set about dispersing the myriad dupes, as
fast as they arrived to attend the prohibited meeting. Thus was the
Queen's peace preserved, her crown and dignity vindicated, without one
sword being drawn or one shot being fired. Mr O'Connell had repeatedly
"defied the Government to go to law with him." They _have_ gone to law
with him; and by this time we suspect that he finds himself in an
infinitely more serious position than he has ever been in, during the
whole of a long and prosperous career of agitation. Here, however, we
leave him and his fellow defendants.

We may, however, take this opportunity of expressing our opinion, that
there is not a shadow of foundation for the charges of blundering and
incompetency which have been so liberally brought against the Irish
Attorney-General. He certainly appears, in the earlier stages of the
proceedings, to have evinced some little irritability--but, only
consider, under what unprecedented provocation! His conduct has since,
however, been characterised by calmness and dignity; and as for his
legal capabilities, all competent judges who have attended to the
case, will pronounce them to be first-rate; and we feel perfectly
confident that his future conduct of the proceedings will convince the
public of the justness of our eulogium.

The selection by the Government of the moment for interference with Mr
O'Connell's proceedings, was unquestionably characterised by
consummate prudence. When the meetings commenced in March or April,
this year, they had nothing of outward character which could well be
noticed. They professed to be meetings to petition Parliament for
Repeal; and, undoubtedly, no lawyer could say that such a meeting
would _per se_ be illegal, any more than a meeting to complain of
Catholic relief, or to pray for its repeal--or for any other matter
which is considered a settled part of the established constitution.
The mere numbers were certainly alarming, but the meetings quietly
dispersed without any breach of the peace: and after two or three such
meetings, without any disturbance attending them, no one could with
truth swear that he expected a breach of the peace as a _direct_
consequence of such a meeting, though many thought they saw a civil
war as a _remote_ consequence. The meetings went on: some ten, twelve,
fifteen occurred,--still no breach of the peace, no disturbance. The
language, indeed, became gradually more seditious--more daring and
ferocious: but, as