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O'CONNEtL
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LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF
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STATESMEN SERIES.
EDITED BY LLOYD C. SANDEKS.
DANIEL O'CONNELL.
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STATESMEN SERIES.
LIFE OF
DANIEL O'COMELL.
BY
J. A. HAMILTON.
LONDON:
W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13 WATERLOO PLACE,
PALL MALL. S.W.
1888.
LONDON :
PRINTEB BY W. H. ALLEN AND CO., 13 WATKBLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. S.W.
LOAN STACK
PREFATORY NOTE.
The only complete Life of O'Connell hitherto published
is Miss Cusack's, a bulky and uncritical book, founded,
however, upon a considerable quantity of unpublished
materials, chiefly correspondence with Archbishop
McHale, not all of which was used. John 0*Connell
began a life of his father, which he brought in two
thick volumes as far as 1824. Of this book it is
difficult to speak temperately. A son, writing of his
father in the father's lifetime, is not expected to be
impartial, but that is no reason why be should be
grotesquely eulogistic of his father and his party and
indecently abusive of his opponents. Such merit as
the book has is due to its being a kind of sorap-
book of the speeches and resolutions at the meetings
from 1810 to 1824. The same author's edition of his
father's speeches is carried only a year or two farther.
He also published a volume of Parliamentary Remiois*
oences '' from 1883 to 1842, which contains a number
304
vi PBEFATOEY NOTE.
of his father's letters of the years 1829 and 1840.
William Fagan's Life, which, considering that it ap-
peared in a Cork newspaper immediately after O'Con-
nell^s death, is a meritorious work, ends at 1838.
Huish's Life breaks off in the middle, and is almost
valueless ; Graeme's Life is the same. The Centenary
Record, published by the O'Connell Centenary Com-
mittee of 1875, contains some new information, which
the arrangement of the book makes as inaccessible as
possible. O'Neill Daunt's Reminiscences deal almost
exclusively with the last ten years of O^Connell's life,
but are very valuable. Dr. William Forbes Taylor,
under the sobriquet of '* A Munster Farmer," published
a short and temperate review of O'Connell's career, called
A Munster Farmer s Reminiscences of O^GonnelL I
have endeavoured to collect what was valuable from all
these sources, in order to construct at once a picture
of the man and a sketch of his career; and where
they disagreed I have presumed that the truth must
have been best known to John the son and Daunt
the friend. Mr. Shaw Lefevre's Peel and O'Connell
has been before me, but its scope is rather foreign to
the object of this book. I have not dissented from
the general estimate and conclusions of Mr. Lecky's
masterly essay in the Leaders of Public Ojnnion in
Ireland, which seems to me to possess all the finality
that is possible, until O'Connell's epoch has passed into
PREFATORY NOTE. vii
the cooler temperature of history and ceased to be
steeped in the burning atmosphere of Irish controversy.
In addition to these works the authorities are Wyse's
History of the GatJiolic Association and Charles
Butler's Historical Memoirs of the Roman Catholics ;
Mr. W. J. Amherst's History of Catholic Emancipa-
tion, which is carried only to 1820, is also a useful
book. For the Repeal period, DuflFy's Young Ireland
and Four Years of Irish History are of the first im-
portance. For the legal part of O'ConnelPs life,
OTlanagan's Munster Circuit and Irish Bar are useful.
I have consulted also D. O. Maddyn's Chiefs of
Parties^ Cloncurry^s Personal Reminiscences, the lives
severally of Canning, Althorp, Melbourne, Ellen-
borough, Shell, Drummond, and Dr. Doyle; Peel's
Memoirs, the Greville Memoirs, Lord Hatherton's
Memoir, Lord Colchester's Diary, Guizot's Embassy to
St, James' in 1840, and Barrington's Personal Skeiche9.
For visits to Darrynane Catherine O'Connell's Excur-
sions in Ireland and Howitt's Journal, vol. i. p. 828
are useful. J. Venedey, a fair-minded German, pub-
lished an interesting account of what he saw in Ireland
in 1848, and in a small work by M. Gavrois, pub-
lished at Arras, called O'Connell €i le Collide At$^la%M
a St. Omer, there are several interesting partioulan
about O'Couneirs early and his last days. For foreign
opinion the following books may be looked at, though
viii PREFATORY NOTE.
they do not add much to our knowledge of him : an
Elogio, recitato nei solenni funerali celebratigli nei
giorni 25 e 30 Guigno 1847, by Father Gioacchino
Ventura, Napoli 1848 ; Leopold Schipper's Irlanda
verhdltniss zu England ; Moriarty's Lehen und Werken
O'ConneWsy and two pamphlets by J. M. de Gaulle
and by Jules Gondon. Among Magazines, the New
Monthly Magazine from 1821 to 1832 contains
articles by Sheil and others, and Macmillans Magazine^
vol. xxviii., a valuable article by Mr. Ball. I have also
made use of various pamphlets, and for general history
have followed Mr. Spencer Walpole's excellent book.
J. A. H.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER L
feABLY AND PBOFESSIONAL LI7B.
^Btoily, birth, education, and call to the bar— A United Irishman —
Professional snccess^^Aniecdotes of profoBsional life p. 1
CHAPTER n.
^tiTt SECUfilTIBS C0NTE0VEB8T,
1800-1818.
Position of the Catholic movcmDnt-^Loadonhip of John Kcogh — Tho
period of «* dignified silence "—The Veto— The Catholic Board —
Grattan's Bill of 1818^Qiiarantotti*8 rescript — CoIIapte of Um
Catholic party ........ p. IS
X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER ni.
CATHOLIC DESPONDENCY.
1814-1823.
State of Affairs after the Dissolution of the Board — O'Connell's Duel
with D'Esterre — Affair with Peel — Trial of Magee for libel on the
Duke of Richmond — Visit of George IV. to Dublin , p. 48
CHAPTER IV.
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION.
1823-1828.
The germ of the Catholic Association — The Catholic Rent — The Act
of 1825— The Relief Bill and Wings of 1825— The New Catholic
Association — The Waterford and Clare Elections . . p. 61
CHAPTER V.
EMANCIPATION.
1828-1842.
Result of the Clare Election — Dissolution of the Catholic Association — -
Catholic Relief — Refusal of O'Connell's claim to take his seat —
Second Clare Election — Repeal Agitation — Conflict with the Mar
quis of Anglesey — Reform , p. 79
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER VI.
THE EEFOEMED PARLIAMENT.
1833-1835.
Tithe War — O'Connell renews his agitation against Tithe and for
Repeal— The Reform Bill— "Who is the traitor?"— Coercion Bill
of 1833 — O'Oonnell's Repeal motion — Intrigne with Littleton —
Fall of the Whigs — Peel's Administration ... p. 106
CHAPTER VII.
WHIG ALLIANCE.
1835-1840.
Disappointed of Office — Tonr in Scotland — The Oarlow Election
Scandal — Abandonment of Repeal — The Irish Poor Law Bill —
Accession of the Qneen and O'Connell's loss of popularity in
Ireland — Reprimanded by the Speaker — The Precursor Society
p. 126
CHAPTER Vni.
THE BEPEAL ASSOCIATION.
1840-184d.
Ropeal Association founded-^Irish Municipal Roform~-O*0oanell Lord
Mayor of Dublin — The founding of the Natitm^-Th^ Repeal
Dobato^Tho Monster Meetinge^The Mallow Deflanoe^OloaUrf
p. 147
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
LAST DATS*
1843-1847.
The trial — The jtidgment of the House of Lords — The Federal coli*
troversy — The conjlict with Yonng Ireland — Alliance With the
"Whigs — The Famine — Last days and death ... p. 167
CEAPTEE X.
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHAEACTEH*
His wife and family-^His domestic life and amusements — His pet*
sonal piety — His appearance — His oratory — His political cha-
racter and aehieyements <«<*<« p. 195
UjU^^rPj^
LIFE OF
DANIEL O'CONNELL
CHAPTER I.
EARLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE.
Family, birth, education, and call to the bar — A United Irishman —
Professional success — Anecdotes of professional life.
In a bouse called Carhen House, long since dis-
mantled, which stood in the farthest extremity of Kerry,
between the Kenmaro River and Dingle Bay, about a
mile to the north of the little town of Cahirciveen,
there was born, on the 6th of August 1775, Daniel
O'Connell. In the wild districts of south-western Ire-
land, the family of O'Connell, or, as they were origi-
nally called O'Conal, had long been established, at one
time in Limerick, at another in Kerry, and at another in
Clare. So remote was this part of Ireland, that through
the most rigorous period of the Penal Code, when the
law was so strictly administered that Roman Catbolics
were constrained to resort, and not in yain, to the good
faith of Protestant neighbours, and to avoid confisoa*
1
c
2 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
tion by conveying to those good friends, as unavowed
trustees, the lands, which the laws forbade persons of
their faith to hold themselves, the O'Connells had
kept unconfiscated and undisturbed a small moun-
tain estate called Glencara, simply because its inacces-
sibility and seclusion had saved it from the notice and
the grasp of the law. At the end of the eighteenth
century they were country gentry of easy circumstances
and good standing in their neighbourhood. Darrynane
Abbey, the family seat, an old farmhouse increased to a
considerable size by picturesque but irregular additions,
was in the possession of Maurice, the head of the family.
It stands near the shore of Cahirdonnel Bay in a very
lovely situation, and has close by the remains of an
abbey founded by the monks of St. Finbar in the
seventh century. Another brother, Morgan, kept a
shop in Cahirciveen and dealt in silks, laces, and wines
smuggled over from France. He accumulated money
and invested it in land in the names of Protestant
trustees. He married Catherine, a sister of John, The
O'Mullane, of White Church, county Cork, and lived
at Carhen. Of his numerous family, no less than ten
survived their childhood. The eldest was Daniel.
Maurice O'Connell was childless, and soon adopted
Daniel, who was his natural heir, and another of Morgan's
children, also called Maurice, and a great part of their
boyhood was spent at Darrynane. Daniel was a bright,
intelligent child. To the end of his life, his tenacious
memory retained the recollection of having been car-
ried in his nurse's arms to the seashore, to see two of
her boats towing Paul Jones's ship out of shallow water
to a deeper anchorage. This was in 1778. While still
but four years old he received his first teaching from an
old hedge schoolmaster, named David Mahoney, one of
EARLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 8
that class of poor scholars, particularly numerous in
Kerry, and produced by the repressive Penal Laws, who
wandered, half-beggar, half-scholar, from house to house,
claiming, and never failing to receive, the hospitality of
the country-side. The old man took the child upon his
knee, and so won his heart and fixed his attention, that
the whole alphabet was learnt in an hour and a half,
Daniel proved a ready scholar. He would turn over the
portraits of the celebrities in the Dublin Magazine, say-
ing, ** I wonder will my visage ever appear in the Dublin
Magazine'^ ; he composed a drama on the fortunes of
the House of Stuart at ten years old ; and so fond was
he of reading, that he would desert his play-fellows to
sit cross-legged in the window-seat, devouring Coolcs
Voyages, and crying over its pages of adventure.
The policy of the Penal Laws had been to render the
education of their children as difficult as might be to
the Roman Catholics, if not wholly impossible. At the
beginning of the eighteenth century, they were forbidden
to establish schools of their own, to be teachers in
Protestant schools, to teach in a private house any but
the children of their own family, or to send their chil-
dren abroad to receive the education, which was denied
them at home. The Catholic gentry were obliged to
smuggle their sons over seas by stealth, and many a
lugger, which had run a contraband cargo successfully
on the west coast, took baok to France a few new
scholars for St. Omer or Salamanca, Louvain or Li^ge.
It was not until 1792 that the restrictions were re-
moved which prevented them from setting up sobools
of their own. The first school publicly opened by a
priest was kept by a Mr. Harrington at Kedington in
Long Island, some two miles from the Cove of Cork^
and to tills, when Daniel was thirteen years old, and
1 •
4 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
had been for some time taught at home by a tutor
named John Burke, he and his brother were sent.
Without showing particular precocity, he was indus-
trious and obedient, and enjoyed the unique distinction
of being the only boy in the school who never was
flogged. Here he remained for a year, but higher
education was still hardly to be attained by a Roman
Catholic in Ireland. Trinity College, Dublin, was prac-
tically closed to him, as were its endowments by law,
and in the usual course of the education of lads of
family, the two O'Connells were sent to the Continent.
They went first to Liege, only to find that they were too
old to be admitted there. They then went to Louvain,
among whose fifty colleges several were Irish, and
waited there for instructions from home. During the
interval Daniel attended some of the University lec-
tures. At length, in January 1791, they were placed at
the college at St. Omer. It has often been said that
Daniel was at this time destined by his uncle for the
calling of a priest, but he was himself at the pains to
deny the statement in a letter to the Dublin Evening
Post, 17th July 1828. He proved himself a ready and
quick-witted pupil, and, being placed in the classes of
grammar and poetry, was easily first in both of them.
Doctor Gregory Stapylton, the fortieth and last Pre-
sident of the College, wrote of him in January 1792,
** With respect to the elder, Daniel, I have but one sen-
tence to write about him, and that is, that I never was
so much mistaken in my life as I shall be, unless he be
destined to make a remarkable figure in society."
On the 20th of August 1792, he went to the College
at Douai, where he was placed in the class of rhetoric,
and remained there until the 21st January 1793. At
the end of 1792, the Douai College was suppressed, and
EARLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 5
the boys were obliged to wait some weeks before they
could communicate with their uncle in Kerry. They
then returned home, but it was not without danger that
they reached the coast. The soldiers assaulted their
conveyance, and abused them as ** little priests'* and
*^ aristocrats.^' For safety's sake they were compelled
on the journey to wear the tricolor, which they tore in
disgust from their hats when they found themselves
securely on board the packet at Calais. His education
in France left enduring marks upon O'Connell's cha-
racter. What he heard, and to some extent what he
himself saw, of the French Kevolution, made upon his
susceptible mind an impression which influenced his
whole life. He imbibed strong Bourbon opinions and
an intense hatred of the Revolution and the Revo-
lutionaries, who were the persecutors of his Church,
" I was always in terror," he said, " lest the scoundrels
should cut our throats ; on one occasion a waggoner of
Dumouriez's"^ army scared me and a set of my fellow
collegians who had walked out from Douai, crying
* Votla les jeunes Jesuites ! les Capucins ! ' So we ran
back to our college as fast as we could, and luckily the
vagabond did not follow us." He was by nature de-
voted to his Church, and his training deepened this
disposition of his mind. He was often accused, and
not without truth, of Jesuitry in his policy, and the
French accent which hung about his English pronun-
ciation on his return home never entirely left him. To
the end of his days he pronounced " Empire '"
" Empeer," and accented the word ** charity " as if it
were '* <?fcari/c."
* Dnmouriez won the battle of Jemappes in the Aaetrian Ne th w>
landi, about thirty-six milei from Donai, on NoTember 6, 179i.
6 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
After spending the remainder of the year, 1793, at
home in Kerry, moving among the peasantry whom he
learnt to know so well, and enjoying with the ardour of
a keen sportsman the hare-hunting of the Kerry moun-
tains, O'Connell went to London to begin the period of
studentship at an English inn of court, which was ne-
cessary before he could be called to the Irish bar. He
entered himself at Lincoln's Inn"^ in 1794, and took
lodgings in a court on the north side of Coventry Street,
but in 1795 he removed to a boarding-house at Chis-
wick. That his years of studentship were spent in no
merely nominal attention to the law, is proved by the
fact that his learning in his profession was at all times
unquestionable and profound, and that after he had been
a few years at the bar, his practice and his political work
were so engrossing, that he could have had little time
left for further study and research. The first five years
of a successful lawyer's life are those during which not
the foundations only but much of the superstructure of
his learning must be created. O'Connell's mind was
ceaselessly active, with a natural bent for law, but he
must from the first have vigorously exercised it upon
text-books and case-law to have attained the knowledge
which he indubitably possessed. The recollections of
bis life in France had made him by antipathy a strong
Tory, and when Hardy was put upon his trial in Oc-
tober 1794, O'Connell attended at the Old Bailey day
after day to see the man brought to justice, whom he
* O'Connell's biographers do not agree as to what inn he studied at ;
his son John says Lincoln's Inn, Daunt says Gray's Inn, and Shiel the
Middle Temple. All of these may be presumed to have had means of
knowing the truth. Fagan follows Daunt and Huish Shiel ; Mr. Shaw-
Lefevre puts him at ^the Inner Temple. There are no other Inns of
Court.
EAELY AND PBOFESSIONAL LIFE. 7
regarded as the advocate and accomplice of the French
Kevolution. But day by day the bigotry of Scott the
Attorney-General, the eloquence of Erskine, Hardy's
counsel, the weakness of the case for the Crown, and
the justification which appeared for Hardy's speeches,
themselves effected a revolution in O'ConnelTs mind,
and he left the court at the end of the trial cured for
life of his brief fit of Toryism.
At length his studentship was over, and returning to
Ireland, he was called to the Irish Bar on May 19th,
1798. Whatever may have been the intentions with which
Maurice O'Connell of Darrynane had sent his nephew to
St. Omer, it was clear at that time, and to a young man
of his temperament, that the bar offered the only
career in Ireland that could satisfy his aspirations.
As a boy, O'Connell had his ambition. Once, when
he was about ten years old, they were discussing
Flood, Charlemont, and Grattan, then at the height
of their reputation, round the fire at Darrynane. The
usually vivacious child was observed to be sitting
silent and abstracted. " Daniel," said his aunt, '* what
are you thinking of? '^ ** Why, let me tell you," he
replied, *' I 'm thinking I '11 make a stir in the world
yet." It is said that he had been particularly excited
by the career of his uncle Daniel. This oflBcer, the
youngest brother of Maurice O'Connell, had entered
the French service in 1759, as a sublieutenant in
Clare's regiment, when still only a lad of fourteen.
By 1787 he had risen to the rank of a major-general,
and was colonel in command of the German regi-
ment of Salm-Salm in the French army. In 1788,
he invented a system of infantry tactics, which was
soon adopted by all the armies of Europe. Subse-
quently ho was made Count O'Connell, aud when.
8 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
about 1794, several regiments of the Irish Brigade were
drafted into the British service, he became a colonel in
the British army. But apart from his uncle's brilliant
reputation, there was enough in the career of a barrister
to tempt O'Connell to climb that way to eminence. He
had, as strongly as ever any Irishman has had it, the legal
turn of the Irish mind ; he was subtle, ready, disputa-
tious, astute. In a country where the aristocracy and the
landlord class were always prone to absenteeism, and if
resident pinned their hopes on the favour of the Govern-
ment ; where the body of merchants, though well-to-do,
indeed, and enterprising, was small and almost confined
to Dublin and Belfast, the bar became the only body in
Ireland capable of taking a prominent position before the
public eye. The warfare of the law courts fascinated
the Irish as it never has done the English. The English
have been content to regard the proceedings of the law
as a matter of art and even of mystery, to be respected
perhaps, to be tolerated certainly, to be admired never.
But to the Irish, and especially to the Irish peasantry,
a trial was an arena, in which wit and craft, eloquence
and cunning, performed a drama which they fully un-
derstood and followed with enthusiasm. A smart and
shifty witness, a clever though unscrupulous attorney, a
neat quibble, an impassioned appeal to a jury, a bold
address to a judge, and a sharp passage of arms be-
tween counsel, delighted the spectators, and passed
from mouth to mouth in a thousand good stories. Nor
did the bar exist for law and lawyers only. Instead of
an antagonism between letters and law, such as the
English have always known, the best of Irish wit and
Irish letters was to be found among the practitioners of
the Irish bar.
The Four Courts, then just completed, have long been
IE ABLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 9
a classic ground for Irish stories : every circuit in Ire-
land had similar traditions, and its leaders enjoyed a
reputation and popularity over the counties whose
assizes they attended, which was of itself a kind of
fame. But not only was the profession as a profession
attractive to a young man ; its connection with Irish
pohtics, and especially with Irish popular politics, was
of the closest. A great number of the Irish Parlia-
mentary leaders were members of the Irish bar, and the
public had an access to the courts, which they had not
to the House of Commons. Under the strict system of
government which had so long prevailed in Ireland, the
barrister was almost the only person who had the oppor-
tunity of making a figure before the people, while
espousing the popular cause. There was no one else
whose interest and duty combined to bring him on
occasions into conflict with the Government coram
j)oj)ulo. The gown which in England clothed some
passed-master in the mysteries of replevin or contingent
remainders, of ouster or trespass upon the case, was in
Ireland the robe of the hero and the patriot. Political
and professional success reacted upon one another.
Ninety years ago, still more even than to-day, to be a
popular champion in politics was no bad way of obtain-
ing briefs in court ; and to have the tongue of a ready
advocate was an excellent recommendation for a young
man ambitious of a public career.
When 0*Connell joined the Irish bar, a new day had
recently dawned for the Roman Catholic lawyer. During
the earlier part of the century, Boman Catholics, who,
whether in hopes of pension, place, or practice, were
minded to come to the bar, had been obliged to take the
oaths against Popery, which the Penal Laws imposed,
and to conform outwardly to the Established religion.
10 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
Their object once attained, they had often relapsed into
a suspected state, half-way between conformity and
Catholicism, in which many of them were content, as
the price of toleration, to become the disreputable tools
of the Government. From this unhappy temptation an
Act of the Irish Parliament had recently relieved the
Catholics, and, although labouring under great educa-
tional and some social disadvantages. Catholic barristers
had now a fair field for their talents. Into this field
O'Connell was among the first to step.
For two or three years after his return to Dublin,
though he frequented a debating society in Eustace
Street, he occupied himself but little with politics. He
lodged in Trinity Place, and having no relations
and few friends in Dublin, he was thrown very much on
his own resources. He became a Freemason, and even
master of his lodge, No. 189, and continued to be one
till 1801. That he had some connection with the con-
spiracy of 1798 is probable. He was sworn in as a
United Irishman and attended at least one meeting at
which John Shears was present, but he took no part in
the proceedings. His most intimate friend in London
had been a young Irishman, of good family, Richard
Newton Bennett, and Bennett was a member of the
Directory of United Irishmen. An accident gave him a
hint of the danger of going farther. He was at this time
living a convivial and dissolute life. Though no drun-
kard, and indeed one of the first to set his face sternly
against the extravagance of compulsory wine-bibbing,
which then prevailed among the Irish gentry, he occa-
sionally got drunk. Coming home emboldened with
good liquor, from a party at the house of his friend
Murray, a cheesemonger of 3, Great George Street, one
evening in the month of March, 1798, he found a knot
EARLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 11
of miscreants persecuting a poor street-walker. With
generous courage he interfered to protect the girl, and
was at once attacked himself. Being a finely-built
athletic young fellow, he knocked three of his assailants^
down, but was then pinioned from behind and hit
savagely about the face. For some days his bruisea
compelled him to keep his room. His landlord, a re-
spectable fruiterer named Ryan, took the opportunity of
giving him some good advice. He warned his lodger
to have nothing to do with the conspirators and their
plans, as from what he had heard at the Castle in the
course of his business, he knew that the Government wa»
quite alive to all the details of the plot.
Such is the story told by O'Conneirs son ; but a son
of Murray's used to declare that his father only pre-
vented the arrest of O'Connell, who was desirous of
going to swear in members at a neighbouring meeting of
United Irishmen, by prevailing on him to go down to
the quay and quit Dublin that night in a turf-boat*
Scarcely was he gone when Major Sirr reached Murray's
house, which he had just left. A few months after-
wards his life was very nearly cut short by a violent
illness. While staying at Darrynane, and before his
first circuit, in August, he got wet through on the
hills in following his favourite sport, and heedlessly
slept in his wet clothes in a peasant's hut. Next day
he was taken ill, and for many days lay at death's
door with typhus. His brother John came to see him.
The insurrection had then broken out. He recovered
consciousness, and cried out, ** What news from the
disturbed districts? I am to be a delegate." But
his vigorous constitution stood him in good stead, and
his life was saved.
From whatever source his lesson came, O'Coonell
12 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
accepted it, and, from the disastrous results of the rising
of 1798, contracted a life-long horror of all armed re-
bellion, and of secret societies, whose members are al-
ways so much at the mercy of a spy. He never forgave
the men of '98, and used to speak of them in terms of
harsh and almost unjust censure. " It was they," he
said, " who helped Pitt to carry the Union." During
Emmett's rising, he served in the Lawyer's Artillery
Corps, and was called out on various services, in the
course of which, at considerable risk to himself, he
restrained his comrades from the commission of gross
illegalities. What he then saw strongly impressed him
with the inferiority for the maintenance of civil order of
a volunteer body to a regular military force. Its want
of discipline and professional self-restraint hurry it into
the commission of excesses just when forbearance is
most needed. He saw the tendency, as he put it,
** when a man has arms in his hands to be a ruffian."
He made by his profession in his first year £58,
In his second he made dG150, in his third i6200, in his
fourth ^315, and thereafter his income rose rapidly.
He joined the Munster Circuit, which included the
counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Clare, where
his family connection was strong. In the autumn
of 1813 there were twenty-six cases at the Limerick
Assizes, and he was briefed in every one of them.
He continued to go circuit for two or three and twenty
years, and after that only went for a special fee, when
his visits were made the occasion of public rejoicings.
In his last year of practice, though he lost a whole
term, he made nine thousand pounds. ** The last hour
of my practice at the bar," he said of himself, **I kept
the court alternately in tears and in roars of laughter."
As Shiel says of him, *' from some of the witnesses he
EARLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE, 13
extracted that they were unworthy of all credit, being
notorious knaves or process-servers ; others he inveigled
into a metaphysical puzzle touching the prisoner's
identity ; others he stunned by repeated blows with the
butt-end of an Irish joke : for minutes together the
court and jury, galleries and dock, were in a roar." For
a long time his practice lay very largely in criminal
courts, but his opportunities of making speeches were
for some time very limited. Counsel for the prisoner
in those days was not allowed to address the jury, and
O'ConnelFs skill lay in his knack of insinuating half-a-
dozen speeches to the jury while pretending to argue a
point of law to the judge. The rank of King's Counsel
was conferred only on Protestants, and Roman Catholic
juniors were obliged to apply themselves to the exa-
mination and cross-examination of witnesses. For
this, O'Conneirs intimate knowledge of the Irish
peasant's mind peculiarly fitted him, and as a cross-
examiner he was unrivalled. Once, in 1822, he
cross-examined a witness with such severity that the
man made a rush at him from the table, but fortunately
fell to the ground. Numberless are the stories of his
astuteness in dealing with witnesses, whose evasions and
shifts, though paltry in their design, were ingenious and
clever with a wholly Irish cleverness. In one case the
issue was whether a purported will had been duly exe-
cuted by the testator or was a forgery. 0*Connell was
struck by the fact that one witness reiterated several
times in one set phrase, that he saw the testator's hand
sign the will " while life was in him." He turned sud-
denly on the man. ** By virtue of your oath ! " he
cried, " did not someone write with the dead man's hand,
while a live fly was placed in his mouth ? " The wit-
ness, crestfallen, admitted it, and the case was won.
14 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
To another witness, who denied that he was drunk,
because ^* he had only had his share of a quart,"
O'Connell quietly said, '* Come, wasn't your share all
but the pewter ? " and the man owned that it was. A
prisoner whom he had successfully defended upon some
charge thanked him with topsy-turvey goodwill. ** Och !
Counsellor," he said, *^ I Ve no way here to show your
Honour my gratitude, but I wish I saw you knocked
down in my own parish, and wouldn't I bring a faction
to the rescue ! "
His indefatigable energy and great physique enabled
him to carry on a gigantic practice hand in hand with
the labours of agitation and the pleasures of society.
The anecdotes of what are really feats of strength are
many. On his first circuit he left Darrynane at four in
the morning, reluctantly leaving his brother to go
coursing, while he rode for the assizes and covered sixty
Irish miles that day. He went to a ball and danced,
danced with Irish energy, until the small hours, and,
rising again at half-past eighty rode on his way all day.
In 1829, a Mr. George Bond Low, a Cork gentleman,
was fired at, and a conspiracy, called the '^Doneraile
conspiracy," to murder him and some other gentlemen
of Doneraile, county Cork, was supposed to have been
discovered. In October a first batch of prisoners was
tried by a special commission at Cork, consisting of
Baron Pennefather and Mr. Justice Torrens. Dogherty,
the Solicitor- General, was for the prosecution. O'Con-
nell, then fifty-four years old, was resting at Darrynane,
after the year of incessant conflict which won the Eman-
cipation battle, and he had declined to defend the
prisoners. The first four were convicted. Their friends
were filled with panic : in such a result they had been
unable to believe. O'Connell and O'Connell alone
EARLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 15
could save the rest. A farmer named William Burke
was despatched post-haste to Darrynane, ninety miles
away. Travelling in Kerry was still slow and difficult.
The first four-horse mail from Cork into Kerry had only
been run in August 1810 ; the Limerick mail-coach was
a thing of but four years' standing. About thirty years
before, O'Connell had been four days in getting from
Darrynane to Limerick, and, until 1839, there was a
portion of the road to Darrynane, five miles long, so
insecure, that the horses had always to be taken out,
and the chaises, the rough conveyances of the country,
dragged with ropes by men. Burke arrived early on a
Sunday morning, and told O'Connell his tale. The
counsellor said he would come to the rescue. With
only two hours' rest, Burke set out again for Cork, to
prepare relays of horses along the road, and raise the
spirits of the prisoners and their friends. O'Connell
set oflf and drove himself in a chaise all that day and
all the night. At Macroom he snatched three or four
hours' sleep, and at daybreak he pushed on. The court
was to sit at nine ; the judges had refused to delay
the trial for O'Connell's arrival. All Cork was quiver-
ing with anxiety ; would the counsellor be there in
time ? At length the watchers descried him dashing
along the Kerry road and lashing his horse as he came.
The cheer that went up from thousands of throats broke
in upon the Solicitor-General's opening speech/ Pushing
through the crowd, O'Connell pulled up at the court ;
his horse fell dead in the shafts. As be entered the
court Dogherty turned white, and the prisoners dared
to hope. Apologising to the bench, O'Connell took
his sent, and, snatching a hasty breakfast of milk and
bread as he sat in his place, plunged into the case.
The Crown witnesses were not prepared to face him.
16 LIFE OF DANIEL O'OONNELL.
He browbeat the Solicitor-G-eneral, mimicked his pro-
nunciation, and sneered at his law. Though the evi-
dence was the same as that which had convicted the
first batch, the jury, under the influence of O'Connell's
ascendancy, disagreed as to the second, and acquitted
the third. No wonder that he lived in the hearts of
the Munster men, who had so often seen their friends
and relatives saved by his skill. The Irish peasantry,
who gave to O'Connell through a quarter of a cen-
tury an affection and obedience which they have never
given to any other leader, always loved better than all
his titles the name of ^^ the Counsellor."
Yet some of O'ConneH's popularity in his profession
was won by discreditable arts. Ireland is a country in
which it has never been particularly unpopular to attack
a judge for his conduct on the bench, either in court or
in the press, and there were many occasions upon which
O'Connell, without censure or loss of reputation, as-
sailed the court or his opponents in language which
cannot be justified, and which darkens the splendour of'
his great forensic career. It is one of the commonplaces,
of Irish history to say that at the beginning of this,
century the Irish bench was bigoted, intemperate, and
corrupt, the law-officers unscrupulous and ungenerous,,
that juries were packed, and the well of justice poi-
soned at the spring. It is true that none but Protestants,
received Crown appointments, and that promotion from^
Government posts at the bar to a seat on the bench,
was the natural ambition of a Crown lawyer. It is.
unfortunately true that persons of inferior capacity,
defective temper, and insufficient learning were placedi
upon the bench. Such judges often delivered them-,
selves with harshness and prejudice; but it is to be
remembered that in England too at that time public.
EARLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 17
opinion was perfectly tolerant of judicial severity and
of a strong leaning in favour of Government, when
questions of law and order were concerned; and it
has chiefly heen in political trials that the conduct of
the Irish bench has been impugned. That the lists of
jurors were often tampered with is probably but too
true, and the two cases of the trial of Magee and of
O'Connell himself are, unhappily, notorious examples
of it; but this appears to have been done by over-
zealous and unscrupulous underlings in the various
sheriffs' offices. The Crown, too, made an habitual use
of its right to order jurors to stand aside so as to
exclude Koman Catholics from juries. Now it is easy
to see that the practice is indefensible ; yet there were
often grounds then for fearing that in particular cases and
seasons of excitement a Roman Catholic might not be
an impartial juror ; nor is branding a Dublin Protestant
by the term of ** Castle tradesman '* enough of itself
to place him beyond the pale of justice and fair dealing,
O'Connell himself said, before a Parliamentary Com-
mittee in 1825, *' In the Court of King's Bench every-
thing is done that one can wish. I cannot say that of
the Court of Common Pleas or of the Exchequer,
though there are individual judges in both, of whom I
think highly. The Court of Chancery is not so well,
indeed it gives no satisfaction at all. The apprehension
of partiality is more occasioned by the kind of instru-
ments that are used to bring questions to trial than in
the superior judges themselves."
His conduct in court was at times deplorably violent;
at times improperly crafty. He was accustomed to
defend himself by saying that he found extravagant
language necessary to awaken the self-respect of the
down-trodden Koman Catholics, and to persuade them
2
18 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
that they too had rights, and a champion who was not
afraid to assert them. But the plea is unavailing.
Once he was defending a prisoner, who was being
tried upon a capital charge. He saw that there was
upon the merits no defence at all ; but it happened that,
in the absence of the regular judge through illness,
Serjeant Lefroy sat as commissioner and tried the case,
O'Connell determined to practise upon the fears and
conscientiousness of an untried and inexperienced judge.
He began to ask the witnesses questions which were
wholly irregular and inadmissible. To these Serjeant
Gould, who appeared for the Crdwn, made objection, as
he was in duty bound to do. Serjeant Lefroy, of
course, allowed the objection. It was for this O^Con-
nell had been playing. He affected righteous wrath,
threw away his brief, and crying, *' If you won't let me
defend him, his blood be on your head," flung out of
court. Lefroy lost his nerve, began to act as counsel for
the prisoner, summed up in his favour, and the man was
acquitted. ** I knew," said O'Connell afterwards, '* the
only w^y was to throw the responsibility on the judge ! "
*' Good God, my Lord ! " he once cried at Cork
Assizes to a judge, who had employed his evening after
his day's work in refreshing his memory upon some
point of law, and on coming into court gave him a
favourable decision, ** If your lordship had known as
much law yesterday morning as you do this, what an
idle sacrifice of time and trouble would you not have
saved me, and an injury and injustice to my client ! "
On another occasion, during a motion for a new trial,
counsel called on a young Kerry lawyer, who was attorney
on the other side, to produce some document or make
some admission. O'Connell, who chanced to be in court,
but, for aught that appears, knew nothing whatever of
EABLY AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 19
the rights and wrongs of the case, and had nothing to
do with it, stood up in court and told the attorney to
refuse. Baron McClellan, one of the judges on the
bench, asked him if he had a brief in the case. **No,
my Lord," said OTonnell, '* I have not, but I will
have when the case goes down to the assizes.'* ** When
I was at the bar,'^ said the judge, ** it was not my habit
to anticipate briefs.'* ** When you were at the bar,"
cried O'Connell, " I never chose you for a model, and
now that you are on the bench I shall not submit to
your dictation." ** Leaving his lordship to digest this
retort," says O^Conneirs admiring biographer, **he took
the attorney by the arm and walked him out of court.
In this way he dealt with hostile judges." It is to be
hoped that this vigorous effort was rewarded with the
expected brief, but the tone employed to the judge was
one which, as the story has it, *' would be offensive
from its Maker to a black beetle."
Saurin, the Attorney-General, one of the most dis-
tinguished of lawyers, was the object of O'Conneirs
peculiar animosity, and what took place between them
upon the trial of Magee in 1813 is remarkable. Some
time after the verdict, on November 27th, the Attor-
ney-General moved the King's Bench in aggravation
of the sentence upon Magee, upon the grounds of
the line of defence adopted by O'Connell at the trial,
and of the subsequent proceedings of the defendant.
O'Connell chose to take umbrage at one of Saurin's
expressions, and proceeded thus : —
Even here do I yield in nothing to the Attorney-General. I deny in
the strongest terms his unfounded and absurd claim to saporiority. I
am hin oqual at least in birth, his equal in fortune, his equal certainly
in oducatioti, and an to talent I should not add that, but thero is littU
Yftuity iu claiming equality. ... I do most sincorely rejoice that th«
2 •
20 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
Attorney-General has prudently treasured up his resentment since
July last, and ventured to address me in this court in the unhandsome
language he has used, because my profound respect for this temple of
the law enables me here to overcome the infirmity of my nature and
to listen with patience to an attack which, had it been made else-
where, would have met merited chastisement.
* * * * *
Mr. Justice Osborne. — I will take the opinion of the court whether
you shall not be committed.
The Chief Justice. — If you pursue that line of language we must
call upon some other counsel upon the same side to proceed.
Mr. Justice Day. — Now, Mr. O'Connell, do you not perceive that
while you talk of suppressing those feelings you are actually indulg-
ing them. The Attorney- General could not mean you offence in the
line of argument he pursued to enhance the punishment in every way
of your client. It is unnecessary for you to throw off or to repel as-
persions that are not made on you.
Mr. O'Connell. — . . . What did he mean when he imputed to the
advocate participation in the crime of the client ? This he distinctly
charged me with.
Mr. Justice Day. — You shall have the same liberty that he had,
but the Court did not understand him to have made any personal
attack upon you.
Mr. Justice Osborne. — We did not understand that the Attorney-
General meant you, when he talked of a participator in the crime of
your client.
The Attorney- General. — I did not, my lords; I certainly did not
mean the gentleman.
Mr. O^Connell. — Well, my lords, be it so. ... I am therefor©
enabled at once to go into the merits of my client's case.
It may be that during the whole course of this case
the air was so electric, that O'Connell really had sup-
posed that something had passed which he ought to
resent, but the affair had very much the air of a piece
of factitious indignation. The end of O'Conneirs
speech rather confirms this impression. As Curran
had once done to Lord Clare, he attacked both the
Attorney- General and the Bench by drawing his own
portraits of them to their faces in the blackest colours,
and speculating what his course would have been, had
FABLY AND PE0FE8SI0NAL LIFE, 21
those been his opponents and judges, and not the ad-
mirable persons he saw before him. Of Saurin he
spoke in this hypothetical way as *' some creature, nar-
row-minded, mean, calumnious, of inveterate bigotry
and dastard disposition . . . whose virulence will ex-
plode by the force of the fermentation of its own pu-
trefaction, and throw forth its filthy and disgusting
stores to blacken those whom he would not venture
directly to attack." Having regard to the nature of
the motion before the court and to the grounds of it, one
does not wonder that at the close of this speech,
O'Connell's own junior rose, and on behalf of his client
Magee, repudiated his leader's language.
22 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
CHAPTER II.
THE SECURITIES CONTROVERSY.
1800-1813.
Position of the Catholic movement — Leadership of John Keogh — The
period of " dignified silence " — The Veto — The Catholic Board —
Grattan's Bill of 1813 — Quarantotti's rescript — Collapse of the
Catholic party.
In 1800, the movement for Catholic Relief, which had
begun about 1760 and culminated in 1793, was in a
state of profound quiescence, almost of torpor. The
Catholic party, thankful for what it had won and fearful
of collision with the Government, was without policy or
organization and almost without leaders. In that con-
dition it remained for several years, and when it again
became active it had new leaders, new methods, and a
goal so different as to be hardly any longer the same. This
comprehensive change was the work of O'Oonnell. From
the fall of Limerick to the Declaration of American
Independence the Irish Roman Catholics had groaned
under a penal code of terrible rigour. Enacted for the
most part in the reigns of William III. and of Anne,
something had been added to its severity under every
succeeding Sovereign. For nearly a hundred years Ire-
THE SECURITIES C0NTB0VEB8Y, 23
land caused EnglaDd neither anxiety nor solicitude.
The Cromwellian policy had been to exterminate the
Koman Catholics, and had failed. The Penal Code
sought by heaping up disabilities to reduce them to
political insignificance and impotence, and to such
justification as success can give that policy was en-
titled. It was not until England found herself sur-
rounded by imminent perils from without, that the
first part of the Code was abrogated, nor until the
best public opinion of England could no longer tolerate
such laws that the second part was swept away. The
aim of the penal laws was to make and keep the
Koman Catholics weak, disunited, ignorant, and fearful,
and so long as those laws were enforced in their entirety
they succeeded in that dark endeavour. Long after
their worst severities had been relaxed O'Connell was
accustomed to say, that you could tell a Roman Catholic
in the street by his hesitating gait, his timid carriage,
and his demeanour of conscious inferiority. The evil
eflfects of the disabilities long survived their repeal.
Still, during the latter half of the eighteenth century
the lot of the Irish Roman Catholic had been greatly
improved, until indeed in 1800 it was better than that
of his English co-religionist. The movement first
began among the Catholic aristocracy and gentry. In
1760 the first General Association of Catholics of Ire-
land was formed, and in 1776 their position was enor-
mously changed for the better by the repeal of several
Acts, which disabled Roman Catholics from being
owners of land.
But the Catholic gentry were jealous of the Catholic
merchants, and when the outbreak of the French Revo-
lution was greeted by the latter with enthusiasm and
hope, the leaders of the former seceded in a body from
24 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
the organization. The blow to the Catholic cause
seemed paralysing, but it was in fact a fortunate event.
It threw the leadership into the hands of a man of talent
and force, John Keogh of Mount Jerome. Keogh, without
any gifts of oratory or grace of manner, was typical of his
class, a merchant of rough force and direct insight, who
combined daring with caution, and possessed an instinc-
tive comprehension of the means at his disposal, the goal
to which they could carry him, and the right tactics for
success. For twenty years he remained the leader of
the movement. In 1791 he went to London, alone
and at his own charges, saw Burke, was by him
introduced to Henry Dundas, and by his plain but
adroit diplomacy, persuaded the Minister of the wis-
dom of listening to the prayer of the Irish Catholics.
By direction of the English Ministry a Bill was intro-
duced into the Irish Parliament and passed, which
opened to the Catholics the bar, removed the remaining
restrictions on education, and repealed the Intermarriage
Act. Returning to Ireland, Keogh undertook, with the
assistance of Wolfe Tone, a personal propaganda
throughout the country, and procured the appointment
of upwards of two hundred delegates, who assembled in
Dublin in a convention, which was nicknamed from its
place of meeting the "Back Lane Parliament." The
Convention appointed a deputation of five, of whom
Keogh was one, to wait upon the King and present
their petition. They crossed the Channel, were gra-
ciously received by His Majesty, and had an inter-
view with Pitt. O'Connell, who had but scant respect
for Keogh, long afterwards charged him with having on
this occasion, in efi*ect, ruined the Catholic cause, for
he was sent to demand equality with Protestants and
allowed Pitt to cajole him into accepting the munioi-
THE SECVEITIE8 CONTROVERSY. 2S
palities and the franchise. But having regard to Keogh*s
character, to the circumstances of the tim^, and to the
magnitude of his achievement, it may be well doubted if
more could have been hoped for than Keogh got. At
the instance of the English Ministry, a bill was intro-
duced into the Irish House of Commons, and ultimately
passed, which in point of legislative change did more
for the Roman Catholics than Kenmare did in 1776 or
O'Connell in 1829. It opened to them the magis-
tracy, the grand juries, the military forces, and the
municipalities ; it relieved them from most of the re-
maining private disabilities, penalties, and forfeitures,
and, much against the wish of the Protestant members
and even of the Catholic nobility, it admitted them to the
electoral franchise. They remained excluded only from
Parliament, and a few of the highest military and civil
posts. The qualification for the franchise was fixed at
a freehold interest of the nominal value of 40s., and, as
a leasehold interest for life was held to confer the fran-
chise, vast multitudes of Roman Catholic peasants ob-
tained it. But the vote of the tenant was regarded as
the landlord's property by unquestioned right. It was
a common thing for the tenants to be driven up ia
flocks to the poll like sheep, to vote as their landlord
directed ; and the gentry and nobility of Ireland, purely
to increase their own political importance, set them-
selves to manufacture freeholders upon a gigantic scale.
