O'CONNELL'S LAST SPEECH.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2081, 4 September 1875, Page 3

O'CONNELL'S LAST SPEECH.

"When the famine was ravaging Ireland, O'Connell once moro went down to the House of Commons to plead for his hapless countrymen. The " dissensions in the camp " caused by the action of the Young Ireland party had weighed heavily on the heart of the " old man eloquent," but when to this was added the awful visitation of God, he began to feel that his mission was at an end. The following touching description of the Liberator's last appearance in Parliament is taken from Disraeli's " Life of Lord George Bentinck : " —" On Monday, 3rd of April, Mr O'Connell had announced that he should state his views at length on the condition of Ireland and the cause of the agrarian outrages. Accordingly, when the order of the day for resuming the debate was read, he rose to propose an amendment to the motion. He sat in an unusual place —in that generally occupied by the leader of the Opposition—and spoke from the red box, convenient to him from the number of papers to which he had to refer. His appearance was of great debility, and the tones of his voice were very still. His words, indeed, only reached those who were immediately round him, and the members sitting on tbe other side of the green table and listening with that interest and respectful attention which became the occasion.- It was a strange and touching spectacle to those who remembered the young colossal energy and the clear and thrilling tones that had once startled, disturbed, and controlled senates. Mr O'Connell was on his legs for nearly two hours, assisted occasionally in the management of his documents by some devoted aides-de-camp. To the House generally it was a performance of dumb show, a feeble old man muttering before a table ; but respect fbjvihe> great parliamentary personage^^fftrorderly, as if the fortunes Qf a'patiiy -frung upon his rhetoric ; and, though not an accent reached the gallery, means were taken that next morning the country should not lose the last but not least interesting of the speeches of one who had so long occupied and agitated the mind of nations-