Irish people
only through the instrumentality of an Irish Legislature, do
hereby pledge ourselves to our country that we will never desist
from seeking the Repeal of the Union with England by all
peaceable, moral and constitutional means, until a parliament be
restored to Ireland.

"Dated this 30th day of May, 1845."

This pledge was adopted formally in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda, in
presence of most of the Irish mayors, the leading delegates of the
country, the members of the Eighty-Two Club, and a vast concourse of
gentlemen both from the metropolis and the provinces. It was proposed by
William Smith O'Brien, seconded by Henry Grattan, and put to the meeting
from the chair by the eldest son of Daniel O'Connell. The cheer that
hailed its adoption was a shout not of approval, but defiance. But alas!
many voices mingled in the chorus which have since been attuned to the
meanest whine of mendicancy. That they vilely belied their solemn
promise were of little moment. Nay, more, it is bootless to consider
whether they were more false-tongued and false-hearted in that great
pageant, or on the recent occasion of their kneeling in their own shame
to pledge a faith they do not feel, in expectation of some royal notice
or royal favour. What is mournful in both instances is this, that a show
of wealth, a practice of successful chicanery called good sense, or
public trust won by intrigue and falsehood, should so blind the world
to the _man's_ rotten and vulgar heart as to raise them to a position
where their acts should be regarded as indicative of the feeling or
important to the destiny of a nation.

With the 30th of May, passed off the excitement of which it was the
cause and scene. Those who arranged the grand pageant of that day, and
invested it with attributes, suggestive, imposing and useful as ever
decked a public spectacle, would have wrought it out into a sterner
purpose: but the heart upon which they counted had, even then, died. Mr.
O'Connell's speech too painfully bespoke his utter inability to guide
the nation in any higher effort. The energy that should have seized the
occasion to confirm the people in their strong purpose, and elevate
their hopes to the level of the great stake at issue, exhausted itself
in balancing the routine details of cold and empty statistics. The
curtain fell, and nothing remained but grotesque figures, withered
garlands, broken panels and desolate dust, which