CHAP. VIII.]

In

repeal movement. Mr O'Connell had before declined the office of lord-mayor of Dublin. He now changed his mind, and accepted the dignity, for the facilities it would afford for extending the repeal cause. November, the movement had become important enough to be visited with opposition and defection. A prominent member withdrew, convinced by the arguments of opponents that Ireland wanted peace and quiet more than political changes; and an intrepid parish priest refused to collect repeal rent from his flock, because they were already under the pressure of poverty. By this time, the new census was out; and Mr O'Connell made use of it to charge upon the British government a 'wholesale extermination of the Irish people '-'a frightful slaughter of human beings'-because the population had increased at a considerably slower rate during the last than the preceding ten years. At every meeting in Dublin now, contributions from the United States were handed in, amounting by this time to many hundreds of pounds. The O'Connell rent was also swelling-the sum collected in the Dublin district alone this year exceeding £2000. In a month, it became clear how the new lord-mayor meant to use his office for the benefit of the repeal cause. In one hour and a half he admitted seventy-three new freemen-all of them having avouched themselves Catholics, and of the right sort.' The dignitary declared the business to be 'going on swimmingly;' and that there would be no need for him to be made permanent lord-mayor by perpetual re-election, because he could put things in train during this year, and get a sound coadjutor appointed to succeed him, who would do the same in his turn. Such avowals appear to have created no disgust among his followers, amidst their loud talk of political right and justice. All means to their end seem to have been, not only fair, but laudable in their eyes. These preparations indicate what might be expected from a subsequent time.

In 1842, however, there was something like a suspension of the repeal agitation. The harvest having been bad, the people suffered cruelly, in many of the rural districts. Food riots and agrarian disturbances fill the foreground of the picture during that year-attacks upon flour-mills; people roaming the streets in the towns of Galway, and collecting before every potato storehouse; lives lost at Ennis; and a special commission sent down to scenes of disturbance. The next year was that in which the repeal agitation reached its height.

It is at this time that we begin to see mention of 'monster meetings.' Early in January, Mr O'Connell announced the repeal of the union to be 'all but immediate,' if the clergy and laity would unite in their overwhelming majority; and he added: '1843 is and shall be the repeal year.' A remarkable step, and one which created great excitement in Dublin, was that Mr O'Connell carried a repeal petition to parliament by an overwhelming majority in the corporation of Dublin. This was in March; and presently occurred the monster meeting at Trim, where 30,000 people were present. At the dinner which succeeded the meeting, the agitator ventured upon his boldest language; talked of the scaffold,

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victory or the grave, and dared the young men to say whether they would be slaves, or shed their blood in the field. At the Mullingar meeting, on the 14th of May, it appeared that every Catholic bishop in Ireland was a repealer. To this meeting the peasantry thronged, even from a distance of forty miles; and the numbers were somewhere between 100,000 and 130,000. By this time, all pretence of assembling to petition parliament was laid aside; and parliament was spoken of with mere contempt. As the government did not interfere, the agitator grew bolder and more threatening in his language, and more plainly invited his followers to wrest repeal from the hand of imperial tyranny. The government still professed its intention of relying on the ordinary powers of the law, except with regard to the holding of arms, about which a keenly-contested bill passed through parliament during the summer. The chancellor of Ireland, Sir Edward Sugden, removed from the commission of the peace Lord Ffrench and several other magistrates who had taken part in repeal demonstrations; but this act, however much questioned in the House of Commons, was one which lay within the ordinary powers of the law.

