying in his place, they would all 
 go to Ennis and give themselves up to the gaoler ! 
 There was, however, no occasion for this sacri- 
 fice, as the condemned man was saved on a strong 
 application in his favour to the Government. 
 
 In 1828 the Catholics resolved on opposing 
 every member of the Peel- Wellington adminis- 
 tration, whether personally hostile or friendly to 
 their claims. That administration pretended to 
 make the Catholic question an " open" one ; at 
 the same time contriving that all substantial 
 power should be placed in the hands of those who 
 opposed it. To end this delusion, it was deter- 
 mined by the Catholics to start a candidate for 
 Clare in opposition to Mr. Yesey Fitzgerald, 
 who had been nominated President of the Board 
 of Trade by the Prime Minister. O'Connell con- 
 ceived the idea of standing for the county. An 
 unemancipated Catholic, chosen by the electors 
 as their representative, yet disqualified by the 
 existing laws from taking his seat, would present 
 a striking impersonation of the Catholic griev- 
 ances. O'Gorman Mahon proposed, and Thomas 
 Steele seconded the nomination of O'Connell. 
 The influence of this dexterous movement of the 
 Agitator in accelerating emancipation is now 
 matter of history. O'Connell presented himself 
 at the table of the House of Commons to take 
 
 y2 
 
324 Steele's enthusiasm. 
 
 his seat, but could not overleap the barrier of 
 the Protestant oaths. Emancipation was hastily 
 passed in the Spring of 1829, and seldom has 
 paltry and contemptible personal enmity been 
 more conspicuous than in the conduct of Sir 
 Eobert Peel, who, in admitting the Catholics to 
 parliament, yet excluded O'Connell as having 
 been unduly elected ! Peel was unable to for- 
 give O'Connell for having compelled him to 
 emancipate. The exclusion was totally inopera- 
 tive for any political object ; it was solely a per- 
 sonal insult, for O'Connell — as every one neces- 
 sarily anticipated — was immediately re-elected 
 by his former constituents. 
 
 Steele is an enthusiast ; and, like all enthusi- 
 asts, it is his fate to incur the censure of those 
 who are totally incapable of appreciating, or even 
 of comprehending, the intense fidelity to Ireland 
 which actuates the man. The real truth is, that 
 the very faults of Steele are merely the exagger- 
 ation of high and noble qualities. If (in the 
 opinion of some persons) he partakes of the ex- 
 travagance of Don Quixote, he also partakes of 
 the Don's contempt for all baseness, perfidy, and 
 cowardice. It is true that in Steele's language 
 there is a strong and marked peculiarity; an 
 occasional application of strong phrases to com- 
 paratively insignificant objects ; a blending of 
 
POETIC QUALITIES OF STEELE. 325 
 
 the ideal and poetic in undue proportions with 
 the real and practical; a disposition to seek 
 illustrations of his views from sources too recon- 
 dite for ordinary comprehension. But what of 
 all that? The man loves Ireland, and would 
 die for her with more pleasure than even the 
 selfish place-hunter who jeers at his verbal ec- 
 centricities could derive from personal aggran- 
 dizement. The people of Ireland give Steele 
 full credit for his pure and single-hearted pa- 
 triotism; and shame to them if they did not 
 recognize and duly honour the qualities of un- 
 sullied honesty and enthusiastic love of freedom 
 which pre-eminently distinguish him ! 
 
 If we smile at the poetic temperament of the 
 orator who could harangue the frieze-coated pea- 
 santry of Connaught about the Scandinavian 
 Edda, and deduce from Icelandic mythology, for 
 the edification of the Connemara rustics, com- 
 parisons between O'Connell's policy and the an- 
 tagonist influences of the Hrympthur and the 
 MusPELTHUR ; if these illustrations evoke a pas- 
 sing smile, it is on the other hand perfectly 
 impossible to deny that Steele has a vivid per- 
 ception of all that is grand and beautiful in 
 external nature, and that he can pourtray his 
 impressions with force, and grace, and delicacy. 
 Take, for example, the following descriptive pas- 
 
326 DESCRIPTIVE POWERS OF STEELE; 
 
 sages from a pamphlet published by Steele in 
 1828;* 
 
 " I passed late (it might have been about an 
 hour after midnight) along the Shannon side ; it 
 was dark, and dreary, and stormy, in squally 
 gusts, and frequent showers of heavy rain : the 
 moon sometimes, but very rarely, and without 
 showing her form, lighted the clouds with a 
 pallid watery light ; but so pale, and faint, and 
 transitory, as in general to be perceptible for 
 little more than a few moments between its 
 apparition and evanishment. The night-wind 
 sometimes sighed softly and mournfully on high, 
 around the topmasts and lifts of the topsail 
 yards of a ship near the wharf ; and sometimes 
 the ' winde that whistleth and cryeth like doleful 
 ghosts' did whistle and cry over the distant 
 strand; and sometimes, at irregular and capri- 
 cious intervals, when the strong squalls and gusts 
 rushed from the mountains, it moaned and howled 
 through the round tops, and blocks, and conden- 
 sed cordage of the shrouds. The solitude was 
 dismal, for no one but myself was abroad by the 
 river side. The Shannon had been swoln to a 
 torrent by the incessant rains of the season, and 
 
 " Practical Suggestions on the Navigation of the River Shan- 
 non," &c. by Thomas Steele, Esq — London, 1828. 
 
NIGHT-STORM ON THE SHANNON. 327 
 
 the white foam on a part of it faintly appeared 
 through the darkness. The wild and dreary 
 shrieks of some sea-gulls, or other water birds, 
 which I could not see, were the only sounds of 
 animated nature that smote upon my ear in that 
 midnight desolation. The darkness deepened 
 almost to blackness ; the rain came on and fell 
 with violence and plashed and pattered upon the 
 pavement near the wharf where I was standing ; 
 and the sound of the rain, and the howling 
 wind, and the roaring of the wide and rapid 
 flood over its rocky bed, and the dreary shrieks 
 of the sea birds heard through the darkness, 
 were sounds, at that hour, of solemn, deep, and 
 mystic wildness. The whole scene, and the 
 h^ur, were in accordance with the spirit of the 
 time — mysterious, ghastly, wild! When I got 
 home, I wrote a description of it ; and I said to 
 myself while I was writing it, 'Tis a night to 
 remember Limerick in its history!'" (pp. 84, 
 85.) 
 
 Steele is a sort of political Ossian. The drift- 
 ing shower, the mountain-mist, the sunbeam 
 sparkling in the brook, the howling tempest, are 
 all duly noted and used to illustrate exhortations 
 to popular energy and perseverance. 
 
 The next specimen of his descriptive powers 
 is of a less gloomy character ; 
 
328 SCENERY OF FINGAL. 
 
 " There is a spot upon a mountain promontory 
 in Fingal, where, in my early boyhood, external 
 nature first burst upon my vision in beauty and 
 sublimity, not separated, but in combination. 
 Upon the eastern side of the solitary mountain 
 where it shelves abruptly into the sea, and so 
 near its summit that there was a glorious ex- 
 panse of horizon, was a little fountain, bursting 
 among the rocks, and wild flowers, and sun- 
 beams. A bee hummed over the flowers, close to 
 the fountain and its little rill; some sea-gulls 
 wheeled and floated in the air, high above the 
 sea that broke upon the shore ; and there was a 
 bark with white sails, holding on her course upon 
 the swelling tide. Whenever I call this scene 
 to remembrance, ' pure, bright, elysian,' it floats 
 in my imagination like a vision of enchantment. 
 This is the pure elysian enchantment of external 
 nature, without any intermixture of feelings in- 
 spired by the history of the times of old. ' Canst 
 thou loosen the bonds of Orion, or canst thou 
 bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades ?' No ; 
 and there are other sweet influences too, that 
 while man retains his nature, never can be 
 bound 
 
 * * * * * * * there is given, 
 
 Unto the things of earth that time hath bent, 
 A spirit's feeling ****** 
 ****** There is a power, 
 And magic in the ruined battlement ;' 
 
IMPRESSIONS AT LIMERICK. 329 
 
 And when I stand in the ancient cathedral of 
 Limerick, and listen to the choir and the organ ; 
 when I hear the chaunt of the High Mass, the 
 ringing of the mass-bell, and view the incense 
 ascending from the altar in one of their convent 
 chapels ; when I wander through the gardens of 
 the holy sisterhood of St. Clare and view their 
 figures gliding among the Gothic ruins ; or when 
 I stand within the sanctuary of their convent 
 chapel ; when I sit upon the ancient bastion in 
 St. Mun chin's cemetery upon a gloomy evening, 
 and listen to the sullen sough of the wind among 
 the dark elms over my head, and the rushing 
 fliood of the Shannon that sweeps at its basement, 
 and hear the roar of the bugles, the beat of the 
 drum, and the voice of the trumpet within the 
 court of the castle, I become inspired by a feeling, 
 solemn and mournful, different from that of which 
 I am susceptible in any other place in the world; 
 but not very unlike that with which, upon the 
 shore of the solitary lake where he reposes, I 
 hear the wind whisper at night in the grass 
 around the grave of my father, whom I have 
 never seen." (pp. 125, 122.) 
 
 How wild, how mystic, how impressive ! 
 
 Steele's personal devotion to O'Connell is pro- 
 verbial. Although a Protestant himself, he fitted 
 up an apartment in his house in the county Clare 
 
330 Steele's domestic chapel. 
 
 as a chapel to be used for the celebration of mass 
 whenever he should be visited bv his " miprhtv 
 leader," as he delights to call O'Connell. He 
 combined with this tribute to his political chief, 
 his own devotion to Celtic antiquity ; for the altar 
 of the domestic chapel was a large, rude block of 
 stone, which for ages had remained in the woods, 
 grey, moss-grown, and solitary ; and which was 
 averred bv a somewhat vaorne tradition to have 
 been used in pagan times for Druidical rites, and 
 subsequently for the celebration of the Eoman 
 Catholic worship in the days of penal persecu- 
 tion. 
 
