equal to all; I would make them feel in their hearts that in its good and evil fortunes their rights and interests are bound up just as ours are, and that therefore its peace, its welfare, its honor, and its greatness may and ought to be as dear to them as they are to us. 5 I do not, indeed, indulge in the delusion that this act alone will remedy all the evils which we now deplore. No, it will not; but it will be a powerful appeal to the very best instincts and impulses of human nature; it will, like a warm Io ray of sunshine in springtime, quicken and call to light the germs of good intention wherever they exist; it will give new courage, confidence, and inspiration to the well-disposed; it will weaken the power of the mischievous, by stripping off their pretexts and exposing in their nakedness 15 the wicked designs they still may cherish; it will light anew the beneficent glow of fraternal feeling and of national spirit; for, sir, your good sense as well as your heart must tell you that, when this is truly a people of citizens equal in their political rights, it will then be easier to make it also a 20 people of brothers. No. I is the personal talk of a leader to his followers, - here a vast throng. No. IV is also the address of a leader to his people, but on an unusually high plane, on which patriotism becomes one with religion. Nos. II and III are protests-the first made as a duty to oneself, with no hope of changing the set of public feeling; the second made in the hope that a clear, probative, persuasive statement of the reasons why the proposed course of action is unwarranted and unwise may convince the public. I. DANIEL O'CONNELL. On Repeal of the Union. Hill of Tara, August 15th, 1843. [Repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 which established the legislative union of England and Ireland from January 1, 1801 "was spreading like fire before the wind. In order to fan it into a general conflagration, O'Connell announced his intention of holding a public meeting in each 5 county in Ireland in turn. The first was held at Trim, in county Meath, on 19th March. The spectacle of thirty thousand persons meeting in orderly array to protest against the Union, and to petition for its repeal, produced a profound effect on the public mind in Ireland and England. On 21st May there was another monster meeting at IO Cork, at which it was calculated that not less than five hundred thousand persons were present. The meeting was the Association's answer to Peel's threat to uphold the Union even at the risk of civil war. The day following the Cork meeting, the Lord Lieutenant, Earl de Grey, removed O'Connell and Lord French from the magistracy of their 15 respective counties. As a protest against this high-handed and unconstitutional proceeding, prominent Whigs retired from the Commission of the Peace, with the result of swelling the ranks of Repeal with valuable recruits. On 29th May, the Irish Chief Secretary, Lord Eliot, introduced an Arms Bill, or, as it might with more propriety have been 20 called, a Bill for disarming the Catholic peasantry of Ireland, into the House of Commons. Its object was prospective and preventive, rather than retrospective and retaliatory. So far as the condition of the country was concerned, it was absolutely uncalled for. The palpable injustice of it aroused the indignation of the opposition, and so strenuous 25 was the resistance offered to it that August was drawing to a close before it received the royal assent. Encouraged by this unexpected diversion in his favour, O'Connell pushed on the agitation with all his might. Monster meeting succeeded monster meeting in rapid succession, culminating in the ever memorable one at Tara, on 15th August. Tuesday, the 15th of August, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in the Roman Catholic calendar, broke warm and bright. The enthusiasm of the people was unbounded: for had not the Libera 30 |