It appears as if the first serious fears of the government were excited by the monster meeting at Tara, on the 15th of August, where O'Connell, who provoked the old association of ideas about the bully and the coward, bragged more grandly than ever, because it seemed that the government would give him nothing to fear. He declared that he had been laughed at for saying in January that this was the repeal year; but it was his turn to laugh now; for it was certain that before twelve months more, the parliament would be in College Green, Dublin. He believed he was able to announce' to his hearers that not twelve months could possibly elapse, without hurrahs for the Irish parliament in College Green being heard over the land. He opened glimpses of his plan for extorting permission from the queen for Ireland to govern herself; and these words were addressed to an assemblage estimated by various reporters at from 500,000 to 2,000,000 of persons. The hill of Tara was like a huge encampment. Some persons arrived overnight; others flocked in from the break of day; and after ten o'clock, imposing processions, with music and banners, converged from various points. The spot was chosen for its revolutionary associations-the old kings of Ireland having been elected on the hill; and the rebels of 1798 having there sustained a defeat. A head-ornament, half cap, half crown, was prepared, wherewith to crown the liberator; and there can be no doubt that the peasant-multitude believed the day to be come when they were to be freed from a foreign domination, and restored to national grandeur, and universal comfort and wellbeing. This appears to have been the occasion-at the dinner after the meeting-when the scheme of establishing arbitration courts was first recommended. The people were advised to desert and ignore the courts of law; and the magistrates who were dismissed from the commission of the peace on account of their repeal opinions, were to serve as O'Connell's justices, and decide on all disputes brought before them. These arbitration

It

courts did actually, for a considerable time, almost supersede the regular tribunals. Of course, the plan could not work long; and there was, perhaps, no part of the repeal agitation, except the temperance, that the friends of the Irish liked so well. encouraged peace and courtesy-checked the litigious -and would probably act in the very beneficial direction of giving the people some better notion than they had before of the use and value of law. As the decisions of O'Connell's justices were not legal, their courts could not long exist; and the practice of arbitration died out, like all the liberator's arrangements.

On Sunday, the 20th of August, another monster meeting was held at Roscommon-less numerous than it would have been if the tenantry of some landlords had not complained to their landlords that their attendance would be compulsory if they had not protection in staying away. Troops and police were stationed within call, but out of sight. The agitator's tone was very warlike. After calling 'teetotalism the finest effluence of human virtue,' he said that, if he had to go to battle,' he should have the teetotalers with him; and there was not an army in the world that he would not fight with them. Two days afterwards, a scheme was produced, which amused and occupied the repealers, and made them think that something was doing-a plan of O'Connell's proposed Irish parliament. In this there was an elaborate-looking detail of the populations of Irish towns and counties, with an apportionment of representatives; and there was something for the people to do in studying this; but there was no hint given as to how this parliament was to be procured. When pressed on that point, the agitator declared that the queen would grant this parliament by proclamation; and then the parliament would 'legalise everything.' This is all. The most careful search into the records of the time yields nothing more; not a trace of a practical plan, political or military; not a particle of evidence that O'Connell was really seeking a repeal of the union. Unwilling as every one must be to suppose that a man so able and powerful was in fact hoaxing an anxious and suffering people for a course of years-diverting them from the benefits of the imperial connection to follow false lights-seducing them from peaceful industry, to rove the country in a bitter holiday fashion-it is impossible for the careful inquirer to avoid the conviction that O'Connell knew that there would be no repeal of the union. We find marchings hither and thither, temperance bands, Tara crowns, 'purple robes with fur-all regal-oaths and pledges, flattery of the worst parts of the Irish character, pernicious excitement of hatreds of race, paper schemes and impromptu laws, and an ardent and unremitting pushing of the demand for money; but, with all this, no word spoken or written, no act done, no purpose peeping out, which shews any practical intent of procuring repeal.

At this harvest-time, a new method of aiding the cause began to be practised. On O'Connell promising fixity of tenure-virtual possession-to every holder of land, in case of an Irish parliament once assembling in Dublin, the Catholic Bishop of

