Historical sketches of O'Connell and his friends : including Rt. Rev. Drs. Doyle and Milner, Thomas Moore, John Lawless, Thomas Furlong, Richard Lalor Shiel, Thomas Steele, Counsellor Bric, Thomas Addis Emmet, William Cobbett, Sir Michael O'Loghlen, etc., etc., with a glance at the future destiny of Ireland

Front matter

HISTORICAL SKETCHES

OF

O'CONNELL AND HIS FRIENDS;

Chapter One

The Family of Mr, O^ConnelL — His Birth and Education, collegiate and legal.

The O'Connells are of unadulterated Milesian origin. Their history is coeval with that of Ireland itself, and will most probably remain so forever. The present head of the " sept," was, in his youth, as we are told, not unconscious of the value of the honorable fame transmitted by a long line of brave and pious forefathers, for, like his own, their patriotic deeds were numerous enough to transmit some rays of honor to the humblest and remotest of their descendants.

Kerry, the patrimony of the family, anciently styled Iveragh, was an independent toparchy, amenable to the kings of Connaught, in all matters concerning the general welfare of that kingdom. Originally, it appears, this inheritance extended some distance into the adjoining counties of Clare and Limerick ; but treachery, invasion, and hospitality, ultimately narrowed its limits, so that it now yields less than £5,000 per annum, nor has its revenue much exceeded this sum at any time, since the memorable rebellion and confiscation of 1641.

The O'Connells have been, from first to last, an agitating family, firm haters of the Saxons, and bold foragers in the hour of national struggle, and ever ready to wipe out in blood any insult offered to their clan. An Irish MSS. preserved in the British Museum, mentions a Daniel O'Connell, who successfully opposed an invasion of the Scotch, on the northern coast of Ireland, in the year 1245. A yet earlier record (for these are early dates in the dilapidated annals of modern Ireland) is preserved, of the courage and patriotism of this family, many of them having fallen on the memorable field of Clontarf, in defence of the standard of '* Brian the Brave. '^ In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the O'Connell of Iveragh made a treaty with that sovereign, by which he was guarantied the security of his property and the enjoyment of his power. The son of this leag^ier is mentioned in history, soon after, as High Sheriff of Kerry. When the last monarch of the Stuarts besought the land he had repeatedly injured, for support against one he had too pliantly conciliated, John O'Connell of Iveragh, raised a regiment of his clansmen, and poured out of his mountain fastness, to aid the dethroned monarch at the Boyne. In that desperate struggle between a wise knave and a foolish one, which stained the ill-fated field of Anghrim in Ireland's true regal blood, and reddened the broad w^aters of the Shannon, and flooded the banks of " Boyne's ill-fated river," the O'Connells remained firm to the royal weakling, and suffered, as all the best blood of their land have, by that enterprise. The remnant of their regiment, sailed with Sarsfield to France ; some returned to Kerry, but the vast majority lay dead on the battle-field, or cold within the ramparts of Limerick city. In the lapse of two generations, Derrynane Abbey, the old residence of Iveragh's toparchs, passed into other hands, and ultimately crumbled into dust, in mournful consonance with the fortunes of its rightful possessors. The present abbey, which is of modern date, stands near the ruins of its venerable predecessor. Its doors are ever open to the stranger, the board is laden as of old, and the vintage of foreign lands, and the usequebaugh of the mountains, are offered as liberally as any O'Connell of the olden time could wish.

Of that portion of the family who emigrated to France after the evacuation of Limerick in 1691, several rose to eminence in the service of various continental powers. Their names, rendered illustrious in many a bloody field of Austria and France, rang through their native isle, cheering the hearts of their kinsmen, and warming others into emulation. The last of eminence disappeared a few years ago from the stage — Count Daniel O'Connell, uncle to the more illustrious bearer of that name. This veteran had had the singular fortune of being a general in the service of France, and a colonel in that of England at the same time. At the period of Bonaparte's return from Elba, he entered the English army, and received a colonelcy, the duties of which command he continued to fulfil, until Charles the Twelfth mounted the Bourbon throne by the right of a legitimacy, too painfully evident in the sequel of his reign ; he w^as then restored to his rank and command. Count

O'Connell was, we believe, a Huguonot, and has left behind him, the reputation of a brave officer.

