veneration that should ever be paid to
any document emanating from the Apostolic See, and that they all pledge
themselves to carry the spirit thereof into effect."

Dr. Crolly had previously explained what he considered true obedience to
the rescript. He writes in reference to a former one in 1839: "In
obedience to the injunction of the Holy See, I endeavoured to reclaim
those misguided clergymen;" adding that the present was "in order that I
should _more efficaciously_ admonish such priests or prelates as I
might find taking a prominent or imprudent part in political
proceedings."]

[Footnote 7: John Reynolds.]

CHAPTER IV

IMPRISONMENT OF O'BRIEN FOR CONTEMPT OF THE BRITISH COMMONS.--CONDUCT OF
THE ASSOCIATION.--DEPUTATION FROM THE '82 CLUB.--MR. O'CONNELL RETURNS
TO IRELAND.--DISCUSSIONS IN THE COMMITTEE.

Before proceeding to detail the circumstances which led to the
celebrated secession, it is essential to dispose of an episode in the
struggle, which, more than any other, stamped its impress on the acts
and feelings of that unfortunate period; I allude to the imprisonment,
by the House of Commons, of William Smith O'Brien. There is no act of
his life upon which there has been so much acrimonious criticism; none
on account of which he has been subjected to so much intemperate
misrepresentation. And yet, perhaps, his great career, fruitful in good
actions, never furnished a purer or more unselfish example of sound
judgment as well as intrepidity and devotion. The history of his
incarceration ranges over a great portion of the time which has been
already passed, and enters largely into the leading events, hereafter to
be related. A clear understanding of the whole--of Mr. O'Brien's
influencing motives and his tenacity of principle--would be impossible
without a distinct recital of the circumstances out of which his purpose
first grew, and which, to the end, controlled his resolution.

In the spring of 1845, the committee of the Association passed a vote to
the effect that the Parliamentary representatives, who were members of
that body, should withdraw from the British Parliament. It was proposed
by Mr. Davis and received Mr. O'Connell's entire approval. Though at
first sneered at, it had a stunning effect. The supercilious British
Commons, who would have answered the just remonstrance of the Irish
Repealers with a jeer, shrank from the consequences of legislating for
the country in the absence of the