 Steele's declaration has been often quoted, 
 "that if O'Connell desired him to sit upon a 
 mine about to be sprung, he would implicitly 
 obey the mandate." This, which from other lips 
 would be hypocritical exaggeration, is with Tom 
 Steele the strict, literal truth. Those who best 
 know him, best can testify the implicit nature of 
 his faith in O'Connell's integrity and wisdom. 
 He deems his incarceration as a fellow-" conspi- 
 rator'' with O'Connell, the proudest honour of his 
 life. 
 
 r 
 
 The characteristics of Steele are easily summed 
 up. Brave as a lion, thoroughly honest and 
 straightforward, intensely devoted to his country, 
 utterly incapable of thought or deed unbecoming 
 
HIS CHARACTER, QUALITIES, ETC. 331 
 
 a high-souled and chivalrous gentleman ; he com- 
 bines these qualities with a certain exuberant 
 poetry of idea and of language, peculiarly obnox- 
 ious to the criticism of the prosaic multitude. 
 
 His figure is tall and well proportioned, and 
 carries much of a martial appearance, to which 
 his undress blue military cap and frock coat not 
 a little contribute. His face is bronzed by the 
 suns of six-and-fifty summers, and the expression 
 of his countenance is that of resolute determina- 
 tion. His reception on entering an assembly of 
 Irish Repealers is always enthusiastic; for his 
 countrymen know his worth and are grateful for 
 his uniform and consistent advocacy of their 
 rights. May he live long to enjoy the triumph 
 of the noble cause to which he has devoted him- 
 self.* 
 
 * Mr. Steele, in his character of Head Pacificator, has recently 
 rendered the most essential service to the community in tranquilli- 
 zing the disturbed districts of North Tipperary. Those who regard 
 the Irish movement from a distance, have no conception of the 
 moral authority wielded by this single-hearted Irishman, when he 
 presents himself as O'Connell's ambassador to the turbulent inhabi- 
 tants of districts which local oppression has irritated into the com- 
 mission of criminal acts ; and, aided by the Catholic clergy, enjoins 
 peace as the behest of Ireland's " mighty leader." In truth, the im- 
 pressive singularity of his language would appear, on such occasions, 
 to add force to the character assigned to him in the movement, by 
 stamping on him an individuality peculiarly germane to the exces- 
 sive earnestness of purpose which forms one of his most prominent 
 characteristics. 
 
332 THE REPEAL OF THE UNION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 '* In reality, the central system is nearly allied to despotism as the 
 local is to liberty, but so far as they can be distinguished, they lend 
 a mutual assistance. As centralization leads to despotism, so des- 
 potism to centralization ; and as love of the soil prompts to self- 
 government, so self-government to love of the soil." — Ramsay s 
 Political Discourses, p. 343, — Edinburgh, 1838. 
 
 " Ireland is far too important in itself, and too different in many 
 respects from Great Britain, to allow of its being ruled entirely by 
 the Imperial Parliament. The craving for self-government has 
 become so strong that it cannot be neglected." — Ibid. p. 325. 
 
 Let US examine, now, what are the merits of 
 the enterprise in which the Irish people are en- 
 gaged. 
 
 They seek to rescind a statute which was passed 
 against the consent of the whole nation — Orange- 
 men and all — and of which the operation was to 
 extinguish their resident Parliament. 
 
 From the earliest period of the connexion of 
 the islands under Henry the Second, the King's 
 Irish subjects enjoyed a Parliament in Ireland, 
 distinct from, and perfectly independent of, the 
 Parliament of England. Some efforts on the part 
 of England to usurp jurisdiction over the Irish 
 subjects in the reign of King Henry the Sixth, 
 
OUR EARLY PARLIAMENTARY INDEPENDENCE. 333 
 
 elicited from the Irish Parliament in the 38th 
 year of that monarch's reign, a full and unequi- 
 vocal declaration of its own independence. That 
 Parliament declared " that Ireland is, and always 
 has been, incorporated within itself by ancient 
 laws and customs, and is only to be governed by 
 such laws as by the Lords and Commons of the 
 land in Parliament assembled have been advised, 
 accepted, affirmed and proclaimed ; that by cus^ 
 tom, privilege and franchise, there has ever been 
 a royal seal peculiar to Ireland, to which alone 
 the subjects are to pay obedience ; that this realm 
 hath also its constable and marshal, before whom 
 all appeals are finally determinable ; yet, as or- 
 ders have been of late issued under another seal, 
 and the subjects summoned into England to pro- 
 secute their suits before 2i foreign jurisdiction, to 
 the great grievance of the people, and in viola- 
 tion of the rights and franchises of the land; 
 they enact that for the future no persons shall 
 be obliged by any commandment, under any 
 other seal but that of Ireland, to answer any ap- 
 peal, or any other matter out of said land, and 
 that no officer to whom such commandment may 
 come shall put the same into execution under pe- 
 nalty of forfeiture of goods and chattels, and one 
 thousand marks, half to be paid to the king, and 
 the other half to the prosecutor ; and further, that 
 
334 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, 38 HENRY VI. 
 
 all appeals of treason in Ireland shall be deter- 
 mined before the constable and marshal of Ireland, 
 and in no other place."* 
 
 It is impossible to express more distinctly and 
 unequivocally Legislative Independence, than the 
 language of the Irish Parliament, 38 Hen. VI. 
 has expressed it. There is this great value in 
 the statute to which I have referred; namely, 
 that it recites and establishes the fact that our 
 distinct independence was then no new claim, 
 but that it had existed as of right from the ear- 
 liest periods ; in the words of the act, " it always 
 had been." It is as explicit on the question of 
 final jurisdiction as Henry Grattan or Daniel 
 O'Connell could be. 
 
 It may be objected, Istly, That the Irish Par- 
 liament of Henry VI. was the Parliament only of 
 a portion of the Irish people; of that portion 
 which was of English descent, and of those abo- 
 riginal Irish who had then combined with the 
 English settlers. I reply, that if the Parliament 
 of a part of the nation had distinct independence, 
 it certainly did not lose that independence by ex, 
 tending its legislative power over the entire is- 
 land. It surely did not forfeit its rights because 
 
 * See Leland, 11. 42. 
 
OBJECTIONS TO REPEAL EXAMINED. 335 
 
 it enlarged its jurisdiction. It surely did not 
 lose its privileges because it at length embraced 
 within its sway the entire Irish nation. If its 
 independence was distinct and undoubted when 
 it was only the parliament of a part of the nation, 
 that independence must have necessarily been 
 fortified and strengthened when it rested on the 
 basis of the entire Irish people. Should it be 
 urged that the entire Irish people were never at 
 any time represented in the Irish House of Com- 
 mons, I reply tliat at this moment a large major- 
 ity of the English people are unrepresented in 
 the English parliament. No argument, there- 
 fore, can be be drawn from that circumstance 
 against the right of Ireland to self-legislation, 
 which will not be equally fatal to the right of 
 the people of England to govern themselves. 
 
 It may be objected, 2ndly, That the authority 
 asserted by the Irish Parliament of Henry the 
 Sixth was de facto set a.side by Poyning's Act, 
 and subsequently by the English Act of the 6th 
 George I. I reply that both those acts were 
 usurpations, and can no more be validly pleaded 
 in bar of the right of Ireland to self-government, 
 than any other usurpations can be pleaded in bar 
 of the rights which they respectively invaded. We 
 might just as well argue against the rights of the 
 English legislature, because they were to a great 
 
336 MORAL INVALIDITY OF THE UNION. 
 
 extent prostrated by Henry the Eighth, by the 
 First James, and the First Charles ; or against 
 the rights of the English monarchy, because they 
 were temporarily overthrown by Cromwell. It 
 is sometimes weakly urged against the rights of 
 Ireland, that for centuries before the Union the 
 Irish government was influenced and often con- 
 trolled by the English and Protestant party. It 
 might with equal force be urged against the 
 rights of Englishmen to self-legislation, that the 
 government of England was for centuries in the 
 hands of the Norman aristocracy. 
 
 It has been objected, 3rdly, That however 
 void and null the Union may originally have been, 
 from the vitiating nature of the means whereby 
 it was achieved, yet the Irish people have subse- 
 quently given validity and force to the measure, 
 by their own act of sending representatives to the 
 Imperial Parliament. I reply, that their act in 
 so doing, does not, and cannot, give moral vali- 
 dity to the Union ; simply because it does not 
 indicate free choice. True — they have sent re- 
 presentatives to the English Parliament — ^just be- 
 cause they had no other parliament to send them 
 to! Their own legislature having been sup- 
 pressed by force, no alternative remained for them 
 except to return members to the British House 
 of Commons. Their act indicates nothing but 
 
OBJECTIONS TO REPEAL EXAMINED. 337 
 
 their reluctant and coerced adoption of a pis- 
 aller. They have deemed it just preferable to 
 return members to the English Senate, than not 
 to return them at all ! But, — give them the free 
 option of an English or an Irish parliament, and 
 then if they shall prefer the former — why then 
 (but not till then) shall I allow that their act 
 in returning representatives to England gives 
 moral validity to the Union. 
 
