show that there was a failure of judgment and taste in the act. But it combines with other incidents of the time to show that the great social tendency of the day was to consider the poor. This consideration occupied almost all the time of parliament, and was most prominent in the thought of the country-eminently combining with and stimulating the action of the most powerful body in the community at that time—the Anti-Corn-Law League.

CHAPTER VIII.

Movements in Ireland-O'Connell's Proceedings- Monster Meetings' -Arbitration Courts-Anti-rent Movement-Irish Arms ActClontarf Meeting-Arrest of Repeal Leaders-The Trials-The Verdict-The Sentence-Appeal to the Lords-Judgment reversed -Demonstrations- O'Connell as a Landlord - His Decline and Death-Industrial Improvements-Charitable Bequests Act-Penal Acts Repeal-Vic royalty discussed-Endowment of Catholic Clergy -Maynooth Grant-New Colleges-The Devon Commission-Coercion Bill Bill lost-Threatenings of Famine.

IN January 1841, Mr. O'Connell said, at a meeting of the Repeal Association of Dublin: I shall, for my part, vote for the Whigs on all party questions, in order to keep them in; but I tell them honestly and openly, that they have lost altogether the hearts of the Irish people; and nothing but the loud cry for repeal shall henceforth be heard among us. . . . I did not resume the repeal agitation till I saw how utterly unable the Whigs were to effect anything. It might be asked why Mr. O'Connell desired to keep in the Whigs if they had lost the hearts of the Irish people, and were utterly powerless. It appears that he really did suppose that a Conservative ministry-such as the Peel administration was by anticipation supposed to be would treat Ireland as the rank old Orangemen of the north would have her treated; and that the alternative was merely between nothing being done for Ireland, and her being cruelly oppressed. Just before the bed-chamber dispute, when it was known that Sir R. Peel might come

in at any moment if he would, and that it was the 'Irish difficulty' which prevented his doing so, Mr. O'Connell was looking round anxiously for every means of making the Irish question popular in England-even requesting an English author, whom he thought likely to be listened to, to travel in Ireland, under facilities provided by himself, in order to report upon the condition of the country. His apprehension of insufferable coercion from a Conservative government was probably real; and it led him, from this date, into that monstrous agitation for the repeal of the union which was as fatal to himself as to his unhappy country. From this time, he began to reap his retribution for his rash, unprincipled, and most mischievous political conduct. From this time, he drew down upon himself a burden of embarrassment and irksome responsibility, under which, after long perplexity and anguish of mind, he sank spirit-broken and terror-stricken, leaving a name which was soon to be cursed by his countrymen as fervently as it had ever been blessed. Probably, no one now supposes him to have been sincere in any expectation or desire to obtain a repeal of the union; for nothing can be more futile, or more audacious in absurdity, than his replies to Lord Charlemont and others who objected to the efficacy of repeal, and showed that if it was obtained to-morrow, the redemption of Ireland would remain to be achieved, with less chance of unity of councils and dispassionateness of action than under the imperial connection; but he was probably of opinion that the best means of making Ireland attended to and cared for was by making her feared; and that the best way of making her feared was by pushing the repeal agitation.

In this year, we find him waging war against British manufacturers. 'His pantaloons, waistcoat, and coat were Irish. . . . . He considered the pleasure of giving employment to Irish hands part of the value of the price he gave for anything.' He might speak for himself; but he could not expect poorer Irishmen to indulge themselves in this sort of luxury; and the effort to exclude English manufactures failed, though O'Connell passed a law to that effect, and even attempted to enforce it, in opposition to the Dublin magistracy. Mr. O'Connell made journeys, and

