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IRISH AGITATION.

[1831. the country, and the ordinary course of law was deemed insufficient to repress the mischief. Throughout the kingdom besides a spirit of unquiet reigned, and this mischievous state of mind among the peasantry was fostered by the constant talking against, and vehement denunciations of England and English connexion by the agitators. They chose the most disturbed districts for the scene of their meetings and haranguesand thus increased the misery they found. The discontent induced men to cease from regular and consecutive labour. The landlords found rents precarious, and ran them up, hoping by that means to reimburse themselves for such as they lost in the general disturbance. But they who were in this excited state of mind were not likely to suffer distraint in silence or without resistance the law could not be enforced without the aid of the military, and in various instances bloody encounters took place between the soldiers together with the armed police on the one side, and the people on the other. Mr. O'Connell and his friends increased, if they did not cause this mischief. They now insisted upon the repeal of the Union as the only means by which the burthen of high rents could be lessened. On one subject, indeed, they could and did enlist strong religious feeling into their service. The tithes paid to protestant clergymen for supposed religious service was by the Irish catholic farmer looked upon as a great grievance. It is clear, nevertheless, that he did not pay it in his character of farmer and the injustice of the tithe was not in its

1831.]

IRISH AGITATION.

15

being a tax; the real injustice was applying a public property to ends which the public, that is the majority, did not desire to promote. Mr. O'Connell, however, was not particular on such subjects. He found the tithe obnoxious-he found that he could connect it with the religious antipathies of his countrymen-and he did so without scruple. He shouted for repeal and against tithes, and accused the government of being cruelly unjust since they levied a burthensome impost from a starving people, to maintain in luxury a protestant priesthood. Mr. Shiel, one of the most eloquent and instructed of Mr. O'Connell's friends, one indeed who was for some short time looked upon almost as a rival, and who, as an educated man, ought to have been averse to any such misleading of an ignorant people, thus addressed his excited and desperate hearers:

'If the Union is not repealed within two years I am determined that I will pay neither rent, tithes, nor taxes. They may distrain my goods, but who'll buy, boys?—that's the word—who'll buy? Mind, I don't tell any man here to follow my advice; but so help me God, if I don't do it, you may call me Shiel of the silk gown.' Mr. Shiel has lived to repent this phrase. He has since acquired property-has had to receive, in place of paying rents-and has moreover attached himself to an English administration, bound and pledged to resist all attempts to obtain repeal. Whether his countrymen have called him Shiel of the silk gown, I know not-nor do I pretend to know what of impu

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IRISH AGITATION.

[1831.

tation and dishonour there may be in such an appellation. If it was meant to signify, that he had succumbed to and become the subservient follower of an existing administration, and received honour from them-and if so doing was to be deemed guilty and dishonourable-then all that can be said is, that Mr. Shiel has done all these things. To have done so, would not in ordinary cases be dishonourable—and, probably, Mr. Shiel has changed his mind since those days, and now sees that the fault was in making such a speechnot in acting on principles directly opposed to it.

In the year 1828, Lord Anglesey being lordlieutenant, had given unpalatable advice to the government on the subject of Irish grievances, and afforded a pretext for his recal by being openly on terms of intimate friendship with persons who had been long obnoxious to the ascendancy party. Lord Anglesey was recalled, and was by Mr. O'Connell immediately exalted into, and forthwith became the momentary idol of the Irish people.2 The next year,

The Duke of Wellington gravely wrote thus to Lord Anglesey: I will not conceal from you, likewise, that your visit, and those of my Lord Chancellor, to Lord Cloncurry, and the attendance of Lord Cloncurry at the Roman-catholic Association immediately subsequent to the period at which he had the honour of receiving the king's representative in his house, are not circumstances calculated to give satisfaction to the king and to the public generally.'

2 It was, as I have already intimated, no long time until Lord Anglesey framed opinions for himself in reference to Irish politics; and in accordance with his new views, he declared himself friendly to catholic emancipation and parliamentary

1831.]

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as we have seen, emancipation was granted, through fear, in place of being voluntarily conceded, as Lord Anglesey had advised. Lord Anglesey seemed likely, when the Whigs came into office, to be the most welcome viceroy that could be sent to Ireland, and he was re-appointed to that office with this expectation. It was not, however, Mr. O'Connell's cue to be satisfied, and he therefore quickly found subject of quarrel.'

reform. The result was his recal in a year from the date of his appointment, and his departure with the honour of an ovation; he was escorted from Dublin to the water's edge by the entire population of that city.'-Lord Cloncurry's Recollections, p. 332.

1 Lord Anglesey himself, though anxious, appears nevertheless to have expected a triumph on his return to Ireland, and discussed with his friends the mode of his entry into Dublin, in the expectation of being rapturously received. Mr. O'Connell quickly undeceived him. The pretext of quarrel was the appointment of Mr. Doherty ('dirty Doherty,' as it pleased Mr. O'Connell to have him called) to be Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland. O'Connell,' writes Lord Anglesey to his friend Lord Cloncurry, 'is my avant courier. He starts today with more mischief in hand than I have yet seen him charged with. I saw him yesterday for an hour and a half. I made no impression on him whatever, and I am now thoroughly convinced that he is bent upon desperate agitation.' A few days after, he thus gives a voice to his amazement at the sudden change in the opinion of the Irish people respecting himself:

'Had there been the sort of reception decided upon that you expected only a few days ago, I should, of course, have mounted my horse at Ball's Bridge, and have endeavoured to show the most marked sensations of gratitude and high sensibility for a people who loved me. As public opinion has taken another course, I must adapt my conduct to the altered circumstances.

.. What I insist on is this, (and I charge you, my dear lord, very particularly upon the subject,) let no friend of mine come forward and mix himself up with my unpopularity. (What a

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MR. STANLEY IRISH SECRETARY.

[1831.

Lord Anglesey's popularity disappeared as suddenly as it had arisen; and he, like all his predecessors, found in Mr. O'Connell a fierce and unscrupulous opponent.

The change of administration was hailed as a fortunate event for Ireland; and until the new ministry began to make their Irish appointments they were popular. Mr. Stanley, the new Irish secretary, was too imperious and petulant to be long even on apparent good terms with Mr. O'Connell, who finding that cajolery did not produce the result he desired, determined to acquire through terror what was not conceded from good will. Before Lord Anglesey reached Ireland as the new Whig viceroy, Mr. O'Connell arrived in Dublin, and changed the whole current of popular feeling. Agitation was to be employed, and the nerves of Mr. Stanley and the government were to be tried after the approved fashion of the Catholic Association.

The proceedings and language of Mr. O'Connell became every day more hostile and threatening: he went about the country making violent haranguesgathering together numerous assemblages of the people, under colour of meetings for the purpose of petitioning or of celebrating some feast or festival. At all of these meetings he did his utmost

word for me to make use of among Irishmen !!!) . . . . It will be curious to contrast the first days of 1829 with the last days of 1830; and the whole change of sentiment to be upon the plea of a solitary law appointment! Amazing!'-See Lord Cloncurry's Recollections, p. 413.