The father of the Liberator, Morgan O'Connell, of Carhen, mingled the high blood of these illustrious soldiers, with that of a race no less celebrated in the annals of Western Ireland. His mother was a daughter of the O'Donahoe Dhuv, or the black chief of that clan, whose banners for ages had waved over Killamey from the summits of an hundred hills ; whose bugles for the early chase, or trumpets for the battle, were for centuries re-echoed from the deep glens of the " Eagle West," and the valleys of Manger ton and the Keeks. His wife was Catharine, daughter of John O'Mullaine, of Whitechurch, Co. Cork ; he was one of twenty-two children by the same mother, more than half of whom lived to the age of eighty years and upwards. At the time of Daniel's birth, he was far from opulent, but possessed nevertheless a sufficiency to keep up the honor and dignity of his house, and to bestow upon his sons, John, Daniel, and James, the advantages of a continental education. This, however, was a matter of necessity, not choice ; for, according to the brutal penal code, no Catholic could educate his child in Ireland, without being chargeable of felony. The character of Morgan O'Connell was that of an easy and plain country gentleman, without arrogance to those of humbler state, and above the meanness of courting the smiles of men, whose greater wealth was their only claim to distinction. He was a model of the old Irish gentleman — fond of the chase — partial to the follies of his tenantry — a fond father, and a reproachless husband.

The 6th of August, 1775, is ever memorable in the annals of Ireland, as the birth-day of her Liberator. The house in which this event occurred, yet stands, although in a ruinous condition ; the roof has fallen in, and the wallflower shakes in every blast on the crumbling eaves. It stands apart from the village of Cahirciveen, at a short distance from the highway, which no traveller passes, of high or low degree, without pausing to gaze upon the classic spot, where was born the Washington of Europe. The year of 1775 is one memorable in the annals of Freedom. In that year America entered on her long and glorious war with Great Britain ; in that year Henry G rattan entered the prejudiced and dependent Irish Commons, whom, after ^ seven years' war with prejudice and patronage, he enfranchised ; in that year, Daniel O'Connell was born, to be the saviour of his people. Some coincidences in history seem as if directly ordained by Providence, and of that class I know none more worthy of remark than the one I have just mentioned.

Of the childhood of Mr. O'Connell little more is remembered than that he was of a bustling and intrepid nature ; fond of physical exercises, as most healthy children are, and full of pranks and playfulness. His first, and only Irish tutor, was an aged priest, who often partook the hospitality of his father's house, and who, as he became more enfeebled by age, made it in great part his residence. He was one of those, numerous in his day, who suffered a lingering martyrdom for his faith ; not a martyrdom which causes death, but one which, instead of taking life away, spares the existence it has rendered burthensome. A man of black-letter knowledge, patient and self-denying ; one who had suffered too much to love the world and its ways, but who prayed too much to hate either. A Christian, in the truly evangelical meaning of the word, since his faith in Christ Jesus brought him but sneers and persecution. A scholar, whose views were all impregnated with the salt of sound theology, and whose manner of instruction was often tinctured with the solemn gloom of the cloister. Such was the first priest, with whom the future Emancipator became acquainted, and it would be idle to deny that this good man's character had deeply impressed him with that high admiration, amounting almost to reverence, ever manifested towards the clergy, and that lively sense of the necessity of a Christian life, the practice of which is one of the most glorious traits in his character. The instructions of this good man, however, were chiefly elementary ; his pupil at an early age was sent to the French college of Lou vain, and afterwards removed to that of St. Omers, where, under the teachings of the Jesuits, he acquired that self-control and regularity of habits, that profoundly Catholic cast of mind, that sound theological knowledge, and that invincible logic, which the libellers of Ireland, and the enemies of his faith have often confessed in the bitterness of defeat.

Saint Omers was then a favorite resort of Irish students ; the descendants of the old Irish emigrants in France chiefly frequented it ; and it must have been a glorious sight to behold the amity which subsisted between these two branches of the old Milesian tree — the one flourishing in a free foreign soil, the other preferring to stand on Irish ground, in defiance of every storm, still aspiring under the multitude of its chains. In all their games the French-Irish portion of the students sought out the countrymen of their brave fathers ; in their studies they clambered up the steeps of fame together, and v^oe be to him w^ho breathed a word of reproach against Ireland or France within the walls of St. Omers.

