ent.
Unconstitutional and mischievous associations, it was stated, had been
suffered to be formed and continued, the efforts of which were directed
to usurp the power of government, and destroy the civil and religious
institutions of the country; and these associations, instead of being
suppressed, were allowed to take place even in the metropolis, while
the instigators of them were rewarded with favour and confidence. This
address also expressed strong opinions on the reform bill. It would
transfer, it was said, to the Catholics and Catholic clergy an
overwhelming influence in the representation; that the boroughs,
whose franchise was to be taken from the Protestant corporations and
transferred to a larger constituency, had been incorporated for the
express purpose of maintaining, by a Protestant constituency, the
connexion between the two countries; and that the measure in progress
could have no other effect than to vest the dominion of Ireland in the
Catholics. On the other hand, the reform bill did not give satisfaction
to the Catholics; it gave much, but it did not give all that they
desired, or all that was necessary to the completion of their schemes.
Their object was ascendancy. Popery could not retain its glories in
Ireland, or the Protestant church be destroyed, so long as their fate
depended on a Protestant parliament. The union must be repealed; and
unless Ireland sent into the house of commons a large body of Catholic
repealers, there was no chance of such a consummation. Hence it was that
Mr. O'Connell attacked the Irish bill with such bitterness; it did not
make a larger addition to the representatives of Ireland, and it did not
sink the qualification to a scale sufficiently low to ensure the return
of all repealers to the reformed parliament. These "defects of the
bill," therefore, supplied the demagogues with new sources of agitation.
The people were told that this pretended reform was an insult; that they
had received only a small portion of the justice that was due to them;
and that they must still offer unyielding opposition to a government
which granted only a part of their demands.

Meanwhile the tithe question became & fruitful source of discontent and
bloodshed. A petition was entrusted to Mr. O'Connell to the house of
commons against the Protestant church, which, while it announced in
plain language their own wishes, gave direct encouragement to violence
and outrage. The different counties, in f