say, their feelings have not been consulted nor their miseries relieved by the Imperial Parliament. Wealth has diminished, they say, amongst us; before us there is a gloomy prospect and little hope. They have embraced this project of Repeal with ardour. It is their nature, where they feel strongly, to act boldly and to speak passionately." The management of the trial by the Government officers is familiar to the public-the refusal of the caption to the traversers—the defective jury list-the shameless packing of the jury the admission of a species of evidence against the traversers which was actually condemned as inadmissible at the very same period by the Court of Queen's Bench at Westminster*-the charge by the Lord Chief Justice against "the other side," and, finally, the wrongful imprisonment. But the imprisonment was a great point gained for the Orangemen. No matter by what means accomplished, it was the subject of loud exaltation. The traversers were at last in jail, convicted of a "conspiracy," which conspiracy no ten rational men outside the court and jury-box believed to have any existence at all. The exclusion of Catholics from the jury list because they were supposed to be Repealers, was defended by Sir James Graham in the following manner: "We wanted," said the right hon. baronet, "to avoid the partiality necessarily arising from preconceived opinions favourable to Repeal on the part of the jurors." Did it occur to Sir James that there might be as strong a partiality on the opposite side, arising from the preconceived opinions of jurors adverse to Repeal? When a man says, "Don't put Repealers into the jurybox-they will be sure to acquit," it sounds extremely like saying, “Do put anti-Repealers into the jury-box-they will be sure to convict." * Viz., the admission of newspaper articles as evidence against men who never saw them. Orange Exultation. CHAPTER XXVI. 247 IMPRISONMENT OF O'CONNELL AND HIS FRIENDS IN 1844. Who helpeth not himself, Fortune disowns; Who shrink from work, shall never win work's guerdon. HERBERT SMITH. THE Orange and Tory party now had their triumph. Truly the Government had deserved success, if a reckless disregard of all decency in their vindictive pursuit could entitle them to victory. I But the verdict was obtained, no matter how; and sentence was pronounced, and there was a mighty uproar of delight in all Orangeland. The Mail announced that the traversers had been hurried to their prison with less éclat than had often attended a coal-porter's wedding. think it was that journal that jocularly said, "O'Connell has got two feather beds conveyed from his house to the jail --one for himself, and the other, we presume, for Repeal." That Repeal could survive the incarceration of its leaders was deemed impossible. The cause was extinct; that was loudly announced; the Repeal rent would dwindle to nothing. The deluded people, having their eyes opened to the wickedness, folly, and peril of their evil ways by the well-merited punishment of their chiefs, would be scared from any further connection with the movement. They would no longer furnish the sinews of war to a set of men who could not keep their heads out of Sir Robert Peel's net. The leaders were seized; the flock would scatter. And, above all, the mischievous magic of O'Connell's legal infallibility, which so long had kept the Repealers together, would now be destroyed. The spell was dissolved; the magician would henceforth be powerless. Such were the boasts of the anti-Repealers on O'Connell's imprisonment. Bets were laid whether the Repealers would hold their usual meeting on the following Monday. The Conservative party were firmly convinced that they would not dare to assemble. The committee met on the evening of the day that saw O'Connell consigned to a prison. The room was overflowing, and great excitement necessarily prevailed. It was surmised that the Government would proclaim down the Association on the Monday morning, and arrest the principal leaders who were still at large. On the question being discussed as to who should occupy the chair, a post of possible danger, numerous gentlemen offered themselves; but Mr. Smith O'Brien said that as he conceived that the struggle against despotic power could perhaps be most effectively made in his person, he claimed the chief post of peril as a particular favour. It was, however, deemed more advisable that Mr. O'Brien should occupy the place usually filled by Mr. O'Connell. Monday arrived. It soon became manifest that the Repealers were not scared by the recent prosecution. They mustered in such crowds that Conciliation Hall was filled long before the hour announced for the commencement of the day's business, and thousands who could not obtain standing room were obliged to go away. The Tory predictions did not seem likely to be realised. no shrinking, either among the leaders or the people. There was The chair was occupied on Monday by Mr. Caleb Powell, of Clonshavoy, the Protestant representative of the County Limerick; and on Tuesday by another Protestant gentleman, Captain Seaver, of Heath Hall, near Newry. There was a sustained yet quiet energy in the proceedings. There was the most intense enthusiasm combined with the most cautious discretion. Every face expressed firm resolution to encounter all risks that might beset the pursuit of Repeal; but at the same time to play the game warily as well as firmly. The minds of men were braced and strung for a mighty effort. It was glorious to behold the crowds that filled the national hall at the moment when the thunders of the Government were directed against Ireland's nationality. The people never assumed a loftier port or a nobler attitude than when they calmly bade defiance to tyrannic power, and opposed the simple might of popular opinion to the chicanery of perverted law and the formidable array of British bayonets. The troops that filled the land, and the monster indictment, alike were unable to scare them from a course recommended by its own intrinsic justice, and endeared to their hearts by the sentiment of honourable national pride. They hailed with delight the entrance of men who were accustomed to take a prominent part in the proceedings. The roof rang again with the joyous acclamations that greeted their appearance. The prosecution did not paralyse the contributors to the Repeal survives the Prosecution. 