 It has been urged that to impeach the moral 
 validity of the Union statute, is of necessity to 
 impeach the legal validity of every statute passed 
 by the united parliament. Not so. Saurin drew 
 the distinction with accuracy : " You may," said 
 he, " make the Union binding as a law^ but ycu 
 never can make it obligatory upon conscience. 
 Kesistance to it will be in the abstract a duty." 
 The Union is binding as a law ; as a bad and 
 unjust law. But being thus legally binding, the 
 statutes enacted under its authority by the united 
 parliament are also legally binding. If, however, 
 we should admit the corollary imputed to our 
 doctrines by the Unionists, " that the post-union 
 statutes are rendered invalid by the moral inva- 
 lidity of the Union," I should turn on the Union- 
 ists and ask. Whose fault is that ? Not ours^ 
 surely, who opposed in 1800 the enactment, and 
 who now oppose the continuance of tlie Union, 
 
 z 
 
338 THE INIQUITY OF THE MEANS 
 
 the source of the statutory invalidity in question. 
 The fault would rest with those who, by the fla- 
 gitious suppression of the legislative rights of 
 Ireland, had deprived legislation of validity, and 
 shaken to their base the bulwarks and fences of 
 civil society. 
 
 The Unionists, unable to deny the infamy of 
 the means by which the Union was effected, 
 allesre, " that the means have nothins^ to do with 
 the measure ;" " that the measure may be good, 
 although the means used to carry it were indefen- 
 sible," and so on. 
 
 The means have a great deal to do with the 
 measure. They demonstrate two important facts ; 
 firstly, the hostility of the people of Ireland to 
 the Union, which could not be achieved without 
 such means. No measure can be good., which 
 outrages every wish, sentiment, and principle of 
 the people to whom it is applied. Secondly, the 
 "means" used to carry the Union demonstrate 
 that the contrivers of the measure were ani- 
 mated with the most deadly hostility to the Irish 
 nation. The men who connived at torture — the 
 men who fomented a rebellion — the men who 
 ruthlesslv sacrificed the lives of thousands, and 
 who laboured with incredible activity and energy 
 to corrupt the senate ; were such men our friends ? 
 Were they men from whose hands a good mea- 
 
A JUST ARGUMENT AGAINST THE MEASURE. 339 
 
 sure could by possibility emanate ? The means 
 they used afford a superabundant demonstration 
 of their animus — an animus totally incompatible 
 with friendly intentions to Ireland. The Union 
 was the measure of our enemies, not of our 
 friends. There is in this fact prima facie evi- 
 dence that the measure could not have been either 
 intended or calculated to benefit Ireland. 
 
 The Union, then, being a gross outrage on 
 Ireland's legislative rights — rights of as ancient 
 existence as the corresponding rights of England ; 
 being, moreover, the work of our deadliest ene- 
 mies ; being achieved in defiance of our national 
 will, and by means which it is no exaggeration 
 to term diabolical ; this union is now actively 
 opposed by the people of Ireland, who allege that 
 its results on their social condition have been 
 fully as disastrous as might have been expected 
 from the nature of its origin and the character of 
 its authors. 
 
 They allege that the imperial parliament taxes 
 Ireland more heavily than the native legislature 
 did, and that the surplus revenue, instead of be- 
 ing expended in Ireland, is exported to London. 
 
 They allege that the absentee drain, chiefly 
 consequent upon the Union, amounts to about 
 four millions annually. 
 
 z2 
 
340 ALLEGATIONS OF THE REPEALERS. 
 
 They allege that the manufactures of Ireland, 
 once the source of comfortable subsistence to 
 numbers of her people, have been prostrated by 
 the overwhelming competition of great English 
 capitalists, who drove the Irish manufacturer out 
 of his native market when the protective influ- 
 ence of a native legislature was removed. 
 
 They allege that the progress of popular liber- 
 ties under their own parliament was rapid, until 
 checked by the vigorous interference of England ; 
 and that, had the Irish legislature continued, the 
 anti-national church establishment would have 
 long since ceased to insult and oppress the Irish 
 people. 
 
 They allege that the very fact of being go- 
 verned by laws made in another country has 
 degraded the minds of the Irish aristocracy and 
 gentry. Use has familiarized them with national 
 servitude; and the consequent depravation of 
 their sentiments operates most perniciously on 
 the interests of their country. They have lost 
 that pride of national honour which is the best 
 protector of a nation's prosperity. 
 
 Again, the Repealers allege that Ireland has 
 been treated with foul dishonesty as regards the 
 national debt. Our complaint upon this head, 
 as put forth by the Liberator in his speech on 
 the motion for Repeal in 1834, and by Mr. 
 
THE QUESTION OF THE TWO DEBTS. 341 
 
 Staunton in many successive publications, may- 
 be thus summed up : 
 
 At the time of the Union, England owed four 
 hundred and forty-six millions sterling. Ireland 
 owed only twenty-three millions, and of this debt 
 probably three-fourths had been incurred by the 
 military preparations for carrying the Union.* 
 The annual interest of the British debt then 
 amounted to £17,700,000 ; whilst the annual in- 
 terest oiour debt only amounted to £1,200,000. 
 The excess of annual liability on the part of 
 Great Britain was therefore £16,500,000. In 
 common honesty Great Britain should have paid 
 every penny of this annual excess, by taxes raised 
 exclusively within her own shores. But com- 
 mon honesty — or any sort of honesty — had little 
 to do with the Union. The exclusive taxation 
 of Great Britain, which ought to be sixteen and 
 a half, is not quite thirteen millions.f There is 
 thus left an annual charge of three millions and 
 a half of British ante-Union debt, to which Ire- 
 land, by a flagrant breach of honesty, is called on 
 to contribute a portion of payment. 
 
 * In 1796 the Irish debt was only £5,500,000. 
 
 f At the present time it is true that the exclusive taxation of 
 England is augmented by the Income Tax. But this impost is de- 
 clared to be temporary. From 1814 until lately there was no such 
 tax as this. On the subject of international finance, John O'Con- 
 nell's elaborate " Argument for Ireland" may be consulted with 
 advantage. 
 
342 FORMER PROSPERITY CONTRASTED 
 
 The Repealers furthermore allege, that the 
 existence of a domestic parliament in Ireland, 
 enjoying even the partial freedom secured in 
 1782, produced an increase of national prospe- 
 rity unexceeded within the same period by any 
 other nation upon earth, despite the counterac- 
 tive tendency of English influence and adminis- 
 trative corruption. In proof of this important 
 fact, we have the evidence of two grand promo- 
 vents of the Union, namely, William Pitt and 
 Lord Clare. Pitt, in 1799, alleged, in a speech 
 on the Union, that the balance of trade between 
 Ireland and England was then enormously in 
 favour of Ireland. 
 
 " The trade," said he, " at this time [1799], 
 is infinitely more advantageous to Ireland [than 
 in 1785]. It wiU be proved from the documents 
 I hold in my hand, as far as relates to the mere 
 interchange of manufactures, that the manufac- 
 tures exported to Ireland from Great Britain in 
 1797, very little exceeded one million sterling, 
 (the articles of produce amount to nearly the 
 same sum,) whilst Great Britain on the other 
 hand imported from Ireland to the amount of 
 more than three millions in the manufacture of 
 linen and linen-yarn, and between two and three 
 millions in provisions and cattle, besides corn 
 and other articles of produce." 
 
WITH PRESENT DECAY. 343 
 
 Let US notice here in passing, that the export 
 of provisions in 1797 was not, as now, a starmng 
 export. It was an export of the surplus produce 
 which remained after the producers had first been 
 comfortably fed at home.* 
 
 Lord Clare, in 1798, bore the following re- 
 markable testimony to Irish improvement under 
 the constitution of 1782 : " There is not," said 
 he, " a nation on the face of the habitable globe 
 which has advanced in cultivation, in agricul- 
 ture, in manufactures, with the same rapidity, in 
 the same period, as Ireland." 
 
 This evidence from the grand contriver of the 
 Union, and his Irish ally, Clare, is surely conclu- 
 sive. It is the admission of enemies, and is 
 
 * Mr. Wiggins, in his " Monster Misery of Ireland," deplores the 
 manifest deterioration of Ireland from 1776 to 1844. He says — 
 *'Let any one read Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland, about 1776, 
 and let him now look for the numerous mansions, parks, farming 
 establishments, and improvements, which he then visited and re- 
 corded. Most of the mansions will be found deserted, shut up, or 
 the roofs fallen in ; the parks let out in dairy pastures and * score- 
 land;' the farming abandoned to tenants at rack rent, and the im- 
 provements resolved again into their original state of bog, and partly 
 cut for turbary." In 1837 we are told by Commissioner Binns, that 
 •'by comparing the account given in 1776 by Arthur Young, with 
 the facts elicited in the course of this examination, it will be evident 
 that the condition of the loiver Irish instead of being improved, is con- 
 siderably deteriorated since his valuable book was written." 
 
 So much for the "giant-stride prosperity" alleged by the union- 
 ists ! 
 
344 TENDENCY OF THE UNION 
 
 fully as distinct as the following testimony given 
 by Plunket in his struggle for the preservation 
 of the Irish parliament in 1799 : 
 
 " The revenues, the trade, the manufactures of 
 Ireland, are thriving beyond the hope or the ex- 
 ample of any other country of her extent ; within 
 these few years advancing with a rapidity asto- 
 nishing even to herself" 
 
 National prosperity under a native parliament, 
 even in spite of the vast drawbacks of penal law^s 
 and a rotten borough system: national decay 
 under a union, despite the removal of penal re- 
 strictions : the people of Ireland see and feel the 
 miserable contrast, and demand the restoration 
 of their native legislature. 
 
 On the other hand the unionists allege, that 
 the dissolution of the Union would infallibly be 
 followed by our total separation from Great Bri- 
 tain. They omit, however, aU notice of the 
 tendency of the Union itself to produce separa- 
 tion by disgusting the Irish people against a 
 connexion whereby they are degraded and im- 
 poverished. I admit the advantage to Ireland of 
 connexion with Great Britain ; connexion under 
 the same crown and with separate parliaments. 
 But if I deem — as I do deem — such a connexion 
 greatly preferable to separation, I also deem 
 separation greatly preferable to the Union. Con- 
 
TO PRODUCE SEPARATION. 345 
 
 nexion is a very good thing ; but like most other 
 good things it may be purchased at too high a 
 price; and undeniably the destruction of our 
 parliament is too high a price to pay for British 
 connexion. 
 
