On the contrary, the lower classes and the priests most strenuously opposed the veto, and everything of the kind; and, in common with the leaders of the emancipation movement, refused to accept concessions on such terms. So strong was the feeling amongst the bulk of the people, that the Catholic bishops, lest they should be supposed to favour the views of the upper classes in this matter, issued a joint proclamation to their clergy, in which they said, "It is with the utmost distress of mind that we are compelled, by a sense of duty, to dissent, in some points connected with our emancipation, from the opinion of those virtuous and enlightened statesmen " [Canning and his associates]" who have so long and so ably advocated the cause of Catholic freedom. Probably from a want of sufficient information, but unquestionably from the most upright motives, they have proposed to the legislature the adoption of certain arrangements respecting our ecclesiastical discipline, and particularly respecting the exercise of episcopal functions, to which it would be impossible for us to assent." On the other hand, they were careful to elaborate profuse professions of loyalty to the Protestant government, and conclude with the declaration that "We have not, and will not have, any communication or correspondence with the chief pastor of the Church, or with any person authorized to act in his name, for the purpose of overthrowing or disturbing the Protestant government, or the Protestant Church of Great Britain and Ireland, or the Protestant Church of Scotland, as by law established." To the unbiassed observer, that declaration was an admission of those bishops that they might reasonably be suspected of a desire to disturb the Protestant churches if they ever got the chance. At the same time it was a confession of their impotence to effect such disturbance, and therefore they were willing, of sheer necessity, to assume a virtue though they had it not. Be that as it might, the offer of the government to make concessions subject to the veto and its accompaniments, was claimed as covering the charge which otherwise might have had additional force of unreasonable resistance to not unreasonable requirements; and O'Connell evidently "hailed with joy" the proposal of the DELAY OF EMANCIPATION. 125 veto, because it was calculated to cause that "delay of Catholic emancipation" which he conceived to be essential to the attainment of his "ultimate object." Between the two, Catholic emancipation was, in fact, delayed beyond all expectation; and as both parties wanted to delay it, they continued for many years to use the veto as a convenient bone of contention, to their mutual satisfaction. CHAPTER XVI. THE WATERLOO PERIOD-MR. PEEL AS CHIEF SECRETARY -HIS COERCION ACT-POPULAR DEFIANCE. HE government having covered their ground with the veto, felt THE at liberty to ignore Ireland on the opening of Parliament, in November 1813. So far as the royal speech was concerned, the Emerald Isle might have been blotted out of the map of Europe. This contemptuous silence goaded the Catholics into an activity that had for some time been qualified. The principal effect was the suppression of the Catholic Board. The aristocracy and those who were willing to accept the veto, declined to move any further just then, and they never had a recognized existence afterwards. O'Connell refused to remain at rest. He called a meeting in his own name, which meeting resulted in many others in various parts of the country. The resolutions passed at these meetings were of a violent character, that alarmed and exasperated the government. The resolutions were published in several papers, but the government made the publication in the Dublin Evening Post an excuse for again prosecuting the unfortunate Maghee, whose term of former imprisonment had not yet expired. He was sentenced to a fine of a thousand pounds, and two years' additional imprisonment, to succeed the term of his first sentence. The evident rancour with which this prosecution was conducted had a stimulating effect upon all who were made aware of it, and nerved the Catholic leaders to renewed exertions. The Pope was communicated with; his previous assent to the veto was withdrawn ; and every effort was made to bring pressure to bear upon the government. At this time, as at so many other times, there was a deeper root of PEEL CHIEF SECRETARY. 127 discontent making itself manifest with sufficient virulence to eclipse public interest in Catholic grievances. Agrarian hardships were making themselves known with a suddenly increasing violence. Then, as so often since, it was declared on authority that neither life nor property was safe. The phraseology of 1814 is almost word for word like that of 1881. Numerous secret societies of a most treasonable character were discovered. They were then said to be promoted by persons far higher in station and superior in fortune to the visible conspirators; but the originators could not be traced, although their influence was sufficiently palpable. The government declared itself unable to grapple with the difficulties which they had to encounter, so they sought for fresh powers. Again the oft-repeated and to be repeated cry came for suppression of rebellion; for repeal of habeas corpus; for peace preservation. These things had been almost unceasing in their persistence and impotence. While the government was busy in dethroning Napoleon, and in disposing of him for the time at Elba, the sullen fire of unquenchable resistance was bursting out from the depths where it had for a short season been smothered. It fell to the lot of the then Mr. Peel, Chief Secretary of Ireland, to submit the case, and to ask, on the 23rd of June, for the additional powers deemed to be required. Mr. Peel said that the state of the country had for some time been such as to call for the adoption of additional measures for securing public tranquillity; that he had been prepared at a much earlier period to propose them, but that the hopes of some good effects from the general pacification of Europe, which had resulted from the abdication of Bonaparte in April, had induced him to delay. Such hopes had, however, been frustrated, and he could not, consistently with his duty, protract any longer the production of his plan. He referred to frequent disturbances arising out of what he called pretended local grievances. The general mode was to inflict punishment on those who chose to disobey the orders of men who were at the head of the secret associations, which were not only mischievous in their present effects, but were formidable from their accustoming the persons combined to habits of great caution and strict discipline, which rendered them dangerous instruments in the hands of designing men. Here we have clearly shown that "Boycotting" and land leagueing were recognized powers of evil in 1814. Mr. Peel indicated other points of exact likeness when he went on to explain that the greatest obstacles to the administration of the law in Ireland arose from the difficulty of procuring persons to give information to the government ; and the next to impossibility of procuring reliable evidence on which to rest prosecutions in cases of the violation of the peace. This was, he conceived, partly owing to a kind of romantic feeling, and partly to a system of intimidation which was carried to great lengths, and often occasioned scenes of the most atrocious barbarity-he might have said, of a more than romantic character. While Parliament was discussing details, events in Ireland went on, as usual, faster than statesmen did, so that on the 8th of July Mr. Peel had to apply for stronger powers than he had previously applied for. He was sorry, he said, that in those parts of Ireland where the laws had been administered with the greatest severity, and where the greatest number of convictions had taken place, the terror of those convictions had scarcely survived the cause, while new combinations of a more extensive and dangerous kind had been formed, which defied the operation of the law as it now existed. The bill that resulted therefore contained nearly every instrument of coercion enumerated under the suppression of rebellion acts, the suspension of habeas corpus, and the peace preservation acts of which we have already given examples in earlier pages. Mr. Ponsonby and Mr. Abercromby endeavoured to qualify the severity of the proposals, but Lord Castlereagh, who had already earned an unenviable notoriety for his administrative severity, pressed for everything that was asked, and for an immediate decision. Sir Henry Parnell (the Parnell of those days) strove to expunge provisions enabling the government to transport persons for offending against the Act without a bill being found by a grand jury or a verdict by a petty jury, but only six members voted with him, and of course the entire Act was speedily passed, on the 8th of July, 1814. The character of the offences which the Act was designed to cope |