with beneficent legislation, and what was intended as such -thus indicating the peculiar pressure of the timesociety out of doors was following in the same track. We see, with great satisfaction, about this time, a rising movement in favour of shortening the hours of trading in shops. Here, where exchange and not production is concerned, there can be no reasonable objection to bringing the exhausting labour of shop attendance within endurable limits. As long as the fair convenience of purchasers is considered, and the shops are kept open for the length of an average working-day, a timely closing of the shops is a benefit to the tradesman and his assistants in every way. The one thing to be done was to induce the tradesmen in the same line to agree to close their shops at the same hour; and this has been found not difficult on the whole. The early-closing movement began to be talked about at this time; and a prospect was opening to the shopman and shopwoman of evening reading, or social converse, or rest, or, if their fatigue permitted it, a breath of fresh air at other times than on Sundays. And we note also the commencement of the movement on behalf of one of the most suffering classes of society-the governesses. The position of this unfortunate class is so anomalous, so unnatural, and, at our own particular period, so depressed, that the efforts of all the benevolent among us could do but little for relief. But, from this time, it was at least certain that the neglect of society was at an end; and this was the clear beginning of the end which must one day arrive. From this time, some few of the suffering multitude of female educators would be sheltered in their latter years, and tended in sickness, and aided to provide resources against a season of age and sickness. We were to have among us asylums for aged governesses, and homes for such as were unemployed; and methods of insurance or deposit for annuities for such as were earning salaries; and, better than all these, an awakening of society to the inquiry why this class is one which suffers so bitterly, and whether it can be justifiable to have among us a class so indispensable, and yet so unhappy. It may be hoped that there were employers of governesses who were now moved to consider whether they could not afford some solace

of sympathy, and respect, and social converse, and improvement, and amusement, to the inmate of their house whose position was one of utter loneliness in the midst of numbers.

We notice at this time also projects for improving the dwellings of the poor. We read of model lodging-houses -of mansions for families where, at a less cost than had been paid for the most wretched roosting-places, poor families might be provided with clean and airy rooms, with a supply of water, light, and warmth. Suggestions were even made of a common kitchen, wash-house and bakehouse, and other devices of domestic Socialism, which made the timid look to see whether the principle of Communism was gaining ground in England, as it was reported to be in France, Germany, and Italy. The greater number felt, however, that it mattered little what name such projects were called by, if they supplied the necessaries and comforts of life, on a principle independent of almsgiving, to those who could enjoy them only by means of the economy of association.

The queen's letter was still looked to as a means of relief for the still starving people in the manufacturing districts. This royal letter was prepared by the advice, and under the eye, of the privy-council. It was addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and it directed that the bishops should see that it was read on an appointed Sunday, in all the churches, that the people might be moved to charitable contribution for the relief of the distress; their contributions to be collected from house to house in the course of the week following the publication of the letter. The transaction, which began in May 1842, was spread over some months-Lord Wharncliffe declaring, in the next session, that the sum raised under this letter amounted to about £75,000, which was expended in the most distressed manufacturing counties. It was thought to be a mistake at the time to have recourse to so extreme a method of appeal in a season when all hearts that could be so reached were already opened and softened by the indications of unequalled distress on every hand; and the smallness of the sums raised in response to the royal invitation, in proportion to those provided by private subscription, seems to

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-Viceroyalty 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 coul 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 crowing 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 18. 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.'