Chapter 13
General Election December
1834-January 1835
Peel's
First Ministry (1834-1835)
January 1835
The bitter in-fighting continued in Carlow between those
Catholics who wished to vote for the local resident Tory
landlord and the priests who wished to support O'Connell. The
new bishop of the diocese Dr Edward Nolan, who had succeeded
after the death of Doyle, allowed some of his political priests,
in what he perceived as an emergency, to canvass Catholic
voters, to explain to the 'real nature of the question', namely,
the need to protect the people from (alleged) tithe massacres,
to rescue education from proselytizers, to prevent the return of
the 'old ascendancy faction', and to remove the 'enormous abuses
of a Church establishment'. It can be seen that the bishop had
not bothered to read the Tamworth Manifesto or to consult
Colonel Bruen, the local Tory landlord and MP.
The bishop was
not stating a general policy on political priests and considered
his permission to the priests as being limited to what he
regarded as a time of national crisis. But he set a precedent
that was to endure until the setting up of the Irish Free State.
Every election thereafter could be depicted as critical either
for Church or national interests or both.
At this time too the leader of the Catholic Tories in Carlow,
a man named Thomas Finn, whose brother was married to
O'Connell's sister, wrote a public letter in which he accused
him of gross immorality. Rebutting a charge of ‘profligacy in
his political opinions’ made against him by O’Connell in the
Anti-Tory Association he replied, ‘This is pretty well coming
from the proprietor of a seraglio, composed of every order of
the Cyprian profession, from the lofty runagate of Kerry down to
the lowly under-wench of the Earl of Meath’s Liberty’ (Carlow
Sentinel 14 Feb 1835. No evidence was adduced, and most
newspapers quoted the letter with no comment. This letter
appears to be the origin of the rumour, cherished in both Orange
and Republican circles, that O'Connell had a bastard child in
every parish in Ireland.) In Carlow and elsewhere there were
allegations that the
Tory landlords were threatening to evict
any tenant who failed to support them. Col. Bruen and others
rebutted the allegations, but the Repealers tried to bankrupt
Protestant shopkeepers in the boroughs through 'exclusive
dealing,' i.e. dealing only with Catholic shopkeepers.
(This
policy had been considered earlier by the Catholic Association
but was rejected on the grounds that it could hurt Catholics
more than Protestants. For example, Protestants could refuse to
hire any Catholic servants. The policy was to be enforced as the
'boycott' fifty years later, leading inevitably to the refusal
to hire Catholic servants.)
The Trades' Political Union, now
(January 1835) legal
again, met to organize the return of O'Connell and Ruthven.
Their adoption as candidates was proposed by Lawless. The
meeting was a public one in Townsend Street chapel, so
presumably anyone could speak. O'Connell had already formed the
Anti-Tory Association.
O'Connell and Ruthven were returned in Dublin, Wyse in
Waterford, Sheil in Tipperary, More O'Ferrall in Kildare, and
Michael O'Loghlen in Dungarvan. Sharman Crawford was elected in
the borough of Dundalk. In Louth, Sir Patrick Bellew, now Lord
Lieutenant of the county, and his brother Montesquieu, beat off
a strong Tory challenge and took both seats for the Whigs. The
Repealers in Carlow could get no support among the local Whig
gentlemen, and so they put up outsiders.
The Tories took both
seats in the county, and the seat in the borough, Colonel Bruen
and his brother both being elected. In Kerry O'Connell threw his
influence behind Mullins, the Whig candidate, against the Knight
of Kerry. The number of O'Connell's supporters in the House of
Commons (‘O’Connell’s Tail’) was estimated to be about
twenty. The Catholic Whigs, Stephen Woulfe and Nicholas Ball
were returned in by-elections in 1835 and 1836. Feargus O’Connor
was elected in Cork but was unseated on petition, not having
sufficient property. He went to England, failed to find a seat
there, and devoted himself to promoting what was to be called
Chartism.
Petitions against the return of Bruen and Kavanagh in Carlow
and against O'Connell and Ruthven in Dublin were lodged, and
parliamentary committees were appointed to examine the claims.
There are indications, chiefly in the Protestant Carlow
Sentinel, that the two Tory landlords were popular and received
the support of some Catholic freeholders. Indeed a local
magistrate had to send for a file of soldiers to protect
Catholics who had voted for Colonel Bruen
(Carlow Sentinel 14
March 1835). A Catholic priest accused the Rev. James Maher
of telling lies. Also, it would appear that some of the Catholic
clergy were not supportive of O’Connell. It would seem too that,
notwithstanding the election landslide in Clare in 1828 the old
habit of tenants voting for their landlord’s candidate had not
died out, and that Peel’s invitation in the Tamworth Manifesto
to support the Tories had reasonable hopes for success.
The
reason for the fanatical opposition of some of the Catholic
priests to Peel is not obvious. Archbishop Murray, during the
Famine, expressed a high opinion of Peel and explained to Rome
that the Protestant Government was very mild, as indeed it was.
The highly-charged language of the two rival Carlow newspapers
at this time, and the cockpit atmosphere they reflected, were to
be typical of Irish local newspapers for almost a century. Into
this highly passionate conflict many Catholic priests rushed. Dr
Nolan would have been better advised to forbid them to take any
active part in elections. But it must also be remembered that
among some Protestants the anti-popery campaign was equally
strong.
In the Carlow case the Committee, dominated by Whigs and
Radicals, fairly speedily accepted the allegations against the
Tories and both candidates were unseated. For the by-election in
Carlow O’Connell told a London merchant, Alexander Raphael,
formerly a Jew but now a Catholic, that he could have the seat
for £2,000. At a subsequent inquiry, O'Connell maintained that
the sum referred only to the cost of essential expenses. He was
cleared but people believed what they liked. A Whig gentleman
named Vigors and Raphael, were elected, but were themselves
promptly unseated on petition. Vigors was finally elected for
Carlow county in 1837 as a radical Whig. The Rev. James Maher
emerged as the chief political broker in Carlow, and charges
were made against him, which were to be repeated all his life
that he was careless with the truth.
O'Connell proved more difficult to remove from Dublin but it
was managed eventually. An MP sat and voted in Parliament while
the case against him was being examined. The resurgent Orange
faction was determined to challenge every possible vote
registered by members of the Trades' Political Union. O'Connell
retaliated by challenging the Orange votes. As witnesses had to
be brought to Westminster to testify in person for or against
each vote the case dragged on for some years. When O'Connell was
eventually dislodged, a member of the ‘Tail’ resigned his seat
to get him back to Westminster without delay.
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