Armagh and other priests began to give 'warning' that the people would sooner or later refuse to pay their rents. The warning was precisely one which was likely to work its own fulfilment; and we find the priests here and there preaching to their flocks that they should gather in their harvest, lay by what they wanted for themselves, and then, if any was left, they might pay it over for rent. As an improvement upon this, bands of strangers now appeared from a distance-200 of one party on a Sunday morning-and cut and carried the produce of small farms, bringing cars with them for the purpose, and leaving the tenant to shew his landlord his bare fields as excuse for non-payment of his rent. These collusive thefts, perpetrated in open day, and amidst the sympathy of the neighbourhood, are among the worst features of the time. Another was the coercion used to raise money for the cause the reapers at this harvest being required to produce their repeal-tickets-receipts for a shilling-before they could obtain work. 'If O'Connell knew,' said one of these reapers, who was walking back from Meath to Drogheda, with blistered feet, to fetch his repeal-ticket-' if O'Connell knew what a comfort a shilling is to our families, he would let us alone.' This was said just at the time when the queen, in the House of Lords, was expressing her sorrow for the injury caused to the Irish people by the seditious efforts of the agitators of the day. She was resolved to sustain the union, and was endeavouring to preserve the tranquillity of Ireland by the use of the ordinary powers of the law, being unwilling to resort to measures of coercion, and feeling assured that she might rely on the co-operation of a multitude of faithful subjects in Ireland. Mr O'Connell pronounced this speech to be 'an excess of impudence and stupidity combined;' but, perhaps aware that it might appear ludicrous for an O'Connell to accuse Queen Victoria of 'impudence,' he laid all the blame on her majesty's ministers. The ministers had carried one coercive measure during the session -the Irish Arms Act-by which the possessors of arms were obliged to register them, to have them branded by the appointed government-officer, and take out a licence for holding them. This act was brought forward at the request of a large number of orderly inhabitants of Ireland, who were compelled by the state of the times to keep arms enough for their own defence, but dreaded a seizure of them. There was little difference between this bill and many which had been passed for a long course of years-even up to the date of Lord Morpeth's bill of 1838; but it was made the ground of party conflict in the House. The debates were long and angry; and every conceivable Irish topic was brought into them. The bill, which had been first debated on the 29th of May, did not leave the Commons till the 9th of August. The Lords passed it rapidly; and it became law on the 22d of the same month. It afforded a great subject to the agitator at the meetings.

But, by this time, two sorts of narratives of those meetings were getting abroad. According to the repealers themselves, the whole country was up, in

CHAP. VIII.]

one flame of patriotism, on occasion of a monster meeting-decorating houses and roads, carrying the crown-cap of the liberator, marching with solemn determination, as to a battle-field, bearing banners which demanded 'Repeal or blood,' and swearing on the ground to lay down their lives for the cause, in response to O'Connell's voice, which was heard to the bounds of the assemblage. On the other hand, it was pointed out that no human voice could make its utterance heard by 100,000 people; the decorations were denied; the banners had not been seen; the people went to the stubble-field or hill smiling and chatting, as to a mere sight; and when there, they waited only for the arrival of O'Connell, when, having nothing more to stay for, they poured off in all directions, leaving a few hundreds within reach of the voices from the platform, to do the business of listening, feeling, and responding by cheers. There were, besides, Conservative reports which treated the movement with a contempt as absurd and forced as the exaggerations of the repealers. The government acted on the statements of the repealers themselves, who now talked of marshalling their troops,' and of their 'repeal cavalry;' and issued regulations,' in order to 'muster-march, and parade.' A monster meeting was appointed to be held at Clontarf, three miles from Dublin, on Sunday, the 8th of October; and the preparations assumed such a military air, that the government thought it time to interfere. On the 7th, about the middle of the day, a proclamation by the viceroy and privy-council was issued, which declared the public peace to be endangered by such practices as had taken place at late repeal meetings, and were contemplated now; warned all persons to abstain from attendance at the Clontarf meeting; and enjoined all official persons to be aiding in the suppression of the meeting. The agitator called together his council, spoke with marked calmness,' announced that in consequence of the proceedings of the government, there would be no meeting the next day, and entreated all persons to use their influence in preventing any assemblage. The association issued a proclamation, desiring the people to stay at home; and a large number of members volunteered to station themselves on the approaches to Clontarf, to turn back all comers. Early in the morning, the main strength of the garrison of Dublin was so placed on the field, as that all who arrived found themselves in a narrow lane between soldiers, and compelled to pass on by the pressure from behind. Nobody could find out where the hustings were. They had been removed in the night. Nobody could see O'Connell. He stayed away. Instead of him, there was seen Thomas Steele, 'the headpacificator of Ireland,' waving a green bough of peace, and moving over the ground, crying: 'Home -home-home!'

