Mr. O'Connell then moved-"That an aggregate meeting of the Catholics of Ireland be called for an early day in February.”

Seconded by Mr. Clinch, and carried.

The time was now come when Mr. O'Connell thought advisable to bring forward his long meditated plan of small subscriptions. Among those to whom he had yet mentioned it, were few to encourage, and several to condemn it as a trifling, and certainly unsuccessful experiment. So wild and chimerical did it appear, that pains were actually taken to prevent his having an opportunity of bringing it before the Association.

There was a rule of the Association, that if ten members of the body were not in attend ance by half-past three o'clock (the hour of meeting being three P. M.), an adjournment should inevitably take place.

It will create wonder in the minds of some of our readers. and a smile in others, to read, that with every exertion he could possibly make, Mr. O'Connell failed on several successive days, to obtain the required quotum, small as that was. Promises of attendance he did

get, in much more than sufficient number; but promises not kept, or redeemed half an hour too late.

Four, five, or six might be in the room when the fatal half hour would arrive; and punctually at that moment, Nicholas Purcell O'Gorman, the then secretary, would hold up his watch, which he had taken care to leave out for the preceding ten minutes and say

"Gentlemen, it is half-past three o'clock, and ten members not present, we must adjourn!" And adjourn they accordingly did.

At last, upon Wednesday, the 4th of February, 1824, the spell was broken. At twentythree minutes past three, on that afternoon, there were but seven persons present, including Mr. O'Connell himself, and the inexorable Purcell! the latter, as usual, watch in hand, not in the least moved by the anxiety so plainly depicted in Mr. O'Connell's face. Another minute, and Mr. O'Connell could remain in the room no longer. He ran down towards Coyne's shop, down stairs, in the faint hope of finding somebody. On the stairs the eighth man passed him going up. In the shop itself were fortunately two young Maynooth priests. making some purchases. The rules of the Association admitting all clergymen as honorary members, without special motion, he eagerly addressed and implor ed them to come up bat for one moment, and help to make the required quorum. At first they refused, there being a good deal of hesitation generally on the part of the clergy to put themselves at all for. ward in politics; and these young men in particular, having all the timidity of their secluded education about them. But there was no withstanding him, partly by still more earnest solicitations, and partly by actual pushing, he got them towards the staircase, and upon it, and finally into the meeting-room, exactly a second or two before the halfhour, and so stopped Mr. O'Gorman's mouth.

The required number being thus made up, the chair was taken (by William Coppinger, Esq., of Cork), the business entered upon, and Mr. O'Connell was enabled to unfold his plan.

The two poor priests, who had so reluctantly, and almost unconsciously done such good duty, shrunk away timidly a few moments afterwards, but as there was no counting of the house" in the Association's code of laws, their presence was no longer necessary. The following was Mr. O Connell's speech, according to the best report that we can fnd:

MR. O'CONNELL rose to report from the committee appointed to consider the best means of increasing the funds of the Asen ciation and its members.

The first duty of the committes was to consider the legality

of the measure. The Association were resolved, from principle, duty, and inclination, not to involve the interests or safety of the Catholic body by any illegal course; and they defied the Orange press to point out, through their whole proceedings, a single illegal act, or a solitary measure tending to a breach of the law. If any thing of the kind could be shown, he assured the meeting he would be one of the first to recommend an altera tion of their course.

In considering whether the Association was legally constituted, it would be necessary to refer to the 60th Geo. III. c. 6, one of those statutes commonly called the "Six Acts"-acts which pressed very heavily upon what we familiarly term "English liberty." Four of these acts were permanent, the other two were temporary. One of these was to expire upon the 24th of December next; but it was worded in such a manner as that it might be continued for another year, at the pleasure of the minister. For, according to this curious and clumsy mode of legislation, if the session of parliament were then going on, the ast would be in force for another year.

The sixteenth section of this act specifically stated, that it did not apply to meetings held in a private room. The Association, therefore, could not be possibly brought under it—not being assembled, or intended to be assembled at any time in the open air—but within doors, and in a room. The fourth of the present king, chapter 87, was enacted under the pretence of preventing Orange meetings; but it had had no other effect than that of destroying the freemasons, and perfecting a system for the increase of Orangemen. This he should prove by some very curious documents, which he intended to deposit with the secre tary, after reading them at the aggregate meeting, and in which would appear the proceedings of the Orange committee of 1821 for devising the best means of increasing the Orange fraternity At the head of the committee was Master Ellis, a member o. the legislature, whose enactments he thus sought to frustrate and next in dignity was Alderman Darley, the chief magistrate of police, whose duties, if fulfilled, would be to prevent, and not encourage what appeared to him (Mr. O'Connell) a breach of the law; and in order to sanctify the measure, Sir Harcourt Lees, a baronet and a minister of the Gospel, was the third in authority.

The act last mentioned had not put down Orangeism, much less could it put down the Catholic Association, which was not Lound by any test, recognised by no sign or symbol, and which

did not hold its meetings clandestinely, but openly and publicly, The Association might, therefore, defy the malice and persecution of those who sought for its abolition.

Upon the subject of increasing the funds of the Association, he was desirous of being perfectly understood, although he expected to be abused for the proposition he should submit to the meeting. He could not lay claim to originality in the project, for it had appeared in a letter from Lord Kenmare, in the year 1785, addressed to Dr. Moylan, and published during the time the celebrated Arthur O'Leary's powerful Essays occasioned such a sensation. Lord Kenmare, however, justly beloved by his tenantry, was loaded with public censure for his conduct upon the Catholic question. It was painful, indeed, and bitterly to be regretted, that this should be the case; but it was inevitable under the circumstances.