 A connexion satisfactory to Ireland would be 
 far more likely to endure than one which operates 
 as a perpetual source of irritation and ill-will. 
 Norway and Sweden afford a happy example of 
 two friendly nations united under the same 
 crown, and each enjoying its own domestic par- 
 liament. We hear a vast quantity of grave and 
 solemn nonsense about two co-ordinate parlia- 
 ments necessarily clashing against each other, 
 and destroying the integrity of the empire. The 
 problem is practically solved in Sweden and 
 Norway. The collisions of the nations were a 
 much more probable event, if the one aroused 
 the deadly hatred of the other by destroying her 
 power of self-legislation. 
 
 Separation has no terrors for an Irishman who 
 looks around, and sees seventeen European states 
 all inferior to Ireland in size, population, position 
 and general resources — yet able to maintain their 
 own independent existence. Is not Ireland as 
 well qualified for separate independence as Ha- 
 nover ? Ireland, with her population of eight 
 millions and a half, as Hanover with her popu- 
 lation of one million and a half ? 
 
346 THE SYSTEM OF CENTRALIZATION 
 
 Tlie Unionists allege that the Union, by cen- 
 tralizing the legislative power, consolidates and 
 strengthens the empire. Centralization, up to a 
 certain point, is indispensable for imperial in- 
 tegrity und safety. But when it passes that 
 point it becomes despotism ; and despotism re- 
 sembles the brazen statue with the feet of clay. 
 Its strength is corroded, its foundations are 
 undermined, by the just dissatisfaction of those 
 portions of the empire that are the victims of its 
 monopoly of power, of expenditure, and of influ- 
 ence. There is no permanent political health in 
 that state whose extremities are oppressed and 
 despoiled to augment the strength and enhance 
 the grandeur of the centre. Such a political 
 condition is analogous to the state of a human 
 body affected with an overflow of blood at the 
 head or heart, which every man knows is a 
 state of disease not unfrequently followed by 
 death. 
 
 Centralization, in the shape of the Legislative 
 Union, is the source, not of strength, but of 
 weakness — weakness arising from alienated hearts 
 and trampled interests. Local self-government 
 in the several nations which go to constitute an 
 empire, affords the best security to the whole 
 against foreign aggression ; a security derived 
 from the greater zeal each portion of the empire 
 
COMPARED WITH THE LOCAL SYSTEM. 347 
 
 must necessarily have in defending those local 
 institutions which are dear to each man's heart, 
 and entwine themselves around his best affections. 
 On the other hand, centralization, by rendering 
 the inhabitants of the parts at a distance from the 
 centre dissatisfied and discontented, necessarily 
 weakens the outposts of the empire, and thereby 
 renders the provinces vulnerable to the foreign 
 invader. Men will fight better in defence of 
 happy homes than they will in defence of hearths 
 despoiled by the centralizing tyranny. Men will 
 fight better in defence of their liberties than they 
 will in defence of their own bondage ; they will 
 struggle with a bolder heart and a more stalwart 
 arm in defence of free local institutions, prolific 
 of blessings and redolent of nationality, than in 
 support of a system which strikes down their 
 natural rights and brands them with national 
 inferiority. 
 
 The result of the Union on the conduct of 
 Irishmen in the event of foreign war, is worth 
 calculating. 
 
 Sir Eobert Peel, alluding to the possible oc- 
 currence of war, thus expressed himself in the 
 House of Commons, in the August of this present 
 1844 : 
 
 " I must say," quoth the premier, " that no 
 man laments more than I do the existence of 
 those jealousies in Ireland, and of those unfortu- 
 
348 peel's appeal for irish aid. 
 
 nate dissensions that have prevailed, tending, as 
 no doubt they do, to weaken the strength of this 
 country. But although these things have pre- 
 vailed, I am not the less confident that in case 
 — but I trust there will be no necessity for such 
 an appeal — but in case the honour or interest of 
 this country (England) should require that such 
 an appeal should be made, I have no doubt that 
 the people of Ireland would, with the people of 
 Great Britain, cordially and zealously support 
 the sovereign in the maintain an ce of her throne 
 and the honour and interests of her empire." 
 
 No doubt Ireland is under many obligations to 
 take care of the " honour and interests" of Eng- 
 land — England, who has cherished with such 
 assiduous affection the honour and interests of 
 Ireland ! The queen's name is skilfully thrown in 
 as a bait. It was needless. Irishmen are loyal, and 
 will never take up arms against their sovereign. 
 The premier also talks of " the honour and in- 
 terests of the empire." Our share in these is 
 rather problematical, and might be illustrated 
 by the fabled alliance between the giant and the 
 dwarf, in which the dwarf got all the knocks and 
 the giant all the glory. 
 
 No. If England were menaced with destruc- 
 tion to-morrow, I should regard her peril as the 
 just judgment of God upon her, for the crimes 
 she has committed against Ireland. I should, 
 
HOW SHOULD WE ANSWER THAT APPEAL? 349 
 
 myself, not feel in any haste to rush to her 
 defence. There may be others animated with 
 similar sentiments. In the hour of her strength 
 she has crushed us — despoiled us of our par- 
 liament ; in the hour of her danger we should 
 quietly allow her to fight out her battles without 
 our assistance. " The honour and interests of 
 the empire," forsooth ! What concern have we, 
 as matters stand at present, in sustaining a 
 power which is only used to keep us down ? 
 
 Great is the fatuity of statesmen who persist 
 in fomenting the hostile spirit of Ireland by the 
 obstinate refusal of justice ! who prefer the ali- 
 enation of millions of their fellow-subjects to the 
 warm and zealous affection which would really 
 consolidate the strength of the empire in the day 
 of common peril ! 
 
 But the genius of Whiggery interposes with 
 soft and soothing accents : " good people, we 
 will give you full justice in a British Parliament ! 
 Every British privilege shall be yours; full 
 equality of rights and franchises ! anything, 
 everything, except an Irish Parliament in Col- 
 lege-green." 
 
 Aye — everything is promised^ save that which 
 alone is worth any serious struggle; I S3>j pro- 
 mised; for the intention to perform is far more 
 than doubtful. 
 
350 EQUALITY WITH ENGLAND IMPOSSIBLE 
 
 But were that intention as sincere and honest 
 as I believe it to be otherwise ; were Whigs tri- 
 umphant in both houses, with their hands full of 
 boons, ready to shower upon Ireland ; still the 
 political equality of Ireland with England under 
 an incorporating Union, is thoroughly and totally 
 impossible. It is out of the nature of things. 
 In any distribution of members, England must 
 always have a numerical superiority in a united 
 legislature, capable of defeating the legislative 
 influence of the whole body of Irish members in 
 questions affecting their own country. This 
 single circumstance must necessarily render a 
 legislative union of equality^ impossible. For 
 many years a majority of Irish members uni- 
 formly supported emancipation ; and that mea- 
 sure was as uniformly rejected by the English 
 House of Commons. What " equality" was there 
 in that? The Coercion Act of 1833 was passed 
 by an English Parliament in defiance of a major- 
 ity of Irish members. What " equality" was 
 there in that ? Again : it is ridiculous to expect 
 that so long as the Union lasts, England will 
 not always continue the residence of the Legis- 
 lature. That also debars a union of equality. 
 The seat of the Parliament is the centre of power ; 
 and Avill, necessarily, attract the Irish absentees 
 to London. Your " equality" would still leave 
 
UNDER A LEGISLATIVE UNION. 351 
 
 Ireland afflicted with an absentee drain of 
 £4,000,000 per annum. So long as the Union 
 lasts, so long will England hold the purse strings 
 of the Irish nation. What equality is there in 
 that? " Equal rights with England" truly, un- 
 der a Union I The thing, I repeat, is totally im- 
 possible. Common sense laughs to scorn the 
 flimsy delusion. 
 
 Oh, but then there is to be a fusion of England 
 and Ireland into one nation ; just as Sussex and 
 Kent are politically identified. This, again, is 
 impossible. A nation, as Burke says, is not 
 merely a geographical arrangement ; it is a moral 
 essence. The pregnant experience of the past 
 and of the present — the experience of seven event- 
 ful centuries — demonstrates the total impracti- 
 cability of fusing together the moral essences of 
 England and Ireland. Kent and Sussex may 
 amalgamate; Ireland is too great to be dealt 
 with on provincial rules. 
 
 As to the Whig notion that any conceivable 
 political ameliorations could make the Union en- 
 durable, I have already remarked in the present 
 work* that even if every Whig nostrum for Ire- 
 land were converted into positive law by the 
 
 * See p. 254, ante. 
 
352 OB.JECTIOXS TO REPEAL 
 
 Imperial Parliament, still, so long as England 
 withheld from us oui' legislature, we should be 
 deprived of that which would be worth all the 
 rest put together. Xame as many good laws as 
 you please : they are surely as attainable from an 
 Irish Parliament as from an Imperial one ; so 
 that, whilst upon the one hand Imperial legisla- 
 tion can give us at best no advantage over home- 
 government, on the other hand home-government 
 possesses over Imperial the inestimable advan- 
 tages of home expenditure, home sympathies ; 
 the sole control of our national resources and re- 
 venues ; the exclusion of foreign hands from Irish 
 coffers ; and the residence instead of the absentee- 
 ship of the great Irish proprietors as well as of 
 the legislature. Imperial legislation, even under 
 the most favouring circumstances, woidd still 
 leave us under the withering influences of absen- 
 teeism, of a tax-drain, and of the anglicised, un- 
 Irish affections and prejudices of our aristocracy ; 
 whilst it would not give us one solitary good law 
 that could not be far more readily procured from 
 an Irish Parliament. 
 