Innumerable small holdings were created, no matter at
what cost of sub-division of tenancies and increase of a
pauper population, and leases for lives were granted of
the requisite annual value, but determinable on non-
payment of rent, which, to preserve the landlord's control,
was deliberately kept in arrear far beyond the peasant's
ability to pay on demand. This class of voters had
26 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
neither education nor independence. A tenant who
disregarded his landlord's direction at the poll, was
promptly called upon to pay his arrears of rent, and on
his inevitable failure to perform that impossible task, he
forfeited his lease, his holding, and his vote. Both
socially and economically the system did irreparable
harm to the tenantry, and unhappily it endured long
enough to effect the whole of its mischief. It was
not for thirty-five years that the revolt of the peasant
against his landlord came, and when it came, O'Connell
was the author of it.
From 1793 to 1800, the Catholics attempted little and
effected nothing. They saw that from Grattan's Par-
liament they had little to hope ; it was to the English
Parliament that they had to look. In the negotia-
tions for the incorporating union, distinct promises
of emancipation were made to the Koman Catholics,
and distinct support was given in return. But when
the Act of Union passed, and the time came for satis-
fying the hopes that had been excited, Pitt, in whose
scheme Catholic Emancipation was an integral part,
found that he had not sufficiently reckoned with
the opposing force of the King's crazy conscien-
tiousness, and the intriguing resistance of the high
Tory lords. The Eoman Catholics were left with the
feeling that they had been baulked of their hopes, and
•even defrauded of their rights. For peaceful persuasion
and influence the Imperial Parliament seemed both too
distant and too ignorant; rebellion after rebellion,
begun in folly and quenched in blood, had proved that
there was no hope for them in force, and the time was
still a generation distant when O'Connell could shew
them that it was possible for the English legislature to
be terrorised without insurrection, and for the unarmed
THE SECURITIES CONTBOVEBSY. 27
Irish to extort by threats what persuasion could not
obtain.
For some years their leaders, alike Keogh for the mer-
chant middle class, and Lord Fingal for the aristocracy,
were content to advise an attitude of " dignified silence."
Much had been gained in the previous twenty years.
The legal position of the Irish Catholics compared
favourably with that of Catholics or of Protestant Dis-
senters in England. Among them the franchise was so
profusely distributed, that with less than one-fiftieth of
the real estate of Ireland they had a clear majority of
YOtes in the counties. The magistracy, the grand juries,
and the bar, though not the bench, were open to them.
With the exception of some thirty of the highest posts,
they could enter both the civil and military services of
the Crown. They were eligible for university degrees, and
for admission to corporations. In England, on the
other hand, the Test and Corporation Acts were still
unrepealed. A Catholic could neither take a degree
nor be an alderman. In the army he could rise no
higher than the grade of a lieutenant ; he was ineligible
for civil office, and was excluded from the franchise. It
is true that these privileges, which were theirs in law,
were but little, if at all, open to the Irish Catholics in
fact; but their inferiority to the Protestants was
nothing in comparison with their superiority to the posi-
tion which their own fathers had held, and for a time
they were disposed to be passive, and to acquiesce
in the policy of Keogh. 0*Connell, occupied in found-
ing his practice at the bar, accepted this state of
things; but presently the Catholics began to move, and
he was among the earliest of the baind of barristers
who attended all the meetings, and took a lively
interest in the course pursued. In 1805 a meeting
28 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CON NELL,
assembled, but timorously rejected a proposal to peti-
tion for the admission of Catholics to Parliament by
336 to 124, and although Keogh talked of forming-
another General Committee, nothing came of it. In
February 1806 the Talents Administration came in, and
in April the new Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Bedford^
arrived in Ireland. On the 8th of the month a meeting^
was held, at which a vague association was formed, which^
through fear of the Convention Act of 1793, took no defi-
nite shape. The Duke of Bedford promised, on behalf of
the Prince of Wales, that he would admit the Roman
Catholic claims whenever he should be in a position to
do so, and the same promise seems to have been given
personally by the Prince to Lords Fingal, Petre, and
Clifden at Carlton House. Keogh, however, was not
entirely satisfied, and a speech of his at a meeting on
24th January 1807 expressed such a determined attitude
that it was reported to the King, and was not without its
influence in inducing him to refuse his assent to Lord
Howick's Relief Bill. The Catholics saw their Whig
friends, Grenville and Howick, fall in 1807, as they had
seen their Tory allies, Pitt and Canning, fall in 1801, in
a vain effort for the Catholic cause. From this time
O'Connell became convinced that it was not by soft
words, or by deferentially forbearing to advance incon-
venient claims, that these claims would meet with a just
recognition.
To the "natural leaders," however, of the Catholics,
the nobility and the old-fashioned merchants, O'Connell
seemed a turbulent and importunate young man, and
their movement continued to follow the same timorous
course. Their business was managed by committees
appointed by aggregate meetings, cautiously summoned
for that purpose and immediately dissolved. A kind of
THE SECURITIES CONTBOVEBSY. 29
representative organization was attempted in 1807, when
delegates were summoned from several Dublin parishes ;
but on April 18th of that year a meeting was held at
which the Catholic petition was withdrawn, and the
association dissolved. Nor did any definite result follow
from the meeting held in January 1808. At last, largely
at the instance of O^Connell, a numerous meeting was
held on the 24th May 1809 at the Exhibition Room in
William Street, Dublin, and a permanent organization
was adopted. It was formed from the remaining
members of the delegation of 1792, and of the '* thirty-
six addressers," and was really, if not in form, a repre-
sentative body. This Committee met on November the
8th, decided to present a petition to Parliament, and
appointed a sub-committee to prepare it. The move-
ment had now a ttoO o-tw, and proceeded continuously,
and meetings of the General Committee were held from
time to time during 1809 and 1810. In 1810 its scope
was extended by a resolution to form local boards or
committees in connection with it, but nothing more
was done than to hold occasional local meetings,
chiefly in the southern counties, during the Munster
Assizes. These meetings mark the growing influence
of O'Connell and the other Catholic barristers, men
who brought to the cause the prestige of their pro-
fession, with easy eloquence, business-like habits of
speaking, and the art of presenting a case in a broad
and tolling way, but also its disadvantages, a tendency
to quibbles and to chicane, and a proneness to debate
trifles till the main object was lost sight of. At the
various meetings 0*Connell was an indefatigable atten-
dant and speaker. Two of the resolutions of the
meeting of May 1809 were proposed by him. To bim
fell most of the work of drafting resolutions ; and the
30 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
Report on the Penal Code, a work of much elaboration
and research, which was principally prepared by Scully
for the Catholic Committee, was in part O'Connell's
work. Keogh was now living in a retired but respect-
able old age at Mount Jerome. The principal peer&
who led the Catholics were Lord Fingal, Lord French,
Lord Trimleston, and Lord Gormanstown. But the
business of the organization was done in committees,
and there the leadership naturally fell into the hands of
the barristers. For a time the chief of these was James
Scully, nicknamed the Abb6 Sieyes, a man of a sardonic
and scheming turn, without any gift of oratory, who
preferred to gain his ends by Machiavellian diplomacy
rather than by open agitation. While keeping himself
studiously in the background, he was, in fact, for a time
the most influential man in the body. Prominent men
also were Hussey and Clinch, members of the bar, and
Dr. Dromgoole, *' the Duigenan of the Catholic cause,'*
an implacable and impracticable bigot, saturated with
mediaeval theology, and unable to perceive that he was
living in the nineteenth, and not in the fourteenth
century. But gradually the untiring energy, the self-
devotion, the legal acumen, and the eloquence of
O'Connell, brought him more and more to the front, till
by the beginning of 1811 his leadership was virtually
established. He would stand on the Carlisle Bridge
accosting Roman Catholic passers-by, and pressing
them to come into the meeting at the adjacent Exchange
Rooms, which were taken for the purpose in his name.
For more than twenty years before Emancipation [says his Letter to
Lord Shrewsbury] the burthen of the cause was thrown on me. I had
to arrange the meetings, to prepare the resolutions, to furnish replies to
the correspondence, to examine the case of each person complaining of
practical grievances. ... At a period when my minutes counted by the
THE SECURITIES CONTROVERSY. 31
guinea, when my emoluments were limited only by the extent of my phy-
sical and waking powers, when mj^ meals were shortened to the narrowest
space, and my sleep restricted to the earliest hours before dawn, at that
period, and for more than twenty years, there was no day that I did not
devote from one to two hours, often much more, to the working out
of the Catholic cause, and that without receiving or allowing the offer
of any remuneration, even for the personal expenditure incurred in
the agitation of the cause itself. For four years I bore the entire
expenses of Catholic agitation without receiving the contributions of
others to a greater amount than £74 in the whole.
A man of this calibre could not have been passed
over, but O'Connell, who was never tolerant of a rival,
forced his way to the front in a way that showed little
respect or reverence for the age and services of the
leader whom he was ousting. Long afterwards, when
he was himself ripe in age and service, and in his turn
had young men about him impatient of his cautious
policy, he told Daunt —
Keogh saw that I was calculated to become a leader. . . . The
course he then recommended was a sullen quiescence. He urged that
the Catholics should abstain altogether from agitation, and he
laboured hard to bring me to his views. But I saw that agitation was
our only available weapon. ... I saw that by incessantly keeping
our demands and our grievances before the public and the Govern-
ment, we must sooner or later succeed. Moreover, that period aboye
all others was not one at which our legitimate weapon, agitation, could
have boon prudently let to rust. It was during the war, and while
Napoleon, that splendid madman, made the Catholics of Ireland so
essential to the military defence of the Empire, the time seemed
peculiarly appropriate to press our claims. About that period a great
Catholic meeting was held. . . . Keogh drew np a resolution, which
denounced the continued agitation of the Catholic question at that
time. This resolution, proceeding as it did from a tried old leader,
was carried. I then rose and proposed a counter-resolution, pledging
ns all to incessant, onrelaxing agitation ; and such were the wiseacres
with whom I had to deal, that they passed my resolution in the
midst of enthusiastic acclamations. . . . Thenceforward, I may say, 1
was Me loader.
22 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
In O'Connell's hands, and conducted upon these
principles, the agitation became so considerable that
the Government was no longer able to ignore it. The
Catholics were shrewdly advised, but at last they made
a false step. Till the summer of 1809 the meetings had
cautiously passed formal resolutions disclaiming any
representative or delegated character. Then, growing
bolder, they dropped them. In the beginning of 1811,
upon the advice of O'Connell that such a proceeding
was legal, Hay, their secretary, issued a circular calling
on every county to elect delegates to the association in
Dublin. Clare's Convention Act of 1793 was ready to
the Lord Lieutenant's hand. On February 12th the
Chief Secretary issued a letter to all magistrates, calling
on them to arrest all persons advocating or taking part
in any such election. On February 23rd, Darby, a police
magistrate, appeared at a meeting of the Committee,
and called on those present to disperse, but after a
quibbling discussion he withdrew. Another attempt of
the same kind was made on July 9th. On August 12th
two leading delegates, Taafe, a banker, and Kirwan, a
merchant, were arrested, and a warrant was issued against
Dr. Sheridan. On October 19th a new Catholic committee
met, composed, in defiance of the Government, of elected
delegates, ten from every county, and was required to
disperse by a police magistrate named Hare. On
November 23rd its meeting was actually broken up, and
the Catholics thought it wise to dissolve their com-
mittee. On December 26th they met and elected a non-
represeutative Catholic Board. This was an admission
of defeat. The first of the prisoners. Dr. Sheridan, had
already been tried and acquitted on November 22nd, but
on January 30th 1812, Kirwan was found guilty,
though no sentence was passed upon him ; and the
THE SECURITIES CONTBOVEBSY. 33
action for false imprisonment, which on Sheridan's
acquittal had been brought against Chief Justice
Downes, who had issued the warrants, resulted in the
defendant's favour. The Government was master of the
field. The Catholics had to content themselves witli
holding occasional meetings in the country to protest
against the blow.
To O'Connell and the Catholics no statesman was so
hateful as Mr. Perceval. In October 1810 George III.
relapsed into insanity, and in February 1811 the Prince
of Wales became Prince Regent, but under considerable
restrictions. These expired in February 1812, and it
was thought that the Prince would indulge his Whig
proclivities by dismissing his Tory Ministers. To the
Catholics he had made many promises, and they looked
now with painful anxiety for their fulfilment. The
Prince made no sign ; Perceval remained in office. On
the 11th May, Perceval was shot in the lobby of the
House of Commons, by a crazy tradesman named Bel-
lingham. Again the Prince forgot his promises. The
influence of the Hertford family in the royal closet was
a fatal obstacle to the assumption of office by Gren-
ville and Grey, and Perceval's colleagues continued
to carry out Perceval's policy. The mortified Catho-
lics, with O'Connell at their head, fell into a childisli
pet of rage. Perceval had hardly been in his grave a
month when O'Connell was saying of him : —
For my ))Hrt, I fool uiialToctod horror at his fate, and i\\\ traoo of
rosentmont for his criinoH is obliterated ; but I do not forgot that ho
was a narrow-minded bigot, a paltry statesman, and a bad minister ;
that every species of public corruption and profligacy had in him a
flippant and port ndvooato ; that every advance towards reform or
-economy had in him a decided enemy ; and that the liberties of th«
])Ooplo were the object of his derision.
3
34 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
At this meeting, 18th June 1812, the Catholics passed
these impolitic and impotent resolutions : —
That from authentic documents now before us we learn with deep
disappointment and anguish how cruelly the promised boon of Catholic
freedom has been intercepted by the fatal witchery of an unworthy
secret influence, hostile to our fairest hopes, spurning alike the sanc-
tions of public and private virtue, the demands of personal gratitude,
and the sacred obligations of plighted honour.
That to this impure source we trace but too distinctly our afflicted
hopes and protracted servitude, the arrogant invasion of the un-
doubted right of petitioning, the acrimony of illegal State prosecu-
tions, the surrender of Ireland to prolonged oppression and insult,
and the many experiments equally pitiful and perilous, recently
practised upon the habitual passiveness of an ill-treated but high-
spirited people.
The Catholics must have heen simple indeed, and
ignorant of the movements of the parties of their times,
if they thought that it needed any ** secret influence "
but that of his own convenience to make the Prince
break his word, or that nothing prevented instant
Emancipation but the religious scruples of a royal
favourite.
But while the Catholics conducted their agitation
thus openly in Ireland, they had left the conduct of their
interest in Parliament in the hands of Lord Grenville
and Mr. Grattan. To Keogh, and afterwards to Lord
Fingal, it was left to keep up such communication as
they thought fit between the parliamentary advocates
of Emancipation and the Irish party ; and this method
of procedure by semi-secret diplomacy led to dissen-
sion and disaster. Pitt's intention had been to deal
with the Irish Catholics in a liberal spirit. His plan
seems to have been first generally made known by
Castlereagli in a speech in the House of Commons on
25th May 1810. *' He had been authorised/* he said,
THE SECURITIES CONTROVERSY, 35
** to communicate with the Catholic clergy. It was then
distinctly understood that the political claims of the
Catholics must remain for the consideration of the Im-
perial Parliament, hut the expediency of making with-
out delay some provision for their clergy under proper
regulations was fully recognised. The result of their
deliherations was laid before Government in certain
resolutions signed by ten of their bishops, including the
four metropolitans, in January 1799." The bishops
had met in Dublin on January 17th, 18th, and J9tb,
1799, and their resolutions were : —
That a provision, through Government, for the Roman Catholic clei-gy
of this kingdom, competent and secured, ought to be thankfully
accepted ; [and that] in the appointment of prelates of the Roman
Catholic religion to vacant sees within the kingdom, such interference
of the Government as may enable it to be satisfied of the loyalty of the
persons appointed, is just and ought to be agreed to.
They went on to suggest that this interference
might be provided for by sending to the Govern-
ment the names of those persons whom the Catholic
clergy had selected for submission to the Pope, which
the Government, if satisfied with them, might there-
upon forward to Home, or, if not, return to Ireland.
For several years this idea had been at rest, but in 1808
Grattan and Ponsonby, anxious in bringing on again
the question of the Catholic claims to be able to allay if
possible the jealousy of English Protestantism, inquired
of Fingal, who was spokesman for the Irish Catholic
laity, and Dr. Milner, Vicar-Goneral of the Midlands,
who acted as agent in London for the Irish prelates,
wliether there was no pledge or guarantee which could
be offered by the Catholics. Fingal and Milner then
mentioned the check on the nomination of bishops
to which the Irish prelates had been willing to con-
3 •
36 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
sent in 1799, and Milner said that the bishops,
while immovably opposed to a positive interference of
Government in their aflfairs, would accept such nega-
tive interference as would give the Government addi-
tional means of satisfying themselves of the loyalty of
episcopal candidates.
Accordingly, Grattan in the House of Commons,
and Lord Grenville in the House of Lords, announced
that they were empowered on the part of the Roman
Catholics to offer such an arrangement as part of
the general emancipation. Ponsonby said that the
Catholic bishops authorised him to say that they
would consent to their appointment by the Crown.
In fact, however, the Roman Catholics proved to be
divided upon the question, and, not without disin-
genuousness, Milner hastened next day to withdraw
from his pledge. The Irish bishops thought that
whatever they might have been willing to agree to nine
years before, when endowment was offered to them,
to consent to a veto now was to give up their Church's
exclusive control over her own discipline. A synod
was held of all the bishops of Ireland, which con-
demned it with but three dissentients; and on 14th
September they formally resolved that it was inexpe-
dient to make any alteration in the mode of appointing
bishops. An address of thanks to them for this course
was signed by forty thousand laymen. Among the
Catholic laity, however, there was a party, who on this
point were in close agreement with Charles Butler and
the English Catholics, with whom the idea of this
Crown veto seems to have originated about 1791.
Lord Southwell and Sir Edward Bellew requested an
explanation of the meaning of this episcopal resolution.
Archbishop O'Reilly cautiously replied that, without de-
THE SECURITIES CONTROVERSY. 37
iinitively pronouncing a Crown veto contrary to the doc-
trine and discipline of the Church, the bishops saw
danger, for the present at least, in such interference by
Ministers in Church affairs. Their opposition, how-
ever, became steadily more uncompromising, and the
majority of the laity applauded their action.
In 1810, on February 25th, the bishops voted their
unconditional adherence to the resolutions of Sep-
tember 1808, and declared ** that it is the undoubted
and exclusive right of Roman Catholic bishops to dis-
cuss all matters appertaiuing to the doctrines and dis-
cipline of the Roman Catholic Church," and that they
knew of no stronger pledge of their loyalty than the
oath then in force. Grattan, in presenting the Ca-
tholic petition in that year, was obliged to announce
that he could no longer offer any securities on the part
of the Catholics. On the other hand, the nobility,
almost without exception, and no inconsiderable part of
the middle class members of the committee, were for the
veto. Lord Fingal, Sir Edward Bellew, and Woulfe,
afterwards Chief Baron, seceded from the Board.
Sheil, then a very young but rising man, opposed
a motion of Dromgoole's against securities in any
form, with a declaration that the agitation about
securities had deplorably thrown back the cause of
Emancipation, and that if restrictions not more severe
than those borne by the Church of England would
satisfy the invincible prejudices of the English, the
English ought to be humoured. O'Connell took him
sliarply to task. He pronounced this view a ** doctrine
of slavery," a "base and vile traffic,'* and ** a peddling
and huxtering speculation." Tie said that to accept the
restrictions was to plead guilty to all the charges that
the English made against Papists ; that no Protestant
38 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
Minister could act honestly in the appointment of
Roman Catholic bishops ; that ministerial bishops
would be a means of uncatholicising Ireland, and
bishoprics the reward of the political services of minis-
terial toadies ; and he laid down in the most explicit
terms the absolute discretion of the bishops them-
selves in the matter. ** If the revered and venerable
prelates of our Church, exercising their discretion as to
that which belongs to them exclusively, the details of
discipline, shall deem it right to establish a domestic
nomination purely and exclusively Irish . . . the Board
will not interfere with such arrangement."
Meantime, to the English Emancipationists the course
of Irish Catholic opinion was of no moment, except in
so far as its violence might endanger the cause, by dis-
gusting the English public. It was the episcopate of
the English not of the Irish Catholic Church, the House
of Commons and not the Catholic Committee, which had
to be persuaded. From the time when Castlereagh joined
the Government in 1812, Emancipation was an open
question. Napoleon's invasion of Eussia, as yet pros-
perous, was filling the nation with alarm, and bringing
it into a conciliatory frame of mind; and on June 22nd,
1812, Canning moved a resolution, which pledged the
House of Commons " early in the next session to take
into their consideration the laws affecting the Roman
Catholics, with a view to their final and conciliatory ad-
justment." It was carried by a majority of 129, the
largest majority in favour of the Roman Catholics in
Canning's lifetime. Charles Butler thereupon began to
draft a bill, and, largely upon Canning's advice, in-
serted elaborate ** securities " clauses. One provided
for an oath to be taken by every Catholic clergyman,
that he would not assent to or concur in the appoint-
THE SECURITIES CONTROVERSY, 39
ment of any Catholic prelate in Ireland, unless he should
consider such prelate to he of unimpeachable loyalty
and peaceful conduct, and the oath proceeded, " I have
not and will not have any communication with the Pope
tending directly or indirectly to overthrow or disturb
the Protestant Government or the Protestant Church
of Great Britain and Ireland, or the Church of
Scotland as by law established, or on any matter or
thing not purely spiritual or ecclesiastical." To further
ensure the safety of Protestantism, a Board of Com-
missioners, partly Protestant and partly Roman Catho-
lic, was to be appointed to inquire into the character
of nominees for vacant sees or deaneries, in order
to ascertain whether there was any shadow on their
loyalty or conduct. Subject to these restrictions, the
House of Commons and all offices except those of Lord
Chancellor or Lord Keeper and Lord Lieutenant or
Lord Deputy, were to be thrown open to the Roman
Catholics. On March 2nd, 1813, Grattan carried a
motion in the House of Commons in favour of Eman-
cipation by 264 to 224, and in April he introduced this
bill. The majority rose to 42 on the second reading,
but in committee, on the motion of Abbott, the
Speaker, the admission of Catholics to Parliament was
thrown out by 251 to 247 on May 24th, and the bill
was withdrawn. It never was reintroduced, for on the
very verge of victory the friends of tlie Catliolics found
their cause compromised by the conduct of the leaders
and people in Ireland. When the rumour of the pro-
posals got abroad, they provoked not gratitude for tlie
boon, but fury at the safeguards. Before the result of the
Speaker's motion was known in Ireland the prelates had
met on May 27th, and unanimously resolved ** tliat the
ecclesiastical securities are absolutely incompatible with
40 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
tlie discipline of the Koman Catholic Church and with
tlie free exercise of our religion ; without incurring the
guilt of schism we cannot accede to such regulations,
neither can we dissemhle our dismay and consternation
at the consequences which such regulations, if enforced,
must necessarily produce/' The Catholic Board hotly
debated whether the laity were to be excluded from a
boon because the prelates objected to its attendant
securities as uncanonical. O'Connell warmly defended
the bishops, and attacked Grattan violently for ever
consenting to such clauses. During the autumn, meet-
ings in various parts of Ireland denounced Grattan^s
** securities." In November a correspondence took place
between the Board and Grattan and Lord Donough-
more, in which both the latter refused further communica-
lions if the policy was to be that no securities were to be
inserted in any Relief Bill, except such as might please
the Roman Catholic bishops ; such a demand, said they,
was to dictate to Parliament and leave it a bare choice
between Aye and No. Personal relations grew strained.
Scully declined to meet Plunket ; Plunket talked of not
attending Parliament at all ; and Lord Donoughmore was
with difficulty restrained from challenging his opponents
on the Catholic Board. In the following spring 0*Con-
nell moved at the Board to take the petition out of
the veteran Grattan's hands, and to send over a deputa-
tion to select some English member to whom it might
be entrusted. He withdrew his motion, but though
Grattan consented to present the petition, neither the
demand of the Board nor an aggregate meeting could
prevail upon him to move its discussion.
Meantime, both parties naturally had their eyes
turned to Rome. Wyse and others were in Rome on
behalf of the Vetoists ; a friar named Richard Hayes, a
THE SECURITIES CONTROVERSY. 41
nominee of O'Connell's, represented, but without tact
or discretion, the Domestic Nomination party. Since
the annexation of the States of the Church in 1809, the
Pope had been the pensioned prisoner of Napoleon in
France. Quarantotti, the Vice-Prefect of the Propa-
ganda, was in charge of the Holy See. In the beginning
of 1814, it appeared that the Holy See itself had none
of those fears of schism which agitated the Irish pre-
lates. On February 16th, Quarantotti wrote from Rome
to Dr. Poynter, the English Vicar Apostolic : —
Nos, qui summo absente pastore sacris missionibus praefecti sumns
et Pontificiis omnibus facultatibus ad id communiti, muneris nostri
partes esse putavimus omnem ambiguitatem atque objectionem remo-
vere, quae optatao conciliationi possit obsistere. Habito igitur d<Jc-
tissimorum praesulum ac theologorum consilio, perspectis litteria turn
ab Amputate tua, tum ab Archiepiscopo Dubliniensi hue missis, ac re
in peculiari congregationi mature perpensa, decretum est, ut Catholici
legem, quae superiore anno rogata fuit pro illorum emancipatione
juxta formam, qu» ab Amplitate tua relata est, aequo gratoque animo
excipiant et amplectantur.
The letter fell on the Irish Catholics like a bomb-
shell. From the highest to the lowest they were in
dismay. ** What shall we do," said a servant-maid, ** is
it, can it be true the Pope has turned Orangeman ? *'
But the clergy soon rallied. They pronounced the
letter of Quarantotti a nullity and a usurpation. Dr.
Coppinger, Bishop of Cloyno, called it " a very mischie-
vous document.'* O'Shaughnessy, Bishop of Dromore,
pronounced it '* pernicious.*' The priests of the Arch-
diocese of Dublin resolved that it was non-obligatory,
for want of the signature of the Pope, and expressed an
opinion that nothing less august than an (Ecumenical
Council was competent to doal witli the relations be-
tween an Irish bishop and an English Secretary of
State. The bishops assembled at Maynooth and voted
42 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
the letter not to be mandatory. An aggregate meeting
of the laity, held at Dublin on May 19th, was even
more sturdy. Though throughout the controversy the
securities question had been treated as a matter pecu-
liarly of a canonical and ecclesiastical nature, the meet-
ing resolved *' that we deem it a duty to ourselves and
our country solemnly and distinctly to declare that any
decree, mandate, rescript, or decision whatsoever of any
foreign power or authority, religious or civil, ought not
and can not of right assume any dominion or control
over the political concerns of the Catholics of Ireland."
lo July they even procured of the Pope the dismissal of
the luckless Vice-Prefect and a repudiation of his
letter. But the Catholics of Ireland had resisted too
long. Grattan abandoned the Catholic claims for the
session. The Allies entered Paris ; the war was over;
the pressure of twenty years of danger was removed.
Irish discontent no longer put the English in any jeo-
pardy. On the 3rd of June the Catholic Board was
proclaimed.
This stubborn objection to securities in any shape or
form cost the Catholics fourteen years of waiting for
Emancipation, and cost both England and Ireland no
one can say how much strife and ill-feeling, agitation
and bigotry. It is difficult to suppose that the large
majority in the House of Commons, which voted for
Catholic Belief in 1813, was much actuated by fear
of Catholic discontent during the continuance of the
war or by anything but a sense of the injustice under
which the Catholics laboured. The effect of unanimity
among the Catholics and of moderation in their lan-
guage would, it can hardly be doubted, have turned the
scale in their favour within a very short time. In 1812,
the Marquis Wellesley, who had every opportunity of
TEE SECVBITIE8 C0NTB0VEB8Y. 43
forming a just forecast, was standiDg with Charles Butler
behind the throne during the Catholic debate in the
House of Lords. ** Sir," said he to Butler, ** if the
Catholics conduct their cause with propriety, I insure you
success in three years, perhaps in one." That the suc-
cess which was then so close at hand was not achieved
until 1829 was the doing of the priests and O'Connell.
A change had come over the priesthood since the
last generation, which had profoundly altered its cha-
racter. The priests then were necessarily educated
abroad, and naturally, therefore, were drawn from fami-
lies of means and position. Many of them were English-
men. Thus they were ready enough to acquiesce in a con-
trol which, in its intention at least, was nothing but a
legitimate assurance by the State of its own safety. But
the alteration in the Catholic laws had given the clergy
the means of education at home, and their body had
become more insular and isolated, more professional
and more Irish. A few prelates breathed secret fears
that domestic nomination pure and simple might
vulgarise the episcopate, but, practically without excep-
tion, the priesthood would accept no State supervision
of their conduct in ecclesiastical affairs. In this they
were supported by O'Connell with ardour and even in-
temperate heat.
There was something of the ecclesiastic in O'Conneirs
temperament ; he had been educated by priests, and his
deep personal piety attached him to the priesthood so
unhesitatingly, that even in politics, wliere most men,
however religious, feel a lurking doubt of eoolesiastics,
however disinterested, no mistrust came between him
and them. There was, indeed, much to be said against
the veto, though perhaps not enough to outweigh the
advantage of a settlement of the question forthwith.
U LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
Hitherto the Church of Kome had been subject to no
State control in ecclesiastical matters. It was subject
to prohibitions, which were disregarded, and to penalties
which were not enforced, but in its spiritual affairs as
such the State did not interfere. The veto required the
priests to make a sacrifice of spiritual freedom ; the
freedom which was to be thereby purchased was a tem-
poral one, to be enjoyed by the laity. Pitt's veto was
to have been in consideration of an endowment to
Roman Catholics, but there was now no suggestion of
any endowment. The clergy resolved to wait for better
terms. With its past and its principles, the Church of
Rome has a corporate pride, which it prefers to main-
tain at the price of a moderate martyrdom.
O'Connell, however, had a political object in resisting
any such compromise. Though the Imperial Parlia-
ment had done nothing for Ireland since the Union but
pass Coercion Acts, which, it must be admitted, inter-
mittent rebellion and chronic disturbance during a time
of national struggle with foreign foes did much to
justify, there was no specific reform, except Catholic
Relief, which any unanimous or influential party then
demanded. Although perhaps no part of the law was
beyond need of a radical change, the most imme-
diate cause of Irish discontent was the corrupt state
and constant maladministration of the unpaid magis-
tracy. But behind all questions and grievances there re-
mained a deep, though voiceless, yearning for Repeal, and
it was his desire for Repeal that determined O'Connell
for the present to keep open the grievance of the Catholic
Disabilities. Ardent as he was for the relief of his co-
religionists, his first aim in politics, as it was his last,
was to restore their Parliament to his countrymen.
'' It was the Union," he said, *' which first stirred me
THE SECURITIES CONTROVERSY. 45
up to come forward in politics. I was maddened when
I heard the hells of St. Patrick's ringing out a joyful
peal for Ireland's degradation, as if it were a glorious
national festival. My hlood hoiled, and I vowed on
that morning that the dishonour should not last if I
could put an end to it." The meeting at which he made
his first public appearance had been one held by the Catho-
lics in the Iloyal Exchange Hall on 13th January 1800,
to protest against the Union. He had risen, an un-
known lawyer, to make his speech, when the tramp of
yeomanry was heard outside, and the clank of musket-
butts grounded on the stones of the portico. Major
Sirr appeared in the midst of the affrighted Catholics
and demanded to see the resolutions. They had been
originally drafted by Curran in very fiery terms, but in
deference to the timidity of some of the Catholics, they
had been toned down, and were found unexceptionable.
Sirr threw them back on the table saying ** There is no
harm in these," and retired, and the meeting was
allowed to proceed. But as time went on, O'Connell
saw that to weld the people of Ireland into a compact
united mass, resolutely demanding Repeal, was at once
indispensable and almost hopeless. Faction had been
the bane of Irish politics. Even on the Eraanoipatiou
question he found the clergy timid, the aristocracy
jealous of the merchants, the merchants jealous of the
aristocracy, the barristers jealous of one another, and
the masses ignorant, utterly unused to political delibe-
ration or action, willing to throw up their hats and
cheer if a favourite of the hour appeared upon the
street, but fickle and untrustworthy, and politically
powerless, A resort to arms was a madness and a
orime. Nothing but a generation of agitation could
educate and unite the Irish people into a political force,
46 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
and no question but Catholic Relief could be agitated
through a generation. In the thick of the veto conflict he
said, at a meeting in Dublin on 29th June 1813 : —
Your enemies say that I wish for a separation between England
and Ireland. The charge is false, to use a modern quotation, " false
as hell." Next, your enemies accuse me of a desire for the indepen-
dence of Ireland. I admit the charge, and let them make the most
of it. I have seen Ireland a kingdom. I reproach myself with
having lived to behold her a province. Yes, I confess it — I will ever
be candid upon the subject — I have an ulterior object, the Repeal of
the Union, and the restoration to Ireland of her old independence. . . .
Desiring as I do the Repeal of the Union, I rejoice to see how our
enemies promote that great object. Yes, they promote its inevitable
success by their very hostility to Ireland ; they delay the liberties of
the Catholic, but they compensate us most amply, because they
advance the restoration of Ireland. By leaving one cause of agitation
they have created, and they will embody and give shape and form to
a public mind and a public spirit. I repeat it, the delay of Emancipa-
tion I hear Avith pleasure, because in that delay is included the only
prospect of obtaining my great, my ultimate object, the legislative
independence of my native land.
Whether O'Oonnell was wise or unwise in his strategy
must depend on the view which is taken of the prospect,
and the value of Repeal. But of his disinterestedness
he gave the best of proofs. As yet, outside of Dublin,
agitation had not won him the adoration of the populace.
The course that he took did win for him the dislike of the
nobility and the gentry of his party. It is true that on
December 16th, 1813, the Catholics presented him with a
service of plate of the value of a thousand guineas, but
year by year agitation cost him much in money and more
in time, which was more precious to him than money. He
had a large practice, but he had also a large family,*
large expenses, and as yet little or no patrimony. The
** good behaviour'' of the Irish Catholics could hardly
* O'Connell married his cousin, Mary O'Connell, in 1802.
THE SECURITIES CONTROVERSY. 47
have failed, on the passing of Grattan's Bill, to have
been rewarded with professional promotion. O'Connell,
not yet obnoxious to any English person or party,
would have been one of the first recipients of a silk
gown, and must have risen inevitably at a stride to the
highest position and emoluments of his profession; and
if he wished for more, who so likely to be among the
first Koman Catholic members of Parliament as the
great King's Counsel, the eloquent orator, the champion
of the Catholic cause, in the sense in which the gentry
understood the term ? All this was within his grasp,
and he threw it all away. He preferred to fight the
battle of the priests and of Repeal, at the cost of the
disapproval of equals and of professional sacrifices.
Of the wisdom of this policy the course of events has
raised, and still sustains, a doubt ; but of the courage,
foresight, and disinterestedness of O'Connell there can
be none.
48 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CON NELL.
CHAPTEK III.
CATHOLIC DESPONDENCY.
1814-1823.
State of Affairs after the Dissolution of the Board — O'Conneirs Duel
with D'Esterre — Affair with Peel — Trial of Magee for libel on the
Duke of Richmond — Visit of George IV. to Dublin.
The suppression of the Board was a terrible blow to
the Catholics. Except his last days, the next seven
years were the darkest of O'Connell's life. A meeting
was held at his house, which resolved upon sub-
mission; indeed, there was nothiug else to be done.
For the time being the back of the agitation was
broken. In vain he endeavoured to rally his followers.
Next year, with characteristic hopefulness he declared
that after much deliberation he was sure during that
session they would get at least a portion of eman-
cipation. He was wrong in his forecast, and his hope-
fulness effected nothing. The Vetoists, too, were
powerless. Small and timid meetings were held at Lord
FingaVs house, which merely resolved to leave the
Catholic petition in the hands of Grattan and Lord
Donoughmore, and to found an association to take the
CATHOLIC DESPONDENCY. 49
place of the Board. The split between the two parties,
the ** securities " men and the ^^bold measure'' men,
was too deep to be remedied. The controversy had de-
generated into a personal struggle, in which each party
imputed to the other every baseness. It was long before
this animosity was appeased, and the misfortune was the
greater because English public opinion never was more
favourable to Emancipation than then. The two parties
endeavoured, but in vain, to support separate organiza-
tions. The Vetoists held meetings at Lord TrimIeston*s
house ; the Catholic Association, which succeeded the
Board in February 1815, met at Fitzpatrick's in
Capel Street. The former left their petition in Grat-
tan's hands ; the latter entrusted theirs to Sir Henry
Parnell. Both were represented by Lord Donough-
more in the House of Lords. O'Connell boldly denied
that a small body of seceders, meeting in private, had any
right to speak for ihe Catholics at large. In February
1817 the Vetoists advertised a meeting to be held in
Dublin at No. 50 Eccles Street. O'Connell and a few
others decided to invade it. They were confronted at
the door with an order, signed by Lord Southwell and
Sir Edward Bellew, that no one was to bo admitted
who was not a party to the Catholic petition com-
mitted to Grattan the year before. They put the foot-
boy and his orders aside, and, to the oonsternation of
the decorous meeting upstairs, appeared in the drawiog-
room. They wore requested to withdraw, and declined.
The outraged Vetoists took refuge in a motion for
an immediate adjournment. O'Connell challenged il
and delivered a long and vigorous speech against
the ** securities." But nothing practical resulted.
Such a course might inspire his own shrinking fol-
lowers with temporary courage, but it failed to con-
4
50 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
ciliate the Veto party. By this time the politics of the
see of Rome had changed with the restoration of the
Pope to the Vatican. The Association had adopted an
address of remonstrance to His Holiness on the 16th
September 1815, but the Pope evaded their reproaches
by treating it as a lay intervention in matters ecclesias-
tical, and declined to receive it officially. The parish
priests and a majority of the prelates were in O'Con-
nell's favour, but so exclusively moral was their sup-
port, that they could not even raise the rent of the
rooms in Capel Street which the Association occupied.
For a time he paid the rent himself, and then, finding
that he had to bear the whole working expenses of the
Association, removed it to smaller rooms in Cross
Street. In January 1817 he made an attempt to found
a society of ''Friends of Reform in Parliament," of
which both Catholics and Protestants were to be
members, but after a few meetings it collapsed. A
lethargy fell on the Catholics ; it was the winter of
their discontent, the low-water mark of their activity.
A man of only common courage must have given up
the fight in despair.
In such a state of affairs as this, O' Council, who
rarely restrained his language, did not mince matters,
but spoke of his opponents with asperity. He called
the Dublin Corporation, then a stronghold of Protes-
tantism, a ** beggarly corporation." One of its mem-
bers was a Mr. J. N. D'Esterre, a native of Limerick,
who was nominally a merchant, but was said to be in
indigent circumstances, though of unimpeachable re-
spectability. In his youth he had served in the marines,
and, being seized by the mutineers in 1797, during
the mutiny at the Nore, was placed with the noose
round his neck ready to be swung up to the yard- arm.
CATHOLIC DESPONDENCY. 51
At the last moment they offered him life if he would
join them. "No, never!'* cried the intrepid officer.
" Hang away, and be damned to you !" The answer so
enchanted the tars that he was immediately set at
liberty. He now, egged on perhaps by others, who saw
a chance of getting rid of O'Connell, decided to take up
the cause of his outraged corporation. The duel was at
this time a recognised instrument of party warfare. Even
in England statesmen and ministers stood to receive each
other's fire. Pitt and Tierney, Canning and Castlereagh,
the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchelsea,
Fitzgibbon and Curran, had fought, and even Peel was
bellicose and a sender of hostile messages. Among Eng-
lish statesmen, it is true, these encounters were generally
bloodless, but the Irish took the matter more seriously,
and the chance that a political opponent might be re-
moved in a political duel was considerable. To drink
sparingly of your host's best claret, to decide at petty ses-
sions for a tenant against his landlord, or to seduce a
forty-shilling freeholder's allegiance in a county election,
touched the point of honour, and the personal affront
could only be atoned for with bloodshed. It was the
first time that O'Connell, who was reported a good
naarksman, had had a serious affair. In August 1813,
during the Limerick Assizes, he went out with Coun*
sellor Magrath, with whom he had come to blows in
open court, but when the combatants met in the usual
battle-place, the old coort-mill field, their friends ad-
justed the matter. On the 26th January 1815
D'Esterre wrote to O'Connell to demand explanations.
Next day O'Connell undauntedly replied, that while
individually esteeming many of its members, he de-
spised the corporation generally for its bigotry. After
this he prepared himself in due course to receive
4 •
52 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
D'Esterre's friends, but no friends came. D'Esterre
wrote again on the 28th, but did not take the final step.
At length, on Tuesday, January 31st, a rumour got about
that D'Esterre, though but a little man, proposed to
cane his burly antagonist in the Hall of the Four
Courts, and a crowd gathered to see it done. O'Con-
nell, determined not to baulk him, showed himself in
the streets all the afternoon, and public attention being
excited, a party of five hundred gentlemen followed him
about to enjoy the fun or to prevent an assault. O'Con-
nell had to take refuge from their importunity in a
tavern. This scene of braggadocio was closed in the
evening by the arrival of Mr. Justice Day at O'Con-
nelFs house to arrest him and prevent a breach of the
peace. His lordship went away pacified with O'Connell's
pledge not to be the challenger. At length next day
Sir Edward Stanley, then barrack-master in Dublin,
waited with D'Esterre's challenge on Major Macnamara,
a Protestant gentleman, who was acting for O'Connell.
A meeting was arranged for half-past three o'clock that
afternoon, in a meadow in Lord Ponsonby's demesne,
about twelve miles from the city. The days were short,
and the snow was lying on the ground. All Dublin
knew what was going on, and was in wild anxiety
for the fate of O'Connell. A large number of gentle-
men rode out to the field to see the fighting. Punc-
tually at half-past three O'Connell arrived ; D'Esterre
was nearly an hour late. The combatants were placed
opposite each other, each with a pistol in either hand,
and about twenty minutes to R\e the word was given.
