Daniel O'Connell and the revival of national life in Ireland

Front matter

Digitized by

Heroes of the Nations

A Series of Biographical Studies presenting the lives and work of certain representative historical characters, about whom have gathered the traditions of the nations to which they belong, and who have, in the majority of instances, been accepted as types of the several national ideals.

Preface

THIS little volume is not offered to the public as a mere verbal expansion of the article which I contributed a few years ago to the Dictionary of National Biography. The conditions of its production have allowed of freer treatment than was possible or even desirable in the former instance. At the same time I have endeavoured to maintain the attitude of impartiality which, I trust, marked the earlier essay. My view throughout has remained unchanged. The ashes of the controversy that raged about O'Connell during his lifetime are still hot in the path of his biographer. Perhaps even yet the time has hardly come when it is possible to judge him in his true proportions. Years of study devoted to Irish history and a warm attachment to the land of my literary adoption will, I hope, plead for me with those who regard it as a presumption for anyone save an Irishman to offer an opinion on a subject peculiarly Irish. Fortunate in possessing dear friends in both camps, and knowing that however divided they are in politics they are united in a common love of their common country, I shall account myself doubly fortunate if the sketch I have here attempted of perhaps the

iii iv

Preface.

most illustrious of their countrymen tends in any — even the slightest — degree to lessen the grounds of difference and to strengthen the bonds of union between them. Having no other cause to serve but that of truth, I have concealed nothing and set nothing down in malice. ForO'Connell my admiration has increased the more attentively I have studied his life ; and though I am well aware that the result has fallen far short of the modest ideal I set before me, I have tried to console myself with the reflection of a generous critic, who was wont to remark that, " nullum esse librum tarn malum ut non aliqua parte prodesset."

R. D.

O'CONNELL COAT-OF-ARMS.

Chapter I. Page

EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE (1775-1802) . . I

Introduction — Birthplace — "A gentle lover of Nature" — Parentage and birth — Early Impressions — School-days at Cove, St. Omer, and Douay — French Revolution — Enters Lincoln's Inn — His studies — Returns to Ireland — Historical retrospect — Is called to the Bar — Rebellion of '98 — Illness — Joins the Munster circuit — Anecdote — Professional Success— Irish judges — Attitude towards the Bench — "Counsellor O'Connell " — Opposition to the Union — First political speech — M arriage — Domestic felicity.

Chapter II

The Union — Emmet's rebellion — O'Connell's mission — Catholic Agitation revived — Catholic petition rejected — John Keogh and the policy of " dignified silence" — O'Connell ousts Keogh from the leadership of the Catholics — Grattan's mistake — Origin of the veto controversy — Agitation in Dublin against the Union— Causes of the same — O'Connell advocates the repeal of the Union — Collapse of the Agitation — Catholic Committee and the Convention Act — O'Connell's proposals for evading the Act — Government interferes — The Committee scores a victory — O'Connell's activity — Catholic Committee reconstituted — Trial and acquittal of Dr. Sheridan — Catholic Committee dispersed — Catholic Board established.

vi

Contents.

Chapter III. Pagb

PARLIAMENT AND THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS (l8l2-

1813) 42

Assassination of Perceval — Catholic hopes disappointed — 11 Witchery resolutions" — House of Commons pledges itself to revise the penal laws — O'Connell preaches perseverance — " A nation of slaves " — General election — Catholic indifference— Apprehensions of the Protestants — House of Commons reaffirms its resolution — Catholic Bill introduced — The "Canning clauses" — Denounced by O'Connell and the Catholic bishops — Bill withdrawn — Schism in the Board — Indignation against O'Connell — His remarkable speech.

Chapter IV. In Defence Of The Liberty Of The Press (1813) . 59

The Irish Catholic Press — A libel action — Prosecution of John Magee — The Attorney-General, William Saurin — O'Connell defends Magee — His speech — Extraordinary sensation produced by it — A verdict of guilty — A scene in Court — Magee disowns O'Connell — Judgment — O'Conneli's distress — Public testimonial to him.

