more than this: it vindicated the inalienable and universal right of mankind to resist oppression and overthrow tyranny, however established and however long endured. It was even more than this: it vindicated the inalienable and universal right and capacity of mankind to establish and conduct governments for themselves, and to change them at pleasure. It struck the governments of the earth with consternation, and bewildered the enslaved masses of men with hopes which were not altogether illusions, of freedom and of universal equality. In the language of Lafayette, America was not a solitary rebel. She was a patrol in the cause of humanity. Ireland not only sympathized profoundly with the transatlantic colonies in their complaints of usurpation, under which she suffered more sorely than they, but with inherent benevolence and ardor she yielded at once to the sway of the great American idea of universal emancipation. The bitter memory of a stream of ages lifted up her thoughts, and she was ready to follow to the war for the rights of human nature "The propitious god that seemed to lead the way.” This war, thus opened by America, is the same struggle in which Ireland has been engaged ever since, in which O'Connell labored with so much zeal, and force, and success, and which he has left unfinished. England was soon at war, not only with her American colonies, but also with France, and Spain, and Holland. France threatened to invade Ireland, and America had already led Ireland into a revolution. Left by the British government to defend themselves, the people of Ireland gathered at once an army of brave and well-appointed volunteers, ready to resist the threatened invasion if England would yield independence, and even more ready to achieve independence if it should be refused. The influence of such great events exalted for a time the virtues of the Irish people. The Catholic forgot his peculiar wrongs amid the new-born hopes of his country; the Protestant forgot his longcherished fears. Now firmly united, and lifting with them for a brief period the wretched legislature of the Pale, they demanded the independence of that parliament. They preserved the forms of loyalty, indeed, but their resolution of rights was couched in the language of freemen, and their petitions were written on the drum-head and presented on the point of the bayonet. The British parliament were confounded. They heard at the same moment the same principles, sentiments, and resolutions, from Jefferson, and Adams, and Jay, and Franklin, in the Congress of America; from Grattan and Flood, in the parliament of Ireland; and from Chatham, the tribune of the whole empire, within their own halls. They evaded, then conciliated, and at last conceded. In 1778, the provisions of the penal code concerning the rights of property and education were relaxed. Other concessions of the same sort followed in 1782; and in the same year, when the exigency became more alarming, Ireland was restored to independence by a declaration of the British parliament that "the rights claimed by the people of that island, to be bound only by laws enacted by his majesty and the parliament of that kingdom, should be and then were established, and should at no time thereafter be questioned or questionable." Ireland, always moderate, always confiding, was content with this concession, which left her a distinct kingdom, independent of Britain, but united to that country through a common Protestant throne. Then, as her heart swelled with the memories of the glories of other days, and opened to visions of brighter glories in the future, she clasped her sister England with gratitude, pride, and affection, forgetting the injuries of six hundred years! Did ever the earth exhibit a scene of truer national magnanimity? But Ireland in 1782 was only independent as America was in the same period. It yet remained in each country to establish and secure the liberties of the people. This was done here by the erection of the federal republican constitution of 1787, which, although reared amid doubts and fears, has gained stability with time, and has, as we ardently hope, become eternal. But the parliament of Dublin remained in Ireland. It was no less now than before the engine of the usurping aristocracy of England. Its virtues had expired in the throes of its new birth. No constitution could be obtained without the consent of the parliament of the Pale-a parliament in which three fourths of the people had not a shadow of representation, and the other portion had only a shadow. In the face of an armed convention of the people, and in the midst of universal commotion, the parliament of Dublin refused a constitution to Ireland! Already all that had been gained was lost but the shadow of independence, and that was sure to follow soon. The patriots of Ireland hastened from the hated halls of the parliament of the Pale with deep disgust, and, rushing to the altars of Liberty, applied themselves to wake again its sleeping fires. The revolution was once more set in motion, but the ball had nearly spent its force. The men of '98, brave and true, attempted under circumstances of extreme difficulty to prepare a doubtful war. The Irish people were again dissevered by the same everlasting cause of faction-the foreign aristocracy in their bosom. Although the gallant leaders were Protestants, yet the mass of Protestants supported the parliament. The Catholic clergy saw the helplessness of conflict, and shuddered at the calamities it portended to a faithful and already deeply-wretched people. England had recovered her giant energies. The thunders of the American Revolution slept. An ambitious, licentious, and ferocious faction, reigned in Paris; and Blasphemy, claiming the name of Liberty, was threatening to involve the world in anarchy. Nevertheless, there was no hope for Ireland but