They fired almost simultaneously, D'Esterre slightly
the first. O'Connell aimed low, and D'Esterre, struck
in the hip, fell, bleeding profusely. The party sepa-
rated. As O'Connell quitted the field, there dashed
CATHOLIC DESPONDENCY. 63
up a troop of horse sent by the Executive to protect
D'Esterre, in case of his victory, from the fury of
the mob. The people lined the roads, and when they
saw their favourite returning in safety, raised shouts
of joy. Bonfires blazed till midnight in the streets
of Dublin. Meantime, poor D'Esterre was carried
to his house, but the ball could not be found,
and, after much suffering, he expired next day. The
dead man's family disclaimed any intention of pro-
secuting ; but O'Connell was filled with remorse at
this untoward event. He settled a pension on the
widow, and never afterwards passed D'Esterre's house
without baring his head and breathing a prayer.
At some time after D'Esterre's death, he registered
a vow that he would never fight again, and upon
this ground refused the many challenges which his
vehement invective subsequently brought upon him.
The vow, however, was not made in the first keenness of
remorse for D'Esterre's loss. Peel, who as Chief Secre-
tary was alive to the formidable power of O'Connell,
took care to quote to the House of Commons passages
from his more violent speeches. At an aggregate meet-
ing on August 29th, 1815, O'Connell retaliated by
saying ; —
I am told ho has in my ahsenco, and in a place where he wan
privileged from any accomit, grossly traduced mc. I said at the last
meeting, in the presence of the note-takers of the police, who are paid
by him, that ho was too prudent to attack me in my pretence. I 8«e
the same polico informers hore now, and I authorise them oar^foUy to
report these my words, that Mr. Peel would not dare, in my p r — en o<
and in any place where ho was liable to personal account, use a single .
cxpreHHion dorogatury to my interest or my honour.
Peel had been attacked by O'Connell fiercely enough
before. He had been spoken of as " that ludicrous
54 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
enemy of ours, who has got in jest the name he de-
serves in good earnest of Orange Peel, a raw youth
squeezed out of the workings of I know not what fac-
tory in England, who . . . was sent over here before
he had got rid of the foppery of perfumed handkerchiefs
and thin shoes. '^ But this was too direct an attack to
be passed over. On the 31st Sir Charles Saxton waited
on O^Connell on Peel's behalf, and offered him the
usual satisfaction if he felt aggrieved. O'Connell re-
plied that Peers conduct was "handsome and gentle-
manlike/' but he must consult his friends, though for
his own part he hoped they might advise fighting.
The advice of the friends was that, in effect, the speech
made O'Connell the aggressor, and the challenge there-
fore could not come from him. Saxton, who seems
to have thought that O'Connell wished to evade a
meeting, published a version of the affair in the
papers, which O'Connell answered by regretting that
his opponents should have preferred ** a paper war/'
and calling the publication *' a dirty trick." On Sep-
tember the 4th, Peel replied by sending a challenge
to O'Connell by Colonel Browne. The affair was,
of course, public property, and in her alarm poor
Mrs. O'Connell sent to the Sheriff to prevent a
breach of the peace. Late at night that functionary
arrived, took O'Connell in bed, and caused him to be
bound over in a considerable sum to keep the peace ;
but when he went to the Chief Secretary's house to
take Peel also, he found that Peel with Browne and
Saxton had quitted it for England. Next day O'Con-
nell sent Mr. Bennett to Colonel Browne with an offer
to meet Peel at any place on the Continent that might
suit his convenience. Browne proposed that the parties
should proceed, separately and as soon as possible, to
CATHOLIC DESPONDENCY. 55
Ostend, binding themselves to secrecy, and should leave
their addresses at the post office there. To this Peel
agreed: he set off and reached Ostend on the 14th.
O'Connell was to elude observation by sailing for the
Continent from Waterford. But the police were on the
alert ; they had received orders to transmit to the Foreign
Secretary the names of all passengers by the packets
from the southern and western ports of Ireland, and
were watching the coast of Essex. O'Connell changed
his plans, and contrived to get over to England from
the south of Ireland. But the authorities in London,
too, were on the watch. Peel's father, not less anxious
than O'Connell's wife, is said to have offered a reward
of tifty guineas for O'Connell's capture. Being detained
by the necessity of getting passports at the Dutch
Embassy, he concealed himself as well as he could,
changed his lodging from the British Hotel to Holy-
land's Coffee House in the Strand, and ordered a post-
chaise for Brighton at 4 a.m. one Monday morning.
But the police were hanging about at 3 a.m. As he
was stepping into his carriage he was arrested by
Lavender, a Bow Street runner, armed with the warrant
of Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough. He was taken
before Mr. Justice Lo Blanc and bound over in his own
recognizances of iJl,000 and two others of £500 each,
to keep the peace and not to quit London till the
first day of the following term. The duel was thus
finally prevented : nor did 0*Conneli ever tight again.
Some short time afterwards O'Connell was arguing
an obscure legal point before Lord Norbury. "My
Lord ! '* said lie, ** I fear 1 do not make myself under-
stood.'* ** Oh ! Mr. 0*Connell,*' said his lordship, *'I
am sure no on(3 is more easily apprehended**
Later in lite O'Councirs bitter tongue brought on
56 LIFE OF JDANIFL O'CONNELL,
him other challenges. In 1825, being challenged by
Leyne, a Kerry barrister, he lodged an information
against him. A year or two later Sheehy, an outraged
newspaper proprietor of Cork, cuffed him in the streets
of Dublin with the same result. In 1830 the Chief
Secretary, Sir Henry Hardinge sent hira a message,
Lord Alvanley sent him one in 1835, and in the same
year Mr. Disraeli challenged his son. He incurred
the severest censure for running riot with his tongue
while denying to his wounded opponents the satisfaction
of falling by his pistol ; but although it is impossible
to approve his conduct in using the strongest lan-
guage and declining to take the consequences, his
action certainly did a great deal to discredit the
practice.
Meantime he was pursuing his practice at the bar,
and his professional fame was at its height. Unlike
Curran, whose bitter enemy, Lord Clare, practically ex-
pelled him from practice in the Court of Chancery,
O'Connell could not be ousted from any court, however
grievously he offended the judges. His practice lay
equally in equity and at common law. In July
1813 the trial of John Magee, the proprietor of the
Dublin Evening Post, for a libel on the Duke of
Richmond, gave him the opportunity of his greatest
forensic effort. The libel in question had been written
by James Scully, though some of Magee's friends even
suggested that it came from O'ConnelFs hand. As
Peel wrote to the Speaker Abbott, the prosecution was
intended to wrest from the Catholic Committee its most
formidable weapon, the Press. If Magee gave up the
writer's name he would become the enemy of the Com-
mittee ; if the Committee left him to take the punish-
ment himself, it would become the enemy of Magee.
CATHOLIC DESPONDENCY. 57
The trial took place in the hottest hour of the ** securi-
ties " controversy. After innumerable wrangles about
challenges, and charges of misconduct in striking the
panel, an Orange jury was sworn. There was but too
good a reason to fear that the jury panel had been tam-
pered with. John Gifford, a bitter and bigoted parti-
san, whom Lord Hardwick, when Lord Lieutenant, had
dismissed from the Eegistrarship of the Dublin Custom
House for his violent attacks on the Catholics, and the
Duke of Richmond, during his term of oflBce, had re-
instated as Accountant-General of Customs, had said of
such a jury, with profane glee, in the previous year, " If
Our Saviour himself were in the dock they would find
him guilty if it served their party." To such a jury
O'Connell thought it useless to appeal, and, abandoning
any attempt to secure an acquittal, he devoted himself
to a lull and brilliant exposition and defence of the
Catholic policy. The Chief Justice checked him and said
it was irrelevant. ** You heard the Attorney-General
traduce and calumniate us," cried O'Connell, fiercely ;
** you heard him with patience and with temper —
listen now to our vindication.'^ Such a course was not
likely to help Magee's cause much, whatever it might
do for the Catholics. He was convicted, and sentenced
to two years* imprisonment and a fine of ;£500.
But through these years O'Connell was chafing im-
patiently at the apathy of his party and the helplessness
of his political condition. The rarliamentary position
of Emancipation had suffered severely by the loss of
the Belief Bill of 1813. It was not mentioned in the
sessioD of 1814 ; and Parueirs motion on presenting
the Catholic petition was lost in 1815 by 228 to 147,
in the very Parliament which had been in its favour two
years before. In 181G Grattan's motion on presenting
58 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CONN ELL,
the petition of the Vetoists was rejected by 31. In 1817
the hostile majority was 24; in 1819 he made his last
effort on behalf of the Catholics and was defeated in
the House of Commons by 2 only (243 to 241); but the
Lords remained staunch and rejected a similar motion by
147 to 106. In 1820 Grattan died and Plunket suc-
ceeded to the conduct of the question. On the 28th
February 1821, in the greatest of all his speeches, he
moved that the House should go into Committee on the
Catholic claims, and he carried his motion by 6 (227 to
221). On March 7th he introduced two Bills, one of
which opened to Catholics the House of Commons and
all offices except the Lord Chancellorship and the Lord
Lieutenancy, and the other gave the Crown a veto on
the appointment of bishops and required of Catholic
priests an oath similar to that of 1813. The two Bills
were consolidated, and carried by 216 to 197 in April.
But the Lords were immovable; the Duke of York de-
nounced it, and it was lost by 39.
O'Connell, however, concerned himself more with
Irish than with English feeling. Willing to clutch at
any straw for help, he proposed, on January 1st, 1821,
in one of the public letters that since 1819 he had pe-
riodically addressed through the Press to the Irish
people, that the Catholics should ally themselves with
the English working-class democracy, and postpone
Emancipation to Keform. Sheil, who knew better the
strength, which their friends proved in Parliament six
weeks afterwards, at once issued a strong letter against
the proposal, denouncing it as ** pernicious." O'Con-
nell replied on January 12th with a caustic epistle,
which left the honours of controversy with him, though
in judgment and common sense Sheil had the best of
of it.
CATHOLIC DESPONDENCY. 59
In the autumn George IV. paid the first Royal visit
to Ireland since the reign of William III. He landed
on the 12th August, and was received with accla-
mations of applause. The Catholics founded great
political hopes on so rare an event. O'Connell and
the Ascendency champion, Bradley King, ex-Lord-
Mayor, were reconciled. A political banquet was
arranged, at which Catholics chose the Protestant
stewards and Protestants the Catholics. O'Connell, who
less than a year before had solicited and obtained
the Queen's Attorney-Generalship in Ireland, in order,
as he said, *' to annoy some of the greatest scoundrels
in society, and, of course, the bitterest enemies of Ire-
land," now declared that ** in sorrow and in bitterness
he had for the last fifteen years laboured for his un-
happy country. One bright day had realised all his
fond expectations. ... It was said of St. Patrick that
he had the power to banish venomous reptiles from the
isle, but His Majesty had performed a greater moral
miracle. The sound of his approach had allayed the
dissensions of centuries " ; and the Catholics presented
an address, which assured the King that " you are hailed
with the benedictions of an enthusiastio and undis-
sembling people." When His Majesty departed,
O'Connell knelt and presented him with a laurel wreath,
which his sovereign was graciously pleased to accept.
To tempt His Majesty to return, he started a subscrip-
tion to build him a royal palace ; but could only raise
funds suflicient to build a bridge. He founded a Boyal
Georgean Club to perpetuate the sentiments of amity
which the royal visit liad awakened. But the bright
hopes of 1821 were doomed to the bitterest disappoint-
ment. The winter was disgraced by outrage and dis-
order and rendered lamentable by famine. In 1822
60 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CON NELL.
Plunket did not venture to raise the Catholic question.
In Dublin, Catholic and Protestant fell to their quarrels
as before, and dissension broke out among the Catholics
themselves. Their temporary unanimity only m^,de
their perennial dissension more painful.
At tlie beginning of 1823 [said Sheil in 1827] an entire cessa-
tion of Catholic meetings had taken place. We had virtually aban-
doned the question ; not only was it not debated in Parliament, but
in Ireland there was neither Committee, Board, nor Association. The
result was that a total stagnation of public feeling took place, and
I do not exaggerate, when I say that the Catholic question was
nearly forgotten ... we sat down like galley-slaves in a calm. A
general stagnation diffused itself over the the national feelings. . . .
What was the result? It was two-fold. The question receded in
England, and fell back from the general notice. There it was utterly
forgotten, while in Ireland the spirit and energy of the people un-
derwent an utter relaxation, and the most vigorous efforts were
necessary to repair all the moral deterioration which the whole
body of the Irish Catholics had sustained.
61
CHAPTER IV.
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION.
1823-1828.
The germ of the Catholic Association— The Catholic Rent— The Act
of 1825— The Relief Bill and Wings of 1825— The Now Catholic
Association — The Waterford and Clare Elections.
In April 1823 O'CoiiDell was staying at Glencullen, in
the Wicklow Mountains, at the house of his friend
Thomas O'Mara. Sheil, with whom he had been in
not unfrequent conflict during the previous ten years,
and a few other friends were there. To them, one
evening after dinner, he broached the scheme out
of which grew the Catholic Association and the Catho-
lic Relief Act. He had long seen that the disunion
of the upper and educated classes was the bane
■of Catholic politics. Two forces there were which had
never been awakened and unchained — ^the Priest and the
Peasant. The i'ailure of the hopes which the King's
visit excited determined him to look to the upper classes
no longer : from thenceforth he would go to the people.
He conceived the plan of enlisting tlie enthusiasm of
the whole agricultural population of Ireland, while
keeping the leadership in the hands of the educated
62 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL,
classes, by means of a gigantic system of local and
central organizations, officered by the priesthood and
controlled from Dublin. The funds, which an agita-
tion on so great a scale would demand, were more
than the donations of the opulent could raise ; he
determined that the main source of the riches of
his new Association should be the poor. All classes
were to be admitted to it. It was to be divided into
two kinds of members, those who paid a guinea per
annum and those who paid a shilling. It shows how
miserably poor the Irish were, that a contribution
of a farthing per week should have been enough to
make each member feel that he had a share in the great
Association. Yet two years later it was proved in
evidence that wages in Ireland were but fourpence a
day, and that out of a population estimated at seven
millions, one million lived by mendicancy or plunder.
The moment seemed one of the very darkest for the
hopes of Ireland that O'Connell, at least, had ever seen.
The Irish, whom legislation had deprived of their manu-
factures, and want of coal had prevented from regaining
them, were a purely agricultural community. The fall
of prices upon the termination of the long war had pro-
duced grave distress among the farmers. This had
been intensified by commercial panics and the deprecia-
tion of commercial credit. The winter of 1822 had
been marked by famine, which was followed by pesti-
lence. One-third of Clare was starving, nor was
the rest of the south and west better off. In Cork
120,000 persons were living on charity. Crime, too,
was rife ; 366 persons were tried by special commission
at Cork alone, and thirty-five of them were sentenced
to death. The tentative measure of Catholic Relief
which, in default of the reintroduction of Plunket's
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 63
Bill of 1821, Canning had brought in and carried
through the House of Commons, was ruthlessly rejected
by the House of Lords, and the Lord-Lieutenancy of
Lord Wellesley, which was to have been a period of
reconciliation, was marked by fierce outbreaks of sec-
tarian animosity, culminating in the ludicrous but
discreditable '* Bottle Riot " of December 1822.
A preliminary meeting, which a few gentlemen were
induced to attend, was held at Dempsey's Tavern, Sack-
ville Street, on April 25th, 1823. From May 12th the
meetings were held at Coyne's, the bookseller's, at 4,
Capel Street, in a mean room on the second floor. Rules
were framed for holding public debates upon a Parlia-
mentary model, to which reporters and the public were
to be admitted. By now the old bitterness of the veto
controversy had had nearly ten years in which to die
out. Some of those who had shared it were dead,
others had forgotten the issue which, though not openly
mentioned, had been really in dispute, whether layman
or ecclesiastic was to control party politics. The way
for united action was open. Slowly peers, prelates,
priests, and peasants gathered round the young Asso-
ciation. Lord Gormanstown sacrificed his early views
to join it. Lord Killeen, Lord Fingal's eldest son, and
Lord Kenmare, became members of it. But it was no
aristocratic movement; it was in truth a revolt of the
democracy against the aristocracy. The peasants found
that their complaints and grievances were listened to, and
that redress was always promised and sometimes ob-
tained. The Association offered them legal assistance
against the law. Emancipation was no longer a move-
ment which was only to benefit and did only touch the
upper classes; it offered to the poorest a bright and
indefinite vista of relief and reformation. The priests
64 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
who had hitherto held aloof from politics, began,
under the guidance of their bishops, to take part in
the work of the Association, of which they were all e.v
officio members. By the end of 1823 O'Connell's hopes
of a union of Catholic feeling began to be justified.
But the most successful of all the devices of the new
organization was one which at first met with ridicule
and almost failure. In the days of the old Catholic
Committee, O'Connell had seen the need of a more
steady and more abundant revenue, and had endea-
voured, without much success, to organize a parochial
subscription. He now proposed, by the methodical
collection of the smallest subscriptions from the poorest
contributors, at the same time to enlist the enthusiasm
of multitudes, and to raise an otherwise unapproachably
large fund. This was the " Catholic Rent.'^
Yet broad as was this scheme, so languid was the in-
terest that the new association at first excited, that even
at the meeting on February 4th, 1824, at which he was
to introduce his proposal for establishing the Rent, no
quorum appeared for five-and-twenty minutes, and by
the rules the meeting stood adjourned if none ap-
peared in half-an-hour. O'Connell rushed out, met
an eighth man on the stairs, and, darting into the street,
found two young priests from Galway gaping in at
Coyne's shop windows. Ex-officio they were members.
To seize them by the* arms, to overbear their diffidence
partly by force and partly by persuasion, and to pull them
into the meeting was the work of a minute ; the quorum
was completed, but not one second too soon. The pro-
posal was made and duly carried, but outside the
association people laughed at it. His schoolfellows
taunted O'Conuell's son, John, with liis father's "penny-
a-month plan for liberating Ireland."
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 65
By the end of the year, however, matters wore a
diflferent aspect. The rent came in at £350 a week in
October, at £550 a week in November, and at £700 a
week in December. The Association hired the Corn
Exchange Rooms at £150 per annum, and appointed
iEneas M'Donnell its parliamentary agent in London at
a salary of £300 a year. The incessant activity of
O'Connell was rapidly making the Catholic agitation,
so long dormant, once more troublesome to the Govern-
ment. He knew that he was treading on thin ice at
every step. To hold language at once passionate
enough to inflame a people, who had never known any
alternatives but those of torpor or outrage, and also
constitutional enough to baulk the Government upon an
indictment for sedition, to do this day after day in a
multitude of meetings and harangues, for which he had
not an instant's leisure to prepare, and to keep in check
impulsive and unguarded satellites, and tone down
their indiscretions, was no light task. Rare as was
O'Conneli's self-mastery even in the wild excitement of
triumphant oratory, even he made slips sometimes.
At that time the nascent republics of South America
were in revolt against Spain, and Bolivar was one of the
heroes of that revolution. On December IGth 1824,
after a hard day's work in Court, O'Connell went out
to address a meeting in the Corn Exohange, and re-
ferred to the various wars of liberty then in progress in
the world. ** The Greeks," he »aid, ** were engaged in
warfare for the defence of their rights. The Roman
Catholics trusted that their ends would be procured
through more peaceable means. He hoped that Ire-
land would be restored to her rights ; but if Ireland
wore driven mad by persecution, ho hoped a new
Bolivar might arise to defend her." This occurred on
5
66 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
Friday. Late on Monday afternoon, as he was sitting
at home with his family. Alderman Darby entered
his house with a constable, and required him to enter
into recognizances to appear at the next sessions,
and answer a charge of seditious libel. What the words
imputed were, or who the informer was, he declined,
under superior instructions, to say. The bill wa»
duly preferred, but to prove the words used was
not so easy. O'Connell was a rapid speaker. The
papers complained of the difficulty of reporting a man
who could utter two hundred words a minute for three
or four hours together. The Government had to appeal
to the press-reporters, and the reporters refused assist-
ance. On December 21st, Vousden of the Dublin
Morning Post, and Leech of the Freeman, were sum-
moned by the police, but declined to produce their
notes, or to depose to any words without them. Haydn,
editor of the ^lar, declared that such an office should
not be put upon a journalist. The reporter of Saun-
ders^ News Letter was called, and ingeniously swore that
just at that part of O'Connell's speech he fell asleep.
To this comedy there was but one issue. The Grand
Jury threw out the bill.
On February 3rd 1825 the session of Parliament
opened. The King's speech, echoing the fears of many
respectable persons, *' regretted that Associations should
exist in Ireland which have adopted proceedings irre-
concilable with the spirit of the Constitution ''; and
this was followed up on the 10th by Goulburn, who intro-
duced a bill to suppress both the Catholic Association
and the Orange Lodges. In less than a month it was
law. By O'Connell's advice the Association at once
dissolved. It held its last meeting on March 18th, and
the Government breathed again.
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 67
But in the meantime the cause of Emancipation
was making progress in England. A deputation
consisting of O'Connell, O'Gorman, Sheil, and others,
had been appointed on 10th February 1825 to go to
London and press the Catholic claims. O'Connell
was heard at the Bar of the Commons as counsel for
the Catholics, and was examined before a Parlia-
mentary Committee on March 9th. *' His whole de-
portment," says Lord Colchester, " was affectedly
respectful, except in a few answers, when he dis-
played a fierceness of tone and aspect." The depu-
tation was entertained at dinner by Brougham, and
by the Duke of Norfolk, and they addressed a Catholic
meeting at the Freemason's Hall. O'Connell, who on
this visit first became known to the English public,
remained some months in London, and on May 2l8t
argued a case before Lord Eldon in the House of
Lords, who found him ** not so shining in argument as
he expected." Meantime, Parliament had seen that it
was impossible to suppress the Catholics' organization
and to do nothing for their claims. Burdett carried a
motion in tlieir favour in March by 247 to 234. He
introduced a Bill, and it was passed on the second read-
ing by 268 to 241. A great impression was created
when Brownlow, M.P. for Armagh, and afterwards Lord
Lurgan, Maxwell, M.P. for Downpatriok, and Forde,
M.P. for Downshire, hitherto stout Protestant Ascen-
dency men, spoke and voted in its favour. As the
liberation of the Catholics seemed now to be close at
hand, a demand arose for ** securities/* and two Bills
for that purpose, called ** the Wings,'* were introduced,
one by Littleton, the other by Lord Francis Levespn
Gower. Littleton's Bill, which proposed to raise the
qualification for the franchise to £*10, was carried on the
6 •
68 LIt'E OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
second reading by 233 to 185 ; Leveson Gower's, which
provided for an endowment of £250,000 per annum for
the Catholics, by 205 to 162. Burdett's Bill passed the
Commons on May 10th. It was thought the Lords
must yield. To facilitate matters Peel offered to resign,
but Liverpool refused his resignation. But the Lords
proved immovable. The Duke of York, who was next
in succession to the Crown, declared, in presenting a
petition from the Dean and Canons of Windsor, that
'' to the latest moment of his existence, whatever might
be his station in life, he would oppose Catholic Emanci-
pation, so help him God I" It was known that the King
pardoned the anticipation of his demise in consideration
of the piety of the sentiment. The Duke instantly
became the most popular man in England, and the
eponymous founder of countless public-houses ; his
words were blazoned by the No Popery party in letters
of gold. The Lords rallied to such influences, and threw
out the Bill by 178 to 130.
To the hopes of the Catholics this double disappoint-
ment was a terrible blow. Nothing less than O'Con-
nell's resourcefulness, energy, and buoyancy, could have
restored them to composure. The Suppression Act,
which he instantly dubbed the ** Algerine Act,'^ had
been the work of a divided Cabinet, and was but
loosely drafted. He proceeded to found a New Catholic
Association, whose existence was a standing insult to
the statute. The Act rendered any society illegal if
** constituted for redress of grievances in Church or
State, renewing its meetings for more than fourteen
days, or collecting or receiving money.'' In July
the New Catholic Association was founded exclusively
for purposes of public and private charity and
** for all purposes not forbidden by the Act." It dis-
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 69
claimed any action for the redress of grievances, the
alteration of the law, or the prosecution of suits, civil
or criminal. It was to have neither separate parts nor
separate branches, neither elected delegates nor local
secretaries. Christians of all denominations were ad-
missible and were to pay an annual subscription of £1.
Its objects were to promote public peace and private
harmony, to encourage religious education, to provide
Catholic churches and graveyards, to promote agricul-
ture and manufactures, and to defend the Catholics from
untrue aspersions cast on their faith or conduct. For
the purposes of agitation, aggregate meetings were held
entirely apart from this benevolent association, some for
one day only, some for fourteen days, ** pursuant to the
Act of Parliament," each of which severally arranged for
the preparation of a petition and dispersed. The New As-
sociation took over the .£14,000 which the old one had
in hand when it was dissolved. The rent was collected
as before ; most persons paid in their money '* for the
relief of distressed Catholics''; O'Connell his **for all
purposes allowable by law."
The Government allowed itself to be trifled with by
this flimsy evasion of the Act. It cannot be that they
never desired to put their new powers in force. One
thing seems clear : if to pack juries and to dictate sen-
tences to a subservient judiciary had really been the cus-
tomary procedure of the Irish Government, it is incon-
ceivable that they should not have suppressed this
agitation and trusted to their partisan judges and
packed juries to declare their conduct within the Act.
The New Catholic Association was admittedly and noto-
riously the Old Catholic Association. The guise of
charity was a mere colourable evasion of the Act. That
Manners, the Chancellor, and Goulbum, the Chief Secre-
70 LIFE OF DANIEL 0*CONNELL.
tary, would not gladly have enforced the Act, can hardly
be doubted; but it is equally clear that they were pre-
vented from doing so and obliged to be content with a
posture of ridiculous impotence, by their respect for the
letter of the law, and by their inability to secure either
such a verdict upon the facts from a jury, or such a
construction of the statute from the bench, as would
have been necessary to give effect to the indubitable but
ill-expressed will of the Legislature. Their conduct at
this time acquits both themselves of jury-packing and
the judges of servility.
The Irish had borne the suppression of the Catholic
Association with comparative composure ; but the rejec-
tion of the Belief Bill and the adjurations of the Duke
of York filled them with rage. 0*Connell, while in
London, had been in close league with Burdett and his
friends, and indeed went so far as to write to the news-
papers claiming the authorship of the Relief Bill, a
claim which Tierney repudiated with mortifying expli-
citness in the House of Commons. Following the
unfortunate precedent of 1808 of secretly negotia-
ting with the Parliamentary party without any com-
munication with the party in Ireland, he had assented
to the Wings, both the one which disfranchised
the forty-shilling freeholders, and that which pro-
vided for the payment of the clergy. For this aban-
donment of principle, the Irish priests on his return to
Ireland took him severely to task. It was only by
prompt and even abject renunciation and contrition,
that he recovered his lost ground. He disavowed the
Wings and threw himself actively into the agitation.
The great thing to be aimed at was to keep alive the
interest of the Catholics, to arrest their attention, to
keep them in motion ; a precise goal and definite
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 71
achievement was of less iraportance. Even at the risk
of provoking hostility, O'Connell was anxious to keep
up the heat of his followers* enthusiasm : ** An enemy/*
says Wyse, ** is nearer to conversion than a neutral."
The Protestants began to appear on Catholic platforms ;
there was too much condescending patronage on their
side, too much fulsome adulation on O'Conneirs, but
the fact was important. More and more strongly the
priests became identified with the Association ; they
collected the rent ; the meetings were held in their
chapels and the platforms set up before their altars. A
series of provincial aggregate meetings was held, at
Limerick in 1825, at Cork and Waterford in 1826, at
Clonmel in 1828. To keep constantly before the public
mind the vast disparity in the numbers of Catholics
and Protestants, Shiel suggested a religious census, to
be taken, parish by parish, by the clergy. An
affiliated Catholic Association was formed in New York,
and American subscriptions began to come in. Foreign
opinion was appealed to and the proceedings of the
Association were sent to foreign Governments. The
Catholics aspired to have a foreign policy ; and they
gratified their taste for splendour by adopting a uni-
form or costume, of blue, gold, and white, of velvet
and of silk. The English were surprised at this
awakening of Irish feeling and universal activity ; but
a greater surprise was to come.
Of tho Protestant territorial magnates, whose wide
possessions and family influence seemed to give them a
prescriptive and indefeasible title to direct the issue of
Irish elections, none were so powerful as the I^eresfords
in county Waterford. They had controlled the county
time out of mind ; they had held tho seat for the city for
seventy years. Upon the register they had an immense
72 LIFE OF DANIEL OrCONMELL,
majority of votes at their beck and call. The Marquis
of Waterford lived on his estates and had done much
to earn Catholic good-will. He had introduced the
Catholic Belief Bill in the Irish House of Lords in
1793, and had been conspicuous for his humanity when
in command of the Waterford Regiment of Yeomanry
during the rebellion of 1798. A trivial circumstance,
arising out of a proposed address to the Lord Lieute-
nant after the " Bottle Riot '^ had made him for the time
unpopular with some of the Protestant gentry.
The general election of 1826 was at hand, and it was
decided to oppose his candidate, the sitting member,
Lord George Beresford. Villiers Stuart, afterwards
Lord Stuart of the Decies, a young squire of good
family but moderate means, was asked to stand. He
posted home from the Tyrol and issued his address. The
Beresfords replied with indiscreet and irritating counter-
addresses, denouncing clerical influence. The priests
in turn became the most active and most successful of
canvassers for Stuart. They menaced with the guilt of
perjury those who voted against their consciences to
please their landlords. Every chapel became a centre of
agitation. Four thousand troops were poured into the
county and had nothing to do ; in vast orderly proces-
sions the forty- shilling freeholders moved about the
country or attended Stuart^s meetings, without disorder
or crime. Chiefly to give him a locus sta?idi for a
speech, O^Connell, who was Stuart's counsel, was put
in nomination for the county, and after speaking two
hours retired in his client's favour. It was the first
nomination of a Catholic ever known, and the precedent
was significant. The people of Kilmacthomas had
drummed Lord George out of the village ; the people of
Portlaw, which lay at the gates of the Marquis' castle,
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 73
claimed the privilege of going first to the poll to vote
against their landlord. There was a majority against
the Marquis on the first day, mainly composed of his
own freeholders; on the fifth Lord George retired.
The contest had begun as a forlorn hope ; it had passed
into a determined battle ; it ended in a complete vic-
tory. The effect was immense. Bat that the Wexford
election had been decided before that in Waterford, the
Catholics would have carried that county. An obscure bar-
rister named Alexander Dawson, without effort and with
but three days' notice, carried Louth, and the dismayed
Orange candidates were left to struggle for the second
place. Westmeath was won ; two Emancipators were
returned for Armagh, and Monaghan was wrested from
its hereditary representatives, the Leslies, the Blayneys,
and the Shirleys. It was the revolt of the forty-shilling
freeholders against their masters. The landlords had
created them to increase their own importance, and now
found the creature rising against the creator. For thirty
years Frankenstein's monster had been a submissive
slave ; but now he had turned on his master and had
rent him.
The landlords thus defeated began to threaten and in
some cases to carry out ejectments for non-payment of
the long arrears, which were kept for this purpose hang-
ing over the heads of the forty-shilling freeholders.
The Catholic Association interfered to protect its clients.
It threatened to buy up outstanding judgments and to
procure the foreclosure of mortgages against landlords,
who acted in this way. It carried on an active regis-
tration of votes in the Catholic interest and looked, at
another election, to carry three-fourths of the Irish
seats. It established Protecting Committees in the
counties which had been recently contested, and col-
74 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CONN ELL,
lected a ** New Eent '' for the relief of evicted tenants.
The old rent reached vast proportions, ^16,000 to
March 1825, i96,260 more to December 1826, and
d93,000 for 1827. In 1828 it was ^'21,400 ; in two
months of 1829, ^65,300. But it was imperfectly
collected, and having been left too much to casual and
volunteer effort, often to busy priests, had never ap-
proached the desired £50,000 per annum. O'Connell
proposed a strict parochial organization. Two church-
wardens were to be appointed in every parish, one by the
priest and the other by the people, to collect the rent.
They were to send up to Dublin monthly reports in a
prescribed form, giving particulars as to the Catho-
lic rent and census, the Church cess and tithes, evictions
of tenants and attempts at proselytism. That too much
might not bo left to the initiative of the churchwardens,
local associations were, on Wyse's proposal, formed in
each parish, to look after the wardens ; an association in
each county controlled the parish clubs, and all were
subject to the central association. The Weekly Kegister
of the Association's proceedings circulated to the num-
ber of 6,000, and was read aloud by the wardens at
chapel after mass. The central association supplied
journals to the country branches. In nine years the cir-
culation of newspapers in Ireland increased 25 percent.
These clubs were founded in every county in Munster,
and in most of those in Leinster and Connaught, and
enforced a strict maintenance of the peace and obser-
vance of the law. By this means, on 21st January 1828,
simultaneous meetings were held in no less than fifteen
hundred parishes ; and the meetings were held without
the slightest disorder.
When Canning took office in 1827, he sent a private
message to the Catholic Association, begging them for the
TBE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 75
8ake of English opinion to be temperate, and promising in
that case to do his best for their claims. The Catho-
lic Association refused to moderate its tone. The acces-
sion to office of the Duke of Wellington, on Goderich's
resignation, was regarded as the accession of a Catholic
foe. The Association passed a resolution binding itself to
oppose with all its force any Irish member who took office
under him. The Catholics, in spite of the stubborn resis-
tance to Emancipation of the bulk of the English Dis-
senters, had always supported their cause, and 800,000
signatures were procured by O'Connell to a petition for
the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. In 1828,
when this had been carried. Lord John Kussell wrote
to the Association, desiring it, now that the principle of
Emancipation had thus triumphed, to withdraw the
anti-Wellington pledge. 0*Connell urged, as he had
urged the year before, that the advice should be taken.
Again he was overruled. For the Association saw now
that not to go forward was to go back, and the pledge
was insisted on.
An opportunity for acting on the resolution soon
arrived. The East Retford dispute led to the resigna-
tion of Huskisson, and among the Ministerial changes
which followed was the appointment to the Board of
Trade of Vesey Fitzgerald, M.P. for Clare. His re-
election seemed certain. He belonged to an old and
popular family. His father, Prime Serjeant Fitzgerald,
had voted against the Act of Union. He himself had
consistently voted in favour of Emancipation. Both
father and son were excellent landlords. He had behind
him the Ministerial influence and the whole body of the
landlords of Clare. The resolution of the Catholic
Association bound them to oppose him, but they
despaired of success. Steele, however, and The O'Gor
76 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
man Mahon, who were magistrates for the county,
posted down to see what could be done. Arriving
at Limerick on a Sunday morning, they found that
personal obligations to the Fitzgeralds prevented Major
Macnamara, who was to have been their candidate,
from opposing the new minister. They hurried on
into Clare, holding hasty meetings at the chapels, and
by night joined Lawless at Ennis. Everywhere they
found a general enthusiasm for a contest among the
peasantry. To the contemptuous amazement of Fitz-
gerald's party, Steele remained to urge that if no
gentleman would come forward some grave-digger should
be put up. O'Gorman, half-dead with fatigue, posted
back to Dublin to beat up a candidate. Lord William
Paget was applied to, and refused. On the 21st of
June, Shell declared at the meeting of the Association
that someone absolutely must stand. O'Oonnell was
inclined to dread the effect of a defeat. Next day, in
the early morning, Sir David Roose, ex-High Sheriff of
Dublin and a Tory, met Fitzpatrick in the street by
chance, and suggested that a Catholic, O'Oonnell him-
self, should be the candidate. Fitzpatrick remembered
that years before he had heard Keogh suggest a similar
thing; he caught at the idea, rushed to the Association
Rooms and made the proposal. Then followed two
hours of hesitation. They saw the advantage of getting
on their side the innate English respect for the formal
result of an election, even though the elected person
be ineligible, and they decided to take the chance.
The die was cast. By the end of the week Steele, in
Clare, knew that he would have no need to put up any
grave-digger; the candidate would be the most popular
Catholic in Ireland. O'Connell issued his address on
the 24th. It was marked by a pledge ** to bring the
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 77
question of the Repeal of the Union at the earliest
possible period before the consideration of the legisla-
ture." It was foreseen that the cost of the election
would be heavy, but i'2,000 was collected in Dublin in
one day, and £14,000 in ten. O'Connell himself could
not leave Dublin till the last moment, but Sheil and
O'Gorman went down to Clare at once. Then followed
one of the most singular scenes in the history of Ire-
land. O'Gorman announced his williDgness to fight
any squire, who felt aggrieved at seeing his tenants can-
vassed, and proceeded to canvass the tenants. Shiel
went from chapel to chapel, and '* made every altar a
tribune.** The priests exerted themselves for O'Connell
almost to a man. One, indeed, sided with Fitzgerald,
and the people stopped his stipend. On the other
hand, every Whig and Tory landlord supported Fitz-
gerald. He was nominated by Sir Edward O'Brien,
and O^Connell only by Steele. The candidates ad-
dressed the freeholders. Fitzgerald wept before them,
and his tears touched their emotional hearts. O'Con-
nell replied with a virulent attack, calling him the
** friend of the base and bloody Perceval,'' who, though
he had been fourteen years in his grave, and had died
by an assassin's hand, was still not safe from abuse.
The polling days arrived. Vandeleur of Kilrush drove
into Ennis at the head of his three hundred tenants,
and under their landlord's eye they cheered O'Connell
and broke away to poll for him. Sir Edward O'Brien
was bringing up his men, when Father Murphy of
Corofin met them, and with a few words gathered the
sheep into O'Connell's fold. One look of a priest
converted the tenants of Augustine Butler. At the
close of one day's voting a vast crowd was waiting
anxiously to hear the state of the poll. Up rose a gaunt
78 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
priest, who announced that a Catholic had voted for
Fitzgerald. The crowd set up a yell of hatred.
** Silence," cried the priest ; ** the hand of God has
struck him ; he has just died of apoplexy. Pray for
his soul !" The awe-stricken multitude fell on its
knees in silent prayer. During those July nights
thirty thousand men bivouacked in the meadows about
Ennis, and no case of disorder occurred. The only
man who got drunk was O'Connell's English coach-
man. Clare had been pre-eminent among Irish coun-
ties for faction-fighting ; in that county hereditary foes
espied one another only to commence a violent riot.
During the whole election not the slightest affray took
place. Lord x\nglesey had massed troops upon the
place. There were three hundred police in Ennis ; up-
wards of two thousand troops were within call, and
thirteen hundred more only thirty-six hours distant.
Not a corporal's guard was required. From the first
the contest was hopeless. As Fitzgerald wrote to Peel,
he had polled '* all the gentry and all the ^950 free-
holders — the gentry to a man," but out of 8,000
electors all but 200 were forty-shilling freeholders. On
the first day O'Connell was six votes ahead, on the
third almost a thousand. On the fifth Fitzgerald with-
drew, and O'Connell was member for Clare.
79
CHAPTER V.
EMANCIPATION.
1828-1842.
Result of the Clare Election — Dissolution of the Catholic Association —
Catholic Relief — Refusal of O'Connell's claim to take his seat —
Second Clare Election — Repeal Agitation — Conflict with the Mar-
quis of Anglesey — Reform.
The first question which had presented itself to the
Wellington Administration in 1828, had been the re-
newal of the Coercion Act of 1825. It expired with
the session of 1828, and must either be renewed, or
allowed quietly to lapse. It had been a failure. Neither
the Catholic agitation nor the Orange processions, at
which it was aimed, had been touched by it. The
Marquis of Anglesey advised the Ministry not to stir ;
there were dissensions, he said, among the Catholics of
Ireland, who were not unanimous in supporting the
Association, and there were jealousies within its ranks.
The prelates looked askance at its influenoe with the
parochial clergy, and the landlords at its sway over
their tenanls. The country was quiet. A new Act
would be difficult to frame, and could only be passed at
the cost of now conflicts. Upon this advice they de-
cided to take the risk of dropping the Act, and to let
sleeping dogs lie.
80 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
But the Clare election changed the whole face of
affairs. O'Connell returned to Dublin amid the trium-
phant acclamations of the whole country through
which he passed. As soon as the Act lapsed, the old
Catholic Association was instantly re-established, and
at the same time the Orange lodges, which it had sup-
pressed, also formed themselves again. The Catholics
were active in agitation, but so were the Protestants.
They established, up and down the country, Bruns-
wick Clubs, which held language as violent as that
of the Association, and by their proceedings drove
many of the Protestant Liberals, who had hitherto held
aloof from politics, into the arms of the Catholics.
The Association, in return, decided to extend its opera-
tions into Ulster, and despatched ** honest Jack Law-
less " as its emissary to the North. Meetings were still
an attractive novelty in Ulster, and agitation was still
fresh there, and in the neighbourhood of Dundalk he
was highly successful ; but when he announced his in-
tention of entering the '* black north ^' at Ballybay, co.
Monaghan, with 140,000 enthusiasts in his train, some
fifteen thousand"^ Orangemen mustered to resist him.
This was on the 22nd of September. The magistrates
of the locality called on General Thornton, the officer
in command of the district, to interpose between the two
hosts, and Lawless, finding his senses or losing his
nerve, took to his heels. Never was Ireland nearer to
a conflagration. The peasantry of Tipperary had aban-
doned their faction- fights to prepare for more serious
work. In August a great provincial meeting had been
held at Clonmel. A disciplined levy of the peasants
* So Wyse, but the Chief Secretary wi'ote to Peel, on Oct. 6, that
the Protestants numbered 1,700.
EMANCIPATION, 81
en 7nasse marched into the town, 50,000 strong, wearing
green cockades and green uniforms, preceded by bands,
and commanded by officers. Uniforms were so com-
mon, that one Cork firm alone sold ^9600 worth of
green calico for the purpose. In addressing this meet-
ing, O'Connell had used language of the most unwise
violence. The Orangemen had talked of armed suppres-
sion of the Catholic movement. ** Would to God,'' cried
O'Connell, " our excellent Viceroy, Lord Anglesey,
would only give me a commission ; and if those men of
blood should attempt to attack the property and per-
sons of His Majesty's loyal subjects, with a hundred
thousand of my brave Tipperary boys, I would soon
drive them into the sea before me." The fierce
yell of applause which followed his words showed how
his hearers hungered for the fray. It was known that
there were stores of arms hidden in the mountains, and
all through September the marching and counter-march-
ing of these strange armies went on. Had Lawless
provoked bloodshed at Ballybay, it is the opinion of
Wyse, the historian of the Catholic Association, writing
at the time, that there would have followed in the south
of Ireland *' another Sicilian Vespers."
The Lord Lieutenant was neither an alarmist nor a
tyrant ; he was a oool soldier, and a friend of Emanci-
pation, but he foreboded insurrection. He filled the
district with troops, but he knew that his troops were
wavering in their loyalty. English regiments bad been
largely recruited with Irishmen, and Protestant ones
with Catholics. The contagion of popular enthusiasm
had seized upon the soldiers. The priests had been at
work among tiiom, and they were becoming divided into
religious factions. As early as July he had asked for
the removal of Irish soldiers and the despatch of Scotch
6
82 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
regiments to Ireland. Without the concession of
Catholic Relief, he said, he could not answer for the
peace of the country for longer than until Parliament
met. The leaders "could lead on the people to rebel-
lion at a moment's notice," and **the probability of
present tranquillity rests upon the forbearance oF
O'Connell."
