Columbia ®nit)crsttp intlieCttpofJldttgork THE LIBRARIES IRELAND AND ITS RULERS SmCE 1829. PAKT THE FIRST, SECOND EDITION, sentire quae velis, et quse sentias dicer e- — Tacitls. T. C. NEWBY,^ 65,,]^pRTIMER St., CAVENDISH Sq ^ ^ '" 1844. ^ ' ' CONTENTS. 1 Chapter I.— The Two Irish Nations. Conversational remark of M. de Tocqueville — Two races iu Ireland — The national character visible even in a drawing- room — Two series of social traditions — Moral antagonism of the two nations— their feelings towards each other — Probable consequences of a civil war — The want of an Irish public — The true mode of regenerating Ireland — Absence of frankness in Irish politicians— A good race of public men especially wanted in Ireland . . . • /"fl^e 1 Chap. II. O'Connell's Early Career. Variety of opinions on the Agitator's real character — mis- takes of literary men concerning him — difficulty of under- standing him — ins birth and education at St. Omers — Irish Catholicity fifty years since — French Revolution — Anecdote of O'Connell and John Slieares — The bloody handkerchief— A rebel lady — O'Connell's maiden speech — his gradual rise at the Bar — Catholic Aristocrats versus the Agitators — O'Connell on the Muuster Circuit— detailed description of his forensic style and character — early causes of his great influence — his ex- tensive family connexions — his reUgiosity — Remarks on Catholicism — Contrast between O'Connell and conventional Catholics — sincerity of his religious character investigated — his mediffival feelings — his gross flattery of George the Fourth — The Cathohc Association — Dictatorship of O'Connell . 11 Chap. III. Difference between Emancipation AND Repeal of the Union. The difiiculties of the Cathohc Question— Canning's posi- tioa — Views of English Statesmen — Burke — Grenville — Grey — as much a Dissenter's as an Irish Question — The Whig Party and Emancipation — Concession of political privileges did not involve the destruction of the Empire — The consequences^, of Repeal of the Union specified — The difiicuhies attendant on the Catholic Question prove the impracticability of Repeal — Imperialism of England . . . .39 Chap, IV. Starting the Repeal Question. Vain expectations of Irish tranquillity — O'Connell's mo- tives in 1829 — Mr. Shell and "rhetorical artifices" — the question raised — meeting at Clarendon St. Chapel — absurd predictions — real purpose of O'Connell — his subsequent vacil- lation — his ambition hungering after fresh objects — mixed nature of his views — his consummate knowledge of the Irish ....... 49 ,.« f^ .f\ r^ -^ ^ 2 C O N T E NTS. Chap. V. ThK NoRTHrMBKULAND G )VF.RN5MNr, Characters of tlie Duke of Northumberland nnd Lord Francis Egertoii — Society of "The Friends of Ireland" put down by the Government — policy of that act questioned — Attorney General Jov — bis abilities and political character — Sketch of the Kigbt Honourable John Doherty, now Chief Justice of the Common Pleas — his handsome })ersonal ai)]iear- ance and insinuating manners — his professional rank indicated — his social deportment described — contrasted with Messrs. Goold and Sheil — his aptitude as a ])o!itical gladiator — his relationshij) to Canning, and connection with the late Mr. North, M. P. — his parliamentary al.ilily — his prosecu- tion of the Doneraile Cons})irators — and niou.entous conse- quences of his celebrated quarrel with O'Connell thereujion . 55 Chap. VI. The Donekailk Conspiract. Tlie Town of Doneraile and its " Boys" — Coi;si)iracy to nrrder several of the Gentn,' — Mr. George I'ond Low. — bis extraordinary escape from assassination — his combat with two peasants, one of whom be shoots, and captures the other — Mr. Low subsequently beloved by the Peasantry — Judicial misconduct of Chief Baron O'Grady — Special Com- mission at Cork to try the Conspirators — brilliant and inflam- matory eloquence of Mr. Dohcrty's statement to the Jury — Oratorical habits of Irish Crown Lawyers — Remarks of the late Earl Dudley — Extract from Mr. Doherty's speech — Na- ture of the conspiracy as detailed by the witufcsses for the Crown — four men sentenced for execution . . 94 Chap. VII. •' Set To" between O'Connell and Doherty. O'Connell sent for to Darreynane — Anxiety of tlie ])easantrT — his journey across the mountains — his breakfast in the Court House — A curious contrast — attacks the Solicitor General — brow-))eating the witnesses — collision with ^Ir Doherty — legal belligerents — Disagreement of the second Jury — Ac- quittal of prisoners by a third Jury . . .81 Chap. Till. Second Encountkr with Mr. Dohertt. Unpoijularity of the Solicitor General — he is grossly abused I ehind his back by O'Connell — The charges against Mr. Do- herty investigated — his threatened impeachment — O'Connell tries to retreat — Bitter taunts of Mr. I'oherty — the scene in the House of Coiumons — The Solicitor General's defence, and CONTENTS. 3 feis assault on O'Connell — Mr. North mocks at the great agi- tator — injury to O'CouueH's parliamentary character — lie- marks on the Doneraile Conspiracy. , . .91 Chap. IX, The Agitator's Position- ix 1830. Continues to Agitate the Repeal Question — his abuse uf the Frencli Liberals — distrusted by English Liberals — disap- points the House of Commons as a parhamentary speaker — the range of his ability contrasted with Burke, Fox, Flood and Plunket, — fails to obtain the confidence of English Poli- ticians ..,..,, 1U2 Chap. X. Chief Secretary Stanlby. Lord Anglesey becomes Vice-Roy — great abihties of Lord Stanley — defects of his manners — his moody character — ab- sence of ad captandum qualities — his self confidence — his sin- cerity, and private worth — his precocity as a debater — remark of Lord Spencer —contrasted with Sir Robert Peel — the ge- nuine English style of his oratory— casual remarks on par- liamentary debaters — Lord Stanley's merits as Secretary for Ireland — the principles of the Grey Ministry . . 109 Chap. XL The Anglesey Admixistratiox. Relation of Irish to European Politics in 1830 — What should have been the true policy of an Irish Governor — Splenetic na- tionality of Irish Toryism — Irish Whigs in the days of the Re- form Bill — national Whiggery its aim and views — Lambert of Carnagh — personal character of Lord Anglesey — his political blunders — his promotions of a batch of Tories u|)on his induc- tion to office — notes upon Provost Loyd — Chief Baron O'Gra- dy — Messrs. Blackbourne, Craniptoa, aad O'Loghlen . 123 Chap. XII. The Government, nominally neutral, but reallyTorv — ittpos- sil)ility of a Medley Ministry in Ireland — contrast between the Whigs and Tories, — remarks on the policy of governing by parties — opinions of Charles Fox on the identification of the Irish Liberals with the English Whigs — absurdity of Lord Anglesey's system of neutrality — Moore's practicai prophecy of Lord Anglesey's downfal — proclamations against the Re- peal Agitation — O'Connell battles the Government — excite- ment throughout the Country. . . . ]3i> CONTENTS. Chap. XIII. State of Ireland in 1832— Fierceness of tlie agrarian dis- turbers — The virtues of Dr. Doyle — Coercion Bill of 1833 — question of its propriety — disorganization of the social system — forcible observations of Sir Robert Peel — remarks on the crime of Murder in Ireland — obtuseness of feelings on the ])art of exterminating landlords and ejected tenants — want of a social standard of right and wrong — four contemporaneous agitations in 1832 — the Cholera Morbus — Lord Stanley's dif- ficulties — Dr. Boyton's invectives against the Government — re- marks on additional Irish Representatives — ditference between the popular party in 1833 and 1835 — concluding observations on Lord Anglesey. . . . . .151 Chap. XIV. The " Rig" of Fergus O'Connor. Representation of Corkshire — The\Vhig Reform Meeting— Sir William Wrixon Becher—dedut of a strange gentleman agita- tor — description of his inflammatory speech — he announces his ambitious projects — the Whigs laugh at him — the O'Connor family — curious anecdote of General Condercet O'Connor — qualifications of Fergus for an Irish trilmne — contrasted with O'Connell as a popular speaker — his canvass of Corkshire 1 71 Chap. XV. The Mallow election — O'Neil Daunt — state of Ireland— Mr. Daniel Callaghau — political lubricity — elements of the Irish popular party — the urban and the rustic Repealers — an Irish "Trade's Association" — a Gironde and a Mountain faction amongst the Repealers — democratic antipathy to gentlemen — strikixie collision between the moderate and ultra Repealers — outburst of Mr. Dan. Meagher against the Mountainists — a theatrical chairman — sudden changes amongst Irish politi- cians — Fergus O'Connor carries "Repeal" through the county and l)orouglis of Cork — storming of Mallow, and defeat of Sir Denhara Norreys — Fergus triumphantly elected. . 185 Chap. XVI. Fergus as an "M.P." — his mansion at Fort Robert — his sporting adventures — his position in London — and rank iu Parlianu'iit — hoists the standard of rebellion against O'Connell — obtains a brief triumpli — practices as a lawyer — takes all the briefs from a Tory barrister — Mr. Standish Barry's cock and hen cause — Fergus is opposed in 1834 by his cousin Mr. Longfield — is unseated fur want of qualification — remarks on his political character .... 200 C O N T E N T S » O Chap. XVII. The Great Dan and his Tail. O'Connell in the first Reformed Parliament — his talents obtain appreciation in England — character of the Philosophi- cal Radicals — their Benthamism and impotence as agents of democracy— O'Connell contrasted with the Humes and War- burtons — fierceness of his assault on the Whigs — the Aristo- cracy and Press strive to crush him — buoyancy of his abilities — his protest against the Coercion Bill — his vehemence and in- tensity contrasted with the rhetoric and logic of political for- malists — proper mode of testing O'Conneil's parliamentary capacity . . . - . .218 Chap. XVIIL The joints of the tail — electoral Revolution in Ireland — ' the " mimbers"— Irish aristocratic pride — list of a few of the "joints" — the components of the tail characterized — its vul- garity and plebeian spirit— gross ingratitude of the first Re- pealers exhibited in the causes of Sir H Parnell — Sir D ^'or- reys, Mr. Leader—Lord Killeen, and Mr. Wyse — spirit and moral courage of Mr. Wyse — his speeoh at Waterford — apos» tate Whigs — hypocrisy of Repeal M.P's — confession of Sir Richard Keane — most injurious effects of ad terror em humbug — remark of Mr. Macaulay and Dr. Lushington — opinions of the true Whigs of Ireland — the comical " Mimbers" con- trasted wuth tlieir legislative predecessors — their ignorance — incapacity — and want of eloquence — the mere spawn of agita- ion — their paltriness indicated from an Irish point of view — their Donnybrook Fair style — O'Connell used them as the fingers and toes of his political system . . 230 Chap. XIX. The Irish Priests. Their homogeneity — one conglomerate mass — Superiority of the town clergy — Effects of Protestant antagonism — adu- lated and execrated by opposite parties — their religious cha- racter, and clerical merits contrasted — their social and political — their blind partizanship — -Feelings of an Irish peasant to- wards his son who becomes a Priest — Effects of the Catholic re- ligion — Excessive arrogance of the Irish Priests — their man- ners described — no members'of the Catholic Commonage in their body — Evil consequences of forcing " promising boys" to be- come Priests — Fundamental ideas of the Church of Rome — it is not a democratic system — Confutation of the ingenious paradox of M. de Tocqueville . . . .251 O CONTENTS. Chap. XX. Nationality of Irish Catliolicism— Apparent Austerity of the Protestant system — Dogmatism of the Irish CathoHc Church — its want of a Philosophical School — Limited education of the Catholic Clergy — exceptions amongst their body — The Priests of fifty years since described — importance of manners — mis- calculation of the Priests — Probable results on Irish Catho- licity of the progress of Civilization — Danger of meddling hastily with the Irish Catholic Church — Necessity of working first upon the laity— Two methods of placing the Churches Mpoii an equality — Moral character of the Priests defended from the calumnious aspersions of Exeter Hall incen- *i'aries ....... 266 ('hap. XXI. Father Mathkw hefork he was famous. A youthtVl Friar — The Mathew Family — Thomastown Cas- tle in the time of Dean Swift — The young Friar respected by tlie rich, and beloved by the poor — his character in the con- fessional — conventional Catholics — pietism — anecdotes — his extraordinary memorj- — his good w^orks — the Josephian So- ciety — education of the poor — public l-.urial ground — his social influence — his new Church .... 279 Chap. XXII. The Agitation of 1843. The ])easant-y and their political leaders — real objects of both — the movement not a national one — no expression of the mind of the country — the clatter of the Corn Exchange — contrast between O'Connell in 1843 and Grattan in 1782 — the smuggler statesman — want of genuineness in the move- ment — real opinions of the Priests — influence of Teetotalism — the Nation newspaper — the Tenure question — nonchalance of the Whigs — British party politics — no f.aith in i\\e formuloi of Pvadicalism — The agitation not so formidable as it appears — hp-lJepealers ..... 298 Chap. XXIII. Sir R. Peel's Position. The Premier and Tory caballers — Difference between Agi- tation and Rebellion — The Fabian policy — Peel's oi)inion of O'Connell — giving latitude to the Corn Exchangers — The cor- rosive school of Toryism — concession a question of time — The law of Landlord and Tenant — The Catholic Clergy — Gov- ernment Ra Iways — Want of self-reliance in Ireland — The Vice-liegal Establishment — its effects on Irish politics — Mod- eration of the Premier — his Walpolean ambition . 308 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION To present a graphic but faithful portrait of the Irish political public as it has existed for the last fourteen years — ^has been the object of the Author of this work. j\Iore favour- ably circumstanced than most persons for seeing society in Ireland, as it exists in the " two nations," he has wished, for the sake of pu])lic utility, to record the observations and reflections which have occurred to him as a (partly) secluded though deeply interested 2 PREFACE. obsen^er ef tlie agitated people of that most anomalous of countries, Acquainted with the most opposite extremes of society, and liaviug kinsmen in each of the contending factions — habituated from his youth to min- gle in the friendliest intercourse with parties professing violent hatred and social antipathy to each other — his own prejudices have been exposed to constant attrition, and although Avith decided predilections, he finds himself, more than most Irishmen, on good terms, and in the enjoyment of many common sympa- thies, with each of the contending parties, into wliich Irish society is divided. He makes no pretension to the discovery of new facts, and candidly confesses that he is not prepossessed with the notion, that any particular measures he may recommend ^vill have the effect of terminating that state of uncertainty and suffering, in w^hicli Ireland is now plunged. To borrow a medical term, a political diagnosis of Ireland has been the main object of the writer, wdio has for the present been chiefly concerned to pour- PREFACE. 3 tray the actual state of things, and carefully to note its symptoms. He believes that a true picture of the political public of Ireland has been hitherto a desideratum to many Englishmen, who ])y their political station, or social influence, are called upon to form an opinion as to tlie best mode of governing the sister country. The disparaging tone, which has been adopted by one class of writers on Ireland, and the exaggeration pervading the state- ments of another school of thinkers, induce the present writer to publish his observations on the state of political society in his native land. He can honestly declare that he has fearlessly written what he deemed to be the truth, and that he has faithfully endeavoured to pourtray the feelings actually existent in different classes of Irish society. Much there is in his work, which will be displeasing to the zealots of both sides — many also of his observations cannot be palatable to those mere party politicians, whether Conservative or Whig, who distort facts for their own 4 PREFACE. particular purposes, and withhold their appro- bation from any author, who is concerned rather to set forth tlie whole of the truth, than to make an ingenious and one sided statement, for the purpose of the blinded partizan, or the reckless advocate of factious politics. Although he disclaims the pretension of discovering absolutely new facts in Irish Society, he believes that he has looked upon Ireland from a novel point of view. Im- partial Englishmen have written upon Ireland, so also have impartial foreigners, but it would be difficult to point to any Avork on that country from the pen of an impartial Irishinan. Undoubtedly there have been some few Irish authors, who affected that philosophical indiiference, which Locke has so mucli extolled. But their works have indi- cated, what their private history revealed, that tliey were the employees of particular sections of the political community. The Author of tliis work can witli trutli declare, tliat his sole purpose has ])een to furnish tlic English PREFACE. 5 public, with a critical view of Irish faction — Irish politics — and Irish Rulers (whether popular or Imperial) as they have existed since 1829, In order to set forth the actual state of things, he has been obliged occa- sionally to describe local contests that have come under his immediate cognizance. In the present edition some passages have been re-written, and one or two expunged, as they had actually led to misapprehension of the writer's purpose. He has also cor- rected some unimportant misstatements of facts concerning the General Election of 1832. He deems it right to add that the last chapter of the work was written in August, before the agitation had taken so threatening an aspect, as it afterwards assumed. But he takes this opportunity of stating, that nothing that has occurred in the last two months, induces him to think that arbitrary conduct on the part of the Government in an early stage of the agitation, would have been judicious or statesmanlike. Brussells, December 8th, 1843.. CHAPTER I. THE TWO IRISH NATIONS UPPER AND LOWER. " Nation is a moral essence, not a geographical arrangement, or denomination of the nomenclator." Burke. In conversing with an accomplished friend of mine in Ireland, M. de Tocqueville observed to him " All your evils spring from this — you are two nations lierer There is deep truth in that re- mark. Protestant Ireland represents a totally different idea from Catholic Ireland ; even to tiiis day, the Anglo-Irish race preserves cha- racteristics distinct from the great mass of the Celtic population. But the Protestants of Ireland also differ essentially from their English brethren in Britain. They form a new kind of B 2. THE TWO IRISH NATIONS. Irish people. They are rich in Saxon self- reliance, and they are also endowed with Celtic sensibility and ardour. Their character was i'ormed in the eighteenth century, when Ireland possessed an Aristocracy, partly resident, and a Legislature. Their blood is nearly as hot as that of the Catholics. The Anglo-Irish have imbibed far more of the national character of Ireland, than they have imparted of their here- ditary English qualities. For matters purely intellectual they are as Celtic as if they had not a drop of British blood. Exclusive insti- tutions have alone preserved them from being completely merged in the national character of Ireland. Xothing is more amusing than to observe in a Dublin drawing room all the characteristics of the country displayed by those who are lu- dicrously endeavouring to impart an English style to their manners and mode of looking at life. First the young Tory barrister, abusing the people with genuine Irish fervour — his political vituperation sparkling with gaudy epigrams, and his conversational eloquence ornamented with a profusion of broken metaphors. Then the comical Protestant bigot, so full of fun abc'Ut the Priests, jibing the Whigs with his THE TWO miSH NATIONS, .5 Irish humour, and ridiculing Paddy as none but a Paddy could do ; then two or three Dublin loungers, vainly seeking to mimic English ease, attaining with considerable diffi- culty a nervous stiffness and sulky gravity that they suppose to be " the proper thing,'' — And then the ladiesa with their mercurial counte- nances, with their sweet mincing brogues^ their Irish drollery, and pretty little fierce antipa- thies, and their fervent likings, and exaggerated enthusiasm for their favourite preacher, — " Oh ! he's such a nice man — now do^ I beg of you — I intreat you'll go to hear him. Oh! he's the sweetest preacher I ever heard," Yes I and the old ladies, puffed up with ridiculous Irish pride! — the cousins of Grafton Street gro- cers, and grand daughters of Sackville Street haberdashers, as pompous as if they were the offspring of Spanish grandees ! The distinctiveness of *' the two nations" in Ireland, so far as individual character and manners are concerned, could only be perceived by an eye accustomed to observe, and could be properly set forth, only in works of fiction aiming to depict dramatically life in Ireland^ Griffin's novels are full of the nice shadings that separate the personal characters of the 4 THE TWO IRISH NATIONS. " t\YO nations," but with relation to the stan- dard of English style and taste, the Irish Pro- testant and the Irish Catholic exhibit the same mental peculiarities. In politics, however, there are essentially two nations in Ireland, and the recollections of each, with its hopes and fears for the future, preserve an unfortunate breach between persons who are otherwise well fitted for assimilation. Think how differently the name of ** Derry" is received in Ulster and Munster. The battle of the Boyne — the Treaty of Limerick-'' '98" '' 1829"— wake feelings in each of the Irish Nations as dissimilar as if each people were living under opposite zones, and at different eras of the world. One nation is socially proud because it has all the landed property of the country ; the other is self-confident because it possesses the great mass of the population. One has nearly all the constituted authorities ; the other has " the people" to back its pretensions. The aristocracy of Ireland has one, and the democracy another series of traditions. One cliafes with pride ; the other sighs with grief, as it looks back to its ancestors. '' Keep down," is the resolve of one ; " Drag down," the determination of the other. In quiet times, tlic upper nation despises the THE TWO IRISH NATIONS. O character of the lower, which returns the con- tempt with an intense hatred. At heart they are afraid each of the other, but of course they would not pretend so for worlds ! Oh ! not they, forsooth ! " they do not dread them at all." Afraid, indeed ! It is ludicrous beyond description to read and listen to the bravados of the braggarts of both sides. Yet at Exeter Hall, while Lord Melbourne's Ministry was in power, awful was the description of the dangers not merely spiritual but physical, to be appre- hended from the Irish Papists, and on the other hand, at the Repeal Association, the changes were rung upon " the savage yeomanry of the north" — " the fell Orange Landlords," &c. In fact, the upper and lower nations of Ireland alternately used ihQargumentum ad misericordiam in entreating England to eject or retain the Melbourne JMinistry. The simple truth is, that the upper and lower nations of Ireland are heartily afraid, each of the other. They are much more nearly matched than superficial observers suppose. No mistake can be greater than to think that mere numbers determine a civil war. They do not determine wars between nations, why should they give success in struggles between factions ? Napoleon b THE TWO IRISH NATIONS. said that the " moral was to the physical force in war as three parts out of four." Tlie upper Datiou in Ireland has far more durable motives, to keep up a bloody and obstinate contest than its opponent. It has to fight for its very physical existence, for its property — its religion. If the lower nation were vanquished, its fate would be not much worse than it had previously undergone ; but if the upper were defeated, Heaven help it ! The leaders and writers of the Eepeal Party continually brag of what France and America will do for them, but the writers of the Tory side retort by boasting that the entire might of England will be put for- ward in their cause. Calm-thinking persons doubt the readiness of Jonathan to enter into a war for Ireland. They suspect that his hatred to England is ridiculously exaggerated, and ask why he did not help the Canadians ? As for France, England beat her before, and the British army will be more likely to find another AVellington, than the French a Na- poleon. It U, certainly, a great pity that tlie two nri- tions ill Ireland are not fused into one. Tlicir union would produce a far finer people than either of the Irish nations is at present. The THE TWO IRISH NATIONS.. / gloomy melancholy, the mental languor of the lower nation would gradually give way to a more eneroetic and resolute habit of mind. The upper would cease to scoii at its rival country- men, and imbibe a more generous and catholic spirit of nationality. To bring about so desi- rable a consummation, no means should be left untried for making men of each party mingle together in gen'eral society. Friendly alliances should be promoted between persons of oppo- site religions. From the- spirit of mere bigotry, mixed marriages are condemned in Ireland. All efforts should be had recourse to, for bridging over the chasm which keeps the two Irish nations asunder. Mitigate the pride of the Protestant, and extend the ambition of the Catholic. How few houses there are in Ireland, where guests of opposite politics are entertained. Even in the Metropolis, every dinner party is Conservative, or Popular. The persons respon- sible for this petty and disgusting social bigotry are those of the upper nation. It is they should commence with liberal examples. Wo to an aristocracy which lets itself be taught humanity and courtesy by a democracy ! The Tory Protestants generally treat all Catholics 8 The two Irish nations. and Liberals alike. They tacitly determine not to mix with them. A member of the Bar who received high office under Sir Kobert Peel was notorious for rigidly excluding Catholics from his table. Was he a man of high birth ? Xot at all, he was of plebeian Protestant ex- traction. So lamentable are the effects of this odious policy, that I cannot help thinking those who open their houses to both sides, display far more genuine patriotism than many of the brawlers who struggle for shadowy schemes of Irish regeneration. The true way to regene- rate Ireland is to create a formidable public, which should spring from a fusion of men of both parties. Two publics in a country are as bad as having no public at all. While the moral and physical forces are at war with each other in Ireland, the statesman can never calculate, as in England, on having his measures supported by opinion. There is no common standard in Irish politics to which both parties appeal. Hence the opinions of the wealthy, and the agitation of the lower classes have no rccii)ro- cal influence on each other. An independent Irish public toith self sustain- ing power would effect more fjood in that country than any positive institution whatever. The ex- THE TWO IRISH NATIONS. ^ hibition of moral courage in politics, and the encrease of the middle classes, will gradually build up an Irish public, whose influence will affect the conduct of the Aristocracy, and check the licentiousness of agitation. " There is no- thing like speaking out," said Mr. E. B. Roche in the debate on Mr. Smith OBrien's motion ; and frankness is the quality most deficient in Irish pohticians. Violence and sincerity are associated together in the popular mind, and that servility towards the loudest and most numerous party, which disgraces the educated classes in America, unhappily prevails to a con- siderable extent in Ireland. There is no rule without an exception,"^ and the Irishman is courageous in every thing except in the avowal of Ms own political opinions. This remark affects equally the Tories and Eepealers. Who that has mixed in Irish society has nat met with many nominal Conservatives, who if they did justice to thei?^ oion opinions would have zealously supported the administration of Lord Mulgrave? And, on the other hand, every one has met vociferous Repealers who at heart were liberal Whigs. Many landlords and persons of consideration absented themselves from Lord Mulgrave's Court, because they 10 THE TWO IRISH natio:\s. were afraid of their order, and how many have called themselves repealers merely to avoid de- nunciation and abuse ! This want of moral courage in politics springs not from deficiency in integrity or resolution, but rather from the absence of deliberation. In Irish politics no three men have in these days obtained more moral respect than Mr. Sharman Cravrford, the late Chief Baron Woulfe, and Mr. Wyse, each of whom formed, avotved, and acted upon his principles. There can be no true public in Ireland until independence and earnestness are sought after in her public men more than fanaticism or eloquence. Surely honest deliberation, even though it may not coincide with the fanaticism of the ultra-Protestants, who hate Catholicity, or with the vehemence of a monster meeting" is more worthy of respect than hypocritical conformity, or a tame and sneaking submission to popular dictation ? A good race of public men working in con- junction, with a stable middle class, will go far to create a public. Extending the British Constitution to Ireland is the only means of affording to the " Two Irish Nations" a common standard of rio-ht and wron^c. o'connell's early career. 11 CHAPTER IL OCONNELL'S EARLY CAREER. " Never was any man more flattered, or more abused, and his long power was, probably, the cause of both. I mean to do impartial justice to his character, and, therefore, my picture of him will, perhaps, be more like him, than it will be like any of the other pictures drawn of him." Chesterfield, on Sir R. Walpole. The rapidity with which some persons make up their minds about O'Connell's real character is very amusing. Some of his enemies decry him as a vulgar mountebank, and others exaggerate him as Irish impersonation of Evil. Some of his friends laud him as the most disinterested of patriots, and others discrimi- nate between his undeniable attachment to his V2 o'connell's early career. country, and his provident regard to Number One. He is a saint and a miscreant — a coward and a hero — a ranter, and a genius — a traffick- ing demagogue, and a mighty statesman — a base hypocrite, and an honest politician, all according to the prejudices of those who pro- nounce judgment on him. There are none make greater mistakes on O'Connell's character than literary men. They do not appreciate even his intellectual j)owers. In the literary world he is considered as a burning mountain of commonplace — a kind of Potato Vesuvius! There are many points in O'Connell's cha- racter, that prevent a refined age from under- standing him. He has often laboured so hard to degrade himself to a level with Henry Hunt and other ordinary demagogues, that the mistakes formed by tlie English public are not surprising. But these points of character must not be permitted to interfere with a fair judgment of the man. It is very difficult to separate O'Connell from the circumstances in which he was born, and the state of the country in which he has passed his life. Let us glance at the salient features of his career. 13 He was born in the wilds of Kerry in 1775. His father was (for those days) a wealthy Catholic ; his family, though making great pre- tensions to antiquity, had never been eminent in Irish history. Young Daniel was sent to St. Omers, to obtain a University education ; it was not, as might be supposed, a place likely to expand the mind, or fill it with inspiring ideas, but some good professors were there, and pupils of no despicable attainments in clas- sical learning, had often left its walls. At that time the French Revolution had fixed the attention of all mankind. It had not then reached its full height, but it had shown its hatred to Priestcraft, and its aversion to reli- gious sentiment. Young O'Connell was an ardent Catholic. He had been born and bred in a land where his religious creed was per- secuted, and where, therefore, it was doubly endeared to its professors. To an Irish Catholic the only choice lay between the religion of the Church of Rome and that of the Church of England. Scepticism in all its forms, from the scoff of levity to intellectual unbelief, was not likely to find favour with an Irish Catholic in those times. Religion was to him what Poetry was to Goldsmith. c 1-i o'connell's early career, " Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried, IMy shame in crowds—my soHtary pride. Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe." He lived in his religiorij which to him was an intense reality. He had no doubts about any part of it. If the Almighty had^ from Sinai's mount, proclaimed in voice of thunder " The Roman Catholic Church is the true and only Faith ; believe Transubstantiation, and invoke the Saints — go to Confession and believe that the priests have j^ower to absolve you from my displeasure," the Irish Catholic could not have more strongly believed in the church of his lathers, than he did at the close of the eighteenth century.-^when Protestant power sought to ob- literate his faith and extirpate his race. ^ Young O'Connell was not seduced by the Revolution of France, which he regarded as a blasphemous eruption in the face of God. He left France a little after tlie cruel and needless execution of Louis the Sixteenth. He crossed the channel on his return liomeward in com- ))any with a young Corkman, who was a zea- lous propagandist of levelling principles, and who enthusiastically dilated on the glories of French freedom. O'ConnclI liad, from the first, little symp^'^^^'y ^^'^^^^ '^^^ fellow traveller, L 15 who was so violent in the cause of the Rights of Man, but he did not feel thoroughly dis- gusted, until his companion (v/ho had many noblcj gallant, and amiable traits of character) taking a bloody handkerchief fi'om his pocket, exultingly boasted that he had dipped it in the blood of the French King. In five years afterwards the young enthusiast was himself executed for his principles. He was John, the youngest of the unfortunate brothers, Sheares,* He was called to the bar in 1798. He made his first entree into public life on the question of the Union being discussed. The Catholics' were promised emancipation on condition they * The Sheares family had a large share of talent and ori- ginal character. The father of those young men was a bene- volent and accomplished gentleman. He belonged to the Cork merchants, Avho in the last century were a very superior body, as commerce was carried on at that time in Ireland on different principles from those by which it is now supported. A sister of the unfortunate brothers cherished their violent principles, and was herself a very extraordinary person. She exulted in giving the toast—*' May we never want a Shears to clip the wings of a tyrant." She was (such is natureV eccentricity) the mother of a fierce and most violent politician, who was an Orangeman— a rich jsarson— and was agent to three or four Tory landlords ! Many of the descendants of the United Irishmen are ultra- Tories in pohtics. \ 16 o'connell's early career. supported the Union, and many of tlicni did so, as there was not in those days the remotest chance of an Irish parliament conceding to them civil privileges of a large nature. O'Connell, however, zealously opposed the Union, and publicly declared that he preferred an Irish Par- liament, and the chance of emancipation to an English Legislature with the certainty of reli- gious liberty. This declaration, when taken into account w^ith his subsequent career, is cer- tainly very remarkable. His maiden speech is still preserved, but beyond that declaration tliere is no particular object for notice in its matter. His success at the Bar was very rapid. He soon became the rising young Catholic lawyer. His practice at first lay in defending pri- soners, and in a subsequent period of his life he was admitted to be the best criminal lawyer at the Bar."'^ At that time a Catholic Irishman had only one road for ambition, by the Bar ; and an eminent " Counsellor" was looked up to with the greatest respect. The superiority of his forensic powers so soon became manifest, that he took up a leading position in the pro- fession, and as soon as he acquired some legal distinction, he plunged into Catholic agitation. But agitation was then a very different tiling o'connell's early career. 