CHAPTER V. DUELS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS (1814-1820) . . 8l

Quarantotti's rescript — O'Connell denies the temporal authority of the Pope — The Securities — Refusal of Grattan to advocate unqualified emancipation — Catholic Board suppressed — D'Esterre challenges O'Connell — D'Esterre's death — O'Conneli's remorse — His vow — ' ' Affair of honour " with Peel — O'Connell apologises — General despondency — A Catholic Association started — " Humble remonstrance" to the Pope — Famine and pestilence — Question of parliamentary reform — Grattan advocates the Catholic claims for the last time — His death.

Contents.

Vll

Chapter VI. Pagb

Difficulty of finding a successor to Grattan — A lost session

— O'Connell on parliamentary reform — Controversy with Sheil — House of Commons agrees to consider the Catholic claims — Plunket's bills — Denounced by O'Connell — Rejected by the Lords — George IV. visits Ireland — Universal joy — Magnificent reception — Disappointment — Viceroyalty of the Marquis of Wellesley — A "sandwich" system — Saurin removed — Question of " Domestic nomination " — Recrudescence of agrarian crime — O'Connell's letters to the Marquis of Wellesley — The Viceroy insulted — " Bottle and Battle" — O'Connell preaches toleration — A society for the protection of Catholic life and property.

Chapter VII. Foundation Of The Catholic Association 1823

1824) 130

Meeting in O'Dempsey's tavern — The necessity of an association for the protection of Catholic life and property — Catholic Association founded — Its small beginnings — Danger of a collapse — Proposals for extending its influence

— Money wanted — O'Connell's penny-a-month plan for liberating Ireland — The heart of the nation touched — Catholic Association organised — Effect on the country.

THE ATTACK ON THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION (1824-

1825) 144

Rapid progress of the Association — Government becomes alarmed — O'Connell and Sir Harcourt Lees prosecuted for seditious language — Failure of the prosecution — O'Connell disclaims physical force — Government resolves to suppress the Association — A deputation to Parliament — Association suppressed — House of Commons resolves to consider the Catholic claims — Parliamentary committees to inquire into

Chapter VIII

viii

Contents.

the state of Ireland — O'Connell examined — " Feasted and flattered " — Assists in drafting a Catholic Relief Bill — The " Wings " — " Honest Jack Lawless " — Bill rejected by the Lords — O'Connell returns to Ireland — Catholic Association reorganised.

Chapter IX

O'Connell's popularity — He inherits Darrynane — Renounces the Wings' policy — Controversy with Dr. Doyle — General Election — Contest in County Waterford — Revolt of the forty-shilling freeholders — Defeat of the Beresfords — Retaliatory measures— Order of Liberators established — Effect on the Catholic peasantry — House of Commons rejects the Catholic claims — O'Connell broaches the Repeal of the Union — Canning becomes Prime Minister — O'Connell demands " a change of system " — Death of Canning — Administration of the Duke of Wellington — A million and a half of petitioners — Extension of the Catholic Association- Brunswick clubs started.

Chapter X

A by-election in County Clare — The Association determines to contest the constituency — Difficulty of finding a candidate— O'Connell persuaded to stand — Publishes his address to the electors — Intense excitement — Scenes at Ennis — O'Connell's victory — Attempt to extend the Catholic propaganda into Ulster — Failure of the experiment — Critical state of affairs — Anglesey advises concession — Ministerial difficulties — Anglesey recalled — Catholic Association dissolved— Parliament concedes Catholic Emancipation — Situation reviewed — National testimonial to O'Connell — He declines to take the oath — A new writ issued — O'Connell re-elected M.P. for County Clare — Emancipation deprived of its natural effect — Doneraile " conspiracy " and trial— O'Connell appeals for Protestant co-operation*

Contents.

