rangement, the Romish aristocracy, and a majority, we believe, of the prelacy, concurred; and Mr. Grattan believed that he had their full authority for stating so in his place in parliament. But he soon found that he had reckoned without his host. O'Connell declaimed against the proposition, as one that invaded the spiritualities of his Church. He was powerfully seconded by the alumni of Maynooth, some of whom have since been much distinguished, and who then, for the first time, entered upon the arena of politico-theological agitation. The press thundered its anathemas against those who, for political or personal purposes, were ready to sacrifice their religion. The young demagogue invoked the sympathies of the people in favour of their faithful priests. The question was made one of conscience. They were asked whether they would tamely consent to suffer a corrupt and profligate aristocracy to make a merchandise of their faith. And if not, they were called upon to uprouse themselves for an ef fort of resistance, by which the project of courtiers and hypocrites might be defeated. The appeal was successful. The people were aroused. noblemen and gentlemen whose moderate views, or time-serving spirit, had suggested this expedient for disarming Protestant hostility, were compelled to retract their words. And O'Connell, backed by the Romish democracy, both lay and clerical, soon felt himself more than a match for any combinations of hostility which the jealousy of his titled or mitred opponents could form against him.

The

The following is Mr. O'Connell's description of the manner in which a country friar announced a meeting on the Veto. The reader will see in it the influence which the demagogue had already obtained over the more ignorant and fanatical portion of the Romish clergy:—

"Now, ma boughali,' said the friar, 'you haven't got gumption, and should therefore be guided by them that have. This meeting is all about the veto, d'ye see. And now, as none of ye know what the veto is, I'll just make it all as clear as a whistle to yez. The veto, you see,

of

is a Latin word, ma boughali, and none yez undherstands Latin. But I will let you know all the ins and outs of it, boys, if you'll only just listen to me now. The veto is a thing, that- -you see, boys, the veto is a thing that- -that the meeting on Monday is to be held about. (Here there were cheers, and cries of "hear, hear.") The veto is a thing that

-in short, boys, it is a thing that bas puzzled wiser people than any of yez! In short, boys, as none of yez are able to comprehend the veto, I needn't take up more of your time about it now; but I'll give you this piece of advice, boys: just go the meeting, and listen to Counsellor O'Connell, and just do whatever he bids yez, boys.'"

All who have seen the agitator in his workshop-the committee-roomand witnessed his actings therein, will recognise the fidelity of the following description :

"The stranger who visited it saw a long low apartment, rather narrow for its length; of which the centre was occupied, from end to end, by a table and benches. By the light of three or four gas-burners, he discerned a numerous assemblage, who were seated on both sides of the long central table, earnestly discussing the various matters submitted for their consideration. At the upper end of the apartment might be seen a man of massive figure, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, and a dark fur tippet. He is evidently' wide awake' to all that passes. Observe how his keen blue eye brightens up at any promising proposi tion, or at any indication of increasing strength-how impatiently he pshaws away any bêtise intruded on the Repeal Councils. Difficult questions are submitted for his guidance; disputes in remote localities are referred to his adjudication; reports are confided to his care to be drawn up. He glides through all these duties with an ease that seems absolutely magical. He originates rules and regulations. He creates a working staff throughout the country; he renders the movement systematic. He cautiously guards it from infringing, in the smallest particular, upon the law. No man is jealous of him, for his intellectual supremacy places him entirely beyond the reach of competition. And as he discharges his multifarious task, the hilarity of his disposition occasionally breaks out in some quaint jest, or playful anecdote.

66

.

Ray was the ordinary mouth-piece of all matters submitted to O'Connell

in committee for his decision or his advice. Here's an application, Liberator, from Mr. a Presbyterian clergyman, for pecuniary aid to enable him to go on a Repeal mission.' 'Does any body here support that application, Ray? I will oppose it, because I saw the reverend gentleman as drunk as Bacchus at the dinner at.' 'But he is quite reformed, Liberator, and has taken the pledge.' 'No matterafter such a public exposé of himself, we ought to have nothing to do with him. The case is the worse for his being a clergyman. Very well, sir. Here's a letter from the Ballinakill Repealers, wanting Mr. Daunt to go down to address a meeting there." 'I'm glad of it: I suppose Daunt will have no objection?" 'Not the least,' said I. And here's a letter from the people of Kells, wanting Mr. John O'Connell to attend their meeting next week.' "My son John will go-won't you, John?' 'Yes, father.' Then write and tell 'em so.' 'Counsellor Clements,' resumed Ray, 'has made an objection to the words, "We pledge ourselves," in the Irish manufacture declaration; he's afraid of their being illegal.' Then alter the passage thus "We pledge ourselves as individuals"-if there be any difficulty, that will obviate it. What's that large document before you?' That, sir, is a report sent up by Mr. ; it came by this day's post. He wishes us to print it.' Umph! Let us see what sort of affair it is.' Ray then unfolds and peruses the report. When he has done, O'Connell exclaims What a waste of industry! There is absolutely nothing in that voluminous paper that it would be of the smallest utility to lay before the public.' 'I think,' said I, 'the last two pages contain a few good facts.'

