had inspired the serf of Clare with the resolution and energy of a free man—­which had, in the twinkling of an eye, made all considerations of personal gratitude, ancient family connection, local preferences, the fear of worldly injury, the hope of worldly advantage, subordinate to the all-absorbing sense of religious obligation and public duty—­whether, I say, it might not be possible that the contagion of that feverish excitement might spread beyond the barriers which, under ordinary circumstances, the habits of military obedience and the strictness of military discipline opposed to all such external influences.’

The officer who commanded the military force in Clare during the election, testified, as the result of his observation there, that, even in the constabulary and the army, the sympathies of a common cause, political and religious, could not be altogether repressed, and that implicit reliance could not long be placed on the effect of discipline and the duty of obedience.  On July 20, Lord Anglesea wrote as follows:—­

’We hear occasionally of the Catholic soldiers being ill-disposed, and entirely under the influence of the priests.  One regiment of infantry is said to be divided into Orange and Catholic factions.  It is certain that, on July 12, the guard at the castle had Orange lilies about them.’  On July 26, the viceroy wrote another letter, from which the following is an extract:—­’The priests are using very inflammatory language, and are certainly working upon the Catholics of the army.  I think it important that the depots of Irish recruits should be gradually removed, under the appearance of being required to join their regiments, and that whatever regiments are sent here should be those of Scotland, or, at all events, of men not recruited from the south of Ireland.  I desired Sir John Byng to convey this opinion to Lord Hill.’

Emancipation was carried, and the people were disaffected still.  And why should they not be disaffected still?  Emancipation had done nothing for them.  The farmers were still at the mercy of the landlords, whose pride they humbled at the hustings of Clare and Waterford.  They were still tormented by the tithe-proctor seizing the tenth of all that their labour produced on the land.  The labourers were still wretched, deprived of the forty-shilling freehold, which protected them from the horrors of eviction and of transportation in a floating hell across the Atlantic.  I well remember the celebrated anti-tithe war in 1831, as well as the system by which it was provoked, and I can bear witness to the accuracy of the following description of the tithe-proctor by Henry Grattan.  He said:—­