Having expressed his sorrowful disapprobation of the Earl of Kenmare's conduct, Mr. O'Connell said, that it would indeed h unjust, and most reprehensible upon his part, were he for a moment to hesitate to express his entire and decided conviction, that although his lordship was unfortunately mistaken in the means, yet his intention was thoroughly pure and honourable, and his conduct really directed, as he thought, in the right way, towards the attainment of Catholic emancipation.

With regard to the plan he had alluded to, the following were Lord Kenmare's words :

“There are,” said his lordship, "two thousand five hundred Catholic parishes in the kingdom. Let us only make a rent of one pound sterling a year, upon each parish, and that accumulating and forming a permanent fund, will be a powerful ally in the contest for emancipation."

But his (Mr. O'Connell's) plan was still more comprehensive, and he did not hesitate to say, that it would, with very little exertion, produce one hundred and twenty-two thousand, nine hundred and thirty-seven pounds, ten shillings. He liked to give them down to the very shillings of it, and had there been pence, he would give them the pence too. (Laugh, and cheers.) Suppose, however, that the product was less than one-half that sum. Say it would be fifty thousand pounds, although one penny per month from each Catholic in Ireland, ought surely to yield a sum considerably above that amount.

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Indeed there could be no doubt of it, that fifty thousand pounds was a sum far below what the general contribution he bad named would amount to, estimating the population by the

last census. That census was known to have been very imperfect. In the county of Mayo alone, during the year of the scarcity, the numbers relieved exceeded by thirty thousand the stated population of the county, as returned in the last census. It would follow then, of necessity, that if the census of the other counties was deficient in proportion, the population of the entire of Ireland was far above eight millions.

Taking it at that number, he (Mr. O'Connell) claimed seven of those eight millions as Catholics. Their ratio of increase had been ascertained. In the year 1731, there were in Dublin 8823 Protestant families, and 4119 Catholics. In the year 1810, the Rev. Mr. Whitelaw, a Protestant clergyman, states, in his census of Dublin, that the Catholics were as six to one; thus there was upwards of six, probably seven millions, or even upwards, of Catholics in the country. The sum proposed to be raised was £50,000; and if the Catholics of Ireland were to pay but one penny a month, if but one million of them, instead of the seven millions were to pay it-being, as it would of course be, only one shilling expense to each individual, the money could be had easily. That the facility existed was obvious, since the Orangemen had already charged them with having actually levied the money. He wished the fellows had been right for once. (A laugh and cheers.)

About the year 1812, he (Mr. O'Connell) had himself proposed, and had set on foot a temporary subscription, and in three parishes alone, he had collected seventy-nine pounds, which had gone into the funds of the Catholic Board. The collection would then have been continued under a regular organization, but that miserable disputes arose between what were called the Catholic aristocracy, and the Catholic democracy, and upset everything. No such result should occur now. He would carefully superintend and work out most perseveringly every detail of his plan, and would not abandon it but with life. He was thoroughly and entirely convinced not only of its practicability, but of its certain efficaciousness for its purposes.

Before he should enter more minutely into any of those details, it would be necessary that he should state the object for which the funds were required, and the manner in which they were to be applied. Nothing could be more natural than that men should require to know for what they were to pay, and nothing more proper than they should have that stated fully and distinctly, before being called upon.

There were, then, five distinct, definite, and decided objects in view. He would take them one by one. The first of these objects was, the collecting, and conveying to parliament the petitions of every county in Ireland, not only on the subject of Catholic emancipation, but upon that of every other grievance, of whatever kind, which pressed upon the country; also there was the purpose of retaining what he believed to be quite indispensable to a proper care of their business-a parliamentary agent in London, at a salary of four or five hundred pounds a year, to attend to the proceedings in parliament having reference to the Catholics, and take such steps there as might be advisable. For this duty he should take leave to mention Mr. James Roche. He did not know a gentleman more qualified in every respect to fill a situation of so much importance, and so necessary as this was. He did not exaggerate its importance, nor its clear advisableness. The foreign dependencies of Great Britain had each their own self-chosen parliamentary agent in London, watching the parliamentary and other transactions there; and why should Ireland not have hers? There would, of course, be various expenses attending the petitions of which he had spoken, and also attending the bringing to town evidence to support their statements. He would set apart £500 a-year to meet these items.

The second object that he proposed they should have in view, would be to encourage, and by effective support to enable the liberal press, both of London and Dublin, to contend with the Orange press, which is paid to revile everything liberal. The Patriot and the Correspondent were, to be sure, honest, after a fashion; they abused everybody that spoke against the government, and supported every government and every ministry that chose to pay them for doing so. They got their pudding, and they tried to deserve it.

But among those public prostitutes, there was what might be called the volunteer part of the Orange press, cherished indirectly by government, and avowedly by the established elergy. He meant the Antidote, the Warder, and the Mail. The Mail, that was too fashionable to be thought to belong to its own religion. There was also to be another paper which had put forth a comical piece of impertinence, by way of prospectus, and which he supposed he might class amongst them. These publications never yet breathed a word in favour of liberty, and are strangers alike to kindness, liberality generosity, or good feeling of any sort.

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