ing. In 1829 they were disfranchised and their utility to the landlords destroyed. What indeed could they expect after that? In 1846 it was stated that 150,000 of them had been subjected to eviction processes from 1839 to 1843. One hundred and fifty thousand in four years-what a catalogue of misery this spells! What a multitude of heart-aches and ruined hopes! As a historian has said of this Relief Act of 1793, it was "the ultimate cause of every succeeding calamity in Ireland.” Indirectly this may be true; but the misgovernment of Ireland has not been shown so much in the application of relief, as in its misdirection and delay. For it has usually been given to Ireland, not as the timely and soothing medicine of a benevolent and alert physician, but as the broken rod of an ignorant and cornered foe.1 The census of 1841 showed that of the whole rural population of Ireland 46 per cent. lived by families in single rooms, and the same Commission reported that seven-tenths of the Irish, and twothirds of the Irish in Connaught, lived in rooms totally unfit for human habitation. Absenteeism was another great evil, not so much on account of the talent or virtue of which it robbed Ireland, but because of the bad principle which was thereby countenanced, and the wealth which was lost to that country. Smith O'Brien calculated in 1847 that the rents of absentee landlords amounted to four millions, or nearly one-third of the whole rent of Ireland, and another authority placed them as high as six millions. That is to say, probably one-third or more of the rent of Ireland was spent in another country. The state of the Church also was as bad as it could be. There was no attempt even to put a respectable face upon the system. The evil was displayed to the light of day, and stank in the nostrils of every passer-by. Lord R. Tottenham, when he was made Bishop of Killaloe at the time of the Union, had never read prayers, had never preached, and had never baptized, -in short, had never performed, any of the offices of his holy calling. But his father, Lord Ely, had six votes, and his nominees had given them for the Union, and the price of the six votes was a bishopric for the son worth £9,000 a year. Stewart, Archbishop of Armagh, left £300,000 behind him, and Porter, another Irish bishop, £200,000; and we can imagine in what good stead this hoarded wealth stood them when these portly divines clamoured at the gates of Paradise. A characteristic anecdote of this time has been handed down for the edification and delectation of posterity. Mrs. Porter had a great passion for gold, and the Bishop, paying more attention to conjugal importunity than the chances of everlasting life, refused 1 Appendix XLI, quotation from report of Devon Commission, etc.; extract from speech by Richard Cobden. on that account to receive his rents in paper. On rent-days, therefore, there was always a gentleman in another room ready to accommodate the tenants with gold for a consideration, so that a single bag of gold, travelling in at one door and out at the other, brought a handsome return to the devout prelate. These were a few of the grievances of Ireland that O'Connell had desired to redress. His Repeal agitation had slept more or less since 1831, but in 1840 it showed signs of awakening to a renewed period of energy. In 1838 O'Connell's friends in the Ministry tried to induce him to accept a post. He was offered and declined the post of Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer. It was then intimated to him by the Viceroy, Lord Mulgrave (afterwards Marquis of Normanby), that Sir Michael O'Loghlen was willing to become Chief Baron, if O'Connell would agree to succeed him as Master of the Rolls. But O'Connell refused, having, so he said, too many other affairs to attend to. O'Connell's career in the House of Commons soon afterwards terminated for all practical purposes with the break up of his alliance with the Whigs in 1839. Even before the fall of the Melbourne Ministry in 1841 he had set an association on foot, and called it the "Precursor Society," which, he said, was to be the Precursor of Repeal, should the Whigs fail in "their fair trial." And they had failed. Their Municipal Reform Bill, thanks to the opposition of the House of Lords, was a farce, and being now released from his bargain, the Precursor Society melted into the Repeal Association. Peel, a past-master in palinode, had also changed his policy. It had been miraculously revealed by a gust of Irish wind to this weather-cock of politics that it was now impossible to maintain the Protestant ascendency in Irish affairs, and that the system was an anachronism and