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wax in the general conflagration of feeling. A nation on fire is a terrible and affecting spectacle. The coldest bodies at length become warmed. Soldiers are but men, with the same feeling as the rest of the community, susceptible of the same love of justice and liberty, though modified by habits of blind obedience. If they sometimes consider the interest of the army as separate from that of the nation, the meanness of acting on any such consideration is sure to be exposed by a comparison with those generous principles with which they see others actuated; and, as their interest is really identified with that of their country, the force of public discussion will, at length, attach them to the people. This brings us to the next great advantage of Political Unions, that they neutralize the effects of standing armies.

The Tories talked big of the army in the late crisis. We firmly believe they would not have acted-some few regiments of guards, perhaps, excepted-against their country; but it was of greater importance, that their resistance would have been but chaff to a people as brave as themselves, contending for their rights, and more than a hundred to one. In Ireland, discussion had shaken the minds of the soldiery. The good humour of the people conciliated, while the obvious justice of their cause strongly affected them. They felt, without any reasoning, the extreme cruelty of interfering with religion. Their feelings revolted at the idea of butchering their fellowcreatures for a faction. It is now notorious, that in the towns and along the line of march, hundreds threw up their caps for O'Connell; and there seems no doubt that General Thornton, who commanded in Ulster, like a rational man, told the Duke of Wellington not to calculate on the troops. But, it will be asked, is the country to be agitated on every light occasion by unions? Are the hammers of perpetual discussion to resound through the land? This cannot be answered until another question is resolved-Are the people to be always oppressed? Is the state to be completely overrun with the fungus of various abuse? Is the majority to be sacrificed to the minority? Must the frame of government always press on the raw necks of the

poor? Unions cannot exist on every light occasion. Without numbers-in short, the bulk of the nation-attached to them by the bond of general suffering, they are a mere odious parcel of brawlers. Take away from them actual and extensive grievances, and they gasp on the strand. But when is it to be known that the crisis has arrived which demands national combination? We reply, the time will find itself. The general sense produces the general union. Men meet, bring their wrongs into the middle, and the thing is done. When government, which was established to aid, becomes so perverted as to obstruct the interests of the community, and has taken a settled bias towards mischief-when it has hopelessly become a great engine to squeeze industry, and when injustice is barbed with insult-the natural effort of society attempts to supply the deficiency by creating a new organ. If the legislature from whatever cause, is below the average spirit and intelligence of the country, it will be despised. If it oppress, it will be hated, and men will look elsewhere for substantial government. This is the eternal law of things. It is a mere fallacy to represent the option as between unions and civil war. Had not the Birmingham Political Union, with the rest, existed, we would, undoubtedly, have had the scenes of 1648 renewed in 1832.

CHAPTER III.

HAVING thus given a voluminous account of the rise and progress of an association, which in its influence on the political and moral world, has not its parallel in civil history, we shall proceed to dilate upon those circumstances, which have a more immediate reference to the private life of Mr. O'Connell, all of which, however, had more or less some relation to the part he then enacted on the political theatre of his country. At the time when Mr. O'Connell appeared as the great champion of the Catholic cause, the corporation of Dublin was composed of men acting under the influence of such conservative principles, and imbued with such an intolerant spirit of Protestant ascendency, that they thought to carry every thing before them by an unbounded stretch of authority, and an infi action even of the law itself to suit their own political purposes. That a man of O'Connell's stamp and character should be the object of their inveterate hatred, of their unrelenting persecution, and of their secret enmity, is one of those consequences which follow, as naturally as the light, does the sun. It may also be supposed that Mr. O'Connell in the various speeches that he made at the Catholic meetings, was not very moderate in the epithets, which he employed against the members of the corporation, and on one occasion, when he attended a meeting in Capel street, and in illustrating some matter, he was anxious to enforce, he alluded in a contemptuous manner to the corporation of Dublin. "The beggarly corporation of Dublin," was it seems one of the epithets of scorn which he used and in reprobation of this act, Mr. J. N. D'Esterre being member of the corporation, and having seen this phrase, addressed the following letter to Mr. O'Connell.

Sir,-Carrick's paper of the 23rd inst. (in its report of the debates of a meeting of Catholic gentlemen, on the subject of a petition,) states that you have applied the appellation of beggarly to the corporation of this city, calling it a beggarly corporation, and, therefore, as a member of that body, and feeling how painful such is, I beg leave to inquire whether you really used or expressed yourself in such language?

I feel the more justified in calling on you on this occasion, as such language was not warranted or provoked by any thing on the part of the corporation; neither was it consistent with the subject of your debate, or the deportment of the other Catholic gentlemen who were present; and though I view it so inconsistent in every respect, I am in hopes the editor is un der error, and not you.

I have further to request your reply in the course of the evening. And remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

J. N. D'ESTERRE.

11, Bachelor's-walk, 26 Jan. 1815.

Mr. O'Connell's answer was as follows:

Sir,-In reply to your letter of yesterday, and without either admitting or disclaiming the expression respecting the cor poration of Dublin, in the print to which you allude, I deem it right to inform you, that, from the calumnious manner in which the religion and character of the Catholics of Ireland are treated in that body, no terms attributed to me, however reproachful, can exceed the contemptuous feelings I entertain for that body in its corporate capacity-although, doubtless, it contains many valuable persons, whose conduct, as individuals, (I lament) must necessarily be confounded in the acts of a general body.

I have only to add, that this letter must close our correspondence on this subject.-I am, &c. &c.

Merion Square. Jan. 27th, 1815.

DANIEL O'CONNELL.

On the following day, a letter was left at Merion-square, for Mr. O'Connell during his absence at the courts. Its di

rection was different from the former one which came from Mr. D'Esterre, and Mr. James O'Connell, who had instructions to open any communications that were directed to his brother, in his absence, ascertained the quarter from whence it came. He sought merely for the signature, and on perceiving it to be Mr. D'Esterre's, he immediately closed the letter, and returned it in the following note to that gentleman :

Sir, From the tenor of your letter of yesterday, my brother did not expect that your next communication would have been made in writing. He directed me to open his letters in his absence; your last letter, bearing a different address from the former one, was opened by me; but, upon seeing the name subscribed, I have declined to read it, and, by his direction, I return it to you inclosed, and unread.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Merion-square, Friday Evening.

JAMES O'CONNELL,

Things remained in this condition until the following Sunday. On that day, Mr. James O'Connell received a note from Mr. D'Esterre, containing disrespectful observations on himself and his brother. Immediately after the receipt of it, he sent his friend Captain O'Mullan to Mr. D'Esterre to say, that after he had adjusted his affair with his brother, he would bring him to account for his conduct to himself peculiarly. Captain O'Mullan at the same time intimated that Counsellor O'Connell was astonished at his not hearing in, what he conceived the proper way from Mr. D'Esterre. Nothing further happened on that day; and on the following morning, Mr. Lidwell, who remained there several days, to be the friend of Mr. O'Connell, though some members of his family were seriously indisposed, left town for home, despairing of any issue being put to the controversy. Monday passed on, and on Tuesday considerable sensation was created by a rumour that Mr. D'Esterre was advised to go to the Four Courts to offer Mr. O'Connell personal violence. Neither of the parties came in contact; but it seems that Mr. D'Esterre was met on

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