249 Repeal exchequer. There was actually an inconvenient. rivalry to hand in money. Each man was eager to pour into the treasury the contribution committed to his care, and thus were several hours successively occupied. The first week's receipts amounted to £2,593 18s. 2d., which sum was con siderably exceeded on several subsequent occasions. Almost immediately on O'Connell's imprisonment the several municipal Corporations of Ireland sent deputies to the metropolis; where, having been refused admission to the prison for the purpose of presenting addresses to the captives, they assembled at O'Connell's house in Merrion Square, and there agreed on a solemn declaration that Ireland required a domestic Parliament to develop her resources and secure her prosperity. This declaration, emanating not from noisy agitators, but from the very flower of the trading and mercantile community of Ireland, was necessarily calculated to produce a deep impression. Whilst these events occurred out of doors, let us take a peep within the prison walls. O'Connell, on the evening of his incarceration, had exclaimed: "Thank God, I am in jail for Ireland." He believed that Peel's false move tended to augment the strength of the national cause. All the prisoners dined together, and the party wore anything but a tragical air. They all enjoyed the exhilaration of spirits arising from a hope that, whatever inconveniences they might sustain, their imprisonment would accelerate the triumph of the cause that was nearest to their hearts. They were for the first few days occupied with the bustle of fixing themselves in their new quarters. At last they settled down into something like their usual habits. Charles Gavan Duffy, the editor of the Nation; Doctor (afterwards Sir John) Gray, the editor of the Freeman; and Richard Barrett, the editor of the Pilot, found abundant employment in superintending their several journals. The moments unoccupied by business they devoted to study, or to taking exercise in the adjoining garden. Mr. Duffy, under the impression that the imprisonment would last a year, announced his purpose of reading through Carte's "Life of Ormond," in three folio volumes. Mr. Ray still exercised his supervision of the affairs of the Association. John O'Connell wrote his amusing and instructive Repeal Dictionary, which appeared in the weekly press, and which I believe was subsequently published in a collected form. Steele read Kane's "Industrial Resources of Ireland," and defaced the fair pages of the work with innumerable marks of admiration. Barrett was ready for fun, frisk, joyous frolic of any sort, and more than once kept the incarcerated coterie in roars of laughter by attitudinising and grimacing in a style that would have done honour to Liston. Two of the visitors played the short-armed orator; the comic force of the pathetic passages being much enhanced by a cambric handkerchief, which the gentleman who performed the action held to the weeping eyes of the gentleman who performed the eloquence. Nearly all the prisoners contributed to the pages of a jeu d'esprit called the Prison Gazette, in which they quizzed each other and their friends with merry malice. In short, there never were prisoners who bore so lightly and joyously the hours of imprisonment, or whose deprivation of freedom was more soothed by the kind and sympathetic offices of friends. They had access to two gardens. In one of these was a mound with a summer-house on the top. The mound they amused themselves by calling Tara Hill; the summer-house was termed Conciliation Hall. In the other garden they erected a large marquee, which they styled Mullaghmast, and in this marquee were received the numerous deputations who bore addresses to the "convicts" from the different quarters of the kingdom. I learned from a gentleman, who was present on one of these occasions, that O'Connell replied to the bearers of an address in the following words: "Tell your friends that my heart is joyful, my spirits are buoyant, my health is excellent, my hopes are high. My imprisonment is not irksome to me, for I feel and know that it will, under Providence, be the means of making our country a nation again. I am glad I am in prison. There wanted but this to my career. I have laboured for Ireland refused office, honour, and emolument for IrelandI have prayed and hoped and watched for Ireland-there was yet one thing wanted-that I should be in jail for Ireland. This has now been added to the rest, thanks to our enemies; and I cordially rejoice at it." O'Connell, in the course of that day, was waited on by a party of American tourists. When they arrived, he was standing on the top of "Tara Hill." They doffed their hats and remained at the foot of the mound until desired to walk "You are probably more visited here," said one of them, "than if you were at large." "Yes," replied the up. |