Continuance of Crime and Outrage.—The story of the two previous years was the same of this: crime raged everywhere; the hand of the assassin was constantly uplifted; and woe to the landlord who expelled a tenant for whatsoever violation of contract, and to the zealous Protestant, lay or clerical, who claimed a right to discuss his religious opinions, even in self-defence, or to circulate there, even in the most inoffensive manner.
Much of the crime of Ireland was to be attributed to a secret society which the government never made any adequate efforts to suppress, and which was commonly called the “Ribbon Society.” No means were taken by the respectable Roman Catholics to break up this exclusively Romanist confederacy, the chief object of which was the extermination of Protestants, and it was in 1848 that, in this respect, little was to be then expected from them. No public protest against the worst and the wildest of the ultramontane proceedings of previous years had been made by Roman Catholics, clerical or lay, English or Irish, or of any rank in life; and the “liberal Roman Catholics,” as they liked to be called, could not be surprised if Protestants began to put no faith in their liberal professions. Yet this section of the Roman Catholics had gained much confidence and respect with liberal Protestants in both countries. It was chiefly on their representations that the once formidable Orange societies were suppressed, and although these societies changed their constitution in compliance with the law, yet they never acquired public confidence after: through the instrumentality of Mr. Hume’s exposure of the dangerous tendency of the confederacy, the law was put in force against them. The liberal Romanists were accustomed to say that Ribbonism was, so to say, but the complement of Orangeism; that if the latter were made illegal, the other would die of itself. This was believed by the whig and radical parties of the day; and after a feeble resistance on the part of the Tories, Orangeism was at last discountenanced by the state, and literally turned out of doors, after having been used and misused, petted and pampered, for half a century. Instead, however, of Ribbonism taking a voluntary departure, as lay and priestly liberal spouters of the popular Roman Catholic party presumed, it increased in extent, numbers, and virus. Portions of Ireland where it had previously no footing became the high places of its power; every town in England where Irish Roman Catholics lived had affiliated societies formed; London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Lancashire generally, counted their tens of thousands of sworn enemies to the English government and name, and to the toleration and even existence of Protestants. The oaths of the members were again and again revised, becoming more relentless and blood-thirsty, just as every concession was made to Roman Catholic demands. As the system of Ribbonism was in 1848, nothing more bloody and diabolical was ever conceived by lost human minds. Nothing like it could exist except amongst a people in whose hearts bigotry had so uprooted all tolerance and charity, that their ferocity of zealotism would vie with that which an Irish Romanist described of others:—
“Men of the saintly murderous brood. To carnage and the Koran given, Who think, through unbeliever’s blood, Lies the directest path to heaven.”
Political Agitation.—The Repeal Association continued its meetings, and notwithstanding the prevailing distress, considerable sums were subscribed; some weeks as much as £80 was received. Mr. John O’Connell presided at those meetings, which were barren of all utility for the party, and destitute of the eloquence which in the days of O’Connell and Shiel enlivened and gave importance to public meetings.
The young Ireland party was all activity, and although few of its orators were really eloquent, there were many of them good speakers, several who rose to the rank of superior platform address, and one (Mr. Meagher) of surpassing eloquence. The Young Irelanders, on the whole, wrote better than they spoke, and very able articles appeared from their pens in the press, not only in Dublin, but throughout Ireland. The Nation newspaper, conducted by Charles Gavan Duffy, a man of wonderful energy and courage, of discriminating literary taste and fine talents, was perhaps the most ably managed newspaper in the British Isles, so far as literary claims were concerned. The most passionate and exciting ballads, full of poetical and patriotic fervour, the most elaborate and elegantly written dissertations on Ireland, her history, music, poetry, language, and people, and popularly written and able articles on politics, filled its columns. Their influence upon the mind of the young men of Ireland who were of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and of many Protestants who were too liberal in sentiment to suspect their Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen of desiring religious ascendancy, was great. When John Mitchell considered that the Nation had too little sympathy with red republicanism, he set up a paper called the Irishman, which he made the vehicle of the most outrageous doctrines, political and social. The leading articles of the Irishman were written by Mr. Mitchell himself, with a nervous power, eloquence, boldness of thought, and audacity, which were very extraordinary. These articles were amongst the ablest specimens of newspaper writing which had ever been known in Ireland. Their effect was electric; they maddened the young men of the movement with a fierce spirit of nationality. The clubs read them with ecstasy, and John Mitchell was the idol and hero of all men of extreme opinions. His defiance of government, his incitements to rebellion, were so open and intrepid, that they seized upon the imagination of the people, and much disturbed the government. Pikes and side-arms were manufactured in every part of the country, and John Mitchell wrote various articles on the proper pattern of a pike, on the best way of using that “queen of weapons,” as he termed it, and to prove how hopeless it would be for either cavalry or infantry, disciplined on the ordinary system, to face corps of Irish pikemen disciplined on his plan. These military articles were eminently absurd, and excited the ridicule of military men; but the style in which they were written was so admirably adapted to the taste and tone of thought of those whom they were designed to influence, that they told wonderfully, and inspired confidence in the clubs and in the country, that means were at last found by which the trained troops of England could be encountered with a superior weapon.
