much new spiritual life. It was at least a protest against the quiet acceptance of things as they were, another instance of the awakened sense of reality and duty which marks the time. As in the case of other movements, too, it survived chiefly because it fell in with very general and not very noble tendencies of the time, and harmonised Iwell with class interests. But whatever may be the good that it brought with it, by its reactionary character, by the offence which it gave to minds of Protestant tendencies, and by the separation which it evidently implied between the secular and religious life of the nation, it raised a fresh difficulty in the way of re-establishing a really national Church, changed the Church of England more completely into a sect, and rendered more probable its ultimate separation from the State. Result of the Tractarian movement. The Rebecca The administration may, on the whole, have the credit for the comparative quiet which reigned in the manufacturing districts during the year. Vigorous action had been taken against the late rioters.. Feargus O'Connor and fifty-eight others had been tried with various success at Lancaster, in the spring, with the effect apparently of quieting for the time the movements of the Chartists. In Wales, the discontent, partially repressed in England, assumed a somewhat threatening form. What are known as the Rebecca Riots broke out in June. The form which these riots took was the appearance of armed crowds disguised in female dress, and bent upon the destruction of turnpikes. The claims of the rioters went however a good deal further, and seem to have been in some degree connected with hostility to the English Church, and the growth of Dissent. They demanded the removal of all turnpike gates, the abolition of tithes and of Church rates, and of the new poor law. Originally appearing in Carmarthen, where they took possession of the workhouse and were only suppressed by the employment of troops, the rioters re-appeared throughout North Wales almost nightly for several months. Hundreds of turnpikes were destroyed, insults and violent ill-usage were employed against the authorities, occasionally even murder resulted. Some sort of organisation appears to have existed, which publicly claimed for itself the command of more than 100,000 men. "If God spares her life," wrote some agent of the Association under the name of Rebecca, "she will work out the redemption of her poor oppressed children." Government however was able to suppress the rioters; a special Commission was issued for the trial of the prisoners, most of whom pleaded guilty, and the difficulty passed away. But in accordance with the growing recog 1843] THE REBECCA RIOTS 107 trusts in Wales. nition of its duties on the part of Government, suppression was not regarded as sufficient; a Commission was appointed to examine into the causes of the discontent, and in the course of the next Rearrangement year, upon its recommendations, the system of turnpike of the turnpike trusts in Wales was wholly remodelled. Provision was made by loan, and by charges on the rates so arranged as to fall upon the owner and not the occupier, for the gradual extinction of the existing debt upon the trusts. The management of the roads was then to be placed in the hands of county boards, consisting in part of representatives of the ratepayers; the county would thus have the management of its own gate-tolls, which could be considerably reduced. But nearly all questions, whether of social improvement and order, of foreign policy or of religious growth, were overshadowed by the absorbing interest of the renewed agitation in Ireland. After succeeding in procuring the Catholic Emancipation Bill, Repeal agitaO'Connell had raised the question of the Repeal of tionin Ireland. the Act of Union. He was then in the triumph of his late success, ́and was able to secure a considerable following of Irish members pledged to his views. The English Parliament had refused in 1834 to consider the question of Repeal, but had pledged itself by resolution to "apply its best attention to the removal of all just causes of complaint, and to the promotion of all well-considered measures of improvement for the benefit of Ireland." The resolution had been presented as an address to the Crown by both Houses. From that time the agitation for Repeal appeared to have died out. O'Connell gave his general support to the Whigs, attempting as far as Ireland was concerned to procure "equal justice," as it was called —that is to say, a Union of a true Imperial character, in which Ireland should enjoy the same laws as England, and the same freedom from legislation of an exclusively partisan character. The results had not answered his hopes. None of the measures of a conciliatory character introduced by the Whigs had been carried without considerable mutilation, nor had they been of that thoroughgoing description which O'Connell and those who thought with him desired. Despairing apparently of success in this direction, especially as the Whig Government, on which alone he could rely, seemed certainly on the point of falling, in the year 1840 O'Connell fell back upon his scheme of Repeal, and established the Repeal Association in Dublin. The movement seemed however to have little life. Week after week the Association met in the Corn Exchange, and the weekly subscriptions which were raised for the maintenance of the cause were received; but there was little enthusiasm, and the subscriptions were not large. An attempt made by O'Connell to rouse Repeal enthusiasm in the north proved a signal failure, and at the general election in 1841 less than a dozen members pledged to Repeal were returned; O'Connell himself lost his seat for Dublin. "Young Ireland" starts the "Nation" newspaper. Oct. 1842. Towards the close of the year 1842, however, a marked change was visible in the fortunes of the agitation. O'Connell's old lieutenants in his campaign in favour of the Catholic claims had followed him into English politics, and had joined in his alliance with the Whigs. They now gave place to younger and more enthusiastic men who aimed at the fusion of all religions and parties in Ireland, and desired to sink all differences in devotion to the national cause. In support of this view the Nation newspaper was established, in which every topic which could tend to raise national self-respect or excite national ardour was treated with high ability. The writers were young men, Protestant as well as Catholic, of the middle-class and of good education. The best known among them are Gavan Duffy, Thomas Davis, and John Dillon. The effect of this paper, and of the feeling of which it was the expression, was very powerful and almost instantaneous. Before many weeks