was O'Connell's direct attack on the Prince Regent. That powerful
personage, the _de facto_ Sovereign of the realm, had long amused the
Irish Catholics with promises and pledges of being favourable to their
cause. At an aggregate meeting, in June, 1812, Mr. O'Connell maintained
that there were four distinct pledges of this description in existence:
1. One given in 1806, through the Duke of Bedford, then
Lord-Lieutenant, to induce the Catholics to withhold their petitions
for a time. 2. Another given the same year in the Prince's name by Mr.
Ponsonby, then Chancellor. 3. A pledge given to Lord Kenmare, _in
writing_, when at Cheltenham. 4. A verbal pledge given to Lord Fingal,
in the presence of Lords Clifford and Petre, and reduced to writing and
signed by these three noblemen, soon after quitting the Prince's
presence. Over the meeting at which this indictment was preferred, Lord
Fingal presided, and the celebrated "witchery" resolutions, referring
to the influence then exercised on the Prince by Lady Hertford, were
proposed by his lordship's son, Lord Killeen. It may, therefore, be
fairly assumed, that the existence of the fourth pledge was proved, the
first and second were never denied, and as to the third—that given to
Lord Kenmare—the only correction ever made was, that the Prince's
message was delivered verbally, by his Private Secretary, Colonel
McMahon, and not in writing. Lord Kenmare, who died in the autumn of
1812, could not be induced, from a motive of delicacy, to reduce his
recollection of this message to writing, but he never denied that he
had received it, and O'Connell, therefore, during the following years,
always held the Prince accountable for this, as for his other promises.
Much difference of opinion arose as to the wisdom of attacking a person
in the position of the Prince; but O'Connell, fully persuaded of the
utter worthlessness of the declarations made in that quarter, decided
for himself that the bold course was the wise course. The effect
already was various. The English Whigs, the Prince's early and constant
friends, who had followed him to lengths that honour could hardly
sanction, and who had experienced his hollow-heartedness when lately
called to govern during his father's illness; they, of course, were not
sorry to see him held up to odium in Ireland, as a dishonoured
gentleman and a false friend. The Irish Whigs, of whom Lord Moira and
Mr. Ponsonby were the leaders, and to whom Mr. Grattan might be said to
be attached rather than to belong, saw the rupture with regret, but
considered it inevitable. Among "the Prince's friends" the attacks upon
him in the Dublin meetings were regarded as little short of treason;
while by himself, it is well known the "witchery" resolutions of 1812
were neither forgotten nor forgiven.
The political position of the Holy See, at this period, was such as to
induce and enable an indirect English influence to be exercised,
through that channel, upon the Irish Catholic movement. Pope Pius VII.,
a prisoner in France, had delegated to several persons at Rome certain
vicarious powers, to be exercised in his name, in case of necessity; of
these, more than one had followed him into exile, so that the position
of his representative devolved at length upon Monsignor Quarrantotti,
who, early in 1814, addressed a rescript to Dr. Poynter,
vicar-apostolic of the London district, commendatory of the Bill of
1813, including the Veto, and the Ecclesiastical Commission proposed by
Canning and Castlereagh. Against these dangerous concessions, as they
considered them, the Irish Catholics despatched their remonstrances to
Rome, through the agency of the celebrated Wexford Franciscan, Father
Richard Hayes; but this clergyman, having spoken with too great
freedom, was arrested, and suffered several months' confinement in the
Eternal City. A subsequent embassy of Dr. Murray, coadjutor to the
Archbishop of Dublin, on behalf of his brother prelates, was attended
with no greater advantage, though the envoy himself was more properly
treated. On his return to Ireland, at a meeting held to hear his
report, several strong resolutions were unanimously adopted, of which
the spirit may be judged from the following—the concluding one of the
series—"Though we sincerely venerate the supreme Pontiff as visible
head of the Church, we do not conceive that our apprehensions for the
safety of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland can or ought to be
removed by any determination of His Holiness, adopted or intended to be
adopted, not only without our concurrence, but in direct opposition to
our repeated resolutions and the very energetic memorial presented on
our behalf, and so ably supported by our Deputy, the Most Reverend Dr.
Murray; who, in that quality, was more competent to inform His Holiness
of the real state and interests of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland
than any other with whom he is said to have consulted."
The resolutions were transmitted to Rome, signed by the two Archbishops
present, by Dr. Everard, the coadjutor of the Archbishop of Cashel, by
Dr. Murray, the coadjutor of the Archbishop of Dublin, by the Bishops
of Meath, Cloyne, Clonfert, Kerry, Waterford, Derry, Achonry, Killala,
Killaloe, Kilmore, Ferns, Limerick, Elphin, Cork, Down and Conor,
Ossory, Raphoe, Clogher, Dromore, Kildare and Leighlin, Ardagh, and the
Warden of Galway. Dr. Murray, and Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Cork, were
commissioned to carry this new remonstrance to Rome, and the greatest
anxiety was felt for the result of their mission.
A strange result of this new _embroglio_ in the Catholic cause was,
that it put the people on the defensive for their religious liberties,
not so much against England as against Rome. The unlucky Italian
Monsignor who had volunteered his sanction of the Veto, fared scarcely
better at the popular gatherings than Lord Castlereagh, or Mr. Peel.
"Monsieur Forty-eight," as he was nicknamed, in reference to some
strange story of his ancestor taking his name from a lucky lottery
ticket of that number, was declared to be no better than a common
Orangeman, and if the bitter denunciations uttered against him, on the
Liffey and the Shannon, had only been translated into Italian, the
courtly Prelate must have been exceedingly amazed at the democratic
fury of a Catholic population, as orthodox as himself, but much more
jealous of State interference with things spiritual. The second order
of the clergy were hardly behind the laity, in the fervour of their
opposition to the rescript of 1814. Their entire body, secular and
regular, residing in and about Dublin, published a very strong protest
against it, headed by Dr. Blake, afterwards Bishop of Dromore, in which
it was denounced as "pregnant with mischief" and entirely
"non-obligatory upon the Catholic Church in Ireland." The several
ecclesiastical provinces followed up these declarations with a
surprising unanimity, and although a Vetoistical address to His
Holiness was despatched by the Cisalpine club in England, the Irish
ideas of Church government triumphed at Rome. Drs. Murray and Milner
were received with his habitual kindness by Pius VII.; the illustrious
Cardinal Gonsalvi was appointed by the Pope to draw up an explanatory
rescript, and Monsignor Quarrantotti was removed from his official
position. The firmness manifested at that critical period by the Irish
church has since been acknowledged with many encomiums by all the
successors of Pope Pius VII.
The Irish government under the new Viceroy, Lord Whitworth (the former
ambassador to Napoleon), conceiving that the time had come, in the
summer of 1814, to suppress the Catholic Board, a proclamation
forbidding his Majesty's subjects to attend future meetings of that
body issued from Dublin Castle, on the 3rd of June. The leaders of the
body, after consultation at Mr. O'Connell's residence, decided to bow
to this proclamation and to meet no more as a Board; but this did not
prevent them, in the following winter, from holding a new series of
Aggregate meetings, far more formidable, in some respects, than the
deliberative meetings which had been suppressed. In the vigorous and
somewhat aggressive tone taken at these meetings, Lord Fingal, the
chief of the Catholic peerage, did not concur, and he accordingly
withdrew for some years from the agitation, Mr. Shiel, the Bellews, Mr.
Ball, Mr. Wyse of Waterford, and a few others, following his example.
With O'Connell remained the O'Conor Don, Messrs. Finlay and Lidwell
(Protestants), Purcell O'Gorman, and other popular persons. But the
cause sustained a heavy blow in the temporary retirement of Lord Fingal
and his friends, and an attempt to form a "Catholic Association," in
1815, without their co-operation, signally failed.
