ADDRESS OF LORD O'HAGAN ON DANIEL O'CONNELL. Dublin, August, 1875. New Zealand Tablet

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 130, 29 October 1875, Page 7

ADDRESS OF LORD O'HAGAN ON DANIEL O'CONNELL. Dublin, August, 1875. New Zealand Tablet

The commemoration which we make to-day is more than an honor to a man. It celebrates the redemption of a people. It is a prophecy and a foretaste of that future of union, prosperity and peace in which Irishmen will yet forget the misrule and end the strife of ages. You assemble to testify your thankfulness for the noblest service a single citizen ever rendered to a nation ; your pride in the equality he conquered for you by such Titanic efforts and against such desperate odds; and your unchanging devotion to that good old cause of civil and religious liberty, of which throughout his life he was the foremost champion in the world. I feel very deeply my own inadequacy to fulfil the task imposed upon me. But avoidance of it was impossible. In my earlier years I knew O'Connell well. He was to me also as he was described by Richard Lalor Shiel, during the trial' of 1844, " my great political benefactor, my deliverer and my friend." I have more than shared the public advantages which his marvellous career purchased for his country 5 and from the hour when he signed my certificate for admission to the Irish Bar, I was personally his debtor for continual kindness. As his counsel I acted for him in the Queen's Bench and

the House of Lords, and though, on some public questions I ventured to differ from him in the zenith of his power, he never withdrew'from me his confidence and friendship. With such antecedents could I be silent when I was asked to speak, even though, friends -whom I respect would have? it so? Surely Ico aid not. I am here to discharge, however weakly, what seems to me a sacred duty ; and I hold it one of the highest privileges and. distinctions of my life to be, on'a day which you are making for ever memorable, the echo of a fame which has filled the carth — the interpreter of the feelings of grateful enthusiasm and loving pride with which. THE MEMORY OV THEIR LIBERATOR is cherished by millions of my race. And not by them only, but also by men of other tongues and nations. The voice of foreign, lands, "which speaks the sense o£ a " contemporary posterity," acknowledged his greatness while he lived. The spirit of O'Connell animated the eloquence of Lacoi'daire, when he strove for free education, and found, in the divine religion of the Cross, the sternest condemnation of intolerance and the highest sanction for ordered liberty. Admiration of his genius and liis virtue made the young Montalembert — then preparing for a troubled, but brilliant and most noble life — a pilgrim to his home in the wilds of Kerry ; and his eulogist, in pathetic and powerful words, when, long years after, he passed through France, a bowed and broken man, to die in Genoa,. Gustave de Beaumont, De Tocqueville's friend, described him in phrases combining fervent 'admiration and critical analysis. And these -witnesses to a reputation which, as has lately been said with autlioi'ity, continues to this hour perhaps move diffused than that of any English-speaking public man of 1 the present century, had their praiso widely repeated in G-ermany amd Italy and beyond the Atlantic. There was no European state in which O'Connell's action was not watched with interest — tlie interest of apprehension in the upholders of dominant injustice, and interest of hope and joy in multitudes pining to be free. His speeches were translated into all languages. They were read in Poland and Hungary and not unknown to the slaves of America, for whom he pleaded when they had no hope, or to those of our own colonies', for whom he toiled, until they were set free, as earnestly as if his own Celtic Mood had bounded in their veins. THE VINDICATIONS OP TIME. So it was during liis life ; and now that lie has rested in G-las-novm, under the shadow of the Irish Round Tower, for nine and twenty years, we have to-day decisive evidence that time has dealt gently with his memory and accumulated honors round his tomb. The accordant testimony of many distinguished men, of various and distant lands — some of whom arc with you ai'fccr woary journeys and others have spoken, from afar with no uncertain sound — proves that the world has not forgot O'Connell's triumphs for his Church and people ; and that tlioir history furnishes, and will furnish long, guidance and impulse to those who, now or heroaf ter, may be called ■ to maintain the rights of conscience, and strive, as he strove, at once for faith and freedom. Europe has been prompt to respond on this occasion to the call of Ireland, and we have greetings from the American Republics and from the young nations which, are rearing- themselves 0:1 the Australasian contiaenfc — instinct with Irish spirit and Irish blood — demonstrating that O'Connell is still in benediction, wherever civilized men have known The name ami the fame Of the sea-divided Gael. His centenary, celebrated in such a way, -will affirm his right to take his place among the rare beings Avhose lives are but the beginnings of their earthly immortality; whose work endures through ages and affects the fate of untold generations. He has passed beyond the sphere of contemporary hatreds ; the mists