XXI. 1829. repeal of the Union was Mr O'Connell's tool for culti- CHAP. vating the agitation, by which, in regard to mind, fame, and fortune, he lived. From this time he was dishonoured in the eyes of all upright men. From this time his glory was extinguished. He made men fear him, court him, groan under him, admire him, and, as far i. 503; Ann. as regards the lower orders of the Irish, adore him; but 124, 125. from this moment no man respected him." 1 * 1Martineau, Reg. 1829, Mr O’Con nell. DANIEL O'CONNELL, who mainly achieved this signal 155. triumph for his religion and his country, and for the first Character of time shook the power of the Protestant aristocracy of Great Britain which had brought about the Revolution that precipitated James II. from the throne, was a very remarkable man, and his character is the more worthy of study because it belongs properly to an earlier period of European history; and yet the success which he achieved proves that the qualities he possessed are calculated in every age to influence a large portion of mankind. He belonged to the age of Ignatius Loyola or St Francis rather than that of the French Revolution. Pope Hildebrand was not more devoted to the interests of the Holy See Peter the Hermit did not possess in a higher Among other elegant effusions of the same description, Mr O'Connell said, on his entry into Ennis: "I promised you religious freedom, and I kept my word. The Catholics are now free, and the Brunswickers are no longer their masters; and a paltry set they were to be our masters. They would turn up the white of their eyes to heaven, and at the same time slyly put their hands into your pockets. They would discount God Almighty for the ready money. The Brunswick clubs of Dublin have sent down one, a miniature in flesh, poor Bumbo and his land calf-brother, to disfranchise the brave freeholders, and crooked-eye Fitzgerald swore to it; but I call on the gentry of Clare to separate themselves from the bloodhounds, and join what is intended for the good of the people. The question is no longer between Catholic and Protestant-that is at an end; it is now who is a good or a bad man. If you thus decide, which will you choose, Bumbo or me? I hope you will rub off the foul stain of any connection with these bloodhounds, and ratify the former election. What good did any member ever before in Parliament do for the county of Clare, except to get places for their nephews, cousins, &c.? What did I do? I procured for you emancipation. Does the Subletting Act oppress? I shall not be six months in Parliament until all your oppression shall be done away." There are many more in the same style.-See Ann. Reg., 1829, pp. 126-129. XXI. 1829. CHAP. degree the art of rousing and violently moving the great body of the people. His abilities were of His abilities were of a very high order no man does such things without great powersbut they were not of a cast superior to his achievements. "Par negotiis non supra" was his true characteristic. He was born an agitator, and there he was supreme; but he was neither more nor less. He had remarkable talents, but no genius, and still less taste or refinement. To great powers of oratory he united a marvellous faculty for moving the multitude; but he was alike destitute of the chivalrous sentiments which win the hearts of the generous, or the ascendant of reason necessary to mould the opinions of the enlightened. He had none of the delicacy of feeling which renders it impossible for an elevated mind to say or do an unworthy thing. He was all things to all men. With equal facility he addressed the House of Commons in a powerful legal argument, and harangued the electors of Clare in strains of disgraceful ribaldry; with equal truth he, in the same breath, called the Irish the "finest peasantry upon earth," and heaped opprobrium upon the "stunted corporal" who had delivered Europe, and the "bigot Peel," who had endangered his own fame to strike off the fetters of religious intolerance in Ireland. 156. The secret of these strange contradictions is to be Explana- found in the ascendant of the faith to which he was inconsisten- through life sincerely and devotedly attached. His cies in the standard of rectitude was different from that to which tions of his Catholic faith. men, apart from priestly influence, are accustomed. It was neither the honour which inspires the noble-hearted, nor the honesty which directs the simple and innocent. It was simply and exclusively the interests of the See of Rome. Everything was right, everything allowable, provided that was not forgotten. He transferred into the business of life and the contests of men the abominable maxim, which the selfishness of libertines has invented, that lovers' oaths are made only to be broken, and that to them XXI. 1829. everything is permitted. To the value of truth, or the CHAP. obligations to regard it, he was as insensible as Napoleon himself. He had all the duplicity and disregard of consistency which, with great vigour and frequent genius, distinguishes the Celtic character. Destitute of the selfrespect which in general characterises the Saxon, he had all the insensibility to personal abasement which is so common among the humbler classes of his countrymen : so as he gained his object of acquiring a princely income, he cared not that his wealth was wrung from the scanty earnings of a destitute population. He was indifferent though what he said one day was in direct opposition to what he had previously asserted; he had no compunction in letting loose the vials of his