17 from what it afterwards became. The Catholic Aristocracy affected to direct the progress of the Catholic affairs. They were not in anywise fitted for the struggles of political life. They were ridiculously vain of their titles and their own importance ; the outrages of the French I Revolution had encreased their dislike to I democracy. The Irish Rebellion of 1798, had made them uneasy about their estates, and they felt that their own permanent interests were bound up with the Government. Hence they asked for Emancipation more in the style of simpering courtiers than free minded citizens. It is easy to abuse the Lords Gormanston, Trimleston, and Fingal, but when the state of opinion at that time is taken into account, it will be found that their conduct was such as might have been anticipated in any body of Catholic Nobility. A kind of middle-class party, however, was in those days ( 1 809 and subsequently) rapidly springing up. It disliked the feebleness of the aristocratic leaders, and affected democratic principles. This party, which was composed of the Catholic shopkeepers and attornies, soon became averse to the feeble policy of the Ca- tholic Peers and Gentry. Several barristers joined the popular body in the Catholics, and 18 to much popularity Mas rnpidly attained br those professional declaimers on the rights, and rlietorical blubberers over the wrongs of their country, that the greatest ambition of a young Irish Catholic was to be *' a counsellor/' Many legal '^ O's" and '' Mac's" joined the political body of the Catholics, and the question was US often debated whether Counsellor Houlahan was a more " iligant spaker" than Counsellor Moriarty O'Toole ; as whether it was advisable to " cut" the alliance w ith Grattan, Plunkett, and the Whigs, or join Sir Francis Burdett and the Radicals. But the principal representatives in those days of the great Catholic body were Lords Fingal — Trimleston, and Ffrench amongst the Peerage, and Messrs. Scully — Hussey — and Clinch amongst the barristers. The celebrated John Keugli, who resembled O'Connell in his power of swaying the Irish populace, more than any of his contem[)ories or predecessors, had retired into solitude, compelled by the state of his health, to seek relief from the labours of public Hie. The merits and political ability of Keogh have seldom been duly acknowledged. He communicated a popular impulse to tiie Catho- lic Question, which never would have been im- o'connell's early career. rJ parted by the Aristocracy, or the influential Catholic lawyers. It is much to be regretted that few details have come down to us of his life and character. Unlike O'Connell, Keogh was not educated for a profession. He had no family preten> sions, and was engaged in commercial specu- lations. According to Edmund Burke/ he was only a " nominal Catholic," but in politics he warmly sympathized with the vast body of his countrymen, and though like most men who have devoted their lives to public service, his character has been subjected to imputations, there can be no doubt that of the Irish His- torical Catholics he ranks next in importance to O'Connell. His talents were essentially those of a practical man, who cared little for vain glory, and valued popular eloquence as a means of utility, and not as the instrument of personal ambition. He may have had his errors and weaknesses, but the measure of his services far outweighed his faults. He was an Irish Catholic, with a free mind— a bold pur- pose—and a self-reliant character ; and he com- municated to his contemporaries, much of that independent feeling, the want of which had * Vide Correspondence with Dr. French Lawrence. 20 o'connell's early career. been previously desiderated amongst the Catho- lics of Ireland. The Earl of Fingul (father of the present Peer) was a calm, mild, and virtuous aristocrat — sincerely attached to the cause of the Catho- lics, but deficient in energy, and political re- solution. His contemporary, and fellow la- bourer, Lord Trimleston, was a Frenchified Irishman, who had been educated in the ideas that prevailed in the Court of France, twenty years prior to the revolution, whose awful horrors aggravated his anti])athy to popular influences. He presented a singular contrast to another Catholic Peer, Lord Ffrench, whose family had not long been ennobled, and who was a remarkable specimen of Galwaij character. This latter nobleman, had a fierce countenance, and an audacious demeanour ; he had stroncr natural feelings, uhich often found utterance, without regard to conventional propriety. He was a kind of patrician demagogue, and with his huge frame — coarse Galway voice — violent gesticulation — abundant humour, though not of the best kind, fiyrmcd in his vehement nature no bad specimen of the natives of the west of Ireland. Amongst the barristers in those days, Mr. Scully was the most active and able, in sup- o'connell's early career. 21 porting the claims of the Catholics. His cha- racter was like that of a cunning Sharman Crawford, working for Catholic purposes. No man surpassed him in entire devotion to the cause; no man was more intent on working the Catholic Question with energy and perse- verance. He had not the qualities that obtain popularity with the multitude. He was sparingly gifted with the national eloquence of his coun- trymen, but he had the talents of a lawyer and a man of business ; and if he could not dazzle an audience, he could direct a committee with consummate skill and prudence. He was a member of a wealthy, though not an ancient family, and his name is now preserved as the author of the well known w^ork on the Penal Laws— a book which the present Earl Grey once assured an Irish gentleman, had produced great effect in making Englishmen of the highest rank and authority, for the first time, sensible of the severities of the Anti-Catholic code. Messrs. Hussey and Clinch, though men of no mean abilities and attainments, do not re- quire any particular notice. Doctor Droom- goole, a coarse Catholic fanatic, made himself offensive and troublesome, by his sacerdotal swagger, and his loathsome bigotry. He was 1 22 o'connell's early career. as narrow minded a member of the Church of liome, as it has ever produced in any age, or in any country. What Mc Ghee (of the " in- genious device " notoriety) is in Protestantism, Droomgoole was in Catholicity. Such (from 1795 to 1810) were the most prominent leaders of the Irish Catholics. It must be admitted that when O'Connell first joined the Catholic Committee, the affairs of the Catholics were in a very bad state. For the first few years after he entered public life he did not obtain much power, except amongst the lower classes. His language was violent, and he quarrelled with the Whig leaders, and laboured to make the venerable Grattan as un- popular as possible; for which, however, he was severely taken to task in a letter called ** Faction Unmasked," a political pamphlet, written with great powder, of which the author- ship is still unavowcd.vjn 1816, or thereabouts, he had reached the eminence of being looked on as the most powerful man in the Catholic body, a station that he reached as much by his foren- sic powers at the Bar, and his brilliant profes- sional success, as by his political talents, or the popularity of his character. He went the Munster Circuit, which, in those days, was o'coNNELL's early CAllEEH. 23 thronged by men of great professional ability. But O'Connell ranked first amongst the first, His qualities as a i^rofessional man liave, per- . haps, never been sufficiently noticed. Caution in conducting a case was his most prominent characteristic. He afifected to be careless, but a more wary advocate never stood in a Court of Justice. Perhaps no great advo- cate ever had the same relish for the legal pro- fession. O'Connell hunted down a cause with the gusto of a Kerry foxhunter in pursuit of Keynard. He keenly enjoyed baffling the Crown Counsel, and bullying the witnesses against some trembling culprit in the dock. In those times Counsel for prisoners were not allowed to address Uie jury, but O'Connell had a great art of putting illegal questions to a witness, and in arguing for their legality, made " aside'' short interjectional speeches to the '' You see, my Lud, the reason why I put the question was because if the witness were to answer in the affirmative, it would then be a manifest impossibility that my client could have been present at the murder, whereas, on the other hand, if the answer be in the negative, then the credibility of the whole statement of 24 o'connell's early career. the Crowu Counsel would be impugned by that very answer: so then, my Lud, the Jury would be obliged, &c." He would then tcaze the Judge by putting his question in three or four different forms, and overwhelm the Crown Counsel with derisive exposure of their legal ignorance. " Good God ! my Lud, did any one ever hear a Crown lawyer propound such monstrous law ?" lie acted the part of an in- dignant lawyer to perfection ; caught up his brief-bag in a seeming fury, and dashed it against the witness table — frowned— muttered fearfully to himself, — sat down in a rage, with a horrid scowl on his face ; bounced up again, in a fit of boiling passion, and solemnly protested in the face of Heaven against such injustice — threw his brief away — swaggered out of the Court Plouse — then swaggered back again, and wound up by brow-beating and abusing lialf a dozen more witnesses, and without any real grounds whatever, finally succeeded in making half of the jury refuse to bring in a verdict of " Guilty." ' In civil cases he was equally successful. In Will causes, disputed estates, and questions originating in family quarrels, he was unrivalled for his tact, presence of mind, and above all. / 25 for his understanding: the details of business. He was the best man of business that ever ap- peared at the Irish Bar, and was rather vain of his skill in arithmetical calculations. He had great knowled*^e of character, and dissected the motives of a plaintiff or defendant with inimi- table skill. His combination of worldly know- ledge and professional information — his aptness and ingenuity — his exhaustless supply of hu- mour — his torrents of caustic ridicule — his zeal for his client, and untiring physical energies rendered him altogether matchless at the Irish Bar. Perhaps his greatest quality in a court of justice was his oblivion of himself. When ad- dressing a jury, he forgot every thing around him, and thought only of bringing off his client victorious. No lust for oratorical display ever tempted him to make a speech dangerous to the party by whom he was retained. Sooner than have made such a speech as Brougham delivered in the case of Ambrose Williams, O'Connell would have thrown up his brief. He was par excellence the safest advocate ever en- trusted with a case. For the union of great general powers he stands without a rival in the ^ history of the legal profession. Curran and yC D 26 OCONNELI/S EARLY CAREER, Erskine were finer orators,^m they were slial- _^.___^ lower lawyers; Plimket liad a more powerful uii- derstanding, and was superior to all contempo- rary advocates in sustained reasoning powers, Ijut he had little of O'Conneli's versatility. If Sir Thomas Wilde had pathos and humour he would be a sort of English O'Connell. Re- doubtable as was Garrow at cross-examination, h.e was inferior to the 2;reat Irish advocate in the art of putting a prepared witness off his guard. Besides Garrow had a set plan for ap- proaching a witness, and seldom made those wonderful guesses at character, by which O'Connell gained many a verdict. There can be no doubt that his powers in a Court of justice deserved, as they received, the admiration of all who witnessed their display. With the exception of the poet Moore, O'Connell was the first of the Irish Catholics wlio obtained great intellectual distinctions. Thirty years since, when the Catholics were a degraded body, a man who had raised himself to social eminence was naturally a ])erson of great consequence amongst the whole body. Tlie paucity of distinguished Catholics gave an extrinsic importance to tliosc who towered above their co-reliuionists. The professional OCONNKLLS EARLY CAREER. 2i eiiiinciice of DcUiiel O'Connell made hini a puissance of the first magnitude in the popular party. But he had other circumstances in his favour of which he availed himself. The O'Connell v I family was a very '' long tailed" one, and he had legions of cousins, uncles, nephew:?, and innumerable kinsmen in the Southwest of Ireland. His grandmother had twenty two children, most of whom patriotically encreased the population. Now the route of the Munster Circuit lies through the Counties of Clare, Limerick — Kerry — and Cork — Assizes being held at Ennis— Limerick, Tralee, and Cork City. In all these places were located many of the kindred of the '' Counsellor,"* and it was a matter of boast to be '* cousin to Counsellor O'Connell," — " she married a sis- ter's sou of Counsellor O'Connell," &c. These ; friends all formed a vast " following,^' and were of great use to him in firmly but- tressing up his popularity. No one was fonder of recognizing family ties than O'Con- nell. He was always glad to meet with his * The names of the Agitator, and the Liberator were be- stowed on him several years afterwards. 28 o'connell's early career. third cousins. Thus independently of his politics, he contrived to have a larger " fol- lowing" than any of the O's" and " Macs," since the times of the Desmond, or Shawn O'Neil. The circuit took him from Dublin twice a-year, and he almost invariably got a public dinner at each assize town. Besides there was a public meeting to petition for Emancipation and pass resolutions. At these reunions he al- ways was the most ajjplauded speaker, though it must be readily acknowledged that the palm of superior eloquence was vigorously contended for by other popular declaimers. No quality stood him in more use than his unruffled good spirits, and his perennial fountain of Irish humour, that never failed to delight an audience of his countrymen, who are always thirsty for fun. His jocund smile and insinuating man- ners — his coaxing ways — his jovial appearance, with his manly athletic person, enabled him to win his w^ay to all hearts. He made everybody almost his friend, and by his great professional eminence extorted respect from those who doubted his integrity — disliked his frequent employment of tribunitian artifices, and his disgusting proneness to scurrility. Anot4ier element, however, entered into his (fcONNEl.L's EARLY CAREER, 29 itifluence, viz., his regular practice of his religioiu The Catholic Church depends more on the use of forms than any other religion whatever. It is a vast work of Art, achieved by the most gifted Italian minds of several centuries. Throughout it bears the impress of Italian genius. There is a Roman magnificence in its intellectual imperialism, and an artistic com- pleteness in its elaborate ceremonies, its pom- pous rites, and its imposing richness. It is emphatically a governmental religion. Its lead- ing principle is, that men can never be trusted to themselves — that in religious affairs they must always be hoodwinked, and kept in lead- ing-strings. It has taken a very comprehensive diao'nosis of human nature ; but it disreocards the thirst for knowledge, so natural to the human mind — and the honest and innate aspi- rations of the soul, on which it sets little value. In the philosophy of the Catholic church, hu- man nature is not very admirable or loveable. It pretends to enforce Christian humility more perfectly than the Church of England and other Protestant churches, but like Calvinism, it succeeds in creatino; feelinos of disgust amongst many purely religious minds. 30 o'connell's early career. Tlie skill with which it has embodied its ethics, and made its metaphysics palpable to the mass of mankind, is of exquisite ingenuity. It h.'K-; laid hold on the love of decoration and ornament, natural to the mind, which it has vigorously attacked through the senses. It is unfortunately more familiar with the human mind in a state of disease than in one of strength, and it loves rather to track the pro- gress of evil in all its various ramifications, than to contemplate tlie soul in its state of nature. Like every other religion that has flourished extensively, Roman Catholicity has caught hold of a vast share of truth, but its inherent antipathy to the noble and disinified ethics of self-o^overn- ment must for ever banish from its pale a large class of minds that would be glad enough to avail themselves of externrd assistance, provided more manly and less cowardly views of human destiny were preached from its pulpits, and un- folded in its colleges. Whatever may be the objective truth or falsehood of the Catholic system of religion, there can be little doubt that in Ireland, forty years since, to the Irish Catholics it was com- pletely true. Even those amongst them, of whom there will always be a large class, who o'connell's early career. 31 did not subject themselves to its ordinances, and had doubts of some parts of its creed, con- sidered it in the main the best of all religions. Many of the barristers and wealthy merchants amongst the Catholics, and those who mixed extensively in the world, were not very strict in their attendance on the ceremonial rites of their church, though they were attached to its religion, and were zealous promoters of all Catholic interests. Amongst these^ however, O'Connell was not to be found. He was no — " Parous Deorum cultor et infrequens." on the contrary, he was celebrated for the strict- ness of his religious attendance at Mass, confes- sion, communion, &c. It is believed that he became more religious after the death of D'Es- terre ;* and regularly at the assize town, he made his communion at early Mass on Sunday. In short, he became as conspicuous in his reli- gious character as in anything else. * O'Connell was as blameless in that duel as it is possible for any duellist to be. He had really given no cause for offence to his opponent, who insisted on " satisfaction." which O'ConneU, by the custom of society, was compelled to give. The event, while it properly made O'Connell decline any further personal encounter, ought, however, have made him avoid giving pain needlessly to others by his wholesale and reckless denunciation 32 o'connell's early career. Of course the censorious world was at once ready to cry out " Hypocrite !" The de- tracting tongue of slander shot out many a bitter jibe at the prominence and publicity of his frequent receptions of the Sacrament. Nor did these remarks proceed from political foes. The * knowing ones' amongst the Catholic body bit their lips, hemmed three times, and turned away to laugh. Many even of the Catholics who did not openly deride this manifestation of O'Connell's religiosity admitted that much of it was for edifying purposes. At all events so much attention did this point of O'Connell's character obtain, that it v/as very frequently commented upon amongst Catholics. Whether there was any deliberate ostentation in this religiosity^ must be left to another and more awful judgment than that which this world can give. But that Daniel O'Connell was a hypocrite in his religious faith, and that he was a mere crafty actor, publicly kneeling at the altar rails in order to enhance his cha- racter with a people who luxuriate in devotion, and are partial to the external manifestations of religious sentiment, is a falsehood too black for any malignity, save that of Spanish tlesuits, to invent, or any credulity, except that of English Puseyites, to swallow. 33 O'Coniiell is essentially a medioeval Catholic. The glorious striio;oles — exuberant literature, and the creative philosophy of the last three centuries have left hardly any impress on his unders tallying. In matters of religion he is by conviction and habit the decided partlzan of the principle of Priestly Authority, and the Catho- lic Church has not throughout the globe a more docile subject than the politically intractable leader of the Irish Democracy. His intellect, however comprehensive or powerful, has little of the spirit of insurrectionary genius in its nature. He has essentially one of those minds that would in any age follow v/hatever faith — Mahommedan or Gentoo — Greek, or Roman, — Catholic, Lutheran or Presbyterian — it chanced •to have been reared in. However this religiosity greatly contributed to make him potverfiil with the priesthood, and popular with the multitude. Both felt that he Avas thoroughly with them, and deserving of their most intimate confidence. From those various circumstances, viz. : 1. His brilliant pre-eminence in his pro- fession, 2. His extensive train of relatives and kindred, 34 o'connell's early career. 3. His general popularity amongst different classes, 4. His supremacy in the public meetings, he had built himself up an extent of durable political influence^ such as had never l^fore been seen in Ireland. Cnrran had been very popular, but never powerful ; Grattan, in comparison with O'Connell, was an isolated man, vrlio did not sway large classes of society ; Flood's in- fluence was but for a brief era, but O'Connell's professional rank wa? of a sustaining character, that neither the ill will of the Government or the levity of the multitude could injure. Besides, his numerous " followino;" were all interested in attacking those vrho attacked O'Connell ; they took it as personal to themselves, and it would have been as impossible for the Govern- ment to have bribed, as for the hostility of rival tribunes to have bullied the numerous members of the Clan O'Connell. When George the Fourth visited Ireland, O'Connell blarneyed the Monarch in the most fulsome manner, and disgusted all those who were not carried away by the excessive folly of the people who with delirious joy shouted for one who had never done a single thing to de- serve the admiration of any country. They o'cor/NET*'s EARLY CAREER. 35 who believe in the " vox populi, vox Dei,'* vrould certainly find it difficult to defend the delirium of frantic joy into which Ireland fell at a Kino; visitino; its shores. The people believed, of course, that he would do wonders for them, and they had been told that he was their well wisher, and at a time when there was not in the Government any friend to the Irish,* when Castlereagh was Leader of the House of Commons, and Lord Talbot Viceroy of Ireland, undoubtedly it was some gratification to a gallant and unfortunate people, to receive a Royal visit f meant as com" plimentari/i and when aristocratic insolence had so often scowled upon them, it w^as something to have a Sovereign smile" graciously. This is the only possible way in which an Irishman can apologise for the thoughtless joy of his coun- trymen upon that occasion, but nothing can be said in extenuation of the loathsome slaver with ''^' Canning had resigned upon Queen Caroline's trial, and Charles Grant (Chief Secretary for Ireland) was little known to the Irish public. f The sufferings of the Royal Traveller, during this tour, are graphically described in his letters to Sir W. Knighton. It must be admitted that the hauteur of the Monarch thawed considerably. He was quite astonished with the warmth of his Irish subjects. 30 a'cONNELL's EARL"^ CAREER. which O'Connell smeared the character of the most selfish Monarch alive, and of the plausible air with which he deliberately acted a part of revolting humbug, not to give it any harsher designation. For many years the Catholics had been with- out a regular Association. They had quarrel- led amongst themselves so often, that they were deemed hardly capable of managing their own affairs, and the Government had on more than one occasion put down their body. At length the famous Catholic Association was formed, which had most powerful influence in carrying Emancipation. Its history has already been recorded by the pen of one of its most distinguished members, and it is not necessary in these pagesto notice the details of its pro- gress. Be it enough to say that it was on a vast scale — that nearly all the priests and Ca- tholic shopkeepers were enrolled in it — that the Catholic Bar almost unanimously supported it, and that within its ranks were found not merely Catholic Peers, but many of tlic Pro- testant gentry. Although there had been bodies of a similar kind previously in Ireland, none ever so much possessed the confidence of the Catholics, and it speedily acquired a stature 37 that compelled the British Minister — that Mi- nister, Wellington — to yield the Catholic claims. "Without O'Connell, the Association would never have obtained such power. He used it as a vast lever by which he raised the passions of the multitude. Undoubtedly there were able men who figured in its proceedings, but O'Con- nell was the animating spirit of the body ; the others were more for ornament than use. Many of its members envied him his vast influence, and as they could not force him to succumb to them, they resolved to thwart him, and some of the most formidable opposition he experienced was from persons professing exactly the same principles as himself. He became a sort of Catholic Dictator, and he was compelled, in self defence to push aside with great roughness many an honest and enthusiastic ultra-Catholic, who ix)ssessed more zeal than discretion. lie was emphatically the man of business in the Association, and he probably effected as much by his judicious labours in the Committees, as when addressing the Catholic body at large. The public are already sufficiently familiar with the facts connected with the Clare Elec- £ 38 o'connell's early career, tion, and with the Duke of Wellington's Be- lief Bill. It may be well here to indicate the great difference between Catholic Emancii)a- tion and the Repeal of the Union as mere political questions in relation to the great principles that govern the State^ CHAPTER III DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EMANCI- PATION AND REPEAL. " Men of sense, when a new project comes before them, must see the object to be of a proper magnitude ; they must see the means of compassing it to be next to certain ; the mis- chiefs not to counterbalance the profit ; they will examine how a proposed regulation agrees with the opinion of those who are likely to be affected by it ; they will not despise the consideration even of their habitudes and prejudices. They will also wish to know how it agrees with the true spirit of prior establishments, of government or finance." Burke. '* Observations on a late state of the Nation, " The practical consequences of any political tenet go a great way in deciding upon its value. Political problems do not primarily concern truth or falsehood. What in the result is likely to produce evil is politically false ; that which is pro- ductive of good, politically true. " Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs." The most prominent difficulty in dealing with the Catholic Question was how to manage the 40 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN. Protestant Dissenters of England? It was evident that their claims were very analagous in tlieir nature to those of the Irish Catholics, tliough in strict justice, the cause of the latter rested on much stronger political ground, in- asmuch a& a bargain had been made with them at the time of the Union, which l>argain had been broken. So strongly did this distinction operate on some persons, that George Canning, to the last hour of his life, opposed the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, although he had supported, with his captivating eloquence, the cause of the Catholics. It was very gene- rally felt, however, by British Statesmen, that if one question were yielded, the other should also be conceded. It is important to observe that a considerable portion of the British public had always been in favour of Emancipation. The Whig party had zealously supported it, and had even made many sacrifices for its sake. The Whigs could have held power several times from 1806 if they had abandoned the question, which they refused to do. From the days of Sir George Saville downwards, all the great English and Irish Whigs— 7?zo ingeniously lays do\\n for the purpose of running away." O'CONNELL AND DOHERTY. 97 lace. However, the discussion took place, when O'Connell artfully made a very quiet speech in bringing his motion forward, and abstained from making any open charge against the Solicitor-General, whose long deferred tri- umph was at hand. When he sat down, Mr. Doherty rose, and cautiously preserving a cool and gen- tlemanly demeanour — without using a single word or phi^ase for which he was liable to be called to order, delivered against the renowned agitator, a speech of the most poignant bitter- ness. So much polite venom was, perhaps, never uttered in Parliament. The harshness of the insinuations against O'Connell was carefully veiled in conventional phraseology, but the criminatory character of the whole speech, with its jeering, scoffing, jibing tone, and its con- temptuous insolence, have never been surpassed even by the most approved masters of Parlia- mentary Billingsgate. It was certainly the greatest laceration O'Connell ever received. The stinging sarcasms of Lord Stanley, and the philippics of The Times were far surpassed in caustic personality by Solicitor General Do- herty. It was a speech under which O'Con- nell winced, and the laurels he had gained at gg a gKT-To" BETWEEN the late Special Commission were considerably' tarnished by Mr. Doherty's triumph over liim in the House of Commons.* Not one member of the Bar supported him, and Mr, North, an Irisli barrister, crowed over the prostrate Agitator in a most amusing way. '' In Ireland, the honorable and learned gentle- man had spoken with the stentorian voice of a full grown Irish giant, but in that House he resembled the baby who lisped the name of Edward Morrogh ! In one country he was like the monarch of the woods, but in the other he " aggravated his voice, and roared like any .e, frot])y, ami out of order. OCONNELL AND DOHERTY. W fee was beaten, not a single lawyer sup- ported him, and the Attorney and Solicitor- General for England, both defended Mr. Do- herty's conduct. There can be no doubt that O'Connell's Par- liamentary reputation received a very heavy blow on that occasion. The reckless and un- scrupulous manner in whicl) he had assailed Mr. Doherty, and the evident anxiety to run away from a contest with that gentleman in the House of Commons, made a very inju- rious impression against him, even amongst the Liberal politicians, many of whom were, thereupon, disposed to receive cum grano his assertions concerning the Irish Government. It was well rem^irked at the time by Mr. Fon- blanque, when commenting on Mr. Dohertv's fierce invective,—" Idle and unbecomino- as was this irrelevant countercharge, it should serve to show Mr. O'Connell how large a handle he furnishes to his enemies by the length and looseness of his tongue. Nothing more impairs a public man's authority, than a character for unscrupulous exaggeration. " In concluding this account of the Doneraile vConspiracy, it may be well to indicate the most 100 " SET-TO BETWEEN remarkable circumstances in that extraordinary investigation : — 1. That a formidable conspiracy existed in the neighbourhood of Doncraile, but it was ex- ceedingly difficult to convict upon the testimony of most depraved characters. 2. The facility with which the first Jury found Leary and others guilty, and the readi- ness of the second Jury (with one dissentient) to convict upon similar testimony. 3. The promptness with which the third Jury acquitted, merely on the discrepancy of Daly's evidence. 4. The proneness to disbelieve, in the fact of a conspiracy at all, exhibited by the greater portion of the public in the South of Ireland, incredulity being confined principally to those professing popular politics. 5. The ccrtahitij of the Conspiracy proved by the conviction at the Assizes subsequent to the Commission, when all public and popular excitement had died away. Yet for that conspiracy, the Government hung none of the convicted parties, and, but for O'Connell's arrival, it is probable that at least a half dozen would have been sent to the O^CONNELL AND DOHERTY. 101 gallows. Leary and the other convicts were transported for life, and several of the accused were discharged. Nothino: ever raised O'Connell's character for forensic ability more than his defeat of the Government Prosecutions in the case of the Doneraile Conspirators, and probably nothing ever damaged his character with English poli- ticians more than his subsequent conduct to Mr, Doherty — his wholesale imputations against that gentleman, wuth his anxiety not to give .him any opportunity of clearing his cha- racter. The real charge to which Mr. Doherty was obnoxious, was the character of his opening speech ; but, as it has before been observed, he was only following the bad custom of the Irish, Crown Lawyers. Such displays of inflamma- tory rhetoric were more pernicious then than now, when the Counsel for prisoners are per- naitted to address the Jury. CHAPTER IX, THE AGITATOK'S POSITION IN 1830. '• Precipitate censure, cast on a political institution, recoil on the head of him who casts them. From such attacks it is not the institution that can suffer, X X He that is resolved to persevere vi^thout deviation in the line of truth and utility, must have learned to prefer the still whisper of enduring ap- probation to the short lived bustle of tumultuous applause." JlREMY BeNTHAM. 'J'liAT O'Conuell wus urged to continue strenu- ously Ills agitation for Repeal by the position he occupied in political life is very probable. Amongst English politicians he was not re- ceived nith the enthusiasm of which he had been the object in Ireland. His character for wholesale imputations, " for an unbridled THE AGITATOR^S POSITION IN 1830. 103 tongue," and his adhesion to the ultra-demo- cratic party, necessarily deprived him of the confidence or sympathy of the Whigs. The English Liberals did uot understand a man of democratic principles, inveighing in the style of a Spanish friar against the Liberals of France, whom he abused with his accustomed scurrility, A very decided distrust of his objects and prin- ciples began to be felt throughout the English Liberal party of all shades, and notwithstanding his profuse adulation of Jeremy Bentham, the Utilitarians soon found out that he was not fitted to be the apostle of the " Gospel, as re- vealed by Mill." Those Liberals, however, who took their faith entirely from Cocker — with whom the " sum total of the whole" was the test for dis- tinguishing good from evil and truth from false- hood, found that O'Connell was remarkably quick at calculations — nay ! that he could use statistics— that he was no mawkish sentimen- talist, but that he shewed symptoms of a strong faith in arithmetic ; and accordingly Joseph Hume, who in those days possessed some in- fluence in England and the Parish of Maryle- bone, bestowed his alliance upon O'Connell. His Parliamentary ability, though it was 104 THE AGITATORS very striking in its way, did not realise the ex- pectations of many who Avere predisposed by their prejudices to give him their admiration. As a mere speaker, he disappointed the House of Commons. At public meetings he obtained sliouts of applause ; but in Parliament, on topics where one would have expected to find him powerful, such as constitutional and strictly legal questions, he did not tell^ and the com- mon place character of his views struck, with surprise, those who had very unreasonably ex- pected him to throw new light on jurispru- dence, and political philosoi)hy. It was pretty evident that he had never deeply reflected on the profound problems of legal science, and that his constitutional Liberalism was of that kind peculiar to an able nisi prius lawyer, who had strong personal prejudices in favour of po- pular government. The philosophical spirit of Burke could no more be distinguished in his speeches in Parliament, than the comprehensive induction and historical acquirements of a Charles Fox. Those who recollected the power with which Plunket closed upon Mackintosh and Brougham, in their collisions on constitutional law, were not much dazzled by O'Connell's legal replies to the Parliamentary lawyers. POSITION IN 1830. 