During the next five years, the fortunes of the great Irish question
fluctuated with the exigencies of Imperial parties. The second American
war had closed, if not gloriously, at least without considerable loss
to England; Napoleon had exchanged Elba for St. Helena: Wellington was
the Achilles of the Empire, and Castlereagh its Ulysses. Yet it was not
in the nature of those free Islanders, the danger and pressure of
foreign war removed, to remain always indifferent to the two great
questions of domestic policy—Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary
Reform. In the session of 1816, a motion of Sir John Newport's to
inquire into the state of Ireland, was successfully resisted by Sir
Robert Peel, but the condition and state of public feeling in England
could not be as well ignored by a Parliament sitting in London. In
returning from the opening of the Houses in January, 1817, the Regent
was hooted in the street, and his carriage riddled with stones. A
reward of 1,000 pounds, issued for the apprehension of the ringleaders,
only gave additional _éclat_ to the fact, without leading to the
apprehension of the assailants.
The personal unpopularity of the Regent seems to have increased, in
proportion as death removed from him all those who stood nearest to the
throne. In November, 1817, his oldest child, the Princess Charlotte,
married to Leopold, since King of Belgium, died in childbed; in 1818,
the aged Queen Charlotte died; in January, 1820, the old King, in the
eighty-second year of his age, departed this life. Immediately
afterwards the former Princess of Wales, long separated from her
profligate husband, returned from the Continent to claim her rightful
position as Queen Consort. The disgraceful accusations brought against
her, the trial before the House of Lords which followed, the courage
and eloquence of her counsel, Brougham and Denman, the eagerness with
which the people made her cause their own, are all well remembered
events, and all beside the purpose of this history. The unfortunate
lady died after a short illness, on the 7th of August, 1821; the same
month in which Ms Majesty—George IV.—departed on that Irish journey, so
satirized in the undying verse of Moore and Byron.
Two other deaths, far more affecting than any among the mortalities of
royalty, marked the period at which we have arrived. These were the
death of Curran in 1817, and the death of Grattan, in 1820.
Curran, after his failure to be returned for Newry, in 1812, had never
again attempted public life. He remained in his office of Master of the
Rolls, but his health began to fail sensibly. During the summers of
1816 and '17, he sought for recreation in Scotland, England and France,
but the charm which travel could not give—the charm of a cheerful
spirit—was wanting. In October, 1817, his friend, Charles Phillips, was
suddenly called to his bed-side at Brompton, near London, and found him
with one side of his face and body paralyzed cold. "And this was all,"
says his friend, "that remained of Curran—the light of society—the
glory of the forum—the Fabricius of the senate—the idol of his
country." Yes! even to less than this, was he soon to sink. On the
evening of the 14th of October, he expired, in the 68th year of his
age, leaving a public reputation as free from blemish as ever did any
man who had acted a leading part, in times like those through which he
had passed. He was interred in London, but twenty years afterwards, the
committee of the Glasnevin Cemetery, near Dublin, obtained permission
of his representatives to remove his ashes to their grounds, where they
now finally repose. A tomb modelled from the tomb of Scipio covers the
grave, bearing the simple but sufficient inscription—CURRAN. Thus was
fulfilled the words he had uttered long before—"The last duties will be
paid by that country on which they are devolved; nor will it be for
charity that a little earth will be given to my bones. Tenderly will
those duties be paid, as the debt of well-earned affection, and of
gratitude not ashamed of her tears."
Grattan's last days were characteristic of his whole life. As the
session of 1820 progressed, though suffering from his last struggle
with disease, he was stirred by an irresistible desire to make his way
to London, and present once more the petition of the Catholics. Since
the defeat of his Relief Bill of 1813, there had been some estrangement
between him and the more advanced section of the agitators, headed by
O'Connell. This he was anxious, perhaps, to heal or to overcome. He
thought, moreover, that even if he should die in the effort, it would
be, as he said himself, "a good end." Amid—
"The trees which a nation had given, and which bowed
As if each brought a new civic crown to his head,"
he consulted with the Catholic delegates early in May. O'Connell was
the spokesman, and the scene may yet be rendered immortal by some great
national artist. All present felt that the aged patriot was dying, but
still he would go once more to London, to fall, as he said, "at his
post." In leaving Ireland he gave to his oldest friends directions for
his funeral—that he might be buried in the little churchyard of
Moyanna, on the estate the people gave him in 1782! He reached London,
by slow stages, at the end of May, and proposed to be in his place in
the House on the 4th of June. But this gratification was not permitted
him: on the morning of the 4th, at six o'clock, he called his son to
his bed-side, and ordered him to bring him a paper containing his last
political opinions. "Add to it," he said, with all his old love of
antithesis, "that I die with a love of liberty in my heart, and this
declaration in favour of my country, in my hand."
So worthily ended the mortal career of Henry Grattan. He was interred
by the side of his old friend, Charles James Fox, in Westminster Abbey;
the mourners included the highest imperial statesmen, and the Catholic
orphan children; his eulogium was pronounced in the House of Commons by
William Conyngham Plunkett, and in the Irish capital by Daniel
O'Connell.
CHAPTER V.
RETROSPECT OF THE STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING DURING THE REIGN OF
GEORGE III.
Before relating the decisive events in the contest for Catholic
Emancipation, which marked the reign of George IV. we may be permitted
to cast a glance backward over the religious and secular state of
Ireland, during the sixty years' reign of George III.
The relative position of the great religious denominations underwent a
slow but important revolution during this long reign. In the last days
of George II., a Chief-Justice was bold enough to declare that "the
laws did not presume a Papist to exist in the kingdom;" but under the
sway of his successor, though much against that successor's will, they
advanced from one constitutional victory to another, till they stood,
in the person of the Earl Marshal, on the very steps of the throne. In
the towns and cities, the Catholic laity, once admitted to commerce and
the professions, rose rapidly to wealth and honour. A Dublin Papist was
at the head of the wine trade; another was the wealthiest grazier in
the kingdom; a third, at Cork, was the largest provision merchant. With
wealth came social ambition, and the heirs of these enfranchised
merchants were by a natural consequence the judges and legislators of
the next generation.
The ecclesiastical organization of Ireland, as described in 1800 by the
bishops in answer to queries of the Chief Secretary, was simple and
inexpensive. The four archbishops and twenty bishops, were sustained by
having certain parishes attached to their cathedrals, _in commendam_:
other _Cathedraticum_ there seems to have been none. Armagh had then
350 parish priests, Tuam 206, Cashel 314, and Dublin 156: in all 1126.
The number of curates or coadjutors was at least equal to that of the
parish priests; while of regulars then returned the number did not
exceed 450. This large body of religious—24 prelates, nearly 3,000
clergy—exclusive of female religious—were then, and have ever since
been, sustained by the voluntary contributions of the laity, paid
chiefly at the two great festivals of Christmas and Easter, or by
customary offerings made at the close of the ceremonies of marriages,
baptisms, and death. Though the income of some of the churches was
considerable, in the great majority of cases the amount received barely
sufficed to fulfil the injunction of St. Patrick to his disciples, that
"the lamp should take but that wherewith it was fed."
The Presbyterian clergy, though in some respects more dependent on
their congregations than the Catholics were, did not always, nor in all
cases, depend on the voluntary principle for their maintenance. The
Irish Supply Bill contained an annual item before the Union of 7,700
pounds for the Antrim Synod, and some other dissenting bodies. The
_Regium Donum_ was not, indeed, general; but that it might be made so,
was one of the inducements held out to many of that clergy to secure
their countenance for the Legislative Union.
The Established Church continued, of course, to monopolize University
honours, and to enjoy its princely revenues and all political
advantages. Trinity College continued annually to farm its 200,000
acres at a rental averaging 100,000 pounds sterling. Its wealth, and
the uses to which it is put, are thus described by a recent writer:
"Some of Trinity's senior fellows enjoy higher incomes than Cabinet
ministers; many of her tutors have revenues above those of cardinals;
and junior fellows, of a few days' standing, frequently decline some of
her thirty-one church livings with benefices which would shame the
poverty of scores of continental, not to say Irish, Catholic
archbishops. Even eminent judges hold her professorships; some of her
chairs are vacated for the Episcopal bench only; and majors and field
officers would acquire increased pay by being promoted to the rank of
head porter, first menial, in Trinity College. Apart from her princely
fellowships and professorships, her seventy Foundation, and sixteen
non-Foundation Scholarships, her thirty Sizarships, and her fourteen
valuable Studentships, she has at her disposal an aggregate, by
bequests, benefactions, and various endowments, of 117 permanent
exhibitions, amounting to upwards of 2,000 pounds per annum." The
splendour of the highest Protestant dignitaries may be inferred from
what has been said formerly of the Bishop of Derry, of the Era of
Independence. The state maintained by the chief bishop—Primate
Robinson, who ruled Armagh from 1765 to 1795—is thus described by Mr.
