icy, it ought not to be forgotten, in
common fairness, that he not only passed the Encumbered Estates Act of
1848, but sought to introduce the principle of compensation to tenants
for the improvements which they had made on their holdings. Vested
interests proved, however, too powerful, and Ireland stood in her own
light by persistent sedition. The revolutionary spirit was abroad in
1848 not only in France, but in other parts of Europe, and the Irish,
under Mr. Smith O'Brien, Mr. John Mitchel, and less responsible men,
talked at random, with the result that treasonable conspiracy prevailed,
and the country was brought to the verge of civil war. The Irish
Government was forced by hostile and armed movements to proclaim certain
districts in which rebellion was already rampant. The Treason Felony Act
made it illegal, and punishable with penal servitude, to write or speak
in a manner calculated to provoke rebellion against the Crown. This
extreme stipulation was made at the instance of Lord Campbell. Such an
invasion of freedom of speech was not allowed to pass unchallenged, and
Lord John, who winced under the necessity of repression, admitted the
force of the objection, so far as to declare that this form of irksome
restraint should not be protracted beyond the necessity of the hour. He
was not the man to shirk personal danger, and therefore, in spite of
insurrection and panic, and the threats of agitators who were seeking to
compass the repeal of the Union by violent measures, he went himself to
Dublin to consult with Lord Clarendon, and to gather on the spot his own
impressions of the situation. He found the country once more
overshadowed by the prospects of famine, and he came to the conclusion
that the population was too numerous for the soil, and subsequently
passed a measure for promoting aided emigration. He proposed also to
assist from the public funds the Roman Catholic clergy, whose livelihood
had grown precarious through the national distress; but, in deference to
strong Protestant opposition, this method of amelioration had to be
abandoned. The leaders of the Young Ireland party set the authorities at
defiance, and John Mitchel, a leader who advocated an appeal to physical
force, and Smith O'Brien, who talked wildly about the establishment of
an Irish Republic, were arrested, convicted, and transported. O'Connell
himself declared that Smith O'Brien was an exceedingly weak man, proud
and self-conceited and 'impene