Daniel O'connell

The union of the Parliaments, obtained as it was by wholesale force, fraud, and corruption, caused intense discontent among the Irish people. In less than two years, an attempt was made to revive the United Irishmen, and a few daring spirits planned a rebellion. Chief among these was Robert Emmet, a young man of ardent temper and fervent love of country. Emmet gathered about him a few young men, and one day sallied forth in Dublin at the head of eighty adherents, to take possession of the city. The people did not respond to his summons, and Emmet was forced to hide himself. He might now have escaped; but he was in love with Sarah Curran, the daughter of the great Irish advocate, John Philpott Curran, and resolved to see her once more before seeking safety in flight. While he was awaiting his chance for an interview, he was arrested. He was promptly tried for high treason, and hung (1803). Notwithstanding the folly and failure of his attempt, the name of Robert Emmet is still loved in Ireland as that of a zealous and self-sacrificing patriot.

The Irish Catholics had been promised, before the union, that they should be "emancipated;" that is, that the laws which prevented them from voting, sitting as members of Parliament, and holding civil and military offices, should be done away with. But after the union, Pitt failed to redeem this promise. He might have redeemed it, had it not been for the obstinate refusal of George the Third to consent to Catholic emancipation. The king would not listen to such a thing; and the result was, that the rights of the Irish Catholics were not conceded to them until many years after. There now ensued a revival of the acts of violence into which the Irish always fell when they despaired of getting justice from the laws. The Whiteboys once more came into existence; and, in various parts of the island, cattle were maimed, houses were burned, and landlords and their agents were maltreated. The government met this state of things by passing a severe "coercion act," by which the ordinary laws were suspended, and large powers were given to the lord-lieutenant and the magistrates. To this were added the suspension of the habeas corpus, and an "arms act," by which the Irish were forbidden to keep arms, and the authorities were empowered to search houses for them.

Henry Grattan was now an old man. But, although the Irish Parliament which he had established had been suppressed, Grattan's heart and voice were still devoted to his unhappy country. He became a member of the British Parliament, and within its walls eloquently urged that Catholic emancipation should be granted to Ireland. He continued to devote all his energies to this object until his death (1820). But now a new and still more powerful champion of Irish rights was fast rising into public notice. This was Daniel O'Connell. This great leader, who was by profession a lawyer, and who belonged to an old and landed family in southwestern Ireland, first came into notice as the chairman of a committee, whose purpose it was to agitate before Parliament the Catholic claim to political freedom (1808). He was already known as an eloquent pleader, with a powerful frame, a strong, melodious, sonorous voice, and a bold and vigorous temperament. The previous leaders of the Irish cause were Protestants: O'Connell was a zealous Catholic. He was thirty-five, in the early prime of his manhood.

O'Connell in no long time became the undisputed chief of the Irish patriots. At first he hesitated whether to pursue an agitation to repeal the act of union, and restore the Irish Parliament, or to confine himself to seeking to obtain Catholic emancipation. He decided upon the latter course. A strong party in Ireland was soon formed to support him. Prominent among his adherents was Richard Lalor Shiel, who was a vehement, eloquent orator, and an earnest patriot; and once more the familiar name of Parnell appears, in Sir Henry, as a leader in the patriot cause.

The agitation for Catholic emancipation became active and formidable, and was continued with ever-increasing force for six years (1823-29). In the meantime Ireland suffered terribly from repeated failures of the potato crop. The mass of the Irish people have always relied upon potatoes as their principal food. Whenever, therefore, the potato crop has failed, the horrors of famine have followed and to famine has usually been added, in many places, desperate deeds of violence. In one year (1822) many hundreds of thousands of Irish were fed daily by charity. Great numbers died of downright starvation; and so turbulent was the country, that a large military force was needed to keep it from drifting into anarchy.

The first important step which O'Connell took was to form the "Catholic Association." This society was organized to get up petitions, to arrange public meetings, to spread pamphlets, and to aid in sending men to Parliament who were in favor of Catholic emancipation. Its members paid an annual assessment of a guinea ($5.25); and it was headed by a select committee, to whom was committed the work of carrying forward its objects. In no long time the association contained half a million Irishmen. In order to obtain funds for keeping up the agitation, the Irish Catholics were asked to contribute a penny a month. This was called the "Catholic rent," and soon produced no less a sum than five hundred pounds a week. So rapidly did the society increase, that the government became alarmed. It was finally suppressed by law (1825). But O'Connell was equal to the occasion. He simply changed the name of the society, and went on with his agitation.

At last O'Connell resorted to a bold expedient. He desired to show England that the Irish nation demanded political liberty for the Catholics. The law forbade a Catholic to sit in Parliament; but it did not say that a Catholic could not be a candidate, and be elected to Parliament. A vacancy occurred in the Irish county of Clare. O'Connell suddenly presented himself as a candidate. After a stormy contest, he was triumphantly elected. But he refused to take the oath in the House of Commons, for the oath rejected the Catholic faith. Both England and Ireland were now wrought up to a high pitch of excitement. It was seen that, unless O'Connell's demand was conceded, civil war would ensue. The Duke of Wellington, a Tory, was prime minister. In spite of his dislike of Catholic emancipation, he felt compelled to grant it. A bill was brought in, which admitted the Catholics to Parliament, and to civil and military office. It passed both Houses, was signed by George the Fourth, and became a law of the land (I829).

By the provisions of the new law the oath which compelled a Catholic, before he could sit in Parliament, to renounce his religion, was done away with. All he had now to do was to swear that he would sustain the Protestant succession and the reigning dynasty on the throne, and that he would not injure the Protestant religion. Any Roman Catholic might now sit in either House of Parliament, except that no Catholic priest could be a member of the Commons. O'Connell took his seat as member for Clare. His triumph was brilliant, but was not entirely complete; for, while Parliament gave Catholic emancipation, it at the same time restricted the suffrage in Ireland. Before the passage of Catholic emancipation, Irishmen who held freehold estates, the rent of which exceeded forty shillings, could vote for members of Parliament. But now a law was passed raising the qualification for voting to ten pounds; that is, no Irishman could now vote in a county, who did not have an estate valued at a ten-pounds' rental. A few years later, the ten-pounds qualification was extended to the boroughs as well as the counties, and thus included all Ireland.

This restriction of the Irish suffrage deprived six-eighths of the former electors of their votes. It naturally lessened the satisfaction afforded by the emancipation of the Catholics. It enabled the landlords to deal more severely with their tenants, and thus brought about evictions, distress, deeds of violence, and a renewal of the harsh laws of coercion. Meanwhile O'Connell and his adherents did not rest content with the victory which their boldness and persistency had wrung from the British Parliament. The political rights of the Catholics had been achieved. O'Connell had learned the power and successful results of a vigorously sustained agitation, conducted without violating law, and without resort to physical force. He now resolved to apply this effective method to another and yet more important purpose. This purpose was to repeal the union of the Parliaments, to recall into existence the separate Irish Parliament, and thus to restore to Ireland the self-government enjoyed during the last eight years of the eighteenth century.