CHAPTER VI
TROUBLED WATERS: CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL
An indiscreet secretary summoned the attendance of Repeal Cavalry at the Clontarf Meeting—A proclamation issued forbidding the Meeting O'Connell submitted to the proclamation Effects of his submission—Attitude of the Young Ireland Party—Arrest of O'Connell and seven—other Repealers—Their trial and conviction—Juncture and character of Smith O'Brien—Policy of the Repeal Association under Smith O'Brien and Thomas Davis—Writ of error and decision of the House of Lords—Liberation of the State prisoners Position of Ireland at that time—Visits to O'Connell at Darrynane—His gradual abandonment of Nationality—The Federal controversy—Effect upon public opinion in Ireland—O'Connell repudiates the Federalists and quarrels with France and America—Tait's Magazine on the position—Slanders on Thomas Davis—Peel's Provincial Colleges—Controversy between O'Connell and Davis—Effect of the controversy on public opinion—Tour in the North with O'Hagan, Mitchel, and Martin—Dungannon, Charlemont and battlefield of Ballynahinch visited—Vice-tribunate of John O'Connell—Letters from Mitchel, Martin, and O'Hagan—Visit to Wicklow with T. D. M'Gee—Death of Thomas Davis and my wife within a week Letter from Father Mathew.
The language of the Mallow Defiance placed O'Connell and the Government under obligations which neither could evade with impunity. If O'ConnelPs haughty declaration represented his actual intentions there was force and spirit in the country at that time ready and willing to win the liberty demanded. But he was the trusted leader from whom the word of command must come; any one anticipating him would have been regarded as a dangerous traitor. And his language unfortunately did not represent his intentions. In the contest for Catholic Emancipation he had alarmed Wellington and Peel by the fear of an insurrection, and he counted on the same result on this occasion. But Emancipation had friends in England who would not have supported the Government in suppressing it by force. Repeal