 I shall now examine some common objections 
 to the Repeal : availing myself of the language 
 of the very amusing and clever, but somewhat 
 superficial author of " Ireland and its Rulers 
 since 1829." 
 
IN "IRELAND AND ITS RULERS." 353 
 
 " England," says this writer, " would (in the 
 event of Eepeal) cease to be a great substantive 
 power, and Europe would be left at the mercy of 
 Russia, France, Austria, and Prussia." 
 
 In the name of common sense, we ask — Whi/f 
 What is there in Repeal to diminish the power 
 of England? The Union at this moment fills 
 the minds of the Irish people with rancorous 
 jealousy of England. Does the rancorous jea- 
 lousy of one-third of the Queen's European sub- 
 jects conduce to the stability of England's power ? 
 Is English power necessarily built on the depres- 
 sion of the Irish nation? Is the strength of the 
 empire dependant on the weakness of one-third 
 part of it ? On the contrary, the national sense 
 of gross and grievous wrong inflicted by England 
 upon Ireland in the demolition of her legislature, 
 is more calculated to perpetuate international 
 animosity and thereby produce imperial weak- 
 ness, than a system in which two free Parlia- 
 ments should provide for the respective wants of 
 the two islands. " A house divided against it- 
 self shall not stand ;" and the Union promotes 
 and foments the perilous division of the house- 
 hold. An intelligent peasant lately said to me 
 with true Celtic emphasis — "I don't care, sii', 
 who it is that Endand fisfhts afi^ainst ; if it was 
 the Turks themselves, I wish they'd beat her !" 
 
 2 a 
 
354 OBJECTIONS TO REPEAL CONTINUED : 
 
 Such is the feeling of myriads of the population ; 
 a feeling which has its source in the sense of 
 enormous national injury inflicted upon Ireland 
 by the Union. Can such a Union contribute to 
 imperial power? 
 
 The ingenious writer I have quoted, continues 
 as follows : 
 
 " The Irish Eepealers may object that such a 
 consummation" [namely, the decrease of Eng- 
 land's European influence] "should have hap- 
 pened in the last century previous to the Union 
 if it were likely to take place again upon its 
 supposed dissolution. But to this and all similar 
 arguments of the Eepeal party, it is a sufficient 
 political answer to reply, that Ireland had never 
 a free parliament till 1782 ; that within eighteen 
 years the connexion was three times all but dis- 
 solved; viz., by Flood's convention for ultra- 
 reform; by the difierence upon the Eegency 
 Question in 1789 ; and by the rebellion in 1798 ; 
 that Fox and Burke, while yielding to an Irish 
 army, led by an Irish aristocracy, considered that 
 Grattan's revolution was most calamitous to Eng- 
 land; and that Pitt, in the very outset of his 
 parliamentary life resolved on the measure of a 
 Union, and the extinction of the Irish parlia- 
 Uament, from his sagacious foresight of the pro- 
 bable results of two legislatures in one empire." 
 
THE OBJECTIONS EXAMINED. 355 
 
 " Ireland had never a free parliament until 
 1782." This assertion is unfounded. We have 
 already seen the Irish parliament of 1460 af- 
 firming not only its own independence on Eng- 
 land, but that of all previous parliaments from 
 the days of Henry the Second. In another 
 sense, however, the writer is correct : that is, if 
 he means to imply that the imperfect construc- 
 tion of the unreformed Irish House of Commons 
 left it open to corrupt Court influence. In this 
 sense it is true that even the Irish parliament of 
 1782 was not free enough ; that it was not based 
 on a representation suf&ciently extensive ; that 
 too large a portion of the lower house represented 
 — not the people — but the titled patrons of bo- 
 roughs. " Oh !" it may be said, " the parliament 
 was only the more easily managed on that ac- 
 count." Maybe so ; but that species of " ma- 
 nagement ^^^ like all other international dishonesty, 
 was eminently calculated to defeat its own ob- 
 ject ; and instead of binding the two countries 
 together in the solid, lasting bonds of full, free 
 justice and fair play, it tended to exacerbate the 
 victimized nation and to create a store of rank- 
 ling hatred fraught with eventual danger to the 
 empire. The Repealers allege that real safety 
 and international amity can alone co-exist with ii 
 truly free and popular Irish legislature; one 
 
 2a2 
 
356 AN ANTI-REPEAL FALLACY NOTICED. 
 
 which will do justice to the Irish people, and be 
 placed beyond the reach of all corrupt " manage- 
 ment." 
 
 Let me here parenthetically notice a fallacy 
 very commonly put forward by Unionists, They 
 say, " As long as you had a parliament, its utility 
 was obstructed and its members were corrupted 
 by English influence. Therefore a Union was 
 indispensable to correct the evils resulting from 
 such a state of things." 
 
 It is perfectly true that the unreformed Irish 
 parliament was exposed to pernicious English 
 influence. The rational and natural course would 
 have been to get rid of that influence instead of 
 ffettinor rid of the Parliament. But what is the 
 remedy of the sagacious Unionists ? Why, truly, 
 to increase the disease ! That disease, they them- 
 selves allege, was the English influence then 
 partially operating through channels of parlia- 
 mentary corruption. What is their cure? To 
 render that same mischievous influence domi- 
 nant, paramount! To render it perpetual and 
 resistless! It was, they say, pernicious, even 
 when counteracted by the occasional virtue or the 
 national interests of an Irish legislature. And 
 yet they would have us believe that it becomes 
 innocuous when that counteractive power is ex- 
 tinct, and when no check exists to its detrimen- 
 tal operation ! 
 
THE REGENCY QUESTION OF 1789. 357 
 
 I come back to the ingenious writer of " Ire- 
 land and its Rulers." 
 
 He blunders in his assertion that within 
 eighteen years from 1782 the connexion of the 
 countries was three times all but dissolved. 
 Flood^s fellow-conventionists were totally incom- 
 petent to effect separation from England, even 
 had they desired it. And a very small minority 
 of them* did desire it. In truth the parliament- 
 ary reform for which they struggled, would, if 
 successful, have satisfied their utmost aspirations. 
 
 As to the difference upon the Regency ques- 
 tion in 1789, the party who supported the popu- 
 lar view in the house, were as warmly attached 
 to British connexion as was their leader, Grattan. 
 The danger arising from a possible difference in 
 choosing the Regent, might have been easily 
 provided against by a specific enactment.f A 
 bill to that effect was actually brought into the 
 Irish Parliament by the Right Honourable James 
 Fitzgerald ; and — cushioned by the Government ! 
 
 It requires great hardihood to ascribe the re- 
 bellion of 1798 to the existence of a resident 
 Parliament in Ireland. I have, in the earlier 
 
 * Including, however, Mr. Flood himself. 
 
 t See the Appendix, for an examination of the arguments drawn 
 from the Regency question. 
 
358 WOULD REPEAL DEGRADE ENGLAND ? 
 
 portion of this work, exhibited a few of the pro- 
 vocations employed by the authorities to " make 
 it explode." The convulsive throes of revolu- 
 tionary France then agitated Europe. Wild 
 spirits — chiefly Protestant — amongst the Irish 
 middle classes, first caught the contagion of 
 French principles, and preached up rebellion in 
 their secret conclaves. They unfortunately found 
 in the hearts of the Irish peasantry a soil well 
 prepared to receive the seed they scattered. 
 England had prepared the soil for the reception 
 of that seed. English misgovernment had taught 
 the Irish of that day to seize on any project that 
 promised deliverance from their tyrants. 
 
 The writer next asserts that 
 
 " The character of England would be ruined 
 by consenting to such a measure [as the Eepeal]. 
 Her reputation for sagacity and political ability 
 would be destroyed — her fame would vanish." 
 
 It may be asked how her character and fame 
 would suffer by the mere performance of an act 
 of justice ; which act would remove a dangerous 
 present source of weakness from the empire ? 
 
 He continues — 
 
 " Her material interests would share the same 
 ruin as her moral power. As in individuals, so 
 in nations, character is the creator of national 
 wealth and rank in the social scale." 
 
THE UNION A CAUSE OF HOSTILITY TO ENGLAND. 359 
 
 Undoubtedly. But again, the author does not 
 show how England's character would be compro- 
 mised by simply undoing a foul national wrong. 
 He goes on — 
 
 "It (the Repeal) would rob England of a 
 large home-market for her manufactures ; for of 
 course an Irish parliament would adopt the po- 
 litical economy of the national school, and pass 
 a tariff hostile to English manufactures. In so 
 doing, it would not merely cut off from England 
 a large portion of her home trade ; but it would 
 also set up a rival trader at her very side." 
 
 Now, one would suppose that all this implied 
 with tolerable distinctness that the Union opera- 
 ted to extinguish Irish manufactures and to 
 throw the monopoly of the Irish market into the 
 hands of British manufacturers; and thus, by 
 inevitable consequence, to create violent hostility 
 to England in the breasts of those who felt they 
 were sacrificed to overwhelming English compe- 
 tition. The writer, however, startles us with 
 the discovery that it is not in any such causes 
 that hostility lurks, but in the Repeal ! — the 
 Repeal, which, he proceeds to say, 
 
 " Would be creating a hostile country whose 
 emigrants swarm in the British colonies ; all of 
 whom would be ready to act in concert with the 
 Irish rulers at College-green." 
 
360 REPEAL SAFER THAN THE UNIOJT 
 
 Let him look at the contributions poured into 
 the Repeal fund by Irish emigrants at present in 
 America and the colonies ; let him read the lan- 
 guage of hostility to English injustice with which 
 their communications overflow ; and let him ask 
 himself from which of two causes would Irish 
 " hostility^^ to England more probably proceed — 
 from the jealousy that crushed a legislature, and 
 monopolizes the Irish manufacture market; or 
 the frank and honourable, although tardy justice, 
 that would restore the parliament, and adopt as 
 its motto, " suum cuique f 
 
 In truth, there is no fallacy more common 
 among unionists than to predict, as prospective 
 evils to result from the Eepeal, the very hostility 
 and jealousy existing at the present moment, and 
 of which the Union itself is the real cause ! 
 