Mr. O'Connell, it is said, had been intended by his parents for the church, but he felt within himself the promptings of a different mission, and with the courage of a true Catholic, feeling by anticipation, the responsibilities of the priesthood, he firmly expressed his determination not to enter on a profession for which he considered himself incapable. Notwithstanding this, he ever admired the character of his much reviled instructors, and truly may we believe him when in his old age he exclaims to the Premier Earl of England — " I love the Jesuits— I honor the Jesuits."^

Many anecdotes are related of the student life of O'Connell at St. Omers, and some of the best have stolen into print. One of the least current, is that of his having fisticuffed a young student, who protested strongly against such an ungentlemanly mode of arranging a quarrel ; " attendez un moment,''^ said O'Connell, and going to his room he brought forth his sword and pistol, offering his adversary either, as the only pair of weapons in his possession. The Frank, however, declared himself for peace, and the affair ended. Whilst he was at college the Jesuits frequently corresponded with his parents, and one, who seemed to have taken a peculiar interest in his progress, represented him from the first as an extraordinary youth, who loved power, and who would rise to eminence by daring and honorable enterprizes. Thus truly, did " the child become the father of the man."

O'Connell studied in France in the days of the tremendous Revolution, which not only shook that country in every part — which overturned the throne, trampled on the nobles, rooted up the deep foundations of Catholicism, laid in the days of Pepin, and hardened in the storms of a thousand years — ^but set all Europe in commotion, inflaming the

* Letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury, p. 1.

literati, terrifying the great, and intoxicating the mechanics and the toilsmen. Like a silver speck on the heavens, the nucleus of a tornado, it met the eyes of millions who gazed with admiration upon the gentle purity of the God-sent avenger ; but soon it spread forth its lurid wings from horizon to horizon, darkening all above, and wrapping all below in ruin and desolation ; filling all space with reverberations of the work of havoc. The young student of St. Omers looked forth with a steady and statesmanlike gaze, on the phenomena at work around him ; with a heavy heart he saw the grand theory of freedom swept away in blood-spilling, and in anarchy, and even then he must have felt the necessity of a far different and far better system of revolution. He must have felt that on ruined altars, squares crowded with scaffolds, and streets inundated with blood, Freedom could never look down without horror ; and that any indications of a movement which might tend to such scenes in Ireland, have always met his unqualified denunciation, is not strange.

Having completed his education in France, Mr. O'Connell returned home, but was obliged, as an Irishman, to study his profession — that of law — in London. He therefore entered himself of the Middle Temple, where it w^as only remarked of him that he w^as a good humored Irishman, and an attentive student. After spending the usual time in attendance on the courts of law, he returned to Ireland, and was admitted a member of the Irish Bar, at Dublin, in the Easter Term, 1798.

The Irish bar was still in the glory of its independence — there w^as buoyancy in the national heart, and a generous emulation ran through the senate, the bar, and the press. The voice of Curran was heard in the four courts, drying the tears his pathos had caused. The sonorous and terrible energies of Plunkett, " the Wellington of the Senate," still shook the accuser, the criminal, the jury, and even the bench, at w^ill. The silver tones and gorgeous figures of Bushe were there in meridian brilliancy, " charming a verdict by the silent witchery of his manner." The morose, yet unfathomable mind of Saurin, rich alike in logic and in learning, made another giant figure in that group of colossal jurists ; while, pressing hard after them in the career of fame, came a younger, and scarcely less noble race — Holmes, Thomas Addis Emmett, Louis Perrin, and O'Connell. Such was the school to which the pupil of St. Omers came — already rich in learning, skilled in elocution, and subtle in debate. Here his first Irish lessons were received, and assuredly he has done no discredit to his instructors.

Just at the time of his admission to the bar, the projected revolution of the United Irishmen exploded ; thus teaching him another painful lesson in the science of reform. Had he resided in Ireland in '97, and the previous years, it is probable that he would have entered, with the ardor of youth, into all the perils of a physical contest. But when he arrived from London the train was laid, the match was lighted, and all was completed for a rising. He was already a skeptic in the efficiency and justice of military means to effect political changes, and, happily for Ireland, he survived the exile and executions of the Emmetts, Tories, Fitzgeralds, Orrs, and Russells, to do with other weapons what they had dared to do in spite of the gibbet and the convict ship.