105 Indeed, he made no way until the popular ex- citement on the Reform Bill had penetrated to the House of Commons, and then he undoubt- edly made a very powerful speech, in which, however, ad captandum arguments were altoge- ther relied on. It was said that he wanted the excitement of a party to make him eloquent ; but Henry Flood had been just as solitary in the British House of Commons, as O'Connell was at that time, and Flood's speech for Re- form, in 1791, is one of the greatest speeches ever ^made in Parliament. Besides, success in Parliament consists not in bringing down thun- dering cheers, but in constantly obtaining the sustained attention of the House of Commons. For example, in a Parliamentary, but not in a platform sense, Mr, Roebuck obtains more suc- cess than Mr. Shell, notwithstanding the ve- hement applause which greets the perorations of the Member for Dungarvan. It was now perceived that to sustain his po- litical greatness, O'Connell should rely upon his popularity outside Parliament. He appeared to feel himself that a deliberative assembly was not the sphere in which his ambition could reap the greatest harvest. He was matchless when he spoke in presence of *' the people," but in 106 THE AGITATORS St. Stephens he coukl not escape the com- parison with those master-sjiirits of other times, who have raised the intellectual character of oratory, which with them was an art for guiding the reason, rather than exciting the passions. Besides his inflammatory eloquence was not the effusion of a sublime soul thrilled with ardent emotions : it was more like the profes- sional veliemeuce of a retained advocate. He had even less of the inspiration of Chatham and Henry Grattan, than of the i>i'ofundity and acquirements of Burke and Fox. A chafier- ing and contentious spirit pervaded all his speeches, and the democratic principle as ex- -pounued by O'Connell, was not invested with any higher moral grandeur, than is shewn in the censorious writings of AYilliam Cobbett. When he pledged himself to Universal Suffrage, a motion for which he brought for- ward in 1830, it was evident that the Whigs coukl not " back him up" in the House of Commons. The Benthamite party quickl}^ as- certained that be would not answer their views; tlie English Catholics liad not much political power, but even that little they were not disposed to give O'Connell. With the masses of Enghmd, he was likely to gain influence, but not with POSITION IN 1830. 107 the men who wielded those masses. His attack on the French Liberals, who were then op- pressed by the priest-ridden Government of Charles the Tenth did him great injury throuo-h- out England, not so much for the attack itself as for the weapons he made use of. The English Liberals could not see, without sur- prise, O'Connell raising the old war whoop of " Atheism and Infidelity" against men seekin^T for the political rights of citizens, l^he charges were recklessly brought forward, and were altogether untenable, but the spirit in which they were made, caused more feelings of dis- pleasure throughout the entire Liberal party, than even the charges themselves. Thus in 1830, O'Connell had not the confidence either of — 1. The Whigs. 2. The Radicals— Utilitarians, 3. The French sympathisers. 4. The English Catholics, And he had to bear up against the cordial hatred of the Tory and Conservative parties in both countries. His strength lay wholly in Ireland ; in English politics, he was thought of principally as a demagogue and unrivalled popular speaker. It was not until* the year 108 THE agitator's POSITION IN 1830. 1833, that he became a puissance in Parliament. His " Tail" then added considerably to his personal consequence, and in his gallant battle ao'ainst the Coercion Bill, he manifested deba- ting powers that won admiration from his ad- versaries. From this brief retrospect it can be easily inferred that whatever Government was formed in Ireland, in the year 1830, would meet O'Connell's hostility, and that his game was, to continue the liepeal Agitation, and, if possible, make it take the place of the Catholic Ques- tion. CHAPTER X. CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY, CoRiAL. " Why did you wish me milder ? Would you have me False to my nature ? Rather say I play The man I am. Menenius. Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough ; VoiiUMNiA. Pr'ythee now. Go, — and be ruled ; although thou hadst rather Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf, Than flatter him in a bower. CoRioLANus. Act 3, Scene 2, ^^'hen the Whigs entered upon office, in 1830, Ireland was under the influence of a general disappointment. The liberal Tories were vexed that agitation did not subside on the concession of the Catholic claims, and the High Tories were in dudgeon because " the Duke" and Sir 1 10 CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. E. Peel had betrayed tliem. The '' people" were nnanimoiisly disappointed. Emancipation had left them in their state of beggary and Avretchcdness ; their miserable cabins were as dreary and desolate as ever, and they had not an additional bit of food to give their hungry chil- dren. The Magistrates were as haughty, and the Landlords as grasping as before.. The Marquis of Anglesey was chosen Lord Lieutenant, and the Duke of Wellington said at the time " that he was the unfittest person that could h.ave been selected." And the Duke said rightly ; not because the ^larquis was defi- cient in capacity for the office, but that from for- mer circumstances he was not the man who should a^iain have been sent to Ireland. He, who had used the words, " agitate, agitate, agitate !" was likely to be brought into collision witli those who would justify themselves by his former advice. Undoubtedly he had leen very powerful in Ireland, and had many friends there, but the poj.ularity of an Irish Lord Lieutenant is not worth 11 month's purchase. He had one oenuine qualification for the cffice, and that was an earnest desire to do good to the country. No Englishman ever loved the Irish people more than Lord Anglesey. CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. Ill Mr. (now Lord) Stanley was hi^ Chief Secretary. In some respects a better appointment than that of Mr. Stanley could not have been made. He had most of the requisite talents for office ; firmness — decision — great facility in mastering details — and a powerful, penetrating mind were amongst his qualities. Besides he had a strong love of labour, and was no mere dilettanti statesman of the Keepsake school. He had already displayed remarkable talents for de- bate, and had been complimented in an unusual degree by the first members in the House of Commons. In one important respect he was unfitted for the office of a Chief Secretary for Ireland; his temper was reserved and dictatorial, and he had not the art of concealing his disojust at the servile persons who beleaguer Dublin Castle. He was less of a popularity-hunter than had ever gone to Ireland, and never was a minister less willing to employ the baser arts of concili- ation. His proud and rather moody disposi- tion injured him in the estimation of the Irish, who like to see a Chief Secretary bow, smile, and push condescension to excess. He could n.ot '* buss the stones" and go before the people 112 CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. with " bonnet in his hand.'' He had too much lofty self-respect to *' mountebank their loves. Cog their hearts from them, and come home belov'd Of all the Trades in Dublin." He neither would, nor could, resort to those agreeable little artifices by means of which the Mulgrave Administration made itself so popular amongst the Irish Liberal gentry and middle classes. There was nothing theatrical, or daz- zling in his deportment, He had never prac- tised how to bow with amiable dignity — how to keep an eternal, simpering smile upon his features — how to '' Jack and Tom it" with the Irish Nobility. His dinners were '' few and far between," but in other respects they were not " like angel's visits ;" perhaps his dancing parties were rather serious affairs, and then he never presided at pleasant pic nic excursions for the politicians of his party ! Indeed, it must be admitted that he was quite incapable of '' doinr/ the thing" properly in Dublin. He had no sympathy with fashionable frivolity, and he had an austere contempt for dissipation even — when presented under its most amusing and agreeable forms. He could not affect an inte- CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. 113 -i'est for comic stories, and be had no appetite for Irish fun. His dress never made the Dublin dandies despair of rivalry, and he had no taste for social display ; he would probably have been mortified if the sporting gentry of •the Curragh had voted him to be '' Oh ! such a rattling good fellow." Ah ! Lord Stanley was not at all suited for a prominent part in a Vice Regal Administration. Had the seat of i\iQ Irish Government been at Belfast or Cork, he might have passed muster ; but in Dublin, where coxcombry is a palpable idea* — where patent boots are very important, and where the arts of haberdashery and hair-dressing are elevated to no mean rank in the scale of science — such a man as Lord Stanley could never become permanently popular.f However, it certainly must be admitted that a more winning style of address, and a some * Vide, Mr. Titmarsh, on Dublin dandies, in the very clever and amusing " Irish Sketch Book," f When Lord Ebriugton arrived in Ireland, the Dublin people were Au desespoik as soon as they caught sight of him, The only reason for the immediate coldness towards him was to be found in the iiniversal CKclamation, " Why, he's just like a farmer !" But not a bene that Dublin frivolity is no test of social sentiment in the rest of Ireland. 114 CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. compliance with the Irish social fashions and prejudices would have considerably served Lord Stanley while he resided at Dublin. His noble and truly generous qualities, however blended with pride, would have received more popular appreciation, if he had shewn any desire of pleasing, and captivating the good will of those with whom he had frequently been in contact. All public men in an official capacity, more particularly those in Ireland, should carefully keep in mind the remark of La Bruyere — " Avec de la vertu^ de la capacite^ et une bonne conduite^ Von pent etre insupportable ; les manieres que V on neglige comme de petites choses sont souvent ce qui fait que les hommes decident de vous en bien ou en maV Besides the Chief Secretary's confidence in his own talents was, perhaps, too obvious. He governed too much in the " sie volo, sie jubeo^"* style, and for one whose actions were always " fortiter in re," it would have been very desi- rable that his means had been more *' suavitcr in modoy He was the most dreaded official that had been seen in Ireland since tlic days of Castlereagh, and the dashing energy, with which he defended his measures in Parliament, encreased the odium produced by liis deter- CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. 115 mined conduct in Dublin Castle. Many there were, who regretted to see such splendid talents producing as much mischief as good. Many- there were, wlio, disapproving of his conduct, and not supporting his government, could not help feeling admiration for his straightforwardness — his avoidance of all crooked policy, — his manly resolution, — and his undeniable anxiety to im- prove the country. Upon those whose — " Souls disdained such narrow-hearted spleen," As owns no excellence beyond a tribe." — — the vile slanders by which he was assailed, did not make any impression. They knew his character as a landlord, and had learned from the lips of his tenants the true nature of '* the tyrant Stanley." Although they did not vote with him, they respected him far more than if he were a rotten-hearted Radical, rack-renting to his tenants, generous in words, penurious in his deeds. It will be readily confessed by men of all parties, that the precocity of the Chief Secre- tary's talents for debate, and the surprising vigour with which he confronted O'Connell, night after night, went far to invest the name 116 CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. of Stanley with a political celebrity, that if fame had been his object, must have considerably atoned to its possessor for the ill omened for- tune that waited on his measures, and the un- popularity that attended on his administration. Since the memorable session, when Pitt with- stood the assaults of Fox and Burke, and overthrew the Whig party, — nothing had ever been witnessed in Parliament, like Mr. Stanley's early display of declamatory energy, combined with the skill, readiness, and self-reliance of a first-rate Parliamentary Debater. During the struggles attendant on the Reform Bill, scarcely a night passed in which, upon an English or Irish question, he did not fail to exhibit such political powers, as justified Lord Spencer in exclaiming " The days of Pitt and Fox had come again !" He was ready for every combatant, and it could never have been said that he was worsted in any of his encounters : — '* Not fierce and terribk' Only in strokes ; but witli thy grim looks, and The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds, Thou mad'st thy enemies shake, as if the world Were feverous and did tremble." CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. 117 O'Connell's powers were strained to the utter- most in abusing him, but the severity of the Irish Chief Secretary's replies would have crushed any other person except the Agitator, who was content to writhe and brood over his revenge. Mr. Croker, roused by the occasion, displayed talents that had lain dormant while he occupied a seat on the Ministerial Benches ; but though no Tory, in either House of Parlia^ ment, defended the old Borough System with greater doggedness and ingenuity. Lord Stanley obtained, on more than one occasion, a marked triumph over the eloquent Ex-Secretary to the Admiralty. The racy earnestness of his na- tural eloquence was a delightful contrast to the elaborate and artificial style of Sir Robert Peel, and the House often admired the doubtful com- bat for superiority in debate, between the wary coolness and practised plausibility of a trained disputant on the one side, and the instinctive perception and youthful energy of a natural orator upon the other. Mr. Shell's melo-dra- matic philippics, though ingeniously con- structed, and often containing some telling points, fell comparatively harmless on the Chief Secretary, who never required time for the il8 CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. composition of liis speeches, or the meditation of his replies.* But his haughty honour, and his ex- citable disposition, unfitted him in many serious respects for the government of Ire- * Perhaps no quality in Lord Stanley's eloquence is more de- serving of notice than its natural and spontaneous character. No Parliamentary orator has ever exhibited his Saxon simplicity of style. In spirit, Charles Fox was an admirable representative of the old English character, he had the frank and downright de- portment of a Briton ; in the earnestness of his eloquence, and in his dislike of all the false glare of rhetoric— in his prefe- rence of the reasoning to the declamatory style he was emi- nently English, but his diction was of a very mixed character, produced by his excessive partiality for the French Theatre and his familiarity with Italian Literature. His great anta- gonist, Mr. Pitt— his still greater conteinporary, Burke—his friend, Sheridan— were all partial to a glowing pomposity of diction inconsistent with the austere purity of a genuine English style. Lord Brougham descanted, in his inaugural address at Glasgow, upon the necessity of having recourse to the early works of English Literature, but he has not prac- ticed what he taught. A few traditionary sentences of Lord Chatham bear the genuine Saxon stamp, but the whole style of his oratory was illusive and theatrical. Lord Stanley is almost the only English orator who is not classical in his illustrations and language. This homebred and racy sim- plicity is the strongest characteristic of his speeches, consi- dered as literary compositions. One can easily deduce from his mere diction, even if the fact were not otherwise known, that Shakspeare, and the old Divines form his favorite reading. CHIEF SECKETARY STANLEY. 119 land, where flattery and vituperation are alter- nately used to cajole or intimidate a minister. For though it was impossible to wheedle him by sycophancy, or to frighten him by abuse he was prone to chafe at the excessive artifices of the Irish gentry, and the unprinopled denun- ciation of the demagogues. A\-hen the agitators and the Dublin press discharged upon his character the dregs of their virulence, he did not receive the visitation with the sa^g-froid that a Peel or Melbourne would have exhibited under similar circumstances. He was not intimidated but irritated, and the purpose of his enemies was served. His government of Ireland was one long broil with the Irish people. Never did any Chief Srecretary eifect more positive good, and more indirect evil for that country, and never was any Irish official more unpopular He was the first Irish Minister who smote the Orange Party to the ground. Lord Wel- lesley and Mr. Plunket had failed in the at- tempt to crush the Orangemen. In puttino- an end to the Orange Processions, and vigorously directing the whole force of the Executive against those illegal societies, he accomplished one of the greatest advantages that Ireland has received. 120 CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. He was the first Irish Minister who took means to prevent the packing of Juries, Lord Morpeth, and Sir Michael O'Loghlen only trod in the route which Lord Stanley had struck out. He established the system of National Edu- cation, on a wise and equitable basis, and boldly confronted the unreasoning bigotry of the fana- tical clergymen of both religions. By this measure he extinguished the system of prose- lytizing, that had been the bane of society in Ireland. He was the first Irish Minister who grappled with the evil of an overgrown Church Establish- ment, and though he did not go so far as was desirable, he considerably reduced the number of Protestant Bishops, and brought the Establish- ment within more reasonable dimensions. Perhaps more than any otlicr Minister he devoted his attention to the physical resources of tlie countr}^ Under his auspices the Irish Board of Works was establislicd — the means of intercourse between various parts of the country were improved and enlarged, and the Shannon Navigation was taken up by Government. He was the first Iri-sh Minister who did not allow the Irish Bcncli or Bar to bully liim. CHIEF SECRETARY STAI^LEY. i2 i When Baron Smith's conduct was brought before Parliament, the speech of Mr, Stanley was read with dismay by the Irish Judges " of the right sort." The fashion is prevalent amongst many of the Liberal party to denounce Lord Stanley as the cause of all the evil that existed in Ire- land in the years 1831 and 1832. But from what has been previously said, any fair person may perceive that the Irish popular party, while led by O'Connell, was anxious to attack the policy of the Government under any circumstances. Reasoning after the event, it is very easy to point out mistakes that Lord Stanley commit- ted. For example it is said that he should have taken O'Connell and the agitators into his confidence ; but those who speak thus, forget that the leading rule of Lord Grey's Cabinet w^as to have no side at all in Ireland — not to affect the good will of either party, and to strive to govern the country by means of mingling the officials of both parties ; in fact, the Anglesey Government was to be a conti- nuation of Lord Wellesley's Administration. Such was the rule laid down, and a most inju- rious one it was. Never was a means taken 122 CHIEF SECRETARY STANLEY. for making an Irish Administration more un- popular, than that of affecting the good will of no particular party. Lord Stanley came in for his full share of the unpopularity that was sure to be attendant on such a system of Go- vernment. CHAPTER XL THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION, " The importance of succeeding was equally great to Europe, to our country, to our party, to the present age, and to future generations. But I need not take pains to prove what no man will deny. The means employed were in no degree propor- tionable to the end." Bolingbeoke's Letter to Windham. '* In short, the instruments through v/hich the liberal mea~ sures of a Liberal Government are to be carried into effect are anti-liberal. How is it possible that such a system can work harmoniously or beneficially ? Far, rather, would I have a Tory Government, acting avowedly with Tory agents, than a liberal Government, neutralised, checked, and thwarted by those who ought to be the main sources of its efficiency.' Lord Durham's Speech at Glasgow, The state of European Polities, when the Grey Ministry was called to power, gave to the Irish Repeal Agitation a more dangerous character than it would otherwise have attained. Poland was fighting gloriously against Russia ; the Belgians were rending the legislative connec- / 124 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION, tion with Ilollaiicl ; Kingcraft and Priestcraft had received throughout the Continent a " heavy blow and great discouragement." The revolutionary element had again entered into political aftairs, but unlike its extraordinary manifestations in 1793, it assumed national ra- ther than social purposes. In such circumstances, it should naturally have been the object of an Irish Viceroy to strengthen, by all constitutional means, the connection with England. It was evident that the union betw^een the two countries was weak as regarded what has been called '^ the lower nation of Ireland."* To connect the ambition of the Catholics with English objects, and tho- roughly Imperialize their social respectability, was the obvious course for a judicious Governor of Ireland. Although the Dublin Tories, smarting under the concession of the Catholic claims, muttered against England, and began to threaten a junction with the Repealers, a statesman of penetration might have seen the emptiness of their swaggering language, and the hollowness of their selfish and splenetic nationality. So long as they were not united with their Ca- tholic brethren, they were more furious than * Vide, Page I. THE ANGLESEY AD3IINISTRATI0N. 125 formidable, and the Empire was quite safe from their attacks, although undoubtedly they were able to add much to the turmoil which has become nearly habitual to Irish politics. Ex- cept when acting under the Imperial authority of Britain, the High Tories of Ireland are able to do nothing except raise clouds of dust, and stun all Christian ears with a " No Popery" din. It is truly fortunate for the permanency of the Empire that they form a small portion of the Upper Irish Nation, although by their .own statement, one would suppose them to con- stitute a large majority thereof. In such circumstances the object of British Statesmanship should have been to have raised a large interest, liberal in its views, and Im- perial by its predilections. To make a vigo- rous Imperial Whig party should have been Lord Anglesey's ruling purpose, and he should have dealt with the Tories merely as a consti- tutional opposition. At that time there were -very many Irish po- liticians, who were anxious that a Whig party should be formed as a lasting depository of constitutional principles. They were anxious to see a Liberal interest, not merely powerful against the rule of the Government, but against 126 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. the rebellion of the populace. They were de- sirous that a party should be formed whose energy would depend not upon the lives of its leaders " nor fluctuate with the intrigues of the Court, or with capricious fashions amongst the people." They wished (and it is important to remark this fact) that such a party should not have been a tame, spiritless imitation of the Whiggery at Brooke's, and they, perhaps hardly contemplated that its elements should ever be blended with the chaotic Liberalism of the Reform Club. They were desirous that it should have a strong Irish expression — that it should bear the stamp of its nativity, and as Mr. Woulfe expressed it, that it should be " racy of the soil." They were most certainly not West Britons. As they disapproved of the turbulence of the O'Connellite partisans, so they did loathe all " low, pimping politics," and they preferred that their ambition, which was of a noble and generous strain, should be baulked of its legitimate objects, than that it should succeed by servility and sycopliancy, or by refusing all sympathy with the feeling of Nationality in any form. They heartily loved their countrymen, and though they thought the majority of them THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION > 127 misled by their popular leaders, they felt deeply for their misery and wretchedness. Aye ! and they well knew that a great part of Irish suf- fering is not merely physical — that much of it springs from " the proud man's contumely" — and that sources of moral affliction lie deep in the Irish heart. They knew well that the feel- ings of Ireland found no genuine expression in the systematic scurrility of the self-styled Patriots of the Corn Exchange, or no sympathy wdth the dreary and chilling Utilitarianism of the West Britons. They knew, not by deduction, but by sentiment, how " alien" the spirit of progression and improvement has been made to appear in Irish eyes, by means of the conceited Cock- neyism, and phlegmatic indifference of the vast body of English officials, who, by the mast mistaken policy, are permitted to fill nearly all the appointments in Ireland. The views entertained on Irish politics by that party, will be unfolded in another part of this work, but it cannot be too strongly stated, that though they were Irish in their attach- ments and affections, they were Imperialist in their politics. They did not wish, after the fashion of those who repeat the cuckoo cry, ""assimilate! assimilate ! assimilate I" that the 128 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. idea of Ireland should be obliterated in the development of the British Empire. In their 0])inions, to Imperialise and to Anglicise were very different things. Well acquainted with their country, they knew that it has become almost as great a question " Hoio to do it ?" as " IJliai is to be done ?" They saw that Eng- lish rulers had made serious mistakes, and had fatally retarded the growth of mind and march of civilization in Ireland, by their ignorance of *' tlie How." Many of this party are now no more — some of them have retired from public life, others of them, who became disgusted when " The Tail" was called into existence, joined the Conserva- tives at an early period after the Reform Rill, and some of them have been hopelessly swamped in the muddy torrent of O'Connellism. But when Lord Anglesey went to Ireland as Viceroy of a Whig Ministry, they really formed a highly creditable party. Its members are now to be found in connection with opposite bodies, though at one time they were apparently agreed upon public questions. Amongst those who were driven by the violence of antagonism into the Conservative party, was Mr. Henry Lambert, of Carnagh, a Catholic gentleman. THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 129 who was a decided loss to the AYhlgs. Too independent, as well as too intellectual, to submit to the mind-debasing bondage of the Corn Exchangers, after having fought many a spirited battle in the ranks of Irish Liberalism, he was defeated by the O'Connellites of Wex- ford, and is now in private life. Lord Anglesey, however, determined to have no party alliance in Ireland, and to govern upon what is called the impartial plan, that is, of having two formidable oppositions, vying who shall excel the other in vindictive assaults upon the government. It was melancholy to see such a gallant nobleman, with generous purposes, become the object of universal unpo- pularity. Frank -— generous — confiding — and accessible ; gay, hospitable, and most liberal without ostentation — a mihtary hero with a princely heart, and never equalled (even by Thomas Diummond) in an earnest desire to benefit the Irish people, for whose misery he felt with almost a womanly tenderness, the ■jMarquis of Anglesey was pelted by the Ca- tholic populace, in the streets of Dublin, and was violently abused, without intermission, by the Protestant press of Ireland ! Surely— surely—there must have been some 130 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. mismanagement ? Let us examine some of tlie details of his administration, remembering that it existed during the Reform Era ! In Ireland, the appointments are always in- dicative of the views of Government. On Lord Anglesey's entrance on the Vice Royalty in 1830, the Chief Baron O'Grady sent in his resignation. He was a quaint joker — a shrewd and old-fashioned wit, with a vein of dry hu- mour. As a Judge, he enjoyed a plebeian popu- larity, for, with equivocal good nature, he took great sport in baffling the Crown Lawyers. He was, perhaps, the least dignified person that ever sat upon the Bench ; but he was proud of being so queer a character. He had a vile, County Limerick brogue, wliich apparently he took much pains to exaggerate. He was a frolicsome farceur^ whose antics and broad jokes would have been endurable in a Tavern, but were very disgusting on t!ie Bench of Justice. By a clause in the Act of Union, introduced at the special request of the aristocracy, it is provided that an Irish Peerage cannot be created, until after the extinction of three others. Thus, there have been only half a dozen Irish Peerages (or thereabouts) made since THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 131 1801. In 1830, the Crown had an opportu- nity of making a new Irish Peer, and if the Wellington Cabinet had continued in power, the honour (?) would have been conferred upon Mr. James Daly, of Dunsandle, but that gen- tleman had no claims on the Whigs, and ac- cordingly Chief Baron O'Grady, on his retire- ment from the Bench, was created Viscount Guillamore. However, it is only fair to say that it was then considered that the Peerage was bestowed not so much for any services which the retired Chief Baron had performed (he had been thrice brought before Parliament) but because his son, Colonel Standish O'Grady, was a very steadfast Whig, and had married the niece of Lord An- glesey. Now, when the Whig Government went so far to compliment its supporters by the ties of kindred, it was not unreasonably supposed that it would also have recognised the claims arising from the ties of party. There were then at the Liberal Bar, four men in the first rank of the Profession. Mr. Wallace — Mr. Perrin— Mr. O'Loghlen, and Mr. Holmes, besides others who stood high, though of a secondary rank. 132 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATlOlS'. For tlie vacant Chief Baronship, the An- glesey Government selected Mr, Joy, whose character has been previously described, and for the vacant Chief Justiceship of the Com- mon Pleas (Lord Xorbury had just retired) — it chose — Mr. John Doherty ! The moment that O'Connell's dire enemy was elevated to one of the first places in Ire- land, it was quite idle for Lord Anglesey to make fine flattering speeches to the Irish de- mocracy. The odium which attended " Long Jack Doherty from Borrisokane," was trans- ferred to his Vice Regal Patron. The Tories were in the greatest glee, and regarded the appointment as a vigorous anti-0'Connellite demonstration of the very best sort that could have been given. Those who had known the sort of savage delight with which the Tories had gloated over INIr. Doherty's castigation of O'Connell, were astonished at u Whig Lord Lieutenant nominating such a Chief Justice, especially when it could not be alledged, that ^Ir. Doherty's rank at the Bar was so high as to entitle liim at that time to such an honour. Undoubtedly had he remained at tlic Bar since, he would liave risen into first rate ?usi prius practice, but at that time, no one could say THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 133 that his character as a laxcyer was high enough for such an eminent office. " If the Govern- ment, it was asked, would not appoint a Liberal why not put up Pennefather— Warren— or Blackburne ?" The great obnoxiousness of Mr. Doherty to the mass of the Catholic party, was the po- pularity that gentleman, by his laceration of O'Connell, had acquired amongst the Irish To- ries, who were delighted that some was found to give the Agitator "- such a cutting !" and " the lashing" that Mr. Doherty had inflicted upon his formidable opponent, was the theme of con- stant panegyric amongst all the Tory circles. Indeed he became a hero with the Tory party. A more unpopular appointment could not possibly have been made. * * It is said that when Sir Robert Peel held power in 1834-5, some attempts were made to induce Mr. Doherty to relinqiish the Bench, and enter Parliament again. There can be no doubt that he eminently possesses all the talents for Parliamentary life, and that the Irish Tories have no one who could " talk up" their politics with so much plausibility, fluency, and insinuating address. It is only right to add, that few men are so popular in general society as INIr. Doherty, and that amongst the wide circle of his friends, there are to be found persons of all parties and creeds. In figura and manners, he is nowadays the best specimen of an Irish gentleman. N 134 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. The reader may now perceive to what con- sequences the " Doneraile Conspiracy" had in- directly led, and how forcibly the Whig Government was affected by the train of circumstances that resulted from it. The ap- pointment of Mr. Doherty afforded a fertile theme for O'Connell's tongue, and there is so much of partisanshi]) in all Irish politics, that the Agitator soon raised a storm of indigna- tion against Lord Anglesey. The other ap- pointments of the Government were still worse when considered by themselves, and without relation to O'Connell. Thus, when the Bi- shopric of Cork fell vacant by the death of Dr. St. Lawrence— an event which occurred in the very week after Lord Anglesey became Lord Lieutenant — the Whig Government se- lected Dr. Kyle, a decided Tory, for the vacant see ! Yet there were two eminent AVhigs in Trinity College amongst the Senior Fellows, namely, Dr. Sandes, and Dr. Sadleir, the pre- sent Provost. The first of those gentlemen was one of the most justly respected Fellows that ever graced by his presence, the bigotted Uni- versity of Dublin. lie liad been a Liberal all his life, and subjected hinisclf to nuich obloquy by his advocacy of the Catholic Claims. lie THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION, 135 was one of the Senior Fellows in 1830, and a better Episcopal appointment could not have been made. He never received promotion until .Lord Mulgrave came to Ireland. It was understood that Lord Anglesey was to have held the scales fairly between both parties, and to have shared between them the prizes of office. The public were, however, much surprised when they found that Dr. Lloyd, a Tory, was selected for the Provost- ship of College, vacant by the elevation of the Tory Dr. Kyle. The appointment of Dr. Lloyd was, how^ever, justifiable by his eminence in the world of Science, and by the good ex- ample he set his collegiate brethren, in striving to clear the University from the stigma attached to it as '* The Silent Sister." If other Provosts and Fellows had been animated by the zeal and love for Science that characterised Dr. Lloyd, the reputation of Dublin University would be higher in the world. Many educational im- provements were introduced under his aus- pices, and his name must always be held in respect by those who wish for the intel- lectual advancement of Ireland. It is a grati- fying fact that he has left a son who honourably 136 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION^, sustains his fatliei's name for worth of character and research in Science. The most noticeable circumstance in the public life of Dr. Kyle was, that he had op- posed an address from the University of Dublin, to the Marquis of Anglesey, on his departure from Ireland, in 1828. It certainly was im- partial to make such a gentleman the Jirst Bishop of a new Whig Government ! Other legal vacancies were filled up very much to the dissatisfaction of the Liberal Whi^: party in Ireland. The Attorney-General who succeeded Mr. Joy, was Mr. Blackburne, a very able Lawyer, and a very sly politician. He was in the first rank of his profession, and merited an elevation to the Bench, though, few were less fitted for the oflBice of an Attorney-General to a Whig Government. All his associations and prejudices were Tory, and his political significancy may be esti- mated from the fact that he was content to serve under Lord Anglesey, Lord AVel- leeley, and Lord Haddington, or Lord Anybody ; yet, this was the gentleman chosen Attorney-General by a Whig Go- vernment !. THE ANGLESEY AD.MlNISTRATlGN. 