and heats of party are ceasing to envelop him ; what was accidental and fleeting in his life fades gradually away. But the great events of which lie was the avithor, the high qualities which fitted him to achieve them, come prominently forth, and the figure of the man looms out before us in its true proportion and its real grandeur. We arc not far enough removed to miss the vision of blots upon its surface, for blots there were, as upon all things human. But time which mellows tints and rounds angularities, is telling even upon these, and men are coming to honor O'Cmuell as the greab Irish Celt, who conducted a fearful struggle to a liappy issue with unexampled patience, skill and mastery, not escaping soil from the dust of the arena and the shock of the combat, but emerging from it to a resplendent victory, which will remain for ever the glory of his nation and a lesson and example to the world. HIS LIFE AND SBEAT WORKS Of the general incidents of his life I shall not think of speaking in detail. Tho generation which saw his majestic form and heard his voice of music is fast departing. Not many exist who took part in the fight for Emancipation; and even the excitement of 181-3 and its monster assemblies are becoming traditions of the past. But the uncrowned monarch, who then held over millions a more than kingly sway, needs here no annalist. To you his life and labors are as household words, and the occasion only requires that 1 should rapidly point to some of the principles which were dear to him, some of the methods of the work, and some of the results which he attained. When Daniel O'Connell first saw the light, a hundred years ago, the race from which he sprung and tho religion of his fore- ' fathers seemed hopelessly sunk beneath the weight of an oppression as degrading and complete as ever overwhelmed a people. The Irish Catholic was worse than a serf in his own land. Iv hi s person all Ira nan rights were trampled down, all human feelino-g outraged. He was denied'tho common privilege of self-defence • ho was incapable of holding property like other men ; he was for' bidden to instruct his own children, and a wicked and immoral lawtempted his brothers to defraud him, and robbed him that it might reward the apostacy of liis ungrateful son. Since tinie began, a system more atrocious was never, devised to crush the human conscience. Well said Edmund Burke ; "It was a maciiiae.

of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment and degradation of a people and the debasement in them of human nature itself as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man." And this horrible machinery of persecution was worked with fit results. It was mitigated in its action by the kindly feelings of those whose supremacy it was invented to sustain ; but it brought the country to the deepest depression, and left it spiritless and impotent, at the mercy of its task-masters. I look back from the happier present to the intolerable past in no spirit of bitterness, and with no desire to perpetuate the 1110111017 of wrong ; but, if we would judge fairly of O'Connell' s character and history, we must know what obstacles he had to encounter, what enemies to confront, from what a depth he was called to lift his people, and what faculties he needed to compass his achievement. IRELAND AN OUTCAST IN HER CHAINS. Ireland lay, as I have described her, without hope or help — the outcast of the nations ! But the hour of her deliverance came — the hour and the man created to deliver her. O'Connell was born into a world which was soon to see convulsions, disturbing its ancient order and shaping its destinies anew ; aud, in the scheme of providence, these wore to give occasion for the use of his singular endowments, which, but for them, might have rusted in inactivity. The year of his birth witnessed the outbreak of the American war of independence ; and the battle of Lexington was the herald of events, the memory of which gives our transatlantic brethren occasion for a centenary festival as happy as our own. The spirit of the insurgents passed across the seas and poured new life into the outworn nationalties of Europe. Their success animated the efforts of men struggling for freedom, and compelled attention to claims which had been flouted with contempt. Thus it came to pass that the penal laws were partially relaxed ; and when the revolution of Franco broke forth TO EMPHASISE THE TEACHING OF AMERICA, the privileges of the Irish Catholics received great enlargement ; the vital right of voting was bestowed : and 1795, when O'Connell was just of an age to take advantage of the boon, he found himself permitted to become a barrister. The preparation was complete. If he had lived earlier he would not have had a chance of developing his genius and marshalling his countrymen for their political deliverance. But the concessions of the Irish Parliament gave him instruments of action. His admission 'to the Bar enabled him to use them, and, after a moral struggle without precedent in history, lie employed the franchise of 1523 to master the Cabinet of Peel and Wellington, and found in the freeholders of Clare the irresistible pioneers of emancipation THE YOUTHFUL ADVOCATE OF UNIVERSAL FREEDOM. O'Coniioll came to the Bar in 1798, and almost from the opening of his career he devoted himself to the public service. Ho had no