Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 1.djvu/110

 CHAPTER VI

TROUBLED WATERS: CONFLICTS WITH O'CONNELL

language of the Mallow Defiance placed O'Connell and the Government under obligations which neither could evade with impunity. If O'ConnelPs haughty declaration represented his actual intentions there was force and spirit in the country at that time ready and willing to win the liberty demanded. But he was the trusted leader from whom the word of command must come; any one anticipating him would have been regarded as a dangerous traitor. And his language unfortunately did not represent his intentions. In the contest for Catholic Emancipation he had alarmed Wellington and Peel by the fear of an insurrection, and he counted on the same result on this occasion. But Emancipation had friends in England who would not have supported the Government in suppressing it by force. Repeal