were over the Repeal rent had risen to more than £1500 a week; and with the strength of this new band of partisans, faithful to him as a leader, though on many points disagreeing with him, O'Connell again resumed more than his old supremacy, and occupied a position even more threatening than during the agitation for Catholic Emancipation. A formal discussion held by the Dublin Corporation and the declaration by a large majority in favour of Repeal, added fresh strength to the movement. The organisation began to assume a national character. The Catholic bishops for the most part declared their adhesion to it, and the Protestant loyalists of Ireland began to feel uneasy that the Prime Minister was taking no steps to check it. Peel threater.s On the 9th of May the attention of Ministers was drawn in both Houses to what was going on in Ireland, and they were asked whether they intended to take any measures to suppress Repeal meetings and to maintain the Union. Sir Robert Peel gave a very clear answer. Quoting the declarations of Lord Althorpe in 1834, he declared that, though he deprecated above all things civil war, there was no alternative which he did not think preferable to the dismemberment of the Empire. The effect of this threat was merely to exasperate the Repealers, and to drive men who had hitherto held aloof from it to 1843] THE REPEAL MOVEMENT adheres to IC9 join the national movement. It is probable also that the menace of armed coercion enlisted the sympathy of many foreigners upon the side of the Irish. At the same time, it almost inevitably obliged the Irish leaders to consider how far they intended to go, and there seems little doubt but that the more advanced among them contemplated if necessary an appeal to arms. But they were loyal followers of their leader, O'Connell, who, although he began to use language which might easily imply that he too looked to the possibility of armed resistance, never in fact intended to proceed to ex- O'Connell tremities. He had a well-grounded belief in his own constitutional skill in keeping within the law, and in the weakness of agitation. Peel when brought face to face with an overwhelming declaration of the popular will. He had already seen him yield upon the Catholic question, accept the Reform Bill, and show a tendency to change in his fiscal legislation. And O'Connell thought that he might safely continue to excite and threaten, sure at the last moment that his end would be obtained without bloodshed. The form which he gave to his agitation was therefore intended to show the vast and threatening amount of popular sympathy on which he could reckon. Meetings were held in all parts of Ireland so numerously attended that they were spoken of as "monster meetings." But crowded though they were, they were invariably orderly, the people frequently attending them parish by parish, headed by bands of music, and with something little short of military regularity. Removal of Magistrates. But this The first blow struck by the Government was directed against the gentry who attended these meetings. O'Connell and his son, Lord French, Mr. Roche, subsequently Lord Fermoy, Liberal Irish and several others-in all twenty-four-were removed by the Irish Lord Chancellor from the list of magistrates. attack was not very successful. The Irish gentry, though desiring union with England, were very sensitive to any signs of indignity put upon Ireland as a nation. They considered the removal of the magis trates as an arbitrary act of English interference, and a considerable number, headed by Smith O'Brien, resigned their offices as magistrates. Advantage was taken of this by the Nationalists to separate the interests of the Irish and English still further. The displaced magistrates formed courts of arbitration, which superseded for The Repealers all members of the Association the ordinary courts of form courts of Justices. It appeared as though the nation, organised if not drilled, was already supplied with the materials of an army and arrangements for the prosecution of justice. The action of the arbitration. Government in this matter raised a grave constitutional question. The magistrates could only have been displaced on the ground of having attended illegal meetings. Yet in what respect were the Repeal meetings illegal? The right of public meeting was accepted as constitutional. The Reform Bill had been granted evidently to the demands of public meetings; the Chartists had been allowed, so long as no violence occurred, to meet without restraint; the Corn-Law agitation was in full vigour. It was certain that so questionable a step would be taken hold of by the Opposition in Parliament. Lord John Russell, Lord Cottenham (the late Chancellor), and Lord Campbell united in declaring that assemblies for a legal purpose were not illegal ; that the Act of Union was a legislative Act as open to discussion and repeal as any other; and that to assemble for the purpose of petitioning against it was not an illegal purpose. The Government were as yet unable to declare the illegality of the meetings, and contented themselves with defending their action upon the ground that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland had the right to exercise his discretion in the matter. Nevertheless, it appeared that practically the Government believed that their opinion made that illegal which high constitutional authority declared to be strictly within the limits of the law. Irish Arms The second blow struck by Government showed that they were determined to regard the Repeal movement not as a constitutional agitation, but as an incipient rebellion. An Arms Act, regulating the possession of arms in Ireland, was already existing, but would before long come to an end. A new Act of a far more stringent character was now introduced instead of a mere renewal of the expiring Act. It encountered, as Coercion Bills have invariably encountered, a most determined opposition. The Whigs took up the question; it was fought at every stage, and upon every clause in Committee. Obstruction, strongly resembling that which we have of late years seen revived, was freely used; and it was only by the sacrifice of the greater part of the session to it that the Bill was ultimately passed by a majority of eighty. The prolonged contest over this Bill proved, if any proof was wanting, the difficulty of encountering the national demands of Ireland by Parliamentary means; yet it appeared almost as difficult to oppose them in any other way. The Government was, however, determined against compromise. A fair opportunity for conciliatory action was given them. Smith O'Brien, a Protestant Irishman, member for Limerick, and a man as yet a declared opponent to Repeal, brought forward, with the appro |