wrath and the volubility of his abuse on the very men who had conferred upon himself and his faith the most inestimable benefits. He carried to perfection the art, so well understood in after times, of invariably and on every occasion inflaming the present passions of his hearers. Everything was done for present impression; and that impression was all directed to one end, the advancing the interests of the Church of Rome. To that he was at any time ready to sacrifice truth, consistency, and reputation; and in doing so, he not only was conscious of no wrong, but he was sustained by the belief of the highest merit, for he was giving to the Church not his body, but his soul. He was the most perfect embodiment that has appeared in recent times of the maxim, that "the end will justify the means ;" and in his ultimate fate, and that of his measures, is to be found the most striking exemplification of what, even in this world, that maxim leads to. 157. In justice to Mr O'Connell, it must be added that these great talents and dangerous qualities were united His good with others of a very different character. He was neither cruel nor avaricious: his great influence was always exerted as much to restrain the violence of his followers as to intimidate the resolution of his opponents. qualities. XXI. CHAP. He had an instinctive horror at the shedding of blood, and aimed at achieving all his objects by pacific agitation 1829. alone. The art of doing so, without incurring the penalties of high treason or occasioning open rebellion, he carried to perfection. If he descended to unworthy means to sustain his fortunes, and sent the begging-box round to every beggar in Ireland to swell the "rent," he spent it as liberally in supporting the cause in which he was embarked, and maintaining his many needy or destitute followers if he was "alieni appetens," he was "sui profusus." Immense sums passed through his hands, but he died poor. His ambition, and it was great, was not for himself it was for the Roman Catholic Church and his distressed countrymen that he exerted his talents, and with their prosperity that he felt himself identified ;noble objects, if pursued by worthy means, but only the delusive light which leads to perdition if pursued by unworthy, and involving in a tortuous and dishonest policy. His faults were rather those of his faith and his position than himself. In appearance he was striking; he would have been remarked among a thousand. countenance was neither handsome nor commanding, but it had something in it which irresistibly attracted the attention. Strong and square built, his figure conveyed the idea of great personal strength; quick, but evasive, his eye gave the impression of Jesuitical cunning. He scarce ever looked you in the face; a rare peculiarity, but which, when it exists, is eminently descriptive of character. In manners he was, when he chose, extremely pleasing; none could exhibit, when he desired it, more courtesy, or was a more agreeable companion; and none, when otherwise inclined, could let fly a more fearful volley of vulgar abuse.* His The Author was once examined for eight hours before a Committee of the House of Commons (that on combinations, April 1838) by Mr O'Connell, who conducted the examination with equal acuteness and courtesy. Many of the features in the foregoing portrait were then drawn from nature. the XXI. 1829. 158. emancipa tion a victory gained by the high ly educated classes over Catholic emancipation, the first change on the Pro- CHAP. testant constitution of the empire, and the first great triumph of the democratic over the aristocratic powers in the empire, was brought about, so far as Great Britain is Catholic concerned, in a very peculiar way. It was a victory gained by a large portion of the aristocratic, and greater part of the highly educated classes, over the sincere conviction and honest resistance of the vast majority the people. of the people. No one doubts that, if the Reform Bill had been the first measure carried, the Catholic Relief Bill would never have been the second. The present House of Commons (1854), even with the addition of the fifty Catholic members for Ireland, is greatly more hostile to the Catholics than that of 1829 was. The opposition to them is to be found now rather in the Lower than the Upper House. This is a very remarkable circumstance in a country so much influenced by public opinion as England, especially during the last half-century, has been. It was carried by the liberal opinions of the holders of a majority of the close boroughs, which brought the Government into such straits as compelled it to force through the measure. Catholic emancipation was the greatest, as it was THE LAST, triumph of the nomination system. 159. Aided by the contrac currency, power of the Catholic clergy. Cathol It could not have been carried, however, if the divisions in the English aristocracy at that period had not been powerfully aided by two circumstances, which told tion of the with decisive effect at the same time on the social and and the political condition of Ireland. The first of these was the contraction of the currency, commenced in 1819, and rendered so fearfully stringent by the suppression of small notes by the bill of 1826. As these decisive measures lowered the price of agricultural produce nearly a half, and nearly the whole population of Ireland was either engaged in agriculture or directly dependent on it, the whole labouring classes of that country had been for the last ten years involved in difficulties and suffering. The |