O'Connell himself saw that an outbreak meant ab-
solute ruin to the Catholic cause on the very eve of its
final triumph. As yet there had been no disturbance ;
but a spark might kindle a civil war, which the Govern-
ment might be unable to quell. He recalled Lawless
from the North ; he issued a manifesto to the people
of Tipperary commanding peace, and directing the for-
mation of companies of one hundred and twenty men,
each to be under a ** pacificator," who was required to
be a communicant, and two *' regulators " appointed by
him, all three to be jointly responsible for the conduct
of their men. The effect was magical ; almost without
a struggle the agitation disappeared. " Divisions of
1,000 or 1,500 marching in uniform to the place of ren-
dezvous in ignorance of what had happened, were met
on their way by a copy of the address, and instantly
retraced their steps in peace. Others who had actually
assembled, separated, and departed quietly to their
homes."
But in spite of this obedience, Catholic feeling con-
tinued to be intensely embittered. In November, one of
the directors of the Wexford Provincial Bank, a highly
respectable institution managed jointly by Catholics
and Protestants, had attended a meeting of a Brunswick
Club. In revenge for this the Catholics secretly con-
certed a run on the bank. Immense numbers of its
notes were simultaneously presented for payment. The
EMANCIPATION. 83
bank had to obtain in a single week £1,500,000 in
gold. The movement threatened to spread to Clonmel
and Kilkenny, but fortunately it was stayed. About
the same time, Ford, a Catholic solicitor, proposed a
resolution in the Catholic Association in favour of
exclusive dealing with Catholic tradesmen, and it
was with diflBculty that his motion was shelved in De-
cember. At such a moment proceedings like these
would have been suicidal. As it was, such uneasiness
was awakened among commercial men, that in the fol-
lowing March, though the banks of issue were highly
solvent concerns, they felt obliged to hold very nearly
i>5,000,000 in specie to protect a note circulation of
but £7,000,000 in all.
Meantime the Ministry had been undergoing deep
searchings of heart. It was supposed to have been
constituted upon an anti-Catholic basis. Peel had long
been the ablest and best exponent of the argument
against Emancipation. To his logical mind it followed
that Emancipation must lead to the overthrow of Pro-
testant ascendency. To relieve the Catholics from dis-
abilities in law, and to enforce them in fact, by refusing
to appoint persons of that religion to office under the
Crown, was to him irrational. But his experience at
the Irish Office had led him to believe that the appoint-
ment of Catholics was incompatible with national
security. At the same time, his was a highly constitu-
tional mind, and the Clare election showed him that his
position was fast becoming constitutionally indefensible.
The parliament of 1826 had been elected upon an ex-
press ** No Popery ** cry ; but when the question came
for the first time before it in 1827, they rejected Bur-
dett's motion for a committee on the Catholic claims
by but four votes in 540, and, after the success of Rus-
6 •
84 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL,
sell's proposals in 1828, Burdett obtained in May a
majority of six in its favour. Even its opponents no
longer ventured to say that things could remain as they
were. Dawson, Peel's brother-in-law, M.P. for Derry,
and one of the leaders of the Ulster Protestants, in a
Speech afterwards called ^' Peel's pilot balloon," owned,
after O'Connell's election, that the time for concession
had arrived. Left to itself, the House of Commons
would probably have passed a Catholic Belief Act at
any time during the last fifteen years, and although the
stiff Protestant party was very strong in the country,
especially in the Midlands and West, the true centre of
resistance was in the House of Lords and the Royal
Family. For a generation past all the most distin-
guished men in the House of Commons, except Peel
himself, had been against the disabilities. A majority of
the representatives in each of the great counties of
Yorkshire, Lancashire, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, and
Devon, a moiety of those of London, Liverpool, Leices-
ter, Coventry, and Norwich, and the whole of those of
Westminster, Southwark, Newcastle, Chester, Derby,
and Preston, were Emancipationists. But the Clare
election produced a still greater effect. With their
eyes open the electors had chosen a man whose right to
take his seat was highly doubtful, and would certainly
be denied. They had known their strength too well to
be violent. At a moment of wild excitement, in a
county that had never been orderly before, complete
order had prevailed. Above all, the election marked a
silent but constitutional revolution, a complete trans-
ference of power from the class on whom the whole
fabric of Protestant exclusiveness had rested, to the
class which Protestantism had trampled under foot. The
landlord was dethroned, and the priest reigned in his
EMANCIPATION. 85
stead. Peel had to ask himself what was to be done.
Civil government was paralysed and brought into con-
tempt by the existing state of things. The authority
which kept the peace of Ireland, such as it was, was
that of the Catholic Association, and not the king's.
During the autumn of 1828 England was at peace with
all the world ; her regular infantry force in the United
Kingdom was some 30,000 men ; 25,000 of them had to
be devoted to the maintenance of tranquillity in Ireland.
Civil war seemed so imminent that it appalled even
the stout heart of the Duke of Wellington. The exist-
ing situation was intolerable. Yet there seemed to be
no issue from this impasse. To suppress the agitation
by force of arms was hopeless, for neither troops nor
police could any longer be trusted. To ask coercive
powers of a House of Commons which had declared in
favour of Emancipation was idle. To dissolve was to
provoke an insurrection, and to bring about another
Clare election in every constituency in Ireland. One
thing could be done, and one only, and that a thing
which none but a Tory anti-Catholic government could
have had weight enough to do. It was to yield ; to
yield without any conversion of English opinion, to
force the stubborn bigotry of the British to submit to
the pressure put upon it by a portion of the people of
the United Kingdom, their inferior in numbers, wealth,
education, and strength. There was something heroic
in such a self-efiacement.
Parliament met on February r)(li IR'29. The speech
from theThronesaid that **His Majrstv in nmmends that
. . . you should take into your deliberate consideration the
whole condition of Ireland ; and that you should review
the laws which impose civil disabilities on His Majesty's
Ko man Catholic subjects.'' But the same speech contained
86 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
a request for a grant of further powers for maintaining the
law, as a preliminary to Catholic Relief, and Peel intro-
duced a Bill for the suppression of the Catholic Associa-
tion on February 10th. The Whigs, relying on the near
prospect of a Relief Bill, offered it little opposition.
They thought that with the passing of a Relief Bill the
use and occasion of the Suppression Act would disap-
pear. It was carried in the Commons by 348 to 160,
and finally passed the House of Lords on February 24th,
and received the royal assent on March 5th. The more
moderate friends of Emancipation urged obedience to
the new Act without waiting for it to be put in force.
The Marquis of Anglesey wrote to Dublin urging its
leaders to dissolve the Association forthwith. O'Con-
nell, indeed, who was now on his way to London, and
had less faith in the intentions of the Tory Ministry,
wrote from Shrewsbury, and wrote again on reaching
London, urging them to do nothing of the kind. But
by far the most influential of its leaders, after O^Con-
nell himself, was Sheil, and Sheil was in Dublin, and
was for moderation. He moved and carried a resolu-
tion on February 12th, that the Catholic Association,
now 14,000 strong, should dissolve. At the same time
the collateral ** Association of Friends of Civil and
Religious Freedom " was dissolved also. Yet even at
this moment, when harmonious action was so neces-
sary, and victory was won, dissension broke out. A
few weeks afterwards O'Connell was in conflict with
MacDonnell, the London agent, about his exorbitant
claims to remuneration for services in London, and with
the secretary, O'Gorman, about his claim to appropriate,
as his private property, the minute books and records
of the Association.
Peel introduced the Relief Bill on the 5th March.
EMANCIPATION. 87
The King had given to it a rekictant assent. At the
last hour, the intrigues of Eldon and the Duke of Cum*
berland had so far influenced his weak and disin-
genuous mind, that he withdrew his assent to his
ministers' policy, on the pretence that he had not ex-
pected, and could not sanction, any modification of the
Oath of Supremacy. He parted from his ministers with
kisses and courtesy, and for a few hours their resigna-
tions were in his hands. But with night his discretion
waxed as his courage waned ; his ministers were re-
called, and their measure proceeded. Tn its main pro-
visions it was thorough and far-reaching. It admitted
the Roman Catholic to Parliament, and to all lay offices
under the Crown, except those of Regent, Lord Chan-
cellor, whether of England or of Ireland, and Lord
Lieutenant. It repealed the oath of abjuration, it
modified the oath of supremacy. It was attended, as all
Catholic Relief Bills had been attended, by a ** securi-
ties *' Bill. It approximated the Irish to the English
county franchise by abolishing the forty-shilling free-
holder, and raising the voter's qualification to £10. All
monasteries and institutions of Jesuits were suppressed ;
and Roman Catholic bishops were forbidden to assume
titles of sees already held by Bishops of the Church of
Ireland. Municipal and other officials were forbidden
to wear the insignia of their office at Roman Catholic
ceremonies. Lastly, the new Oath of Supremacy was
available only for persons thereafter to be elected to
Parliament. Introduced by Peel, almost the only per-
son of first-rate capacity in the party which had
uniformly opposed all previous measures of Emancipa-
tion, the liill met with but little opposition of a formid-
able character. After some violent debate it passed
the House of Commons by 853 votes to 180, the House
88 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CONN ELL,
of Lords by 217 to 112, aud finally on April 13th
received the Royal assent. After sixty-nine years of
agitation, Catholic disabilities were removed, and the
victory was won.
The true significance of the Relief lay in the disfran-
chisement of the forty-shilling freeholder, a unique and
sweeping measure of electoral restriction. It was a
counter-revolution to that of which the Clare election
had been the visible sign. Although to the last moment
of the struggle the "No Popery" feeling in England
was very strong, although the House of Commons
had been elected on a ** No Popery " cry, and was
importuned with numberless petitions against Eman-
cipation, there can be no doubt that the Opposition
to it among thinking men was in the main poli-
tical. The Irish members were the choice of the land-
lord interest, for in Ireland, as in Great Britain, the re-
presentation rested on a territorial basis. The Tories
saw that to emancipate the Catholics was to alter this
state of things in Ireland ; it was to pass an indirect
Reform Bill by anticipation. The question in Ireland
was complicated by the state of the franchise, which
was in an artificial and unnatural condition. It was
vastly more democratic in law than that of England,
for the electoral qualification was absurdly low; it was
in practice much more aristocratic. In truth, the state
of the Irish franchise was very analogous to the repre-
sentation of the Slave States in the United States
Congress in 1860. For the purpose of enhancing his
master's political power, the peasant counted as a
freeman ; for the purpose of exercising power of his own
he was to be only a slave.
The Irish landlords of the beginning of this century
were a class, which the modern imagination can com-
EMANCIPATION. 89
prehend only as figures in farces or caricatures in fic-
tion. They were violent and dissolute, spendthrift and
irresponsible. To vie with one another in tasteless
splendour and grotesque profusion, they burdened their
estates with mortgages and their tenantry with high rents.
They lived in a labyrinth of charges and encumbrances,
and protected themselves by doing violence to the offi-
cials of the law, who sought to bring them within reach
of its process. With them to be sober was to be a nin-
compoop, to observe common prudence to be a niggard.
The duel was a sacred institution ; smuggling a reput-
able calling ; the abduction of heiresses a common
mode of repairing broken fortunes ; and the impartial
administration of the duties of a county magistrate, an
incomprehensible pedantry when it affected others, an
unpardonable insult when it affected oneself. Much as
the Roman Catholics had suffered from the system of
the Penal Code, its worst victims were the landlords
themselves. The constitution as it stood made them the
guardians of the country, the administrators of its daily
concerns and the possessors of its political power.
Against their incapacity or their prejudices, a Govern-
ment, however well-meaning, struggled in vain.
Brought up ns despots and surrounded by an ignorant
and degraded population, recruited from the ranks of
Roman Catholic renegades, and corrupted by innumer-
able exchanges with the Government of votes and seats
in return for pensions or plaoes, they had become in
three or four generations unfit for power. Yet there
was an affection and sympathy between them and their
subjects, which mitigated the worst evils of the situa-
tion. The Irish peasantry, perhaps more tiian any
other agricultural population, looked up to their natural
leaders, the possessors of the soil. The landlords were
90 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CON NELL.
Irish like themselves, Irish to the core. Their reckless
gallantry, their careless profusion, their wit and their
weakness, endeared them to peasants whose nature was
the same, and whose habits in their sphere were not dis-
similar. It was 0*Connell who destroyed this alle-
giance. He made the priest and not the landlord the
leader of the people. This Peel saw. He knew that
the forty-shilling freeholders were a class too igno-
rant, too excitable, too little accustomed to political
deliberation and action, to be anything but a dangerous
force as soon as they got out of passive control. By his
very success the forty- shilling freeholder was doomed to
extinction. The Act which completed his victory an-
nihilated him. It was the first good deed he had ever
done, the first free political step he had ever taken,
and it was his last. Like Samson, he was greater in
his death than in his life.
But although the main provisions of the Act were excel-
lent, it was attended by two of those miserable restrictions
which, to the sensitive Irish people, often seem to out-
weigh a solid boon. The provision thatKoman Catholic
prelates were not to seize upon titles already appropriated
to Protestant bishops, would seem a trumpery punctilio
without a parallel, were it not for Lord John KusselPa
Ecclesiastical Titles Act. It was inserted as a sop to
the English bishops. The exclusion of O'Connell from
Parliament, unless he either took the oath of abjura-
tion or underwent a second election, was a mere fatuity.
It was done against the will of the Cabinet to gratify the-
spite of the King.
It must be remembered that, so far as Emancipation
was due to Irish effort, it was due to O'Connell. The
Irish had had great political combinations before^
though hardly peaceable ones; they had had the Volun-
EMANCIPATION, 91
teers and the United Irishmen. But the one was a
military body officered by the aristocracy and gentry ;
the other was a traitorous conspiracy. O'Conneil had
had few persons of weight, either intellectual or social,
to aid him in his task, and he had been faced by the
most powerful opposition. Except Sheil, he had hardly
counted a supporter of real strength. And yet he, all
but single-handed, had combined the Irish into an agi-
tation, which though potent was peaceable, and in crea-
ting a revolution he had kept within the Constitution.
Single-handed he had vanquished the Duke of Welling-
ton and all the forces of Evangelicalism at his back. Yet
this was the man who was selected for a flout of the
most ungenerous kind. At the time of the Clare elec-
tion he had hazarded the opinion, and Charles Butler
had taken the same view, that it was possible to sit and
vote in Parliament without ever taking the oaths. At
any rate, it was possible to elect him, and the question
of his taking his seat might be indefinitely postponed.
He had at once begun to exercise his privileges as a
member of Parliament by franking letters, and the Post
Office admitted his right to frank. The moment the
Sheriff signed the return, a friend asked him to frank
a letter, which was sent to London. It was delivered
to the correspondent while he was arguing a case in
the House of Lords, and was almost the first an«
nouncoment of the news of the election. The frank
was handed round and excited curiosity, alarm, and
rage. But for eight months 0*ConneIl made no attempt
to take his seat. To obviate the necessity of a second
election in Clare in case the House should deny his
claim to take the new oath, he offered Sir Edward
Denny .4'3,000 for one of his pocket boroughs, but the
offer was refused. The SherifF of Clare had made a
92 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
special return to the writ. A petition had heen pre-
sented against O'Connell's return, and a committee of
the House, appointed under Grenville's Act, unanimously
reported him duly elected. He arrived in London on
February 9th 1829, and put up at Batt's Hotel. Ellice,
Burdett, and Hume called upon him to urge the imme-
diate dissolution of the Association. The Whigs pro-
posed to amend the Relief Bill so as to admit him as soon
as it had become law, but he knew the advantage it would
give him to be treated unhandsomely by the Government,
and begged them not to imperil Catholic Relief for
the sake of a personal matter affecting only himself.
Rumours of a coming disfranchisement had been rife
for months, and on December 16th, 1828, the Catholic
Association had resolved that " they would deem any
attempt to deprive the forty-shilling freeholders of their
franchise a direct violation of the Constitution." In
speaking to this resolution, O'Connell said : —
If any man dare to bring in a Bill for disfranchisement of the forty-
shilling freeholders, the people ought to rebel, if they cannot other-
wise succeed ; [and having expressed his contrition for giving his
consent to the "Wings" in 1825, he proceeded], "sooner than give
up the forty- shilling freeholders, I would rather go back to the
Penal Code. ... I am loyal to the Throne, and my disposition and
my interest combine to produce in my mind an attachment to the
ruling powers ; but if an attempt were made to take from the forty-
shilling freeholders the privileges vested in them by the Constitution,
I would conceive it just to resist that attempt with force, and in such
resistance I would be ready to perish in the field or on the
scaffold.
Now, however, possibly lest it might endanger the
passing of the Relief Act, possibly because it seemed
hopeless, he made no attempt to avert the disfranchise-
ment of the forty-shilling freeholders. He comported
himself with moderation, and showed himself a well-
EMANCIPATION, 93
bred man of the world. He dined with Ponsonby to
meet Stanley and Greville. Like a loyal subject, he
waited upon his Sovereign at the Lev6e. The King's
eye fell upon him. ** L'here ^s O'Connell/^ His Ma-
jesty was pleased to say, ** God damn the scoundrel.'*
At length, on the 15th of May, about three in the
afternoon, O'Connell presented himself to take his seat.
Multitudes stood in the streets about the House and
within it the gallery was crowded. He was introduced
by Lord Duncaunon, M.P. for Kilkenny, and by Lord
Ebrington, M.P. for Tavistock. His demeanour was quiet
and courteous, and he advanced to the table with the
customary bows. There was a dead silence. The oaths
which had been long in use were those of allegiance, of
supremacy, and of abjuration. The first two he was
willing to take, but not the last. They were printed on
cards, and Ley, the Clerk of the House, tendered them
to him. He was seen to raise some objection, and Ley
went to refer to the Speaker. The Speaker decided that
the old oaths, which Ley had tendered, were those
which must be taken. O'Connell was directed to with-
draw. Brougham moved that he be heard at the Bar
forthwith, but Peel desired delay, and an adjournment
was agreed to till the 18th. O'Connell was then heard
in support of his claim to take the oaths as modified by
the new Belief Act. It was a striking occasion, and
the keenest attention was paid by the House to one
whom some of them had been taught to regard as a kind
of grotesque barbarian, and others were accustomed to
speak of as an adventurer and a traitor. His speech
was calm and temperate ; his manner that of a polished
gentleman ; his argument, if not convincing, won the
encomiums of some of the ablest lawyers in the House,
Tindal and Brougham, Scarlett and Sugden. He had
94 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
twice set out his view in letters to the House, pub-
lished on February 2nd and May 9th, in which he
urged that the proper course was to allow him to take
the oaths as he desired, and leave his right to do so to
be tried at law, in an action against him by an informer
for the penalties for sitting and voting without taking
the oaths. He claimed to be within the letter of the
law in taking the new oath, for the Act of Union provided
that '' till Parliament shall otherwise provide every
member shall take the oaths required by law." For the
period between his election and the passing of the Belief
Act, no penalty was provided in respect of his non-com-
pliance with that requirement. Now, since the Belief
Act passed, Parliament had " otherwise provided " ; a
new oath was prescribed, and this he claimed to take.
In any case he was within the equity of the new Act.
Since it had passed, six Catholic peers had taken it
in the House of Lords, and one, Lord Surrey, the
Duke of Norfolk's eldest son, had been elected to
the House of Commons, and had taken the oath
under the Act. If he was to take the old oaths, as he
was the first, so he would be the last Catholic to do so.
The House heard him with attention and respect, and
he was directed to withdraw.
Some Parliamentary pedants, of whom Charles Wynn,
a high authority on procedure, was one, seem to have
thought that a mere technical difficulty of this kind
would prove an insuperable difficulty to O'Connell's
admission. Others hoped that a second election might
have a different issue, and that the £10 electors might
reject the chosen of the forty-shilling freeholders.
By 190 to 116 his claim was refused. He was called in,
nnd the Speaker asked if he would take the old oath.
He asked to see it. " There is one assertion in this
EMANCIPATION. 95
oath," said he, as he read it, '* which I do not know to
be true ; there is another assertion in it which I believe
not to be true. I cannot, therefore, take this oath.''
He was dismissed, and a new writ was ordered to issue
for Clare.
He returned to Ireland vowing vengeance. He
issued an address to the Clare electors, couched in
violent language. It was called sarcastically the
** Address of a hundred promises." Though, on Lord
Anglesey's advice, it was silent as to Kepeal, it pledged
him to Parliamentary Reform ; to demand the re-enfran-
chisement of the forty-shilling freeholders, the repeal
of the Subletting Act, and ** an equitable distribu-
tion of the revenues of the Established Church between
the poor on the one side and the most meritorious of the
Protestant clergy on the other," *' to cleanse the Augean
stable of the law," and to urge ** the abolition of the
accursed monopoly of the East India Company.'*
The Clare electors cared nothing for the East India
Company but a great deal for their champion, O'Con-
nell. When he went down to Clare from Dublin, the
people received him like a conqueror. He reached Ar-
magh late in the evening, but the town was immediately
illuminated. He pushed on to Limerick through the
night, and was compelled by fatigue to go to bed on bis
arrival in the morning. His enthusiastic admirers planted
a large tree before his windows and filled its branches
with musicians playing Irish airs. A triumphal car
awaited him at Ennis. He addressed numberless meet-
ings, and excited the new electorate as he bad excited the
old. The dissolved Catbolio Association was sum-
moned under the form of an aggregate meeting and
voted the sum of £6,000, which the Association had in
hand when it dissolved, towards the expenses of his eleo-
96 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
tion. There was no opposition and no contest, and, on
July 30th, he was returned unopposed.
As if this slight to the foremost Catholic and fore-
most Irishman in Ireland were not deep enough, the
Government put upon O'Conuell a hardship in his pro-
fession also. He had now been at the bar thirty-one
years ; he had been its greatest advocate for almost one
half of that time, and because he was a Catholic he still
wore a stuff gown. When Canning came in, his hopes
of more generous treatment rose. Later on he wrote to
Spring-Eice, protesting against the professional injustice
which the denial of this merited promotion did him,
and he was told that the matter would be made to turn
on professional considerations alone. Now, in 1829,
the Cabinet considered who should be made the new
Catholic King's Counsel. There were six in all,
Sheil, Woulfe, Perrin, O'Loghlen^ and two others, but
O'Connell was not among them. He had been the
advocate and the law officer of Queen Caroline, and
the King could neither forgive nor forget that in any
man. He had compelled His Majesty, in sanctioning
Emancipation, to do violence to his piety. At the cost
of keeping open the breach between Great Britain and
Ireland, the royal resentment was gratified.
At the beginning of the Session of 1830 O'Connell
came to London and took his seat. He was fifty-five
years of age, an age at which few men can adapt them-
selves to unfamiliar circumstances or learn new and dif-
ficult lessons. He had been rarely in England, and
was unfamiliar with the temper of English society.
He was intensely Irish, and the Irish were then little
known in England and less liked. A large party hated
him bitterly. He used to say that for the first two
years the Speaker deliberately avoided seeing him
EMANCIPATION, 97
when he wished to rise. Yet from the first moment
he had the ear of the House, and the Doneraile
discussion established his position as a formidable
gladiator of debate. He was abused and he was hooted,
but he was never despised, and he soon made himself
feared and admired. Of all the feats of his life, there
is none more remarkable than the ease with which, on
the verge of old age, he imposed himself upon the
attention of an audience so difficult to understand or to
please as the House of Commons. In this session he
spoke frequently, but without extravagance. His first
speech was made on the motion of Knatchbull to amend
the Government's Address to the Crown, by calling His
Majesty's attention to the state of the landed interest.
On May 28th, he moved for leave to bring in a Bill
for triennial Parliaments, a practically universal suf-
frage, and vote by ballot. It was refused by 819 to
13. The King died in June and Parliament was dis-
solved.
The new elections told heavily against the Govern-
ment. The counties in England went against them
by 3 to 1, the great towns by 9 to 1. O'Connell
was elected for Wnterford. The Irish elections turned
chiefly upon the questions of Tithe and of the Irish
Church, Repeal not being made a test, and the ma-
jority against ministers was heavy. Emboldened by
the revolutions of July on the Continent, during wbicb,
upon the election of a King of the Belgians, some dry
Belgian wags nominated and voted for him, O'Connell
raised the flag of Repeal and the cry spread fast. He
had founded a society called ** The Friends of Ireland of
all Religious Persuasions." Its objects were twenty* five
in number, but the principal was Repeal. ** The
society " was to *' consider with the deepest solicitude
7
98 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' GO N NELL.
the means of procuring such a universal combination
of Irishmen as may render the Repeal of the Union
irresistible, and thus give to Ireland the blessing of a
free and domestic legislature, connected with Britain by
the golden link of the Crown, but independent of all
ministerial or undue control."
Unlike the Act of 1825, the Act for the suppression
of the Catholic Association attempted no nice legal
distinctions between lawful and unlawful associations,
but empowered the Lord Lieutenant to suppress them all
at his discretion. On April 24th, the Duke of Northum-
berland had proclaimed the *' Friends of Ireland." O'Con-
nell presently summoned a new society, or rather the old
one under a new name, to be called the Anti-Union Asso-
ciation. At a ball at the Viceregal Lodge in October,
Hardinge, the Chief Secretary, accidentally saw its ad-
vertisement in a newspaper. The Lord Lieutenant was
absent, but Hardinge, like a bold soldier, though run-
ning to the very verge of legality, proclaimed it him-
self. The guests as they drove home from the ball in
the morning, found his proclamation wet upon the walls.
Next day O'Connell founded an " Association of Irish
Volunteers," which shared the same fate. He denounced
Hardinge, and received a challenge, which he declined.
This was the first the English heard of his scruple
about duelling. They failed to understand it. When
he went to London next month for the opening of Par-
liament, men turned their backs upon him at Brooks',
and no one would speak to him at his clubs. Infu-
riated, he took advantage of the Government pro-
posal to equalise the Irish and English stamp duties
by a letter advocating a run on the banks, and the
panic in Ireland which ensued was wild though short
lived.
EMANCIPATION. 99
' Suddenly the scene changed. Returning with weak-
ened forces after the General Election, the Wei*
lington Administration fell, and Lord Grey came in.
It was the standing maxim of the Whig managers
to " buy O'Connell at any price," and his hopes were
justly excited. He was a man whose income though
large had been swallowed up by still larger expenses ;
he was embarrassed by debt ; attendance in Parliament
meant the abandonment of his profession. His reputa-
tion entitled him to hope for ofiQce, or, at least, for a
judgeship. The votes of the Irish members had been
enough to turn the scale against Wellington and in
favour of Grey. If Catholic Emancipation was not to
be an insulting mockery. Catholics must no longer
be excluded from professional advancement and from
places in the Administration. Now was the time to see
if the Whigs were grateful to their Irish supporters,
or the English sincere in extending justice to the
Catholics.
The Marquis of Anglesey, whose previous Lord Liea-
tenancy had endeared him to the Irish, was to replace
the Duke of Northumberland in Ireland. Having
known O'Connell personally and even acted with
him politically, he sent for him in December, before
leaving London for Ireland, and an interview of two
hours took place between them at Uxbridgo House.
The Marquis announced that he did not intend to
disturb the old law-officers, Joy, the Attorney-Gene-
ral, and Dogherty, the Solicitor-General. O'Connell
replied that if Emancipation was not to be made a
practical thing in the administration of Ireland and
the distribution of patronage, he must agitate for
Repeal. Then, said the ^larquis, he must coerce the
agitation.
7 *
100 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CONN ELL.
There was worse to come. Sir Anthony Hart re-
tired from the Irish Lord Chancellorship and Plunket
succeeded him. This left a vacancy in the Common
Pleas, which O'Connell was eager to fill. Dogherty was
appointed. This was peculiarly galling to O'Connell,
for in the previous session he had denounced Dogherty
for his conduct of the Doneraile case, and accused him
of having kept hack depositions on the trial of the first
batch of prisoners, whose production on the trial of the
second and third had shown such discrepancy from the
sworn evidence as to lead to an acquittal. It was in this
debate that he branded the office of Chief Secretary
with the epithet *' the shave-beggar " of the Ministry ;
but, on the whole, in the controversy, Dogherty, by
his calm and lofty sarcasm, had come off very much
the best. Still, the Solicitor-Generalship might pro-
perly have been given to O'Connell, and at the
same time, by the promotion of Joy, the Attorney-
Generalship fell vacant also. Blackburne, a Tory,
was appointed to the latter ; Crampton, a Whig, to the
former.
O'Connell declared that there was to be no justice
for the Catholics, and hastened to Ireland. He was
received in triumph ; he advised that Lord Anglesey's
arrival should be contemptuously ignored. Lord An-
glesey determined to retaliate. A procession of trades
unions was to have been held on December27th. Half-
an-hour before the notice convening it was to have been
posted on every chapel door in Dublin, a proclamation
against it appeared. The workmen asked O'Connell
if they should obey, and by way of proving that he and
not the Lord Lieutenant ruled Ireland, he advised them
to show a colourable deference to the proclamation by
holding the meeting on the 28th. He began the Kepeal
EMANCIPATION. 101
struggle with the new year. He published a letter in
which he said : —
Ireland will achieve one more bloodless and stainless change. Since
I was born she has achieved two such glorious political revolutions.
The first was in 1782, when she conquered legislative independence ;
the second was in 1829, when she won for her victory freedom of
conscience. The third and best remains behind, the restoration of a
domestic and refoi*med legislature by the repeal of the Union. This
we will also achieve, if we persevere in a legal, constitutional, and
peaceable course. Let my advice be followed, and I will venture to
assert that the Union cannot last two years longer.
A few days afterwards he founded a ** General Asso-
ciation for the Prevention of Unlawful Meetings." It
met at the "Parliamentary Intelligence Office," a news-
paper-room in Stephen Street, which he had established
the year before. It was proclaimed. He proposed
that he himself should be constituted the Repeal Asso-
ciation, beyond the reach of legal dissolution, and should
receive subscriptions and be assisted by a club, which
should hold public breakfasts and public debates. Ac-
cordingly he constituted " A Body of Persons in the
habit of meeting weekly at a place called Home's
Hotel." It was dispersed. Then followed '* The Irish
Society for Legal and Legislative Relief," and it
perished. Another phoenix rose from its ashes, an
*' Anti-Union Association." In quick succession this
Protean organization became ** An Association of Irish
Volunteers for the Repeal of the Union," a society of
*' Subscribers to the Parliamentary Intelligence OflBce,'*
and, finally, a mere breakfast party at Hayes' Hotel.
As fast as 0*Connell created a new society. Lord An-
glesey cut it down with a new proclamation. At length
this farce, so humiliating to the more serious Irish, so
irritating to the Administration, was abruptly closed.
102 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CON NELL.
As Anglesey wrote to his wife, "things are now come
to that pass that the question is whether he or I shall
govern Ireland.'*
On January 13th, 1831, a proclamation was issued,
which forbade an association under any name. O^Con-
nell replied with a manifesto, threatening another run
on the banks. He assembled a breakfast party of 350,
and next day held a meeting of his committee of
thirty-one advisers in Dawson Street. It was dispersed
by two police magistrates, and on January 19th, at
ten in the morning, he was arrested in his own house.
An indictment of the usual cumbrous description
was preferred on the 24th. In fourteen counts he was
charged with offences against the Act of 1829 ; in
seventeen more with a conspiracy at Common Law.
He had made one slip in holding his breakfast in de-
fiance of the proclamation ; he now made another in the
conduct of his case. He demurred to the fourteen
counts. But a demurrer implied au admission of the
facts charged, and an issue only as to their legal effect.
He had debarred himself from a trial on the merits.
He asked and obtained leave to withdraw his demurrer,
and enter a plea of " not guilty." The trial was fixed
for the 17th of February, and a defence fund of £7,000
was collected. But before the trial came on, seeing that
it could have but one ending, he entered into a compro-
mise with the Government. To the amazement of the
public, the Attorney-General entered a ?folle jwosequi
on the conspiracy counts. O'Connell withdrew his plea
of " not guilty," and submitted to a verdict on those
which alleged an offence against the Statute, and the
case stood adjourned for judgment to the first day of
Easter term. He then wrote a letter intended to be
shown to the Chief Secretary, Stanley, in which he
EMANCIPATION. 103
offered to abandon Repeal if the Government would
abandon tbe prosecution. Stanley sternly refused.
Undoubtedly O^Connell was humiliated. He had been
defeated by the English Government, which he had so
often overcome. His matchless legal dexterity for once
had failed him. He denied in the House of Commons
that he had offered to withdraw the question of Repeal,
and gave out that he feared there would have been a
popular outbreak at his trial. But even his friends did
not believe it. Sheil said his heart had sunk at the
prospect of a gaol ; and " how," he asked, ** could a
man face a battle who could not encounter Newgate ?"
The supporters of the Government were jubilant, but they
had not long much cause for exultation. It was rumoured
that O'Connell was to be treated gently, because the
Government was bidding for his vote in London. Stanley
denied the rumour. " The Crown,'* he said, ** has pro-
cured a verdict against Mr. O'Connell, and it will un-
doubtedly call him up to receive judgment upon it.*' But
the event showed that the world knew better than the
Chief Secretary. On March 2nd the Reform Bill was in-
troduced ; on the 9th 0*Connell spoke brilliantly in its
support. The first day of term approached, but he could
not be spared from Westminster. The delivery of
judgment in his case was postponed till May. But
judgment never was pronounced at all. On April 22nd
Parliament was dissolved ; the Act of 1829 thoreupon
expired. The Govemraent gladly availed themselves of
the plea that, the Act against which he had offended
being gone, O'Connell could not now be punished for
his offence. He was a free man.
Until the close of the Reform contest, O'Connell,
who had now been returned for Kerry, spoke and voted
with the Whigs. But in spite of the most strenuous
104 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
efiforts in committee on the Irish Bill, he was unable
to recover for the Irish peasants any of the ground they
had lost in 1829. He pointed out that proportionately
to the wealth of each country, a £10 franchise in Ire-
land was as high as a £20 franchise would be in England.
He complained^that the registration was cumbrous, the
number of members inadequate, and that Ireland, which
had 8,000,000 inhabitants, and in 1829 had had nearly
300,000 voters, had now only 26,000, while the Eng-
lish electorate was to be raised from 200,000 to
350,000. Stanley sternly refused to enfranchise the
forty- shilling freeholders, and the House of Lords in-
serted a clause restoring the franchise to freemen in the
boroughs, who were invariably Protestants, and often
corrupt. The pressure, however, upon the Govern-
ment to do something to conciliate so useful an ally
and so formidable an opponent grew stronger. In August,
1831, Dr. Doyle, a highly esteemed and influential
Roman Catholic bishop, urged them to confer office upon
him. In Michaelmas term he received his patent of
precedence as a King's Counsel, and hoping to fetter
him by imposing upon him official responsibility, the
Government authorized Sir H. Parnell to sound him,
through Dr. Doyle, about taking office. If it were cer-
tain that he would accept the offer if made, no insuper-
able obstacle existed to their making it. It was a
tempting opportunity, but O'Connell felt obliged to
refuse. He required a promise of substantial change
in the Government's Irish policy. This Grey and
Stanley would not give. Their view was one which
Stanley afterwards expressed in the phrase ** Ireland
must be taught to fear before she could be taught to
love," and merely to conciliate a man whom they
hated, they would not abandon the principle. But as
EMANCIPATION. 1C6
yet circumstances had not forced them to avow or to
act upon this view. Though O'Connell could not take
office with the Whigs, he conceived that he had done
them good service, for which he was entitled to their
gratitude, and when the last unreformed Parliament was
•dissolved in December 1832, he hoped that a new day
was dawning for Ireland. He was doomed to a hitter
^disappointment.
106 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
CHAPTER VI.
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT.
1833-1835.
Tithe War — O'Oonnell renews his agitation against Tithe and for
Repeal— The Reform Bill— "Who is the traitor ?"— Coercion Bill
of 1833 — O'Connell's Repeal motion — Intrigue with Littleton —
Fall of the Whigs — Peel's Administration.
Scarcely had the Irish obtained Emancipation, when
they fell upon evil days again. From the year 1830, a
cloud of misery and crime gathered over Ireland.
Practically valueless, and economically injurious, the
forty-shilling freeholders, who had lost their votes, now
lost their holdings, and were freely evicted. Prices were
low ; employment was ill-paid and difficult to obtain ; in
the South wages were 5s. a week, and even less, and
even at that rate work was scarce. In the autumn of
1830 the potato crop failed ; in the winter famine made
its appearance in the South and West, and unfortunately
there was no poor law, as there was in England, to
relieve the distress. Hundreds and thousands were
literally reduced to beggary. The people suffered from
two imposts peculiarly offensive to Irish Catholic feel-
ing. They were liable to Church tithes for the support
of a clergy whose ministrations it was schism to enjoy,
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT. 107
and to Church cess for the erection and repair of build-
ings, where heretical ceremonies were performed which
they believed could lead only to perdition. Gross abuses
and gross hardships were but too often connected with
these taxes. The burden of the tithes had been thrown
deliberately upon the Roman Catholics. The tithe was
in many cases let for a fixed sum to tithe farmers, who
collected it with little regard to anything but their
own profit ; and being often due in almost incredibly
minute sums, it was, even when collected from cot-
tiers by the ministers of religion themselves, a tax
hateful for its past injustice and its present hard-
ship. The disproportion between the numbers of
the Protestant parishioners and of the Protestant
parishes was glaring. There were no less than 151 in-
cumbents of parishes who had not a single parishioner.
Between the incomes of the bishops and those of the
clergy of the Established Church the inequality was
no less preposterous. While there were many poor
incumbents, the number of bishoprics was indefensibly
great, and their incomes exorbitantly high. The
Church cess was levied by a Protestant vestry upon a
Catholic peasantry for the repair of Protestant churches ;
instances were known in which costly churches were
erected for non-existent congregations, and others, in
which funds raised to build churches had been spent
upon dwelling-houses for Protestants. The spirit of
the Irish had been awakened during the struggle for
Emancipation, and their hopes raised by its issae.
Tliey now resolved in their distress to submit to these
burdens no longer, and the Tithe War began.
The agitation, which O'Connell carried on, quick-
ened this spirit. The Executive forbade it; but sup-
pressed though it was by authority, it did not remain
108 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
barren of results. Repeal was the object at which he
ultimately aimed, but he directed his efforts towards
ends far more attainable than Repeal. On the 7th
January 1830 he had published a manifesto to the
people of Ireland, in which he set forth his pro-
gramme. This included the repeal of the Sub-letting
Act and of the Vestry Act, an elaborate plan for the
reform of grand juries, various proposals for the reform
of legal procedure, as to which he called himself
** a thorough Benthamite," reform of corporations and
radical parliamentary reform, and finally the abolition
of Tithes and of Church cess. On July 14th 1832
he wrote a letter to the National Political Union, in
which he formulated his plan for dealing with tithe. It
was to be ultimately extinguished, but compensation
was to be given to existing interests in possession; and
he followed this proposal with another more sweeping,
to disendow the Church of Ireland beyond such sums as
were required for its actual ministry and congregations,
and to devote the funds so liberated to charity and to
the provision of parish houses and glebes for the
parochial Catholic clergy and Presbyterian ministers.
A few months later, as the conflict became more bitter,
he wrote again to the same body a long letter, which he
concluded by solemnly declaring, " First, I am deter-
mined never again voluntarily to pay tithes ; second, I
am determined never again voluntarily to pay vestry
cess; third, I am determioed never to buy one single
article sold for tithes or vestry cess."
The Irish profited by his teaching. The refusal to
pay tithe or cess was general. As early as the end
of 1831 the arrears of tithe were very large, and the
clergy found themselves powerless to get them in. But
tithes were the chief support of hundreds of the clergy,
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT, 109
and by hundreds they were reduced to destitution.
Their lamentable condition attracted, as that of the
tithe-payers did not, the attention of Parliament. Com-
mittees of both Houses sat to examine the question.
O'Connell indignantly pointed out that not a single
Catholic sat on either. "It seems," said he, *' Roman
Catholics have nothing to do with tithe but to pay it."
Committees so composed contented themselves with a
proposal for collecting the tithes, not for abolishing
them, and, in spite of O^Connell's opposition, a measure
was carried, by which the Government advanced £60,000
fur the immediate relief of the clergy, and itself under-
took the collection of the tithe. But the efforts of the
Government were as fruitless as those of rectors or
tithe- farmers. After many struggles and some blood-
shed, they collected £12,000 of tithes in arrear; the
effort cost £14,000. When the people refused to pay,
the Government proceeded to distrain. The sheriff,
assisted by a military force, seized a cottier's cow*
Escorted by a troop of horse, the cow was solemnly
driven across country to market. Its appearance was
the signal for a universal cessation of business. As if
it had been plague-smitten, everyone held aloof; not a
buyer could be found, and nothing remained to be done
but for the sheriff of the county to drive the cow away
again, escorted by a troop of His Majesty's dragoons.
The vindication of justice was degenerating into a farce.
Unhappily it too often terminated in a tragedy.
Never had crime and disorder been more rife than in
the winter of 1832. Multitudes of secret societies
sprang up, cattle were mutilated, tithe-proctors and
process-servers were murdered. There were in 1832
9,000 crimes connected with political disturbances, and
of these 200 were homicides. The record of certain
110 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
counties was peculiarly black. In] Kilkenny, during
the twelve months, 34 houses were burnt, 519 bur-
glaries were committed, and the murders and attempts
to murder were 32. Queen^s County was even worse.
The burglaries were 626, the homicides 60. Evidence
was not to be obtained, and juries would not con-
vict. It became plain that a more stringent law was
needed.
The Government possessed an overwhelming majo-
rity in the first reformed Parliament. The necessity of
concentrating every effort upon the return of Eeform
candidates had induced O'Connell to sink the question
of Kepeal at the General Election in the summer of
1831. But Keform once carried, he insisted upon the
general imposition of a Kepeal pledge at the General
Election in the winter of 1832, and published a series
of thirty letters, instructing the constituencies in the
clearest detail, what persons were entitled to vote, and
how votes should be claimed. He had himself been
returned for Kerry without a contest, and would have
preferred to sit for his native county, but it became
clear that no one but he could defeat the Tories in
Dublin, and for Dublin he was constrained to stand. He
was elected, and his followers won almost all along the
line. He nominated about half the candidates who
were returned. Three of his sons and two of his sons-
in-law formed his *' household brigade." Kepealers
oame in for the cities and boroughs of Dublin, Cork,
Waterford, Wexford, Clonmel, Ennis, Tralee, Kilkenny,
Athlone, Eoscommon, and Galway ; and for the coun-
ties of Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, Mayo, Tip-
perary, Kilkenny, Kerry, Wexford, Westmeath, King's
County, Galway, Sligo, Wicklow, and Meath. Of 105
Irish members, but 23 were Tories; of 82 Liberal
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT. Ill
members, 45 were pledged Repealers. The support of
52 Irish members had carried the Whig Reform Bill
against a majority of the members from England and
Scotland ; the Whigs had now a majority which would
enable them to pass anything, and the Irish looked for
their reward.
