have not sagacity enough to embrace the business of an empire
and pierce through time, unwearied industry, pure hands and
resolute spirits, then to repeal is hopeless until a new race of
chiefs appears."

Almost contemporaneously with this article, the Catholic Primate
contradicted Mr. O'Connell's assertion respecting the rescript, and laid
rescript and contradiction before the public. "I was surprised and
sorry," he writes, "to find that you had ventured to assert that a
letter sent to me some time past from the Propaganda was not a canonical
document." He adds that he laid the document before the assembled
prelates, and appends the resolution in which they acknowledged its
authenticity and approval of its counsel.[6]

Mr. O'Connell at once expressed his entire acquiescence and deep
contrition. He bowed reverentially to the resolution of the prelates,
retracted the hasty opinion, and apologised for his error, which, he
said, resulted from his great anxiety of mind, caused by the avowal of
the _Morning Chronicle_ that the Whigs had a secret agent in Rome.

But the prelates were far from unanimous in their construction of the
rescript which they promised unanimously to obey. With the resolution
among his papers, the Archbishop of Tuam proceeded directly from the
Episcopal meeting to the Repeal banquet at Limerick, where he delivered
a speech stronger in language and more violent in character than any he
had ever uttered. Some passages in that speech, wherein he eulogised the
heroism of the women of Limerick who cut their long hair to supply the
defenders of the city with strings for their bows, excited the wildest
enthusiasm and most rapturous applause. Doctor Cantwell, in the letter
already referred to, gives his construction, which he says was that of