Cumberland in his _Memoirs_. "I accompanied him," says Cumberland, "on
Sunday forenoon to his cathedral. We went in his chariot of six horses
attended by three footmen behind, whilst my wife and daughters, with
Sir William Robinson, the primate's elder brother, followed in my
father's coach, which he lent me for the journey. At our approach the
great western door was thrown open, and my friend (in person one of the
finest men that could be seen) entered, like another Archbishop Laud,
in high prelatical state, preceded by his officers and ministers of the
church, conducting him in files to the robing chamber, and back again
to the throne. It may well be conceived with what invidious eyes the
barely tolerated Papists of the city of Saint Patrick must have looked
on all this pageantry, and their feelings were no doubt those in some
degree of all their co-religionists throughout the kingdom."
The Irish Establishment, during the reign of George III., numbered
among its prelates and clergy many able and amiable men. At the period
of the Union, the two most distinguished were Dr. O'Beirne, Bishop of
Meath, an ex-priest, and Dr. Young, Bishop of Clonfert, a former fellow
of Trinity College. As a Bible scholar, Dr. Young ranked deservedly
high, but as a variously accomplished writer, Dr. O'Beirne was the
first man of his order. His political papers, though occasionally
disfigured with the bigotry natural to an apostate, are full of a
vigorous sagacity; his contributions to general literature, such as his
paper on _Tanistry_, in Vallency's _Collectanea_, show how much greater
things still he was capable of. It is not a little striking that the
most eminent bishop, as well as the most celebrated Anglican preacher
of that age, in Ireland (Dean Kirwan), should both have been ordained
as Catholic priests.
The national literature which we have noted a century earlier, as
changing gradually its tongue, was now mainly, indeed we might almost
say solely, expressed in English. It is true the songs of "Carolan the
Blind," were sung in Gaelic by the Longford firesides, where the author
of "the Deserted Village" listened to their exquisite melody, moulding
his young ear to a sense of harmony full as exquisite; but the glory of
the Gaelic muse was past. He, too, unpromising as was his exterior, was
to be one of the bright harbingers of another great era of
Hiberno-English literature. When, within two generations, out of the
same exceedingly restricted class of educated Irishmen and women, we
count the names of Goldsmith, Samuel Madden, Arthur Murphy, Henry
Brooke, Charles Macklin, Sheridan, Burke, Edmund Malone, Maria
Edgeworth, Lady Morgan, "Psyche" Tighe, and Thomas Moore, it is
impossible not to entertain a very high opinion of the mental resources
of that population, if only they were fairly wrought and kindly valued
by the world.
One memorable incident of literary history—the Ossianic outbreak of
1760—aided powerfully though indirectly in the revival of the study of
the ancient Celtic history of Scotland and Ireland. Something was done
then, by the Royal Irish Academy, to meet that storm of Anglo-Norman
incredulity and indignation; much more has been done since, to place
the original records of the Three Kingdoms on a sound critical basis.
The dogmatism of the unbelievers in the existence of a genuine body of
ancient Celtic literature has been rebuked; and the folly of the
theorists who, upon imaginary grounds, constructed pretentious systems,
has been exposed. The exact originals of MacPherson's odes have not
been found, after a century of research, and may be given up, as
non-existent; but the better opinion seems now to be, by those who have
studied the fragments of undoubted antiquity attributed to the son of
the warrior Fion, that whatever the modern translator may have
invented, he certainly did not invent Ossian.
To the stage, within the same range of time, Ireland gave some
celebrated names: Quinn, Barry, Sheridan, Mrs. Woffington, Mrs. Jordan,
and Miss O'Neill; and to painting, one pre-eminent name—the eccentric,
honest, and original, James Barry.
But of all the arts, that in which the Irish of the Georgian era won
the highest and most various triumphs was the art of Oratory, What is
now usually spoken of as "the Irish School of Eloquence," may be
considered to have taken its rise from the growth of the Patriot party
in Parliament, in the last years of George II. Every contemporary
account agrees in placing its first great name—Anthony Malone—on the
same level with Chatham and Mansfield. There were great men before
Malone, as before Agamemnon; such as Sir Toby Butler, Baron Rice, and
Patrick Darcy; but he was the first of our later succession of masters.
After him came Flood and John Hely Hutchinson; then Grattan and Curran;
then Plunkett and Bushe; then O'Connell and Shiel. In England, at the
same time, Burke, Barre, Sheridan, and Sir Phillip Francis, upheld the
reputation of Irish oratory; a reputation generously acknowledged by
all parties, as it was illustrated in the ranks of all. The Tories,
within our own recollection, applauded as heartily the Irish wit and
fervour of Canning, Croker, and North, as the Whigs did the exhibition
of similar qualities in their Emancipation allies.
Nothing can be less correct, than to pronounce judgment on the Irish
School, either of praise or blame, in sweeping general terms. Though a
certain family resemblance may be traced among its great masters, no
two of them will be found nearly alike. There are no echoes, no servile
imitators, among them. In vigorous argumentation and severe simplicity,
Plunkett resembled Flood, but the temperament of the two men—and
Oratory is nearly as much a matter of temperament as of intellect—was
widely different. Flood's movement was dramatic, while Plunkett's was
mathematical. In structural arrangement, Shiel, occasionally—very
occasionally—reminds us of Grattan; but if he has not the wonderful
condensation of thought, neither has he the frequent antithetical
abuses of that great orator. Burke and Sheridan are as distinguishable
as any other two of their contemporaries; Curran stands alone;
O'Connell never had a model, and never had an imitator who rose above
mimicry. Every combination of powers, every description of excellence,
and every variety of style and character, may be found among the
masterpieces of this great school. Of their works many will live for
ever. Most of Burke's, many of Grattan's, and one or two of Curran's
have reached us in such preservation as promises immortality.
Selections from Flood, Sheridan, Canning, Plunkett and O'Connell will
survive; Shiel will be more fortunate for he was more artistic, and
more watchful of his own fame. His exquisite finish will do, for him,
what the higher efforts of men, more indifferent to the audience of
posterity, will have forfeited for them.
It is to be observed, farther, that the inspiration of all these men
was drawn from the very hearts of the people among whom they grew. With
one or two exceptions, sons of humble peasants, of actors, of at most
middle class men, they were true, through every change of personal
position, to the general interests of the people—to the common weal.
From generous thoughts and a lofty scorn of falsehood, fanaticism and
tyranny, they took their inspiration; and as they were true to human
nature, so will mankind, through successive ages, dwell fondly on their
works and guard lovingly their tombs.
CHAPTER VI.
THE IRISH ABROAD, DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.
The fond tenacity with which the large numbers of the Irish people who
have established themselves in foreign states have always clung to
their native country; the active sympathy they have personally shown
for their relatives at home; the repeated efforts they have made to
assist the Irish in Ireland, in all their public undertakings, requires
that, as an element in O'Connell's final and successful struggle for
Catholic Emancipation, we should take a summary view of the position of
"the Irish abroad."
While the emigrants of that country to America naturally pursued the
paths of peace, those who, from choice or necessity, found their way to
the European Continent, were, with few exceptions, employed mainly in
two departments—war and diplomacy. An Irish Abbé, liked the celebrated
preacher, McCarthy—or an Irish merchant firm, such as the house of the
same name at Bordeaux, might be met with, but most of those who
attained any distinction did so by the sword or the pen, in the field
or the cabinet.