13? The Solicitor-General, Mr. Crampton, did not offer much gratification to the Liberal party in Ireland. He was a very respectable gentle- man — eminent in those days as a Teetotaller— and held a very fair rank in his profession, but in politics, he was a very watery and insipid Whig. His appointment did not counteract the effect produced by the elevation of Joy, Doherty, Blackburne, and Kyle, The Catholic Bar was noticed by the Go- vernment merely to the extent of making Mr. O'Loghlen a Serjeant at Law, and appointing Mr. Woulfe a Crown Prosecutor, on the Mun- ster Circuit. The position occupied by Mrc O'Loghlen in the Profession, may be judged from the fact that in 1829, he realised £6,528. He was a very moderate politician, and his character was altogether free from the spirit of partisanship. Surely the nomination of such a man to the Solicitor-Generalship would have been a more politic act than conferring office upon Mr. Crampton, about whom no large body of the community felt the slightest in- terest. CHAPTER Xir. THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION, " It is a serious thing, this studied disunion in Govern- ment. What must be the consequence, when the very distemper is made the basis of the Constitution, and the ori- ginal weakness of human nature is still further enfeebled by art and contrivance P—wheu the consideration is, not how shall the nation's business be carried on, but how those who ought to carry it on shall circumvent each other ?" Burke. Observations on a late state of the Nation. Fro-m the foregoing facts, it will be seen that whilst England had the advantage of a thoroughly Liberal Government — in Ireland the Adminis- tration was but nominally Whig, and really carried on in the spirit of Toryism. It is be- THE ANGLESEY AD3IINISTRATI0N. 139 lieved that Lord Stanley had little to do with the objectionable appointments made in 1830-1, although of course he must be held responsible for them. In fact, although Lord Anglesey professed to give Ireland a Medley Government, he really gave it one in which Toryism predominated. And here let the principle of a Medley Go- vernment be examined. At first sight, it seems fair and plausible to propose to govern a country like Ireland, without the slightest regard to party, but when the principle is sought to be carried out, the impossibility of applying it will be discerned. There cannot be a Medley Government in Ireland upon any equitable principles, and for this reason. The Irish Whig party, when separated from the masses of O'Connellites and Repealers, 13 no match for the Irish Tory party, which has a greater proportion, considerably, of the wealth, rank, and professional respectability of the Country. To place the Whigs upon an actual equality with the Tories, is very unjust and disparaging to the latter, who can easily point to profes- sional celebrities in the proportion of tliree to 140 TUE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. one, as compared with their opponents. If the Whig minority of the Bar still produced men like Curran, or Plunket, whose talents overshadowed the Tory part of the Profession, or if, in social estimation, the two Bars were accounted equal in rank and talent, then perhaps a Statesman \vould be justified in following the example of Lord Wellesley and his predecessors, and sharing all the appointments equally between the parties. Besides, a proper Whig Bar is wanted in Ireland, as an antagonism to the Tory nobility and gentry, and nothing will ever make a great Whig Bar, if offices be given to men irrespec- tively of all political considerations. It is de- cidedly for the advantage of Ireland (all things duly considered) that there should be a Minis- terial, and an Opposition Bar, and it reflects much credit on the penetration of Lord Nor- manby and Mr. Drummond, that they both understood this principle, and acted upon it. Indeed, they were the first Ministers who bold- ly carried it out into practice. While they governed, no Conservative, however eminent in his profession, was raised to the Bench. During their rule, unquestionably, the three first men at the Bar were, Messrs. Blackburne, THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATIOX. 141 Pennefather, and AYarren, and yet the Bradys, Balls, and Richardses, were promoted over their heads, and the rule laid down by the Govern- ment was obviously a proper one, on the un- derstanding that both sides are to act uj^on it. In fact the system of having an exclusively party Bar, is now a fait accompli since the Normanby Government. From the Union down to 1835, the system had been to admit the Medley principle, and it certainly worked detri- mentally to the best interests of the country. But the strongest reason against trying to govern Ireland by a Medley Ministry is to be fonnd in the contrariety of counsels offered to a Lord Lieutenant. Men connected all their lives with opposite interests — having conflicting opinions upon the state of affairs— whose fears are as dissimilar as their hopes — find themselves at the invitation of a nobleman, who is himself, probably, a stranger to Ireland, called upon to give him clear and distinct advice. Men who have never drank the same political toasts, except '' The Queen^" '' The Lord Lieu- tenant and Prosperity to Ireland," are suddenly seen ''pigging together in the same truckle-bed." What else can spring from such a system, but a divided Administration — vacillating counsels — 142 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. and an uncertain — hesitatincr — Executive ? Would it be for the interest of England, if Lords, Palmerston and Aberdeen were both to occupy the Foreign Office, or if Sir James Graham should have Lord Howick for an as- sistant in the Home Department ? Surely there can be no prompt and vigorous Executive, while it is in the hands of men irreconcileably opposed to each other on questions of momen- tous interest. The Irish Whig party (properly so called) is very small, and from the circumstances of the country has but few active supporters. There is, however, a large liberal interest which, though not properly Whig, is, at the same time, not revolutionary in its spirit, and it is upon that powerful, social element, that a Whig Go- vernment should bring its influence to bear. A wise Whig Statesman should seek to connect, by tlie ties of party, this large body of wealth and growing influence. In fact, he should treat it as the hodij of Irish Whiggery, and use it as the rampart of liis government. He should leave no means untried by which he could animate this great body of wealthy and independent persons with a Whig spirit. Those principles which Burke has laid down in liis THE ANGLESEY ADMINlSTRxVTION. 143 " Thoughts on the Present Discontents" a Bri- tish Statesman should carry out in Ireland, and those principles cannot be efficiently put in practice, except bi/ means of party con- nexions, '' No man, says Burke, who is not inflamed, by vain glory, into enthusiasm, can flatter him- self that his single, unsupported, desultory endeavours are of power to defeat the subtle designs and wicked cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must asso- ciate, else they will fall, one by one — an unpi- tied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." How forcibly do those remarks lay bare the folly of Lord Anglesey and Lord Stanley in thinking that their " unsupported, desultory endeavours'* could defeat the Orangemen at one side, and the Eepealers at the other ! They '"' fell an unpitied sacrifice" because they deter- mined that no party in Ireland should have any feeling of political allegiance to their principles. When the Rockingham Administration came into power in 1782, Charles Fox wrote to Lord Charlemont a letter on Irish politics, in which occurs the following passage.* * Hardy's I^ife of Charlemont, vol. 2, p. 12. 144 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. " JVhij should not the complete change of system that has happened in this country operate there as well as here ? And why should not those who used to compose the Opposition in Ireland, become the principal supporters of the new Administration there, on the very grounds on which they opposed the old one ? In short, why should not the Whigs (I mean in principle, not in name) unite in every part of the Em- pire, &c. ?" Such was the advice of Fox, at a period of political excitement, not very dissimilar from that in 1831. But Lord Anglesey did not wish to be looked upon as a Whig or a Tory. He was ambitious of the reputation of belonging to no party, and he proceeded to govern Ire- land accordingly. If there had been a large no jmrfy in Ireland, his conduct would not have been so absurd, but in the circumstances of the case, a Lord Lieutenant acting in conjuction with a Cabinet composed of Grey, Althorp, and Durham, could not have taken a worse step than to promote Tories to the Bench — make a Tory Attorney-General, and another Tury a Bishop, in the very first fortnight of his administration. It would be useless to dwell upon the faults THE AXGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 145 of Lord Anglesey, if there were not some advantage in indicating the rocks on which he split, and any Governor of Ireland will be sure to fail egregiously, if he resolve to cast party connexions from him. Under the British Con- stitution, Government is carried on by parties ; perhaps it may be wrong that such should be the case, but the fact is so, and the analogies of party must be applied to Ireland, if that country is to remain an integral portion of the British Empire. Greater men than Lord Anglesey (a Wellesley for example) have failed in trying to apply the no party principle to Irish Govern- ment. If England has a Whig Government, let Ireland have the same, and vice versa. Such a principle, when fairly carried out, will be most beneficial to all parties in the end. What gave Lord Anglesey an overweening confidence in his own ability for administering Irish affairs was the unbounded popularity he had acquired in 1828, and the great part he had played in quickening the concession of Eman- cipation. At that time he also governed on the medley principle, and he was able to induce the agitators to remain quiescent, but it was their game to do so then, and political history does not record a body of demagogues, possessed of o 146 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. SO much machiavellian craft as the Irish agita- tors. Besides, much of the popularity he sud- denly acquired in his first government of Ireland, was from the fact that tlie public had expected " a Huzzar Administration," and they were astonished to find one of the High Tory y_)arty become so enthusiastic in his regard for the peoi)le. Mr. JMoore compared his Lordship at that time, to one of Astley's equestrians riding a pair of horses : — ■' So rides along with canter smooth and jileasant—- That horseman bold, Lord Anglesey, at present, Papist and Protestant— the coursers twain That lend their necks to his impartial rein ; And round the ring, each honoured as tliey go— With equal pressure from his graceful toe, To the old medley tune, half ' Patrick's Day,' And half ' Boyne Water' take their cantering ^\ ay — While Peel, the showman, in the middle cracks His long lashed whip to cheer the doubtful hack;-." rhe poet volunteered a prediction, which was verified to the letter — " If once my Lord his graceful balance i<;s;es— Or fails to keep each foot where each liorse chooses. If he but give one extra touch of whip To Papist's tail, or Protestant's ear lip. Off bolt the severed steeds, for mischief free, And down between them plumps Lord Anglesey/* THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 147 The first active measures resorted to by the Anglesey Government were against the Repeal Agitation, which was attacked by proclamation, and coercive measures were taken to prevent the discussion of the subject. Under the Sta- tute that had been passed for putting down the Catholic Association, the Lord Lieutenant was armed with summary powers, wliich Lord Anglesey put into force against O'Connell, and caused tenfold excitement in the country. O'Connell was then in his glory — an op- pressed man ! — a victim to the tyrant rulers ! He was supplied with a budo-et of grievances, on which he dilated trium- phantly. Prevented from holding public meetings, he used the Press for the purpose of agitation, and wrote oiF every week a lengthy epistle to the Newspapers. He baffled the G-overnment on the prosecution, first by demurring to the in- dictment, then by withdrawing his demurrer, and pleading " not guilty," and afterwards with- drawing that plea for one of " guilty," but before he could be brought up for judgment, the temporary act under which he was indicted had expired. The agitation for Eeformin 1831, had helped 1-J8 THE ANGLESEY ADMIXISTRATIOX. to draw olf attention from the Ivcpeal Question, but in 1832, the whole country was excited from one end to the other, by the anti-tithe agitation, which was the most formidable that Ireland had ever seen. There have been agitations on a more extensive and imposing scale, but there have been none more spon- taneous and genuine than the agitation of 1832 against Tithes. The people were roused up in every parish, and a universal com- bination against the hated impost took place tlu'oughout the country. '' Passive resistance" was had recourse to. In vain did " Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley" issue his proclama- tions; in vain did the Protestant clergymen pro- cure the aid of Magistrates, with police, troops of cavalry, and companies of infantry. No Tithes could be collected. If any cattle were seized, on the day of auction, tens of thousands assembled, and no purchaser dared to bid for the cows and pigs that had been taken under a Tithe Decree. But it was even difficult to get anything upon the lands, for when the peasantry wit- nessed any soldiers or police going anywhere in a body, horns were blown, and those who owed money for tithes took care to have their t^HE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 149 cattle removed with all possible speed to some neighbouring mountain, or to a place of safety, where the Bailiff could not seize them. It is only right to repeat again that the entire Tithe Agitation was honest and spontaneous ; it was not " got up" for any personal purposes ; it was not the effect of the Corn Exchano-e Ao-i- tators ; the universal feeling throughout the country was, that the Tithe System, as it then existed, was hateful, and unbearable, and this sentiment was shared almost universally. Un- happily, conflicts took place in many places, and blood on both sides flowed at Newtown- barry, Carrickshock, Wallstown, Carrigeen, and Dunmanway. The Anti-Tithe Agitation is not to be placed to the discredit of Lord Anglesey or Lord Stanley. It is probable that it would have blazed up, no matter what Ministers had held the reins of power. If Lord Mulgrave, Lord Morpeth, and Mr. Drummond had then been in Ireland, it is almost certain that they would have been exposed to bear a similar course of agitation, but the?/ would have made a powerful party strongly favourable to the Government — there would not have been the same number of defections from the Whigs to the body of 150 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. the agitators, and so many *' Joints of the Tail'* would never have been returned to the first Reformed Parliament. The fierceness with which the Government prosecuted the Press, damaged it very much with all moderate and constitutional jooliticians. The Tipperary Free Press had three Govern- ment Prosecutions against it ; the Freeman's Journal was twice prosecuted, once for copying a letter of O'Connell's that had appeared in the Leader, True Sun. Several persons who had taken part in Anti-Tithe Meetings have been prosecuted. THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 151 CHAPTER XIIL *' Res dura, et regni novitus me talia cogunt, Moliri ' — " JEneidos. 1, V. 564. It must, how ever, be admitted that the state of Ireland at that time (1832) required very stringent measures. It is all very well for people who have no regard to truth to assert that the harshness of Lord Stanley produced the mutinous and outrageous conduct that prevailed in the rural districts of Ireland. But it was not the harshness of Lord Stanley that caused the murders of the Protestant Clergy in Tip- perary — than which more cowardly and un- manly atrocities have never been perpetrated 152 TUn ANGLESEY ADiMINISTRATlON, in any country ; it was not the harshness of Lord Stanley that caused one hundred and ninety-six individual cases of murder in the year 1832, Long before he had set foot in Ireland, the peasantry, disappointed at not finding Emancipation had given them any of the benefits they had expected, resolved, in va- rious parts of the country, to take matters into their own hands, and deal summarily with the objects of their blind animosity. By the arts of agitation — by their own romantic and san- guine fancies, inflamed by the demagogues, and by the passionate susceptibility of their Celtic temperaments — the peasantry of Ireland were so excited, that the country w^as almost *' heated to the temperature of a furnace, so as th^t none but political salamanders could exist there." It is almost certain that if the most benevo- lent rulers— a Turgot or a George Washington — had been governing Ireland in 1832, that they would, in self defence, have resorted to coercive measures. No Governors, worthy of the name, would have permitted the unexampled reign of ruffianism to continue unchecked in the counties of Tipperary, Carlow, Queen's County, THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 153 and Kilkenny. Of course the political agita- tors disowned any connection with the atrocities of the praedial agitation ; but it was much to be regretted that all the vehemence of their indignation and the fierceness of their invectives were turned against the Government alone, and that they contented themselves with calmly disapproving of the outrageous conduct of the peasantry. Dr. Doyle was an illustrious ex- ception amongst the Irish popular politicians ; and that revered Prelate laboured as strenu- ously against the agrarian disturbers and mur- der-associations, as ever he did in vindicating the Church of which he was the ornament, or in exposing the political grievances under which he thought the country laboured But He was an honour to his Church and to his country. He would have scorned to act the part of a low and violent disturber. He had too much self- respeot to think that the cheers of an excited meeting contained the measure of applause, which should content the ambition of a Chris- tian Bishop. He had by nature too humane a heart to " express his unqualified contempt for the whole race" of any religious or political denomination, and he had too powerful a mind to set value upon a plebeian popularity, obtained 154 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. by catering to the prejudice of ignorant and infuriated multitudes. Tlie Coercion Bill of 1833 was a measure absolutely necessary for the preservation of life and property in Ireland, and although some of its severe provisions caused great odium, they were justified by the lengths to which ter- rorism had been carried. Jurors were inti- midated from giving verdicts, and the ordinary process of the law was completely subverted. Within the previous twelve months the Govern- ment had offered rewards to the amount of Twelve Thousand Pounds, for the apprehension of criminals, and only two of the rewards had been claimed ! The great charge brought forward by the Radical Opposition against the Ministers was, that the same measure liad not been inflicted on Kent, when " Swing" caused so many incendiary fires. But there was no analogy between the destruction of property in an English County and the wholesale system of terrorism that pre- vailed through a great part of Ireland. Lives were never taken in England with the same shocking recklessness as in the disturbed Irish districts, and the hiw, when put in force against Swing, was successful ; whereas, against the THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 155 prasdial agitators of Kilkenny, the law had been tried in vain during the years 1829, 1830, 1831, and 1832. Some measure by which prompt punishment should be inflicted was required by the painful necessities of the times. What use was it to appeal to the ordinary tri- bunals, when the Jurors feared to bring in verdicts of guihy ? The disturbances in Ireland had assumed a protracted and continuous cha- racter, and justified a recourse to extra-consti- tutional means of repression. " Think, cried Sir Robert Peel, of ojie hun- dred and ninety-six murders in one year ! Why you have gained glorious victories with less loss of life. With less profusion of English blood, you rolled back the fiery tide which the exulting valour of France poured upon the heights of Busaco. But why do I talk of battles ? Oh ! how tame and feeble the com- parison between death in the field of honour, and that death which is inflicted by Irish As- sassins. It is not the fatal hour of that death that is most terrible ; it is the wasting misery of suspense — the agony of expectation — that is lis- tening for tceeks and months to every nightly sounds lest it he the fatal knell that is to summon a whole family to destruction. These are the 156 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. real terrors from ichich the act of murder is too often a mercful reJiefi'' It is lamentable to observe how, from its habitual character, the crime of Murder does not excite in Ireland the same horror as in other parts of the Empire. Even in a class far above the j>easantry, there does not exist that glowing indignation against the murderer, that one would expect to find in a civilized country. '^ He was not a good landlord," or " he took a farm that belonged to others by right," is in popular estiirmtion enough to justify a murder. INIuch of this shameful insensibility arises from the fact of one Irish nation holding, and the other Irish nation tilling the land. When a wealthy landlord is shot, the middle classes and peasantry of Ireland feci that they are not much concerned in the matter. TJiey are not likely to be murdered because they have no land. So, also, when a harsh landlord makes a wholesale ejection of tenantry, his brother Squires' sense of humanity ie not shocked in the slightest degree. They arc not likely to be sent to sleep in the ditches, and starve in the depth of winter. They are not likely to have famished urchins, with little blanched cheeks calling on " daddy" for a potato. If murders THE ANGLESEY AD3IINISTRAT10N. 157 for other than agrarian causes were more pre- valent in Ireland, undoubtedly more public indignation would be expressed against the criminals. When we reflect on the terrorism that has for years prevailed in some parts of Ireland, it is almost matter for wonder how a Gentry can reside there. " The agony of expectation," as described by Sir Robert Peel, would be of itself enouoh to render life miserable. But as Bentham remarks — " The mind is endowed with no less elasticity and docility, in accustoming itself to situations, which, at first sight, appear intole- rable. In all sufferings there are occasional remissions, which, in virtue of the contrast are converted into pleasure." Perhaps the hardihood displayed by some Irish landlords, while living in a state of im- minent danger, may be accounted for by an- other observation of Bentham — " When one observes the courage or brutal insensibility when in the very act of being turned off, of the greater part of the malefactors that are executed at Newgate, it is impossible not to feel persuaded that they have been accustomed to consider this mode of ending their days as being to them a natural death — as an accident 158 TFIE ANGLESEY ADMIN ISTRATIOX. or misfortune by which they ought no more to be deterred from their profession, tlian soldiers or sailors are from theirs, by the apprehension of bullets, or of shipwreck."* But assuming that the Irish landlords are social " malefactors," is not that state of society deplorable, v/here the murder of a fellow being is thought so little of by " the lower nation," and where the eviction of large bodies of tenantry does not provoke any honest wrath amongst " the upper nation." There is no common sentiment of right and wrong between tliese two nations ; the feelings that prevail in one are not reciprocated by those in the other ; the cruel landlord continues to be res- l^ected by one body of persons, and the savage murderer finds shelter and impunity amongst another body. A common recognised standard of the duties and rights of property would effect more for the social liappiness of Ireland, than any legislative enactment whatever. In 1832, the very foundations of society were menaced in so many quarters, that extra- constitutional measures of a stringent nature were absolutely necessary for carrving on the government of tlie country. The people were * Rationale of Punishment. Book 2, chap. 12. THE ANGLESEY AD3IINISTRATiON. 1 o"9 really goaded on to violence by an extraor- dinary pressure of social and political causes of an unexpected nature. There were in that year, four distinct and separate agitations raging through the country. First — and most formidable was the as^rarian agitation, princii)ally confined to the peasantry. This spread through the central counties of Ireland, and was the cause of the most dia- bolical outrages of every kind. The *' White- feet" openly assembled in numbers ; landlords were afraid to look for rent ; and Jurors feared to pronounce verdicts of '' guilty." Secondly — The Reform Bill agitation added to the bitterness of social life, amongst the gentry. A great many vrho are now counted with the Conservative party, advocated the " Bill— the whole Bill— and nothing but the Bill," and without procuring for themselves any substantial popularity with the lower classes, lost the confidence of " their order." In that ill fated year the Irish gentry were rent asunder by the bitterest and most factious animosities. At one side, the Conservative Reformers were at war with the " No Sur- render" Tories, and on the other, the Whigs were furiously attacked by the Repealers. 160 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. Party Politics ^Ycre then more bitter and en- venomed than they had ever been in Ireland. Thirdly — The Repeal agitation was excited by O'Connell with all his energies. It was his object to clap a formidable '• tail" to his person, so as to invest himself with more political importance. Since the Whigs would not re- cognise him as belonging to their party, he I'esolved to make a faction for himself, and he certainly contrived to realise his purpose with great ability. He denounced the Tories, AVhlgs, and iSIoderatcs, and proclaimed that his followers were to vote for none but pledged Repealers. Fourthly — The anti-Tithe agitation was quite distinct from the Repeal movement, which it pre- ceded in time, and equalled in violence. INIany who were not Repealers, zealously joined tliat movement, and it must be admitted that it was the most bona fide agitation that prevailed. It was more spontaneous than any of the rest, and required less fanning for its combustion. The murders of the Protestant Clergymen in various i)arts of the country gave a fearful character to the Anti-Tithe meetings. The system of Tithes was in those days very bad, and caused universal heartburning through THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 161 society. It was then a palpable grievance at the very doors of the peasantry, and the reform of the system had certainly been delayed too long. To add to the other evils, the Cholera com- mitted terrible havoc in various parts of the country. The potato crop failed in many places, and altogether society was in a shocking state in Ireland. And yet there are some persons so flagrantly unjust as to impute that unhappy state of things to the Marquis of Anglesey and Lord Stanley ! ! I In particular, the latter Nobleman was held up by the Radical Dissenters of Eng- land and the Irish Repealers, as the cause of all Irish unhappiness. If O'Connell, with a solemn countenance, had declared that he be- lieved Stanley, and Stanley alone, was the cause of the Cholera Morbus, no doubt many of his followers would have cried " hear, hear," and a large portion of his Press would have diffused the sentiment throughout the country, A fair observer will admit that most of the faults committed by Lord Stanley during his Chief Secretaryship, would have been fallen into by any Whig Secretary at that time. The iG2 THE ANGLESEY ADJIINISTRATION. circumstances of his position were most trying, and a Statesman, with less force of character than Lord Stanley, would have been completely crushed by the host of evils that then sur- rounded the Government. It was doing much in such times to maintain the idea of Govern- ment at all, and many Chief Secretaries who earned a fair character for ability in quiet years, would, in 1832, have been by all parties pro- nounced weak and contemptible : — " II Avhen the sea is calm, All boats alike show mastership in floating." But, in times "when the high roads are broken up, and the waters out — when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no precedent," then many of the amiable, dilettanti summer-weather Statesmen would find their proper places in the boudoir, or the library, anywhere rather than in the office of Adminis- tration. By the mistakes committed during the An- glesey Government, the Whig party profited considerably in wisdom, as will be shewn when the ]\Iulgrave INIinistry shall be discussed. They had learned to understand the hugahoo system of O'Connell, and to comprehend his THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 1G3 political tactics ; they found out that he \YOuld never voluntarily commit himself to anything but '' talk," But nothing can be more false than the assertion that Lords Anglesey and Stanley were the cause of the discontent and turbulence that were so general in Ireland in the years 1831 and 1832. They did not cause the Anti- Tithe Agitation or the Eepeal movement — or the agrarian outrages. To all of those any Minister would have been exposed. The principle of a Medley Government added to their difficulties. All parties attacked, and none defended the policy of Ministers. Dr. Boy ton, the popular leader of the Con- servatives, stung Lord Anglesey in a suc- cession of speeches that were greedily devoured by all the Repealers. \\ hen he proclaimed that '* the worst society in Dublin was to be found at the Lord Lieutenant's table," most persons of both parties were disposed to agree with him. At that time the Reverend Doctor was a sort of Tory O'Connell, and his expo- sures of the mistakes of Lord Anglesey were certainly very trenchant, and added considerably to the unpopularity of that Nobleman. One speech in particular, delivered upon the oc- 164 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. casion of a dialogue between the Lord Lieu- tenant and Doctor Baldwin " the Leviathan of Munstcr Radicals," was very caustic, and exposed the weaknesses of Lord Anglesey's character witli great severity. It must be confessed that the dialogue could have been well spared. The ]\Larquis was unprepared to meet with so adroit and expert a conversationalist as Dr. Baldwin ; he became excited witli the calm severity of the Doctor's remonstrances, and talked of *' blocking up Irish commerce with four-gun brigs." He assumed a disparaging tone, while deriding with military pride, the resources of the Irish Repealers. Talking of the two par- ties in Ireland, he said with significance " I will put you both down." It is foolish for a Lord Lieutenant to descend to making speeches, except of the vaguest character. He is to act and not to talk ; in no country should the Executive less pretend to oratory than in Ireland. Few siglits coukl be more melancholy than to witness Lord Anglesey's progress through Ireland in 1832. His exits and entrances into towns were unnoticed and disregarded, and none cheered him as he passed along, save the regiments of the line, a sad contrast to the THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 165 popularity that lie bad once enjoyed ! No- thing can be a more bitter satire on the morale of Irish popularity, than the simple flicts that the Marquis Wellesley was decidedly an unpo- pular Lord Lieutenant, while Lord Anglesey, in his first administration, almost equalled the late Lord Fitzwilliam as the favourite of the hour ; and that the same Lord Anglesey, without having changed a single opinion, or altered his line of conduct, should become as detested as though he were another Castle- rea2;h I It must be confessed that the licentiousness of the attacks against his Government were disgraceful, and the pains taken to blacken his character were most scandalous. The indigni- ties which were offered to him must have caused many a pang, when he recollected the extrava- gant popularity of which he had once been the idol. He bore up gallantly against his mis- haps, and certainly displayed no ordinary de- gree of " pluck" in circumstances that would have broken the spirit of a man wanting great fortitude and valour. Persons of moderate views in Politics have often strongly censured Lords Anglesey and Stanley for not having added to the number of 166 THE ANGLE&KY ADMINISTRATION. Irish representatives when the Iveform Bill was before the Legislature. But this charge lies against the whole Grey Ministry, and not against the Irish Rulers of that time. A con- siderable increase in the number of Irish mem- bers was much wanted, and most undoubtedly it must be had recourse to in those Legislative measures, by which the Union between the two countries will be put upon an equitable basis. Still great difficulties surrounded the Reform Ministry, and all parties were disposed to admit that a curtailment of the jMembers of the House of Commons was more desirable than an addition to them. If thirty members had been subtracted from the English, and added to the Irish repre- sentatives, there was at that time some danger to apprehend that the Tory cry of " Spoliation" would have been rendered more formidable, and that ^linisters would not have been able to give iMembers to so many large tow^is. But the reason that swayed most of the Re- form Ministers in resisting an encrease to the Irish representation, was the fear of making the Repealers more formidable. AAhen it was an- nounced that the Irish popular party intended to cushion the "Whig and moderate members, it became a serious question whether new THE ANGLESEY AD31IN1STRATI0X. 167 weapons should be placed in the hands of a party that menaced the existence of the empire. All things considered, Ministers were wrong in not cncreasing the Irish representatives to the number of at least one hundred and twenty. Such a step w^ould have made them popular in Ireland, and would not have much trenched upon the English measure of Reform.* Enough has been said to show the difficulties with which tiie Anglesey Administration had * It is still quite possible to add to the number of Irish Re- presentatives, without augmenting the total number of the House of Commons, if the following principle were adopted in a measure of Union Reform, viz, — Let certain small Eng- lish boroughs be joined together on the system of District Burghs in Scotland. Let sixty small English Boroughs, now returning one member each, for the future return between them but thirty members, and let the subtracted members be added to the Irish Representatives. Such a measure would go far to correct the evil that the Chandos clause has produced ; it Avould trim the constitutional balance more evenly between the parties of the state, and by opening additional vents to the ambition of the Irish Gentry, would have a strong ten- dency to Imperialise public sentiment in Ireland. Such a plan would usefully curtail the legislative power of what are still rotten boroughs, but would not at the same time deprive them of the Parliamentary franchise. It is only by the adop- tion of such a principle that the number of Irish Represen- tatives can be encreased, without making the House of Com- mons more numerous than it is at present. 168 THE ANGLESEY ADMIiNISTRATION. to content!, and that the political evils which evailcd in Ireland durinf]; its existence are not in any great degree attributable to the con- duct of Government. In contrasting it with the subsequent Adaiinistration of Lord Mul- grave, let these facts be remembered, that in 1830, the Whigs entered upon the Go- vernment of Ireland without previous expe- rience of the actual state of parties in that country : whereas Lord ^Mulgrave's Ministry had the previous system of four years of Whig rule to profit by. The character of O'Connell's Repeal Agitation w^as then tho- roughly known, and the proper means had become evident for rendering it harmless. vSe- condly, tlic Agitators in 1834 were tired out ; the country was exhausted by four years of incessant Agitation ; the popular purse was drained by constant calls for heavy political subscriptions ; a very general desire of a truce between Government and the popular party was spread throughout the country, and pco])le wished for cpjiet for the sake of novelty as much as anything else. The expense of keeping " The Tail" in Parliament was found very bur- thensome, and the popular party was desirous of procuring representatives who could defray THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. 