Then print the last two pages, and throw away the rest.' Some remark being made on the mortification of a disappointed author, O'Connell half mutters the quizzical compliment paid to a pamphleteer by a waggish friend'I saw an excellent thing in your pamphlet.' 'What was it?' cries the author. 'A penny bun !' says his friend.' O'Connell would then apply himself to the dictation of a report, or of answers to letters of importance, until half-past four or five o'clock; the hour at which the committee usually broke up."

It is undoubtedly true that he did attain the ascendancy here indicated amongst his fellow-labourers, both for Emancipation, and the Repeal of the Union. More brilliant men occasionally appeared, whose flash oratory

dazzled their audience, and who, as long as they adopted his views, and worked under his guidance, were warmly, and even extravagantly, commended by him. But if they presumed to differ from him, or attempted to assume a lead, they soon felt the weight of his indignation. The priesthood were always at his back, to sustain him against any pretenders who sought to take the people out of his hands; and no refinements of reasoning, or flights of eloquence, could resist the untiring energy which rested for its support upon Irish instincts and Irish prejudices, and made the maintenance of the Romish religion, in its integrity, a "sine qua non" in the contest for political freedom.

Mr.

Thus he became a dictator to the party of whom he was the recognised leader. With scarcely a single exception, all his rivals or antagonists, either shrunk from a contest with him, or reluctantly submitted to his sway. Shiel himself soon found, after some bootless struggles, that his political existence depended upon moving in the orbit which the agitator had prescribed.

But, after all, O'Connell's ascendancy, in the groups who gathered around him, was that of a man amongst boys. He was a Gulliver in Lilliput. They were small, very small deer, amongst whom his branching antlers were conspicuous. And any vigorous government, who were wise enough to discern the signs of the times, could at any moment have arrested him in his career of mischief. We well remember Saurin's remarkable language upon one of the state prosecutions, when O'Connell was defending a client for a seditious libel, and tauntingly called upon the government to prosecute him, or some others of the leaders. The Attorney-General replied with a quiet scorn, that he might depend upon it he would not be found wanting in his duty, whenever the agitators became as mischievous as they were contemptible. This was, we then thought, and still think, a mistake. True policy would have been "obstare principiis." The falsehood, and the exaggerations of the demagogues were, it was thought, so monstrous, as to defeat themselves. Their violence was so extravagant as must, it was supposed, disgust and alienate

all their moderate supporters. Many, it was believed, of the Roman Catholics themselves, highly disapproved of the language and conduct of those of their body, who demanded in the attitude of belligerents, what should only be conceded, if conceded at all, to constitutional solicitation. When the beggarman flourishes his crutch over the lonely traveller, and demands as a booty what he had been accustomed to ask for as a boon, his true character cannot be mistaken; and it is not to the charity, but the weakness, of him whom he addresses, that he will be indebted for any favourable answer which he may receive. It was so with O'Connell, when he threatened the government with six millions, and a civil war. The threat should have been met with indignant scorn. All other questions touching Romish disabilities should have been put aside, until the paramount one had been decided, namely-whether violence and intimidation should be suffered to prevail against law and order. And until emancipation could be conceded wisely and safely, and as a requirement of policy, not as a tribute to faction, it should not have been conceded at all.

We well remember the system of falsehood and misrepresentation which characterised the Catholic Association, and how easily they might have been met, and how abundantly refuted, had a counter Protestant Association been formed to correct the misinformation, and to meet the calumnies of ignorant or factious assailants. But nothing of the kind was done. The orderly and well-disposed portion of the community reposed, with a blind and indolent security, upon the protection and privileges which they enjoyed; and government itself seemed averse to

arouse

into continued action, any angry elements by which the strife of faction might be augmented. Meantime, the demagogue plied his dangerous trade with restless activity. In his speeches, resolutions, and inflammatory publications, what was wanting in weight, was made up in number. Falsehoods one hundred times repeated and allowed to pass current without any cogent refutation, began to be regarded as admitted truths. And O'Connell himself came in the end to consider his own most monstrous lies

as fiated by public approbation. His knowledge of the practical value of the incessant repetition of any views or principles, was far greater than that of his opponents. He thus defended himself against the charge so frequently made against him of repeating himself.