In France, under the revolutionary governments from '91 to '99, the
Irish were, with their old-world notions of God and the Devil, wholly
out of place; but under the Consulate and the Empire, they rose to many
employments of the second class, and a few of the very first. From the
ranks of the expatriated of '98, Buonaparte promoted Arthur O'Conor and
William Corbet to the rank of General; Ware, Allen, Byrne, the younger
Tone, and Keating, to that of Colonel. As individuals, the Emperor was
certainly a benefactor to many Irishmen; but, as a nation, it was one
of their most foolish delusions, to expect in him a deliverer. On the
restoration of the Bourbons, the Irish officers who had acquired
distinction under Napoleon adhered generally to his fortunes, and
tendered their resignations; in their place, a new group of
Franco-Irish descendants of the old Brigades-men, began to show
themselves in the _salons_ of Paris, and the Bureaus of the Ministers.
The last swords drawn for "the legitimate branch" in '91, was by Count
Dillon and his friend Count Wall; their last defender, in 1830, was
General Wall, of the same family.
Though the Irish in France, especially those resident at Paris,
exercised the greatest influence in favour of their original country—an
influence which met all travelled Englishmen, wherever the French
language was understood—their compatriots in Spain and Austria had also
contributed their share to range Continental opinion on the side of
Ireland. Three times, during the century, Spain was represented at
London by men of Irish birth, or Irish origin. The British merchant who
found Alexander O'Reilly Governor of Cadiz, or the diplomatist who met
him as Spanish ambassador, at the Court of Louis XVI., could hardly
look with uninstructed eyes, upon the lot of his humblest namesake in
Cavan. This family, indeed, produced a succession of eminent men, both
in Spain and Austria. "It is strange," observed Napoleon to those
around him, on his second entry into Vienna, in 1809, "that on each
occasion—in November, 1805, as this day—on arriving in the Austrian
capital, I find myself in treaty and in intercourse with the
respectable Count O'Reilly." Napoleon had other reasons for remembering
this officer; it was his dragoon regiment which saved the remnant of
the Austrians, at Austerlitz. In the Austrian army list at that period,
when she was the ally of England, there were above forty Irish names,
from the grading of Colonel up to that of Field-Marshal. In almost
every field of the Peninsula, Wellington and Anglesea learned the value
of George the Second's imprecation on the Penal Code, which deprived
him of such soldiers as conquered at Fontenoy. It cannot be doubted
that even the constant repetition of the names of the Blakes,
O'Donnells, and Sarsfields, in the bulletins sent home to England,
tended to enforce reflections of that description on the statesmen and
the nation, and to inspirit and sustain the struggling Catholics. A
powerful argument for throwing open the British army and navy to men of
all religions, was drawn from these foreign experiences; and, if such
men were worthy to hold military commissions, why not also to sit in
Parliament, and on the Bench?
The fortunes of the Irish in America, though less brilliant for the
few, were more advantageous as to the many. They were, during the war
of the revolution, and the war of 1812, a very considerable element in
the American republic. It was a violent exaggeration to say, as Lord
Mountjoy did in moving for the repeal of the Penal laws, "that England
lost America by Ireland;" but it is very certain that Washington placed
great weight on the active aid of the gallant Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and Southern Irish troops, and the sturdy Scotch-Irish of New
Hampshire. Franklin, in his visit to Ireland, before the rupture, and
Jefferson in his correspondence, always enumerates the Irish, as one
element of reliance, in the contest between the Colonies and the
Empire.
In the immediate cause of the war of 1812, this people were peculiarly
interested. If the doctrines of "the right of search" and "once a
subject always a subject," were to prevail, no Irish emigrant could
hope to become—or having become, could hope to enjoy the protection
of—an American citizen. It was, therefore, natural that men of that
origin should take a deep interest in the war, and it seems something
more than a fortuitous circumstance, when we find in the chairman of
the Senatorial Committee of 1812, which authorized the President to
raise the necessary levies—an Irish emigrant, John Smilie, and in the
Secretary-at-war, who acted under the powers thus granted, the son of
an Irish emigrant, John Caldwell Calhoun. On the Canadian frontier,
during the war which followed, we find in posts of importance, Brady,
Mullany, McComb, Croghan and Reilly; on the lakes, Commodore McDonough,
and on the ocean, Commodores Shaw and Stewart—all Irish. On the
Mississippi, another son of Irish emigrant parents, with his favourite
lieutenants, Carroll, Coffee, and Butler, brought the war to a close by
their brilliant defence of New Orleans. The moral of that victory was
not lost upon England; the life of Andrew Jackson, with a dedication
"to the People of Ireland" was published at London and Dublin, by the
most generally popular writer of that day—William Cobbett.
In the cause of South American independence, the Irish under O'Higgins
and McKenna in Chili, and under Bolivar and San Martin in Colombia and
Peru, were largely engaged, and honourably distinguished. Colonel
O'Conor, nephew to Arthur, was San Martin's chief of the staff; General
Devereux, with his Irish legion, rendered distinguished services to
Bolivar and Don Bernardo. O'Higgins was hailed as the Liberator of
Chili. During that long ten years' struggle, which ended with the
evacuation of Carraccas in 1823, Irish names are conspicuous on almost
every field of action. Bolivar's generous heart was warmly attached to
persons of that nation. "The doctor who constantly attends him," says
the English General, Miller, "is Dr. Moore, an Irishman, who had
followed the Liberator from Venezuela to Peru. He is a man of great
skill in his profession, and devotedly attached to the person of the
Liberator. Bolivar's first aide-de-camp, Colonel O'Leary, is a nephew
of the celebrated Father O'Leary. In 1818, he embarked, at the age of
seventeen, in the cause of South American independence, in which he has
served with high distinction, having been present at almost every
general action fought in Colombia, and has received several wounds. He
has been often employed on diplomatic missions, and in charges of great
responsibility, in which he has always acquitted himself with great
ability."
That these achievements of the Irish abroad produced a favourable
influence on the situation of the Irish at home, we know from many
collateral sources; we know it also from the fact, that when O'Connell
succeeded in founding a really national organization, subscriptions and
words of encouragement poured in on him, not only from France, Spain,
and Austria, but from North and South America, not only from the Irish
residents in those countries, but from their native
inhabitants—soldiers and statesmen—of the first consideration. The
services and virtues of her distinguished children in foreign climes,
stood to the mother country instead of treaties and alliances.
CHAPTER VII.
O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP—THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION—1821 TO 1826.
At the beginning of the year 1821, O'Connell, during the intervals of
his laborious occupations in court and on circuit, addressed a series
of stirring letters to "the People of Ireland," remarkable as
containing some of the best and most trenchant of his political
writings. His object was to induce the postponement of the annual
petition for Emancipation, and the substitution instead of a general
agitation for Parliamentary reform, in conjunction with the English
reformers. Against this conclusion—which he ridiculed "as the fashion
for January, 1821"—Mr. Shiel published a bitter, clever, rhetorical
reply, to which O'Connell at once sent forth a severe and rather
contemptuous rejoinder. Shiel was quite content to have Mr. Plunkett
continue Grattan's annual motion, with all its "conditions" and
"securities." O'Connell declared he had no hope in petitions except
from a reformed Parliament, and he, therefore, was opposed to such
motions altogether, especially as put by Mr. Plunkett, and the other
advocates of a Veto. Another session was lost in this controversy, and
when Parliament rose, it was announced that George IV. was coming to
Ireland "on a mission of Conciliation."
On this announcement, Mr. O'Connell advised that the Catholics should
take advantage of his Majesty's presence to assemble and consider the
state of their affairs; but a protest against "connecting in any manner
the King's visit with Catholic affairs," was circulated by Lords
Fingal, Netterville, Gormanstown, and Killeen, Messrs. Baggott, Shiel,
Wyse, and other Commoners. O'Connell yielded, as he often did, for the
sake of unanimity. The King's visit led to many meetings and
arrangements, in some of which his advice was taken, while in others he
was outvoted or overruled. Nothing could exceed the patience he
exhibited at this period of his life, when his natural impetuous
temperament was still far from being subdued by the frosts of age.
