The Speeches of the Right Honorable Richard Lalor Sheil, M P

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CLARE ELECTION. SPEECH MADE AT THE CLARE ELECTION PRECEDED BY AN ACCOUNT OF THAT EVENT, WRITTEN BY MR. SHEIL IN SEPTEMBER, 1828. The Catholics had passed a resolution to oppose the election of every candidate who should not pledge himself against the Duke of Wellington's administration. This measure lay...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CLARE ELECTION. SPEECH MADE AT THE CLARE ELECTION PRECEDED BY AN ACCOUNT OF THAT EVENT, WRITTEN BY MR. SHEIL IN SEPTEMBER, 1828. The Catholics had passed a resolution to oppose the election of every candidate who should not pledge himself against the Duke of Wellington's administration. This measure lay for some time a dead letter in the registry of the Association, and was gradually passing into oblivion, when an incident occurred which gave it an importance far greater than had originally belonged to it. Lord John Russell, flushed with the victory which had been achieved in the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and grateful to the Duke of Wellington for the part which he had taken, wrote a letter to Mr. O'Connell, in which he suggested that the conduct of his Grace had been so fair and manly towards the Dissenters, as to entitle him to their gratitude; and that they would consider the reversal of the resolution which had been passed against his government, as evidence of the interest which was felt in Ireland, not only in the great question peculiarly applicable, to that country, but in the assertion of religious freedom through the empire. The authority of Lord John Russell is considerable, and Mr. O'Connell, under the influence of his advice, proposed that the anti- Wellington resolution should be withdrawn. This motion was violently opposed, and Mr. O'Connell perceived that the antipathy to the Great Captain was more deeply rooted than he had originally imagined. After a long and tempestuous debate, he suggested an amendment, in which the principle of his original motion was given up, and the Catholics remained pledged to their hostility to the Duke of Wellington's administration. Mr. O'Connell has reason to rejoice at his failure in carrying this proposition...