an attempt to put down the first meeting by _force_
would have been considered a wanton act of oppression, and a direct
interference with the subject's right to petition, it became a very
difficult _practical_ question, at what moment any _legal_ notice
could be taken by prosecution, or _executive_ notice by proclamation,
to put down such meetings. Notwithstanding several confident opinions
to the contrary advanced by the newspaper press at the time, a greater
mistake--indeed a grosser blunder--could not have been made, than to
have prosecuted those who attended the early meetings, or to have sent
the police or the military to put those meetings down. An acquittal in
the one case, or a conflict in the other, would have been attended
with most mischievous consequences; and, as to the latter, it is clear
that the executive never ought to interfere unless with a _force which
renders all resistance useless_. It appears perfectly clear to us,
_even now_, that a prosecution for the earlier meetings must have
failed; for there existed then none of that evidence which would prove
the object and the nature of the association: and to proclaim a
meeting, without using force to prevent or disperse it if it defied
the proclamation; and to use force without being certain that the
extent of the illegality would carry public opinion along with the use
of force; further, to begin to use force without being sure that you
have enough to use--would be acts of madness, and, at least, of great
and criminal disregard of consequences. Now, when meeting after
meeting had taken place, and the general design, and its mischief,
were unfolded, it became necessary that _some new feature should
occur_ to justify the interference of Government; and that occurred at
the Clontarf meeting. No meeting had, before that, ventured to call
itself "_Repeal infantry_;" and to Clontarf _horsemen_ also were
summoned, and were designated "_Repeal cavalry_;" and, in the orders
for their assembling, marching, and conducting themselves, _military
directions were given_; and the meeting, had it been permitted to
assemble, would have been a parade of cavalry, ready for civil war. It
would have been a sort of review--in the face of the city of Dublin,
in open defiance of all order and government. Let us add, that, just
at that time, Mr O'Connell had published his "Address to all her
Majesty's subjects, in all parts of her dominions," (a most libellous
and treasonable pu