Many liberal Protestants at this period—the King's brief visit—were so
moved with admiration of the judicious and proper conduct of the
Catholic leaders, that a new but short-lived organization, called "the
Conciliation Committee," was formed. The ultra Orange zealots, however,
were not to be restrained even by the presence of the Sovereign for
whom they professed so much devotion. In the midst of the preparations
for his landing, they celebrated, with all its offensive
accompaniments, the 12th of July, and at the Dublin dinner to the
King—though after he had left the room—they gave their charter toast of
"the glorious, pious, and immortal memory." The Committee of
Conciliation soon dwindled away, and, like the visit of George IV.,
left no good result behind.
The year 1822 was most remarkable, at its commencement, for the arrival
of the Marquis of Wellesley, as Lord-Lieutenant, and at its close, for
the assault committed on him in the theatre by the Dublin Orangemen.
Though the Marquis had declined to interfere in preventing the annual
Orange celebration, he was well known to be friendly to the Catholics;
their advocate, Mr. Plunkett, was his Attorney General; and many of
their leaders were cordially welcomed at the Castle. These proofs were
sufficient for the secret tribunals which sat upon his conduct, and
when his Lordship presented himself, on the night of the 14th of
December, at the theatre, he was assailed by an organized mob, one of
whom flung a heavy piece of wood, and another a quart bottle, towards
the state box. Three Orangemen, mechanics, were arrested and tried for
the offence, but acquitted on a technical defect of evidence; a general
feeling of indignation was excited among all classes in consequence,
and it is questionable if Orangeism, in Dublin, ever recovered the
disgust occasioned by that dastardly outrage.
The great and fortunate event, however, for the Catholics, was the
foundation of their new Association, which was finally resolved upon at
an Aggregate Meeting held in "Townsend Street Chapel," on the 10th of
May, 1823. This meeting had been called by an imposing requisition
signed with singular unanimity by all the principal Catholic gentlemen.
Lord Killeen presided. Mr. O'Connell moved the formation of the
Association; Sir Thomas Esmonde seconded the motion; Mr. Shiel—lately
and sincerely reconciled to O'Connell—sustained it. The plan was simple
and popular. The Association was to consist of members paying a guinea
a year, and associates paying a shilling; a standing committee was to
form the government; the regular meetings were to be weekly—every
Saturday; and the business to consist of organization, correspondence,
public discussions, and petitions. It was, in effect, to be a sort of
extern and unauthorized Parliament, acting always within the
Constitution, with a view to the modification of the existing laws, by
means not prohibited in those laws themselves. It was a design, subtle
in conception, but simple in form; a natural design for a
lawyer-liberator to form; and for a people strongly prepossessed in his
favour to adopt; but one, at the same time, which would require a rare
combination of circumstances to sustain for any great length of time,
under a leader less expert, inventive, and resolute.
The Parliamentary position of the Catholic question, at the moment of
the formation of the Association, had undergone another strange
alteration. Lord Castlereagh, having attained the highest honours of
the empire, died by his own hand the previous year. Lord Liverpool
remained Premier, Lord Eldon Chancellor, Mr. Canning became Foreign
Secretary, with Mr. Peel, Home Secretary, the Duke of Wellington
continuing Master-General of the Ordnance. To this cabinet, so largely
anti-Catholic, the chosen organ of the Irish Catholics, Mr. Plunkett,
was necessarily associated as Irish Attorney General. His situation,
therefore, was in the session of 1823 one of great difficulty; this Sir
Francis Burdett and the radical reformers at once perceived, and in the
debates which followed, pressed him unmercifully. They quoted against
him his own language denouncing cabinet compromises on so vital a
question, in 1813, and to show their indignation, when he rose to
reply, they left the House in a body. His speech, as always, was most
able, but the House, when he sat down, broke into an uproar of
confusion. Party spirit ran exceedingly high; the possibility of
advancing the question during the session was doubtful, and a motion to
adjourn prevailed. A fortnight later, at the first meeting of the
Catholic Association, a very cordial vote of thanks to Plunkett was
carried by acclamation.
The new Catholic organization was labouring hard to merit popular
favour. Within the year of its organization we find the Saturday
meetings engaged with such questions as church rates; secret societies;
correspondence with members of both Houses; voting public thanks to Mr.
Brougham; the penal laws relating to the rights of sepulture; the
purchase of a Catholic cemetery near Dublin; the commutation of tithes;
the admission of Catholic freemen into corporations; the extension of
the Association into every county in Ireland, and other more incidental
subjects. The business-like air of the weekly meetings, at this early
period, is remarkable: they were certainly anything but mere occasions
for rhetorical display. But though little could be objected against,
and so much might be said in favour of the labours of the Association,
it was not till nearly twelve months after its organization, when
O'Connell proposed and carried his system of monthly penny
subscriptions to the "Catholic Rent," that it took a firm and
far-reaching hold on the common people, and began to excite the serious
apprehensions of the oligarchical factions in Ireland and England.
This bold, and at this time much ridiculed step, infused new life and a
system hitherto unknown into the Catholic population. The parish
collectors, corresponding directly with Dublin, established a local
agency, co-extensive with the kingdom; the smallest contributor felt
himself personally embarked in the contest; and the movement became, in
consequence, what it had not been before, an eminently popular one.
During the next six months the receipts from penny subscriptions
exceeded 100 pounds sterling per month, representing 24,000
subscribers; during the next year they averaged above 500 pounds a
week, representing nearly half a million enrolled Associates!
With the additional means at the disposal of the Finance Committee of
the Association, its power rose rapidly. A morning and an evening
journal were at its command in Dublin; many thousands of pounds were
expended in defending the people in the courts, and prosecuting their
Orange and other enemies. Annual subsidies, of 5,000 pounds each, were
voted for the Catholic Poor schools, and the education of missionary
priests for America; the expenses of Parliamentary and electioneering
agents were also heavy. But for all these purposes "the Catholic Rent,"
of a penny per month from each associate, was found amply sufficient.
At the close of 1824, the government, really alarmed at the formidable
proportions assumed by the agitation, caused criminal informations to
be filed against Mr. O'Connell, for an alleged seditious allusion to
the example of Bolivar, the liberator of South America; but the Dublin
grand jury ignored the bills of indictment founded on these
informations. Early in the following session, however, a bill to
suppress "Unlawful Associations in Ireland," was introduced by Mr.
Goulburn, who had succeeded Sir Robert Peel as Chief Secretary, and was
supported by Plunkett—a confirmed enemy of all extra-legal
combinations. It was aimed directly at the Catholic Association, and
passed both Houses; but O'Connell found means "to drive," as he said,
"a coach and six through it." The existing Association dissolved on the
passage of the act; another, called "the _New_ Catholic Association,"
was formed for "charitable and other purposes," and the agitators
proceeded with their organization, with one word added to their title,
and immensely additional _éclat_ and success.
In Parliament, the measure thus defeated was followed by another, the
long-promised Relief Bill. It passed in the Commons in May, accompanied
by two clauses, or as they were called, "wings," most unsatisfactory to
the Catholic body. One clause disfranchised the whole class of electors
known as the "forty-shilling freeholders;" the other provided a scale
of state maintenance for the Catholic clergy. A bishop was to have
1,000 pounds per annum; a dean 300 pounds; a parish priest 200 pounds;
a curate 60 pounds. This measure was thrown out by the House of Lords,
greatly to the satisfaction, at least, of the Irish Catholics. It was
during this debate in the Upper House that the Duke of York,
presumptive heir to the throne, made what was called his "ether
speech"—from his habit of dosing himself with that stimulant on trying
occasions. In this speech he declared, that so "help him God," he would
never, never consent to acknowledge the claims put forward by the
Catholics. Before two years were over, death had removed him to the
presence of that Awful Being whose name he had so rashly invoked, and
his brother, the Duke of Clarence, assumed his position, as next in
succession to the throne.