IX

Chapter XI. Page

O'Connell takes his seat in the House of Commons — Starts a Society for promoting the repeal of the Union — Society suppressed — Advises a run on the Bank of Ireland — Censured in Parliament — Death of George IV. — General election— O'Connell returned for County Waterford — Letters to the Irish People — Repeal movement spreads — O'Connell's activity — Repeal breakfasts — Marquis of Anglesey determines to suppress the agitation — O'Connell arrested — Manifestations of a dangerous feeling in the metropolis — Collapse of the prosecution — Reform an indispensable step toward Repeal — The tithe question — Dr. Doyle advocates a poor-law for Ireland — "Massacre "at Newtownbarry — Dr. Doyle on the situation — Attempt to " quieten " O'Connell— Promise of a "change of system" — Ireland sinking into decrepitude — O'Connell abandons poor-law relief as a panacea for Irish grievances.

Chapter XII

Abolition of tithes demanded — General election — Repeal victories — O'Connell returned for Dublin — Agrarian outrages— O'Connell advises exceptional measures for their repression — Meeting of the first reformed Parliament — A " brutal and bloody " speech — Coercion — O'Connell pleads for a full inquiry — His indifference to personal attacks — Offers to submit to banishment — Coercion Act passed — A policy of " kicks and kindness " — Situation improves — Whigs to be maintained in office — O'Connell's policy disapproved of in Ireland — His hand forced by Feargus O'Connor— Despondency — Moves the repeal of the Union — Good results of the debate — Agitation suspended — O'Connell deceived — Reconstruction of administration under Lord Melbourne — General election.

X

Contents.

Chapter XIII. Page

Alliance with the Whigs — Lichfield House Compact — O'Connell declines office — Thomas Drummond — Conspiracy to drive O'Connell out of public life — A costly election petition— Challenged by Alvanley and Disraeli — The Raphael calumny — Attacked by the Times — Expulsion from Brooks's demanded — Death of Mrs. O'Connell — Whig legislation — Accession of Queen Victoria — The Spottiswoode "conspiracy " — O'Connell reprimanded by the Speaker — Refuses to retract — Loss of popularity — Declines the Mastership of the Rolls — Retires to Mount Melleray — Failure of the " Precursor " experiment — Mental depression — No hope for Ireland but Repeal.

Chapter XIV

Repeal Association founded — Slow progress — Circle of agitation widens — O'Connell hopeful — Repeal meetings — General apathy — The Association at work — " Keep moving " — " O'Connell's insult to the North " — Is elected Lord Mayor of Dublin — His conduct as Mayor — Preparations for " getting up steam " — Repeal Inspectors appointed — Repeal debate in the Dublin Corporation — Extraordinary effect — Rapid development of the agitation — Father Mathew and the Temperance movement — The "Young Ireland " party — " Monster " meetings — O'Connell's perseverance rewarded — Government meditates an attack — Meeting at Tara — Its lesson.

Chapter XV

Meeting at Clontarf proclaimed — O'Connell's moral courage — He and his associates arrested — Trial and conviction — O'Connell commands obedience to the law — Judgment —

Contents. xi

" In jail for Ireland " — Judgment reversed by the Lords — Federalism versus Repeal — O'Connell's views on the subject— Denounced by the Young Ireland party — The Devon Commission — Attacked by the Times — The Great Famine — Coercion no remedy — Fresh alliance with the Whigs — Rupture between O'Connell and the Young Ireland party— A last plea for Ireland — Death — Concluding remarks.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

daniel o'connell .... Frontispiece

[From the painting by David Wilkie.]

o'connell arms iv

carhen, cahirciveen 2

court house, tralee 14

bank of ireland, dublin. (old parliament

house) 24

henry grattan 28

[From an engraving by Godley in the British Museum.]

DANIEL O'CONNELL, M.P 36

[From a painting by Bernard Mulrenin, R.H.A., in the National Portrait Gallery.]

