Beacon Lights of History, Volume 10 | Page 9

the member
from Clare, always advocating justice and humanity, whatever the
subject under consideration might be. So long as O'Connell was "king
of Ireland," as William IV declared him to be, nothing could be done
by English ministers on Irish matters. His agitations were tremendous,
and yet he kept within the laws. His mission was to point out evils
rather than to remove them. No man living was capable of pointing out
the remedy. On all Irish questions the wisdom and experience of
English statesmen were in vain. Yet amid the storms which beat over
the unhappy island, the voice of the great pilot was louder than the
tempests, which he seems to control as if by magic. Mr. Gladstone, in
one of his later contributions to literature, has done justice to the
motives and the genius of a man whom he regards as the greatest that
Ireland has ever produced, if Burke may be excepted, yet a man whom
he bitterly opposed in his parliamentary career. Faithful alike to the
interests of his church and his country, O'Connell will ever be ranked
among the most imposing names of history, although he failed in the
cause to which he consecrated his talents, his fortune, his energies, and
his fame. Long and illustrious is the list of reformers who have been
unsuccessful; and Mr. O'Connell must be classed with these. Yet was
he one who did not live in vain.
Incapable of effectively dealing with the problem, the government
temporized and resolved to stave off the difficulty. A commission was
appointed to visit every parish in Ireland and report the state of affairs
to Parliament, when everybody already knew what this state was,--one
of glaring inequality and injustice, exceedingly galling to the Catholic
population. Nor was this the only Irish Church question that
endangered the stability of the ministry. Tithe bill after tithe bill had
been passed, and all alike had failed. Mr. Ward had argued for the
entire abolition of the tithe system, from the expense and difficulty of
collecting tithes, leaving the clergy to be supported by the crown. A
new tithe bill was, however, introduced, by which the clergy should

accept something short of what they were entitled to by law. Not only
was the tithing system an apparently inextricable tangle, but there was
trouble about the renewal of the Coercion Act. Lord Grey, wearied with
political life, resigned the premiership, and Lord Melbourne succeeded
him,--a statesman who cared next to nothing for reform; not an
incapable man, but lazy, genial, and easy, whose watchword was,
"Can't you let it alone?" But he did not long retain office, the king
being dissatisfied with his ministers; and Sir Robert Peel, being then at
Rome, was sent for to head the new administration in July, 1834. It
may be here remarked that Mr. Gladstone first took office under this
government. Parliament, of course, was dissolved, and a new election
took place. The Whigs lost thereby much of their power, but still were
a majority in the House, and the new Tory government found that the
Irish difficulties were a very hard nut to crack.
The new Parliament met Feb. 15, 1835; and as the new government
came into power by defeating the Whigs on the subject of the Irish
Church, it was bound to offer some remedy for the trouble which
existed. Accordingly, Lord Morpeth, the eldest son of the Earl of
Carlisle, and closely allied with the Duke of Sutherland and other great
families,--agreeable, kindly, and winning in his manners, and of very
respectable abilities,--on June 26 introduced his Tithe Bill, by which he
proposed to convert the tithe itself into a rent-charge, reducing it to a
lower amount than the late Whig government had done. His bill,
however, came to nothing, since any appropriation clearly dealing with
surplus revenues failed to satisfy the Lords.
Before anything could be done with Ireland, the Peel ministry was
dissolved, and the Whigs returned to power, April 18, 1835, with Lord
Melbourne again as prime minister. But the Irish difficulties remained
the same, the conservatives refusing to agree to any bill which dealt
with any part of the revenues of the State church; and the question was
not finally settled for Ireland till after it was settled in England.
Thus the reformed Parliament failed in its attempt to remove the
difficulties which attended Irish legislation. It failed from the obstinacy
of the conservatives, among Whigs as well as Tories, to render justice

in the matter of rates and tithes,--the great cause of Irish discontent and
violence at that time. It will be seen that new complications arose with
every successive Parliament from that time to this, landlords finding it
as difficult to collect their rents as the clergy did their tithes. And these
difficulties