169 the expenses of Elections, Petitions, &c. When it was found that, notwithstanding all the prophecies of O'Connell, the Irish Parliament had not come to College Green, the democratic faith began to wax cold, and the way was smoothed for '' Justice to Ireland" and a popular Vice-Royalty. Lord Anglesey undoubtedly committed grave mistakes in the Government of Ireland. His system of neutrality was a serious blunder in the circumstances of his position — a mistake which originated in his confounding Ireland in 1828, with Ireland in 1830— the Catholics before, with the Catholics after Emancipation. But justice must, after all, be done to that ma- ligned and slandered nobleman ; if his policy was productive of evil, he also effected con- siderable good, and he manifested an energy and application to business unusual in Vice- roys. Again, let it be repeated, that in warm affection for the Irish people, he has never been surpassed, even by those successors who drew the largest prizes in the lottery of popular adulation. His difficulties were very great, and, alas ! he had no Thomas Drummond at his elbow. He had to encounter three Agita- tions, viz. — Repeal, Anti-Tithe, and Agrarian; a 170 THE ANGLESEY ADMINISTRATION. the Keform Bill excitement procured him no popularity, and it only embittered the hostility of the Tories ; and his Governn^cnt was con- temporaneous with the Cholera, and an extent of" popular misery and distress, that arose from causes over which Executive Government has no control. Nothing but unprecedented excitement could have produced " the Tail." The public his- tory of one of its joints, will, perhaps, give some idea of the state of Irish politics in the years 1832—3, and shew the state of affairs during the rule of Lord Anglesey. CHAPTER Xiy THE RIG OF FERGUS O'CONNOR. He little dreamt when he set out, Of running such a rig." John Gilpin's Ride. Fro3I the Revolution to the passing of the Reform Bill, the County Cork had been in the hands of two or three great families. The Earls of Kingston, Shannon, and Cork disposed of its representation with as much ease as Sir Mark Wood returned members for Gatton, or Miss Lawrence chooses legislators for Ripon. Sometimes (but rarely) a distingul.«hed 172 THE RIG OF AYhig was selected, but generally some young Boyle or King, destitute of abilities, expe- rience, or even the wish to be serviceable to the country. It was certainly a miserable mockery that an Earl of Cork, an absentee Lord, draining thirty thousand a-year from a country in which he has no residence of any kind^ should have a potential voice in the question of the representation of the '' Yorkshire of Ire- land." However, no one ever thought of at- tempting to open the County — indeed, it would have been vain to do so. In the Summer of 1832, after the Reform Bill had been carried, a vast public meeting was held in the City of Cork, in honor of the Reform Ministry. This meeting had been as- sembled under the auspices of the leading Whigs of the South of Ireland, and the Whig magnates of the neighbouring Counties favoured it with their patronage, if not with their presence. The High Sheriff of the County (Mr. Hyde, of Castle Hyde) presided, and he was supported by Sir W. Wrixon Becher ; Mr. Jephson, M.P. for Mallow ; the late N. P. Leader, M.P. for Kilkenny ; ^Icssrs. vStawell, De la Cour, Townsend, and others of the leading Liberals in the Count^^ The mectin"; had much of an tERGKJS o'cONNOR. 173 aristocratic air, and it was, perhaps, the greatest WJiig gathering that had ever been known in Cork. Everything went off as a constitutional Whig could have desired ; " the pristine purity of our well balanced system of Government" was lauded by Sir William Becher ;* Mr. De la Cour spoke a neat and even elegant dis- sertation on Constitutional Liberty, and Mr, Stawell descanted on the principles of the Re- volution of 1688. The assembly w^as held in the County Court House, which was thronged, and as the landlords of the County came forward to address the meeting, loud were the cheers, and great was the enthusiasm. The crowd were highly delighted with so brilliant and imposing * Sir William V/rixon Becher is one of the most distingue Irish Whigs. When at Oxford, he was equally conspicuous for attachment to fashionable pleasures and literary pursuits, and some thirty years since he was one of the most " promising young men" at Brookes's. He was a friend of Sheridan in his latter days, and was much esteemed by Henry Grattan. Having at great expense wrested the representation of Mallow from the Jephsons, he stood forward a very zealous supporter of the Catholic claims, and became a popular character in Ireland. He was an admirable actor, and was a leading per- former in the well remembered Private Theatricals at Kil- kenny Castle. From his histrionic talents — his political zeal, and his ambition, it was expected that he would have played a high part in public life, but he was a failure in Parliament, 174 THE RIG OF an exhibition. Some City Radicals, however, were present, who were by no means pleased with the moderado character of the meeting, and they did not feel quite at home in the presence of " the assembled rank and wealth of this great county." Towards the end of the day, a gentleman, whom no one knew, claimed a hearing from the High Sheriff. He appeared to be about thirty years of age, had red hair, and a fierce countenance, with an indescribable " dare devil" demeanour. He proposed some amendment for the purpose of entitling him to speak, and lite- rally electrified the meeting with one of the most inflammatory harangues that even Irish and retired from politics in 1825. lie was an Irish Whig of Grattan's party, but wanted his great chief's warmth of character and sympathy with the mass of his countrymen. The Baronetcy bestowed on him in 1831, was understood to have been a mark of Earl Grey's personal friendshij). He is now better known as the husband of '* Miss O'Neill," than as having been renomme in tlie Whig Coteries. His distin- guished lady is as great an ornament to private life, as she was once to the Stage. The opinion of society has stamped her as one of those admirable women who fully justify the remark of !Mrs. jamieson, " There is nothing in the Profession of an actress, incompatible with the respect due to woman. — the cultivation of every feminine virtue, and practice of every private duty." 175 ears had ever heard. *' Who is he ?" was eagerly asked, but no one could tell the orator's name. His person was unknown, except to a few who thought they had seen him " in the Bar-box at the last assizes." The Whigs wished him far away, but the mass of the meeting were delighted with his dashing and rattling style — his high sounding cla])-traps — -his unbroken fluency, and his ultt^a-lrish. principles. '^ Away with this canting Whiggery," he cried, " Repeal, and nothing but Repeal, will do for Ireland." Cheers greeted the unknown speaker, as he poured forth a torrent of vituperation against the Whig Ministry, the Lord Lieutenant, and ** the tyrant Stanley." It was most amusing to witness the blank faces of dismay amongst the Whig Gentry, and to contrast them with those of the delighted " people." Many were heard to say that this new public speaker was " finer than O'Connell" The Whigs listened to him in silence, until the strange orator, after having abused the Aristocracy, '^ these fruges consumere natV^ " this kidskin glove aristocrat with his gin- gerbread Geneva watch in his fob — his hat on three hairs of his head, actually st — k — g with perfume," &c., &c. — clenching his fist, I7G Tii2 RIG or suddenly told the astonished meeting that '' A?* would open up the rotten borough of Cork." Shouts of laughter from the AVhig Gentry greeted this foolish escapade, as it was then thought to be. A man Avhose name nobody knew, wresting the County from the Whig Pa- triots who had always supported Emancipation, and had carried Reform ! 'Twas too ridicu- lous ! even the City Radicals thought the stranger was " very wild in his ideas." What for a man without a passport from the recog- nised organs of Agitation to take matters into his own hands ! Besides would O'Connell give him leave to come forward ? In short, though the humbler— more numerous— and least re- flecting portion of the meeting were in ecstasies with the stranger, his announcement that he would open up Cork County made some per- sons strongly suspect his sanity. And this was Fergus O'Connor's debut in political life. Yes ! the stranger whom no one then knew was that demagogue who has done so much mischief to himself and others — who excited the Repealers of Ireland, and the Chartists of England — injured the one cause, and ruined the other. Fergus O'Connor is nephew to Arthur Con- FERGUS o'cONNOR. 177 dercet O'Connor, and son to the late Roger O'Connor, author of '* Chronicles of Eri." The O'Connor family is one of the most an- cient in Ireland, and the Munster branch of it claims to be descended from the old Iriah Kings of that name and race. The family had enjoyed, during the last century, good worldly consideration, and had lived in imposing style at Connorville, an ancient mansion now in ruins. Arthur O'Connor was a member of the Irish Parliament, and distinguished himself by his violent principles, and eloquent speeches. He espoused the French doctrines on politics, and his address to the electors of Down caused great sensation at the time. He was an honest man — sparingly gifted with judgment — not fit for the management of great affairs, though his zeal and ambition urged him to the politics of rebellion. He had a very narrow escape for his life, but the Government of the day did not prosecute him with the zeal it might have done, and contented itself with insisting that he should leave the Kingdom.* * Some years since the Government permitted him to visit Ireland for a short time on family affairs. An Irish gentleman paid him his respects, and brought to General O'Connor some of his early Irish pamphlets and speeches, at the sight of 178 TUE RIG OF Roger O'Connor lived for a long time at Dangan Castle, in the County of Meath, the birth-place of tlie Duke of Wellington. He was a man of unsettled character and habits, and much of his restless disposition was inhe- rited by his son, Fergus, who became an Irish barrister, but made little progress in his Pro- fession, and about the year 1832, lived at a very handsome place in the County of Cork, which he inherited from a relation. At " Fort Robert" he led the life of an Irish country gen- tleman — hunted — coursed — farmed— and drank whiskey i)unch. But rural affairs did not pre- sent a sufficiently wide sphere for so adven- turous a spirit. He resolved to plunge into which, he burst into tears. In conversation on that day upon the state of Ireland, he exclaimed— " It is very true, Sir, that Ireland has improved since then. You have more houses and comforts now— the people are more numerous, and are better dressed on the whole. The face of the countiy has also Improved ; but the mind of Ire- land—aye I —the MIND of IiJELAND, Sir, is degraded, yes ! shockingly degraded !" The difference between the Wolfe Tones, Addis Emmetts, Fitzgeralds, and M'Nevins, and the "Dear Rays"— O'Neill Daunts— Tom Arkinses, et hoc genus omne painfully struck him. An United Irishman could feel nothing but unqualified scorn for the Corn E.\cliange, and its " Loyal Repeal Asso- ciations." FERGUS OCONNOR. 179 politics, and to become a leader of *' the people." It must be admitted that Fergus was well fitted in some respects for an Irish tribune. He had the three great requisites, viz. — brazen audacity, a fine, sonorous voice, and a copious supply of words. Besides these, he had other qualities — a frank and ingratiating demeanour, very popular manners, high spirits, and a reckless nature of adventurous turn. His face was very ugly, its features were haggard and care-worn, the forehead retreated sharply from the brow^— his hair was foxy, but his stature was large, with massive shoulders, and his action in public speaking was peculiarly easy and graceful. Almost all other qualities for a public man he wanted. For example, he had neither tact, discretion, power of reflection, or capacity for retaining his influence. His style of demagogueism had much indi- viduality of character. Most Irish demagogues, for the last few years, have been only bad copies of O'Connell or SheiL They try and imitate the vehement politics and funny scur- rility of one, or the sesquipedalia verba and fustian sentiments of the other. They are seldom original — their topics are hackneyed, and 180 THE RIG OF they survey Ireland with the eyes of meD, who take all their ideas from the Corn Exchange. But Fergus was original, and certainly O'Connell had good cause for being jealous of his powers for popular speaking. There was a wild Ossianic spirit about O'Connor's spirit- stirring effusions that was altogether different from O'Connell's wearisome blarney, and in- cessant cajolery. As men of talent and mind, it would be absurd to institute any comparison between them, but as Irish popular speakers, Fergus was, in some respects, superior to O'Connell. Though he had no poetical powers, he had strong poetical feelings (which are totally deficient in O'Connell,) and to these he often gave vent in speeches of a most romantic character, whose effect was not the less powerful, because they could not bear the criticism of the closet. These poetical feelings were natural to Fergus — he had lived much in the country, and had roamed over the Continent — he was fond of Theatricals, and reputed to have no mean histrionic powers. His mind was crammed with legendary poetry, and on the whole there was in those times, before he became a hardened Agitator, a mystical spirit in the man that found an utterance in pouring out his FERGUS CONNOR. 181 feelings to an impassioned peasantry, who heartily sympathised with the fancies of this wild and singular demagogue. Besides there was a strong dash of high and aspiring character in Fergus's popular speaking* He did not talk down to his audience after O'Connell's " free and easy" colloquial style, and put himself on a level with all the cobblers and tinkers in the crowd. He played the part to perfection of an Irish Chieftain, and addressed the Repealers rather as his gallant clansmen, than as his fellow-citizens or comrades. In truth, he wasajncturesque agitator. His voice was in those days greatly in his favor, and when he poured out some half-poetical harangue in his dramatic tones, interspersing it with vague aspirations after Freedom, in the style of " Young Germany," and snatches of verse, aiding the whole effect by his flowing delivery, and the gallantry of his deportment, nothing could exceed the delight of '* the people." Many persons, competent to judge, considered him a much better popular speaker than O'Connell. But he had nothing of the various powers of the '' Great Agitator." When he had ceased to talk, his influence was at an end. Such was the man who, in the years R 182 THE RIG OF 1832 and 1833 produced "immense effect" in the South of Ireland, and spread " Repeal" tliroughout Munster with great inflammatory power. The Whig Gentry had quietly calculated tliat they would be left to name the member for the County, and there was some doubt as to which of the patrons of Liberalism would be started for the representation of Cork. Fergus determined to anticipate them in their designs, and finding that " the people" w^ere absolutely enchanted with his style of speaking, and that his announcement of opening the County liad been treated with derision by the gentry and the City Radicals, lie resolved to set about it in downright earnest. He accordingly printed a very bombastic address to the electors, and as the election (consequent on Reform Bill) was not to take place for some time, he spent the interval in visiting all parts of the County — canvassing the farmers, and making ac- quaintances amongst the Priests. He also made himself most useful at the Registries, and by infinite pains got a great number of the farmers to register their votes. In most of this he was unaided. The public of the County looked on tranquilly, and FERGUS O CONNOR. 183 €ould hardly believe that a man of so little social influence would have the audacity to '-' oust" the great aristocratic families from their ancient proprietorship of the County, especially since the Whig Houses of King and Boyle had always supported Emancipation and Reform. That such a man as Fergus, with a property averaging six hundred a-year, should aspire to represent the first County in Ireland, with a population of 750,000 persons, was though: *' very amusing" by the Tories ; " very impu- dent" by the Whigs, and " very absurd" by the Radicals and Repealers. The latter parties thought the attempt quite hopeless. In about three months Fergus contrived to be- come the *' favorite" candidate. Many, however, held aloof from him ; the Catholic Clergy were divided concerning his merits ; the more sensible of the lay Repealers thought him very reckless and headstrong, the more timid Conservatives saw in him a copy of Danton. That year (1832) offered him a fine opportunity for exhibiting his declamatory powers. There were vague feelings abroad. Europe was heaving with convulsions, and Ireland was panting with agitation. On all the leading grievances of the County, Fergus harangued most eloquently, cleverly availing 184 THE RIG OF FERGUS o'cONNOR. himself of the incidental Irish topics that the events of the day presented hira. His chief instrument was his tongue ; he talked himself up, and charmed the people through their ears. O'Connell wrote a letter, approving of him as a candidate for the County on the Kepeal side, but in any case, he would have been returned without a certificate from the Corn Exchange. CHAPTER XV. THE RIG OF FERGUS O'CONNOR. (continued.) " ... and all agog To dash through thick and thin." John Gilpin's Ride. As an example of the influence produced by- O'Connor's bold enterprise, the Mallow election of 1832-3 may be referred to. Mallow is a very interesting and handsome town, seated on the Black water, some twenty miles to the north of the City of Cork. From 1690 (with one or two exceptions)* it had returned a member of the Jephson-Nor- reys family, who own much of the town, * One of the exceptions was in the person of Sir William Becher. 186 THE RIG OF and have been always resident at their noble demesne of Mallow Castle. Their estate is part of the property forfeited in Elizabeth's reign by the Desmond. The borough has a population of between six and seven thousand persons, and has about four hundred electors. It is one of the wealthiest country towns, not merely in Ireland, but in the Empire ; its gentry are not the extravagant and dissipated body which one would expect from the notoriety of " The Rakes of Mallow ;" on the contrary, they are thrifty, industrious, and have much ready money amongst them. In short, Mallow is a thoroughly independent place. * Mr. Jephson (now Sir Denham Nor- reys) had represented it for many years ; his politics were those of a Liberal Whig, and in the year 1830, when O'Connell was so severely attacked in Parliament by Mr. Doherty and Mr. North, Mr. Jephson had given him the aid of his open and unequivocal support. At that time there were no " tail members" in Parlia- ment, consequently the support of the Member for Mallow was more valuable to O'Connell, '^ III the last century .Mallow was a watering place of great resort, and was called " The Bath of Ireland." 187 who, on his return to Ireland, eulogised in Dublin " the independent, high-minded, and patriotic Charles Denham Orlando Jephson, of Mallow." Accordingly Mr. Jephson was ii most popular man in the South of Ireland, and a public meeting was held in Cork for the pur- pose of thanking him. He had been a staunch Reformer, and nobody thought that his seat for Mallow could be possibly endangered except from the Tory side. No one up to September, 1832, had dreamed of unseating so liberal a man as Mr. Jephson, when suddenly there appeared in the Cork newspapers an advertisement announcing that on a certain day the electors of Mallow would assemble in order to deliberate on what politi- cal pledges should be exacted from the candi- dates for the representation of the borough. Now as no person in Mallow had been in any wise privy to the ostensible object of that ad- vertisement, great surprise prevailed through- out all parties in the town, especially when the newS; aper stated that a deputation from the electors of Mallow, had waited upon *' Mr. William Joseph O'Neil Daunt, of Kilcaskan Castle," to solicit that gentleman to become a 1S8 THE RIG OF candidate! Mr. Daunt was public chiefly as a confederate of Fergus O'Connor, whom he accompanied in his agita- ting excursions, and to whom (to compare small things with great) he bore tlie same proportion that Sheil did to O'ConnelL Althou2:h with a higli sounding name and a castle, his property was not of the extent that candidates for par- liamentary honours are generally expected to possess. He was not altogether deficient in ability, and composed speeches that read very well, as they exhibited more literary culture, than the ordinary gang of Irish agitators dis- played in those days. On the appointed day of the meeting Mr. Daunt attended, and with great sang froid took the chair, harangued on liepeal, attacked the politics of Mr. Jephson, regularly put himself forward as a candidate for the Borousrh, thoush without friends, connexions, or property in the town, from which his place of residence was distant fifty miles, and without any formidable talents, he established a political footing in Mal- low. However foolish O'Connor's attempt on the representation of the county appeared, that of his ally, Mr. Daunt, appeared still more reckless. FERGUS o'cONNOR. 181 and hopeless. But 1832 was was a stirring year ia Irish Politics, and witnessed strange sights. As the time of the Elections approached, the exertions of Fergus O'Connor were redoubled. He had secured a great party in the County, and was decidedly the most popular man in the South of Ireland. The Priests had declined to take any decided part in the contest. Lord Boyle (now Earl of Shannon) withdrew from public life, and the Hon. Robert King (now Earl of Kingston) was the only candidate on the Whig side. Mr. Standish Barry offered himself to the County on Whig-Eadical prin- ciples, stating that he was conditionally opposed to the Repeal of the Union. He was a Catho- lic gentleman of very ancient family, and good estate. But so violent had the rage be- come for Repeal politics, that this gentleman encountered the sturdiest opposition. The late Roman Catholic Bishop of Cloyne* came to his assistance, and urged the Priests to support j\Ir. Barry's claims, an order which was obeyed * Dr. Collins, whose evidence before Parliament in 1825 ou the state of Ireland, attracted much attention. 190 THE RIG OF with evident reluctance, and the spectacle was then (as it has often been since) witnessed in Ireland of the Protestant Gentleman being the darling of the hour, and the Catholic candidate being the object of distrust and even aversion. Not since the Rebellion of 1798 had Ire- land been in so inflammatory a state. The Orangemen on one side, vied with the Re- pealers on the other. O'Connell abused the Whig Government, with a fierceness surpassed only by the Reverend Dr. Boyton ; the Pro- testant Conservative Society exceeded the Corn Exchange party in vehement and exciting lan- guage, and political intemperance. So great was the ferment that moderate men found that they could not exist in such troubled waters, and retired from Parliament altogether. The tergiversation that then took place in Irish po- litics was very remarkable, and those who think that levity of principle and selfishness exist only in Courts and Aristocracies could have found in those days in Ireland, numerous instances of democratic caprice and popular inconstancy. One of the most striking and influential changes of opinion in Ireland on the question of Repeal was in the case of Mr. Daniel Cal- FERGUS o'cONNOR, 191 laghan, member for Cork City.* The honorable gentleman was brother to Mr. Gerard Cal- laghan, a well known Brunswicker, who once figured prominently on the stage of Irish poli- tics. Mr. D. Callaghan had been elected M.P. for Cork, in 1829, by the High Tory interest of the City, With much knowledge of poli- ties, and extensive acquaintance with society : shrewd — sagacious, and versed in mercantile affairs, it was expected that he would have been one of the most useful members in the House of Commons. At first he was a sup- porter of the Duke of Wellington's Administra- tion, and was opposed to many liberal principles, the Reform of Corporations amongst others. He was so much of a Tory that on the motion of Sir H, Parnell, which upset the Welling- ton Cabinet, he was found in the minority supporting the condemned Administration. * The founder of the Callaghan family was the father of the present Member for Cork. He was the greatest Merchant that Ireland has produced, and possessed a mind of remarkable energy and capacity for large enterprises. None envied him his fortune, as he rewarded all who served him with a princely munificence. For a provincial capitalist his speculations were of surprising magnitude, and his influence with the Govern- ment was very great. Men of his stamp are wanted in Ireland far more than orators. 192 THE RIG OF When, however, the Reform Bill was intro- duced by Lord Grey, the honorable gentleman voted with the memorable majority of One. On the dissolution immediately following he was zealously opposed by the Radical party in the City of Cork, led by men of great honesty, virtuous boldness, and sterling consistency of character. From having been a Tory, the honorable gentleman advocated Whig princi- ples, and was returned in conjunction with a son of the Earl of Cork. He was then without the zealous support of any party in Cork. His former friends were especially incensed against him, and the Radicals and Repealers denounced him in the most strenuous manner. Little did they dream that in a few months he would become a conspicuous Repealer. A year elapsed ; the Reform Bill became the Law of the land, and Repeal was everywhere in Ireland substituted for the cry of Reform. Then arose what may be called a third estate in the Irish popular party. Tlie first estate was the body of Liberal Peers — leading lawyers, and men of large fortune ; the second was the burgher class, composed of the solid portion of the middle order of society, wcaltliy shop- keepers, attorneys, &c. ; but thirdly came the FERGUS o'cONNOR. 193 real democracy, comprising elements of the novel and anomalous character, that might have been anticipated in the Irish masses. In this party were dreamers, and levellers of every kind — visionaries, enthusiasts, and several patriotic antiquarians, that belong to the "• Finn ma Coul School of Irish Politics." In 1832, this pure democratic element came into play in the South of Ireland. Its most noticeable features were austerity and severe uncompromising fanaticism. Its advocates were not so much enthusiastic as remorseless Repealers, vowing political vengeance against those who would not take the pledge to vote in Parliament for the Repeal. The middle classes at this time were wavering and unde- cided. They had easily managed the working people in past times, but now, to their no small surprise, found that they were beaten in the race for popularity by a new party that sprung up armed for a political contest with all who would not accept its principles. At first the working class party of Repealers had no men of wealth to join them. But soon their num- bers swelled, and they became a powerful poli- tical body. It is curious to observe the great diflference 8 194 THE RIG OF in politics between a rural and urban popu- lation. Although they nominally professed the same principles, no persons could have been more unlike than the repealers of the County, and these of the City of Cork. The latter were hard headed, stern, and bitter fanatics ; they were (for Irishmen) singularly calculating and determined, and their zeal ex- hibited, in its political manifestation, something of Scotch religious intensity. On the other hand, the Ecpcalers of the County were an impulsive, hearty, romantic race, who rejoiced in dreaminjjj of the glories of Old Ireland, while the compatriots of the '^ beautiful city" looked forward to an increase of trade and shipping in their harbour. In all movements of a democratic character the party (let it call itseJf what it may) that seeks to arrest and moderate the rate of pro- gression, is invariably branded as lukewarm, and aristocratic. Adopting terms from the French Be volution, it may be said, that during the agitation for liepeal in Ireland in 1832, there was a party of the Girondc, and a party of the Mountain, and the latter eventually won the victory. There was a large Anglo-Irish Liberal pnrty in the City of Cork, and it FERGUS O'CONNOR. 195 eought to withstand the shock of the Irisli Mountainlsts, but in vain. The moderate men were totally routed, and the working class Ke- pealers became masters of the field of contest. Prerious to the triumph of '' the people" all the moderate Liberals of Cork mustered to- gether, and determined to send a most respect- able deputation to wait upon the Working Classes' 'Trades Association," in order to effec- tuate a political compromise. The " Trades Association" met at that time in a large loft in a ruinous old store, whose walls were decorated with halfpenny candles that shed a dim flicker- ing light on the sweltering mass of workmen congregated together. It was anything rather than a brilliant assembly ; at the utmost some five or six men of property patronized its pro- ceedings, but they had some men of the work- ing classes, whose intelligence equalled, and whose patriotism surpassed most of the semi- aristocratic liberals of the '* beautiful city." Indeed so fierce was the republican and demo- cratic fanaticism of this body, that '' gentle- men" were held in distrust if not in aversion by all its members. Upon the night for meeting the leading Li- i^erals proceeded together to wait upoiT the 196 THE RIG OF congregated Trades. The Gironde deputation comprised many of the leading citizens, whose probity of character was well known, and whose political consistency at the Liberal side (with a couple of exceptions) was readily ad- mitted. But they were not root and branch Repealers ; they had some qualms of modera- tion ; they felt the difficulties surrounding the question, and were not red hot zealots in the cause of domestic le<2;islation. Amono;st them was one very high-spirited, and useful public man, Mr. Daniel Meagher, who had been for thirty years battling in the popular cause ; Mr. Fagan, a Federalist in principles, and a gentleman of flmiily and fortune, highly accomplished and of generous views in politics ; Mr. Thomas Lyons, a Iloman Catholic merchant of great wealth, a practical philanthropist of matchless virtue, and many other gentlemen of kindred character. One might have supposed that the members of such a body would have been received with warmth of feeling, but to their consternation, they were ushered up to the President's table, through a mass of silent and scowling democrats, whose FERGUS O^CONNOR, 197 grim and emaciated faces looked defiance at the " Aristocrats" that dared to meddle with the honest Repealers of the " Trades' Association." Very cool, indeed, was the reception of the deputation ; a sarcastic smile of derision was visible on the faces of all the officials in the body of the Trades ; they could scarcely con- ceal their delight at the '' Aristocrats"* having been so humbled as to come into their presence, and some of the body bolder than the rest, very plainly expressed their contempt for the deputation and its political principles. The old loft w^as then densely crowded, and the deputation had no followers to back its preten- sions, but Mr. Meagher, goaded by the taunts and jibes of the leaders of the Trades, with a fierceness and vehemence that none but an Irish popular speaker could exhibit, accused the whole body of the basest and blackest in- gratitude. The President of the Trades As- sociation was one of the few men of fortune in the body. Rising from his seat with something of affected dignity, he calmly asked the depu- tation — * The " Aristocrats" were most of them Repealers, and all of them Ultra- Radicals ! 198 THE RIG OF ** Who are you, and whence come ye, that seek to have audience of the Trades Associa- tion of the City of Cork ? Come ye from a public meeting of the Citizens assembled by notice, or do ye emanate from any private junto of politicians ?" In thus addressing the Deputation, the Pre- sident affected never to have seen the faces of any of the gentlemen before. He appeared not to know that such persons existed in the world, and treated them with a democratic hauteur that galled the unfortunate deputation, vvhose members had once been used to " loud cheers," " thunders of applause," &c. Even in Irish politics, so rife with strange, droll, and wild proceedings, few more striking scenes have ever been witnessed than the haughty and stern reception given by the fanatical repealers to the moderate (!) Liberals of the City of Cork. The blank faces of Mr. Fagan and his friends, aghast at the freezing reception given them by the President ; the uncontrollable Irish rage of Mr. Meagher bursting out indignantly at the ingrdtitude with which " the old and tried friends of the people" were received ; the sardonic grins of the morose democrats, and the fioideur of the President, formed a good dra- FEUGUS CONNOR. 199 matic picture, when taken in conjunction with the gloomy loft in which was '' darkness visible," crowded with the dense mass of the v/orkino' o classes. On that night, commenced the reign of Ee- peal in Munster. Mr. Daniel Callaghan upon that night, to the amazement of men of all parties, declared himself a Eepealer ; the pres- sure must have been sudden and rapid, which in three years could have effected such changes, as to hand over the representation of the city of Cork from the fiimilies of Hutchinson, Boyle, Longfield, and Colthurst into the demo- cratic custody of a body of electors under the influence of the " Trades Association." The public effect of Mr. Callaghan's change of opinion on such a question was vejy great^ and nearly all the moderate Liberals and Whig- gish politicians joined the Repealers, and the democratic party since that time has ruled the politics of Cork. Nothing was more striking during the Repeal Movement in 1832, than the disgraceful ra- pidity with which numbers of persons aban- doned one line of politics and adopted another. One day theyVere for Union with England, and on the next they were for Repeal, and nothing 200 THE RIG OF but Repeal. On the morning of the day before Mr. Callaghan publicly announced his inten- tion of becoming a Repealer, a commercial gentleman left the Qua}- of Cork on a trip of pleasure to Cove, which is a few miles below the City. In walking into the Chamber of Commerce, upon his return at dinner time, he was astonished to find forty or fifty gentlemen that he had left Anti-Repealers, had, in the interval, become reconciled to a dissolution of the Union — all because *' even Mr. Callaghan is going to turn a Repealer." These sudden conversions of bodies of men are only to be found in unsettled times, and under the joressure of great democratic force. To have opinions of one's own, and to maintain them resolutely, is denounced as '' haughty — aristocratic," &c. To differ from a democratic body is to affront its judgment, and call forth its condemnation ; and as the mass of men love ease and quiet better than steady adherence to fixed opinions, they allow themselves to be carried away by the strongest and most clamo- rous body. The honest virtue of " indepen- dency" however admirable it may be in the FERGUS o'cONNOR. 201 Court of a Monarch, is even more praiseworthy when exhibited under the frowns of an irritated democracy. But let us return to the progress of Fergus O'Connor, w^hose speeches had considerable effect in inflaming the passions of the Cork Working classes. As the j^ear advanced, Fer- gus encreased his activity, and introduced the Repeal Movement into the borough of i'oughal, which had always been under the political con- trol of the Duke of Devonshire. North and South, East and West did Fergus journey through the County, carrying every thing before him, and surprising the public with the spectacle of a man unknown in the month of June, chosen, before the middle of winter, M.P. for the largest County in Ireland ! Never before w^as Munster in such a state of excitement. The Anti-tithe war was at its height. Cattle were seized and escorted by the military, and no purchaser would dare to bid for them. The country people assembled in vast hordes ; from miles round they came to join the im- mense gatherings that attended a Tithe-sale ; horns sounded, and bonfires blazed upon the hills; the people were '' ripe and ready" after a drilling of a few months. They expected 202 THE RIG OF glorious things. The regeneration of Ireland was at hand, and *' Repale" would take place at once ! The savage murders of some Pro- testant Clergymen in Tipperary struck terror into the hearts of the ministers of the Estab- lishment. Men, who only claimed their legal rights were in the noon-day massacred in Tipperary — one or two of the murders having been effected by stoneing to death. In vain did the Government offer its asssitance ; in vain did Mr. Stanley back the Parsons with all the aid of his Police and Magistracy, passive re- sistance to Tithes was too strong. Many there were who were willing, but afraid to pay. The excitement was literally " tremendous," and the presiding spirit of the stormy scenes in the South of Ireland was Fergus O'Connor. His harangues were eagerly listened to by the crowds that thronged to hang upon his words, his popularity was unbounded, and no rival agitator dared to cross his course. The exertions of O'Connor certainly " got up the steam" in the County of Cork, and contributed to the return of several " joints of the Tail." He succeeded in beating the Tories, Whigs, and Moderates, whether they acted singly or in conjunction. In Mallow the Whigs FERGUS o'cONNOR. 