 The writer I have quoted next alleges, as a 
 result of Eepeal, that 
 
 " The difficulty of maintaining a large standing 
 army would be increased considerably. Even if 
 Irish soldiers enlisted in the English ranks, upon 
 any collision with Ireland they would probably 
 desert, and start up against the ' Saxons/ The 
 loyalty of a large portion of the army would be 
 doubtful, and the vast Indian empire, and the 
 colonies, would probably be left exposed for want 
 of troops." 
 
AS REGARDS THE DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 361 
 
 The author here again suggests difficulties 
 as probably resulting from Eepeal, which are a 
 great deal more likely to result from the Union. 
 I have already remarked, that much of the na- 
 tional disatisfaction which tends to shake the 
 allegiance of a soldiery, directly arises from the 
 destruction of the Irish parliament. If " collision 
 with Ireland" would make the men desert, such 
 collision is just as likely to occur without Eepeal 
 as with it. Last year the metropolis of Ireland 
 was placed in a state of siege, and the country 
 was " occupied, not governed." A national re- 
 solve, or pledge, against recruiting in the English 
 ranks, is a movement which does not need to 
 wait for the Repeal. And even should recruits 
 be obtained, it must be remembered they are 
 taken from a population exasperated against 
 England by the Union; and does our author 
 suppose that there is any magic in a red coat to 
 efface the long cherished principles which its 
 wearer had imbibed from his parents, kindred, 
 and associates ? 
 
 Again — ^the writer fears that 
 
 " The funds would be very liberally spunged, 
 for of course Ireland, when separate, would not 
 consent to be held responsible for debts that she 
 never contracted." 
 
 In the name of common honesty, why should 
 
362 IRELAND'S OBJECTS AND DESIRES. 
 
 she ? It is painful to contrast such lucubrations 
 as these with Pitt's earnest, nay eager disclaimer 
 in 1799 of all desire to grasp our financial 
 resources for British purposes. 
 
 Let me now sum up : 
 
 Ireland demands the Eepeal ; 
 
 1. Because self-legislation is her indefeasible 
 right. She never surrendered that right. 
 
 2. Because the denial of that right has co- 
 vered the land with decay and destitution. 
 
 3. Because Ireland is truly desirous to pre- 
 serve the integrity of the empire on such terms 
 as will not victimize herself It cannot be too 
 often repeated that the accursed Union imperils 
 the empire by holding out the strong lure to 
 foreign invasion which dissatisfied Ireland fur- 
 nishes. Can any man in his senses believe that 
 if Ireland possessed a free, popular parliament, 
 " racy of the soil," and unfolding for the benefit 
 of Irishmen the rich natural resources of the 
 land, — can any man believe that in such a case 
 we should see a powerful popular journal — the 
 undoubted representative of the sentiments of 
 millions — speculating after the following fashion 
 on the possible invasion of Ireland by a French 
 armament ? The Nation newspaper of the 31st 
 of August first supposes a case in which all the 
 available troops are engaged in the defence of 
 the English coasts, and then proceeds as follows : 
 
REAL PERILS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM. 363 
 
 " If a French minister, mindful of Fontenoy 
 and Bantry Bay, and heedful of imprisoned chiefs 
 and a murmuring province, should send an ar- 
 mament to our shores, how could they be re- 
 sisted? How could a disarmed and untrained 
 peasantry, or a gentry with branded fowling- 
 pieces, face their hot legions ? Or if courage, 
 and sudden arms, and numbers could suffice, is 
 there no danger that a people grateful for French 
 kindness, bitter with poverty, injustice, and hope 
 deferred, might not raise an allied standard by 
 the invaders, and forget law and loyalty, and 
 their leader's commands, in the hot thirst for in- 
 dependence ?" 
 
 Aye, truly — well might the writer ask, *' is 
 there no danger ?" Foreign invasion were indeed 
 an affliction of great magnitude. But the Union 
 is also an affliction of colossal magnitude; an 
 affliction so huge that it might easily render 
 even foreign conquest a mere question in the 
 minds of many between one species of tyranny 
 and another. Sampson in his thirst for ven- 
 geance pulled down the house to crush his foes — 
 rejoicing in the deed that overwhelmed them^ 
 even although he was himself included in their 
 ruin. Tyranny has often merged the instinct of 
 self-preservation in the burning desire to punish 
 the tyrant. 
 
364 THE REPEAL OF THE UNION 
 
 But, give to the Irish people an Irish Parlia- 
 ment and Irish Constitution to defend, and then 
 let the foe invade our shores — he will be met by 
 the stout arms and intrepid hearts of a gallant 
 people, fortified and inspired by the resistless, the 
 ennobling influence of triumphant nationality. 
 Give to the Irish that strong interest in repelling 
 invasion which local institutions and domestic 
 government alone can give them ; and you will 
 find it more effectual a thousand-fold than the old 
 stale cuckoo-cry of " throne," and " constitution ;" 
 a throne whose brightness never shines upon us ; 
 a constitution whereof others nearly monopolize 
 the enjoyment, and at which we are little more 
 than lookers-on ! 
 
 I conclude this chapter by emphatically reite- 
 rating what I have before advanced; namely, 
 that British connexion, with two legislatures, is 
 preferable to separation; but separation would 
 be preferable to the destruction of the Irish Par- 
 liament. 
 
 There is no reason why Ireland should not 
 flourish in a separate existence as well as Sweden, 
 Portugal, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, or the 
 rest of the crowd of independent European 
 states which are all her inferiors in the qualities 
 and resources that entitle a nation to self-govern- 
 ment. But there is every reason why Ireland, 
 
REQUIRED FOR IMPERIAL SAFETY. 365 
 
 possessing a fertile soil, capacious estuaries, a 
 first-rate situation for commerce, a brave and 
 intelligent population, should find absolute and 
 separate independence beyond all comparison 
 preferable to a Legislative Union which cripples 
 her powers ; absorbs her resources for the benefit 
 of England ; and acts as a political and social 
 blister — draining and irritating. 
 
 An Englishman may easily test the capability 
 of the Union to attach Irishmen to British con- 
 nexion, by asking himself the question whether 
 he would submit to a political alliance with any 
 land on earth, which involved the destruction of 
 the English Parliament, or which deprived the 
 English nation of self-government ? 
 
 It is certainly deplorable that England, with 
 her ample means of securing our attachment by 
 the simple justice of Eepeal, should yet prefer to 
 perpetuate our hostility by refusing us that jus- 
 tice. I am no blind anti-English bigot ; I can 
 recognize the many claims of England to our 
 admiration — would that she could enable me to 
 add, our affection ! Two hundred and fifty years 
 ago my own paternal ancestors were English ; and 
 a sentiment not wholly dissimilar from filial reve- 
 rence will sometimes steal over my mind when I 
 think that for many centuries my forefathers be- 
 longed to that land, so full of glorious monu- 
 
366 HOW ENGLAND REPELS OUR ATTACHMENT. 
 
 ments of all that can exalt and dignify the 
 human race ; rich with the memories of martial 
 valour and pacific wisdom ; famed for the splendid 
 pre-eminence in arts and arms of her mighty 
 sons ; covered over with her stately old ancestral 
 dwellings ; adorned with majestic churches and 
 cathedi'als — the venerable records of the piety 
 which once distinguished her inhabitants. Even 
 an Irish Repealer may experrence a momentary 
 thrill of pride when he thinks of his remote 
 connexion with a country possessing such claims 
 on the world's admii-ation ; but the sentiment is 
 quickly banished by the wrongs that England's 
 crimes have inflicted upon that far dearer land 
 in which his first breath was drawn, with which 
 his fondest afiections are identified, and of which 
 God's pro^-idence has made him a citizen ! 
 
 England — England I why will you compel our 
 reluctant detestation? 
 
 Kilcascan, Co. Cork, 
 December, 1844. 
 
PEEL AND MAYNOOTH. 367 
 
 POSTSCKIPT. 
 
 The Repeal agitation has bid defiance to co- 
 ercive measures, prosecutions, imprisonments. 
 The next step to undermine our strength will 
 come in the shape of concession and conciliation. 
 Peel tries now to put a golden hook in the nose 
 of the Irish Catholic Church by the endowment 
 of Maynooth. As Maynooth will pocket the 
 grant, I trust Maynooth will have the grace to 
 laugh at the donor. There is no doubt that the 
 grant has been most frankly and graciously 
 made ; there is as little doubt that had it been 
 otherwise — had it professed in any way to invade 
 the perfect freedom of Catholic instruction, it 
 would have too palpably defeated its own object. 
 That object is to buy off the clergy from Repeal. 
 There is much speculation, too, on another 
 event — the promised visit of Her Majesty to 
 Ireland. Hopes are expressed that the smiles of 
 royalty may thaw the rigour of our Irish patriot- 
 ism. The Queen likes travelling ; she has visi- 
 ted Scotland, France, and Belgium. It is natural 
 
368 THE queen's rumoured visit. 
 
 she should wish to amuse herself with a few 
 weeks' tour through Ireland. Let her come, and 
 welcome ! Peel will try to turn her visit to an 
 anti-national account. But those speculators will 
 find themselves mistaken who imagine that the 
 Irish people are such children as to be amused 
 with idle pageantry, or that the glittering para- 
 phernalia of royalty can divert them for a single 
 moment from the stern pursuit of their own 
 independence. The motto I have chosen for this 
 book is the echo of their settled purposes — 
 
 " We know our duty to our Sovereign, and 
 are loyal ; we also know our duty to ourselves, 
 and are resolved to be free." 
 
