titutional,
outside of and adverse to the whole spirit of the constitution. The
royal speech had not ventured to describe the Association as illegal.
The Duke of Wellington expressly admitted that "in the original
institution and formation of the society there was nothing strictly
illegal."[204] And its founder and chief, Mr. O'Connell, had been at all
times careful to inculcate on his followers the necessity of avoiding
any violation of the law. But the speech had also declared the
association to be "inconsistent with the spirit of the constitution."
And its acts, as the Duke proceeded to describe them, certainly bore out
that declaration. "Those acts consisted principally in levying a tax
upon certain of his Majesty's subjects called Catholic rent, and this by
means and acts of extreme violence; by appointing persons to collect
these rents; and farther by adopting measures to organize the Catholic
population; by appointing persons to superintend that organization; and
by assuming to themselves the government of the country; and, still
more, affecting to assume it. Besides, they expended this rent in a
manner contrary to, and utterly inconsistent with, all law and order and
the constitution of the country." No member of either House denied the
accuracy of this description of the Association's proceedings. And if it
were correct, it was incontrovertible that the denunciation of it as an
utterly unconstitutional body was not too strong. Indeed, the fact of
its "levying a tax" upon a portion of the King's subjects (to say
nothing of the intimidation, amounting to compulsion, by which, as was
notorious, it was in many instances exacted) was the assumption of one
of the most important functions of the Imperial Parliament; it was the
erection of an _imperium in imperio_, which no statesmen intrusted with
the government of a country can be justified in tolerating. And this was
felt by the Opposition as well as by the ministers; by the Whigs as
fully as by the Tories. The most eloquent of the Whig party, Mr.
Stanley, was as decided as Mr. Peel himself in affirming that the
existence of the Association was "inconsistent with the spirit of the
constitution," and that it was "dangerous that the people of a country
should look up to any public body distinct from the government, opposed
to the government, and monopolizing their attachment and
obedience."[205]

It was, therefore, with the almost unanimous approval of both parties
t