Derry, tending in the direction of a concession of the catholic claims. Coming from so staunch a supporter of protestant ascendency, and a man so intimately connected with government, his speech—which was generally but wrongly supposed to be ‘inspired’—created a sensation. The Orangemen were frantic at what they regarded as their betrayal by government; and Brunswick clubs started everywhere into existence. Early in October Wellington waited on the king, and found him anxious to encourage the formation of these clubs, and to take advantage of the feeling of hostility to the catholics they aroused to dissolve parliament. Neither Wellington nor Peel was prepared for so hazardous an experiment, though at one time both seriously thought of suppressing O'Connell's association. On 16 Nov. Wellington proposed to concede to the catholics the right to sit in parliament. But the king was strongly averse to the concession, and the matter was still under consideration when the Marquis of Anglesey indiscreetly tried to force the hands of his colleagues. His conduct gave great offence, and he was recalled in January 1829.
Before parliament reassembled on 5 Feb. it had been determined to suppress the association, to disfranchise the forty-shilling freeholders, to repeal the law against transubstantiation, and to admit the catholics to parliament. The intention of the ministry was kept a profound secret; and in Ireland, where the removal of Anglesey was interpreted as an unequivocal sign of their determination to stick to their guns, active preparations were made for a renewal of the struggle. At a meeting of the association on 5 Feb. O'Connell, previous to his departure to London, announced his intention of keeping the agitation alive until religious liberty was conceded. The moment the laws that oppressed the catholics were repealed the association would cease to exist. But the long-continued struggle for religious liberty had, he declared, generated an attention to national interests that would survive emancipation. When that day dawned catholics and protestants, forgetting their ancient feud, would unite to procure the repeal of that odious and abominable measure, the union.
O'Connell arrived in London on 10 Feb. He had been delayed by an accident to his carriage near Shrewsbury, and all along the road, particularly at Coventry, he had been greeted with cries of ‘No popery!’ and ‘Down with O'Connell!’ In consequence of the speech from the throne advising a revision of the laws ‘which impose civil disabilities on his majesty's catholic subjects,’ he wrote the same day advising the dissolution of the association, which accordingly met for the last time on 12 Feb. For some time, however, he made no attempt to take his seat, owing partly to the fact that a petition had been lodged against his return, which was not decided in his favour until 6 March; partly also from a desire not to obstruct the progress of the long-expected measure of relief, which had by that time entered on its first stage. Writing to Sugrue on 6 March, he pronounced Peel's bill for emancipation to be ‘good—very good; frank, direct, complete.’ The only really objectionable feature about it lay in the supplementary measure disfranchising the forty-shilling freeholders, and to this he offered an immediate and strenuous resistance. But he failed to enlist the sympathy of the whigs, and on 13 April the bill received the royal assent. Meanwhile in Ireland the prospect of relief had been hailed with feelings of intense joy, and in gratitude to O'Connell a national testimonial was started, which reached very respectable dimensions. The original intention was to purchase him an estate; but when he announced his intention to abandon his profession in order to devote himself entirely to his parliamentary duties, the scheme developed into an annual tribute, which in some years rose to more than 16,000l. On 15 May he presented himself at the bar of the House of Commons, and, declining to take the oath of supremacy tendered him, he was ordered by the speaker to withdraw. On the motion of Brougham that he should be heard in explanation of his refusal, he three days later addressed the house from the bar. His speech made a great impression, not so much from the arguments he employed as by the readiness with which he adapted himself to the tone and temper of his audience. His claim to sit was, however, rejected by 190 to 116, and a new writ was ordered to issue for Clare. Though greatly disappointed, he was sanguine of re-election. Before leaving London he published an address to the electors of Clare, which from the frequency of the phrase ‘Send me to parliament, and I will,’ &c., was ironically styled the ‘address of the hundred promises.’
He returned to Ireland on 2 June, and on the following day he addressed a large and enthusiastic meeting in Clarendon Street Chapel. Five thousand pounds were immediately voted to defray his election expenses, and a week later he set out for Ennis. His journey through Naas, Kildare, Maryborough, Nenagh, and Limerick resembled a triumphal progress. Owing to the necessity of reconstructing a fresh registry on the new 10l.