force to aid him in the gigantic task he undertook ; physical or moral help was equally denied him. He led no army. There was no trained and organized opinion to stimulate his efforts or reward them by applause. His lot was cast with an utterly prostrate community — wanting all strength of self assertion, almost without the couiagc to complain. Indeed, they had fallen so low as to declare, -while they grovelled before the throne, that they "respected from the bottom of their hearts " the infamous laws under which they suitercd. But, in himself, O'Connell had limitless resources — a buoyant nature, unsleeping vigilance, untiring energy, patience inexhaustible, invention without bounds, faith in his cause which never faltered, and resolution which no reverse could daunt and 110 discouragement subdue. And, so accoutred, he prepared to play the part of the mighty Jew of old :—: — The dread of I-iiael's foes, who, single combatant, Duelled their armies ranked in proud array. Ilimaclf 1111 armj' ! His brain and tongue were at first his only weapons, but the brain was massive and fertile, and the tongue in many ways has never had an equal. Ho had, perhaps, greater variety and completeness of control over his auditory than any speaker of ancient or modern times. Others have been pre-eminent in special gifts, but he had singular command of the widest range of persuasive eloquence. He had humour and pathos and invective and argument, and he could pass from one to the other, sweeping across the human heartstrings with an astonishing facility and a sure response. He was not an artist in oratory. He regarded his facility of speech as an instrument and not as an end, and had little pride in it, save for the moans it gave him of working out his purposes. HIS O HEAT POWER AS AN ADVOCATE AND ORATOR. He was indifferent to his reputation as a speaker, and took no pains to correct or preserve his addresses, and perhaps the only one really representing what be was is his defence of John Mageo, which — ho told me during the state trial — he had himself written out while he waited up to blurt for his circuit on the morning after the delivery of it. 1J 0 impressed hiaisolf upon his hearers, not by nice attention to the form of his sentences or the selection of his words, but by vigorous repetition of the views ho desired to inculcate, in such language a-> was most suited to those whom he addressed. Thus, he dealt habitually with juries; and it was this repetition, in every variety of phraeo and lib every aid of illustration, which enabled him 1o fill the popular mind with his own conceptions and mould it according to his v ill. He had the rare endowments of a stately presence and a voice almost uncqualed in melody and compass ; and theso, with his skill in reasoning and afllucnce^of wit and fancy, commended him to all sorts of poople wherever he appeared. Once he came down as special r-mmsrl to n northern county, and he was regarded as the very incarnation of evil by jurors who had known him in only their irreconcilable political antagonist. They looked askance at him, and would scarcely hear him ; but before he had concluded his speech ho had won their admiration and their verdict, and established kindly relations with them which Avere long maintained. I saw him in Edinburgh speaking to a multitudinous assembly of Scotch-

men, who had small love for the Irish agitator, and no sympathy with his religion or his race, but when his voice rang out like a trumpet round the Calton Hill, he moved them to a passion of enthusiasm such as I have rarely ever witnessed in his Irish meetings. Listen to LORD LYTTON's DESCRIPTION OF o'CONNB LI( at a monster meeting : — " Once to my sight the giant thus was given, AValled by wide oir and roofed by boundless heaven • Beneath his feet the human ocean lay, ' And -wave on wave flowed into space away. Mcthoughl no clarion could have sent its sound E'en to the centre of the hosts around ; And, as 1 thought, rose the sonorous .swell, Ah from some ehuruh-tower swings the silvery bell. Aloft and clear from airy tide to tide It glided easy as a bird may glide — To the last verge of that vast audience sent ; It played with each wild passion as it went ;' Now stirred the uproar — now the humor stilled, And sobs or laughter answered as it willed. " j^^H Then did I know what spells nf infinite choice "^^^ To rouse or lull has the sweet human voice. Then did I learn to send the sudden clew To the grand, tioublous life antique— to view Under the rock-stand of Demosthenes, Unstable Athena heave her noisy seas." A QUARTER CENTURY OP IRELAND'S DARKNESS — ALMOST TO DESPAIB. Pitt unable to fulfil his promises to Ireland, abandoned at the King's bidding the scheme which might have given her a happier future, and ultimately renounced all efforts to remove her religious disabilities. The period which followed was very dreary for her. It gave no prospect of relief. Bub for five-and-twenty years hoping against hope, she still pressed onward, maintaining her bootless struggle — now in associations, again in committees, often in popular assemblies, sometimes in the law courts — her modes of action always varying, her objects always the same. It was not a time of progress, but a time of preparation. There was continual movement, but little advance. The multitude was made familiar with the story of their wrongs, and