In his twenty- third year he had the sing-ular advantage, to a statesman, of witnessing the beginning and the end of a successful revolution, and an unsuccessful national revolt. It was in this period of unparalleled suffering when the most sanguine scarcely dared hope for the welfare of the country — when the Catholic cause was saddled with all the blame of this unfortunate project — when the props of national independence were one by one silently withdrawn from its support by the fratricidal Castlereagh — when the civil tribunals were closed, and public meetings dispersed at the bayonet's point — that Daniel O'Connell vowed before God to devote his energies to his country, and its altars, and to live but for the emancipation of both. What venal heart could prompt such generous adventure ? What sinister design could raise up a volunteer in those disastrous days ? Certainly there was nothing to gain, and much — life, friends, fortune, and perchance reputation — to lose, by confronting the insolent foreigner, who had prostrated Ireland lower than ever, and spurned her as she lay, covered with the blood of her devoted heroes.

Chapter Two

The Act of Union. — O'ConnelVs Opposition to that Measure.— Robert Emmett. — Review of the Catholic Question in Ireland. — Rt. Rev. Dr. Milner. — Commencement of the Veto Controversy. — Suppression of the Catholic Committee.

The year of 1799 is noted in Irish history for the discussion of the projected legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland, emanating from the ministers of the former power, and strenuously opposed by the patriotic members of the Irish Parliament, in both houses. It is often asserted that the Irish Union was a compact made by mutual consent — but the fact of the standing army being 130,000 strong in 1800, and but 74,000 in 1798, during the strength of insurrection, conclusively shows that the means of repressing popular opposition to the act, were considered needful to insure its passage under any pretence.

Many meetings, notwithstanding, were convened, and the mercantile classes of Dublin, especially, were strenuously opposed to the baneful measure of legislative extinction. Lord Castlereagh and his followers had more than once hinted in the debates, that the Catholics of Ireland were in favor of the Union, and to make truth out of their assertions, they held out emancipation as a result of imperial liberality. To disprove the imputation thus brought against them, the Catholics of Dublin called a meeting at the Royal Exchange, on the 13th of January, 1800, where a large number attended, and several spirited resolutions w^ere unanimously passed. It was at an early stage of this meeting that Major Sirr, the hireling of the Castle, and the butcher of the gallant Lord Edward Fitzgerald, followed by his Janisaries, entered the meeting, and demanded a copy of the resolutions to be read to him. When this was done, and while the bayonets were yet glistening in the hall, a young barrister, robust in form, of an interesting countenance, rose to support their spirit and meaning. The eye of the Irish Marat was glistening upon him. It was his first public speech, when, as many years later he confessed, *' he trembled at the sound of his own voice." As he proceeded, he waxed warm and energetic, and every sentence that fell from his lips, though nothing but peace was spoken, was emphasized by the most treasonable bitterness. There was a boldness, more of manner than language, in his delivery, a feeling, as it were, of his own strength, which he could not conceal. He spoke not long, but with much effect, " I would rather," said he, with a noble vehemence, " see the whole penal code re-enacted than consent to the legislative extinction of Ireland." This young advocate of nationality, and defender of Catholicism, was the future Liberator,

But in despite of all that eloquence could do — of Grattan's w^ords of fire, and Plunkett's thunder, and Curran's most beautiful protests — in despite of all that genius could urge, and talent and intrepidity undertake — the legislature of Ireland was basely, infamously bartered away, and her senators sat in the council chambers of another land, amongst strangers, where her voice could not reach their ears, nor her miseries appeal to their senses.

