THE DAY AT ST. BATHANS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 121, 20 August 1875, Page 7

THE DAY AT ST. BATHANS.

We are compelled to abridge the report which appears in the ■ Chronicle/ and confine ourselves to giving the speeches of the evening. Mr. Mitlvey, Secretary to the Committee, said : Ladies and Gentlemen — On behalf of myself and several members of Committee I beg to offer you our warmest thanks for your presence here to* night. lam well aware that many of you have come a long distance, and at considerable inconvenience .to yourselves, and for what ? Not altogether to enjoy yourselves, I am sure ; and tho Committee are not vain enough to think for a moment that you came just because they have asked you. No, ladies and gentlemen, we have, merely sounded the talismanic name of O'Connell, and behold here you are to do honor to his memory. Who was O'Connell, and what good did he do in his lifptime to deserve this mark of your respect ? are questions which would take up much time to answer, and much more ability than I can lay claim to. I will merely ask you to look back at one great good thing which he did. You know that before O'Connell's time all the subjects of the Crown in Great Britain and Ireland were not equal in the eye of law — one portion of them might fill the highest positions in the i land, and not one of the others would be allowed to collect even jhe water rates say of such places as Naseby or St. Bathans. O'Connell sought to do away this scandal, to make all the subjecta of the Crown equal; and he had a difficult battle to fight, by speech, by pen, and sometimes, too, ladies and gentlemen, pistols and coffee were in request; but^he overcame all difficulties. In the hour of his triumph I can imagine some of his great political opponents with nobility of soul enough coming forward and saying : — "O'Connell, we have fought you to the bitter end; backed by the prejudice and usage of centuries we thought your defeat was certain ; but, instead of that, you have triumphed over us. You fought nobly and deserve your victory, because your quarrel was just. You have given to millions of people in this Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland a right hitherto shamefully denied them, viz., the right to worship God, and look their fellow-man in the face without fear, as conscience dictates and as Heaven intended they should do. We congratulate you upon your great victory ; you deserve it, for your quarrel was just." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, his quarrel was just, and we are told that v Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just, » And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. Yes, O'Connell's qiiarrel was just, and that fact, backed up by favorable circumstances, enabled him to obtain a great victory against great odds. When the news of this great victory reached the emancipated millions in their homes great were their rejoicings. Oh ! ladies and gentlemen, we, assembled here to-night, can have no idea of the depth and sincerity of those rejoicings, particularly in the land of O'Connell's birth. Slaves yesterday, freemen to-day,! They lit huge bonfires in the valleys and on the hill tops ; vast processions and congregations of men and women thronged the cities and highways from sea to sea. I believe they would have crowned O'Connell King if he had permitted them. As it was they bestowed upon him a title more glorious, and more suggestive of the good he had done ; they called him the Liberator. (Cheers.) When the news of the great political victory reached the continent of Europe, the joy of millions of people there, too, was great, but for a different reason. In every country of Europe where millions of subjects labored under wrong, or sought the removal of grievances, those millions and their leaders blessed O'Connell's name, and sang his praise in every tongue, because he had just led the way — he had just shown them how they might gain great political triumphs, and work out great changes for the general good, without an appeal to the sword. For this, if for nothing more, hisname deserves the respect of posterity. Such was the man, ladies and gentleman, whose memory you honor by your presence here to-night ; but I have detained you too long ; other gentlemen will address you. Once more, ladies and gentleman, I thank you all for your presence on this occasion. (Cheers.) Mr. BtrNNTthen addressed the assembly, and said : I can asssure you as an Englishman I am proud in taking a part — however small — at a demonstration in honor of Daniel O'Connell's centenary. O'Connell was born at Kerry on the 6th August, 1775, and remarkable to say, Henry