the society which he had founded. He started a " New Catholic Association," ostensibly for the promotion of charitable and educational objects, but which was to hold large meetings from time to time, at which political questions could be considered. Each meeting was to last exactly fourteen days. There was to be no connection between the meetings in various parts of the country. When, on July 31st, 1825, there were meetings held in practically every parish in Ireland, it could not be proved that this was not a mere coincidence.

The Waterford Election.-In 1826 another Catholic Petition was presented, and met the same fate as its numerous predecessors. Direct political action was now resolved on. There was a Parliamentary vacancy in Waterford, and Lord George Beresford, brother of the Marquis of Waterford, expected to be returned unopposed. It was decided that Mr. Villiers Stuart, member of an old Protestant family, but a man of very liberal views, should be introduced as a rival candidate under the auspices of the Association.

At this time the majority of the electors in most rural districts consisted of "forty-shilling freeholders" (see Chap. III). It had always hitherto been considered that the votes of these men were at the absolute disposal of their landlords, and on this occasion the Duke of Devonshire issued a general direction to his tenants to abstain from voting for either party in the coming contest. The old order was, however, passing away. For several weeks before the election there was the fiercest excitement over the whole county. In every chapel the priest exhorted the electors to vote according to their consciences; to bear in mind the interests of their faith; and to strike a blow against the Ascendancy which had so long oppressed them. The Association's agents travelled from parish to parish, exciting enthusiasm, encouraging the timid, waking that love of self-sacrifice for creed and country which has always been a marked trait of the Irish peasant.

In truth, the consequences of following their consciences might well, for many of these poor men, prove serious enough. The voting was open, and he who dared at the poll to defy his landlord's will would be liable to become a mark for vengeance. Still, the courage of the peasants did not falter. On the day when the contest was to begin they marched in their thousands into the city of Waterford, barony by barony, each under its own banner. Four thousand soldiers had been sent by the authorities to keep order, but they had nothing to do, for there was not the slightest disturbance. Beresford had, by a silly and insolent speech, alienated much of the small amount of popular support on which he might other

* O'Connell had once boasted that he "could drive a coach and four" through any Act of Parliament

wise have counted. After a few days he abandoned the contest in despair, and Villiers Stuart was declared to be duly elected.

Encouraged by its victory the Association intervened in other elections, and succeeded in placing its nominee in one of the two vacancies in Derry.

To the Ascendancy in Ireland, and their supporters in England, the result of the Waterford election caused the utmost surprise and anger. They cried out loudly against the influence of the priests, and tried, though in vain, to prove that they had coerced the voters by threats of spiritual penalties.

During the Session of 1828 the Test and Corporation Acts, which virtually excluded Protestant Dissenters from office and from the membership of Corporations, by requiring the taking of the sacrament according to the rites of the Established Church, were repealed. The Catholics had backed up the demand of the Dissenters for relief, and had presented a petition in their favour signed by 800,000 persons.

The Clare Election.-A bolder stroke than any which they had yet attempted was now prepared by the Catholic Association. A Parliamentary vacancy had occurred in Clare, owing to the appointment of Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, the sitting member, to an office under Government, the holding of which forced him to seek re-election. The Association resolved to put forward a Catholic candidate-O'Connell himself. His election would bring the whole question of Emancipation to an issue, as he declared from the first that he would not take the oaths against the Mass, Transubstantiation, etc. O'Connell at first was rather reluctant to undertake the contest. Fitzgerald was himself a man of liberal views, and his father, who was now dying, had suffered for his opposition to the Union. When once, however, he had made his choice, he entered into the fight with the whole vigour of his nature.

A group of friends came to his aid-Shiel, "honest Tom Steele," Father Tom Maguire, young O'Gorman Mahon, noted as a duellist, who declared that he was ready to accept the challenge of any landlord who considered himself aggrieved by the canvass of his tenants.

The incidents of the Waterford election were practically repeated, with additions. The journey of O'Connell from Limerick to Ennis resembled the royal progress of a king. Nothing like it had been seen in Munster, since the days when Hugh O'Neill at the zenith of his fame traversed the province in triumph, over 200 years before. In Ennis streets the people camped-nearly 30,000-quite patient in spite of the falling rain, and touching no drop of intoxicating liquor, for all were under

*The Test Act had been repealed by the Irish Parliament in 1780, but this was, of course, only for Ireland.

a temporary pledge of total abstinence. Those who polled for Fitzgerald were not interfered with; his speech, in which he made a pathetic allusion to his father's services to Ireland, was not interrupted; but from the first his cause was hopeless. When the poll was declared, O'Connell was found to have won by a majority of over two to one (March 30th, 1828).