encouraged to seek redress by hopes which were often baffled, but always revived. O'Connell had not yet attained that leadersnip which -was unquestioned in after days. But he was mounting towards "it. He was building up his legal reputation, and commanding more and more the public confidence. Wherever work was to be done, or counsel to be given, or opposition overborne, in assertion of the Catholic claims, there was he, ready to speak or act, eager to sustain their friends, audacious a la out ranee, in defiance of their adversaries. Associated with able and trusted men, he was already the animating spirit of the movement. But for him, also, it was only a time of preparation. He was nerving* his strength and training his energies for the supreme effort which was to win for him the name of " Liberator." PLUNKETT AND GRATTA.N. Time went on, but the cause of the Catholics did not prosper much. It had in the Imperial Parliament the advocacy of Plunkett and Grattan — the first astonishing the House by a masculine vi^jor and a trenchant logic to which it had seen no parallel, and the second displaying in his latest years the unbroken power of that electric eloquence which in his youth had stirred a nation's heart to passionate enthusiasm and high endeavor, and given him a claim to Byron's eulogy :—: — With all that Demosthenes, wanted endued, And his rival of victor inall|he possessed. The advooacy of such men was a providential agency, informing the mind of England and dissipating the prejudices on which sectarian ascendancy was based. And they were sustained by a great party, of which I may now say without offence to anyone, that, to its immortal honor, it refused to succumb to the intolerance of royalty or purchase ofEco at the expense of principle. For many a long year the place of the friends of the Catholics was in opposition, and they held that place with self -abnegating faithfulness beyond all praise. In our own island THE LIBERAL PROTESTANT was ostracized by the government, and systematically denied emolument of distinction. Yet men like Robert Holmes and Louis Perrin and Maziere Brady — dear friends of mine, whose memory I hold in reverence — were always found mindful of their duty and careless of themselves. They held aloft the banner of religion liberty, round which we all profess to rally now, in evil days, wheii to be its bearer was to defy authority and court exclusion ; and Catholic Ireland will be, indeed, disgraced if the time shall ever come when she shall cease to be deeply grateful for the services and sacrifices of those who did not share her faith or bow before her altars, but stood by her in her weakness, to their own grievous injury, because they believed in the justice of her claims. THE ROYAL VISIT. Maich had been accomplished by speech in Parliament and writing in the press, and much by the example of steadfastness displayed by honest men in the face of all discouragement. Its opponents were led, at least, to consider the reasonableness of the Catholic demand. 3ut its concession seemed indefinitely postponed ; and the people, tantalized and disgusted by the alternation of fair hopes and bitter disappointments, sunk into a miserable apathy. The visit of George IV. — an event of evil memory — ■ galvanised them into feverish expectation for a time. But they soon learned that the King, before whom they had humbled themselves so slavishly, loved them as little as his royal father, and they- fell into the abject condition described by one of the best and most accomplished of them all. Sir Thomas Wyse : — " The Catholic spirit had totally passed away. THE DEAD BODY only was loft behind." But 'Tis always the darkest hour nearest the clmui ;

and O'Counell seized the moment of her worst despair to recall the spirit of his country and sound the trumpet of her resurrection. THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. Whilst the moral prostration described by Sir Thomas Wyse was most complete, he formed the Catholic Association of 182<L. You need not be told its history — how hard it was to procure the attendance of ten peraons tit its early meetings, but how it grew in numbers and in power, whilst, day by day, O'Connell's voice re sounded through the land, rousing the " hereditary bondsmen " from their despairing inaction, and teaching them reliance on themselves, You neednot be told how Ireland rallied to the association — how the Catholic aristocracy came around its chicf — how the Catholic clergy answered to its call, until despondency was banished, apathy passed away, and the Catholic millions were banded, as one man, to do the work of men, in the last struggle for their freedom. The organization was made perfect from the centre of the island to the sea, and its unbought and unforced obedience to its chief was more absolute than was ever given by trembling serfs to Roman Emperor or Eastern Caliph. TIIE CENTBAI FIGURE OF THE OKG-ANISATION. and the one essential figure in this great drama, which soon grew to absorb the wondering attention of mankind, was the figure of Daniel O'Connell. He towered above his compeers, and ultimately led them, by the spontaneous consent of all. He acted in the open day, within the limits of the law and by methods known to the constitution. He was intensely loyal, combining the personal devotion of a cavalier to his sovereign, with devotion as