The Catholic delegates, Lord Killeen, Sir Thomas Esmonde, Lawless, and
Shiel, were in London at the time the Duke of York made his memorable
declaration. If, on the one hand, they were regarded with dislike
amounting to hatred, on the other, they were welcomed with cordiality
by all the leaders of the liberal party. The venerable Earl Fitzwilliam
emerged from his retirement to do them honour; the gifted and energetic
Brougham entertained them with all hospitality; at Norfolk House they
were banqueted in the room in which George III. was born: the
millionaire-demagogue Burdett, the courtly, liberal Lord Grey, and the
flower of the Catholic nobility, were invited to meet them. The
delegates were naturally cheered and gratified; they felt, they must
have felt, that their cause had a grasp upon Imperial attention, which
nothing but concession could ever loosen.
Committees of both Houses, to inquire into the state of Ireland, had
sat during a great part of this Session, and among the witnesses were
the principal delegates, with Drs. Murray, Curtis, Kelly, and Doyle.
The evidence of the latter—the eminent Prelate of Kildare and
Leighlin—attracted most attention. His readiness of resource, clearness
of statement, and wide range of information, inspired many of his
questioners with a feeling of respect, such as they had never before
entertained for any of his order. His writings had already made him
honourably distinguished among literary men; his examination before the
Committees made him equally so among statesmen. From that period he
could reckon the Marquises of Anglesea and Wellesley, Lord Lansdowne
and Mr. Brougham, among his correspondents and friends, and, what he
valued even more, among the friends of his cause. Mr. O'Connell, on the
other hand, certainly lost ground in Ireland by his London journey. He
had, unquestionably, given his assent to both "wings," in 1825, as he
did to the remaining one in 1828, and thereby greatly injured his own
popularity. His frank and full recantation of his error, on his return,
soon restored him to the favour of the multitude, and enabled him to
employ, with the best effect, the enormous influence which he showed he
possessed at the general elections of 1826. By him mainly the
Beresfords were beaten in Waterford, the Fosters in Louth, and the
Leslies in Monaghan. The independence of Limerick city, of Tipperary,
Cork, Kilkenny, Longford, and other important constituencies, was
secured. The parish machinery of the Association was found invaluable
for the purpose of bringing up the electors, and the people's treasury
was fortunately able to protect to some extent the fearless voter, who,
in despite of his landlord, voted according to the dictates of his own
heart.
The effect of these elections on the empire at large was very great.
When, early in the following spring, Lord Liverpool, after fifteen
years' possession of power, died unexpectedly, George IV. sent for
Canning and gave him _carte blanche_ to form a cabinet without
excepting the question of Emancipation. That high spirited and really
liberal statesman associated with himself a ministry, three-fourths of
whom were in favour of granting the Catholic claims. This was in the
month of April; but to the consternation of those whose hopes were now
so justly raised, the gifted Premier held office only four months; his
lamented death causing another "crisis," and one more postponement of
"the Catholic question."
CHAPTER VIII.
O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP—THE CLARE ELECTION—EMANCIPATION OF THE
CATHOLICS.
A very little reflection will enable us to judge, even at this day, the
magnitude of the contest in which O'Connell was the great popular
leader, during the reign of George IV. In Great Britain, a very
considerable section of the ancient peerage and gentry, with the Earl
Marshal at their head, were to be restored to political existence, by
the act of Emancipation; a missionary, and barely tolerated clergy were
to be clothed, in their own country, with the commonest rights of
British subjects—protection to life and property. In Ireland,
seven-eighths of the people, one-third of the gentry, the whole of the
Catholic clergy, the numerous and distinguished array of the Catholic
bar, and all the Catholic townsmen, taxed but unrepresented in the
corporate bodies, were to enter on a new civil and social condition, on
the passage of the act. In the colonies, except Canada, where that
church was protected by treaty, the change of Imperial policy towards
Catholics was to be felt in every relation of life, civil, military,
and ecclesiastical, by all persons professing that religion. Some years
ago, a bishop of Southern Africa declared, that, until O'Connell's
time, it was impossible for Catholics to obtain any consideration from
the officials at the Cape of Good Hope. Could there be a more striking
illustration of the magnitude of the movement, which, rising in the
latitude of Ireland, flung its outermost wave of influence on the
shores of the Indian ocean?
The adverse hosts to be encountered in this great contest, included a
large majority of the rank and wealth of both kingdoms. The King, who
had been a Whig in his youth, had grown into a Tory in his old age; the
House of Lords were strongly hostile to the measure, as were also the
universities, both in England and Ireland; the Tory party, in and out
of Parliament; the Orange organization in Ireland; the civil and
military authorities generally, with the great bulk of the rural
magistracy and the municipal authorities. The power to overcome this
power should be indeed formidable, well organized and wisely directed.
The Lord Lieutenant selected by Mr. Canning, was the Marquis of
Anglesea, a frank soldier, as little accustomed to play the politician
as any man of his order and distinction could be. He came to Ireland,
in many respects the very opposite of Lord Wellesley; no orator
certainly, and so far as he had spoken formerly, an enemy rather than a
friend to the Catholics. But he had not been three months in office
when he began to modify his views; he was the first to prohibit, in
Dublin, the annual Orange outrage on the 12th of July, and by
subsequent, though slow degrees, he became fully convinced that the
Catholic claims could be settled only by Concession. Lord Francis
Leveson Gower, afterwards Earl of Ellesmere, accompanied the Marquis as
Chief Secretary.
The accession to office of a prime minister friendly to the Catholics,
was the signal for a new attempt to raise that "No-Popery" cry which
had already given twenty years of political supremacy to Mr. Perceval
and Lord Liverpool. In Ireland, this feeling appeared under the guise
of what was called "the New Reformation," which, during the summer of
1827, raged with all the proverbial violence of the _odium theologicum_
from Cork to Derry. Priests and parsons, laymen and lawyers, took part
in this general politico-religious controversy, in which every possible
subject of difference between Catholic and Protestant was publicly
discussed. Archbishop Magee of Dublin, the Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees, son
of a former English placeman at the Castle, and the Rev. Mr. Pope, were
the clerical leaders in this crusade; Exeter-Hall sent over to assist
them the Honourable and Reverend Baptist Noel, Mr. Wolff, and Captain
Gordon, a descendant of the hero of the London riot of 1798. At Derry,
Dublin, Carlow, and Cork, the challenged agreed to defend their
doctrines. Father Maginn, Maguire, Maher, McSweeney, and some others
accepted these challenges; Messrs. O'Connell, Shiel, and other laymen,
assisted, and the oral discussion of theological and historical
questions became as common as town talk in every Irish community.
Whether, in any case, these debates conduced to conversion is doubtful;
but they certainly supplied the Catholic laity with a body of facts and
arguments very necessary at that time, and which hardly any other
occasion could have presented. The Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, however,
considered them far from beneficial to the cause of true religion; and
though he tolerated a first discussion in his diocese, he positively
forbade a second. The Archbishop of Armagh and other prelates issued
their mandates to the clergy to refrain from these oral disputes, and
the practice fell into disuse.
The notoriety of "the Second Reformation" was chiefly due to the
ostentatious patronage of it by the lay chiefs of the Irish oligarchy.
Mr. Synge, in Clare, Lord Lorton, and Mr. McClintock at Dundalk, were
indefatigable in their evangelizing exertions. The Earl of Roden—to
show his entire dependence on the translated Bible—threw all his other
books into a fish pond on his estate. Lord Farnham was even more
conspicuous in the revival; he spared neither patronage nor writs of
ejectment to convert his tenantry. The reports of conversions upon his
lordship's estates, and throughout his county, attracted so much
notice, that Drs. Curtis, Crolly, Magauran, O'Reilly, and McHale, met
on the 9th of December, 1826, at Cavan, to inquire into the facts. They
found, while there had been much exaggeration on the part of the
reformers, that some hundreds of the peasantry had, by various powerful
temptations, been led to change their former religion. The bishops
received back some of the converts, and a jubilee established among
them completed their reconversion. The Hon. Mr. Noel and Captain Gordon
posted to Cavan, with a challenge to discussion for their lordships; of
course, their challenge was not accepted. Thomas Moore's inimitable
satire was the most effective weapon against such fanatics.