effete. Oh, wise Peel! a very Daniel! Who would have thought that so plain a man could have unriddled such a pretty piece of politic? The discovery was none too early, for there was energy abroad, and the great Irish agitator had begun to move. The inauguration of the new Repeal movement had taken place on April 15, 1840, at the Corn Exchange, Burgh Quay, Dublin. The chair was occupied by John O'Neill, of Fitz William Square, a Protestant merchant. Only fifteen of those present gave in their names as members of the new association, which was called the "National Association of Ireland for full and prompt Justice and Repeal." Thomas Matthew Ray, a young clerk, was appointed secretary. At the opening of 1841 it changed its name to "The Loyal National Repeal Association." It held weekly meetings at the Corn Exchange, and its members were divided into three classes-those paying a life subscription of £10, members paying £1 a year, and associates paying 10s. a year. William Smith O'Brien, the brother of Lord Inchiquin, was O'Connell's coadjutor, and the "Young Ireland" party now cast in their lot with the latter. Their leader was Thomas Osborne Davis,1 a young Protestant lawyer of Cork County, and his two principal coadjutors were John Blake Dillon and Charles Gavan Duffy. Their organ was the Nation, with Duffy for its editor, and its motto was suggested by an incident which had occurred during the debate upon Municipal Reform in the Parliament at Westminster. Peel had asked what good corporations would do to such a pauper as Ireland, and this question was answered by Stephen Woulfe,2 afterwards Chief Baron—“I will tell the right honourable gentleman. They will go far to create and foster public opinion and make it racy of the soil." The reply took root in the memory of Irishmen, and the motto of the Nation was to "create and foster public opinion, and to make it racy of the soil," the first number of the paper appearing on October 15, 1842. The Nation was a remarkable production. Its object, like that of the United Irishmen, was revolution. It was eloquent, it was tender, it appealed to the reason and the passions of its readers as the occasion required, and the contributors to its columns were men of no ordinary ability. Besides the three above-mentioned individuals, the most conspicuous writers in it were Denis Florence MacCarthy,3 MacNevin, and Clarence Mangan, the poet; and other contributors to the paper were John Cornelius O'Callaghan, O'Neil Daunt, formerly member for Mallow, and John O'Connell, third son of the Irish tribune. Another enthusiast, who became a member of the party a short while afterwards, was Thomas Francis Meagher, a young man whose occasional bursts of fiery eloquence were the wonder of his friends and placed him in the select company of the two celebrated contemporary orators, Richard Lalor Sheil and William Plunket. Meanwhile huge meetings, organized by such men as Seward and Horace Greely, were being held in America to advance the cause of the Repealers. A conference in support of the Repeal movement was held in New York. It lasted for a week, and was attended by representative senators, judges, clergymen, journalists, and merchants. A declaration was adopted at it threatening England with the loss of Canada by American arms, if any attempt were made to repress the agitation in Ireland by force. John Tyler, the President of the United States, also 1 Thomas Davis died on September 16, 1845. 2 Stephen Woulfe (1787–1840), appointed Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer in 1838 in succession to Henry Joy. 3 Two poems by him, "Darrynane," and "Waiting for the May," included in The Book of Irish Ballads which he edited, have a certain merit. 4 James Mangan, commonly called James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849). 5 Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-1867), drowned near Fort Benton, Montana, U.S.A., while Governor of that territory. declared himself the decided friend of Repeal, and added, “on this great question I am no half-way man." At the same time Sir Charles Metcalfe, the Governor of Canada, privately warned the Cabinet that any aggression against Ireland would be fatal to the tranquillity, if not the security, of the Dominion. On Tuesday, February 28, 1843, O'Connell moved in the Dublin corporation that a petition be presented to Parliament for Repeal. The opposition to his proposal was led by Isaac Butt, then a rising junior barrister, a Protestant and a Tory, and a professor in Dublin University. O'Connell's motion was finally carried by 41 to 15. O'Connell made no appearance in Parliament in 1843, and in fact