“’Tis gone, and for ever, the light we saw breaking,
     Like heaven’s first dawn o’er the sleep of the dead,
   When man, from the slumber of ages awaking,
     Looked upward and blessed the pure ray ere it fled. 
   ’Tis gone, and the gleams it has left of its burning
     But deepen the long night of bondage and mourning,
   That dark o’er the kingdoms of earth is returning,
     And darkest of all, hapless Erin, o’er thee.”

[Illustration:  WILLIAM S. O’BRIEN.  JOHN MITCHEL.  JOHN MARTIN.]

In this gloomy condition of affairs there was nothing for Irish patriotism to do except to seek for the removal, by constitutional means, of some of the cruel grievances that pressed on the people.  Emancipation of the Catholics from the large remainder of the penal laws that still degraded and despoiled them was one of the baits held out by Mr. Pitt when playing his cards for the Union; but not long had the Irish parliament been numbered with the things that were, when it became evident that the minister was in no hurry to fulfil his engagement, and it was found necessary to take some steps for keeping him to his promise.  Committees were formed, meetings were held, speeches were made, resolutions were adopted, and all the machinery of parliamentary endeavour was put in motion.  The leaders of the Catholic cause in this case, like those of the national cause in the preceding years, were liberal-minded Protestant gentlemen; but as time wore on, a young barrister from Kerry, one of the old race and the old faith, took a decided lead amongst them, and soon became its recognised champion, the elect of the nation, the “man of the people.”  Daniel O’Connell stood forth, with the whole mass of his Catholic countrymen at his back, to wage within the lines of the constitution this battle for Ireland.  He fought it resolutely and skilfully; the people supported him with an unanimity and an enthusiasm that were wonderful; their spirit rose and strengthened to that degree that the probability of another civil war began to loom up in the near future—­inquiries instituted by the government resulted in the discovery that the Catholics serving in the army, and who constituted at least a third of its strength, were in full sympathy with their countrymen on this question, and could not be depended on to act against them—­the ministry recognised the critical condition of affairs, saw that there was danger in delay, yielded to the popular demand—­and Catholic Emancipation was won.

The details of that brilliant episode of Irish history cannot be told within the limits of this work, but some of its consequences concern us very nearly.  The triumph of the constitutional struggle for Catholic Emancipation confirmed O’Connell in the resolution he had previously formed, to promote an agitation for a Repeal of the Union, and encouraged him to lay the proposal before his countrymen.  The forces that had wrung the one measure of justice from an unwilling