earnest to popular rights. Ho taught the masses to honor the Queen and be obedient to authority, not for fear only, but for conscience sake, and he proclaimed that by moral force, and moral force alono, all they could legitimately wish might be accomplished. He had seen the horrors of the French revolution. He had mourned over the miseries of the rebellion of 1798. He had learned to hate anarchy and shrink from civil strife, and his perpetual teaching was that civil liberty is made worthless by the defilement of a bloody purchase. It was a new gospel, preached with strong faith and endless iteration, aud in the might of it the Catholic people triumphed ! TIEST TRIUMTH3. They triumphed with the weapon which the legislation of 1793 had put into their hands. They learned to use, for their religion and their country, the franchise which they had, theretofore, prostituted to their own debasement at the bidding of their masters. They refused to be any longer " dumb driven cattle," lashed to the poll to vote as they were ordered- The serfs, as was said by a great Minister of the time, " assumed the attitude of freemen;" stormed, at all hazards, in Louth and Waterford, the citadels of the Ascendency, and gave the first assurance of its downfall. THE CLAKE ELECTION. It tottered when the Clare election struck the coup cle grace, and the conqueror of Waterloo succumbed to O'Connell. That election was a unique event in the history of the world. It was a prophecy of the venerable John Keogh that emancipation would be earned when a Catholic would be elected and sent to Parliament. The chief of the Catholics attempted its (fulfilment. A great encouuter came on between the lords of the soil and the people. The issue was found to be momentous and decisive. All possible efforts were made in order to insure a victory fov the British government. But it was in vain. The prestige of the English dominion in Ireland had departed. The fetters of interest and of custom had been wrenched "away. The voters of Clare listened to the voice of their priests and defied the commands of their landlords, and, thus demonstrating their fitness for liberty by their observance of order and temperance, they elected O'Connell to Parliament and won emancipation. He went to the House of Commons, the representative, not of Clare only, but of Catholic Ireland. He repudiated, haughtily and in memorable words, the qualifying oath. Of course ho was denied a place in Parliament, Taut the whole world saw the fight was over. PEEL AND WELLINGTON HUMBLED TO JUSTICE. Bitterly confessing " The sharp, convulsed pangs of agonizing pride," Sir Eobert Peel and the Duke of Wellington accepted the inevitable and gave us the justice they could no more withhold. The great heart of Ireland throbbed with exultation. The inccusc of a people's thanksgiving went up to the Throne of the Almighty Being who had permitted them to be raised from their low estate and led to a pure and bloodless victory. Countries which had strained from afar with eager eyes to watch the shifting scones of the unequal contest, noted its result with wonder and rejoicing. The triumph was complete and the nation bowed in homage to tho author of its great deliverance. UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION. The triumph was not for the Catholics alone. They had especial reason to value it, for it most nearly affected them, and they gained it in a mataly struggle without any compromise. They had been saved by O'Connell and those who thought with him from purchasing it by an enslavement of their Church, which no man now deems possible, and although, to soothe the irritation of their baffled adversaries, some ungenerous and unwise restrictions were put upon them, they had really obtained — what their fathers longed for, but did not dare to hope — unconditional emancipation ! But the triumph, although otherwise regarded by the Irish Protestant, if rightly understood, ought to have been considered, and will yet be considered, as his triumphs also. It relieved him from the reproach of foul wrong to his fellow men. It removed him froiu the demoralizing influences of an unjust ascendancy ; it cast him free to wage honestly the battle of life on equal terms with tho^c around him, and forbade him any longer to play the part of ;i corrupt monopolist, debauched and emasculated by exclusive privilege. Jt set tho seal of condemnation on all religious strife, and toolc away the inducements which had encouraged rulers tc divide that they might govern, and misled the people "to hate each other for the love of God." By all— Protestants and Catholics alike — it should have been hailed as the common victory of truth