Meanwhile the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Clarendon, proved himself a most vigorous governor. He entered into negotiations with the Orangemen, who were true to the throne to a man. One hundred and fifty thousand men of that confederacy, and of the Protestants who held their principles and sympathised with their party, although not enrolled in the lodges, were ready to take up arms on the side of the government, and many stand of arms were to be distributed should necessity arise. A very large distribution was made, and the Orangemen, and vast number of other Protestants, were ready to turn out at a moment’s notice. The number at the call of the government were quite sufficient, with a small body of troops as a point of support, to put down any force the disloyal could bring into the field. How such men as Mitchell, Meagher, O’Brien, and Duffey could fail to see that, was extraordinary. They still went on, talking of Ireland as about to “arise in her majesty and shake off the English yoke,” at a time when a million and a half of Irish Protestants would have preferred any yoke under heaven to that of their own Roman Catholic countrymen; and while some of the most papal of the Roman Catholics themselves had no hope in the movement, no confidence in the leaders, and a strong conviction that any effort against England was impracticable, and would lead only to a waste of blood. His excellency displayed such vigour that, early in the spring, two hundred and eighty thousand persons, comprising the wealth and intelligence of the country, signed a document expressive of their confidence. His lordship was keenly alive, also, to the influence of the press, and subsidised various papers to oppose the Young Irelanders. He did not display as much caution in this department of his policy as he did vigour and sagacity in other directions. He hired a man named Birch, who edited a paper called the World, which was very ably conducted. The terms on which his excellency put himself with Mr. Birch were discreditable to the government, and the spirit in which he wrote and acted was insulting to the country, and when his connection with the Castle became known, the hands of government were weakened by the circumstance.
The negotiations with Rome were productive of more effect than giving subsidies to the press, for both sections of the anti-union agitation did their utmost to gain the priests over to their cause. The priesthood was, however, suspicious of the Young Irelanders, from the conviction that they were generally indifferent to religion. This impression was also received at Rome; and the English government, by its secret agency, did its best to strengthen that opinion. The pope had sufficient reason to dread any tendency to red republicanism in any part of the world where his disciples or subjects might be influenced by it. He accordingly issued a rescript, which created a powerful sensation in Ireland. The Nation newspaper, and the press generally which sympathised with it, denounced the English government, and the English Roman Catholics, with having, by false representations, induced the pope to issue this document. The censures fell with especial weight upon the English Roman Catholic aristocracy, who were believed to have a peculiar prejudice against Ireland, and in this case to have allowed their antipathies of race and nationality to interfere with the good of their religion; for it was alleged that the promotion of agitation, and even revolution, in Ireland by the priesthood, was the surest way to make England concessive to the Roman Catholic clergy and people. It was also maintained that the severance of Ireland from England would give a wider scope to the influence of the church, and rescue one of her fairest provinces from the sceptre of a heretic sovereign. These different grounds were taken up by various organs of the press, according to their degrees of prudence, or the especial light in which they regarded the transaction. At all events, it was felt that the rescript would baulk the efforts of the Young Irelanders to engage any portion of the priesthood on their side, and greatly lessen the chances of their success. The Protestants of Ireland, ignorant of the true nature of the mission of Lord Minto to Italy, which the government organs systematically misrepresented, and ignorant also of the progress which the English government had made at Rome, through certain Roman Catholics of influence, considered the rescript as a ruse on the part of the pope, acting in concert with the Irish episcopacy, to throw the English government off its guard. The Protestants were therefore stirred up to more vigorous preparation to resist the approaching insurrection, while, at the same time, the hopes of the opposite party were damaged, and depression was necessarily communicated to their exertions.
The following is a copy of the papal rescript, addressed to the Roman Catholic prelates of Ireland:—
“Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord,—The reports now for nine months circulated by the English newspapers concerning the political party-strifes in which some ecclesiatics have allowed themselves to be carried away, and the desecration made of some of the Irish churches for the purpose of aiding and promoting secular concerns—nay, more, the reports which have reached us relative to the murders which we are informed are so frequent, and by reason of which the clergy have been stigmatised, and some of them charged with imprudence, and as giving indirect provocation from the pulpit, or, at least, extenuating the guilt of these murders—these reports must surely awaken the solicitude of the sacred congregation.
“This sacred congregation cannot bring itself to believe that such reports, so extensively raised abroad, can be true; nor can it believe that ecclesiastics have forgotten that the church of God should be the house of prayer, not of secular concerns, or the meeting-place of politicians; neither can the sacred congregation believe that ecclesiastics have ceased to recollect that they are the ministers of peace, dispensers of the mysteries of God—men who should not involve themselves in worldly concerns—in a word, men who should abhor blood and vengeance. Nevertheless, this sacred congregation deems it its duty to require certain and satisfactory explanation on all these matters, that it may know what importance to attach to the abovementioned damnatory reports. Wherefore, at the suggestion of his holiness, I have deemed it my duty to forward this letter to your lordship, praying you to satisfy this most reasonable solicitude of the congregation; and, meantime, it exhorts you to admonish the clergy, that seeking the things which are of Jesus Christ, they sedulously apply themselves to watch over the spiritual interests of the people, and in nowise mix themselves up with worldly affairs, in order that their ministry may not be brought into disrepute, and those who are against them may not have wherewith to charge them.