Grattan, Ireland's splendid orator, took his seat that year in the Irish Commons. O'Connell had great ambition. In 1795 he writes thus to his uncle, Maurice O'Connell— "l have Wo objects to pursue : The one the attainment of knowledge, the other the acquisition of those qualities which constitute the polite gentleman. I am convinced that the former, besides the immediate pleasure that it yields, is calculated to raise me to honors, rank, and fortune ; and I know that the latter serves as a general passport. And," he continues, "as for the motives of ambition which you suggest I can assure you no man can possess more of it than I do. I have indeed a glowing and — if I may use the expression — an enthusiastic ambition which converts every toil into pleasure, and every study into an amusement. Though nature may 1 have given me subordinate talents, I never will be satisfied with a ' subordinate situation in my profession." He was ever burning with a desire to do something which would make his name immortal, and he was equally anxious that something should be for Ireland. . O'Connell's darling wish was realised, and Ireland is grateful. ) O'Connell was open-hearted, generous, and humorous, but withal s as irritable as a poet. After the passing of the Relief measure of i 1793, which admitted Catholics to the bar, we find O'Connell in London. In the spring of '98 he was called ,to the bar, and (to use Luby's words) the triumphs that he won for himself as a barrister ■ cast the lustre of renown over himself and the whole Irish race. On the 23 rd June, 1802, O'Connell was married to his beautifui ! cousin, Miss O'Connell. Of her he testified, " she gave me 34 yeara , of the purest happiness that man ever enjoyed." She was an exceedingly aniiablo, strong-minded woman, sad Air. Q'Oonnell, it i

said, was, during her life, very much guided by her advice. O'Connell commenced his political career on 13th January, 1800, at the memorable meeting of the Catholic citizens of Dublin, held, in the Royal Exchange, to protest against the Union, and he there delivered his first speech at a public meeting. O'Connell's embarrassment in making his first speech was great. He tells us that his face glowed and his ears tingled at the sound of his own voice, "but that he got more courage as he went on. I may here state thai the Union took place on the Ist January, 1801, and on that date a new Imperial standard (the one ever since m use) floated over the Tower of London, and on the castles of Dublin and Edin. "burgh. This standard is quartered first and fourth England, second Scotland, and third Ireland. It was then Ireland's harp got a place on England's great banner. The union jack, with its crosses of St. Andrew, St. Patrick,and St. George, was ordained at the same time. In 1810 John Keogh retired from the field of agitation, and henceforth O'Connell was the recognised leader. The great Plunket, speaking of him as a leader, says :—": — " He was the first of Irishmen, and the most beloved. That he had created an unconquerable spirit in the country. His object had been to rally men of all persuasions and parties and habits under the one title, that of Irishmen." In 1815 O'Connell's fatal duel with D'Esterre took place. O'Connell and the great Robert Peel would have fought a duel that same year, only the authorities interfered. After this O'Connell was so full of remorse for killing D'Esterre that he tells us he " registered a vow in Heaven that he would never fight a duel again." In 1828 O'Connell laid the first stone of the Christian Brothers Schools. For the last 28 years O'Connell had been fighting hard for emancipation, and now victory was near at hand. The proximate cause of Catholic emancipation was the celebrated Clare election — that memorable election, when O'Connell polled 2057 votes against 1075 for Vesey Fitzgerald. Although the chances at the outset were much against O'Connell, Luby says that — " The Clare election was a tremendous event. The day it ended Catholic emancipation was virtually won." Now at last, almost 137 years after the treaty of Limerick, the Catholics were emancipated. On 30th March, 1829, it passed the Commons by a majority of 36, on the 2nd April it passed the Lords by a majority of 104, and on the 13th April, 1829, George the Fourth signed the Bill, and Catholic emancipation became law ! O'Connell was Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1841. Iv 1846 a fearful national calamity is at hand ; the potato crop fails a second time ; and this no doubt hurried the death of "Kerry's Pride," "Munster's Glory," and "Ireland's Hero !" In 1847 he is ordered to a warmer climate. He was now sinking rapidly.' The fatal disease was softening of