188

CHAP. VII.

Universal inertness of the Catholic body-Causes thereof -Difficulty of sustaining public excitement-Arrival of the King-His farewell letter-Not acted on-Disappointment-Continued despondency of the Catholics— Means of rousing them-Defects of former plans-How to be remedied-Union of all parties-New plan projected by Mr. O'Connell, aided by Mr. Sheil-Difficulties to encounter: surmounted-Establishment of the Fifth General Committee, or late Catholic AssociationImmediate advantages-Suppression of local outragePacification of the country-Sympathy of all classes— Union of the Aristocracy, Clergy, and People-Measures of the Association-Establishment on an extensive scale of a new Catholic fund.-Rapid progress-Sanguine hopes-Relief bill of 1825-Preliminary and collateral measures-Relief bill and Freehold and Pension bill rejected-The Suppression Association bill, commonly called the Algerine bill-passed-The Association attempted to be suppressed.

On the dissolution of the Catholic board, every one seemed to have returned to a state of inertia, from which there existed little hope of effectually rousing them in future. The attempt had been made and failed; the experiment was discouraging; the country seemed once more consigned over to irredeemable apathy. Public

opinion in Ireland, and public opinion in England, are not to be measured by the same standard. In England it is, like its civilization, the slow but robust growth of many centuries; it has risen out of the cool study of great political and commercial questions, out of the slow comparison of their principles with their exemplifications in existing government, out of a tranquil and persevering observation of the influence of both on all classes of society in the neighbouring countries, particularly in France and America, and a keen and often an involuntary application of the common-sense conclusions drawn from such comparison to their own. In Ireland every thing is partial, every thing is momentary, every thing is impulse; there is no standard, or the standard changes every day. Upon the great middle layer of English society no question falls without leaving its lasting impression. Upon a cor-. responding, though by no means a similar class in Ireland, the utmost which can be expected, is a strong but transient sentiment, ruffling for a moment the surface, but then leaving the depths as dead and as sluggish as before. The Irish mind, like the waters of the Mediterranean, is easily roused and easily calmed; the English, like those of the Atlantic, requires something more than a passing gust of agitation to rouse it from the abyss wherein it had reposed. Once ex

cited indeed by the force of some enduring public motive, the storm will rage, and the waves prevail; nothing less than the intervention of a god can then allay its wrath, or charm it back into its former repose. In a word, the Irish act on belief, the English on conviction-one feels, the other knows-reason in general is the guide of one nation, passion of the other, and one impression lasts, and the other passes away. I know not whether, for purposes like the present, such peculiarity in the natural temperament be an advantage or the reverse; but this one assertion may assuredly be hazarded, that its nice and judicious management has always been one of the most difficult tasks in the province of the Irish popular leader. To excite has never been difficult, but to keep the steam up to its original pressure, without risking an explosion on the one side, and on the other avoiding that tendency to relapse into former coolness, incidental to natures so singularly excitable,—has been indeed a problem, which in almost every instance of Irish politics has eluded the intellect and defied the exertion of the most zealous and sagacious patriots. Nor could there be a stronger illustration of this position than the period which is actually before us. It was quite extraordinary, the thick obstruction, the flat and utter lethargy, which in a

moment replaced the former menace and tumult, the high-crested defiance, the unchangeable resolve, the bold action of the body. The component portions of their assembly had flown back to their original situations; the aristocracy, the clergy, the merchant, had all resolved into their respective classes. The very action of their opposite and balanced forces had produced rest; they crouched, and slept; their very friends sickened at the unavailing attempt to raise to a level with other citizens a caste essentially inferior; they gave the task up in despair; a pact of eternal silence was struck; the Whig was to enjoy the cheap reputation of liberality, and the Catholic was not to mar with injudicious complaint the political views or influence of the Whig. The Catholic spirit had totally passed away; the dead body only was left behind.

From this disgraceful state of lethargy the Catholics were momentarily aroused by a very remarkable event. In 1821, the King expressed his gracious intention of visiting Ireland. The intelligence was received by all classes with the most unbounded joy. Such visits had been most rare in the history of that country; and had usually been undertaken with far different feelings and for far different purposes than the diffusion of tranquillity and peace. But little

doubt could in the present instance exist of the beneficent objects of the royal visitor. It was not to be supposed, that he could have been prompted to such a measure by a puerile anxiety to see, for the first time, a remote portion of his kingdom, or a desire to exhibit himself ostentatiously to the admiration of his loyal subjects of Ireland. Catholics and Protestants both agreed to consider it an augury of happier times; the Catholic trusting with his usual precipitation to his own sanguine wishes; the Protestant sagaciously acquiescing in the convictions of the Catholic. An armistice, or suspension of existing hostilities, was readily concluded between both contending parties. The influential men on either side, in accordance with the royal recommendation, sacrificed or repressed all former animosities: reconciliation dinners were given,-and meetings held, in which the Catholic leaders on one side, and the corporation leaders on the other, pledged themselves solemnly to an oblivion of all past differences, and to a union of exertion in future for the benefit and prosperity of their common country.* On the 17th August,

The fraternal embraces of Mr. O'Connell and Alderman Bradley King are not yet forgotten. They were as vehement and as transitory as most other "eternal pledges" of the kind.