Mr. O’Connell entered the House of Commons under auspices more flattering and encouraging than ever smiled on the advent to that assembly of any other man.  In whatever light he was regarded, he was far the foremost personage of his time.  How his subsequent career might justify the hushed awe with which a proud senate received him if he had devoted himself to the broad and comprehensive questions of imperial jurisprudence, for which he seemed so eminently fitted, it would be idle now to conjecture.  Certain it is that no act of his after life, varied and wonderful as it was, realised the promise of that glad and glorious morning.

Lord Anglesea, who had been removed from the viceroyalty for suspected treachery to the cause of intolerance, was restored to his office, by more distinguished converts, and was received by the people with tumultuous acclaim.  His popularity was short-lived.  The present Chief Justice, Doherty, was then Attorney-General.  He incurred the wrath of Mr. O’Connell in consequence of treachery which he had exhibited in conducting a trial at Clonmel.  This led to a fierce encounter in the House of Commons—­the first great trial of Mr. O’Connell’s powers—­in which Doherty’s friends claimed for their champion a decisive victory.  However unjust may be that judgment, Mr. O’Connell’s admirers were compelled to admit that he failed in his impeachment and principally in consequence of a letter written by Mr. Shiel, then second to no other Irishman.  Mr. Shiel had been associated with the Attorney-General in the prosecution at Clonmel, and his letter boldly justified the conduct which the great popular tribune vehemently and indignantly impugned.  This was quite unexpected, and greatly affected Mr. O’Connell’s cause.  But whether Mr. Doherty failed or succeeded, he was rewarded, and almost avowedly, by the Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas.  The appointment was a direct insult to Mr. O’Connell, and scarcely a less direct insult to the Irish bar, and the Irish nation.  Mr. Doherty was regarded as a man of great forensic ability, but no legal attainments.  He had scarcely acquired any practice, and no distinction whatever:  so that his elevation to a post he was so inadequate to fill gave universal dissatisfaction, and was read as evidence that the Government of Ireland was subservient to an unscrupulous and audacious faction.

Soon after the date of this appointment the first Repeal Association was established by Mr. O’Connell.  His motives were at once bitterly assailed.  By some he was charged with being influenced by personal mortification.  By some his conduct was attributed to a love of turbulence and money.  By some it was said he only intended the agitation as a threat, by means of which he could enforce a wiser, more liberal, and just administration of the law and government in Ireland.  Few, if any, believed him to be in earnest and sincere.  But the condition of the country and the principles of Mr. O’Connell’s early