"There are many men who shrink from repeating themselves, and who actually feel a repugnance to deliver a good sentiment or a good argument, just because they have delivered that sentiment or that argument before. This is very foolish. It is not by advancing a political truth once, or twice, or ten times, that the public will take it up and firmly adopt it. No! incessant repetition is required to impress political truths upon the public mind. That which is but once or twice advanced may possibly strike for a moment, but will then pass away from the public recollection. You must repeat the same lesson over and over again, if you hope to make a permanent impression; if, in fact, you hope to infix it on your pupil's memory. Such has always been my practice. My object was to familiarise the whole people of Ireland with impor tant political truths, and I could never have done this, if I had not incessantly repeated those truths. I have done so pretty successfully. Men, by always hearing the same things, insensibly associate them with received truisms. They find the facts at last quietly reposing in a corner of their minds, and no more think of doubting them than if they formed part of their religious belief. I have often been amused, when at public meetings men have got up delivered my old political lessons in my presence, as if they were new discoveries worked out by their own ingenuity and research. But this was the triumph of my labour. I had made the facts and sentiments so universally familiar, that men took them up, and gave them to the public as their own." "

and

Now, had his policy of attack been adopted as the policy of defence, how effectually might not his machinations have been defeated! There was not a single penal enactment which might not have found its justification in the history of his party, or the principles of his creed. These are now much better understood than they were then. Even Roman Catholics, in the days to which we allude, were very little aware of the anti-social principles to which they were pledged, by an

adherence to their religious system. And had those principles been fully brought out, they would have deprived of all colour of justification those who clamorously and seditiously demanded a repeal of the laws by

which our Protestant constitution was

protected against them. It is our

belief that vast numbers would have renounced a system of faith and doctrine by which the worst practices of the darkest ages were justified, when they were found, or thought to be, conducive to the papal domination; and thus, political emancipation would have taken place in the most desirable of all ways, by the previous moral and religious emancipation of those who would have thus deserved it.

Why do we dwell upon these things? Because, to the oversight of the times to which we allude, are ascribable most of our present evils and dangers. Because, had O'Connell's early courses been watched, and checked, we would not have to deplore, or to shudder at, the present state of social disorganization in Ireland. He it was who was first suffered to substitute agitation for conviction, and menace for argument; until the people, to use a metaphor of Coleridge's, like the bulls of Borrowdale, went mad by the echo of their own bellowing; and politicians mistook the "Jackass in the Lion's skin" as the veritable monarch of the forest, whose roaring made their hearts quail for fear. Thus it was that a government were found, who, instead of meeting the menaced hostility of the demagogue full front, consented to legislate "upon compulsion." O'Connell gained all, and more, than he sought. They lost not only all for which they had previously contended, but more than had ever before been brought into peril; for, by concessions such as they made, character itself was lost; and with character, the best guarantee against the dangers, both internal and external, which menaced the empire. The following passage, which we extract from the pamphlet signed " Menenius," so fully describes the disastrous course which has been since pursued, that we make no apology for presenting it to our readers :

"If it could be believed that, with the opinions he has avowed, he could afford

his countenance-or even mask-to a

party which for years submitted to be held in office by the permission of a man who was to keep Ireland quiet for them, cretly condemned, and who openly ex-whose principles and conduct they sepressed his contempt for them and their measures a man whose life-long machinations have produced the present disastrous state of things in this country, and who must ever be taken in connexion with them;-to a party who, instead of graspingRepeal' by the throat at the first as a felon and a traitor, suffered it to prowl about the purlieus of the Constitution until the gang was mustered, and the burglary planned; — to men who, in order first to gain a little popularity, and then to preserve a shew of consistency, suffered Ireland to re-arm herself, for purposes avowedly unconstitutional; to a ministry who laud and magnify the body of ecclesiastics, the principles and conduct of which he has here, as at the first, freely scrutinized ;if, he repeats, this can be believed, then he has failed to convey himself as he intended, as far as his personal relations are concerned."

