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a penny a month, the "Catholic Rent". They met
under the presidency of the priests, and discussed
all public questions, transmitted the rent to the cen-
tral association, and received in return advice and
assistance. The Government became so alarmed
at the strength of an organization which had 30,000
collectors and hundreds of thousands of members,
that it was suppressed in 1825. At the same time
a Catholic Relief Bill passed the House of Commons,
but was thrown out in the Lords, and all that Ireland
got from Parliament was the act sui)iiressing the
Association, or the Algerine Act, as it was often
called.
It was easily evaded. Its provisions did not affect an}' religious society, nor any formed for purposes of charity, science, agriculture, or commerce; and for these purposes the Catholic Association, changing its name into the New Catholic Association and re- modelling its constitution, continued its work. It was to build churches, obtain cemeteries, defend Catholic interests, take a census of the different re- ligions, and for these the "New Catholic Rent" was subscribed, and meetings were held in Dublin, where Catholic grievances were discussed. Aggregate meet- ings nominally independent of the association, but reallj- organized by it, were also held in different parishes, and larger assemblies took the form of county and provincial meetings. Attended by the local gentry, by the priests, by friendly Protestants, sometimes by O'Connell and Sheil, the boldness and eloquence of speech used gave courage to the Catho- lics and struck terror into their foes. Nor was this aU. The Relief Act of 1793 had conferred the fran- chise on the forty-shilling freeholders, and landlords, to increase their own political influence, had largely created such freeholds. These freeholders living in constant poverty, frequently in arrears of rent, always dependent on the forbearance of their land- lords, had hitherto been driven to the polls like cattle to vote for their landlords' nominee. A new spirit appeared at the General Election of 1826. Relying on these freeholders, the Catholic Association nomi- nated Mr. Stewart against Lord Beresford for Waterford. The threats employed by a powerful family were met on the other side by appeals to re- ligion, to conscience, to the sacredness of the voter's oath; the priests craved of the voters to strike a blow for country and creed; and O'Connell reminded them that a Beresford had caused the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam, that another flogged Catholics to death in 1798, and that wherever the enemies of Ireland were gathered together a Beresford was in their midst. The (-(jntest was soon decided by the return of the Catholic nominee; and Monaghan, Louth, and Westmeath followed the lead of Waterford.
The next year Canning became premier. His consistent advocacy of the Catholic claims brought him the enmity of the king and exclusion from office for many years. When h(! joined Lord Liverpool's government in 1823, he insisted that emancipation should be an open question in the Cabinet, and on the Catholic Relief Bill of 182.5 the strange; spectacle was seen of Peel, the home secretary, voting on one aide while Canning, the foreign secretary, was on the opposite side. As premier the latter was power- less in consf;quence of the hostility of the king, but ha'i he lived he might probably have forced the king's hand. He died, however, in August, 1827, and by his death the Catholics lost one of their stoutest cham- pions. His successor, Goderich, held office only for a few months, and then, early in 1828, the Duke of Wellington became premier, with Peel as his leader in the House of Commons. These two were dedarecl enemif« of reform and emanf^ipation, and instead of being willing to r-oncr-de they would have wished to put down the Catholic Association by force. But such an undertaking waa one from which even the
strongest Goverrmient might have recoiled. The
forty-shilling freeholders, efTectually protected by
the "New Rent " which was specially levied for their
benefit, laughed at the threats of the landlords; the
Catholic forces organized into parish and county
Liberal Clubs, and in correspondence with the Cath-
olic Association at Dublin as head club, sought out
and published every local grievance; Catholic
churchwardens in each parish collected subscriptions
and sent the money to Dublin, getting in return ad-
vice in all their difficulties and legal assistance when-
ever it was necessary.
So disciplined were the Catholic masses that 800,000 of them petitioned Parhament for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, which were re- pealed in 1828; and the same year in 1500 parishes throughout Ireland meetings were held on the same day to petition for emancijiation, and a million and a half Catholic signatures were obtained. Foreign writers came to Ireland to see for themselves, and published in foreign papers and reviews what they saw, and in France, Germany, and Italy England was held up to public odium because of her treatment of Ireland. Across the Atlantic the Irish element was already strong, and all over America meetings were held to demand justice for Ireland. At these meetings money was subscribed liberallj' and sent to Ireland to swell the coffers of the Catholic Associa- tion, and language of menace and defiance was used towards England. Yet Wellington and Peel were still unyielding, and in the session of 1828 the latter opposed Sir Francis Burdett's motion in favour of emancipation, and Wellington helped to defeat it in the Lords. The Catholic Association answered these unfriendly acts by a resolution to oppose all Government candidates; and when Mr. Vesey Fitz Gerald, on being promoted to the Cabinet, sought re-election for Clare, a Catholic Association candidate was nominated against him. As no Catholic could sit in Parliament if elected, it was at first resolved to nominate Major Macnamara, a jjojjular Protestant landlord of Clare; but after some hesitation he de- clined the contest. Then was remembered what John Keogh had once said: "John Bull thinks that to grant emancipation would rekindle the fires of Smithficld. But he is jealous of a subject's con- stitutional privileges, and if a Catholic M.P. be de- barred from taking iiis seat on account of objection- able oaths he will have such oaths modified, so that the constituency shall not be put outside the con- stitution. " In all this there was wisdom, and O'Con- nell himself determined to stand for Parliament and issued his address to the electors of Clare.
The historic contest opened in July. Dr. Doyle sent O'Connell a letter of recommendation praying that the God of truth and justice might jn-osper him; Father Tom Maguire, a noted ijolciuic, came all the way from Leitrim to lend his aid; Jack Lawless came from Ulster; O'Gorman, Malion, and Steele from Clare itself worked with a will; the eloquent Sheil came from Dublin; above all the priests of Clare strained every nerve; and with the aid of all these O'Conmsll had a noted triumph. The gentry and the larger fn^eholders were all with Fitz Gerald; the forty-shilling freeholders were with O'Connell, and influenced by the priests bade defiance to their land- lords; and the enthusiasm displayed was not more remarkable than the discipline and self-restraint. During the six days of th(! polling, 30,000 from all parts of Clare bivouacked in the streets of Ennis, and yet there was no disorder, no riot, no violence, no drunkenness, nothing to call for the interference of soldiers or police. lOven the blindest could see that a crisis had come. The Orangemen becarne res- tive and aggressive. In coini)liuient io the reigning family they formed clubs, modelled on the Liberal clubs of the Catholics, and in language of menace
