The second popular war cry was "Repeal." In this agitation, again
O'Connell's was the chief personage, and his eloquence the chief
factor. It was in effect another phase of the Irish demand for
Home Rule. Since the first day of the new century Ireland had
been, for legislative purposes, a part of the United Kingdom. It
was the act which had established this "Legislative Union" and
abolished the Irish Parliament which O'Connell was determined to
repeal. All that monster meetings, soul-moving oratory, secret
associations, printer's ink, could do to influence the government
by parliamentary manoeuver, demonstration of popular feeling,
intimidation, and threats of insurrection was done. As a member
of Parliament, and the dictator to his "tail" of half a hundred
Irish members, the silver-tongued "Irish tribune" exerted a
considerable political power so long as parties were somewhat
evenly divided so as to make his support desirable. But when, in
1841, the Tories came back into office under Sir Robert Peel,
backed by a strong majority, this influence declined. The arrest
of O'Connell, in 1843, for treasonable utterances, discredited
him with his following, which soon fell apart-the more determined
section to carry Ireland's cause to the extreme of violent
outbreak, the milder partisans to await a more opportune moment
to press their agitation for Home Rule.