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[Ireland 1800-1850 Copyright
© 2001 by Desmond Keenan
Peel’s
First Ministry
(December 1834 to April 1835)
Summary. This was a brief ministry. The Whigs failed to form a Government, and Robert Peel failed to get a majority. Following the Emancipation Act, Peel issued his Manifesto at Tamworth in Staffordshire in which he set out a modern programme for the Tories, now to be called Conservatives, which embraced reform only when necessary. It also welcomed Catholics into the Conservative ranks.
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[December 1834] He saw
that the Tory party could not turn the clock back to 1828. So he issued a
manifesto on future policy from his constituency of Tamworth, whence its name
the 'Tamworth Manifesto'. He stated that while the Party would try to conserve
what was best in the old it would bring in such moderate reforms as were
necessary. Old religious antagonisms should be put aside, and the Tory Party
itself should be open to members of all Christian denominations.
Peel,
in his appointments, had to rely on old party stalwarts. Wellington became
Foreign Secretary, and Goulburn Home Secretary. Lord Maryborough
(Wellesley-Pole) became Post Master General, and a young supporter, William
Ewart Gladstone, became a Lord of the Treasury. The Earl of Haddington was made
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Sir Henry Hardinge Irish Secretary. A capable
English barrister named Edward Sugden became Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Blackburne stayed on as Attorney General, and Edward Pennefather became
Solicitor General. Stanley refused to join Peel, but promised independent
support.
The
Orange faction was overjoyed at the unexpected fall of the Whig ministry, while
O'Connell's supporters were shocked. When Haddington arrived the High Tories
rushed to greet him, expecting that the clock would be turned back. But
Haddington, Hardinge, and Sugden promptly made it clear that they had no such
intention. An English newspaper observed that O'Connell was worth a great many
votes to the Tories. Another tithe affray occurred at Rathcormack in county
Cork in which several people were shot. The Tories claimed that they had issued
no new instructions to the police who were therefore still acting under Whig
regulations. Still the rumour was put about that this was what a Tory
administration would be like. (Others claimed that the clash was caused by bad
advice given by O'Connell, who told tithe resisters that bailiffs coming to
destrain goods could be treated as trespassers on private land and
'walloped'.)
[Top]
General Election December 1834-January 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.
[TOP]
[February 1835] The
election did not give Peel the majority he needed so he had to be very cautious
about the kind of legislation he introduced. When Parliament met on 19 February
1835, the first thing it had to do was elect a Speaker and the candidate of the
Whigs won. The King's Speech outlined Peel's programme for 1835 and mentioned
the commutation of tithes in England and Wales, measures to improve Church
discipline and the Dissenters’ Marriages Bill to give Dissenting clergymen
control over their own weddings. Peel brought in two Bills on tithes, one for
England and one for Ireland, and both were later adopted by the Whigs and
passed. He accepted Stanley’s National Education Board as it stood, again
offending the High Tories. Archbishop Murray continued his custom of attending
a levee of the Lord Lieutenant once a year to pay his respects. The London Observer noted that the two main parties
were agreed that tithes plus arrears must be collected and that landlords
should not benefit from the changes. On 6 March 1835 Sheil introduced a debate
in the Commons on the Orange societies which he considered illegal. A
parliamentary committee that included O’Connell, Sheil, Wyse, etc. was set up
to examine the Orange Order. Haddington refused to allow the police to become
involved with Commissions of Rebellion. Haddington, as was customary at the time,
wore a piece of shamrock when taking the salute of the guard on St. Patrick’s
Day. This displeased the Orange newspapers. Conway of the Post noted that formerly all Irishmen wore the shamrock, but it was
now becoming a badge of a faction (DEP 19
March 1835).
Lord
John Russell was now established as the leader of the Whigs in the Commons and
he planned a series of ambushes to bring down the ministry. A meeting of the
leading Whigs was held in Lichfield House, London, and O'Connell was present,
it is suspected at Lord Duncannon's invitation. The king refused to give any
post to O'Connell but he nonetheless pledged support for Melbourne. He could do
nothing else. As was pointed out at the time, he was very valuable to the
Tories and worth many votes to them. If he attempted to bring down Melbourne he
would be accused in Ireland of letting in the Tories. There never was a
'Lichfield House Compact' between him and Melbourne, though both his own
supporters and the Tories liked to pretend there was.
At
a meeting of the Irish Society for Educating the People of Ireland in March it
was reported that 737 Catholic schoolmasters were accepting their conditions
and support. It was announced that Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent
(Countess of Dublin) had agreed to become a patron of a bazaar for the Sisters
of Mercy, Baggott Street. Dr Kelly, the short-lived Catholic archbishop of
Armagh who had succeeded Dr. Curtis died suddenly of a fever. A newsagent named
Mr. Johnson chartered a railway engine and a single coach to rush details of
the debates in Parliament from Kingstown to Dublin in nine minutes, and so
enabling the Dublin Evening Post to
publish a second edition. The railway was by then carrying several thousand
passengers a day.
Under
Peel's careful direction the minority Government lasted some months, but after
a series of defeats he had to resign, and Melbourne was again asked to form a
ministry. He resumed office on 11 April 1835.