I am going there to work in good earnest for the Repeal." I readily accompanied him, and had the honour of being one of the fifteen members of the Repeal Association enrolled on the first day of its existence. The chair was taken by John O'Neill, a venerable and wealthy citizen of Dublin, who had been one of the Volunteers of 1782. O'Connell's speech was admirable. It was logical, spirited, and eloquent. When we were returning from the meeting I expressed my opinion of it.

"Yes," said he, "I felt that the occasion required a great effort, and I made the effort. This day will hereafter be memorable in the history of Ireland."

I remarked on the scanty attendance at the meeting, whose paucity of numbers contrasted strongly with the crowds that a few weeks afterwards filled the room to overflowing. He was incapable of being depressed by the sight of empty benches.

"Pooh!" he exclaimed, "I began the Catholic Association with less than one-sixth of the numbers. The scanty attendance of this day matters nothing. The people remained away because they have not yet found out that I am in earnest; they think I'll drop this agitation yet. But the Repeal spirit is alive and vigorous among them.

You'll see how

they will crowd in to us as soon as they find out I am seriously determined to go on with it."

I said, "Thank God, I was a Repealer from ten years old."

"Thank God," replied O'Connell, "I opposed the Union ab initio, and the grounds on which I did so are singularly coincident with my whole public life."

Speaking of the discussion of the Repeal of the Union in the House of Commons, in 1834, O'Connell complained that the question had been injured by the hot-headed men who had prematurely forced it into the House. "Nevertheless," said he, "one solitary good has resulted from the discussion. It forced from the Imperial Legislature a pledge to do full justice to Ireland—a pledge they have shamefully violated—and this legislative violation of a solemn pledge immeasurably adds to the force and weight of our arguments for the Repeal."

I

may mention in this place, that Mr. O'Connell invariably expressed his conviction that Flood was right, and Grattan wrong, in their celebrated controversy in 1782 on the "Simple Repeal" of the Act 6 Geo. I., whereby laws enacted for Ireland by the British Legislature, were declared to be binding on this country. It may be necessary to remind some of my readers, that Grattan main

tained that the simple repeal of the British statute in question was quite sufficient to secure to Ireland her constitutional independence; while Flood, on the other hand, contended that the British Parliament should not only repeal the declaratory Act of Geo. I., but also expressly renounce and disclaim the usurped power to legislate for Ireland.

"If Flood had succeeded," said O'Connell, "it is my firm conviction that the Union could never have been passed. If the Irish popular party in 1800 had possessed the strong grounds of an express renunciation by the British Legislature of all right to legislate for Ireland, they would have been able to make a triumphant stand against all the arts of corruption and all the sanguinary tyranny of the Union-Government."

When O'Connell spoke thus, he forgot that the renunciatory act for which Flood contended, was actually passed by the British Parliament in 1783.

The real fact is, that a thousand renunciatory acts, or legislative declarations of principle, could not have saved Ireland from the Union in 1800. The Union was carried with a scornful disregard of principle. Its abettors cared nothing for principle. Their engines were bribes, and military terror. By the application of bribery to persons

interested in borough-property, and of military violence to the people at large, they succeeded in their criminal object. Men who trafficked in corruption, or who were the agents of terror, were not likely to pause in their career out of deference to arguments, or principles, or renunciatory acts. I see not how the Union could have been averted at that fatal period, unless by such a thorough reform in the Irish Parliament as would have enabled the people to send honest men into the House of Commons in place of the worthless nominees of borough-patrons. But with the unreformed Parliament we had, the fall of the nation was inevitable.

Mr. Ray was appointed secretary of the new Association. O'Connell was much attached to that gentleman. "Ray," said he to me, "is invaluable as a man of business. There is no nonsense, no fustian about him. He always comes straight to the point. He is the best and most satisfactory man of business I ever met, and has amassed a vast deal of statistical knowledge. And better than all, he is a sincere and excellent Christian."

None, I believe, who know Mr. Ray, will dissent from O'Connell's estimate of his merits.

We look back even now with a feeling of historic interest on the machinery of the Repeal

Association as devised and set working by its founder. Necessarily small in its commencement, its ramifications extended before long into every parish in the kingdom, and also into numerous districts of England, Scotland, and America. The executive Council of the Association were its several committees, upon whom it will be readily believed that a large amount of labour devolved. The Committees sat three or four days in the week; sometimes every day. Here the business of the entire confederacy was discussed and its machinery regulated. There was something impressive in the scene presented by the committee-room, especially in winter. The stranger who visited it saw a long low apartment, rather narrow for its length; of which the centre was occupied, from end to end, by a table and benches. By the light of three or four gas-burners, he discerned a numerous assemblage who were seated on both sides of the long central table, earnestly discussing the various matters submitted for their consideration. At the upper end of the apartment might be seen a man of massive figure, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, and a dark fur tippet. He is evidently "wide awake" to all that passes. Observe how his keen blue eye brightens up at any promising proposition, or at any indication of increasing strength-how im