crisis and governed its explosion. Meeting followed meeting in rapid
succession, and each was marked by some signal manifestation of a
healthier, holier and more resolute national purpose. Numbers, calmness,
order, obedience, bespoke an advanced discipline, and prefigured future
victory. The crowds that attended the Halls of the Association no longer
consisted of idle brawlers; they were listening, thoughtful mechanics,
conscious of the toil and danger that lay before them, and braced for
the encounter. Dignitaries of the church and the ablest men among the
second order of the clergy appeared on the platform, and added sanctity
and dignity to the proceedings. Members of Corporations through the
country, and private gentlemen of rank brought to the imposing
confederacy the weight of their office, rank and name. The existing
Government in a splenetic attempt to crush it, had dismissed certain
magistrates for having their names enrolled on its books. This new
aggression gave a fresh impetus to its progress. Men who had previously
looked on it with doubt or fear, now embraced it as the only safeguard
for the remaining liberties of the island. The parliamentary committee
which had been instituted by Mr. O'Brien, had exhausted every source of
information within the reach of industry in developing the resources and
capacities of the country. The committee of the Association counted
within its members one hundred lawyers who preferred the fortunes of
Ireland to professional or political advancement. Many of these and
others who were not of the party brought to the popular tribune rare
endowments, the most generous passions, and the noblest eloquence.
Poetry, fresh, vigorous and full of heart, shed her harmonising and
ennobling influence upon the whole, and imparted to patriotism the last
pre-requisite of success. Amidst this grand movement stood Mr.
O'Connell, erect, alone, its centre and its heart. He was not its guide,
but its god, until he slept within a prison, and came forth less than
man.