574 



O'CONNELL 



revolution. He entered at Lincoln's Inn in 1704, 

 worked haul, iiinl was called to the Irish bar in 

 May 1798. He was coon drawn, like most eager 

 young lii-luii. -a. into (Militical agitation, and it 

 appear** |in>l>alile tlmt he had some connection with 

 the conspiracy of 17!tS, the unhappy issue of which 

 cured him for life of all love for secret societies. 

 At (In- same time the scandalous scenes at state 

 trials, the degraded condition of his co-religionists, 

 uiiil the shameful circumstances attending the 

 I nUni already -ha|it-d for him the politics of Ilia 

 life. The average pmN 1 -ioiial earnings of hU first 

 four years were only 180, lint thereafter these rose 

 rapidly. In lS02*he marrie<l his cousin, Mary 

 O'Con'nell, who liore him live sons and three 

 daughters, and with whom he lived till her death 

 in 1X36 in uninterrupted happiness. He joined the 

 Minister circuit, and went on it for twenty-two 

 years. He soon hecaine famous as a counsel, as 

 well as an unrivalled cross-examiner of Irish wit- 

 nesses, and ere long was plunged in an enormous 

 practice, amid which he yet contrived to find time 

 lor the convivialities of that day ami for a large 

 measure of political agitation. The wide popularity 

 of 'the Counsellor' to the last a favourite title 

 among his Irish admirers wag due to his fearless- 

 ness anil professional dexterity, his lioisterous wit 

 and good -mi moil r, his constant tact and readiness 

 in reply, and not let-s to the violent language he 

 often employed in court, which he defended in liter 

 days as a necessary means to awaken the slumber- 

 ing spirit and self-respect of Catholics. Their 

 hopes, which had been raised hy the pledges given 



at the I'nion, siHin sank low, and Od 01 now 



Hung himself into the agitation for their rights, 

 quickly distanced Keogh and other timid leaders 

 of the party, and hy the beginning of 1811 stood 

 out as it- virtual chief. 



i. i.iii.-in's motion iii favour of emancipation was 

 carried in March 1813, but his hill was lost in com- 

 mittee. The 'securities ' it pro|>oged were most dis- 

 tasteful to the Catholic bishops, and O'Connell, 

 ever a devoted churchman, supported them in their 

 jMilicy in opposition to Grattan. The timid 

 counsels of the pope, then a pensioned prisoner 

 of Na|Hileon, were displeasing to the Catholic 

 party, hut it was O'Connell's own conscientious 

 convictions that nothing short of repeal would he 

 )MMiuancntly satisfactory that made him light 

 resolutely against all compromise. His attacks 

 on the ' beggarly corporation ' of Dublin, then an 

 Orange stronghold, brought him a challenge from 

 Mr J. N. 1 1 K-tcrre, and in the duel that ensued 

 his pistol unfortunately inflicted a fatal wound on 

 his antagonist, February 1, 1815. O'Connell was 

 filled with lifelong remorse ; he settled a pension 

 on tie' widow, and never till his latest day passed 

 the dead man's house without uncovering his head 

 and lire.'tthing a prayer. At the same time he 

 I a solemn vow never to go out again. 

 Hi- lierv invectives brought him in the course of 

 his lifetime many challenges, but only once did he 

 allow himself to accept another from I'eel in the 

 Septemlirr of IM.'i. The duel was only prevented 

 by his bring arrested on his wife's information and 

 lioniid m cr to keep the peace. Meantime the 

 Catholic cause languished ; Grattun died in 1820, 

 and Plunkct took up his mantle, but again the 

 Lords threw out the bill. The visit of George IV. 

 to liclainl iii August 1821 raised hopes only to be 

 nipped in the liinl, while famine and comiiii-ii-i.il 

 iii-'-'-urity paralysed the public confidence. In 

 1*23, at the moment of dcr|*>st gloom, O'Connell 

 formed on a brood and (Hipular Iwisis the Catholic 

 Association, and In-fore the end of the year hail 

 brought the prii-ts into it. At first they showed 

 much disinclination to join in tie- agitation, prefer- 

 ring the old jiolicy of ' dignified silence ;' but, once 



they entered heartily into it, the movement became 

 for the first time really national and ii resistible. 

