CHAPTER III.

O'Connell's Independence of Character found fault withO'Connell and Grattan-Lord Donoughmore-The Veto-O'Connell's Speeches on Grattan-Chief Baron Wolfe-The Duel with Mr. D'Esterre-Speech at a Catholic Meeting-Affair of Honor with Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Peel-The Meeting at Kilmainham Court-House-George the Fourth's Visit to Ireland.

MR. D. OWEN MADDEN, in his work "Ireland and its Rulers," says, that when O'Connell entered public life, "his language was violent, and he quarrelled with the Whig leaders, and laboured to make the venerable Grattan as unpopular as possible."*

No doubt, O'Connell's manly independence of speech, unusual amongst Catholics at that time, alarmed the timid old leaders of his party, who never dreamed of obtaining their rights, except through a spirit of abject servility on their side, and a patronizing condescension on the part of the Protestants. He quarrelled with the Whig leaders! Who were they? Men who would not open their lips in favour of Catholic freedom, unless the independence of the Catholic Church in Ireland was sacrificed for ever by the Veto. Men who regarded the Irish Catholics (perhaps some of their successors regard them still) as inferior beings--as a race far below the Saxon and the Norman. "A century of legal degradation," said O'Connell,

* Part the First, p. 22.

"has so lessened and brought down the Irish Catholics, in the eyes of their Protestant neighbours, that we are, in the scale of humanity, but dwarfs compared with those social giants. I was long aware that such was the estimate of us, in which our enemies indulged; but this correspondence was necessary, in order to convince me, that the same prejudice lurked in the minds of our friends. I flattered myself that we had risen in their estimation. I did imagine we had ceased to be whitewashed negroes, and had thrown off, for them, all traces of the colour of servitude; but this correspondence has, I confess, done away the delusion."*

As to leaders, and as to men who wish to become leaders, it is, perhaps, true enough to say, that a good deal of rivalry and jealousy exists amongst them; but it is unjust to charge any man with those feelings, unless there is at hand good proof of their existence. It was said of O'Connell that he was anxious to set John Keogh aside, and to take his place as Catholic leader; but, I cannot find that he ever uttered one harsh or unkind word of good John Keogh, of Mount Jerome. He differed with him, in which difference O'Connell was right, and John Keogh was quite wrong; John Keogh wished the Catholics to give up the agitation of their claims, and retire to the shade of a murky, silent inaction, whence they might scowl their discontent upon the government; but the great founder of constitutional agitation saw the folly of such a course, and opposed it, but without a quarrel-without uttering a disparaging word of the man who advised it.

* He was speaking of the correspondence of the Catholic Board with Lord Donoughmore and Mr. Grattan.

The same may be said, with regard to O'Connell's conduct towards the illustrious Henry Grattan. Lord Donoughmore, in the House of Lords, and Grattan in the House of Commons, were, for some, years, entrusted with the management of the Catholic petition. Neither had the least difficulty in giving a Veto to the crown in the appointment of Catholic bishops. They were Protestants, and saw no great evil in it; but O'Connell believed that such a concession would inflict irreparable injury on the Catholic Church, and he was, therefore, a most uncompromising anti-Vetoist; and it is not too much to say of him, that he had the chief hand in saving us from that measure, a measure pregnant with untold mischief.

An intimate friend of, and one who, in some sense, may be looked upon as a biographer of his, Mr. O'Neill Daunt, says, there was no difference between him and Grattan, except upon the Veto.* There was no expressed difference certainly, but I question much, if O'Connell approved, or could, within his principles, approve of the support Grattan gave the Insurrection and Arms Acts of 1807. In presenting the Catholic petition on the 27th of February, 1810, Grattan said, "on a former occasion he had suggested to the House, that the Irish Catholics were willing to allow, on the appointment of their bishops, a Veto to the Crown. He was sorry to say that at present no such sentiment appeared to prevail.. He retained," he

said, "the great principle which he had then advanced, namely, that on the communication to

"Ireland and her Agitators," by W. J. O'N. Daunt, Esq., Ed. of 1867, p. 52.

the Catholics of all the privileges of the constitution, it was necessary to secure those claims against the danger of a foreign influence, and if the Catholics objected to obtain that security by a Veto, in the crown, it became incumbent on them to furnish some other effectual and palpable remedy. The Pope was almost certain now to become a subject of France, and a subject of France, for certain, would never be mitted to nominate the spiritual magistrates of the people of Ireland. He should rely, and rest the subject on two great principles-communication of constitutional privileges, and security against a foreign nomination."

per

Thus did Grattan proclaim himself a thorough Vetoist.

In November, 1813, a correspondence took place between Lord Donoughmore and Mr. Grattan on the one part, and the Catholic Board on the other, relative to the course to be pursued in the then ensuing session of parliament, with regard to the measure of Catholic relief. "Both Lord Donoughmore and Mr. Grattan distinctly and definitely refused to continue in communication with the Catholic Board, in this matter, on the basis proposed by the latter-namely, that no 'securities' should be embodied in any future 'relief bill,' without the previous knowledge and approbation of the Catholic Prelates.

Both accused the Board of, at least, the appearance of an intention to invade the privileges of

*The word Veto had become unpopular, and other milder words began to be used. Later on in the controversy O'Connell said that the Veto question was still coming up, under "its various nicknames of Securities, Conditions, Adjustments, Regulations, and Arrangements.

parliament, and to dictate to it, by, as Lord Donoughmore worded it, "leaving a naked affirmative or dissent as their only remaining sphere of action, to the representatives of the people, and the hereditary counsellors of the crown.

This, in fact, amounted to telling the Catholics, that they had no right to say what they wanted, but that they were to take whatever might be offered, and be thankful.

Grattan's letter was even more pointed than that of Lord Donoughmore; Grattan declined to hold any further communication at all with the Catholic Board, unless they submitted completely to his views: "My answer is," said he, "that my zeal in the Catholic cause is inextinguishable-that I have a great affection for my fellow citizens of the Catholic religion-that I have a personal regard for a great number of the individuals that are of the Catholic Board, without the least degree of enmity to any of them, and that it is in consequence of these feelings, as well as from a sense of the duty which I owe to parliament, and particularly to the House of Commons, of which I am a member-that I decline a communication with the Catholic Board, on a bill to be formed by them for the legislature, or any proceeding like a dictation to parliament. I make no doubt the Board will not fall into such an error, there are established regular ways by which they can convey all their wishes. I am satisfied they will resort to such, in which they will be most respectable and persuasive."

On the 8th of January, 1814, there was a meeting of the Catholic Board. The above letters came before it; they had been published for some time, and were much commented on. The subject was a