SIR ROBERT PEEL 54

[From a painting by John Linnell, in the National Portrait Gallery.]

FOUR COURTS, DUBLIN .64

KILMAINHAM JAIL 78

LISMORE CASTLE, COUNTY WATERFORD . . 90

RICHARD LALOR SHEIL ..... 96

LORD PLUNKET ....... 108

xiii xiv

Illustrations.

PAGB

GEORGE IV . 112

[From a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., in the National Portrait Gallery. 1

KING'S BRIDGE, DUBLIN Il6

SACKVILLE STREET, DUBLIN I30

[From Bartlett's Ireland.']

BISHOP DOYLE 142

OLD HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT, WESTMINSTER . . 154

[From a collection of London engravings in the Library of British Museum.]

MEDAL STRUCK FOR O'CONNELL BY MONOP . . 163

DARRYNANE HOUSE, COUNTY KERRY . . . 166

O'CONNELL, FITZPATRICK, AND CONWAY IN THE

office of the Evening Post . . . 200 [From the painting by Haverty in the National Portrait Gallery, Dublin.]

TREATY STONE, LIMERICK 206

STATUE OF O'CONNELL, CITY HALL, DUBLIN . 224

EXTRAORDINARY ANIMAL 268

THOMAS DRUMMOND 300

DARRYNANE ABBEY, COUNTY KERRY . . . 308

UPPER LAKE, KILLARNEY 324

MANSION HOUSE, DUBLIN 334

FATHER MATHEW 34°

THOMAS DAVIS 342

[From Duffy's Life of Thomas Davis.]

TARA HILL 35°

[From Petrie's Antiquities of Tar a Hill.]

Illustrations.

xv

TWO GREAT CHIEFTAINS 352

THE NAUGHTY BOV 366

[From the painting by T. Carrick.]

O'CONNELL MONUMENT, GLASNEVIN . . . 376

Chapter I. Early Life And Marriage

EVOLUTION has succeeded revolution in

Ireland and one set of proprietors another.

But despite the frequent changes through which the country has passed — the plantations, transplantations and worst of all the confiscations under the penal code — the O'Connells have never entirely lost foothold in that wild and mountainous strip of land that stretches out storm-lashed into the Atlantic between Dingle Bay and the river of Kenmare, of which they were at one time the lords and masters. " We have peace in these glens," said old Maurice O'Connell to Charles Smith, the antiquarian, when he was soliciting information for his history of Kerry,

" and amid this seclusion enjoy a respite from persecution, where we can still profess the beloved faith of our

Da n iel O ' Con nell.

fathers. But if you make mention of me and mine, these seaside solitudes will no longer yield us an asylum. The Sassanagh will scale the mountains of Darrynane and we too shall be driven out upon the world without a home."

But the O'Connells were a shrewd race withal, knowing when to bend to the inevitable, when also to turn their opportunities to best advantage ; and perhaps they owed their immunity from invasion as much to their political insignificance and the prudent alliances they contracted with their English neighbours as to the solitariness of their glens.

Carhen House, the birthplace of the Liberator, has long ago disappeared, and the little village of Cahirciveen, which now the railway renders easily accessible, has since acquired a new importance from its proximity to the cable-station on Valentia Island. But the sea with all its changing moods of calm and storm, of ebb and flow, and the mountains on which the mists gather or which wind-cleared reflect in purple radiance the glory of the western sun abide the same. In all essential features the place remains unchanged from the day when as a boy O'Connell paddled on the silvery sands of Darrynane Bay, or as a busy barrister snatching a briei holiday from his professional duties hunted the hare on foot and made the hills resound with shout and laughter, or as a wearied politician, seeking rest and health amid his native vales, watched with saddened eyes the waves as they curled and broke on that rock-bound coast. The wild beauty of the place early impressed itself on O'Connell's sensitive nature, and recollections of his mountain home added an intensity to his love of his native land, which neither time nor the excitement of a public life ever dulled. Quoting Landor's lines from Gebir on the sea-shell —