203 and Conservatives clubbed their forces together to resist the intrusion of Mr. Daunt '^ a total stranger" — *' an unknown and untried man." Indeed, no one thought that Mallow could be carried against so amiable a private character, and so eonsistently liberal a public man as Mr. Jephson. But what could the influence of rank, property, and private character avail against a system of wholesale intimidation — an inflammatory appeal to the populace, and a combination of all the arts of the demagogue with nearly every species of influence by the priest ? Mallow w^as successfully stormed by the people. Numbers feared to vote for Mr. Jephson, and *' Mr. William Joseph O'Neill Daunt of Kilcaskan Castle" was washed into the House of Commons on the Repeal Tide. Mark ! how suddenly popular opinion is lashed up in Ireland, and how easily the di- rectory of the Corn Exchange can raise and quench the flame of excitement. In 1832 the Repeakrs of Mallow ejected Mr. Jephson (temporarily) from Parliament, and in three years after, when the Earl of Mulgrave passed through that town as Lord Lieutenant, they thus addressed him — " We stand before you in numbers amount- 204 THE RIG OF iiig to over one hundred tliousand, and the greater part of us avow ourselves as having be- longed to that political party in this country who advocate the Eepeal of the legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, in the eager pursuit of which we dismissed, or aided in dismissing from the rej^resentation of this Great County and Borough in Parliament, individuals, who, on other public questions, were entitled to respect and confidence." They then proceeded to declare — *^ From the expectation we entertain that the principles indicated by your Excellency's Government will be carried into effect, namely of having the inhabitants of this country to rank, in tlie eye of the law, on teims of per- fect equality with the British people, we tender your Excellency ovr solemn abjuration of the question of the Repeal of the Legislative Unions and of every other question calculated to pre ducc an alienation of feeling between the in- habitants of Great Britain and those of Ire- land. We seek for equality with the British people, common interest, and reciprocity of benefits, and to be legislated for as a part of Great Britain. With less we can never be content." FERGUS O'CONMOR. 205 The difference between the sentiments of the Repealers in 1835 from those of 1832, was caused by the fact, that in the latter case the popular leaders were enlisted in the service of the Government, while in the other, Mr. Stanly and O'Connell were pitted against each other in a protracted quarrel. After Mallow, the election of Youghal may be considered as a great triumph on the part of the Kepealers. Mr. John O'Connell, who was then merely of age, was presented to the electors a as candidate. Of course '' O'Connell's son" wanted no local influence to aid him in working up the Repealers. Mr. Thomas Berry Cusack Smith (now Attorney-General of Ireland) ap- peared as his opponent, having started on the Conservative interest. The House of Caven- dish that had nominated the member since the Revolution was put hors de camhat ; the po^ pular intimidation triumphed, and Mr. John O'Connell was duly returned another *' Joint of the Tail" In the City of Cork, Messrs^ Callaghan and Baldwin were elected, having easily van- quished the Whig Candidate (the Honorable John Boyle, son of the absentee Earl of Cork,) and Mr. Newenham, a Puritanical, but T 206 THE RIG OF amiable Conservative, who had fruitlessly spent fifteen thousand pounds at a preceding election, when he was deemed a more lib- eral politician than Mr. Callaghan, and in which Mr. Callaghan defeated him. In the County Mr. Garret Standish Barry, though not a Repealer, was installed as another "joint of the tail," having been smuggled into Parliament amidst the murmurs of the Repealers, '* Fergus" tucking him up under one arm, and a few of the Priests zealously serving " the first Catholic representative of the County for one hundred and fifty years." CHAPTER XVL THE RIG OF FERGUS O'CONXOR, " Nor stopped till where he had got up, He did again get down." John GiiiPiN's Ride. Well, " the people were truly wild with de- light when they saw all that they had done. They had for the time annihilated the Aristo- cratic and Tory party, and they thought that they had exterminated the Whigs, Moderadoes, and Constitutional Radicals. Their eyes were now turned to the House of Commons, and each Irish Constituency looked with interest for the 208 THE RIO OF figure that its own member would make in Par- liament. When actually elected " M.P." for Cork, the personal importance of Fergus became greater than ever, and his head shewed strong symp- toms of giddiness at his sudden elevation. He began to act up to the cliaracter of a Knight of the Shire, which vvas no easy matter with moderate means. He had a house at " Fort Robert" fit for a man of six or seven thousand a-year. It is seated on tlie brow of a lofty hill near Dunmanway, and commands a charming view of the interesting adjacent country. The demesne is wild, and the ground is very un- even ; the avenue winds along a hill for about a mile and a-half before it reaches the esplanade in front of the Mansion. After ascending a flight of steps, you enter a huge hall, in which one could easily drive a curricle and pair, and at either side a vast reception room yawns for the visitors. In short, it is a '' great house," but alas ! 'twas entirely too great. The value of half the estate would have been required to keep it up properly, and one would expect to meet a retinue of servants in so huge a struc- ture. Still it was mighty grand to have such a house, and what member had a finer one ? FERGUS o'cONNOR. 209 - But Fergus, not content with his " great house," should, as all the leading Irish com- moners did formerly, go upon the Turf. Ac- cordingly he appeared at the Fermoy Races in 1833, with three racing steeds, amongst which were " Louisa by Roller, &c," and the ^' Chay Horse, otherwise Red Rover." The sporting gentry, when they read a pompous announce- ment that '' Mr. F. O'Connor's horses passed through Cork, &c." were alarmed at the pros- pect of so formidable a competitor, but they were soon undeceived, his steeds could not go the pace — they had not a chance of success, but then it was mighty fine to be an M. P. with three race horses ! In London Fergus soon became a *' character." All through his life he has confounded noto- riety with fame, and he has certainly obtained plenty of the former. In the House of Com- mons he completely realised the pithy remark of Canning—" The true way ;to extinguish a demagogue is to send him into Parliament." He soon found that it was a very different thing to harangue a body of Repealers, or to rouse up an Anti-Tithe Meeting, from answer- ing Lord Stanley, or convincing Sir Robert Peel. 210 THE RIG OF In Ireland he was au amazing^ but In Lon- don, he sank to be merely an amusing man. He found himself soon upon a level with the ordinary platform politicians, and fell in politics to the rank of a Crown and Anchor genius. He bored the House of Commons with his trashy tirades, and though his society in private was much relished, his speeches in St. Stephen's were treated with the same re- spectful attention, as the wind whistling about the lantern. However so restless a spirit should find work for itself, and when it became known that O'Connell would not bring Repeal before Parliament, Fergus astounded *' the Tail" by giving a notice of motion em- bracing the whole question This was to- wards the middle of 1833, and O'Connell's ire was naturally aroused at his authority being disputed. But Fergus was immovable. O'Connell was too shrewd and wary not to know that bringing the question before Par- liament would be giving his entire system '^ a heavy blow and great discouragement ;" but Fergus was too vain glorious to resist such an opportunity of acquiring eclat before the Empire. He openly hoisted the standard of 211 rebellion against O'Connell, and succeeded in causing a strong division of sentiment amongst the " Tail" and the Irish Repealers. O'Connell summoned a meeting of " The Tail," which decided by a narrow majority against forcing the question on that year, but he was obliged to enter into an agreement to introduce the question himself in the following year. In that year (1833) Fergus returned in high feather to his constituents. He had o-ained some triumph in showing O'Connell that others besides the great Agitator should have a voice in wielding the Irish Democracy, and then the notion entered into Fergus's head of rival- ling O'Connell in every way. With that view he resumed the practice of his Profession, and attended the Cork Assizes. His notoriety in the County procured him briefs, and the rustic Repealers thought " Fergus" must be a great lawyer, since he was so powerful a declaimer. At the first Assizes which he attended as an M. P. he monopolized all tlie criminal business, and deprived a violent Tory barrister, who had succeeded to a large share of O'Connell's prac- tice, of all his fees. The Tory lawyer had not been much liked on the Circuit, and all parties were amused at his disconsolate aspect as he sur- 212 THE RIG OF veyed Fergus defending almost every prisoner indicted for murder, arson, rape, and robbery. " Othello's occupation was gone" and Fergus swelled with importance as he found himself looked upto as a rising barrister, and the sitting member for the County ! When one looks back to those times, it is impossible not to be amused with the recollec- tions of oddity, absurdity, and humbug, that enjoyed a transitory public existence in Ireland. A great change had been effected not merely in the opinions of the Irish representatives, but in the class of which they were composed. Let a case illustrate the feeling that prevailed upon this political revolution. At the Cork Summer Assizes in 1833, a prisoner was indicted for stealing some cocks and hens from a poor woman. The trial took place before Baron Pennefather. The case of the prosecutrix was conducted by Mr. Garret Standish Barry M.P. for the County, and Barrister at Law, and the prisoner was defended by Mr. Fergus O'Connor M.P. for the Cnunty and Barrister at Law. Two knights of the shire, arguing points of law in a cock and hen case, had probably never before appeared in a Court of Justice, and the presiding Judge's FERGUS o'cONNOR. 213 sense of the ludicrous was irresistibly tickled. On reference being made to him upon a dis- puted point, he declared that he would leave it all to " the two legislators," to settle as they pleased. Mr. Barry was distinguished by overgrown black whiskers ; and Fergus was equally conspicuous for a red head of hair. Upon the Judge expressing the above opinion, a droll attorney rose, and convulsed the Court with laughter, by exclaiming — '' In that case, my lord, I'll back red ginger (meaning Fergus) at any time against the black coclir Fergus, however, did not rise in his profes- sion, which, apparently, he had never studied with much attention. The Tory barrister re- covered his old monopoly, and O'Connor was obliged to be contented with his senatorial honours, which were not of much longer con- tinuance. At the General Election of 1834, he was op- posed by Mr. Longfield, a relative, but he was returned by a large majority. Mr. Longfield had not the slightest chance of succeeding upon the Poll, as the Conservatives out of a consti- tuency ol near four thousand, could not bring more than a thousand voters to the hustiuos. 214 THE RIG OF He started with the avowed determination of impeaching O'Connor's property qualification, aud public notice to that effect was duly served according to legal form, upon every voter. The Liberals, however, laughed at the idea of Fergus being unseated. The popular Com- mittee questioned him upon the point, when he assured it that he was duly qualified. How- ever on the case being brought before the House of Commons, it was discovered that he had not the legal qualification, and ac- cordingly the Conservative was seated in the representation of the County of Cork. This circumstance excited great indignation against Fergus O'Connor. It w^as said that he betrayed his constituents, and that he had de- liberately entered into collusion with the Conservative party. Not long after, there was a vacancy at Oldham, and young Mr. Cobbett was called upon by the Radical party to stand for the representation of the borough. — Fergus O'Connor was also invited by a few of the electors. A Tory appeared, and every inducement was had recourse to, in order to persuade O'Connor to retire from the con- test. He had not the most remote chance of success, as an overwhelming majority of the FERGUS o'cONNOR. 215 liberal electors preferred young Cobbett, but he would listen to no entreaty, and the Tory was returned, in consequence of the obstinacy of O'Connor. Since that time Fergus's character has stood very low in Ireland, though he has made various attempts to regain it. It has been ob- served by many that no culpability can directly attach to him, because other members of the House of Commons have been unseated exactly on the same ground. Mr. O'Neill Daunt's character was never called in question; Sir Samuel Whalley — Mr. O'Dwyer (who was twice unseated on the same ground) — nor Mr. Wilberforce have never been accused of dishonesty, though they have been unseated for want of qualification. Mr. Wilberforce had the opinion of one of the first conveyancers of the day that his qualification was a great one ; in Mr. O'Dwyer's case there was considerable doubt on the point of law. Besides O'Connor had an income larger than the qualification, unlike other cases, where it was matter of noto- riety that the candidate's income did not equal the qualification. In 1835, however, his Irish supporters took a decided dislike to O'Connor's conduct. Many 216 THE RIG OF there were who were glad to have an excuse for crushing him, and apparent grounds for imputing dishonesty were eagerly seized upon by those who had other reasons, such as poli- tical jealousies, for disliking him. All those who were acquainted with him bore the highest testimony to his honour in all the transactions of private life. He was punctilious in all his other engagements, and never shewed any symptom of pravity of character. The career of Fergus in England need not be noticed in these pages. It is, perhaps, un- exampled for recklessness and audacious ab- surdity in doing mischief. He has contrived, by his outrageous language, to give to Chartism even a heavier blow than that which he in- flicted upon " Repeal" by compelling O'Connell to enter upon its discussion in Parliament, than which a more fatal course could not be possibly suggested by its deadliest enemy.* * But in that policy Fergus received the support of several uniinpeachably honest " Joints of the Tail," so that he did not stand alone in his opinion. It is worthy of notice, however, that he injured whatever cause he took into his protection. Perhaps his abilities, rather his intentions ought to be objects oi' distrust w ith those who ])rofess his revolutionary poHtics. FERGUS o'cONNOR. 217 Upon the whole nothing can more foicibly show the state of Ireland, while the first Repeal Agitation w^as raging, than the career of " Fergus O'Connor, Esquire, of Fort Robert." So suggestive has that career been thought, that in the novel of '' The Wife Hunter," some of his adventures, as well as those of his friend and relative, Mr. O'Neil Daunt,* have been described under the dissruise of fiction. * Mr. Daunt did not long represent the town of Mallow, to which he rendered considerable evil, by his hasty incursion. He was unseated by Mr. Jephson on a petition, to ^vhich Mr. Daunt made no defence whatever. It is only right to state that he was very ill at the time. But never did a vain glorious project produce more evil to a small community, than Mr. Daunt's election for Mallow, He introduced within a happy town, the curse of social diacord; in his cause, and on his be- half, several poor electors suffered severely from their landlords, as the gentry who voted against him were also subjected to unsparing denunciation. It was many years before society in Mallow recovered from the ill effects produced by the ambition of iMr. Daunt. CHAPTEPv XVIL THE GREAT DAN AND HIS TAIL. " You know my admiration for Elizabeth, but do you think because I admire her, that I cannot understand O'Neil ? Be- cause I honour Wellington, must I see in O'Connell an incar nate fiend ?" Von Raumer. In the first Session of the Kefbrmed Parlia- ment O'Connell raised himself to a degree of political consequence in England, that could not have been anticipated from the compara- tive failure of his previous efforts in the House of Commons. He appeared for the first time to feel himself *' at home" in St. Stephen's. THE GREAT DAN AND HIS TAIL. 219 There was then so much noise and turbulence in the Debates, and such a jostling of provin- cial politicians striving to obtain Parliamentary celebrity, that he felt himself in his native element of agitation. Partly by the aid of his Tail— partly by the English Radicals, but principally by his own great powers, which then burst forth upon Parliament with full vigour, he became an object of first rate politi- cal importance, and the leaders of the two con- stitutional parties regarded his movements as fraught with the deepest interest. Sir Robert Peel watched with complacence, the progress of the schism that rent in twain the Reform Party. In the Radical body, as it then existed in Par- liament, O'Connell was the only man of tower- ing abilities, and if he had been an Englishman, with the confidence of the middle classes, it is impossible to say to what height of power he would have reached. The contrast between his popular talents, and those of the Philosophica Radicals was almost ludicrous, and is worth dwelling upon. There never was a body of more incapable politicians than the Parliamentary Radicals of 220 THE GREAT DAN England. "With every thing in their favour, their failure was egregious. A great cause — a favourable time for action — a people ready to follow them, all these they had, but they had no powers of producing public effect, or retaining popular sympathy, They failed because they did not deserve to be popular, because they merited the affections of no portion of the community. They were cold catalogues of public grievances — talking Encyclopaedias stored with facts — magazines of small crotchetty plans upon momentous questions— they were books — they were systems — they were everything but Men. They had nothing of the blood and vigour of humanity in their frozen bodies. They thought themselves profound politicians, and they called themselves philosophical, but they had no insight into human nature, no ac- quaintance with the real character of that mighty people whom they affected to lead. They had no love of country ; no sympathy with England, and its bluff, hearty, honest pre- judices ; no appreciation of tlie life and moral strength of her people, no veneration for her Constitution, and they had a paltry, beggarly antipathy to lier ancient Aristocracy. They AND HiS TAIL. 221 thought the world was all wrong, what a world it would be, if they had been permitted to set it right ! Consider that there is no such thing as His- tory, or traditionary feeling ; treat the mind of England as a tabula rasa ; set to work the Humes, Warburtons, Molesworths, upon sys- tems digested from Benthara's Catechisms, and the Westminster Review — -then you will re- form the country, and content the people ! All the Parliamentary and (self-styled) phi- losophical Radicals must not be " tarred with the same brush." Some amongst them had perverted understandings, but had right and natural feelings. These (alas ! they were but few) had generous sentiments with utilitarian convictions. But they were utterly unfitted for the work they had undertaken ; levellers in their creed, and gentlemanly in their habits, — refined Kadicals— polite leaders of the grim and gloomy masses ! Such men as these were as much out of their sphere, as Cobbett would have been at Almacks, or Count D'Orsay at the Dublin Corn Exchange. How could such men wield a nation ? How could they repre- sent and embody the honest prejudices and characteristic passions of a people, or define 222 THE GREAT DAN the hopes, and shadow forth the feelings of an English Democracy ?* A British O'Connell would have been worth legions of such men. He would have done much at least to represent the people, even though he would have failed in the higher de- partment of Statesmanship. He would not have been the man wanted, but still (had he been an Englishman,) he would have sustained the popular party with energy and vigour. He would not have allowed the physical power of the masses to fret itself awa}^ He would have done something to make it effective. Undoubtedly he would not have realised the want of a great English public leader felt * They did much to bring Utilitarian Philosophy into odium. So far their evil would have worked for good, if they had not also encreased the antipathy of the English mind towards ALL speculative philosophy. They caused people to forget that England was the country of Bacon as well as Bentham ; of the sublime Bishop Butler, as well as tlie morose James Mill ; and that Burke " the greatest philosopher in action that the world ever saw" had grown up beneath the Institutions Avhich he lived to vindicate, as well as the whole brood of Utilitarian thinkers, who have aspersed the national Polity, and have no appreciation of their country* AND HIS TAIL. 223 in 1833. The mind of the country was ao-i- tated ahnost as much as its passions, and there were chords in the English public feeling that an O'Connell could not cause to vibrate, al- though they would have powerfully responded to the genius of a British Mirabeau. As things were, what a sriking contrast was the Great Dan, pleading against the Irish Co- ercion Bill, when compared with the feeble Parliamentary Benthamites ! With a hostile audience— with prejudices of all sorts opposed to him— with a cause, in which there was as much to be said against as for him, he was still an admirable popular representative, and formidable Member of Parliament. Kindled by his protracted quarrel with Lord Stanley- feeling himself influential in Parliament for the first time, he became thoroughly roused, and exhibited his innate energies in their greatest strength. No doubt he often shocked the fas- tidious with his vulgarity, and revolted all sense of propriety by the licentious reckless- ness of his language, as when he called the House of Commons '' Six hundred scoundrels," and disgusted the public as he tried to equivo- cate, when denounced by Lord Stanley (in a 224 THE GREAT DAN withering invective) for having uttered such expressions. All that no doubt is quite true. But no fair person could have witnessed O'Connell's Parliamentary efforts in 1833, without giving him the full meed of praise, as an extraordinary natural orator, and politician of gigantic resolution, and powers of producing public effect. He exhibited greater natural powers than any of his Parliamentary contem- poraries. He was by turns humorous and pa- thetic — declamatory and argumentative. With terrible ferocity he hacked the " bloody and brutal Whigs," assailing them night after night with a physical energy, and a display of intel- lectual power, that were really astounding, and which came upon the House of Commons with surprise. The Man O'Connell, in all his natural prowess, had never before been known Parliament, and little chivalry must that poli- tical opponent possess, who could tamely record the effects produced, and difficulties overcome in that year, by the popular genius of the Irish Agitator. When it suited the purposes of the Whig party to enter into an alliance with O'Connell in the year 1835, the word was passed through the coteries to talk and write up his reputation. AND HIS TAIL. 223 Accordingly, many who in 1833, had loudly abused him, affected, in two years after, to dis- cover extraordinary merits in the man. Vitu- peration gave place to fulsome flattery, and he who had been denounced as the basest, was then extolled as one of the greatest public cha- racters of the age. In the eyes of genteel Liberals, he became wonderfully great, as soon as Whig Dukes and Marquises openly sub- scribed to his tribute. But it was in 1833 that he really displayed political greatness. From 1835 to 1842 he was in smooth water, and exhibited no such powers as he manifested in the first session of the Reformed Parliament. Never was there so great an effort made to crush a public man, und never perhaps did a single individual more triumphantly defy a host of formidable ene- mies. The London Press assailed him with unexampled virulence, and even refused to re- port his speeches. The Whigs and Tories both combined against him, but he seemed to derive vigour from their attacks. Those who have seen and heard him in Committee fighting against the Irish Coercion Bill, can never for- get that huge^ massive figure staggering with rage— the face darkened with all the feelinofs 226 THE GREAT DAN. of scorn and rancour, while he vengefully pro- phecied a future Irish Kebcllion, and with gloomy smiles exulted in the troubles of- Enaland. He mio;ht have cried to the British Le2:islature — " make your bondmen tremble- Must I observe you ? Must I stand and crouch Under your testy humour ? By the Gods ! You shall digest the venom of your spleen Tho' it do sj)lit you." His personal hatred to Lord Stanley was encreased by the energy and ability with which the Chief Secretary demonstrated the vital connection between prsedial and political agita- tion, and the gestures with which the Agitator accompanied his invectives against the Secre- tary for Ireland faithfully indicated the emo- tions convulsively raging in his breast. As much as a mere speaker could do, he applied physical force to Parliament. He acted to perfection the part of an Irish rebel, and made one for the time believe that he would shout — " To your tents, Israel." He looked (as he wasj the historical successor of the Desmonds and O'Ncils of Irish history — AND Ills TAiLo 227 as a man who trod on political soil that had lain fallow since the fall of the last of the Stuarts. He uttered no grand things that dazzled like the lightnings of the elder Pitt or Henry Grattan, but his j^assion, as then exhibited in Parliament, w\^s grand, because it was great^ real, and true, unlike the petty concocted wrath of Mr. Shell's fits of mock phrenzy. There was nothing of the ideal in his oratory ; the tawdry rags of fine language that he sometimes exhibited gave a vulgar, patched appearance to his rough, muscular style, which stood in no need of the little graces of rhe- toric. But coarse, stern, and real, he was a po-wevM representative of the people in whose name he spoke ; the man was far grander and more impressive than his matter. He proved that earnestness will always tell in the House of Commons. Never did any one say more unpalateable things in Parliament, and never was any one better listened to than O'Connell in 1833. In the following year when he discussed the Eepeal Question how great was the contrast I The House then felt him tedious, prosy, and very dull, because he spoke at wearisome length, and in nowise like a man in earnest. But his denunciations of 228 THE GREAT DAN the Coerclou Bill were heard in breathless silence — he swelled to his full moral dimen- sions, and extorted admiration even from his adversaries, while he furiously battled with a hostile House of Commons. How much more would such a man have done for the popular cause than a legion of Henry Warburtons and Joe Humes I ^leehanical utterers of first principles ; dogged calculators, who fancy themselves public representatives, because they prove popular wrongs statistically, and tell the national ago- nies in pounds, shillings, and pence ; men who confound parsimony with economy, and admire Hampden not for having resisted oppression, but because he opposed paying money — such men are miserable expositors of popular opi- nion, and their arithmetical exaggerations are fully as pernicious, as the declamatory bombast of the worst demagogues. To estimate with fairness O'Connell's Par- liamentary abilities, it must be recollected that he entered the House of Commons, at the time of life to which the present Prime Minister has attained — the fifty-fifth year of his age. Thus lie was '' transplanted" at a very late ^leriod of AND HIS TAIL. 229 life. The change from companionship with the Jack Lawlesses, Tom Steeles, and other phrenetic patriots, to personal contact with the Peels, Russells, and Stanleys, of English Politics wa& very rapid. In 1&28, he went the Munster Circuit, and took three guinea briefs, and in 1833, he was confessedly one of the leading men in the British Parliament. How many great lawyers have been con- temptible failures in the House of Commons ! geniuses as Erskine and Curran failed to obtain senatorial success corresponding to their pre- eminence at the Bar. When we recollect these things — the combi- nation entered into ao;ainst him — the o:reat battle he fought against his assailants, m and out of the House of Commons, and that he had not been bred in Parliament— we must admit that his qualified success in the Legislature was a greater personal triumph, than many famous political leaders, if placed in his circumstances, would have been able to achieve. y CHAPTEE XVIII. THE GREAT DAN AND HIS TAIL, (continued.) " ex humlli magna ad fastigia reruni, Extollit, quoties voluit fortuna jocari." Juvenal. The soubriquet of " The Tall" which has ad- hered so tenaciously to the O'Connclllte Mem- hers of Parliament, was conferred upon them hy the Dublin Evenivfj Post. The exact rela- tion which the M.P. Ilepealers bore to the head of their party, O'Connell, was faithfully con- veyed by the idea of « tail, every joint of which was compelled to wag right or left as its owner THE GREAT DAN AND HIS TAIL. 231 pleased. As there is no rule without an excep- tion, so the principle, as expressed by Pulteney to the Duke of Newcastle, " that parties, like snakes, are moved by their tails," met with a very emphatic contradiction in the case of O'Connell's party. The nominees of the old Boroughmongers were never so dependent for political existence upon their patrons as " the joints" were upon the mighty owner of " the tail." When any joint wriggled rebelliously, excision was had recourse to, and a more obe- dient piece of caudal matter inserted in the vacant place. In the Revolution in the Irish Representa- tion, which took place on the Election for the first Reformed Parliament, three things are especially worthy of notice. 1st — The change in the class of Irish Repre- sentatives. 2dly — The ingratitude with which the Re- pealers treated Liberal Protestants who had zealously battled for Emancipation, and high- minded Catholics who had figured prominently in the Catholic Association. 3dly — The duplicity with which Repeal was made the test for trying a candidate upon the hustings, though when the elections were over^ '232 THE GREAT DAN it was announced that tlic question would not be brought before Parliament. Of the class of the new Members, or " Mim- burs," as they were called, it was remarked at the time by a liberal Journalist, " We did not think it was in human nature, that such persons as and , should be members of Parliament." Even the cote gauche in Irish politics was surprised at the organic change effected in the Irish Members. Previously Ire- land had been represented almost exclusively by Aristocrats, and it was considered presump- tuous in u wealthy Merchant to aspire even to the representation of a city. The Tory and Whig Aristocracy divided the representation, and cities and trading boroughs were almost exclusively represented by the scions of the nobility, or by squires of large landed es- tates. The Irish M.P.'s were much more aris- tocratic in their composition than the English Representatives. So late as the year 1829, it was a decided objection to an Irish candidate, that he was not of a leading family — that he was merely a man of wealth, and that he was engaged in trade. AVhilst the struggle for Emancipation was going forward some ambi- tious Tories, not of the Aristocracy, but novi AND HIS TAIL. 233 homines^ aspired to represent some cities and towns in Ireland, and the Whigs and Liberals were always sure to avail themselves of the popular respect for antiquity and blood, as means for damaging the pretensions of Tory Merchants. A Protestant bigot and a wealthy upstart had little chance when contending with some scion of an ancient, though embarrassed family, that professed Liberal politics. The feeling in favour of the Aristocracy went to extravao-ant lenarths in Ireland, and nothino- can more forcibly indicate theTaults of the Irish Nobility, than the odium which it has incurred amongst the most aristocratically disposed people in the world. The Elections of Waterford, Louth, and Clare were the precursors of the revolution that took place in the feelings of the Irish Electoral body, in the year 1832, At those elections the feelings of feudal dependence, which the tenants had entertained towards the landlords, w^ere completely swept away under the pressure of the agitation excited by the Catholic Asso- ciation. Other counties in Ireland copied the example, and the tenants were in most cases prepared to follow the agitators rather than the landlords. 234 THfi GREAT i)AN. Thus in 1832, when the Repeal principle was made the test of a popnlar candidate, such changes as the following took place. In the Queen's County, Mr. Patrick Lalor was returned in preference to Sir Henry Par- nell, (the late Lord Congleton.) In Dublin County Mr. Christopher Fitzimon, a barrister, but not in extensive practice, was returned for a seat, which the Whites, Tal- bots, Hamlltons, and Brabazons had formerly spent tens of thousands to obtain. In Clare, whicli had for many years been represented by its leading families, the O'Briens of Dromoland, the Fitzgeralds, &c.— Mr. Cor- nelius O'Brien was elected. In Waterford County, which the Beresfords had ruled since the He volution, and in which the Stuarts had begun to rise in political in- fluence — ISIr. John Matthew Galway, a general dealer and mercantile agent, was returned. This gentleman became a very disobedient " joint" and after having wriggled for some time, was at last cut off. In Kilkenny County, Mr. AVilliam Francis Finn, a barrister, but not in extensive practice, nor having a large estate, put tne Aristocracy of that County to the rout. ANB HIS TAIL, 235 la the city of Cashel, Avhere tlie family of Pennefather had borne sway for upwards of a century, Mr. James E-oe was returned, but that gentleman remained an M.P. for only two years. In the town of Clonrael, where the Bagwell family possessed avast property, Mr. Dominick Ronayne, a barrister, but not in extensive prac- tice, was returned. In the County of Meath iMr. ^Morgan O'Connell, who had no estate in Meath, and whose sole recommendation was his beins^ son of O'Conneil, was returned in plac© of Lord Killeen, who was the manliest member of the Catholic Aristocracy ; and who had descended from his " order" to mingle cordially with the Catholic democracy. That an O'Conneil should have claims upon any Irish popular consti- tuency, will be readily ackeowiedged by the staunchest Vv^hig, but the pressure of those claims (and merely those claims) against such a man as Lord Killeen, showed absence of fine feeling, In Yoaghal, the Duke of Devonshire's inte- rest was for the time paralyzed. By means of unprecedented excitement, in which Fergus O'Connor bore the most prominent part, Mr. 236 THE GREAT DAN John O'Connell was elected in preference to ]\Ir. Ponsonby, ^Yho withdrew in disgust from the contest. The Conservatives set up a candidate (Mr. T. B. C. Smith, now Attorney General), but the populace, and not the voters, decided the election. In Drogheda, Mr. Andrew O'Dwyer, a bar- rister, but not in extensive practice, was pre- ferred to Mr. Wallace, a leading member of the Bar, and a gentleman of the highest attain- ments in philosophy and literature. Mr. Wal- lace had been all his life an advocate of the Catholic claims, and was so liberal in his poli- tical views, that Lord Anglesey would not pro- mote him, but the Kepealers thought more highly of Mr. A. O'Dwyer. Kilkenny, which had been ably represented by Mr. Nicholas Philpot Leader, a gentleman of rank and fortune, and of very great acquire- ments, was handed over to Mr. KIchard Sulli- van, who, however, did not long continue its representative. In the County of Cork, Fergus O'Connor, who was a barrister without any practice, and who subsequently lost his seat for want of a qualification, took the place of Lord Boyle, (now Earl of Shannon. ) AND HIS TAIL. 2S7 In Mallow Borough, Mr. Daunt temporarily deprived Sir Deuharn Norreys of the represen- tation (vide the " Kig of Fergus O'Connor.") In Ennis, Lieutenant Mac Naniara put Mr. Smith O'Brien hors cle combat. In the City of Dublin, Mr. Ruthven, known as " Ould Judy," was preferred by the Re- pealers to Mr. Perrin or Sergeant O'Loghlen (the late Master of the Rolls.) Other chano-es of a similar kind were niad^ in the Irish representation, in some few places considerably to the advantage of the country.