The first Irish measure which the Ministry brought
forward was a Coercion Act, more severe than any of
its predecessors since the Act of Union. The fiery
Stanley^s influence with Lord Grey had prevailed over
the conciliatory advice of Melbourne, Althorp, and
Grant. Seeing what was coming, O'Connell began the
battle early, and fought the Government policy with
courage, tenacity, brilliance, and vituperation almost
unparallelled. He initiated a four nights debate upon
the Address on February 5th, in a speech in which he
denounced the Government as " bloody and brutal '' with
a reiteration that compelled the Speaker to expostulate
with him, and, with more damaging effect, declared that
the policy of the Executive had made the Catholic Relief
Act a dead letter. Since it passed, four years had gone
by. There was still not a Catholic judge upon the
bench ; there was but one Catholic high sheriff and a
handful of Catholic magistrates. Of 84 stipendiary
magistrates, all nominated by Lord Anglesey except 8,
82 sub-inspectors of police, and 5 inspectors-general of
police, for the most part appointed since the Whigs
came in, not one was a Catholic, and now, he said,
came a Royal Speech which was to Ireland a " de-
claration of civil war," The GovemmeDt, however,
carried the Address by a huge majority.
On the 11th of February 0*ConnelI renewed the
conflict by a speech on the Report of the Address,
in which he pronounced enthusiastically for Repeal, and
112 LIFE OF DANIEL a CORNELL,
on February 18th, by another on the Estimates, de-
nouncing coercion, and declaring that ** this projected
measure of His Majesty's Government is more condu-
cive to a Kepeal of the Union than all my agitation.**
On the 27th, Althorp rose to move the first reading
of the Bill for the Suppression of Disturbances in Ire-
land. To him it was, indeed, an uncongenial task.
He plodded drearily through pages bristling with the
statistics of crime and the records of misery and discon-
tent, and produced even on his supporters so adverse an
impression, that the Coercion Bill was all but still-born.
Graham, who saw how ill matters were going, despatched
Le Marchant to Earl Grey for reinforcements, xilthorp's
box of papers was taken to Stanley, and he shut him-
self up in a room upstairs. In two hours he was master
of the case; and at midnight he rose to deliver almost
the only speech in the annals of the House of Com-
mons that has won votes as well as changed opinions.
He marshalled the facts of Irish crime with brilliant
effect; he directed upon O'Connell an onslaught so
fiery and overwhelming that O'Connell '^ looked like a
convicted felon." He declared, without mincing matters,
that for her crimes, and their inevitable punishment,
Ireland had to thank the agitation of O'Oonnell. He
charged him with writing, on February lOfch, to the
Society of Volunteers, to tell them, contrary to the
then usage of secrecy on such matters, that the member
for Armagh and the two members for Limerick had
voted against Ireland on the Address, and begging their
constituents not to forget it. This O^Connell did not
seek to deny. He quoted from reports of a speech of
O'Connell's delivered at a Trades Union banquet, in
which he was said to have called the House of
Commons a body of *' six hundred and fifty-eight
THE BEFOBMED PABLIAMENT, 113
scoundrels "; and although O'Connell followed with
a short explanation and denial of the words, his
speech at the conclusion of the debate made no im-
pression. But O'Connell was not a man to be long
or easily put down. It was his policy to make him-
self, in the opinion of the whole House, what Cobbett
had called him, " the member for Ireland." His
imperturbable assurance, not less than his abilities
and the air of authority, with which ho expressed his
opinion on all Irish matters, gradually gave him an
influence on the new members most prejudicial to the
Government. He spared no elBfort to improve his posi-
tion, being always ready to afford information to other
members, and most bland and courteous in his intercourse
with them. In committee Stanley found him an assiduous
and formidable opponent. But the Irish were too few
in number ; only eighty-four members voted against the
second reading. The Bill passed by large majorities,
and the Government was armed with powers to proclaim
districts, to suppress associations, to confine people to
their houses after dark, to search for arms, to proclaim
martial law, to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and
to try prisoners by court-martial. O'Connell's Irish
Society of Volunteers did not wait to be suppressed ;
it transferred its powers to its author and dissolved.
The Whigs, however, were not insincere in their
desire to alleviate the sufferings of the Irish. They
introduced a Church Temporalities Bill, to abolish
Church cess and substitute for it a tax on the incomes
of the clergy, to suppress nearly half of the bishoprics
and a crowd of livings, and to devote to non-ecclosias-
tical purposes the sum of £3,000,000 so liberated.
O'Connell approved the principle of this appropriation ;
but the Tories, who could not defend the sinecure bene-
8
114 LIFJ^ OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
fices and profusion of bishoprics, opposed the appropria-
tion. To conciliate them it was abandoned, and the
Bill passed ; but thus reduced to the abolition of the cess
and the internal reform of the Church, it attracted little
gratitude from the Eoman Catholics. In the recess
ministerial changes took place. Stanley went to the
Colonial Office, and was succeeded by Littleton. Lord
Anglesey retired, and the Marquis of Wellesley became
Lord Lieutenant. Efforts were made to conciliate
O'Connell. The Protestant party was appalled to see
a Koman Catholic agitator positively dining with the
Chief Secretary. They were spared the further pain of
seeing him in office. O'Connell writes to a friend :
*^ The Ministry have made and are making more direct
oifers to me . . . but all this does not make me one
whit the less immovable. If I went into office I
should be their servant — that is, their slave ; by stay-
ing out of office, I am^ to a considerable extent, their
master.'*
For upwards of three years he had now been advo-
cating and impressing upon the Irish by speeches,
letters, and organization, the necessity of a union of all
classes and creeds in Ireland in a determined agitation
for Repeal. He had broached the subject in his first
Clare election address. He had deeply stirred the South
of Ireland by letters and speeches in the autumn of
1830, and although his mind was not made up either as
to the exact value of Eepeal or the precise form it should
take, he was characteristically sanguine of its not dis-
tant success. He wrote on December 3rd 1830, to his
constant correspondent, Dr. MacHale, Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Tuam :
The moral and political revolution is plainly on its march. ... I
am convinced as I am of to-morrow's smi that within the space of
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT, 115
probably less than two years the monopolies of corporations and the
still more gigantic oppressions of the Established Church will have
passed away for ever. . . There must be a law to take off the
Church burden. An Irish Parliament alone can do that. There
must be an end to absenteeism. An Irish Parliament alone can do
that.
When he endeavoured during his prosecution in 1831
to induce Stanley to forego a trial by the offer of an
abandonment of Eepeal, he seems to have thought that
an Irish Parliament was only machinery, a means to an
end, and that if an English Parliament would endeavour to
remedy Irish grievances equally^effectually, Repeal became
needless. In 1833, too, he said in the House of Com-
mons: ^* The only reason I have for being a Repealer is
the injustice of the present Government towards my
country. ... If I thought the machinery of the present
Government would work well, there never lived a man
more ready to facilitate its movements than I am.**
During the election of 1831 he allowed the question to
rest, but as soon as it was over he began his agitation
afresh. In October he founded his National Political
Union, which met twice a week to discuss Repeal, and in
1832 he endeavoured to effect the union of it with a rival
body, the Trades Political Union, ** to procure that mea-
sure without which, it is my solemn, conscientious, and
unalterable opinion, Ireland cannot prosper, the Repeal of
the Union." He formulated a plan for an independent
legislature in opposition to the subordinate assembly of
Sharman Crawford's Federal scheme. At Bath the
newspapers reported him, to the dismay of the Irish, to
have declared himself favourable to the '* union " with
Great Britain. This he denied, and said that he had
only declared in favour of the ** connection," and had
demanded *' a Parliament to do our private business, leav-
8 ♦
116 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
ing the national business to a national assembly." He
further elaborated his plan, proposing, first, repeal of the
Act of Union, and, next, the creation of two legislatures,
each consisting of a House of Lords and a House of
Commons, each legislature to meet in October, and to
discuss private Bills, and the aflPairs of commerce, agri-
culture, and manufactures of Great Britain and of Ire-
land respectively, while in February a National Parlia-
ment was to meet for affairs of peace or war and foreign
policy. By the following spring the Coercion Bill had
further developed his views. He was anxious to have
Moore come forward for an Irish constituency. Moore
would neither stand as a Kepealer, nor accept the position
of a '* joint " in O'Connell's tail. He told O'Connell that
Separation must follow Repeal, as certainly as night
day, and therefore he could not advocate Repeal.
O'Connell said to him, **I am now convinced that
Repeal won't do, and that it must be Separation." He
was not far from the position of the peasants, who,
during the agitation of 1830, were constantly asking
O'Neill Daunt, " When do you think. Sir, the Coun-
sellor will call us out ?"
One thing, however, O'Connell saw quite clearly, that
it was useless, with the Irish agitation still only in em-
bryo, to ask the House of Commons to entertain any
proposal for Repeal, and yet in 1834 he brought the
question forward in Parliament. From the Union until
1838 the Irish members had been Whigs or Tories as
the case might be, but there had been no separate Irish
party. But with the return of a large Repeal contingent to
the first reformed parliament, there came into existence
under O^Connell's leadership that third party which
has held the balance in so many parliaments, and upset
so many ministries since then. In the brief interval
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT. 117
between the last election and the opening of Parliament
in 1833, O'Connell had not time, although he held a
meeting of his party in Dublin, to bring them into
thorough discipline. But he was disposed to make an
unsparing use of his strength to keep his followers in
subjection. Fergus O'Connor, member for Cork, a
scatter-brained squireen, was unwilling to submit.
During 1833 he pressed vehemently for the immediate
discussion of Repeal. O'Connell resisted while he could,
and twice at the beginning of 1834 obtained majorities
in the meetings of the Repeal party in favour of its
postponement. But O'Connor vowed that if their leader
would not bring the question forward, he would do so
himself ; and to avoid worse consequences O'Connell,
sorely against his will, decided to introduce the ques-
tion. ** I felt,'' said he to Daunt, with a metaphor pro-
bably more forcible in those days than in these, ** like
a man who was going to plunge into a cold bath ; but I
was obliged to take the plunge."
One matter of discipline there was, in which he could
interfere. Hill, M.P. for Hull, had, in a speech to
his constituents during the previous autumn, said that
some of the Irish members, who violently denounced
the Coercion Bill iu public, had in private implored
Ministers not to drop it. If this were so, OConneH's
authority with his party was gone. He must either
vindicate it by disproving the charge or purge his forces
by unmasking the traitor. On February 6th 1834, the
second night of the Session, he questioned Lord
Althorp in the House as to the statement. Althorp
said no such communication had been made to
Ministers, but he believed that in private conversation
Irish members had approved the Bill, who in debate had
assailed it. Amid violent confusion, O'Connell rose.
118 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
followed by the other Irish members, one by one, each
asking "Is it I?" Althorp said **no^' to each. The
Speaker tried to pour oil on the waters, but O'Connell
would not have peace, and still further troubled them.
At last Sheil rose to ask if he was one of those referred
to. Althorp said that he was one. Sheil, ^* speaking
in the presence of God," passionately denied it. O'Con-
nell thereupon ostentatiously withdrew and apologised
for every harsh expression he had applied to Hill.
There followed a long discussion upon the nice point
of honour, which of the two, Althorp or Sheil, was to
be considered the aggrieved party, who could send a
challenge, and which of the two should accordingly be
first required to promise to send none. The Speaker
called on Sheil to undertake that the matter should go
no farther. Sheil sate dumb. The Speaker turned to
Althorp. Althorp said he would not follow it up out-
side. The Speaker was disposed to be content witb
this ; but O'Connell was more astute, and pointed out
that Althorp had said he would not send a challenge,
but had not said he would not accept on^. To the
Speaker's demand for a full undertaking Althorp gave a
refusal, and, on Burdett's motion, Sheil and Althorp
were marched out of the House in the custody of the
Serjeant-at-Arms.
This was a disagreeable incident for the Ministry ;
another was to come. On February 13th, O'Connell
rose to call attention to the extraordinary nocturnal
habits of Baron Smith of the Irish Court of Exchequer,
who loved to come to Court at the hour when most
Courts rise, and to try prisoners till the small hours of
the morning. He had given notice of a motion in
favour of the judge's removal. The Ministry had
decided to oppose it. Suddenly he changed his
THE BEFOEMED PARLIAMENT, 119
motion to one only for a select committee. Althorp
and Littleton^ taken by surprise, assented. It was
carried by 167 to 74. But on reflection they saw
the ineptitude of the proceeding. A committee was
useless. The House must impeach the Baron or
address the Crown for his removal, or let him alone.
The last was the onlv feasible course. A week later,
on the 21st, Knatchbull, a Tory member, relieved them
from their difficulty by carrying a motion to rescind
the motion to which Althorp had assented.
After these two blows O'Connell tried the strength of
the Repeal party. The King^s Speech had taken notice
of the Repeal agitation. It said of the Act of Union,
** this bond of our national strength and safety I have
already declared ray fixed and unalterable resolution,
under the blessing of Divine Providence, to maintain
inviolate by all the means in my power.'^ The Address
contained words which re-echoed this resolution;
O'Connell had moved their omission, and was defeated
by 189 to 23. The prospect was dark indeed. He
gave notice of a motion for a committee to inquire into
the working of the Act of Union. ** He was one of the
most sensitive and nervous men that ever lived,** says
his son. ** Previous to his motion he was very unhappy
and spent several sleepless nights, whioh was by no
means unusual with him when any matter of importance
impended.'* His motion came on about 5 p.m. on
Tuesday, April 22nd. He spoke for nearly seven hours.
Beginning with a long historical retrospect, during
which he read copious extracts from Morrisson's History
of Ireland, ho proceeded to argue that the Irish Parlia-
ment had no power to extinguish itself or to sell its
birthright, and therefore that the Act of Union was not
binding in law. It was not binding in morality, having
120 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
been procured by corrupt means. He even declared
that for the purpose of making up a case for union the
English Government had connived at the plots of the
United Irishmen and deliberately fostered the rebellion
of 1798. He argued that the terms of the bargain were
unfair to Ireland. The English House of Lords had
usurped an appellate jurisdiction so inconvenient, that
this grievance of itself was sufficient to justify the
demand for Repeal. Ireland had been loaded with an
unfair proportion of the Imperial indebtedness. The
taxation for interest on the debt and annual expenditure,
to which her resources made her justly liable, was l-17th
of the whole. She had been charged with 2-17ths ;
and, as it was impossible for her to pay so much, it had
been found necessary to amalgamate the Irish with the
English exchequer. Proportionately to her population
she ought to have 202 members, and on any calculation
110; she had 105. Since the Union, Ireland had de-
cayed. From 1782 to 1800 her consumption of tea and
tobacco had increased twice as fast as that of England,
of coflPee and wine four times as fast. But since 1800
absenteeism had become almost universal, and Ireland
had fallen into poverty. In Great Britain ^£47,000,000
of taxation had been repealed ; in Ireland £1,500,000.
Taxes in England had risen 20 per cent. ; in Ireland 80
per cent. The population of England had increased
prodigiously in thirty-four years; in Ireland it had
diminished. In that period there had been sixty select
committees and one hundred and fourteen commissions
on Irish aflPairs, and yet for all this inquiry the English
had been so little able to govern Ireland that in twenty of
the thirty-four years the Constitution was suspended.
His case was backed up with a huge parade of quota-
tions from various politicians by way of testimony, like
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT, 121
proofs in a lawyer's brief, and at the end of his speech
the exhausted House adjourned.
Spring-Rice was deputed to answer him, and was no
less prolix and even more statistical. The Government
met the motion with a proposal for an address to the
'Crown, pledging the House to maintain the Union and
to remove all just causes of complaint in the future.
The question was debated for nine nights, and O'Connell
was beaten on a division by 523 to 38. In the minority
•but one English member voted ; in the majority 57,
more than half, of the Irish members were counted.
The question of Repeal was at rest in Parliament for
•upwards of a generation.
The Whigs, however, were not unmindful of their
ipromises to the Irish. Littleton brought in, much to
the disgust of Stanley, a Tithe Bill, which commuted
the tithe for a land tax. It was introduced on the
20th February, and on the 2nd May the Bill came
on for second reading. But the Ministry was in a
moribund state. Althorp and Littleton were for mode-
rate reform, Grey and Stanley for ruling with a high
hand ; Brougham was meddlesome and treacherous,
Graham vacillating and uncertain. In May came a
crisis. Ward brought on his resolution in favour
•of the appropriation of surplus Irish Church revenues
to secular objects. The feeling of a majority of the
•Cabinet was in its favour, and the (Jovernment proposed
to meet it with a pledge for an inquiry into the Irish
Church. Upon this Stanley resigned, and Graham, the
Duke of Richmond, and the Earl of Ripon followed
him. Thus weakened, the Government was anxious to
secure the support of the Irish members for their Tithe
Bill, which was obnoxious to the Tories. But the
•Coercion Act of the previous year had rendered the
122 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CONN ELL.
Eepealers implacable, and to add to their difficulties
the Government were now met by the necessity of
renewing some part of it, if not the whole. To the
curfew clauses and the power of proclaiming districts,
O'Connell was more or less reconciled, for the state
of Ireland was still indisputably disturbed ; but to the
suppression of meetings he was inexorably opposed^
Littleton knew that that provision and his Tithe Bill
could not both pass. Hitherto Lord Wellesley had
written officially to the Government pressing for a
renewal of the whole Act except the court-martial
clause. On June 19th Brougham sent for Littleton,
and proposed to him to ask Lord Wellesley to write to-
Earl Grey advising that the public meetings clause
should be dropped. Littleton did so, pointing out how
essential to the Ministry it was to have O'Connell's
support, and that if the Tithe Bill passed the clauses
against mere agitation would not be required. Lord
Wellesley wrote on June 23rd to Lord Grey a private
letter in the sense Littleton desired. Littleton also saw
Melbourne and Althorp. They were both of his opinion ;.
the first characteristicallysaiditwouldnot do to exasperate
Grey ; the second said that sooner than assent to the
clause he would resign. Convinced now that the clause
would not be introduced, Littleton proposed to Althorp
to send for O'Connell, hint that this was so, and beg
him not to embarrass the Government. O'Connell was
at that time beginning a new Irish agitation against
the Coercion Bill. There was a vacancy at Wex-
ford, and against the Whig candidate he had sent a
Eepealer. Althorp approved of the project, but urged
reticence and caution. Littleton accordingly sent for
O'Connell, who came to the Irish Office, and was told
under the seal of secrecy that the Coercion Bill would
THE EEFOBMED FAELIAMENT, 123
be a short and limited one, aimed only at agrarian
crime, and that he would do well not to agitate for the
present. O^Connell accordingly withdrew his Repealer
at Wexford, and declined to support a local Repeal
candidate. On June 29th there was a Cabinet meeting,
and Grey, though he read Lord Wellesley's letter of the
23rd to his colleagues, carried his point that the whole
Act should be renewed ; but, in introducing the Bill in
the House of Lords on July 1st, he suppressed the fact
that Wellesley had written to advise the abandonment
of the public meetings clause. Rumours had got aboat^
no doubt due to hints dropped by O'Connell, that the
Government was carrying on some negotiations with
the Irish members. These were referred to during the
debate, and Grey denied them. O'Connell now deter-
mined upon revenge. He thought that he had been
deceived and trifled with, and he saw how Littleton
had laid himself open defenceless to attack. He
argued that the deceit practised upon him absolved
him from his promise to hold the communication a
secret, and on the 3rd he rose and in terms charged
the Chief Secretary with ** tricking ** him in order to
obtain the withdrawal of the Repeal candidate at Wex-
ford. Littleton could not deny the substance of the
conversation, which O'Connell revealed to the asto-
nished House, though he denied the charge as regards
the Wexford election. The angry combatants bandied
across the table point-blank contradictious on their
honour as gentlemen. Littleton was reduced to com-
phiining that O'Connell had violated a sacred confidence.
This complaint was not ill-founded, and many of
O'Conneirs friends and colleagues, including Hume,
Warburton, OTerrall, 0*Dwyer, and Orattan, re-
proached him with breach of faith. But the mischief
124 LIFE OF DANIEL O'COJffNELL.
was done. Littleton tendered his resignation, which
was refused. Grey saw that it was useless to ask the
House of Commons to give power to prohibit meetings,
when once it knew that the Lord Lieutenant himself did
not desire to possess it, and, finding the dissensions of
his Cabinet now public property, himself resigned.
O'Connell and Ireland had brought to the ground the
great Keform Minister less than two years after the
passing of his great Keform Act.
Melbourne succeeded Grey, and Littleton proceeded
with his Tithe Bill. Upon the motion to go into
Committee on July 20th, O'Connell pressed for delay
until the Church Commission, the Commission which
he had called a *' wet blanket" on the tithe agitation^ had
reported. The motion to go into Committee was carried
by 154 to 14. Next night, undeterred, he brought in
an amendment to abandon the arrears of tithe and to
bring the scheme, which Littleton had eventually pro-
vided for, into immediate operation. The relief to the
payers of tithe was very great, and the amendment
passed by a large majority. But no Bill would satisfy
the Lords ; they threw it out by 189 to 122, and de-
ferred the settlement of the question for several years.
The Melbourne Ministry did not last long. The
King dismissed his Ministers, and Hudson was sent
post-haste to Peel at Rome. O'Connell, who, upon the
rejection of the Tithe Bill, had begun a fresh agitation
with a series of letters to Lord Duncannon from Darry-
nane, savagely exulting over Grey's fall, struck the first
note of opposition to the new Government by post-
poning the question of Repeal and founding the Anti-
Tory Association. Peel dissolved Parliament, and
O'Connell exerted every nerve to defeat the Tories in
Ireland. The Tories almost defeated him. He himself
THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT, 125
barely saved his seat at Dublin. His majority of 1,549
dropped to 217, and his return was immediately peti-
tioned against. However, his three sons and a nephew
obtained seats, and, although the Repeal party was less
strong than in 1882, Peel, who on the English elections
had a substantial majority, was in a minority of twenty
upon the Irish elections. The Whigs began the Session
by carrying Abercromby, their candidate for the
Speakership. Meetings were held on March 12th and
23rd at Lord Lichfield's house in St. James's Square,
the result of which was to secure them the co-operation
of O'Connell in turning out Peel. Lord Morpeth
moved an amendment to the Address condemning the
dissolution, and O'Connell took the opportunity of
indicating the measures in favour of which he was con-
tent to postpone Repeal, namely, the amendment of the
Irish Reform Act, the appropriation of the Irish Church
surplus, and the reform of the Irish Corporations. Peel
introduced a Tithe Bill but little different from that
which the Whigs had introduced the year before. Rus-
sell moved an amendment in favour of devoting the
Irish Church surplus to education, and carried it, with
O'Connell's assistance, by a majority of thirty-three.
Peel resigned on April 5th, and Lord Melbourne wah
called upon to form an administration.
126 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
CHAPTER VII.
WHIG ALLIANCE.
1835-1840.
Disappointed of OflBce — Tour in Scotland — The Carlow Election
Scandal — Abandonment of Repeal — The Irish Poor Law Bill —
Accession of the Queen and O'Connell's loss of popularity in
Ireland — Reprimanded by the Speaker — The Precursor Society.
O'Connell's fond hopes from his alliance with the
Whigs were doomed to disappointment. He had
grounds for believing that he was entitled to office in
the Whig Administration, and, Kepeal being now laid
on one side, office would have been peculiarly grateful to
him. Eumours were afloat that he was to be Attorney-
General for Ireland, which the new Lord-Lieutenant, Lord
Mulgrave, afterwards Lord Normanby, encouraged him
to believe. He gave them credit, and, thinking that a
new era was coming for Irish officialism, was on the
look-out for a large house in Dublin in which to exer-
cise a lavish official hospitality. The rumours reached
the King, who had little more love for O'Connell
than his brother and predecessor had had. His Majesty
so far departed from constitutional usage as to write to
Lord Melbourne that such an appointment must not be
WHIG ALLIANCE. 127
made. Melbourne replied with spirit that it was not
for the King to dictate in the matter, but that in fact he
did not propose to include O'Connell in his Administra-
tion. The Whigs, indeed, saw the dangers of the posi-
tion. Some alliance with O'Connell was indispensable
to their existence : too close a partnership might be
fatal to it. Below the gangway he could, though not
without hazard, render them important service ; on the
Treasury bench he could only scare away their sup-
porters. It became necessary to communicate to
O'Connell that nothing could be done for him, and
Ellice, the dexterous manager of the party, with whom
O'Connell had been intimately associated in found-
ing the Keform Club the year before, was chosen for
the purpose. The announcement was a blow to him,
perhaps less personally than patriotically. For himself
office might have been perilous : his tribute for 1833
had amounted to £13,900 ; for 1834 to not much less.
Office would have risked this. As their Attorney-
General he would have been the servant of the Govern-
ment. Popularity was dear to him, and the Irish were
little used to make an idol of an attorney-general. But
he thought this, nevertheless, a serious blow to Ireland,
for his appointment would have been a singular mark of
conciliation, and conciliation was sorely needed.
He bore his rejection magnanimously, and took his
seat below the gangway. During the next five years
he rendered the Whigs a steady and invaluable support.
His action and advocacy in the House of Commons
during this period belongs, indeed, rather to the
history of Lord Melbourne's administration than to
his own personal career. Upon Irish questions he was
practically a consultative member of the Cabinet, and
Irish patronage was almost at his disposal ; but he was
128 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
without responsibility, and was not called upon to
originate a policy.
It was not, however, long before he found himself
engaged in the most active hostilities. In his exaspe-
ration with the House of Lords he applied the expres-
sion " bloated buffoon " to Lord Alvanley. Alvanley
sent Dawson Damer with a challenge, which was refused,
and Damer published the correspondence. It was also
laid by Alvanley before the managers of Brooks' on May 2,
with a requisition signed by twenty-three members calling
for a general meeting of the Club to consider 'Connellys
conduct in the matter, but the managers decided that
they could not ** take cognizance of differences of a
private nature between members of the Club." Morgan
O'Connell thereupon offered a vicarious satisfaction, and
after two shots had been fired, Alvanley was appeased.
Disraeli now thought that he too might burn some
powder. He had sought O'Connell's recommendation
at the High Wycombe election in 1832, and had now
attacked him fiercely at the Taunton election in 1835.
O'Connell replied with still greater ferocity, in a speech
before the Dublin Franchise Association, and called him
^* a miscreant,'' "a liar," "a disgrace to his species,"
and "heir-at-law of the blasphemous thief who died
upon the cross." Disraeli wrote to Morgan O'Connell
on May 5th, and challenged him to fight for his father,
but the challenge was declined.
The recess was a period of greater excitement for
O'Connell than the Session had been. The Govern-
ment was testifying its loyal intentions to Ireland.
Morpeth and Drummond, as Chief Secretary and
Under-Secretary, were carrying on the administration
with an impartiality and diligence hitherto unknown.
A Tithe Bill had been introduced, but the House of
WHIG ALLIANCE. 129
Lords, resisted it, and the Bill was dropped. The
Municipal Corporation Bill shared the same fate.
O'Connell announced himself as the indulgent patron
of the Ministry. In a manifesto to the Irish people
he said : —
I now come before the people of Ireland to avow myself the devoted
supporter of the administration. If I see the Ministry persevere for
one year in their determination to do justice to Ireland I shall give
them another trial. If the Ministry deceive us it will demonstrate
that Repeal is our only resource.
As their powerful ally he undertook a crusade
against the Tory majority in the House of Lords. On
the rising of Parliament he went down to the North.
He visited Manchester, passed through the streets in
procession, and spoke in Stevenson Square. He went
to Newcastle, and proceeded into Scotland. Every-
where he was received with curiosity, admiration, and
enthusiasm. He addressed crowded meetings at Edin-
burgh. On September 21st he proceeded by Falkirk to
Glasgow, and spoke six times in a single day. *' The
papers," writes Greville, ** are full of nothing but
O'Conneirs progress in Scotland, where he is received
with unbounded enthusiasm by enormous crowds. He
is exalted to the bad eminence at which he has arrived
more by the assaults of his enemies than by the efiforts
of his friends. It is the Tories who are ever insisting
upon the immensity of his power, and whose excess of
hatred and fear make him of such vast aocount.''
My duty [ho told one of his audioncos] is to propose to you as a
toast ** a speedy ofToctual reform of the House of Lords,"* and that, I
confess, is tho prime objoot of my mission through England and the
country. It is now tho leading object of my political life. ... I
disclaim occupying the principal portion of my mind with any other
topic, till I see tho oligarchy mitigated and an effectual reform intro-
duced into that House.
9
130 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CONN ELL.
He returned to Ireland by Belfast, was received with
a demonstration of trades in Dublin, and proceeded to
recruit himself at Darrynane. In his retreat he formu-
lated a plan for the reform of the House of Lords,
which he published in two letters to the editor of the
Leeds Times. His plan was, that out of the peerage,
whose numbers were not to be allowed to fall below 500,
150 were to be elected by popular vote to form a second
chamber. The plan was moderate and simple, but it is
not easy to see how a second chamber so elected could
form a very useful check upon the House of Commons.
In October he became involved in a scandal which
caused him no little disquietude and some discredit.
At the General Election in the spring Bruen and
Kavanagh had been returned for Carlo w. The return
had been petitioned against, and it became plain that
the seats would be vacated. O'Connell, anxious to wrest
the seats from the Tories, looked round for a candidate
of means to stand with the other Bepealer, Mr. Vigors, who
had none. A Mr. Alexander Raphael, a London trades-
man, who had been Sheriff of London, had for some time
solicited O'Connell's support in procuring his election
to Parliament. He professed the Roman Catholic faith,
and, although there was some doubt of his political sin-
cerity, his principles appeared satisfactory to O'Connell.
He had contested Pontefract and Evesham, and had
thought of coming forward for Westminster. In view
of a vacancy at Carlow, Raphael renewed his solicita-
tions. On May 27th the Committee declared the seats
vacant, and next day O'Connell called upon Raphael and
proposed that he should contest one of them. He wrote
on the 29th, " You will never again meet with so safe a
speculation. I am quite sure I shall never hear of
one." The parties had an interview on June 1st, and
WHIG ALLIANCE. 181
O'Connell gave a written agreement in the following
terms ; —
You having acceded to the terms proposed to you for the election
of the County of Carlo w, viz., you are to pay before nomination
£1,000 and a like sum after being returned, the first to be paid
absolutely and entirely for being nominated, the second to be paid
only in the event of your being returned, I hereby undertake to
guarantee and save you harmless from any and every other expense
whatever, whether of agents, carriages, counsel, petition against the
return, or of any other description, and to make this guarantee in the
fullest sense of the honourable engagement, that you should not
possibly be required to pay one shilling more in any event or upon
any contingency whatever.
The bargain thus closed, Kaphael handed to O'Con-
nell an old address of his to the electors of Westminster,
which was to be altered to suit the taste of the electors
of Carlow, and he was put in nomination on the 8th.
He never went near Carlow at all. O'Connell pressed
to have the i91,000 paid to his credit with Wright &
Co., his bankers. Kaphael would only lodge it with
Hamilton, his own solicitor, from whom John O'Con-
nell at length obtained it on June 10th. 0*Connell
being then in perhaps more than his normal pecuniary
embarrassments, paid it into his own account at his
bankers, and remitted it to Ireland by an acceptance
drawn on'^ some Irish brewers at several months' date.
As, however, he offered Vigors cash if he desired it, and
took no benefit to himself from the discount in settling
the accounts, this course would appear to have been
taken for some not very obvious but innocent reason.
On the- 13th O'Connell wrote to Raphael, ** Our pros-
pects of success are quite conclusive ; if only one
Liberal is to be returned, you are to be the man "; and
on the 17th, ** I send you Vigors' letter to me, just
received ; you see how secure wo are. Return me this
9 •
132 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CONN ELL.
letter, as it vouches ^9800 for me. With that you have
nothing to do, as, of course, I stand between you and
everybody." Kaphael was accordingly elected with
Vigors by a majority of fifty-six, and he at once took
his seat. The return was promptly petitioned against,
and it became evident that the result would turn upon a
scrutiny of the register. It had been agreed that, in the
event of no petition being presented, Kaphael's second
£1,000 should be devoted to a fund for indemnifying
his voters from any loss or persecution by their land-
lords. Now, however, it was required to defend the
seat. 0*Connell wrote on July 17th —
Send Mr. Baker (the parliamentary agent) the particulars he wants
of your qualification. I will stand between you and him for all the
expenses. I promised you, and repeat distinctly my promise, that
upon payment of the second £1,000, to which you are at all events
engaged, no demand shall be made on you for one additional sixpence.
Do then at once pay the other £1,000 into Messrs. Wright's to my
credit.
On the 26th Hamilton met John O'Oonnell, and put
before him, on EaphaePs behalf, the extraordinary view
that the second d91,000 was not to be paid until the
seat was safe. O'Connell wrote hotly next day : " Kely
on it, you are mistaken if you suppose that I will
submit to any deviation from our engagement." Kaphael
at first thought of resigning the first sGl^OOO and the
seat, but having consulted his friends, decided to yield.
The ^61,000 was paid to John O'Oonnell on July 28th,
who within an hour allowed himself to become a
member of the very committee which was to try the
question that the d61,000 was to be spent in arguing.
O'Oonnell wrote to Kaphael asking if he would care to be
a baronet, adding that he did not ask without a reason ;
but Kaphael was not ambitious of the title. By the 4th
WHIG ALLIANCE. 188
of August he found that he would have to fight the
petition, if at all, at his own cost. Unwilling to sacri-
fice his j92,000, he kept up the contest for a few days ;
hut by the 17th, 105 of his votes had been struck off,
and being thus hopelessly behind, he withdrew, and the
seat was vacated.
He took his revenge by publishing a letter to the
Carlow electors, setting out the whole story. O'Connell
replied on November 6th in a letter, in which he de-
nounced Kaphael as " that most incomprehensible of all
imaginable vagabonds.*' But strong language did not
mend matters. He was accused of trafficking in seats,
AS he might have trafficked in bacon. He was sus-
pected of having pocketed part of the JG2,000. This,
added to his frequent abuse of persons whom he would
not fight, induced Burdett in November to call upon
the managers of Brooks' to expel him. On December
3rd O'Connell wrote to them justifying his conduct,
and they affirmed the decision given to Lord Alvanley
in May. Burdett, Brougham, Stanley, and Graham
resigned their membership. Next session a petition
from Carlow was presented by Bruen on February 11th,
setting out the facts of the election. The matter looked
grave. On the 16th a committee of inquiry was ap-
pointed; it met on February 19th and 29th, heard
O'Connell's explanation, which was corroborated by
Vigors, and eventually on March 11th reported that
although " no charge of a pecuniary character can be
attached to Mr. O'Connell," and ** he was only the
medium between Raphael and Vigors and the political
club at Carlow "; still, the letter of June Ist was ** cal-
culated to excite much suspicion and grave animadver-
sion." It was a lenient conclusion. The whole affair
shows not only how indifferent O'Connell was to the
134 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
nicer particulars of public conduct, but how difficult a
task it was to find Repeal candidates among Irishmen of
moderate means and tolerable reputation. Till 1829
the Irish members had been even more aristocratic than
the English, and in the counties good birth and good
family had^ been indispensable in a candidate. O'Con-
nell had changed all this ; but a supporter, even
nominally respectable, must have been hard to obtain^
when Raphael could be accepted so easily. Men of high
abilities or standing were little likely to brook the
complete obedience and subordination to himself which
O'Connell expected of the *' joints of his tail," and
among those who formed his party were some who^
though no doubt unsuspected by him, were generally
and reasonably believed to sell to candidates for money
down their promises of support in the solicitation of
petty offices in the Civil Service. The followers of
O'Connell were not, indeed, inferior to the Irish Tory
members, but the conduct of both classes amazed the
more reserved English members of the House. John
O'Connell, not a willing witness against his country-
men, says : " Not an assertion dropped by an Irish
member on one side, but it was immediately contra-
dieted upon the other ; not a violent expression or ges-
ture but had its counterpart with interest. And while
the Irishmen fought and blackened each other, and rose
higher and higher towards boiling point, the English
members looked on, as the Spartans of old at the
riotings of their Helots, and asked each other with
looks of pitying contempt: *Is it not well for such men
as these to have us to take care of them ?' "
The administration of Ireland, in the hands of Mul-
grave and Drummond, had now been shown to be so
impartial and liberal, that O'Connell felt bound to
WHIG ALLIANCE. 135
redeem his promise of abandoning the Kepeal agita-
tion. Old as he was, before Parliament met in 1836 he
was incessantly active. On January 14th he was
speaking at Tralee, on the 16th at Cork, on the 18th at
Galway, on the 20th at Shadbally, on the 25th at
Dublin. He then came to a meeting at Liverpool, spoke
at Birmingham on the 28th, and appeared in Parlia-
ment when it opened on February 4th. He asked of
his audiences their authority to drop the question
of Kepeal if he thought England was giving justice
to Ireland. In Dublin, at St. Bridget's charity dinner,
he said : —
When Emancipation was obtained I sought for Repeal, because 1
saw that the Imperial Parliament paid little attention to the affairs
and condition of Ireland. Even Sir Robert Peel himself confessed
that he could not get forty members together when an Irish question
was to bo brought forward. I, however, took up Repeal, and like the
flappers we read of in Gullivers Travels, I rattled it about their ears,
the result of which is that the attention of the Government is almost
entirely engrossed with the affairs of Ireland. ... In looking for
Repeal, both Houses of Parliament promised that if that question
were given up, they would grant every other, which could be proved
to be advantageous to Ireland. ... I am now for making the experi-
inent, whether that is a real and bona Jide reason on their part, or a
more pretence. . . . Place us on an equality with yourselves, and
then talk to mo of an Union ; for then will I offer you, in the name of
the Irish people, not to talk of Repeal ; but imless you do that, thank
Heaven, wo have seven millions of people to fall back upon the qnes-
tion of Repeal again. The people of Ireland are ready to beoome a
portion of the Empire, provided they be made so in reality, and not in
name alone. They are ready to become a kind of West Britons if
made so in benefits and in jnatioe; but if not, we are Irishmen
again.
A petition against his return for Dublin had been
presented in the previous session. A committee had
been appointed, and liad delegated three barristers to
conduct a local inquiry into the facts in Dublin*
136 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
O'Connell was charged with gross intimidation, with
advocating exclusive dealing, and urging that every
adverse voter should find a death's head and cross-bones
chalked by his enemies upon his door. The register
was elaborately investigated. He spent iG20,000 in
defending the petition, and the costs of the petitioners
were ^640,000, which the Carlton Club was reported to
have largely taken upon itself. The commissioners
sate some six months in Dublin, and after the presenta-
tion of their report the committee conducted a further
inquiry for six weeks. On May 16th O'Connell was
unseated, but his measures had been taken. His voice
was needed in the discussion upon the Municipal
Reform Bill. In anticipation of this result, Richard
Sullivan, M.P. for Kilkenny, had accepted the Chil-
tern Hundreds, and on the 17th O'Connell was elected
in his place. Meetings were held in England to
raise a subscription in aid of his expenses; ;£3,000
was subscribed at the first, and the nett proceeds
amounted to :£8,489. The Duke of Bedford sub-
scribed one hundred guineas. The King said he might
subscribe if he chose, but no supporter of O'Connell
could be allowed to appear among the sculptures of
Windsor, and ordered his bust to be removed from the
royal gallery.
The agitation for the abolition of tithe was still
going on. Sheil and O'Connell had both refused to
pay it, and O'Connell had all but been outlawed in con-
sequence by the Dublin Court of Exchequer. The
Ministry reintroduced a Tithe Bill on the same lines as
that of the previous year. The Municipal Corporation
Bill proposed to deal with the Irish corporations, some
fifty in number, in a drastic fashion. Their privileges
and monopolies were numerous. They were now all to
WHIG ALLIANCE. 137
•be swept away, and an occupation franchise of £10 in
large towns and £5 in small ones, was to be fixed as the
feasis of corporators' rights. Peel opposed it in the
House of Commons with a proposal for the total
abolition of these corporations. He was defeated, but
in the House of Lords he triumphed. The Bill was
thrown out by 203 to 119, and the Tithes Bill was also
lost. O'Connell resolved to ** revive the Catholic Asso-
ciation on a broader basis " for the purpose of obtain-
ing a full corporate reform and tithe reform. He called
his new association the General Association. It met
twice a week, and speedily became formidable enough to
excite no little outcry in England. It collected a
"justice rent,'^ which reached 4^690 per week by
November. Ireland seemed again on the verge of
fresh agitation. In England the rancour of his enemies
redoubled. He had hitherto given a general support to
factory legislation, and had spoken in favour of restrict-
ing the hours of labour of children employed in factories.
In May, two Bills came before the House of Commons,
which dealt with the subject, Fielden's providing
for a working day of ten hours, and Poulett Thom-
son's, which regulated the conditions of factory work,
but did not adopt the ten hours day. O'Connell
was satisfied from the debate, that, in the then state of
things, to impose a limitation on the hours of work would
cause considerable loss of trade, and consequent suffering
and loss of employment to the very class it was proposed
to protect. He voted for Poulett Thomson's Bill. The
operatives, who supported the ten hours* bill, were much
•disappointed, and the Tories took advantage of the
■opportunity to attack him. Wilson, in an article on
^* Cotton Manufacturers and the Factory System," in
the July number of Blackwood's Magazine, alleged that
138 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
three days before the debate O'Connell had promised
Lord Ashley the support of his party for Fielden's Bill^
and that three days after the debate he was rewarded
for his breach of faith by the admiring manufacturers
with a purse of seven hundred guineas. Bell, for-
merly editor of the True Sun, and newly appointed
editor of the Mercury, published in it a statement that
Mr. Potter of Manchester had promised O'Connell, who
was then much in debt, ^91,000 for his support on the
question. This Potter promptly came forward to deny..
The story probably originated in the subscription to
lighten the cost of O'Connell's defence to the petition
against his return for Dublin ; but it shows with great
force how bitter and unscrupulous was the animosity
which he excited among his opponents.
For the Session of 1837 the Government measures
were the reintroduetion of the Irish Municipal Reform
Bill and a Poor Law Bill. Of any application to Ire-
land of the English poor-law system O'Connell had
long been a steadfast opponent. He had carried on at
sharp controversy upon the subject with Dr. Doyle
in 1832, in which undoubtedly the victory rested with
the Bishop. He was now less violently hostile to-
the principle, but still deeply impressed with the
difficulty of applying it. On February 13th Lord
John Russell called the attention of the House of Com-
mons to the necessity of passing an Irish poor-law.
O'Connell expressed himself incredulous of its success,,
and advised emigration as a remedy, but said that he
regarded the proposal as an experiment and would not
resist it. Upon the second reading, at the end of April,
he took a decided stand and attacked it directly. He
pointed out that there was to be no provision for out-
door relief, and the cheap workhouses which it was pro-
WHIG ALLIANCE, 13^
posed to erect for the accommodation of 80,000 poor,
were wholly inadequate to the indoor relief of the two
millions who were destitute. Wages, which in England
were 8s. to 10s. per week, in Ireland were 2s. 6d., and
even 2s. Ireland, with its smaller area and smaller
population, had hut 75,000 fewer agricultural labourer*
than England. There were no means of permanently
supporting them, and it was then computed that in
Ireland 585,000 heads of families were out of work
for seven months in every year. Hitherto this gigan-
tic evil had been dealt with by the spontaneous and
abundant charity of the poor. Given in kind and
not in coin this was felt by the giver as but a slight
burden, but it sufiBced to support, though on the
verge of misery, many thousands of mendicants.
