fter
times, proves that he was a stranger to the sordid considerations which
envy or fear coupled with his first labours in that direction. Certain
it is that, whatever were his motives, it could be no tempting ambition
that determined him to transfer the exercise of his abilities to the
tribune of angry agitation from that more legitimate and loftier arena
which, with unsurpassed energy, he had won.

The agitation succeeded rapidly. The Government became at once
intolerant and impotent. They proclaimed down the agitation; but this
only imparted to it activity, energy and strength. The Government gave
way to a furious storm which had been long gathering elsewhere. The
great Reform Ministry succeeded with Earl Grey at its head; and in the
struggle for Imperial parliamentary Reform, Ireland and her independence
were forgotten.

During the intellectual conflict that followed, Mr. O'Connell asserted
his pre-eminence, and won a lofty name. He made far the most successful
speech on the question of Reform. It not only exceeded the ablest
orations of the British leaders, but was, perhaps, the most triumphant
he himself had ever delivered. But his position soon changed. From being
the unanswerable champion of the ministerial majority in the House of
Commons, he took the lead of a small opposition which resisted the
Government on the Irish Bill. Although the minister was the exponent and
stern advocate of the widest liberality, in applying the reform to
England, he undertook to defend, on the very opposite principle, the
niggard liberty he was prepared in the same measure to extend to
Ireland. In this unnatural and unexpected turn of affairs, Mr. O'Connell
took a proud and bold stand, against the Government, and for his
country. The ministry succeeded, but he had more than ever acquired the
confidence and unbounded gratitude of his countrymen. Thenceforward, he
was their acknowledged chief, and his words expressed not more his own
than the public will.

His remonstrances were vehement and angry, but they were vain. The
ministry disregarded the claims of justice, as well as the voice of the
orator. The quarrel became personal and vindictive to so great an
extent, that Mr. O'Connell's support would almost ensure the defeat of
any measure at the hands of the English Whig faction.

While this was his position in the House of Commons, he was preparing
the elements of an organisation which was destined to embrace the whole
island.