Of course, O'Connell declared now that this Clontarf meeting was to have been the last; and of course this was not believed by those who had charge of the public peace. Not only was there no reason why the agitator should stop at this particular meeting, but the government had sound reasons for thinking that he would not. It now appears that

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he was in a difficulty which had begun to weigh upon him, and under which he afterwards lost spirits and courage. He had called out the people, and now did not know what to do with them. had accustomed them to political demonstrations as shows; and he must devise novelties to keep them amused and peaceable. It was probably an act of mercy in the government to stop him at this point of embarrassment. It is certain that his anxiety about keeping the peace was not surpassed by their own, when the affair had reached its present critical stage. Amidst the sudden hush of dismay, caused by the Clontarf proclamation throughout Dublin, O'Connell went about with an air of extreme calmness, and with an expression of countenance which, in unguarded moments, shewed that his mind was now really harassed-no doubt by the pressing necessity of immediately striking out a new course.

In England, almost everybody was relieved and pleased that government had at last interfered with a procedure which was wholly incompatible with public peace and order under an established government. It had been observed that cabinet meetings had become frequent within a week; and that the viceroy, Lord De Grey, had repaired hastily to Dublin from London, instead of travelling into Yorkshire as had been planned. It had long been a question among men of all parties why O'Connell remained unchecked; and now that he proposed to muster his repeal cavalry' within three miles of the Irish capital, no one could say that the time for a check had not fully come. Why the thing was done hastily at last, so that the notice against assembling was perilously short, appears never to have been fully explained. It is probable that some secret information reached the government which precipitated their measures.

On the Monday, O'Connell's words were watched for at the meeting of the Repeal Association. One of his topics was the cruelty of government in keeping the soldiers standing all day at Clontarf for nothing. He quizzed the viceroy, and complimented the soldiery and the people. He talked of simultaneous meetings all over Ireland, and of plans for buying up debts on Irish estates by an association of gentlemen; but these things were to be done hereafter, at some distant and unfixed time; and no indication appears of his having decided on any immediate course. He spoke of laying before the House of Commons, in the first week of the session, his scheme for an Irish parliament, but made no reference to his late declaration that 1843 was the great repeal year. It was now the 9th of October, and no progress had been made. There had been nothing but talk and show; and the educated people of Ireland, the great middle class, were as hostile as ever to repeal. The peasantry were the repeal host. They were truly formidable, on account of their sanguinary notions about slaying all the soldiers in the barracks, and massacring all the Saxons in the island, so that every true Irishman should have wheaten bread next year;' but they could not assist in the first step-forming a plan for obtaining repeal.

For a few days, Dublin was full of rumours of

the arrest of O'Connell, though his portly form was daily seen in the streets. On the 14th, the rumour was true. He, his son, and eight of their coadjutors, were arrested on charges of conspiracy, sedition, and unlawful assembling. They were admitted to bail. This was the turning-point of O'Connell's life. It was at once observed that his anxiety for the public peace was extreme. His language became moderate; or, whenever it swelled into vehemence, it was from an evident agony of apprehension lest the multitude whom he had inflamed should break out into the violence which he had before indicated to them. Those who should know best have since declared that from this time his health began to fail; and that the word 'prison' caused him an anguish which he could not conceal. He issued the most imploring and incessant entreaties to the people to keep perfectly quiet; and declared that he would never again use the term 'Saxon,' as he found that it gave offence. He caught at an offer from Mr Joseph Sturge, of Birmingham, to aid the repeal cause, if he would confine his demand to a local legislature for merely local purposes, and would unite the British demand for universal suffrage with his own objects.

