DANIEL O'CONNELL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 126, 1 October 1875, Page 8

DANIEL O'CONNELL.

Dublin is celebrating to-day — and has indeed been celebrating for the last three days — the Centenary of the Liberator Daniel O'Connell. This centenary celebration will doubtless revive in the minds of most Englishmen a fame which in any case was certain to revive of itself. We are better able now to judge of O'Connell th <n his immediate contemporaries were. No man during his lifetime could have been subjected to greater extremes of condemnation and extravagances of praise. The vast majority of hia own people adored him; and not merely adored him — for to certain natures adoration is easy work — but obeyed him as implicity as if he had been a despotic monarch. No man in our day has had anything like the same amount of popular devotion offered to him that was given to O'Connell for many years by the Irish Catholics. Hia word on any question was law ; his judgment was an interpretation not to be gainsayed. All this time he used to say of himself, and with perfect justice, that he was " the best-abused man alive." It is a curioua study to look back to the language in which many of the English journals — and, of course, the Irish Conservative journals as well — used to describe O'Connell. - " Knave," " scoundrel," "thief," and "liar" were familiar epithets in the vocabulary. But perhaps even these illustrations of party feeling are not so strange as those which are supplied by the frequent use of such words aa "fool," "blockhead," and "ignoramus." "A poor contemptible idiot" one critic described him to be. Another exults over his total defeat in a contest of eloquence with a respectable middle-class member of Parliament whose name -we shall not mention, and whose name, indeed, if we did mention it, would convey no idea of any kind to the present generation. The main facts of O'Connell's life are easily recounted. O'Connell was a Catholic and a Celt. He was born in a wild and picturesque part of Kerry — it is hardly necessary to say that his birthday was the 6th of August, 1775. Ha began to take a leading part in advocating the claims of the Roman Catholics about 1803 ; he founded with Sheil the Catholic Association ; he forced his way into Parliament in 1829, held his monster meeting in 1843, and died in 1847. There are scores of men that are now living in Dublin — some of them that are to igure prominently in the celebration to-day — who had the honor oi shaking hands with O'Connell, of dining with him, talking with him, and living in the very light of his countenance. Afc least two men are alive now who shared his imprisonment thirty years ago, and are thus lifted high above the ground of those Irish political personages, who, as Sir Wilfrid Lawson observed in a recent debate in the House of Commons, have "all at some time or other been in prison." These distinguished men are Mr. Thomas Matthew Ray and Sir CharJ«3 Gravan Duffy, who next to the Q'Connell family have the place of honour in the procession marching through the streets of Dublin to-day ; the third place having, in response to a formal application, been assigned to Mr. Patrick O'Brien, on the double ground that he was bailsman for Sir Charleß Duffy and Mr. Ray, and that, to quote his own words, he " also had the honor of entertaining the Liberator before he went to prison." But, widely beyond these exceptional cases, the common people of Dublin take -affectionate recognition of the fact that they live in the very city where " Dan" dwelt, and they can point out to the admiring stranger the house in Merrion-aquare that was O'Connell's. Thousands of them can vividly recall that Saturday morning in September, 1844, whan all Dublin went out to Richmond Bridewell to bring back the Liberator, himself liberated. The car he rode back in — described in contemporary records as a magnificent triumphal chariot, lined with green velvet, and gorgeous with purple and gold — appears to-day. It has been oiled and painted, and furbished up for the occasion, and will doubtless be an object of affectionate regard. The celebration commenced yesterday with a religious cere* mony in the Roman Catholic pro-Cathedral. Pontifical mass waa celebrated in the morning by the Bishop of Limerick, the sermon being preached by the Archbishop of Cashel. Cardinal Cullen was present, in company with a large number of British and foreign archbishops, bishops, ami ecclesiastics of tha Roman Catholio Church. On Thursday afternoon there was a performance of JBlijah in the Exhibition Palace ; and in the evening a concert in the same place, the programme of music being exclusively contributed by Irish composers. Last night the Lord Mayor privately entertained a large number of guests. To-day the great event is the procession through the principal streets of Dublin, which, is of a national character, and in it are found representatives of colonies of Irishmen from, all the corners of the earth. The large towns of England and Scotland sent delegates, amongst other contingents being 400 Irishmen, members of the Liverpool Total Abstinence League. The Irish towns and counties have each their assigned - place in the procession, and as for Dublin it was there in a body.— ' Home News,' 6th August.

The ' Boston Herald' tells this : — " The day following our centennial' festivities the following incident occurred in a South-end saloon. A friend had invited one of the South Carolina soldiers into the saloon to put another turf on the buried hatchet. While standing at the bar a stranger came in. The Carolinian suddenly dropped his glass and closely eyed the stranger. His gaze was so steady and peculiar that the friend began to be alarmed, and to fear that the hatchet was about to be dug up again. The Carolinian asked the stranger if he knew him. There was no recognition, whereupon the Carolinian asked him if he was not in the late war. 'Yes/ was the reply. 'And you were once stationed at such a place?' 'Yes.' 'And took part in such a skirmish?' 'Yes.' • Well, I thought so,' replied the Carolinian, and, raising his hat, showed a large scar on his forehead, saying, ' There's jour aabre mark, my boy ; come up and take a drink.' "