never brought Repeal forward in the House after its defeat in 1834, but relied upon agitation in Ireland. In October 1843 "Conciliation Hall" was opened. In June 1843 Lord Eliot introduced in the Lower House a new Arms Bill for Ireland, which the mover pronounced to be substantially the same as what had been in force in that country for the last half-century, to be in fact even milder than the old regulations. By Eliot's mild Bill, which was passed by a large majority, no man was permitted to keep arms of any description whatever without first obtaining a certificate from two householders, rated to the poor at above £20, and producing it before the justices at sessions. If the latter allowed the claim, the arms of the applicants were to be registered and branded by the police. From that moment they could not be removed, sold, or inherited without being registered afresh. Moreover, any conversation respecting those arms as to which a man should not answer truly whatever he might be asked by any policeman subjected the delinquent to penalties. The possession of a pike or spear, or any instrument serving for a pike or spear, was an offence punishable by transportation for seven years. Any magistrate on suspicion could order domiciliary visits by the police; whereupon any man's house might be broken into by day or night, and a search made for concealed arms. Blacksmiths were required to take out licences similar to those for keeping arms, and under the same penalties. Finally, if any weapon should be found in any house, outhouse, or stackyard, the occupier was to be convicted, unless he could prove that it was there without his knowledge. On July 4, 1845, Smith O'Brien moved for a Committee to take into consideration the cause of Irish discontent, but his motion was rejected by a large majority. The Irish nation were clearly in a dilemma. When they agitated for the correction of abuses, the rod of coercion was applied to their backs. When they had been forced into the dumb stupor of despair, when they were silent about their grievances, when their chagrin was too deep for words, the country was declared to be at rest, rocked at last into a sense of its prosperity, and Ministers held their charitable hands. In both cases reform was refused. The sword of the Volunteers, the fear of civil war, had alone wrung reform from her rulers, and was it unnatural that Ireland should be persuaded that to scare them into an act of kindness was the only method of redress? O'Connell now laboured with the untiring strength of a demiurge to kindle and blow into a blaze the national spirit of independence in Ireland. All important business was considered in the general committee before being submitted to the Association, and an organized system of agitation was vigorously carried out under the direction of the master. His principal lieutenants were his son John, O'Neil Daunt, John Gray who conducted the Freeman's Journal, Tom Steele, Thomas Matthew Ray, and Richard Barrett, the editor of the Pilot. The Repeal Society was, as we have stated, at the same time formed into three divisions-the Volunteers who subscribed or collected £10 a year, the members who contributed £1, and the associates who subscribed a shilling, whilst Repeal Wardens, acting under O'Connell's direction, presided over assigned districts. The Repeal Rent averaged in January 1843 about £150 per week, in February £340 weekly, in March £360, in April £600, in May £2,200, in June £3,000, and for the whole year amounted to £48,000. The "O'Connell Tribute" was also continued, and exceeded £20,000 in 1843. Thus the whole was organized under the eye of the master. The influence which he exercised over the Irish masses was amazing,' and his eloquence produced a remarkable effect even upon the most fastidious of judges.2 Charles Dickens narrates how on one occasion, when he was reporting a speech by O'Connell on the Tithe question, the emotions roused within him by those trumpet tones were so overpowering that he laid down his pen, unable to write, and listened spell-bound to the great orator as he hurled his denunciations, or melted into the tenderness of entreaty, sweeping with the hand of a magician the most secret chords of the human passions. Could any greater tribute be paid to any orator? Could any man evoke such feeling and speak not from his heart and inmost conviction? Is it in human nature for a man to be able to set on fire the passions of millions of his 1 A rustic once commenced a letter to O'Connell-" Awful Sir"! 9 Bulwer Lytton, who was no mean judge, and who listened to him with rapture, wrote "Then did I know what spells of infinite choice |