There were many of the young men of Ireland, who felt goaded to indignation by this act. When they thought on the glories of Dungannon, they blushed ; and when they heard of Grattan's triumphs abroad, and looked upon the empty senate house which he had purged eighteen years before, the tears of vexation streamed upon their cheeks. Their fathers had possessed a constitution nearly akin to freedom — they had representatives, who, with all their faults, were national — were Irishmen. It is not wonderful that the youth of a people, proverbially sanguine, should thus have regarded a change from independence to provincialism, from glory to slavery, from plenty to utter want. But of the number v/ho most lamented this foul consummation, history loves to record, with peculiar honor, the names of two — the one Robert Emmett, and the other O'CoNNELL. No two men of the present century, more truly recognized the great principle of disinterestedness ; none so closely approached the ideal of patriotism ; neither feared for the frowns of placemen, nor of the employers of placemen ; both had hope in the native virtue of their downcast countrymen. The only marvel is, that agreeing so well in the premises, they should have differed so w^idely in the means of achievement. Yet honor to the man who nobly died — who perished with his country, when he found it impossible to save her ! However his judgment may have erred, every fibre of his heart, and every faculty of his vast mind, was responsive alone to Ireland's woes, and employed exclusively in attempts to ameliorate them. Soft be the turf upon his ashes, and reverent be the mention of his name on Irish lips, for assuredly, when the good and bad of all the world, and of all time, shall throng to judgment in the dread Jehosaphat, there shall not arise from the earth nor from the sea a purer-intentioned man than Robert Emmett. If, however, differing from him, Mr. O'Connell preferred to live for his country in chains, to Avatch over her first returning hour of courage, to catch the faint spark from her soul, and nurse it into a flame, which should overspread the land, and melt down the brazen pillars of ascendancy, in its ardor — who shall refuse to him an honor equally deserved, and more wisely earned ? On devoting himself to Ireland, he found two great reforms necessary, viz., the emancipation of the Catholics, who were more than seven eighths of the population ; and afterwards a combination of Catholics, Protestants, and Dissenters, in order to attain a repeal of the obnoxious iVct of Legislative Union. To establish freedom of conscience in the British empire, to re-create a Senate, and raise a Constitution from the dead, were the vast projects of his young mind ; and equally honorable to his courage and his liberality, is the manner in which he has followed up those designs, against all sorts of disheartening obstructions.

A knowledge of the state of the Catholic question, the first labor of the Irish Hercules, at the time he became by common consent its head and front, is indispensable to the due appreciation of the magnitude of his undertaking. Laws of a prescriptive nature, framed upon the sole plea of creed, had been long accumulating on the English statute books, against the Catholics of the empire generally, wdiile several were exclusively against the Irish Catholics. Of the former number were those denying their admissibility to seats in the legislature, to all offices under the crown, and denying them the right of publicly attending Catholic worship, or harboring a Catholic clergyman ; these grievances were exaggerated in Ireland by the addition of others forbidding Catholics to educate their children at Trinity College, (the only university,) or at all within the realm ; and disabling them to hold real estate, if known to be frequenters of a Catholic church. To these causes of complaint we might add many others, equally tyrannical, narrow and unchristian. When the Irish Parliament obtained its independence, in 1782, its most able patriots beset themselves to carrying out a repeal of these laws, which, as volunteers, they had solemnly resolved to do, in the Congress of Dungannon. The emancipators of that assembly were more able than numerous, and for some years after they obtained perfect self-control, so many and such weighty questions of international policy were broached, such as Simple Repeal, the Commercial Regulations, the Pension List, and the Regency, that the Catholic cause was not immediately advanced.

There cannot, however, be any doubt, but that, if it were not for the union, emancipation w^ould have come to Ireland twenty years sooner than it did at last. Meantime the subject was not neglected, nor did its great advocates, Grattan and Yelverton, suffer it to cool in their custody. There is no record of a session in which these illustrious men did not introduce the subject for discussion, and, year after year, new proselytes were gained, and the minority at last was fast approaching a tie, when the act of union sent its Irish advocates to plead before a less genial audience. They obtained, however, in 1793, a bill empowering Catholics to be educated within the kingdom, and in Trinity College ; of taking apprentices and of being admitted to the bar ; " the old millstone still being about their neck," says Plowden, " the want of the elective franchise and a fair trial by jury.'"^ It was not long before this period that the plan, afterwards so successful, was adopted by the Catholics, I mean that of co-operating out of doors, by meetings, addresses, and petitions with their friends in Parliament. The Irish legislature had always guaranteed freedom of speech, and the friends of emancipation had resolved to make good use of that inestimable weapon against wrong. They organized and agitated ; they poured in petitions to Parliament and to the sovereign, and appointed Richard Burke, son of the immortal impeacher of Hastings, as their agent in London. They induced the lethargic Catholic nobles to join them, who in most cases were a g^reater obstacle than an assistance to the labors of the ener-