and reason; and although it needed many supplements to mate it perfect, which have been painfully and slowly gained, and though even now its results have reached, their full development, it has changed the character of our social life, harmonized our relations with each other, abated the variance of our hereditary feuds and assisted Ireland to advance, in the way of material aud moral progress, more rapidly, considering her antecedent state —l say it with, confidence and pride, in spite of all our shortcomings —than any otlier country of the Old World, HIS CALUMNIATORS. It is not needful here and now to justify the career of O'Connell or to vindicate him from the aspersions which pursued him to the grave. He had faults, for he was mortal; and., looking back from the calmer period in which we live to the tempestuous days of agitation, we inevitably note acts and words which we might wish to have been unspoken and undone. But while, in the peaceful enjoyment of our consummate liberty, we use the privilege of criticism on the acts of those who won it for vs —who bore the burden and heat of the day and spent themselves in labor and devotion to the catise —we must remember THE WORK O'CONNELL HAD TO DO, and his materials for the doing of it. It was his task to lift up a, people prostrate —apparently for ever —before an invulnerable power. The spirit of manhood had been crushed from their hearts, and it was the first need of their deliverer to Create a soul under the ribs of death, and rouse them to self-respect and self-dependence. As I have said his brain and tongue were his only instruments, and if he sometimes spoke in harsh language, and paid back hate and scorn with interest, his violation of social amenities and fastidious tastes may have some claim for pardon, if it gave courage to a trampled race and emboldened them to* confront their hereditary lords. Revolutions of opinion are as little wrought by abject meekness as revolutions of force ; and when Shakespeare tells us :—": —" If a man will make courtesy to say nothing, he is virtuous;" the great painter of human nature points to the virtue of a slave. O'Connell exacted from the Irish Catholics submission to authority, as at once a moral duty and the condition of success; but whilst they were still sufferers from injustice, that submission could only be what Burke had described as "litigious and dissatisfied obedience;" and this he could not well maintain by honeyed words or the exchange of compliments with those whom it was his life's business to encounter and overthrow. Again, he has been attacked for his avitocratic temper and intolerance of rivalry, and in ordinary circumstances good feeling would condemn these things, so far as they existed. Bnt, agaiu, we must consider O'Connell's position. To succeed he required consecration of axithority. He had to deal with ignorant and undisciplined masses —without reliable leaders or intelligent opiniou —and to draw forth and utilize their latent strength a firm hand and a vigorous will, defying opposition, were essential. MORAL FORCE AG-ITATION. His scheme of peaceful agitation required for its working apparent impossibilities. He aimed to keep Ireland profoundly submissive to the laws, yet morally ungovernable ; to stir to its depths the passion of the people, and yet make them shrink from violence and outrage ; to be himself at once vehement and fierce and cool of judgment; staunch to principle, but pliant and supple in adaptation to the expediencies of tho hour; steady of purpose, but seeking his end by an infinite variety of means; by means possibly not always wise or always warrantable, but always faithfully employed, and with unerring precision, to carry forward the mission of his life. Considering these things, we shall probably conclude that, if O'Connoll had not grown to be an autocrat, the Irish Catholics might never have been welded together in an unbroken and resistless phalanx —might never have been got to shape a policy capable of carrying them to their difficult end —might have remained, for many a dreary year, A heap of uncemented sand — torn by small divisions, committed to hostile courses, and powerless to overbear the tremendous combination of royal enmity and aristocratic influence, and class interest, and popular hatred, which threatened to hold them in perpetual bondage. [To be concluded in our next.)

England. —Cardinal Manning made the following remarks at a temperance meeting lately held in the East of London: —" I love and honor the working man who has the courage —l will say the manhood —to give up drink —to take water, that pure, that sufficient drink which God has given us, with which a man's strength, even in toil, will bo sufficiently sustained, and his thirst will be sufficiently slaked. I honor and love the working man who has the manhood to do this, and I will tell you whj. He labors from morning to night, his strength departs from him, he is wasted with toil, he is tempted on every side ; his companions drink, they offer it to his lips; on his way from his work to his home there flares upon him a temptation at every corner inviting him to come in; and the working man who has the strength in him to say. " By God's help I will do it," and who perseveres in that resolution, I look upon him as a man who could bo a martyr if called on —who would lay down his life for the sake of Jesus and his faith. It is not so much for us who have not the toil of the body as you have. We toil, indeed, but it is a toil of the head, which breaks our sleep and wears out health and strength, and brings many of us to an early death, but it does not bring the need which you have as working meu. And, therefore, I look on the self-denial of the working man who takes the pledge and keeps it, as a bright example to all of us. I love and respect him for giving such example to us." Tho following are among the latest items of intelligence from Japan: —A newspaper has just been started at Yeddo under the title of ' Eiri Shimbun' (Illustrated News). The proprietors are actors.