Had a judicious and vigorous course been pursued, the "Triton of the minnows" would have been very soon reduced to his proper level; for although he was great among the little, he was, in truth, but little among the great. Let it be recollected, that it was not with his most distinguished cotemporaries he was generally confronted; and when he did happen to be so, he was always made to feel defeat or humiliation. It was not over such minds as those of Bushe, or Plunket, he won his way to political ascendancy. His associates, or antagonists, in Catholic, or Repeal politics, were a very inferior race of men, to rule or triumph over whom could be the object of but an ignoble ambition. Had the distinguished individuals to whom we have alluded consented to connect themselves with a Protestant association of a similar character, and to rejoice in the ascendancy which they were so well qualified to attain amongst its members, what would be thought of them? Such was the position which O'Connell enjoyed in his party, and in which he delighted to exhibit his pre-eminence. And while his great and various powers are fully admitted, it is right to hold in mind that his success was owing quite as much to the circumstances in which he was placed, and the antago

nists with whom he had to contend, as to the inherent energy and ability by which he was, no doubt, distinguished.

Of his eloquence it is difficult to write

"We scarcely could praise it, or blame it too much."

He was seldom brilliant; but he was never dull. Give him a good point, and he made the most of it. Let him stumble upon a bad one, and few men could exhibit the adroit dexterity with which he would retrieve his position, and right himself with his audience. Into the higher departments of oratory he seldom ventured; and when he did, he resembled a strong-winged bird, carrying a weight by which his strength was over-taxed; and he never felt so much at his ease as when he dropped, with delighted facility, to the level of his auditory, into all whose humours he could readily enter, of whose sympathies and antipathies he had a perfect knowledge, and whom he charmed by the assumption of cordial familiarity, by which he made himself one of themselves. If an object was to be obtained by rollicking good-humour, no man had more of it at command than he; and if an absent opponent was to be blackguarded, he never scrupled to use the foullest language, or to convey, in unmistakeable terms, the most revolting insinuations. Yet was his roughest abuse not tainted by malignity or illnature. He sought rather to ridicule the weaknesses or the peculiarities, than to wound the characters of those whom he assailed. And he has been known alternately to praise and to blame, with equal vehemence and equal sincerity, the same individuals, according as they fell in with, or thwarted him, in his favourite projects. In the one case, his praise was little better than the blarney by which he paid those who were willing to be his worshippers. In the other case, his censure was little worse than the anger of a spoiled child, whose wilfulness, not accustomed to be disputed, when it meets with a strong collision, suddenly

"Emits a hasty spark, and straight is cool again."

He was not deficient in wit, and his humour was often rich and racy. His memory never failed him, and his mind was stored with anecdotes, which

ex

he could hitch in, as the occasion required them, with surprising effect. He possessed a voice of singular power, but more remarkable for the tent of its range, than the delicacy of its modulations. It was the speakingtrumpet, by which he announced his oracular will to the vast assemblages that waited upon him for his response; and was better calculated to convey his commands, or his admonitions, than to execute those felicitous touches by which masters in the art of oratory, such as Curran, or Bushe, or Plunket, have so often entranced or captivated their audience. Generally speaking, his hearers were with him; and he had but to cheer them on, and animate them, in the common pursuit to which he and they were, toto corde, devoted. He managed them as he did his mountain beagles, whom he so often followed in his native wilds; and had learned to hunt, with his human hounds, for the political objects which he sought, with the skill and the pleasure which he exhibited when the game was full in view, and his welltrained and highly-bred quadrupeds were performing their parts, to his heart's delight, in his favourite amusement. Upon the whole, he was an impersonation of the passions, prejudices, vices, and the virtues of those of whom he was so long the chosen leader; and his oratory reflected his character in every one of the particulars in which this resemblance could be traced. But, in the zeal of his advocacy for the common cause, he never lost sight of himself; nor could he easily have brooked an assumption which laid claim to any large participancy in the honours or emoluments of successful agitation. That his services merited, and his abilities qualified him, for the high position of dictator in Irish affairs, was a conviction which he complacently entertained, and which, indeed, was largely participated in by a vast number of his admirers; and, if anything was calculated to stir his bile, or to move his jealousy, it was an attempt, on the part of any of his old fellow-labourers, to rise to any position of rank or dignity in the confidence or affections of his countrymen, by which his own ascendancy might be endangered. He bore no brother near his throne;" and the encroacher upon his popular prerogatives, soon found