in aid from France, and in the arms of her own people. The insurrection was planned with skill and secrecy, but Treason gained access to its councils and fomented it to a precocious maturity. Then it broke forth only to betray its heroic leaders to the scaffold, and their patriotic associates throughout the island to massacre indiscriminate and merciless. Yet the rebellion of '98 was not altogether unavailing. Every drop that streams from the veins of a martyr in the cause of liberty is gathered again by Him who wills that all his children shall be free, and is poured into the heart of some new-born champion, imparting more than human vigor to the arm of the avenger. The British government now asserted that Ireland had tried the responsibilities of government, and had proved herself incompetent. They disarmed the people, established martial law, falsely promised specious favors to the Catholics, and showered gold and power on the Protestants: and thus, in 1800, the eighteenth year of Irish independence, obtained from the parliament of the Pale the surrender of its infamous existence. Ireland, fettered and manacled more than ever before, was annexed to Great Britain by the act of union. A gloomy period of twenty years succeeded. Tyranny scarcely feared resistance. Penury had taken up her home in the land. Turbulence was abroad, but only to reconcile the people to any government that would suppress disorder. Wealth and learning, warmed at the root with the unnatural heat of royal favor, lost their independent attitude, and, putting forth parasitic tendrils, twined in sickly growth around the pillars of the state. The peasantry took on the habit and gait of slaves. The voice of orators was heard only in subdued complaints. The clang of arms had ceased. Even the national harp, that still retained its ancient sweetness, though trodden under foot by tyrants, forgot the wild inspiration of Freedom, and only gave forth plaintive notes when struck by the hand of Despair: "Alas for our country! her pride has gone by, And the spirit is broken that never would bend; For 't is treason to love her, and death to defend." If a hope could have arisen in the patriot's heart, it would have been dispelled by a glance at the condition of England. She had made ample reprisals in the West Indies, in North America, in Asia, in Africa, and in the South seas, for the loss of the thirteen rebellious colonies; Waterloo had prostrated at her feet her great natural enemy; Spain had entered on her dotage; Holland had relinquished her ambition. The British navy held almost undisputed sway over the seas, and British garrisons encircled the globe. How mysterious and inscrutable are the ways of Providence in conducting the affairs of nations! That season of gloom so intense, was the hour that preceded the dawn of Irish liberty. It was no matter how wide the empire, or how vast the armies or navies of Britain, Ireland was to be delivered by opinion, not by the sword-by the statesman, not by the soldier. That statesman was the first fruit of the cautious concessions concerning property and education, made by England in 1778, and 1782. Daniel O'Connell, a Roman Catholic, heir-apparent of Darrynane, had been instructed in the faith of his forefathers and trained for the forum. The force which he was to employ for the redemption of his country was the fruit of concession made in 1792, in order to secure the act of union. The right of suffrage was then conferred on catholics in Ireland having freeholds of the annual value of forty shillings. Then, and long afterward, the right was indeed useless, and suffrage was yielded with the rents due to the superior lords. But the right was there. The political education of the Liberator was that history of Ireland whose spirit we have endeavored, perhaps vainly, to recall. He had witnessed with horror the desecration of liberty and religion in France, and thus, while he was imbued with the purest sentiments of patriotism, he was not less firmly established in religious principles. He was never for a moment tempted to divide what he thought God had indissolubly combined, religion and freedom. He first appeared before his countrymen at the age of twenty-five, at a meeting of Catholics in 1800, in the midst of an intimidating police, to consider the act of union, then before the parliament in College Green. His speech, which was "a great beginning in so green an age," revealed the principles on which, near thirty years afterward, he worked out catholic emancipation, and brought the independence of Ireland to the verge of triumph. These principles were the combination of those two measures and the union of the people of Ireland by conciliation. "Let us show," said he, "to every friend of Ireland, that Catholics are incapable of selling their country; that if their emancipation was offered for their consent to the act of union (even if emancipation were a benefit after the union), they would reject it with prompt indignation. Let us show to Ireland that we have nothing in view but her good, nothing in our hearts but the desire of mutual forgiveness and mutual reconciliation. Let every man who agrees with me proclaim that if the alternative were offered him of the union, or the re-enactment of the penal code in all its pristine horrors, he would prefer the latter as the lesser or more sufferable evil; that he would confide in the justice of his brethren, the Protestants of Ireland, rather than lay his country at the feet of foreigners." We know not when the great scheme of delivering his country first occurred to O'Connell, but his life was a continual preparation for the enterprise. "He wandered through the wrecks of days departed, And dwellings of a race of mightier men, And monuments of less ungentle creeds, Tell their own tale to Him who rightly heeds The language which they speak." |