THE SHADOW OF DEATH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 2061, 30 December 1924, Page 2

THE SHADOW OF DEATH.

EXTRAORDINARY CAREERS OF FORMER ENGLISH M.P.'S. Though .the members returned- to Parliament at tho general election will donboiless include some remarkable men, none, will be more extraordinary than numerous representatives of the people who have already sat in tho House of Commons. We have had blind M.P.'s, the most distinguished of whom was Mr Fawcet, Postmaster-General in Gladstone's second Administration. There have been armless members, and at least two who were legless as well, one being Mr' Arthur Kavanagb, who had to bo carried! int otiio House on the back of an attendant. Men of colour, including pure-blooded negroes, have aiso representedl English constituencies, and again and again convicts and ex-con-violijs have been sent to Westminster. SAVED AN EMPRESS'S LIFE. One of the men intended by electors to go from prison to Parliament was Mr John Mitchall. Ho founded in 1848 the "United Irishman," and for certain articles which appeared in that paper he was rttied for "treasonfelony," and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. Escaping from Van Diemen's Laud in 1853, he took refuge in the United States, whence he returned to Ireland. Shortly afterwards he was elected unopposed for Tipperary, and 1 , on being declared ineligible, re-elected. He died, however, the same mouthIn 1882, when Mr Michael Davit t was actually the elect of Meath, he was sent back 'ub prison for infringing the conditions of lis ticket of leave. The famous agitator was later a familiar figjire at Westminster. Of M.P.'s, though doomed to death, who lived tto sit among the nation's lawmakers, Mr James O'Kelly was a picturesque awl remarkable representative. Innumerable were his adventures before he came to Westminster. He fought for the French against the Prussians, saved tho life of the Empress of Brazil, was lost for a year in the Sudan, and had scores of "close calls" in Canada, Mexico, and Algiers. But hi* mosttl remarkable experience was when, as a young man, he represented a Cuban paper. Arrested as a spy when that eoiuntry was in tho throes of a civil war, he was condemn. ed to death and led onl*( to execution. Just as the rifles of the firing party were about to be levelled at him, tho United States Consul dashed up and saved him. Many years afterwards ho was returned for Roscommon. Liltle less strange were the vicissitudes of Mr J. F. K. O'Brien. For complicity in a Fenian rising he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, but, in consideration of the gallantry he displayed! during a fire, when, at great risk to himself, he resqaed some women and children, his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and after his liberation he was returned to Parliament. Mr A. Lynch was another member who, though condemned to death by f;he law, was subsequently honoured by an electorate. In 1903 he was prosecuted for high treason because ho had fought on the side of the Boers flaring the South African war. The sentence on him—thati he be hanged—was subsequently commuted to penal servitude for life; but he was released uu license i 1901, received a "ree pardon" in 1907, and sat for a constituency in the House of Commone.