The energetic literature of the Catholic agitation attracted much more
attention than its oral polemics. Joined to a bright army of Catholic
writers, including Dr. Doyle, Thomas Moore, Thomas Furlong, and Charles
Butler, there was the powerful phalanx of the _Edinburgh Review_ led by
Jeffrey and Sidney Smith, and the English liberal press, headed by
William Cobbett. Thomas Campbell, the Poet of Hope, always and
everywhere the friend of freedom, threw open his _New Monthly_, to
Shiel, and William Henry Curran, whose sketches of the Irish Bar and
Bench, of Dublin politics, and the county elections of 1826, will live
as long as any periodical papers of the day. The indefatigable Shiel,
writing French as fluently as English, contributed besides to the
_Gazette de France_ a series of papers, which were read with great
interest on the Continent. These articles were the precursors of many
others, which made the Catholic question at length an European
question. An incident quite unimportant in itself, gave additional zest
to these French articles. The Duke de Montebello, with two of his
friends, Messrs. Duvergier and Thayer, visited Ireland in 1826.
Duvergier wrote a series of very interesting letters on the "State of
Ireland," which, at the time, went through several editions. At a
Catholic meeting at Ballinasloe, the Duke had some compliments paid
him, which he gracefully acknowledged, expressing his wishes for the
success of their cause. This simple act excited a great deal of
criticism in England. The Paris press was roused in consequence, and
the French Catholics, becoming more and more interested, voted an
address and subscription to the Catholic Association. The Bavarian
Catholics followed their example, and similar communications were
received from Spain and Italy.
But the movement abroad did not end in Europe. An address from British
India contained a contribution of three thousand pounds sterling. From
the West Indies and Canada, generous assistance was rendered.
In the United States sympathetic feeling was most active. New York felt
almost as much interested in the cause as Dublin. In 1826 and 1827,
associations of "Friends of Ireland" were formed at New York, Boston,
Washington, Norfolk, Charleston, Augusta, Louisville, and Bardstown.
Addresses in English and French were prepared for these societies,
chiefly by Dr. McNevin, at New York, and Bishop England, at Charleston.
The American, like the French press, became interested in the subject,
and eloquent allusions were made to it in Congress. On the 20th of
January, 1828, the veteran McNevin wrote to Mr. O'Connell—"Public
opinion in America is deep, and strong, and universal, in your behalf.
This predilection prevails over the broad bosom of our extensive
continent. Associations similar to ours are everywhere starting into
existence—in our largest and wealthiest cities—in our hamlets and our
villages—in our most remote sections; and at this moment, the propriety
of convening, at Washington, delegates of the friends of Ireland, of
all the states, is under serious deliberation. A fund will erelong be
derived from American patriotism in the United States, which will
astonish your haughtiest opponents."
The Parliamentary fortunes of the great question were at the same time
brightening. The elections of 1826, had, upon the whole, given a large
increase of strength to its advocates. In England and Scotland, under
the influence of the "No-Popery" cry, they had lost some ground, but in
Ireland they had had an immense triumph. The death of the
generous-hearted Canning, hastened as it was by anti-Catholic
intrigues, gave a momentary check to the progress of liberal ideas; but
they were retarded only to acquire a fresh impulse destined to bear
them, in the next few years, farther than they had before advanced in
an entire century.
The _ad interim_ administration of Lord Goderich gave way, by its own
internal discords, in January, 1828, to the Wellington and Peel
administration. The Duke was Premier, the Baronet leader of the House
of Commons; with Mr. Huskisson, Lord Palmerston, in the cabinet; Lord
Anglesea remained as Lord Lieutenant. But this coalition with the
friends of Canning was not destined to outlive the session of 1828; the
lieutenants of the late Premier were doomed, for some time longer, to
suffer for their devotion to his principles.
This session of 1828, is—in the history of religious liberty—the most
important and interesting in the annals of the British Parliament.
Almost at its opening, the extraordinary spectacle was exhibited of a
petition signed by 800,000 Irish Catholics, praying for the repeal of
"the Corporation and Test Acts," enacted on the restoration of Charles
II., against the non-Conformists. Monster petitions, both for and
against the repeal of these acts, as well as for and against Catholic
emancipation, soon became of common occurrence. Protestants of all
sects petitioned for, but still more petitioned against equal rights
for Catholics; while Catholics petitioned for the rights of Protestant
dissenters. It is a spectacle to look back upon with admiration and
instruction; exhibiting as it does, so much of a truly tolerant spirit
in Christians of all creeds, worthy of all honour and imitation.
In April, "the Corporation and Test Acts" were repealed; in May, the
Canningites seceded from the Duke's government, and one of the
gentlemen brought in to fill a vacant seat in the Cabinet—Mr. Vesey
Fitzgerald, member for Clare—issued his address to his electors, asking
a renewal of their confidence. Out of this event grew another, which
finally and successfully brought to an issue the century-old Catholic
question.
The Catholic Association, on the accession of the Wellington-Peel
Cabinet, had publicly pledged itself to oppose every man who would
accept office under these statesmen. The memory of both as
ex-secretaries—but especially Peel's—was odious in Ireland. When,
however, the Duke had sustained, and ensured thereby the passage of the
repeal of "the Corporation and Test Acts," Mr. O'Connell, at the
suggestion of Lord John Russell the mover of the repeal, endeavoured to
get his angry and uncompromising resolution against the Duke's
government rescinded. Powerful as he was, however, the Association
refused to go with him, and the resolution remained. So it happened
that when Mr. Fitzgerald presented himself to the electors of Clare, as
the colleague of Peel and Wellington, the Association at once
endeavoured to bring out an opposition candidate. They pitched with
this view on Major McNamara, a liberal Protestant of the county, at the
head of one of its oldest families, and personally popular; but this
gentleman, after keeping them several days in suspense, till the time
of nomination was close at hand, positively declined to stand against
his friend, Mr. Fitzgerald, to the great dismay of the associated
Catholics.
In their emergency, an idea, so bold and original, that it was at first
received with general incredulity by the external public, was started.
It was remembered by Sir David De Roose, a personal friend of
O'Connell's, that the late sagacious John Keogh had often declared the
Emancipation question would never be brought to an issue till some
Catholic member elect stood at the bar of the House of Commons
demanding his seat. A trusted few were at first consulted on the daring
proposition, that O'Connell himself, in despite of the legal exclusion
of all men of his religion, should come forward for Clare. Many were
the consultations, and diverse the judgments delivered on this
proposal, but at length, on the reception of information from the
county itself, which gave strong assurance of success, the hero of the
adventure decided for himself. The bold course was again selected as
the wise course, and the spirit-stirring address of "the arch-Agitator"
to the electors, was at once issued from Dublin. "Your county," he
began by saying, "wants a representative. I respectfully solicit your
suffrages, to raise me to that station.
"Of my qualification to fill that station, I leave you to judge. The
habits of public speaking, and many, many years of public business,
render me, perhaps, equally suited with most men to attend to the
interests of Ireland in Parliament.
"You will be told I am not qualified to be elected; the assertion, my
friends, is untrue. I am qualified to be elected, and to be your
representative. It is true that as a Catholic I cannot, and of course
never will, take the oaths at present prescribed to members of
Parliament; but the authority which created these oaths (the
Parliament), can abrogate them: and I entertain a confident hope that,
if you elect me, the most bigoted of our enemies will see the necessity
of removing from the chosen representative of the people an obstacle
which would prevent him from doing his duty to his king and to his
country."
This address was followed instantly by the departure of all the most
effective agitators to the scene of the great contest. Shiel went down
as conducting agent for the candidate; Lawless left his Belfast
newspaper, and Father Maguire his Leitrim flock; Messrs. Steele and
O'Gorman Mahon, both proprietors in the county, were already in the
field, and O'Connell himself soon followed. On the other hand, the
leading county families, the O'Briens, McNamaras, Vandeleurs,
Fitzgeralds and others, declared for their old favourite, Mr.