 We are not going to forget our duty to our- 
 selves. I trust, should crowds greet the advent 
 of our amiable young monarch, that the air may 
 ring again with lusty shouts for The Kepeal! 
 She will learn to respect a people who respect 
 themselves. ? 
 
 There is, in our present position, everything 
 to encourage, everything to stimulate to aug- 
 mented energy. 
 
 Eeview with me, for a single moment, the 
 progress of the present movement from the day 
 of its commencement, the 15th of April, 1840. 
 
 1. There was a small gathering of earnest 
 men — thinly scattered on the benches of the 
 
REVIEW OF OUR PAST PROGRESS. 369 
 
 Corn Exchange room — I doubt if they amounted 
 to seventy. I bless God that I was one of them. 
 The leader had convened them, I verily believe, 
 with a conviction that the immediate answer to 
 his call would have given a much larger attend- 
 ance. 
 
 2. The leader and his little band worked on. 
 Their work was met at first with silence by 
 the English press, who believed that the tiny 
 spark would soon die out if not fanned into a 
 flame by opposition. At home our exertions 
 were honoured with an occasional Whio: sneer, 
 or a Tory growl of hatred. The prevalent tactics 
 of hostility, however, appeared both at home and 
 in England, to be neglect 
 
 3. The Eepealers still worked on. Our num- 
 bers received some accessions. A few true 
 hearts who could not allow the green standard to 
 be hoisted, in storm or in sunshine, without 
 gathering under its shadow, rallied round us. 
 Some demonstrations — feeble as yet — in the pro- 
 vinces, cheered us onward, and gave earnest of 
 better things for the future. We soon became 
 sufficiently important to be laughed at. The 
 London press found the silent game would no 
 longer answer. If it was silent, the Association 
 was not It made itself heard, and the organs 
 of public opinion in England amused their rea- 
 
 2b 
 
370 REVIEW OF OUR PAST PROGRESS. 
 
 ders with vapid witticisms at our expense. The 
 Irish Kepealers were so divertingly " absurd !" 
 " insane !" " ridiculous !" and so forth. 
 
 4. The absurd Repealers still worked on, ga- 
 thering strength as they advanced. They soon 
 passed the laughing ordeal, as they previously 
 had passed the silent stage. Their antagonists 
 found that silence and ridicule alike failed to 
 check their career. Open and ferocious hostility 
 was at length adopted ; their purposes were inde- 
 fatigably misrepresented ; they were stigmatized 
 as rebels and traitors ; their objects were alleged 
 to be the dismemberment of the empire; the 
 exaltation of rampant Popery on the ruins of 
 Protestantism, and the expulsion of the present 
 proprietary from the forfeited estates. 
 
 5. Despite opposition, the Repealers conti- 
 nued their peaceful and constitutional labours. 
 The period for domestic missions arrived in 1842 ; 
 the seed was widely scattered, and speedily began 
 to germinate. 
 
 6. A prodigious impetus was given to the 
 movement by O'Connell's introduction of the 
 question into the Corporation of Dublin. All 
 the Irish municipal bodies save one, immediately 
 identified themselves with the cause of self-go- 
 vernment. 
 
 7. The monster meetings were held in 1843. 
 
REVIEW OF OUR PAST PROGRESS. 371 
 
 They demonstrated beyond all power of contra- 
 diction, that the will of Ireland was for Eepeal. 
 No man could thenceforth pretend that Repeal 
 was indifferent to the Irish nation. 
 
 8. Hostility assumed a new attitude. Troops 
 were poured into the country to put down Ee- 
 peal. Had O'Connell been less wise or less 
 wary, a horrible massacre at Clontarf — ^the signal 
 for a universal and sanguinary insurrection — 
 most certainly would have taken place. If the 
 government had planned a massacre of the peo- 
 ple, they could not have taken steps better cal- 
 culated to effectuate that end than the steps they 
 actually did take. 
 
 9. To the terrors of the soldier were super- 
 added those of the prosecutor, judge, and Tory 
 juror. Surely if the question were extinguish- 
 able, this enormous array of civil and military 
 power ought now to have extinguished it ! 
 
 10. Yet Repeal survived. It acquired new 
 force beneath the hostile pressure. The Irish 
 confederacy grew stronger every day : 
 
 11. And on the 18th of April, 1845, Sir 
 Robert Peel, the Prime Minister of England, de- 
 clares in Parliament that that confederacy — ori- 
 ginating with a handful of men, mocked, scorned, 
 buffeted — assailed by the soldier and the abused 
 powers of the law — denounced from the throne, 
 
372 peel's admission 
 
 yet sternly defying all the varied phases of hos- 
 tility, and acquiring fresh vigour from every 
 effort to suppress it — the Premier of England, 
 after an experience of five eventful years, declares 
 in the House of Commons that that confede- 
 racy CAXXOT BE PUT DOWN BY FORCE. 
 
 He is right. Our confederacy cannot be put 
 down by force, because it has truth for its basis, 
 public utility for its object, and no other means 
 for achieving its end than those which the law 
 and constitution farnish. 
 
 What a stimulant to persevere is the Premier's 
 admission ! What a heart-cheering tribute not 
 only to our strength, but to our morality and 
 virtue ! 
 
 Fellow-countrymen ! let Peel's tribute to our 
 strength and virtue nerve us with fresh vigour 
 in the pursuit of our national independence. 
 Work onward still, steadily, unflinchingly. If 
 the sectarian bigot should vituperate you, answer 
 his calumnies by working onward. If the place- 
 hunting Whig sneers at your honest labours, an- 
 swer his taunts by working onward. If the 
 anti-national Tory denounces your devotion to 
 your country, meet his enmity by still working 
 onward. If your opponents, whether corrupt, 
 ferocious, or fanatical, seek to deaden your ener- 
 gies by representing success as impossible, and 
 
OF OUR STRENGTH. 373 
 
 Repeal as too mighty for accomplishment, answer 
 them by triumphantly quoting the Premier's 
 avowal, " THE Irish confederacy cannot be put 
 
 DOWN BY FORCE." 
 
 Go on, people of Ireland, in the noble career in 
 which you have already made so much progress. 
 Let ministers conciliate or coerce — let Sovereigns 
 come or go — you, you have chalked out a path 
 for yourselves in which it were infamy to falter 
 for one instant. Your regards are steadily fixed 
 on the one, grand, ultimate object of your hopes 
 and your labours. Keep that object incessantly 
 before you. Show your Sovereign that your 
 hearts are wrapped up in its success — the hearts 
 of eight millions of her loyal subjects. Show her 
 that you will not compliment away the pursuit 
 of your national rights ; no, not for an hour ; 
 let the manifestation be made with perfect res- 
 pect, but with manly and inflexible steadiness. 
 Show the nations of the earth that if the unfal- 
 tering energy of national virtue entitles you to 
 national independence, you possess and assert 
 that claiiji at the moment when the servile, the 
 sycophant, the place-hunter, and the fool, would 
 shrink from its avowal. 
 
 Go on, people of Ireland. "Work hard as you 
 have heretofore worked. Faint not, weary not, 
 pause not on the way, until — triumphant alike 
 
374 PERSEVERE ! 
 
 over open hostility, and the more perilous, because 
 insidious, enmity that masks itself in smiles and 
 favours — you shall plant the green banner of 
 our country, never again to be lowered, on the 
 ramparts of the Irish Constitution ! 
 
 22d April, 1845. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Amongst the bugbears most frequently paraded by those who can 
 see nothing but mischief in the Repeal of the Union, one of the 
 most prominent is the possible difference of the two Parliaments on 
 the question of selecting a Regent. INIr. Sharman Crawford, copy- 
 ing his predecessors, insisted strongly on the perils (and no man 
 denies them) which would follow from such a diversity. The Re- 
 pealers, however, propose that the cause of dissension on this point 
 should be extinguished, by leaving the appointment of the Regent 
 exclusively in the hands of the British jNIinister and Parliament. 
 To this proposal Mr. Crawford objected in his anti-Repeal letters 
 of 1841, that it would " surrender the independence of the Irish Par- 
 liament on this vital point. '^ 
 
 I quote the following passage from my reply to Mr. Crawford, 
 which was published in all the Irish Repeal journals in November, 
 1841: 
 
 " I do not see how the independence of the Irish Parliament 
 would be one whit more compromised by an ipso facto identity of 
 the Regent, than it would be by the ipso facto identity of the sove- 
 reign ; and I never yet heard that this latter identity was deemed 
 incompatible with the parliamentary independence of Ireland. In 
 fact, the identity of the Regent would seem to follow as a necessary 
 consequence from the principle of the law that requires the identity 
 of the Monarch. 
 
 " Mr. Crawford terms the Regency Question < a vital point. ' So it 
 is — vital to the imperial connexion of the kingdoms ; and therefore it 
 is that we Repealers, being ardent friends of the connexion, are 
 desirous to incorporate with the Irish constitution a provision for 
 the identity of the Regent. But the question of the Regent's 
 person, however important to the connexion of the countries, is 
 
376 APPENDIX. 
 
 a matter of very inferior importance as affects the general wel- 
 fare and the every-day comfort of the people — the administration 
 of justice — the prosperity of trade — of manufactures— of com- 
 merce. These are the matters of really vital importance to the 
 people — matters which require all the care of a resident, well- 
 constructed popular parliament. Give the people of Ireland such a 
 Parliament as this, and they can well afford to leave to a British 
 ministry the selection of the Regent's person." 
 
 F 1 X I S. 
 
LATELY PUBLISHED, 
 
 In. Two vols., Post 8vo., 
 
 tsaints and sinners, 
 
 (a tale of modebn times,) 
 
 BY W. J. O'NEILL DAUNT, ESQ. 
 
