[The celebrated Mr. Attwood has been called the "father of political
unions." In a speech delivered by his brother, C. Attwood, Esq., at
the Sunderland Reform Meeting, September 10, 1832, I find the
following admission: "Gentlemen, the first political union was the
Roman Catholic Association of Ireland, and the true founder and
father of political unions is Daniel O'Connell."]
Both of these remarkable events, these revolutions shaking nations to
their centre, yet polluted with no blood and sullied by no crime, were
effected by the salutary agitations of the public mind, first set in
motion by the masterspirit of O'Connell, and spreading from around him to
every portion of the British empire like the undulations from the
disturbed centre of a lake.
The Catholic question has been but imperfectly understood in this
country. Many have allowed their just disapprobation of the Catholic
religion to degenerate into a most unwarrantable prejudice against its
conscientious followers. The cruel persecutions of the dissenters from
the Romish Church, the massacre of St.
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