1828.] Lord Wellesley's Administration in Ireland. 55 



the acts and speeches of the leaders were carefully watched, with a view 

 to make individuals responsible for the offences of the body. Mr. 

 O'Connel. had been on a former occasion indicted for uttering "seditious 

 words/' (an absurdity in terms), and Sir Harcourt Lees, on the other 

 hand, to balance the favours of government, had been also indicted for 

 some fanatical expression, both of which indictments were thrown out by 

 the grand jury, who, however they might have disliked Mr. OConnell, 

 disliked Lord Wellesley still more. The weakness, therefore, situated 

 as Ireland is, of seeking to make the members of a body amenable to 

 laws which are virtually outraged by the body itself, was, as might be 

 expected, proved by its failure, and the continued impunity up to the 

 present hour, of the New Catholic Association. 



It was, of course, one of the anomalies of the times, that while the 

 catholics were thus engaged, the Orangemen should be promoting the 

 same object by different means. Orange coteries were collected in every 

 village ; scandal and calumny flowed in every quarter : the police were 

 impeded in the performance of their duty : fictitious disturbances were 

 got up : and every species of embarrassment and annoyance that could 

 be devised was practised against the government. In this crisis it was 

 no unusual thing to find a bigotted Orange magistrate closeted in one 

 apartment of the castle, and a catholic landholder in another : promises 

 were held out to each, and, in the nature of things, both were disap- 

 pointed. Thus the materials of disunion and discontent were sent back 

 into society, fanned alike by the statesman who desired to do good, and 

 the power that crossed him at every movement. 



The catholic question came to be debated, and Lord Wellesley sent 

 his vote by proxy to the house, in its favour. Through the aid of the 

 chief ecclesiastics and resident catholic gentry, the association had now 

 attained a consistency and influence that enabled it to load the tables of 

 both houses with countless petitions : mercurial expectation was on the 

 tip-toe the whole island was in a ferment. Parliament opened, and the 

 first topic discussed, which occupied four nights, was the association ; a 

 new inroad upon the constitution was attempted, and it was only tolerated 

 in the pledge that the question of emancipation should be immediately 

 discussed. And it was discussed, but in connection with two subsidiary 

 measures, or wings, that by exciting an under-current of minor difficulties 

 eventually defeated the master measure of tranquillization. The depu- 

 tation, returned to Ireland, mortified and humiliated : they carried with 

 them the onus of that insult which is offered to a whole people through 

 its accredited agents ; and they rapidly spread the sentiment, " from the 

 Giant's Causeway, to Cape Clear." 



Now was the moment for the working of Lord Wellesly's policy, if, 

 indeed, it were available to Ireland. Now was the moment to ascertain 

 the specific gravity of conciliation in a country torn by factions, and con- 

 vulsed by law : but distrust and jealousy had grown out of the past imbe- 

 cility of the government, and the people no longer heeded its councils or 

 respected its ordinances. The Catholic Association literally governed 

 Ireland. It swayed the opinions of the multitude it influenced the pro- 

 ceedings of every public meeting and at last spread its anomalous inter- 

 ference to the courts of justice, where it protected and defended the 

 helpless caste against the privileged. Lord Wellesley's conciliation was, 

 therefore, unavailing : it produced nothing but derision or contempt- 

 for now feelings ran so high that it was impossible to maintain a neutral 