* If the obnoxious Tories, and good-for-nothmg Whigs had been expelled, no Liberal could have complained of such a change. But when one set of Members were expelled, and their places given to a batch of men v/ho merely pos- sessed a factitious popularity dependent on the * As for example in the City of Cork, where the Honourable John Boyle, a puny scion of absentee Noodledom, was suc- ceeded by Dr. Baldwin, who was an ornament and credit to the Repealers. He possessed great intellectual powers, although he obtained but little success in Parliament, which he entered too late in life. But he was a trump amongst the Tail, for he was a gentleman by birth and disposition— a irtan of science, and a philosopher. 238 THE GREAT DAN breath of O'Connell — who, totally incompetent to represent the higher classes in Ireland, were even more impotent in their characters as cham- pions of ''the people" — who (although Irishmen) had none of the flashy eloquence which might have been attractive in debate, and (although in contact with the middle classes) had no practical knowledge of Irish business that would have been useful in Committees — when such men were sent into Parliament to the exclusion of many who worthily represented their country, it was no wonder that indignation was felt by the independent Liberal party in Ireland, and that from all sides (especially from the " people" who have so keen a sense of the ludicrous) the " Mimburs" were subjected to such galling de- rision, that most of them were glad upon the first opportunity to sneak out of Parliament into their natural insignificance. 2dly — The ingratitude with which many old friends of the Irish people were treated by the Repealers was very bad, and reflected the deepest disgrace upon them. Sir Henry Parnell had been for nearly thirty years devoted to Irish Politics, and liad been a Parliamentary supporter of the Catholic Ques- AND HIS TAIL. 239 tion, which he advocated with eloquence, con- sistency, and vigour. In addition to his heredi- ary claims on Irish aifecftions, he was himself a man of whom Ireland had cause to be proud. He was so much of a Liberal that the Grey Ministry did not elevate him as high in office as he de- served. He had rendered important services to Ireland, and yet his seat was given to a Lalor ! Sir Denham Norreys and Mr. Leader were liberal Protestants who had been associated not merely with the claims^ but with the politics of the Catholics. Mr. Leader was a gentleman of talents and acquirements, who, while he re- presented Kilkenny, had spoken ably in debate. Sir Denham Xorreys, when Mr. O'Connell had hardly a friend in Parliament, stood by him on many occasions, especially on the occasion of the •' Doneraile Conspiracy," but Sullivan and Daunt were deemed more fit representatives of Ireland than a Leader or a Norreys. The Catholic Aristocracy had often been taunted with holding aloof from its country- men, and with not courageously associating with the more strenuous strugglers for Eman- cipation. But there were many families, that had not been obnoxious to the charge of insou- ciance^ amongst others, the Catholic houses of 240 THE GREAT DAN Plunket and Wysc had hereditary claims to the support of the Irish Liberals. In the last cen- tury, the Earl of Fingal and Mr.Wyse, of Water- ford, had been most prominent in their efforts to relieve the Irish Catholics. In the Catholic Association, Lord Killeen (now Earl of Fingal) was one of the most active and zealous in the Avhole body, and the influence of his example powerfully attracted the Irish Gentry, who otherwise might have held aloof, deterred by the violence and absurxlity of such agitators as Lawless, Steele, &c. To turn out of the representation of IMcath such a politician as Lord Killeen, was in the last degree ungrateful. One would have supposed ,that any Irish con- stituency would have been proud of having for its representative a gentleman of the sterling character, high moral purposes, and accom- plishments of Mr. Wyse. Bui no! he was not a cringing, supple, and ductile politician. He was not ready to become a minion of the Corn Exchange, and accordingly he was driven out of "Waterford. His conduct at that time shows him to be possessed of great moral courage, and political fearlessness. Although assailed by the popular organs in Ireland with great virulence, he calndy lield on the course of which his poli- AND HIS TAIL. 241 tical judgment approved. He preferred the approbation of the discerning and sensible por- tion of the Liberal party to the reckless plaudits of the more thoughtless portion of the Repealers, by means of whom he was, for a short time, driven from Parliament. At an entertainment given to him by the rational supporters of popular freedom, he delivered the following sen- timents, which strikingly displayed his moral superiority to those apostate Whigs, who truckled to popular violence, and hypocritically professed principles in the feasibility or justice of which, they had no belief. '' 1 know well," cried Mr. Wyse, " that I might have stolen into Parliament, by vague and conditional declarations. I know well that by a little disguise, I might have slipped, untouched, through the ordeal, but I disdained all subter- fuge, I thought an honour so purchased was dearly and dishonourably purchased. I was de- termined at the outset, and at any cost, to lay open the whole of my opinions, aud to put it out of the power of any man, in case I was elected, to say that I had one set of doctrines for the candidate, and another for the represen- tative — one for the Irish, another for the English side of St. George's Channel." Y 242 THE GREAT DAN Such sentiments and conduct reflected the highest honour on Mr. Wyse, and when the phrenzy of agitation had subsided, he was triumphantly elected by the people of Water- ford, who have since remained justly proud of such a representative. Similar ingratitude and recklessness were dis- played, Avhen ^Ir. Ponsonby was driven from Youghal, and Mr. Perrln from the City of Dublin : when Mr, Smith O'Brien was ejected from Ennis, although even then he had distin- guished himself by his knowledge and abilities. But when the Repealers held " ould Judy" in higher estimation than the late Sir Michael O'Loghlen, the value of their approbation need not have been esteemed highly by such men as the Killeens — Parnells— Leaders — Jephsons — Wyses — and Perrlns of the AVhig party in Ireland. It is deserving of observation that the ingra- titude displayed by the Repealers was impartial in respect to religion. Catholicity was no charm against the fanaticism of the hour. Very few, indeed, were those who rejoiced tliat the City of Limerick and the County of Cork had Catholic representatives, in Messrs. AY. Roche and G. S. Barry, whose Protestant Colleagues, AND HIS TAIL. 243 (D. Roche and F. O'Connor) were decidedly more popular. Srdly. One of the worst features about the Elections in 1832 was, that some members were returned on the understanding that the Kepeal Question would not be brought far- ward in the House of Commons. First, it was proclaimed that no one should be elected, unless he pledged himself solemnly that he would vote for the Repeal of the Union, and at the same time sub rosa it was hinted to same candidates that if they consented to go into the House of Commons as Repealers, they would never be required to vote for the measure. On the Hustings at the County Waterford Election a very curious scene took place, when Mr. Villiers Stuart subjected Sir Richard Keane to a very stringent cross-examination, concerning the real nature of his Repeal sentiments. After a good deal of parrying and fencing. Sir Richard can- didly let out the real nature of the Repeal Agitation, in a sentence which is just as truo in the year 1843 as it was in 1833. *' I will hold it (the Repeal Question) as an imposing iveapon to get Justice for Ireland.'^ Thus, when real objects — such as the Extinc* 244 THE GREAT DAN tion of Tithes — the extension of the Franchise — the Reform of Corporations, &c. — should have been aimed at directly^ it was thought a wise plan to get up a factitious agitation, in order to frighten England into a concession of certain claims ! ! The prevalence of that im- posing agitation so far from making England feel liberally towards Ireland^ caused sentiments of strong distrust to spring up throughout a large class of English politicians. At the time of the Reform Bill, the " No Popery" feeling was be- ginning to subside, and all parties saw with astonishment a new Agitation raised in Ireland, not for the destruction of Protestantism, but for the dismemberment of the Empire. When therefore in 1832, Ireland claimed a larger number of representatives, some English Libe- rals were afraid to give them, least they might be made the instruments for assisting to sever the connexion between the Islands. Those who recollect the spirited debate upon the Address in 1833, must remember the strong feelings of distrust then expressed by many decided Liberals, who were influenced altogether by the *' imposing weapon which was to get Justice for Ireland." On that occa- AND HIS TAIL. 245 sion, Mr. Macaulay* and Dr. Lushington went as far in expressing the most decided hostility to the ostensible purposes of The Tail Party as Lord Stanley himself. The ad terrorem tone? assumed by the Repealers, was met with menaces as formidable in sound but much more earnest in purpose.f Many Irish Liberals tliought it a dis- creditable course to get up a factitious Agita- tion for the purpose of acting as a flapper on England. They thought with the immortal Fox, '* that which was morally wrong, could never be politically right." They considered it as injurious to the permanent interest of Ire- land to raise a hollow cry for self govetnment. They thought it derogatory to their own honor to lend their voices to such a demand, and they also thought it degrading to the political cha- racter of the country, to hold it responsible for a cause which was not heartily and earnestly * INIr. Macaulay's speech was, perhaps, the most vigorous he ever made. It shewed promptness and grasp of mind. Sheil's reply was very dexterous and ingenious. f Dr. Lushington, on that occasion, (debate on address, 1833) in reply to a speech of Mr. Andrew O'Dwyer, put the same construction on the Catholic Oath which has been recently taken by Lord Brougham. 246 THE GREAT DAN. engaged in by those who unfui'led its banner. They did not hold the doctrines that the means sanctified the end. They did not consider it as rii^ht policy, when the ends aimed at were the abolition of the Church Establishment — the extension of political power to Ireland — the carrying out of the real principles of Union, and the gradual raising, in the course of things, of a large Catholic interest — that such ends (however laudable and unobjectionable) were to be promoted by raising an anti-English cry, and demanding the legislative severance of the two countries. They disliked tampering toith the heart of the j^eojjle. They believed that the Irish Repeal Question if ever raised was not to be played with as a mere political instrument, but that it was to be dealt with for itself alone, and that it was far too grand and startling in its nature, to be vulgarised by the hackneyed clamours of professional agitation. A vast body of influential Irish Whigs were averse to pronouncing any final opinion upon the pro- priety of Repeal. They believed that the question should lie over until England should glaringly manifest injustice to Ireland; and they considered it a fatal policy to stun England with an unprecedented demand just after Eman- AND HIS TAIL. 247 cipation had been granted. They scorned to say that they were Repealers, when they knew that the question would, if possible, be shrunk from in the House of Commons by the very men who had raised the cry in Ireland. A very comical account might be given of the " Mimburs" in London, while they were intoxicated with their recent elevation. An Hibernian Smollett would have a rich field for his humour in depicting the ludicrous pretensions of their village ambition. Fiction alone could do justice to their invasion of London, for a faithful history of their pro- ceedings would have too much farce to obtain credit. But alas ! the Tail is more susjo-estive of painful than funny reflections. Amidst all the degradation of Ireland, it is a consolation to her sons, that there is such a thing as a national mind, which was once represented by men of intellectual power. Without regarding the Burkes, Sheridans, or Cannings, Ireland had returned to the Imperial Parliament, Grattan, Plunket, Ponsonby, Newport, Parnell, Croker, and others who reflected credit on their native country by abilities and accomplishments, but where are we to look for the genius of the "248 THE GREAT DAN Tail ? It will not do to point to O'Connell and Sheil— one was its owner, and the other soon severed himself from the other joints. There were some forty members in all — they had an oppressed nation to represent — a glorious opportunity for shewing capacity for affairs, practical Statesmanship, or the characteristic eloquence of their country. If you believed their assertions they were embarked in as great a cause as the Irish Patriots of 1782. They affected to be the Irish Members. Did their deeds or proceedings reflect either credit on themselves, or lustre on their country ? Not one of them attained a third rate Parliamen- tary reputation.* Had they been genuine Irish nationalists, devoted to the redemption of their native land, it is impossible but that the cause would have produced some moral strength amongst them. But no! they were an O'Conncllite^ and not an Irish party. They were the creatures of the * The present Irish Gironde party, led by Mr. W. S. O'Brien, and comprising Sir W. Somerville, INIr. Morgan Jolin O'Con- nell, Serjeant Murphy, &c., must not be confounded with " The Tail." AND HIS TAIL, 249 Corn Exchange, and not offspring '* racy of the soil." They were the nominees of the priests, and not the exponents of the public opinion. The source of their political existence was agi- tation of the populace, and not the inspiring power of genuine nationality. Their nation- ality ! a potato stalk, and not the Shamrock was its emblem. It would be difficult to have procured forty Irishmen with less of the wit or sparkling talents that abound in the " Emerald Isle." The charge against them was not merely that they were such paltry senators, but that they were such wretched specimens of their country- men. Judged by an Irish standard, without the slightest reference to English taste, their morale was of the lowest kind. There was no- thing grand or elevating in their Don ny brook Fair school of patriotism. They could make a noise, and display animal vivacity, but when intellectual manifestations were demanded, they were powerless.* With great opportunities, their party remained without distinction, for wit, eloquence, or conspicuous ability. Terribly * Witness the debate on the Repeal Question in 1834. 250 THE GREAT DAN AND HIS TAIL. afraid of O'Connell, who used them as the fingers and toes of his political system, they ^' Cringed to his face, consulted, and revered His oracles — detested him — and feared." Were there three hundred such men in a House of Commons at College Green, would the MIND of the country own allegiance to them ? Unless completely extinguished by democratic terrorism, or wholesale superstition, it would blaze up against^ and not with them. Ireland would have to regenerate herself, in spite, and not by means, of characters like those. CHAPTER XIX, THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. No public body in Ireland is so perfectly homogeneous as the Catholic Clergy. Pusey- iteSj Lutherans, and Calvinists, are to be found in the Establishment; at the Bar men of all parties and opinions, religious and political, abound ; in the Medical Profession there is great diversity of political sentiments ; but the Irish Roman Catholic Clergy are one congk- 252 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. merafe mass, in whose component parts it is hardly possible to discern distinction. They are all taken from the humblest classes in so- ciety ; nearly all of them are educated at Maynooth ; inheriting the same recollections, they cherish the same prejudices ; aspiring to the same objects, they adopt the same methods of attaining them. They are all strong poli- ticians, many of them constant, most of them fierce in the assertion of the prevailing popular opinions. The most visible distinction in this awful body is that between the urban and rural clergy. The former, as may be expected, are considerably more polished in their manners, and moderate in the expression of their opi- nions. They do not strut and swagger like their brethren in the country districts, feel- in£^ themselves matched in intcllioence and acquirements by the Catholic merchants and shopkeepers of the towns. They cannot give the law to an entire district — excite or lull the passions of a peasantry. Their sphere of action is more limited, and they accordinYhic]i but too commonly disgraces the Irish Catholic Clergy. Every Irish Catholic, not blinded by absurd prejudice, must admit that the Priests are moet overbearing in their tone and manners. Among^^t their own flocks tlicy are exigeant in their ex- pectations. Their character is precisely what might be reasonably expected from antecedent circumstances. They have not only the con- f^equential deportment of priests, but there is superadded the arrogance of upstarts. In the society of those who fear them not, such as Protestants, and persons accustomed to mix largely, they display a morbid sensitiveness. As the saying goes, you must always be " on your P's and Q's" with an Irish priest. When in company with one of them, it is difficult to retain natural ease ; every petty and antiquated form of ceremonial politeness must be carefully ]>erformed. In Franco, Italy, Spain, and other Catholic countries, the Nobility and Gentry contribute their fair portion towards supplying the ecclesias- lical Ministry. Even to this day, in France, men of ancient bii'th and honorable families abound in tlie Church, but in Ireland, it would be difli- THE R03IAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 259 cult to indicato any eminent families educating younger sons for the Priesthood. The Bellews — Wyses— Plunkets (Earls of Fingal) Brownes (Earls of Kenmare)— the Goolds- -Barrys— Eoches - Baldwins — O'Connells — Scullys— Mahons— Ryans— Keatinges - Lalors — O'Do- herlies — Butlers — Kirvvans — O'AIeaghers — Dillons— and Blakes give no priests to the Ca- tholic Church. Plenty of old names are to be found in the Irish Priesthood, but clergymen of old f^xmilies of the Catholic Commoners are now-a-dnys " rari nantes in f/urgite vastor There is not one of the Liberator's own large family, either of his numerous sons or nephews, liolding any clerical office ! Ultra Catholics of the Irish Democracy may denounce their Peers and leading Commoners as " ba.^e, Catholic aristocrats," and hint that it is pride prevents them educating any of their younger sons for the Church. But this is not true, for tlie entire icell to do class in the Catlio- lic body is open precisely to the same charc-e. Wealthy sho})keepers, who can bring up their sons as barristers, physicians, or attorneys, never force tliem into the Church. On the other hand, farmers drive tJieir '' promising boys" to gratify their own parental ambition. They 260 THE RO^IAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. have them sent off to Mnynooth at sixteen years of age, and the unhappy youngster often finds himself yoked upon compulsion to a life of celibacy. To be sure he may " lose his vo- cation," i. e. after having been four years at college, when he finds himself on the eve of manliood, and beginning to experience the workings of tlie most powerful and natural of human passions — he may hesitate nbout his fit- ness for a life of celibacy — lie may communi- cate his scruples to his father and friends. Aye! and deeply mortify his poor father who has ppent a good deal on his pension at the College, and in making him a gentleman. Besides there is a great prcjmlice against young men who have lost their vocations.* They arc looked on as sneaking fellows, and it is commonly said, '* as they were there (i. e. at Maynooth) they ouo-ht to have gone on with it." Oli ! there have been many cases of, broken hearts re- Fulting from this odious and revolting system of priestly celibacy. Many a young priest has ^ Tlitre have been many men of a liigli order of mind, who ' lost their vocation'^ at Maynooth. Amongst many others. Chief Baron Woulfe ; Carleton, the Novellist ; and Callanan, tlie Poet. Celibacy will be the cause of the first great schism in the Irish Catholic Church. THE R03IAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 261 died of what is uncharitably called a lancruish- ing consumption, whose real malady ^vas his dreariness of heart at finding himself a solitary being in the world, without any dear object on whom he might lavish his exuberant afFections. He is married to the Church, forsooth 1 Mise- rable mockery ! He lias been given the passions and afFections of a human Being by the Almiohty, but he is not to gratify them ! Endowed with the common susceptibility of man, he is to mingle with tiie sex, and to be passionless as a statue. In the confessional he is to hear gentle woman, with her trusting Jieart, artlessly relate her emotions— he is to hearken to the fluttering thoughts of young love as it first exists in its wuld freshness— he is to be familiar with all the winning little ways of woman,* but he is 7iever — never to love I The absence of men of consideration on the score of family res; ectability is a serious evil in the Irish Catholic Church. The a'reat evil * Oh that I were, sweet Madeline — The happy Monk of Toinbeline, When half in hope, and half in fear Thy red lips breathe into his ear Little trespasses that twine liound thy meek heart — Madeline. "WiNTiioRP IMackwoutii PnAEO. 262 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. produced by it is tlie disgusting arrogance of very many Priests, who use their suddenly ac- quired power, as a parvenu does his wealth for the purpose of idle display and offeiisive osten- tation. The very idea on which the edifice of the Church of Rome is founded is aristocratic — it is a vast and system.metrical of gradations and ecclesiastical order from the choristers to the Cardinals. If men of natural refinement were introduced into the Irish Clergy, the whole body would be gradually leavened, and vulgar vehemence with sacerdotal arrogance would soon disappear. It is most unfortunate that Catholicity should have contracted a demo- cratic habit in Ireland. It makes popular opinion the shrine at which the clergy pay court. When a Catholic ecclesiastic utters some vulgar democratic rant, one cannot help being surprised at his temerity. What is a Hierarchy })ut an Ecclesiastical Aristocracy ? Nay, what is a Bishop, but an Aristocrat? He is elected not by a popular, but by a privileged body care- fully i^et apart from the rest of the community. His election must afterwards be confirmed by the Pope in Council— he is then styled " My Lord." What is this but an Aristocrat ? AVhen was it laid down by any Catholic Doctor, THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 263 that popular authority " the vox popuir constitu- ted an element in the great hypothesis on which the Church of Rome was founded ? The Protes- tant religion, even in its most aristocratic sys- tems, recognises the State. In the Presbyterian Church, a spiritual Democracy is established, but where is there any similar idea in the Church of Rome ? Tet Catholic Priests are to be found ranting as intemperately in favour of w/^ra-democratic government as the noisiest and most reckless of the Chartists. Would they grant their flocks the right of choosing their Priests ? Ob, no ! They are ready to apply the democratic principle outside, but not inside the Church. A democratic Priesthood and a body of ecclesiastical demagogues are very different things. In a very paradoxical passage M. De Toc- queville contends that the religion of the Church of Pome is most favourable to Demo- cracy. He reasons thus : — 1st — In the Church of Pome the religious community is composed of only two elements — the Priests and the People. 2dly — The Catholic Faith, on doctrinal points, places all human capacities upon the same level. 264 THE R03IAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 3clly — Catholicism is like an absolute Mo- narcby, where, if the Sovereign be taken away, all the other classes are more equal than they are in Kepublics. ( Vid. Democracy in Ame- rica, vol. 2, p. 225.) The reply is obvious : — 1st — The Church of Rome may have two elements in its community — Protestantism has but one. Its Ministers are upon the same spi- ritual level with their flocks. They are ex- pounders of the law of God, and are not regarded as half-mortal half-angelic beings, potent to save and damn mankind. 2dly — What M. de Tocqueville, says of the Catholic Faith is true of all religious Faith. Where the reasoning faculty has its legitimate scope is, in determining what are proper ob- jects of Faith, and at that ascertained point the Newtons, Boyles, and Miltons, must believe as implicitly as the most monkish intellects in Europe. 3dly — The admission that Catholicism is like an absolute Monarchy, contradicts the hypo- thesis that it is most favourable to Democracy, because M. de Tocqueville, in a previous pas- sage (vol. 2, p. 122) says, " Every religion is to be found in juxta position with a political THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 265 opinion which is connected with it by affinity." But accordino: to his own admission Catholicism is like an absolute Monarchy, yet it is mos^ favourable to Democracy I The truth is that Catholicism is favourable to every species of absolutism^ Kingly, Aristo- cratic, and Popular. Whatever is the most powerful principle of action in any country, with that Catholicity will ally itself, and the remark of Aristotle, that the same nature is common to the demagogue and courtier, is strikingly exemplified by the history and present conduct of the Church of Rome. But the characters of Democracy and Roman Catholicity are essentially opposed to each other. Democracy insists upon the inalienable right of self-government, the Church of Rome as vehemently demands obedience. One looks with hopeful feeling upon Human Nature, and perhaps exaggerates its capacity for improve- ment ; the other, intent upon itself, disparages the moral strength of mankind. Freedom is the purpose, and " ultra pergere" the motto of one ; Empire is the object, and *' semper eadem" the watchword of the other. A A TIC ftlOMAN ;al Establishment is an ajrizra- ~ CO vating cause of Iri.-h political dlieabc. It pro- duces a train of evils, of which the U\o greatest *■ The opinion of tlie late Tlion.as Drummond sliould Aveigh much with any friend to Ireland. CONDUCT AND POSITION. 315 are, — 1st. That it gives a retrospective and anti-progressive habit to the Irish mind ; and 2dly. — that it causes so much unnecessary squabble and personality in Irish politics. It withdraws public attention from prin- ciples, and fixes them upon persons. One could pardon this last evil, if it were attended by any compensating effect upon public mea- sures, but such is not the case. Whatever Ministry takes away the Lord Lieutenancy will do a very useful, but a most unpopular act. There will be a great outcry raised, and the Tory shopkeepers will for a time coalesce with the Eepealers. Yet Dublin would be eventually improved by ceasing to be the seat of faction. If Science and Literature were cultivated in Dublin, as assiduously as they are in Edinburgh, the influx of strangers, and Irish provincial families anxious to educate their children, would amply compensate for the removal of a gingerbread imitation of royalty. Irish society would be improved in tone manners— and accomplishments. A Whig Ministry can take away the Irish Vice-Kegal Establishment with much greater ease than a Tory one. Such an act would be in conformity with their principle of centralization. 316 SIR ROBERT PEEl's CONDUCT & POSITION. Upon the whole Sir Kobert Peel has done much by the moderation of his Government to expose the absurdity of the Repeal Question, and to place its promoters in difficulties. Let him legislate for Ireland in a comprehensive spirit ; let him introduce the measures impera- tively called for by its social state ; let him invite and foster Irish public opinion, while he continues to disregard Irish agitation ; let him turn a deaf ear to the selfishness and lust for dominion of a provincial oligarchy ; let him continue to shew himself the Minister of the Constitution, and not the creature of a party ; and though he may encounter obloquy from one side— opposition from another, and calumny from both, he will win the Fame to which he aspires, and deserve the character, which Burke has assigned to Walpole. " The prudence— steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible lenity in his character and politics, preserved The British Empire." Although not concurring in Mr. Barry's Plan of Tenure Reform, the Author feels that many useful hints are offered in the following communication. The latter part of the paper is particularly worthy of perusal. Mr. Barry is a gentleman of great intelligence and obser- vation, and is intimately acquainted with the actual condition of the Farmers and Peasantry of IMunster. APPENDIX. A PLAN OF TENURE REFORM FOR IRELAND. BY STEPHEN BARRY, ESQUIRE, OF FERMOY. " We would earnestly entreat those from whom opposition is most likely to come, to ponder well the issue — the inevitable issue of things remaining as they are." The Times (September 2d, 1843) on the Social State of Ireland. We Irishmen are generally charged with overstating our grievances, exaggerating facts, misrepresenting the commonest occurrences, and dealing as largely in Fiction, as the Law itself does. But the wrongs and injustice inflicted on the Irish Tenantry, are now brought before the public, by the English Press, with an ability 320 APPENDIX. beyond our reach, and a degree of authority, which the same articles, if published in any of our Irish Journals could never command. The grievances of a system of Rack Rent, and insecurity of Tenure being so fully admitted it would be a mere waste of time to offer any further evidence on the subject. How to check these evils effectively is now the question, and it is felt to be one of exceeding difficulty, by every person who takes a part in its discussion. A Government anxious to ensure safety for life and property should at once grapple with it, for though it may be very difficult it cannot be al- together impossible to provide against a neglect of moral and social duties on the j^art of private individuals, without infringing on the rights of property, and a terrible experience has shewn us that nothing short of Legislative interfer- ence, in some shape or other, will bring our Landed Proprietors to a sense of their responsi- bility. Many sound Political Economists thought that the enactment of a compulsory Poor Law would greatly ameliorate the con- dition of the Irish labourer, but as yet it has had but little effect in that way. The Act itself is too stringent, and it is administered by men whose long and habitual familiarity with scenes APPENDIX. 321 of misery and degradation, of famine and dis- ease, seems to have blunted their sympathies and hardened their hearts. The same spirit, which makes them as Landlords exact the full produce of the land in the shape of rent, until the Cottier Tenant is ruined, makes them as Poor Law Guardians refuse to recognise his right to relief when he has been cleared off the Land. Mr. Nichols in his Report states, that " want of employment produces destitution — destitu- tion, turbulence — turbulence, want of security — want of security, want of capital — and want of capital, in its turn, want of employment." and thus the circle goes on for ever. I quote from the Times, which goes on to say — '' But this it will be asserted, is only what every body knows. Everybody it will be said admits the destitution of Ireland — admits her poverty — -admits that nothing can be done un- til it is remedied. Then if this be so, why, we ask, is this truth not acted upon ? why do we still hear of Franchises, concessions and equal rights, when the real thing wanted is (not poli- tics but) Food." To remedy this the '' monster evil of Ireland," Mr. Staple! on, in a pamphlet 322 APPENDIX. much praised by the Times, proposes that a grant of sixteen millions be given to promote employment, through public works, promising that the money may be so invested, as to secure permanent prosperity. That the money, if we could get it, Vv^ould do much good and confer lasting benefits on the country, no one will deny, but in my humble judgment it would not strike at the root of the evil. Ireland being so completely dependent on agriculture, I fear nothing can permanently improve the condition of tlie labouring classes, except they are rendered in some measure less dependent on the Landowners. Any real remedy for the monster grievance of want of employment, must break in on Mr. Nichol's circle, by giving security to the occupying Tenant. To do all this, so as to ensure the fulfilment of the duties of Property, without infringing on its rights, is what I am rash enough to propose submitting a plan for ; but I undertake it with a conviction of its involvinsf so many, and such mighty interests, that so far from expecting to lay down a perfect scheme, I will be quite satisfied if some of my crude ideas are found worth adoption by parties more APPENDIX. 323 capable of hammermg them into shape than I can hope to be. But while I am thus fully sensible of the difficulty of bringing out a well defined proposition, I am certain that any feasible reform will be peculiarly accepta- ble at the present moment. Before I say what my scheme is, I beg leave to state that it is not fixity of tenure, to which I am strongly opposed, because it would neces- sarily prolong the existence of middlemen, who are in fact disappearing from the face of the country. I would ask, what benefit could it confer on the occupier, to be fixed at the pre- sent Kack Rents, which they cannot possibly pay ? Would it not be a fixity of misery and wretchedness, as well as of tenure ; a fixity of inability to improve, a fixity of insolvency, in fact, a fixity of all we want to escape from. It may fix the unfortunate labourer in his miserable mud hovel, but could not give him u fixity of potato garden, the perniL-sion to till which confers no right of possession. It could only fix him in an "everlasting fix" of starva- tion, or the workhouse, if he w^as lucky enough to gain admission. There shall be but one new feature in my 324 APPENDIX. proposal — that is, there shall be but one por- tion of it, for which I cannot quote a precedent in some existing statute — and for that the ma- chinery is in progress of completion, under an act of some standing, and the principle of it has been hinted at by more than one Member of Parliament, so that I have merely to show how it may be carried into effect. The indispensable something, which all agree to be necessary, is, in my opinion, a well di- gested system of contract between Landlord and Tenant, based on justice, equally binding on both, and tending to their mutual benefit. With a veiw to suggesting some such adjust- ment, I proposed a set of resolutions, at a public meeting, held in the Court House of Fermoy last January, to the following effect: — That it is the opinion of this meeting, that ]»crsons embarking their time, labour, and money in agricultural pursuits, should be ren- dered as independent as Manufacturing and Mercantile Capitalists. That for this purpose a Law should be enacted, providing for the reimbursement of all sums, which any Tenant, holding from year to year, may expend in the substantial improve- APPENDIX. 