930. The city was soon in an uproar; the mob rose up; and some stragglers, bent on mischief and beyond all restraint, began outrages. Meeting the chief justice lord Kilwarden, a good man and a humane judge, they dragged him from his coach and murdered him. When news of this outrage and others was brought to Emmet, he was filled with horror, and attempted but in vain to quell the mob. Seeing that the attempt on the castle was hopeless, he fled to Rathfarnham.

He

931. He might have escaped: but he insisted on remaining to take leave of Sarah Curran, daughter of John Philpot Curran, to whom he was secretly engaged. was arrested by major Sirr on the 25th of August at his hiding-place in Harold's Cross; and soon after was tried and convicted, making a short speech of great power in the dock. On the next day, the 20th of September 1803, he was hanged in Thomas-street.

CHAPTER XX.

DANIEL O OONNELL.

(1803-1822.)

932. After the Union there was no appearance of the promised bill for Emancipation. The old Catholic Committee still survived, held its meetings in Dublin, and kept the claims of the Catholics before parliament and the publ.3; but there appeared very little hope, for king George II. continued as obstinate as ever. In 1805 Grattan became a member of the United Parliament, and devoted himself almost exclusively to the cause of Irish Catholic emancipation. In 1807 the duke of Richmond came over as lord lieutenant, with Sir Arthur Wellesley -afterwards the duke of Wellington -as chief secretary.

U

938 Some time before this, a few of the bishops, as an inducement for the government to grant emancipation, agreed that the crown should have a veto in the appointment of Irish Catholic bishops: that is to say, when the man had been selected by the Irish ecclesiastical authorities, his name should be submitted to the king: if the king objected another was to be chosen. But the general body of Catholics, clergy and people, knew nothing of this.

934. In 1808 a petition for Catholic relief was brought to London by the Catholic lord Fingall and Dr. Milner. It was presented to Parliament by Grattan and some others, who, on the authority of lord Fingall and Dr. Milner, offered the veto. This made the matter of the veto public; the clergy and people generally repudiated it: the bishops formally condemned it at one of their meetings; and in addition to all this the government, even with the offer before them, refused to entertain the petition.

This veto question continued to be discussed for some years, and caused considerable dissension among the Catholics. The Irish aristocracy were generally in favour of it. Those who opposed it, led by O'Connell, ultimately prevailed.

935. About this time Daniel O'Connell, afterwards familiarly known as the "Liberator," began to come prominently into notice. He was the chief figure in Irish political history for half a century, and was one of the greatest popular leaders the world ever saw.

He was born, 6th of August 1775, at Carhen near Cahersiveen county Kerry-the son of Morgan O'Connell-and was adopted by his uncle Maurice O'Connell, who afterwards left him his residence, Darrynane Abbey near Cahersiveen. He was sent at thirteen to a school near Queenstown-the very first school opened in Ireland after the relaxation of the penal laws (869). While still a boy he spent some time at St. Omer's and at Douay in France, where he studied with distinction. Returning, he was called to the bar in 1798, and at once came to the front as a most successful advocate. His first public speech

against the Union was made to a body of freeholders in 1800 in the Royal Exchange, Dublin, which was the beginning of an agitation carried on during the rest of his life.

936. It may be said that O'Connell founded the system of peaceful, persevering, popular agitation against political grievances-keeping strictly within the law. During the whole agitation, more especially for emancipation, he was ably seconded by Richard Lalor Sheil, whose oratorical powers were little inferior to his own.

937. In 1809, a new "Catholic Committee," to advance the Catholic claims, was formed in Dublin, consisting of the Catholic peers and of delegates from various parts of the country. But the government brought the Convention act (871) to bear on it, and arrested and brought to trial some of the leaders. O'Connell was their counsel, and argued so ingeniously that he got them acquitted. The Committee was then dissolved and re-constructed, but it gradually died out.

938. In 1812 Robert Peel became chief secretary. For several years at this period the country was in a most deplorable state. The conclusion of the continental wars was followed by stagnation in trade and great distress. The people lost all hope of relief: there were secret societies and outrages were frequent.

939. The public mind became gradually impressed with the justice and expediency of emancipation: partly by the gigantic labours of O'Connell, and to some extent by the writings of Thomas Moore (65).

In 1811 the prince of Wales became regent: and succeeded as George IV. on the 29th of January 1820, when his father, George III. died, blind and insane.

940. In 1820, Grattan, then residing at Tinnehinch (830), sinking under disease and feeling he had not long to live, was seized with an anxious desire to attend the parliament in London, and, as he said, "to die at his post." Having made all arrangements about his funeral, he travelled by easy stages, intending to make one more

appeal for his Catholic fellow-countrymen. But he did not live to do so. With a paper in his hand on which he had written his last political pronouncement, he said to his son a very short time before his death :-" I die with a love of liberty in my heart, and this declaration in favour of my country in my hand." He died in London on the 4th of June 1820, aged seventy-three, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. After his death, his friend William Plunket, member for Dublin, subsequently lord chancellor of Ireland, greatly distinguished himself as the advocate of the Catholic claims.

941. In 1821 George IV. visited Ireland, and was received with great enthusiasm. His visit was regarded as a sure harbinger of relief by the overjoyed Catholics. He spent a month in Ireland and went away expressing his gratification at his reception. But nothing ever came of it still no indication of an emancipation bill; the country continued disturbed, and in 1822 the Insurrection act (893) was renewed.

In 1822, Peel, by an act of parliament, constituted the Irish constabulary force.

942. In 1823 the "Catholic Association was founded by O'Connell and Richard Lalor Sheil; it was the chief agency by which Catholic emancipation was ultimately achieved. The expenses were defrayed chiefly by a subscription from the people of one penny a week, which was called "Catholic rent" and the association soon spread through all Ireland. O'Connell and Sheil were all through

the mainsprings of the movement: and it was the means of establishing a free press and of creating healthful public opinion. The government viewed the new association with jealousy and alarm; and an act of parliament was passed in 1825 to put it down, which O'Connell called the Algerine act" in allusion to its despotic character.

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943. But O'Connell, with his usual astuteness, dissolved the association, and reconstructed it. The new act forbade meetings for longer than fourteen days: but he arranged to hold meetings for exactly fourteen days, and made some other changes: so that he completely evaded the act; the law was obeyed (936); and the association went on us powerfully as before.

944. In January 1828 the duke of Wellington became prime minister; and Robert Peel was home secretary. The marquis of Anglesea came to Ireland as lord lieutenant but he was removed soon after for being in favour of emancipation; so little was the sudden coming change anticipated. In Waterford and several other places, by means of the perfect organisation of the Catholic Association, Protestant members favourable to emancipation were returned; the forty-shilling freeholders voting for them in spite of the great landlords.

945. It had been recommended by the veteran John Keogh (867) that some Catholic should be elected member, and should present himself and be excluded; so that the absurdity of disfranchising a constituency because the chosen member refused to take an oath that his own religion was false, should be brought home to the people of the empire. Keogh believed that this would lead to emancipation. A vacancy now occurred in Clare, as the sitting member Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, having accepted the office of president of the Board of Trade, had to seek re-election. O'Connell determined to oppose him. His address to the people of Clare aroused extraordinary enthusiasm, and he was returned by an immense majority.

946. This election aroused sympathy all through England for the Catholics. The government became alarmed; and