only very recent date. But, in proportion to its novelty, so was its
vigor. Mr. Peel was, therefore, as the representative of the old tory
Protestant school, called upon to encounter a storm of unpopularity,
such as not even an Irish secretary has ever been exposed to. The
late Mr. O'Connell in various forms poured upon Mr. Peel a torrent
of invective which went beyond even his extraordinary performances
in the science of scolding. At length he received from Mr. Peel a
hostile message. Negotiations went on for three or four days, when
Mr. O'Connell was taken into custody and bound over to keep the peace
toward all his fellow-subjects in Ireland. Mr. Peel and his friend
immediately went to England, and subsequently proceeded to the
continent. Mr. O'Connell followed them to London, but the police were
active enough to bring him before the chief justice, when he entered
into recognizances to keep the peace toward all his majesty's
subjects; and so ended one of the few personal squabbles in which Mr.
Peel had ever been engaged. For six years he held the office of chief
secretary to the lord-lieutenant, at a time when the government was
conducted upon what might be called "anti-conciliation principles."
The opposite course was commenced by Mr. Peel's immediate successor,
Mr. Charles Grant, now Lord Glenelg.

That a chief secretary so circumstanced, struggling to sustain extreme
Orangeism in its dying agonies, should have been called upon to
encounter great toil and anxiety is a truth too obvious to need
illustration. That in these straits Mr. Peel acquitted himself with
infinite address was as readily acknowledged at that time as it has
ever been even in the zenith of his fame. He held office in that
country under three successive viceroys, the Duke of Richmond, Earl
Whitworth, and Earl Talbot, all of whom have long since passed away
from this life, their names and their deeds long forgotten. But the