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hope was soon dissipated by the death of Fox, and by
the dismissal of Grenville and his colleagues. They
had brought into Parliament a bill assimilating the
English law to the Irish by allowing Catholics in
England to get commissions in the army. But the
king not only insisted on having the measure dropped,
but also that ministers should pledge themselves
against all such concessions in the future; and when
they indignantly refused he dismissed them. The
Duke of Portland then became premier, with Mr.
Perceval leader in the Commons; and the ministry
going to the country in 1807 on a No Popery cry, were
returned with an enormous majority.
Grattan was then in Parliament. He had entered it in 1S05 with reluctance, partly at the request of Lord Fitzwilliam, chiefly in the hope of being able to serve the Catholics. He supported the petition pre- sented by P^ox; he presented Catholic petitions him- self in 1808 and ISIO; and he supported Parnell's motion for a commutation of tithes; but each time he was defeated, and it was plain that the Catholic cause was not advancing. The Catholic Committee, broken up by the rebellion, had been revived in 1805. But its members were few, its meetings irregularly held, its spirit one of diffidence and fear, its activity confined to preparing petitions to Parliament. Nor were its leaders the stamp of men to conduct a popular movement to success. Keogh was old, and age and the memory of the events he had passed through chilled his enthusiasm for active work. Lord Fin- gall was suave and conciliatory, and not without courage, but was unable to grapple with great diffi- culties and powerful opponents. Lords Gormanston and Triml)l('ston were out of touch with the people; Lord French, Mr. Husscy, and Mr. Clinch were men of little ability; Mr. Scully was a clever lawyer who had written a book on the penal laws; and Dr. Drom- goole was a lawyer with a taste for theology and Church history, a Catholic bigot ill-suited to soften Protestant prejudice or win Protestant support. As for Dr. Troy, he was still the courtly ecclesiastic, and neither Pitt's treachery nor the contempt with which the Catholics were treated could weaken his attach- ment to Dublin Castle. He still favoured the Veto, but an event which occurred in 1808 showed that he was no longer supported by his brethren of the epis(!opacy. An Engli.sh bishop. Dr. Milner, who had sometimes acted as Ihiglish agent for the Irish bishops, thought it right to declare to Grattan in their name that they were willing to concede the Veto; and Lord Fingall took a similar liberty with the Catholic Committee. The former, as having exceeded his powers, was promptly repudiated by the Irish bishops, the latter by the Catholic Committee, and this repudi- ation of the Veto was hailed with enthusiasm through- out Ireland.
By this time it was clear that the old method of presenting loyal petitions was out of date, that the time had come for more vigourous action, for a united nation to demand its rights. For this a leader was re- quired, and he was found in the person of Daniel O'Connell. Called to the Bar in 1800, he had already acquired a lucrative practice, and had given valuable assistance in the work of the Catholic Committee. Having seen the horrors of the French Revolution and those of 179S, he abhorred revolution and rebel- lion, and believed that Catholic grievances might be redressed by peaceful agitation, unstained either by violence or crime. And nature itself seemed to have destined him for an agitator. Capable of extreme endurance, mental and physical, he had great courage, great resource, great perseverance, a readiness in de- bate, an eloquence of speech, and a power of invective rarely combined in a single man. He spoke with a voice of singular volume and sweetness, and under the influence of his words his audience were sad or gay, vengeful or forgiving, determined or depressed; and XIII.— 9
when he cowed the Orange lawyer, or ridiculed the
chief secretary or viceroj', the exultation of the Cath-
olics knew no bounds. From 1810 his position was
that of leader, and the fight for emancipation was the
fight made by O'Connell. It was an uphill fight.
Anxious to attract the Catholic masses, and at the
same time not to infringe on the Convention Act, he
had drawn up the constitution of the Catholic Com-
mittee in 1809 with great care; but it went down before
a viceregal proclamation, and the same fate befell its
succes.sor, the Catholic Board. The fact was that the
viceroys of the time were advised by the Orangemen,
and governed by coercion acts. O'Connell's diffi-
culties were increased by the continued agitation of
the Veto. In opposing it he was aided by the bishops
and the clergy; but Dr. Troy and Lord Fingall, aided
by the English Catholics, procured a rescript from
Rome in their favour. It was sent by Quarantotti,
Prefect of the Propaganda, in 1814, while Pius VII
was a prisoner of Napoleon. When the pope re-
turned to Rome he disavowed it, though not at once;
and the agitation of the question for years weakened
all Catholic efforts for emancipation. In 1813, Grat-
tan, supported by Canning and Castlereagh, passed
through its second reading a Catholic Relief Bill,
which however was lost in Committee. Nothing
daunted, he continued his efforts. To allay the
groundless fears of unreasoning bigotry he conceded
the Veto, and yet each year the motion he brought
forward was rejected. When he died in 1820 another
great Irishman, Plunket, took the matter in hand,
and in 1821 succeeded in passing a Bill through the
House of Commons. Even the concession of the Veto
could not buy off' the hostility of the House of Lords,
who threw out the bill; and it seemed as if emancipa-
tion would never come.
The visit of George IV to Ireland in 1821 brought a brief period of hope. The king had once been the declared friend of the Cathofics, and if he had op- posed them since he became regent, in 1810, it might be because he disliked opposing his father's views while his father lived. The Catholics by public resolution in 1812 blamed the witchery of his mis- tress, and the regent was known to be very wroth with what came to be called "The Witchery Resolu- tion". But the Catholics in a forgiving mood felt sure that their resolution was forgotten; that the king was returning to his fir.st and more enliglitened opinions; and that his visit meant friendship and con- cession. Thus disposed, they welcomed him with enthusiasm. The king before leaving Ireland ex- pressed his gratitude to his subjects, and counselled the different classes to cultivate moderation and for- bearance. But he had no rebuke for Orange in- solence and no message of hope for the Catholics, and to the end of his reign continued to oppose their claims. Depression settled down heavily on the whole Catholic body. Agitation ceased, outrages commenced, coercion followed and continued; and in 1823, while the Catholics were apathetic and dis- pirited and the Orangemen more than usually ag- gressive, O'Connell founded the Catholic Association. His chief assistant was a young barrister named Shell. They were old friends, but had quarrelled about the Veto, and now composed their quarrels and became friends again. To evade the Convention Act the new association, specially formed to obtain emancipation "by legal and constitutional means", was merely a club, its members paying a subscrip- tion, its meetings open to the Press. At first its progress was slow, and not infrequently it was diffi- cult to get a sufficient number together to form a quorum. But it gradually made headway. Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare, joined it at an early stage, as did Dr. Murraj^ Coadjutor Archbishop of Dublin, and many hundreds of the clergy. Subsidiary clubs arose throughout the country, the members paying