Difficult Situation of the Government: Debates in Parliament.The victor, as he had said he would do, presented himself at Westminster, and was tendered the usual oaths. He refused to take them, and withdrew. All Ireland now stood in expectation, waiting for the next act of the drama.

The situation was, for the Government, an extremely difficult one. The Lord Lieutenant (Lord Anglesey) declared that the troops in Ireland could not be relied on. In some places the soldiers had cheered O'Connell. O'Connell was known to have great difficulty in keeping the people in hand, and inducing them to refrain from violence. George IV was, like his father, wholly opposed to the Catholic claims, as were also the Duke of Wellington, who was Premier, and Sir Robert Peel, the Home Secretary.

Both the Ministers, however, perceived clearly enough that concession was absolutely necessary, and they succeeded in persuading the King. When Parliament met (February, 1829), the King's speech requested both Houses to consider the civil disabilities of Roman Catholics with a view to their removal.

Catholic Emancipation Granted.--In March a Bill for this purpose was introduced. The speeches of Peel in the Commons, and of Wellington in the Lords on the Catholic Bill were about equally tactless. In both, expediency was the theme; neither contained either a word of sympathy for the Catholics, or any acknowledgment of the justice of their claim. Ireland, said Peel, had become impossible to govern; either it must be held down by mere force, which would be difficult and expensive, or there must be concession. Wellington's tone was similar. If Emancipation were not granted, it would take some 70,000 troops to hold Ireland, should England become involved in any quarrel on the Continent. The choice lay between concession and civil war, and of civil war he had seen too much elsewhere not to desire at any cost to avert it.

Catholic Emancipation Passed. The proposed Bill was debated at considerable length. It deprived the forty-shilling freeholders of their votes, thereby enormously reducing the Irish electorate. The Bill passed both Houses by large majorities, and very reluctantly George IV gave it the Royal Assent (April, 1829).

Catholic Emancipation had been, as has been shown, torn from the reluctant hands of Ministers who disapproved of its principle. It had been accompanied by needless restrictions and irritating decrees. Its spirit was not honestly carried out; for Catholics continued to be, with few exceptions, excluded in practice from many of the positions and honours for which they had just been declared eligible. For example, the title of K.C. was refused to O'Connell, who stood at the very head of his profession in Ireland. For these reasons, the judgment passed on it and its effects, that it "earned no gratitude and deserved none," would appear to be fully justified.

CHAPTER VIII

AGITATION FOR REPEAL

O'Connell's Qualifications for the Rôle of a Popular Leader: The "Tribute."-The years that immediately followed the gaining of Emancipation saw O'Connell at the height of his power.

He was well fitted in every way to play the part of a popular leader; a part which demands almost of necessity the possession of certain physical, as well as certain mental gifts. With these gifts O'Connell was very specially endowed. He was tall and well made. His face, in spite of rather coarse features, was, as a whole, decidedly handsome. Like most men born with a genius for command, he had remarkably fine and brilliant eyes. The power and clearness of his voice was extraordinary; when speaking in an immense hall, he could, apparently without difficulty, make his words distinctly heard at its very furthest extremity. As an orator, he is entitled to take a high place, if not one of the highest. The most remarkable fact about him as a speaker was the ease and wonderful skill with which he could adapt himself, not only in style, but in subject matter, in his manner of reasoning; even, it has been remarked, in gesture to the audience which he happened at the moment to be addressing. Yet no man was more honest, more outspoken, less of a hypocrite. He merely presented different sides of his personality on different occasions.

We have already remarked that the chief aim of O'Connell's entire political life was the Repeal of the Act of Union, and to it he now turned, rendered confident by the victory he had won in the gaining of Emancipation. No doubt he was unduly hopeful, and failed to realise how strong would be the opposition in England to any scheme to revive the Irish Parliament. With all the vigour of his nature he plunged into the struggle.

Henceforth, all his time was devoted to politics, and the huge expenses involved, especially at elections, were met by a Tribute, collected all over Ireland and placed absolutely in his hands. From this fund also he drew sums freely for his own use and that of his family. The taunts and ridicule showered on him by his enemies, both in England