" Shake one, and it awakens : then apply Its polisht lips to your attentive ear, And it remembers its august abodes,

And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there."

he wrote to the poet in 1838 :

" Would that I had you here, to show you ' their august abode ' in its most awful beauty. I could show you at noontide — when the stern south-western had blown long and rudely — the mountain waves coming in from the illimitable ocean in majestic succession, expanding their gigantic force, and throwing up stupendous masses of foam, against the more gigantic and more stupendous mountain cliffs that fence not only this my native spot, but form that eternal barrier which prevents the wild Atlantic from submerging the cultivated plains and high steepled villages of proud Britain herself. Or, were you with me amidst the Alpine scenery that surrounds my humble abode, listening to the eternal roar of the mountain torrent, as it bounds through the rocky defiles of my native glens, I would venture to tell you how I was born within the sound of the everlasting wave, and how my dreamy boyhood dwelt upon i?naginary intercourse with those who are dead of yore, and fed its fond fancies upon the ancient and long-faded glories of that land which preserved literature and Christianity when the rest of now civilised Europe was shrouded in the darkness of godless ignorance. Yes ! my expanding spirit, delighted in these day dreams, till catching from them an enthusiasm which no disappointment can embitter, nor accumulating years diminish, I formed the high resolve to leave my native land better after my death than I found her at my birth, and, if possible, to make her what she ought to be —

' Great, glorious and free, First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea.'

" Perhaps, if I could show you the calm and exquisite beauty of these capacious bays and mountain promontories softened in the pale moonlight which shines this lovely evening, till all which during the day was grand and terrific has become calm and serene in the silent tranquillity of the clear night — perhaps you would readily admit that the man who has been so often called a ferocious demagogue, is, in truth, a gentle lover of Nature, an enthusiast of all her beauties —

' Fond of each gentle and each dreary scene,' and catching from the loveliness as well as the dreariness of the ocean, and Alpine scenes with which he is surrounded, a greater ardour to promote the good of man, in his overwhelming admiration of the mighty works of God."

The eldest son of Morgan O'Connell and Catherine, daughter of John O'Mullane of Whitechurch, county Cork, Daniel O'Connell was born at Carhen House on 6th August, 1775 ; being, with the exception of his uncle, Count Daniel O'Connell. the first of his house destined to make a name for himself in history and to extend the reputation of a hitherto undistinguished and insignificant Irish clan into the farthest corners of the earth. His birth coincided almost with the declaration of American independ-

Early Life and Marriage.

ence and with the first relaxation of those penal laws, through the operation of which, extended over three-quarters of a century, the Irish Roman Catholics, and in them the bulk of the nation, had been reduced to a state of physical, political, and moral serfdom almost without parallel in Europe. This first act of justice towards their own countrymen had been followed by a determined effort on the part of the Irish Protestants — the descendants of successive generations of English settlers — to reassert the legislative independence of their own parliament and rebut the claim of the British legislature to enact laws binding on Ireland. O'Connell was too young to remember the great volunteer movement and the intense wave of patriotism that passed over the country, reaching even to the Catholics, whose sympathy, if obliged to restrict itself to their purses, was on that account none the less sincere or efficient. When Grattan won his memorable but fruitless victory O'Connell was barely seven years old, and it is small wonder if in recalling his earliest impressions the statesman's figure should have loomed less largely in his imagination than that of the redoubtable buccaneer, Paul Jones, whose appearance off the coast of Kerry struck terror into the peasants of the district.

