shalled troops of the empire he scouted as only worthy of a doting driveller. But the failure to convict him did not prevent government from taking immediate steps to suppress the association, and on 10 Feb. 1825 a bill for that purpose was introduced into parliament by Goulburn. The association lost no time in petitioning against it, and a deputation, which O'Connell reluctantly joined, proceeded to London to strengthen the hands of the opposition. Parliament, however, refused to hear counsel in support of the petition, and in due time the bill became law. But O'Connell's visit to London was productive of important political results; for, besides bringing him into closer relations with the leaders of the whig party, it was the means of reviving a discussion on the catholic claims in parliament, with the result that on 28 Feb. leave was given to introduce a relief bill. More than this, it enabled him, as a witness before committees of both houses appointed to inquire into the state of Ireland, to expound his views on such subjects as tithes, education, the Orange societies, the condition of the peasantry, the electoral franchise, the endowment of the clergy, and the administration of justice. His behaviour as a witness—his modesty, reasonableness, and willingness to conciliate—extorted admiration even from his opponents.
The preparation of the Catholic Relief Bill was naturally a subject of profound interest to him; and there is good reason to believe that he was not merely consulted as to its main provisions, but had actually a hand in the drafting of it, though his indiscretion in announcing the fact offended his whig friends, and elicited a denial from Sir Francis Burdett. With equal indiscretion he caused a premature statement of the contents of the bill to be published in the Dublin newspapers. His tacit approbation of the proposal to accompany the measure with two supplementary bills, subsequently known as ‘the wings,’ for endowing the catholic clergy and disfranchising the forty-shilling freeholders, was fiercely denounced by Lawless in Ireland and in England by Cobbett. Before the second reading of the bill he paid a hurried visit to Dublin. On 14 April he addressed a large aggregate meeting. But nothing was said about ‘the wings;’ and it seems to have been agreed to leave the matter entirely to the discretion of parliament. On 10 May the bill passed the House of Commons; but a week later it was rejected by the lords, in consequence of the violent opposition of the Duke of York. O'Connell returned to Ireland on 1 June, and was greeted with a great public demonstration. A few days later he addressed an aggregate meeting in Anne Street Chapel. Overlooking an attempt—the first of several—on the part of Lawless to pass a resolution censuring the conduct of the delegates in assenting to ‘the wings,’ he announced, amid wild applause, his intention to set on foot a new catholic association. He speedily redeemed his promise, and early in July the new association started into existence. Disclaiming any intention to agitate for the redress of grievances, it professed to be simply a society to which Christians of all denominations paying an annual subscription of 1l. were admissible, ‘for the purposes of public and private charity, and such other purposes as are not prohibited by the said statute of the 6th Geo. IV, c. 4.’ As for the catholic rent—which was really the mainspring of the whole agitation, but which it was no longer possible to connect with the association—O'Connell declared his intention to take the management of it upon himself.
Meanwhile the opposition to the principle involved in ‘the wings’ gained ground rapidly, and O'Connell, while still retaining his opinion as to the advisability of raising the franchise, yielded to the general opinion, and declared himself in favour of their abandonment. His declaration afforded universal satisfaction, and greatly added to his popularity. In the autumn he was specially briefed to attend the courts at Antrim in the celebrated O'Hara case, Newry, Galway, and Wexford. Everywhere his appearance was the signal for great popular demonstrations. His uncle Maurice died at the beginning of the year, leaving him the bulk of his property, estimated at about 1,000l. a year; and in September 1825 he took possession of Darrynane. This addition to his income was welcome to him; for, habitually extravagant and careless in money matters, he was already embarrassed by debt.
By the close of the year the machinery of the new agitation was in full operation. Provincial meetings, at nearly all of which O'Connell was present, were held at Limerick, Cork, Carlow, Ballinasloe, and elsewhere. On 16 Jan. 1826 the first of the ‘fourteen days' meetings’ began in Dublin; and, in order to emphasise his adoption of the ‘anti-wings’ policy, O'Connell moved a resolution deprecating ‘the introduction into parliament of any measure tending to restrict the elective franchise, or interfering with the discipline or independence of the catholic church in Ireland.’ He was shortly to become convinced of the wisdom of his policy. In June 1826, during the general election,
