Merrion Square, Dublin: Feb. 13, 1835.

My Lord, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your circular on the subject of the Speaker, and the accompanying private note. I have transmitted the letters to most of the Irish members. I reckon with a good deal of confidence on sixty-two Irish members on the vote for Mr. Abercromby. I should think there cannot be less than sixty at the very lowest.2

I enter very cordially into the views which I understand are entertained by your Lordship for the ensuing campaign. I think I may venture to promise that the Irish members of the popular party will avoid all topics on which they may differ with you and your friends, until the Tories are routed, and that you will find us perfectly ready to co-operate in any plan which your friends may deem most advisable to effect that purpose. In short, we will be steady allies without any mutiny in your camp. Indeed this after all is pure selfishness, because we see clearly that, if the present Administration remain in office, a civil war, with all the horrors of religious, I should say sectarian, rancour, must be the inevitable consequence. They are already letting slip the sanguinary Orange gang. Who shall succeed -Orangists or Catholics-is not of much importance; but my opinion. certainly is that the Catholic party will triumph, but triumph amidst the desolation of the country and its ultimate loss to British connection. We Irish are, therefore, directly and personally interested in the defeat of the present Ministry. I know Ireland well, and am convinced that the lives of the Catholics in part of our province, and of the Protestants in the rest of the island, depend upon such a change of men as shall ensure the repression, instead of the excitement and encouragement, of the Orange faction. They will, if they come to blows, be defeated with more facility than you may imagine. But what a horrible alternative-submission to insult, injustice, and murder on the one hand, or 'bellum plus quam civile' on the other!

1 I.e. the note from Mr. Warburton, vide infra.

2 Sir J. Hobhouse had written to Lord John on February 3: Lord Wellesley sent a letter to me to-day from Blake (Remembrancer) stating that the choice of Abercromby and you had given great satisfaction, and that sixty-five Irish members would be in London by the 19th to vote against Sutton. Blake suggested that you should write to some of the Irish members; and, perhaps, if you would write to James Grattan, or any other comparatively quiet man, it would be as well. But I have told Lord Wellesley that it would not be expedient for you to corre spond with O'Connell or any Repealer with whom you are not personally acquainted, and that I was quite sure you would not do so. At the same time I have taken care that it should be known (through Warburton) that the circulars are considered a sufficient notification and that no slight or disrespect was intended.'

And yet in sober sadness I do say that upon this alternative the present Government fling Ireland.

I leave town with my family to-morrow evening by Holyhead, so as to be.in London by the 17th without fail. I hope to assist in mustering a large Irish force in St. James's Square on Wednesday.I have the honour to be, my Lord, your very obedient, humble servant, DANIEL O'CONNELL.

Lord John Russell.

It may, perhaps, on a matter of such importance, be as well to place side by side the draft reply which Lord John originally drew up, and the amended draft of the answer which he apparently ultimately returned to Mr. O'Connell after receiving the letter from Lord Duncannon, which will be quoted :

Sir, I am much obliged to you for your letter from Dublin of the inst. I know not what may have been the communications made to you

respecting my intentions, but I must acknowledge that your declaration of acting with me 'until the Tories are defeated'

of my views for the ensuing campaign, but I am ready to acknowledge that the declaration of your intention to avoid all topics of difference, and to cooperate generally until the Tory Ministers are defeated,

is very frank and explicit.

Acting in the same spirit, I think it

is quite necessary

necessary

to explain that while I do not ask you to give up any of your opinions

on public questions,

I do not renounce any of mine. You say that you are convinced that it is of urgent importance to remove from the Government of Ireland the Orangemen who have been brought forward and promoted by the present Ministry. I am convinced that it is necessary

you will of course understand that I do not renounce any of

mine.

You say that not only the ultimate safety, but the imme diate tranquillity of Ireland depend upon such a change of men as shall cause a change of

for England, although not SO urgent as for Ireland, to remove from power men who never can obtain the confidence of the country. I have, &c.

the policy pursued in that country. I am convinced that it is as necessary, although not perhaps so urgent, for England, to remove from power Ministers who do not possess, and, as I believe, never can obtain, the confidence of the country.-I have, &c.

Lord John apparently sent the earlier of these drafts to Lord Duncannon, who was the member of the Whig party best acquainted with Mr. O'Connell, and who replied to

himPrivate]

Tuesday.