325 ment of his Tenement, in case of his eviction by the Landlord ; and further, providing that the Tenant may at any time, on giving six months notice, surrender his Land, and recover by some simple process of Law, all the sums so expended by him in improvement. That such outlay should be ascertainable by a Jury, in the Civil Bill Courts, and that cer- tificates may be obtainable every year, of the annual outlay, from duly qualified officers, who should be authorized to summon before him on the Land, the parties interested, and that the certificate of such officer should be received as evidence of the amount and utility of the ex- penditure. I now propose to go one step farther, by pro- viding for the apportionment of sums expended on improving Lands held at a Eack Rent, on any tenure whatsoever, which brings me to a suggestion thrown out by Lord Stanley, in the debate on Mr, Smith O'Brien's motion, when his Lordship is reported to have said :—'' The tenant is deterred from improvement by the uncertainty of his holding, and that uncer- tainty leads to agrarian outrage. Some arrange- ments for valuation between Landlord and Tenant may be introduced by law." His Lord- F F 326 APPENDIX. ship when Mr. Stanley, and a whig, submitted a definition of Rack Rent, in a Grand Jury Bill brought in by him, (which I took the liberty of referring to once before, in a letter on the Poor Laws, recommending that the entire burden of the rate should be placed on the Landlords of all tenants at will, and of Lessees holding at Rack Rents, a suggestion that formed part of his Lordship's plan of ad- justing the County Cess in nSl,) when he defined a Rack Rent to be, the rent reserved at any setting of land, if a fine equal to at least quadruple the amount of the annual rent was not paid. But I think his present proposition, if it may be so called, of a valuation, is more equitable, and I would suggest the adoption of the valuation, now being made in connection with the Ordnance Survey. It is in progress under the 6th and 7th, William IV. cap. 84, Avhich directs that Pro- fessional men should be employed to value all lands, as soon as the survey shall have been completed. When a County or Barony is valued, the Grand Jury are to appoint a com- mittee of Appeal for each Barony, and a general committee of revision for the County at large. A scale of prices for agricultural pro- APPENDIX. 327 duce, is laid down for the guidance of the valuators, the average of which may be taken at the figure allowed for wheat, say 255. per bushel, of 20 stone, which we may fjdrly pre- sume is not likely to be exceeded under the new Tariff. The right of appeal, and in some measure, the controlling power given to Grand Juries and Baronial Boards, affords ^tlie Aris- tocracy sufficient check over the valuation, to make it binding on them, without giving them any fair cause of complaint. This valuation, I would propose as the governing principle in all contracts between Landlord and Tenant, (whether now in existence, or hereafter to be made,) in the following manner. 1st. That all yearly rents, greater in amount than the annual value, fixed by the ordnance valuators, should be considered Back Bents. 2nd. That all Bates, leviable on Land under the Grand Jury Acts, Poor Belief Act, or for any other public purpose whatsoever, be de- ducted from such Bent, provided the aggregate of such Bates, does not exceed in amount, the 3um by which the Bent payable, shall exceed the net annual value, ascertained as aforesaid. 3rd. That the Tenant, so holding at a Back Bent, whether as Tenant at will, or under a 328 APPENDIX. Lease, or othervalid Instrument, be empowered to deduct from his immediate Landlord, the full value of any permanent and practically useful improvements he may make in his Tenement. 4th. That erecting or thoroughly repairing all requisite Farm Buildings, Fencing, Planting, thorough Draining, or Subsoil Ploughing, be considered as improvements within the meaning of the equitable contract system. With respect to fences, I would suggest the introduction of a provision to ensure their being built of a certain breadth, sufficient to allow ash, oak, or elm trees to be planted in single rows along the top, and no allowance to be made except such trees were so planted, and very stringent covenants entered into for their pre- servation. The trees so planted and preserved to be the inalienable property of the Landlord, without any reservation of ploughboot or house boot to the Tenant so soon as he shall have claimed the allowance for fencing and planting. 5th. That an Inspector of improvements be appointed for each Poor Law Union, or such other divisional arrangement as may be found more suitable, who should personally examine all works for which an allowance may be claimed, within six months after their erection, APAENDIX. 329 on receiving proper notice from the claimant. The Inspector to give notice of his intention to examine, to the Landlord, or his agent, and in default of their attendance, to proceed with his Inspection. The certificate of such officer to be evidence of the utility and value of the im- provements made. 6th. To give appeal to Quarter Sessions^ 7th. That in all cases of tenancy under lease, the liability of the Landlord should be limited to the sum, by which the rent reserved, may exceed the net annual value, which term I will use to denote the ordnance valuation. 8th. That in all cases of tenancy at will, the entire value of all improvements, as well as the aggregate amount of all rates, paid by the Tenant, may be deducted from the rent. The attempts of the Legislature to place a proportion of Tithes and Poor Rates on the Landlords, having been frustrated, in very many instances, by an addition being made to the rents, or by a refusal in cases of tenancy at will, to make any allowance for rates paid by the occupier, it becomes necessary to devise some legal check, to this rent expanding 'pro- cess^ which the landlord can screw up to any pitch he pleases, as long as the people cling to 330 APPENDIX. the land as they do now, with the tenacity of despair, as the sole means of avoiding starva- tion. As agriculture is at present the only occupation for which the bulk of the people are fitted, it is only by improving it^ that their con- dition can be mended. Before the farmer can aftbrd his labourer better wages, he must have his land at a fair value, and be made to feel that the Landlord cannot [step in and reap the harvest, grown from the sweat of his brows. For this purpose I would propose. 9th. That any Setting of Land, either now in existence, or hereafter to be made, for a rent exceeding in amount the net annual value of such holding, by more than twenty-five per cent, should be deemed and taken to be, a setting for one hundred and twenty-five pounds for every one hundred pounds value, and so in proportion for greater or lesser sums, and any covenant, clause, or agreement, contravenino- the policy of such equitable adjustment, to be utterly void, and of no avail. That this would be a sweeping clause, as well as a proposition for which I can find no precedent, I freely admit. And I think it must be as freely granted, that the system sought to be reformed is vicious in the extreme, and one APPENDIX^ 331 not to be corrected by very gentle means. I will now proceed to show how far those mea- sures would ultimately benefit the Landlord, for as the improvements progressed, I would pro- pose that means should be afforded to the pro- prietor, to register them in such a way, as to raise the net annual value of his property as under — Whenever certificates of improvement were tendered, which taken together would be equal in amount to one year's value of a tenement, the landlord may register the same with the Clerk of the Peace, or other officer, in whose custody the Ordnance Valuation may be, who should then thereon add, a certain per centage on the gross outlay, to the recorded value of the land. In this way, my Industrial Security Scheme would be found to work for the gradual, but steadily progressive improvement of pro- perty, at the expence of the property improved, every pound expended adding to its annual value. With respect to Drainage, I believe several acts have been passed in England, to promote it in every way that is possible, and amongst others, by enabling owners of settled estates to borrow money for the purpose of improving 332 APPENDIX. them. For Ireland, a Drainage Act was passed last year, under wliich a majority of persons interested, can compel an unwilling minority to contribute to tlie expenses of the general Drainage of a district; but as yet I have not heard of a single instance in which this very valuable measure has been taken ad- van tas;e of. The act referred to is a most useful one for the general improvement of main drains, or outlets for large bodies of superfluous water, from such extensive districts as may re- quire it, and in which many parties are in- terested. But there is a great field for ope- rations on a smaller scale, where no general artificial outf\ills are necessary, which would be very soon commenced, if individual occu- piers had the security I propose to give them. Under-draining on good principles, would be set about in good earnest, the immediate efiect of which must be the conversion into good land of thousands of acres, which are now comparatively waste, the tillage and improve- ment x)f which would create a large demand for labour. Men who are now half idle, and quarter fed, would then be at full work and amply fed, on produce that would never otherr wise be grown. APPENDIX. 333 ^ly plan is one of detail, requiring no grand junction of capitalists, or large proprietors, and no amalgamation of jarring interests. It may be availed of by individuals, and would ensure to the occupier of twenty or thirty acres, re- munerative employment for himself and family, and the holders of larger farms would find it much easier to pay a great portion of their Rack Rents, by keeping their farm servants and cottier labourers at full work, than by pay- ments in hard cash. How many acres that are now growing rushes and feeding snipes, would be producing wheat, and fattening sheep, for the last ten years, if each tenant at will, who exists on them, could tender as a five pound note, when paying his rent, a certificate, that he had well and properly drained an acre of his boggy holding. It is a measure so simple as to be immediately understood, and it would soon work as a comprehensive system of na- tional improvement, by creating sucli security as would insure employment which in its turn would create the security against turbulence, most effectually breaking Mr. Nichol's false circle, by creating security and employment. Then in proportion as the earnings of the la- bourer encreased, so would his consumption of 334 APPENDIX. articles produced by tradesmen and artificers. In this way, a spur would be given to general industry ; full employment in one department would soon put an end to idleness in any, and before long the necessary consequence would be, that division of labour in Ireland, which is the sure foundation of national wealth. As regards building improvements, I am sure no Landlord could object to his Tenants better- ing their condition in this way ; indeed there is a very general anxiety on the part of Pro- prietors to encourage their Tenants in building good substantial houses. If my suggestions under the head of Fencing were generally carried into effect, tlie appear- ance of the country would very soon be greatly changed for the better. Farmers and country gentlemen w^ill, I am sure, agree with me in saying, that the formation of hedge rows would not alone improve our landscapes, but afford what is now felt to be a great want, namely shelter for cattle and crops. The general im- provement of fences would in a great degree check the endless litigation that is now car- ried on at Petty Sessions Courts relative to trespass. I will next proceed to show, that precedents, APPENDIX. 335 in point of principle, may be quoted for many of my suggestions, t-Iiough they may appear at the first glance to be wild innovations; and, perhaps, by some, they may be considered un- warrantable attacks on the right of Property. One of the oldest provisions for ensuring to the Tenant the benefit of any improvement he may make, which I can recollect (I am writing where scarcely any Book of reference better than Outton's Index can be had) is to be found in the Acts for the encouragement of the planting and growth of Timber in Ireland, which I believe form a Code of Laws peculiar to this country. Under these Acts, a Tenant holding by Lease, for lives or years, may, by a certain course of Registration, ensure to himself or his Heirs, the full property in any Trees of his own planting, a right being re- served to the Landlord, to claim such Trees at the expiration of the Lease, on giving the full value, ascertainable by arbitration, for them. Tenants for Life, or in Tail, may create a per- sonal property in growing Timber, against the remainderman, a provision which may be introduced into my equitable apportion- ment system, with good effect, and without rendering it over complicated. This Code was 336 APPENDIX. originated as early as the Reign of WilHam III, and was amended by several Statutes, passed since. One of them provides for giving the Tenant, who may inclose any coppice which may have been allowed to lie waste for five years, the right to any I'imber which may grow in it, though not planted by such Tenant. Another old Irish Act, empowered Eccle- siastical persons to make Leases of Bog, or Fenny grounds, for long periods, with a view to their improvement. As a further bonus to improvers, such Lands were to be free from Tithes and County Cess for given periods. Before the passing of the Tithe Composition Acts, any person, no matter what his Title may have been, who was about to reclaim Mountain Boggy Land, might have claimed exemption from Tithes. Another Act of William III, for setting out mears of Land, provided, that where Lands were held in Fee Farm, Lives for Ever, or for a Term of years of which sixty may be unex- pired, the charges of making such Fences should be borne in full by the Tenant. Tenants holding for three lives, or for years, twenty-one being unexpired, to pay half ; in all other cases, APPENDIX. 337 the necessary fences to be made at the sole charge of the landlord. Under the 40, George III. cap. 71, another act relative to meers and fences, provision is made for tenants at will, deducting any sums they may be compelled to expend, in repairing or making fences, from their rents. I conceive I have now clearly established my proposition, that the principle of compelling the landlord to pay a portion, and in some cases the entire expense of improving the land, has been long recognised by the law of Landlord and Tenant in Ireland, and that it has long been an object with the Legislature to ensure to the Tenant the benefit of his improvements. The principle of the Landlords of tenants at will, paying all the expenses of necessary works is laid down in express terms so far back as the reign of George III. I have also shovvn that encouragement was held out for the improvement of waste lands, even at the expense of the Church, by statutory exemption from Tithes. Under the Tithe Composition Acts, it was provided— Goulburns act, 4, George IV. cap. 99 — that leases at rack rents, should be made tithe free, and by the 1. and 2. Vic, cap. 109, G G 338 APPENDIX, that in all cases of land demised at a rack rent, after the establishment of a composition, such rents should be reduced, to the extent of the reduction made in converting compositions for rent charge, and that the Lessee may deduct the amount of such reduction from his rent. Whether from a want of a legal definition of the term rack rent, or from some other cause which I am not aware of, this clause has been, as far as I am informed, inoperative. I have referred to it here as establishing the principle of deductions from rack rents. The deductions from the Landlord under the Poor Relief Act are made on the principle of Landlord and Tenant paying eq ual portions when their interest in the rated property is the same. That is, when the rent and tlic net annual value of the tenement arc equal in amount, it is pre- sumed the interests of Lessor or Lessee are alike, and the burden of relief is equally divided between them. But whore the rent reserved. Is greater in amount than the net annual value, the Landlord's proportion of the rate Is increased until in many cases he is legally bound to allow the entire sum. The manner of doing it is to allow half the poundage rate, for every pound TQUt, For instance, a man holding a tenement APPENDIX. S3^ valued at ten pounds, paying twenty as rentg may deduct the entire Poor Rate from his Land- loriL And there are many such cases, where the Landlords of tenants at will, treat the equitable provisions of the law as waste paper, some allowing only half, and others refusing to allow any portion of it whatsoever. One pro- prietor who refuses to make any allow^ance, in cases of Tenancy at will, is the owner of the largest estate in Munster. My present object is to show, that what' ever the practice may be, the spirit and the letter of the law place the burden of relief on those who ought to bear it, namely, on Landlords setting at rack rents, while I am proving at the same time, that the equita- ble provisions of the Legislature are practically set at nought, by the merciless and habitual ^' grinders of the poor man's face," to quote Scott's powerful expression. Such just provi- sions are binding on the good and kind Landlords, but men of a different stamp must be bound by more stringent enactments. Half measures are ineffectual with such people, and as they cannat be muzzled, I would propose to take out their fangs, which can only be done by firmly riveting the rack rent screw at a given point. 340 APPENDIX. It is in fact the only measure which can un- fetter the powers of the soil, which of itself would be conferring an incalculable benefit on a country w^ith an encreasing population and diminishing means. A ne j)lus ultra exaction act, could in no way affect the men w^ho set their lands for tlie value, and w ithout it there can be no general security to industry, for no man of common prudence will invest his means — and the labour of a small farmer and his family constitutes in many cases his chief capital — in the improvement of property, without a reason- able prospect of reimbursement. It may be true that the security of the honor of such a princely Landlord as the Duke of Devonshire, under whom tenants at will are continued from gene- ration to generation, is sufficient ; but if my plan was fully carried into legislative operation, it would not compel his Grace to do as much, as he now does of his own free will, and as a necessary consequence his Tenantry are happy and industrious, well housed, comfortably clad, and half a century in advance of their class in knowledge and prac- tical skill. I am convinced that I speak within the mark, when I say that one thousand acres of his Grace's property produced more human APPENDIX. 841 food, than fifteen hundred of equal quality of Lord Kingston's in the same County. Much of the improvement on the Duke's property is owing to the untiring attention which the late Colonel Curry paid to the proper management of it, and his son, who succeeded him as agent, is acting on the same kind and wise principlco It formed part of my plan when commencing this letter, to refer to the class of men who are principally employed as agents in Ireland, but the want of proper attention to this point, has been so ably exposed by various writers that I will but briefly allude to it here. They are very often Dublin or Cork attor- neys, who know no more of agricultural man- agement than the most ignorant cottier, who is handed over to their tender mercy, does of the legal technicalities by which he is declared an outlaw, (though he never handled a pike,) and the '* Rebellion Ruffians " let loose like bloodhounds to scent out his last four-footed beast, which is soon eaten up by that most insatiable of all locusts — Law Costs. Instead of endeavouring to enrich the owners and the occupiers of the soil ; they think only of enriching themselves, and their oppressions and exactions lead to half the 342 APPENDIX. murders and atrocities that stain the character of Tipperary, and brutalize the feelings of the l)eo,)le all over tlie country. The surest way to humanize the people is to let them see that the executive power is felt everywhere, and ^\ hen petty tyranny is effectually controlled, the obedience of the oppressed will be secured. A nation cannot be regenerated, old misrule cor- rected, and an equitable system already adopted by the wise and good, forced into general opera- tion without encountering fierce opposition. A constant demand for labour must, in the natural course of events, ensure the work- men fair wages, but as long as the Conacre System is continued, the cottier, that is the man who holds but a kitchen garden (in which to grow a few cabbages, and perhaps a quarter of a rood of early potatoes), with his cabin, must have some protection, and tlie lower we go in the scale, the more difficult it is to devise practicable reforms. It is very hard to tie up the hands of petty tyranny, but when it involves the happiness, almost the existence, of millions of the Queen's subjects, her iVIajtsty's ministers ought at least to consider the possibility of doing it effectually. The dealings between the farmer and his la- APPPENDIX. 34 3 bourers are generally carried on the following manner. At the 25th March, a setting cf a cabin and kitchen garden is made for twelve months, at a rent, averaging about thirty-five shillings, and an agreement is entered into for an acre of ground to grow a crop of potatoes in ; the ground to be ploughed and manured by the farmer. For this acre, statute measure, manured aud ploughed, we may take the aver- age charge to be five or six pounds, for the pay- ment of which, together with his house rent, the cottier undertakes to work for the farmer, for (again taking an average), say sixpence a day, the employer generally covenanting to give continual employment, until the rent shall be paid. And on the quantity of this potato crop depends the question of starvation, or com- parative comfort, of the labourer and his family for the ensuing winter and summer. If it is good, he and his have enough to eat, and he fattens a couple of pigs, with the profit on which he clothes his wife and children ; if on the other hand, the crop is short, he is obliged to limit their daily meals to the smallest quan- tity, on which they can support existence, while the pig is barely kept alive on the oiFal, until Summer, when it must be sold, to prevent utter 344 APPENDIX. Starvation, a month or six weeks before tli€ new crop comes round. The quality and quantity of the yield, I need scarcely say, must, in ordinary seasons, depend on the ground being prepared in due time, and properly manured, aiid moie misery is caused hy the farmers neylecting to do so, than by the breach of any other social duty in Ireland, Potatoes planted late, even though they may grow to a good size in a favourable year, are never dry or sound food, they keep badly, and are as spungy as turnips. In bad seasons, the quantity is as short as the quality is bad. To remedy this apparently trifling, but in reality MONSTROUS EVIL, I would suggcst a sct of very stringent rules, relative to the periods at which the Conacre potato ground should be manured and ploughed, that is, I would bind the farmer to enable the labourer to till his garden in time. For this purpose I would have a scale of deduc- tions framed, greatly reducing the rents, when- ever material injury was likely to result from the farmer's default. Say, if ploughing was not completed on the 1st of May, a deduction of OS. per cent, if delayed until the 12th, 10s., and two shillings a day after that. If the manure was not on the land, on or before the APPENDIX. 345 1st of June, 5s. to be struck off, if not com- pleted on the 8th, a penalty of 10s., to be in- flicted from the 8th to the 25th, two shillings a day to be charged, after which the labourer renting the garden, should have the power to recover by Civil Bill, double the amount of the rent. That in all cases of potatoe garden ground, the Rent should be limited to quadruple the net annual value of the land, or five pounds, the option to be in the power of the farmer. That the house rent of such labourers should not ex- ceed quadruple the net annual value of the land contained in his kitchen garden, which should not in any case be less than 20 perches, and never exceed half an acre, or one pound five shillings, the mode of charge to be optional with the person setting the house. I would further suggest that the liability of the crop grown in such Conacre ground, for the head rent should be limited ; say to double the net annual value of the land. To show that some such limit is necessary, I will briefly state the leading facts of a case which occurred in this neighbourhood. A respectable farmer got deeply into arrear ; when every thing on his farm was distrained, and along with his own property a large 346 APPENDIX. quantity of potatoes, then growing in ground which had been set by him to Conacre tenants, at the usual high rates, which according to the practice of the country, to pay such rents when the crop is fit for removal, were still due. The owners of the potatoes waited on the agent of the property, paid him the sums they owed, for which he passed receipts on account of rent, due by the farmer to the head landlord. The poor people were then permitted to dig their potatoes ; but when they commenced re- moving them off the land, they were prevented by the keepers, and in due time the entire were sold, thouo'h the unfortunate owners held the agent's receipts for the full sums they owed, but passed as for payments made on account of the rent due by the man from whom they took the land. This case, grievous as it appears, was tried in the Quarter Sessions Court, on Civil Bill ac- tions, brought for the recovery of the sums paid by the Conacre holders to the agent ; but the assistant Barrister (Mr. Hartley), though his Court was one of equity, found himself compelled to dismiss the suits, but he stated from the Bench, that he did so vvitli regret. With respect to labourers' houses, a fewLand- lords have tried the experiment, when making APPENDIX. 347 new settings, of giving them to the cottiers in possession, and binding the occupiers of the farms to build no others, thus malting the mere labourers as independent of the farmers, as it IS in the power of the head landlord to do. I will instance a case where this was done with good effect, which came under mj own imme- diate observation, and where it was worked admnably. As this general setting, made at the same time (the year 1835 or 1836), of a townland, containing a large population, was made on a princii.le, which is I am sorry to say, very little practised, it ought to be made generally known. The lands in question be- long to the Honourable Mr. Colley, the nephew of the late Lord Ilarberton, under whom they were held by one person, who let them at the full rack rent price, to a great number of under tenants. The term of the original setting wa. for three lives, one of which only was in exist- ence for a great number of yeai-s, so that for a considerable period the expiration of the lease was naturally looked upon, as an event so likely to occur, that the tenure was not worth one year's purchase. About three years before the Lease did actu- 348 APPENDIX. ally expire, Mr. Trench, the brother-in-law and agent of Mr. Colley, visited the lands and took accurate notes of the actual state of each Hold- ing, and he told the occupiers, that if they im- proved their tenements, or even did not impo- verish them, Mr. Colley, if he survived the middle tenant, would not dispossess the tenants in possession, on reletting the land. When the new Settings were about to be made, proposals innumerable, and at very high rates, were made to Mr. Trench, who came to the neighbourhood to manage the affair for Mr. Colley. Mr. Trench received every proposal that was tendered, but instead of setting to the highest bidder, he made an accurate valuation of the lands himself, called all the tenants together, and told them he would not pay the slightest attention to any of their offers. He then declared his intention, of fully redeeming his pledge to allow no middle man between Mr. Colley and the occuj^iers of liis property, and announced the Rents at which he would set to every man his own Holding, and in every case the prices he required were considerably under his own offers ; but when he began to develop his plan, for making every cottier, or cabin holder, the immediate tenant APPENDIX. 349 of the head landlord, the farmers thought it very hard that the labourers should be reiTdered independent of them. However, on this point the agent was inexo- rable, and he made sixteen families happy, by giving them their cabins and kitchen gardens, for which they were then subject to an average Rent of two pounds, at Rents varying, accord- ing to the size of the latter, from ten shillings to two and sixpence a year. When some of the men, who had enjoyed a Profit Rent out of these cabins, complained of losing it, Mr. Trench then told them, that Mr. Colley conceived that the population of the place was much too dense, and though he would not dispossess any one, he would willingly assist a large number of the inhabitants to Emigrate, if they wished to do so, for which purpose he would pay for the passage out of the entire family, if any of the landholders disliked the terms on which he offered them their Holdings, and give them orders, payable on their landing in any of the British Colonies, for two pounds for each father and mother of a family, and one pound for each child, an oifer that was not accepted in a single instance. If any parties did leave their farms on these conditions, his plan was to give the H H 350 APPENDIX. land to the person who had the best managed Lot near it. There is a striking improvement in the appearance of the cabins which were so let, as any person going from here to Cork can perceive, as the road runs through the Farm for a mile at the Fermoy side of Kathcormac. It is now time to conclude these remarks which have run to much greater length than I anticipated, but before I do so, even at the risk of repetitions, I will venture on a short summing up of the leading features of my plan. In proposing an equitable and comprehensive adjustment of the rights of Landlord and Tenant, a third Party, namely the public should be con- sidered, whose rights the State ought to assist. The Landlord has a long acknowledged right to a fair rent for his property. The Tenant has a right, not so well defined, to get the use and occupation of the land at such a price, and for such a term, as would fairly warrant his ex- pending capital on, and devoting his time to its improvement, so as to develop its resources fully. The State has a right to interfere be- tween the other two parties, so far as to ensure for the public good, the growth of the greatest possible quantity of human food. In cases of Tenancy at Will, the tenant has APPENDIX. 351 no security to do anything but plough, sow, and reap, the natural consequences of which is, the certain deterioration of the land most readily cultivated. Now as a very large pro- portion of the country — I am safe in saying two thirds of its whole area — is held on this Tenancy at Will, or no tenure system, which effectually prevents general improvement, while it also offers an insurmountable barrier to em- ployment, and practically locks up the produc- tive powers of the land, a strong case is made out, fully warranting the interference of the State. Let Statesmen then do so, by creating an Industrial Security Code, which will effectu- ally free the resources of the country, from the impolitic drag chain, that is now hooked on her energies, by an unwise Aristocracy. Such a measure will tell with a double action on the labouring classes, creating employment for those who are idle, though anxious to work, and en- creasing the production of human food, as the hungry man's means of purchasing it are mul- tiplied. For this purpose, wherever drains may be obviously necessary, the State should authorize the occupier, whether tenant at will, or rack rent lessee, to make them, at the expense of the Landlord, such improvements being in 352 APPENDIX. act for his benefit. It should also lay down the converse of this rule, and where tenants holding on long, but terminable leases, may neglect after due notice to make such improve- ments, the Landlord may enter and complete them, charging the expense against the tenant, by raising his rent. And whenever the State undertook this duty of umpirage between Land- lord and Tenant, care should be taken, through proper officers, that all improvements ihould be executed substantially and in a workmanlike manner, for though the tenant's right would not by any means be perpetuated, yet as he should be guaranteed the full value of his labour, he should not be allowed to practise deceit by working up cheap materials in a slovenly way. I promised to quote a precedent in principle at least, for giving the tenant security for the value of any improvements he may make, andl hope the Laws on Planting, Fencing, and AYaste Land Culture, will be considered in point. The principle of making Landlords, setting at rack rents, liable to a portion, or the whole of public rates, is clearly laid down in the Tithe Compo- sition Acts and Poor Law, and was proposed to the full extent which I would require, by Lord APPENDIX. 353 Stanley in his County Cess Bill, in 1831. The taxation of property for its own improvement, against the consent of its owner, is now legal- ised by the Drainage Act, and has been long recoojnised in England under the laws of the Bedford Level. The adoption of a well regulated valuation be- tween Landlord and Tenant, has been broached by Lord Stanley, an extensive Irish Proprietor, and I merely propose to carry that suggestion into extensive operation, giving the benefit of its equitable provisions to the very poorest house- holder ; with this single exception, and the sav- ing clause, limiting the liability for head rent of the Conacre crop, my Plan contains no prin- ciple that is not already partially in operation. THE END. * 3. In 3 vols, post 8vo., with Illustrations. BEN BRADSHAWE; THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD. ' This is a capital story, abounding in humour and sparkling >»'ith wit. Ben has afforded us infinite store of mirth. The author strongly resembles his mighty master, Boz. Like him, his iudividuality is strongly developed.' Atlas. 4. In 1 vols, post 8vo., LIFE IN THE RANKS. " This is a Work full of adventure and amusement. It is written in a manly, free, and animated manner, picturesque and graphic when the business is description, is simple and touching when the object is to move the feelings. It abounds, moreover, throughout with curious anecdotes. Sunday Times. 5. A NOVEL, In 3 vols, post 8vo., OAKLEIGH; OR, THE MINOR OF GREAT EXPECTATIONS. 6. A NOVEL, In 3 vols, post 8vo., THE SCOTTISH HEIRESS. In 2 vols, post 8vo., Plates and Plans, REMINISCENCES OF SYRIA, And Fragments of a Journal and Letters FROM THE HOLY LAND. BY LIEUT.-COLONEL NAPIER. Author of " Scenes and Sports in Foreign Lands,' " Excursions along the Shores of the Mediterranean,"' &c. ' '■ There is in his style a family frankness and straightfor- wardness which disguise nothing about friend, foe, or self, but taking the reader into confidence, making him famiUar with all the liter's feelings or opinions, exhibiting things as they are witout disguise or conventional humbug." Si)ectator. " All the Napiers are clever fellows, and Lieutenant Colonel E. Napier is no v.ei' ,e son. His miUtary appointment gave him facilities oi jrsing in safety the wildest and most dangerous districts of the country, and of diverging widely from the accustomed route of former travellers." Naval and MiUtary Gazette. " In the Reminiscences of Syria and the Holy Land, Colonel Napier has given us a book full of the most valuable details.' Bell's Messenger. THE MEMOIRS OF A BRAHMIN. By the Author of " Pandurang Hari," &c. ' A genuine oriental romance of modern life. It is a very spirited and interesting story.' Court Journal. • A peculiarly interesting and amusing work. It is emi- nently deserving attentive perusal.' Sunday Times. ' The best story we have perused for many a day.' Ex a m 1 n t r . DUE DATE — — — FcrrrsM "^ 'kMW ■ 1 201-6503 1 Printed In USA L\BBAB>tb "m 941.58 ' 1262 i< ^ 1^ m'}iU iiiiiiiiiiii