Like many great men O'Connell loved to attribute his success in life to the influence of his mother, and it was indeed to her — a pious, sensible, and affectionate woman as she seems to have been — and to David Mahony, an old hedge-schoolmaster — one of those curious products of the penal code, whose avocation

Daniel O ' Connell.

it was, seated behind some dyke or hedge out of the way of informers, to teach his pupils " feloniously to learn " — that he owed the first rudiments of his education. At an early age, however, he had the "jood fortune to be adopted by his uncle, Maurice of Darrynane, the head of the family, a childless and somewhat eccentric, but withal prudent old gentleman, familiarly known in the neighbourhood as " Old Hunting Cap " ; and it was at Darrynane that the happiest days of his childhood were passed. Of books he had small store. His favourite was Captain Cook's Voyages (" the first big book I ever read and I read it with intense avidity ") ; but it was in ballads that he chiefly delighted, and no time could ever efface the impression or even entirely the words of a ballad he once heard sung by a man and woman in the streets of Tralee when he was only twelve years old—

" I leaned my back against an oak, I thought it was a trusty tree, But first it bent ; and then it broke — ' Twas thus my love deserted me ! " Diffidence was never, perhaps, one of O'Connell's weak points, but it may be suspected that the precocious announcement of his intention to rival Flood and Grattan in " making a stir in the world also," during a discussion at his uncle's table on the relative merits of those two orators, owes its point to the pardonable exaggeration of a friendly afterthought. Anyhow his career at Father Harrington's school at Cove, now Queenstown (said to have been the first school opened in Ireland by a Catholic priest, subsequent to the relaxation of the penal laws), whither he was sent at the age of thirteen, hardly leads us to suppose that the natural exuberance of his boyhood was greatly damped by the thought of any such high resolve, and for himself he seems to have been quite satisfied with having achieved the unique distinction of being the only boy in the school who had never been flogged. " This," he used to say, " I owed to my attention."

As a Roman Catholic, Trinity College was, of course, closed to him, but thanks to the liberality of his uncle, " Old Hunting Cap," after spending three years at Harrington's school, he and his younger brother, Maurice, were, as had long been the custom among the wealthier Catholics, sent to complete their education abroad. Proving, however, too old for admission into the school of Liege — their original destination — they entered the English College of St. Omer in January, 1791. Here they remained for some eighteen months, and in an old writing desk, which still occupies its original niche at Darrynane, may yet be found a number of letters from the two boys to their uncle : not very clever nor very amusing — those of Daniel, at any rate, relating for the most part to his studies, and practical details of expenses incurred — but full of gratitude, and inquisitive of news from home. From the Principal of the College, however, Dr. Gregory Stapleton, old Maurice had the satisfaction of learning that his nephews were doing well ; and if the younger was hardly as industrious as he might have been, Daniel at any rate was destined to make a remarkable figure in society. In August, 1792, the brothers were transferred to the college at Douay, where for a pension of twenty-five guineas a year " we get very small portions at dinner ; most of the lads getting what they call seconds, that is, a second portion every day, and for them they pay £3 or £\ a year extraordinary. We would be much obliged to you for leave to get them, but this as you please."

Notwithstanding this and other drawbacks, such as having to pay for their own washing, Douay was " in every respect," Daniel thought, better than St. Omer. But the lessons in philosophy, from which he had expected to derive so much profit, were shortly interrupted by the progress of the French Revolution, and in obedience to his uncle's orders he and Maurice quitted Douay in January of the following year. Forced for safety's sake to wear the tricolour cockade, but loathing himself for so doing, Daniel no sooner found himself on board the Dover packet than he tore it from his hat and flung it into the sea. How intense, then, must have been his disgust to hear one of his fellow-passengers, a countryman of his own to boot, one John Sheares by name, destined himself a few years later to a traitor's death for his share in the Rebellion of '98, gloating over the details of the execution, which he had witnessed, of the unfortunate Louis XVI ! For such brutalities O'Connell had no taste. His personal experience of the conduct of the revolutionists, especially towards the religious orders, always coloured his estimate of the French Revolution, and it is small wonder that, on returning to England, he a T:ry. Referring r: the subject in maturer years he said : M The French Revolution produced some good, but it was not without alloy : it was mingled with much impiety. Liberty and religion *.vere hrst separatee. The experiment v.- as a bad one. It had much of French levity in it, and a deal of what was much worse.'"