* British Empire, p. 178. 2* getic. They obtained, later in this same year, (1793,) on the recommendation of the king, another bill, the only part of which, however, really worth thanks, was the title ; for, after setting forth that it was to be "A Bill to make it lawful for Papists to hold any civil or military office under his Majesty," it comjnenced a list of exceptions so extensive as to take in everything worth having, from the lord-lieutenantcy of Ireland, to a sub-shrievalty. But then it admitted them to the elective franchise and the trial by jury. Even this instalment, poor as it was, met with violent opposition from the Lord Chancellor, (Clare,) and was opposed even by the Speaker, (Foster,) a man otherwise of good reputation for liberality. Its great advocates, however, with the aid of many worthy coadjutors, forced it through Parliament after a stormy and protracted debate. These were the only benefits which the Irish Parliament, in its independence, conferred on the Catholics of that country ; but even these were promissory of further and wdder concessions. As to what it attempted previous to its independence, it is hardly worthy of a moment's consideration. Although Brooke, Curry, and O'Connor wrote, and Wyse, and one or two other men of property, agitated, the lethargy of the Catholic nobles, and the cry of " No Popery," were still too strong for their efforts at amelioration. True, in 1762, they were empowered to lease " iinprofitahle hogs,^^ and in 1778 some portions of the " Act to prevent the increase of Popery " w^ere repealed. But to return to our narrative : — the engine of legislation, whether dependent or defective, was at last totally demolished, and the bold spirit of the people found a dying vent in the spasmodic outbreak of 1803. For a time they lay utterly stricken and hopeless, not daring to raise their eyes to their new rulers, much less to address them. At last, the old system of Wyse, in 1760, and of John Keogh, in 1793, — the system of a Catholic Committee, — was resuscitated, rather than founded, and Lords Fingal, Gormanstown, Trimblestown, and French, Sir Thomas Esmond, Bart., and a few Esquires undertook to hazard the experiment once more.

In consequence of the concession of 1793, Mr. O'Connell did not find himself the only Catholic at the junior bar, and more than one of his brother jurists entered as w^armly into the contest as himself. They never lost sight of their degrading position for a moment, but whether in the crow^ded assembly, or the social meeting, were ever ready to try their fortune at proselytizing. Of the most prominent (though they all did not enter the vineyard at the first hour) vi^ere Messrs. Hussey, Clinch, Scully, and Shiel. It may be supposed that the clergy, who were the most deeply concerned in the struggle, were not unwilling to lend a hand in bearing its brunts ; and we find, therefore, the names of Dr. Dromgoole, Dr. Troy, and Dr. Milner, and later in the battle, those of Drs. Doyle and McHale, amongst the most prominent actors in the agitation. These three powers — the nobles, the barristers, and the clergy, took form in 1805, but were so rent by divisions, and agueish with their dread of plain-speaking, that they could hardly be said to exist until 1808. In May, of that year. Lord Fingal reached London, w4th a lengthy petition from the Catholics of Ireland, on behalf of their committee, which was presented on the 26th of May, by Henry Grattan, in the House of Commons, and by Lord Grenville, on the following night, in the Lords. These gentlemen simultaneously announced to the Parliament the astounding piece of information, that if the prayer of the petition was granted, the Catholic hierarchy would thenceforward and forever allow the sovereigns of Great Britain a veto, or negative final voice in the choice of all the bishops within the realm. Both gentlemen spoke with the words of authority, and there can now be little doubt but that Lord Fingal, the honest, easy, weak-minded delegate of the Catholic Committee, had given Messrs. Grattan and Grenville to understand, that an arrangement of such a nature might be effected ; as he also did Mr. Ponsoby. It is necessary, however, to bear in mind, that the origin of these declarations is involved in much obscurity, which even Mr. Wyse, in his history of the Catholic Association, has not been able to penetrate. Subsequent events showed that Mr. O'Connell and the Irish bishops were free from any hand in the base proffer of such an anti- Catholic concession.