Fitzgerald. He was personally much liked in the county; the son of a
venerable anti-Unionist, the well-remembered Prime Sergeant, and a man
besides of superior abilities. The county itself was no easy one to
contest; its immense constituency (the 40-shilling freeholders had not
yet been abolished), were scattered over a mountain and valley region,
more than fifty miles long by above thirty wide. They were almost
everywhere to be addressed in both languages—English and Irish—and when
the canvass was over, they were still to be brought under the very eyes
of the landlords, upon the breath of whose lips their subsistence
depended, to vote the overthrow and conquest of those absolute masters.
The little county town of Ennis, situated on the river Fergus, about
110 miles south-west of Dublin, was the centre of attraction or of
apprehension, and the hills that rise on either side of the little
prosaic river soon swarmed with an unwonted population, who had
resolved, subsist how they might, to see the election out. It is hardly
an exaggeration to say that the eyes of the empire were turned, during
those days of June, on the ancient patrimony of King Brian. "I fear the
Clare election will end ill," wrote the Viceroy to the leader of the
House of Commons. "This business," wrote the Lord Chancellor (Eldon),
"must bring the Roman Catholic question to a crisis and a conclusion."
"May the God of truth and justice protect and prosper you," was the
public invocation for O'Connell's success, by the bishop of Kildare and
Leighlin. "It was foreseen," said Sir Robert Peel, long afterwards,
"that the Clare election would be the turning point of the Catholic
question." In all its aspects, and to all sorts of men, this, then, was
no ordinary election, but a national event of the utmost religious and
political consequence. Thirty thousand people welcomed O'Connell into
Ennis, and universal sobriety and order characterized the proceedings.
The troops called out to overawe the peasantry, infected by the
prevailing good humour, joined in their cheers. The nomination, the
polling, and the declaration, have been described by the graphic pen of
Shiel. At the close of the poll the numbers were—O'Connell, 2,057;
Fitzgerald, 1,075; so Daniel O'Connell was declared duly elected,
amidst the most extraordinary manifestations of popular enthusiasm. Mr.
Fitzgerald, who gracefully bowed to the popular verdict, sat down, and
wrote his famous despatch to Sir Robert Peel: "All the great
interests," he said, "my dear Peel, broke down, and the desertion has
been universal. Such a scene as we have had! Such a tremendous prospect
as is open before us!"
This "tremendous prospect," disclosed at the hustings of Ennis, was
followed up by demonstrations which bore a strongly revolutionary
character. Mr. O'Connell, on his return to Dublin, was accompanied by a
_levee en masse_, all along the route, of a highly imposing
description. Mr. Lawless, on his return to Belfast, was escorted
through Meath and Monaghan by a multitude estimated at 100,000 men,
whom only the most powerful persuasions of the Catholic clergy, and the
appeals of the well-known liberal commander of the district, General
Thornton, induced to disperse. Troops from England were ordered over in
considerable numbers, but whole companies, composed of Irish Catholics,
signalized their landing at Waterford and Dublin by cheers for
O'Connell. Reports of the continued hostility of the government
suggested desperate councils. Mr. Ford, a Catholic solicitor, openly
proposed, in the Association, exclusive dealing and a run on the banks
for specie, while Mr. John Claudius Beresford, and other leading
Orangemen, publicly predicted a revival of the scenes and results of
1798.
The Clare election was, indeed, decisive; Lord Anglesea, who landed
fully resolved to make no terms with those he had regarded from a
distance as no better than rebels, became now one of their warmest
partisans. His favourite counsellor was Lord Cloncurry, the early
friend of Emmet and O'Conor; the true friend to the last of every
national interest. For a public letter to Bishop Curtis, towards the
close of 1828, in which he advises the Catholics to stand firm, he was
immediately recalled from the government; but his former and his actual
chief, within three months from the date of his recall, was equally
obliged to surrender to the Association. The great duke was, or
affected to be, really alarmed for the integrity of the empire, from
the menacing aspect of events in Ireland. A call of Parliament was
accordingly made for an early day, and, on the 5th of March, Mr. Peel
moved a committee of the whole House, to go into a "consideration of
the civil disabilities of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects." This
motion, after two days' debate, was carried by a majority of 188. On
the 10th of March the Relief Bill was read for the first time, and
passed without opposition, such being the arrangement entered into
while in committee. But in five days all the bigotry of the land had
been aroused; nine hundred and fifty-seven petitions had already been
presented against it; that from the city of London was signed by more
than "an hundred thousand freeholders." On the 17th of March it passed
to a second reading, and on the 30th to a third, with large majorities
in each stage of debate. Out of 320 members who voted on the final
reading, 178 were in its favour. On the 31st of March it was carried to
the Lords by Mr. Peel, and read a first time; two days later, on the
2nd of April, it was read a second time, on motion of the Duke of
Wellington; a bitterly contested debate of three days followed; on the
10th, it was read a third time, and passed by a majority of 104. Three
days later the bill received the royal assent, and became law.
The only drawbacks on this great measure of long-withheld justice,
were, that it disfranchised the "forty-shilling freeholders" throughout
Ireland, and condemned Mr. O'Connell, by the insertion of the single
word "hereafter," to go back to Clare for re-election. In this there
was little difficulty for him, but much petty spleen in the framers of
the measure.
While the Relief Bill was still under discussion, Mr. O'Connell
presented himself, with his counsel, at the bar of the House of
Commons, to claim his seat as member for Clare. The pleadings in the
case were adjourned from day to day, during the months of March, April,
and May. A committee of the House, of which Lord John Russell was
Chairman, having been appointed in the meantime to consider the
petition of Thomas Mahon and others, against the validity of the
election, reported that Mr. O'Connell had been duly elected. On the
15th of May, introduced by Lords Ebrington and Duncannon, the new
member entered the House, and advanced to the table to be sworn by the
Clerk. On the oath of abjuration being tendered to him, he read over
audibly these words—"that the sacrifice of the mass, and the invocation
of the blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints, as now practised in the
Church of Rome, are impious and idolatrous:" at the subsequent passage,
relative to the falsely imputed Catholic "doctrine of the dispensing
power" of the Pope, he again read aloud, and paused. Then slightly
raising his voice, he bowed, and added, "I decline, Mr. Clerk, to take
this oath. Part of it I know to be false; another part I do not believe
to be true."
He was subsequently heard at the bar, in his own person, in explanation
of his refusal to take the oath, and, according to custom, withdrew.
The House then entered into a very animated discussion on the Solicitor
General's motion "that Mr. O'Connell, having been returned a member of
this House before the passing of the Act for the Relief of the Roman
Catholics, he is not entitled to sit or vote in this House unless he
first takes the oath of supremacy." For this motion the vote on a
division was 190 against 116: majority, 74. So Mr. O'Connell had again
to seek the suffrages of the electors of Clare.
A strange, but well authenticated incident, struck with a somewhat
superstitious awe both Protestants and Catholics, in a corner of
Ireland the most remote from Clare, but not the least interested in the
result of its memorable election. A lofty column on the walls of Derry
bore the effigy of Bishop Walker, who fell at the Boyne, armed with a
sword, typical of his martial inclinations, rather than of his
religious calling. Many long years, by day and night, had his sword,
sacred to liberty or ascendancy, according to the eyes with which the
spectator regarded it, turned its steadfast point to the broad estuary
of Lough Foyle. Neither wintry storms nor summer rains had loosened it
in the grasp of the warlike churchman's effigy, until, on the 13th day
of April, 1829—the day the royal signature was given to the Act of
Emancipation—the sword of Walker fell with a prophetic crash upon the
ramparts of Derry, and was shattered to pieces. So, we may now say,
without bitterness and almost without reproach, so may fall and shiver
to pieces, every code, in every land beneath the sun, which impiously
attempts to shackle conscience, or endows an exclusive caste with the
rights and franchises which belong to an entire People!