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UNLAWFUL SOCIETIES PREVENTION BILL.

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Rightly or wrongly, the Catholic Association grew. The intermittent occurrence of outrages was now ascribed to the new association, for want of a better excuse for the failure of coercion. So, on the 10th of February, 1825, Mr. Goulburn introduced a bill, ostensibly for the prevention of unlawful societies in Ireland, but in reality for the suppression of the Catholic Association. Mr. (afterwards Lord) Brougham interposed to get the bill withdrawn, but he was beaten by a majority of nearly three to one. The second reading was carried by 253 to 107. A division being also demanded on the third reading, it went still more decidedly in favour of the bill, which was rapidly got through the House of Lords, and received the royal assent on the 9th of March.

The Act was, in fact, an amendment or addition to the Convention Act; and it so clearly aimed at the suppression of the Catholic Association that it provided that "every society, committee, or body of persons already constituted or to be constituted, assuming or in any manner or by any means or contrivance exercising the power of acting for the purpose or under the pretence of procuring the redress of grievances in Church or State, or the alteration of any matters by law established, which shall continue or renew their meetings or proceedings, whether under the same or any different names, by adjournment or otherwise, for a longer time than fourteen days from their first meeting, is to be deemed an unlawful combination or confederacy."

For the express purpose of stopping the payment of "rent," the Act provides that it shall be unlawful for any society lasting for more than fourteen days to appoint, authorize, or employ any president, secretary, delegate, or other officer to represent it, or any treasurer or collector to levy or receive any money or contributions.

It is also declared unlawful for any society to exist that is composed of separate branches, or corresponding with any other society, or excluding persons of any religion allowed by law, or taking any lawful oath at any time or place not required by law.

Members and officers of any such society are rendered liable to fine and imprisonment, as for misdemeanour, at the discretion of the court

trying the case. And every person who permits a meeting in his house contrary to the provisions of the Act is liable to a penalty of five pounds, or, for a second offence, to punishment as for a misdemeanour. An exception is made of societies for the promotion of religion, charity, science, agriculture, manufactures, or commerce.

It is a gratifying variety in the gloom of Irish history to learn that the harvest of 1824 was plenteous, and that, as famine had done more to stop violence than all the statutes could do, so now we find that abundance did more than famine towards the restoration of tranquillity, which no effort of the authorities could secure in adverse circumstances. It seems likely that this tranquillity, and the prosperity that caused it, added materially to the magnitude of the subscriptions to the Catholic Association; and it, in its turn, by leading the people to suppose that their grievances might perhaps be removed through the influence of their peaceful combination, was well calculated to prolong the tranquillity, and to teach the people the virtue of patience in their sufferings, based upon the newly-found hope of a happy issue out of their afflictions.

But the period was a brief one. The Unlawful Societies Act speedily crushed the Catholic Association, which fell without a struggle. As though to prove the impotence of suppression, another combination was immediately formed, based upon payments of one pound, and so contrived as to evade the letter of the new Act, in defiance of which the Catholic movement grew daily into the assured strength that eventually led to triumph. That triumph seemed, indeed, already nearer than it proved to be, for almost simultaneously with the Act for the suppression of the association, Sir Francis Burdett carried resolutions to the effect that it was desirable and expedient that Roman Catholics should be admitted to the same political privileges as their Protestant fellow-subjects. A bill was founded upon the resolutions, and after the vehement opposition of the government and a very stormy debate, it passed the Commons by a majority of nineteen in a full House. The feeling was so strong in favour of the bill that it was confidently expected it would pass the Lords, but the Duke of York

CONCESSIOn refuseD BY PEERS.

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again interposed, saying, amongst other things, "I never would consent to allow the claims of the Catholics, so help me God!" Other peers joined him, and such an opposition, described as infuriated, induced the House to reject the bill. Thus, once more, coercion prevailed over concession; and the history of Ireland, after a brief period of brightness and hope, plunges into another cloud of darkness and despair.

CHAPTER XXIII.

OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF GRIEVANCES-DEATH OF THE DUKE OF YORK-DEATH OF LORD LIVERPOOLCANNING'S MINISTRY AND DEATH.

UT though the government and Parliament refused concessions,

forced itself upon public notice. Two parliamentary committees were appointed, one in 1824 and the other in 1825, for the purpose of making inquiries into the state of Ireland.

As we have just seen, it was a period of comparative plenty and peace, and the reports of those committees therefore afford pictures of Ireland at her best about that time.

Accordingly it was reported that the Irish peasantry, with few exceptions, lived in the most degraded state, without property, and without the possibility of acquiring property, which latter is a very eloquent admission to be deliberately made by a body of men composed of the nobility and gentry. They also said the peasantry barely sustained animal existence by a very insufficient quantity of food of the most wretched kind. They were, with scarcely an exception, the slaves and tools of the landlords, and their dependence, poverty, and degradation were aggravated by the mode in which the tithes were collected, in defiance of recent regulations, and by the defective administration of justice by the local courts, which were of necessity exclusively Pro

testant.

The population seemed to be rapidly on the increase, every new birth adding a new item to the general squalor and misery. It

ABSENTEES AND MIDDLEMEN.

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appeared to the committees that the people (notwithstanding the bountiful harvest) had lost all heart, and that hope was unknown to them. Though ascribing much of the degradation to religious causes, the committees admitted that very much of it was unquestionably owing to the state of property. Almost every estate was overladen by jointures, settlements, and mortgages, and the proprietors mostly absentees. They drew their rents from Ireland, but spent them in England, France, or Germany. In their absence, without knowledge of or sympathy with individual tenants, their sole object with regard to their estates was to get as much rent as possible. Therefore almost every estate was in the control of an agent, who, acting as a middleman, and renting or hiring the whole estate at a lump sum, was at liberty to get all the rent he could from the tenants, every shilling of increase being his own profit.

Just as the small retail purchaser pays a higher price than the wholesale merchant, so the small holder of land pays a higher rent in proportion, and for this cause it was generally the interest of the middlemen to subdivide again and again, raising the proportion of rent every time, until, what with subdivision and high rents, it was impossible for the tenants to get an adequate subsistence.

The cabins in which the people lived were of the most wretched description. Whole families-all ages and both sexes-commonly lived in one room, where the decencies of a reasonable life could not be observed. There was such a dearth of employment that at that time (in that prosperous year) thousands of able-bodied labourers were willing to work for twopence per day, and it was estimated that a million of individuals lived or eked out a living by mendicancy. Such was the evidence concerning the incongruous condition of things, that it was computed that two and a quarter millions sterling were given away by voluntary charitable institutions, besides the money and other relief distributed under the Poor Law, the whole being more than half the public revenue.

The competition for land at that time is said to have been only comparable with the urgent desire to get at provisions in a besieged

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