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attended dinners, for the furtherance of repeal; and in February, we find him declaring that he had been refused post-horses, through Orange intimidation; from which fact he drew the conviction, that if he had travelled on the day first fixed, his carriage would have certainly been destroyed, and himself probably murdered. In March, at a meeting on the Curragh of Kildare, he protested against a published calculation of the length of his agitation, from his age being sixty-five. Ten or eleven of his uncles and aunts lived to be above ninety;' and the prospect of his scope of agitation was indefinite, as he could make as much of three years as most men could of thirty.' In April, we find him holding forth on the grievous subject of rents, and proposing plans, procured from a committee of his own, for securing a tenancy of not less than twenty years for every man on the land, with power to all to purchase small farms, paying for them by instalments, with the rent. At the same date, he admitted the difficulty of enforcing his order to exclude British manufactures, and accounted for it by audaciously declaring that it was owing to an influx of English workmen, who had come over to keep down the wages of the Irish operative.' In the same month, certain American sympathisers sent over some hundreds of pounds for the furtherance of the repeal cause; and O'Connell declared that the Irish parliament was not dead-only slept-and would be awakened now by the erowing of the American cocks across the Atlantic. He took occasion to stimulate the repeal wardens to augment their funds, saying that two millions of repealers-and he could not do with less than two millions of repealerswould yield, at 1s. per man, £100,000. By this time, O'Connell's Board of Trade' had discovered that it would be necessary to supersede the Dublin shopkeepers by 'marts for the exclusive sale of Irish commodities,' as the shopkeepers would not join in the movement to exclude British manufactures. By the middle of May it had become clear that Sir R. Peel was coming into power; and O'Connell proposed a simultaneous meeting, on a Sunday, of all the parishes of Ireland, in order to implore the queen 'not to receive into her confidence the bitter and malignant ancient enemies of her faithful Irish people.'

Before this month was over, the repeal meetings in the provinces were becoming grand shows-one on the hill of Kilnoe, in Clare, consisting of 100,000 men; and another at Ardsullas, leading the way in that organisation which afterwards gave their formidable character to such meetings. The people came in companies, led by their priests, from distances of ten or fifteen miles, with temperance bands playing before them. A bedridden old woman was carried ten miles to see the preparations made for the salvation of her country.' During the absorption of the passions of the people in the growing agitation, the diminution of crime appears remarkable. While there was 'but one voice upon the breeze of heaven-Hurrah for repeal!' -and the shout arose 'from the Giants' Causeway to Cape Clear, from Connemara to the Hill of Howth '-the judges were congratulating the juries on there being few prisoners for trial, or the dock was empty.' In August, the liberator's speeches contain a curious medley; announcing his intended measure for securing to every man a long or perpetual holding of the land he lives on; desiring the people not to rebel as long as they could help it; intimating that steam-boats could bring aid from America in ten days; and longing for the hour which he declared might soon arrive, when the queen, flying from the Tory enemies of her throne, should take refuge in the arms of her faithful Irish. To these he added two curious declarations—that he had always been opposed to the introduction of a poor-law into Ireland; and that he had arranged to introduce hand-loom weaving into Ireland, trusting to achieve an exclusion of the productions of British powerlooms. By this time, the repeal meetings were 'immense;' and the priests of one diocese which contained 105 had all joined but one. A member was now added to the association, whose accession was uproariously hailed - Mr. O'Connell's latest grandchild, aged four days. Nothing was omitted which could amuse or gratify the people. In October, the government papers in London intimated plainly that the cabinet intended to take no notice of any nonsense in Ireland, but that any acts obviously dangerous to the general peace would be put down with the strong hand; and an appeal was made to the newspaper press on

the Conservative side not to record the boasts and menaces of the repealers, as nothing but neglect seemed to be necessary to empty the benches at repeal meetings. This declaration of the Standard, in October 1841, was regarded as an indication of the policy of the new administration in regard to the repeal movement. Mr. O'Connell had before declined the office of lord-mayor of Dublin. He now changed his mind, and accepted the dignity, for the facilities it would afford for extending the repeal cause. In November, the movement had become important enough to be visited with opposition and defection. A prominent member withdrew, convinced by the arguments of opponents that Ireland wanted peace and quiet more than political changes; and an intrepid parish priest refused to collect repeal rent from his flock, because they were already under the pressure of poverty. By this time, the new census was out; and Mr. O'Connell made use of it to charge upon the British government a 'wholesale extermination of the Irish people'-'a frightful slaughter of human beings'-because the population had increased at a considerably slower rate during the last than the preceding ten years. At every meeting in Dublin now, contributions from the United States were handed in, amounting by this time to many hundreds of pounds. The O'Connell rent was also swelling-the sum collected in the Dublin district alone this year exceeding £2000. In a month, it became clear how the new lord-mayor meant to use his office for the benefit of the repeal cause. In one hour and a half he admitted seventy-three new freemen—all of them having avouched themselves Catholics, and of the right sort. The dignitary declared the business to be going on swimmingly; and that there would be no need for him to be made permanent lord-mayor by perpetual re-election, because he could put things in train during this year, and get a sound coadjutor appointed to succeed him, who would do the same in his turn. Such avowals appear to have created no disgust among his followers, amidst their loud talk of political right and justice. All means to their end seem to have been, not only fair, but laudable in their eyes. These preparations indicate what might be expected from a subsequent time.

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