A poor-law must abolish this. To provide a legal
relief, to which every beggar was entitled, was to deprive
him of that voluntary relief from his neighbours, which
in default of a poor-law was never refused. The use
and wont of generations had made mendicancy an
honourable calling and had attracted to its wandering
and unrestrained life vast crowds of beggars. The
Government proposal implied as a consequence the ex-
tinction of this calling : it supplied in its stead a relief
which one-tenth of the applicants would exhaust*
Work for the remainder was not to bo had : there re-
mained only the sad alternative of starvation.
But the question remained undecided for the momenU
In June the King died. O'Connell was full of enthu-
siastic loyalty to the young Queen, and at the General
Election gave her Ministers nil the support in his power*
He put out a manifesto, in which he said : ** Ireland is
prepared to amalgamate with the entire Empire. We
are prepared for full and perpetual conciliation. Let
140 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
Ireland and England be identified." As soon as the
election was over he dissolved the General Association,
saying that ** he was still in favour of giving a fair trial
to the Union ; he would confidently entrust the fortunes
of the Irish people to the British Parliament. If the
results demonstrated the incapacity of Parliament and
Government to do full and complete justice to Ireland,
then he would unfurl the flag of Repeal and call upon
Ireland to rally round it." Upon the general result
of the elections the Ministry had a majority of twenty-
five ; without O'Connell's assistance they would have
been in a minority.
But in proportion as Lord Melbourne had sought to
govern Ireland according to Irish ideas, and O^Connell
to conduct himself according to the ideas of the Eng-
lish, each had lost ground with his own countrymen.
It became plain that the Whigs were kept in oflice
only by the Repeal vote. It was alleged that they had
sold the Irish Church for the thirty pieces of silver of
O'Connell's support. Lord John Russell was |likened
to Judas Iscariot, and the Whig Government was called
the O'Connell Cabinet. Exposed to the assaults of Peel
in front, and attacked in flank by "the Derby dilly carry-
ing six insides," with a hostile House of Lords, a King
of erratic will and feeble health, and an heir to the throne
who was a girl in her teens, caught between the active
agitation of Exeter Hall, which opposed all countenance
to Roman Catholics, and the growing High Church cry
that the appropriation clause was a robbery of the
Church of Christ, the Ministry had found themselves
in a position in which nothing but the firmest and most
united front could bring them out of the conflict with
success or even without dishonour. But their followers
were not a united party. Some were Whigs, impracti-^
WHIG ALLIANCE. 141
cable with the pride of family, the Brahmins of politics;
some were Radicals, impracticable with the pride of rea-
son, political Pharisees; while O'Connell, in proportion as
he stood loyally by the Ministry, found the Irish for-
getting his fame and his services. Nor were the Ministry
able to effect much for Ireland. Their administration^
indeed, was admirable, but year after year, a Tithe Bill^
such as Peel himself had introduced, was wrecked by
the House of Lords, and the Irish were denied the-
Corporation Reform which their own representatives
had been largely instrumental in passing for England.
In the hopes of obtaining *' justice for Ireland " O'Con-
nell had supported the Whigs at the cost of his popu-
larity, and year by year as his popularity waned, he saw
the prospect of ** justice for Ireland,'* as he conceived
the term, vanishing into a more and more distant
future.
In the autumn of 1836 a commercial panic occurred
through the failure of the Agricultural Bank, and in
the run upon the banks which followed, the National
Bank, which he had founded, and to the support of
which his whole fortune was pledged, was in great
danger. He experienced the pressure which he had
exhorted the Irish to apply to the Government five
years before, and he saw that the holders of notes
had no more compassion for the Liberator's bank .
than for the Bank of Ireland. In the beginning of
1837 he was in open conflict with Sbarman Crawford
upon the renewal of coercion, which he had thought
justifiable, and upon the Government plan for dealing
with the Tithe question, and with Smith O'Brien for
his advocacy of a State endowment for the Roman
Catholic clergy and his opposition to the ballot. In the
autumn severe disputes occurred, especially in the ship-
142 LIFE OF DANIEL O'OONNELL.
building trade, between the Dublin trades unions and the
employers of labour. In a speech on November 7th
at the Dublin Trades Political Union, O'Connell
espoused the side of the masters, and, with great
-courage and devotion to his principles, denounced
strikes and condemned the men. He was instantly the
mark for their most violent abuse. He was hooted by
his own constituents in the streets of Dublin. He had
interviews for hours together with the trades union
leaders, and took nothing by his arguments. He boldly
challenged discussion, and held meetings in January 1838
to debate the question. The workmen forced their way
in and denied him a hearing. At one meeting he was
compelled to stand for nearly two hours the centre of
indescribable confusion, never able to utter more than
two or three sentences, and for the most part wholly
inaudible. His popularity in Ireland seemed almost
gone.
Scarcely had Parliament reassembled in 1838 than
he found himself again in conflict with the House of
Commons. It was a matter of notoriety that commit-
tees upon election petitions, though they sat as judges
and were sworn to decide conscientiously, voted simply
as loyal partisans. In November 1837, Buller had
obtained leave to bring in a Bill to amend the practice
of trying these petitions, and O'Connell, who had suf-
fered at the hands of election committees himself, had
then proposed to transfer them to the Queen's Bench.
On the 21st February 1838, in a speech at the '* Crown
and Anchor" tavern, he reverted to the subject.
Corruption of the worst kind [he said] existed, and, above all,
there was the perjury of the Tory politicians. Ireland was not safe
from the English and Scotch gentry. It was horrible to think that a
body of gentlemen, who ranked high in society, who were themselves
WHIG ALLIANCE, 143
administrators of the law, and who ought, therefore, to be above all
suspicion, and who ought to set an example to others — was ft not
horrible that they should be perjuring themselves in the Committees
of the House of Commons ? The time was come when this should be
proclaimed boldly. He was ready to be a martyr to justice and
truth, but not to false swearing, and he repeated that there was foul
perjury in the Toi*y Committees of the House of Commons.
The truth of the charge was hardly deniable, but it
excited the wrath of those who suffered from the impu-
tation. On the 23rd Lord Maidstone read the report in
the House of Commons, and asked O'Connell if it was
correct. " I did say every word of that," replied
O'Connell, ** and I believe it to be perfectly true. Is
there a man who will put his hand on his heart and say
upon his honour as a gentleman that he does not
believe it to be substantially true ? *' Lord Maidstone,
without going through this or any milder form of denial,
gave notice that he would call the attention of the
House to the speech on the 26th. The day came, and the
obnoxious passage was read by the Clerk of the House.
O'Connell, in a long speech, admitted and justified his
words. Lord Maidstone moved ** that the words were
a false and scandalous imputation upon the honour of
the House." A long debate followed. Ministers voted
against the motion, but it was carried by 268 to 254.
A motion that O'Connell should be reprimanded was
carried, and on the 28th he was ordered to stand up in
bis place, and received from the Speaker a severe and
lengthy censure. He was perfectly unabashed. With-
out a moment's loss of time, or so much as resuming
bis seat, he gave notice of a motion for a committee to
investigate the whole matter, concluding with the words
*^ I have repented of nothing ; I mean not to use harsh
or offensive language. I repeat what I have said^ but I
144 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
wish I could find terms less offensive in themselves-
and equally significant/'
The Ministry had made more than one attempt to-
reward O'Conneirs staunch support. He was very
near being made Irish Attorney-General in 1837.
Meeting Mr. John Ball and one of the Irish members
one day in that year at the corner of Downing Street,
he cried, ** Congratulate me ; I am Attorney- General
for Ireland. I have just been with Lord Melbourne,
and have determined to accept the office. But nothing
must be said for the present." The King, however,
heard of the appointment, and put pressure upon Mel-
bourne to revoke it."^ In 1838, Joy, Chief Baron of
the Irish Exchequer, died. Melbourne was anxious to
promote O'Connell, but it was thought that to set
him to preside over the Court, which had exclusive
cognizance of those writs of rebellion, which he had so
often denounced and contested, would be unwise. The
post was therefore offered to O'Loghlen, who was
Master of the Rolls. O'Loghlen was willing to consent
to the change, but the vacancy in the Rolls thereby created
was, when offered to O'Connell, refused. O'Loghlen was
not transferred, and Woulfe became Chief Baron. It was
not without a struggle that O'Connell refused this promo-
tion. He told the House of Commons in 1840 that one
reason for his refusal was that he feared he might not deal
impartially with litigants, and that in dread of favouring^
Roman Catholics he might find himself unfairly hostile
to them. But the principal reason was that he felt
Ireland would soon have need of him again.
In 1838 Russell introduced the sixth Tithe BilL
The appropriation clause, upon which the Whigs had
* " O'Connell," by John Ball, MacmiUari's Magazine, xxiii., 222.
WHIG ALLIANCE. 145
come into power, had been abandoned the year before.
Its place was taken by a tax of ten per cent, upon
the incomes of the clergy for educational purposes.
This, too, was given up. It was proposed that the
tithe rent-charge should ultimately cease as an eccle-
siastical revenue and be diverted to education. The
opposition of the House of Lords was fatal to this, and
the Bill ultimately passed much in the form in which
Peel had introduced it three years before. O'Connell
passively acquiesced, but the Bill was disappointing.
By removing various glaring abuses in the Church of
Ireland it strengthened her general position. Whether
or not the rent-charge was generally added to the old
rents by the landlords, so as to be ultimately as much a
burden on the tenants as the old tithe, is much dis-
puted, but the whole measure seemed to be of a hesi-
tating character, and convinced O'Connell that the great
Whig experiment was a failure. He betook himself
to a last agitation for ** justice to Ireland ** as distinct
from Bepeal.
In August of 1838 he founded his ** Precursor
Society." Its name was supposed to mean, though few
Irishmen divined it, that it was to be the forerunner of
Repeal, but his choice of names for his societies
was almost uniformly infelicitous. It was to agitate for
complete corporate Reform, extension of the suffrage,
total abolition of compulsory Church support, and ade-
qaate representation in Parliament. But the Irish were
not united in the agitation. Many disapproved of any-
thing less than a cry for Repeal. Connaught, which
had given the last and least assistance to Emancipation,
stood aloof from the Precursors altogether. ** Ireland,"
O'Connell wrote to Dr. MacHale in January 1839,
** has never acted together since the close of the Eman-
10
146 LIFE OF BANIEL 0' CONN ELL,
cipation fight/' The society was, however, sufficiently
strong to alarm the Ministry. They wrote to O'Oon-
nell '' menacingly '* about it, and used every means in
their power to impede its organization ; but the society
was not checked. Agitation was as yet the work only of
his immediate circle of associates, nor was it directed
very openly to its object, but it deserved its name.
Unknown, perhaps, even to O'Connell himself, Ireland
was on the very eve of the struggle for Repeal.
147
CHAPTER VIII.
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION.
1840-1843.
Repeal Association founded — Irish Municipal Reform — O'Connell Lord
Mayor of Dublin — The founding of the Nation — The Repeal
Debate — The Monster Meetings — The Mallow Defiance —
Clontarf.
On April 15th 1840 the Repeal Association was founded.
The meeting was held in the Great Room of the Corn
Exchange; only a sprinkling of persons were seen in
the room ; not a hundred in all were there. They
waited till it became impossible to wait longer, and to
that handful of people 0*Connell unfolded his plan.
The Association was formed at first under the title of
the National Society and rules were adopted.
He was not disheartened ; he remembered the first
meeting of the Catholic Association. He had himself
been discouraging agitation for Repeal ; he knew that it
would bo a work of time to convince people of his
change of policy. *' As soon/* he said, ** as they begin
to find out I am thoroughly in earnest, they will come
flocking in to the Association." In truth, however,
for some time Dublin was singularly indifferent to the
birth of his now society. He had founded nearly a dozen
in the previous ten years, beside some which were still-
10 •
148 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
born, and associations had lost their novelty. Eepeal
was popular, and he had set Eepeal aside ; the Whigs
were unpopular, and he had supported them. He had
offended the landlords by ousting them from their
dominion in the counties ; the priests by acquiescing in
a Tithes Act, which only strengthened the Church of
Ireland ; the artisans by denouncing trades unions ; the
peasants by obtaining for them so little but coercion acts
after six years^ alliance with the Whigs. He was sur-
rounded by henchmen of dubious respectability and defi-
cient talent. His enemies had brought to light numbers
of scandals, which, however exaggerated, were distressing
to men of probity. He insisted on paying the funds of
the ** Precursor Society " into his own bank account
instead of the Treasurer's'; he had traded on the strength
of his name; he had founded a bank himself; his son had
founded a brewery. Another son and a son-in-law were
placemen under the alien Saxon Government. Eman-
cipation was now an old tale. Those who had fought in
that agitation w6re aged or dead. A younger genera-
tion had grown up, to whom O^Conneirs services were
matter of report ; who saw in him a hero indeed, but
one sinking into old age after years of failure. Many
of the Catholics had been educated on the English
model, and prided themselves on their English ideas;
many of them were suppliants for Government patron-
age. The merchants, the backbone of the first Catholic
agitation, were impoverished, and stood aloof from
politics ; the priests, the backbone of the second, were
satisfied with Emancipation, and had no great ardour
for Repeal. To this indifierent people O'Connell ap-
pealed at the age of sixty-five with the calm confidence
of middle life, and the hopeful energy of youth.
His letters to Dr. MacHale at this time set out his
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION. 149
reasons and the plan which he had in his mind. He
was convinced that the Tories would soon be in power ;
the Whigs were tottering to their fall. What the Whigs
had not been able to do, the Tories would not attempt
to do for Ireland ; much of what the Whigs had done
would be undone by the Tories. Four grievances were to
be remedied, first (and writing to a Roman Catholic Arch-
bishop, he adroitly called it the greatest), was the State
Church of the minority — nothing but Repeal could
abolish national payments for this alien Church ; second,
full reform of corporations was still withheld ; third,
equality of political franchise was denied ; fourth, the
Irish parliamentary representation was insufficient. The
method was to be the old one of the Catholic Associa-
tion, a host of small subscriptions from a multitude of
humble subscribers.
I can give Your Grace the result of thirty years and more of expe-
rience, and it is this : that once got a parish into a mood of contribu-
ting to public purposes, the more such purposes are brought before
them, the more liberal will bo each aggregate contribution. So many
persons will not give five pounds or live shillings, but many more will
give one shilling; the contributors should be individually solicited to
give sums smaller than each can reasonably afford.
During the summer and autumn he addressed inces-
sant meetings. He flew from Mullingar to Cork, from
Cork to Dublin, from Dublin to Belfast, from Belfast to
Leeds, from Leeds to Leicester. Towards the end of
1840 he advocated the exclusive consuraption of Irish
manufactures, but the expedient soon proved itself use-
less. The rich would not, and the poor could not buy,
and to delude those whose patriotism got the better of
their taste, English goods wore imported into Ireland,
and were marked and sold as of Irisii manufacture. He
carefully modelled the Repeal Association upon the Catho-
lic Association. The Act of 1793 was still unrepealed.
150 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
and therefore a representative character was carefully
disclaimed. There were three classes, associates pay-
ing Is. a year, members paying £1, volunteers paying
d610. All the proceedings were completely open. There
were special committees, which, during the existence of
the Association, prepared as many as sixty-five reports,
and a general committee of about eighty persons, which
conducted general business, and considered the ac-
counts, reports, resolutions, and circulars of the Asso-
ciation, and there were weekly meetings of the Associa-
tion itself. There were Eepeal wardens, who collected
the rent, answerable to Eepeal inspectors, who were
in turn controlled by provincial inspectors. The old
machinery of the Catholic Association was ready to
hand, it only needed to be furbished up again ; but
many of its old officers were dead or incapacitated, and
it was not for some time that O'Connell could find
among the younger generation men fit to take their
place and bring the whole scheme into operation.
The proximate cause of the founding of the Eepeal
Association was Stanley's Irish Eegistration Bill of
1840. By its restrictions upon registration it practi-
cally limited the franchise. O'Connell attacked the
Bill warmly, and was warmly attacked in return. On
June 11th he was heard with so much impatience and
interruption that, losing his temper, he cried : " This is
a Bill to trample on the rights of the people of Ireland.
If you were ten times as beastly in your uproar and
bellowing I should still feel it my duty to interpose to
prevent this injustice"; and in spite of the angry
scene which followed, he would not withdraw the
phrase. The Bill, however, dropped for the session of
1840. A similar fate had befallen the Irish Municipal
Eeform Bill in the previous year. Now it passed, but,
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION. 151
owing to the amendments of the Lords, in a form so
restricted, as to make it highly unsatisfactory to O^Con-
nell.
In 1841 the Whig Ministry was defeated ; it dissolved
Parliament on June 23rd, and was utterly routed at
the elections. O'Connell and his party suffered too.
He lost his own seat for Dublin, and was obliged to
take refuge at Cork, and many elections went against
his party. He returned with a ^* tail '' reduced to less
than a dozen, of whom four were members of his own
family, and two others, Dillon Browne and Somers, were
his unscrupulous partisans. Nor was the Kepeal move-
ment making much headway. He prepared several
reports for the Association, in the first of which, issued
on May 4th 1840, he had elaborated a scheme for an
Irish Parliament of 300 members, 127 borough and 173
county members, but it had not struck the popular
imagination. A vast meeting had been held at Croker*s
Hill, Kilkenny, in October, with 20,000 mounted men,
and ten times as many on foot, but nothing came
of it. He journeyed to and fro all over Ireland, and
late in 1841 visited Ulster. The Orangemen of Belfast
menaced him with condign punishment if he ventured
to appear there. Violence was intended to be offered
him on the way. His carriage was to have been
waylaid between two high banks which oommanded the
road, and stones hailed upon it till carriage and occu-
pant were crushed. He escaped only by changing the
time of his journey, and to secure changes of horses
at the posting-houses was obliged to travel under the
name of a popular ventriloquist. His meeting had
to be protected with five companies of foot, two troops
of horse, and 2,000 police. The windows of his
room were broken, and Dawson, Peel's brother-in-law.
152 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
vapoured about *^ every river in Ireland being another
Boyne if necessary." In the autumn of 1842 he
endeavoured to stimulate the movement by appointing
Kay, the secretary of the Association, Steele, the Head
Pacificator, Daunt, and his son, John O'Connell, Re-
peal Inspectors, to visit the provinces and enrol mem-
bers. But the missionaries were not more powerful than
their master, and through 1842 the agitation lagged.
Their efforts did, indeed, raise the rent from i645
for the week before they set out to d6235 for the week
after their return, but the great stride that was taken
at the end of 1842 and the beginning of 1843 was not
theirs. It was due to two events : the founding of
the Nation on October 15th 1842, and the Repeal de-
bate in the Dublin Corporation on February 25th
1843.
The founding of the Nation as the newspaper of the
new Repeal movement meant that the younger generation
of Irishmen was willing to cast in its lot with the old.
Davis, poet and patriot, John Blake Dillon, C. Gavan
Duffy, John Cornelius O'Callaghan, ClarenceMangan, and
J. O'Neill Daunt were the leaders in the enterprise. The
newspaper was instantly successful ; the first issue could
have been sold twice over. The newsvendors clamoured
round the office, breaking in the windows in their
eagerness to procure copies. O'ConnelPs practical mind
was apt to make the Repeal argument too purely an
appeal to Irish pockets. The motto of the Nation was
a saying of Stephen Woulfe, *' to create and foster
public opinion in Ireland, and to make it racy of the
soil.'' O'Connell told the Irish that the Union loaded
thenJ with debts they had not contracted, and deprived
them of the manufactures they had created ; that the
artisans of Dublin had dropped in forty years from
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION. 153
5,000 to 700 ; the workmen in the woollen trade from
150,000 to 6,000 ; that Repeal would raise their wages
and lower their taxes. Davis and Duffy sought to make
them feel themselves a nation, talked to them of Brian
Boru, and spelt his name Borhoime ; of O'SuUivan,
whom they wrote O'Suillebhain ; of 011am Fodlah, and
Eoghan Euadh O'Neill. They told them that ''Ire-
land ought to have a foreign policy, but not necessarily
the foreign policy of England." O'Connell had put it
more forcibly, but with the same meaning, ** If France
puts England into a difficulty, the first hostile shot that 's
fired in the Channel I ^11 have the Government in my
hand.'^ ** England's adversity is Ireland's opportunity,^'
was the doctrine of them both.
The Irish Municipal Reform Act had been welcomed
in Dublin by the election of O'Connell on November
Ist 1841 to the Lord Mayoralty for 1842. He was
the first Roman Catholic who had filled that office,
and with great tact he negotiated an arrangement by
which it should thereafter be held by Protestants and
Roman Catholics alternately. The sight of their old
leader in that position and the pomp with which he
was surrounded pleased and inspirited the people of
Dublin. In 1843 O'Connell, now an alderman, de-
cided to attract attention to the question of Repeal by
a debate in the Corporation, and on February 25th he
brought on a motion in its favour. A great crowd
gathered in the Assembly House in William Street, and
a still greater in the street outside. O'Connell spoke
for upwards of four hoursy and delivered a speech,
which, even among his, had no superior. He arranged
it, as was his favourite manner, under heads, and
covered the whole ground with a masterly command
of figures and arguments. He declared the Irish fit
154 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNFLL.
for an independent parliament, entitled to it by im-
memorial constitutional right, and robbed of it by-
bribery, menaces, and force, by the craft of Pitt, and the
cruelty of Castlereagh. He affirmed that the Irish Par-
liament could not by any contract bargain away its own
existence, and that in any case the Union was morally
void, being procured by fraud and duress. He went
through a vast parade of statistics to show the in-
crease of absenteeism which the Union had caused,
and the consequent decay of trade, and painted a glow-
ing picture of the wealth, peace, and dignity which
would accrue to Ireland from the presence of a Parlia-
ment in College Green. Isaac Butt, then a rising
junior barrister, a professor in Dublin University, and
formerly editor of the Dublin U?iiversity Magazine,
replied in a speech of almost equal merit. The debate
lasted for three days. In an assembly of Irishmen glad
to be convinced, O'Connell's argument carried all before
it. He made a triumphant reply, and carried his
motion by 41 to 15.
From that day the Kepeal Association and its work
grew apace. The average rent in January 1843 had
been about ^150 per week ; for the last week in Feb-
ruary it was J6342, for the second in March £366, for
the first in April £478, for the last £683, for the last
week in May £2,205, for the third in June £3,103, for
the entire year £48,400. The priests, headed by the
Bishops of Meath and Dromore, and finally by Arch-
bishop MacHale, joined the Association. O'Connell's'
rash prediction that *' 1843 was to be the Repeal year,'^
seemed in a fair way to be realised. Meetings were
arranged for every county ; the Association met in
Dublin twice a week ; the old room on the second floor
of the Corn Exchange, which had served the Catholic
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION. 155
Association, was but eight yards by sixteen in size,
and rudely furnished ; 400 persons overcrowded it. A
large hall was projected to hold first twice as many,
then 1,200, finally 5,000. With grim humour they
obtained a site from an an ti -Repealer, concealing the
object of the bargain till the contract was signed. The
hall was completed and opened in October, and un-
couthly called Conciliation Hall. The business of the
Association became enormous. In 1841 its staff of
clerks had been 9 ; in 1842, 7 ; by the end of 1843 they
numbered 48. Everything was conducted with the
regularity and routine of a great counting-house. There
were 58 folio volumes of documents containing 44,000
separate papers, 40 quarto volumes of letters, and 22
folio volumes of vouchers for subscriptions, containing
33,000 vouchers. There were cash books, day books,
minute books, and scrap books fully indexed ; lists of
the three classes of members ; lists of American contri-
butors. A Repeal police was instituted, over which a
" Head Pacificator," Tom Steele, presided. If tumult
broke out in any district in Ireland, any rising of
"Terry Alts," or conflict of **Gows" and of " Po-
leens," it was the business of the local Repeal police,
or, if necessary, of the august Head Pacificator himself,
to repair to the spot and compose the quarrel. Arbitra-
tion Courts were established, which soon threatened to
leave the courts of the Queen nothing to do. The card
of membership, which had hitherto been plain and busi-
ness-like, expanded, in deference to the national aspira-
tions, into a document highly emblematic of Ireland's
history and Ireland's wrongs, the design of Mr. John
Cornelius O'Callaghan. Seventy thousand of them were
issued during the year. A host of little books upon
Irish history, Irish poetry, and Irish art, poured from
156 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
the press of James Duflfy. O'Connell's activity was in-
cessant and marvellous in a man of his years. From
meeting to meeting he travelled in the year some five
thousand miles. Beside presiding at the public and
committee meetings of the Association, and directing,
if not executing, the greater part of its business with
vast forethought and attention to detail, he attended in
March three, in May six, in June nine, in July three,
in August five, in September three huge meetings, and
his admirers were never content with a short speech from
him. A series of meetings, which the Times dubbed
*^ Monster Meetings,'"* was projected and carried out.
The number of persons attending them could only be
guessed, and must have been grossly exaggerated, but
it is certain that enormous crowds gathered almost day
after day in different parts of Ireland to agitate for
Repeal. In April nine meetings were held, at which it
was estimated 620,000 persons attended ; one meeting
of 110,000 was held at Limerick; and two of 150,000
at Kells and Carrickmacross respectively. At eleven
meetings in May two millions and a quarter persons
were present ; they included one of 170,000 at Sligo,
one of 150,000 at Mullingar, one of 260,000 at Long-
ford, one of 300,000 at Charleville, two of 400,000 at
Armagh and Cashel respectively, and one of 500,000 at
Cork. Two millions and three-quarter persons attended
nine meetings in June, at the least of which 100,000
were present, at two 300,000, at two 400,000 and up-
wards, and at one in Clare 700,000. There were
three meetings of 300,000 in July, and one of 500,000.
On August 15th, 750,000* persons assembled at Tara,
* Daunt, in his Recollections, puts the number at 1,200,000. If
that were so, three-fourths of the adult males of Ireland must have
been present.
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION'. 157
in Meath, and on the same day 300,000 more at Clon-
tibret in Monaghan, and the series was closed by two of
400,000 each at an interval of a week at Lismore and
the Eath of Mullaghmast.
These numbers were probably no more than the
sanguine guesses of triumphant enthusiasts. What was
more extraordinary, and to the Government more
ominous than even these numbers, was the complete
Orderliness of the meetings. They were held in the
open air, and even under cover not a tenth of those
huge multitudes could have heard the speaker's voice.
They were held in the heat of summer, and the dust
and pressure of so many persons must have aggravated
the thirst natural to the season of the year. Yet the
tedium of standing and hearing nothing did not pro-
duce disorder, nor did fatigue and exhaustion lead to
drunkenness. The meeting at the Hill of Tara was a
sight peculiarly solemn and afifecting. Tara was the
coronation place of Irish kings ; the day, a feast of the
Virgin Mary of peculiar sanctity. All night long the
people gathered by thousands at the hill, and bivouacked
under the open sky. In the morning so vast a crowd
covered the place of meeting, that there was no one
place from which the whole of it could be surveyed.
Dublin was denuded of public conveyances. It seemed
deserted by its inhabitants. For miles along the roads
leading to the hill carriages were drawn up and horses
picketed by the wayside. No one was left to watoh
them ; yet they suffered neither theft nor injury. If the
gathering was a triumph for O'Connell, it was a still
greater triumph for Father Matbew. Three-fourths of
the crowd were pledged teetotallers. From dawn till
noon at forty altars priests were celebrating mass under
the summer sun, and over the heads of kneeling thoa-
158 LIFT] OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
sands the bell tinkled, the smoke of incense quivered,
and the Host was held on high. Towards noon O'Con-
nell came, attended by a procession of ten thousand
horsemen, mustered by marshals in orderly battalions.
Forty- two bands raised a discordant note of triumph.
The crowds made way for the Liberator, but so great
was the press, that he was two hours in passing the last
mile. When the platform was reached he delivered a
speech, but it was not his speaking that produced the
effect of the day. That silent orderly crowd was ten times
more eloquent than he, a disciplined army obedient to
his beck and nod. At Tara the uncrowned king assem-
bled his subjects; on October 1st at the Rath of Mul-
laghmast his subjects offered their king a crown. Duffy
suggested that a quaint and uncomely cap, which was
part of the traditional garb of an independent Irish king,
should be again brought into use. At the conclusion
of the meeting a deputation consisting of John Hogan,
an Irish national sculptor, Henry MacManus, an Irish
national painter, John Cornelius O'Callaghan, the de-
signer of the national symbolism of the members^ card,
and his brother Mark, solemnly advanced through the
€rowd, and gravely crowned O'Connell with the Irish
national cap. The proceeding, in itself so ridiculous
and theatrical, appeared in the tense state of public
feeling, to be nothing short of sublime.
For fifteen months the agitation had been proceeding
unchecked ; for seven it had been of the most formid-
able proportions. The apprehensions, which the sight of
these unarmed armies of disciplined men excited in the
minds of ministers, were justified by the language which
O^Connell and his followers publicly employed. Davis,
the poet of the Nation, in lines which, though often un-
polished, were singularly terse and fiery, was rousing a
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION. 159
spirit of antagonism to England, and inculcating the
duty of the struggle to be free, in language which was
meaningless if it did not advocate an ultimate appeal to
force. The whole teaching of his colleagues of the
" Young Ireland '^ party was instinct with the feeling
that, although the gift of freedom might perhaps be
accepted if extorted by mere menaces, it was hardly
worth having unless won by force of arms. From the
point of view of Her Majesty's Government, responsible
for peace and order and for the dominions of the
Crown, this was sedition, a veiled incitement to rebel-
lion ; and yet O'Connell, who viewed the growing power
and unfamiliar tone of the Natiofi with jealousy, and en-
deavoured to check it by private remonstrance, in public
thought it necessary to echo its language. On May
9th, questions were put in the House of Lords by Lord
Roden, Grand Master of the Orangemen, and by Lord
Jocelyn, his son, in the House of Commons, as to the
intentions of the Ministry. Peel seized the opportu-
nity of delivering an ultimatum in reply.
There is no influence [said he], no power, no authority, which the
prerogatives of the Crown and the existing law give the Government,
which shall not be exercised for the purpose of maintaining the Union,
the dissolution of which would involve not merely the repeal of the
Act of Parliament, but the dismemberment of this great Empire. . . .
I am prepared to make the declaration which was m»de, and nobly
made, by my predecessor. Lord Althorp, that deprecating as I do all
war, and especially civil war, there is no alternative which I do not
think preferable to the dismemberment of this Empire.
The words were weighty ; their meaning was not to be
mistaken. To some of the Irish they sounded the knell
of their hopes, to others the tocsin of a welcome war*
O'Connell interpreted them to moan that agitation for a
political object, however unanimous, and however consti-
tutional, was to be met with a cold and resolute denial.
160 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
I belong [he cried] to a nation of eight millions, and there is besides
a million of Irishmen in England. If Sir Robert Peel has the audacity
to cause a contest to take place between the two countries, we will put
him in the wrong, for we will begin no rebellion ; but I tell him from
this place that he dare not begin that strife against Ireland.
The meaning of the words was ohvious. They
meant that, however peacefully disposed, events might
come in which he would be prepared to declare war. The
people so understood him ; already the Nation was
writing about ^* being ready for death, for liberty.'^
They talk of civil war [he said on another occasion], but while Hive
there shall be no civil war. But if others invade us, that is not civil
war, and I promise them that there is not a Wellingtonian of them all
who would less shrink from that contest than I, if they will enforce
it upon us. We are ready to keep the ground of the constitution as
long as they will allow us to do so, but should they throw us from
that ground, then vae victis ! between the contending parties.
At the meeting at Cashel on May 23rd, after his
accustomed panegyric upon the beauties of Ireland, he
went on, ** Where was the coward who would not die
for such a land ? . . . He did not like fighting, but let
their enemies attack them if they dare." Nor was this
the mere ebullition of impassioned oratory. John
O'Connell, his most trusted son and henchman, wrote to
the Morni?ig Chronicle : " We will not attack ; I do not
say we will not defend/'
The Government began to act. On May 23rd Sir
Edward Sugden, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, a pro-
foundly learned lawyer, but an indiscreet statesman,
dismissed from the magistracy Lord Ffrench, O'Con-
nell, his son John, and thirty-one others. The Irish
promptly took up the challenge. ' The "rent" trebled
in a week; it leapt from £700 to £2,200; Smith
O'Brien and many other Irish Whigs resigned their
commissions of the peace. A crowd of new members
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION. 161
joined the Association. It was then that O'Connell
established the Arbitration Courts, which quickly
spread throughout the country. The English Whigs
censured the Chancellor's act; Russell declared that
Repeal was as fit to be discussed in a constitutional
manner as any other topic; and the Whig lawyers
condemned the legality of the proceeding. The Govern-
ment, however, kept to its course. The Irish Arms Act
was expiring ; they had proposed to renew it with in-
creased severity, and they pressed it steadily upon the
House of Commons. Whigs, Radicals, and Irish com-
bined to resist it; they fought it line by line; it re-
mained three months in committee. Nor was it by the
Ministry alone, or in Ireland alone, that civil war was
expected and designed. From America came the news
that Tyler, the President of the United States, while
declining to attend a Repeal meeting, had declared
himself the strong friend of Repeal. Sir Charles Met-
calfe, Governor of Canada, reported to his superiors
that if any aggression took place upon Ireland he could
not answer for the peace, perhaps not even for the
security of the Dominion. In France the Radicals, with
Ledru Rollin at their head, were openly projecting
armed assistance for the Irish. Military plans began to
be openly discussed. It was pointed out how defensible
a country Ireland was ; cavalry would be powerless ; for
in Ireland rough stone walls took the place of hedges
and made each field a redoubt. The art of manufactur-
ing pikes was explained. O'Connell told his hearers
at Kilkenny on June 8th : —
They Btood that day at tho head of a group of men eufflciont, if
they undorwoiit military diHcipline, to conquer Europe. WoUington
noTcr had such an army. There were not at Waterloo, on both sides,
as many brave and energetic men. Howerer, they were not diaoi-
11
162 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
plined, but tell them what to do, and you would have them disciplined
in an hour. They were as well able to walk in order after a band
as if they wore red coats. They were as able to be submissive to the
Repeal wardens, or anybody else told to take care of them, as if they
were called sergeants or captains.
Three days later, at the meeting at Mallow, he
crowned all his utterances with his celebrated ** Mallow
defiance ": —
Do you know [he exclaimed], I never felt such a loathing for
speechifying as I do at present. The time is coming when we must be
doing. Gentlemen, you may learn the alternative to live as slaves or
die as freemen. ... In the midst of peace and tranquillity they are
covering our land with troops. Yes, I speak with the awful determi-
nation with which I commenced my address, in consequence of news
received this day. . . What are Irishmen that they should be denied
an equal privilege ? Have we not the ordinary courage of English-
men ? Are we to be called slaves ? Are we to be trampled under
foot ? Oh I they shall never trample on me, at least I I say they may
trample on me, but it will be my dead body they will trample on, not
the living man !
Never was man more skilful than 0*Connell in so
measuring his language as to convey the most inflam-
matory impression in still peaceable words. Never did
any man so hold a whole country in check upon the
very verge of civil war without suffering it to break the
peace. But, elated with the delirious enthusiasm of
1843, he had been carried too far. It was the theory
of Davis and his followers, that, if necessary, the Irish
ought to fight for their freedom. The Irish accepted
the theory; they were eager to fight; and they understood
O'Connell's words, as Peel understood them to mean,
that he would, when the time came, lead them to battle,
and they rejoiced at the prospect and had no fear of its
issue. ** At any moment that Mr. O'Connell had chosen
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION. 163
during that year," writes John O'Connell, ** and indeed
for long afterwards, he could have raised them in insur-
rection as one man throughout the entire country, and
however bloody, wasting and desolating might have
been the struggle, it is utterly impossible but that the
result would have been a violent separation from Eng-
land. There was a spirit abroad among the people
which would have made millions among them prefer
death to submission again to England.'* They imagined
they could drive the English into the sea.
It is hardly conceivable that 0*Connell could have
hoped for any such issue ; it is difficult to see how he
allowed himself to encourage such a temper in the
people of Ireland. If he meant what he said he was
preparing for rebellion ; if he did not, he was playing
with fire, and risking the lives and liberties of his
fellow-countrymen for a little idle rhetoric. The truth
probably lies between the two suppositions. It acquits
him of folly if not of guilt. He recollected 1828 and
how his present opponents, Wellington and Peel, had
succumbed, sorely against their will, to the peaceful
menace of unanimous agitation. He thought the same
tactics would succeed now. He could not believe that
Peel meant to go to any lengths in defence of the
Union. He was counting on the surrender of the
Government.
But he had sadly mistaken his men. Peel had
yielded in 1829 because the House of Commons was
divided and because the best of the English were in
agreement with the Irish. With a united House of
Commons he was not the man to flinch. Wellington
had yielded because in face of imminent civil war he
was told the troops were no longer to be trusted. There
were no Repeal regiments now, and if the Irish must
11 •
164 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
come to blows with the Empire the lesson would be
short, certain, and lasting.
The Government quietly took their measures. They
masked each meeting with dragoons, but did not inter-
fere with it. The Duke had poured 35,000 troops into
Ireland. Barracks had been fortified, martello towers
put in repair, forts loopholed, stores accumulated.
Ships of war lay in the rivers ; more troops were in
readiness in the west and north of England. If there
was to be a conflict he was ready. The Kepealers felt
that the series of monster meetings must be brought to
an end ; their novelty was wearing off; autumn was fast
vanishing. It was decided to conclude them with one
beside which the others, gigantic as they were, should
sink into insignificance. It was to be held at another
of the historic spots of Ireland, at Clontarf, a few miles
from Dublin. To it the people were to be gathered from
every part of Ireland and from England and Scotland
across the sea. Nine-tenths of the grown men of Ireland
were Repealers ; it was to be an awe-inspiring proof of
the unanimity of the Irish race. A platform was set up
and minute directions given for the gathering of the
host. One slip they made, but only for a moment. One
of the secretaries, Frank Morgan, a solicitor, issued a
placard summoning and directing what he called the
** Repeal Cavalry." The expression was not very
obnoxious, but it was indiscreet, and the placard
was at once called in. The Government made no
sign, and it was thought they would allow this last
meeting to pass as they had tolerated so many of its
predecessors.
The meeting was to be held on Sunday, October 5th.
Already steamers were arriving laden with the Repealers
of Glasgow and Liverpool, when the Duhlitr Mail
THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION, 166
announced on the Friday that the meeting would be
forbidden. It was known that the Irish Privy Council
was assembled to receive a despatch from England.
Still the Government uttered not a word. But soon
troops began to be moved down upon Clontarf. On the
following day the guards at the barracks and at Dublin
Castle were doubled. The guns at the Pigeon House Fort
and the batteries of the ships in the river were trained
upon the place of meeting. The Rhadamanthus and
the Dee arrived from England with the 34th Regiment
of Foot and the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers. The 5th
Dragoons, each man equipped for active service, with food
for twenty-four hours, moved towards evening to Clon-
tarf. Close by, at Conquest Hill, were the 11th Hussars
and the 54th Foot, and a brigade of the Royal Horse
Artillery, with four six-pounders. The 60th Rifles
commanded the ground, and each man had sixty rounds
of ball cartridge.
From an early hour on that Saturday the Committee
of the Association had been in session, fitfully transact-
ing its business, and expectant, amid the news of these
preparations, of some word from the Castle. The room
grew crowded. At last, at half-past three a messenger
burst in with a copy of the proclamation in his hand
wet from the press. The meeting was forbidden. There
was no time for deliberation. Less than two hours of
daylight remained. Already the people were beginning
to approach Clontarf. It had to be decided on the
instant whether the proclamation should be obeyed or
defied. The habit of a lifetime determined 0*Connell
to obey. But it was not enough passively to yield ;
the people must bo warned in time and time was scant.
O'Connell did not talk ; he acted. Peter Martin was
sent to pull down the platform^ which had been erected
166 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
at Clontarf. Twenty or thirty gentleiiien wete de-
spatched through the surrounding country in pairs to
warn the gathering crowds. By dawn O'ConneH's pro-
clamation, commanding obedience to the proclamation,
was posted in every village within twenty miles of
Clontarf. The meeting was abandoned ; the Government
was victorious. If the meeting was legal, as 0*Connell
said it was, the Government had ** invaded '* the Irish
and O'Connell had ** shrunk from the contest.*' In the
sight of the whole people of Ireland, he had flinched
from his word.
167
CHAPTER IX.
LAST DAYS.
1848-1847.
The trial - -The judgment of the House of Lords — The Federal contro-
versy — The conflict with Young Ireland — Alliance with the
Whigs — The Famine — Last days and death.
Unconditional submission to the proclamation of the
Government was undoubtedly the only course open to
O'Connell, whether as a man of sense, a humane Irish-
man, or a loyal subject of the Queen, but for the time
being it was a severe blow to his hopes, his self-esteem,
and his prestige. Nothing less than the devotion of the
Irish to their trusted leader could have kept them
faithful to him, so bitter was their disappointment. He
had conducted agitations for a generation past against
governments of every temper and description. He had
baffled the law officers of the Crown, laughed at statute
after statute, defied the Executive again and ngain, with
consummate dexterity. He had said, and ho still main-
tained, that the Clontarf meeting was perfectly legal ;
he had announced that he would resist by force any in-
vasion by the Government of the people's legal rights,
and after all his defiances, he had turned his cheek to
the sraiter. Between the leaders of the Young Ireland
168 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
party and O'Connell's henchmen for long no love had
been lost. The young men now began to think that
their chief was superannuated, and that his hand had
lost its cunning.
Still the matter was far from being hopeless. In the
summer O'Connell had formulated a plan for an as-
sembly, which was to be the germ of an Irish House of
Commons. He argued, somewhat pedantically it is
true, that, as Parliaments were originally summoned by
the writ of the Sovereign, it needed now no statute to
create an Irish Parliament. A little wax and parch-
ment, a royal summons to counties and boroughs to
send persons to advise the Crown, would suffice. He
proposed to collect such a body of advisers before-
hand ; to bring together in Dublin an amateur House of
Commons, as he had established throughout the country
a volunteer judiciary. The Kepealers of each locality
were to subscribe £100, and to select someone in whom
they had confidence, not to represent them, since that
would have infringed Lord Clare's Convention Act, but
to be the bearer of the £100 to Dublin. These agents
for the transmission of money, finding themselves for-
tuitously in Dublin, were to meet, to debate, to resolve,
to comport themselves like the delegates that they were
and the members of a House of Commons that they
hoped to be. Their number was to be 300; it was a
number instinct with the recollections of independent
Ireland, the number of Charlemont's assembly, the
number of Grattan's Parliament, the number of the
Dungannon Convention. Here was a plan still remain-
ing to be tried.