My dear John,-I think it was Sheridan said that the Whigs always 1 built a wall to run their heads against, and this was never so likely to be exemplified as at the present moment. A very large party are prepared to be led by you, if you choose to lead them; and, with no other bond of union than that of turning out a Government which the Whigs consider most injurious to the country, they are prepared to submit to you. As a commencement you have directed a circular to be sent to all Reformers, and this among others has been sent to O'Connell, who in the excess of courtesy has informed you that he will attend your summons, and now and hereafter assist you in the objects you have in view, and for which you are asked to lead a large party of those opposed to the present Government. This is all that has occurred; for with respect to the packet of letters it was not sent in your name, nor are you in any way committed by it, as will appear by the enclosed, which, in consequence of what you told me, I procured in Cleveland Square. But really, if we are commencing an opposition to the Government by trembling at shadows and quaking at the names of O'Connell and every other Radical who may tender you assistance, our prospects of success will not be very promising, and I fear you will shortly find a very small body to lead. I wish you very much to talk this over with Melbourne, and to con

1 Mr. Sheridan said of the measure which produced the fall of the Whigs in 1807, that he had known many men knock their heads against a wall, but he had never before heard of any man who collected the bricks and built the very wall with an intention to knock out his own brains against it.' I am not aware that Mr. Sheridan thought that this conduct was usual with Whigs, as Lord Duncannon seems to imply. Lord Duncannon's letter is dated Tuesday; I assume Feb. 17, 1835.

sider well whether you will not give additional strength to the Radical party by separating yourself from them, instead of making them subservient to a certain degree, which they are now prepared to be. At all events consider well before you write, as you proposed to-day, what must settle the business finally.-Yours truly,

DUNCANNON.!

The enclosure referred to by Lord Duncannon was as follows:

Those copies of Lord John Russell's circular which were sent to the Irish members were forwarded to Mr. O'Connell, not by Lord John, but by Mr. Warburton, with a note from that gentleman requesting he would put the proper address to each and forward them by post.

J. F. BROWNING.

Here, told for the first time, is the secret history of the so-called Lichfield House compact. It is evident that the overture, such as it was, was not made to Mr. O'Connell by Lord John; that, when he became acquainted with it, he was alarmed; and that but for the strong and, it must be added, very sensible, remonstrance of Lord Duncannon, he would have written to Mr. O'Connell in terms which would not have encouraged co-operation. Yet, if Lord Duncannon's views were founded on reason, unfortunately there were ample grounds for Lord John's uneasiness. The old Whigs, who were connected with Lord Grey, could hardly tolerate concert with the Irish. Lord Grey himself wrote—

Howick: Feb. 23, 1835.

My dear Lord John,—I have this moment received your letter. I can easily conceive that in many cases my views of what expedi ency requires might be modified or altered if I was on the spot.

It ought to be added that Lord Duncannon had, in the preceding January, been in private communication with Mr. O'Connell. But it appears from a correspondence between Lord Lansdowne and Lord John (which is among the Lansdowne papers) that these communications were made by Lord Duncannon without authority, and were not relished by some, at least, of the future Cabinet ; and that it was practically decided that Lord John should confine himself to merely making such communications as could not be avoided, and that he should scrupulously abstain from intimate concert. Lord John, in acknowledging Lord Lansdowne's advice on Feb. 6, 1835, said that he did not think the line between necessary communication and intimate concert quite so broad an one' as Lord Lansdowne supposed.

·

But there is one point on which my opinion and my resolution can admit of no change. I have already stated to you and to others that nothing could induce me to be a party to anything like concert or communication with O'Connell and the Radicals. . . . Though I agree with you, therefore, as to the propriety, I should rather say the duty, of acting upon the principles which you always professed, and not rejecting the support of those who are willing to assist you in measures prescribed by those principles, I could not read without the deepest regret, I might say with absolute dismay, the account of your having written to O'Connell, Hume, &c., to attend the meeting on the question of the Speakership. The view taken by Howick of these proceedings I entirely approve; and, though his motive for attending the meeting was such as I cannot condemn, I should. have been better satisfied if he had adhered to his original intention of staying away. That he will do so, if unhappily any future meeting of a similar description should take place, I cannot allow myself to doubt.

Having said this, I willingly turn to a more agreeable topic, and I am sure you will give me credit for the sincere pleasure which I received from the accounts, sent to me from all quarters, of the success of your speech. Be assured there does not exist a more sincere well-wisher to your fame and happiness than myself. . . . -Ever, dear Lord John, yours most sincerely,

GREY.

The French saying, 'Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûte,' might have told Lord Grey that concert once begun could not be abruptly terminated. Lord Tavistock, indeed, owned to Mr. Greville that the meeting at Lichfield House had alarmed and disgusted many of the old Whigs, and that it was settled that there should be no more such meetings. But if there were no more meetings the various sections of the Opposition agreed in giving a great dinner to their new leaders.

There were two hundred and sixty present at Lord John Russell's dinner, and twenty more who were absent put their names down. O'Connell, who declared it was the most delightful evening he ever passed in his life, publicly acknowledged John Russell as his leader, and the Radicals were all present but Hume.'

The solitary absentee was meditating a new movement.

1 Greville, iii. 238. Cf. Melbourne, ii. 100.