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 ; he also opposed the introduction of the Poor Laws; on this, as on many other questions, differing from his friend. Bishop Doyle. At the opening of Parliament in 1834, he introduced the Repeal question in an amendment to the address. A long debate ensued, brought to a conclusion on the 29th by a division, in which he was defeated by 523 to 38 votes. Thereupon a joint address of the Lords and Commons was presented to the King, recording their "fixed determination to maintain, unimpaired and undisturbed, the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland." This was the only occasion upon which O'Connell challenged a decision of the House on the subject, though it was often afterwards brought forward on side issues. Minor associations, under different names, were the precursors of the Loyal National Repeal Association, founded at a meeting held in the Corn Exchange, Dublin, 15th April 1840. The Association consisted of three classes—members who subscribed 20s.; volunteers who subscribed or collected 10s.; and associates who subscribed is. The "rent," as it was called, was collected by Repeal "wardens," under the supervision of the Catholic clergy. The Association had its badges, caps, and buttons. A permanent place of meeting. Conciliation Hall, was built in Dublin. There were Repeal libraries and reading rooms scattered over the country: a political party could not be more completely organized. On the 4th of May O'Connell issued an elaborated detail of his Repeal scheme, giving an alphabetically-arranged schedule of the counties, cities, and towns that should return members to the restored Irish Parliament, providing for 173 members for the counties, and 127 for boroughs. He was thus minute, that his scheme might be thoroughly understood by the public. O'Connell was elected Lord-Mayor of Dublin in 1841. All previous efforts in favour of Repeal were thrown into the shade in 1 843, when O'Connell abstained from attending Parliament, and devoted himself to promoting a series of monster gatherings in different parts of the country. From the Tuam meeting in March, to that at Tara in August, thirty large assemblies were held. The sum of £48,421 was subscribed during this year, and O'Connell expressed himself certain of gaining Repeal within a short time. Mr. Lecky, in his Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, writes: "Whoever turns over the magazines or newspapers of the period will easily perceive how grandly his figure dominated in politics, how completely he had dispelled the indifference that had so long prevailed on Irish questions, how clearly his agitation stands forth as the great fact of the time. It would be difficult, indeed, to conceive a more imposing demonstration of public opinion than was furnished by those vast assemblies which were held in every Catholic county, and attended by almost every adult male. They usually took place upon Sunday morning, in the open air, upon some hillside. At daybreak the mighty throng might be seen, broken into detached groups and kneeling on the green sward around their priests, while the incense rose from a hundred rude altars, and the solemn music of the Mass floated upon the gale, and seemed to impart a consecration to the cause. O'Connell stood upon a platform, surrounded by the ecclesiastical dignitaries and by the more distinguished of his followers. Before him that immense assembly was ranged without disorder, or tumult, or difficulty; organized with the most perfect skill, and inspired with the most unanimous enthusiasm. There is, perhaps, no more impressive spectacle than such an assembly, pervaded by such a spirit, and moving under the control of a single mind.- The silence that prevailed through its whole extent during some portions of his address; the concordant cheer bursting from tens of thousands of voices; the rapid transitions of feeling as the great magician struck alternately each chord of passion, and as the power of sympathy, acting and reacting by the well-known law, intensified the prevailing feeling, were sufficient to carry away the most callous, and to influence the most prejudiced; the critic, in the contagious enthusiasm, almost forgot his art, and men of very calm and disciplined intellects experienced emotions the most stately eloquence of the senate had failed to produce. The greatest of all these meetings—perhaps the grandest display of the kind that has ever taken place—was held around the Hill of Tara. According to very moderate computations, about a quarter of a million were assembled there to attest their sympathy with the movement. &hellip; O'Connell, standing by the stone where the Kings of Ireland were once crowned, sketched the coming glories of his country. Beneath him, like a mighty sea, extended the throng of listeners. They were so numerous that thousands were unable to catch the faintest echo of the voice they loved so well; yet all remained passive, tranquil, and decorous. In no instance did these meetings degenerate into mobs. They were assembled, and they were dispersed, without disorder or 379