the brain. The last scene took place in Genoa, on the 15th May, 1847, when the great man's spirit appeared before its God. He was 72 years of age. He had vainly desired to live till he could reach Rome and receive the Pontiff's blessing. Ireland wept for his death ! Grand funeral solemnities were observed in Genoa and Rome. In Ireland his funeral was a vast and imposing spectacle. O'Connell ! I wish I had been able to do you jiistice. I have done what I could. I have done my best. Honor to your memory ! Peace to your soul ! (Cheers.j Mr. de Latjtottr, being called upon, said : He thought the Chairman of the Committee had doubly endowed the company. First of all he had provided a great pleasure, and then, with national politeness, had thanked the visiters for coming to partake of it. After the carefully prepared oration delivered by Mr. Bunny, it would not be necessary for him to say much. He did not wonder tLat Irishmen were proud of Daniel O'Conuell. O'Connell, more than anyone, had taught the humblest Irish peasant he was the equal of the proudest British peer or haughtiest commoner of the land, and as such equally entitled to the enjoyment of his rights, and the protection of the laws. It would not be right for him to assume to fully enter into all the feelings experienced by many on this occasion, which were the privilege of Irishmen alone. He could, however, say that he felt it to be an honor to be allowed to participate in a festival which was in commemoration of the birth of a man who proved true to himself, true to his country, and true to his God. He could not help being struck on this occasion, where every one was so happily enjoying themselves, with the contrast shown in that last journey to Genoa. There was something supremely piteous in that. O'Connell left his native land heart-broken with his miseries, and weighed down with the bitter idea that the people he had led so nobly for forty years declined to follow him longer — that Young Ireland, putting aside his weapon of moral force, wished to take up with physical power. He could but think that in this there was something of the morbidness of disease, of an overworked brain ; that if the well-known voice had once again been enabled to sound every man in Ireland would still as heretofore have followed theu well-tried leader to the end. Be that as it may, O'Connell is nol forgotten now ; and, wherever the British Empire extends, thew at this time every Irish heart will beat a pulse the quicker at th( thought of Daniel O'Connell, and what he did for Lreland. A hun^ dred years ago Ireland was not destitute of great men, who, for the most part, obtained their greatness out of Ireland. There were Dukes and Lords in plenty — Wellington, Castlereagh, and others. On the 6th of August, 1775, however, time and nature appear to have combined together to prove that Ireland could produce a man — a true, human, loving, man, Ireland could hardly wish him other. (Cheers." Mr. Purton being called upon, said : As an English Catholic he had great pleasure in assisting in paying tribnte to the Liberator, Living in an English country place, in his home he never had an Irish acquaintance ; yet within the family O'Connell's name was a family word. He had been requested to read a poetical tribute from a friend at Blackstone Hill, dedicated to the Celebration Committee : — In Mbmoriam. Lo ! Just a hundred years have fled Since first appeared uponjda'p world's stag©

A giant genius of the stern age * In which he lived. Th' immortal dead Now claim him brother j "but a never dying fame Brightly encircles great O'Connell's name ! Oh ! Erin's sons, ye have good cause topri'ze his natal day : Dark years of woe your forefathers endured, • , And ev'ry.beam of freedom seemed obscured, 'Till o'er the horizon spread the divine ray His vising star shot forth, and all the gloom Fled from their hearts, that erst lay in the tomb Of direst desolation. Ye may bless The hour that gave him birth. And your compatriots, wheresoe'er on earth Their homes may be, to him that set them free — Whose ceaseless labours did their wrongs redress — ■ Should render homage due, to him the good and true. O'Oonnell ! Ireland's grandest, best beloved son, - Thy moral prowess bloodless vict'ry won For all her toiling millions ! Here to-day To do him honor, men from every clime, Celt, Saxon, all with warm hearts come to pay The praise well earned, "by men whose mark sublime Glows goldenly on ev'ry page of time ! When the speaking was over, loud cheers were given for O'Con* nells Memory, the Ladies, the Member for Mount Ida, and th© Visitors. During the "evening several songs were excellently rendered by Messrs M'Xay, Caddick^Gannon, and others.