There was this, too, to encourage the Repealers. The
Irish Whigs had hitherto stood aloof from their move-
ment. They were fully alive to the grievances, which
LAST DAYS. 169
Temained unredressed ; they were no longer sanguine
that they ever would be remedied under existing consti-
tutional arrangements. But their leaders were men of
high rank and ancient family, such as the Duke of
Leinster and the Earl of Meath. They could not consent
iio throw in their lot with O'Connell and Barrett and
Steele, or to support Repeal pure and simple. But the
Federal idea was gaining ground among them and
Federalists were always possible Repeal recruits. Shar-
man Crawford had put forward a scheme for a subor-
dinate Irish assembly to manage Irish affairs, and an
Imperial legislature for Imperial affairs. Ross, member
for Belfast, and Oaulfield, a son of the Lord Charle-
mont who was a leader of the Volunteers in 1782, were
of the same opinion. Smith O'Brien, than whom no Irish
member was more esteemed for his family or for his
integrity, had moved in July that the House of Com-
mons should go into committee to consider the state of
Ireland. An excellent case had been made out for Irish
reforms. The Whigs had supported him ; the debate
had been carried on for five nights ; and the rejection
•of the motion brought the Whigs so much the nearer to
Repeal.
Everyone was anxious to hear what O'ConneH's next
step would be. The next Association meeting was at-
tended by a dense crowd. He spoke long, but to little
purpose. Nothing was made of the Convention scheme ;
nothing of the Whig accession. He proposed to hold
simultaneous meetings in every parish, as had been done
in 1828 ; the Government could not break up a thou-
sand meetings in a day. He had also a vague scheme
for a joint stock compiiny, which was to benefit Ireland
in some unexplained way by jobbing in Irish mortgages.
The disappointment of the Repealers was intense ; their
170 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
leader had lost his nerve. Their enemies were openly
exultant, and the Government struck another blow.
On October the 14th O'Connell, his son John, Ray^
Secretary of the Association, Steele, its Head Paci-
ficator, Barrett, editor of the Pilot, Gray, editor of the
Freeman s Journal, and Gavan DuflPy, editor of the-
Nation, were called upon to give bail to answer infor-
mations, which had been sworn against them, for a con-
spiracy to raise sedition and to excite disaffection in
the army. The indictment was sent up before the
Grand Jury on November 2nd ; they deliberated for
six days and found true bills on the 8th. The indict-
ment was an instrument of portentous size and impene-
trable obscurity. It set out at full length resolutions,
speeches, and newspaper articles. It was one hundred
yards in length ; it occupies fifty-five close-printed folio
pages in the Appendix to the Traversers^ case in the
House of Lords. There were eleven separate counts;;
forty-three overt acts were alleged ; and all the tra-
versers were charged with conspiring together to com-
mit each act, and with a general conspiracy to commit
general seditious acts. It was a masterpiece of intricate-
alternative pleading. It is too much to say that it waa
intelligible.
A vast array of counsel was retained on either side.
The Crown had a dozen barristers to represent it —
the Attorney-General, T. B. 0. Smith, afterwards
Master of the Bolls, the Solicitor-General, R. Wil-
son Greene, afterwards a Baron of the Exchequer,.
Brewster and Napier, both subsequently Lord Chan-
cellors and others. The traversers had an equally bril-
liant array — Sheil, Pigot, afterwards Chief Baron,
Monahan, afterwards Chief Justice of the Common^
Pleas, Whiteside, afterwards Chief Justice of the Queen's.
LAST BAYS. 171
Bench, O'Hagan, subsequently Lor(f Chancellor,
O'Loghlen, subsequently Judge - Advocate - General.
From the first the Irish Repealers made up their minds
that the accused would not have a fair trial, and their
newspapers encouraged the belief. Unfortunately the
unscrupulous zeal of the minor officials of the Crown
converted their prejudiced apprehension into a lament-
able truth, and it must be owned that the counsel for
the Crown availed themselves of every technical objec-
tion with illiberal pedantry.
The trial was to take place at bar, but it could not
well be held until the jury panel had been revised.
Shaw, the Recorder of Dublin, member for Dublin
University and a Privy-Councillor, was the officer before
whom the list was revised. He had made frequent and
strong complaints of the incompleteness and inadequacy
of the list of persons qualified to serve as jurors. The
revision was now at hand. The special jury panel ought
to have contained all peers and eldest sons of peers, all
esquires and all merchants, whose property was worth
£5fiOO. The existing panel showed but 388 special
jurors' names, an obviously insufficient number, and of
these, 70 were dead or disqualified. At least 300 Catho-
lics must have been entitled to have their names on
the list ; there were but 23. The returns of the col-
lectors of Grand Jury cess showed over 11,000 housen
in Dublin rated at the amount which qualified for the
common jury list. Presumably there ought to have
been a common jury list of at least 9,000 names. The
existing list contained but 5,000, and was besides
scandalously incoinplctr in other respects. These facts
were notorious. From suoli a jurors* book in such a case
a panel could not bo struck. The trial was postponed
till January 15th, 1844.
172 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
The revision took place. The Recorder enlarged the
list of special jurors from 388 to 717. On January 4th
the parties attended before the Clerk of the Crown to
strike a jury. It was pointed out on behalf of the tra-
versers that the names of 60 persons, wealthy and re-
spectable men, which had been entered by the Recorder
in the list of special jurors, had been somehow omitted
from the list, from which it was now proposed to strike
the panel. The Clerk of the Crown decided that he had
come there not to argue but to strike a panel and a panel
should be struck. The ballot produced the names of
forty persons ; eleven were Roman Catholics. One by
one Kemmis, the solicitor for the Crown, struck them
off. The jury finally consisted of twelve Protestant
tradesmen, of whom one was an Englishman. The Court
consisted of Chief Justice Pennefather and three puisne
judges. Burton, Crampton and Perrin. All were Pro-
testants, two were Tories, one was an Englishman.
The 15th came. Business in Dublin was suspended.
Huge crowds thronged the Four Courts. O'Connell
arrived at the Court in semi-royal state, riding in the
Lord Mayor^s coach and attended by the Dublin alder-
men in their robes. He took his seat in Court in wig
and gown. The judges entered, the jurors were called.
When the first person called came to the book to be
sworn, counsel for the traversers interposed with a chal-
lenge to the array and pointed to the omission of the
sixty names. The Attorney-General put in a demurrer;
he admitted the fact, and argued that it was immaterial
in law. The Court sustained the demurrer. On the
17th the jury were sworn, and the case proceeded at a
length worthy of the indictment. The Attorney-General
occupied two days in opening his case ; the evidence
for the Crown occupied seven days ; the speeches for
LAST DAYS. 17a
the traversers ten ; the reply of the Solicitor-General
three. O'Connell was the last of the traversers to speak
and his speech was a failure; it was feeble and ineffec-
tive. Late on the afternoon of the twenty-third day the
jury retired. It was a Saturday, and the hours wore on
into the night ; but no one left the Court while the-
jury were out. Shortly before twelve they returned.
They were agreed as to the substance of their verdict,,
but had a natural difficulty in adjusting it to the case
of nine traversers, eleven counts, and forty-three overt
acts. Before this nice matter could be set right mid-
night arrived. All was in doubt. The Attorney-
General was of opinion the jury must undergo further
incarceration and give their verdict on Monday; he
doubted if the verdict could be taken in the small hours
of Sunday morning. The judge directed that the jury
should remain together till Monday and proposed to
adjourn. Another learned gentleman doubted if the
Court could now adjourn ; it would be the performance
of a judicial act on Sunday, a dies non. The judge had
had doubts of his power to take the verdict and let the
wretched jurymen go to their homes; he had none of
his power to adjourn and go to his own. The Court
rose.
But practically the verdict was known. The Govern-
ment had a steamer in readiness at Kingstown ; it sped
away with the news at once, and the Times had the ver-
diot printed in London at the time it was being formally
delivered in Dublin. O'Connell, Barrett, and Duffy were
found guilty on the whole of the first three counts, except
as to the charge of acting ** maliciously and seditiously ";
on the other counts there was a general verdict of guilty
ugaiust all. Sentence was deferred until the following
term. Parliament was then in session. O'Connell onlr
174 LIFE OF. DANIEL O'GONNELL.
waited for a meeting of the General Committee before
setting out for London. But at that meeting he startled
his followers by the tone which he adopted ; in truth, the
verdict and the certain prospect of imprisonment might
well quench the spirit of a man on the verge of his
seventieth year. He urged a complete submission ; he
proposed to abandon the Arbitration Courts, and he
recommended the dissolution of the Association and its
reconstitution in some other and less obnoxious form.
The young and fighting wing were up in arms. They
had with difficulty acquiesced in the policy of abandoning
the Clontarf meeting; now they threatened, rather
than acquiesce in the dissolution of the Association, to
split the party. Smith O'Brien, who had now become an
avowed Repealer and a member of the Association, was
of the same opinion. At last a compromise was arrived
at. In the late trial the articles in newspapers, though
unauthorised by and unconnected with many of the
traversers, had formed the most serious evidence against
them. For the security of the Association all the edi-
tors of newspapers resigned their membership. Notice
was sent to the Arbitration Courts that they must no
longer have any connection with the Association.
Severed from the parent stem they speedily perished.
O'Connell crossed to England, and was enthusiasti-
cally received by the Liberals. He addressed largo
meetings at Liverpool, at Manchester, at Coventry, at
Birmingham. A great banquet was given in his honour
at Coven t Garden theatre. He entered the House of
Commons during an Irish debate, and was hailed with
enthusiastic cheers. In Parliament strong opinions
were expressed against the course of the trial by Sir
Thomas Wilde and other eminent lawyers. But in spite
of it all two adverse and significant facts appeared.
LAST DAYS, 175
The Radicals were eager for Reform ; they were hostile
to Repeal. The official Whigs held themselves aloof
altogether.
The day of sentence at length arrived. Efforts had
been made to disturb the verdict. A motion was made
at the beginning of term for a new trial on the ground
of misdirection, but it was refused. On May 30th
the traversers were called up. As he entered the
Court, O'Connell was received with vociferous ap-
plause. The traversers were called upon, and
Mr. Justice Burton pronounced the sentence of the
Court. He and O'Connell had been old friends and
companions on the Munster circuit and old rivals at
the bar. As his judgment proceeded, he was painfully
affected and even wept. The sentence upon O'Connell
was imprisonment for twelve months, a fine of £2,000,
and security in dS5,000, his own and another's, for his
good behaviour during seven years. The other traver-
sers were sentenced to nine months' imprisonment and
£50 fines. When sentence had been delivered, O'Con-
nell rose, and briefly said that justice had not been
done him. His words were caught up with cheers for
Repeal by the audience in Court, which were repeated by
the crowd outside. The prisoners were then removed,
escorted by a silent multitude, to Richmond Gaol.
In the matter of their imprisonment they were treated
with the utmost leniency. It had been privately com-
municated to them, that they would be permitted to
choose the place of their confinement. Fitzpatrick had
occupied himself with inquiries about the gaols of Ire-
land, and had ascertained that Richmond Prison was a
commodious and convenient gaol. It had the great
recommendation of being under the control of the Cor-
poration of Dublin, who oould be oouoted on even to
176 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
strain the law in order to treat them as honoured
guests, not as condemned criminals.
The prisoners were delivered into the custody of the
governor of the gaol, and their names and descriptions
entered in the usual way in the prison register, where
they may still be seen. The Board of Superintendence
was holding a meeting in the prison, and sent for
0*Connell. As he entered all rose to receive him.
He was informed that every possible concession would
be made to the comfort of the prisoners, if they would
give their parole not to misuse the indulgence by turn-
ing it into a means of escape. The pledge was given ; the
officials were permitted to let their private houses to the
prisoners ; the garden of the gaol was placed at their
disposal. They were catered for from outside, they re-
ceived their letters and visitors, and entertained guests
as if they were in their own homes. The only persons
who were refused admittance were the mayors of Cork,
Waterford, Limerick, Kilkenny, and CJonmel, who came
in state with their aldermen and town councillors to
present addresses to O'Connell. The Roman Catholic
bishops undertook in terms the duty of saying a daily
mass for O'ConnelFs benefit, and eagerly competed with
one another for the honour. Visitors to the gaol found
him walking placidly in the garden with his grandchil-
dren about him playing among the flowers, and his
fellow-prisoners engaged in various pastimes, in con-
ducting a gaol journal, the Prison Gazette, which
chronicled meetings held at the hillocks in the garden,
which they nicknamed the Hill of Tara, and the Rath of
Mullaghmasts, or in the more serious business of advis-
ing those who remained at liberty and were carrying
on the work of the Association.
Meantime, proceedings had been taken for bringing
LAST DATS, 177
the trial on appeal to the House of Lords by writ of
error. O'Connell to the very last had little expectation
that this forlorn hope could succeed. His attention was
concentrated on the proceedings of the Association,
which were being carried on under the leadership of
Smith O'Brien, and upon the conduct of the people at
large.
The people [he said] are behaving nobly. I was at first a little
afraid, despite all my teaching, that at such a crisis they would have
done either too much or too little ; either have been stung into an
outbreak, or else awed into apathy. Neither has happened. Blessed
be God I the people are acting nobly. What it is to have such a
people to lead ! In the days of the Catholic Association I used to
have more trouble than I can express in keeping down mutiny. I
always arrived in town about October 26th, and on my arrival I in-
variably 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 gene-
ral cause.
The English lawyers, however, who had now been en-
gaged for the prisoners, knew better than O'Connell
that any points of law that could be raised would be
fairly heard by the House of Lords. They assigned
error on no less than thirty-four grounds. There was
error in the composition of the jury, error in the inex-
tricable intricacies of the indictment, error in the ver-
dict, and error in the judgment. The jury was unlaw-
fully chosen ; the indictment in some oases said too little,
for it did not name the persons whom it was alleged the
prisoners had conspired to intimidate ; and in others it
said too much, for it charged the same and only con-
spiracy over and over again ; the verdict, which found
them guilty of conspiracy, was so framed as to acquit
them on its face of having conspired in common, which
was essential to the existence of the offence; the judg-
12
178 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
ment ingeniously sentenced each to imprisonment until
all had paid up the amount of their fines.
If the original indictment was formidable, the indict-
ment against it on appeal was no less so. According
to custom, the House of Lords stated questions for the
opinion of the judges, and Tindal, Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas, attended to read their opinion to the
House. The judges differed in opinion, but a majority
were against the appeal, and in particular, with little
hesitation, they held that the defect in the jury panel,
since partiality was not alleged against the sheriff, did
not invalidate the subsequent proceedings. The House
gave judgment upon September 4th. Five law lords
had heard the case, Lyndhurst, the Chancellor,
Brougham and Cottenham, ex-Chancellors, Campbell,
ex-Chancellor of Ireland, and Denman, Lord Chief
Justice. The judgments of the first four had been accu-
rately forecast; they were evenly divided. Denman,
indignant at the incompleteness of the jury panel,
turned the scale in favour of quashing the whole pro-
ceedings. If the omission of sixty names was imma-
terial, he said, why should not the sheriff have been at
liberty to add sixty names ? The persons who had
tried O'Connell were not truly jurors at all. If sheriffs
were to do their duty thus, then trial by jury was '^ a
mockery, a delusion, and a snare." Upon the judg-
ments of the law lords the proceedings were to be
quashed. In strict law any member of the House of
Lords was entitled to vote upon the question, for for-
mally the judgments in the House of Lords are speeches
in support of or against a motion. Some lay peers,
alarmed at the prospect of O'Connell's release, proposed
to vote and carry Lyndhurst's motion against their
enemy. Then Lord Wharncliffe rose, deputed by the
LAST DAYS. 179
Government, and with grave dignity appealed to them
not to violate the now well-established custom of the
House, which was to leave the decision upon questions
•of legal process to the peers who were learned in the
law. The peers bowed to his appeal to their sense of
fairness; they overcame their prejudices and withdrew,
and their enemy went free.
Away posted Ford, O'Conneirs solicitor, to Holy^
head with the news in his pocket. A steamer, the
Medusa^ was in waiting to carry him to Dublin. Eagerly
expecting the issue, were it good or evil, thousands
<5rowded the Kingstown pier on her arrival. In
an instant all was rejoicing. The engine that brought
the messenger up to Dublin was decorated with a flag,
■*' O'Connell is free,'* to spread the news by the way-
side. Away rushed Ford to Richmond and dashed
into O'ConnelFs dining-room with tears and ejacula-
tions. **Fitzpatrick," said O'Connell, reverently, "the
hand of man is not in this. It is the response given by
Providence to the prayers of the faithful, steadfast people
of Ireland." That night he left the prison and walked
home to Merrion Square ; as they met him in the streets
the people stared at him as if he had risen from the dead.
But no quiet home-coming could satisfy his admirers.
From end to end of Ireland the news had been expected,
and bonfires telegraphed from hill to hill, that the news
was good. Next day the prisoners returned to gaol to
be formally escorted home by a vast processioQ. O'Con*
nell, mounted upon a grotesque triumphal chariot, with
a harper in ancient Irish garb harping patriotic tunes
before him, and all the trades of Dublin marching before
and behind, was drawn amid thunders of applause
through the streets to his home.
But although few at first believed it, in those few
12 ♦
180 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL,
months of his imprisonment the whole scene changed.
The eyes of all Europe had heen fixed upon the trial,,
and the trial had heen represented as the struggle of in-
nocence against a legal system and a hench of judges,
which were nothing hut tools in the firm grip of the
English Government, and now in the sight of all the
world the highest English tribunal had shown its inde-
pendence of the Government, by giving a just judgment
upon a passionless point of law. It was a signal proof
to the Irish people that English justice was justice in*
deed. The sympathy of the spectators was changed ;
but the actors were changing too. While O'Connell
was in prison the forward party had obtained a greater
control over the machinery of the Association, and had
become more confirmed in the belief that the struggle
must, if necessary, be decided by an appeal to the sword ;
and unhappily, while these ardent spirits were becom-
ing more and more fiery, O'Conneirs power of con-
trolling them was fast diminishing. • While he lay in
gaol, he was attacked, secretly but certainly, by that
disease of which less than three years later he died.
The Federal idea had been steadily gaining force
among the Protestant gentry of Ireland and the English
Whigs, until it became elevated almost into an avowed
object of their policy. Nassau Senior had propounded
in the Edinburgh Review a scheme for an "itinerant
Parliament." Occasional sessions of the Imperial Le»
gislature were to be held in Dublin. Lord John Hussell
corrected the proof sheets of the article. The project met
with some favour. Many years afterwards it was al-
leged, on the authority of one who afterwards became a
Whig Cabinet Minister, and was not denied by Russell,
that the Whig leaders actually resolved to offer O^Con-
nell " an alliance, on the basis of conceding to Ireland
LAST DAYS. 181
a Parliament administeriDg Irish affairs under a system
of federal union with Great Britain." Mr. Hatohell
was sent to Dublin to sound the Irish Repealers upon
the subject. Even if this rumour were, as it probably
was, an exaggeration, it was clear that as a via media
[Federation would command no little support. O'Connell
^as disposed to forego Repeal, of which he now knew
the hope to be so shadowy, for the solid benefits, which
the English were willing to bestow as soon as the
.inertia of their unfamiliarity with Ireland was over-
come. Upon his release from prison he wrote on
October 14th to the Repeal Association a letter, in
which, after disclaiming any more monster meetings,
and keeping silence about his plan for a Convention in
Dublin, he said : —
For my own part I will own that since I have come to contemplate
the specific differences, such as they are, between simple Repeal and
Federation, I do at present feel a preference for the Federation plan,
us tending more to the utility of Ireland and the maintenance of the
connection with England than the proposal of simple Repeal. But I
must either deliberately propose or deliberately adopt from soma
other person a plan of Federative Union, before I bind myself to the
opinion which I now entertain. . . . The Federalists cannot but per-
ceive that there has been on my part a pause in the agitation for
Repeal since our liberation from unjust captivity.
The letter fell like a bomb upon the party which
found voice in the Nation ; to them it seemed, that to
abandon Repeal, after all the great things that had been
said of it for years past, was pusillanimous. It made
Ireland contemptible. Duffy issued a temperately worded
manifesto, in which he declared that a voice in the
Imperial destiny of England was a poor compensation
for a little limitation upon the Irish claim to have the
sole control of the individual destinies of Ireland ;
nothing could satisfy him but tlio restoration of Ireland's
ancient and historic constitution. Smith O'Brien was
182 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
as yet mute. O'Connell wrote to him on the 21st a
letter, in which he dwelt on the importance of their
common agreement and propounded a Federal plan, of
which he said : —
While all matters of taxation, commercial and ecclesiastical policy,
as well as the general taxation and expenditure of the United King-
dom, would by such an arrangement remain, as now, within the
exclusive control of the Imperial Legislature, such matters as the
regulation and disposition of local taxation, the relief of the poor and
the development of the natural resources of the country would be
provided for by the local assembly, which must necessarily be better
qualified to discharge such functions.
We utterly disclaim any intention of rendering the proposed mea-
sures in any degree subservient to the severance of the legislative
connection between Great Britain and Ireland, which, thus reformed,
we shall deem it our duty, as we believe it will be our interest, by
every means in our power to maintain.
But it speedily became apparent that except among
his own sycophants, who would have accepted any
policy from his hands, O'ConnelFs suggestion of adopt-
ing Federation found no favour. The Protestants, who
followed Sharman Crawford, personally distrusted him.
The English Whigs, unaware, perhaps, of any change
of opinion among their leaders, adhered to the Whig cry
of Keform but no Repeal ; the Irish Repealers, one
and all, denounced any concession. O'Connellfelt that
the reins were slipping from his grasp. It was not thus
that in the heyday of his powers his suggestions were
disputed ; unfortunately, too, it was not thus that he
had been accustomed to crush a mutineer. He recanted.
He returned to Dublin from Darrynane amid the
usual signs of enthusiasm and popularity, banquets,,
addresses, and torchlight processions. He attended the
Association meeting on November 25th, and practically
announced that his Federalism had been a temporary
ruse adopted to attract the Federalists, a tub to catch/
LAST DAYS, 183
a whale. If they assented they would have been drawn
into the Repeal circle ; if they refused they would have
been made to appear opinionated and in the wrong.
After the liberation of the state prisoners [he said] advances had
been made to him by men of large influence and large property, who
talked of seeking Repeal on what they called the Federal Plan. He
inquired what the Federal Plan was, but nobody could tell him. He
called upon them to propose their plan, the view in his own mind
being that Federalism could not commence till Ireland had a parlia-
ment of her own, because she would not be on a footing with England
till possessed of a parliament to arrange her own terms. The Fede-
ralists were bound to declare their plan, and he had conjectured that
there was something advantageous in it, but he did not go any further;
he expressly said he would not bind himself to any plan. . . . He had
expected the assistance of the Federalists, and opened the door as
wide as he could without letting out Irish liberty. But [said he,
snapping his fingers], let me tell you a secret ; Federalism is not
worth that. Federalists, I am told, are still talking and meeting. . . .
I wish them well. Let them work as well as they can, but they are
none of my children — I have nothing to do with them.
In truth, O'Connell's position in relation to Repeal
never had been the same as that of the more advanced
and fanatical of his party. His rooted belief was that
no political advantage was worth having at the cost of
shedding one drop of blood. They were not far from
thinking that Irish liberties were not worth having
until they had been baptized with English blood shed
by Irish hands. There could be no lasting union be-
tween two such views. O'Conneirs practical mind
shrank from rejecting present boons when nothing
better could be got ; he knew tlint when a peaceful
agitation had missed fire, as the Repeal agitation had, to
prolong it was to be ridiculous ; for criminal he would
not be, and prolonged agitation of the pattern of 1843
would either lead him to the crime of rebellion, or
would fritter itself away. He was looking anxiously
round for a practicable policy and a practicable goal.
184 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
He knew his countrymen better than the Young Ire-
land party did, and saw that they did not walk in
processions and pay Kepeal rents — the rent, which had
averaged £500 a week during the trial, had risen to
£2,500 and £3,000 a week during the imprisonment — for
nothing. They looked for legislative advantages, and
expected to feel the advantage in their pockets. A boon
such as that must be obtained peacefully and from Eng-
land. But to the Young Ireland party a boon from
England seemed no better than a penny tossed to a
beggar, and they detested the policy which accepted it,»
When the Repeal party was thus on the verge of break-
ing up, Peel accelerated the process by offering
remedial legislation to Ireland. His mind had been
much impressed with the debate on Smith O'Brien's
motion in 1843. There had been another long debate
on the causes of Irish discontent on Russeirs motion in
the spring of 1844. The Devon Commission, appointed
in 1843, conducted an exhaustive inquiry into the Irish
land question in 1844, and reported early in 1845.
Peel, now informed upon the question, braved the
fanaticism of some of his party, and proposed
substantial reform. The Irish were to be educated.
For the benefit of the priests the Maynooth grant was
almost trebled, and was made permanent and placed
beyond the reach of controversy ; for the laity it was
proposed to establish three Queen's Colleges at a cost
of £100,000, and to endow them with £7,000 a year,
and the education given in them was to be secular.
O'Connell was in some difficulty in the matter.
Through Mr. Petre, an unaccredited agent, backed by
the powerful influence of the agent of the Austrian
Monarchy, the Government had succeeded in obtaining
from the See of Rome a letter from Cardinal Fransoni,
LAST DAYS. 185
Prefect of the Propaganda, to Archbishop Crolly, depre-
cating the lively part which Irish priests were taking in
political agitation. Most of the Irish bishops evaded
the monition by interpreting it as a warning against
excessive zeal on the part of their clergy, but a minority
deferred to it by withdrawing all ecclesiastical support
from the agitation. Now the Maynooth grant was
likely still further to alienate the priests. And yet it
was difficult to oppose it.
As time progressed, however, he became decidedly
hostile to the Government plan of provincial colleges.
The Bill was introduced on May 9th, and was well re-
ceived by the House of Commons. In Ireland some of
the bishops, the Young Ireland party, and the Protes-
tants, also welcomed it. In the General Committee, in
spite of O'Connell's opposition, a majority was favour-
able to it. He was impatient of such a result. Davis
suggested that to avoid the spectacle of open divisions
the question should not be dealt with by the Asso-
ciation at all. O'Connell would have none of the
-suggestion. He brought it before a full meeting in
Conciliation Hall. Sir Robert Inglis, member for the
University of Oxford, had stigmatized the projected col-
leges as *' godless colleges." This was said from the
extreme Protestant point of view. O'Connell thanked
him for teaching him that word, and, as a Gatholicy
denounced them too as ** godless.*' His son John,
■a poor-spirited bigot, who aspired to be his sue*
cessor, and already possessed a great influence over
his father's mind and the proceedings of the Asso-
ciation, followed in the same tone. O'Connell proposed
-Catholic colleges in Cork and Galway. and a Presbyterian
college in Belfast. To the Young Ireland men, who
<oared for nothing except as a means to Repeal, and for
186 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNFLL.
that end were ardently working for a union of Catholics-
and Protestants in one party, this seemed madness. It
had been bad enough when O'Connell treated the Fede-
ralists with discourtesy, not to say contempt. To see
all their efforts at union destroyed by this rekindling of
religious strife was more than they could bear. They
openly dissented from their leader in the Association
Hall. At a subsequent meeting, what had been merely
the cut and thrust of debate, became the blows and
wounds of personality. O'Connell denounced the Bill
as ** execrable," and prejudicial to ** faith and morals.'^
A clever bat dissolute free-lance named Conway rose
and attacked Davis and his party, declaring that their
indifference to the perilous character of the Bill was
only part of their general indifference to religion. Some
of them were Protestants; in an assembly consisting
principally of ardent Catholics the hit told. O^Connell
so far forgot himself as to wave his cap round his head
in unrestrained applause. Davis denied the charge-
O'Connell came into collision with him, and used words
which, whatever Davis might do, his followers could not
forgive : —
The principle of the Bill [said he] has been lauded bj" Mr. Davis,
and was advocated in a newspaper professing to be the organi
of the Roman Catholic people of this country, but which I emphati-
cally pronounce to be no such thing. The section of politicians styling
themselves the Young Ireland party, anxious to rule the destinies of
this country, start up and support this measure. There is no such
party as that styled Young Ireland. There may be a few individuals
who take that denomination on themselves. I am for Old Ireland.
*Tis time that this delusion should be put an end to. Young Ireland
may play what pranks they please. I do not envy them the namd-
they rejoice in. I shall stand by Old Ireland, and I have some slight
notion that Old Ireland will stand by me.
The deed was done. Though Davis and O'Connell
became reconciled before the meeting separated, thera
LAST DAYS. 187
could after this be no peace between the Young Ireland
and the Old.
O'Connell had always been intolerant of any opposi*
tion to his will among his followers, though with com-
bined good nature and good sense he had never been
jealous of expressions of mere verbal dissent. The feud
between him and TheO'Gorman Mahon arising out of the
Clare election of 1830 remained open for several years>
and about 1833 O'Connell refused him admission to hia
National Trades Union. Galway, one of the Repeal
members, had voted with the Government in one of the
divisions upon the Coercion Bill of 1833. At the earliest
opportunity he was drummed -out of the party. But
now O'Connell had far more cause than pique or
jealousy to turn him against the party of the
Nation, Davis died, and they began to get somewhat
out of hand. Some newspaper had pointed out the
military advantage, in case of a rebellion, of the pro-^
jected system of Irish railways ; it brought all Ireland
within a few hours of the garrison of Dublin. Mitchell
replied with an article in the NalioHy explaining to hypo-
thetical iusurgcnts the best modes of disabling the rail-
ways. O'Connell opeuly disapproved of the article.
The Government prosecuted Duffy, the editor of the
Nation. O'Connell declined to say anything in his
defence.
Soon it became clear that the old agitation for Repeal
was abandoned and that O'Connell was returning to the
policy of supporting the Whigs, whioh he had pursued
from 1835 to 1840. During the autumn of 1845 he
had, at various provincial meetings, pressed for the for-
mation of a Parliamentary party. He called for the
return of sixty-five Repealers at the next General Elec-
tion. In particular he warned Sheil that he must
188 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
accept the Kepeal pledge or lose his seat. In December,
during the crisis when Russell attempted and failed to
form a Ministry and Peel was compelled to resume the
Government, he made a long speech in the Repeal Asso-
ciation, unmistakeably offering the Whigs the support of
the Repeal party in return for a very moderate programme
of Irish reform. In May 1846 he attended a meeting of
Lord John Russell's followers at his house in Chesham
Place. At the end of June Peel fell and O'Connell entered
into an alliance with the new Whig Ministry. Ministers
with Irish seats were not to be opposed ; one of them
was Sheil, who sat for Dungarvan. He was the new
Master of the Mint. The patronage of Ireland was in
return to be at O'Connell's disposal as it had been under
Lord Melbourne's Administration. This brought the
conflict with the Young Ireland party to a head at once.
O'Connell had ceased to be willing to tolerate them ;
they would follow the banner of no captain of Whig
mercenaries. By tactics, adroit but disingenuous,
O'Connell contrived to let Shell's election pass without
opposition. The Young Ireland party considered this
a disgrace to the cause of Repeal. But they were most
anxious not to abandon the Association. John O'Con-
nell was scheming for the succession to his father:
Elijah's mantle was to fall upon him. He wished to be
not less an autocrat than his father was, and therefore
he was anxious to expel the Young Ireland members,
to crush the Nation, and leave himself without check
or rival. They were equally anxious to thwart this
plan. O'Connell, himself sincerely alarmed at the tone,
or what he believed to be the tone, of the Nation, was
now worked upon by his son to take steps to assert his
own authority and to drive the party of the Nation into
secession. He proposed the adoption by the Associa-
LAST DAYS. 18^
tion of a report, pledging its members to a renunciation
of the use of physical force in the agitation under any
circumstances whatever. The pledge was a purely gra-
tuitous one. As an abstract theorem of politics, it was
maintained by none but Quakers, and hardly acted on
by them. O'Connell himself had a thousand times
over used language in flat contradiction of it. As a
motion of immediate expediency, it was unnecessary,
because, in spite of Mitcheirs article, nobody was at
present advocating the employment of physical force.
But it was a stroke of very great ingenuity. To oppose
it for its own sake looked seditious, and, coupled with
the existing charge of infidelity, was certain to alienate
the Roman Catholic clergy. To oppose it on the
ground that it was needless and irrelevant was to expose
its opponents to the charge of a pedantic or vexatious
hindrance of the policy of the Liberator. Meagher, a
lad of fiery eloquence, whose subsequent speech
upon this pledge earned him the title of Meagher
** of the sword/* made matters worse by charging one
of O'ConnelFs henchmen with having sought and obtained
a Government place, a charge all the more unpalatable
for being true. The adoption of the pledge was cnrricd
all but unanimously. The Young Ireland pnrty did not
instantly retire, but it only needed a little discourteous
interruption and hectoring from John O'Connell to
drive them out. The Association was purged of its for-
ward party, and O'Connell was free to act up to his
parliamentary alliance with the Whigs. But the seces-
sion reduced the Association to impotence and O'Con-
nell did not live to serve his allies.
While these dissensions and intrigues were proceeding
in Dublin and London, Ireland was passing through the
very darkest of her many hours of suffering. The Irish
190 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
people, which had multiplied beyond the normal capa-
city of the soil to support it, had come to depend for its
existence upon a single root. The potato was a crop
more abundant, more easily cultivated, and more nutri-
tious than any other. But it is unfortunately liable
to the attacks of a disease, which, unforeseen and
beyond the reach of any remedy, destroys the entire
<}rop with unexampled rapidity. In October 1845 this
disease made its appearance and spread slowly. Soon
the people of Ireland were starving by thousands. But
Ireland's adversity was England's opportunity, and the
helping hand of public and private charity was nobly
held out for her succour. It was hoped that the crop
of 1846 would be a full one ; instead of being a full one
it perished with an almost instantaneous blight. In
July the traveller from Cork to Dublin found the crop
all around him luxuriant, plenteous, and sound. A
week later he returned through a country covered with
jTotting vegetation and sickly with the smell of decay.
Where thousands had wanted the autumn before, scores
of thousands died of hunger in 1846, and scores of
thousands more of the fever and pestilence which fol-
lowed in the track of famine. It was a misery that
mocked the powerlessness of agitation. O'Connell's
tmind was distressed by the dissensions in the Associa-
tion, by the rash and daring projects which he believed
the Young Ireland party entertained, by the disappoint-
ment which had fallen upon the rosy hopes of 1843.
But beside the famine these were light matters. When
he went in the autumn to Darrynane, he passed through
a country that seemed accursed; where he had been
accustomed to see crowds of rejoicing and triumphant
supporters, he met troops of haggard and wasted
wretches, whose sufferings were beyond human help.
LAST DAYS. 191
It was to this all his agitation had brought him. After
fifty years of effort and thirty years of triumph, he felt
that he was passing from the scene with nothing but
-distress to cloud his present, and no cheering hopes of
the future to console him. He was going down to his
grave, and there
Vestibultun ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci
Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae :
Pallentesque habitant Morbi tristisque Senectus
Et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas
Terribiles visu formae.
His end, indeed, was now near at hand. In addition
to the woes of his country which he saw around him,
his faculties had long been decaying under the strain of
private anxieties. He was now visibly a broken man.
-Shortly before his imprisonment, though all but seventy
years of age, he had fallen deeply in love with a girl
. hardly out of her teens, an Englishwoman and a Pro-
testant. Her persistent refusals to marry him allayed
neither his passion nor his disturbance of mind. His
•religious austerities increased ; his family began to fear
that he might take the Trappist vows. Fierce attacks
were made on him for his inveterate habit of controlling
the expenditure of the Repeal Association, without
{)ermitting the accounts to be published. He dis-
dained the imputations upon his honesty, but he
•could not forget that the best friends of the cause
condemned his refusal to publish the accounts.
During the misery of the famine the Tufu*8 sent a
special correspondent to investigate the condition
of his estates about Darrynane, and pubhshed a
very dark account of his conduct as a landlord.
The warfare of oontradictions, which this entailed,
was very harassing to his health. His physical
192 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
powers now gave way. He paid his last visit to Darry-
nane in September 1846 ; his once upright figure wa»
bent ; the vivacity of manner and the elasticity of foot-
step, which had long been remarkable in him, were
gone ; he shuffled rather than walked into his house.
On the 26th of January 1847 he left Ireland for the
last time and the darkness of the hour was accentuated
by the fact that on the steamer, among his fellow-pas-
sengers, there chanced to be a Protestant clergyman and
a Catholic priest, both visiting England to beg alms
for their starving parishioners. He appeared in Parlia-
ment on February 8th, and solemnly warned the Go-^
vernment that they little realised how great was the
misery and disaster impending over Ireland. A quarter
of the people must die if the House would not save
them, and that could be done only by some great
act of national charity. It was a solemn appeal and
the House listened to it with respect, but the change .
in O'Connell himself was distressing. His eloquence
was gone. He appeared to be '* a feeble old man mut-
tering at a table " ; his figure was shrunk ; his once
splendid voice was so feeble that it could scarcely be
heard. He was but the wreck of himself.
He went to Hastings to recover a little strength and
then to Folkestone. But he knew ho was a dying man,,
and he was eager at all hazards, before he died, to .reach
Kome, the sacred seat of his Church. He embarked
amid a great crowd, and on March 22nd reached Bou-
logne. He was visited at his hotel, the Hotel des
Bains, by the Abbe van Drival, a canon of Arras. He
was wearing his green and gold Liberator's cap, but he
.was feeble, full of the preoccupation of death, full of the
fear that he had not strength to reach Rome. The
Abbe wished him better health. *' God's will be
LAST DAYS. 198
done/* said O'Connell in an inexpressibly solemn
tone.
Sa tete [says the Abb^] etait enorme, sa face carree comme la fac«
d*uii lion ; ses traits etaient fortement marques ; le feu jaillissaii
de ses yeux pourtant. ... II etait e'rident qu' O'Connell e'tait alors
preoccupe sans ccsse d'une seule idee, qui ne le quittait plus, et dont
on m*avait recommande de ne lui point parler, les malheurs d'Irlande,
les folies d* O'Brien.*
Travelling by slow stages he reached Paris on the
26th. At the Hotel Windsor great numbers of per-
sons came to visit him, among them Montalembert and
De Berryer. He consulted Doctors Chomel and Oliffe
and was told that he was dying of a lingering congestion
of the brain of two or three years standing. By slow
degrees he was brought by Nevers, Moulines, and Lapa-
lisse to Lyons, which he reached on April 11th. There
he was detained for several days by frost and snow.
The people took the liveliest interest in his welfare ;
prayers were said for his recovery in all the churches.
If he walked abroad, crowds gathered round him, but,
oppressed by melancholy, his head hung down, moving
by slow and painful steps, he did not notice tbem. He
left Lyons on the 22nd, and passing through Avignon^
reached Marseilles on May 3rd. The day but one after
he sailed for Genoa, and on arriving went to the Hotel
Fader. He never left it alive. He was attended by
Dr. Miley of Dublin as his chaplain, and his faithful
valet Duggan. He was soon very ill ; leeches were
applied but gave him no relief. Presently he became
delirious, and was oppressed with a haunting fear that
lie might be buried before life had really left his body.
For some days, with occasional intervals of conscious-
ness, he remained in this condition. At dawn on the
* (/Connell et /« ColUge Anglai$ Sl OmtTi par Louis Ommk,
ArrM, 1867.
18
J 94 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
morning of the 15th, the Cardinal Archbishop of Genoa,
though in extreme old age, came at a hasty summons
and administered the last sacraments of the Koman
Church. ** All Genoa was praying for him.'' His last
hour had indeed come ; at half-past nine that night he
died.
His will directed that his heart should be removed
and buried in Rome. His body was taken to the
hospital on the day after his death and embalmed. His
heart was placed in an urn and taken to Eome, and
there, with many pompous obsequies, placed in the
Church of St. Agatha, where there is a monument to
him representing him at the bar of the House of
Commons refusing the old Parliamentary oath. His
body was brought to Ireland and reached Dublin in
August. It was received with almost royal honours
and was buried on the 5th in Glasnevin cemetery.
In 1869 an Irish round tower, 165 feet high, was erected
to his memory and his body was then removed to a
crypt at its base.
195
CHAPTER X.
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHABACTBB.
Hie wife and family — His domestic life and amasements — ffis per-
sonal piety — His appearance — His oratory — His political cha-
racter and achievements.
O'OoNNELL lived from his thirtieth to his Latest year
full in face of the public. The law courts, the platform,
or the House of Commons, claimed all his energies and
most of his time. Though devotedly attached to his
family and his domestic life, they formed but a small
part of his existence. He married on June 23rd 1802 a
distant relative, Mary, daughter of Dr. Edward O'Con-
nell of Tralee ; the marriage, which was contrary to the
wishes of his uncle Maurice, was celebrated privately in
Dame Street, Dublin, in the lodgings of James Connor,
the bride's brother-in-law. Maurice O'Connell was at
first deeply offended at the mntch^ but presently became
reconciled to it. Of this marriage a numerous family
was born : four sons, Maurice, Morgan, and John, all
at different times members of ParliamtMit, and f)anicl ;
and three daughters, £llen, who married Christopher
Fitzsimon, Catharine, who married Charles O'Connell,
18 •
196 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
and Elizabeth, who married Nicholas French of Fort
William, Roscommon. Surrounded by his family, he
took the little distraction that he allowed himself from
his profession and his agitation. His life was sternly
laborious and punctiliously methodical.
He told me [says Mrs. Nicol]that for twenty-five years of his life he
rose soon after four, lighted his own fire, and was always seated at
business at five ; at half -past eight one of his little girls came by turns
to announce breakfast ; gave an hour to that. At half-past ten he set
oflF to the Court-house, walked two miles therein twenty-five minutes,
always reached the Court five minutes before the judges arrived.
From eleven to half-past three was not a minute unoccupied ; at half-
past three he returned, taking the office of the Catholic Association
on his way. He always went in (the regular meetings were only
once a week), read the letters, wrote a sentence or two in reply, out of
which his secretary wrote a full letter. Returned home, dined at
four ; with his family till half -past six, then went to his study -
went to bed at a quarter before ten, his head on his pillow always
at ten.
After he gave up practice at the bar, about the time
when he entered Parliament, he was less stern with
himself^ and the family breakfast hour became ten.
But it was at Darrynane that his real moments of hap-
piness were passed. It had been the home of his boy-
hood, and it was the solace of his old age. He found
in wandering upon the Atlantic shores, or among the
mountains of Kerry, food at once for his imagination
and for the vein of melancholy that ran through his as
it runs through all Irish natures. His enjoyment of
nature in contrast to the sordid business, in which he
was obliged to spend so much of his time, was keen. In
1829 he wrote regretfully to a friend of his night jour-
ney through the Kerry Hills from Darrynane to Cork to
defend the Doneraile prisoners : " At ten that morning,
after that glorious feast of soul, I found myself settled
down amid all the rascalities of an Irish Court of Jus-
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER, 197
tice." To the Kerry sport of hare-hunting with beagles
among the hills, he was passionately attached. His
pack was famous all over Ireland. At night he would
go round his drawing-room and ask his guests, ** Are
you for the mountain in the morning ? ^' and gave
orders for the huntsman to call the sportsmen at 4 a.m.
