ences at Liverpool and Birmingham, and on 8 March he delivered a powerful speech in support of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Bill, though it may be noted in passing that he was not at first hostile to Peel's plan for their extinction. The bill was fiercely opposed by the lords; and in May, during the height of the controversy, he was unseated on petition for Dublin, but immediately returned for Kilkenny. The defence of his seat cost him at least 8,000l., and was calculated to have cost the petitioners four times that amount. During the recess he founded a ‘General Association of Ireland’ for the purpose of obtaining corporate reform and a satisfactory adjustment of tithes. The association was supported by an ‘Irish rent,’ which in November reached 690l. a week.
Parliament reassembled on 31 Jan. 1837. The speech from the throne recommended municipal reform, church reform, and poor laws for Ireland. Believing that the poverty of Ireland was mainly due to political causes, O'Connell dissented from the general opinion of his countrymen as to the utility of poor laws. But he had not, he admitted, sufficient moral courage to resist the demand for them altogether, and reluctantly consented to a trial of them being made.
The subject was still under consideration when the death of William IV caused parliament to be dissolved. O'Connell was full of enthusiasm for the young queen, and played a conspicuous part at her proclamation, acting as a sort of fugleman to the multitude, and regulating their acclamations. In supporting Poulett Thomson's Factories Bill he had expressed his strong dislike of any attempt on the part of the state to interfere between employer and employed. For the same reason he was strongly opposed to trades-unionism, and his denunciation of the tyranny of the trades unions of Dublin now almost destroyed his popularity in that city. For days he was hooted and mobbed in the streets, and his meetings broken up by indignant trades-unionists. In the new parliament government had, with his support, a bare majority of twenty-five. Immediately after its opening, O'Connell came into collision with the house. He had long inveighed against the partisan decisions of committees of the House of Commons. The fact was admitted; but a somewhat unguarded statement of his, attributing gross perjury to the tory committees, brought upon him the public reprimand of the speaker. Thereupon he repeated the charge, and was astonished to find that the house did not commit him.
The government proved powerless to carry its measures of remedial legislation in face of the determined opposition of the tories and the House of Lords. Consequently O'Connell in the autumn of 1838 started for Irish objects a ‘Precursor Society.’ The objects of the society were complete corporate reform in Ireland, extension of the Irish suffrage, total extinction of compulsory church support, and adequate representation of the country in parliament. In explanation of the name he said, ‘The Precursors may precede justice to Ireland from the united parliament and the consequent dispensing with Repeal agitation, and will, shall, and must precede Repeal agitation if justice be refused.’ The movement was not very successful, and, in anticipation of the speedy dissolution of the Melbourne administration, he on 15 April 1840 founded the Repeal Association. The association was modelled on the lines of the old Catholic Association, and was composed of associates paying one shilling a year, and members paying 1l.
At first the new organisation attracted little attention. But it soon appeared that O'Connell was this time in earnest. ‘My struggle has begun,’ he wrote on 25 May 1840, ‘and I will terminate it only in death or Repeal.’ The circle of agitation gradually widened. In October he addressed a large meeting on the subject at Cork. He was enthusiastically received, and on entering the city the people, in their desire to do him honour, attempted to take the horses from his carriage. ‘No! No! No!’ he exclaimed, ‘I never will let men do the business of horses if I can help it. Don't touch that harness, you vagabonds! I am trying to elevate your position, and I will not permit you to degrade yourselves.’ Other meetings followed at Limerick, at Ennis, and at Kilkenny. ‘The Repeal cause,’ he wrote on 18 Nov., ‘is progressing. Quiet and timid men are joining us daily. We had before the bone and sinew.’ In January 1841 he accepted an invitation to speak at Belfast, and, notwithstanding threats of personal violence, he kept his appointment. From Belfast he went to Leeds, and from Leeds to Leicester. He was heartily welcomed at both places. Meanwhile, in consequence of the defeat of their budget proposals, and of a direct vote of want of confidence, ministers dissolved parliament in June. Despite the exertions of O'Connell, the repealers sustained a severe reverse at the general elections. O'Connell himself lost his seat for Dublin, and had to seek refuge at Cork. On the address to the speech from the throne he spoke in support of the total abolition of the corn laws. Parliament rose in October.
On 1 Nov. O'Connell was elected lord-