The proceedings began on the 2d of November, in the Court of Queen's Bench in Dublin. From the first hour, it was evident that obstruction and delay were the policy of the accused. It was not till the 8th that the jury found the indictment 'a true bill;' and the trial was by various devices put off till the 15th of January. An unfortunate and disgraceful error occurred in the preparation of the jury-liststwo slips of the lists having been lost, and sixtythree names thus dropped by the way. There was much controversy as to whether this accident would prove fatal to the prosecutions; and there were disputes and delays about the exclusion of certain Catholics from the jury, and about every point that could be raised. If it was difficult to conduct jurytrial in Ireland in all party cases, it might be anticipated that it would be almost impossible in this critical instance, where it was difficult in the extreme to secure a fair jury. The practice of smuggling a jury on the one hand, and packing it on the other, was familiar to every man's expectation; and few or none believed it possible to find, in all Dublin, twelve dispassionate and impartial men on a question in which repeal was concerned. The community was sharply divided between those who adored, and those who hated, O'Connell. On the important 15th of January, when O'Connell and his son arrived at the Four Courts, conducted by the lord-mayor in his state-carriage, and escorted by twenty-three other carriages, the jurors drew back on various pleasill health, mistakes in the setting down of their Christian names, and other excuses. All but one paid the fine of £50; and he was excused on presenting an affidavit of ill health. One rheumatic old gentleman of seventy-two was compelled to serve; and it was noticed that great efforts were made by the lawyers of the accused to keep on as many invalids as possible, evidently in the hope that some attack of illness might frustrate the trial. Then, two of the accused were absent; and the

excuse presented for one of them was, that he lived four miles from town. When the court had waited long enough, and was about to forfeit his recognisances, he appeared, and everybody laughed.

There were few to laugh, however, when the Irish attorney-general made his statement. Though everybody had read about the repeal movement in the newspapers, for months past, everybody seemed now struck by the story as if it was new. It was a fearful story; and it left the impression on all minds that a rebellion like that of 1798 was impending. Those who did laugh as the trial proceeded were moved to it by the extraordinary character of the scene-the impudence, the recklessness, the buffoonery, which can hardly be conceived of by those who are accustomed to the gravity of an English court of justice. The case for the prosecution occupied eleven days; and after that, the aim of the accused, to wear out the jury, became even more evident than before. At length, on the twenty-fourth day, which was Saturday, February 10, there was every expectation that the verdict of the jury would be delivered before night. At seven o'clock, the chief-justice closed his charge, which produced a startling effect in court, from the grouping together of O'Connell's speeches of incitement, and of the threatenings of the repeal newspapers. The jury inquired whether it was necessary for them to proceed that night; they were extremely fatigued. They were not let off; and at half-past seven they retired. A little before eleven, they returned a verdict imperfect in form, and were sent back. At a quarter past twelve, they were called in, and informed that they must be locked up till Monday.

When the imperfect verdict was proffered, a vast crowd was assembled outside the Courts; and the news that the accused were all found more or less guilty was received with a terrific yell, which must have told on the nerves of some of the worn-out jurymen. A woman had that day entered the shop of one of them, and offered to sell his wife a widow's cap, saying that it would be needed, if the verdict was against O'Connell. Between one and two o'clock in the morning, a company paraded the streets, apparently with a view to create a disturbance; but Dublin was full of soldiery, and all was kept quiet. A crowd gathered on Sunday morning, to see the jury go to church; but it was thought more prudent to have divine service performed for them in their retreat. At nine o'clock on Monday morning, the court assembled. Mr O'Connell was attended by a gentleman whose accession to the repeal cause was at that time hailed as one of its chief triumphs. Mr William Smith O'Brien was a gentleman of ancient family, high respectability of character, amiable temper, and sufficient ability to have made a considerable impression in the House of Commons -where he sat as member for Limerick-by his speeches on the subject of Ireland; and especially by one, eminently rational and moderate, in the preceding session. It is no wonder that when he chose the moment of O'Connell's danger, and that of the cause, for joining it-before his fatal faults of mind and temper had been brought out by circumstanceshis junction with the repealers was hailed by them