general election took place, and he was again returned by the
University of Oxford as the uncompromising opponent of Catholic
emancipation. In England the anti-Catholic party gained some seats,
and the increasing violence in Ireland had produced some reaction. In
Ireland it was soon apparent that what Grattan had feared had come to
pass, and that the tie which had hitherto attached the people to their
landlords was completely broken. The priests everywhere appeared at
the head of their people, and it was at once seen that a new and
terrible power was dominating Irish politics. In Waterford, where the
Beresfords had long been omnipotent, they were totally defeated, and
Leslie Foster sent Peel a vivid description of his own defeat in the
Louth election. At the outset of the contest, upwards of five-sixths
of the votes were promised to him; but the whole priesthood turned
themselves into electioneering agents against him. In every chapel
there were political sermons; the priests menaced all who voted for
him with eternal damnation; they were present at every polling-booth
to overawe their parishioners; and their efforts were seconded by
savage mobs who waylaid and beat all opponents, and forced multitudes
of Protestants, by threats of assassination or of the burning of their
houses, to vote against their promises and their convictions. 'In the
county town the studied violence and intimidation were such that it
was only by locking up my voters in enclosed yards that their lives
were preserved.' By these means the election was won. What, asked
Foster, will be the end of this? 'The landlords are exasperated to the
utmost, the priests swaggering in their triumph, the tenantry sullen
and insolent. Men who, a month ago, were all civility and submission
now hardly suppress their curses when a gentleman passes by. The text
of every village orator is, "Boys, you have put down three lords;
stick to your priests, and you will carry all before you."'

The letters of Goulburn, the Chief Secretary, show that the picture
was not overcharged.

'Never,' he wrote, 'were Roman Catholic and Protestant so decidedly
opposed. Never did the former act with so general a concert, or place
themselves so completely under the command of the priesthood.' 'The
priests exercise on all matters a dominion perfectly uncontrolled and
uncontrollable. In many parts of the country their sermons are purely
political, and the altars in the several chapels are t