In the hurry :: the night from Douay O'Conneii replenish his wardrobe. This cane he -.vent t: h:ard far a time v.dth a Mr. Fagan. a relative apparently of the family, who earned a scanty livelihood by keeping a small private school in or near London. From him he acquired the elements of logic ; but the expenses of his establishment proving too great for Mr. Fagan 's straitened resources, owing to the war and consequent rise in prices. O'Conneii was before long compelled to shift his quarters. After keeping one term at Gray's Inn he was on 30th January, 1794, admitted a student of Lincoln's, and took lodgings ••vith a Mr. Tracy in a court en Coventry Street. Many years afterwards, happening to be pointing out the place to his friend, O'Neil Daunt, his attention was attracted to a fishmonger s shop. "That shop," said he, " is in precisely the same state in which I remember it when I was at Gray s Inn. nearly fifty years ago — the same sized windows, the -ante frontage, and I believe the same fish ! " Sub secuently for the sake 0: greater quietness and the facilities it afforded him for boating he removed out

IO

Daniel O' Connell.

11775- to Chiswick, where he made the acquaintance, which ripened into a life-long friendship, of a young Irishman of good family connections and fortune, Richard Newton Bennett, who afterwards became a colonial chief-justice.

In the summer of 1795 he paid a visit to Ireland. " I remember," he said, contrasting the rapid modes of travelling in his later years with the slow and inconvenient methods of his youth, —

" I remember when I left Darrynanefor London in 1795, my first day's journey was to Carhen, my second to Killorglin, my third to Tralee, my fourth to Limerick, two days thence to Dublin. I sailed from Dublin in the evening ; my passage to Holyhead was performed in twenty-four hours ; from Holyhead to Chester took six and thirty hours ; from Chester to London three days."

Meantime he studied diligently, his reading, outside the usual law-books — Espinasse's Nisi Prius, Blackstone's Commentaries and Coke On Littleton — being confined chiefly to the Bible and Gibbon's Decline and Fall For the rest, as he wrote to his uncle, he had

" Two objects to pursue — the one, the attainment of knowledge : the other, the acquisition of all those qualities which constitute the polite gentleman. . . . And as for the motives of ambition which you suggest, I assure you that no man can possess more of it than I do. I have, indeed, a glowing and — if I may use the expression— an enthusiastic ambition, which converts every toil into a pleasure, and every study into an amusement. Though nature may have given me subordinate talents,

I never will be satisfied with a subordinate situation in my profession. No man is able, I am aware, to supply the total deficiency of abilities, but everybody is capable of improving and enlarging a stock, however small, and in its beginning contemptible. It is this reflection affords me most consolation. If I do not rise at the Bar, I will not have to meet the reproaches of my own conscience."

In November, 1796, having completed his terms, he returned to Ireland, and pending his call some eighteen months later to the Bar, went into lodgings at 14 Trinity Place, Dublin.

It was a critical moment in the history of his country ; for the recognition of the legislative independence of the Irish parliament, which the threat of armed resistance had extorted from England in 1782, had proved a delusive victory, and what the eloquence of Grattan, backed by the swords of the volunteers, had achieved the influence of bribery and corruption had undone. The one chance of safety that had offered itself, in the opportunity given to parliament in 1784 to consent to its own reform and thus to render itself independent of administration, had been neglected, and after fourteen years' experiment the country found itself more at the mercy of the English minister than it had been in the days that preceded the agitation for independence. The desperate attempt of Earl Fitzwilliam in 1795 to give effect to the demands of the patriotic party, and at the eleventh hour, as it were, to rescue the constitution from the parliament that was betraying it, had ended in failure, and with the arrival