 JAMES DUFFY, 23, ANGLESEA-STREET, 
 
 NOTICES BY THE PRESS. 
 
 (from the fbeeman's journal.) 
 ** The work which has issued from the press under the above title, 
 is calculated to throw more light on Irish character, Irish grievances, 
 and the lights and shadows of Irish life, than, perhaps, any other 
 single publication extant." 
 
 (from the nation.) 
 "Mr. Daunt has a wide and well-earned reputation as a political 
 writer and speaker : but, beyond question, this book is his greatest 
 achievement. It abounds in vigorous and racy dialogue, and ex- 
 hibits a mastery of the materials, as well as of the art of theological 
 controversy, which takes us by surprise." 
 
 (from the pilot.) 
 " This book, emanating from one of the most prominent Repealers 
 in Ireland, may be looked on as a sort of manifesto of the Catholic 
 Repealers of the Union. It pourtrays, under the guise of a fictitious 
 narrative, the present condition of Irish society, in its various grades 
 and classes. The book is manifestly the result of an accurate and 
 extensive observation of the social state of Ireland." 
 
 (from the DUBLIN WEEKLT REGISTER.) 
 
 ** ' Saints and Sinners' will add considerably to the fame of 
 Mr. Daunt. Our extracts shew the spirit of the book, and convey 
 some notion of its style ; but they cannot give an adequate idea of 
 its principal charm — the vigorous portraiture and contrast of cha- 
 racters, all apparently taken from living prototypes. There is a 
 powerful chapter on religious persecution in the second volume, 
 containing novel and instructive matter. The work wdll, we trust, 
 be found on the table of every Repeal Reading Room in the king- 
 dom." 
 
 (from the LONDON TABLET.) 
 
 ** Mr. Daunt's name is already familiar to our readers as that of a 
 leading man among the Irish agitators for Repeal. But Mr. Daunt 
 is something more than a politician : he has diligently applied him- 
 self to controversy, and has qualified himself to make no insignifi- 
 cant figure as a polemical writer. . , . The expose in these 
 
NOTICES BY THE PBESS. 
 
 volumes of the doings and characters of the Reformation Society 
 gentry is perfect : the writer evidently knows his game, and does not 
 spare the vermin he has taken in hand to hunt down. We cordially 
 recommend * Saints and Sinners' to our readers. . . . We 
 ought to say that, while many points of controversy are handled with 
 great mastery, the subject of Persecution has evidently engaged the 
 writer to put out his whole strength. The valuable collection of 
 facts, authorities, and reasonings, which Mr. Daunt has here brought 
 together, may be read with great profit, even after Dr. Milners Essay 
 on the same subject, in his * Letters to a Prebendary. ' We have a high 
 value for Mr. Daunt, as, both by his natural powers and acquired 
 knowledge, occupying a very prominent, not to say a foremost — 
 place among the instructed lay Catholics of Ireland." 
 
 (from the BELFAST VINDICATOR.) 
 
 *'No person who is anxious to observe accurately the religious 
 state of our social relations, and the manifold strangenesses of what 
 may be called controversial society, and who wishes, moreover, to 
 possess a learned, yet popular defence, of the Catholic religion, 
 should be without this book." ..." The style of Mr. Daunt's 
 book is peculiarly easy, graceful, and flowing. It is racy and pun- 
 gent." 
 
 (from THE NEWRY EXAMINER.^ 
 
 *' The first chapter opens agreeably, and, to the last page, the in- 
 terest is sustained through pages of the pleasantest description and 
 the raciest dialogue. We have here the "second reformation" 
 gentry dissected with a masterly hand, and the black malice and sel- 
 fishness of their hearts laid bare. The " fine old Irish gentleman" 
 of the high Tory school, warped from the natural kindliness of his 
 bluff nature, to be made the instrument of ruthless extermination, is 
 
 admirably drawn Interspersed are quiet, serene, 
 
 and touching scenes of affection and repose ; in fine, the chapters 
 are as varied as the most desultory reader could desire, and yet, with 
 an exquisite art, the author has contrived to maintain throughout, 
 the unity of his design and colouring 
 
 " On the whole, we are bound to say of this work, that it supplies, 
 within a reasonable space, the best exposition that has ever appeared 
 of the principles of a Catholic Repealer. No Reading Room for the 
 humbler classes — no family of the middle rank — should be without 
 it. It is just the present for a candid Protestant, who desires to 
 know what we desire, and what we believe." 
 
 (from dolman's magazine for may, 1845.) 
 " The book is partly controversial. The hero of Saints and Sin- 
 ners becomes a convert ; and the reasons which determine his choice, 
 are given with great force, brevity, and clearness, in the polemic 
 conversations which occupy two or three chapters of the work. * 
 * * * * Saints and Sinners gives a true and vivid picture of the 
 social condition of Ireland in the various phases of life, from the 
 aristocrat to the peasant." 
 
Now Ready, 
 
 POEMS FOR THE PEOPLE, 
 
 BY J. DE JEAN, 
 
 Price, \s., or hound in Fancy Cloth, \s. 6d. 
 
 J. BROWNE, 21, NASSAU-STREET, 
 
 AND MAY BE HAD OF ANY BOOKSELLER. 
 
 NOTICES OF THE WORK BY THE PRESS. 
 
 (fbom the freeman's journal.) 
 *' The Boul of the ancient bards seems to have been revived in our 
 Poet. He sings not of love's dalliance, or of nature's bright scene, 
 in their shifting dress of Spring, and Summer, and Autumn. The 
 sterner claims of country alone awake his strains, although the fre- 
 quent plaintiveness, and tender imagery of his verse, show that his 
 muse could well indulge in softer sympathies. 
 
 (from the nation.) 
 
 " Fresh, vigorous, vehement, and trusting — the Repeal year pro- 
 duced no fruit bearing surer evidence of its paternity than this little 
 volume. You may hear the thunder of the monster meetings rise 
 again in its exulting and extravagant triumph, and the wail of the 
 imprisonment, deep and bitter, like the grief of a strong man, burst- 
 ing out afresh in its under-tones of sorrow and indignation. Even 
 its faults are characteristic of the time and the people. A col- 
 lection of O'Connell's Repeal Speeches, the correspondence of the 
 
 Association, the Spirit of the Nation, the Richmond addresses 
 
 none of them all belong more essentially to the national struggle, 
 or took their character and colour more exclusively from it, than 
 these poems. Good, bad, and indifferent — and they range from ex- 
 quisite harmony, flexible strength, and wonderful felicity of illustra- 
 tion, to extravagance and rant ; they echo, in all moods, some tone 
 of the national mind : a daguerreotypesome aspect — often an evanes- 
 cent one — of our cause. And for this, considerable as their merit 
 as poetry undoubtedly is, they will probably, by-and-by, be valued 
 most. Some future Thierry of the Repeal triumph will make them 
 help to tell his story of the hopes and fears that stirred the breasts of 
 the Irish people in the memorable years of hope and work. 
 
 "About a third of the collection appeared in The Nation, the 
 remainder in other journals : but the price is small, and the value 
 great, and we commend the book to our readers. With leisure and 
 training — which are needed, not to develop, but to cultivate and 
 control his powers — the writer of this book would become another 
 Ebenezer Elliott, whom he resembles in natural strength and 
 fertility of imagination." 
 
NOTICES BY THE PRESS. 
 (from THE MORNING REGISTER.) 
 
 *' This is the title of a very unassuming but exceedingly well- 
 printed collection of poems, the production of one of the humble but 
 gifted Irishmen to whom recent events would appear to have given 
 inspiration. The name of the author is familiar to the readers of 
 the Register, whose columns, as well as those of some contemporary 
 journals, have been enriched by several beautiful emanations of his 
 genius." 
 
 (from the pilot.) 
 
 . . . ** The other poems are chiefly of a popular descrip- 
 tion, breathing the fire of ardent patriotism, and abounding — perhaps 
 too much so for their effect on the masses — with metaphor, the result 
 of a redundant imagination. But we will not specify any more. We 
 heartily recommend this cheap ' book of beauty' to our friends — the 
 public." 
 
 (from the KILKENNY JOURNAL.) 
 
 *' These poems are bold, spirit-stirring, and on many occasions, 
 richly imaginative. In truth, they are all worthy of the sympathies 
 of a people embued with the spirit of nationality. Mr. De Jean is 
 a credit to his class — the artizan class — in which are to be found 
 many men of great intelligence. K there be any deficiency in the 
 poems, it is in artistic tact. But study will remedy this. Mr. De 
 Jean has established his claim to the mens divinior. On a future 
 day, we shall justify our commendations by selections from these 
 deservedly popular poems. 
 
 (from the sligo champion.) 
 
 ** This is a collection of spirited poems, upon patriotic topics. 
 The author, in his preface, states that they were composed during 
 * the few hours an operative mechanic could snatch from repose or 
 recreation, after thirteen or fourteen hours of toil.' It is deeply to 
 be regretted that one so gifted — for De Jean has all the vigour, and 
 the fervour, and the sweetness of a true poet — should not have more 
 leisure time to devote to the cause of his country. But we confi- 
 dently expect that this will be remedied for the future. Steps should 
 be taken to place the poet in such a position as will enable him to 
 devote his entire time to the promotion of the popular cause." 
 
 (from the KERRY EXAMINER.) 
 
 " This is a very neat collection of Songs and other little Poems, 
 breathing in every line the most fervid spirit of patriotism. The 
 greater part of them, we believe, if not the entire, has been pub- 
 lished, from time to time, in the metropolitan journals, but have 
 been now collected, for the first time, into one neat little volume, 
 and in this form presented to the public. The songs are much in 
 the style of those to be found in the ' Spirit of the Nation — they 
 are bold in conception, and beautifully expressed. The versifica- 
 tion is smooth and correct." 
 

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