Equipped with a long wooden staff, he followed hifT
dogs on foot, even in his old age, with extraordinary
vigour and fleetness. While his companions beat for
game, he would hold a hasty court to arbitrate upon the
quarrels of his tenants, and would break away from them
to cheer on his beagles, and pursue the chase from one
hill-top to another. Breakfast was brought out to the
hillside, but the party,' however fasting, was not allowed
to sit down till two hares at least had been killed. At
breakfast he eagerly devoured the contents of his post-
bag ; but when the time came for starting the hunt
again, he impetuously strewed the grass with the letters
and newspapers that he threw away. In such hard sport
his day was spent, and at dark he would return home
the freshest of the whole party. When he refused to be
<Jhief Baron, ** I don't at all deny," said he, ** that the
office would have had great attractions for me. There
would not be more than eighty days duty in the year.
I would take a country house near Dublin and walk
into town, and during the intervals of judicial labour
1 'd go to Darrynane. I should bo idle in the early
part of April, just when the jack hares leave the most
splendid trails on the mountains.'' In 1840, when ho
was sixty-five, he wrote to bis son John that he had
killed five hares in one day, and it was always to Dar-
rynane that ho turned whenever he could snatch a brief
respite from the toils of agitation.
There he kept almost open house. His relatives
19H . LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL,
alone were very numerous, for he had twenty-one
uncles and aunts, and seven married sisters, and wa»
kind to all his kinsfolk ; but visitors from abroad, and
even the casual tourist who passed his door, were hos-
pitably received. His table was generally laid for thirty
at Darrynane. In Dublin he lived for nearly forty
years at 30 Merrion Square south, and there he loved
to make a handsome figure. He set up his carriage when
he had been a few years at the bar, and his green coach
and his footmen in green liveries were a striking sight
in the streets of Dublin. He was burthened, too, with
the expense of a house in London during the session of
Parliament. Generally he lived in Langham Place, but
in 1832 he had a house in Albemarle Street, and in
1835 at 9 Clarges Street. All these expenses, together
with agitation, elections, and the maintenance of his
sons in Parliament, caused him an enormous annual
outlay, and he was a man habitually careless of money^
He lived in a world where debt was no discredit, and
had little time to spare for the regulation of his private
affairs. Shortly after he was called to the bar he ac^
cepted bills to accommodate a friend, which hampered
him for twenty years, nor was he ever free from embar-
rassments. And yet his means were large. In addition
to his professional income, his patrimony was handsome.
His uncle Maurice died, a childless widower, in 1825,.
and left his estates at Darrynane to his nephew. They
were estimated to be worth 5^4,000 a year, though as to
one-half O'Connell is said to have had only a life^
interest. By the death of his uncle, Count Daniel, in
1834 he also inherited a considerable fortune. Fifty
thousand pounds was subscribed for him in 1829 after
the passing of the Relief Act, and the O'Connell Tri-
bute or National Annuity subsequently became an
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHABAGTEB. 199
annual offering. It was managed for him with great
skill by Patrick Vincent Fitzpatrick, a wit and bon
vivant who did not concern himself with politics, and
was collected in sums of 10s. and 5s., chiefly from the
clergy and middle classes. A day was fixed for its
simultaneous collection in chapels and other places, and
a writer of repute was employed to compose a eulogy
upon its object. Its gross amount averaged £15,000,
but the expenses of collection were so heavy as to reduce
its proceeds to O'Connell to £10,000.
He was virulently attacked for receiving this tribute,
and was called " the big beggarman," and a ** paid
patriot." But, since the controversies of his lifetime
have been calmed, no fair man has condemned him for
taking the free offerings of a people, for whose service
he had resigned his profession and spent all his ener-
gies. Yet he died poor, and left his family little more
than a competence. His conduct in money matters was
fiercely assailed, and be was charged with mismanage-
ment of the large sums of the Catholic and Repeal Rent
which passed through his hands, but not one of these
charges could be sustained. It should be remembered
that for years he had only to ask, and he might have
procured for every one of his male relatives lucrative
and easy Government posts. Yet the only offices his
relatives held were a stipendiary magistracy hold by his
son-in-law, and a registrarship by his son Maurice,
which was not given at his desire.
Altliough when first he returned from France he was
affected by some sceptical doubts, through all the years
of his latter life ho was devoutly and sincerely pious.
He employed the leisure hours of his first years at the
bar in translating Arnaud's Proofs of the Infallibility
of the Church. In 1824 and 1826 he engaged in public
200 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
controversies with Mr. Noel and with Daly, afterwards
Bishop of Cashel. His theological learning, however,
was small. It was his habit, however busy he was, how-
ever late he had gone to rest, in Dublin and in London
constantly to attend early mass at some neighbouring
chapel, and at Darrynane, his domestic chaplain. Father
O'Sullivan, celebrated mass daily at 9 a.m. In August
1838 he performed a retreat of great austerity at the Cis-
tercian Convent of Mount Melleraye in Waterford. To be-
guile the tedium of his long and wearisome journeys from
meeting to meeting, he was accustomed to repeat to
himself Latin hymns. That he was unconscious of the
edifying effect upon both priests and people of such dis-
tinguished piety is not likely ; but ifwould be equally
unreasonable to suppose, that he was prompted to it
by anything but the natural impulse of a religious mind.
In all his correspondence with bishops and clergy and
constantly in speaking of them he used language of
deference, not to say subjection, which now has a very
singular appearance and in his later days gave some
offence to the younger generation by whom he was sur-
rounded. Nature had given him, and his foreign edu-
cation had increased, a hierocratic turn of mind, which
made him rest gladly upon the authority of the priest-
hood, and act with them without misgiving or misun-
derstanding.
His personal appearance was impressive. He was
but half-an-inch under six feet in height, but a round-
ness about the shoulders, which increased his naturally
burly and ecclesiastical appearance, rather diminished
his apparent stature. His figure was broad and thick, his
step energetic and swift, and in his customary green coat
and broad-brimmed hat, striding swiftly along, he was a
well-known and remarkable figure about the streets of
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER. 201
Dublin. His mouth and the lower part of his face were
'beautifully shaped, but his nose was short, and gave to
its upper part a rather vulgar appearance. As a young
man his complexion was very ruddy ; his eyes were keen
blue, and from middle-life he habitually wore a black
wig. Such was his face in repose, but when excited or
animated, it was extraordinarily mobile, and flashed
with every phase of emotion. Humour, pathos, scorn,
iindignation, hopefulness, or gloom, all seemed equally
the natural expression of a face, which instantly reflected
•every mood of the feeling within. Though he greatly
•disliked sitting for portraits, many exist. The earliest
is a pencil sketch, dated 1810, and engraved in Miss
•Cusack's life of him. There is also a portrait by Ha-
verty in the National Bank and another by Catterson
Smith in the Municipal Chamber at the City Hall,
Dublin, and he also sat to Duval and to Wilkie. There
are statues of him by Hogan in the Dublin City Hall
and at Limerick, by Foley in Dublin, and by Cahill in
Ennis.
No doubt there was in his composition a oertain rude
animalism^ almost inseparable from a nature so
buoyant, so energetic, so indefatigable. He appears
after his marriage to have been engaged in at least
one intrigue, the fruit of which was a natural
son, who was born about 1820, and to whom and
his mother he behaved with considerable neglect.
In manner ho was obliging, suave, kindly, especially
to children, of whom he was very fond. In spite of
the violence which he displayed towards his public
•opponents he was singularly forbearing to private
^enemies; he never made use of his powers to their
injury, and often employed it for their promotion or
advantage.
202 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
One so busy as he was from manhood to old age, had
naturally scant time for study. He appears to have
had little scholarship, and beyond his profession little
learning, though his great talent enabled him to put
all he knew to the best use. He was an admirer of
Dickens, and read novels eagerly but few other books. .
His speeches owe singularly little to quotation or
allusion. For his jest upon Stanley and his seceding
companions,
See down thy vale, romantic Ashbourne, glides
The Derby dilly carrying six insides,
he is said to have been indebted to Romayne, member-
for Clonmel ; and almost his only other witticism that
owes anything to literature is the well-known parody
upon Colonels Sibthorp, Percival, and Verny : —
Three colonels in three distant counties born,
Lincoln, Armagh, and Sligo did adorn :
The first in matchless impudence surpassed,
The next in bigotry, in both the last.
The force of nature could no further go,
To beard the third she shaved the other two.
His publications were almost confined to his nume-
rous letters upon public questions, of which perhaps the
best is his Letter to the Earl of Shrewshury, in 1842..
He also began a work called a Memoir on Ireland,
'Native and Saxon, published in 1843, an extremely
amorphous and ill-digested book, which has not even*
the merit of being thoroughly accurate. It never got
beyond one volume. In 1836 he became, with Dr.
Wiseman, part-editor and proprietor of the Dublin
RevieiVy but whether he took any part in writing for it
does not appear. A long article upon his uncle, Count
Daniel O'Connell, which appeared in the journals of
1834, is also attributed to him. His knowledge of
DOMESTIC LIFE AND GHAUACTEB. 205
French literature was small ; but he spoke French fairly
well, though not with perfect ease. In December 1835
he was approached on behalf of the "Lyons conspira-
tors," who were to be tried on a charge of high treason
before the French chamber of peers, and was asked to
go to France as their advocate. His answer — a refusal
— is interesting. He says : —
I am restraiued from attempting it by one only motive, the convic-
tion of sheer incapacity to perform that duty eflBciently in the French
language. It is true that I understand the language well, but I can-
not speak it with that abundant fluency, which so imj)oii;ant an argu-
ment would require. I never write out any discourse beforehand, nor
could I do it without utterly cramping the force and nerve of the
very limited talent I possess, and my command of the French lan-
guage is not sufficient to enable me to translate my ideas as I went
along in speaking without embarrassing my powers of thought.
But as an orator O'Connell had very great genius ;
in oratory he found his natural and constant ex-
pression. Yet he had the strength of mind never to
give the reins to his tongue for the mere purpose of
personal display. In the conduct of a cause he was in
every moment an actor ; he affected extreme careless-
ness to cover his anxiety, indignation to hide a bad case,
bonhomie to put a witness off his guard, woe to touch
the feelings of a jury, and he never allowed himself to
make a fine speech at the cost of his client. ** Ah ! " he
said, '' a speech is a fine thing, but the verdict is the
great thing." Thus playing a part at will, and never,
in his most impassioned moments, losing his self-
oontrol, ho adapted himself with marvellous versa-
tility to every audience and every style of address. In
the Crown Court, at nuti prius, or in banco ; before
a mob. a committee, or the House of Commons, he
played the tolc suited to the place. Where too many
of the great Irish barristers had been helpless unless
204 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
they were appealing to all the noblest passions of hu*
inanity, he could argue a right of way case or a nice
point upon a criminal indictment, without rhetoric and
as a lawyer should argue it. Before a mass meeting he
was a demagogue, bold, rollicking, emotional ; in the
House of Commons he put off the demagogue and spoke
clearly and calmly, except when he dealt about swash-
ing blows with calculated ferocity. In the conduct of
the multifarious business of the Catholic or the Repeal
Association, he was rapid, matter-of-fact, and business-
like; and in an after-dinner speech he could draw upon
an unfailing fund of wit or pathos to adorn an oration
about nothing at all. Never preparing his speeches,
he showed a roughness in his mode of expression,
which, though often more trenchant and telling than the
most carefully prepared rhetoric, was still oftener in-
elegant and cumbrous. In Sheil's often quoted phrase,
** He brings forth a brood of lusty thoughts without a
rag to cover them." M. Duvergier speaks of him as
" throwing out his opinions in a negligent manner,"
and N. P. Rogers describes his speaking as '^ public
talk." He never scrupled to repeat himself; indeed, it
was one of his devices to hit upon some telling phrase,
which an ignorant audience could carry away, to repeat it
over and over again in every form, and to do this at meet-
ing after meeting, untilby constant reiteration the public
had thoroughly learnt its lesson. This habit of repetition
occasionally took odd forms. He was fond of making
gushing allusions in his speeches to his mother, his
wife, his children, and his grandchildren. After his wife's
death in 1826, he said in one of his speeches : ** But that
subject brings me back to a being of whom I dare not
speak in the profanation of words. No ! I will not
mention that name," and so forth. For once this was
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER. 205
all very well ; having accidentally reminded himself of
his lost wife, the bereaved widower might well check
himself thus. But Daunt heard him repeat this im-
promptu in public speeches several times, and always in
identically the same words. To wear one*s heart on
one's sleeve in this way, and affect to find it painful,
strikes the spectator as being curiously inconsistent ;
yet no doubt each time that he said it, O'Connell, accus-.
tomed for thirty years to feel in public, was perfectly
sincere, and saw no reason why he should not use over
again a passage which had so often proved efficacious
before. His readiness and self-possession in controlling
an audience were marvellous. During the Repeal year-
he was anxious to restrain his followers from violent
expressions of hatred towards the Government without
at the same time giving them offence. ** I wish a crow
picked Peel's eyes out," bawled an angry auditor parenthe-
tically at one of the great meetings. ** I wish a crow,"
retorted O'Connell instantly, " came and stuffed your
mouth with potatoes." On another occasion, when the
people were densely packed together, a horse, picketed
on the fringe of the crowd, broke loose and caused a
panic. There was an alarm that the meeting was
charged by dragoons. In a mom(»nt a dangerous stam-
pede would have begun. ** Stop," thundered O'Connell
at the top of his voice, and the crowd stopped instantly
and order was restored. At another meeting, which
was held in a loft, it had been thought necessary to<
underpin the floor, to provide for the weight of the
crowd. O'Counell was speaking, when word was passed
to him that the floor was unsafe, and that the stays wen^
giving way. 1 lo calmly finished his sentence, and then
said that circumstances rendered it necessary to adjourn
the meeting to a plot of vacant land hard by, and4
206 LIFE OF DANIEL 0' CON NELL.
asked the people to file out and go there. In a few
moments it became plain that this would not be done
without a dangerous amount of jostling. Then he
quietly told them the state of the case, ordered them to
file out right and left, two and two, at the door, and said
he would leave the room last himself. The people
became perfectly quiet and obeyed his instructions, and
though they were three-quarters of an hour in getting
out no accident occurred.
But however open to criticism his speeches may be
from the point of view of the student of rhetoric, how-
ever unfinished or redundant they may seem when read,
they produced as they fell from his lips an effect almost
unexampled. He was gifted with a superb voice, full as
a bell, of wide compass and of great power. He had
carefully studied Pitt's speaking, and had attained a per-
fectly natural and unstudied action. His was the
instinct of an orator, never so much at home as when
talking with the people at his feet. He had a fine
presence, a complete command of telling, nervous lan-
guage, a rich Irish accent which went to his hearers'
hearts, and a finished delivery, and thus equipped, he
threw himself into his work and dilated upon the sub-
ject which engrossed him with superb and exhaustless
eloquence. The peroration of his speech on the first
reading of the Coercion Bill of 1833 is a good example
of his unprepared and inornate but flowing and affecting
eloquence : —
I have now wearied the House. I have not exhansted the subject,
nor have I exhausted the deep interest I feel in it. I say, that as far
as political agitation is concerned, there is no such case made out,
that any dispassionate man, putting his hand to his heart, can say
there is evidence to connect it with predial insurrection. Upon in-
quiring into the subject, facts to the contrary stare you in the face.
Is not Ireland in distress? Is she not in want, and suffering
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER, 207
grievances ? The noble Lord, the Member for Armagh, exclaims
that relief must be given, and you promise relief. Oh yes ! if we
pass this Bill you will give us a measure of Church Relief ! But are
you sure of passing that measure of relief in another House ? It has
little immediate practical benefit besides the abolition of Church-cess.
But to secure it, why not adopt the wise motion of my honourable
friend and keep your hands off this measure until you have steered
the other over the rocks and quicksands in another place ? I am not
entering into any compromise. I say that Ireland requires relief, and
I ask how do you propose to afford it her ? You will not apply any
part of the rich revenues of the Church to the relief of the poor.
What is to become of them ? You can give them nothing ; and the
•only thing I can offer them is hope — the hope of a domestic Legisla-
ture. You may think that a delusive hope. How are j'ou to show it
to be such ? By anticipating me, by evincing that you are a protect-
ing Legislature — that you are a kind and paternal Legislature. Oh !
instead of that you turn away the look of kindliness, you turn away
all benetits and leave the grinding evils. You leave the rack-renting
absentees, you leave every misery and grievance untouched; for
bread you give them a stone ; you raise the scorpion rod of despotic
authority over them, and say that ** you must be feared before yon
«can be loved." I deny it, Sir. I deny that you have made out a case ;
I deny that you have shown that predial insurrection has anything to
•do with political agitation ; I deny the right upon which you foand
this coercion ; I deny that witnesses have been injured, lately at least,
to any public knowledge. If they have, I utterly deny that any juror
has been injured during the whole period of this political agitation.
Predial agitation subsisted for forty years before political agitation
-oommonced. 1 laving thus demonstrated that this measure is by no moans
neooHsary, shall I trust the despotic power it confers to hands which I
think ought to have no power at all — to statosmon who mingle miser-
able personal feelings with their political conduct ? I call upon you,
if you would oonciliato Ireland — if you would preserve that oonnezion
which I desire you to recollect has never yet conferred a single blessing
u])on that country — that she knows nothing of you but by distress, for-
feitures, and confiscations ; that you have never visited her but in
anger ; that the sword of desolation has often swept over her, as
when Cromwell sent his eighty thousand to perish ; that you have
burdened her with grinding penal laws, despite of the faith of treaties
And in Tiolation of every oompaot, and that you have neglected to
fulfil the promises you dealt out to her. You have, it is true, granted
Oatholic Emancipation ; but nine and twenty years after it was pro-
mised, and five and twenty years after the Parliament uf Ireland must of
208 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
necessity have done so. We know you as yet but in our sufferings and
in our wrongs ; and you are now kind enough to give us as a boon this
Act, which deprives us of the Trial by Jury and substitutes Courts
Martial — which deprives us of the Habeas Corpus Act, and, in a word,,
imposes on a person the necessity of proving himself innocent. That
Act you give us, and you tell us it will put down the agitation of the-
Repeal of the Union. I tell you that until you do us justice you can
never expect to attain your object. The present generation may
perish. Your Robespierrian measures may destroy the existing popu-
lation ; but the indignant soul of Ireland you can never annihilate-
There was a time when a ray of hope dawned upon that country. It
was when the present Parliament first assembled. We saw this re-
formed House of Commons congregated. We knew that every man.
here had a constituency ; we knew that the people of England were
represented here ; we knew that the public voice not only would influ-
ence your decisions but command your votes; we hoped that jom
would afford us a redress of our grievances — and you give us an Act
of despotism.
In his situation he fell inevitably into exag-
geration, both of praise and of abuse. His eulogies
sometimes were so profusely distributed as to lose
all meaning ; but to the leader of a motley com-
bination of highly susceptible followers flattery was a
necessary instrument of command. A passage from a
speech of his in 1813 is characteristic of this mood.
He was praising the newspapers of his party : —
In Ulster we had the Belfast Magazine, a work in which all the
elegance of classic taste was combined with all the good feeling of
virtuous sentiment and all the purity of genuine Irish patriotism. . . .
In Limerick there is one of the best conducted and most patriotic
papers in the land, the Limerick Evening Post. In Cork the Mercan-
tile Chronicle, an admirable paper, most patriotically conducted by
my esteemed friend, Councillor O'Donnell, a member of your board
and a first-rate Irishman. In the Evening Post we have a brilliant
advocate, that never ceases powerfully to serve and severely to suffer
for us. In the Freeman^ s Journal and the Evening Herald we have
friends who cannot be bought nor intimidated, and whose talents adorn
the cause of their country, which they never cease to promote. But
I muat point your vote particularly to the proprietor of the Evening
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHAEACTEB. 209
Post, Unseduced by the pleasures and enjoyments of youth, uncon-
taminated by the selfishness of wealth, unintimidated by the perse-
cutions of power, he seeks to serve you as disinterestedly as he opposes
your enemies. ... I cannot conclude without proclaiming my con-
viction that Ireland would be free if she possessed a second John
Magee.
He was even more extravagant in his abuse of his
enemies, and in this matter it is hard to excuse him.
Yet he adopted the language of vituperation deliberately,
and with a certain relish. It is interesting to know that
his paternal grandmother, an O'Donoghue, and locally
nicknamed " Black Mary," was pre-eminent, even in
Kerry, for her powers of abuse. O'Connell inherited her
talent, and employed it, and defended its employment.
He thought it gave spirit to a down-trodden class, who
under persecution had forgotten that they had rights.
** When 1 was working out Catholic Emancipation," said
he, ** members of Parliament and private friends used to
come to me and say, * O'Gonnell, you will never get
anything so long as you are so violent/ What did I
do ? Why, I became more violent, and I succeeded."
His language, however, was more than violent ; it was
irreclaimably coarse. To call the Duke of Wellington
** a stunted corporal," Sir Charles Napier ** a doldrum
general," Lord Hardinge a ** one-armed miscreant,'*
had neither wit nor truth to recommend it, nor could
such expressions be needed to inspire courage in a
people who had proved their valour under those very
commanders. It must, however, be remembered how
bitterly and remorselessly he was all his life attacked,
and what examples of abusiveness he bad before him in
the most distinguished of his countrymen. His reputa-
tion and his life were in almost hourly danger. What-
ever may be thought of his conduct in declining chal-
lenges, it is certain that, if he had been willing to
14
210 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
accept them, duels would have heen deliberately forced
upon him, and he would have lost his life before he was
fifty. More cowardly attempts were made upon him :
his carriage axles were tampered with and filed half
through ; and in 1825 he was waylaid in county Down,
and only escaped the assassins by the accidental break-
down of his carriage and the cunning of a servant.
Grattan gave him at onee a provocation and an example
of abuse in language which even O'Connell could not
match. He had described him to Moore as ** a bad
subject and a worse rebel," but in his irritation at the
event of the " securities " controversy, he wrote of him
deliberately in an address to the Catholics of Ireland :
His speaking is extravagant diction. . . . his liberty is not liberal,
his politics are not reason, his reason is not learning, his learning is
not knowledge ; his rhetoric is a gaudy hyperbole, garnished with
faded flowers, such as a drabbled girl would pick up* in Covent Gar-
den, stuck in with the taste of a kitchen-maid. He makes politics a
trade. . . . He barks and barks, and even when the filthy slaverer
has exhausted its poison and returns to its kennel, it there still howls
and barks within unseen.
His English enemies were better able to preserve
their self-respect, but their enmity was no less bitter,
and their opposition in its way no less galling. The
reporters in the House of Commons misreported his
speeches, and when he complained in a speech at the
Globe Hotel, they met and resolved not to report him at
all. He took his revenge upon them by spying stran-
gers and clearing them out of the gallery. But society
placed its ban upon him. Theodore Grenville ceased to
visit the house of a friend because he dreaded meeting
O'Connell there. Even when he was the trusty ally of
the Whigs he was not a guest at Holland House or at
Lansdowne House; and in 1840 Guizot, who was
anxious to meet him, found it necessary to get Mrs.
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER, 211
Stanley to arrange a dinner for the purpose. After
dinner 0*Connell, finding other guests were expected,
humbly rose to go before they arrived, but was at length
prevailed upon to stay.
This merciless warfare, in which he passed his life,
this cold and almost contemptuous aversion, which was
displayed towards him by those who ought to have been
his friends, explain and excuse, though they cannot
justify, the extraordinary violence of language, which
O'Connell permitted himself to employ. But it was in
truth a misfortune to his country, as well as a discredit
to himself. In any case, the English must have found
him hard to understand, for when first he became a
figure in English politics, a Roman Catholic of any
kind was unfamiliar to the English, and of the Irish as
a people their notions were ill-informed and deeply preju-
diced. O'Connell was a fervent Catholic and an Irish-
man of the Irish. He was Celtic to the very core,
though he possessed qualities rare among the Celts,
those of patience and self-control. It was vitally im-
portant to himself and to Ireland that be should make
himself understood by the English, and it ought to
have been his study so to comport himself before the
English people as to enlist upon the side of Ireland
their sympathies, which are deep, and their sense of
justice, which is invariable ; to disarm their preju-
dices and compel their respect. Unfortunately, at a
hundred points he jarred upon them, offended tbem,
alarmed them. His almost ecclesiastical suavity oon-
irasted with their surly integrity ; his peculiar want of
sensitiveness and punctilio in the conduct of money
matter's offended a people peculiarly susceptible upon
such points, and obscured his real honesty; his extraor-
dinary vivacity and seeming irresponsibility passed their
14 ♦
212 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
comprehension. A statesman and an orator, a king's
counsel learned in the law, and the leader of his people,
who could publicly, and without any sense of reserve,
engage in a duel of abuse with a fishfag in the streets of
Dublin, and enjoy his own and his friends' congratula-
tions upon the happy epithets ** whisky-drinking paral-
lelogram " and *' porter-swiping similitude of the bisec-
tion of a vortex," was to them an unintelligible paradox.
Whether he was a blackguard or a buifoon they could
not tell, and did not care to ask ; but, in their eyes,
such a man could not be a trusted statesman. But when,
in addition to all this, they found him habitually indulg-
ing in language so violent as to be almost impotent, and
in menaces of resistance that none but a casuist could
distinguish from invitations to rebellion, what had been
a prejudice resting upon ignorance deepened into a con-
demnation prompted by disgust. This was a misfortune
for the Irish as well as for O^Connell. He came into
English politics late in life, and in spite of the versa-
tility which enabled him to make his power felt in the
House of Commons, he was not able to change his
modes of action or expression, perhaps not even to see
the need of any change. Yet in many respects he was
well qualified to have won the sympathy of the English.
His opinions in general were just and liberal. His
Radicalism, indeed, probably was rather a matter of ex-
pediency. It is difficult to suppose that he had any
deep zeal for triennial Parliaments or the Ballot, and
the Chartists at least, incited by Fergus O'Connor, be-
lieved he had none, and mistrusted him accordingly.
But he was the advocate of Negro Emancipation, though
he knew it was costing his cause much valuable aid in
America. He was the proclaimed enemy of despots ; he
refused the Emperor Nicholas his autograph on that
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER, 213
ground, and characteristically let his refusal be known.
His opposition to the Poor Law, if mistaken, was
generous ; he was an early Free-Trader and opponent
of the Corn Laws. He attacked flogging in the army ;
he advocated temperance. Had he only possessed the
tact and moderation, which would have won the esteem
and respect of the English, the latter part of his life
might have been far less barren of results than it was.
For barren of results to Ireland his last twenty years in
a great measure were. The benefits which the Whigs
secured to Ireland no doubt in part were due to him,
for although they fell far short of what he desired, it
was thanks to his persistent thrusting of Irish questions
upon the House of Commons and the people of Eng-
land that Ireland received so much attention as she did.
By incessant reiteration he brought home to the Eng-
lish mind facts which to us are commonplaces but fifty
years ago were discoveries. Yet it can hardly be
doubted that even without him, and without the neces-
sity of paying in Irish reforms the stipulated price
for his support, Liberal ministries could not long have
ignored the obvious justice of the cry for reform in
nearly every department of Irish life and administration.
Melbourne's Irish policy was no triumph of O'Conneirs.
O'Connell himself did not look upon what his son
describes as the ** ten years* war *' as a period of success.
To him the experiment, which ho was driven to make,
was a failure, and Whig Reform an illusion. Perhaps
it was a failure, but to a large extent that was beoause
O'Connell himself was unfortunate, in the impression
which he, as representing Ireland, produced upon the
English mind. Ho would not have carried the English
with him for Repeal by being more bluif in his de-
meanour or more courteous in his speech, but it was his
214 LIFE OF DANIEL 0*CONNELL.
misfortune that he did not perceive how essential it was
to content himself with a policy which a large minority
at least of the English could approve. Had it not been
for the mistrust which his tendency to cunning excited^
and the repulsion produced by his scurrility, he might
have won for himself and for Ireland an amount of sym-
pathy and support that would have overawed the House
of Lords, and have converted the Whig experiment,
which was far from being the complete failure he
thought it, into an indubitable success. It is almost
as hard for the Irish to understand the English as
for the English to understand the Irish. O'ConnelFs
epoch was a time when the English middle class repre-
sented the most liberal instincts of the people, and its
support was all-important to the advocate of a popular
cause. He unfortunately failed to see that the English
middle class was not to be identified with the Irish
oligarchy. Led astray by the knowledge of their preju-
dices, he fell into the error of including them in the
attacks which he made upon the party of Protestant
ascendency. In this way he ranged against himself and
his country much of the class which formed the best
strength both of Peel and of Melbourne. It was a
misfortune for both countries. The Irish were disap-
pointed of their hopes, and they fell into deep discontent.
Personal antipathy to O'Connell alienated numbers of
the middle class from the Whigs. His support, which
kept Melbourne in power in the House of Commons,
helped to ruin him in the country, and in consequence
an opportunity, perhaps the most favourable that Eng-
land has had, for satisfying the legitimate desires of the
Irish passed but half employed.
Thus the good and the evil of the career of O'Connell
are so inextricably intermixed, that it is hard to say
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER. 215
whether on the whole it was a benefit to Ireland or
not. It falls with a completeness, rare in the lives of
men so eminent, into two parts, and the dividing year is
1829. Catholic Emancipation was a victory, which he
won in a sense single-handed against the most formid-
able odds. It was a battle for an entirely just object,
and the man who led the Irish to victory in that fight
has an everlasting claim upon their gratitude. It is
true that Emancipation must have come with the first
reformed Parliament, and it ought never to be forgotten
that even O'Connell could not have carried Emancipa-
tion without the support of the large and powerful
body, which advocated it in England and in the House
of Commons. None the less it is a boon, nay rather a
right, which was secured for the people of Ireland by
him. Had his life terminated there, possibly that
might have been the better for his fame. In October
1829 he was driving on the mail cart with his brother
into Cahirciveen. At a point where the road skirted a
precipice, hundreds of feet high and unguarded by any
adequate wall, the horses ran away, and O'Connell and
his brother jumped out and saved themselves at the
cost of some injuries. Had this accident ended fatally,
the judgment of posterity upon him must have been
one of almost unmixed praise. To have ousted the
landlords in 1829 from the leadership of the people
was a revolution of the greatest magnitude. It is
difficult to regret their fall. It is impossible to be
satisfied with their successors. It is a misfortune due to
the economic circumstances of Ireland, that she is so
deficient in the possession of a middle class. The land-
lords once ousted, the political leadership fell either
into the hands of the priests or, in large degree, into
the hands of adventurers. O'Conneirs own guiding
216 LIFE OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.
hand once removed and the influence of both was
felt and felt for the worse. Though tolerant himself,
he had kindled and fanned the flames of sectarian
intolerance, and, although a man of genius, had sur-
rounded himself with partisans of little character and
less talent. With many excellent qualities, the priests
had not the training which their new position required.
As ecclesiastics they would have been better out of
politics; as politicians, they had all the instincts of the
peasantry, and hardly more breadth of view or know-
ledge. And the alternative leaders have been even less
beneficial to Ireland. But from 1829 he entered
upon a course, in which he failed precisely because
he did not perceive that the Irish people alone, how-
ever unanimous, could not win the contest in which
he engaged them. Upon the question of Eepeal, he
had no supporters in England; for a time the Whigs
may have favoured some scheme of extensive local self-
government, but all parties in England were united
against Kepeal, and that one fact placed success be-
yond his reach. That O'Connell was perfectly sincere
in his desire for Kepeal cannot be doubted; yet he
was always keenly alive to the possibilities of the situa-
tion, and personally would have been content with
less. But, although he swayed the Irish with an abso-
lute control never possessed by any other leader, whom
they have ever had, he was to some extent obliged to
float upon their tide. Left to his own judgment he would
probably have realised that Beform alone was possible,
and would not have jeopardised it by demanding Repeal.
Probably, but for the personal slight offered to himself
in 1829, he would never have entered upon the agita-
tion for Repeal, which, however much he desired it, he
knew to be so diflficult of attainment. Even George
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER. 217
the Third's opposition to Emancipation, though it did
almost more harm than the act of any single man has
«ver done in England, was less a misfortune to Ireland
than George the Fourth's petty spite against O'Connell.
The insolent injustice done to him personally he took to
be a declaratioD that Emancipation was as far as pos-
sible to be made a nullity. It was a wrong he never
forgave. It forced him into a policy of Repeal, which
perhaps, except in the intoxication of contact with an
enthusiastic multitude, he hardly expected to conduct to
a successful issue ; and years of agitation in a hopeless
cause could not but be prejudicial to Ireland.
O'Connell was the inventor of the whole modem
machinery of peaceful agitation, of associations, sub-
scriptions, processions, demonstrations, and organiza-
tions, and in his hands it attained a pitch of perfection,
which others have only endeavoured to imitate. Of the
merit of a system which elicits the expression of the
popular will by means of bands and banners, marchings
and counter-marchings, teaching the ^go^Xq pedibus in
sententiam ire^ it would be premature to speak. But
the invention of these methods and the use O'Connell
made of them prove at once his sincerity and the bene-
ficence of his control over his countrymen. The almost
pathetic fiasco of Smith O'firien's rising in 1848, shows,
as Mitchell himself admitted, how deeply O'Connell's les-
sons had entered into the mind of the people of Ireland.
That control was won and maintained only at the cost of
an endless and wearisome round of speech-making and
banqueting, ovations, processions, and demonstrations,
of endless and irksome petitions from all sorts of persons
for all sorts of services and patronage. At such a
price it is inconceivable that O'Connell, " agiutor "
though he avowed himself to be, oould have sought
218 LIFE OF DANIEL O'GONNELL.
power for the sake of mere popularity or for anything
less than that which he conceived to be the good of his
country.
No man has ever retained so commanding a position
in Ireland for nearly so long a period. For five and
thirty years he was so much the first man in his country,
that in the eyes of the world he stood for Ireland. He
won the admiration and esteem of all sorts and kinds of
men, Quakers, Presbyterians, Catholics. Pease was his
friend and admirer. Chalmers said of him, " He is a
noble fellow, with the gallant and kindly as well as the
wily genius of Ireland "; and the dignitaries of his
Church entertained for him feelings as warm as were his
for them. And his virtues were not confined to the showy
arts of the platform. Nothing about him strikes one
with more wonder than his vast powers of work and at-
tention to detail. He could carry on the work he had
in hand, while attending to the conversation that was
going on around him. His patience and his complete
mastery of all the details of a question were prodigious.
His memory was exceedingly retentive and his capacity
for taking pains truly amounted to genius. He spared no
efiPort to conciliate every kind of influence for his agita-
tion and carefully collected and focussed the support of
the most dissimilar persons, and by these means gave
to his movement a unity and a force which in Ireland
were irresistible. In this light even his powers as an
orator sink to the second place. If Peel was pre-eminent
as a member of Parliament, O'Connell was one of the
greatest of men of business. He was indeed a man with
the defects of his qualities, impulsive, pugnacious, mas-
terful. But he was, too, a man, of whom Ireland and
the United Kingdom have cause to be proud ; great as
an orator, great as a politician, and, as a man, amiable
DOMESTIC LIFE AND CHARACTER. 219
and upright. It was his fate to have little scope for
the statesmanship of constructive policy ; to find his
great success balanced by great failure ; to die with so
dark a cloud hanging over the country he loved so well.
But he served her well and he still lives in her affections,
and that is his best reward.
SA*Y ^f
INDEX.
A.
" Algerine Act," the, 68.
Althorp. Lord, 112, 117. 118,
122.
Alvanley, Lord, 56, 128.
Anglesey, Lord, 79, 81, 95, 99,
101, 114.
Arbitration Courts, the, 161,
174.
Association, the first Catholic,
49, 60.
Association, the Catholic, 61-64 ;
collects the rent, 64 ; sup-
pressed by law, 66 ; refounded,
68 ; organized parochially, 74 ;
old Association re-established,
80; finally dissolved, 86.
AsBociation, the General, 187,
140.
Association, the Repeal. See
Repeal.
B.
Barrett, 169, 170, 178.
Belle w, Sir £,, 86,87,49,
Blaok Lane Parliament, 24.
Board; the Catholic, 32, 40
Butler, Charles, 36, 38, 43.
Butt, Isaac, 164.
c.
Canning, George, :J8, 63, 74.
Church Temporalities Bill, 113.
Clare Election, the, 75-78.
Clonmel, meeting at, 80.
Clontarf, proposed meeting at,.
164-166.
Coercion Bill (188,'l), 112-113;
attempt to renew, 122.
Committee, the Catholic, 29, 32.
Conciliation Hall, 156.
Oonyention, scheme for a, 168,
Crawford, Sharman. 141, IWK
182.
Onrran, 45.
Darnrnane Abbev. 2, 191, 192,.
196-198,
DaviH. ir)2. im), 162, 186, 187.
222
INDEX.
D'Esterre. Mr., 50-53.
Disraeli, Mr., 56, 128.
Dogherty, 100.
Doneraile Conspiracy, 14:-16,
196.
Donoughmore, Lord, 48, 49.
Donai, O'Connell at, 4.
Dromgoole, Dr., 30, 37.
Drummond, Mr., 128.
Duffy, C. G., 162, 170, 173, 181,
187.
E.
Emmet's rising, 12.
Famine, the Irish, 189-191.
Federation, schemes for, 169;
adopted by O'Connell, 181 ; re-
pudiated, 183.
Fingal, Lord, 27, 28, 34, 35, 36,
37, 48.
Fitzgerald, Vesey, 75-78.
Forty- shilling freeholders, 25 ;
their revolt, 71-78 ; their abo-
lition, 87-89.
*' Friends of Ireland," the, 97-
G.
•George IV., 59, 87, 97, 215.
Grattan, Henry, 34, 35, 36, 37,
39, 42, 48, 57 ; death of, 58 ;
abuses O'Connell, 208.
Grenville, Lord, 34, 36.
Grey, Earl, 99-121, 122, 123;
resigns, 124.
H.
Hardinge, Sir H., 56, 98, 209.
K.
Keogh, John, 24, 28, 30, 34;
ousted from leadership of the
Catholics, 31.
L.
Lawless, 76, 80.
Lefroy, Serjeant, 18.
Littleton, 67, 114, 118, 124;
quarrel with O'Connell, 122.
M.
MacClellan, Baron, 19.
MacHale, 114, 145, 149.
Magee, trial of, 56-57.
Meagher, 189.
Melbourne, Lord, Premier, 124;
again, 125.
Memoir on Ireland, 202.
Milner, Dr., 35, 36.
Mitchell, 187, 189.
Monster meetings, 156.
Municipal Corporation Bills (Ire-
land), 129-137.
Mulgrave, Lord, 126, 128.
INDEX,
223
N.
Nation, the, 162.
Northumberland, Duke of, 98,
99.
O.
O'Brien, Smith, 142, 160, 169,
174, 181, 215.
O'Connell, Count Daniel, 7-8, 198,
202.
O'Connell, Daniel : birth, 1 ; edu-
cation, 3-5 ; called to the Irish
bar, 7 ; joins the Munster Cir-
cuit, 12; joins the Catholic
movement, 27; becomes its
leader, 30 ; fights D'Esterre,
60-53 ; afiFair with Peel, 53-55,
and George IV., 59 ; founds the
Association, 63 ; tried for sedi-
tious libel, 66 ; visits England,
67 ; elected for Clare, 78 ; at-
tempts to take his seat, 93;
re-elected, 96 ; maiden speech,
97 ; elected for Waterford, 97 ;
tried for conspiracy, 102 ; re-
turned for Kerry, 103 ; refuses
office, 104, 114; speech against
the Union, 119; quarrels with
Littleton, 122 ; elected for
Dublin, 125 ; disappointed of
office, 127; tour in Scotland,
129 ; elected for Kilkenny, 136 ;
** Crown and Anchor" speech,
148; offered promotion, 144;
founds Repeal Assooiation,
147 ; returned for Cork, 151 ;
Lord Mayor of Dublin, 168;
tried for conspiracy, 170-178 ;
sontenood, 176; sentence re-
▼ersed by the Lords, 178; new
alliance with Whigs, 188 ; ill-
ness and death, 191-194;
domestic life and oharactor,
195-219.
O'Connell, John, 131, 132, 134,
152, 160, 162, 170, 185. 188,
189.
O'Connell, Mary, 54, 195.
O'Connell, Morgan, 56, 128.
O'Connells, the, 2-3.
O'Gorman Mahon, The, 67, 75.
77, 187.
P.
Pamell, Sir H., 49, 57.
Peel, Sir R. and O'Connell, 5i^
55 ; offers to resign, 68 ;
changes his views, 83 ; intro-
duces ReUef Bill, 86 ; Premier,
125 ; again, 151 ; speech
against O'Connell, 159; sup-
presses the Repeal Association,
164.
Penal Code, the, 22, 23.
Perceval, O'Connell on, 88.
Plunket, 40, 58, 100.
Ponsonbv, 35.
Poor Law Bill (Ireland), 138.
Q.
Quarantotti, 41, 42.
R.
Raphael, Mr.,
180-184.
and O'Connell,
Raffistration Aei (Ireland), 150.
Relief BUI (1885), 67.
ReUef BUI (1829), 87-90.
Repeal, COonnell and, 44-47 ; a
•ooieiy founded for, 97 ; ttm^le
begins, 101 ; Repealers in Kr-
110; renewed agita-
224
INDEX.
tion, 115. 116 ; abandoned,
135.
Repeal Association, the, 147,
149 ; its growth, 154-158, 160-
161 ; and Young Ireland, 174,
188
Russell, Lord John, 85, 140, 144,
188.
St. Omer, O'Connell at, 4.
Saurin, and O'Oonnell, 19-21.
Scully, James, 30, 40, 56.
"Securities," the, 38-40, 43;
split about, 49.
Shell, 37, 58, 61, 67, 77 ; dis-
solves the Association, 86 ; and
Althorp, 117-118; elected for
Dungarvan, 188.
Shrewsbury, Earl of, O'Connell's
letter to, 30, 202.
Smith, Baron, 118.
Southwell, Lord, 36, 49.
Spring-Rice, 121.
Stanley, Mr., 103, 104; speech
on the Coercion Bill, 112 ; re-
signs, 121.
Steele, 76, 77, 152, 155, 169,
170.
T.
Tara, meeting at, 157.
Tithe Bills, 121, 124, 128, 137,
138, 145.
Tithe Wars, the, 106-109.
Tribute, the, 198.
XT.
United Irishmen, the, and O'Oon-
nell, 10, 11.
V.
"Vetoists," the. See "Securi-
ties."
w.
Ward, Mr., resolution of, 121.
Waterf ord election, the, 71-73.
Wellington, Duke of, 75, 85 ; fall
of his administration, 99.
Wellesley, the Marquis, 43, 62,
114, 121, 122.
William IV., 127, 140.
"Wings," the, 6.
Wyse, 40, 74.
York, the Duke of, 58-68.
Young Ireland, 159, 181, 183-
187, 188.
London: Printed by W. H. Allen & Co., 13 Waterloo Place. S.W.
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