 The Association was a gigantic system of organisa- 

 tion, ix-ifcctly new to Ireland, and aroused the 

 greatest enthusiasm from sea to sea. l!y the 

 'Catholic Kent' a large sum of money was raised 

 for its purposes, a penny a month not being too 

 little as a test of membership. I!y tin- end ofl824 

 it had grown to a formidable power, the average 

 weekly rent for its last three months being as 

 much as 500. The government in ahum brought 

 in a bill to suppress the Association, but it dissolved 

 itself. March 18, 1825. The Irish forty-shilling 

 freeholders now began to find courage to oppose 

 their landlords at the elections. Waterfora was 

 carried in 1826, and O'Connell himself stood for 

 Clare in 1828, and was carried amid enormous 

 enthusiasm, yet perfect order. The Clare election 

 set the whole country aflame ; the lord lieutenant, 

 Lord Anglesey, foreWled insurrection, and even 

 the Iron I inkc was appalled at the prospect ; but 

 O'Connell saw that an outbreak would ruin the 

 Catholic cause on the very eve of its triumph, and 

 with magical effect ended the agitation, in 1829 

 the measure of relief passed at last, admitting 

 Catholics to parliament, repealing the oath of 

 abjuration, and mollifying that of supremacy, the 

 'securities' being the abolition of the forty-shilling 

 franchise and raising the qualification to 10. On 

 the 15th May 1829 O'Connell came to take his seat, 

 and was heard at the bar as to his right to escape 

 the old oaths. He spoke calmly and admirably, 

 but the House refused his claim by 190 to 46. lie 

 went down to Clare like a conqueror, was returned 

 unopposed, and took his seat at the beginning of 

 1830, then fifty-five years old. At the new election 

 on the king's death he was returned for \Yaterford. 



Much of the good effect of 1829 was lost by the 

 unnecessary insult to a sensitive people of not 

 allowing its champion to take his scat without 

 re-election, still more by the fact that no ( 'a! holies 

 were appointed to the bench, and by the placing in 

 the hands of the lord-lieutenant the power to sup- 

 press arbitrarily by proclamation any assembly 

 that seemed to him dangerous. O'Connell now 

 formed a Dew society for Kepeal, 'The Friends of 

 Ireland of all Religious Persuasions,' which was 

 quickly suppressed, only to l>e revived as often as 

 suppressed by a succession of others under new 

 names ami forms so as to elude the letter of the 

 law. He denounced the ministry of Wellington 

 and Peel, and tried in 1830 to embarrass them by 

 an unjustifiable letter recommending a run upon 

 gold. In the face of the threatened prosecution 

 against him in 1831 he temporised and so saved 

 himself. In the same year he became King's 

 Counsel, the honour having been kept back as 

 long as possible. It was at this pi-rim! that he 

 declined the challenge of Hardinge, the chief- 

 secretary. Liberal in every part of his imperial 

 policy, during the Iteform straggle he supported 

 the Whigs, as later he advocated free trade in corn, 

 negro emancipation, the removal of the disabilities 

 of the Jews, the cause of Poland, not to speak of 

 universal suffrage, and the drastic reformation of 

 the House of Lords. In the autumn of 1S30 the 

 potato crop had been very poor, and much misery 

 was the result in Ireland. Under O'Connells 

 advice the people declined to pay tithes, and 

 that winter disorder was rampant everywhere. 



lie had sat last for Kerry, when at the general 

 I'b-i-tion of 1832 he was returned for Dublin. At 

 this time he nominated about half of the candidates 

 returned, while three of his sons and two of his 

 sons-in-law composed his ' household brigade.' Of 

 the 10."> Irish memliers but 23 were Tories ; while 

 of the 82 Literals as many as 45 his famous ' tail ' 

 were declared Uepealers. The severest of all 



